14 JULY 1940

THE PEACHY KEEN DINNER

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

Even in the short time that he had been in L.A. he realized that his mug had become well known. It was inevitable because Elliot Ness had seen it happen countless times before. He had been stopping in this greasy spoon, every day, since they stranded him out here, “on the coast.” It did not take long before one of the waitresses learned his name and, suddenly, people became really friendly and several even asked him for his autograph. One or two even asked him if he was out here advising on a movie. Ness let them think what they wanted. He really did not have the heart to tell them that nobody would ever want to make a movie about him. He only wished his assignment was as glamorous as people seemed to think it should be. The reality of the situation was far more depressing.

Elliot realized that the only reason he had even been brought in to this little project was because somebody had found out that he knew Doctor Jones, on sight. Now that Jones was firmly on the project they had little need for Elliot. When he escorted Grant to the safe house that was about the last useful thing he had done. Since he now knew that the place was a safe house, and they wanted as few people to know that as possible, they decided the best place to dump him was here. They could kill two birds with one stone. They needed a classified courier to run messages from the federal building to the mansion and they needed Elliot Ness on ice.

Ness smiled at the Sally the waitress, waved to Sal the cook, and took his usual booth. They all smiled and still had stars in their eyes when they waived back. Ness seldom looked up at them these days. He hurried to his booth and was spiking his coffee no sooner than Alice had brought it to him. He then had to sign an autograph for some guy that had found out who he was when he questioned the cashier. After all that, Elliot ordered his usual. They remembered his order as easily as they remembered him.

Once Ness had thought about it he considered it his most fundamental problem. They remembered his past. His past was all that he was. Elliot realized that when he had taken down Capone, that was the highlight of his life. The problem with that was, he still had a lot of life left to live. How do you top something like that? How did you go about your life knowing the best part of it was over? Ness found that out. You drank your coffee with something more than cream and sugar.

The public might have thought the whole Capone episode had made him a hero. The sad truth of it was that the government, his peers, and in particular the people responsible for promoting him thought otherwise. They had sold the public on the whole income tax evasion case as being clever. In truth, behind closed doors, they thought it was pathetic and weak. They had wanted Capone to go down like Dillinger, Nelson, or Bonnie and Clyde. The idea of him rotting away for not filling some IRS forms was just wrong. It had never sat right with them and, as a result, the same was true for Elliot.

It was all water under the bridge now. Elliot had learned to live with it. If they wanted him to play water boy then that is what he would do as long as they kept paying him. If they handed him a mop and said they wanted the Treasury building spic and span, then that is what they would get. He got his paycheck anyway.

At the moment all he wanted was his steak and eggs. He got them in the usual amount of time. Sally even took his coffee for a refill, “hun you put that coffee away like it’s going out of style. I hear that’s what all you cops do.” She then asked, “half a cup as usual?”

Ness smiled at her as he unrolled his napkin, “yeah I’ll make sure it get filled up all the way.” She giggled as she walked off but, did not realize he wasn’t joking. Ness merely rolled his eyes and prepared to put the napkin in his lap when he noticed something odd about it. There was writing on the napkin. It was addressed to him! When Sally came back with his coffee he had to ask her, “who sat near the silverware?”

She giggled at the question and then just shrugged it off, “just about anybody at the low counter.”

There was nobody currently there so he slapped down some bills, got up, and recovered his hat. He told Sally, “got to take a rain check on the meal today. See you guys tomorrow.”

Ness slid in behind the wheel of his car and it made a funny noise when it started up. It almost sounded like some kind of electronic wiz. Then he felt the cold of metal at the base of his neck. It did not quite feel like a gun but, Ness was not willing to take the chance. He stayed very still and said, “I don’t know what you want pal, but I don’t have a lot money on me.”

The voice from behind him sounded very annoyed, “oh god, you watch too many movies. If I was going to mug you I’d have done out in the parking lot, Ness.”

Elliot decided to play the card he had just been handed, “well that’s good. You know who I am. That being the case I would think that…”

“Oh cut the crap,” replied the guy, “I don’t have the time and neither do you. I’m the one who sent you the note on the napkin. I’m here to make sure that you and all of your Jolly G-Men don’t wind up taking the celestial dirt nap.”

The napkin had said he was being followed. Now Ness wondered, “and how do I know the only person following me isn’t you? You’re the one holding a gun to my head.”

Cam Mitchell rolled his eyes and replied, “it’s not exactly a gun but, for the purposes or our discussion, it’s bad enough. Now the answer to your question is, I can show you the other guy that was following you, and unlike me, he was intent on doing you harm. His buddies are also planning on taking out the Hughes mansion and, if we don’t act fast that is exactly what will happen.”

This guy knew about the safe house? That could only mean one of two things. One was bad, but the other was very bad. Ness told his mysterious visitor, “did Donovan send you?”

“Um,” Cam thought about it and then replied, “long story. We don’t have time for that right now.”

“Look pal,” Ness shot back sternly, “I don’t have a clue who you are and…”

“And I’m the guy with a gun pointed at the back of your head,” Cam said cutting him off. “So please don’t make me shoot you and, on a personal note, I’d love nothing better because, so far, you’ve been the biggest disappointment since I got here. You don’t even look like Kevin Costner!”

Cam slid over the front seat and kept his Zat pointed at Ness the entire way. When he was settled, Ness dropped his hands and almost laughed. He pointed at the thing in Cam’s hand and said, “what is that supp…”

Cam pointed his weapon out the divers side window and fired an arc of bluish lightening at the convertible parked next to them. It left a few scorch marks on the canvas top and was of no great service to the paint job either. He then swung it back at Ness and said, “want another example? It won’t kill you so when you wake up I’ll shoot you again. I can personally testify to the fact that it hurts like hell, every time.”

His eyes narrowed and Ness became very serious, “who are you?”

That led Cameron to one conclusion, “you don’t even know what you’re guarding out there at that mansion, do you? I bet you don’t even know what your entire project is about.”

Ness huffed and pulled on the lapels of his coat, “of course I do.”

“Oh yeah,” Cam actually relaxed the Zat and crossed his arms, “then tell me oh great and famous Agent Elliot Ness. What are you guarding in that mansion?”

“It’s a,” Ness thought about it for a moment and then said, “ok technically speaking I’m not guarding the place. I just kind of run messages out there for the Bureau field office.”

Cameron slapped his forehead, “this is disappointing as hell.” He then looked back up at Ness, “well a good thing our Nazi pals thought you were actually important or else I got a feeling you’d already be laying in a ditch somewhere.”

“Hey,” Ness protested, “I am imp… Nazis? Where the hell did the Nazi’s come from?”

Cam slapped the dashboard, “get driving Ness. I think we need to move in a hurry.”

Ness asked, “you don’t think my tail was alone do you?”

“Oh no,’ Cam replied, “he was alone all right.” Then Cam tossed a thumb at the car he had just shot, “I just don’t want to be here when that guy finds his car. I think I just set the roof on fire.”

As the car pulled out onto the road, Cam told him, “I recognized the guy running their little surveillance. I saw his picture on Wikipedia one time. His name is Skorzeny and he’s kind of like a troubleshooter for Hitler. He has a big scar on the side of his face so it makes him easy to spot.”

Ness was still too stunned to do much of anything but what Cam told him. His hands were shaking, and he was nervously looking back from the road to his unexpected guest. He did manage to ask, “wiki-what?”

“Never mind that,” Cam replied. “The point is, these guys aren’t drawing maps. It looked to me more like they were checking the info they already had. They also got your number too. That’s why, when they only sent out one tail on you today, I figured they were about to make their move.”

Ness was still trying to process all of this. All he could reply with was, “um, ok.”