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"Is this all really necessary, Officer Mullard?" he asks, in a cal tone

"My name isn’t Mullard, and I’m not a Juvey-cop" Suddenly it hits theto have that kind of authority The scars on his face made him seem a littlewellseasoned, but still he was too young How could Walter have been so easily fooled? And isn’t there so man’s face? Has he seen him before, possibly in the news? The man is rendered speechless by this unexpected turn of nonprofessional events

5 - Connor

The best part of these missions is the look on the parents’ faces when they realize that the tables have been turned How their eyes dart doard the tranq gun ai that their unwind order is now nothing but a piece of paper

"Who are you?" asks the father "What is it you want?"

"We hat you no longer want," Connor tells him "We want your son" Then Trace, the muscular tea the struggling kid

"They don’t make bedrooo," shouts the kid "Leoes to hiun to et any ideas

"Noah, your parents were about to unwind you," Connor tells hi tomorrow--but luckily for you, we came first"

There’s a horrified look on the kid’s face He shakes his head, denying the possibility "You’re lying!" Then he looks to his parents, not so sure anyht?"

Connor doesn’t let the parents answer "The truth--you owe hiht to do this!" the mother yells

"The truth!" dehs, and says, "Yes, what he says is true I’aze at his parents, and then turns to Connor Connor can see tears building behind his fury

"Are you going to hurt them?" Noah asks

"Do you want me to?"

"Yes Yes, I do"

Connor shakes his head "Sorry, that’s not e do Sorateful we didn’t"

Noah looks down "No, I won’t"

Trace, no longer having to hold Noah quite so tightly, escorts his into his backpack; what little he can salvage from fifteen years of life

While the rest of Connor’s tea sure there is no one else present to call the police or otherwise foul up the mission, Connor hands a pad and pen to the father

"What’s this for?"

"You’re going to write down the reasons you decided to have your son unwound"

"What’s the point?"

"We know you have reasons for doing it," Connor says "I’m sure they’re stupid; I’m sure they’re selfish and seriously screwed up, but they’re still reasons If nothing else, it’ll help us to knohat kind of pain in the ass Noah is, so maybe we can deal with hi we," theyour son’s freaking life That’s all you need to know"

The father looks down pitifully at the little notepad

"Write," Connor says Neither he nor the mother look up as Trace escorts Noah out of the house into the waiting car

"I hate you!" he yells back at them "I never meant it when I said it before, but now I do"

Connor can tell it cuts deeply into these parents, but not as deeply as the scalpels of a Chop Shop

"Soive you a shot at forgiveness If he does, don’t throw that chance away"

They say nothing to that The father just looks down at the pad, scribbling and scribbling When he’s done, he hands it back to Connor Rather than a manifesto, the man has written down his excuses in efficient bullet points Connor reads theainst them

" ‘Disrespect and disobedience’ "

Those are always the first reasons If every parent unwound a kid due to disrespect, the hueneration

" ‘Destructive behavior to self and property’ "

Connor knows a bit about self-destructive behavior and did his share of vandalizing in tiet over that, don’t they? It never ceases to aeared toward the quick fix Connor looks at the third bullet point and has to laugh

" ‘Lack of personal hygiene’?"

The wo that

"Ooh, I like this one!" Connor says " ‘Diminished prospects for future’ Sounds like a stock report!"

At every rescue mission, Connor reads aloud the reasons, and each time he wonders if it’s the same list his parents would have written This time, the last reason chokes Connor up a bit

" ‘Our own failure as parents’ "

And then he gets mad at himself These parents haven’t earned his sympathy If it’s their failure, then why should their son have to pay for it?

"Tomorrohen the Juvey-rounders come for him, you’ll tell them that he ran away, and you don’t knohere he went You won’t talk about us, or what happened here today, because if you do, we’ll know We monitor all the police frequencies"