It was another busy day downtown at
Police Headquarters. Altobelli is sitting at his desk reading the last
crime report typed up by Rachel. Over the last few weeks a series
of daring heists had been perpetrated in an upmarket area of the city.
The assailants seem to be working under the control of a new crime lord
freshly arrived who seemingly is proving very difficult to catch.
Things were not looking good for the
police, as the wealthy business owners are all up in arms criticising
the poor way the L.A police have handled the incidents so far.
All of a sudden there is a knock at the door and Jesse Mach's face peers around the door.
"You wanted to see me, Skipper?" Jesse asks as he enters the room. "What's up?"
"Crime is up" replies Altobelli.
"Mach, I have a special assignment for you. The department is taking a
beating over these latest heists. The press is crucifying us and the
public is up in arms. We need to catch these guys ASAP."
"What can I do, Skipper? I'm not a street cop anymore" Jesse asks.
"No, Mach, you are not a street cop
anymore. You work in public relations, and right now this department
could use some good PR. We need to catch these crooks, and we need to
do it without help from that two wheeled bandit Street Hawk. Your
special assignment is to find Street Hawk. I want to know who he is. I
want to know where he is. I want to know what he eats for breakfast. I
want you to find him."....
... Jesse looks worried.
Upon leaving Altobelli's office, Jesse hastily makes a call to Norm, back at HQ.
Norm is understandably concerned.
"What are you going to do? I mean
Albobelli is going to have you running around town chasing your own
tail, and I need you here. Street Hawk has to crack this latest drug
running operation before it is allowed to get our of control."
"You think I don't know that Norm
ol'buddy. The skipper is adamant he wants me to find Street Hawk no
matter what. I don't think he's going to take no for an answer on this
one."
Their conversation is interrupted by Altobelli, who bursts unexpectedly through the door. Jesse looks up.
"Oh, and Mach... To help you I'm
asssigning Lt.Barclay. He's this new hot shot they got downstairs who's
come over from Miami. I want you to show him around the city, take him
to all the hideaways and back alleys in the city.
Street Hawk must hide out in one of these places. Someone must have seen him.
I wanna' know who supplies him his weaponry, where he fills up his fuel.
He's also got to be getting his
information from someone in the Police Dept and that concerns me! I
want them rooted out, you hear!"
Altobelli slams the door. Jesse doesn't need to ask Norm if he heard the conversation.
"Okay, now we have a big problem ..."
Meanwhile in a warehouse across
town, the drug smugglers are preparing for a new shipment. Their
distraction is almost ready. A man with a black motorcycle dons is
black suit, boots and helmet. He is going to hit a ritzy jewelry store
in the better part of town. Once the cops are busy chasing down Street
Hawk for robbing a jewelry store, moving the drugs will be a piece of
cake. Best of all, Street Hawk will be so busy staying ahead of the
cops he will not be able to interfere with the drug shipment. A perfect
plan. John Barclay smiles as he flips his visor down.
As Jesse is hanging up the phone,
Rachel comes in carrying a large box. Jesse jumps up and takes the box.
"Whoa there. Here let me help you. What is this?"
"Thanks, Jesse." Rachel replies.
"These are the invitations to the 'Widows and Orphans Benefit Dinner'.
I need to take them down to the mail room."
"I am headed down that way. I'll take them." offer Jesse.
"Would you? That would be great. That box is heavy." Rachel replies gratefully.
"Rachel, what do you know about Lt. Barclay?" Jesse asks.
"Not much really" Rachel answers. "I know he is some new hot shot from Miami. Why?"
"The commander has a special assignment for me and he wants Barclay to work with me on it." replies Jesse.
"What's the assignment?" Rachels asks.
"I'm supposed to find Street Hawk. Just what I need - a new guy to break in." Jesse says rolling his eyes heavenward.
"Altobelli wants you to find Street
Hawk? Whoa! That's quite an assignment. Good luck Jesse. You are going
to need it. If anyone is wily enough to find Street Hawk, it's you
Jesse." Rachel remarks.
"I'll take that as a compliment." Jesse laughs. "I think I'll stop by Barclays desk on my way out. See you tomorrow."
"Jesse. The invitations."
"Oh. Right. The invitaions."
"Bye, Jesse." Rachel laughs shaking her head.
Jesse makes the stop by the mail room
and heads off to find Lt. Barclay. The office is lined with rows of
desks on each side of a center aisle. He looks around the almost empty
office and spots an attractive blonde working at one of the desks.
"Excuse me" Jesse says giving her his most charming smile. "I'm looking
for Lt. Barclay."
The pretty blonde looks up and returns his smile. "Sorry. He left a while ago."
"Oh. Well. I'll try to catch him later." Jesse looks disappointed.
"I can leave a message for him if you want." replies the blonde brightly.
Jesse smiles again. "That would be great. Here. Just give him my card. It has all my information on it. Oh. I'm Jesse Mach."
"Nice to meet you Jesse. I'm Julie.
You might try stopping back by first thing in the morning. Lt Barclay
should be in then." Julie offers helpfully.
"I'll definitely stop back by,
Julie." Jesse says as he is leaving - whisteling on the way out. Yes,
he thinks. I'll definitely stop back by.
As Jesse is leaving Police HQ, he gets a message on his pager to return urgently to Street Hawk Command.
Jesse, climbsing into his Mustang, speeds away out of the police compound.
On entering the door of Command centre, Jesse almost collides with Norm who is in a frantic state.
"Jesse, I'm glad your here. What took
you?" quizzed Norman. "Anyway, there is definately something going down
today at the docks. Suit up now and go and do a recon. I want you there
when this thing decides to blow off."
Jesse doesn't have time to respond
and tell Norm about his special assignment from Altobelli. He is handed
the sleek black lid of Street Hawk's helmet and ushered into the
changing room.
A moment later, Jesse steps out, clad
all in black and makes his way toward the smoke filled compartment
where the bike was bedded. The safety door rolled back and he could see
the familiar sight of the sleek black machine, lights flickering on the
dashboard with signs of life.
"You know Norm I didn't even have
chance to grab a sandwich. Do you think I've got time for drive-thru?"
he said with a wry smile, almost predicting Norm's response.
"Second thoughts, forget it!" Jesse exclaimed, climbing onto the bike and flicking down the visor.
Norm looking slightly aggravated,
pressed the button that released the doors of the Maxi Billboard which
swung open violently as Street Hawk launched into the air like a bird
in flight.
Meanwhile, another mysterious black
rider is observing a store across town from a deserted alley opposite.
The store only has two customers in and one clerk.
The masked rider suddenly roars out
of the alley and makes a heading directly for the large unprotected
window of the store and launches himself through, throwing cases,
shelves and stock all over the place.
The cashiers and the customers look shocked as the rider pulls out a shotgun and levels it as the clerk.
"Give me all you got," came the
strange voice behind the helmet. The half-scared staff member puts up
no resistance, and hands over money and jewels.
"Street Hawk thanks you," says the grating voice behind the helmet, mockingly as he levels a gun towards the assistant.
A shot rings out.
All of a sudden an alarm rings out.
One of the other members of staff in another room had observed the
scene and acted quickly, triggered an alarm.
Grabbing what he could the rider climbs back on the bike and whisks away from where he had entered from.
Two minutes later, the familiar sirens of the L.A police thunder by in hot pursuit....
Jesse sits astride Street Hawk
surveying the warehouses. "Norman, are you sure this is the right
place. I've been here an hour and I haven't even seen a rat scurry."
"Be patient, Jesse. According to
intel this is the place." Norman replies. "I guess there could have
been a change in plans." Norman pauses as a message flashes across his
computer screen. "I just got a police bulletin about another robbery
downtown. An upscale jewelry store was hit by a guy on a motorcycle.
Looks like the same guy again."
"There's nothing going on here,
Norman. I'll go check it out" Jesse says as he turns the bike toward
the road. "Give me hyperthrust."
Norman give the countdown,
"Hyperthrust cleared and counting - 5,4,3,2,1." Street Hawk streaks
across town hoping to catch up with the robber.
Jesse brings the bike out of
hyperthrust as he approaches the site of the robbery. He is hoping to
get a clue as to which direction the robber headed. There are sirens in
the distance as the police cars approach the scene. As Street Hawk
nears the store, a woman runs out into the street pointing at him and
yelling, "That's him. That's the guy that robbed our store." Confused,
Jesse looks around. She is pointing at him. Why would she be pointing
at him?
"Norman, what's going on? Why does this woman think I'm the robber?" Jesse asks still looking around.
"I don't know Jesse" Norman replies "but I think you need to get out of there. The police will be there any second."
Just then a police cruiser rounds the
corner. The woman runs to the car pointing at Street Hawk and yelling
that he is the robber. Jesse roars off on the bike the police car close
behind him. "Norman, I think we have a problem. The police are chasing
me. They think Street Hawk robbed the jewelry store. What do we do now?"
It takes a moment for Norms voice to crackle through the helmet's microphone.
"Just ... just get going and we'll figure that out later!" Norm says urgently.
Just ahead Jesse spots a large truck
which is blocking the road, having dropped its load into the bikes
path. The obstacle looks too big to jump over. Jesse skids the bike to
a stop and circles around to face the oncoming police cars, now
perilously close.
"The alley to the right!" exclaims
Norm quickly. Jesse's head snaps around and identifies the exit route
and speeds towards it only to find another police car coming up and
blocking his path. An officer steps out with what Jesse identifies as a
shotgun in his hand.
Not wanting to stay to find out, Jesse turns again and heads left into a busy multi storey parking lot.
"Jesse, what are you up to. There's no way out it's a dead end" roars Norm, not disguising his anxiety.
Jesse continues to ride forward,
circling the bike up the ramps and being careful to avoid cars and the
general public, alarmed no doubt at the sight.
Finally, Jesse gets onto the top
storey of the parking lot, some distance now from the road below. He
can see two of the police cars entering after him and another sliding
to a hault to block the exit point. No way out than other than a leap
of faith, Jesse thinks to himself.
He looks ahead. A gap of some 30 feet lay ahead.
Norm could not believe what he was seeing through the helmet cam back at Command.
"Well, here goes nothing" cries Jesse giving the bike full throttle as he prepares for the lap.
Seconds seem like minutes to Norm back in Command centre as he sits rigidally in his chair, hands over eyes theatrically.
The bike touches down heavily onto
the roof of a neighbouring parking lot. Not waiting to catch his breath
Jesse speeds down the ramps and out, soon lost down the back alleys
making further pursuit impossible.
Watching from a safe vantage point is
a black clad motorcyclist. The visor is up and Lt.Barclays face scowls
back. Street Hawk may have gotten away, but at least the drugs shipment
had got through, he throught to himself.
Getting back home that evening, Jesse is about to enter the door of his apartment when he notices a figure behind him.
"Hey, Mach!"
Jesse turns to confront Lt.Barclay.
"Hey, the name's Barclay. We missed each other today..." apologises Barclay, a tinge of insincerity in his voice.
"Um, yeah, no problem" says Jesse
startled. "You know the skipper is pretty anxious for us to work
together and get a result asap. You'd better come in..."
"Thanks" said Barclay, following
Jesse in. "You know, seems to me this Street Hawk is just a punk.
Should have him behind bars in no time.
Heard he robbed a jewellers today and even shot the assistant. People won't tolerate that I tell you.
The so called "people's hero." If
someone knows who this guy is they'll soon hand him in and we won't
even need to lift a finger!"
Jesse looks disturbed.
"Street Hawk killed a person? That couldn't be right..."
The next day at police headquarters
Commander Altobelli sits at his desk a newspaper in one hand and a
bottle of antacid in the other. "Mach, get in here!" Altobelli bellows.
Jesse enters Altobelli's office. "What are you doing to find this guy?"
the commander asks waving the newspaper in the air.
Jesse recognizes the paper with the
story of the robbery. "Sir, I just got the assignment yesterday. Lt.
Barclay and I are starting to look for leads."
"Look harder and faster" Altobelli
orders. "Street Hawk has been playing us for a fool. He's been catching
a few criminals to throw us off his real mission. Not only has he been
stealing stuff all over town, now he's murdered someone."
"I wonder if was really Street Hawk who commited those robberies. Maybe it was someone impersonating him." Jesse offers.
"We have an eye witness. It was
Street Hawk. I have every available officer scanning the streets for
him. I need you and Barclay to get on this thing and get us a lead"
replies Altobelli.
"Yes, sir. I'll get right on it" Jesse says as he leaves Altobelli's office.
He returns to his desk and dials
Norman at command center. "Norman, we have to sit down and figure this
out. The police are crawling all over town looking for Street Hawk.
Altobelli is breathing down my neck to find him. Somebody is playing a
dangerous game. A clerk in that store was killed yesterday. We have to
find this guy."
"I know Jesse" Norman assures.
"Listen, I'm sure yesterday was a set up. I just got word the the drug
shipment moved while we were out chasing this copy cat. The robbery was
a diversion and it worked. Now we know what this guy is up to, we can
set a trap."
"Well, let's just be sure the trap
catches the right Street Hawk. I don't look good in stripes" Jesse
quips. "How do we set this guy up?"
Back at Command Center, Norman is
working furiously at his post. Jesse saunters in, his leather jacket
hung casually over his shoulder, walking at a brisk but not hurried
pace. He quips, “So, Norm, any ideas how to defeat my evil
twin?”
Not looking up from his monitor, Norman responds, “He’s not hardly your twin, evil or not.”
Jesse interjects “No, I suppose he’s not nearly as good looking as I am, right Norm?”
“Maybe not nearly as
conceited,” retorts Norman, “But I was actually referring
to the bike itself. I just accessed the police report from the jewelry
robbery and murder. Your impersonator does have a modified off-road
bike, but from the description they’ve recorded from the
witnesses, the bike isn’t anything special.”
“How so?”
“Well, for one thing, the bike
didn’t do anything spectacular. The window he crashed through was
a large full-length window, which means he didn’t need vertical
lift to clear any obstructions. And another thing. The imposter killed
the clerk by shooting him point-blank in the torso with a sawed-off
shotgun. Obviously if this guy had a bike with half the firepower of
Street Hawk, he wouldn’t need to carry a weapon.”
Jesse jokes “Maybe YOUR evil twin hasn’t figured out how to put it on the bike yet?”
“Ha Ha…very funny Jesse.
But this isn’t a laughing matter, someone was murdered and they
are framing you…actually, us…for the murder.”
“I know, I know…and it
doesn’t help that Aloibelli wants my head already unless I can
tell him who Street Hawk is.”
Norman, who rarely jokes, decides to
take a stab at it, “So how is the investigation coming? Found the
secret identity of Street Hawk yet?”
Not missing a beat, “No, but
from what I can gather this guy is the best of the best. And highly
underpaid, I might add.” Norman rolls his eyes dramatically in
response.
“Actually, the sidekick
Altobelli has assigned me is the biggest problem. If you think
I’m overconfident, you haven’t met Lt. Barclay. This guy is
bravado personified. Unfortunately, I’m worried how I’m
going to ditch this guy every time I have to head over here.”
“How did you manage to lose him this time?” asks Norman.
“I got lucky this time. He said he had needed to leave for a few hours to attend some family funeral.”
“I see,” says Norman,
“well, I’d like to say let’s make the best of it and
get Street Hawk out there looking for our imposter, but with the cops
and the public thinking you are enemy #1, I don’t know if it is
safe to send you out on another mission. So that’s why I’m
trying to formulate a plan to try and set this guy up. The only problem
is, he is out there trying to set us up too so that these drug
shipments will continue unabated.”
Jessie offers optimistically
“Maybe if we can find out who this guy is first, we’ll have
a better idea of how to catch him.”
“Oh, that’s great,”
says Norm insincerely, “and how do you intend to find out who our
mystery biker is?”
“Maybe I’ll just try a little old-fashioned police work, buddy.”
“Fine,” Norman says in
resignation, “go do your police work until I can come up with a
plan that might actually work.”
The font of the jewelry store where
the scene of the robbery and murder occurred. The store owner is
cleaning up broken glass while insurance adjusters and glass repairmen
are inspecting the place. Jessie’s yellow Mustang pulls up to the
curb nearby.
Jessie approaches the store owner, “Are you Mr. Willington?”
“Yes, who are you?” replies the visibly frazzled man.
“I’m Jessie Mach, I am
with the Los Angeles Police Department. I was wondering if I could ask
you a few questions?”
“I already answered questions from a Detective Brassman,” responds the man with a puzzled look on his face.
“Yes, I know, but his report
accidentally got mixed up with some invitations that got thrown
out,” says Jessie in an only semi-believable tone.
“Oh, I see…well, what did you want to know?”
Relieved that the store owner
believed his story, Jessie begins talking more naturally, “So did
the perpetrator come through this window?” pointing at the
obvious gaping hole in the front of the store.
“Yes, and from the tears in the
carpet I believe he stopped right about here,” says the store
owner, pointing to an area where the carpet showed heavy wear and
ripping. “And then he…” the store owner’s
voice begins to quiver “…then he shot Jim.” The man
starts to sob, though obviously against his own will.
“I’m sorry sir,” comforts Jessie, “I know it must be devastating.”
Regaining some composure, the store
owner responds “Yes, it was the worst thing I have ever
witnessed. I’d only had Jim working for me for about a week, but
it was still awful to have to see him die like that.”
“Where was Jim when he was shot?” asked Jessie?
“Right there, behind the ring
counter,” answered the store owner, pointing to a nearby display
case. Jesse walks over and peers behind the counter. He stares for a
minute, then quickly turns around and asks, “Did you say it was
right here?”
“Yes, why? What is the problem?”
“I don’t see any blood.”
Back at the police station, Jesse
walks up to a desk where an older gentleman, a senior detective, is
sitting at a very clean desk.
“Hey, Charles, how you doin’? How’s that lovely wife of yours?” begins Jessie.
“Divorced 5 months ago. What
does P.R. want?” replies the detective, hardly looking up from
the report he is working on.
Not phased, Jessie responds,
“Oh, you know, just wanting to know how things are going. I hear
there was a robbery/murder on 7th Street this morning.”
“Yeah…some jeweler got
shot point blank during a robbery...died en route to the hospital.
What’s it to you?”
Jessie replies importantly,
“Well, word is they think it is this Street Hawk guy, and
Altobelli has ordered me to gather as much info on this guy as I
can.”
The detective looks up over his glasses at Mach, “Well, that may be what they say, but I don’t believe it.”
“How come?” asks Jessie.
“That’s not Street
Hawk’s M.O. Don’t get me wrong, this Street Hawk guy is a
vigilante, and I know Altobelli don’t like him much for showing
him up, but we’ve never seen this guy commit a crime like this.
Honestly, off the record Street Hawk has done nothing but good from
what I can tell.”
“Thanks,” answers Jessie.
“Thanks for what?”
“Oh, um…” stumbles Jesse, “thanks for the info…about Street Hawk.
“Yeah, well, that’s strictly off the record,” growls the detective.
“Yes yes, of course. So, this guy got shot point blank by a shotgun. Must have been pretty messy.”
“I dunno, didn’t get a chance to see the body,” answers the detective.
“Why not?” asks Jessie.
“Paramedics were just down the
street, they were first to respond. They thought they had a chance of
saving him if they got him to the hospital on time. Guess they were
wrong.”
“Was there a lot of blood at the scene?”
The detective looks intently at
Jessie, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you
were following up on me,” he pauses “No, there wasn’t
really any blood at the scene, but that didn’t surprise me much
because shotgun wounds don’t always leave exit wounds. Anything
else, Mach?”
“No, no…that’s plenty. Thanks for your help Charlie.”
“Yeah, don’t mention it.”
A run down warehouse on the dock. Lt.
Barclay is standing outside, waiting. An ambulance slowly pulls up.
Barclay walks up as the driver gets out. "Any trouble?" asks Barclay?
"Nah, everyone was pretty shook up, I don't think they'd even had the courage to touch the body," answers the driver.
"And were you followed?"
"No, not that we could tell."
"Good," says Barclay. The back of the
ambulance opens up and man with a bloody chest walks out. It's the
clerk from the jewelry store. The man grins and says "Yeah, they were
so shook up they couldn't tell I was still breathing. Man it's hard to
breathe slow when your adreneline is pumping." Barclay isn't listening.
He reaches into the ambulance to get on the CB Radio. "Hawk Catcher 1,
this is Eagle Eye, are we clear, over?"
A fuzzy voice on the CB responds "Roger, Eagle Eye, dispatch was informed of the delivery to Luther Mercy Hospital, over."
"Copy that," answers Barclay. Then he
turns to his associates, "Next shipment will be coming in this evening,
are you guys ready?"
The jewelry clerk, while taking off his bloody clothes and vest, responds, "Yeah, my shift at the bank starts in about 2 hours."
"Right...then I guess it's time for
Street Hawk to ride again," says Barclay with a gleam in his eye. Just
then, the ambulance driver and medic open one of the nearby crates and
roll out a black motorcycle.
Back at the station, Jessie is on the
phone, "Hello, yes, I'm looking for the number for Luther Mercy
Hospital...yes...Luther Mercy...what? No, that can't be right. We had a
shooting victim this morning and the report says he was taken to Luther
Mercy. Ok, I understand. Thank you." Right at the end of his
conversation, Jessie's pager starts beeping. Instinctively he dials
Norman's number, "Well, Norman, I don't know what to tell you, my good
ol' fashioned police work has only turned up a missing corpse and some
hospital that doesn't seem to exist."
"Well, Jessie...the thing is...I was having difficulty thinking of a plan to catch the imposter...so....I did some research..."
"And...???"
"And it turns out, our dead jewelry clerk recently had an occupation change."
"How's that?"
"Well, turns out he used to be a cop."
"Oh, well...then he's obviously in on it, right Norman? Maybe I should just turn myself in, since I'm a cop too."
"Well, the thing is, he resigned a
few months ago. Apparently there was some scandal involving drugs and
he is believed to have quit to avoid any further investigation into the
matter."
"Is that so, Norman. Are you thinking our dead guy could have been in on the whole thing?"
"It's a long shot, I know...but it would be worth looking into."
"Ok, I'll do some digging to see if I can come up with our missing corpse."
"Oh, and Jessie, from what I can
tell, it looks like your partner Lt. Barclay used to work in his
presinct...maybe your friend can be useful after all."
"Maybe...I'll see if I can track him down."
"Where the heck is Barclay?" Jesse
wonders on the way back to his desk. He turns the corner and runs
directly into Leo Altobelli. "Sorry Skipper. I guess my mind was
somewhere else." Jesse says as an apology.
"I hope it was out finding Street
Hawk. Do you and Barclay have anything yet?" Altobelli asks. He and
Jesse walk back toward Altobelli's office.
"Funny thing about Barclay - I never can seem to find him, but I have some interesting information" Jesse answers.
"Sounds like someone else around here. So what have you got?" queries Altobelli.
"The clerk killed in the jewelry heist is missing" says Jesse.
"The guy was killed. How does he be missing?" Altobelli wants to know.
"I did some checking. The hospital
the body was supposedly taken to does not exist. No one knows where the
body is " Jesse answers. "The clerk, Mike Vincent, was a former cop.
Came from the same precinct as Barclay. I was hoping the detective
could give me some information on him."
"This is all great, but what does it have to do with finding Street Hawk?" Altobelli asks.
Jesse turns on the Mach charm. "Patience, Skipper. I have a gut feeling this guy was involved in the robbery."
"I have a gut feeling too. Mine is
telling me that I am in for another ulcer if you don't find Street Hawk
soon. Get me some answers!" bellows the Commander as he starts to enter
his office. "Oh. Good work, Mach. I'll give Miami a call and see what
they have to say. You find Barclay and see if he knows anything."
Jesse's pager beeps just as Altobelli
closes his door. It's a message from Norman. The drugs are being moved
tonight. Jesse grabs his jacket and heads out the door to command
center.
A few minutes later Commander Altobelli opens the door of his office. "Where's Mach?" he asks Rachel.
"I don't know Commander. He made a phone call and left" Rachel answers. "Is something wrong?"
Altobelli brings her up to date on
the missing store clerk and his connection to Det. Barclay. "Jesse is
supposed to be meeting with Barclay about this Vincent character. I
just got off the phone with their precinct in Miami. Seems Barclay and
Vincent were buddies. Vincent resigned over a scandal involving some
drugs. Right after that Barclay transferred out here. I don't like the
connection."
"Do you think Barclay is involved with the Street Hawk robbery?" Rachels asks worriedly. "Jesse could be in trouble if he is."
"I don't know. I do know that I need to find both of them - and Street Hawk."
Jessie comes jogging into Command Center. Turning the corner for the locker room, he calls out to Norman "What've we got?"
"The shipping logs indicate another shipment is due at the docks in about 2 hours."
Taking off his shirt, Jessie asks "So
what ever happened to it being too dangerous for Street Hawk to be on
the streets right now?"
"I know, Jessie, but we have to complete the mission. We can't just ignore the drug shipment when we know it is coming in."
"I'm not about to ignore it either, Norm, but you know as well as I do that there's going to be another diversion."
"I know, Jessie...look...maybe we'll just inform the police and hope for the best...I don't want to take unnecessary risks."
Jessie, dressed in his black
jumpsuit, walks up to Norman and puts his hand on his shoulder, "Aww,
Norm, I didn't know you cared."
"I don't want to put the bike at risk either, Jessie."
"Yes, of course," says Jessie, with a
look that shows he can tell Norm cares about him too but doesn't want
to say it, "but I'm not about to give these guys what they want. I know
we can take these guys down, we'll figure out a way."
Norman takes in a breath and lets out
a long sigh, "Fine, head to the docks...we'll see how this pans out."
He strikes a key and pulls a lever, opening the safety hatch to reveal
Street Hawk.
Back at the docks, things are quiet,
except for a low rumbling noise. The noise is eminating from Street
Hawk as Jessie peers around the corner of a shipping crate. "See
anything" comes Normans voice over the speaker.
"Nope, not a thing," answers Jessie. "Anything on your scanner, Norman?"
"It's quiet, but we do have another hour before the shipment arrives."
"Yeah, and I bet its going to get
noisy on your scanner before then." Jessie sits there, apparently lost
in thought. Then, apparently answering a question he had asked himself
in his head, he says "Of course, he has to be alive."
"What's that?" asks Norm.
"The jewelry clerk, the ex cop...if he was in on it, then he'd have to be alive still."
"Well, yeah, that makes sense."
"Norm, look that guys employment records up, see what you can come up with."
Norman, anticipating Jessie's
question, is already pulling up the records on his screen. His eyes
light up and under his breath he utters "Well I'll be..." then, waking
out of his trance, he says excitedly "Jessie! This guy has been
employed part-time with almost a dozen places, most of them were hit by
these guys over the last couple weeks."
"Norman, are there any places on the list that haven't been hit yet?"
"Yeah, a Westminster Bank, about 50 miles from you."
"How much you want to bet that's where our next diversion is going to be?"
"I'm already putting in the coordinates, get going Jessie!"
"I'm on my way."
At Westminster Bank, Mike Vincent is
working one of the teller booths in the afternoon. In the parking lot,
the sound of a motorcycle engine starts to become louder. Mike looks at
the front glass door, anticipating what is about to happen. A black
motorcycle and rider blast through the door sending glass flying
everywhere. Women scream and duck. All the other tellers duck behind
their counters. The rider drives up to Mike's booth, points a shotgun
at him, and yells "Everybody stay calm and do exactly what Street Hawk
tells you to do!"
Back on the freeway, Jessie is
speeding towards the scene. Norman starts the hyper-thrust countdown
"Hyper-thrust cleared and counting...5...4...3...2...1...GO!"
Immediately the bike jolts forward and the scenery begins to blur.
Jessie can sit comfortably while computer assist takes over the
driving. "Norman, I just don't get it," he says, "if this guy was an
employee at every one of these places, the police would have seen the
pattern. His name would have shown up in every report. Even if the cops
didn't notice, the police computer would have caught that there was a
pattern."
Norman rolls over to one of his
terminals and starts accessing the police department database. "Jessie,
I don't see Mike Vincent listed in any of these police reports."
"What!?! How is that possible?"
"Jessie, I don't know what to tell you...it's like his name has been removed from these reports."
"But that's impossible...only a police officer from our precinct can make changes to that database."
Norm types a few more keys, "Jessie, all these reports were last edited by Lt. Barclay."
"Then I'm going to go have a word with Barclay, and I think I know where to find him."
Back at the bank, the customers and
tellers are being herded into the main vault. Barclay, pointing his
shotgun at Mike Vincent, directs him to keep bagging up the money from
the registers. With a forced look of panic on his face, he shovels wads
of cash into a brown bank bag. Then, hearing something, he looks up. A
black motorcycle comes roaring out of hyper-thrust and is quickly
approaching the bank. "It's Street Hawk!" Barclay nudges the last of
the bank employees into the vault, reaches into his jacket and pulls
out a tear-gas grenade. He pulls the pin, tosses it into the center of
the vault, and slams the door shut.
Vincent shouts out "Wait, you're
supposed to lock me in there with the rest of them!" Barclay shouts
back, "There's no time, they must be on to us. Get on!"
Vincent climbs on, money bag in hand.
Just then, the real Street Hawk roars through the front door, sliding
sideways to a stop. Jessie arms the machine gun, which pops out of the
pod at the front of the bike.
"Freeze, Barclay!" Jessie yells.
Barclay revs the bike, Vincent ducks, they make a break for the rear of
the bank. Jessie opens fire, but his bullets are deflected by the
teller counter that Barclay is ducking behind. Barclay manages to kick
a rear door open and squeeze out the back. Jessie begins to pursue but
then notices grey smoke coming from the edges of the vault.
"Tear Gas!" Jessie exclaims.
Norman responds, "In that enclosed
space its going to suffocate everyone!" Jessie jumps off the bike, trys
to open the vault, but the lock has automatically been reset. "It won't
budge," says Jessie after pulling on the handle.
Norman looks at the vault through his
monitor, "Its going to take a good 10 minutes to cut through those
hinges with Street Hawk's laser."
"I don't think we have any choice,"
answers Jessie. He slides the power lever on the laser control to
maximum, activating the laser which pops and spins out of the front of
the bike. A steady red beam begins carving the large hinge for the bank
vault.
Back at the dock, Barclay comes
roaring up to his henchmen on the bike. Mike Vincent jumps off the bike
and throws the bag of money to a nearby thug. Barclay removes his
helmet and addresses the leader of the group "We've got trouble, Street
Hawk got there before we could finish and he knows who I am; our cover
is blown."
"What do we do? They are still loading cargo off the ship."
Barclay turns and looks at a big
freighter anchored about 100 feet away. "Street Hawk will likely be
here any minute. Do you have the explosives?"
"Right here, boss"
"Get on that freighter and get
control of the helm. Have one of our guys place the explosives in the
fuel room. Set the timer to go off at 6 o'clock. I'll make sure Street
Hawk is on that boat when it does."
As police cars start pulling up to
the bank, Jessie finally finishes cutting the last inch of the hinges.
The door crashes dramatically on the floor and tear gas pours into the
room. People begin crawling out of the vault.
Norman shouts "There's no time to check on them, Jessie, you need to get out of there."
Jessie spins around, revs his motor
and comes darting out the front door of the bank. The police have
formed a barricade with their cars and are standing behind them with
guns drawn. Jessie hits his Vertical-Lift button and Street Hawk is
launched over the barricade and races away before the cops regain their
composure enough to fire a shot. "I'm on my way back to the docks,
Norman!"
Back at the docks, Barclay’s
henchmen have taken over the freighter. The freighter’s original
crew are tied up and hidden behind some crates on the dock. Street Hawk
comes roaring up to the docks, scanning the area. Upon his arrival, one
of the henchmen get on the radio, “He’s here.” As
Jessie is scanning the area, he sees a black motorcycle drive out onto
the deck of the freighter, stop, and stare right at him. Norman pipes
up, “Jessie, it’s a trap!” But Jessie doesn’t
listen. He revs the bike and launches toward the freighter. Barclay
takes off, disappearing behind the many cargo boxes still on the
freighter. Jessie hits Vertical-Lift and is catapulted onto the deck of
the freighter.
Up on the captains deck, Mike Vincent turns the rudder and starts the freighter moving out of the dock.
Street Hawk begins winding down the
row of boxes. All of a sudden, one of the henchmen jumps out with an
Uzi, spraying bullets. Jessie pops a wheelie, deflecting the bullets
off the front of the bike. Jessie rams the front wheel into the bad
guy, sending him flying off the deck of the boat. Jessie lands the
front wheel and stops, getting his bearings. He turns and finds himself
staring down the barrel of a shotgun. Barclay, grinning, says
“Ok, Street Hawk, nice and easy. Get off the bike.”
Jessie stares at Barclay, trying to
think of something. Barclay starts getting impatient, “It
doesn’t look like you’re wearing Kevlar, so I’d say
you don’t have any choice. GET OFF THE BIKE!” Jessie
notices that they are passing underneath the crane with a crate
hovering about 50 feet overhead. Jessie calmly responds “I have
to enter the dismount code, or else this bike is programmed to
explode.”
Norm, looking confused, says “What? I didn’t program a dismount code into the bike!”
Barclay, eyeing Jessie suspiciously, says, “Fine, enter the code.”
Jessie reaches down, hitting the
laser controls. The laser gun pops up. Before Barclay can react, Jessie
targets and fires at the crane, hitting the cable. The crate comes
loose, rushing down toward them. Barclay dives for cover, and Jessie
races away, just barely avoiding being crushed himself. Bad guys start
opening fire from various perches around the boat. Jessie weaves and
dodges, firing his machine gun and taking out numerous bad guys. Mike
Vincent, up in the control room, looks at his watch and sees it is
5:55. He runs out of the control booth, shouting to the remaining
henchmen, “Get off, she’s about to blow.”
Immediately, the bad guys disengage the fight and begin diving off the
boat. Jessie, not aware of what is going on, thinks he has won the
fight. He heads back to the collapsed crate where he last saw Barclay.
Barclay is lying there, alive but bleeding and not able to move. Jessie
pulls up, Barclay does not appear to be interested in fighting. Jessie
addresses him, “Barclay…why did you do it? Why did you let
yourself become a dirty cop?”
Barclay looks up, “I…I
stopped caring about the job...I realized that the job was killing
me…killing everybody…and that it’s the bad guys who
get to live the good life. Does the department care if I gave
everything? Nah. We’re expendable.”
Jessie scoffs, “So you’re a coward…you traded in your honor for greed.”
Barclay fires up, “Coward!?!? I
fought crime, fought tooth and nail. But because of the fight I lost
Trina. You don’t lose the love of your life and not have it
change you.”
“You can’t blame the police that your girlfriend died, Barclay.”
“You can if she was your
partner.” Jessie stops, at a loss for words. Barclay looks up,
stares straight at Jessie and says “Of course, you know what that
feels like, don’t you…Jessie Mach!”
Norman, sitting quietly through this
whole discourse, jumps up like he was hit by lightning, “HE KNOWS
WHO YOU ARE, JESSIE!”
Jessie, realizing there is no point
in keeping up the charade, lifts his helmet off. He looks down at
Barclay, with half anger, half pity. Barclay continues,
“There’s a thin line between vigilante and criminal,
Jessie…you and I are victims of our violent past.”
“I’m nothing like you, Barclay!” retorts Jessie.
“As I see it, Jessie,
you’re more like me than you’d like to admit,” then,
looking down at his watch, which shows 5:59, he says “anyways,
you and I are about to meet the same fate, regardless.”
Norman, immediately realizing the
implications, yells “Jessie, you have to get off that boat,
now!” Jessie tosses his helmet back on, wheels the bike around,
and looks for an escape route. But by now, the freighter is about 500
feet from the docks, not close enough for Jessie to reach even with
Vertical Lift. Jessie drives to the edge of the freighter deck, spins
around, and faces a short runway towards the dock. Panicking, Norman
pleads “Jessie, you can’t make it, it’s way too
far.”
Determined, Jessie says “Norman, I need you to give me Hyper Thrust on the count of 3.”
“What are you doing, Jessie!” screams Norman “That’s suicide.”
Jessie revs the bike
“One!” drops the clutch and screams forward
“Two!” nears the edge of the freighter, pulls a wheelie and
hits Vertical Lift, “THREE!!!” The bike launches in the
air. An explosion rings out inside the freighter and the bike is
engulfed in a large fireball. Norman, closing his eyes, hits the button
for Hyper-Thrust. Like a rocket, Jessie fires through the sky like a
cannonball. He clears the water, and as he comes sailing down Norman
sees he’s heading straight for a large group of shipping crates.
He gasps, “He’s going to be smashed!” The bike lands
and Jessie squeezes the bike between two crates, the opening being just
barely large enough for him and the bike. Once through, he hits the
airfoil brakes and comes to a screeching halt. Jessie looks back
between the crates and sees the nose of the burning freighter plunge
backward into the bay. He hears screaming and yelling. He realizes its
coming from inside his helmet. Norman is jumping and dancing around
Command Center, “Yes! Yes! He did it! He actually did it!”
The sound of police sirens can be heard in the distance. Jessie says “Norman! Norman!”
Interrupted from his celebration, Norman stops jumping around and says, “What, Jessie?”
“I think it’s time for me go to, wouldn’t you think?”
Slightly embarrassed, Norman composes himself and says, “Oh, right, yes, let’s get you out of there.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” says Jessie, grinning.
“Ok, I’ve got an exit route for you to the North.”
“I’m on my way, Norman.”
“Oh, and Jessie.”
“Yes, Norman?”
“I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Thanks, Norman.”
Later at police headquarters:
"Well, Commander, looks like I was right. Street Hawk did not rob that jewelry store. It was a look-a-like" Jesse says smuggly.
Looking resigned, Altobelli agrees,
"I know. We found the bike and suit in the warehouse. Looks like
Barclay was using Street Hawk as a decoy."
"Too bad Barclay was killed in the explosion. He could have answered a lot of questions." Rachel adds.
"Vincent is talking - he's hoping for
a plea bargain, but it's unlikely. At least we stopped the drug ring"
Altobelli offers. "Miami has busted the crew on their end."
"All thanks to Street Hawk" Rachel counters.
"Now don't go there. I still want
this guy off my streets" Altobelli growls. "Mach you are still on the
case. I've got a new partner for you to work with."
"No way! Absolutely not!" Jesse states emphatically. "No more partners. That last one was enough. I work alone. A-L-O-N-E."
"Ok. Ok. No partner, but I want you
to find some information on Street Hawk and soon. I'll let Julie Elliot
know that you will not be needing her help." Altobelli concedes.
"Julie?" Jesse questions. "The detective? Blonde? Blue eyes? About 5'6?"
"Yeah" Altobelli answers. "That's her."
"Well in that case.... " Jesse considers.
"Oh, no. You work A-L-O-N-E. That's the way you want it. That's the way you got it" laughs Altobelli.