Free The Clause by Brian Wiprud

Whitestone Expressway?”
    Indecision on the kid’s part caused him to hesitate, and that put me close to where he was standing. Close enough.
    I pointed behind him. “Maybe your friend knows.”
    He was just a kid after all.
    My helmet caught him in the back of the head when I swung it, and his phone clattered across the macadam as he fell. I jogged over and plucked the phone from the ground, just as he was trying to stand. The second blow was to the side of his head. I threw his phone over a fence into a yard.
    “Hey!” Two white older men with bellies and sport shirts approached. “What goes on?”
    “Fucket.” I pointed at the ground where the kid lay squirming. “Kid tried to rip me off. Tried to hold me up.”
    One said, “No shit?”
    The other said, “It’s a Chink! I didn’t think they did that.”
    “Can you guys watch him while I get a cop?”
    They puffed their chests. Almost in unison they said, “We’re vets!”
    “I’ll be right back.”
    As the two duffers stood over the kid, I wheeled my bike out around the corner to the boulevard, fired her up, and found the Whitestone without any directions. I felt sorry for the kid. But he would have learned his lesson one way or the other, if not me, someone else, and it may have cost him his life instead of a swollen head and a reprimand.
    Tito’s watch: six twenty.
    The Whitestone Bridge’s span arced out before me, sun low on the left making long shadows of the cables. To my right and a mile away the Throgs Neck Bridge glistened with traffic, its span straddling the East River as it opened up into Long Island Sound and a clutter of sailboats.
    Doc’s Hong Kong friends clearly had the ability to track my phone, just like the Kurac, and comparably devious. At least they were all about their own interests, and countered the Kurac interests. By sucker-punching their kid at the diner I’d just let Doc’s friends know that I was no dummy, so maybe later when I got the paper and the tickets they would play straight. That was a big maybe.
    The Kurac would soon realize the beach house was a ruse and be back in play, and I’d have to do some fancy dancing to stay clear of them long enough to make the exchange with the Chinese at JFK the following night. Yet two adversaries with disparate interests could be useful.
    With both off-balance, it was important to seek out weak spots and gain human intelligence if possible.

Fifteen

    INVESTIGATIVE DATA WAREHOUSE
    SPT SUBSYSTEM
    DATE: SUNDAY AUGUST 8, 2010
    TIME: 1830 EDT
    NCES / DOE EDUCATION BIO: UNDERWOOD, GILL
    DOB AUGUST 23, 1971, BETHESDA, MD
    CLIFTON ELEMENTARY, CLIFTON, NJ (NIA) 1977–1983
    CLIFTON JR. HIGH, CLIFTON, NJ (NIA) 1983–1984
    CLIFTON HIGH, CLIFTON, NJ (GPA 1.5) 1985
    VALLEY FORGE MILITARY ACADEMY, WAYNE, PA GPA 3.9 1986–1989
    SAT: 690/720
    FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON UNIVERSITY, MADISON, NJ 1989–1993
    HISTORY GPA 4.0
    ARREST RECORD: JUVENILE (SEALED)
    SIRPNet BIO: UNDERWOOD, GILL
    US NAVY: ENLIST, NY, NY JULY 1993
    ASVAB SCORE: AFQT 95%
    PHYSICAL: PASS
    CAREER CLASSIFICATION: INTELLIGENCE
    PRE-ENLIST INTERVIEW: ADDT’L TESTING—IQ 135
    GREAT LAKES NAVAL TRAINING CENTER: REPORT SEPTEMBER 1993
    A-SCHOOL: OFFICER’S CANDIDATE SCHOOL (OSC) NEWPORT, RI JANUARY 1994
    COMMISSION: ENSIGN, JUNE 1994
    ASSIGNED: BAHRAIN, OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE, AUGUST 1994
    REASSIGNED: NAPLES, ITALY, OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE, COUNTERINTELLIGENCE UNIT, AUGUST 1996
    PROMOTION: LIEUTENANT (GRADE) AUGUST 1996
    REASSIGNED: PEARL HARBOR, HI, OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE, CONTINGENCY OPERATIONS UNIT, MAY 1997
    LIAISON: CENTER FOR NAVAL INTELLIGENCE, ALEXANDRIA, VA 1998
    REASSIGNED: JOINT INTELLIGENCE CENTER, BAHRAIN, DECEMBER 2001
    REASSIGNED: NAVY SEALS, TACTICAL LIAISON, MARCH 2002
    WOUNDED: IN ACTION, CITATION, MAY 2002
    HOSPITALIZED: Portsmouth Naval Medical Center , PSYCHIATRIC CENTER, JUNE 2002
    PROMOTION: LIEUTENANT (FULL) JUNE 2002
    REASSIGNED: CENTER FOR NAVAL INTELLIGENCE, COUNTER
    INTELLIGENCE INSTRUCTOR,