The Fire Triangle -- Part II, Oxidizer

The Fire Triangle: Book II - Chapter 4

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The Fire Triangle

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Part Two:

Oxidizer

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Chapter 1—A Rock and a Hard Place
(Continued...Part 4)

No one should have been more content right now than Farrokh 'Frank' Arsia. Instead the kulan was struggling to keep his distress under wraps.

It wasn't easy; like all species of wild ass, he was possessed of ears the length of corn-shucks, built-in semaphores that could easily betray his emotions. Learning to keep them in check—especially while arguing a case in court—had required many hours of arduous practice

By rights, he shouldn't have needed that level of self-control at this particular moment. After much effort, he had finally succeeded in getting his clients' bail reduced—and found a bondsmammal willing to front him the money for their release. Now, having at last secured the Rafaj Brothers' freedom (pending trial,) he had just finished escorting them through processing at the Savanna Central Correctional Center. That task accomplished, the only remaining obstacle between the jackals and their temporary liberty was the jail's front lobby. It should have put Frank in a chipper mood; a good day's work, all in all. Instead, he was apprehensive, and for a number of different reasons.

Upon hearing the news of their impending release, Ahmed and Ismael al-Rafaj had all but thrown themselves at his hooves, practically whimpering with gratitude. A lovely gesture, but even they had to know that it had required no great feat of legal wizardry on their attorney's part—not after that surveillance video from their jewelry shop had somehow been posted online. In the wake of that fiasco, a rookie public defender could have gotten them out on bail. (A true legal shark like, say, Vernon J. Rodenberg, might have even had their case dismissed.)

The Rafaj Brothers...

Frank had long since begun to understand why their previous attorney had quit on them. There was something more than a little off-putting about these two.

As practically anyone in the legal profession knows, clients who lie and hold out on you are par for the course. Frank Arsia, Attorney at Law, could count on the fingers of one paw the animals he'd represented who'd been completely honest with him, (and he didn't have paws, he had HOOVES.)

Ahmed and Ishmael, however, had always seemed to take it to a whole new level. Every time the kulan had met with them, he'd come away with the uneasy feeling that they'd omitted a key detail—and not by mistake. Furthermore, some of their answers had always seemed just a little bit TOO well-rehearsed, even for a felony suspect. And that brought up another issue, nearly all of those answers had come from Ahmed al-Rafaj; he did most of the talking for both of them. And always before he spoke up, he would first throw his younger sibling a silencing glare.

And therein lay the problem; it didn't always work. Ismael al-Rafaj was easily the most cantankerous canine Frank had ever encountered; his outbursts were the verbal equivalent of a stink-bomb. The thought of him letting loose like that in front of a judge was enough to make the kulan feel colicky.