chapter 17g 

(Junior's Brutish Chums) 

Moïse Berri 

and the Reconstruction of the Haitian 

Space Agency 

by Jude Jarda 

17g 
Junior's Brutish Chums 

Jeanne d'Arc-Victoria Legitime spent the afternoon in the company of three different police organizations: the USMS, the CHP and the SMPD. The one-percenter type of bikers, Junior Grosbois sent earlier to save Victoria from the wrath of her employees, were brutally attacked as soon as they stepped on the property of the Legit Imco Media Corporation. A group of angry lighting and rigging technicians from the film enterprise were even showing off their California weapon's license while shooting at them. The parking lot of the company now looks like a war zone. Distressed, wounded and highly disorientated people lie in every corner. Many vehicles are reduced to ashes. Paramedics, firemen and police officers are trying their best to do their job. Everyone believes it's a miracle if no one died from the stabbings, the slug injuries and the iron bar, jack and wrench blows. The Santa Monica Police Department limited it's presence to securing the crime scene, collecting witnesses depositions and reconstructing the sequence of events, while at the same time, scientifically establishing the trajectories of the bullets fired, the type of ammunition used, identifying the impact sites and determining the position of the belligerents during the skirmish. For its part, the State Police got busy interrogating Victoria Legitime, concerning her links to the Nevada Filthy Cobras Motorcycle Club and the reason of their sudden unexpected intrusion inside the State of California. Far more worried about the money trail, the two US Marshals were more interested in the last phone calls made from Jeanne d'Arc-Victoria's office, and also in the identical serial numbers of all the banknotes found on the scene and in various stores located in the geographical lozenge formed by Burbank, Santa Monica, Long Beach and Monterey Park. 

Agent Znatchko keeps her sunglasses on to intimidate Victoria. She mumbles in Russian once in a while to express her dissatisfaction with the vague and incomplete answers coming from the entrepreneur. Agent Galardo adopts a much more cordial attitude. Her goal is to gain the trust of the suspect and make her talk more than her lawyer would recommend. Galardo goes as far as to share her personal experience with pain, her family having been directly touched by the L'Aquila earthquake in 2009. 

“Your father was a true patriot. The devotion and the perseverance of that man for his country transcend death. And the fact that you chose to pursue his work makes you a combatant that deserves our respect. Oksana and I are Americans, but when a catastrophe hits the land our parents, we automatically remember that the tree always drinks from its roots.” 
“What can you tell us about Slugger?” Agent Znatchko interrupts with a total lack of emotions in her voice. 
“You've got to help me with that one, I have a lot of employees,” a very confuse Jeanne d'Arc-Victoria answers. 
“That's not his real name. And I doubt he ever worked for anyone but himself.” 
“He is some kind of parasite fungus,” Agent Galardo says with a grin. 
“We have the antifungal cream to eradicate that leech, but we need to isolate and identify it beforehand. The counterfeit money that you distributed to your staff…” 
“I had no idea the bills were fake,” Victoria Legitime protests. 
“We're not prosecutors,” Agent Znatchko firmly reminds Victoria. “Let the California State and the Feds decide of the legal stuff. We would like to limit our implication to the investigation. Now, you said that you called a good friend to obtain a loan so you could pay your employees, right? The money is delivered by a member of the Nevada Filthy Cobras yesterday around noon, but you swear that you never met that man before.” 
“Asking my ex-lover for help was a huge mistake.” 
“Philbert Hans Orville Grosbois Junior, am I right?” 
“That’s the name of the asshole.” 
“Could that be an alias?” Agent Galardo wonders. 
“It's the name of a well known family back in Haiti over many generations, just like us, the Legitimes. I know Junior since preschool; our parents have always done business together.” 
“You speak French and Creole. Legitime means Legitimate. Now, how would you translate Grosbois in English?” 
“I don't know; Big Wood or Large Timber, I guess.” 
“I see. In the game of baseball, a slugger is a fearsome hitter. I feel that the end of this falsifier is very near, Donatella.” 
“What's going to happen to me?” Jeanne d'Arc-Victoria worries. 
“The FBI is on its way,” Agent Galardo answers. 
“Counterfeiting is a federal crime. A particularly heavy sentence is generally proposed by most conservative jurists.” 
“If I was in your shoes, ma chérie,” Agent Znatchko adds, “I would hire the best lawyer in town.”