Under the Microscope

Chapter 10

Zach POV

Zach felt warm water splashed on his face as he came to. He opened his eyes and saw Crawford peering down at him. He was on a mattress from the school clinic. It was a dark room with one light bulb dangling from a thread at the center of the ceiling. The room reeked of ammonia and since Crawford was pretending to be the janitor, Zach knew where he was. The broom closet. There was a soft bandage and an ice pack over Zach's left eye.

"What the hell happened?" asked Zach, "Where's Alice and why am I in here and not in the clinic?"

"You were punched in the face real good," said Crawford, "I managed to get most of the swelling down, but you're going to have a black-eye for several weeks. Alice is currently incapacitated and I was able to sneak you in here."

"Did you knock her out or something?" asked Zach.

"You shouldn't worry about that," said Crawford, "you should be worried about the attention you've managed to draw to yourself after two days. You may not realize it, but you're putting mine and Alice's covers in serious jeopardy after the stunt you pulled yesterday and the incident in the cafeteria which led to you getting knocked out. Our job is to protect you from Rutherford and Pang and all you're doing is letting them know where you are. Now, I've promised General Sanders and Leo that I'd train you to defend yourself from those who would harm you. I'm sure Leo would be disappointed if he knew that you abused what he taught you. You have to be very careful, Zach. We're dealing with very dangerous people."

"I'm not scared of anybody," said Zach, "now who was that asshole who sucker punched me?"

"His name is Jamal Buford," said Crawford, "and you should be very scared. He's the son of the Golden Grill. As you know, he's the last man your father put behind bars and was Big Dave's right hand man. Jamal is involved in a street gang in Little Harlem and is loyal to Big Dave's son, Lil' Dave, a resident drug supplier here at Reagan and the gang leader to Little Harlem's youth."

"What does that have to do with me?" asked Zach.

"Everything." said Crawford, who told Zach the whole history of Martinez, Gustav, Pang, Rutherford and everything else, including Charlie's involvement thereof. "By the way, Zach. We haven't forgotten about your uncle. We have some of our best agents scouring the globe looking for him. You're not really Pang's target anymore, I am. He made a deal with Rutherford that Rutherford would take care of you if Pang took care of me. When I left you and Alice on that pick-up truck to go to New York, on the way back from Leo's, I had a run-in with Pang and we got into a big brawl. Pang doesn't kill kids, that's always been his twisted code of honor.

"I don't know if I believe him, but Pang claims that Gustav's not interested in Charlie anymore. Martinez VI, that's definitely who Gustav's answering to, has now set his sights on you as their primary target. Their not just trying to get to you to get to Charlie or to shut you up. Rutherford is using his son Lil' Dave's gang to get to you.

"Jamal is blaming you for your dad arresting his and since Lil' Dave is banned from the campus thanks to your new nemesis, Ryan Phillips. Lil' Dave is using Jamal and Jamal's grief to get to you. But I think that Jamal can be a very valuable asset if you can talk sense into him. Which will be hard since he's as close to Lil' Dave as their dads are."

"But what if I can't?" asked Zach. "I have enough problems now with Phillips and company, now you want me to get involved with a group of dangerous thugs that think its my fault my father arrested one of theirs. And why am I the new target for the mob?"

"I don't know for sure yet," said Crawford, "butthe bad guys have spies everywhere and if I had to guess, the spies noticed thesame thing Leo, Alice, Scott and his daughter," damn, "have seen from you. There's something about you that'sspecial, I can't put my finger on it, but whatever it is, you got it.