TARGETS

Arthur Avery was drowning in a sea of papers and binders. Towers of case files sprouted on every corner of his office. Even the walls had turned into those conspiracy theorist bulletin board, with the pins and the yarn. As if he was playing Clues or something.

It was suffocating, but he don't want to stop reading. He can't. A boy's life rested on it. But he's just human, and he passed his humanly limit a while ago. He was on the brink of it, when mercifully there was a knock on the door.

"Yes?" His yes was caught in a weak, sad, melodious tune.

"Pardon me sir, this is JJ. May I come in?"

"Oh yes, please."

Jennifer Johnson entered. A large paper bag in his right arm, a thick brown envelope on her left. "I pick you some lunch, sorry I didn't ask first. I just grabbed you something while I'm out."

"Yeayyy, thanks JJ. You're the best." As Arthur carefully received the paper bag, he asked. "What'd you get?"

"Your favourite. Coney dogs, onion rings, root beer float." she felt sick even repeating that order. But she knew, when her boss gets serious, his palate transformed into a teenager's palate.

"Ooohhh yes, brain food. It's the best."

Arthur sink his teeth straight into the Coney dogs. JJ smiled at his boss's adolescent amazement of the A&W meals he'd enjoyed often, yet was still pleasantly shocked of the taste. Her eyes then wandered to every inch of the office.

He noticed her scanning the room with a sarcastic smile on her face, and knew a snide comment will not be far off. "What is it JJ?"

"Oh nothing. Just wondering when exactly did you became a PI."

"Cehh, shut up. It's for the kid."

"Ah, the six year old who'd been calling you Uncle Lawyer whenever you visited him, isn't it?"

"That's the one. I can't help but wanting to help him ya know? I can't leave a six year old on his own."

"Heh, Sir Knight Arthur Avery strikes again huh?"

"Shut up. We don't have a lot of case anyway, plus his dad was a good friend of mine. I'd wanted to see to it that the death of my friend got the justice it deserved."

JJ smiled. This is why she stayed to become his paralegal. She could work at any prestigious firm in those large cities, but decided to stay and helped him in her hometown. He offered her to be partners, but she said no. She wanted to make partners when she actually did serious cases. "So, tell me about the kid's plan?"

"What, you suddenly wanted to help?"

"Well, you've been bugging me to be partners in this firm. Maybe if this case turned into a big case, I could prove my worth and finally accept your offer."

"You don't have to prove your worth to me. I know how valuable you are."

"Yeah, yeah. Can it with the sweet talk. Just tell me about what you've been reading up on."

"Hold on, let me make this net."

Arthur balled up the hot dog wrapper tight, then lunged it towards the rubbish bin beside the door. He missed, and cursed loudly. JJ chuckled as she picked up the hot dog wrapper and put it properly inside the rubbish bin. "Now I know why you became a lawyer."

"Ehem, anyway...about this case." Arthur quickly went to his conspiracy board to change the subject. "Based on what Sammy told me, the two main suspects were his mom Elizabeth Dewter, and Mayor Rowan Golston."

"So? What is all this then."

"Chill dude, I'm getting to it. After Sammy narrowed it down, it made it easier for me to focus my investigation on those two. Motives, connections, backers, where they made their money and all that."

"Ah, so who's been financing them? The mob? Yakuza? Are they doing the cliché cartel thing again?"

"Oh no, it was even more delicious than that. Turns out, this...is a fucking government conspiracy."

"Wha… the GOVERNMENT? Like president and stuff?"

Arthur nodded.

"Are you hopped up in sugar or something? What does the president want with this small fucking town? What did the fucking government want with Gary's farm?"

Arthur went and stepped to the left of the board, where a large map of the town was hung on the wall. "Okay, first a geology lesson. So this is our lovely town, right? Beautiful place, close to water, beautiful beaches, marina, close to Canadian waters. Just the perfect location, right?"

"Get to the point man."

"Gosh, you'd be the worse person to Netflix and chill with, ya know. Anyway, from what I surmised of the mayor's redevelopment plan, the whole are closest to the water would be turned into a worse version of Las Vegas."

"Worse? What's worse than Las Vegas?"

"Coz, unlike Las Vegas, this fun zone will not be regulated at all. Of course, it's not an actual law, it's more like the laws would be blatantly ignored in this area. Every kind of fucked up activities imaginable would be possible there. As long as you got the money for it."

"And? What would be the government's interest in it?"

"The government, wanted to control the world, using our town as the base of operations."

"What? How?"

"Check the brochure. Look at what the mayor would be building."

JJ opened the pamphlet the mayor circulated. Nothing out of the ordinary. A sea port, airport, cargo bay, casinos. My boss is losing it, she thought.

"Studied it? Good. Now listen to me. Any import export will have to go through customs. Every person arriving in this country will be vetted. Security measures so as nothing unfavourable ever crossed our border, right?"

She nodded again, trying hard to remember every details. Even then she was still lost in Arthur's train of thoughts.

"Supposed all of those measures were gone. Then, anything can come in or goes out. What then?"

A lightbulb was such a good cartoon symbolism for an epiphany, because suddenly the top of her head seemed like it shone bright. "So, what you're saying, allegedly, that the government wanted a...secret passageway of sorts, to let contrabands and bad people come in and out of the country?"

"Yup. Every kingpins, mob bosses, terrorists, will used this base as their safe houses. There are banks too, so they can easily clean their dirty money."

"Okay, I got that so far. The government wanted a...commision of sorts, for providing a haven for criminals. Seems like chump change for the government, but I get it. For corrupt officials, money is money. But then, what's this about taking over the world."

"Ah, that's the most interesting part of all. And you're right, even though they may make billions creating this haven for crooks, it is indeed chump change compared to the risks involved. However, and I hate to admit it, this is the genius of the plan. That haven was just a byproduct. The Vaseline of oil drilling."

"Huh? That billions of dollars, was a byproduct. I know I said chump change, but it was complicated as it is. What is the main objective?"

"Think about it. The government didn't actually do shit. They only listen to the people in the shadows. The rich families, the cartels, the mobs, anyone rich enough to foot the bill of their greediness. If you could control the entire underground network, you can control any country. Especially since crime network go beyond borders. If the government sat atop of that food chain, they could issue orders to takedown the government of a certain country, and it will be done from within."

At the end of that sentence, JJ's jaw bone was probably unhinged from its socket. She could not believe such conspiracy could even be thought of, let alone be carried out.

"I can't believe that idiot mayor was apart of something so large."

"Pfft, don't give him too much credit. He's probably didn't know everything about this. He'd probably was offered a lot of money for this land, and who could refuse such an offer. Except Gary that is."

"Wait, if even the mayor didn't know? How could you know?"

For the first time today, JJ could see Arthur's excitement wavered a smidge. "Err well...I had my own sources."

"Sources? As square like you? Who?"

"Square? I resent that!"

"WHO?" JJ was adamant about it.

'A buddy of mine. She was in the yakuza in Japan. She told me that her...clan or something, receive an offer to be a part of this town. Her clan was old school, so they decline. She thought of me when she heard the name of the town, so she contacted me, and we compared notes."

JJ had a sly, accusatory look on her face. "Hmmm, compared notes huh? Is that what the kid called it these days? And how the hell did you know a yakuza?"

"Told you I was no square. I worked in Japan for a few years. She was about to be wrongfully accused of murdering a cop, so helped her out. It turned out she was acting on self defense. The cop was about to rape her little sister. I defended her, and we became friends. That's all."

"Yeah, no. that story proved you're as square as they can be." JJ threw an onion ring towards JJ. She skillfully retrieved it with her hand, and added insult to injury to Arthur by eating said onion ring. "So, how did Sammy react to all of this."

"Honestly, he was emotionless. Maybe he thought there's nothing he can do anymore, and I felt that. The hopelessness was too soul crushing. Especially to a bright six year old like him. He thought he could find anything to charge the mayor with, but even if he did, he was against an entire government. There's no way a six year old could win against that."

"Isn't there anything we could do for him?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I've been trying hard, looking at every angle. There doesn't seem to be any that could safely guarantee a legal repercussions towards the mayor."

JJ took another onion ring. Arthur was right, there's no way you could win against the government. She sat there for a while, and then had a thought. "Maybe, at the very least, we could punished the perpetrators."

"I told you, we can't charge the mayor."

"No, not the mayor. The person the mayor hired. There's no way the government would care about those guys, right?"

"Hmm, that's a good point. But we don't have any leads."

"Maybe this will help." JJ pointed towards the thick envelope which she received early that morning. Arthur nodded, and smile. A glimpse of hope, that's all is needed to keep the world moving.