Tell Them This When I Die

The Sweet, Candy Taste of Victory

Brit Cavanaugh is his name tonight.

He usually goes by Scott—he went by Scott back in the city over, but for the last few years, he's been Brit. Brit Cavanaugh, college student in the south end. His alter-ego is a know-nothing frat boy who sells oxy to other students to get them through exam season.

A year and a half ago, Adam and his team caught a homeless man with seven grams of cocaine. In comes the deal: The man gives the name of the bigger fish, and he gets off.

Warsaw Winx, the man said. That's who he buys from. In comes Brit, who started buying oxy from Warsaw Winx a few weeks later, giving Winx the impression that Brit is the homeless man's nephew, whom he trusts. Brit is a cop who has bought nearly one hundred thousand dollars of drugs from Winx in the last year. When he receives the oxy from Winx, he deals it out to the college students, and he makes good money.

The cops have enough on Winx to put him away for life. But Winx is not the fish they want. After establishing a connection with Winx, Brit says he'd like to switch over and get in on the cocaine trade. Winx tells him the cocaine trade is a lot different from the oxy trade—a lot higher stakes, and he doesn't sell bulk cocaine. So Brit asks the name of Winx's dealer. The big fish. Winx skirts around it, dallies for months, making sure Brit is legit. Then, finally, he gives it up.

Nyx. Eris Diakos. That's the only bitch in the city that'll set you up with bulk of the hard shit, Winx says. I can get you a meeting.

It took nearly six months to get a deal with Eris. There was a lot of back and forth—never any confession of selling—never from anyone up high. Then, finally, two weeks ago, Brit gets his instructions. He's to buy a large, white van and have 'Mary's desserts' painted on the side. He's to buy a driver uniform with the same logo and put it on. He's to fill the back of his van with unsuspecting things—cookware, dessert Tupperware, the works. He's to drive to the back loading entrance of Nyx entertainment at nine o'clock on a Saturday night in the middle of the summer. He's to bring only his pre-approved partner, his best friend and fellow student Stanley. Now Stanley actually is a student, and he has no clue that his fake best friend is, in fact, a fake best friend. Brit has spent months making friends with Stanley and taking courses at the college. He knows Nyx has been watching him—following him from his dorm to class and back. He only speaks to Adam from the satellite phone in the bathroom of his dorm on Friday nights.

Yesterday, during his talk with Adam, the Sergeant informed Brit that he was to pick up a micro microphone from the front desk of his dorm building, which he did, and fasten it to the second button of his shirt, which he did. Actually receiving the cocaine would shut all of Nyx down for good, but a simple uttering of the words 'cocaine' and 'sell' with a personal pronoun from Eris would put her away, hence the mic. That way, Brit is also protected in case things get violent.

Before he leaves his dorm, Brit does a test with his mic, then he goes down to the parking lot, where he meets Stanley. They get in his van and drive to the east end.

Brit is covered in tattoos and shows off long, greasy blonde hair that he—as Scott—absolutely hates. Scott is a well-trained, level-headed officer that's only in this position because he begged, pleaded and worked for it. But Brit's hands shake as he drives. He pulls into the back lot at Nyx on Saturday night with sweaty palms. He gets out of the van and knocks on the service door, Stanley close by.

Nikolas answers. He sees Brit as a new dealer that's going to start up with Nyx. He nods to Brit once, then invites the both of them inside.

"Do I—is the..." Brit pauses. "The packages—do I get them here, or—"

Nikolas laughs. Eris rarely deals with college kids, but she's missing big market if she cuts them out entirely. So she brought in Brit because he was smart enough not to mess anything up, and in the four months she's had people on him, he hasn't slipped up.