Page 6 of Special Agent Joseph

The younger girl he was accosting ignored the danger, and rather than try to placate the stranger, she came across callously. “Leave me alone, you perv. Fuck off.”

Shit! Let it go, Megan. Just relax.

Praying the culprit would take the callous hint and leave the furious girl alone, she continued to eavesdrop. It was the alarmed scream that made her give up on the likelihood of minding her own business and convinced her things had gotten out of hand. Turning, she saw the male had hauled the girl to her feet and tried to force her to leave the vicinity. She also made out that the long-haired, scruffy looking victim didn’t back down.

Stubbornly, Megan stayed in her seat. And she would have continued to do so if the ruckus hadn’t ramped up. From previous experience, she recognized that the scary situation could get past the point of no return, and with her rotten luck, that’s exactly what happened.

Of course… rather than apologize and calm troubled waters, the girl’s badass temperament kicked in bigtime.

Another furious scream, but this time it resonated with fear.

Son of a bitchin’ hell in a handbasket. Why me?

Standing, she couldn’t help noticing that the others on the train had all fled to safety at the rear of the car. Rather than follow them, she stepped closer to the scuffle. Hearing more stupid threats that made her skin crawl, she flinched from the wide-eyed teen’s response. “You’re disgusting, you pig. Leave me alone.”

“Think your shit doesn’t stink, do ya? I’ll teach you to look down on me.” The homeless-looking character moved fast. In seconds, he had the fleeing girl enclosed in an arm hold with her back against him. Dangling, her toes barely touching the ground, she froze and stopped fighting. In the same hand he clutched his knife close to her neck, threatening to cut. Megan saw the terrified glance the girl made, looking for a rescue. She’d finally realized her situation had become serious.

With his free hand, the crazy hopped-up idiot swept it over her chest, taking liberties with her breasts, fondling them withoutany care to his roughness. “You like that? Is that what you want? Still think you’re too good to sit near me now?”

Hoping to calm the situation, Megan approached carefully. With her hands in plain sight in front of her, she spoke quietly but with enough force to be heard. “I think things have gone far enough, pal. My friend didn’t mean to upset you. Let her go.”

“Fuck that. This disrespectful bitch sneered at me, looking down her nose at my condition. Stupid brat deserves what she gets.” Spittle flew from his lips. And his lank, dirty-blond hair stuck out in all directions from a face sorely infected with meth sores. Though his actions lacked coordination, he moved quickly. And his red-eyed, blank stare let her know there was little sanity lurking inside his crazy head.

Unfortunately, the threat couldn’t be ignored. Like a wounded, stinking, ugly animal, the bearded idiot ranked among the most dangerous. Not only didn’t he know what the hell he was doing… worse, he didn’t care.

As if the girl took encouragement from Megan’s nearness, she added fuel to the out-of-control fire. Wriggling again, demanding, belligerent, she sputtered, “You’re ch-choking me, you moron. Let go. You smell, and you’re pathetic. Know that?”

“Hey, you little shit. I fought for our country… for you to live free.” He shook her cruelly. “While me and my bros were out there saving your lily-white asses, what were you doing, hey? Piss all. Turning the world into an even bigger garbage dump.”

Though Megan had tried warning the girl to stay quiet by holding her hand up, she realized this juvenile obviously didn’t feel the need to listen to anyone.

“Shut up. You’re a stinkin’ disgrace to - to the military.”

Megan watched as the hurtful words sank in, and the already unruly man looked as if he’d explode. Thinking to calm the waters, Megan pointed at the skinny girl while exclaiming, “Hey, soldier, she’s a stupid kid. What do you expect from this spoiledgeneration. You’re right. We need to applaud you for your duty, and I for one truly thank you for your service, mine too if you wanna know the truth. I just finished a stint with the Navy. We’re the good guys. She’s an idiot and not worth going to jail for. Might as well let her go.”

Sensing that he needed to either take action or the party would be over, he hesitated, lowering his captive enough for her feet to be back on the ground.

But rather than stop provoking him, the girl kicked at his leg and screeched with fury, inciting him to further violence. He raised his hand to better utilize the knife, and Megan who’d been moving closer with each bit of conversation, flew into the skirmish.

Using her FBI training, she had his arm in a firm grip, knife flying to the floor. Though the area was small, the attacker still managed to get free and come at her. A round kick to his stomach forced him to back up by the doors where there was more room to move. Following that with another boot to his knee, she added a backhanded slap to his face. Unwilling to stop, he came at her again, and this time she pulled him over her back, flipping him to the ground. After a few more seconds of grappling, she had the attacker face-down on the floor in a hold that wouldn’t let him move without a lot of pain.

By the time the police had removed the culprit and taken her statement, Megan looked around for the victim only to find that a car had been sent to collect her, and she’d disappeared.

***

When her superiors first heard about her getting involved in a skirmish on the metro train, they weren’t happy. In fact, they’d railed at her. Not for being a good citizen, but for starring as the heroine of a video that one of the terrified passengershad taken from start to finish. Having it go viral just hours after the incident really pissed them off. In fact, her immediate supervisor, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Sheila Comer, lectured her non-stop, and it still rankled.

Her mind flew back to when she’d been called on the carpet and had boldly tried to defend her actions. “What would you have had me do, Sheila? Let the mouthy kid be killed? No one else had any intentions of helping her.”

“Right. I get that. And I sympathize. A dangerous situation like that one would have pissed me off too. Flaming weirdoes have been running amuck on the metro lately, and so you know, I just had a conversation to that effect with the police commissioner and the mayor.”

She visibly calmed herself before adding, “But I’m particularly frustrated that it went public. After a month of diligent work, your undercover case has been compromised. A bank accountant wouldn’t have those fighting skills. Also, the background we gave to get you employed at that particular institution didn’t have you serving time in the navy.”

“Because I didn’t. You know I bullshitted my way to get in closer to the druggie.”

“Yeah, well, the public believed your lies. Plus, your skills prove you must have had some sort of training to be able to make the moves you did. Christ, you looked like a martial arts expert the way you handled that man.” Sheila chewed the skin by the side of her fingernail, a habit she had when angry. Then the tall, skinny, uptight woman slapped the desk before standing. “There’s no getting away from it. We’ll have to start all over again. Assign another agent to the bank to oversee the fraud case.”

Megan sat quietly with her wig in her hands, feeling like a rookie being called on the carpet. Dampened from the sweat still clinging to her scalp, her own red waves itched, making herrub at them and grimace. Christ, even her eyeballs felt irritated from the sapphire-blue contacts covering her own flashing green gems. “I guess I have to agree. I wished I had more to report on that job. I know where the folders with the damaging files are kept but never got a chance to get close to them.”

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