SeX-Ray Vision

“The word is that you had a hand in personally taking down the LA Ninja.  That must feel like an exceptional accomplishment in comparison to most other cases in your career.”  The reporter from Los Angeles magazine exuded confidence, Detective Ryan Carter noted.  He had already made it clear that he wanted her.  He believed in direct innuendo, a phrase he’d coined years before that described the tactfully direct, but unspoken way of approaching a woman he was interested in.  He had a way of pulling off confidence and arrogance in a disarming way, and he knew it.  As much as power was an aphrodisiac, so was the underlying sensitivity that subtly signaled his skillfulness at being deeply intimate.  His gold hair, blue eyes and tanned LA skin helped too.  Altogether, he felt he had a power; a “sexth sense”, a vision of sorts, in the ability to peer directly into the heart of a woman and see what she really wanted.  He called it, sex-ray vision.

He’d been sneaking peeks of the hot reporter’s legs all afternoon.  It was unavoidable.  She was in a skirt, sitting across from him with her tanned, smooth legs crossed, shimmering like an oasis in a desert.  She was Latina too, and unmarried he figured since reporters had no reason to hide a wedding ring like a news anchor would.  She also had no visible tan line on her finger where one would be.  He’d get to those important details soon enough. 

He sipped from his pinot grigio before speaking.  “Well,” he said.  “Officially, the LAPD’s position is that I had direct involvement in the capture of the LA Ninja.  But the truth is…” he paused.  What was the truth, he wondered?  He decided to stay politically correct.  “The truth is that I was one of many in a team that worked together to bring him down.  Most notably, my partner, Detective Sergio Munoz, played a big part in it all.”

“People want to know how it is that a man of such unique and ancient skills like the ninja, could be so effective as he was at not only carrying on his crime spree, but also in evading police.  What is your take on that?” she asked.  She was all business, but she was smiling more as each moment passed.  He was even more into her now.  There was something so appealing about a woman that could balance out business and pleasure and maintain her professional composure when needed.  It seemed effortless for her, he noted.

“Well…Miss, is it?” he pushed.

“Yes,” she smiled, just a bit.  That was her sign back, ever so subtle.  He smiled and gazed into her eyes, holding it as his sign to her that he was into her too.  Game on, he thought to himself. 

“Yes, Miss Torres,” he said finally.  Back to business, he thought.  He knew he was purposeful, but he could also be professional too.  He was not just all dog all the time.  “You know I’ve thought a lot about that over the years that we were on the case of the LA Ninja.  Munoz used to…”

“Your partner,” she interjected.

“Right.  He used to say that any jagov with a penis could make a baby, but it takes a real man to raise a child.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

Carter laughed.  “Munoz always said things that didn’t make any sense.”

“Ok?”

“Sorry, I was just trying to be funny,” he replied.  She didn’t laugh.  “Well I guess what I’m saying is that in today’s society, a person with the skills of an ancient warrior like a ninja, or samurai, or even a knight for that matter, could be very effective.”  She relaxed a bit more, content that he could get back on point.  Carter felt a bit more challenged that she was going to hold a serious line through the interview.  “I think that skillset just enhances the abilities that one possesses to begin with.”

“For example,” he went on.  “I’m a detective right?  And I have a gun and training on how to solve crimes using a lot of tools such as physical, forensic evidence, and the ability to read people and build psychological profiles.  However, if I added the tool of how to cloak myself, and how to use projectiles, fashion weapons, and use my hands to be a lethal weapon, I’d be far more efficient and powerful.  I think a good scenario is one where the gangs that terrorize our community not only had guns, as they do today, but were also capable of espionage and skilled martial arts ability.  How crazy would that be?”

She smiled.  “Yes, that is a terrible scenario to imagine.”

He laughed too and sipped from his wine.  “Anyways, that would never happen.  The gangsters are too stupid and drug addicted to ever summon the discipline to study such things.”

“That’s a jaded perspective.  Is that a result of the job?”

“I guess so.  If you’ve locked up as many idiots as I have, it tends to be depressing.  I would have to say, in that sense, chasing the LA Ninja was somewhat refreshing.”

“Please do expand on that, if you would?”

“Well, let’s face it.  We are talking about a guy that was only guilty of one thing; and that’s taking out assholes.  He never went after any cops or any of the good citizens of LA!”  Carter raised his voice.

She pressed him.  “It was reported that he was responsible for the murder of several gang members as well innocent youths in LA.”

“Ha!” Carter exclaimed.  He finished his glass of wine and regained his calm composure by thinking of her legs again.  He told himself to stay on point.  “Miss Torres, I am well aware of what the LAPD has reported out about the LA Ninja.  The truth is, we’d have to go way off the record if I were to tell you the real story.”

“On the record, are you just saying that he was a vigilante?”

“On the record, I’m saying that the LAPD has made the streets safer by capturing the LA Ninja.  I think that the notoriety that has come with it is something I try to keep subdued so that it does not become a distraction for me in conducting my job.”

“That’s great,” she said with a smile.  “I will use that.  I can see that you feel very passionate about this case.  I can see that you have a lot more to say, and I’m guessing that I can’t go on the record with any of it.”

Carter poured another glass of wine and sat back in his oversized chair.  “Sorry,” he said, simply, as he sipped. 

“Well,” she said, pushing a button on her digital recorder and putting down her notepad.  “I’d really like to hear more.  Maybe you could take me to dinner and tell me all about it?”

Carter smiled.  Hell yeah that would work, he thought.  “Yeah,” he said loosening his grin.  “I think we can do that.”

As they readied themselves to go out to dinner and whatever else, there was something that Carter had not been aware of.  The reporter had her own secret that was way off the record.  She already knew who Carter was, and she was in search of Detective Munoz and the real LA Ninja, because she too, was a ninja.  Carter was in for a long night of sodium pentothal soup with a nightcap of torture.  And who knows, Angelica Torres thought to herself, maybe she’d let his sexy ass pickle her peaches?