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Jose Roxas Leveriza, First Novel Serialized In Blogger
Angel of The Lord Blog Novel (Part 14)
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Jason Burke scooped the ball in mid air and hauled down the rebound. MJ reached higher with his towering frame but Jason established better position and used his body to box him out. Before Jason’s feet even touched the glossy hardwood floor, he had wheeled around. The ball was amply protected in his breadbasket by two clammy hands and by shoulders bended close.
On the break Jason feinted left then veered right behind a snappy crossover dribble. The defense shadow, Ocampo bit on the fake and slid forward off balance. He let out an exasperated yell and when he turned he saw Jason’s back fading fast almost instantly near midcourt. His two teammates were hot on Jason’s tail trying to gain on him.
Jason rode the vortex of the human wave in the middle. As the whole group sailed to the opposite basket, Jason raced at high speed to be out of reach from the sides and the back. From the low dribble, he spied the other team’s point guard ahead of him trying to gauge whether to slow down to stab at the ball or to try to outrun him to block the ball on the fly.
Jason’s peripheral vision was legend. In high school his hunches could detect movement well beyond his tunnel sight. Most of all Jason’s timing was perfect. Honed from the precision required by deadly combat, he could anticipate motion and intention in one glance. Overall he had all the requisites to play professional ball in the NBA but that’s another story. Right now he took matters surely to score on possession by spearing the ball in a high arc to Nikko who flew from the left wing. Nikko dunked the ball and turned to meet Jason with the high five kudos.
That was Jason’s cue to head straight for the dugout. The photographer tried to desperately chase after him lugging his unwieldy VTR camera. “Photo Op, Mega Magazine, wait, hey man, the whole team will be featured, hold it, Jason, where the hell are you going?” The team manager, Jules Tabios, tried to cut his path. All he got for his effort was a trail of green that swished past him. “Damn green bandana,” he muttered to nobody panting down the straining contretemps. “His head is always turbaned with that rebel kerchief even during practice.”
Jason smiled through the idle jock chatter in the showers and didn’t engage anybody more than the perfunctory shrug of the shoulders, bob nod of the head, and non committal chuckle. By the time the camera panned at the assembly of torsos in varying stages of disrobement, he had scooted swiftly outside the scope of the wide angle fish eye lens.
He flicked the light on in IT. The computer whirred and Richard’s stoic profile came on screen. “What did you do Richard, you spooked him with your peephole in the sky, Bader’s on the run.”
“Your stoolies are quick, they probably text you all the time, c’mon man, Bader spooked himself with his own romantic mishaps, he’s on a ferry to Bohol. I’ve got the tabs on him”.
“You do that Richard and keep me posted. Park your stealth guys in the shadows of the Chocolate Hills. I’ll head him off at Panglao Island. I’m going down as soon as I check out our young Robin in the hospital. Thanks by the way.”
“Yeah, yeah, just another day on the job, man. Wouldn’t you be thrilled to be back to bask in the sparkling white sands of Panglao Island man, after all, Alina is waiting there.”
Jason Burke didn’t bother to dignify that with a reply. He promptly clicked the logout button.
The brutalized jeepney driver refused to make a deal. Unable to carry himself, he was whisked away by stretcher to the emergency room of the PGH (Philippine General Hospital) next door.
Baste, the senior team leader of the rogue squad gone mad was left with no choice but to press charges. To clean up the mess he made sure to relinquish custody of the less injured Mike to the detention center. Mike clammed up about the whereabouts of his two escorts who disappeared from the roof. He took to mumbling some kind of prayer and seemed to be totally detached from the crisis.
Baste was very disappointed with the antics of his two missing cohorts who he assumed hightailed out of there because they lost nerve and to protect their own hides from admin charges. Feeling betrayed and alone, he went through the motions of filing charges of reckless driving, damage to government property through reckless imprudence, and evading and resisting arrest against the hapless driver. Mike went down for assaulting peace officers in authority and obstruction of justice.
The fire truck red hotline to the office of the NBI Director, Miguel Lopez, rang off the hook. The distraught Deputy Director picked it up with a grim premonition. The peeved tone of the Director came on the line instantly
“Tiongco”, he began in syllabic staccato straining to control the decibel. “I have 63 questions for you!”
Mum was the reply.
Guess who’s new as Special Prosecutor at DOJ (department of justice)?”
Tiongco couldn’t have an inkling.
“Ellebana Sey, the favorite niece of the President of the Republic of the Philippines!”
The Director raised his voice.
“Guess where she graduated from as bar topnotcher? Tiongco are you listening?”
The newly proclaimed deputy Director squirmed. He stammered a hesitant reply. “U.P.,the state university, sir?”
“Damn right. And guess which liberalistic, cause oriented, and human rights activist Special Prosecutor handled the inquest of the charges your monkeys filed against a badly beat up driver and young man?”
The Director was screaming on the phone at this juncture.
Tiongco groped the table to steady himself and retreated to the chair to fall back on it.
“Guess who the unspoiled former beauty and fashion icon called on his private line at the Executive Office?”
Miguel Lopez for all his gentlemanly ways was ranting like a madman now.
“Guess who called me five minutes ago and berated me like a subordinate who needed a straightening out and forgot in the heat of the moment that he was my ward at Aquila Legis, the law school fraternity?”
The barely warm new Deputy Director stared at the ceiling which promised to cave in on his once rosy future as a career man in the NBI.
“I promise you, Tiongco, if heads will roll in this institution, mine will not be first on the chopping board. After promoting you from that northern pit, I will just as soon exile you to Jolo to practice your Gestapo tactics on the fierce Tausugs to see if they will turn the other damn cheek!”.
The phone banged dead on the other end.
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