Multiples of Six Read Online Free PDF Page A

he knew it. At the same time, he already knew everything the DD was telling him. He’d heard it before, unfortunately, and it wasn’t like a refresher was going to do him any good. He was too old for that. There wasn’t much more he could say. Norris knew he had fucked up. You just couldn’t throw protocol to the wind anymore without having it fly back in your face. And, getting your partner, a half-cocked rookie fresh out of the academy, all shot up because a hunch went bad wasn’t real great either. It wasn’t the hunch that had been wrong though. It was his decision to follow up on it without backup. That, and accepting another rookie partner. They just can’t teach you about the tension that bullets, fired to kill, create. They were both lucky to have escaped with their lives, and Norris was lucky to still have the badge in his pocket though he wasn’t quite certain how long that would last.
    Norris had defied retirement again when given the option. It was the third offer in five years. The kid would recover, but his field days were over. The left eye was done. He’d eventually recover forty percent of his vision if he was lucky. Norris had spoken with him in the hospital. The kid didn’t blame Norris. Not now, at least. Norris had lost his New York post, and nearly his job. They even threatened to take his pension away, but Norris knew that was just smoke. Why they bothered with him anymore, he didn’t know. But, when he posed the same question to himself, all that came were more questions. The fact was he didn’t know why he still wanted to work. But, when it came down to it, he didn’t know anything else. And now, he was stuck in traffic from a five-car pileup on the outbound George Washington Bridge, driving to his exile.
    He had hoped that maybe they would just send him out West. Give him some time in California to mellow out. He could use a little sun. To his great dismay, the Cleveland office was in need of some “seasoned” field agents. It was the only option given him. He took it. He had nothing else.
    The car in front of him moved up five feet. He didn’t bother moving up. He watched as another ambulance struggled to make its way up the emergency lane. He took a long drag on the cigarette that was dwindling in his hand and squashed it in the tray. The dull pain in his chest returned and he rubbed it absent-mindedly. He coughed, bringing up a mouthful of phlegm. He cracked the door and spit it onto the roadway, looking up just in time to see the lady in the car next to him make a face and turn away. He shut the door and moved up the five vacant feet. Maybe he would finally see a doctor when he got to Cleveland. He doubted it though.
    The phone on the passenger seat was vibrating. He glanced at it with the desire to not answer. Then he picked it up. It wasn’t the call he was expecting.
    “Norris,” he wheezed.
    “John, it’s Dennis.”
    “Den. What can I do for you?”
    “John, you hung up on the DD.”
    “Connection must’ve got lost.”
    “John, c’mon…”
    “Hey, I’ve heard it all. Do I really need a kick in the ass on the way out the door?”
    “He’s fuming,” Dennis said.
    “Good. Gives him practice.”
    “John--”
    “Den, he’s an arrogant little prick. If he was a field agent…wait, let me correct myself, if he had ever been a field agent, he couldn’t keep up with me. And, in my prime I’d have kicked his ass for saying some of the shit he just laid on me.”
    “Things don’t work that way anymore,” Dennis said.
    “I know. It’s a damn shame,” Norris muttered.
    “John, listen. You’re going to have to talk to him eventually.”
    “No, I’m not his responsibility anymore. Why should I give him the pleasure? Tell him to go fuck himself.”
    Dennis sighed.
    “He could make Cleveland hell for you.”
    “More so than it already will be? C’mon, Den, you know as well as I do that it’s a Siberian banishment. They may as well have sent me to the Dubuque