Chapter 5: A New Battle

"Th ... that's a lie. I never raped a boy in my life. I don't need to. They --." He slapped his own mouth as he realized what he had just said.

The two seals started to get out of the car. "We are going to hurt this guy bad." the larger seal exclaimed. The big lawyer turned and started to run away and slammed into a light post and knocked himself out. He fell in a crumpled heap.

"Wait." Dana ordered. "Who is here with this piece of trash?" she called out.

"I am," a young woman said quietly.

"Well give me one of this pervert's business cards. I am bringing suit against him and your company for refusing to honor our signed agreement. Then I am suing him personally for the poor young man in the front seat of my car."

"Oh, I have the check for your fee and the balance of the money due your clients. I told him he couldn't bluff you. He didn't believe me. He said no fat dumb broad was good enough to take him on and win." She handed Dana the two checks, looked down at the fallen man and spit on him. She looked at Dana and asked, "You have any need of a poor but honest lawyer? I just quit."

Dana grinned, "Yeah, I just saw your letter of resignation; it's so eloquent. We don't take prisoners; we just win in my firm, at any cost. You game?"

"As long as you're honest and ethical," came the answer.

"Good, you're hired. Come on up with Jimmy and me." She turned to the seals, "One of you stay with the car and collect the parking tickets. The other of you come with me. I think we are about to get the spotlight shone on us prematurely." The big seal followed. The smaller seal stayed with the car.

"How did I do?" asked Jimmy.

Dana looked at a grinning young man. "Say what? You mean he never did anything?"

"Oh, not to me, but I recognized the type and the way he looked at me and licked his lips. He's the kind that likes to bully and abuse young guys and he hates women. I didn't mess up, did I? But I hated seeing him pick on you. I won't allow it." Anger, defiance and resolve showed in his face.

There was also a vulnerability because of his fear of offending this strange woman who seemed so hard one moment and so soft and gentle the next. "I didn't mess things up, did I?"

"You got it right about hating women." the young woman said. "You know, he never made a pass at me or any other girl in the office. Now I know why. The creep."

"Let's get up and into my office. I'm having some bad feelings about all this." Dana showed her concern as she herded everybody into the elevator.

"Is there a bathroom up there?" Jimmy whispered into her ear as they rode up.

"I got my own," she whispered back.

"Dave told me I would be throwing off poisons which would begin to build up in my body. I know I'm sure throwing off something." He smiled at her.

Her heart warmed and melted a little more. She knew, as she looked up into his guileless face she did not care to exist in a world that didn't have Jimmy Wright in it. A lump formed in her throat as she realized once he was better and all the problems were solved that threatened him, he just might walk out of her life.

No. She rebelled at the very idea of not having him near. I'll settle to just be his older sister, or even his friend. Never in her whole life had she ever wanted anything or anybody as she did this tired looking young man. "I love you, Jimmy," she murmured to herself.

"Did you say something, ma'am?" the young woman asked.

"Huh. Oh. I was thinking out loud. I need to get these checks into the banking system as fast as I can and bring suit against your now ex-employer and your now ex-superior." Dana recovered fast from her lapse and sent a wistful thought of love at Jimmy.

"Well, they may be my ex-employer, but he was never my superior." She looked at Dana with such resolve her feelings needed no more expressing.

The elevator stopped and the door opened onto an office that looked like an old money institution, very staid and conservative. It belied the fiery nature of its occupant. "Dana. Come here quick. You made TV big time. You really messed that dude up. Come look, quick."

Dana hurried into her big corner office and found her staff gathered around the big screen TV. The camera was focused on a bloody faced man. It took her a moment to recognize him as the loud mouth that was trying to renege on the settlement agreement.

"That fat little pig set this up. She hired an imposter to make those unfounded accusations. They are all lies. When I get through with her, she won't own one stick of furniture. She is the pervert, not me. Where did she come up with that person? They don't just pop up out of the ocean, you know.

"You wanna bet?" Dana murmured. "This one did just that; he just popped right up out of the ocean."

"Oh Dana. I'm sorry I opened my mouth. I got you in trouble, didn't I?" Jimmy looked down at her and started toward the elevator.

"Hey. Where are you going?" An alarmed Dana rushed after him and caught him as he started to collapse.

"I just want to get out of here before I make more trouble for you," he answered, struggling weakly against the strong grasp of the navy seal that had accompanied them up to the law office.

"Jimmy, honey, you didn't cause any trouble. Just the opposite, you made my day." She led the way over to a long black sofa and gestured for Jimmy to be laid down on it.

"Wait a minute, I go to go again." Jimmy protested and Dana pointed the way to her personal washroom. The seal helped Jimmy into it. The door closed.

Dana turned back to the television in time to hear the one more-than-a-talking-head TV newscaster ask the injured man. "Well, according to police arrest records, you have been arrested twice for having consensual sex with two different under age teen aged boys. We ran a check on you while you were talking just now."

"I have nothing further to say. This is obviously an attempt to discredit me." He stalked off and left his briefcase behind on the sidewalk.

An astonished Dana saw Dave come from nowhere and scoop up the briefcase. One of the TV crew started to protest, saw the rippling muscles and battered mean face and closed his mouth. Dave walked slowly into the building and in moments was walking through her outer reception area and into Dana's office. Smiling, he said, "I believe you dropped this, counselor."

Very insincerely, Dana smiled an extremely phony smile and said with mock sincerity, "Well, I do have a briefcase just like this, I had better take a little peek inside just to make certain it's mine.

She opened it up with a self-satisfied smirk and stopped, frozen, unable to move a muscle. "Holy smoke. Oh dear. Quick. Get this stuff to a copier and don't stop until you have three copies of every side of every paper here. How stupid can you get? This is dynamite. Those dirty --."

Dave and the other seal came over to her. Jimmy walked weakly, but ubassisted, by himself. He joined them. Dave took the paper out of her hand and looked at it, "So?" All he saw were rows of figures and the word "CONFIDENTIAL" stamped in red ink across the top.

"Read the bottom half, down below the signature." Dana pointed at a hand written paragraph.

"They have been storing toxic waste on US Naval property." He reached in his front pocket and pulled out what looked like a flip phone.

Dana grabbed at it and asked, "Wait. What are you doing?"

"Sorry, Lady, all bets are off. This is more important than your life of my buddy Jimbo's life." He squeezed a button on the side of the phone and said, "Lieutenant, get your ass up here right now, ASAP."

"Wait. What is going on? What are you doing? This is my office. I demand to know what is going on here."

"Lady, we have had some of our guys get real sick lately and two died. We been diving all through out the harbor as we tried to find the source of the carcinogens found in all those men's systems. This looks like it."

Dana turned to her new hire, "What's your name?"

"Billie Mayes, ma'am," came the instant response.

Dana looked at her intently. "Billie, I am not suggesting you do anything illegal, but I believe you had better go back to your old employer and deep throat it for a few days. Do you understand me?"

"Say what?" Dave asked, "What's this 'deep throat' business? That sounds dangerous." We can't go letting civilians get in harm's way. Not on my watch." His big arms folded and he stared at Dana with hard eyes.

Dana sighed. "He's right," she told Billie, "Just go over and clear out your desk and your locker and, well, if you see anything which is just begging to be picked up, well you know." She smiled her "somebody's going to get hurt" shark smile.

She made a snap decision, "Dave, you go with her and don't let anybody touch her. Take my car."

"Okay," he said, without arguing. He nodded to Billie and she followed him to the elevator.

Dennis came got off the elevator as Dave started to get on with Billie. They talked in a low voice for a few moments. Both nodded and Dave and Billie got on the elevator. Denny strode purposefully over to the waiting Dana. He held out his hand and she placed the paper she was still holding in it.

"This looks pretty bad. I'll just turn this over to my CO and..."

"And watch the whole thing go up in smoke." Dana jerked the paper back from him. "This is only one of many papers, some even more incriminating. Security is your business, but the law is mine. We do this my way. If we go through channels, we will see how far down the food chain this thing goes by the level it disappears at.

"You get the names of the next of kin and get them to sign on with this firm. Go to each of your people who are sick and do the same. If we hit these animals who are willing to poison people just to save a few million in federal court, nobody will be able to cover it up. Besides, those people deserve recompense for what they are going through."

"And of course, you deserve recompense for your labors." Dennis looked down at her with something akin to contempt.

"I deserve that in part. But this is not about me making a buck or a bigger name for myself. Jimmy here has already taught me there is more to life than nailing some man's hide to the wall. I don't intend to collect one red cent from any settlement I get for the victims of that toxic dump." She stared back up into Denny's eyes and he saw the truth there.

"Dana, do you have a snack or something?" Jimmy looked at her beseechingly. "I hate to bug you, but I get awful hungry."

"You sit down, Dear, and I'll have the people downstairs run you up a rich stew. What do you want to drink?" Dana led him over and helped him down into her personal office chair.

Gratefully he sat. "Fruit juice would be great. Maybe orange juice, if they have it." He smiled apologetically up at her, "Dana, I hate to be such a bother to you, I really do." She gently patted his shoulder and called down to the deli in the building next door.

"Mister Wright, you are not a bother to me." She thought to herself, how about "Mister Right?" She chastised herself for playing silly word games. What would he see in someone old enough to be his mother, almost? Well, old enough to be his older sister, anyway.

"What are you thinking about, Dana?" Jimmy asked her.

"Oh, er, nothing much," she hedged. "Why?"

"Oh, you just had the sweetest smile on your face. You have a beautiful smile when you aren't planning on hurting someone, you know."

He smiled his own sweet smile at her and she had to restrain herself from rushing over to him and --. Mentally she changed her thoughts to something more platonic.

"Denny, we have a very bad thing happening here. You are a trained investigator. You know more about how to nose around. Check with the people on the other military bases and see if they have any mysterious containers. Get the names of any companies and have your counterparts do the same elsewhere. I can't believe any operation this slick isn't nationwide. We need to get all our ducks in a row and hit them everywhere at once.

"Maria. Bring your notary stamp in here and start notarizing everything. We are going to cross all tees and dot all eyes and poke out a few eyes along the way. Move."

"Gee, Dana, first you bring all these cute guys up here and then you want me to move fast?" She looked Denny up and down and left no question as to what her thoughts were. He smiled uncomfortably and nodded to her.

"Cool it, Maria, we have more important things than your Hispanic glands to contend with." She turned to Denny, "Get on the phone and start calling. Get your friends in the other branches of service to start snooping around. Also, I need more security. I want at least three men in and on this office every minute of every day.

"I am going to show you my personal security no one knows about except me and the ex-con who put it in. He owes me big so he won't tell." She slid a thin panel out from behind the television. Up until then it had looked like a part of the TV mounting. She pressed a touch pad and a panel in the wall slid back. They found themselves looking at the office building they were in from the front and the back. There was also a view of the roof.

"These cameras have been a help in the past. They might just be life savers in the future." Dana demonstrated how the cameras worked and how to change focus and direction they were aimed. "Nobody knows about these cameras. They are hidden in two offices in buildings I own. Nobody except you knows I am the owner of either office building. There are many people who do not wish me well."

She turned to the larger of the two seals who had accompanied her and Jimmy to the office. "What is your name?"

"Ah'm Billy Joe Strothers, ma'am, formerly of Boon County, Tennessee." He smiled a crooked toothed smile at her.

"Well, Billy Joe, my name is Dana. Remember that."

"Suits me, Dana." He started to say more but the telephone ringing cut him off.

"Dana, You better get that Jimmy kid out right now." There's cops coming for him. They have a murder warrant for him.

"Dennis, Take Jimmy with you and go out the back door when you leave the elevator. Go to the office building across the alley and go into the office on the third floor. The door will unlock when you knock on it. I control it over here. Somebody swore out a murder warrant on Jimmy. It looks like they made the first move already. Go."

"Come on Jimmy, I'll help you." Denny helped Jimmy up and slowly walked him toward the elevator. The door was open and waiting by the time they got there. It closed behind them and they were gone.

Billy Joe looked at her for directions. "You wait here. When the police arrive, they may be legitimate and they may be phonies. If I say, 'Oh dear.' I want you to take them down and completely incapacitate them. They are not the real thing. Also, disarm them. If there are any repercussions I take the fall, not you. So don't worry."

"Ma'am, Dana, it would be a pleasure and a privilege to get arrested for you." He was completely sincere when made the simple statement. She was uncomfortable with the way he looked at her.

"Thanks, but that is not my idea of pleasure and privilege," she answered dryly. "Let's just hope we can get things going without any problems.

Suddenly the elevator door slid open and three uniformed police jumped out. Billy Joe shifted swiftly to the side as the cops screamed, "Freeze. You're all under arrest."

Maria fainted, Dana said, "Oh dear." and Billy Joe Exploded into action. He engaged two cops and Dana lunged at the third one nearest her. She grabbed his gun wrist with one hand, punched him in the throat with her other and jerked the gun from nerveless fingers as her opponent gagged and fought for air. Billy Joe had the other two laid out unconscious on the floor. He grabbed the gagging man and struck him in the temple. The man fell and was placed with his buddies.

"Search them for more weapons. These are Los Angeles cops. They have no jurisdiction up here." Billy Joe searched and found an ankle gun on each unconscious body. Dana took the confiscated weapons and placed them in a desk drawer.

She dialed 911 and said, as the voice answered, "Three men just tried to arrest us at gunpoint. They are not San Diego police. Right now they are on my office floor and may need medical attention." She described the event and was told there would be police responding within minutes.

After as thirty-minute wait, Dana called 911 again and was told there was no record of her first call. "Honey, I record every call I make on these phones so there will be no dispute later. I am now calling the television stations." She hung up and tried to re-dial. There was no dial tone.

She grabbed her cell phone and dialed Denny across the alley. "We have big problems. Call my house and get reinforcements, now. You keep Jimmy safe at all costs."

"Lady, you do lead an interesting life. I already have four men in a dark maroon SUV out front of your office. They will park and be right up. I'll get more help sent and on their way." He hung up.

It seemed only a couple minutes later four strangers came off the elevator. Billy Joe called them into Dana's office as she started to raise a gun. She set it back down. "You." she pointed at one, "Take these papers and drop them in a mail box." She handed him the confiscated papers from the briefcase. "Hurt anyone who gets in your way.

She called Denny back, "Your guys are here, you want to talk to them?"

She handed the phone to Billy Joe and he talked and then listened. "Dana, ma'am, the lieutenant says it's our butts if you even break a fingernail."

"Too late for that, Billy. I already broke one when I took the gun away from the one you thumped in the temple."

"You do good work, Dana, you just aren't ruthless enough," he told her, smiling. "I thumped them all three in the temple. It seems to take the starch right out of 'em."

The three newcomers looked down at the fallen bodies. "We fighting cops?" one asked. He didn't seem to care one way or another.

"These are LA cops, they don't count," Billy Joe told them.

Dana took her cell phone out, dialed her favorite news anchor, Janet Powers. "Give me Janet Powers," she said as soon as someone answered. "This is Dana Featherstone, Janet wants to talk to me."

"Dana? Is that really you? What's up?" Janet was too curious as to the nature of the call to waste time with chitchat.

"Get a camera crew over here right now to my office. You have the story of a life time." Just then her office window overlooking the street broke and a black clad figure swung in on a rappelling rope. Dana screamed. Then the body screamed as one of the new seals threw the intruder back out the window. His scream ended abruptly.

The back window broke and the second intruder was hit from two sides and tossed back out the window. He too screamed momentarily, until he landed on the sidewalk below. The lights went off and Dana fumbled with another switch. Within seconds the lights were back on. "I have an emergency generator in the other room," she told the surprised men.

Maria came wandering in, "What happened?"

The fire door was slammed open. Two more black clad figures jumped in and were disarmed and kicked into unconsciousness. Maria screamed. Billy Joe hugged her close and said, "It ain't no big thing, ma'am. We just under a little old attack."

Dana looked out through her broken front window. She saw the TV crew aiming cameras at the unmoving black clad bodies on the sidewalk below. Then she heard a shot and she fell out the window. David caught her before she had dropped a foot and pushed her back through the window. There was another shot and David started to fall. Another seal grabbed his wrist and jerked him inside. Three stories down, a TV camera recorded everything.

"Oh, that hurts." Dana exclaimed through clenched teeth. "How is David?"

"He's out," Billy Joe answered. "He got his scalp creased. Where's the first aid kit?"

"On the boat. We don't need one in the office." Dana answered him.

"Well you sure as hell do now, Lady," another of the seals said.

"You guys go out and get whoever is shooting at us. Don't worry about first aid kits. Get the shooters." Dana was in pain, she was woozy and she was mad.

"Don't you get your undies in an uproar. We got people taking care of everything right now." Billy Joe said in a sharp voice. "We are going to get them and they are going to hurt."

As if on cue, two figures came struggling up the staircase. One of the seals detached himself and went to the aid of his buddy. He slammed his fist down on one man's breastbone and he stopped struggling. "Who's that?" Dana asked.

"The one hurting is the shooter, I do believe. The other one is the clumsiest man in team eight." David had regained consciousness. Unsteadily he got up off the floor and staggered into the small bath and started to rinse the graze on the side of his head.

"What were you doing outside my window?" Dana asked Dave when he returned, holding a wad of toilet paper to his head.

"Well, I was flanking the two intruders when they went out the window and then you tried to follow them." He saw her bleeding shoulder. "How bad is it?" he asked.

"I don't know I haven't had time to check." She looked up at the big man and told him, "Thank you for saving me."

There was a television camera pointed into the room and Janet powers rushed in. "Dana. Are you all right? What is going on here?" She truly looked concerned.

"Well, Janet Powers, while fighting for truth, justice and the all mighty dollar, I have been shot. Therefore, I hurt and I am cranky." Janet dropped down and ripped the blouse off Dana's shoulder. There was a nasty gash where a small caliber bullet had creased the top of her shoulder.

The camera panned in on the wounded shoulder and of course the bra-clad breast that showed, along with the shadowy hardened nipple. Janet removed a fresh white handkerchief and pressed it lightly to the wound. Dana winced. "Hugo, go get the first aid kit out of the truck and bring it here. Chop chop."

A very un-Hugo looking man hurried out and came running back out of breath. "There are police all over the place down there. Jock is blabbing in front of the camera trying to take credit for whatever is happening and he doesn't have a clue."

"Let the little boy have his fun. The real story is in here, if Dana will give out with it." Janet looked at Dana with a plea in her eyes. Big stories were the lifeblood of a newscaster. Inside stories were everything.

As David patched her shoulder, Dana started, "There are two separate stories here. One is about white slavery, murder, kidnapping and prostitution and it implicates some very highly placed persons, including a state senator and a federal judge who likes underage young boys. He also likes to "break them in."

"This story also has Los Angeles police involved. Those over there lying in a heap are three of what is known as the "Dirty Dozen."

The camera reluctantly withdrew from Dana's semi covered breast and focused on the three in Los Angeles Police Department uniforms. "One of you guys take the billfolds out of their back pockets," Dana ordered. Hold the ID pictures up to the camera so there can be no mistake that the ID cards belong to the three on the floor."

Carefully they made sure the ID cards were matched to the faces of the three unconscious uniformed officers. There was no question as to their identities.

"For Christ's sake, get on the phone to LA." Janet yelled, all her years of training forgotten. Suddenly she realized what she had just done on camera. "I hope this isn't a live feed." One look at the smirky expression on Hugo's face told her she was going out live. "If I have offended anybody with my language, I apologize, but this is much bigger than a few forbidden words. You have proof of this?"

Dana answered, "Yes, I do. I have hidden out in another place entirely a victim of this filthy organization. But this goes much further than that. Ask these guys what was happening." She pointed at the three cops. Dave had thrown water in their faces and one began to stir and then another.

"I want a lawyer," the first cop, Jorge Dominguez said. A seal dragged him off to one side beyond camera range.

The second cop said, "I want a lawyer." He was dragged off camera.

While the third cop was struggling to regain consciousness, there was the sound of something breaking. Dana looked over at Jorge Dominguez who lay on his back with a gag in his mouth He held onto a ruined knee. He was also shaking his head yes frantically. The seal knelt down and took the gag out and whispered something to Dominguez.

He started talking immediately, "I'm not going down alone. I'll talk but all the rest are going down with me." He started blabbering names, places and addressed faster than Maria could write them down. He was a veritable fount of information.

Dana slipped away and removed another blouse from her closet; it was a white frilly one, all linen and lace which she had bought on a whim and never had the nerve to wear. She had been afraid that someone would laugh at her for putting such a feminine garment on her body.

The second cop started talking as soon as Jorge stopped. "You stupid punk. You kill crazy psycho. If you think we're going to take the rap for you while you plea bargain, you got another think coming." The cop pointed at Jorge, "That body on the beach in West Hollywood was shot by his gun, where ever it is."

He looked wildly around, Jorge has killed over thirty people in the ten years he's been a cop, all on contract. He took care of the loose ends that popped up."

"The third Los Angeles cop started blabbing as soon as the second one shut up. He recited a litany of young people, some as young as nine years of age who were sold into prostitution by their parents or older siblings. Others were snatched up off the streets and out of bedroom windows in other states and transported to Hollywood. When their youth was used up they were sold and shipped out to foreign countries to die of AIDS or other diseases.

"That's what they were going to do to me." Jimmy exclaimed. They already told me I was going to be a plaything for a rich Somali who liked Blond hair and blue eyes. That bastard thought it was funny." Jimmy pointed at Jorge Dominguez. He started sobbing hysterically.

Dana rushed to Jimmy and led him away from the camera. "I would kill every one of those rotten --." She started to choke up she was so angry.

Dave called from the stairway, "Dana, you want to let those San Diego cops up yet?"

"

What town are they from?" she asked.

"What town are you from," Dave called down the stairs.

"San Diego." she heard a faint voice call back up.

"Tell them they have to wait another fifteen minutes," Dana told him.

"What if they refuse to wait?" Dave asked.

"We make them wait," Denny yelled. "We still have some other people to question."

"Roger that." Dave answered.

"Dana, you look nice in that blouse." Jimmy told her.

A fresh jolt of electricity shot through her. She tried to laugh and to yell at the same time. Warmth flooded her breast and tears came into her eyes. She bent over and kissed Jimmy on the lips. A triple jolt shot through her. She kissed him again and pulled back.

"Thank you." Jimmy whispered, "That was very nice. Nobody ever kissed me like that before." Tears of gratitude flowed down his cheeks. The camera caught it all.

One of the attackers who had come in through the window sat up. He jumped up and started toward the window and freedom. With a cry of rage, Dana ran across the floor and kicked the back of his knees. He fell back and she kicked him in the stomach as hard as she could. He fell back moaning. "Thank you," she told the fallen man, "I needed that." The camera caught that action also.

"Now then," Dana shrugged and composed herself. "I believe these last four individuals who are in the running for the title, "Sissy Ninjas Of The Year" are from West Sun Corporation. They are an assassination team, I believe.

I recently earned a thirty million dollar fee for myself and a hundred twenty million dollar settlement for my clients. West Sun decided to renege on our agreement. Through a series of corporations, West sun owns Federal General Supply Inc. FGSI has stored hazardous waste on Coronado Island at the sub base.

"These men are seals from Coronado. They also lost two comrades to leaking waste. Others are sick from it. The navy has been clandestinely trying to find the source and did not inform the public. This needs to be investigated. I also have proof Sun West donated huge amounts of cash to many of the people holding federal office. These men lost friends because high-ranking officers looked the other way for personal gain.

"By bringing all this out in the open, perhaps I shall live a few more years. I am going into hiding. This law firm will continue to operate. I won't be here, though. Too many people want to kill me."