Billionaire Mountain Man

“Tyler says he's got a pet bear at his house. I wanna go see his pet bear.”

“Are you sure he's got a pet bear?”

“He says so!” she insisted.

“Well, remember, sweet pea, not everything everyone says is true. Maybe he has one, but maybe he doesn't. Anyway, daddy has to go now. You have fun with Tyler, you hear?”

“Alright, Daddy. I love you.”

“I love you too, sweet pea.”

I went straight to the high school. The students were going to be due back later in the week, but today the staff was here, getting things ready for the coming academic year. I started off my day by doing my rounds and introducing myself to all the teachers and doing my best to familiarize myself with the layout of the school. After doing this for around two hours, I went back to my office, where I found Ben waiting for me.

“Ben, good to see you,” I said as I approached him. “Looks like everything is in order for the coming school year.”

“Looks like it, yeah,” he said, pushing his glasses up his thick nose. “Now what we have to worry about, besides the usual stuff, are the drugs. I've got some leads, and I was wondering if you'd be able to help me look into them.”

“I'd be happy to. What do you have?” I asked.

“That depends on how deep you wanna go,” he said, with a mysterious light sparkling in his eyes. “And whether you're prepared to, how shall I say this, cross certain boundaries.”

I nodded. “This is why you recommended me for this position, isn't it?” I asked. “Because of how I handled the boundaries at my previous school.”

He nodded. “We need a man who isn't afraid to get his hands a little dirty. To bend the rules. To do what's necessary for the greater good. You get my drift?”

“I do, Ben, I do. And after what you guys told me about the drug situation at this school, and how things were starting to spiral out of control with the last principal, I knew what I needed to do.”

“Good. Then I trust that you won't mind coming with me on a little 'lunch break' off the school premises.”

I grinned. “Not at all, Ben, not at all.”

“You know, of course, that we have to keep the details of our little field trips strictly between you and me, right Everett? If the school board were to find out about this stuff, they might not be too happy about it, you know? Both of our jobs could be on the line.”

“It's a risk I'm willing to take if it means we have a shot at stopping the flow of Rocket into the school,” I said, and I meant every word of it. “I was criticized by a lot of people for my hard-handed, old-school approach at my last job, but look at the results. I got the gangs out of the school, and I got kids who had been flunking out before to pass and even get good grades.”

“And that's exactly why I wanted you here. We have to get these drug-peddling bastards out of this school before they wreck any more lives. One death is one too many, and I will not have any more kids dropping out or, God forbid, dying under my watch.”

“I hear you, Ben, I hear you. Well, let's get this little 'lunch hour expedition' underway, shall we?”

“Yeah, let's go.”

I followed Ben out of the office block through the parking lot, and from there we walked across the football field and then headed out via the gate there.

“Where are we going, Ben?” I asked as he headed across a busy street and down an alleyway.

“There's an apartment building three blocks away,” he said. “Apparently, a lot of kids go there to buy Rocket, and plenty are using there as well. I figure if we can scope it out for a while, we might be able to learn something. You know, get closer to finding out the identities of the dealers themselves. If we can get a small-time dealer to squeal, we can start figuring out who's higher up the chain. Those are the fish we really wanna catch.”

“Alright. What's the plan?”

“You up for a bit of climbing?” he asked with a grin.

“I never say no to a good climb,” I replied. “What are we scaling?”

We headed down another alley, and things were definitely looking sketchier here. He pointed at a fire escape on the side of a building.

“If we can get up to the seventh floor via the fire escape there, we'll have a decent view of the outside of the apartment we're checking out. Only thing is, getting onto the fire escape itself – we'll need to maybe push a dumpster under it and climb up like that.”

“For a man who's almost 50, you have quite a sense of adventure,” I remarked with a chuckle.