The Colonel Vs. the Parson's Boogie Man

Chapter 2

Colonel John Casey stormed out of the Burbank Buy More lunch room with only one purpose of his mind. He brushed by several other employees, who only backed further away when they saw the dark, determined frown on his face. Jeff tried to thank him for Parson's new brownies, but Casey just shoved the brownie into his face and kept going. He only slowed down at the Nerd Herd desk long enough to grab Chuck Bartowski, and pull him toward the new door to Castle.

"What's up, buddy? How's the Reverand?" Chuck was trying to keep upright even as Casey was manhandling him toward the underground C.I.A. Center. When they reached the door, Casey paused to let the retina scanner record his eye, and open up. He growled, "Castle, now, Bartowski. We need the General."

"All right, let's do it. What ever you need, big guy." Chuck was normally a hyper young man, but Casey's demeanor could only spell some trouble for Casey's new friend, the Parson, so Chuck tried to bring his exuberant spirit in control.

As they ran down the long stairwell, Chuck waved at Sarah who was working on inputting some information into the mainframe computer. She smiled at him, rose to give him a kiss, but stopped when she saw Casey.

"John? Something wrong?" Sarah Walker had worked with her partner, John Casey, for over four years, and found his dark moods often were omens of some kind of danger they were going to meet.

Casey ignored her and went over to the large console to call up General Beckman. When the huge screen came up, the General was talking to another soldier whose head was down, looking at a folder Beckman was pointing to. When the screen beeped, they both looked up at the camera. Casey startled a bit, and then a small smile played at his lips. Meanwhile, Sarah had gasped, and Chuck was in the middle of a deep flash.

"General, Major." Casey recovered quickly, and stood at attention in front of his commanding officer, and the other soldier.

"Colonel Casey, you are not due to report for another six hours. Is there something wrong?" The General pulled her reading classes off, and stared at her crack N.S.A, agent. She studied his stance, and outside of a flinch and a sold set of his jaw, you would not know that John Casey was upset. However, over twenty years of working with him had made the General an expert at reading the body language of this stoic Marine, and she could see something was irritating him.

"General, ma'am..."Chuck was pulling out of the flash and he was stuttering terribly..."The other man looks just like you, Casey!"

General Beckman glanced at the Major standing at attention by her side, and she then smiled a little.

"Colonel, I will let you make the introduction to Agents Walker and Bartowski."

Casey sighed, irritated at having to wait for amenities, but he went ahead and obeyed the General.

"Sarah, Chuck, this is my brother, Major Chad Shelton."

"Identical twin brother, born 3 minutes later to Elizabeth and Manfred Coburn, named Chad Coburn.

Later because of security reasons, renamed Chad Shelton, former Los Angeles Police Department detective of Internal Affairs."

"Enough!" the General barked and Chuck shut his jaw quickly. During this time, the Major was enjoying his brother's discomfort at the revelation of even more of Casey's family history being known. Casey just glared at his slightly younger brother, and then cleared his throat.

"Ma'am, I need to take some time off to help Parson Coburn." Casey got right to the crux of the matter, but Sarah and Chuck noticed the surprise look on Shelton's face at the mention of Casey's girlfriend. He bent over to whisper something in the General's ear, who nodded quickly and then returned her attention to Casey.

"Colonel, we have been running surveillance protection duty on the Parson and the Major here has just notified me that she was threatened earlier this morning by the local drug lord. I need to run the name of the drug lord past Agent Bartowski." The General looked at Chuck and he nodded.

Both Casey and the Major said the name the same time: "El Llorono". Sarah and Chuck were amazed at the stereo sound that came from both men speaking, but not as amazed as the Major looked.

"I see you know this man, John?" Chad asked his brother gruffly.

"Intimately." Casey turned his back to the general and his brother, and lifted his shirt. There, numerous red welts were spred across his back, some still oozing clear moisture. He pulled his polo back down and returned to face the General, but Chuck again was in the throes of a huge flash.

Whipping, endless caning

tatoos

Latin Disciples

Bombs

The Crying Man

Casey hanging from the ceiling, blood dripping

being tortured ruthlessly

"Casey, The Crying Man is one very bad dude." Chuck stumbled slightly from the flash and Sarah helped him sit down in a chair nearby. He continued to stroke his forehead, and stared at his stoic handler, a man who had suffered greatly at the hands of this monster. "Oh, General, we have got to help Pastor Annie, if this is the man who is threatening her." Chuck struggled to stand up, and he moved closer to his tall friend.

"Agent Bartowski, Colonel, we understand that. The Major's intel also has the Crying Man selling some new automatic weapons to the black market in trade for high level cocaine and Ecstasy that he intends to sell to the meth users in the Pacific Northwest." The General agreed.

"John, that's how El Llorono came to Pastor Annie's town. The local law enforcement officials have been trying to capture him for over two months, but they have not had any solid evidence that he is the leading drug lord in Annie's town. Until now." Chad took up the explanation.

"Until now?" Sarah asked.

"The other women at Parson's church have pictures and videos of him selling." Casey filled them in on the information he knew from Annie.

"They also have evidence that the house on the end of the church property is his main headquarters, but again no solid conclusive evidence has been found there on any raids." Shelton added.

"Someone on the inside?" Casey asked his brother who only nodded, and shrugged.

"Because we do not have any hard evidence we need you and Chad to go to Pastor's Annie town and begin to track El Llorono down. Whatever it takes, you must find hard evidence that he is the drug lord we are seeking." The general ordered.

"General, what can Chuck and I do?" Sarah asked the woman officer, who glanced at the Major and then continued. "The Major and I agree that you two need to come to the town as undercover arms dealers, and try to arrange a sell with The Crying Man. Between the four of you, the Crying Man will be pinched on all four sides, and perhaps we can ultimately find out who his boss is. Good luck, Team Bartowski. Major, head out immediately and meet the Colonel by helicopter to fly up to Pastor Annie."

Major Shelton nodded, and then saluted the General and his brother. "It will be an honor to serve with you again, Colonel." Shelton grinned, but Casey only growled, "we will see about that, Major."

The screen beeped off, and Casey's shoulders began to slightly stoop. Chuck however, was stoked at the thought of getting to know Casey's "younger" brother. "Hey, big guy! This is fantastic. A family reunion." Chuck clapped Casey on the back, but Casey flinched and hissed as the nerd hit some of the cane welts still infected on his back. Casey whirled around, and stepped dangerously close to his young asset, his face furious, his eyes a dangerous deep blue.

"This is no party, Bartowski, and this is no family reunion. I would much rather protect Parson Annie myself, but now I have to not only drag you 2 along, but my egotistical, stubborn, pig headed, shooting frenzy of a former sleaze cop of a brother with us." By this time Casey was shouting, his face a deep red, his fists clenched in tight balls, fingernails cutting into the palms. He gulped a huge breath down, and rocked side to side on the balls of his feet.

"C..,.." Chuck was hesitant at first, but he did not glance away from Casey's eyes. The room was absolutely silent for two minutes, and then Sarah spoke quietly.

"John, we will do whatever it takes to make sure the Parson and her church and those women are safe. Even if you have to drag all of us with you."

"Yeah, John, we were going to volunteer anyway." Chuck gulped and finally glanced down at his feet, his hands thrust deep into his pockets, his face filled with hurt.

Casey turned away, and his shoulders fell even further. He leaned on the table in front of the large, blank screen, his head on his chest, his fingers drumming on the desk. He straightened up, and turned to face his co-workers.

"I need to ask your forgiveness at my...uncharacteristic outburst." Casey gulped and continued quietly.

"And I do need your help. This job entails more than I can..."he paused, struggling to find the right words. "More surveillance and protection duty than I can manage. I would be honored that you two would come to help, and more than that...you would want to come help."

"Casey, we are your friends. Family. And we consider Pastor Annie part of family too. We don't leave family behind." Chuck spoke up and moved toward the tall man. He stuck out his hand, which Casey slowly shook.

"Now, what does a Pacific Northwest arms dealer look like, Sarah?" Chuck's good mood had returned and the three of them ascended the stairs to depart for Annie's town.

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