Chapter 13: The Day the Kingpin's Web Started Closing
While usually, such a sentence would send any responsible father exploding with outrage at the thought of his little girl engaging in such dangerous practices. Jim knew that she was just trying to rile him up, it was something that the O'Reilly girl liked to do since he left the Kitchen Irish peacefully about two months ago.
Mr. O'Reilly opened the driver's side door, signaling to Louise to get inside herself with an absentminded hand wave. Eventually, the young girl rolled her eyes hopped off the car, made way towards passenger seat… till a hand tapped her on the shoulder.
"Sorry, Miss," Came the smooth voice of a rather well-kept businessman. The glasses on his face glinting in the sunlight, while Jim got out the car once more, his face slightly pale from the very sight of him. "But I need a word with your father?"
"Louise, get in the car, I'll be there in just a second," Louise didn't even bother to argue, just slowly nodded at her Pop and got into the car. When she was inside. Jim and the glasses-wearing man walked a few steps away from the car, out of earshot.
"Mr. Wesley, I didn't expect to see you so early in the morning."
"I know that you like to keep our meetings private and the Boss understands that," Wesley pushed his glasses up closer to his eyes, keeping a small polite smile on his face even well his eyes hardened. "But this couldn't wait, by meeting you like this, it leaves no phone calls and no trace other than visual that we met."
"It's fine, just unexpected." Jim knew the deal, small fry like him couldn't complain, would make him unfavorable to the type of boss he now worked for. "What can I do, sir?"
"We need to get a hit… on a rather hard target," Wesley took a glance around, seeing that there wasn't anyone that could overhear. "Sean Leary."
Jim took in a deep breath, his eyes widening while dropping to the ground, there was a measure of absolute dread that exploded over his face.
He was familiar with the man, he'd known him since he was young, since before Louise was born, the man had even saved his life at one point.
"Is there a problem?" The Right Hand to the most powerful man in New York at the moment asked him, it was like a shark smelling blood in the water, the danger was clear in the air.
"No, just surprised that he'd piss off the boss," Jim explained, scratching his neck in wariness. "Sean would usually be what I'd call, risk-averse."
"Sadly… he's looking to talk," Wesley explained, something that alarmed Jim. "About the Boss, it seems that he's found out about his identity."
"And how did we find out about this?"
"He went to the wrong detective, thought the man was clean but he was one of ours," There was a tired sigh from the man like he had to deal with this mess and was just sick of it. "Man's gone to the winds, we're sure he's still in the city but… well, we're sure that with your prior knowledge of the man, you'd find him easier than any hitman we could hire."
"Pop!" Louise poked her head out the side of the car, her arm high in the air. "Come on, we're going to be late."
The two men shared a stare before nodding and going on their own ways, one to make more deals, to deal with more problems, and the other to get his girl home… and then to handle a problem that he'd never hoped to have.
x-x-x
(Patrick Doyle)
The months had been kind to me, I had a decent job as a would-be reporter in the Bulletin, I had a new apartment, and I even moonlighted as something of an anti-mugger at times. I wasn't really looking for crimes to stop, just out and about testing my ever-increasing speed and my ever-increasing strength.
I wasn't the Flash or anything but I've managed to catch a few bullets. Though not without flattening a few against my hand, sometimes I didn't manage to actually match the thing's trajectory in the right to grab the thing perfectly.
But I was faster than the majority of cars now, so that was neat.
And I think that I was strong enough now to pick up and throw a tank at people. Though thankfully I haven't needed to test that little factoid yet.
I'd also managed to gain the ability to see more in terms of the visual spectrum. X-Ray-like sight, something that I'm told is close to cat-scans, and it also I've got a sorta telescopic vision.
Now, at this very moment, I was trying to figure out where to start with this assignment.
Like obviously I was sure that I should start in Lower Manhattan but that was a rather large area to search. The first place that I thought to look in was the local power plant.
That got me nearly nowhere at all since there was nothing wrong with anything in the building, no faulty wires, no dead bodies, animal or otherwise, in any of the conductors.
But it wasn't all a bust, with a little himmering and a little babbling I managed to get one of the workers to give me an address, one where the blackout seemed to start from.
A rather large apartment building, littered with a slew of people coming in and out like there was some kind of sale going. I watched from outside, just checking to mark all the entrances and exits mentally.
I found an older lady, a kindly looking one that was out walking her dog. Since she came out of the front door of the place, I assumed that she was living there.
"Miss," I called out, grabbing her attention while adjusting my collar. "If I may have just a moment of your time."
The woman didn't look happy, in fact, she seemed downright annoyed at me. I would have to use all my small-town charm to get what I needed out of the lady. Which wasn't a lot of charm, just the smudge that I hold in reserve.
"Wha you want?" She asked me, her eyes glaring at me through a pair of thick-rimmed glasses.
"Oh… I'm s-sorry if I bothered you, my name's Pat Doyle," I pulled at my collar, drawing in on myself as if her harsh tone had bothered me, a calculated act but not one that I didn't feel. "See, I just got my first assignment at the Bulletin and… "
I trailed off, keeping my eyes low but my head high enough so tI could still keep her in the corner of my vision. There were a few seconds that the lady looked taken back by my rather meek display, then her expression turned to one of guilt.
"The Bulletin?" She eventually asked, seemingly having changed her mind about how she wanted to interact with me. "That's a rather big name paper, what sort of assignment?"
"Oh, I'm just looking into," I opened a folder I had resting in my left hand, fumbling with a sheet that I brought up with my right before handing it to the lady with deliberate slowness. "The blackouts that happened about a week ago in this building. I was just wondering if you knew anything?"
"Anything?"
"Y-yeah," I stammered. "You know odd noises at night, people that shouldn't be around…. Or just look weird around the place."
"There's been some people in suits the other day," The old lady started, puffing up her lips in thought. Eventually, she frowned, her eyes looking up and to the right, something that, if I remember right, meant that she was recalling something rather than making something up. "From what Betty told me-"
"Betty?" The sound of that name, it was something that I knew from childhood though I heavily doubted that she was Betty Ross. A woman that smart, that connected, wouldn't be living in a joint like that.
"The young girl who lives in 5B, poor girl, she only moved in about a month ago," The lady, who I realized I'd yet to get the name of. "Always getting into arguments with her fiancé, but that's not important. These suits, I'm not sure who they work for, but I've been told that they were around for the blackout."
"T-That's good to know," I reached into my pocket, drawing out a notepad and pen, missing me expensive android phone, scratching in some names and a time period. "And i-if I may be so bold, Miss… what's your name?"
It was important that I get her name, if only for collaboration later on.
"Lenard, Regina Lenard," She told me as she crouched and rubbed the top of her dog's head. The animal barking happily and wagging its tail, it wasn't a small dog so I wasn't sure if the woman needed to bend down to do this. "I live in 5C, just next door to Betty, sometimes I even take the girl in when her fiancé starts taking out some things on the poor girl."
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