I’m suspended for fighting again, and now my recruiting sergeant is all over me for my poor behavior. I’m getting yelled at through the phone because they no longer call my parents anymore which I always put down Alpha’s number as their contact number, they call my recruiting sergeant. 

Eventually, I get tired of listening to him so I put my regular phone in the freezer and go upstairs to where I have my extra phones and I get ready. I turn on my phones instantly and I get a message from Rho Micheal, "Hey man, between the Mechanic shop and the gas station, there’s a problem. Please call me or come visit me and I will explain. -PP

I answer back right away, "I’m starting early right away, what’s going on?"

I get an immediate phone call, "I was hanging out with ’Eta Lima’ and he told me that he has been trying to solve this problem of a street racing crew that he has been in charge of."

"And why hasn’t he come to me?"

"He wants to show that he can be trusted to solve problems, he wants a promotion."

"This bullshit of going rogue is why I’m not looking at him for a promotion! I might have him killed if his decision to not let me solve this problem gets out of control. Okay whatever, you are not the one I have the beef with, what’s the problem?"

"He has a street racing crew of five with their leader ’Alex Sandoval’ in a black Camero. We worked on it made it have almost 500hp has no problem with the car, added NOS. Made it more aerodynamic reduced weight by almost 600Lbs."

"You are telling me things I want to hear the good news. I hate having the good news first. Give me the bad news already, you’re starting to piss me off!"

"Alex wants to be a free agent and this year he refuses to pay for his upgrades that we gave him."

I run out the house phone still attached to me sprinting to the car, "I’m going to go to my apartment to look at specific reports. Do you happen to know how much extra he has to pay before he ends up buying himself out? It’s okay if you don’t I understand you are basically the pit crew."

"I don’t know where he is now but he agreed to the 75k in upgrades on his first car, totaled his first car but he owned that honda civic, we bought him a 15k replacement, the Camero he is driving now; I believe we put only 50k in upgrades into that car. Plus a monthly interest-"

"15% monthly except for November, December, January, and February."

"That’s right Gamma."

"So you don’t know where he ended up with this?"

"No, he won two cars for us and a shit ton for our cut from his races. But that was last year. He is not done but to him we are dead."

"I will call you back in a bit" I flip through all my records I go back to his last race. He lost the race but still paid the other races the 3k and paid his interest to us. I call back "Hey man, what’s good"

"Hey, I’m guessing you figured it out."

"Yeah, Alex owes us just over 60k."

"That’s a lot isn’t it?"

"He was actually pretty good before all this the maximum he could be owing us is $323k."

"So what is going to happen?"

"First set of races is is this Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Let’s see if he chooses to pay us the minimum of 25% of his winnings, with this rumor, I’m going to be excited if he lowers down to the mathematical minimum of 16% of the winnings."

"Do you want to tell my boss or do you want me to pass the message up to him?"

"I’ll do it, then I will wait to see how much we get from him come next week."

"So you don’t have a violent means of solving this? No rough and tumble Gamma, jump the gun and closer, kill a guy before letting him talk and explain himself."

"No, not yet. That can be a later. But I have learned to be patient, to litigate and negotiate. Violence is almost never an answer anymore. The threat of violence can be, but also can be ineffective if used repeatedly or too often."

"Whoa! Gamma’s going soft, I never thought I would ever hear you say that. You captured me a few years ago. I remember you using a conveyor belt to kill a guy by dumping his body in acid and letting him drown. What happened to you?"

"To put it short, I was getting physically ill and having nightmares."

"So you are a kinder, gentler, more generous; conglomerate leader?"

"Not so much. More like, smarter. Yeah, smarter is a good word. Have a great day at work."

"Thank you, you too."

The week passes relatively quickly with no real problems. I watch him win as CrazyDan on Thursday and Friday, win two cars on Saturday. When he goes to his safehouse garage, I’m waiting for him as Gamma in my mask in wait while he waits for tow trucks to take his new cars to the safe house. I watch him as he paid two of my men who were driving the tow trucks. He even has the audacity to flash his money as he pays them triple the amount to tip them and gives them a motion to be quiet about it. With a laugh and a huge smile.

My men leave, and he brings each car in with his Camero last. He sits at a desk back to his new cars looking through stereo equipment muttering to himself about bass. He even blasts the radio he has rapping along. I know he is too distracted to notice me no matter what I do. I just walk past the cars ducking down just in case he looks back but he never does he just keeps messing with wires and inspecting things. A stack of several thousand dollars just sitting next to him. He turns around as I am just standing behind him. Very calmly I say, "Alex."

"Who the fuck are you?"

"I represent the organization that you owe money to for your wins. You haven’t been talking to us this year. I wanted to extend communication. It could be something like you don’t have one of our numbers anymore. What’s going on buddy?"

"That voice you sound familiar. I think I know you."

"I highly doubt that." I come closer to him. "So how much did you win there? I saw you bring your two cars. I didn’t see how much the races were for."

"CrazyDan. Is that you? Holy crap. Small world!"

I take off my mask. "So this is how you were able to get away with what you do at school. A little bit of power in the real world brings you a lot of power in school doesn’t it. I always thought you were in some kind of gang, you always had too much power. That’s why I picked on you back in the day."

"Yeah it does, my rank still is not very high, though. I mostly just collect money and keep a percentage as mine. That’s how I started up at school."

"Oh man since I know it’s you and I know you are doing your job. I’ll give you like $1000 for you to go away and you can be back tomorrow for the rest of the money."

"Actually at least one car and, or $3000 is what I’m here for. Depending on how fast you wish to pay your debts to our organization."

"1000 is what I’m willing to give you. No car. Take it or leave it."

"I’ll take it."

He walks to me with $1000 in his hand and gives it to me in a handshake as to say he respects me. I walk away without a single other word being said. I put my mask on as I leave to not be identified by unknown cameras. I make a phone call to Eta. "This beast must be slain."

"What? I can’t hear you over the wind."

I hang up and call him back, "This beast must be slain."

"Why? What sin did he commit?"

"He can cause me to have a burn notice worse than what the organization does to you."

"That bad, damn. What do you want me to do?"

"During his race tomorrow you will send two of your men to get his cars. Another wave of men to collect the metal he has all kinds of everything everywhere. And I want three men wiping down and cleaning everything. I want it to be like we were never there."

"What else is going to happen?"

"The less you know the gooder. Have a good day."

"You too gamma you can count on me."

I get home and my mom is waiting for me, I was wearing my gamma uniform, "What’s that, Dan?"

"I umm, went to the club. Today was a theme night."

"What is the theme?"

"Anonymous persona."

"Well, you look good Dan. Why are you flustered?"

"I did just run a mile from the bus stop."

"Well, you are looking sharp. I’m sure the women love you."

"I completely disagree they have like no interest in me at all. Anything else?"

"You going to church tomorrow? Pastor Rice misses you."

"I think I’m going to pass, it’s like 3 am. I’m not going to be up at 8 am to be in the car to be there at 9."

"I want to spend some time with you, as mother and son. Can we do that later today?"

"I have something to do at 7 pm."

"Lunch?"

"At 1 pm."

"Night mom."

"Goodnight son."

The next day goes quickly. I don’t think I tell the truth to my mom about a single thing: hobbies, school, friends, homework, work. She is happy just spending time with me. In thinking back on the accounts I wish I could have told her some truth, some things she would have been proud of.

When I get home we separate, she goes to the living room and I go to my room, immediately go online. I look up the schematics for his 2006 Camero. I’m looking for a way to disable his car and maim him.

My mom walks in no knock before I can switch to another screen. "What was that? It looked cool."

"I show her on screen what I was looking at."

"Why?"

"I’m doing research on cars. I’m thinking of buying one."

"You need to look at more sensible cars than that: Toyota Camry, Chevy Malibu, Honda Civic, that new Prius seems cool, who makes that again? Or you can go really cool and get a minivan the women will be all over you. I don’t understand the need to go fast, it’s expensive. If you get a car your father and I like you pay for the car and insurance we will cover taxes and registration."

"Sounds good mom."

"The year you are looking at is wrong. You need to look much older than only three years old. Try six years or older. But remember cars are pretty much destroyed by the time they are ten."

"Thanks, mom."

"Have a good day son. I love you."

"Me too mom."

My time of research goes quickly I know what I must do. I leave the house without my Gamma uniform, I know no one in the area would notice a teenager but a man in a black suit and mask would raise alarms.

I get in my car and call Eta to make sure he has everything ready. I had him borrow some extra people as well. His teams needed to be big and organized.

I go near the garage and park nearby. Walking up to the garage I casually walk in and he has his Camero just parked there; I start by removing the fuse for the driver’s airbag.

When I go under the car and it takes me some time but I make a small cut in the break line using my house key and in the hydrologic line doing the same process. There are only a few drops that come out until he starts using his car.

I make sure everything else is ready to go. I warn that his racing career will be torn apart after what I have planned, reiterating that the less he knows the better: I want the two cars gone, pink slips in our possession, the garage to be stripped of money and metal all within one hour or less of what I do.

I find out the sprint course they have today and volunteer to take a radio partial way through the course to dictate what they are doing in the race as they go through the first major turn. They gave me a radio and 10 minutes before the race I am up on a roof able to see them about a mile down the road and they gave me binoculars to be able to see clearly down that far. Before I know I’m getting told that There’s no police by me.

I hear someone talking to me just after the buzzer "who the fuck are you?"

"Wanna watch a race? I’m one of the reporters for the race that’s coming through here."

He walks to me, "fuck ya I do." He sits next to me.

I point, "they are coming this way any second."

"What are they racing for?"

"Pinks and 30k." I grab my radio. "I see them coming down the stretch. 350z on the left Camero on the right. They are getting closer to the left turn, the 350z is being very aggressive, rubbing the Camero hard. I see sparks from metal on metal contact.

The Camero pulls ahead as they approach the turn, he’s not slowing down. He bounces off the wall and smashes into the side of the 350z. He continues going very fast into another brick wall and he’s trapped as the 350z smashes into his driver door.

They are both stopped. They do not look okay. Over the radio, "Guys I need to call an ambulance." I tell the guy "Get the fuck out of here."

The guy to my right, "what the fuck was that? I wanna see more of that!"

"That was a crash. Watch NASCAR to see more. You cool if I leave this stuff up here."

"Yeah man, we cool. There will be police here in a few minutes."

"Thank you for the warning."

I go down the stairs of the building as fast as I can already on the phone.

"911 what is your emergency."

"I just witnessed a really bad car crash on 65th and Washington."

"Is there anyone hurt that you know of?"

"I’m going to say both there is no movement. In either car."

"EMS and police are in the way." Smoke starts billowing out from the hood of the Camaro and the 350z. "You better send a fire as well."

"Very well but why?"

An explosion rings out and flames flow down and around both cars like a fountain up then down. "That’s why. Now excuse me you are going in my pocket."

"Sir. Sir! No wait-!"

The phone is on and in my left pocket glowing as I run to the cars that are on fire. I know I can get the 350z driver out but I cannot for the other driver.

I grab the door handle and it’s not hot. I try to rip it open but it only goes about a third of what I need. A woman runs up to me, "what are you doing?"

"Help me get this car door open or shut the fuck up. You are in the way."

"Young man I am going to ask that you not swear at me."

"Oh just shut up already. Can’t you see I’m busy?" I break the door best I can and with a creak, it almost snaps off. The inside is very hot. I take off his seatbelt it takes a few tries because it burns my fingers pretty bad and I drag him out. She is on the phone feet from me. "I already reported it they are in my left pocket I kind of put her on hold, if you insist on helping there you go." She starts digging in my right pocket. "I did not give you permission to take my wallet!" She reaches in my left pocket as I’m still moving the dead weight of the guy to a safe distance.

"Hello. Hello. Yes. No, he is busy right now he let me take his phone." There’s a pause. "My name is Sergent Leslie Flynn out of Arizona State Police Department, I should have control of the scene but this dick head won’t allow me control. He is doing things right so far." She runs to me, "Hey dickhead, what’s your name?" I give chest compressions with one hand and take out my wallet with one hand and give her my school ID and military ID. I continue giving chest compressions and breathing in his mouth trying to bring him back. I hear ambulances on the way. "His name is Daniel Karaskwilo. He is only a high school student, oh and he is a soldier as well for the army."

The ambulance arrives and I acknowledge them immediately, "I have been doing this for almost two minutes!" They acknowledge that and start charging the paddles. I get pushed away. And the cop starts talking to us acknowledging me first.

"Hey son, what’s your name? Why were you here?"

"I saw the race from the street as they passed and they wreaked right there and I called 911."

"Who’s fault was it?"

"The Camero didn’t slow down for the turn and smashed that wall, then the 350z clipped him and hit they both smashed that wall. I gave this woman my phone to finish with the 911 operator. May I get my phone back?"

She hands my phone back. "It wasn’t on purpose but I feel it necessary to mention that I’m a police officer. Here’s my badge." She hands him her badge.

"Okay, Arizona state. Why are you here Mrs. Sergent Flynn?"

"Miss, Officer Brown."

"Married, nice try. Why are you in Illinois? This is not a good area where usual tourists usually are."

"I was going to meet with someone here who was going to give information on the real identity of someone we’re looking for in Arizona."

"You are not in your jurisdiction. Does your boss know you’re here?"

"He told me to use my personal days."

"Ok well, who were you looking for maybe we can find him for you. Speed things up for you."

"Alex Sandoval"

I speak up, "That was the driver of the Camero that they couldn’t get to."

The male officer says, "How do you know?"

Then she says, "How sure are you?"

"I respond, "well he did invite me to see his circuit race and told me where to be so we can meet up afterward and chill. So site me if you want, but I was watching the street race."

"I need your contact information after that you are free to go. I’m going to need to talk with her about her case." I give my full name and number with a fake phone number, just in case.

I write a text as a draft so I can use my Alpha phone to extend an offer, "Who wants a promotion? I have a major task that needs to be done or possibly just connections outside of the organization."

Next Chapter: Chapter 10: April 25th, 2008: L