The Shape of Things to Come (Hypernaturals 15)

Now Is Good

Luciana was not exactly right.

The next day, after her snarky little assertions I decided to work by the pool. I was not mad at her. Just a change of space for a change of pace. Sitting by water is calming. How I met Jessica even: at a Nude beach. She obviously feels the same as she also has a boat. Technically, Helen has way bigger boats, what with owning a Cruise line. That is different though. That is a place for Helen to bury money. Nightwing is a place of peace and family outings. Also, a lot closer than Helen's Cruise ships, which can be about anywhere in the world they are running an event.

I am working alone in the Casa de Gato pool house. I have all the walls open, and a light breeze is blowing through. Always nice to reduce the humidity of the pool house this way.

I need the calm because I am pissed off.

I am studying the case notes Angel made and just sent out to Morgan, Denise, and me regarding an upcoming case status meeting with Don. A local political action committee or PAC as they are called is being sued by him. Undue influence on city officials. Not bribery. Threats. Unrecorded and untraceable threats against the mayor and several on the city council to try to get them to pass new and harsh ordinances against homeless people so that rich people do not have to look at them.

Don explained it this way: These people are all rich, own high-value property, and are worried that the homeless asking for money near their houses depresses their property values. Typical 'I have mine, they can go get theirs' stuff. In some countries, you have the poor isolated in another way, but in the US when you want to hurt a group of less fortunate, you pass a law against them. Then them being there is against the law, as if that were a moral thing. Morgan, as a former cop always tells me that laws codify a society's values.

She has great points. The 1836 Texas Constitution does not allow African Americans or their descendants to the counted as people. Worse even than the US Constitution, which counted slaves as a fractional people.

When we took this case Morgan told Don "People are uncomfortable seeing the less fortunate. It makes them feel guilty. A sort of survivor's guilt. The reaction is not to do something positive. The reaction is to hide from the truth. I saw this as a Cop over and over. Out of sight, out of mind. There are no homeless if I cannot see them. It also follows the conservative mindset that their money should not go to help others. Why they closed all the public support infrastructure for mental illness. Since they can afford to pay for private care if needed, they do not want to pay for others' public care."

"Exactly." Don had agreed. "This particular group I am suing will do anything to get their way. Lie. Cheat. Steal. Threaten. They have money and are willing to use it. They hired people who are experts in making private threats that are untraceable. I need courtroom-level evidence of this, and I need it fast enough to allow the Mayor to do the right thing."

"Done. We'll research who these people are and get you what you need." Morgan had promised.

That is what I am reading now. Angel's research. We know who the nameless, faceless people are. A group often used in conservative politics to try to get things to go their way. Private security and investigators mixed in with ex-Military. Tatted-up with various gang symbols that let us know they are more than happy to hurt the less fortunate for fun and profit. Old school mob tactics as adopted by politicians. Angel's thinking on this is that to get it done fast, we need to go full Vampire on their asses.

My thinking is Angel is right, and that I'll need more than just my fangs worth of Juice to get some Courtroom level confessions. Denise will need to be involved too. Morgan will hate that, once again. She will view being fangless as equaling being less effective. Denise views it the other way: She is glad she has fangs so she can at least do one thing Morgan cannot. This is funny given it is Denise that found the third Catalyst, but I understand. It's easy to get an inferiority complex around Morgan sometimes.