Chapter 8:
Mike Stack was in a very good mood when they walked into the beat-down old station-house. Taking a package out from under his arm, he walked up to Fergi, the little Galvan female, and set it down before her. "Officer," chirped the tiny alien. "Hey," said Mike. "Got somethin' for ya." Opening the box, he took out three heavily modified iPhones. "Earth technology," murmured Fergi. "It was," agreed Mike. "Frogs had 'em in their pockets." Fergi's bulbous eyes shot up to his. "Modified," she chirped. "We think so," agreed Mike. "There's been a lot of rogue transmitters on various networks in town. Verizon. ATT. Sprint. They're all reporting somebody using bandwidth, but they can't track the devices." "On it," said Fergi, as she accepted his gift.
Moving on, Mike headed over to the windows, where Helen, Molly, and Nick had piles of paper spread out on a couple of old desks. "What we got," he asked? "Case files," replied Nick. "Ballantyne didn't want to give 'em up. I told 'em he should talk to the Commissioner." "Anything useful," asked Mike? "It's worse than we thought," replied Helen. "The MS13 gang has been decimated. They went toe-to-toe with the frog's proxies and got wiped out. They're on the run, and the frogs have their territory." That was bad news. The Incurseans had a large swath of the Big Apple under their control. "Any good news," asked Mike? "Got the frog to talk," replied Molly. "Joe's typing it up." It was good news all around. "Where's Lucy and Tom," asked Mike?
"Nobody's seen them," answered Helen. "We were thinking about going down to that street where they were canvassing, but we were waiting for you to get back." That made Mike very nervous. It was highly likely that there were rogue sludge-puppies here in town. That made wandering off a very risky proposition, and Mike knew Lucy had a lot of trouble knowing when to hold fire on sticking her nose into something. "Alright," said Mike. "Let's get together a team..."
Before they could even start, the sound of the door closing got everyone's attention. Moments later, Lucy and Tom came strolling up the stairs, chatting away. Tom had been in a rotten mood since they got back to his car, feeling like he'd been useless. He'd been amazed by how smooth Lucy was. "I've been at it four years, Tom," she reminded him. "Longer than that if you consider the double life I was born into. You've been at it a day. Besides, I was about ready to belt him too." The posturing was annoying.
Lucy was happy to see the gang were all present. At the sight of the two of them, the others gathered around, and Lucy got caught up on what they had seen. It had been a long but productive day. Helen and Nick had a treasure-trove of information from the previous investigation, Mike and Tim had a pile of electronics taken off the three frogs who'd been in the shootout, and Molly and Joe had cracked the surviving frog on Rikers with promises of an extended stay in a nice Plumber jail instead of extradition to Incursean space. "Not bad," opined Lucy with a grin that wanted to grate on Mike's nerves. He had a sneaking suspicion that he wasn't really going to like what she had to say.
His fiancé didn't disappoint, as she laid out what had gone down on Chico's block. Jaws dropped and tongues clucked as Lucy explained how they'd gotten picked up by the Latin Kings and taken to see the Inca. When she told them about getting a line on the whereabouts of the leader of the Bloods and a status report of what was going on in the Big Apple's seedy underbelly, the whole room erupted. Finishing up, Lucy announced, "MS-13 isn't down and out yet, but they're on the ropes. The Inca's been in talks with them too."
News of the drop site for the drugs had everyone excited, and Nick wanted to go run that to ground immediately. Joe wanted to go rounding up the leaders of the local street gangs. In his mind, it was a chance to take care of a problem that had plagued the Big Apple since before he was born. Mike's mind was on something else. As soon as Lucy finished that hair-raising story, Mike jabbed a finger at her and growled, "Officer Mann! My office! Now!" And just like that, he went storming across the room to his office. Face red, the alien girl slunk across the room after him and shut the door.
"What's he mad about," asked Joe? "Hello," said Reese! "They're married! Wouldn't you get pissed if Kerry jumped in a van with a bunch of Latin Kings?" Joe retorted, "but she's an alien." "We bleed too," muttered Helen as she turned away, bound for the coffee-maker. Nick announced, "I've got to go see somebody. I'll be back..."
Inside Mike's office, the BPD cop was reading his counterpart and future wife the riot act. He made it clear in no uncertain terms exactly what he thought of her actions, and he threatened to have her kicked off the case. Angry herself, Lucy shouted, "you can't do that!" "Who did the old man put in charge, Officer Mann," growled Mike? Face hot, Lucy retorted, "I was doing my job, Mike! I thought you'd understand!" She was trying to take this into the personal realm. Mike headed her off at the pass.
"So your job is to jeopardize the investigation by risking loss of our most vital asset," asked Mike? "Your job is to risk the life of an impressionable young officer–who worships the hero-cop that saved his ass by the way?" Lucy glanced away as Mike reminded her of all the ways her little adventure could have gone wrong from infiltrators within the Inca's circle to her getting shot with her own sidearm. It was a dressing down worthy of the Magister. Mike knew just where to hit her, leaving her with nothing to say in response. "It will not happen again, Officer," said Mike. "Dismissed." Face burning, Lucy slunk out of there.
The trip home from the station was silent as a tomb with the only sound to be heard the crunching of the tires on fresh snow. Mike was still angry that Lucy had risked her life that way on a reckless whim, and Lucy was embarrassed and mad as hell that he'd ripped her a new one in front of the world plus dog. Neither would look at the other, and their minds were going in slow circles as the rage built in Mike and desperation built in Lucy. She was mad at him for yelling at her, embarrassed because she knew he was right, and she didn't know how to get out of this jam.
Reaching Silvia's home did little to help. Mike's brother was there with his nasty insinuations, and Mike's rage was magnified when his mother escorted Lucy to her bedroom to check the nasty bruise under Lucy's arm–reminding both of them of how they'd gotten into this in the first place. They were still not speaking when Valerie got home, and their presence cast a pall on dinner.
"Ok," demanded Val, "what gives?! Last night you two couldn't keep your hands off each other. Now you won't talk! What the fuck, over?" In clipped tones, Mike muttered, "somebody got into a van with a half-dozen Latin Kings this afternoon. Somebody didn't call for backup and didn't let us know where she was or where she was going..." "That's it," growled Bill Jr.? "She's an alien, for chrissake! So what?!" And that started the shouting.
On one hand, Silvia and Val jointly began chastising Lucy for doing something stupid. On the other, Mike very nearly came across the table at his brother. That got Silvia down on Jr. too. At the height of the shouting match, Lucy got up and went into the living room. Fight forgotten, Mike rushed after her, finding her in the process of putting on her coat. Terror filled his heart as he caught her shoulders and spun her around. He didn't want this to tear them apart. He was angry, but he didn't want her to go!
"I'm sorry," sobbed Lucy! "I'm sorry for being a reckless idiot!" She turned on the water, and there was no way he was going to resist that. Mike wrapped his arms around his beautiful bride and hugged her tight. Soon he was crying too. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "I'm sorry I raised my voice, baby," said he. Laughing, Lucy admitted, "Magister Tennyson yells at me too." Mike replied, "I know. Ben told me about it." "That little...," growled Lucy! She'd wondered where Mike heard all that stuff! "No more adventures," whispered Mike. Nodding and sniffling, Lucy agreed, "no more adventures."
Bill Jr. seemed almost disappointed when the two returned to the table holding hands. Nonetheless, at his mother's stern and disapproving glare–with a kick from Val to seal the deal–the older man apologized to Lucy for being insensitive. Lucy graciously accepted his apology, and Silvia moved on, announcing, "who's for dessert?"
Later, while they sat at the table munching on chocolate cake–Lucy's favorite–the two talked about wedding plans. Sitting in the recliner watching TV and swilling beer, Bill Jr. did his best to ignore them. Mike, in spite of being a little bit out of his depth, did his best to listen and show interest in all the things that Lucy wanted to do. She wanted to give the big temple wedding a shot. In her mind, being agnostic, she had options, and it would make her mother-in-law so happy. Mike had to remind her that if they went down that road, certain things might be expected of them. He wasn't sure he was ready to convert.
Silvia popped in and out, bringing loads of trinkets and knick-knacks that she wanted to share with them. She'd fallen in love with Lucy, and she was excited about the wedding. Val, helpful as ever, elected herself to be Maid-of-Honor. She had ideas of her own about the wedding dress. Since Lucy was so busty and pretty, she wanted to do a sexy modern dress with lots of cleavage. "She'll fall out, Val," retorted Silvia. "Besides, a girl doesn't need to look like a piece of meat on her wedding day. She's already got the man."
As Silvia's old grandfather clock chimed ten o'clock, Mike kicked his brother out of the living room, intending to go to bed. Lucy followed him into the living room and suggested that they just share his bed, but Mike refused, reminding her, "you're still pretty dinged up, honey. See you in the morning." Val almost laughed at him. He was turning down a chance for some hot make-up sex. He was right, though, and Lucy knew it. Kissing her fiancé, a disappointed Lucy headed for his room to curl up by herself.
Morning found Lucy stretching and exercising in a vain attempt to prove she was just fine. Mostly she managed to prove Mike was right. She'd have been screaming in pain instead of excitement. Coming out of the bedroom in a pair of shorts and an old tee-shirt, she sat down on the couch next to her man and ran her fingers along his back. "I'm sorry, sweetie," she sighed. "I... I don't think sometimes..." Mike cracked his eyes open and smiled up at her. "Enough apologies, baby," said he. "It's alright. I'm... I gotta' get used to this. You're a cop too, and sometimes a cop's got to take a chance or two to break the case." Nodding, Lucy admitted, "I... I can admit that I take it too far. We should have called." Turning to look at him, she said, "I love you, Mike Stack. Thanks for taking care of me."
Bill Jr. came into the dining room looking disgusted just at the sight of them. He was already dressed in his uniform, and he passed them carrying a piece of toast and looking like he couldn't stand them a moment longer. "Sorry about that, honey," sighed Mike. "I don't know why he's acting like this." Lucy giggled, "as long as he doesn't try to kill me like my cousin's in-laws, I'm fine..." Mike laughed in remembrance. She'd told him that story. Crawling out from under the covers, Mike started rolling up his bedroll. They had work to do.
Silvia sent the two lovebirds on their way with a lunchbox full of food. Cradling the lunchbox, Lucy said, "I made things personal yesterday. Thanks for keeping it professional..." Mike answered that with, "thanks for running down that lead, honey. Now I think we're actually in the game." He paused a moment, then added, "that's how mom and dad used to fight. Real personal. Attacking each other. I... don't want us to get like that. I don't want to lose you." Leaning over, Lucy kissed his cheek. Then, as they pulled into the station-house's parking lot, she said, "we should get the rental car back soon." It was money out of their pockets when they were officially on the clock. "So much for vacation," laughed Mike.
Helen was waiting on them when they came in. Without preamble, she announced, "infiltrators in the NYPD are confirmed." Mike didn't waste time being shocked or upset. He wanted details. "I made it through the entire case-log," said their little speed-demon. "I started finding inconsistencies. When it was between different guys, I thought, 'no biggie'. When I started seeing them between entries by the same guy, I got suspicious..." She'd had Fergi test the documents. Handing Mike her report, she gave the punchline, "Lenopan DNA." Mike grimaced. Things were heating up fast.
Fergi had news of her own. "The three iPhones have been substantially altered," explained the Galvan. "The Incurseans have hacked the operating system, enabling the device to spoof your primitive wireless networks. They transmit an encrypted data-packet on your frequencies, enabling them to have secure communications that are immune to tracing by standard Plumber tech." Lucy asked, "can we crack it?" "It is immune to Plumber technology," smirked the Galvan. "Stay on it," said Mike. "Lucy? My office. We need to write up that report." They had distinguished visitors coming.
Towards mid-morning, Molly's tactical team went out with one of the Plumbers' nondescript vans, driving down to Police Headquarters in Manhattan. There they pulled into the underground loading-dock to collect the Plumbers' distinguished guests. Returning to Flushing, the van pulled into the dock, and the two drivers closed the rollaway doors on any curious onlookers outside before heading to the back.
Mike Stack's smiling face was waiting on the Mayor, Commissioner, Inspector Graves, and the head of the City Council. "Morning everybody," Mike greeted them. "Welcome to my place." Two Plumbers were on hand to scan the three men and one woman before they were escorted up the stairs to the station's main floor. The two ranking cops whistled as they took in the changes to the old station-house. It seemed impossible, but the strangers from the west-coast had worked a miracle in just a day.
Mike led the four straight to the station's briefing room, passing through the squad room on the way. Mayor Reuben Howard stared in amazement at the sight of real, live aliens. There was more than a dozen of them, all working away like this was every day for them, which he imagined it was.
Inside the briefing room, Mike brought the four to seats at the front where his lovely bride was waiting. Lucy looked the business in a shimmery blue blouse over tan slacks today. She couldn't have looked more normal if she tried, and Mike could tell the two politicians were immediately put at ease. For them, it was like having the awful power and danger of the strange alien invasion put at their disposal, and Mike knew that would make them comfortable. He imagined that the Magister planned it that way.
"Thank you for coming," announced the young officer. "For those who don't know me, I'm Mike Stack, Bellwood PD, on loan to New York. This is Officer Lucille Mann, on loan from the Plumbers." Lucy gave them a winning smile. No man could resist that smile, and even the two men who knew she was an alien relaxed.
Mike announced, "reason I asked you down here was to give you a progress report in a secure environment. In a bit the reasons for that will become clear..." Reaching for the clicker, Mike started up the hologram projector. "This is the guy we're up against," announced Mike, as he manipulated the hologram floating before his distinguished guests. Even for a frog, this one was ugly. He was bigger than the usual run of runts, and he was built like a wall. His ugly, bulbous face was lined with scars, making him look like he'd been through a meat-grinder.
"Name's Rillec," said Mike, "and he is or was a cop. Started out as a soldier. Decorated for valor. Led his own special forces team until he went off the deep-end. Usual run of shit. Shot prisoners. Tortured people. Nobody much gave a damn until he started doing it to his own side. Found some guys that were a little too nice to their prisoners, so he turned his knife on them. Shortly after, he got the boot from the army and started over as a cop..."
Clicking the clicker, Mike brought up an abbreviated list of the frog's accomplishments along with a list of the crimes that had gotten him booted out of police work. From Inspector Graves' perspective, this guy was the worst sort–a career fuck-up, who just couldn't stay on the straight and narrow. "According to this rap-sheet, he's taken bribes and dealt narcotics," said the Inspector. "Yes, sir," agreed Mike. "He was headed for their prison system when Vanos intercepted him."
Frowning, Mayor Howard leaned back in his chair and asked, "and this man's in my city?" "Yes, Your Honor," replied Mike. "According to Incursean intelligence, he and his team were placed in charge of a special project involving Earth. Given his background, he's almost certainly the guy on the ground running this." Commissioner Williams asked, "do we know what they're after yet?" "No, sir," replied Mike. "We're still working on that one." "What else do we know," asked the Commissioner? With a heavy sigh, Lucy admitted, "you have an infiltrator, sir." All four visitor's faces snapped over to hers.
Lucy squared up and met those stares, explaining, "one of my officers dug through every scrap of paper in the case file, looking for information we could use. She started finding inconsistencies. She turned the documents over to our techs, and they did a detailed analysis. Somebody's gone through the case files and meticulously replaced or edited documents. The changes are small ones, but they're enough to throw off an investigation and send the investigators down any number of rat holes."
Lucy explained, "it's one of my people. Our techs scanned the papers for DNA traces, and they found a Lenopan signature overlaid with a human one. Unfortunately, Earth only records DNA of criminals, so we've got no idea who the infiltrator is posing as." Alarm greeted those words. All four men had been a little puzzled as to why they were being examined when they came in here. Now they knew, and that scared the hell out of them.
The mayor demanded, "you've got to find this person!" "Not as easy as it sounds," replied Lucy. "They could have done this half-a-hundred ways. They could have slipped in once or twice in disguise and done their dirt without anybody realizing that the person they were talking to was a double. The real person comes back from lunch without even knowing what happened. They could have gone for full replacement and just taken over the other man's life. It could be anybody in your department who has access to those records. The men at that office. The janitorial staff. Internal Affairs. Anybody."
The Commissioner could see the looming disaster. He hadn't wanted these people involved in his business in his town. Now he was dealing with a rather harsh reality check. He simply hadn't known how deep the pool was when he jumped in, and now he was screwed.
"What do you need to find this man," he asked? "Anything's on the table." "For the future," said Mike, "we would recommend you adopt the procedure the BPD adopted. Every man and woman on the force and all the civilian employees get embedded with an RFID chip, and we embed a detector in every badge, every squad car, and every office in the department. Systematically, every man and woman gets scanned just to be sure..." It was an expensive proposition, and the mayor and the head of the city council both looked like they would squeal.
Mike cut them off before they could start, declaring, "you don't have a choice, just like we didn't. We lost two good men, and Lucy and I almost got killed ourselves. These guys are insidious, and they don't give a damn who they hurt or what they have to do to survive. One of the BPD infiltrators took over his victim's entire life. Lived with his wife and kids for weeks without them even knowing it." "You said that was the future," muttered Hizzoner. "What do we do now?" "We're setting a trap," said Lucy. "With thirty-thousand men on the force, there's no hope of finding the one guy who could be doing this. We're going to give him something he can pass on, and use it to hang him."
"Do we have anything else," asked Graves? He didn't give a tinker's damn for the principles or the money. These guys were selling killer smack on his streets and people were dieing. They needed to catch these guys. Mike replied, "we have a line on where they're making the drops. We also know where they're shipping the product to." "Then we should put together a couple of raids," said the Commissioner. Shaking his head, Mike replied, "not that simple, sir. We rushed in in Bellwood and we very nearly lost two-dozen cops–two whole SWAT teams–and very nearly lost the Plumbers' tactical team too. We want to do this the smart way."
"What do you suggest," asked Graves? Lucy took up the thread, announcing, "first we want to confirm that we have the right spot. I'm going into the distribution center disguised as one of them. My job's to find out who's there, what they have for weapons, and whether or not the product is there. Once we know that, we can raid the place. The drop-site's a little cleaner. We can scope them from long distance and determine what we're up against. Depending on what we're faced with, it may make sense to let them make the drop and then let your officers ambush the human players on their way back to the city while the Plumbers ambush the ship making the drop."
Before Graves could argue, Mike explained, "like force against like force, sir. Our weapons have a hard time penetrating their armor, but they don't have any trouble killing our guys. We want to take care of the thugs workin' f'er these guys, cut off their distribution network. Let the Plumbers handle the aliens and their tech." "Fair enough," rumbled the Commissioner. "When can we move?" "The shipments come on Saturday night," said Lucy. "That gives me time to get in, get the information, and get out. We'll start slow and work our way up to the actual infiltration." "Why wait," asked the Mayor?
"If Lucy goes in, it will be as one of them," explained Mike. "That means we'll be picking up one of their guys. The minute that face goes missing, they'll know their cover's blown." The four of them glanced at the strange woman standing there before them. It was a little hard to reconcile that she wasn't human. At the same time, this was what they had. "Ok," said Hizzoner. "Keep us posted." The four wanted to pick Mike's brain on the things the NYPD needed to do going forward to adjust. Lucy said her goodbyes and headed out. Mike wanted her to track down the Bloods and the remnant of MS13.
"Not sure how you can be so used to that," rumbled the Mayor. Mike shrugged. Councilwoman Claire Rycken opined, "she seems like a nice girl, Reuben." Insistently, the Mayor asked, "what does she really look like? I mean, is she even a she..." Embarrassed, the Councilwoman pointed out, "she was engaged, Reuben! To somebody with good taste, from the look of that ring..." The Commissioner, who'd been trying to signal his boss to shut up about the alien-woman now jabbed him in the thigh.
"Dammit, Williams," growled the Mayor. "What the hell's the matter with you? I'm trying to ask him about the alien..." Rolling his eyes in exasperation, Inspector Graves told the nitwit, "Officer Mann is engaged to Officer Stack, sir. They were here on vacation, meeting his family..." The Mayor's face went red-hot as he realized that he'd just insulted the man who was saving his butt. On top of that, they'd just interrupted a family gathering and dragged these two into their problems. "You have good taste, Detective," opined Claire Rycken. Modestly, Mike replied, "had help from a jeweler, ma'am." He moved on just as if his lady hadn't been insulted.