The Undercover Bartender
By Arby
Laura smashes up a cocaine ring


Arnie's Tavern couldn't exactly be described as a dive, it was a cut 
above that, but it certainly wasn't a posh uptown saloon, either.  It 
fell somewhere in between weighted more heavily toward the dive end of 
the scale.  It was located in the waterfront district of the city near 
the docks.  The clientele was a mixed group with longshoremen and other 
dock workers, crew members from the merchant vessels, and employees from 
the shipping companies that were located there even including some coat 
and tie management types from time to time.  The usual assortment of 
hookers that an establishment like Arnie's attracts were there also.  
The topic of conversation the last three days had been the new female 
bartender that Arnie Mathis, the owner, had hired.  It had been a long 
time since a woman like this had been seen in a place like Arnie's.  She 
wasn't especially tall, only about 5'5", her beautiful face was framed 
with thick dark hair that hung down to her shoulders. She had full red 
lips and lovely green eyes that always seemed to have a twinkle in them 
as she bantered with the customers. No one had gotten a good look at her 
except from the neck up. The weather had been cool, and she always wore 
a warm-up jacket with Arnie's in script across the back, loose fitting 
jeans, and Nike running shoes every night when she reported for work.  
Her prominent breasts could be seen clearly outlined through the jacket.  
She talked easily with the customers covering a wide range of topics 
from sports to cars to Wall Street, to almost anything they could bring 
up.  No matter what the subject she seemed to be exceptionally well 
versed in it.  She smiled easily and often, and obviously had a 
photographic memory because not only could she quote obscure statistics 
on a variety of topics but she could remember customers' names and what 
they were drinking so she never had to ask.  Arnie stood in the back and 
grinned as he saw his bar business increase each night in the short time 
she had been there.  On her fourth night, three young managers from one 
of the shipping companies stopped in after work and sat at the bar.  
They were on their fourth round of drinks and deep in a very animated 
conversation when one of them, Roy Cripps gestured with his hands as the 
bartender happened to be walking by.  His hand brushed against her 
breast.  Now Roy was usually very shy around women, especially for a 
handsome young man and had he not been well under the influence of 
alcohol he would have never done what he did next.  "Wow! What are you 
hiding under that jacket?" Roy asked his words slightly slurred.  "Keep 
your hands off me." the bartender said very quietly and tried to turn 
and walk down to the other end of the bar.  "Aw come on, honey, we just 
want to have some fun."  Roy said and reached for her again.  His hands 
never got to their intended target.  The bartender reached out and 
grasped his shirt front and tie in her right hand, pulling Roy toward 
her.  Her left hand formed a capable looking fist and became a blur as 
she snapped in a short, powerful hook that smashed into Roy's jaw.  
Still holding his shirt in her right hand, she again smashed her left 
fist into Roy's jaw.  He slumped unconscious in her grasp.  Slowly she 
lowered him to the barstool and gently propped him up against the 
stoolback.  The whole event happened so fast that no one except for 
Roy's friends saw what happened. The bartender took a shot glass and 
turned it upside down in front of Roy in the universal bartender's sign 
that a drink had been bought for a customer.  "When he wakes up, I'll 
buy him a drink just to show that there are no hard feelings.", she told 
his friends. " He should be a lot more sober then." About twenty minutes 
later Roy started to stir.  The bartender stood in front of him with a 
small smile playing at the corners of her mouth.  "I asked you not to 
touch me." she said in her low, throaty voice.  "I'm sorry I had to hit 
you, but I'm here to serve you drinks, talk to you, and laugh and have a 
good time, but not to touch.  My body is off limits unless I say 
otherwise.".   


Roy smiled ruefully at her as he rubbed his swelling jaw.  "Well, you 
definitely made your point.  I owe you an apology. I had a little too 
much to drink".  While Roy was apologizing the bartender had wrapped 
some ice cubes in a towel.  She handed it to him and said, "Put this on 
your jaw, it will help reduce the swelling and bruising.  She brought 
him a cup of coffee, and picked up the inverted shot glass. "I'll save 
this for the next time you come in. I think coffee is what you need 
tonight."  Roy said, "I think you're right, I've had enough in more ways 
than one.  What do you say we start over again, beginning with my 
apology.".  He held out his hand.  "My name is Roy Cripps."  The 
bartender's eyes held his in a steady gaze for several seconds, then she 
smiled and accepted his hand.  "You can call me Laura".  she said as 
they shook hands.  "What in the world did you hit me with, you sure pack 
a wallop.", he asked as he kept the towel wrapped ice pressed to his 
jaw.  Laura smiled at him again.  She seemed to smile a lot.  "A girl 
has to learn to take care of herself,", she said.  Roy spent the next 
several minutes ignoring his friends and attempting to talk to Laura as 
she worked.  She would give him no information about herself except that 
she had graduated from college and was working as a bartender while 
trying to decide what she wanted to do.  Roy finally gave up and asked 
for his check.  Laura returned with the bill and tore it up.  "This in 
on me,"  she said.  "I think a sore jaw and a bruised ego is enough for 
you to pay for tonight.   She handed him a fresh towel filled with ice 
cubes. "This is your one for the road." Roy thanked her, apologized 
again for his behavior and left with his friends. "He his kinda cute" 
Laura thought as he left the tavern.  She could tell that his friends 
were already kidding him unmercifully about being knocked out by a 
woman. 

Roy told his buddies about his conversation with the beautiful 
bartender.  He related everything she had told him, about college, and 
trying to decide what she wanted to do.  Although that was the story she 
had given Roy and everyone else, nothing could have been farther from 
the truth.  Laura the bartender was in reality an undercover agent for 
the DEA.  Large shipments of cocaine were coming into the United States 
through this port, probably on one of the merchant ships.  Laura was one 
of a team of agents assigned to work the case trying to get a handle on 
how the cocaine was being shipped.  Arnie's Tavern appeared to be the 
perfect place to pick up information with it's location and the wide mix 
of customers from all over the waterfront that could be found there at 
anytime.  She had already heard snatches of conversations that possibly 
implicated  a freighter with an Albanian registry.  She learned that it 
was actually owned by a group of French investors.  One way the cocaine 
was transported  was to pick it up in Colombia, Fly it to Africa, then 
bringing it by ship mixed in with legitimate merchandise to the States.  
Laura diligently pursued any scrap of information that she could glean 
from the contacts she was starting to make at Arnie's. 

Arnie was thrilled with her.  Since Laura had become his night bartender 
business had improved markedly.  The more customers who came in, the 
better for Arnie's business and better for Laura to gather information.  
Slowly a pattern began to take shape and some names started to surface. 


Laura had developed a routine for each day.  She had bought a membership 
in a gym or the other side of town far from the waterfront so it would 
be unlikely that she would bump into any of the people from the 
waterfront district.  She worked out very hard every day.  She had a 
beautiful but very muscular body a result of years of athletics and 
weight lifting.  Her legs were huge columns of muscle, her thighs 
forming large teardrops of muscle.  Her belly was flat, hard, and 
rippling with abdominal muscles.  Her back was wide and powerful, her 
chest deep and thick.  Her shoulders were broad and capped with muscle.  
Her arms were massive for a woman of her size. When extended her triceps 
looked like they would explode from under her skin and when she flexed 
them her biceps pumped into large, round, hard balls.  With all that 
muscle most people thought she must have had breast implants because the 
were large with prominent nipples.  They were wrong, however.  She was 
just a "freak" of nature as Laura called it.  She was skilled in all 
types of fighting arts and multilingual as well.  All of that added to 
her fabulous looks made her a very special package, especially in her 
line of work.  When the DEA, CIA, and FBI were all bidding for her 
services they all thought she was too good to be true. She proved them 
wrong.  Shortly after joining the DEA she helped break a major case.  
She also developed a reputation within the agency for interrogating drug 
dealers.  When she finished with them, Laura always had the information 
she wanted and the dealers were usually candidates for the hospital and 
plastic surgery she beat them so badly.  This was her first case after 
helping bring in  one of the biggest Colombian cartel members and his 
American contact.  She was anxious to bring this case to a close but 
that did not appear likely at the moment.  So Laura established her 
routine.  When Arnie's closed at 5:00AM she hung around trying to pick 
up additional information from the now inebriated patrons.  Then she 
went to the apartment she was renting and slept.  In the early afternoon 
she would get up and eat what was for her, breakfast while catching up 
on her paperwork and phone calls to potential informants and colleagues.  
After that she would head t the gym and work out.  After the workout she 
would head back to her apartment for a shower and change of clothes. She 
would have a quick dinner and head for the waterfront district.   She 
would make the rounds of other bars in the area searching for contacts 
or information until it was time to get to Arnie's to work her shift, 
charming the customers and trying to gather any scrap of information 
that would help her investigation. 

Laura had now been at Arnie's Tavern for three weeks.  The name of a 
company Royce Equipment Inc. began to come up frequently as a business 
that had spare aircraft parts shipped in by the Albanian freighter.  She 
had gotten a break and learned that the man running Royce was named 
Henri Picard, from Marseilles.  As usual Roy Cripps stopped in for a 
drink on his way home.  He was very much infatuated with Laura, his eyes 
following her every move as she worked the bar, but he made no more 
attempts to touch her. Roy struck up a conversation with the man seated 
next to him. "Yes, I work near here," Roy said.  "I work for Royce 
Equipment, Inc.".  Laura's head turned when she heard that.  She worked 
her way down to where Roy was sitting.  "Hi, Roy." she said.  They 
chatted as she made her way up and down the bar pouring drinks.  As 
midnight approached Roy prepared to leave. Laura brought his bill. "I 
actually have a night off tomorrow.  Why don't you take me out to 
dinner?" she said.  Roy almost fell off his barstool.  As soon as he 
recovered he said, "I would be delighted to take you to dinner.  Where 
should I pick you up."  Laura wrote her address on a cocktail napkin.  
"Make it somewhere nice, I promise you I'm worth it."  Roy nearly fell 
off the stool again.  He was three steps away when he heard Laura say 
"What time are you picking me up, silly."  Roy turned back " Would eight 
o'clock be alright?"  "That would be fine.  Goodnight, Roy. See you 
tomorrow at eight".  He floated out to the parking lot unable to believe 
his good fortune.  He was actually going out with this fantastic woman.  
He berated himself for acting like a teenager on his first date.  He was 
usually much more confident and relaxed around woman, but Laura turned 
him into a tongue-tied idiot he thought.  


The next day at work seemed to drag on forever to Roy.  He must have 
checked his watch every fifteen minutes.  Finally it ended and it was 
time to go home.  He dressed carefully putting on his best suit and 
taking more time than he ever had with his hair.  When he was ready he 
raced to Laura's apartment building.  He was early so he sat in his car 
for twenty minutes.  He rang her doorbell at precisely eight o'clock.  
It was answered by a vision dressed in black.  Laura was wearing a black 
dress with a matching black jacket.  Roy was a little more relaxed this 
time.  "You won't hit me again if I tell you how lovely you look 
tonight, will you?' he said.  Laura laughed.  "I might hit you if you 
didn't after all the time and effort I put into getting ready." she 
said.  They had reached Roy's car by then.  It was a red Lexus SC400 for 
which he had spent much more than he should, but after all, he was on 
the fast track at Royce and he did love the car. 
 The conversation flowed freely and easily as they drove to the 
restaurant. Roy had selected a pricey French bistro, LaReserve.  The 
meal was excellent and Laura was finding out all about Roy and his job 
at Royce Equipment.  "I am the sales manager." he told her.  "I hope to 
move to director in a few years and, if I'm lucky maybe Vice President.  
Laura found out that Royce distributed spare parts for aircraft engines 
and business was very good.  Henri Picard was something of a mystery man 
who left the day to day running of the company to his executives and 
seemed to be gone for long periods of time.  Since he was one of the 
founders of the company his actions were never questioned by anyone.  As 
the evening wore on Laura concluded that Roy was genuinely a nice guy 
and had no clue about the involvement of Henri Picard and others at 
Royce in the cocaine business.  She made her decision to come clean with 
Roy and ask for his help as an insider at Royce.  After dinner they 
lingered over coffee. The evening had gone extremely well.  Roy paid the 
check with an American Express Gold Card and they left the bistro.  


Roy drove slowly back to Laura's apartment, not wanting the evening to 
end.  As they reached the door Roy stood there very awkwardly for a 
minute, then held out his hand.  "I have really enjoyed this evening.  
Thanks for asking me.", he said.  Laura reached out and took his hand.  
"You don't have to go right now, do you?" she asked.  "Why don't you 
come in for a few minutes.  I'll fix us some coffee."  Roy noticed that 
the hand holding his was larger than he would have thought for a woman 
of her height and there were some callouses in strange places, like 
across the top of her knuckles.  As his hand rubbed across hers he 
thought, "No wonder she hit me so hard.  She must study martial arts.".  
By then Laura had the door open and still holding Roy's hand led him 
into the living room.  "I'll start the coffee.  Why don't you take your 
jacket off and get comfortable."  Before he could say anything she had 
started toward the kitchen.  As she moved away from him Roy could see 
her calf muscles contract into large balls of muscle as she walked.  
"She must work out a lot with all that muscle, but on her it looks 
good.".  He could hear water running in the kitchen as she prepared the 
coffee.  When she reentered the room, Roy was seated in a wing chair 
with his jacket off and his shirt sleeves rolled up two turns.  "Now 
it's your turn to take your jacket off", Roy said.  Laura was hesitant.  
"You might not like what you see." she cautioned.  To her this was the 
critical part of the evening.  If he was like most men and was disgusted 
by her muscular build, she would have no chance to enlist his help.  
However, there was a small but growing number of men who were turned on 
by muscular women and if he turned out to be like them, she had him.  
Laura wanted some sign from him before she took her jacket off.  "I 
don't look like the women you are used to going out with" she said.  
"You certainly are not," Roy replied.  "You are much more beautiful than 
any of them.".  "You might not think that in a few seconds,"  Laura 
said.  Slowly she removed the jacket.  Underneath she was wearing a 
simple black cocktail dress, held up by two thin straps.   Her broad 
shoulders rose like two boulders from the sleeveless dress and her arms 
were alive with bulging, rippling muscle.  In spite of himself Roy felt 
his jaw drop and his mouth pop open in amazement.  He had not imagined 
she was referring to something like this.  "I told you I wouldn't be 
like other women you knew." Laura said almost shyly.  Roy swallowed 
hard.  He had never seen anything like her before.  He realized he was 
becoming aroused and squirmed in his chair to prevent her from finding 
out.  "You're magnificent!", he blurted out.  He was totally overwhelmed 
by this display of beauty and power.  "You don't mean grotesque, do 
you?" she asked.  "Absolutely stunning," he replied.  "I never dreamed a 
woman could reach the stage of development that you have.  His penis was 
standing rigidly at attention now and there was nothing he could do to 
hide it from Laura.  A twinkle came into her eyes.  "I never know how 
men are going to react.  So many are disgusted by muscles like mine. I 
can see that I have your complete attention, however."  Roy turned red.  
"Don't be embarrassed.   I take your reaction as a compliment." Laura 
winked.  "You catch your breath while I go see if the coffee is ready."  
Laura went to the kitchen.  She reappeared with a tray loaded with two 
steaming mugs of coffee, sugar and a low cal sweetener and cream.  She 
placed it on the coffee table in front of the sofa and sat down.  "Come 
over here, Roy. I don't bite. Roy had recovered his composure somewhat 
while she was in the kitchen so he was able to move more or less 
normally.  He joined her on the sofa.  They prepared their coffee, took 
a sip and replaced the mugs on the tray.  Laura slid closer to Roy and 
took his hand and placed it around her shoulders.  "See, I feel just 
like any other woman, just with a little more muscle" she said as she 
snuggled even closer.  Laura turned so that her breasts were mashing 
directly in to his chest, then reached up and placed a soft, gentle kiss 
on his lips.  Roy couldn't believe this was happening to him.  Suddenly 
Laura broke away from him.  "I can't go through with this!" she 
exclaimed.  "WWhat do you mean?" Roy asked.  His emotions were a 
whirlwind.  "I brought you up here to seduce you to get you to help me" 
Laura explained.  Now I find that I am really attracted to you, and I 
want anything that might happen between us to be natural.  It would ruin 
any chance of a real relationship if I go through with it."  Laura had 
done this act before.  She found it worked better than actually trying 
to carry off the seduction.  "What do you mean help you.  Of course I'll 
help you. Just ask me anything. Do you need money?" Roy said. "No, it's 
nothing like that.  You don't know what you would be getting yourself in 
to.".  Laura proceeded to tell him the whole story, that she was an 
undercover DEA agent assigned to find out who was shipping cocaine 
through the port.  The name Royce Equipment Inc. had come up from 
several sources.  When she heard Roy mention that he worked at Royce she 
came up with the seduction plan.  "The trouble is, that I think I am 
developing some real feelings for you, so I can't go through with it. 
That is when I decided just to come clean and ask for your help."  Laura 
had been trained well.  Roy bought the whole story.  One of her early 
instructors with the DEA had told her "When you learn to fake sincerity, 
you have it made.".  Her problem was that it wasn't all a fake. She was 
developing a definite attraction to this man.  "What can I do to help?" 
Roy asked.  "Keep your eyes and ears open for anything about a shipment 
coming in on an Albanian freighter.  See if anyone acts strangely about 
it.  Let me know anything at all that you hear no matter how 
insignificant it may seem.  You can see me at Arnie's as you have been."  
Laura paused.  "This means we will have to continue to go out together, 
I hope you won't mind that." she said with a wry smile.  "Now, Roy 
Cripps we have had a very enjoyable and eventful evening, however I 
think we both need some rest because we have a very full day tomorrow.".  
She took Roy by the hand and led him to the door.  She brought his hand 
up to her breasts and rubbed it across them. 


"I told you I decided who could touch me and who couldn't. What does 
this tell you?".  Roy thought he was going to explode right in his 
pants.  Before he could say anything Laura covered his lips with hers in 
a much more passionate kiss than the first one.  "Come see me at Arnie's 
tomorrow night" she whispered in his ear as she pushed him out the door.  
Roy stood out side the door for a few minutes trying to gather his wits, 
then made his way back to his car.  He was surprised by his reaction to 
Laura, especially after he had seen her body.  He had always been in the 
group that made bad jokes about the female bodybuilders on television.  
Now he was hooked on muscular women forever.  Laura made the women he 
had been dating look like stick dolls.  Laura had not overtly flexed her 
muscles but he could remember how her biceps would swell with power just 
from a simple act like lifting her coffee cup or brushing her hair out 
of her face.  He could not forget the feel of her breasts under his 
fingers or that last kiss that seemed to be a promise of much more to 
come.  Laura watched him go through the window.  She could imagine the 
turmoil that must be going through his mind right now.  "Damn!" she 
said.  "We're mooning around like a couple of high school kids. He is a 
nice guy.  I hope nothing bad happens to him during this case.  Maybe I 
shouldn't have involved him in this.  Too late to worry about than now, 
I guess.  I'll just have to try to keep him out of the line of fire when 
the trouble starts." 

Laura went through her routine the next day.  She informed her superiors 
that she now had an informant inside Royce Equipment Inc. that she hoped 
would bring her evidence that the cocaine was indeed moving into the 
country from the Albanian ships to Royce and then into mass 
distribution.  They were pleased that she had made some progress because 
the case was moving very slowly.  After that she went to the gym.  She 
did a split routine and she was finishing up today by working her 
biceps.  They swelled to tremendous size as she curled the heavy 
weights.  Even the hardcore male lifters stopped to watch as she pumped 
up.  Her arms looked like cantaloupes had been implanted under her skin, 
except they were much harder. The veins and arteries in her arms looked 
like miniature pipelines crisscrossing her skin as they transported 
blood to her biceps.  The room was totally silent as she finished her 
final reps.  Laura was almost totally exhausted by the time she was 
finished and made her way to the dressing room for a shower.  One of the 
men who looked like a middleweight bodybuilder came over and checked out 
the weights she had been using.  "Holy shit!" he marveled.  "That's more 
weight than I use. She must be a pure animal whoever she is.".  Laura, 
of course, could hear none of this as she was in the shower at the time.  
Her body began to recuperate as the warm water sprayed down.  After a 
long, hot shower she felt great.  She stopped off for a bite to eat at 
her apartment then headed for the waterfront area to hit some of the 
other bars in search of information.  She was having no luck tonight.  
She had been in two places already, asking her usual questions but with 
no luck.  She was walking down a dimly lit street on her way to her next 
stop when she noticed two men right behind her.  She recognized them as 
having been in both of the bars she had been in tonight.  As she neared 
an alley they suddenly moved up on either side of her and hustled her 
into the alley. The smaller of the two men "We got her now, Bud".  "Shut 
up, Howie! I'll do the talkin'"  The larger of the two men the one 
called Bud said "You've been askin' a awful lot of questions, girly." 


Laura answered "I'm new to the area and I was just trying to score some 
coke, and I wanted to get the lay of the land".  She observed the men 
more closely.  Both were about the same height, around six feet, but the 
one called Bud was much heavier than the one called Howie.  Both were 
dressed as merchant seamen, but neither looked the part.  Bud looked 
like a boxer or wrestler gone to seed.  Howie was thin, wirey, and mean 
looking.  They probably made their living by strongarming people for 
whoever their boss was.  "Babe, you've been askin' a whole lot more than 
just how to score a little coke.  You have been makin' a some very 
important people very nervous lately.  Besides, you sure don't look like 
a user to me.  Bud slipped around behind her while they were talking.  
He wrapped his arms around her and said, "Now we are goin' to teach you 
a lesson about askin' the wrong questions around here.  Take this as a 
warnin' and get out of town.  Howie stepped up and smashed his fist into 
her belly.  A look of surprise came over his face as his fist contacted 
her hard belly and bounced off.  He expected her to crumple to the 
concrete from his punch.  While the two men were recovering from their 
surprise, Laura went into action.  She drove a right hammerfist directly 
between Bud's legs smashing into his groin.  He moaned and collapsed to 
the ground.  Her left foot shot out and crashed just above Howie's knee 
on his thigh. He felt like his leg was paralyzed and fell to the 
pavement in severe pain.  The two thugs were momentarily incapacitated.  
Laura knew that she had to find out who sent them and why.  She knew 
exactly how to do that.  While Howie rolled around in pain grasping his 
injured leg, she hauled Bud to his feet. "I need the answers to a few 
more questions.  Unfortunately for you, you're not going to have the 
chance to answer them.  I need you to help me convince your partner over 
there to give me the information I need."  She drew back her right fist 
and sent a ferocious punch blasting deep in his belly.  Laura had to 
hold on to his shirt to keep him from falling.  She wound up and drilled 
an even harder punch in the same place, her fist penetrating far into 
the roll of fat Bud had around his waist.  She let him drop to the 
ground and he started retching and puking on the pavement.  Laura stood 
calmly by until he had finished.  She hauled Bud to his feet again.  She 
cocked her right fist and rocketed a vicious punch straight at his nose.  
It broke with a awful snap and blood sprayed everywhere.  Laura 
proceeded to destroy Bud's face with powerful, hammering punches.  At 
first the sound of his facial bones breaking could be heard under the 
pounding of her heavy fist.  Later, when her fist landed only a sodden 
thud could be heard and a spurt of red came with each terrible blow.  
Howie watched in terror as Laura systematically turned Bud's face to a 
red mass of tissue that bore no resemblance to the Bud of ten minutes 
ago. After one last smash, Laura let him fall.  Howie was half running, 
half crawling in an attempt to get out of the alley.  Laura caught him 
before he got to the alley entrance and drug him back far in the alley.  
She had him by the hair and pulled him over to Bud.  "Take a good look 
at him!" she commanded Howie.  "If you don't tell me what I want to 
know, you'll wind up looking just like him."  She jerked Howie to his 
feet.  "Who sent you?" she asked.  Howie didn't answer immediately.  
"Have it your way, then" Laura said to him.  Her fist came up from below 
her knees and was buried in his gut.  The contents of Howie's stomach 
joint those of his partner, Bud on the alley pavement as Howie dropped 
to his knees and vomited violently.  When he could breath again, she 
took him back over to Bud.  "This time take a good look!" she ordered.  
Howie recoiled in revulsion when he saw the blood, the bruises, the 
broken bones, the knocked out teeth, and thought he was going to have a 
heart attack.  "Lady, who the hell are you?" he asked.  "I'm the lady 
you and your buddy shouldn't have fucked with." Laura answered. Howie 
couldn't get over the bloody mess that she had made of Bud's face.  "You 
have two choices, punk.  You can tell me what I want to know, or wind up 
looking like him".  Laura forced Howie to his feet again. He was deathly 
afraid of this woman standing in front of him with Bud's blood 
splattered all over her chest, and dripping from her fist.  She took his 
jaw in an iron grip with her left hand and cocked that deadly right fist 
back preparing to smash his face just as she had smashed Bud's. 


"N-No, P-Please!  Don't hit me!  I-I'll tell you anything you want to 
know just don't bust me up like you did Bud."  Laura's plan had worked 
perfectly.  She knew if she had tried to question them both, they would 
have drawn support from each other and told her nothing.  She had 
deliberately destroyed the bigger, stronger thug knowing the effect it 
would have on the other man.  After seeing what she had done to his 
partner, he would do anything to avoid the same fate.  Laura had 
admitted to herself some time ago that she enjoyed doing this.  She 
loved the feeling of power, the feel of her fists smashing into human 
flesh.  She knew that the stimulation that caused the now familiar wet 
spot between her legs occurred every time she fought.  She could justify 
it in her mind because it was always some scum drug dealer on the 
receiving end of the beating.   The terrified Howie babbled everything 
that he knew just as Laura knew he would.  Anytime he hesitated, she 
pointed at Bud, and cocked that big, hard right fist. That would cause 
him to start right where he left off.  She found out that a man named 
Carl Selmer had sent them.  He was the receiving and inventory 
supervisor for Royce Equipment Inc.  Laura knew that Selmer was not the 
man she was after, he was too low on the totem pole.  At that point 
Howie refused to tell her more.  "My life won't be worth nothin' if I 
tell you." he said.  "If you talk, we'll give you protection.  If you 
don't, I beat you even worse than I did your friend over there.  Even 
the best plastic surgeons won't be able to put your face back together! 
So what's it gonna be"  The fear of the present, Laura's punishing 
fists, won out.  "Selmer works for Tom Burgess, and Burgess works 
directly for Henri Picard. Honest, that's all I know.".  "Laura reached 
out and patted him on the cheek.  "That wasn't so bad was it.  I'm sure 
Bud over there will wish he had the same chance you got to save himself.  
Thanks for your help and sleep well!"  Before the significance of what 
Laura had said could sink in, her fist crashed into his jaw and 
everything went black.  Laura called in and arranged to have the two men 
picked up.  "Send the doc", she said.  "One of them is beaten up pretty 
badly.".  "How will we know them?" the agent on the phone asked.  "I 
would guess that they are the only two unconscious men in the alley, 
dumbass" Laura said and laughed. "Damn" she said as she looked at her 
jacket an shirt. Bud's blood was splattered all over her. "Now I have to 
go home and change."   She hurried from the alley without looking back 
at the results of her fistic assault, the two thugs crumpled on the 
pavement.  She had to hurry in order to change clothes and get to 
Arnie's in time for her shift.  Shortly after she left the alley, two 
vans pulled up.  The DEA agents got out and looked at the two men.  One 
of the agents said, "It sure is easy to spot Laura's handiwork.  That 
poor bastard's face will have to be totally rebuilt. She can be 
downright vicious, but she sure as hell gets results.  I wouldn't want 
her mad at me.  Let's get'em loaded up and get the hell out of here.    


Laura returned to her apartment and quickly showered and changed 
clothes.  She left her blood splattered clothing soaking in the sink.  
"Blood is hell to get out of my clothes. At least this time they belong 
to Arnie." she mused.  Laura checked the time, jumped in her car and 
raced to Arnie's.  She was about ten minutes late.  "Where have you 
been?" Arnie questioned in a concerned voice.  "I was worried sick about 
you.  I heard that two tough looking characters followed you out of the 
Mariner a while ago."  "It wasn't me." she replied.  "Like a klutz, I 
spilled something on my shirt and had to go home and change.  Sorry I'm 
late."  "No problem" Arnie said.  "I'm just glad you're alright."  Laura 
got behind the bar and started working.  All of the regulars greeted 
her.  It was a busy night and time flew by.  Roy Cripps came in around 
10:00PM for his usual.  He couldn't stop smiling as he looked at Laura.  
When she delivered his drink, she said "I need to see you.".  "Tonight?" 
Roy asked.  "No, there too many people who shouldn't see us together.  
Tomorrow is Saturday.  Come to my apartment around noon.  I'll even buy 
your lunch."  "That's a deal that is impossible to pass up." he said.  
"I'll see you at noon."  Laura ignored him the rest of the night.  She 
knew when Bud and Howie didn't check in, Carl Selmer would know 
something was wrong and have someone checking up on her.  She didn't 
want Roy needlessly involved or exposed.  He paid his tab and left 
around midnight.  The rest of the night went by uneventfully.  When they 
closed, Laura made sure that she left when all the other employees did 
to avoid any more opportunities for Selmer's men to get at her.  She 
drove very carefully, making sure she was not followed.  After assuring 
herself that no one was tailing her she drove home.  She worked on a 
report of the evening's activities for a while.  She realized that she 
needed sleep to be sure she was fully alert the next day. 

Laura awoke at 10:30AM, an hour and a half before Roy was due.  She 
decided it was time to give Roy the full treatment.  She dressed in 
running shorts, her Nikes with socks scrunched down, and a cut-off tank 
top that left most of her spectacular upper body exposed, including her 
hard muscled belly.  She ordered two large salads topped with grilled 
chicken from the deli down the street for delivery and sat down to work.  
She tried to put all the pieces of the puzzle together by writing down 
all the events in chronological order and adding in the names she had 
gotten as appropriate.  She was deep in concentration when the doorbell 
rang.  It was the deli deliveryman. He stood there gaping at her while 
she paid him and didn't even notice the sizable tip she added on.  She 
went back to work.  It seemed like only a few minutes had passed when 
the doorbell rang again.  This time it was Roy.  He was standing there 
with a bottle of white wine in one hand, and a bouquet of flowers in the 
other.  He nearly dropped both when he saw Laura.  He was speechless.  
"Come on in." she said.  "If you stand there like that any longer the 
pigeons will mistake you for a statue."   Roy followed her into the 
apartment.  He had thought she had muscles when they had gone out to 
dinner, but to see her up close dressed like this was simply 
overwhelming.  Roy was speechless.  "I told you I don't look like most 
other women and that you might not like it.  I thought this would be as 
good a time as any to find out."  Roy finally regained the use of his 
voice.  "You're right. You don't look like any other women I have ever 
known. You look great, even better that you did at dinner.  I never knew 
muscles could look so sexy." Roy said.  "Thank you, kind sir." Laura 
smiled.  "Now, let's eat!"  She went into the kitchen and opened the 
wine Roy had bought and poured two glasses.  She put the flowers in a 
small vase and placed it in the center of the table.  She had already 
set to places at the table so all that was left to do was bring in the 
salads along with some crusty sourdough bread she had bought.  They sat 
down and began to eat.  Roy just sat there watching the muscles in her 
arms flex as she raised her fork and wine glass to her mouth.  When he 
had finished gawking he asked "What did you want to see me about?".  
Laura finished a mouthful of salad before answering.  "I have the name 
of two people at Royce that have surfaced from informants.  Do you know 
Carl Selmer and Tom Burgess?".   "Sure, I know them.  Selmer runs the 
receiving dock and inventory, and Burgess is the chief financial 
officer.  Do you really think that they have anything to do with this 
cocaine business?".  "I don't know definitely, but their names came from 
a source I would swear was not lying under the conditions he was 
questioned.  We need to check them out and make sure one way or the 
other."  "What do you want me to do?", Roy wanted to know.  Laura told 
him.  "Here is a list of dates when we think the shipments came into the 
country.  Be careful, but look around and see if there is any kind of 
pattern involving the activities of these two men around those dates. 
Don't be obvious about it, take your time and check out small bits of 
information at a time.  Don't try to be a hero.  If anyone catches on to 
what you're doing, stop immediately and call me.  Here are all my 
numbers including pager and cell phone. If you feel like you don't want 
to do this, I will understand because there is some risk involved.  We 
desperately need your help, however." "Wow! You really are serious about 
this aren't you." Roy said.  "Deadly serious!" Laura answered.  "I hate 
drugs and I hate the scum who sell them even worse.  Every time I see 
some kid strung out on drugs I want to shut all these assholes down for 
good!".  They had finished their lunch by this time.  Laura poured each 
of them another glass of wine and said, "Let's go over to the living 
room and sit.  I'll clean up here after while.".  Roy could not tear his 
eyes from Laura. Every time she moved it stated an explosion of muscle 
in some part of her body.  Roy was truly hooked.  "If anyone told me I'd 
fall for a musclewoman, I would have laughed in their face.  I was one 
of those who used to make jokes about female bodybuilders.  I can't 
believe it myself, but she is the most amazing woman I have ever met." 
Roy was thinking as they moved to the living room. As they sipped their 
wine, Roy tried to find out more about Laura.  He asked her how she came 
to join the DEA, and about her earlier cases. Laura was pleasant and 
charming, but she told him nothing.  After about an hour she said, "Roy 
I hate to do this, but I have to throw you out.  I have a lot of work to 
do on this case and the only time I have to work on it is when I'm not 
scheduled to work at Arnie's."  They rose from their seats and Laura 
escorted him to the door.  A brief, awkward silence followed, then Laura 
placed a soft kiss on his lips.  "I'll make it up to you after all this 
is over, I promise." she said in her throaty, sexy voice.  Roy all but 
floated to his car and drove away.  Laura opened her laptop computer and 
ran the names of Carl Selmer and Tom Burgess through the DEA, FBI, and 
police databases.  She found out that Selmer had been in and out of 
prison, but it had been for mostly strongarm stuff, not drugs.  Since he 
had started to work for Royce he had stayed out of trouble.  Burgess had 
never been in jail, but he had been indicted when he was involved in a 
scheme to embezzle funds from clients at a brokerage house.  He had 
disappeared for a while after that, the resurfaced at Royce.  He had 
been there for three years.  Was it just coincidental that these two men 
had been in trouble with the law before?  Laura didn't believe in 
coincidences.  She began to feel the trail to the cocaine dealers was 
heating up. 

When Roy reported to work on Monday morning he tried his best to act 
normal. He carried out his routine duties throughout the first part of 
the morning.  He sat down at his computer and started pulling up any 
information that he could find regarding  the receiving department for 
the dates Laura had given him.  When he got to scheduling, he found 
something very interesting.  On the dates in question, Carl Selmer had 
always scheduled himself and one other employee, Tony Rossi, to work.  
What was really a red flag was that Selmer never worked on the receiving 
dock at any other time.  Secondly, he found that Tom Burgess always left 
on an extended business trip one or two days after the suspected 
shipment would arrive.  Henri Picard also had left on an extended trip 
immediately after those dates as well.  Roy made notes about this 
information rather than print it out.  Every document that was printed 
had to be logged in, and he didn't want anyone to know he had been 
searching for this information.  At lunch time Roy slipped out of the 
building.  It was not unusual for the managers to go out for lunch.  He 
wanted to contact Laura but he didn't want to use his office phone or 
cell phone.  He found a pay phone a couple of blocks away.  He tried her 
apartment phone, but she didn't answer.  He didn't have time to wait for 
her pager, so he called the cell phone.  "Hello."  He immediately 
recognized her low voice.  "Laura, it's Roy.  I have some information 
for you."  "Don't say it on the phone." she said.  "We need to meet. 
Where are you?".  Roy told her his location and that there was a Chinese 
restaurant just down the block.  "Go in and get a booth, if you can.  
I'll be there in fifteen minutes.".  Laura broke the connection. 

Roy strolled to the restaurant and got a booth.  Laura arrived right on 
time.  She spotted Roy and hurried to the booth.  The waiter came over 
and took their order.  "That was fast, Roy.  What did you find out?".  
"Computers make it a lot easier to check things out.".  He told Laura 
what he had found out regarding Selmer, Rossi, Burgess, and Picard.  
Laura then told Roy about the criminal involvement of Selmer and 
Burgess.  "I'll have to check up on Mr. Rossi.  There seem to be a whole 
lot of coincidences in this case.  Far too many to ignore.  You've done 
an exceptional job, Roy.  I won't forget it.  Could you do one more 
thing for me?". "Just name it." Roy said.  "See if you can find out when 
Selmer and Rossi are scheduled to work in receiving again. That should 
give us an idea when the next shipment is coming in."  "No problem" Roy 
told her.  Neither of them was very hungry, they just picked at their 
food. They paid the check and left.  Roy had a couple of meetings that 
afternoon and found it hard to concentrate while they were going on.  
Finally around 4:30PM he was able to get back to his office and use his 
computer.  He found that the two men were scheduled again for Friday.  
"No point in calling Laura now, I'll drop by Arnie's tonight and let her 
know what I've found.." he thought. 

Laura was very busy when Roy arrived.  The bar was crowed and so were 
the tables.  He took a seat at the far end of the bar and waited 
patiently for Laura to come.  He ordered his drink and sipped it in 
silence, watching Laura work, enjoying the athletic way she moved.  She 
stopped by to see if he wanted another drink.  No, I have to leave.  I 
have the information you wanted."  "Don't say much in here," Laura 
cautioned . Roy took out a pen and wrote "Friday" on a cocktail napkin.  
Laura nodded and picked up the napkin and threw it in the garbage.  Roy 
left to go home. He was tired after the adrenaline rush he had felt all 
day was gone.  Laura finished her shift without garnering any additional 
information and also went home.  

Laura developed a plan for Friday.  After much analysis, she decided the 
best way to keep up with what was going on was to deliver the cocaine 
herself.  In order to do that she would have to hijack the truck 
carrying it from the docks to Royce Equipment.  After she knew which 
containers contained the coke she would need Roy's help again to find 
out when the coke would leave the warehouse and its destination.  She 
knew that they might also take the cocaine out of the containers and 
transport it in some other way.  She had to catch them with the material 
in their possession, so she would just have to play some of it by ear. 


Friday morning found Laura in position, hidden, watching the Albanian 
freighter through high powered binoculars.  She spotted the containers 
marked for Royce Equipment Inc. being loaded on to a truck by two men.  
She hurried to her car, checked with her DEA team to see if everyone was 
in position along the truck route.  They were staked out along the route 
that the delivery trucks took between the docks and Royce.  The truck 
pulled away and Laura fell in behind it in her car.  The truck took a 
turn that carried them away from the usual route.  Laura frantically 
shouted the change of directions into her hand held radio unit.  She 
desperately needed to hold up the truck until her team could arrive on 
the new route.  She cut over to a parallel street one block away and 
roared ahead, passing the truck.  She cut back over to the truck route, 
but this time she was in front of the truck.  She saw up ahead the 
street narrowed to one lane in each direction. She shouted instructions 
into the radio unit again, then turned her car sideways in the truck's 
lane.  She got out and opened the hood of the car.  When the truck 
approached the two men saw a car blocking the way with an attractive 
young  woman peering uncertainly under the hood.  The truck came to a 
stop.  Both occupants got out and approached the car.  "High there, 
honey, havin' a little trouble?" the driver asked.  "It just went dead 
right here in the middle of the street.  Could you gentlemen help me?" 
she asked in what she hoped sounded like a helpless voice.  The men 
looked under the hood.  They could see nothing that looked like it might 
be the cause of the trouble.  "It's nothin' obvious, lady.  I'm sorry 
but we can't help you.  This delivery we have in on a timed schedule. 
We'll have to push your car out of the way. You can call AAA.".   Laura 
was wondering how long it would take her team to catch up to their 
position.  Suddenly the other man said, "Say, I know you.  You're the 
bartender at Arnie's that Bud and Howie were followin' when they 
disappeared.  Grab her! The boss wants to ask her some questions."  The 
driver was still peering under the hood.  Before either of them could 
make a move Laura slammed the hood down on the back of his head.  The 
other man lunged for Laura.  She grabbed his arm and slung him face 
first into the side of the car. His face smashed into the window, 
cracking it and breaking his nose.  He slumped to the pavement holding 
his face in his hands.  The driver was struggling to get out from under 
the hood.  Laura raised it again and slammed it down on his head once 
more. 


She raised the hood and pulled the driver out from under it.  The man 
was dazed and barely conscious from the battering he had taken from the 
car hood.  Laura ripped her left fist viciously into his fairly large 
gut and saw it sink in with a satisfying thump.  As the driver's head 
came down from the gut punch, his chin met her right fist rising in a 
powerful upper cut. CRAAAAKK her fist collided with his chin.  The punch 
knocked him backwards, he was draped over the hood of the car. He slid 
down from there to a sitting position against the car, then toppled over 
on his side, out cold.  Laura looked around and saw the other man 
beginning to stir.  She got to him in three quick strides.  She kicked 
him right in the face with her right foot.  Her foot driven by her 
muscle laden leg smashed into his face and slammed his head back into 
the car.   He too, sprawled  out cold on the pavement.  Laura was 
opening the car door to get her handcuffs when the DEA team came rolling 
up.  They leaped out with weapons drawn.  Laura laughed, "Just a wee bit 
late, boys.  All that's left is mopping up."  The agents handcuffed the 
unconscious men and loaded them into one of the vans.  Then with Laura 
they all moved to the truck and began gently prying open containers 
searching for the drugs.  They found what they were looking for, in 
containers marked aircraft parts.  Laura and one of the agents donned 
coveralls that matched those of the two men.  The agent got behind the 
wheel and Laura climbed into the passenger seat.  They would pause as 
the crew to deliver the merchandise.  They drove to Royce and pulled up 
to the loading dock.  A big, burly, balding black man came forward.  His 
nametag identified  him as Carl Selmer.  A short heavyset man with dark 
curly hair accompanied him.  "That must be Rossi,"  Laura thought.  
"Where are the other two guys who are supposed to be driving this 
truck?" he asked in a gruff voice.  Laura was trying to find an answer 
when the other agent spoke up.  "We don't know.  They never showed up. 
We're both new, so they assigned us to drive your delivery over.  Sorry 
we're late. We took a wrong turn."  Selmer bought it.  "Alright, let's 
just get this shipment unloaded.  Just get them to the platform, we'll 
take it from there."  "OK, man, no problem" said the agent.  It took him 
and Laura just over forty five minutes to accomplish their task.  Carl 
Selmer was stomping around shouting out orders all that time.  The agent 
presented the paperwork that had been in the truck and had Selmer sign 
off on it.  As they pulled away from the loading dock Laura turned on a 
small receiver.  They had implanted minuscule homing devices in each 
packet of cocaine.  They were for all practical purposes invisible.  
They were all working as evidenced by the small beeps and the display on 
the screen. The first part of their operation had been successful.  Now 
they had to wait for the suspects at Royce to attempt to move it.  Laura 
thanked the members of the DEA team and sent them home with instructions 
to be ready to move at a moment's notice.  Laura went home herself, to 
rest up before going to work at Arnie's that evening.  She was upset 
that she was missing her workout, but rest was more important if the 
case broke. 

Roy came into Arnie's at his regular time.  After he was seated at the 
bar, Laura made her way down to him.  "I need to see you." she said.  I 
have a break in an hour. I'll be outside in the parking lot.  Pay you 
bill to the other bartender and meet me there."  She moved quickly away.  
Laura didn't even look at Roy the rest of the evening until it was time 
for her break.  As soon as she left, Roy hailed the other bartender and 
paid his bill.  He was walking through the shadows toward his car, when 
a strong arm reached out from the shadows and pulled him to the side of 
the building.  Three men had come out of Arnie's right behind Roy.  
Before he knew what was happening , those strong arms wrapped around him 
and Laura pulled his head down in what looked like a very passionate 
kiss.  The men laughed, one of them applauded, and they got in their car 
and drove away.  "Save it for later." she whispered as she broke the 
kiss.  "We have work to do now."  She explained to Roy what had 
transpired so far.  She told him that the cocaine was definitely in the 
Royce warehouse and how the containers were identified.  "If you see any 
of these men doing anything out of the ordinary, call me.  I don't care 
what time it is, we have to catch them with the goods so we have to know 
how they plan to move the stuff." Laura continued.  "Can you get into 
the Royce building any time you want?"  "Yes, it's not difficult. Since 
we do business world wide some of us are always coming at strange hours 
to match the business hours in other countries. As long as I didn't show 
up several days in a row, nobody would be suspicious, it's just a part 
of doing business in the international marketplace."  "Good!" Laura 
said.  "I hate to ask you to stay up late, but tonight I get off at 
2:00AM.  Could you get me  into the building then?"  "I don't mind 
staying up late, but why do you want to get into the building." Roy 
asked.  "I want to plant listening devices in Picard's and Burgess's 
offices.  We need to know what they are planning, and while you have 
been very helpful, I know you can't get access to that information.  Is 
there extra security on that floor?".  "You're gonna bug their offices?  
Jeez Laura, I don't know about that.".  Roy was concerned about that.  
Reluctantly, he said "There is extra security on that floor, but since I 
was promoted to sales manager, my office is on that floor."  "Roy, you 
signed on to help us.  You have done plenty, and if you had rather not 
do this, I understand.  If you don't we probably will never catch them 
with the cocaine in their possession and the cocaine running will only 
get worse."  "I'll do it." Roy said.  "Are you sure?  Because if you 
aren't, this is the time to back out.  Once we're in the building, 
you're along for the whole ride."  Roy replied quickly. "No, I'm sure.  
I know what you are trying to do is right.  I despise drugs, too.  Plus, 
you know I would do anything you ask."  "Meet me at my apartment a 
little after 2:00AM, then".  Laura grabbed him and gave him a long, 
deep, fiery kiss. "The first one was for show.  This one was for you!",.  
She spun around and raced back inside Arnie's leaving Roy  standing 
alone in the darkness.  "That sure is one hell of a woman" he thought as 
he made his way to his car and prepared to wait for her. 


Roy was parked outside Laura's apartment when he saw he pull in.  He had 
been dozing off.  He checked his watch, 2:14AM.  Laura approached his 
car and he got out.  "I just need a couple of minutes to get my 
equipment out of my apartment." she said.  "I'll wait for you here," Roy 
told her.  When Laura came out she was carrying a travel bag in her hand 
and she had changed clothes and put on makeup.  The dress she was 
wearing was similar to the one she wore on their dinner date, but this 
one was dark green.  Her upper shoulders were covered by a matching 
jacket.  "God, you're beautiful." Roy blurted out in spite of himself.  
Laura smiled at him.  "I'm your date tonight.  We were out when you 
realized you needed to make this phone call to an international 
customer.  Since you don't expect to be here long, it was easier to 
bring me than take me home and come back.  How does that sound?"  Roy 
got a sheepish look on his face.  "Actually, I have done exactly that 
before." he admitted.  Even in the darkness Laura thought she could see 
him blush.  She went around to the passenger side and got in.  "Let's 
get this show on the road." and with that they drove off toward the 
Royce building. 

There was a security guard sitting at a large console in the lobby.  Roy 
knew him.  Roy gave him the date story.  The guard grinned at him.  It 
was obvious that Roy had done this before.  The guard had Roy sign in 
and waved them through, his eyes never leaving Laura.  "Make sure all 
you do up there is make phone calls, Mr. Cripps." he smirked.  Laura 
tried to look embarrassed, as a date in her situation would.  They 
reached the top floor without incident.  "The guard will need to see a 
phone line lit." Laura told him.  "Who can I call at 2:45 in the 
morning?" Roy asked.  "Why me, silly.  Call my machine, talk for a few 
minutes and hang up.  Call down to the security guard and tell him you 
have to call back in fifteen minutes.  Then at the right time, call my 
machine again. Stay on for ten minutes.  I should be finished by then.".  
Roy must have had a concerned look on his face because Laura said, 
"Relax.  This will be a piece of cake."  Roy showed Laura where the two 
offices were.  She went to Burgess' office first.  After a quick scan of 
the office, she unscrewed the telephone mouth piece and put one the 
small devices there.  Next she attached one of them to the underside of 
his desk drawer, and hurried out of Burgess' office.  Roy was standing 
in the hallway.  "One down, one to go." she waved.  Laura entered 
Picard's office.  It was much larger than the office of Tom Burgess, and 
required some thought about where to place the bugs.  She went right to 
the phone to install the first one. For the second she decided on a 
potted plant that was near the desk.  The third she placed in a 
chandelier that was hanging over a small conference table in the back.  
The last one she placed in the base of a lamp that was in a seating area 
containing a sofa and two chairs.  Laura took one last look around the 
office and satisfied with her work, left the office.  She got back to 
Roy's office as he was hanging up the phone.  "Your answering machine is 
not a great conversationalist." he said.  "Are you finished?".  "You 
bet! Let's get out of here!".  They entered the elevator and punched the 
button for the first floor. As the elevator neared the first floor, 
Laura said, "The guard will be expecting this." and placed her arm in 
his and laid her head on his shoulder. She hoped she could look dreamy-
eyed enough to impress the guard.  The guard chuckled and waved them 
through.  Laura separated from Roy as soon as they cleared the building.  
"Whew!  That went off without a hitch.  We should be able to keep up 
with anything they plan to do from now on.  Roy didn't say anything.  
When they got back to Laura's apartment she opened the door and got out.  
"Could you help me carry some of the listening equipment in from my car, 
please Roy?".  Without a word Roy got out of the car and moved to help 
her.  He was a bit peeved at the way Laura could turn on and off toward 
him.  She popped the trunk and pointed out what needed to be taken in.  
She gathered up most of what needed to go in leaving one small box for 
Roy.  She unlocked the door and they entered the apartment.  "Put it on 
the dinette table. I'll set it up from there."  Roy placed the box on 
the table and turned to leave.  "It's 3:40 in the morning.  It's stupid 
for you to drive home.  That's another thirty minutes. Spend the night 
here." Laura said.  "No, I'd better go home." Roy said, still irritated 
about her actions.  Laura positioned herself between him and the door.  
"If you try to leave, you'll have to go through me.  I knocked you out 
once and I can do it again if I have to.  Laura said with her right fist 
clenched and raised.  This time she had a big grin on her face, so Roy 
was sure she was kidding but he had no doubt she could carry out her 
threat if she wanted to. 

Actually her suggestion made sense. They both needed sleep.  "OK, you 
win. I'll stay. I'll take the sofa" he said.  Laura looked at him.  "Get 
undressed and I will get what you need"  Laura went into the bedroom.  
Roy removed his suit jacket, shirt, tie, and pants.  He stuffed his 
socks inside his shoes and stood there in his tee shirt and undershorts 
when Laura reappeared.  She was carrying nothing, she was standing there 
in her bra and panties.  She was breathtaking.  Roy was having trouble 
concentrating but he said. "Where are the pillow and blankets for the 
sofa?".  "I didn't say anything about a pillow or blankets.  I said I 
would get what you need.  I think this is what you need."  She did a 
full turn letting Roy see her body from all angles.  Never had any woman 
had this kind of effect on him.  Roy was sweating and his respiration 
was getting faster by the minute.  He mentally kicked himself saying 
"Get yourself under control and stop acting like a teenager on his first 
date."  That was nearly impossible for him to do.  He had not even 
touched her and he had the biggest erection he had ever had in his life.  
Laura sauntered across the room.  Without ever getting close enough for 
him to touch her she reached out and took his hand.  "You're sleeping in 
the bedroom tonight." she said in her throaty, sexy voice.  Roy followed 
her like a little puppy dog wanting to please its master.  Laura looked 
at him.  "Boxers, huh.  I like that.." she said.  Her hand drifted 
across the front of his boxers and brushed against his engorged penis.  
Roy was afraid he was going to cum right then.  "Get in bed.  I'm going 
to get ready.  We do need some sleep.".  Laura went into the bathroom.  
When she came out she was completely naked.  Roy swore he was having a 
heart attack just looking at her.  Lovely face, broad shoulders, bulging 
arms, thick chest with her breasts pointing straight out narrowing to a 
tiny waist, her belly flat and hard.  Expanding again to woman sized 
hips and legs that were so muscular they frightened him nearly as much 
as they fascinated him.  Roy didn't know how she did it but her breasts 
and butt were as tan as the rest of her body.  No tan lines anywhere.  
Looking up at her smiling down at him he knew he was lost.  Whatever 
this woman wanted with him he would do.  He was hers lock, stock, and 
barrel, to do with as she pleased.  Laura slipped into bed next to him, 
her skin warm to the touch.  She began tracing lazy circles on his chest 
with her fingernail.  "If you want to sleep, go right ahead.  Don't mind 
me.".   Her other hand found its way down to his penis and started 
stroking it.  Multiple sensations filled Roy's body.  Her hand lightly 
gripping him felt cool, but the rest of her body felt hot.  "How can 
that be?" he wondered.  Laura rolled one leg across his body and was now 
on top of him.  Without removing her hand from his penis, she lightly 
brushed her nipples which had gotten hard, back and forth across his 
chest.  Everything was as light as a feather.  Her hand softly stroking 
him, her nipples lightly brushing his chest, Roy had never felt anything 
like this before.  When her breast brushed close to his mouth, he kissed 
it. 

Laura stopped her brushing motion and moved forward so it would be 
easier for him to reach her breasts. He licked and kissed each of her 
breasts.  He took the nipple between his teeth and gently nibbled on 
first one then the other.  He moved to the underside of her breast, his 
tongue licking the small crevice where the breast joined he chest.  He 
moved his mouth up he chest to her neck, nibbling again, then across the 
top of her shoulder with his tongue.  He moved down briefly, his tongue 
snaking into her armpit.  Now it was Laura's turn to feel multiple 
sensations.  It was impossible to tell that Roy was not an experienced 
lover, he was just doing what he felt was right. 

He kept moving.  His tongue traced over her shoulder again and down to 
her bicep.  She involuntarily flexed it and Roy traced first the split 
in it then the artery running over the top, alternating between kissing 
it and licking it.  The more he did that, the harder Laura flexed.  Her 
bicep was so big, Roy wasn't sure he could reach around it with both 
hands and it was so hard he thought he could break rocks against it.  
Finally he traced his way back up across her shoulder, nibbling her 
neck,, and licked his way tantalizingly through her armpit again and 
back to her breasts.  They were both now more than ready.  Laura had 
been soaking wet for some time. She moved back down his body again his 
penis still grasped lightly in her cool hand.  She got herself into 
position then guided his penis into her ready and waiting opening.  As 
she got the head of his penis inside her, she hesitated and began 
rotating slowly and softly just around the head.  Roy was about to go 
crazy.  At last with one plunge she dropped her hips down and fully 
impaled herself on him.  For a minute she sat there, enjoying the 
sensation.  Then she started to move slowly.  When Laura began to pick 
up speed, Roy rose to meet her.  As revved up as they both were, it 
couldn't last very long.  They both erupted in a long, shattering 
orgasm, that they thought would never end.  After their breathing more 
or less returned to normal, Laura laughed and pushed her fist against 
Roy's jaw, the same one she had nearly broken.  "That was a lot better 
than a punch in the jaw, wasn't it?" She smiled.  Roy took her fist in 
his hand and kissed it.  He saw the enlarged knuckles with their 
callouses and rubbed his lips across them.  "Will you tell me how you 
got these?" he asked.  Laura quickly pulled her fist away.  "There are 
some things you're better off not knowing.".  She changed the subject.  

"Do you want to try to get a couple of hours of sleep before we have to 
get going?".  Roy stared at her.  "I don't know about you, but there is 
no way I could sleep right now.  If you want to sleep, I'll just stay 
here and look at you.  I could do that for hours and never tire of it."  
Laura looked deep into his eyes.  "Why Roy, you're blushing, and it 
looks like your friend down there is not too sleepy either.".   Roy 
blushed even more if possible as Laura pointed to his penis which was in 
the throes of a major erection again.  "I wish I had time to accommodate 
him, but I have a lot of work to do to get set up by 9:00AM when our 
boys come to work.  We will take care of him later, I promise. Why don't 
you try to get some sleep.  I'll wake you in time to go home and get 
ready for work.  Roy didn't argue with her.  He stayed in bed and tried 
to sleep, but he couldn't help watching her every move.  She didn't 
bother to get dressed, she went about setting up her eavesdropping 
equipment in the nude.  Roy was amazed by the way her body responded to 
her slightest movement.  Depending on what she was doing, different 
muscle groups flexed when power was needed and subsided when it was not.  
She had a perfect body, Roy thought eventhough just a short while ago he 
would have laughed at anyone who told him he would think that.  She 
moved around the room with cat-like grace totally unaffected by being 
nude.  At 7:00AM she called him.  While Roy found his clothes he could 
hear her in the kitchen.  She came out with coffee, scrambled eggs and 
toast for both of them.  "If anybody finds out about this, I will break 
your jaw."she threatened him.  "I generally don't fix breakfast for 
myself much less anybody else.  "Scout's honor, I won't tell a soul." 
Roy promised.  They ate quickly and Roy was ready to go.  As they walked 
to the door Laura cautioned him "Watch for anything out of the ordinary, 
but don't stick your neck out.  I don't want anything to happen to you 
because of me.  She gave him a quick kiss and sent him on his way.  
"Just time for a shower and another cup of coffee before the real work 
starts" she thought.  After showering and changing into fresh clothes 
Laura sat down at the table and began fiddling with her equipment.  
After a while she was satisfied everything was working properly and sat 
back to wait. 

There was a meeting in Henri Picard's office.  It was a luxurious suite 
on the top floor of the Royce building and filled with antiques and 
mementos from his travels around the world.  Present were Tom Burgess, 
and Carl Selmer.  Picard sat behind a large, imposing desk in a high-
backed leather executive chair.  He rose and walked over to the window.  
he was a tall man, who was always nattily dressed in designer suits.  
Today it was a gray Armani paired with a white shirt and a burgundy tie 
with a subdued pattern.  He stood by the window looking out toward the 
waterfront.  He turned and placed his hands on a large globe which was 
sitting on a stand.  "Has the merchandise arrived?" he asked Selmer.  
"Arrived yesterday." Carl replied.  "We have checked it and it is the 
purest we have ever received.  We could probably cut it at least one 
more time and still come out with a pretty good product.".   "Where are 
we going this time?" Burgess asked.  "I should be checking airline 
schedules.".  "No, this time you don't have to worry about that." Picard 
explained.  "This time we are selling it all to one buyer. He is flying 
in from the west coast tomorrow.  The only problem is that he insists 
that all three of be there for the exchange.  He claims that when he is 
bringing in four million dollars in cash he wants to see all the 
players.  It makes him feel more secure.  You know we have the 
reputation for delivering first class merchandise and have never cheated 
or double crossed anybody.  You know also that I never get personally 
involved in these transactions, but for this amount of money I am making 
an exception. I want to set this up so that it is airtight.  We can't 
afford any screwups.  He is only bringing himself, a driver and two 
bodyguards.  The three of us will meet them.  Have Rossi drive, and get 
Hansen to come along as a little extra protection.  The exchange will 
take place at our old warehouse down by the docks that we used before we 
built this facility.  It is scheduled for 8:00PM tomorrow night.  We'll 
bring the money back here and put in my safe with the rest on our cash 
from the other transactions.".  The three men continued planning the 
exchange with no idea that everything they were saying was going 
straight to Laura.  As she listened to the plan being formulated she 
exulted, "Gotcha now, you cocky bastards.  We're gonna put your sorry 
asses out of business!".  She grabbed the phone and called the agent in 
charge of this operation, Bill Kelly, and relayed the information to 
him. "How did you find this out?" he wanted to know.  He was astonished 
that after weeks of very little information the whole thing was dropped 
in their lap.  He was suspicious.  Laura told him about Roy Cripps and 
his total cooperation with their operation and what they had been able 
to accomplish.  "We owe him a great big thank you when this is over.  
He's probably going to lose his job because Royce Equipment Inc. will 
probably be out of business.  If that's the case and he has done as much 
as you say we will find employment for him in a comparable position to 
the one he has now.  We do have a few contacts in the business world, 
you know.".  "Thanks, Bill.  That will be a big help.  All we need to do 
now is contact the rest of the team and set up the bust.  By the way, we 
might get lucky and take out this hot shot dealer from the west coast at 
the same time."  Laura finished the call to Kelly.  She was in a 
reflective mood, "We owe most of this to Roy Cripps.  Without his help 
we would still be spinning our wheels.  I started out trying to use him, 
but now I afraid I'm falling for him.  That is not good.  It's just as 
well that I will be leaving as soon as this operation is over.  There's 
no future for him with somebody like me, in this line of work.  I love 
it and I can't give it up.  God help me, but I love beating the crap out 
of these lowlifes.  Roy has finally gotten turned on by my muscles, but 
if he had seen me with Bud and Howie in that alley when I deliberately 
busted up Bud's face to make Howie talk, and the fact that I enjoyed 
doing it would probably sicken him.  Still I will miss him when this is 
over.  I don't meet many nice guys in this job.  Most of the time I have 
to suck up to the scum of the earth in order to take them down. Well, 
enough two bit philosophy, I have a ton of work to do to get ready for 
tomorrow night."  

Bill Kelly assembled  the DEA team at  10:00AM the next morning.  Laura 
had called in sick at Arnies's Tavern, so no one would suspect her 
absence.  They found the location of the exchange and selected the 
positions from which the would execute the arrest.  Three were actually 
inside the warehouse up on the second level.  Those three men took up 
their positions at 10:30AM taking their food and water with them so that 
if any of Picard's men were to come early or were watching  the 
warehouse, they would not have to enter it later.  The rest of the team 
dispersed with orders to reassemble at 5:00PM.  Laura returned to her 
apartment and tried to rest.  She wanted to call Roy, but she didn't 
want to risk tipping off Picard, Burgess, or Selmer.  She continued 
monitoring their activities, but nothing else happened.  The meeting 
with the drug dealer from the west coast was confirmed for 8:00PM. Laura 
drove to the gym and worked out, driving her body through a difficult 
workout.  Anything to pass the time.  At last time it was time to go.  
Laura drove to the designated assembly point.  The team consisted of 
Laura, Bill Kelly, six men plus the three already in the warehouse.  
They took up their positions surrounding the warehouse and waited.  At 
7:45PM A Cadillac limo approached slowly and circled the warehouse two 
times before stopping.  Four men got out. They were carrying cartons of 
something inside.    " That's the group from Royce Equipment. The man on 
the left, is Picard" Laura whispered to Bill Kelly. "The other guy in a 
suit is Burgess.  The big black man is Selmer.  The curly haired one is 
Rossi.  I don't know the fourth man"  "The sellers are here" Kelly 
whispered.  Now all we need are the buyers and the party will be 
complete".  At almost exactly 8:00PM another limo approached.  One man 
got out and went inside.  He spoke briefly with Selmer, then three other 
men got out of the car and went inside.  Two of them were carrying 
aluminum briefcases.  As soon as they were inside, Bill Kelly got on the 
radio.  "All the chickens are in the coop.  We move in fifteen minutes.  
Everybody be sure you're wearing your DEA jacket and bring your 
flashlights. If the lights go out, we want to be able to see."   Inside 
the warehouse the transaction was going smoothly.  After the usual 
introductions and minimal small talk, the dealer asked to test the 
cocaine.  "This is some real good shit."  He said.  The cartons were 
moved toward him.  Burgess asked for the money.  Even here Picard tried 
to stay in the background. The two men with the dealer snapped open the 
aluminum briefcases.  They were full of money.  Burgess nodded and they 
closed the briefcases.  "You want to count it?" asked the dealer.  "We 
trust you." Burgess said.  "To try to cheat is bad for business.  
Besides, we know where to find you." he added ominously.  As the men 
were concluding suddenly a voice from the darkness shouted.  "Everybody 
stay right where you are.  This is the DEA and you are all under arrest.  
Place your hands on your heads and step back.".  'What the fuck is goin' 
on here??" snapped the dealer. 

"We're as much in the dark as you are" answered Selmer.  The dealer's 
two bodyguards suddenly produced Mac 10 machine guns and opened fire in 
the direction of the voice.  Then they all drew weapons and ran for 
cover.  Rossi also had a Mac 10 and her sprayed the lights plunging the 
warehouse into pitch blackness.  The DEA agents began to return fire.  
On Kelly's command they turned on their high powered twelve volt 
flashlights, bathing the area in light again.  "You are surrounded, 
there is no way out.  Surrender now.!"  Kelly shouted.  His answer was a 
volley of automatic weapons fire.  The agents up above were firing down.  
One of the bodyguards and the man called Hansen were hit, and fell to 
the floor.  Rossi was wounded. The agents riddled the area with bullets.  
Kelly thought he heard a voice.  "Cease fire."  he said into the radio. 
"We give up." the voice said.  "Stop shooting".  "Throw out your weapons 
and come out with your hands on your head!"  Kelly shouted.  There was a 
clatter of metal hitting the floor as the drug dealers complied.  "Let's 
go!" Kelly said into the radio.  The DEA agents moved in and started 
rounding up the cocaine connection on both sides.  All at once Laura got 
a sinking feeling in her chest.  "Where are Picard, Selmer, and Burgess.  
No one could find them.  "Spread out and search the area." Kelly 
ordered.   Laura raced outside.  All she could see was the taillights of 
a car disappearing around the corner.  Running around the building, she 
found a hidden entrance that they did not know about.  The three men had 
escaped through it.  "I know where they are going!" 
 Laura thought.  She remembered the statement on the tape that the cash 
from their cocaine deals was in Picard's office safe.  She sprinted to 
her car and took off bound for the Royce building.  She grabbed her 
radio and passed that information on to Bill Kelly.  "We'll get there as 
soon as possible." he told Laura.  "Keep an eye on the building and make 
sure that they don't leave before we get there.".   Laura pulled into 
the Royce parking lot and saw the limo parked by the entrance. 

She got out of her car and ran to the entrance.  The same security guard 
was on duty.  "Did Picard, Selmer, and Burgess come through here?" she 
asked him.  He refused to answer.  Laura showed him her badge, and told 
him if he didn't want to go to jail for obstruction, he had better 
answer fast.  "They went up to Mr. Picard's office he told her.  "Stay 
here and make sure they don't leave!" she ordered him.  She got on the 
elevator and headed for the top floor.  When she got there, she could 
see down the hallway that the door to Picard's office was open, and the 
lights were on.  She moved cautiously down the hall to the open doorway.  
She could hear the three men debating about what to do.  Laura stepped 
through the open door, and very calmly said "OK, gentlemen, this is the 
end of the line, raise your hands where I can see them.  This the DEA 
and you're under arrest."  All three froze. They were surprised that a 
DEA officer would have known where they had gone.  Laura moved further 
into the room.  She could see Selmer and Picard, but where was Burgess?  
Too late, she saw him he was leveling a .357Magnum at her.  He fired and 
Laura ducked, the bullet crashing into the wall behind her.  Her pistol 
flew from her hand when she hit the floor.  She leaped at Burgess who 
was trying to bring the Magnum to bear on her.  Her foot hit his gun 
hand driving the pistol across the room.  Laura grabbed his gun hand, 
his right hand with both of hers.  She jerked Burgess toward her, 
bringing her right knee slashing up into his belly. As he started to 
fold up, Laura slammed the point of  her right elbow directly behind his 
right ear. She released Burgess' limp body and let him fall to the 
floor.  Carl Selmer, who must have lost his weapon in the wild scramble 
back at the warehouse, was trying to find Burgess' gun. 
 Laura attacked him from behind with a hard kick to his ribs.  Selmer 
dropped to his knees, then got to his feet.  He looked at Laura and 
said, "Alright bitch, come on, I can take you without a damn gun".  He 
was a big man who was no stranger to fights.  Laura took a step back and 
removed her DEA jacket.  She faced Selmer wearing her tee shirt and 
running shorts.  When he got a good look at her, she could tell he 
wasn't as sure he could take her as he was before.  They circled each 
other warily, each waiting for the other to make the first move.  "Quit 
fucking around, Carl and kill the bitch." Picard shouted.  Stung by 
those words, Selmer charged at Laura. 

She had already decided that his big belly was a very inviting target, 
so when he rushed her with both arms reaching out,  she faked left, 
moved right and sunk her left fist into his onrushing belly. With the 
power generated by her powerful arm and shoulder, plus the momentum that 
Selmer himself supplied by running at her, the punch had a devastating 
effect.  He came to a dead stop, fell to his knees, and puked his guts 
out all over Picard's expensive carpet.  Laura gave him no chance to 
recover.  She jerked him to his feet, and blasted an ever harder punch 
with her right fist into his aching gut.  She stepped into this one 
getting the full power of her awesome legs behind the blow as well as 
her powerful upper body.  Carl's feet lifted several inches off the 
floor. His legs would not support him and he started down.  "Oh, no!." 
Laura said to him. "You can't go to sleep just yet."  She held him there 
slapping his face to wake him up.  She shoved him against the wall and 
started pounding his belly in earnest.  Each time one of her big fists 
drilled into his gut, it buried up to the wrist.  Carl was twisting and 
turning from the velocity of those twin hammers, but there was no 
escape. Her hard fists were tearing up his belly and his insides.  Blood 
had started flowing from his mouth.  At last Laura stepped back and 
brought an uppercut up in a big, looping swing from her shoetops, this 
time her fist and most of her forearm seemed to be imbedded deep in his 
body.  She moved away and let Selmer slowly slide down the wall to the 
floor.  Picard had watched Laura's battering of Selmer in horrid 
fascination.  He couldn't believe that any woman was capable of doing 
that.  Selmer had been their enforcer and the few times Picard had seen 
him in action led him to think that Selmer was invincible.  When Laura 
finally let Selmer fall to the floor in a heap, Picard was galvanized 
into action.  He grabbed two of the briefcases full of money and ran for 
door.  He was right in the doorway when he heard    the ominous sound of 
a pistol cocking, and the woman's voice saying "Stop right there, Picard 
or I will fire.".  He stopped and turned his head to look behind him.  
He say Burgess flat on his face on the floor, and Selmer who had been in 
a sitting position against the wall had now fallen over on his side.  
The woman was holding a revolver in both hands in a shooter's stance 
pointing directly at him.  "Get back in here right now!" she commanded.  
One thing Picard knew was that he could not outrun a bullet, so he made 
his way back into the office.  "Put the money on the desk" the woman 
ordered.  Picard complied.  Laura moved closer to him.  "Young lady, how 
would you like to be rich?  I'll give you two million dollars to let me 
go.  There is plenty here for both of us.  You could say I got away 
while you were apprehending Tom and Carl.  Besides you have no evidence 
that connects me to the cocaine.  Selmer and Burgess always handled the 
contact with the buyers. Also, I have very good and very expensive 
attorneys.  I probably won't even spend one night in jail.  If you 
arrest me I'll probably be out before you get the paperwork finished.  
Be reasonable and take the money.  It is far more than you would make in 
twenty lifetimes working for the peanuts they pay you at the DEA.  "I'm 
sure you're right, Picard.  Your shyster lawyers will have you back on 
the street without spending one night in jail.  That is one reason why I 
despise you even more than the others. You are the brains and the money 
always operating behind the scenes, never getting your own hands dirty.  
You have these other stooges to do the dirty work for you.  You are the 
worst of the lot.  That is why I was thinking about just shooting you.  
I could get away with it.  I could claim you were trying to escape.  
However, if I did that I would have to live with the fact that maybe 
deep down, I'm no better than you.  No, I'm not going to shoot you. I 
was also thinking about the jail part.  Since you probably won't go to 
jail you deserve to be punished for your crimes, and I am going to 
administer your punishment."  Laura moved closer until her face was only 
inches from his.  "I am going to give you the worst beating you could 
imagine, much worse than your stooge Selmer over there.  I will make 
sure you get the amount of pain and suffering you deserve.  You might 
not go to jail, but you will go to the hospital.".  She said all this in 
a low, calm voice that sounded much more frightening than if she had 
been outwardly angry and shouting at the top of her lungs.  Picard was 
several inches taller than Laura but one look at that powerful body 
convinced him that she could do exactly what she had said she would.  
"Please, be reasonable.  I'll give you four million.  Think, you would 
be one of the wealthiest women in the world.  Hurting me won't help. 
Please let me go."  "Too late for that, Picard.  You should have thought 
of the consequences before you got involved in the cocaine business."  
Laura snapped open the cylinder of the revolver and emptied the bullets 
into her hand.  She placed them and the pistol on the desk.  "Time to 
get started," she said.  The rest of my team will be here shortly and we 
don't want them to interrupt up prematurely, do we?" Picard's voice took 
on a tone of desperation.  "Take all the money, just let me go.  Please 
don't hurt me.  I never could stand pain. I'll pay you anything.  Plea- 
CCRRAAKK!! Laura cut of his pleading by smashing her big right fist 
directly into his open mouth.  Her hard knuckles knocked out some of his 
teeth and broke off others.  CCRRAAKK!! Once again that hard missile 
detonated in his mouth. More teeth went flying  leaving only broken 
stumps. Blood from his ripped open lips was spilling down his chin.  
"That should shut you up for a little while" Laura said through gritted 
teeth.  WWHHOOCCKK!!  Her left fist hooked around and crashed into his 
eye which started to swell and discolor.  CCRRAAKK!! Her right fist 
exploded on his left  cheekbone shattering it.  

CCRRUUNNCCHH!!  A powerful left flattened his nose, breaking it and 
causing blood to spurt all over both of them.  SSPPLLAATT!!  Her heavy 
right fist smashed into his nose again, splitting it wide open.  Picard 
was in extreme pain.  Laura seemed to know how to deliver her punches 
for maximum damage without knocking him out.  She wanted him to feel the 
pain and feel it he did.  He felt like someone was driving twenty penny 
nails through his face with a sledgehammer. CCRRAAKK!! A muscle fueled 
left crashed on his right cheekbone breaking it in several places, the 
big fist driving mercilessly into his battered face.  Laura heard the 
sounds of sirens in the parking lot signaling the arrival of the DEA 
team.  She stared at her bloody, broken victim.  She had done a more 
savage job on him than she had on Bud back in the alley a few days ago.  
"Back to work" she said grimly to herself.  Picard was moaning softly, 
showing no other sign of life.  

WWHHOOCCKK!! Her hard right fist made sure that his left eye would be 
exactly like the right one, blackened and swollen shut.  Laura dragged 
Picard to the middle of the office.  "If I ever hear your name involved 
with drugs again, I will track you down and beat you even worse.".  
Laura had leaned forward and said this directly in his ear.  She was 
feeling pumped.  She flexed her right bicep and could feel the power 
surge as the huge muscle rose and swelled to titanic proportions.  She 
reached way back and launched one last brutal punch at Picard's smashed 
face.  

CCCRRRAAAKKK!!! Her big, hard fist blasted his jaw with the force of a 
nuclear explosion.  She could feel the bone give way under her fist as 
Picard sailed backward, landed on the desk and slid over it and fell on 
the floor.  As Laura finished the monstrous punch she heard a sound 
behind her followed by a gunshot. She wheeled around and saw Burgess on 
the floor with blood seeping from his shoulder and Bill Kelly standing 
in the doorway with a pistol in his hand.  There was a revolver beside 
Burgess' hand.  The rest of the team rushed into the office.  Carl 
Selmer was still where Laura had left him.  He had just started to come 
around and was holding his belly with both hands and groaning.  Picard 
would not be moving on his own for a long time.  When they saw his face 
even the battle hardened DEA agents had to turn away.  Burgess' wound 
was serious but not critical.  "Thanks, Bill.  I owe you one."  Laura 
said.  "I'm just glad we got here in time.  God, Laura you're a sight!"  
Laura looked down.  Blood was splattered all over her tee shirt and even 
down on her shorts.  Some had even splashed on her face, arms, and legs.  
Her knuckles were red where it had caked.  She had a bruise on her cheek 
where Selmer had landed one of his few blows during their fight.  He 
hair was disheveled and her makeup had run from the sweat she had worked 
up.  "I think we're finished here", Bill said.  "All we need to do is 
wait for the meat wagon to haul these mooks to the hospital. I know I'll 
have your official report in a few days, but will you tell me off the 
record what really happened here?"  Laura answered.  "Someday I will, I 
promise.  Thanks again, Bill.  You saved my life!"  Bill grinned at her.  
"Why don't you get out of here.  We can handle it, and you look like you 
could use a bath and some rest."  "I think I will. Thanks, Bill".  Laura 
exited Picard's office and made her way down the hall toward the 
elevators.  She felt a twinge of regret as she passed Roy Cripps' 
office.  She must see him tonight.  She drove to her apartment.  She 
washed Picard's blood off with a long hot shower.  She looked at the 
blood stained clothing and threw it in the trash, unsalvageable.  She 
dressed in a tanktop, shorts, and her everpresent Nike and stated 
packing. That took almost an hour.  When she had everything loaded into 
the car, she called Roy.  "Are you alright?  What happened?  I was 
worried sick about you.". Laura assured him she was fine.  "I need to 
see you tonight.  I know it's late, but can I come over to your place 
later?  I'll tell you all about it then."  From the sound of her voice 
Roy knew everything was not OK, but he said, "Sure, I'll make some 
coffee.  Come as soon as you can."  Laura put on her Arnie's jacket and 
after one last look around the apartment, left.  She drove to Arnie's.  
She found him in the back office.  She told Arnie the truth.  She showed 
him her DEA identification and told him how much she enjoyed working for 
him.  "The people who work for you are lucky.  You're a great boss, 
Arnie.  "We're gonna miss you kid.  If you ever want a job as a real 
bartender, give me a call."  Laura hugged him, waved to the other 
employees and left.  She drove to Roy's apartment.  He greeted her at 
the door.  Laura filled him in on all the details of the arrests at the 
warehouse and the capture of Selmer, Burgess and Picard at Picard's 
office.  She did not tell him about her savage beating of Selmer and 
Picard.  "Some things are better left untold." she thought.  Now she 
came to the difficult part.  "Roy, you're a great guy, I owe a lot to 
you.  Our relationship is the only good that has come from this whole 
mess.  Our night together was fantastic!  However, in my work there 
things that I do that you could never understand.  As much as I hate to, 
I have to leave.  I'm afraid it's time to say goodbye."  Roy  had not 
expected this.  "You can't leave!  I'm falling in love with you!  You 
have to stay!"  "I think I'm falling for you, too.  I truly wish it 
could be different.  I get few opportunities to meet someone like you. 
In my work, I have to be gone for months at a time with no contacts in 
the civilian world and I don't think we could handle that.  It just 
wouldn't work out.  "What can I do to convince you to change your mind?" 
Roy asked.  "Nothing, I'm afraid.  Laura kissed him and they held each 
other for a few minutes.  One last kiss, and Laura said "Goodbye, Roy" 
and slowly backed out the door.  Roy was in deep despair as he watched 
he drive away.  "Just when I find the right woman, it doesn't work out.  
She has ruined it for me with all these little Barbie Doll types. What a 
woman!"  Laura had a tear in her eye as she drove away, but she was 
convinced it was the right thing to do.  "I can't give up what I do" she 
thought.  "If he ever found out what I did to Bud, Selmer, and Picard, 
would he still feel the same way about me?  He's a terrific guy and I'll 
never forget him.  I have learned a very painful lesson.  I can never 
get personally involved with anyone associated with a case I'm working.  
I will never allow that to happen again!"  Laura headed south out of 
town, wondering what her next case had in store for her.