Elite

Scott takes the files from Katie and shrugs. “Yeah, I had a great night sleep until Domino woke me up licking my feet.” He rolls his eyes, shaking his head. “What about you?” He searches Katie’s face. “How you holding up?”


Carson raises his eyebrows as Misty grows serious and tries to figure out where she’s going with her statement. As she nears and finishes her comment, Carson’s eyes grow even wider, but he can’t say anything as she’s already embracing him in a kiss.

Unable to resist, he lets his arms fall around her, bringing her even closer to him as he returns the kiss with passion.

Still breathing heavily from his run across the parking lot, Misty’s kiss leaves him even more breathless and he just stands lamely as she walks away.

Finally spinning around, he yells after her. “Hey, that’s no conversation! I wasn’t done talking yet!”

Hearing her ‘complaint’ of being woken up, he jogs after her, catching up just in time to block the door. He looks at her slyly for a moment, still trying to catch his breath. “And if that’s how you react to a wakeup call, I might just have to do it again, so don’t tempt me.”


“So…what can I do for you?” Sheriff Brown leans back in his chair and looks at Reese and Lockheart from across his desk.

Reese tries to remain collected, exchanging a glance with Lockheart to make sure they were really ready. “Well…we have a long story to tell you, Sheriff, and we’re both just hoping that you’ll hear us through to the end.”

Brown lifts an eyebrow in curiosity. “Alright…you have the floor and I’ve got the time.”

Reese clears his throat. “I’m sure you recall a case over six months ago regarding a young man by the name of Jason Stevenson. We…”

“Oh yes,” Brown cuts him off. “It was that rushed murder case. Never did set right with me how that all happened.”

Reese raises his eyebrows. This was a positive start. “Well…it never set with us right either. And that’s why we’re here.”

“Oh? I had the understanding that plea was already stated and he was still found guilty.”

“This is true, but…” Reese hesitates, then jumps right in again. “I think we have some evidence now that would back up our case and present the opportunity for a retrial.”

Brown leans forward, intrigued. “And this evidence wasn’t presented before, because…?”

“Because the livelihoods of many people are at stake, and we needed to find the right person to present it to.” Reese locks eyes with Brown. “What we’re about to tell you is something we’ve told no one before…please have an open mind.”


…Brown is leaning back casually in his chair, his sleeves rolled up, a pause in the conversation that had lasted over an hour. He closes his eyes for a moment, trying to get a handle on everything he’d just been told. “So…let me get this straight…there’s a group of outlaws…the Agency, you say… that was established years ago, starting out as an adoption agency. They got out of hand…they have a guy who’s a sadistic doctor who likes to torture people…he particularly targeted a group who’s in Texas…” He pauses, counting off events on his fingers. “One of them turned around, double-crossed them and started his own organization to try and take them down…and that organization is underground here in Nevada. In the meantime, the folks in Texas are still getting bothered, your men here in Nevada are being bothered and…the law doesn’t have a clue that all this is going on.”

Reese sighs a little and nods with a shrug. “In a really small nutshell.”

“And…you believe that it’s the Agency’s doing that Jason is in prison now.”

“Exactly.”

“So…you’re telling me that the Agency has been involved with lawlessness for years and no law enforcement has ever discovered them?”

Reese isn’t sure if Brown is starting to disbelieve them or not. He reaches to Lockheart for some of their case files. “We’ve got case after case here where there have been ‘unexplainable’ lawlessness, unfound murderers, etcetera. There’s ample proof of dirty cops, judges and more. Of course the ‘Agency’ is never mentioned specifically because no one knows about it, or ignores it because of its power.”

Brown reaches out to take the files and sifts through them. “And I could call these departments and have verification on all of these?”

“Yes. It’s all fact.”

“Hmm…and so there’s this ghost Agency…and then there’s TJY who not only combats the Agency, but also helps out in situations where the law isn’t doing a good enough job?”

Reese hands over more files. “Here’s instances where you can see anonymous help, evidence coming to light and more, all credited to no one, because the law didn’t know who was helping.”

“And you’re saying that it was TJY.”

“Yes.”

“Mmm.” Brown continues to look through the files, not showing much emotion or opinion. “There’s been many times I’ve been involved in cases that I thought there was a gang or group or something that was stirring up trouble, but I could never prove it… And it was just recently we got help on a case where evidence came up out of nowhere...I thought it was a mistake from our department…”

He tosses down the file. “So what really happened with Jason that day, hmm? You had quite a story in court, but I’m guessing now there was more to it.”

“You’re right.” Reese isn’t going to hold anything back now. They were in too far. “There was a young girl that had been kidnapped by the Agency. Jason was part of the group that went to get her out. They couldn’t call the police – one, because they never believed them, and two, because the Agency would have retaliated. One of the Agency thugs was going to kill Katie and this other woman. Jason had no choice and shot him.”

“Wow.” Brown raises his eyebrows.

Shifting the conversation just a little, he swivels his chair in thought. “So…tell me more about TJY…if you’re underground, where do you get funding? How do you pay your employees?”

“We get funding from many sources,” Reese explains. “Some just from individuals who believe in our cause. Some from employees who have their own PI offices. And we receive a large percentage of our income from the business above the basement where we’re located. Amazingly enough, from those sources we’ve been able to keep people employed for many years.”

“And you have your own medical station?”

“An infirmary, yes. We have a doctor on staff, and recently hired on an assistant for him. In most cases we can take care of our own, though sometimes it’s serious enough we do go to the hospital. When that happens, we have protocol to follow when explaining to the doctors what happened.”

Brown shakes his head a little, his eyes showing a strange intrigue. “And you have all this computer equipment…you’ve been hacking into systems?”

Reese looks at his watch, then points to Brown’s computer.

Brown turns around and wakes up the monitor, his eyes widening. A message has appeared on the screen. “Hello, Doug, Brown! From the friendly desk of TJY.” He snaps his attention back to Reese. “Who did this?”

“That would be our tech guy, Scott. Computer whiz. He does most of our technical stuff.”

Brown starts to mull over everything in his mind and is silent for a long while. He sifts through the papers, asks some more questions, and finally just sits, shaking his head. “I can’t believe it…” He looks up at Reese and Lockheart. “You’re the Elite.”

Reese furrows his brow. “Pardon?”

A smile starts to spread across Brown’s face. “The Elite.” He stands up, starting to pace in a circle. “For years, I’ve been trying to get a group together to form an elite branch of the law, but no one would back me up. It would cost too much, there were too many hoops to jump through…there weren’t enough people to man a new department.”

He twirls around and leans his hands on his desk, looking down at Lockheart and Reese. “What if I could turn TJY into a state-funded law enforcing department?”

Reese’s eyes widen in disbelief. “Are you kidding me?”

“Would I kid about a thing like that?” Brown holds up one of the files. “This is amazing. Utterly amazing. You guys have done things and accomplished tasks I’ve been wanting to do for years! Taking down the dirty cops has never been easy, but you guys are pulling them of one by one – at least you’ve got record of them which is more than I’ve got.”

Reese’s mouth has been hanging open, and he shuts it. “I…” He glances to Lockheart then back to the Sheriff. “Well…that sounds…amazing, but… Well first of all, we’re here for one purpose this morning.”

“To get Jason out.” Brown nods. “I see now why you couldn’t come out with all this before. But I have no doubt with all of this, we can have a retrial quick and dirty and get him out of there before you can blink.”

Reese’s pulse quickens. “Really?”

Brown nods. “But there’s a catch.”

“What’s that?”

“I want you to say yes to being the Elite.”

Reese swallows hard, thinking. “Well Sheriff…you do realize that…when all this evidence is brought up in court, almost all of TJY will be under arrest for the things we’ve been doing.” He pauses with an idea. “Unless we have a sharpshooter lawyer to plead for pardons for everyone on staff, and everyone in Texas.”

Brown straightens and folds his arms across his chest, contemplating. “You said you’ve got people on TJY staff who have been criminals, even worked for that Agency.”

“This is true. But they’re on our side now, and they’ve turned around. And isn’t that what prison is for? Turning someone around? So if they’ve already learned their lesson, why put them behind bars?” Reese can feel a bargaining chip forming. “You help us get Jason out, and you let Lockheart plea for total pardons, and you got yourself a deal.”

Brown quirks an eyebrow, turning to Lockheart. “What do you have to say about all this?”


Mick watches as Rosetta and BJ interact, a small smile forming. BJ had it good here…if only it was a real family…

Mick slaps his cowboy hat on his head and aims for the door. Looking back one last time, he catches Rosetta’s eye. He conveys a look to her that his mind is full…there is something troubling his heart…something he hasn’t quite figured out yet…perhaps something he needs to tell her.

Turning, he heads outside.