“Who the hell are you man? You crazy son of a bitch!”
He drags them out onto the sidewalk like rag dolls and answers.
“I’m FBI agent Jason Mallock, and I despise drug dealers.”
CHAPTER TWO
Two days have passed since the bar incident. Jason had called the Miami P.D. and waited for a patrol car and ambulance to arrive to take the two injured men for medical treatment before being taken for questioning at the police department.
Jason’s cell phone rings, waking him up after a late night out drinking with his partner special agent Danny Langley.
“Who is it?” asks Jason, barely awake.
“Wake up you lazy drunk! Get your ass over here. The Chief has a new case for us,” says Danny.
Jason manages to pull the sheets off of him and sits on the side of the bed.
“How do you do it? We drink the same amount of alcohol, and we left the bar at the same time. I’m still not sober, and you seem as if you drank lemonade all night,” said Jason.
Danny laughs on his friend’s statement. “Well, maybe I can handle my drinks better than you can, and besides, I work out at the gym three times a week.”
Jason gets out of bed and goes to the bathroom and takes a cold shower. After freshening up, he puts on his usual pair of jeans, a black T-shirt and a pair of sneakers. Jason has never worn a suit to work and has no intention to. He prefers casual, comfortable clothes to suits, which are the official dress code of the F.B.I. Many a times his superior officer Matthew Berks has asked him time and time again to wear a suit. But Jason always gives him the same reply.
“Chief, I don't need a suit to do my job. And anyway the damn dress code is a give away. Any low life criminal will know we’re F.B.I.”
Matt has given up asking and just waves his arms in the air out of frustration.
Before heading downstairs, Jason checks in on his only teenage daughter Sally. Her bedroom door is closed, and he gently knocks.
“Sally, are you up?”
He slowly opens the door. The room is empty, and her bed is not made. Jason gives Sally the privacy she needs. She has just turned nineteen and is growing up fast. But deep down inside, she will always be his little girl.
Studying to become an anthropologist, Sally spends most of her time on school campus with other students. She is hardly ever home, either at some friend’s house studying or on some field trip that has to do with ancient civilizations. It was Jason who encouraged her to choose that particular career, since he has a degree in archaeology. He always mentions to her that they together will make a great team, the archaeologist father and the anthropologist daughter. Both careers involve exploring and discovering ancient ruins and civilizations. Jason was thrilled when Sally one day, came home and told him she would be taking anthropology as her major. He graduated in archaeology at the age of twenty-five and spent a few years working in Egypt. He became very interested in law enforcement after he discovered how many ancient artifacts and treasures were being stolen. Jason wanted to stop illegal smuggling, so he decided to join the F.B.I. Solving numerous cases involving stolen and smuggled priceless artifacts.
Jason closes the bedroom door behind him and heads downstairs, hoping to find Sally in the kitchen. On the kitchen table, he sees Sally’s cold mug of coffee, and a note under it.
“Left for school early. See you later. Love Sally.”
He smiles at the note and pours himself a strong cup of coffee and lights up a cigarette.
At the Miami FBI Headquarters, Chief Berks is growing impatient.
“Agent Langley! Give agent Mallock another call and tell him to get his butt over here asap!” Matt cusses and heads to his office.
Danny speed dials Jason’s cell phone.
“God damn it! I’m on my way!” said Jason.
“Well, hurry it up will you! The Chief is in one of his moods, and all he needs is you arriving late as usual.”
Danny waits for a reply from Jason but realizes his friend has hung up on him.
“Son of a bitch! He hung up on me!”
Fifteen minutes later, Jason arrives. He parks his Ford Mustang in the first available space, having no consideration whatsoever if he has taken somebody’s parking spot. Jason gets out and goes to the rear of the car. He opens the trunk and pulls down a panel revealing a hidden compartment where he keeps his secret stash of weapons, ranging from an Uzi submachine gun to a crossbow. He replaces his Heckler and Koch handgun for a standard Glock pistol, then closes the compartment and shuts the trunk.
Back in the office, Danny was just about to give Jason another call, when he sees him walking in with a cigarette in his mouth, and running his fingers through his sleek black shoulder length hair.
Anyone seeing Jason for the first time would have no idea whatsoever that they were looking at an FBI agent and also an archaeologist. Your first impression of him would be a good for nothing bum. Women are attracted to him like a moth to a flame. His good looks and bad boy attitude keeps the ladies on their toes, and Jason knows it.
Danny whistles over to him.
“Put that cigarette out will you. Matt is waiting for us in his office.”
Jason takes in a long drag of his cigarette and then stomps it out on the floor.
“Jeez Danny, calm down will you! I need another strong cup of coffee first.”
“Go get your coffee, but hurry it up,” said Danny on his way to the Chief’s office.
Danny opens the door to Matt’s office. Chief Berks was looking through a new file placed on his desk a couple of hours ago.
“Come on in Danny,” says Matt, waving him in without looking up from his desk.
“And where is agent Mallock? Don’t tell me he hasn’t arrived yet!”
Danny holds back a bit before saying, “he’s getting a cup of coffee Chief. He should be here…..”
Jason bursts in.
“Morning, Chief! What you got for us?”
Matt is startled by Jason’s sudden entrance. “Damn it Jason! Don’t you knock before entering?”
“Sorry Chief. Didn’t want to keep you waiting any longer.”
“Well, how considerate of you agent Mallock. Just sit down will you.”
Danny hard-eyed Jason.
“What!” whispers Jason with his hands open.
Matt opens the file in front of him but then stops and closes it again.
“I would like to say a few words before I assign you two to a new case. Jason, that stunt you pulled a few days ago in that bar was risky, and you could have injured someone else. What were you thinking? This is the 21st century, not the wild west!”
Jason was about to say something, but Matt shushed him before he could say a word.
“We all know you’re a dead aim with any weapon. I’m sure you had a few drinks, which could have caused you to miss your target. But the two drug dealers you busted are wanted in three states for drug dealing, whom they mostly sell to young kids. Thanks to you another two low life’s are crossed off the wanted list.”
Jason spoke up, “if I knew they were selling dope to kids, I would not have aimed for their shoulders, and we would be rid of them permanently.”
Matt knows Jason has a mean streak when it comes to drug dealers, especially when manipulating young kids. Jason’s father was a drug addict, and severely beat him and his mother when coming home doped up from drugs.
One evening his mother was brutally beaten and hospitalized. After a few weeks in a coma, she passed away. Jason was only eighteen at the time, when his father was sent to prison serving a ten-year sentence, but was surprisingly released after just three years. A few weeks had passed after his father’s release, when he was informed that his father was killed in a hit and run accident. To this day the driver was never caught, leaving the incident an open case. Jason had never intervened with the hit and run of his father, and has no intention of finding the person responsible for the crime. When he was questioned by the local police department, he said, “my father got what he deserved for killing my mother.”