“Ma’am, your baby only has a flesh wound. There should be no lasting damage.” Oria turned the ETU from diagnostic mode to active healing mode and proceeded to remove the bullet and stitch the wound.
When Oria had completed the operation, he handed the bullet to the mother. “Your baby will be fine now. Just let him get some rest.”
“Thank you sir
, I don’t know how to thank you.”
“No problem ma’am, I’m just glad I could help.”
“Please, call me Jenny.”
“Ok Jenny, you can call me Oria. I have to leave and check on my friends. You and your baby should be fine.”
“Thanks again Oria. I hope your friends are all right.”
Jenny started to sob as Officer Jones worked his way through the mob to reach her. He saw blood all over the baby’s clothes and the mother’s top. This was Jones first tour as an officer in Ocean City. He had just completed his junior year at the University of Maryland Law Enforcement
program. They had not prepared him for this.
Jenny quickly gave Officer Jones the pertinent information and explained how this stranger helped her baby. She handed him the bullet as she pointed to Oria. The Officer carefully took the bullet, placed it in an evidence bag, and then walked towards Oria.
“Sir, are you with the lady?”
“No officer, I’m a medic and just helped the baby out. She should be fine now, but you should take both of them to a hospital and have them checked out. I’ll be with my friends and the lady who was knocked to the ground over there.”
Oria managed to slip away before Jones could question him more. Jones wasn’t real worried since he saw Oria with the other victims only 20’ away. By the time Oria got back to Karen, the police had managed to clear the area around her on the boardwalk. Karen still looked quite shaken.
“Karen, are you sure you’re all right?”
“Yes, wow, am I glad to see you. I was lucky this time.”
“What happened?”
“That man tried to shoot me. If it wasn’t for Jack’s quick reflexes, I’d be dead. We were starting to look for you, when Jack saw that man pull a gun out and point it at me. The next thing I knew, Bob and Jack tackled and wrestled him to the ground. The gun went off; did anyone get hurt?
“It grazed a baby, but I managed to heal him, there were no other casualties. I’m glad you didn’t get shot, I don’t know what I would have done if you were killed”.
Jack broke free of the cops first and came over to Karen. “Karen, are you ok?”
“Yes. Thanks Jack, I want you to meet my friend Oria.”
“It’s good to meet you. Karen’s told me a lot about you.”
Bob finally joined the group. “Karen, are you all right?”
“Yes, you big lug -by the way, this is Oria.”
Bob shook Oria’s hand with a firm grip. “It’s good to finally meet you. Karen has said good things about you.”
“Yes, although it would be nicer if we met under better circumstances. Is everyone ok?”
Bob replied, “I think so. We all gave our info to the cops. They’ll probably have a detective contact us tomorrow. Most of them are just summer help. By the way Karen, do you have any idea why that man wanted to kill you?”
“Maybe - Look, I don’t want you guys to get involved. It’s probably my brother.”
“Your brother! Why would he want to hurt you?”
“Yes Bob, my brother. He took over the family business in New York from my Father.”
Oria looked puzzled. “Karen, I thought you said you were originally from Colorado?”
“I am. I moved out there with my mother when I was a little girl. My brother stayed with my father in New York.”
Bob wasn’t yet satisfied with Karen’s answer to his question. “Karen, what does your father’s and now your brother’s business has to do with this man trying to kill you?”
“My father owns a small trucking company that my brother is taking over. Dad had an arrangement with the mob in order to keep operating the company. So, he has run their business for years through his trucks. My brother is a bit of a hot head and has become a religious zealot. He doesn’t want to have anything to do with the mob. Look guys, I shouldn’t be telling you this. It could get you killed.”
Bob put his right hand on Karen’s shoulder. “Look Karen, we are a team. If something affects one of us it affects all of us.”
“Why do I feel like saying ‘All for one, one for all’?”
Bob cracked a smile. “It sounds like you’re feeling better. So what’s going on?”
Karen took in a deep breath. “I think the mob is trying to pressure either my father, brother, or both to keep handling their business. You can’t just quit the mob. If they kill me, their message might get across. My mother moved us away trying to get me out of all of that. I can’t believe it’s caught up to me now.”
Oria wrapped an arm around Karen. “Relax Karen. You’re with friends. We’ll protect you.”
Jack looked puzzled. He knew some of Karen’s family background, but hearing it again under the current context was still a shock. He wasn’t quite sure how Oria planned for them to protect her from the mob, particularly the New York Mob. Henley and Karen were right; this Oria was certainly an interesting character. “Oria, if it’s the mob that’s after Karen, how on Earth do you think we can provide adequate protection?”
Karen slipped her arm around Oria and gave him a squeeze. She looked over at Jack and spoke. “Jack, if you’d seen what I’ve seen of Oria in the last few days, you might believe that it’s possible to win against the mob.”
An Ocean City detective interrupted them and visually examined them. In a nasty commanding tone, he said, “It’s Ms. Brown, right?”
Bob glared back at the detective. “Sir”, he snarled, “Address her with some respect!”
“Stand down son; I’m just doing my job. Major Brown, are you all right?”
“Yes, thanks to Jack’s quick reflexes. I gave those other officers a complete report.”
“I know ma’am, but I’d like to go over some of those details if you don’t mind.”
“Go ahead detective, just don’t take too long.”
“Do you know the man who tried to shoot you?”
“No detective. I’ve never seen him before.”
“He seemed to know you fairly well. Are you sure you don’t know who he is?”
Karen was getting irritated. Her head was throbbing, and all she wanted to do was get back to the condo and rest. “Yes detective, as I told the officers only minutes ago, which I will repeat for your benefit. I don’t know the man who tried to shoot me. I think he was paid to shoot me by someone who wants to send my brother a message.”
“Settle down Major, we have to cover all angles. Besides, you need to see things from my perspective. I have a baby who was shot by a military issue 9mm pistol, an Air Force Major who was the real target, two other Air Force officers wrestling with an unidentified man that we just arrested, and reports of DOD agents racing across the Eastern Shore with an Air Force helicopter monitoring them overhead. You must admit that this sounds a bit strange. Do you really expect me to believe this story of New York mob involvement?”
Jack took a deep breath to control his anger at the detective. “Detective, you have a bunch of unconnected facts. Unless you are planning to arrest us, I suggest that this conversation is over. You can refer any further questions through the Pentagon Public Relations Office.”
“Very well, I don’t believe that covers your friend Oria.”
Jack glared back at the detective and was about to speak when Oria cut in. “Detective, as Major Peterson said, you will need to refer your questions through the Pentagon. You’ll have everything that we can provide for you and enough evidence to make your case against the perpetrator. Major Brown is the victim. The moment you suggest the Air Force is involved is the moment that we no longer can cooperate with you. Is that clear?”
The detective growled back “Perfectly clear, I’m not going to arrest any of you now, but don’t think of straying too far. I’ll be in touch.” The detective turned from the small group and began questioning other witnesses still standing near the crime scene.
None of the excitement deterred Bob’s interest in getting back to the new flight simulators. When the group started to debate where they wanted to go next, Bob had little trouble convincing both Jack and Karen to return to the flight simulators. Since Oria had no clue as to what they were talking about, he didn’t put up any resistance and the four pilots headed straight for Playland and the new flight simulators.
Meanwhile, Peter and Hoss led Cindy away from the scene. They didn’t overtly want to make Oria’s friends aware of their relationship. Besides, Peter wanted to set up a date with Cindy. He didn’t really care about the business program, he thought Cindy was cute and he wanted to spend some time with her.
The threesome barely walked a single block before two men dressed in khaki shorts, polo shirts, and flashing Federal Badges stopped them.
“Are you Peter and Hoss Stone?”
Peter growled back “Who’s asking?”
“I’m Joe Smith and this is Bill Jones.”
“Yeah right, I’m Sitting Bull and this is Mahpiya.”
Agent Henson, alias Joe Smith, hated the way this situation was working out. He always hated working with the military covert groups. Sgt. Dan Smith kept putting him up for these gigs and this time, he had to work for Captain ‘Jerk’ Martello himself. It was always the same story. Defense couldn’t carry on investigations in the domestic United States and they required someone from a civilian agency to cooperate with them. Henson particularly hated cooperating with Martello since his interpretation of cooperation was more akin to a mob definition of cooperation.
Henson took a deep breath. “Alright, now that we all know each other, let’s dispense with the small talk.”
Hoss’ experience with the Marines as an MP taught him to hate dealing with the Feds. This time was proving no exception. “Look puke face, I don’t think we have anything to talk about.”
“What if I arrest your new girlfriend, I believe her name is Cindy.”
“What for?”
“Hanging out with known conspirators”
Peter roared with laughter “Yeah right. We’re conspiring to build an Amway business. Get a life, pig.”
“Who was the other man that was with you?”
Hoss wasn’t going to give up anything. “What man is that?”
“The man who was just sitting with you on the
bench over there!”
Hoss laughed and glared back at Henson. “I don’t remember anybody, do you Peter?”
“No. I think this Fed must have been smoking something. Besides, I’m not going to tell these jokers anything if they don’t even know their own name.”
Henson was getting angry at the current exchange. It was Martello’s idea to use fake names, fake badges, and an antagonistic approach. With Martello continuing to squawk in his earpiece, he growled back at the brothers. “Look, let’s stop dancing. Who’s the guy you were just sitting with over there while your lady friend spoke about, oh yeah, an Amway business? Why don’t I just run all three of you in and see how your lady friend is treated overnight in jail?”
Cindy was wondering what she had just gotten herself into with these new associates. She was quite angry at the approach used by the Federal Marshals. It was time to let her lawyer side shine bright. Cindy reached into her purse and pulled out her Id. She hesitated for a moment. She always hated identifying herself. Ever since a gorgeous model made her name famous, she had become the butt of many courtroom jokes.
“Marshal, I’m Cindy Crawford, District Judge for the District of Columbia. Your approach is outrageous. You have yet to present any legitimate grounds to detain these men, let alone detain a sitting judge for discussing Amway. Do you have anything else on these men?”
Henson was speechless. He had heard a lot about Judge Crawford, but had never personally met her. Even though her name was the butt of quite a few jokes, no one dared cross her. She had a reputation as a tough no-nonsense judge. She was also quite the looker, almost as attractive as the model.
“You’re right, Judge Crawford. My apologies, I’m trying to do my job here.”
Cindy gave Henson a dirty look. “Marshal Smith, is that your real name?”
“No ma’am. Actually, it’s Agent Henson. I’m on assignment to DOD and need to question these men concerning the third person who was seated with you.”
“Hoss, Peter, Agent Henson’s behavior was inappropriate, but he does have a point. Do you have anything to tell him?”
Peter did a double take. The cute babe he was falling for was a District Judge. Hoss also stood in disbelief. He couldn’t begin to picture his brother with a judge.
Cindy only waited several seconds for one of the brothers to speak. “Look guys, just because I’m a judge, that doesn’t make me an alien or something. Do you have something to tell Agent Henson?”
Peter murmured back “Not really. We only just met Oria ourselves. He did say that he is focused on a mission that should be complete in about a year.”
Cindy smiled and looked at Henson. “Marshal, I might add that Oria said in an earlier conversation he had no interest in making more money.”