The Fire Triangle -- Part II, Oxidizer

The Fire Triangle: Book II - Chapter 52

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The Fire Triangle

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Part Two:

Oxidizer

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Chapter 9: Conor's Story
(Continued...Part 3)

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♪ "When the fear had disappeared, I found a way
Of getting worse and more detached from every day
So, all excuses, alibis, and self-defense
Came to nothing in the face of evidence

Spinning, sinning, losing, winning
Rising, falling, calling...

Ooh, should I be banished to the dark side for all time?
Ooh, am I to blame for what was done to me?
Ooh, is there a reason for just what I came to be?
Ooh, 'cause I was raised in captivity." ♫

John Wetton – Raised In Captivity

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Vern Rodenberg was not a happy rat.

All right...he had accepted the fox-kid's insistence that he needed to tell his story from the beginning; go ahead boy, knock yourself out.

Yeah fine, except...his client had been going at it for HOW long now? And while it had all been very interesting—at times even fascinating—the budding little shtarke had yet to reveal anything of significance.

More than once, Rodenberg had come close to exploding, 'Will you cut to the chase, already?'

There was only one reason that he hadn't; Conor wasn't giving him the unabridged version for the purpose of stringing him along. After so many years as legal counsel to the mob, Vernon J. Rodenberg, Attorney at Law, had better know that shtick when he ran into it.

But now, he finally sensed that they were getting close to the action. The fugitive young silver fox's tale was at last taking him to Zoo Jersey, home of the Granite Point Youth Correctional Facility—which had also once housed a felonious young sea-mink by the name of Wesley 'Crazy Wez' McCrodon, aka The Bearfoot Bandit. As he recalled his one-and-only encounter with The Mister's young nephew, Rodenberg was unable to suppress a shudder. Oy, what had that idiot been thinking, wanting to bring THAT meshuggeneh little psycho into his organization? Well, given The Company chieftain's behavior towards the end, it shouldn't have come as a surprise.

And Conor, too, had known that Crazy Wez was a character who more than lived up to his handle. Not only that; he'd also been aware that the grey rat had once declined to represent the dangerous young felon. That, more than anything else, was what had prompted him to take the fox-kid back as a client. To be sure, it was a flimsy rationale at best; the bulk of his decision had been based on little more than a hunch.