Special Agent John Logan - Part III

by Michael Dixon

Special Agent John Logan - parts I and II can be found by clicking the Special Agent John Logan tag below this post.

John was confused, which unsettled him, as he was never confused about anything. But he wasn’t supposed to ever forget anything either and he had clearly done just that. As he drove along the highway back towards the bureau HQ he tried to work out what this eel napping could all be about and why such weird shit was happening. John had worked some of the biggest cases in the city’s history and had never come across anything like this before. He knew he just needed time to work it all out. He needed to get back to the research and work out just why anyone might want to steal all the city’s eels. John knew where to start, if he was going to understand why eels would be so highly prized then the first thing he needed to do was to get a greater understanding of the eel itself. John needed to get into the mind of the eel.
At the bureau HQ John went to the undercover operations centre. He met the head of the department, Mark Philips. Philips was recognised throughout the law enforcement community as one of the best undercover operation runners in the world. He had got agents into organisations that were usually thought impenetrable, in so deep that they’d been able to take down some of the biggest crime syndicates in the city. Philips had been an undercover agent himself once but that had come to an abrupt end when he had become internationally famous after a rogue agent leaked stories to the media of Philips getting himself so deep into the Yolamata gang, that they had selected Philips himself as their man to assassinate the city mayor. Philips could get a man anywhere but even he wasn’t ready for what John wanted from him.
‘You want to get into eel society?’ said Philips. ‘That’s fucking weird John, you feeling ok?’ Normally John would have bitch slapped anyone who dared to speak to him like that but Philips had special privileges, on account of his history. John let the remark slip.
‘Yeah’ he said. ‘If someone’s going after the eels then I need to understand why. We ain’t got any suspects so I can’t get in their head yet. But there is a head I can get into. I need to get in the eel’s head.’ John’s logic was flawless and Philips could now see this.
‘Logan’ he said. ‘I think I know how we can do this.’
Seven hours later John was on a plane, bound for the City Eel Research Centre, located in a classified area in the South Pacific. Philips had already made a few calls and arranged for John to be assigned to the centre for a few weeks. Philips had called a contact at the centre, a gangland informer who had been given a new identity at the research centre to escape his former comrades and had told him, in no uncertain terms, that his job was to teach John anything he wanted to know. If the informer didn’t co-operate with John, Philips warned, his cover would be blown and Philips would no longer be able to guarantee his safety. Philips didn’t like making threats like this and usually tried to avoid them in his day-to-day work. But this case was important and there was no time to waste with the usual pleasantries. Philips had not told John the name of this man, because the man, Mario Capalito, was a man John himself had once put away. For John to get on with this man would be more than difficult, it would be near impossible. But it had to work.
When the Sea Plane landed at the beach side harbour Capalito met John as he climbed off the craft. ‘Holy fucking shit!’ he cried as he saw who he was to train.
‘Capalito’ said John, cautiously. ‘I thought you were dead.’
‘I was’ said Capalito. ‘But Philips saved my life, never thought I’d see you again, I hated you more than any man alive after you put me away.’
‘But you still testified against your friends’ said John. ‘What happened in prison to change your mind? I never thought you’d be a rat.’
‘Hey fuck you!’ said Capalito. ‘You don’t know what it’s like in there!’ Capalito was angry with John for insulting him. Working together like this would be hard, really damn hard, but he had considered Philip’s threat and knew what he had to do if he wanted to live much longer. He was a wanted man back in the city; with over nine thousand euros on his head, screwing this up would cost him big.
John began to explain what he wanted from Capalito as the pair sat in the porch of the beach hut where John would stay until he went back to the city. Capalito listened carefully, trying to take in the nature of the work he would have to do. Getting John inside the mind of an eel would take a lot of work but Capalito had been at the research centre for some time now and figured he knew enough about eels by now to give it a try. John signalled to the nearby assistant that he wanted another mojito, then when it arrived he waited until the man was out of earshot and told Capalito why what he was doing was so important.
‘Listen Capalito’ he said. ‘I think this eel thing goes a lot deeper than anyone realises. I can’t tell you who I thought I heard, but it wasn’t some regular joe-crime-guy in the front of that truck.’
‘Who was it then?’ asked Capalito.
‘I can’t tell you’ said John. ‘I can’t tell anyone at the moment, it’s too dangerous, not until I’m completely sure this is what I think it is.’
Capalito wasn’t happy to be kept in the dark about whatever it was John knew, but he remembered Philips’ threat and knew that John Logan wasn’t a man to dick around at this point in time.
‘Ok, don’t tell me’. He said. ‘But let me know exactly what you want from me.’
‘I need to get out there with the eels first thing tomorrow’ said John. ‘I need to learn everything there is about what it’s like to be an eel. I need to become an eel.’
‘That’ll be hard’ said Capalito. ‘Damn hard, but I’m willing to try.’
That night as John lay in his beach hut he was suddenly woken by a feeling, there was someone in his room, he could sense it. A figure was stood in the shadows watching him. Slowly John reached under his pillow to get his piece – but his gun was gone! ‘Shit’ thought John. He had to think of a plan quickly. Staying completely still his eyes scanned the room for possible weapons, the only thing close by was a half-full mojito at the side of the bed - this would have to do. John shot into action, grabbing the mojito and throwing the remaining liquid in his opponent’s face. As the mystery figure wiped the drink from his face - John dived at him, glass still in hand. Mid-flight John smashed the glass against his own fist, leaving him with a weapon. Before the assailant could react John had him pinned to the floor, broken glass against the fucker’s neck.
‘Who sent you?’ screamed John at his opponent. ‘Who fucking sent you, you son of a bitch?’ Then John realised he recognised the scrawny piece of shit he had on the floor. ‘Capalito, what the hell?’ he said.
‘I hated you so damn much John’ said Capalito. ‘I wanted you dead’.
‘Then why didn’t you kill me when you had the chance, why’d you wait, Capalito?’ asked John.
‘Because as much as I’d love to see you dead, I love eels more’ said Capalito. ‘I want to see you catch these motherfuckers, John’. John knew it was safe to release his quarry. He could see it in Capalito’s eyes, the man didn’t like it but he wanted to see John win. John knew he always won in the end. With Capalito’s help he would.
‘Get some sleep Capalito’ said John. ‘We’ve got work in the morning’.
Next morning at sunrise, John and Capalito were on a boat heading out into the bay. The men had diving equipment with them so they could study the eels in their natural environment. Upon reaching the point where Capalito knew eel concentrations would be greatest, he put down anchor and the men jumped over the side. Swimming to the bottom, John was amazed at what he saw. There must have been at least twenty eels, maybe more; it was the most spectacular sight John had ever seen. John swam to the largest eel and attempted to communicate with it by a series of complicated hand signals, however, the eel did not care for John’s attempts and swam away. John knew that gaining the trust of the eels was going to take a lot of time. He therefore swam over to some small fish, the favoured food of the eels and grabbed one. Making sure the eels could see, John took his breathing mask off and ate the fish raw. The eels looked on approvingly but John knew this simple gesture would not be enough to prove he was worthy of the eels’ knowledge. John swam down to the seabed and sat there for some time, occasionally eating a smaller fish when he knew the eels were looking. With time John knew the eels would come to accept him as one of their own.
After two weeks of spending every single hour of daylight with the eels, as well as occasional nights, many of the smaller eels had come to accept John and spent much time swimming with him. John communicated with them by hand signals, imitating the thrashing of the tail that an eel displays in order to express its mood. Capalito was shocked that John had managed to progress so quickly. Even in his fourth year of working at the eel research centre, Capalito was only able to express simple sentences to the animals. John’s command of the eel language was simply spectacular. After another two weeks John was able to speak to the smaller male eels and all of the female eels and before the fifth week, the largest male eel, who was the dominant eel in this particular lagoon, finally accepted John. Whilst initially threatened by John, the dominant eels had realised that John was not going to try and take their place in the eel hierarchy and had no unwarranted intentions towards the eels’ women. He was also useful at warding off the eels natural predators. In short, by now the eels really liked having John around. He was one of them.
When John finally communicated with the top eel, the eel was shocked to find out what John had to say. By elaborately thrashing his arms around, John expressed how the eel thefts had occurred in the city and of his suspicions about who may be to blame and why. He asked the eel if he had any ideas and by twisting his body around, the eel was able to tell John that he knew of no natural reason why any human would want to take the eels from the zoos on the land. However, looking around nervously, the eel then asked John to swim with him to a secluded section of the lagoon where they could talk in private. Wondering why this was, John swam with the animal to a place where the eel could tell him this secret information.
Upon reaching a suitable distance, the eel began expressing his true feelings. ‘Be very careful’ said the eel. ‘You don’t know what you’re messing with.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked John. ‘What’s really going on?’
‘There are dark forces in this world,’ said the eel, ‘some more powerful than others’.
‘Tell me’ said John.
‘I can’t’ said the eel. ‘It’s too dangerous, my advice is to quit now before anything happens to you.’
John considered this seriously. Being told by an eel that your life is in danger can have that effect on a man. John thanked the eel for his advice and they swam back to the where the rest of the eels were hanging out.
That night John and Capalito discussed John’s progress. Capalito told him how impressed he was. He said he still held a grudge against John but he was able to overcome his hatred through the respect he had built up for the man he had once wanted to kill. He now recognised how John got the results he did, through sheer hard work. He then explained what John would need to do next if he were to truly understand the culture of the eel.
‘Coming up after the next full moon’ said Capalito. ‘Is the eel mating season.’ John worried about what this might mean. ‘The eels have selected you a suitable female’ said Capalito. ‘They feel it would be a great honour for them if one of theirs was to bear your child’. John considered this a great honour. However, there was also no way in hell he was going to fuck an eel. Deciding he now knew as much as he ever wanted to know about eels, John took the first plane back to the city.


To be continued...

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