Disclaimer: Don't own Automan—wish I did. Please don't sue. Besides ya' wouldn't get anything outta me right now, anyway. All of the disclaimer see Chapter 1.
Ch. 12--Uncovering An Urgent Situation
Jack waited in the interrogation room with a man with dyed brown hair sitting across from him. He was waiting for Agent Mann to arrive before he started questioning the sniper. As he stepped out of the room, Jack saw Agent Mann purposefully walking towards him. Jack met him halfway. "His name is Jordan Sanders. Goes by the nickname 'Shadow'. Professional hit man. He's in the interrogation room right now."
"Good," replied Auto.
Jack lead him to the interrogation room. As they walked into the room, the man with dyed brown hair looked up from the chair he was sitting in. Upon closer inspection, Jack realized the man was wearing brown contacts. Sanders' natural eye color was actually a much lighter blue. Jack stood directly across from Sanders. Agent Mann leaned against a wall opposite the chair Sanders was sitting in with his arms folded across his chest, his blue eyes never leaving the hit man's position.
"This is Agent Mann. He's going to be sitting in on our discussion," said Jack to Sanders.
"I have nothing to say to either of you," sneered the sniper. He sat back in the chair. "I'll wait for my lawyer."
The sight of the sniper instantly brought back for Automan all the painful memories he had of the fight to keep Walter and himself alive. One particularly painful memory lingered: Walter cradled in his arms, unconscious, slowly slipping further into shock. Anger boiled up inside of him. How dare this lowlife be so flippant while Walter lay in the hospital fighting for his life. Auto went over, reached across the table, and grabbed Sanders' collar yanking him clear out of the chair. He slammed Sanders against the wall behind Sanders knocking the wind out of Sanders without otherwise seriously injuring him. Sanders gasped for air and struggled to break free as Automan effortlessly held him a couple inches off of the floor. Auto put his face a couple of inches from Sanders and snarled, "Thanks to you, my best friend is lying in the hospital fighting for his life. Now, who hired you?"
Jack saw Sanders look to him for help. Jack just stared back with contempt. Inside, Jack was silently cheering Agent Mann. He felt like doing the same thing to this scumbag.
Realizing he wasn't going to get any help from that direction, Sanders stopped struggling and said, "Tilson."
Jack saw a look of shocked recognition come over Agent Mann's face and he dropped Sanders. Sanders skirted around Mann and sat in the chair.
"Ronald Tilson?" asked Jack confused.
Jack saw Sanders look uneasily towards Mann before replying, "Yeah."
"But how? He's locked up."
"Well, he's out now."
"Happen to know where he is?"
With another uneasy look to Mann, Sanders replied, "Long Beach."
Jack and Agent Mann stepped out of the room. Jack signaled to a uniformed police officer. The officer came up to him. "Yeah, Lieutenant?"
"Lock him up," ordered Jack pointing over his shoulder at the interrogation room door.
"Yes, sir," responded the officer. He went into the room and came out with Sanders in handcuffs.
Auto watched as Sanders was lead down to the jail area. After having regained his normal composure, he turned to the lieutenant, who had also been watching as Sanders was lead down to the jail area, and said, "We need to warn the captain. He will need to put 24-hour protection on Walter. If Tilson finds out Walter is still alive, he will kill him."
"And you?" asked Jack.
"I'll be okay," reassured Auto. "I have my own sort of protection."
Jack nodded, and they walked towards the captain's office.
The captain had been studying an Interpol report on the sniper, Sanders, when Curtis and Agent Mann walked in.
"Lieutenant, Agent Mann," said the captain by way of greeting. "Well, get anything out of him?"
"Yeah, Captain," said Jack with concern. "We've got an urgent situation."
"'An urgent situation'?" echoed the captain confused.
"Yes, Captain," replied Automan. "We just found out Tilson is out of jail."
"Tilson? As in the Tilson who terrorized the city with our own computers?; who nearly blew us to smithereens?" asked Captain Boyd.
"Yes, sir," replied Jack, slightly amused despite himself at the captain's apt description of Tilson.
"But how could he have gotten out? He was sentenced to life without parole."
"We're not certain, but we suspect he broke out," said Auto. "We also know he's hiding in Long Beach, which is in close proximity to Los Angeles. You will need to put 24-hour surveillance/protection on Officer Nebicher. If Tilson finds out Walter is still alive, he will try to kill him again."
"Wait, are you telling me Tilson would try a second time?" asked the captain running a hand over what remained of his hair.
"Yes, Captain," replied Auto.
"Makes sense, Captain," explained Jack. "Last time Tilson tried to terrorize the city, Wally was able to stop him. If Tilson manages to 'remove' Wally from the equation, he could terrorize the city virtually unimpeded."
"Okay, I'll assign some units on rotating shifts to protect him. Speaking of Nebicher, let's go see how he's doing." As the captain got up and left his office with Lt. Curtis and Agent Mann, he just silently prayed that Nebicher survived for them to protect him from Tilson as he remembered the brief glimpse he had gotten from his vantage point across the street of Agent Mann frantically racing to the paramedics with Nebicher, who was very obviously unconscious and in severe shock, cradled in his arms and Curtis at his side working intensely to keep up with Mann's longer legs before he had turned back to concentrate on securing the arrest of Sanders and the rest of the crime scene.