Chapter 21

McCarty sat in his car outside of Sara's apartment building, a copy of the original tape in his hand. The lab had gone over the video very carefully, and declared it authentic. They'd even begun investigating the instances James Pezzini had sited during the recording.

He wasn't sure he should show the tape to Pezzini, his gut told him it might push her into doing something rash, but after the meeting he knew he was out of choices. Most of the senior members of his department had been present at yesterday's dinner. There wasn't anyone else left to bring into this who was capable of watching his back. At least not that was in a position to do so.

"Oh be honest with yourself you idiot. You just don't want to see her go down like her old man did." Jake muttered to himself. The other reason was valid, he did need help, it just wasn't the main reason he wanted to tell Sara what was going on.

Promises had been made, and McCarty intended to keep them. The best way to do that was to warn Sara about what was going on, to let her know what had happened to her father, and could happen to her. Pez needed to be on her guard, or she was going to fall into the White Bulls trap.

Decision made, Jake climbed out of his car and walked across the street. It was windy, the breeze cutting through his jeans and chilling his legs. When it got like this, McCarty really wished he were back in California. Every day of a New York winter was grey and dim. If it wasn't cloudy, it was smoggy, and McCarty missed the sun.

The tape was safely tucked inside his coat, the outline concealed by the loose shape of the bomber-style jacket. The paperwork in his hand was a little more camouflage. It was from the Venner case, just in case Sara's apartment was being watched. Or he was. The files would camouflage his reason for being here quite nicely.

He'd already complained to Dante that the investigation was beating him up, so if any of the Bulls stopped him, he could say he was frustrated enough to let Pez have a shot at the case. They might bust his balls a little, since Pezzini hadn't been cleared to return to work, but the excuse would hold.

McCarty made it to Sara's door without being challenged. He hadn't seen any signs of surveillance, which surprised him. Surely as seriously as Dante wanted to bounce Pezzini, he would have been keeping tabs on her whereabouts?

Well, maybe not. The detective lived for her job. She didn't have any social interaction to speak of outside of the department. It was kind of hard to blackmail someone with no private life. Jake shook off his musings and knocked on the door.

"Jake," Sara sounded pleased to see him when she opened the door.

Dark hair fell down around her shoulders, looking like it hadn't seen a brush yet. She was dressed in a pair of sweats and a tee shirt, and Jake wondered if he had woken Sara up. She looked a little thin still, but her color wasn't quite as bad as it had been the last time he'd visited her in the hospital.

Feeling like a fraud, McCarty smiled back at her, "Hello Sara. How are you feeling?"

"Doing better. I'm hoping the docs clear me to get back to work. I'm bored." Pez looked down at the manila folder in Jake's hand and a spark of anticipation lit her eyes, "Is that a case in your hands, or are you just happy to see me?"

"Yes," McCarty chuckled. To his ears it sounded forced, but Pezzini didn't seem to notice.

"Well, since you come bearing something more entertaining than what passes for TV these days, come in. I'll make coffee." Sara backed away from the door.

oooooooooooooooooooooo

Nottingham moved a bit stiffly, one leg not performing as it should. Kenneth narrowed pale blue eyes as his servant came before him. There was a brace on the younger man's knee. One eyebrow rose in question as Nottingham came to a halt in front of his desk.

"Ceto has made another attempt on Lady Sara." Ian said calmly, lowering his head in obeisance. It was an answer to the question that did not reveal much, and diverted Irons toward another topic.

"Why would she continue to pursue Pezzini? She no longer possesses the Witchblade, of what possible value could the detective be to the serpent?" Irons stared at the top of the dark head, disliking the fact that he had not anticipated this.

"It is because of the changes the Witchblade has wrought in her. Apparently, the Periculum has made Sara the perfect vessel for preternatural power. Ceto desires her body as a physical housing. An avatar, if you will." Nottingham glanced up, needing to see how Irons was going to take the information.

A muscle tightened in Irons jaw. "Does she now?" His voice was cold.

"Ceto was temporarily successful. I returned to her apartment and found the serpent had taken possession of Sara's body. Loath as I am to admit it, it took the assistance of young Bowman to drive the creature from her body." Ian slumped his shoulders a bit, making sure his voice held a thread of self-reproach.

"You are a warrior, not a priest. I would hardly expect you to be able to achieve something of that nature on your own." Irons waved a hand at the guilty voice. "But I must confess to a certain amount of surprise at your assistant. Gabriel Bowman is not, for all that he handles creations sacred and profane, any more of a spiritual guardian than you are."

"He had a sunsteel dagger with him, and knew the words to the purification ritual. Well," Ian's lips quirked up slightly, "he mostly knew them. His pronunciation and verb agreement could use some work, but it was enough to rouse the blade. After that, I suspect that natural enmity made the sunsteel attack as it was created to do."

"Why was he carrying such a weapon, at such an auspicious moment? I do not believe in chance, Ian." Kenneth leaned forward, interested in the reply.

"Apparently Ceto has entered her dreams before this, and Sara did not wish for the visitations to continue. She called Bowman; since he is the only person she is comfortable with who has any kind of education in the occult." Nottingham shifted his shoulders in a little almost-shrug.

"And he just happened to bring something powerful enough to defeat Ceto?" Irons voice was filled with disbelief.

"Bowman had brought several items with him to her apartment, not just the sunsteel. I took the liberty of investigating them. They were all for protection from spirits or evil sendings. I believe the weapon may have used the boy, instead of the other way around. His Greek really was atrocious." Ian did not shrug again, his chest was still paining him from the last time he had done so.

"It is possible. Some of the more powerful artifacts do have a will of their own." Irons touched the now-bare top of his hand in remembrance.

"Exactly so." Nottingham agreed.

"Have Dr. Immo take a look at that leg of yours, then send him up to me. We have things to discuss." Irons dismissed his servant.

oooooooooooooooooooooo

"I didn't really come here to discuss the Venner case with you." Jake sighed and ran his hand through his hair, wondering how to do this.

"Then why did you bring the file?" Sara looked up from the report she had scattered all across the table.

"Window dressing. I couldn't be sure you weren't being watched, so I wanted an excuse handy if Dante questioned me later." McCarty paced, eyes glancing over the row of windows that ran the length of the studio apartment. He still wasn't sure they weren't being watched. The neighboring rooftop offered an excellent view of the inside of the apartment.

Catching the way Jake was warily checking the skyline, Sara got up and closed the blinds. "I doubt there's anyone out there, but that should make you feel better."

"Why do you sound so sure?"

"There's not room for two on that fire escape." Sara paused and gave a little smirk.

"Two? I thought you said no one was out there?"

"Ah, don't worry about it. My sense of humor is still a little off." Pezzini shrugged, not wanting to explain Nottingham to her rookie partner. Hell, she was still trying to understand what was going on with that relationship herself.

"I came here today because there have been some things come to light that make it impossible for me to keep this back from you." Jake opened the leather holder that most detectives carried their badges in. The familiar NYPD shield flashed in the overhead light as he popped the snaps. On the opposite side of the leather was another badge, one that named him as a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigations.

"What? Oh I get it… and you think my sense of humor is warped." Sara took the leather holder from him and angled it to try and spot the inconsistency that would mark it as a fake. "Where did you get this? It looks pretty good. If I didn't know better I'd swear you were a Feebie."

"I am a…" McCarty hesitated over the word. It sounded so unprofessional, which was not the image he wanted to present just now, "Feebie. I work for the F.B.I. as an undercover operative. I've been assigned to investigate your department."

"Get out!" Sara's voice was filled with disbelief.

"Shouldn't that be my line?" Jake gave a rueful grin. "I know it's hard to believe. I've worked very hard to present the 'surfer dude' persona, but that is all it is. A mask."

"Saying I believe you, which I don't, why would you tell me now?" Skeptical green eyes raked over him.

"Two reasons. First, I need help. I didn't realize until last night just how widespread the corruption is. Second," McCarty pulled the videotape out of his inside coat pocket and fed it into her VCR. "There's something I think you should see."

The tape quality wasn't as good as the original, it was just a touch grainy, but the weariness and determination in James' voice and face were clear enough. "My name is Officer James Pezzini, New York Police Department, badge number 7945."

"Daddy?" The voice was so lost that Jake bowed his head. He was an utter bastard to show this to her, especially with no warning to soften the blow.

Without mercy, the video continued over Sara's grief, "The date is February 22, 1984. If you're watching this ... it means that I'm already dead."

"Oh my God." Sara was on her knees, one hand reaching for the screen. Tears were falling, ignored, in a steady silver stream down her face.

"And if I am, the likely reason is I've been working to expose a corrupt secret society within the New York P.D. They call themselves the White Bulls. They rule by intimidation. They, they abuse the badge in every possible way. And this," James Pezzini paused to hold up a spent shell casing, "… is their trademark."

"Son of a bitch." Sara breathed, eyes locked on the brass cartridge. Jake got the feeling she had seen it somewhere before.

"They use this round when the Bulls want to assassinate one of their enemies. If one of their members finds this shell at a murder scene, he'll desist in his investigation of that crime. And they're currently in a renaissance, led by this deadly band of new young recruits ... most notably a rising young sergeant by the name of Bruno Dante."

"I'll kill him," Sara growled, coming to her feet in a rush.

"Sara, you can't. Think, damn it. His life isn't worth spending the rest of yours in a cell." McCarty moved to stand between her and the door. "Don't go off half-cocked."

"Get the fuck out of my way Jake." Sara's voice was raw with pain and anger.

"No. I won't let you do this to yourself." McCarty's eyes softened in the face of all that pain, his voice gentler when he added, "Your dad wouldn't have wanted you to go outside the law Sara."

"Oh yeah? Well he's not exactly here to ask, is he? And it's all that fucking Dante's fault. Son of a bitch, I should have realized something was wrong. Gallo was too fucking smug when I busted him. He knew he was gonna get off, he was the new Captain's personal goddamn batman." Sara glared at McCarty and took another step forward.

"Dante got off because Gallo never went to trial, but I doubt it fell out the way Tommy thought it would. After all, nobody has to worry about a confession from a dead man." Jake paused, wondering how much to tell her, then decided to go for broke. "Do you want everyone else who was involved to walk? They will, you know. Without Dante, I can't get to the next link in the chain, and you had better believe there is one."

"Irons." Sara whispered so softly that even she could barely hear it. McCarty couldn't possibly know what she knew, what she had seen.

It made a sick kind of sense. Yet another coincidence that wasn't, not once you had all the facts. Losing her father had made her vulnerable in so many ways, had hurt her, weakened her, made her easier to manipulate, to blind.

Sara looked up, met pale blue eyes. Cop eyes. Hard, cynical, but they still somehow managed to convey care for the fucked up mess that was humanity. It was the same thing she saw in the mirror every day, and for the first time since McCarty had walked in the door, she believed him. She'd never seen that look from 'rookie boy'. If Jake could lie with his eyes, he had to be FBI. "What do we need to do first?"

"Somehow, we've got to get Dante cold, and we've got to do it quiet. He's been damn careful so far. The only thing I can get him for right now is harassment. He's getting ready to do a smear campaign on you. That's the only thing he's come right out and done himself, even in a meeting that was supposedly all White Bulls he made sure not to actually say that they were taking money. Do you have any ideas on how to shake him out of his caution?"

"I may have an idea, but I need to talk to someone first," Sara prevaricated. She believed that Jake was FBI, which meant that telling him about Joe would only get Siri in trouble too. For old times sake, she'd give Joe a chance to come clean to her. If he didn't, she'd throw him to the wolves. Or, in this case, the FBI.

"Come on Sara, I shared with you. Give me something. I know you've seen that bullet before." McCarty pushed. If he didn't get equal treatment now, he never would. Pezzini would revert to the uneven relationship they had had when she thought he was an idiot rookie.

"You remember Brian Reilly? That kid who thought he was some reincarnated druid?" Sara decided to share this much. It didn't have any links to Joe, and would keep him busy while she checked in on the man who had practically raised her.

"Yeah, what about him?" Jake stopped, thrown by what seemed a complete change of topic.

"I found one of those custom carve jobs on a brass I picked up at the site of his shooting. I don't know who killed Reilly, at the time I thought it might have something to do with the whole 'mystical druid' business." Sara shook her head at her own stupidity.

She'd let those visions of the past from the Witchblade blind her to what was happening in the present. The case had been so full of holes, it wasn't even funny, but they'd gone ahead and closed it. Bad guy found and slain. No need to look any further, right? Wrong.

"Why would you think that?" McCarty broke into her self-recrimination.

"Come on Jake, bulls have been a symbol all through Celtic mythology. How was I supposed to know there was a bunch of corrupt cops using the symbol? I think we need to dig in to that case a little deeper. Why would the Bulls cap a nut job?" Pez watched McCarty take the bait, his attention shifted away from what she was about to do.

"I can pull those files, and have Reilly's background checked into. Maybe there's something there we overlooked since we didn't know to look for it." Jake looked at her, wondering what she was holding back. He'd find out soon enough, he was the only person Sara could trust. Now that he'd gotten her to share information that she had not seen fit to exchange with 'rookie boy', McCarty could afford to wait for the rest.