Too Easy

Maine

The sensor I placed at the head of the driveway worked. My phone vibrated twice. I'm inside Natalie's house with enough lights turned on to make us visible to satellites in geosynchronous orbit. North Korea has never been this bright.

The next view on my phone is of a large black SUV coming up the driveway. The vehicle stopped in the circular driveway near the front door. Tango earned his treats for next week by raising his head and quietly whining. 

I watched my screen as a short man climbed from the SUV and bounced onto the ground. He went to the driver's side backdoor and opened it. He had to reach up and pull down what looked like a pizza box.

It was still light outside, so I saw the man carrying the box toward Natalie's front door.

When Brad encountered Natalie in the parking lot of the Breakfast Bee, he used a knife.

When he killed Natalie's co-star Charlie Lopez in Aspen, he used a knife.

I took another good look at the guy and I am certain this is the same man I viewed from his Ohio License photo.

I am going to confuse him fast, inflict a little force, and then zip-tie him lying on the ground.

Tango and I were tense and could hear someone on the front porch.

The doorbell rang. I told Tango, "I got this." "If we must treat him like driftwood, go for the balls." I love that pooch.

So Brad Falter is expecting Natalie to answer the door.

I got to the door and said, "Who's there?"

The guy on the porch said, "Pizza."

"Do you smell pizza, Tango?"  "I don't"

I looked out the peephole and saw a very short man. I did a double take at his face. I have no doubt about his identity. He looks very ill.

In seemingly one motion, I opened the door. He saw I was not Natalie, and he started to stammer. I grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him hard into the house. An empty pizza box hit the deck.

I showed no mercy and no tolerance for his protestations. 

"Good evening, Mr. Falter what took you so long?" I threw him to the floor. He had no weight, and you could see every vein and bone in his body. His skin was pale, and a quick look at his eyes showed jaundice. I needed six zip ties for this masterpiece.

While he was on his stomach, I zipped his wrists and then his ankles.

I patted him down and took two nasty-looking blades and a two-shot 22 pistol from his pant pocket.

The next thing I noticed was the god-awful smell that Natalie told me about.

"How did you know my name?"  he said while gasping for air."

I grabbed him by his hair, raised his head, and said, "Say cheese."

I snapped a quick one of his face and sent it to Natalie.

"Is this him?"

"That's him," she said.

TXT NATALIE: How bad does he smell?

"She's not here!" "Where is she? he hissed

"I'll pay you a thousand dollars to let me go." "The cash is in my wallet." 

​I took his wallet from the search pile out of his reach. There was a few thousand in twenty's that bulged the damn thing. I pulled his license out and looked hard at it. 

Bradley Falter.

I had to be quiet about anything indicating I had been to Brad's house. I did not want an illegal search and seizure to cause his case to be dismissed.

I dialed 911.  "Hi, my name is Thomas Allston."  "I am at the Actress Natalie Leuze's house on Ocean View." "I have a person who just entered the house, and I think he was trying to kill Natalie Leuze." "Please hurry."

It should be interesting to see a few things here.

How fast will the response be?

And what will the level of professionalism be?

Tango was amused with it all. We waited.

"Please let me go. I am dying. Let me die before the police get here."

​I'm all ears, but no heart today.

It took a full twenty minutes for the first response.

They came through the open front door with guns raised.

"I work for Natalie Leuze. She is not here. She has positively identified this man as the person who stabbed her at The Breakfast Bee."

​The fun begins.

The score? No shots were fired, and no teeth were knocked out. Another quality cuff and stuff by yours truly.

This whole thing will become a huge media circus. Tango and I will slip away as soon as we can.

Somewhere on The New England Coast

Eve was tired of listening to Natalie; it had been happening for a few days. The two were real friends until Natalie let her intentions known about trying to hire Allston as her full-time bodyguard.

Eve laughed a little to herself while she thought that the only person who wanted to kill Natalie now was her. 

Allston put a stop to a killer's plan.

Natalie looked at Eve, sitting across from her, and said, "When should I go home, you think?"

The two had a few too many this evening, and Eve said, "Natalie, you should give it a day." "It's best that neither of us drive."

Natalie knew this was correct, and she fought her urge to call for a ride-share that would have cost at least a thousand dollars to get her home. She didn't want to see Brad Falter, but she wanted to congratulate Thomas Allston. He made all the right moves.

Eve was going to be gracious to the end. She was sure that this would be what Allston wanted.  There were questions in her mind. Would Allston take three million dollars to be Natalie's bodyguard? It's clear that he liked her, liked speaking with her.

One night, Eve noticed that Natalie and Allston got along very well while eating dinner. She was funny, he was funny. There is no doubt that Natalie was beautiful.

There was nothing that Eve could do to change the direction of the Natalie Leuze hurricane and what it might destroy with offers of big money.

Then Eve got calm. She was sure that Allston loved her, and he did say, "I won't let anything wreck this."

She believed him and would wait to see how it shakes out.

Hampton Virginia

The four-man Spetznaz team was operating in what could only be described as a dangerous area for a foreign special forces unit. They were in America, but they were thirteen miles from where the American East Coast SEAL Teams operated, including the famed Dev Gru / Seal Team Six.

Six had been a pain in Viktor's ass the length of his career in multiple theaters of Operation.  The long, painful scar on Viktor's left leg was courtesy of a SEAL Team Six Robhiok (shithead) interdicting an operation in Peshawar where Spetnasz was teaching insurgents from an American ally (Pakistan) how to blow up buildings effectively.

Viktor's team was surprised, and the battle ended in less than five minutes. There were sixteen Pakistanis and Russians dead when the two helicopters swooped in and took the SEALS out.

Viktor hated but admired them.

What his team was about to do would piss them off, but they would be long gone when the plant that manufactured key parts of drones that were attacking the Russians in Ukraine blew up. 

When the fireworks started, Viktor's team would have coffee and donuts from that chain place in Delaware.

​They were in a quiet place in position, waiting for darkness. They would plant their charges and head for the Midwest to derail a few more chemical plant trains when it got dark.

It was easy to operate in America, with its open border and effective transportation system. The team did not sleep in holes in the ground; they stayed in cheap hotels with showers and cable TV.

Now, they would make the eagle cry in Dev Gru's backyard.

​