The Guardians of Justice

This story is part of an ongoing series.

The chronological order of my stories is listed in WifeWatchman's biography.

Feedback and

constructive

criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, language and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racial language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

Part 32 - The Mood of the Electorate...

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the redheaded reporterette at 7:00am, Wednesday, October 17th, from the corner of Courthouse Square with Police Headquarters in the distance behind her. "Yes, that's right, we are

Channel Two News

again!"

Bettina started: "KXTC has announced that we have ended our affiliation with the Fox companies and networks, as have our colleagues at KSB in the City. You'll still get our great local programming, including shows such as 'Point Taken'. However, Fox's lack of commitment to issues such as women and minority rights, as well as climate change, forced us to make a stand on principle, and KXTC will become an NBC affiliate in January!"

"And now for the news!" continued Bettina. "Candidate for Mayor Eldrick Weaver joined with candidate for Sheriff Della Harlow in blasting Sheriff Daniel Allgood, and repeated their calls for Allgood to step down as Sheriff. Roll tape."

Tape rolled, showing Weaver saying at a rally: "If Daniel Allgood has any integrity, he will fire Commander Donald Troy for abusing his Police power, and then Allgood will step down as Sheriff. We cannot continue to have a man as dangerous as Donald Troy continuing to be in a position of Police authority!"

Della Harlow was shown: "Donald Troy has abused women's rights, and abused the

Power of Police

by suppressing women who come forward with credible claims of sexual harassment against Troy's buddies, the racist Governor Jared and the discredited Daniel Allgood! We must demand Troy's removal immediately, for the safety of 'the children', and the rights of abused women!"

Chants of "I'm with her! I'm with her!" could be heard as the cameras panned over the crowed of women wearing a shirt with an "H" with an arrow for the crossbar. There were signs behind the women, which prevented viewers from seeing how many or few people were actually at the rally.

Back to Bettina live: "And Channel Two News is following up with our colleagues at KSB News. Let's go to reporter Tim Sioban. Tim!"

"

That's right

, Bettina," said Sioban, "and it's great to be a truly free Press again, away from the bias of Fox News!" After a pause, Sioban said: "We're following up on yesterday's breaking news of a secret facility that was found by the FBI under the Wynand Building, which is an condo complex that caters to the wealthiest Americans!"

Sioban: "Sources are telling KSB News that the FBI and NSA are considering the possibility that this facility was built as a command and control post, but was taken over by the cyber-terrorist group known as the Guardians of Justice. FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone of the City's FBI offices had this to say. Roll tape."

Tape rolled, showing Jack Muscone addressing the Media. "We do know this facility was recently used, and the communications facilities recently operated. We are working on several leads to determine who might have been using these facilities, including the possibility that domestic cyber-terrorists might have used these facilities to release documents that could possibly have destabilized the Government."

Back to Sioban: "Agent Muscone declined to say specifically that the cyber-terrorist group was the Guardian of Justice, but he also refused to deny their possible involvement. Back to you, Bettina!"

"Thank you, Tim!" Bettina said. "And let's bring in Karl Frazier of Public Policy Polling for an update on local and State races. Karl, what are we seeing in the early days of early voting?"

"Early voting has been brisk, Bettina." said Frazier. "It's exceeded our expectations, though not by a large margin."

"Do you expect your polling to be representative of the early vote?" asked Bettina.

"We hesitate to make that claim, Bettina." said Frazier. "We do ask in our telephone polling if the respondent has voted, but we don't know if they have for sure."

"What are the numbers?" asked Bettina. "Has the sexual harassment scandal harmed Daniel Allgood's candidacy for Mayor?"

"Mr. Allgood's numbers are down from the numbers before the allegations came out." said Frazier, "but nowhere near to the level Democrats hoped they'd be. More importantly, the allegations may have invigorated Republicans that otherwise might have stayed at home. The northern suburbs of the County are telling us that they are extremely angry about the allegations, believe them to be false, and believe that Gayle Tunnin should be going to trial over them."

"Thank you, Karl." said Bettina. "And in other news---"

She was interrupted by chants that were growing louder, chants of "Iron Crow-bar! Iron Crow-bar! Iron Crow-bar!" The camera panned to show citizens along the sidewalk. Many of them were waving crowbars, some of them red.

"Let's go back to the studio!" Bettina shouted. The feed was immediately cut off.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Wow." said Teddy Parker as the Detectives watched in MCD. "Who

were

those crowbar-carrying Citizens?"

"I dunno," said Roy McGhillie, "but I'll bet anyone lunch that the Press will say the Commander had it ginned up."

"Probably." said Theo Washington. "I'm surprised they let Karl Frazier say that on the air, about people wanting Tunnin to go to trial."

"Damn right she should go to trial." muttered Joanne Warner. "It's not like we the TCPD didn't get solid proof the allegation was false, and was intentionally made to harm Sheriff Allgood politically."

"And it may not be Courtroom proof," said Jerome Davis, "but the fact we're having to protect Lieutenant Holloway from assassination threats is proof enough for me."

"Who's making those threats?" asked Julia Rodriguez.

"The militant women's groups are making vocal threats." said Teddy Parker. "But we're getting some information from C.I.s that more organized groups may have tried to hire professional hit men to kill her."

"Oh my God!" Joanne exclaimed. "Just for doing the right thing, and exposing corruption?"

"Welcome to law enforcement, Detective Warner." said Captain Tanya Perlman as she drove into the room. "And if you think that's bad... just think of what Commander Troy and his family are facing every... single... day."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Commander Ross has taken the day off." said Chief Moynahan. "She said something about a doctor appointment." All eyes went to me, especially Teresa's. I allowed nothing to show on my face.

"Did you see KXTC's editorial yesterday, Mr. Crowbar?" the Chief asked.

"Yes sir." I said. "My mom DVR'd it, and my wife showed me when I got home."

"Good." said the Chief. "If I'm not mistakennnnn, those chants of support are an indication that KXTC's little initiative has back-fired. But don't do anything to add to the uproar, Mr. Crowbar. The Sheriff and I will handle it, and I think you will like our strong statements of support for youuuu."

"Thank you, sir." I said. "Fortunately, I don't have time to worry about it. I've got some fires to put out."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Teresa was surprised to see me following her to her office. We went inside, where she asked me to sit down.

"I'm not staying that long." I said. "I just wanted to tell you that I know where Cindy is going to be today." I told her, then added "Your mission, should you decide to accept it..."

Part 33 - Lairs and Liars

9:00am, Wednesday, October 17th. Helena buzzed me to announce the arrival of Jack Muscone. I told her to let him come on in.

"Have a seat." I said, which he agreeably did. He then made the motion asking me to turn the bug-killer on. I agreeably did so.

"Okay, you gotta tell me." Jack said. "Why did you have me tell the world that underground facility was being used by the Guardians of Justice? Distraction?"

"More like I'm building up a scenario to explain the impending disappearance of the Guardians of Justice." I said.

"O-kay." said Jack. "Should I ask why that needs to happen?"

"No, you should not ask." I said. "But if you did, the answer would be that the Swamp Frogs are about to find out who they are, and if they do they will move to murder those Patriots that are the GOJ."

"And they can't do that now? Find out who the GOJ is, and have them killed?" asked Jack.

"No." I said. "Because the GOJ will never leak data again, which is the only thing that can get them caught."

"Well!" said Jack, with sarcasm. "I'm feeling much better about it."

"Still not trusting me, Jack?" I asked, my voice seemingly jovial, but with an underlying hint of serious disappointment. "After all this time, you still doubt me?"

"I guess not." said Jack doubtfully. "So... what was that facility

really

about?"

"Henry Wargrave had it built when he built the Wynand Building." I said "I'm not sure if it was to run his international gun smuggling operations, or if the Consultant had him do it for other purposes. The facility is not deep enough nor was it shielded enough to adequately protect it from nuclear weapons, and the A.C. system that fed air to it does not appear to be NBC-capable." That meant it wasn't adequately protected from nuclear, biological, or chemical attack.

"Yeah, we noticed that." said Muscone. "Also, the facility had the general communications and control capability of an AWACS plane, but no radar feeding it information. There were also no nearby satellite antennae, and the one on the Wynand Building roof isn't good enough to properly feed data into that place."

"They could be getting data over the web, from other sources." I said. "You can get 'The Geek' to look into it."

"How do you know about 'The Geek'?" asked Jack.

"I read about his theft of the Big Banks's algorithms before the Government classified the cases." I said. "From what I read, he's better than Myron and Mary... put together. And he's the one the Swamp Frogs turned to when I refused to help find the Guardians of Justice."

"Yeah." said Jack. "And you probably know that he's already looking at the data from the computers after I suggested to the NSA that this facility might've been a GOJ operations center... after you suggested I do that."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Meanwhile...

The Reed Hudson show came on, broadcasting into the ears of the State and Region.

"And KSTD blew the doors off their competitor KXTC yesterday morning," said Hudson, whose program was broadcasting on KSB and KXTC, "when they announced that one of the persons caught on the TCPD's tapes of Gayle Tunnin conspiring to smear Sheriff Daniel Allgood... was KXTC's political reporter, Amber Harris."

"Harris has had some serious issues in the past few months." said Hudson. "The paternity of her unborn child has been questioned. She was involved in a domestic dispute and charged with assaulting a Police Officer... and she was very, very lucky that D.A. Gil Krasney is a man who seems to want to devote the last few months of his career to thwarting Commander Troy's successful apprehension of criminals."

"Now Amber Harris has been shown to be part of the smear campaign led by Della Harlow, who was also on the Police tapes but avoided prosecution because she didn't show up for Tunnin's press conference." continued Hudson. "And this is just proof positive of the sheer dishonesty of KXTC and the Press. Amber Harris has been unloading on Commander Troy and Governor Jared, calling them racists without a shred of proof that such an accusation is true. Lester Holder of KXTC is still employed by KXTC... after calling Tasha Troy-Patterson a racial epithet. If he were white, he'd be fired. But KXTC sees no wrong in his viciously racist statement."

"I won't even go into John Hardwood's attempt to murder Carole Troy, Commander Troy's daughter, last Christmas." said Reed. "But I have to ask just what KXTC thinks it is that they are doing... shielding a racist, and Lester Holder

IS

a racist... and now supporting Amber Harris after she worked with politicians to make a false accusation about another candidate, to lie about that candidate, to try to sway the upcoming Elections with their smears."

"Let me say that again." said Hudson. "Amber Harris, a KXTC reporter, was working with Gayle Tunnin and Della Harlow to smear Daniel Allgood. The Press was actively working with a Democrat politician to smear a Republican politician. Working hand-in-glove together."

"And apparently, that's not enough for KXTC." said Hudson. "After Commander Troy gave that interview to Catrina Pierce of KSTD, Burt West of KXTC ran this editorial." West's attack on me was played.

"The man Burt West is talking about," said Hudson, "the man KXTC is begging you to try to get fired... is a man who earned two Medals of Valor, one for rescuing three kidnapped children, a man who almost lost the use of his legs when he rescued seven other kidnapped children. A man who prevented two men, one white and one black, Peter Gordon and Nathaniel Jones, from being convicted of crimes they did not commit." (

Author's note: 'Falsely Accused', 'Case of the Black Badge'.

) "A man who has solved many murders and brought some of the worst criminals we've ever seen to Justice. A man who exposed not one but two rogue Government cells, and brought murderer Mitt Willis to Justice."

"Commander Troy is living with the threat of death upon himself and his family being murdered every single day." continued Reed. "Yet he continues on, protecting the rights and lives of decent citizens. And what is KXTC doing? Constantly lying. Constantly calling Commander Troy and Val Jared racists for doing their jobs enforcing the law. Constantly accusing Commander Troy of Police brutality that he is not committing.

"So I'm going to do something I've never done before." said Reed Hudson. "I'm going to ask you to boycott the sponsors of KXTC's morning news program, and their noon news program, and their six o'clock news program. Whoever advertises on programs featuring Amber Harris... boycott them. Let them know you're boycotting them. Let them know

why

you're boycotting them. It's long past time that KXTC learns that the First Amendment Right of a Free Press also carries the responsibility of truthful reporting, and respect for all, especially little girls of mixed race. Until the racist Lester Holder is fired, boycott KXTC."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"My God." said Bettina Wurtzburg, as the captured audio of the Reed Hudson segment was played back to her. "What's the damage?"

"Considerable." said Burt West. "The J.P. Goldman Bank has instructed their ad agency to make sure they buy no air time on KXTC until Lester Holder is fired. Mountain Valley Golf Club, owned by Ian McGhillie, also said he would buy no more ad time with KXTC. The Ford and Mercedes dealerships south of Town pulled their ads. Coca-Cola, Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, the list is growing."

"The good news," continued West, "is that we're getting some replacements. Sonic, the drive-in chain of burger joints that gives over 90% of their political donations to Democrats, increased their air time buys. BigPharmaCorp and BigAgraFoods bought air time. The Chevrolet dealership bought air time, but I don't think they can sustain that very long."

They were in a meeting of the upper echelons of KXTC. West, Wurtzburg, Amber Harris, Lester Holder, and Nick Eastwood were present.

"Last, but not least, we and KSB have dropped the Reed Hudson Show from our radio lineup." said West. "We're replacing it with 'Point Taken' on radio, followed by an hour of Nick Eastwood Sports Radio from 11:00am to 12:00noon."

"We're making it sound like we dropped Fox," said Bettina, "but in truth they dropped us and KSB. They wanted us and the 'Point Taken' gang to tone down the accusations of racism. We told them to go fuck themselves. So now we're free of them."

"That's great for news." said Burt West. "Now, instead of 'fair and balanced', which really means supporting the Republican Establishment Elites, we can be 'honest and truthful' with our viewers."

"What about Troy?" asked Lester Holder.

Bettina said "This morning, as I was giving my 7:00am newscast, a bunch of people came up. A lot of them had crowbars, and were chanting 'Iron Crow-bar' where our cameras were picking it up. We had to cut the broadcast short and get out of there."

"Did you feel threatened?" asked Holder.

"Not really." said Bettina. "Sure, we could go on the air and say we were threatened, but we might just draw more of those fanatics to us. And the only people that can protect us? The God-damned Town & County Police."

"You know..." said Amber, "I can talk to Della Harlow and Patricia Iceland of the SOWs. If those Troy-worshipping slugs show up again, we can have counter-demonstrators taking our side... and be

very

aggressive about it."

"That's a great idea!" said Bettina. "Do you want the field assignment tomorrow morning?"

"Sure." said Amber. "I'm not afraid of Troy's thugs..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"And we're back from the break." said Connie Chen of 'Point Taken'. "With everything going on, an important story is slipping through the cracks. The FBI recently discovered a secret communications center beneath the Wynand Building, which may have been used by the cyber-terrorist group that call themselves 'The Guardians of Justice'. Joining us today is FBI Special Agent in Charge Ashton Cardigan, to give us the details. Please welcome Ashton Cardigan." The audience applauded politely, mostly because the lighted signs told them to.

Cardigan came in and sat down in the visitor's spot, in the middle to Chen's left. Connie said "Mr. Cardigan is with the FBI cyber-counterterrorism group, and he works out of the City. Mr. Cardigan, before we begin with the questions, why don't you tell us what the FBI found and the history of it, in as much detail as you can."

"Certainly, Connie." said Cardigan. "The Wynand Building was built by Henry R. Wargrave a number of years ago, as a condominium complex to compete with the Appledorf Apartment Towers. Mr. Wargrave, as you know, was under indictment and being pursued by authorities when he jumped to his death from his 30th floor office in the Cannon Building."

Cardigan went on: "There was an underground level beneath the garage, that was accessible only by hidden elevators. This facility had parking space, but also a number of compartments, rooms that could be used as housing or work spaces. And there was one larger room, which we call the 'Communications Room', that was like a NASA command center, with a number of stations that could transmit or receive data."

"And this was not a Government facility?" Ruby Russell asked sharply.

"We don't think so." said Cardigan. "If the Government was going to build a facility of that nature, they'd want it to be able to withstand nuclear weapons, which this facility would not. We believe Mr. Wargrave built the facility when he built the Wynand Building, possibly to serve his own international operations."

"Are there other Government facilities hidden in the City?" asked Donna Roselle.

"I honestly don't know what we have in the City." said Cardigan. "And if I did, it'd be classified, and I couldn't tell you about it."