[Bob the hobo] A Celestial Wars Spin-Off Part 0135

PART ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE

Lucas was riding in the back of Llyr’s car, still staring at the letter that Daniel had given him just a few minutes ago. His eyes went from his name at the top, to the bold print in the middle acknowledging his temporary reassignment to Major Case Squad, to the Police Chief’s personal signature and embossed seal at the bottom.

He was still required to wear his uniform, but this one piece of paper absolved him of all boundary issues within precincts and boroughs. He could effectively be an on-duty cop all over New York.

“This is only temporary,” Daniel had said, enjoying the shocked look on Lucas’ face way too much. “Once we either solve this case or get a breather in the middle, I’m putting you up for the detective exams to make it more permanent. Provided, of course, you don’t screw up between now and then.” His body language then took an aura of intimidation, even though his eyes still sparkled with amusement. “And if you fail those exams, mister, you’d better change your name and leave the country, because otherwise I will be personally kicking you into your own orbit.”

With the memory of that conversation still floating around in his head, Lucas rubbed the seal and took a whiff of the ink. Not that he was a bloodhound, but it certainly smelt like official, high-quality stationery.

“Good news, I take it, sir?” Angus asked, from the front seat.

“Umm, yeah,” Lucas said, still shell-shocked. “I’m being transferred to PP1, effective immediately.”

“Good for you, sir.”

Remembering what Angus had said about Daniel before, Lucas looked up at him. “Did you know about this, Angus?”

“I know you impressed him, sir, and Daniel Nascerdios doesn’t impress easily. It was only a matter of time before he poached you from the Fifth.”

Lucas snorted. “It wasn’t much of a poach, man. I was a career beat cop before all of this.”

“So where are we off to, sir?”

“Brooklyn. Nascerdios, Quail and I are splitting up to spread out our resources. I’m going to hit up our old turf and see if he’s gone to ground there. I can’t tell you what the other two are doing.”

“Of course, sir.”

Without a car or even a licence to drive, Angelo’s options out of town were limited. It helped ease things when Lucas informed them that despite Angelo’s ability to escape almost any situation, he couldn’t drive a car to save himself. So Susan opted to cover the airport, road and rail exits. She said she knew people that would make the hunt less problematic, and Daniel agreed with her.

When Lucas had suggested he and Daniel should team up, Daniel had shaken his head and told him that he could cover more ground alone. “Besides,” he’d added. “If you head back to your old neighbourhood, people will be more inclined to open up to someone they know, even if you haven’t been in the area for almost a decade.”

So here he was, being driven over the bridge into Brooklyn. He was going to have to organise a car of his own. Sooner, rather than later. He hadn’t realised how much time he wasted on buses and subways until Llyr and Angus came along with their instant transportation. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t drive. His old man had made it a rite of passage, so all of his brothers and Charlotte had had their licences since they were sixteen. He’d then gone on to renew it before he turned twenty-four.

Four years ago.

Shit, he was getting old. With the exception of Charlotte (who was NEVER getting married), he was the last holdout of the Dobson clan. All of his older brothers were married with at least two kids per family. He was Uncle Lucas. They loved it when he and Robbie visited, and the best part of that was, when he’d had enough, they could leave.

Now, he was starting to wonder if he was missing out on something more important. Especially when he turned twenty-eight about three months ago, He certainly wasn’t getting any younger …

“Whoa,” He said aloud once he realised where his thoughts were leading. One little (not so little) promotion and he was suddenly thinking in terms of a family man? While his parents would be ecstatic, that possibility was so far into the future it wasn’t funny! The case they were all working on was still active. He wouldn’t be sitting for the exams until time permitted him to do so. With the exception of the temporary reassignment, nothing in his life had changed.

“Sir?” Angus asked, looking in the mirror once more.

“Just … day-dreaming, Angus. Sorry.”

Lucas’ phone pulsed in his knee pocket, indicating an unread message.

With a grunt at his own stupidity, he reached into his pocket and read the message. “Fuck!” he swore, immediately switching over to his ‘Find My Friends’ app. In his immediate area, he found nothing, but expanding out its parameters, he found Robbie about eight blocks away.

“Sir?”

“Robbie’s found …” as his brain caught up with the map, Lucas triangulated in real space where Robbie’s phone was located. “Holy shit, you devious little fuck,” he swore, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Where are we going, sir?”

“Go down Broadway and turn left when you see Walgreens Pharmacy,” he said, breathing through his frustration. When this was all over, Robbie was going to be explaining how the hell he knew to look for Angelo across the road from their old school. “Angelo’s headed home.”

He brought up his list of contacts and scrolled through looking for Daniel and Susan, but never tapped the names to connect the call. Just like him, they’d come running as soon as they knew Angelo had been located. But Robbie was already with Angelo, so if he turned up alone and it was just the three of them, they might be able to talk sense into him like they had in the past.

There was a worst-case scenario, but he really hoped Angelo wouldn’t force him to make that play.

“Pull up here, thanks, Angus,” Lucas said a few minutes later, between the school and the health centre. It was still early in the morning and he didn’t want Angelo spooked by a fancy SUV slowing down or stopping. In this neighbourhood, it’d stand out.

He walked around the corner, using his phone as a homing beacon until he heard Robbie’s voice overhead and looked up.

“What are you going to do, Angelo? Hobble out of town?”

“I dunno!” Angelo whined dejectedly. “But I can’t stay here, that’s for sure, and Lucas’ gonna try and stop me from leaving the city…”

Damn right, I am, Lucas thought to himself. He had to get up there. To add his weight to Robbie’s and convince Angelo to stay and fight these fuckers.

Unfortunately, he knew of only one way up there and he hadn’t done this stuff in a while.

He went back to the health centre and unlaced his boots, hooking them off at the heel. Then, after stuffing his socks into the toes of his boots, he slid one set of laces under his utility belt between his gun and his cuffs pouch and tied it to the other, leaving his boots dangling over his right butt-cheek. This was not the neighbourhood to leave anything lying around, and replacement boots would’ve come out of his pocket.

He then jumped over wheelchair access ramps, climbed onto the railing outside the front doors of the health centre and hauled himself up onto the boxed casing that would house the main door’s roll-down security grille during the day. From there, he hooked his toes on the store’s signage and with a couple of quick preparation bounces, he pushed off the casing and used the sign to drive himself the last four feet over the roof.

He rolled across the top of the second sign and fell to his hands and one knee behind it.

Not the most elegant of landings, and one his younger self would’ve absolutely laughed his ass off at, but the bottom line was ... he made it.

“Wha-wh-wh-what was that?” he heard Angelo sob/ask.

“It’s just a cat, man. Calm the buck down.” Robbie answered.

More of that weird wording. Yet another thing he’d have to get to the bottom of, but later. He held still for a few seconds, then, when he heard them start talking once more, he very carefully … very stealthily, he crept over to the rendered wall that dropped almost a storey to the building Robbie and Lucas were on.

He crested the edge and saw Robbie staring straight at him. “See, it’s just a cat, man,” he said, causing a second head to lift up from the air conditioning units. Lucas dropped out of sight and waited. “Oh, I guess you missed it,” Robbie went on. “I told you it was nothing to worry about.”

Now that Robbie knew he was there, he waited another minute, then returned to the edge and eased himself over it, hanging his full body length then shifting to only one arm so he could twist and see the perfect spot to land. Never in a million years had he thought his training would come in useful like this. He let go of the edge and dropped the last two feet, landing as gently as he could on his toes with soft knees.

Robbie was still in front of Angelo, which meant he could take the direct route from behind. Yes, it was a pincer movement, but Angelo would react better when he realised he was flanked by his roommates who cared about him. At that moment, he wished Boyd was there too. The three of them would defuse this hands down, but for now, two of them would have to do.

“Robbie, you don’t get it!’ Angelo sobbed. “Mason’s in the hospital because of me!”

“We know,” Robbie said, causing even Lucas to do a double-take. “Or rather, we know that’s what you think. These guys are evil, and they have tucked with your head, man and convinced you it’s all your fault when it’s not.”

“You don’t know shit, Robbie! You never did!”

“Then why don’t you explain it to us, Angie?” Lucas asked from only an arm’s length away, deliberately using his childhood nickname in the hopes of countering the presence of his police uniform. In that second, he saw how Angelo's feet were bandaged and his police brain already translated that into a hobbling factor that made things a lot easier for their side. “While I’m still in a listening mood.”

Angelo wasn’t going anywhere, but Lucas still had to talk him into coming back with him, because he really, really didn’t want to have to formally arrest him.

* * *

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PART ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIX

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((All comments welcome))

I made a family tree/diagram of the Mystallian family that can be found here

For more of my work including previous parts or WPs: r/Angel466

For those who want to read this from the very beginning: Part One

FULL INDEX OF BOB THE HOBO TO DATE CAN BE FOUND HERE!!