Los Angeles is a death zone. It's fitting.
I took a chopper into Los Angeles and the pilot didn't even want to fly here. I had the temptation to ask him if he was a man or a mouse. This is what we did, we flew into warzones and we did it well. Now, however, we wouldn't be doing it well, because there was nobody left but me and the pilot. He was army. He was going to keep his job with the
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"Not interested in you trying to weasel your way out of something that you were behind. Are you not the CEO?"
I motioned him back with a wave of my gun and a step towards him. He could act like he was king of the world with his suit and fancy office, but he wasn't about to pull the wool over my eyes, not when my wife and my unit were dead.
"I don't think that there's any reason for you to point the gun at me, man. I don't even know who you are. How could I have done anything to you? I don't have an iota about who you are. All that I know is that you're pissed off about something, and it has something to do with Wolfram and Hart."
Yeah, talk to the hand, or more accurately, to the gun, because I'm not listening.
"Hey man, something's bothering you. I get it and I respect the display of power. Hell, I'd probably do it myself in your position, but I'm not your enemy."
I pulled out the blood stained card, demon entrails dried on it and moved closer to him.
"But you see, Mr. McDonald, you did have something to do with the deaths of my wife and my unit, and now, you're gonna pay for that display of power. You might not have been the one doing the actual firing, or fighting, but you were bhind it. It says so right here!"
I tossed the card at him.
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He threw the card at me and then stepped back like he was about to fire at me.
I had no other choice then to not be deceptive and to give him the truth. The question became simply, would he or would he not believe me?
To me, it appeared as if he had been pushed over the edge and that insanity was now a part of who he was, grief clouding his judgment.
"Do you see this place, Mr. Finn? It had been completely refurbished in the past two weeks, and completely restaffed. Until two weeks ago, I was in tibet meditating, reading and studying tai chi and didfferent forms of martial arts. I didn't order anything to be done to your unit or your wife.
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Two weeks ago. Two weeks would have been plenty of time for him to assemble a team of demons to come after my unit. I didn't know why he would, but there were demons outside of these offices. I had seen them and it was not an illusion.
Besides, being a lawyer, it wasn't a stretch to believe that this man lied for a living. This office certainly didn't look like it had been rebuilt and it took more then two weeks to rebuild and restaff an office.
I was in no mood for humor, but I could not shoot him dead if he was innocent, even if the grief and the rage was so consuming. I would test him and would be able to tell if he was lying to me.
"Two weeks to restaff and rebuild and office, you say, Lindsey? Care to explain how the building was destroyed and how it was built so fast? Care to explain why you would be chosen to run a place like this? Care to explain to me why there are demons working down there and who you represent as lawyers here?"
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He was going to shoot me. I could tell. Once again, I had to do what it was not in my nature to do, which was tell the truth, but I saw no harm in it. It's not like this guy would run to every authority that he could with the information that I provided him. He was driven by grief and all that he wanted was vengeance. It was obvious.
"Mr. Finn. Yes, you may have seen demons in this building. It is true, we are lawyers who represent some demons. I'll be honest about that. We also represent clients who are guilty. It's about money. We are defense lawyers. We also represent clients who are innocent. I was chosen because I was the best and the brightest here not long ao, but had to get away because I had a conscience of crisis about working at such a place. I cleared my head, though. The demons that killed your unit could have been represented by us, and that is probably the case, but I don't even know who you are and we don't order hits. He might have been represented by us, but that is the extent of our involvement with this demons, I assure you. This place was destroyed in conjunction with the permanent midnight that you saw outside. A demon named the Beast does not like us very much. For all that I know, he is responsible for the demons that killed your friends..."
Okay, so I lied a little there, but not much. I really didn't match up against this guy weel while he had a gun in his hand.
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I lowered the weapon. I was inclined to believe him at this point. He seemed to me like a slimy little weasel, but he had been forthcoming about the nature of the operation.
He hadn't explained how an entire building could be rebuilt in two weeks and restaffed, but he was honest. He was dirty, but I couldn't kill him, not until I knew if he was behind the ambush on my unit, on my marriage.
Saying nothing, I turned and jutted out of the office and into the elevator. I would be back, though, and would come back looking for more information.
This beast outside was an interesting target. Maybe he could make me feel a little better about life? Probably not, but killing it was a start.
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