music, at my love of sixties sports cars and the way I dress. What they don't understand is a man must paint a life much as he would a picture, choosing the colors carefully. I have chosen colors from a simpler time.'

He retrieved his diamond-studded hand and continued. 'Back then it was much easier to see the path. Today, there are conditions. We call it political correctness, but if you want my opinion, it's really just social guilt over having so much.

'In your own field of law enforcement, there is the confusing Police Discretionary Rule, which favors the criminal and causes many valid arrests to be thrown out in court. Or thcres the lunatic Miranda ruling. You must tell a criminal not to talk before you question him. In real estate its rent control and equal housing. Education has minority quotas. There's a ton of civil litigation crowding the courts that should be covered by common sense. It goes on and on. Forty years ago, none of this existed. This attempt to be all things to all people is destroying our great country. In Haven Park I'm setting the clock back to a simpler time.'

I was thinking this guy was somewhere to the right of the Mississippi Klan, but what I said was, 'It's gotten so a police officer has a better chance of going to jail than the criminals he's chasing.'

He nodded and suddenly the smile flashed back on. We stood listening as another old song began to play. Cecil finally turned away from the view. 'I might have a way for you to pay me back for this sense of gratitude you say you feel. If you agree to help me I would be willing to compensate you nicely. If you can accomplish what I want, you will become a respected part of my inner circle. If you fail, you will fall much further than you did two weeks ago in L. A. This favor includes some inherent but I think manageable risksInterested?'

'You bet,' I said eagerly. 'Lay it on me, sir.'

'Not now.' He smiled. 'I never talk business at a party. We will speak tomorrow or the next day. Tonight you should enjoy yourself. Familiarize yourself further with my little experiment in social engineering. We'll talk shortly.'

Then he patted my shoulder again, and, without another word, left me on the balcony looking down at the nude girls in the pool and the milling crowd of crooked cops and corrupt politicians.

I realized that I'd stopped breathing toward the end of our conversation. I let out a long slow lungful of air. The idea that I might be about to penetrate this corrupt politician's inner circle both frightened and invigorated me.

As I stood there the Sinatra song changed. Now Frank was singing 'From the Bottom to the Top.'

Chapter 32

'I'm not wearing this thing.' I threw the wire and recorder down on the wooden bench beside Ophelia Love. It was a little past one A. M., and we were back inside Little Swiss, in a shopping mall parking lot on the outskirts of Compton. Alexa had been replaced, but Ophelia had broken a strict FBI rule demanding interagency celibacy, and allowed my wife to attend this midnight meeting. I also thought she liked our departments cool little eight-wheel undercover truck.

'You've got to wear it. We need to get somebody to come up dirty on that wire so we can convince them to flip. Otherwise we'll never make the case. That's the reason I gave you the extra time.'

'I'm still willing to do this, but I'm not gonna let a bunch of stiffs from Homeland run my play. It has to be people I know and trust. Alexa or Tony-nobody else. You can be part of it, but this gets run out of our shop or I'm done.'

We sat for a moment, stewing in decades of interagency distrust. Then Agent Love said, T'm not sure that's your decision to make.'

'Get real, lady. If I pull the pin it's over.'

'Something happened tonight,' Alexa said softly, looking closely at me. 'You need to tell us.' She knew me too well. She could see that I was close to the edge.

So I told them about my trip to the orange grove and the party that followed at the mayor's house where I witnessed Rick Ross chopping up a line in the gazebo with two strip club whores. I told them I'd finally gotten next to Bratano and what he'd said to me, but that despite passing the loyalty test, Talbot Jones was still going to shake me down for a wire every time before letting me meet with hizzoner.

'I'm finally on the inside. But it's weird. They've got all these security protocols, especially where Cecil is concerned. If I'd been wearing that thing tonight, I'd be dead!'

'Maybe I could get you a DCST,' Agent Love said.

'What on earth is a DCST?' Alexa asked.

'Digital covert satellite transmitter. It's very new stuff. I haven't seen one, but I've read a briefing sheet. It's out of DIA covert ops in D. C.'

'Never heard of it,' Alexa said.

'They're satcom transmitters designed to look like ordinary pocket equipment. Pens or car keys, stuff like that. The unit has a miniature satellite transmitter inside that beams a signal up to one of our low-flying Iridium satellites, just six hundred miles up in space. The DCST is tiny because there's no tape or digital component. It's a direct transmission to a space platform that bounces back to a covert land base.'

'Is this what you people do with our tax money?'

I was starting to feel trapped. I wanted out of Haven Park, but I also knew somebody was about to get the contract on Chacon's life. If I wanted to protect Rocky, then, strange as it sounded, I had to be the one picked to kill him.

'How long to get one of those things to me?' I finally asked.

'I don't know. I've got to get you on a Pentagon distribution list first.' She hesitated. 'Tomorrow. Day after at the latest.'

'Shane, are you sure you're okay?' Alexa reached out and took my hand.

'I'm scared out of my skull,' I told her.

'Then let's end this,' she said.

'I can't. We'll never get this close to the center again. Cecil Bratano said I'd be hearing from him in the next day or two. At least keep me in until then.'

'I'll get the covert device to you. It'll be in your room in the top dresser drawer by noon tomorrow.'

I got up to leave. 'Does Alexa run this? That's the only condition I'm asking for.'

Agent Love sighed. 'Look, Scully, it's not perfect, I admit. But as long as you two will agree to let me ride shotgun, Til tell my supervisors that Alexa has to run the show out of Parker Center. My guess is they'll go for it. What choice do they have?'

'Just get me that device,' I said.

Then she did an unusual thing. She shook my hand. It was a strangely touching gesture.

'Thanks,' she said. 'I know how hard this is. I really appreciate what you're doing.' She left Little Swiss and closed the door.

Alexa and I waited until we could see her car pulling away on the monitor inside the truck. After it was gone, we both stood and embraced.

'Are you sure you're okay?' she asked.

I held my wife, smelling her hair and perfume. 'Ever since I took this damn job, I haven't been able to get my mind off of you and Chooch and how much I have with you guys,' I told her. 'It's making me play it safe. That's not the way to work one of these stings. I've been making some half-assed moves. I'm afraid I'm on the verge of screwing this up.'

'I'm so sorry we took it on,' she said, laying her head on my shoulder. 'To hell with Ophelia and the feds. I'll call Tony. I'll get you out of there tonight.'

After a moment I said, 'Rocky Chacon can't be more than five-foot-seven, a hundred and sixty pounds with his shoes on. Along with his mother and a few campaign workers, he's taking on Cecil Bratano and that whole corrupt Haven Park machine.

'I'm the only one standing between him and a body bag. If I pull out now, if I cut and run, he's history. If that happens I won't be able to face myself. Then what am I really worth to you or Chooch?' Alexa didn't say anything. She knew I was right. 'I wish I hadn't decided to take this damn assignment, but now that I'm here, there's no way

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