Chapter 1

Felix and Carlos were on the run, on the run from the Feds, having escaped from an overturned van being used to transport them and three other prisoners from a county jail to a district court. Felix and Carlos, along with two of the others, were due in court to face demands that they be deported to their native Mexico. Most everyone on the legal side of the aisle agreed that deporting two serious felons, such as Felix and Carlos, was a travesty of justice, and simply deporting them only meant that they would be temporarily unemployed.

As a young boy, Felix had shown great promise to the local thugs as an aggressive, nearly fearless pre-teen, who specialized in depriving random individuals of whatever cash they may be carrying. A woman of any age who happened to be carrying a purse or pocket-book with a strap over her arm soon found her armload just that much lighters as Felix had adroitly severed the carry handle without so much as a faint touch to the woman. By the time that she realized that she was no longer carrying her purse, Felix was long gone, down the street and around the first corner.

Much more of a challenge, but also more rewarding was the extraction of the wallet in the pocket of a business man's suit as he walked down the sidewalk of the commercial area of the city. To assist him in this endeavor, Felix had discovered a pencil sized device that fired a very strong burst of air, simple air, but it was string enough, when discharged against a man's crock, to drop him to his knees. In the resultant turmoil, Felix relieved the man of his wallet and continued on down the street, avoiding the crowd of onlookers forming around the now bellowing man.

Keeping such success from older thugs was hard for a young man and soon he was visited by two quite evil looking men who politely invited him to accompany them to a meeting elsewhere. Felix wanted no part of such a meeting and, in a classic case of self defense, demonstrated the effectiveness of his air tool on the larger of the two men, before turning and bolting for the exit. As bad luck would have it, Felix opted for the exit at which the thugs had parked their car, running directly into the driver as he stood outside the door. Truthfully, that was the best outcome that Felix could have experienced. Running into the driver brought him into direct contact with the occupant of the vehicle, thus assuring himself of surviving the onslaught of a now furious, but somewhat hobbled gangster. Actually, the events of the previous two minutes enabled to leader of the group to fully appreciate the little tool that Felix had discovered. A subsequent examination by a physician of Felix's hapless victim confirmed the absence of any visible bruising or other marks, thus eliminating one of the most popular categories of evidence in assault cases.

Felix graduated from purse snatching to debt collection, teaming with the more mature members of the group as they visited well meaning citizens who had fallen behind in their payments. To a man in need encouragement, Felix would press his pen against the crotch of the man, firing the air blast at his testicle. If that was not sufficient, Felix would politely explain the next blast would be more centrally located, with slightly more force, just sufficient to insure that the man would never be able to have sexual relations again.

Most of the people that Felix encountered were owners of small businesses - bars, bodegas, dry cleaners and the like - businesses that occasionally needed additional capital, or sometimes needed a little protection from other nefarious types. These owners predominantly were men, but not exclusively. The machismo of the Latin community discouraged any violence against women, but sometimes Felix had no other choice. On those rare occasions requiring Felix's special talent, he carefully placed the pen on the side of a woman's nipple and discharged the air in a direction across her chest. The resulting pain approximated what she may have felt had he simply torn the nipple from her breast, yet this action rarely drew even a drop of blood. Felix made it quite clear to the unfortunate woman that the next level of activity would completely destroy her breast.

Terrorizing the Latino community on a relatively routine basis just qualified Felix to be named a major irritant to commander of the Regional Anti Gang Task force. Being a "major irritant" simply meant that if one of the officers were to happen upon young Felix in the regular performance of that officer's duties, Felix presence in the city lock-up would be most welcome, but his personage was not so bad as justify the expenditure of funds to locate him.