San Diego Noir

They throw their trash away and start walking. The gray is melting away and the sun is peeking through. Hope raises her face to it and smiles.

“L.A. is a rough place. It shows you how ugly it can be, like it’s proud. Here is better.” She stares out into the ocean. “At least San Diego tries to cover up the ugly.”

“How’d you get here?”

“Last year I was preparing to get it on with a midget lady. Hell of a way to turn twenty-eight, huh? That was when I decided to get out. For a laugh I tried to go legit as a sitcom actress, since a couple guys told me I was a good actress and I was dumb enough to believe them. I got beat out by this blond tart, which was literally what the part was, and now it’s the biggest sitcom on TV. I met Teddy at a party and he gave me the same line I got at seventeen, that I could have a better life. And like when I was seventeen, I believed it. We moved to San Diego and it was cool for a while; he did his Internet porn thing and the shoots were actually kinda classy and professional. I was his executive assistant, because I knew the business, and his live-in girlfriend. I loved the city. It’s not like L.A. where you can forget that there’s a beach, it’s everywhere here. It’s the culture. You can actually see the sun. It’s what Texans think of when they imagine California. Like I said, though, San Diego is good at hiding its ugly. Teddy started moving us around a lot, had a bunch of secret phone calls and meetings with creepy men in suits. I heard some things, read his e-mail. I had to get out of there. Teddy’s a respected member of society, gives to charities, has a couple boats, several houses. Lots of powerful friends. Who was I going to turn to for help? I’m just a washed-up fuck star. ”

Hope watches a father chase his squealing child across the sand. Volleyball players run around yelling for others to get the ball. Teenage girls giggle and gossip as they sneak glances at the bronzed surfers heading out into the water.

“I like you, Moses. If I thought you weren’t a good guy, I’d ask if you wanted to be with me tonight.”

He blushes. “Hope, what did you find out about Teddy?”

She turns to him, and she’s all serious now, tears in those amazing butterscotch eyes. “You gotta help me. This is bad. Really, really bad.”

So she tells him everything.

She tells him about Memorial Day.

She tells him about the empty houses with the filthy mattresses.

She tells him about the smuggling.

She tells him about the filmed rapes.

She tells him about the Moving Black Objects.

FOURTH PROTOCOL: EXECUTE WHAT THEY FEAR

It’s Memorial Day at nine a.m. and the sun is shining down and the streets are packed full. Restaurants are at maximum capacity and lifeguards are on edge since so many people are in the water. You pretty much have to sacrifice a virgin to find parking. The perfect weather is why everyone pays such a high price: paradise ain’t cheap. Getting drunk and laid is everyone’s goal, not honoring those who fell in combat. Hardly anyone notices the van pull into a lonely alley and unload a group of Muslim women in burkas and hurry them inside the small red house.

Moses and Hope had spent the weekend going over the details of Teddy’s scheme, and he has to admit it’s sort of slick. “Teddy thinks this is patriotic what he’s doing. He thinks he’s saving American lives,” Hope had told him the night before. Teddy, like most of America, had totally freaked when the Twin Towers went down and became a 9/12 conservative. Normal on 9/10, scared to death on 9/11, and ready to kick some ass in revenge on 9/12. At first he had donated large amounts of his fortune to the war effort in Iraq and any politician hungry for Muslim blood, but that wasn’t enough. Like everyone, he saw the torture scandals on the news, but instead of being sickened, he saw opportunity. He hooked up with his old roommate, Councilman Douglas Penter; Douglas introduced him to his uncle, Agent Jack Penter of the CIA. Teddy told them his idea and they too saw opportunity.

Muslim women were smuggled in; Councilman Penter had the right people look the other way, and Judge Clark Penter took care of the rest. The women were taken to houses secured by Mrs. Helena Penter and raped. The brutality was filmed and sent to secret CIA prisons and shown to whomever the hell they suspected of terrorism or had alleged ties to terrorism, as a way to get them talking. Teddy sold copies on the pervert black market.

It’s a beautiful world.

So Moses, Hope, and a swarm of FBI agents are closing in on the little red house on this gorgeous San Diego morning where you just know there’s a God, and Moses feels pumped. It’s been a long time since he’s seen action like this and taken down a real bad guy. He remembers what Hope had told him the night before, that Teddy’s terrified of losing his status in high society, but more importantly, all his stuff. Moses can’t wait to get his hands on the man.