The buiness of crime

Three days later, Kosh holds a big charity auction event for a hospital, gaining more love from the public. The security team watch over the uneventful and fairly boring event. Elsewhere, the police bring Richard into interrogation, Jack walks in with some files and drops them on the desk “Mr. Richard Green. How does a computer geek like you become a bank robber? Before this you where an up standing citizen and now you and your friends will be going to jail for a long time.” Richard just fidgeted in his seat a bit “You had another accomplice, tell me who he is and where to find him and maybe you’ll get a reduced sentence.” Richard shook his head “I ain’t no rat, you can stuff your deal.” Jack tries to convince him his partner is likely on the run with ‘their’ money but he just laughs at him. The interrogation ends, it’s not going to work, he won’t turn. Still he was annoyed Joseph didn’t even want to bother trying to go after the last man. Joseph figured there’s only one now, what harm can he do.

The next morning. At an agreed upon location, Mr. Grado with his men meet Jean with his men sitting on separate sides from each other at a long table. Jean offers him the goods he has in exchange for a thirty percent cut of what their profits would be as well as an apology. The cut is far too steep for Mr. Grado, he counters with eighteen percent. Jean laughs saying “Why would I take less with no other offer to sweeten the deal?” Mr. Grado yell’s at him “Even eighteen percent is a fantastic offer, thirty is ridiculous!” Jean puts a gun on the table “forty or I end the negotiations now. No apology necessary.” “I’ll never apologize to you. Crazy French fuck!” both of their men quickly have guns out. Mr. Grado demands that Jean and his men leave, Jean stands up and shakes his head “Still don’t know how to properly do business I see.” and leads his men out quietly.

Tetsu is in the parking area at the academy working on his motorcycle when the cell phone on the ground rings. He puts down the tool and picks up the phone, answering it. “Uncle?” “Hey Tetsu, sorry, I’ve been very busy. How are things going with your training then?” his uncle asked “We are basically training like a swat team uncle.” Tetsu said factually “Huh. That is pretty odd but Zackiria must have his reasons. At least you’ll be able to disarm someone the next time a gun is put in your face.” “I guess so. Seriously uncle, why didn’t you warn me he was so…thorough?” “He can push pretty hard but I think he feels if you fail, he will have failed you. He owes his life to our trainer so that’s a big part of why he is so demanding.” Tetsu thought for a moment, he wanted to know more, his uncle seemed to be reading his mind “I wish I could tell you more but even if you were ready for that story, it’s not my story to tell.” “Thanks uncle, I appreciate it. I’ll try not to get too worked up about the training.” “Good to hear. If you need to talk some more, call me. There’s so many details I can’t give you right now.” “It’s not going to get even crazier than it is, is it?” “Very likely, but though it out.” Tetsu sighed “Ok.” They hung up and Tetsu went back to tweaking his bike. After a few torques, he checked, it sounded like a thing of beauty.

Hours later, a hot dog vender is cooking up one for a customer. Before the man is about to reach for the ketchup, a red splatter hits him and the vender is laid out on the ground. Another victim of the Willoway sniper. Ryan is in a building nearby and tries to track where the shot came from. He finds the window where he believes the shot came from and sees a shadow running by. He races over to the building, looking for anyone suspicious. He hears a second shot. “Black” Jack had fallowed the sniper and taken his shot, causing a scar At least he knew he was in the right place. He could just make out a man, average height, with a small ponytail. He fallows the man who he sees is carrying a large briefcase that would hold a disassembled rifle. The man looks frazzled and is obviously looking for an exit. Ryan approaches, calling out, the man runs. Ryan chases him for several blocks and is lead into the nearby subway where he gets a very good look at the man’s face and a fresh scar on his cheek as he rides the train heading out. Jean, back at his restaurant, talks to Marco who asks what he should do about Mr. Grado, if it’s time to put him down. Jean tells him he will take care of it.

Nighttime, Shane, in his mask robs a convenience store, as he rounds the corner with his stash he sighs. It’s not nearly as big of a thrill as a big bank job and the reward was minimal, he misses being Spectre. No one does stories of a lone masked-man robbing a convenience store. He looks up and sees a cop, actually considers turning himself in, he walks up to the officer who then takes a bullet to the neck, Shane runs away. In Mr. Lysonikov’s office, Dan, Jessica’s brother, is hired on as a guard at the museum while a new exhibit starts being set up. Dan was relieved that this Mr. Lysonikov was giving him this job knowing his past. It was incredibly generous. Stupid, but generous. Kosh Lyson talks to Danny Luv about his ‘Second chance’ “I hope you realize what a good opportunity you have. If you make a mistake it will only hurt you.” Danny nods and acts as if he is very egger to get to work. He’s actually very egger to see the antiquities and jewels.

Panic is spreading. The death toll is rising. The Willoway sniper killed a cop. The city wanted this madness to stop. No one understood why there was another victim so soon. Thomas Richards repot Mayor Bobby D wanted to post a reward for his capture but Joseph said he would just run and they’d never catch him. Now was the time to be the most careful about it. Elsewhere, Marco talks to Jean’s men, telling them Jean himself was going to handle Mr. Grado. They didn’t have too much faith in that but Marco asked them to ensure the restaurant ran to Jean’s standards while he was gone. At the academy, Tetsu studied his books while waiting for a project to set. He was making a trick staff with a sword hidden in it but needed to wait while the steel cooled. This was one of many weapons and gadgets he was building. After this training he would be an expert in combat. He sure wasn’t getting kidnaped again. Tetsu still thinks Zackiria is nuts and wonders how the hell he was allowed to be in charge of a training facility. You train and then you do field work, isn’t that how it worked? To go out in the midst of training was unwise. He may have gotten an odd high from it but this was still a bazaar and over the top training academy. He hoped they would learn from the recent failure and not send them out against men with guns, who were more than willing to kill, again. Shane, thinking the sniper wanted to kill him, walks through alley ways. Looking raged and tired. He spots some policemen. He jumps them, going frantic and gets himself arrested. The money him and his crew collected remained where they all hid it.

The team in training at the department strategize about the sniper, they still couldn’t believe that Joseph hadn’t beefed up the search party, posted an APB or description of the shooter. This was really just to scope out likely areas that this, or any sniper, might shoot from. Nick and Ryan are both their, the training at the academy put off finally. Nick called up Kevin who is beyond reluctant to join them but he knows the sniper has to be caught “I’ll meet up but I can’t make any promises about helping catch this guy…..you know this whole operation was the most ridiculous piece of crap assignment that could have been issued to us, right?”

Later that night, Mr. Grado’s men approach Le Valcon Bonne Nourriture and Jean’s men come out, both sides are looking for their boss. The attack doesn’t last long and very few of Grado’s men make it out. Jean’s men celebrate but Marco is worried about his boss. At the police station, Jack asks Nick if they were any closer to completing their training. Everyone wanted the sniper person behind bars, no one cared anymore how they caught him. Nick asks him “Why does no one else seem to be trying to do anything?” and Jack agreed “Joseph put far more faith in this program then he should have. I know our pros are training people too but we have too few left to do the work that needs to be done now.” But gave some leniency saying “Any other case I hear of snipers and such, whether in books or news. Even a professional could take some time to bring them down.” Dusk has almost fallen and a man in a little boat floats on a large pond, it looks like he’s fishing. He reaches down into a bag in his boat. Jean pulls out the head of Mr. Grado, he starts to talk to the head “If only you weren’t such a blowhard, fool, stubborn prick we could have worked together, you would have been SOO much better off with me as a friend, what a shame.” He chucks the head into the water and continues to relax for a bit before heading ashore.