A short story inspired by various sources
Even when you make good decisions, right decisions there can still be consequences for those actions. I started as a cop years ago working narcotics for the San Francisco police department. In reality I was a ghost, I was so deep cover only 3 people knew I was a cop. My wife, my handler and the Chief of Police. 1st step was starting small, making buys to get low level dealers off the street. It was a long term undercover assignment so it wasn’t buy and bust, it was buy several times and eventually bust weeks, maybe months later when enough evidence was collected. We had to do it that way so I was not suspected in the drug community. I didn’t testify in court, I never set foot in a police station. Dealers and cops alike thought I was some junkie with a small habit. I would come by every few days and get weed, cocaine, the occasional heroin. Eventually I moved up in the world, started making it seem like I was buying for upper scale clientele, now we were going for the distributors. I was buying major weights, kilos at a time. That was when I was recruited by the FBI and DEA. Even with going federal, maybe 6 people knew who I was and what I really did.
Here’s little secret, the corporate world sucks. It doesn’t matter if you're a board member or the drug dealer to the board members. The corporate atmosphere just makes you want to punch a puppy at times. These ivy league educated snobs were no better behaved than a junkie needing a fix. Pushy attitudes, somewhat pathetic but always thinking they “had it under control.” I procured so much blow for one guy I swear he should have been dead 6 times over. I made several cases for the Fed’s. We didn’t get any big fish players right away but we had made a dent.
Eventually we busted a massive multi national corporation for being little more than a drug front. They had ties to Mexico, Ecuador, even the Middle East where they brought in opium from. When you bring down such a big firm, individuals with lots of money and connections there’s always threats. In a way they are no different then your street level thugs.
This time I had to testify, for once people knew who I was. Cops who had harassed me when I was a low level buyer were dumbfounded. They had absolutely no clue. The corporate world was rocked as well. Every board of every major company had a junkie or two on them and I knew them all. Lots of people had a lot to lose. Those who were clean were equally astonished. There were rumors I should have been nominated for an Emmy. I was being compared to Donnie Brasco and Jordan Belfort. One for infiltrating the criminal world and the other for climbing to the top of the corporate world.
I looking down at my phone, the text message I just received sinking in…. “It's time” Decisions had caught up with me. The previous texts had let me know I had little choice but to comply. If I didn’t everything I loved would be gone.
I hear the laughter of my children, but it was the giggle of my wife that snapped me out of my trance. She noticed I wasn’t paying attention and asked what was wrong. “Nothing” I said, I couldn’t tell her. I couldn’t tell her what was going to happen, what I had to do. She wouldn’t have let me go. We were seated at our favorite Italian place, we came here all the time for birthdays and celebrating various family occasions. The kids playfully spun their pasta around their forks, making bad jokes in really bad Italian accents. It was painfully funny. The were blissfully unaware now more than ever. And that was a good thing, I didn’t want them to know either, i didn’t want them to see.
I got up saying I had to go outside to get my charger from my car. I kissed my kids and told them I loved them and then kissed my wife as well. She looked at me puzzled, she knew something was wrong but didn’t speak. I made for the door at a brisk pace. At the door I looked back, my kids smiled, my wife laughing at them and then glancing at me. I knew I had made another right decision. But again, it had its consequences. I wasn’t 5 steps out of the restaurant when I heard the shot. The bullet ripping through my shirt, penetrating my chest and striking my heart. I fell to knees, looking down I saw the blood fill my shirt and for some reason I just smiled. I’d saved my family. I thought about the previous text messages saying “We have found you. We only want you. But if we have to come in there, your family will pay the price as well.” If I hadn’t come outside they would have all died.
I made my decision, the right decision. And I paid the consequence. But as I closed my eyes, I knew it was worth paying.