Nouno the Vigilante Episode 29 World on Fire

                Tevin Biles has had a rough few years. Growing up, he got into small problems.  His sister spent most of her time in the gym as she was really into gymnastics.  Tevin thought she was wasting her time.  Gymnasts never got very far.  The only ones that were important were only relevant every four years during the summer Olympic Games.  Tevin would try to tell his sister that the Olympic team wasn’t about talent for they wanted you to look like a representative of America too.  That’s why they had pale white American sweethearts like Sean Johnson.  As is normally the case, Tevin was exaggerating how racist America was.  It was actually one of the, if not the, least racist country in the world.  That would be shown in 2016 in Brazil when Simon Biles awed the world leading Team USA to gold and capturing individual Gold medals as well.  Even people that knew nothing about gymnastics and only watched every four years couldn’t understand how it was physically possible for a person that small to generate the amount of power it took to leap in the air and do all those flips and twists.  It was no wonder that Alicia Keys had Simon Biles perform as she played her hit song This Girl is on Fire.  Simone truly was.

                Rather than be happy for his sister, Tevin was furious.  For the first time, people looked at him as ‘Simone’s brother’ rather than Tevin.  With this anger bottling up inside, he needed a way to release it.  Unfortunately, he didn’t outlet it with hitting a gym like his sister but he ended up, coincidentally or not, killing one person for every year since Simone because a household name; three.  It was a New Years Eve and Tevin committed the murders in Ohio, where he grew up.  Tevin was an active member of the US army living in Georgia before becoming a multi-murderer. 

 

                In Arizona, two other Ohio natives were enjoying the sun.  Abby and Nouno had grown up in Cleveland, Ohio, moved away for college and settled in Arizona when they got married.  Now, they travelled the country as vigilantes for people that weren’t prosecuted due to politically correct reasons.  Abby calls out to Nouno, “We got a case.”

                “Where?”

                “Our home state”

                “I actually lived in New York longer than I lived in Ohio but okay.”

                “You still knew where I meant”

                “Because there’s no question where you consider your home state.”

                “Anyway!... We’re going after Tevin Biles”

                “Any relation to Simone?”

                “Her brother”

                “Really?  I don’t know if we should do someone so high profile”

                “He’s not high profile! His sister is!”

                “Yea, but it’s a high profile family.  We need to be under the radar”

                “What?  If you come from a famous family, you’re above the law?  What is it we do if not go after people the justice system won’t touch?  Prominent families are included; not just undocumented workers.”

                “I’m just surprised. You were a cheerleader, I thought you’d have some solidarity with Simone to not kill her brother.”

                “Her brother killed three people.  Besides, do you have any idea how much time you have to put in to become an Olympic gymnast?  They don’t have lives.  She grew up training in Texas.  She didn’t grow up with her brother.  They hardly know each other.”

                “There you go. That’s the reason.  He’s only her brother by blood only that’s why it’s okay.”

                “No, it’s okay because he killed three people!”

                “That too.”

                “What are you doing anyway?”

                “Reading about how Hillary Clinton isn’t the only person that paid our government to spy on Donald Trump.”

                “Why do I even ask?”

                “Turns out our tax payer money was used to finance it.”

                “Umm, yea, the government pays for the DOJ.  The CIA and FBI investigated Trump.  This is old news.  It was obviously government organizations spying on Trump.”

                “Someone might have paid Stefan Halper too.”

                “Wasn’t he a spy for the CIA, so yea we were paying his salary too.”

                “Not just from the FBI.  It was a misappropriation of funds.  Halper was a source for David Ignatius.”
                “The guy from the Washington Post that had the transcripts of the call between General Flynn and Kislayek.”

                “Yes, how do you suppose he got that?”

                “I supposed you’re going to tell me.”

                “From a man named James Baker who was a military official working at the office of net assessment (ONA) in the Pentagon.”

                “I have to admit I have never heard of that agency.”

                “You’re not supposed to.  They pay spies and confidential informants.  They’re basically the prop arm of the CIA.”

                “So, the Pentagon paid Halper to take down Flynn and call Trump satellite people to Russia to spy on them.  You’ve told me all this before.”

                “Yes, but now we know he was paid to do it.”

                “Doesn’t really matter.”

                “I think it does.”

                “Well, you think everything that is against people that were involved in Spyggate matters.”

                “it’s the biggest scandal in America history.”

                “We’ll see if history agrees with you.”

                They book a flight to Ohio and head out the next week.  While on the plane, Abby turns to Nouno and asks, “What ever happened about this Pentagon thing you were talking about?  Story not interesting anymore?”

                “Actually it is.  A while back I heard about a Whistleblower in the Pentagon who was suspended without pay for pointing out that Halper was given a million dollars.”

                “That’s a lot of money to be a source!”

                “Oh, so now you’re interested.  Anyway, this is what he was exposing.  The pentagon paying Halper to spy on President Trump.”

                “What was his name again?”

                “Adam Lovinger.”

                “Why do you think these two things are related?”

                “Because Lovinger worked for the Offiece of Net Assessment.”

                “The same organization that Baker headed and was close to Halper.”

                “Same one.”

                “I’ll admit you have some evidence but it’s not conclusive.”

                “Lovinger found four Pentagon reports that had no backup for Halper.”

                “That makes sense why it was a million.  It was a combination of four.”

                “Don’t you think it’s a little suspicious that Lovinger was suspended without pay for this?”

                “I don’t know the policy of the Pentagon.”

                “Look at the news lately.  How many times have you heard that Whistleblowers aren’t supposed to be questioned and they are beyond reproach and a bastion of integrity compelled out of moral and civic duty?”

                “Funny, not sure I heard it said that strongly.”

                “But there is an indication that they are protected from being punished.”

                “Yes, that there is.  That is not how you presented it though.”

                “Then they lied on the report.  The memo said that Lovinger disseminated information. The actual report said that he did not disseminate sensitive information.  They forgot the word ‘not’”

                “Yea, I remember this.”

                “Right, but you didn’t know that Baker leaked the Flynn conversations to Ignatius.”

                “No, I didn’t.  He was Lovinger’s boss right?”

                “Yes”

                “Didn’t Halper also teach at Cambridge with Steele’s Russian source Trubnnikov?”

                “No, Halper invited him to speak in 2012 and 2015 at the campus but he taught with Mifsud.”

                “Oh yea, that’s right.”

                “That is actually interesting because since Trubnikov was closely tied to Putin as a counter-intelligence guy, he had visa issues to go to England to speak.  Suddenly, Halper was able to get that cleared up for him.”

                “Yea, shocking.  Or maybe he just convinced the British government that it was for educational purposes.”

                “England had sanctions against him.  They don’t just make exceptions unless you’re highly connected.”

                “Says you, but what was Halper doing for the ONA?”

                “He was a contractor for them.  I don’t know the other three but one study he was working on was a Pentagon study on China-Russia issues.”

                “Which is why he needed Trubnikov”

                “You can’t pick someone not linked to a dictator presumed evil?  Maybe not a counter-intelligence guy that likes wreaking havoc in other countries.”

                “Maybe that’s hard in Russia.”

                “That’s a lot of maybes”

                “It’s just possible.”

                “It’s laughable that later Halper resigned in December 2016 citing Russians having too much influence and too big a platform.  He was the one that brought a Russian oligarch counter-intelligence person there.”

                “That is a little ironic.”

                “And hypocritical”

                “Maybe.”

                They land and check into the hotel.  Nouno goes out to get some food while Abby hacks into Tevin’s social media account looking for patterns in his behavior on where he’s going to be.  They canvass the area for crematoriums and come up with a plan.  It is actually pretty easy as Tevin is by himself a lot.  They figured out where to make their strike.  Devin is out by himself and is heading back to his car.  Nouno comes up from behind with a syringe containing a sedative.  He raises the sedative as Abby follows slowly in the car.  As Nouno lunges with the syringe, Tevin turns and blocks the syringe and stares Nouno down.  Nouno swings again with his arm but Tevin ducks under and strikes Nouno in the midsection causing him to drop the syringe.  Tevin grabs Nouno’s arm and turns his back to him and flips Nouno over his shoulder and to the ground.  He locks the arm and puts his knee on Nouno’s chest and punches him in the face.  Tevin yelled, “What do you want with me?”

                Nouno struggled but the arm bar Tevin had him was locked in deep.  His arm ached and Tevin’s weight on his chest winded him.  He didn’t know what would happen but it probably wasn’t good when a murderer had the dominant position over you after he just caught you trying to inject him with something.  Nouno would never get the chance to know exactly how this would turn out.

                When Abby saw Nouno get brought down she contemplated hitting him with the car but when Tevin mounted Nouno, she knew it was too risky.  Instead she grabbed a syringe of her own and got out of the car.  She ran up to Tevin and jammed it into his neck.  Tevin collapsed instantly and Nouno and Abby dragged him to the car and threw him in.  They then drove to the hotel where the prepared his final living resting place.  As they were driving, Abby asked, “Are you okay?”

                “My arm fucking hurts.  I don’t know what he did to it.”

                “How did he get the jump on you?”

                “He’s military Abby, he’s got situational awareness.”

                “The same situational awareness that made him not be able to stop me?”

                “Speaking of which, why did you come?  The whole point is to keep you safe.  Do you know what he would have done to you if he noticed you trying to inject him the way he caught me?”
                “You’re welcome by the way.” She said angrily

                “The whole point of us doing this is to correct injustices but to make sure your safe.  It’s okay if I get hurt but you need to be safe.”

                “Basically exactly what happened.  The guy is unconscious in our back seat, you’re hurt, and I’m completely fine.”

                “You put yourself in danger to save me.  I put myself in danger so that you can get away.”

                “Nothing happened.”

                “Something could happen later.”

                “You wouldn’t let that happen.  I think we both could take him.”

                “It worked out but if I’m seriously hurt, then you need to just run away.  I don’t want anything to ever happen to you.”

                “I know but this is a murderer not a rapist.  We don’t know if he would have hurt me.  We know he would have killed you.”

                “No we don’t but yea, he probably would have.”

                “Well, I don’t want to be a 26-year-old widow.”

                “Fair enough”

                They got back to the hotel and Abby could tell that Nouno was still favoring his arm.  They strapped Tevin down and as he awoke he saw them and nodded his head calmly.  Nouno started , “Do you know why you’re here” trying to hide the surprise that he didn’t struggle.

                “Yes, you mean to kill me I suppose.”

                “Do you know why?”

                “Doesn’t really matter.”

                “Do you feel bad for the people you killed?”

                “Not really. You don’t know how hard it is to be me.”

                “Having a famous sibling isn’t the worst thing in the world.”

                “Do you have a famous sibling?”

                “No”

                “Then you don’t really know what you’re talking about.”

                “I know I don’t feel sorry for you.”

                “I’m not asking you to.”

                “True, but before I kill you, I have to ask you something.”

                Tevin chuckled, “Alright.”

                “Since you were in the military, you had access to classified information right?”

                “Very low level.  It’s not like I know who shot JFK or know what’s in Area 51.”

                “I’m talking more current events.”

                “You do realize the oddity that you’re asking me for a favor before you kill me right?”

                “Yes, I do.”

                “Alright then shoot” he said with a smile

                “Now, I’ve read the transcript so I know there was nothing wrong with the phone call.  My question is what do you know about the Democrats colluding with Ukraine during the 2016 election?”

                Tevin’s eyes got wide in shock, “I actually do know something about that.”

                “I’m listening”

                “Do you know who Devin Archer is?”

                “Yes, he’s on the Atlantic Committee with the owner of Burisma, the largest Ukrainian energy company.”

                “That Hunter Biden was on the board for”

                “Yes”

                “He’s also very good friends with John Kerry who was secretary of state during the whole firing Shokin thing.”’

                “Yes’

                “So, Archer called his buddy Kerry to make the Burisma investigation go away.”

                “And he was playing golf with Joe Biden.”

                “That’s not very important.  People play golf all the time, doesn’t mean they’re colluding together.”

                “No, but it does show they knew each other.”

                “Fine, anyway there’s an e-mail where Burisma specifically drops Hunter’s name to convince the US State department to help them stop the corruption investigation in Ukraine.  The subject is very subtly labeled, ‘Burisma.’”

                “Then there is a paper trail that proves it.”

                “Yes, there’s a specific e-mail from Karen Tramontano, who is Burisma’s legal counsel for a company called Blue Star Strategies, to an US State Department organization named ‘Novelli USG.”

                “What was the e-mail about?”

                “Burisma wanted a meeting about a corruption charge and drops Hunter Biden and Devon Archer’s name as reason they should help.  After all, it involves two United States affiliated people.”

                “Was it granted?”

                “Of course.  Archer got a meeting with his friend Secretary of State Kerry and Hunter started a company called Rosemont Seneca with Devon and Kerry’s stepson.  Interestingly, Kerry’s stepson wanted nothing to do with Burisma or Ukraine.  He wasn’t about to collude with foreigners.”

                “Smart guy”

                “Yea, it turns out he was.”

                “And all this happened while the Ukrainian Prosecutor General Shokin was investigating Burisma?”

                “Yup, why do you think Biden forced him to be fired by threatening to withhold a billion dollars?”

                “That part I knew.  I just didn’t know the sequence that led to that.  It wasn’t that Biden was acting rogue for his kid.  Burisma specifically asked for their help and went through Kerry.”

                “Yes”

                “Thank you for that.”

                “You’re welcome, now are you going to put me out of my misery?”

                “Yes,” Nouno replied as he stabbed Tevin in the chest killing him instantly.  As he did, Abby played Alicia Keys’ ‘This Girl is On Fire”

                They wrap the body and bring it to a crematorium where they run the machine.  Knowing that they have a lot of time, they leave the crematorium and go to a diner to get something to eat.  Since they are in Ohio, and Ohio is a swing state, Nouno announces, “What do we think about President Trump?”

                Abby buries her head in her hands.  Someone comes over, “I personally like him.”

                “You’re not concerned about this whole Whistleblower thing?”

                “Oh no, the Democrats are crazy.  I don’t know what they’re doing.”

                A woman approaches and declares, “Yea, I read the transcript.  It’s boring.  Standard stuff that one president would say to another.”

                “Yea, I live in New York so I get kind of a skewed view of elections.  It’s more accurate to talk to swing states.”

                “Well, they took polls of the swing states.  Among likely voters, Trump is down two points to Biden in Florida, Arizona and Wisconsin.  He’s only down one in Michigan and Pennsylvania and he’s up two in North Carolina.”

                Abby looked up, “He’s losing?  That’s not good for him.”

                Nouno made a sound like he didn’t agree, “You have to remember that in 2016, the polls were way off.  They have gotten better but they admit that there’s a five point margin for error.  Typically polls underrate Trump so this is actually good for him.”

                “The Democrats are crazy though.”

                “Biden is not, he’s just old, out of touch and creepy.  He’s not a far left, Medicare for All, Free everything socialist.”

                “Oh, right”

                The woman spoke up again, “Yea, Bernie Sanders is only up in one of those states.”

                Abby rejoined, “Elizabeth Warren is the front runner right now.”

                The man had already left but the woman kept going, “Again, she’s losing by two to four points in all swing states except Arizona where they’re tied.  She’s in even worse shape because Trump is even up in Nevada, which Hillary won in 2016.”

                Abby gave Nouno a look when Arizona came up.  Nouno already lied and said he lived in New York so she couldn’t reveal that they live in the only swing state Trump isn’t up in.  Apparently, illegal immigrants were turning the tide in Arizona despite Nouno’s efforts.  Then again, illegal immigrants aren’t supposed to be voting yet they do.  Nouno commented, “If you look at history, every single incumbent made a 10 point push when they started campaigning for re-election.  Trump hasn’t yet.”

                “What do you mean?  He’s been having rallies and stuff.”

                “Usually to promote other candidates for this year’s election.  He doesn’t have an opponent left so he hasn’t even started attacking his opponent.  I think when he’s going state to state trying to garner votes, that’s the real campaigning.”

                “I agree but it’s not time yet.  He does keep talking about the economy and judges though.”

                “That’s because of the impeachment hearings.  That also proves my point; these numbers are despite constant negative media coverage about how he should be impeached and how the house voted that there’s enough there to impeach they just haven’t yet.”

                “What’s your point?”

                The woman fielded this question, “His point is that once it blows over either by the house deciding not to impeach or they do impeach and the Senate votes to let him stay in office, it’ll be over by the election.”

                “I hope so!” Abby exclaimed.

`               Nouno stated, “Besides, Biden sucks at campaigning. And the fact that his son looted at least three countries is a liability.”

                “Enjoy your dinner” the woman pronounced as she walked away

                “Thank you for answering my question” Nouno replied. 

                They leave the diner and head back to the crematorium to clean up the remains.  They then go back to the hotel and get some much needed rest.  The next day, they head to the airport and fly back to Arizona.  On the plane, Nouno decides to look up Project Veritas as he hasn’t seen a view about them for months.  A few months ago, they exposed Google for actively banning conservatives.  What he finds is ABC news anchor Amy Robach admitting that she had a lot of dirt on Jeffrey Epstein but it was right around the time that Princess Kate and Prince Andrew were having a kid.  The royal couple told ABC that if they reported on the atrocities of Epstein, they wouldn’t give ABC a scoop on the new addition to their family.  Due to this, ABC killed the story.  Nouno was very interested especially when Amy specifically said she had a lot of stuff about Bill Clinton.  Abby was less impressed as she already knew there was shady stuff about Epstein that people in high places were covering up.  She didn’t think the royal family would be one but it also didn’t shock her.

                Abby and Nouno arrive back home in Arizona to very sad news.  Nine US citizens were killed within 100 miles of the Arizona border.  Six of the nine were children who weren’t even teenagers yet.  They were a Mormon family with dual citizenship named Lebaron that live in New Mexico and were on their way back to the United States.   The family was butchered in a heinous way and Abby and Nouno were somber.  Before they were vigilantes, they were minutemen and stood at the border to kill any invader into America.  When President Trump started building the wall and the border got a lot of attention, they transitioned to vigilantes across the country.  From their prior experience, though, they knew that the cartels were a formidable force.  That is why the minutemen stayed on the US side of the border as taking the fight to cartels was suicide.  They were very well manned and even better armed.  Almost immediately, President Trump issued a statement on twitter offering the Mexican president any help that they needed.  He promised that all he had to do was ask and President Trump would send troops to aid the Mexican army to declare war on the cartels to wipe them off the face of the Earth.  When Abby saw this she blurted out, “Oh God, this is too much.”

                “Why?”

                Abby glared at her husband and after a moment snapped back, “Didn’t you say that when you worked for the Leadership Institute you were shocked at how extreme they were?  You’re exact example was they wanted to go to war with Mexico to end illegal immigration.”

                “This isn’t that.  This is helping Mexico not be run by the cartels.  It’s also about avenging Americans that were killed.  It is the responsibility of the United States to protect its citizens here and abroad.  There’s a whole division of the FBI dedicated to that.”

                “I get that but war is wrong.”

                “Not against a cartel.”

                “Nobody else did it”

                “That’s not true.  There was a DEA agent in the 80s.  His name was Kiki.  He decimated a cartel with arrests and drug confiscations and really hindered their operation.  The cartel captured him and tortured him for 30 hours and his remains were put in plastic bags.  Ronald Reagan wasn’t going to stand for that so he sent a task force and took out everyone involved.  He did it unapologetically as he took out law enforcement, politicians and anyone else that had anything to do with it.  The cartel was absolutely crushed and destroyed.”

                “Sounds like the move Man on Fire.”

                “Great movie and yes that’s exactly what it was except the heroes don’t sacrifice themselves at the end.”

                “Did it really help though?”

                “Yes, I mean yes other cartels moved in to take their place but it sent a message to the new cartels that they can wreak havoc amongst themselves and other central Americans but don’t fuck with the United States.  They heeded the warning.”

                “Well, the Mexican president said he didn’t want any help and that war was wrong so he’s on my side.”

                Nouno nodded, “Interesting, let’s see what happens here.”

                Abby rolled her eyes.  There was a myriad of possibilities.  All she hoped is that he didn’t round up the old minutemen again to cross the border and take the fight to the cartels themselves.