You have no jurisdiction to strip my gear. Pendleton walked up to Mercer, leaning in so close that Mercer could feel the heat radiating from the captain's face. You abducted the chief executive of this state. You absolute fool," Pendleton whispered, his voice lethal. "I have the authority to hold you in a black sight under the State Emergency Powers Act if I so choose.
By sunrise, you won't just be fired. You will be facing federal civil rights charges, state kidnapping charges, and official misconduct. You are done. Bag him. " As the troopers hauled a protesting mercer away, Pendleton turned back to the governor. Sir, we need to move you.
Chief Harrison of the Oak Haven Police is currently burning up our comms, demanding to know why state troopers just raided his jurisdiction. "We need to control the narrative before local dispatch leaks this to the press. " "Let them come here, Arthur," David said, his tone resolute. He looked back at his Ford Explorer, the gas nozzle still hanging limply from the side. Tell the Oak Haven chief of police to meet me exactly where his officer assaulted me. We are not hiding this in a boardroom.
It took less than 15 minutes for Oak Haven Chief of Police, William Harrison, to arrive. Harrison was a man who had built a 30-year career on keeping things quiet. Oak Haven was a small insular county where local politics were settled in diners and back rooms. He was entirely unequipped to handle a crisis of this magnitude. When his car pulled into the lot, he was greeted not by his own officers, but by a heavily armed perimeter of state troopers who refused to let his cruiser advance past the property line.
Harrison had to park on the shoulder of Route 119 and walk through the freezing rain, flashing his gold chief's star just to get past the outer cordon. When he finally reached the pumps, the scene was surreal. Governor Caldwell was sitting in the back of an unmarked Tahoe, the door open, a state medic quietly taking his blood pressure. Captain Pendleton stood like a sentinel nearby, surrounded by heavily armed troopers. "Governor Caldwell," Chief Harrison gasped out of breath, his face pale and slick with rain.
"My God, I I don't even know what to say. There has been a catastrophic miscommunication. " David gently waved the medic away and stepped out of the Tahoe. He looked at Harrison. The chief was older, visibly trembling, trying to compute the sheer scale of the disaster his department had just triggered. "Chief Harrison," David said, his voice calm, but layered with a heavy, unyielding gravity.
"I am going to ask you a question, and I want you to think very carefully before you answer. Were you aware that officer Mercus has seven prior civilian complaints for racial profiling and excessive force? Harrison froze. The color completely drained from his face. Governor, I those were internal matters.
They were investigated and and dismissed. David finished the sentence for him. I know because before I became governor, I was the state attorney general. I requested an audit of Oak Haven's disciplinary records 3 years ago. You stonewalled my office.