Chapter 22: The Perfect Storm

Late-June, 1986

Charlie POV:

I was in shock. Was Switzer serious? Did this ‘Co-op’, whoever they were, REALLY think they could somehow get ME to help them? I know I had messed with Switzer’s mind, but, I hadn’t done anything to cause him to lose all of his marbles.

Rex snapped me out of my stupor, “We need to get moving. It’s after 3:30 and if Todd wasn’t shitting us, his family doesn’t have much time left.”

Greg flashed, “Bob and I are already on the scene. We were obviously listening and you were right, looking between the houses and across the park, you can almost see our house!

“We’re invisible and walking on the sidewalk on either side of the street. We found the sister-in-law’s house. There are two vehicles parked a few houses away, one to the north and one to the south. The one on the north is a newer black Chevy van with blacked out windows. On the south there’s a black Chevy Suburban also with blacked out windows. Both have their engines running with the air conditioning going. It’s pretty warm out and with their windows closed, it would be pretty hot inside if the AC wasn’t cranking.”

Bob added, “They’re both facing the house and the van has a funny looking thing pointing out one of the windows. It might be a parabolic mic. It also has a high-gain antennae on the roof.”

Rex sighed, “Sounds like a mobile command post. Listen guys, we’ll be there shortly. Just stay cool and keep an eye on everything. I see that thing you’re talking about and it is a focused parabolic listening device. It can easily pick up any conversation in that house, even a whisper. Don’t try going into the house until we get there. Whatever we do, we’ll have to be quick. It’s too bad we couldn’t somehow make these guys uncomfortable by shutting down their engines.”

Bob chuckled, “Did you see ‘Beverly Hills Cop’?”

Rex’s face scrunched up, “What? Yeah, I did ... why?”

“Well, like Charlie also once threatened, I’m gonna put a banana up the ole tailpipe!”

I about choked and all of us were laughing, “You’ve got some banana’s?“ Rex chortled.

“I will in about 5 seconds. The girls went shopping yesterday and got a whole bunch of green ones!”

While Bob was doing that, TJ and Brock were escorting Todd down to the FBI’s lockup. We were just getting set to pop to Bob and Greg when TJ flashed, “Hey Charlie ... Do you think you could, you know, give me a lift? I’ve got a couple Agents heading that way, but in Friday afternoon traffic, it’s gonna take forever!”

I chuckled, “Do you want one of us to take Janet too? What about Brock?”

“He’s staying here, just to make sure Todd doesn’t get any visitors. It would be nice if one of you could take Janet too. We can catch a ride back with the Agents who are on the way ... oh, and I called Capt Tom Gregory of the St Charles PD since this is in his jurisdiction.”

I felt a little better knowing that Tom was on board.

Teleporting with Janet and TJ posed one significant challenge. They wouldn’t be invisible. Therefore, we popped into my foyer and dropped them off, before Rex, Jeremy and I joined Bob and Greg. Against my better judgement, I gave them the keys to my Mustang.

TJ just grinned, “Now THIS is one hell of a cop car! Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of it. This will work great. They’d never guess we’re FBI Agents. We can drive around the neighborhood, checking for other vehicles and nobody will think anything of it.”

By the time we popped behind Bob and Greg, they’d already ‘stuffed the tailpipes’ and both vehicles were now disabled. The Van’s driver was still cranking the engine, trying to get it to start.

The battery had just died from the constant cranking.

The Suburban’s driver had gotten out and opened the hood, trying to figure out why the engine suddenly quit. With both driver’s doors now open, Greg and I were able to walk up and check out how many people we had to deal with. The van had 5 guys in it, two up front and three in the back. The Suburban also had 5, arranged in the same way. The occupants were all males dressed entirely in black.

They were all in a state of panic.

As more of them began exiting the vehicles, they were desperately trying to figure out what to do.

They now had no way to escape after their mission.

That’s also when things went sideways.

A school bus was coming down the street. One of the assassins suggested, emphatically, that they needed to commandeer the bus!

Another one looked at his watch and since it was after 4:00, suggested they needed to ‘finish’ their assignment. Luckily their ‘boss man’ pulled out a cell phone and called somebody, probably looking for direction. The scene became chaotic since none of them seemed to be in agreement with exactly what to do.

Their neat little plan had completely fallen apart and chaos now reigned.

Rex chuckled, “We just unleashed ‘Murphy’ on their asses!”

Our merriment was short lived, when two of them pulled silenced pistols from their shoulder holsters and headed for the school bus.

Bob and Greg sprang into action, shooting them skyward toward a nearby light pole! The two thugs were immediately pantsed, causing them to drop their weapons so they could cling precariously to the light bar. And OH were they screaming!

One of the others, standing by the boss, shouted, “Holy fuck! I think we just found Jonah!”

Bob turned into ‘Tackleberry’ and ran to the bus, telling the driver not to let any kids out and to put it in reverse and get the heck out of there. The relieved driver didn’t have to be told twice, putting the bus in reverse and quickly backing up down the street.

The boss, now in the middle of the street, kept looking at his cellphone, shaking it furiously, “This goddamn thing ... I can’t get it to work! Aaaarggh!”

I materialized in front of him as ‘The Terminator’,” Tell your men to drop their weapons and put their hands up or I’m going to kill you, right after I rip your balls off!” I grabbed him by the throat and pulled him in front of me, just in case his boys thought about shooting.

He screamed out, “Do as he says! Right fucking now! ALL OF YOU ... I think we’re all fucked.”

Over the next few seconds, everyone slowly put down their guns and stepped out onto the street with their hands up.

Seconds later, we had police cars everywhere.

Greg materialized as Hightower, while Rex and Jeremy chose to remain invisible, heading into the sister-in-law’s house to check on them. They would rematerialize as themselves as soon as they could without anyone seeing them.

They needed to assume their roles as NSA Agents.

Tom Gregory came over to me while his other officers began putting our would be assassins in cuffs. TJ came rolling up in my Mustang, smiling, as Tom recognized him and waited to shake his hand.

Tom was laughing, looking at the two guys on the light pole then back at me. “Well, TJ, looks like Jonah has once again made our jobs a whole lot easier.” He looked at me, “You look different than the last time I saw you, Jonah!?”

Since nobody besides TJ was close, I used my normal voice, “Yeah, I’ve got a lot to tell you, too. Things have changed more than you know. Come by later and we’ll have a chat.”

He nodded, “I’ll do that. Oh, Dad’s on his way too. He should be here any second with the State Police ‘bus’. TJ wants to stash these guys so their lawyers can’t find them right away. He hasn’t told me much yet, just that there’s more here than meets the eye.”

TJ added, “Yes, WAY more. We need to find out who hired these guys. I’m certain they’re going to lawyer up immediately.”

I told TJ, “That guy with the cellphone was trying to call somebody ... maybe the number is still in it?”

His eyes went wide, “Great! That may tell us a lot more than you know. Did he get through?”

I shook my head, “No, he was bitching that he couldn’t get a signal. I know the coverage around here sucks.”

I grinned as Janet was already relieving the guy of his phone.

Tom whispered, “TJ, do you and Janet have your communications ability back?”

Just as TJ started to say yes, he doubled over in pain. I gasped, realizing that Tom wasn’t under confidentiality yet. I decided to push a CS on Tom just as he asked TJ what was wrong.

I flashed TJ letting him know that he was covered now.

TJ took a deep breath, “Phewww, wow! Jonah, are you sure it’s okay?”

I nodded, then told Tom, “Things are much different now. I’ll give you and your dad your abilities back too, but you MUST keep this a secret!” I winked at TJ. “If you’ll just remind me when you see me later.”

I figured that would be enough of a test, to insure Tom was still trustworthy. If he didn’t remember, then he’d have tried to tell somebody already. I grinned at Tom, “Oh, and you can’t even tell your dad! It’s THAT big of a secret.”

Tom’s face turned into a frown, “You don’t trust Dad and me anymore?”

I patted him on his shoulder, “Trust me, I DO still trust both of you. It’s just that it’s a long story and when I tell you, you’ll understand why I look like this now.”

His mouth opened, “Ohhh, okay, I think I understand. Can Dad and I come over later?”

I smiled, “Sure. You guys haven’t seen any of the new babies yet! The girls will be glad to see you, too!”

Tom smirked, “I’ve really missed my assistant. Do you think Mary might want to come back to work?”

I chuckled, “I don’t want to speak out of turn, but I kinda doubt it. I DO have someone who just might, though! I’ll introduce you to her when you come over!”

“Does she have any ‘abilities’?” He asked, with raised eyebrows and using air quotes.

I barked out a laugh, “Mary spoiled you, didn’t she! Well, Joni will just have to show you what SHE can do!”

Tom grinned, “I can’t wait! Dad and I will see you tonight. I better get back to work.”

After he went over to coordinate things, TJ chuckled, “You weren’t shitting about things being different. That’s the first time I’ve ever felt that pain! I’ll damn sure remember to be more careful in the future.”

We then heard the guy I felt was the boss hollering, “I demand to talk to my lawyer! RIGHT NOW, GOD DAMMIT.”

TJ just looked at me, shaking his head. I decided to walk over to the head assassin to do some ‘questioning’ of my own...

Tsau Ni POV:

My plan was coming together perfectly. Unbeknownst to either of my ‘non-friends’ I had put together my own plan for getting rid of both ‘Jonah’ and Jeremy. It’d taken me more than a week to put all of the pieces together. You see, my man Mr Chen, had risen to the third highest position within the CIA. He was also a member of an elite yet corrupt group of politicians and businessmen who called themselves the ‘Co-Op’.

The part of the CIA that Mr Chen was in charge of just happened to be their black ops assassination division. I had to push Chen and 10 of his best assassins to get them to do what I needed, however.

I couldn’t exactly tell them I planned on murdering an NSA agent and a highly regarded associate member of the FBI. Namely Charlie Swenson, a.k.a. Jonah.

Unlike my two ‘associates’. Their idiotic plan was to try and kidnap Charlie and Jeremy’s wives and girlfriends, to use as his targets. I was planning to lure them to their deaths much more surreptitiously.

Even my assassins were unaware of exactly what my plans were. They were told by their boss, Mr. Chen, that there was a subversive family that needed to be assassinated. Mr. Chen some time ago had convinced NSA section chief, Todd Switzer, that he could make much more money supplying information. He kept Chen informed about exactly what the NSA was doing at any given time. Switzer’s latest job was to find out exactly who ‘Jonah’ was for sure. When he told me several days ago that he suspected it might be Charles Swenson, it only took me a few hours to confirm that he was correct. It would shock you to know how easy it is to access top-secret FBI files when you have the ability to be completely invisible.

My plan even have a backup plan.

Even if everything turned to shit, I had my own highly trained assassin who would be masquerading as a school bus driver. He also knew that Jonah often masqueraded as ‘the Terminator’.

What could go wrong? Hahaha!

Rex POV:

While the chaos was still ‘reigning’ outside, Jeremy and I knocked on the door to Todd’s sister-in-law’s house. On our way to the door, I’d noticed another lady looking between the curtains at the scene outside.

A nervous middle aged lady opened the door slightly, peeking through the crack, “Can I help you?”

Jeremy and I displayed our ID and badges, “Are you Todd Switzer’s sister-in-law and is Mrs Switzer here?” I asked her.

“Yes, I’m June Smith and my sister is Ann Switzer. She and her three kids are all here. What is this about? Does Todd know you’re here? What’s going on out there?”

She was firing off questions having seen all of the activities right out in front of her house.

I took a deep breath, “Ma’am. May we come in? You and your sister are in extreme danger.”

Her eyes widened as she nodded and let us in. “What’s going on? Who are all those men dressed in black that are being arrested?” She asked, right after shutting the door behind us.

I looked around the room to see three kids, two boys and a girl, ages 7 to about 12, being told to go to their rooms. The lady giving the orders then came over to us, “I’m Ann Switzer, Todd’s wife. Did he send you here?”

I was at a loss as to how to tell this lady that her husband was currently under arrest for treason or subversion. I wanted to get some information out of her before telling her that, so I had to ‘play’ her.

“Yes, he received a credible threat that the five of you were targets of a group of assassins. As you can see, he was right.” I was just about to continue when her oldest, Jason, a boy of about 12, came racing down the stairs, “Mom, Mom, why are they arresting Uncle Joe?”

Jeremy and I froze, staring at each other, wide-eyed. I took Jason under my arm, “Who’s your ‘Uncle Joe’, son?”

He scampered over to the window, pointing at the guy who’d had the cellphone, “Him, he’s Uncle Joe. They better be careful; he’s getting pretty mad!”

Just then, Ann gasped, “There has to be some mistake! Joe would never hurt us! He’s been one of Todd’s best friends for nearly 7 years!”

I was just trying to put the pieces together when I ‘heard’ Bob mentally yell for Charlie to get down ... he then yelled that the bus driver was an assassin!

Suddenly, I saw Charlie face-plant on the street. Then I heard two gun shots, just before ‘Uncle Joe’s’ head exploded off of his shoulders.

Charlie had just been standing a few feet in front of him!

He was getting ready to probe his mind for information.

I heard Greg, “I just disarmed the son of a bitch and stuck his ass up on a light pole! Thank God there’s no kids on the bus.”

Charlie was still down and not moving.

Ann was screaming and crying hysterically, just before she blew lunch all over the floor.

Bob was flashing, “Charlie ... Charlie, are you alright?”

It sounded weird. Like stereo, just slightly out of phase.

I then breathed a sigh of relief when Charlie slowly stood up, flashing that he was fine except for a slight case of ‘road rash’.