They both looked very happy as they high fived one another and headed into the bar. One of the men in particular looked very familiar. Michael turned and grabbed his Dark Angels case file that was sitting on the passenger seat and thumbed through the photos. It didn’t take long for him to stumble upon a picture of one of the men who had just walked inside the bar. His went by the name Bear, and he was a Dark Angels’ prospect who had been working for months to become a full-fledged member of the gang. He seemed somewhat soft; as if he would easily rat out the gang if it meant leniency for him regarding any illegalities that he may have had against him. So Michael had made it his business to find out as much as he possibly could about this Bear character. Once Agent Canon arrived tonight, they could put their heads together and hopefully come up with something incriminating against him that would help lead to intel on The Dark Angels, and ultimately help him crack this case wide open.

 

***

“Hey! Bear, Drifter, what’s going on guys?” Sam the bartender boomed. Bear and Drifter, two of The Dark Angels’ main recruits, had just walked through the door of The Home Team, Amber’s local bar and favorite hangout for The Dark Angels.

 

“Nothing much. How are you doing, Sam?” Bear grinned broadly.

 

“Aww, don’t come in here being all humble,” Sam laughed. “I heard about that big job that you and rest of The Dark Angels pulled on Deputy Richmond the other night.”

 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Bear said innocently right before he and Drifter broke out into laughter.

 

“Come on, man!” Sam yelled. “You just want me to tell the story again, don’t you? It’s all everybody’s been talking about!”

 

“I wanna hear it again. I’m still mad that I missed it,” Drifter said to Bear before slapping him on the back. “Everybody thinks you’re the hometown hero now, brother. You’re gonna become a full-fledged member of The Dark Angels any day now.”

 

Bear looked over his shoulder and saw that several of the bar patrons had gathered around his stool, joining in on the fun and conversation. He basked in all the glory and hoped that Drifter was right, and that his latest role in assisting The Dark Angels would open the door to him becoming a full member.

 

“So what did you do, man?” one of the bar patrons standing behind Bear asked him. “We heard that you helped Geech, one of Chase Raven’s right hand men, break his new girl out of prison behind Deputy Richmond’s back and get her out of town!”

 

“That’s exactly what my boy did!” Drifter hollered, holding his bottle of beer high in the air and clanking bottles and glasses with everyone around him.

 

“Chase Raven, meaning the leader of The Dark Angels Chase Raven?” another patron asked.

 

“Yep, that’s him!” Drifter continued enthusiastically.

 

Bear smiled shyly yet proudly as everyone continued to slap him on the back and tell him job well done. When the crowd finally dispersed and Sam walked over to the other side of the bar, Drifter turned to him with a serious look on his face.

 

“Hey man, we need to get out to that storage unit tonight to check on the firearms and make sure they’re all there.”

 

“I know. I spoke to Chase this afternoon and told him we’d ride out there after dark. If all goes well and we have everything that we need, he said that the gun deal could go down as soon as this weekend. And if we pull this one off,” Bear continued, giving Drifter an excited, knowing glance, “I think it’ll prove that we’re worthy of becoming official members of The Dark Angels. I’m tired of being on the outskirts. I want this to be real. I’ve been working down at the Angels’ auto repair shop for almost a year now, practically for free sometimes. And I’ve come through with flying colors on every job that I’ve been given.