WEBVTT

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Goodbye Nicole. Chapter one, Freedom, Present Day. It's been a while

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since she's been this high. Freedom
wonders when the last time was probably two

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months ago, when her best friend's
brothers scored them some peyote from the huallapies.

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But this is just weed. Still, it's good weed. She knows

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she shouldn't be smoking while she's babysitting
her little brother and sister, but Hannah

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should be back soon, and Freedom
is good at acting sober when she's not.

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Plus, she's up on the roof
of the trailer, hidden from view,

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so no one can see the smoke
curling up out of the joint or

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hear her cough when she finally exhales. After keeping the weed in her lungs

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for as long as she can,
Freedom has been smoking long enough that she

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should be able not to cough when
she exhales, But for some reason,

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she hacks up along every single time
she looks up at the sky, the

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back of her head touching the tops
of her pointy shoulder blades, wondering if

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she should put on some suntan lotion
as the fiery sun beats down on her

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bare legs. She's wearing only a
bathing suit today with some daisy dukes.

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Her pale, freckled skin such a
contrast to over ninety percent of the desert

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people who live in Peach Springs,
Arizona. Vanilla is her nickname, given

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to her by her father's best friend, one of the elders of the Huallapai

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Native Americans, and used quite freely
and frequently by the rest of the tribe.

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There are a couple dozen purely white
people in this town, but Freedom

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is by far the whitest of them
all. Vanilla just stuck, but Freedom

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doesn't mind it. Anyone can call
her whatever they want, no skin off

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her back. When she arrived in
Each Springs at the tender age of four,

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she was welcome into the Jones's home
as if she were their own flesh

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and blood. Even though she was
adopted, she was not the only one,

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though her lifetime came with a generous
supply of foster brothers and sisters once

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her age older and younger ones who
would come and go or stay. She

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had stayed more out of lack of
willpower to go elsewhere than anything else.

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Her mother, Hannah, insisted Freedom
call her anything she wanted, which included

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mom or Mama. Or by her
actual name. Freedom chose Hannah. She

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liked the way it rolled off her
tongue. She liked the normalcy of it.

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Hannah was a half white, half
Indian woman who would lived near the

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reservation her whole life. She had
met Freedom's father, Harry, as he

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was backpacking in the region with friends
when Hannah thirty and Harry was twenty two

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years old. The fact that Hannah
had chosen to marry a white man and

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a white man eight years her junior
caused quite the stir in the community.

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Harry fell in love with Hannah upon
seeing her, or so he claimed,

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let the friends hike ahead without him, and had been in Peach Springs ever

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since. Harry and Hannah had wanted
children of their own, but Hannah,

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due to her severe polycystic ovarian syndrome, had been unable to have them,

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so they set about adopting foster children, and had been doing so for thirty

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years. The current ones are Lydia, who is five years old, a

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two, also five, and Summer, the baby, who was only six

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months old. Hannah has run to
the trading post to pick up some groceries

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and Freedom figures her own weed as
well. Hannah and Harry are hopeless hippies

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who enjoy their weed themselves and let
Freedom smoke with them. After all,

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she is an adult and that is
the way of life around these parts.

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Freedom doesn't know why they have to
be so strict about not letting her smoke

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around the kids. She is twenty
eight years old and can handle herself.

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It's not like anything has ever happened
when the babies are in her care.

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Then again, she hasn't smoked weed
like this in a long time. She

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puts out her joint, crushing the
saliva soak tip of the paper against the

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roof of the house, and attempts
to stand up, almost losing her balance

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and falling over in the process.
Great, she thinks, that's just what

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she needs, to fall off the
roof and break her neck when she's supposed

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to be looking after the babies.
She steadies herself, slaps herself four times

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on the cheek, and tries again, this time making it up and hopping

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effort lessly off the roof without breaking
anything. She makes her way toward the

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sound of children playing through the brushy
desert sand, narrowly missing the spines of

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a cactus as she attempts to jog
toward the noise. They're not playing.

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She realizes they're fighting. A two, the smaller and weaker of the five

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year olds, is crying hysterically while
at the same time swinging a bright red

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plastic bat in the air, narrowly
missing his foster sister, who is trying

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desperately to wrench the bat out of
his hands. The only way Freedom can

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see this ending is with A two
hitting Lydia in the face or accidentally smashing

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himself with the bat. The latter
happens. A two whirls around in a

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circle trying to hit his sister and
ends up on the ground in a heap,

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a large welt forming in the place
where the bat smacked him over his

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right eye. A two screams,
kicking his legs and flings the bat to

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the ground. Lydia stands with her
arms crossed, victorious, smirking at the

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pathetic scene before her. A two, what the Jesus, Freedom says,

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kneeling down to investigate the boy's bruise, already deepening to a purple hue.

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She tried to take my bat,
he wails, wriggling out from under Freedom's

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vice grip. On his head,
ow that hurts. Hold still, Freedom

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yells, grabbing him by his torso
and turning his tiny body to face her.

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A two is a runt. At
thirty five inches and thirty one pounds,

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he is smaller than most girls his
age, including Lydia, who beats

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him up on a daily basis,
or at least threatens to. A two

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was born to young Hualipie parents on
the main reservation sixty miles to the north,

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who were addicted to meth. A
two came out squealing and squirming like

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so many meth addicted babies, and
once he withdrew from the drug, was

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placed under the care of Hannah and
Harry. The fact that he was born

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addicted to meth led to a lot
of problems, such as the fact that

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he is too small for his age
and he learns more slowly than the other

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children. Lydia is the opposite of
a runt. She is big and tough

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and tall, as is her actual
baby sister, Summer. Both girls are

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half Wallapie Indian and half white,
born to parents who gave Lydia up for

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adoption and then thought it would be
a good idea to have another baby.

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Even though they were too young and
too broke to care for the first.

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The parents skipped down, but before
doing so left the baby on the Jones's

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doorstep with a note that simply read
Summer, Thank you. The Joneses had

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been caring for the three ever since. You smell, decides Lydia, uncrossing

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her arms and pinching her nose with
her thumb and forefinger as she looks up

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at Freedom. Are you smoking weed? Not currently? Freedom retorts, exasperated,

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hauling E two up in her arms
and heading for the porch door.

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Why you're going to tell Hannah on
me? Maybe, Lydia replies, running

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after them. Just go check on
your sister in her crib. She's not

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in her crib. Lydia is inside
now, reaching for a purple popsicle from

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the freezer. What do you mean, Freedom feels, Panics start to rise

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in her throat, Her body gets
hot and sweaty, and she places A

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two down. Distractedly A two,
who has stopped crying, lunges for the

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popsicle in Lydia's hand. Mommy took
Summer with her to the store, Lydia

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says, jam most of the popsicle
down her throat. So A two can't

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get to it. You're stupid,
Freedom breathes a sigh of relief. Is

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she really that high that she forgot
Hannah took the baby with her. She

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needs to lie down and sleep it
off, but she has to be at

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work in twenty minutes. Hopefully Hannah
returns in the next few minutes so she

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can make it there on time.
A two is crying again, but Freedom

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has no patience for it. She
goes to the fridge to grab a beer,

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chugs half of it, then jumps
up to sit on the counter.

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She is working on the second half
of the beer when Hannah walks in the

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door. Little help here, Hannah
says, balancing the baby on her hip

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and swinging a grocery bag in her
hand. Freedom casually glances over in their

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direction, then finishes the beer.
A two, Lydia, go help your

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mother. They obediently walk up to
Hannah and balance the bag between them.

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What happened to A two's eye,
Hannah inquires, a Freedom, he hit

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himself with a bar bat? What
bat? The red thingy? I don't

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know. Freedom starts to giggle and
grin before she can stop herself. That's

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a dead giveaway. She thinks,
not like she cares. Are you high?

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Hannah sticks her nose in Freedom's face. Are you? Freedom sets down

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the beer can and wills herself to
focus on the woman two inches in front

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of her. Jesus Christ, Freedom, I told you not with the kids.

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I'm not not what freedom is?
Silent. Hannah goes about putting groceries

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away, slamming down condiments as she
opened the fridge. Your eyes are bloodshot,

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your pupils are huge, and you
smell like weed. Oh and the

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beer. Really, don't you have
to go to work? I'm fine,

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Freedom jumps off the counter and reaches
for her purse. I'll see you.

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You're going to get fired, Hannah
yells after her. One of these days,

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mark my words. You've been saying
that for years. Hasn't happened yet,

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has it? Hannah waves her hand
distractedly, signaling she is done with

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the conversation. Freedom grabs a tank
top from the dirty clothes basket that is

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sitting by the door and bangs it
shut behind her. Freedom marches to the

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white, shiny Chevrolet Silverado pickup that
she, Harry and Hannah all share and

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thinks, how funny it is that
the car is a hell of a lot

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nicer than the sorry excuse for a
house behind her. That's how all these

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desert people are. Red's whites.
Whoever fuck what the house looks like live

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in a trailer no problem, But
God forbid you don't own a nice,

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new four wheel drive truck. She
hops up into the driver's seat and slowly

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turns out of the trailer park,
making sure to follow all driving laws.

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She gets paranoid when she drives high. She points to Silverado in the direction

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of Root sixty six, crossing over
the rickety iron bridge on her way southwest

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to where sixty six meets with Root
forty at New Kingman Butler. It is

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there where she works at the sprawling
truck stop where the roads converge, one

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of the nice truck stops with showers
and a lounge, and a massive convenience

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store and gift shop where all sorts
of Hualipie made mementos are for sale.

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She works in the diner there at
the truck stop, serving coffee and breakfast

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twenty four hours a day to truckers
who sit and smoke cigarettes and hit on

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her. Most of them tip pretty
well, so that's a bonus. Freedom

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can take a little sexual harassment if
it results in enough cash at the end

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of her shift. Today, she
is working a double. She picked up

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the afternoon shift for one of the
other girls, and her regular shift starts

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at six pm, so she will
be there from one pm until two am.

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She has exactly two minutes before it
the shift starts. Freedom leans against

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the side of the truck stop,
slinging her bag to the ground, and

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lights a cigarette. Just then,
Dakota opens the front door to the convenience

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store and yells out to her,
get in here, Vanilla, we're all

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backed up. You're late. I
got two minutes. Relax, Freedom size

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exhaling cigarette smoke now. Dakota slams
a door shut and retreats through the stop.

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Dakota is the manager of the restaurant
in the truck stop, technically Freedom's

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boss. Dakota's family has owned the
truck stop for years, but Dakota is

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the only one who currently manages the
day to day operations of it. Her

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brother Akoul, will come by every
so often, but besides that, no

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one sees much of the others.
Rumor has it that Dakota is the only

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functioning alcoholic in the family. Freedom
dutifully releases the cigarette from between her fingers

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and follows Dakota through the convenience store
to the back where the diner is located.

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She is too high to argue with
her. The beer she chugged is

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also finally hitting her system, making
her even more drowsy. Dakota snaps her

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fingers and Freedom's face, pulling Freedom
out of her reverie. High again,

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Dakota slaps her wrist and makes a
dissatisfied clucking sound with her tongue. Drunk

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again, Freedom says under her breath. Luckily, Dakota does not hear her.

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She is too busy expediting on the
line. She shoves a sideplate of

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hash Browns into her hands and waves
Freedom in the direction of the dining room.

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Go away. If I didn't need
you here, i'd fire you.

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White girl is so ungrateful to have
a job. I've had this job for

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ten years, Freedom points out,
also under her breath. A decade is

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a hell of a long time to
be ungrateful. Freedom carries on with her

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day, avoiding Shane, one of
her regulars, for the good part of

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an hour. Shane is getting all
worked up. She can tell even talking

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to Dakota about Freedom's absence at his
table. Shane can be high maintenance at

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least as far as truckers go,
and demands a lot of attention. Freedom

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is not in the mood today,
so she hangs back in the kitchen as

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long as she can, and when
she sees Dakota had toward her most likely

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to give her a talking to,
she holds up a cigarette to no she

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is taking a smoke break and ducks
out the door. Once outside, she

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leans against the side of the building
in the only sliver of shade she can

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find. The heat is oppressive today. She observes a black sedan pulling up

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to one of the parking spaces,
not ten feet from where she is standing.

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The parking lot on the side is
completely empty save for this new arrival.

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This is not the kind of car
they typically get here at the truck

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stop. Usually it's Semis or Ford
F one fifty types. The car pulls

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up slowly and the driver kills the
engine and sits in the car, unmoving

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for a few seconds. Freedom cranes
her head around to look through the windshield,

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but this is difficult because the sun
is glancing off of the car in

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such a way that it almost blinds
her. Plus she doesn't want to look

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too obvious, like she is trying
to get a look at the driver.

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She moves ever so slightly, and
the sudden blockage is gone. She sees

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him now it's a man. He
plomps his head back against the headrest in

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a dramatic way and exhales visibly.
He uses his fingers to make a steeple

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and brings it up to his mouth. It almost appears as if he is

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praying. Because he stays this way
for what seems like an eternity. Freedom

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gets bored and is about to turn
her head when the man abruptly reaches for

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the door handle, pulls it,
and quickly shoots up out of the car.

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The sudden motion makes Freedom jump.
The man is average height and looks

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to be in his late forties,
hiss thick dark hair, and is wearing

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a blue tshirt over which he is
wearing a black leather jacket much too warm

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for the weather, and blue jeans. He is muscular, that much Freedom

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can tell, and he looks around
found him as if he has lost Finally,

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his gaze turned toward her. Aviator. Sunglasses cover his eyes, but

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even so freedom knows who he is. He has returned Chapter two. Martin

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past nineteen ninety had been a good
year. Nineteen ninety had been the most

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recent year Martin could remember that he
had turned a prophet and didn't have to

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lie about it on the books,
and quite a prophet. It had been

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dubbed the Wonder Boy by his fellow
stockbrokers. Martin had made a killing in

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the market because of Worlds of Wonder, an American toy company founded in nineteen

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eighty. He knew a couple of
the guys who had founded it, Donnie

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and Mark. They were previous employees
at Atari who had left to start Worlds

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of constantly bragging about how huge it
was going to become. Martin had had

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his doubts from the beginning. The
guys were pompous, greedy idiots who had

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no idea how to run a company, and Martin had a knack for the

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stock market. He had an innate
ability to determine whether a company would hit

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it big or completely tank it was
a talent, and more importantly, his

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livelihood. In nineteen eighty five,
Worlds of Wonder introduced Teddy Ruxpin, an

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animatronic kid's toy in the form of
a talking, moving Teddy Bear. The

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audio cassette tape built into Teddy's back
read stories to millions of hopelessly beguiled children.

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As the bear's eerie looking eyes moved
back and forth. It was almost

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as if America's favorite Teddy Bear was
having a seizure. Every time the string

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in his back was yanked. People
went wild. The markets went crazy,

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with world stock shooting up sky high. Martin's clients predictably wanted in. Martin

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wasn't so sure. He simply had
a bad feeling about this company. He

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conjectured, because of Teddy Ruxpan's unprecedented
popularity, that other companies would soon follow

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suit and produce talking, moving animatronic
toys just like it. Because of this

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unforeseen problem that Martin felt only he
could foresee, he did the best he

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could to convince his clients to take
a short position instead of a long one

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on worlds. This essentially meant that
instead of his clients becoming rich because of

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the company's success, they would instead
profit if the company tanked. Not surprisingly,

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ninety nine percent of these clients laughed
in his face. One of his

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00:21:00.400 --> 00:21:06.440
wealthiest was convinced his stockbroker was pulling
an early April fool's joke on him and

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reminded him almost every day after what
a moron he thought Martin was. The

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client thought that that was the stupidest
yet most comical thing Martin had ever said

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to him, Still riding high on
Teddy Ruxman's popularity, Worlds introduced laser tag

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in nineteen eighty six. This was
the earliest form of laser tag and also

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concerned the toy market that year.
Now even more of Martin's clients wanted in

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on Worlds, and they thought Martin
was even more crazy to suggest they take

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a short position or stay out of
it altogether. Martin soon gave up trying.

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His fellow stockbrokers all thought he was
crazy as well. They all had

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a lot of money in Worlds.
Confident that the company would stay high or

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get higher, Martin put his client's
money all into long positions like they asked,

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but took a huge short position himself
with his own money. He felt

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that strongly that this company was going
down. He felt it in his bones,

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and the company did go down.
It went down big. All it

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took was for one guy to die
in Rancho Cucamonga, California. In April

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00:22:30.920 --> 00:22:37.240
nineteen eighty seven, nineteen year old
Leonard Falcon was shot and killed by a

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deputy after he and several witnesses saw
him playing with what they thought was a

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real gun. It turned out to
be a laser tag gun, which was

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made of plastic and completely harmless.
The deputy quit his job soon after,

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and Worlds of Wonders stock plummeted.
That was only the beginning of the company's

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demise. It was about to get
worse. Panicked World started offering stock in

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the company that was next to worthless
to try to bolster its financial situation,

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but that turned out to be a
moot exercise. The stock market crashed.

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In October of that same year,
Worlds filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy, and

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soon it was ceasing production on any
new toys and operating in receivership until it

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closed its doors for good in nineteen
ninety. By that time, Martin had

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already made a fortune. That day
in April was the day Martin had been

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00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.839
waiting for. As soon as he
heard that kid had been blasted for carrying

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a laser tag gun manufactured by the
company he knew was an over hyped piece

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of shit. He went to the
car dealership and bought himself a brand new

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Mercedes Benz because he had always wanted
one. That was the day Martin became

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rich, really really rich. All
of his clients and colleagues had lost it

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all, most of the country had
lost it all, and Martin had reaped

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the benefits of their losses in a
huge way, all thanks to some flash

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in the pan Kittie's toy and to
the fact that Martin had taken a chance

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and ceaselessly shorted some shitty stock like
a motherfucker. He was a go big

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00:24:27.039 --> 00:24:33.000
or go home kind of guy,
and in this case that Mantra had paid

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off. Wonder Boy was born,
and the guys at Merrill gave him his

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very own Teddy Ruxman doll that stared
at him with his creepy eyes. Into

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his stuffed animal hands, Martin placed
the laser tag gun the guys had also

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00:24:48.319 --> 00:24:56.359
given him as a congratulatory gift.
Congrats on becoming a multi millionaire, is

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what those toys said to him.
Teddy Ruxman remained on his desk for many

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00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:07.599
years. That was the beginning of
things. Martin felt he had outgrown Merrill

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00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:11.599
Lynch, and so he left to
start his own brokerage firm. He had

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a wife and a baby at home, and he needed to get away from

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them. Martin was never especially interested
in being a father. His wife had

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00:25:21.480 --> 00:25:26.160
wanted children, though, at least
three, so Martin set about giving them

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to her dutifully. He then set
about aggressively avoiding both of them. He

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00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:40.000
named his brokerage firm, Essential Management
and set about collecting clients, which wasn't

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00:25:40.079 --> 00:25:45.160
hard because everyone wanted to follow wonder
boy and have him invest their money.

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00:25:45.319 --> 00:25:52.279
Martin was like the pied piper leading
the flocks to riches. Everyone needed their

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00:25:52.319 --> 00:26:00.319
money invested, essentially, that was
Essential Management's motto. Things went pretty well

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00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:04.279
at first. Many of Martin's former
Merrill Lynch customers had joined him in this

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00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:11.240
venture, and he soon got the
attention of professional athletes, including Redskins players

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00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:18.160
like Deacon Jones, Mark Schlareth,
and Mark Ripen the starting quarterback. Others

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00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:22.359
soon followed suit, along with more
heavy hitters in the DC metro area.

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00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:30.200
Really rich businessmen, really rich no
one's and corrupt politicians all wanted in on

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00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:33.440
what Martin was selling. He had
a hedge fund on his hands, and

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00:26:33.519 --> 00:26:41.599
he was getting even richer by the
day, hell by the hour. Martin

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00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:47.799
only accepted qualified investors, meaning his
clients had a net worth exceeding one million

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00:26:47.839 --> 00:26:52.200
dollars. He put their money into
anything he thought would be a gold mine,

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00:26:52.519 --> 00:26:59.039
and sometimes this included actual gold mines
in Africa. Martin had his clients

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00:26:59.319 --> 00:27:04.359
and realist date derivatives, currencies,
anything that was risky and alternative. The

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00:27:04.519 --> 00:27:11.480
riskier the better was another of essential
managements mottos. Martin still did his due

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00:27:11.480 --> 00:27:18.480
diligence, of course, and the
money kept rolling in. In early nineteen

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00:27:18.599 --> 00:27:26.079
ninety one, Martin got win of
the Oldsmobile Global Positioning System, or GPS

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00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:30.119
as it was referred to, for
its eighty eight model car to be unveiled

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00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:36.359
the next year. The first of
its kind, the computer chip was touted

305
00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:41.119
as the tracking device of the future. The chip was an optional feature that

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00:27:41.160 --> 00:27:47.000
would be sold as an add on
to anyone buying the car. The GPS

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00:27:47.039 --> 00:27:52.799
would allow vehicle operators or anyone else
who had the tracking device chip number to

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00:27:52.920 --> 00:27:56.559
follow the car wherever it would go. It did so by picking up high

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00:27:56.680 --> 00:28:03.240
frequency waves that would bounce off satellites
orbiting the Earth. Way up an outer

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00:28:03.359 --> 00:28:08.319
space. The satellite would then shoot
those waves down to the individual's personal computer,

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allowing the person to track the car
by pinpointing its location on a map.

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00:28:15.720 --> 00:28:19.839
Oldsmobile spent a fortune on producing and
marketing its new chip of the future,

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betting that everyone who purchased an Oldsmobile
would want in on this technology,

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00:28:26.799 --> 00:28:30.720
and that was way ahead of its
time. The car company spent the better

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00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:37.799
part of a year and a half
perfecting this technology. Martin knew a guy

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00:28:37.039 --> 00:28:41.400
who knew a guy at Oldsmobile.
He was a former broker who had worked

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00:28:41.400 --> 00:28:45.880
with Martin in a boiler room in
DC years ago, who had a cousin

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00:28:47.119 --> 00:28:52.519
who was in house counsel for the
car company. A few months after research

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00:28:52.599 --> 00:28:57.839
began on the GPS system, Martin's
guide told him about this new fangled technology

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00:28:59.279 --> 00:29:04.920
and promised Martin it would be huge. Martin was excited. This was not

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00:29:06.160 --> 00:29:11.240
some stupid teddy bear kid's doll.
This was the wave of the future.

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00:29:11.960 --> 00:29:18.000
He could feel it, he could
feel it in his bones. Martin promised

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00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:22.319
the friend a hefty cut of the
stock options for his insider information and wasted

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00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:27.359
no time talking it up to his
hedge fund clients. Martin had no idea

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00:29:27.480 --> 00:29:32.559
what it actually was or how in
the world it could actually work, but

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00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:38.480
he sold that motherfucking stock like there
was no tomorrow. His clients had listened

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00:29:38.480 --> 00:29:44.480
to him because he was the wonder
boy again. All of them went all

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00:29:44.680 --> 00:29:49.680
in on the Oldsmobile GPS tracking device
in a very long position, not even

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00:29:49.799 --> 00:29:55.039
caring that no one had any clue
as to what it could possibly be.

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00:29:55.880 --> 00:30:00.799
There was no way this could fail. Martin promised his sharehold. The technology

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00:30:02.279 --> 00:30:08.799
was way before its time. The
problem was the technology was way before its

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00:30:08.839 --> 00:30:15.920
time. When Oldsmobile finally unveiled the
car GPS, everyone was too confused by

333
00:30:15.960 --> 00:30:22.279
it to buy it. Confusion,
coupled with the fact the device costs two

334
00:30:22.359 --> 00:30:27.359
thousand dollars, was enough to send
Oldsmobile consumers running for the hills when offered

335
00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:33.359
the chip. No one wanted that
in their car. In the early nineteen

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00:30:33.480 --> 00:30:38.799
nineties, no one cared where anyone
else had been, was or was going,

337
00:30:40.279 --> 00:30:44.839
and most wanted to keep it that
way. Not many satellite towers had

338
00:30:44.839 --> 00:30:48.599
been erected during that year, so
the coordinates were hazy at best, and

339
00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:53.599
the device one was tracking could be
quite far from where the computer said it

340
00:30:53.720 --> 00:31:02.720
was not many households had personal computers
anyway. The GPS chip was a complete

341
00:31:02.759 --> 00:31:07.880
failure, a total flop, selling
only a few thousand units a year into

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00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:12.119
its release. Half of the units
were bought by the Avis rental car company

343
00:31:12.359 --> 00:31:18.000
in order to be installed in their
vehicles. Martin had purchased four of the

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00:31:18.079 --> 00:31:25.400
GPS tracking devices personally, only one
was put to any use. He had

345
00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:30.000
also taken a personal long position in
the company, putting way too much money

346
00:31:30.079 --> 00:31:37.960
into its stock. Besides losing his
own money in Oldsmobile GPS, Martin lost

347
00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:45.240
a lot of client money. Quickly. His investors were pissed. Wonder Boy

348
00:31:45.359 --> 00:31:51.559
became dunder boy, as many began
referring to him just like that. Martin

349
00:31:51.680 --> 00:31:56.079
was no longer to be trusted.
He had lost his edge for picking out

350
00:31:56.160 --> 00:32:00.640
fail proof stock. Investors demanded their
money back, and Martin had no choice

351
00:32:00.680 --> 00:32:05.839
but to pay them back for a
while he could, and he did.

352
00:32:06.720 --> 00:32:10.720
After some time, the money became
scarce. That is when he decided to

353
00:32:10.720 --> 00:32:15.960
wiggle some funds around, just a
few hundred thousand dollars here and there.

354
00:32:16.720 --> 00:32:23.519
The few hundred thousand dollars became a
million dollars and then multiple millions. Martin

355
00:32:23.640 --> 00:32:30.079
decided he wouldn't tell his hedge fund
clients just yet. He would figure it

356
00:32:30.119 --> 00:32:34.079
out, make them even more money
on a better venture, and in a

357
00:32:34.119 --> 00:32:38.119
few months they would all laugh about
it while toasting with Scotch and smoking cigars

358
00:32:38.160 --> 00:32:44.920
at Congressional Country Club. This would
not be the demise of wonder Boy,

359
00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:52.079
no, sir, yet. It
kind of was. The hit from GPS

360
00:32:52.359 --> 00:32:57.160
punched Martin hard, and to cover
his tracks, he started skimming off the

361
00:32:57.240 --> 00:33:02.920
books. How is Martin to run
a hedge fund without paying himself? He

362
00:33:04.039 --> 00:33:09.119
also started paying off original investors with
money from new ones. Luckily, his

363
00:33:09.240 --> 00:33:15.160
name still meant something in DC,
so people were still clamoring to invest with

364
00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:19.559
Martin. At one time, there
had been a waiting list a mile long,

365
00:33:20.400 --> 00:33:24.000
but Martin had exhausted that waiting list
because he was in desperate need of

366
00:33:24.119 --> 00:33:30.759
new cash coming in. The money
scrambling and skimming and all the other shit

367
00:33:30.920 --> 00:33:36.440
he was doing had morphed into a
full blown Ponzi scheme within a mere couple

368
00:33:36.480 --> 00:33:42.839
of months, and Martin realized he
was desperate for a miracle. That miracle

369
00:33:43.400 --> 00:33:57.359
came in the form of Senator Ricardo
Hernandez Chapter three. Ryan passed. Ryan

370
00:33:57.480 --> 00:34:00.880
was born in Park City, Utah, may as well have been born on

371
00:34:00.960 --> 00:34:07.119
the actual ski slopes themselves. His
father was a wealthy businessman who purchased real

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00:34:07.239 --> 00:34:12.320
estate in one of the richest ski
towns in the world like he was gobbling

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00:34:12.360 --> 00:34:15.679
his breakfast. He then turned around
and sold them to the highest bidder,

374
00:34:15.920 --> 00:34:23.280
who subsequently turned those into ski chalets
and sparkling glass condominiums. Ryan's father would

375
00:34:23.280 --> 00:34:28.440
be in the office by seven am
after waking at five to work out and

376
00:34:28.480 --> 00:34:31.679
read the paper, and would hit
the slopes by three. By the time

377
00:34:31.800 --> 00:34:37.199
Ryan could crawl, he would join
him. He learned the sport by standing

378
00:34:37.239 --> 00:34:40.760
atop his dad's skis, holding his
chubby little arms up to the sky so

379
00:34:40.920 --> 00:34:45.119
his dad could grab them, and
shooting down the bunny slopes, wind and

380
00:34:45.199 --> 00:34:51.199
snow in his face, his mouth
shaped and a perpetual o as his father

381
00:34:51.360 --> 00:34:57.079
swooshed down the ice. One of
his first memories was of his father pointing

382
00:34:57.119 --> 00:35:00.320
down the hill marked with a green
circle at his mother at the bottom,

383
00:35:01.840 --> 00:35:07.599
let's ski to her son. Huh. His dad whispered, shaking his arms

384
00:35:07.639 --> 00:35:13.239
in preparation, and then seconds later
they were beside her, as if by

385
00:35:13.320 --> 00:35:20.039
magic. Ryan was hooked. He
spent every free minute he had skiing.

386
00:35:20.719 --> 00:35:24.639
He loved the thrill of it.
He felt invincible. He loved the cold

387
00:35:24.719 --> 00:35:29.760
weather, the snow, the moguls, the sound of swooshing skis, the

388
00:35:29.840 --> 00:35:34.360
equipment, and everything else. He
never wanted to be anything less than the

389
00:35:34.400 --> 00:35:38.360
best skier on the mountain, and
once he hit adolescence, he typically was.

390
00:35:39.239 --> 00:35:43.760
No one was faster, no one
was more graceful, no one was

391
00:35:43.800 --> 00:35:49.000
more committed, and no one took
more risk than he, which is why

392
00:35:49.440 --> 00:35:54.280
when his ski instructor suggested he try
out for the World Junior Alpine Skiing Championships

393
00:35:54.360 --> 00:35:59.960
in nineteen eighty four, at the
age of sixteen, he crushed the competent

394
00:36:00.039 --> 00:36:04.960
Titian. Ryan won gold at Sugarloaf
in Maine, and that meant he was

395
00:36:05.039 --> 00:36:09.039
well on his way to the Olympics. He returned to Utah to be heralded

396
00:36:09.079 --> 00:36:14.880
as the hometown hero, the ski
prodigy with a heart of gold, the

397
00:36:15.039 --> 00:36:19.840
boy who could go all the way. He kept going, kept pushing,

398
00:36:20.280 --> 00:36:24.360
convinced himself he wanted an Olympic gold
medal more than anyone ever had before,

399
00:36:24.599 --> 00:36:31.960
and spent every minute he could training
until he dislocated his left knee, required

400
00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:38.039
surgery and would need to heal for
six months. The day after the accident,

401
00:36:38.360 --> 00:36:43.320
Ryan was laid up on the couch, feeling sorry for himself, eating

402
00:36:43.320 --> 00:36:47.239
a ham and cheese hot pocket and
watching Child's in Charge. The minute his

403
00:36:47.360 --> 00:36:52.039
dad hit the floor of his office
dead of a massive heart attack in twenty

404
00:36:52.079 --> 00:36:58.480
two seconds. This occurred not fifty
feet from the couch on which Ryan was

405
00:36:58.599 --> 00:37:04.559
lying. Oblivion to the fact.
Ryan found it somewhat odd his dad had

406
00:37:04.559 --> 00:37:08.199
been holed up in a study for
two straight hours, never coming out even

407
00:37:08.239 --> 00:37:13.559
to use the bathroom or to yell
out to him to turn the volume down

408
00:37:13.639 --> 00:37:17.400
on the TV because I can't ever
get that A Name theme song out of

409
00:37:17.440 --> 00:37:22.000
my head, God damn it.
But brushed any thought of something being wrong

410
00:37:22.119 --> 00:37:29.119
aside. It wasn't until he heard
his mom screams hours later that he realized

411
00:37:29.239 --> 00:37:36.679
those niggling thoughts had any merit.
He remembered blaming himself if only I had

412
00:37:36.719 --> 00:37:40.400
heard something, he'd say to his
mother over and over again, but the

413
00:37:40.519 --> 00:37:45.840
television had been too loud. He
knew that it had been, even though

414
00:37:45.880 --> 00:37:52.840
she would constantly reassure him it wasn't
if only I'd gotten up to check on

415
00:37:52.920 --> 00:37:58.079
him. He'd lament to anyone who
would listen, but those people mostly responded

416
00:37:58.119 --> 00:38:02.480
with but you couldn't have Your knee
was dislocated. See it wasn't your fault.

417
00:38:02.760 --> 00:38:07.960
Stop beating yourself up about it.
The problem was Ryan wasn't sure how

418
00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:12.920
he was supposed to do that,
so he dealt with it the way any

419
00:38:13.039 --> 00:38:16.440
seventeen year old kid would who didn't
know how to deal with it would.

420
00:38:17.199 --> 00:38:22.360
He acted out. He stopped going
to high school. He was in his

421
00:38:22.440 --> 00:38:27.599
senior year, but no one really
expected him to concentrate too much on his

422
00:38:27.679 --> 00:38:31.679
studies because he was going to be
an Olympic athlete. That would have been

423
00:38:31.719 --> 00:38:37.679
fine except for the fact Ryan had
also stopped trying to become an Olympic athlete.

424
00:38:38.360 --> 00:38:43.119
He gave up skiing. At first. It was easy to do because

425
00:38:43.119 --> 00:38:46.840
of the knee. But the knee
healed, Ryan still had no interest in

426
00:38:46.920 --> 00:38:52.119
getting back out on the slopes.
His mother tried to convince him to get

427
00:38:52.159 --> 00:38:54.360
back out there, get back at
it. Your dad would have wanted you

428
00:38:54.440 --> 00:39:00.559
to, and you owe it to
us, your town, and yourself.

429
00:39:00.599 --> 00:39:05.559
She voiced. These tactics halfheartedly for
a few months, until she realized they

430
00:39:05.559 --> 00:39:10.039
were falling on deaf ears, so
she stopped. His mother never really cared

431
00:39:10.079 --> 00:39:15.519
for the skiing anyway, not like
his dad had. His mother thought it

432
00:39:15.599 --> 00:39:19.679
was dangerous and impractical, in a
waste of time and energy, and she

433
00:39:19.760 --> 00:39:22.599
was still grieving the loss of her
husband, so she gave up trying to

434
00:39:22.639 --> 00:39:29.519
convince Ryan otherwise and just left him
alone. That was fine with Ryan.

435
00:39:30.239 --> 00:39:35.239
His mother leaving him alone left him
more time to experiment with drugs and alcohol,

436
00:39:35.719 --> 00:39:38.679
to hang out with the wrong crowd, and to be completely immersed in

437
00:39:38.840 --> 00:39:44.840
not being immersed in anything at all. He did this for about two years

438
00:39:45.119 --> 00:39:49.880
until right before his twentieth birthday.
His father had left him some money,

439
00:39:50.239 --> 00:39:54.039
so Ryan stayed at home without a
job, smoking pot and popping oxy,

440
00:39:54.360 --> 00:39:59.480
which he had been prescribed for his
knee pain. His mother, who had

441
00:39:59.480 --> 00:40:05.760
gotten over her grieving period very quickly, too quickly in Ryan's opinion, kept

442
00:40:05.800 --> 00:40:10.960
herself busy with luncheons and fund raisers
and charity work during the days. At

443
00:40:12.039 --> 00:40:15.480
night, she typically went out on
a date or to cheek restaurants with friends.

444
00:40:16.280 --> 00:40:21.159
Ryan's older brother had left home the
minute he turned eighteen, which was

445
00:40:21.239 --> 00:40:25.480
two years before. Ryan was bored
and lonely. He missed skiing, and

446
00:40:25.519 --> 00:40:30.559
he missed his dad, but he
didn't miss skiing enough to take it back

447
00:40:30.639 --> 00:40:35.960
up again. It just wouldn't have
been the same without his father. It

448
00:40:36.039 --> 00:40:39.199
was the boredom that led to his
career choice. One day, he was

449
00:40:39.239 --> 00:40:45.760
watching a movie on TV where federal
marshals took down a would be hijacker on

450
00:40:45.800 --> 00:40:51.039
a Boeing seven forty seven. Ryan
thought that was just about the coolest thing

451
00:40:51.079 --> 00:40:55.760
he'd ever seen and decided to go
for broke. He needed a bachelor's degree,

452
00:40:57.039 --> 00:41:00.079
so he enrolled in community college and
worked night as a bus boy in

453
00:41:00.119 --> 00:41:05.480
a restaurant outside of town. He
didn't really need to, he had the

454
00:41:05.519 --> 00:41:08.840
money to pay for education, and
the community college was cheap, but he

455
00:41:08.960 --> 00:41:14.679
liked keeping busy. He would attend
classes, go to work at the restaurant,

456
00:41:14.719 --> 00:41:17.440
and when he got off work,
he would study until the wee hours

457
00:41:17.480 --> 00:41:22.599
of the morning. He and his
mother were like ships passing in the night,

458
00:41:22.039 --> 00:41:28.719
essentially glorified roommates. That was fine
with Ryan. He had his life

459
00:41:28.920 --> 00:41:34.440
and she had hers. He knew
it was prudent to stay active and fit

460
00:41:35.159 --> 00:41:39.039
the federal Marshals he had seen in
the movie had been jacked. His knee

461
00:41:39.039 --> 00:41:44.920
had healed completely, and because he
was in his early twenties and still accustomed

462
00:41:44.960 --> 00:41:50.440
to working out for skiing, he
hit the gym hard and produced excellent results.

463
00:41:51.000 --> 00:41:53.880
He was bigger than he'd ever been
in his entire life. He looked

464
00:41:53.920 --> 00:41:59.760
the part of a beefy cop,
no longer the skinny, weak, unmotivated,

465
00:42:00.079 --> 00:42:05.800
bordering on drug addict he formally was. He graduated with his bachelor's degree

466
00:42:05.840 --> 00:42:08.760
from college in three years, quit
his job at the restaurant, and set

467
00:42:08.760 --> 00:42:13.679
out to find a real one.
He was barely twenty three years old.

468
00:42:14.000 --> 00:42:19.039
His life was on track, and
that felt good. He spent a few

469
00:42:19.119 --> 00:42:23.599
years as a rookie cop in Deer
Valley, Utah, which was predictably underwhelming.

470
00:42:24.320 --> 00:42:31.079
It was mostly locking up drunken disorderlies
and domestic disturbances. Ryan needed excitement

471
00:42:31.159 --> 00:42:36.400
in his life, and while he
attempted to figure out how he could achieve

472
00:42:36.519 --> 00:42:40.719
this through his professional life, he
managed to achieve it through his personal life

473
00:42:40.800 --> 00:42:45.960
instead, in the form of Jenny. He met Jenny at a friend's wedding

474
00:42:46.000 --> 00:42:52.079
in Denver. She was a bridesmaid. He a groomsman. They hit it

475
00:42:52.119 --> 00:42:55.079
off after a few shots at the
bar and spent the whole night dancing and

476
00:42:55.159 --> 00:43:00.320
making out in the closet. Next
thing he knew, they were banging in

477
00:43:00.440 --> 00:43:05.079
his hotel room. Or was it
hers, He could never remember. He

478
00:43:05.119 --> 00:43:09.400
woke up with a splitting headache and
a vague recollection of the previous night's occurrences.

479
00:43:10.199 --> 00:43:15.039
They said they're awkward goodbyes, and
Ryan put her out of his mind.

480
00:43:15.440 --> 00:43:19.960
He got a call from Jenny three
weeks after the wedding. He was

481
00:43:20.039 --> 00:43:22.360
just about to leave for a night
out with the boys on the Force when

482
00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:28.840
his land line rang. Ryan almost
didn't answer because no one ever called his

483
00:43:28.920 --> 00:43:34.119
landline, but at the last minute
he grabbed for the receiver. At first,

484
00:43:34.159 --> 00:43:37.199
he had no idea who she was. He tended to forget the names

485
00:43:37.239 --> 00:43:42.880
of women he slept with. It
wasn't until she mentioned the names Jason and

486
00:43:43.000 --> 00:43:46.000
Mary, the bride and groom of
the wedding they had both attended that he

487
00:43:46.079 --> 00:43:52.840
made the connection. Jenny was wedding
bang girl. Her girlfriends had teared her

488
00:43:52.880 --> 00:43:57.559
to call. She made sure to
mention, and she wanted to let him

489
00:43:57.559 --> 00:44:01.079
know that she would be coming to
Valley. The next weekend for a friend's

490
00:44:01.119 --> 00:44:07.559
bachelorette party and what he liked to
meet up maybe, Ryan said sure.

491
00:44:08.639 --> 00:44:15.000
Fourteen months later, they were married
at Saint Luke's Episcopal Church in Deer Valley.

492
00:44:15.639 --> 00:44:19.920
Ryan continued his job on the forest
for five more years until he made

493
00:44:19.920 --> 00:44:24.320
the executive decision to move he and
Jenny to Washington, d C. Jenny

494
00:44:24.440 --> 00:44:30.440
was very much averse to the move. Ryan was ecstatic for a change of

495
00:44:30.559 --> 00:44:35.639
scenery. One of the reasons Jenny
was averse to the move had to do

496
00:44:35.719 --> 00:44:38.360
with the fact that she was in
a deep depression at that point in her

497
00:44:38.440 --> 00:44:43.920
life. In the five years she
and Ryan had been married, Jenny had

498
00:44:43.920 --> 00:44:50.719
suffered four miscarriages. She was devastated. Jenny had always wanted a big family.

499
00:44:51.599 --> 00:44:57.760
Ryan wasn't sure, but he realized
fate and genetics were deciding against that

500
00:44:57.800 --> 00:45:02.840
big family for him and big time. Jenny was nothing like the vibrant,

501
00:45:02.920 --> 00:45:07.079
sexy, twenty five year old he
had married. She cried all the time,

502
00:45:07.320 --> 00:45:12.000
didn't eat enough, slept all day, and refused to keep up with

503
00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:16.000
her friends. She only talked to
her sister, and she lived states away.

504
00:45:16.800 --> 00:45:21.519
So Ryan decided that he and Jenny
would move to Washington, d C.

505
00:45:22.280 --> 00:45:24.960
He had always wanted to be a
federal marshal in the capital of the

506
00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:30.039
country, and he figured there was
no better time to make the move than

507
00:45:30.079 --> 00:45:34.519
the present. He was thirty years
old and ready to fulfill his dream.

508
00:45:35.159 --> 00:45:38.039
He packed up their car, grabbed
the dog, and he and Jenny were

509
00:45:38.079 --> 00:45:44.360
off on the two thousand mile journey
across the country. Jenny cried the whole

510
00:45:44.400 --> 00:45:49.920
way. Ryan found them a nice
apartment in Potomac, Maryland, a quiet

511
00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:53.719
suburb just outside the city. On
the day they arrived, his first order

512
00:45:53.760 --> 00:45:58.559
of business was to join a gym. He knew he had to be a

513
00:45:58.639 --> 00:46:04.719
near perfect physical condition to be considered
for the US marshal position. He had

514
00:46:04.800 --> 00:46:08.199
six years to be appointed one by
the President, so he set about doing

515
00:46:08.239 --> 00:46:13.679
everything he could to make it happen. He was hired on as a parole

516
00:46:13.800 --> 00:46:19.800
officer for the Maryland Department of Patrol
and Probation and started his graduate studies in

517
00:46:19.880 --> 00:46:24.719
criminology. In two years, he
submitted his application and resume, took his

518
00:46:24.840 --> 00:46:31.360
competitive exam, and began the pre
employment process, which consisted of a complete

519
00:46:31.440 --> 00:46:39.199
background investigation, a physical fitness assessment, and a panel interview. During this

520
00:46:39.280 --> 00:46:45.719
time Jenny had filed for divorce,
Ryan didn't blame her. He was spending

521
00:46:45.760 --> 00:46:51.360
every waking minute at the gym or
studying for his Federal Martial exam. He

522
00:46:51.440 --> 00:46:55.719
needed to do well on it,
as the us MS ranked candidates according to

523
00:46:55.760 --> 00:47:00.679
their scores. Only then when he
have a chance at being appointed a marshal.

524
00:47:01.679 --> 00:47:07.599
He barely paid Jenny any attention anymore, and Ryan certainly didn't want a

525
00:47:07.679 --> 00:47:10.960
child at this point in his life. He had his career to worry about.

526
00:47:13.000 --> 00:47:16.519
Unfortunately, Jenny still did want a
child very much, and when she

527
00:47:16.639 --> 00:47:21.800
realized that Ryan was not about to
focus on a family any time in the

528
00:47:21.880 --> 00:47:25.960
near future, she gave up and
left. Ryan came home one night to

529
00:47:27.000 --> 00:47:30.159
find a note on the kitchen table
saying Jenny had gone to her sisters in

530
00:47:30.239 --> 00:47:35.519
Idaho, that she needed some time
away and that she would be back in

531
00:47:35.559 --> 00:47:39.800
a few weeks. She never returned. The only thing that showed up in

532
00:47:39.840 --> 00:47:45.880
a few weeks were divorce papers.
So Ryan had failed at marriage. He

533
00:47:45.960 --> 00:47:51.199
wasn't much surprised by this. He
had failed at being an Olympic athlete,

534
00:47:51.360 --> 00:47:54.519
and he had failed at saving his
father's life. He had, not,

535
00:47:54.880 --> 00:48:00.440
however, failed at being a good
cop, and he was sure as not

536
00:48:00.639 --> 00:48:05.840
about to fail at becoming a Federal
Marshal. At least Jenny hadn't ruined his

537
00:48:05.960 --> 00:48:10.440
chances at that She gave the background
check officers as much as they needed to

538
00:48:10.480 --> 00:48:15.400
know, not less, not more. In a few months, Ryan found

539
00:48:15.440 --> 00:48:23.119
out he had been appointed. Ryan
completed his eighteen week US Marshal basic training

540
00:48:23.159 --> 00:48:28.800
in Glencoe, Georgia. They had
not been kidding when they said to arrive

541
00:48:28.880 --> 00:48:34.239
in excellent physical condition. No wonder, no one passed the age of thirty

542
00:48:34.280 --> 00:48:39.920
six could even apply. Every day
he ran ten miles, completed repeated calisthenics

543
00:48:40.119 --> 00:48:45.320
including push ups, situps, and
mountain climbing, and completed obstacle courses,

544
00:48:45.679 --> 00:48:53.320
sprints and other related conditioning activities.
Ryan studied driver training, physical conditioning,

545
00:48:53.639 --> 00:49:00.440
firearms training, defensive tactics, legal
training, officers, survival courts, purity

546
00:49:00.679 --> 00:49:06.000
and protective services training. During the
last week of training, he was given

547
00:49:06.079 --> 00:49:13.639
a physical fitness test. He passed
and graduated. His mother attended his graduation.

548
00:49:14.239 --> 00:49:16.639
Ryan hadn't seen her in a few
years, but she was still living

549
00:49:16.639 --> 00:49:22.519
the high life in Park City,
attending various functions and giving to charities.

550
00:49:22.320 --> 00:49:28.440
After an awkward dinner at a swanky
restaurant in Georgetown. Ryan bid her goodbye

551
00:49:28.719 --> 00:49:34.760
and promised to keep in touch.
His late father was never mentioned. Ryan

552
00:49:34.800 --> 00:49:39.119
felt optimistic about his new venture.
He was partnered with another newbie named Sam,

553
00:49:39.400 --> 00:49:44.400
and they set out to catch the
most notorious criminals the world had to

554
00:49:44.480 --> 00:49:50.519
offer. Ryan liked tracking the child
abductors. He liked tracking sex suspenders.

555
00:49:50.760 --> 00:49:54.440
He even liked the mundane work of
flying on airplanes, armed, of course,

556
00:49:54.960 --> 00:50:00.159
in the day to day protection of
US congressmen and senators. What he

557
00:50:00.320 --> 00:50:07.079
most liked, though, was the
witness protection work. When he became a

558
00:50:07.119 --> 00:50:10.360
federal marshal, Ryan took an oath
to provide for the security, health,

559
00:50:10.440 --> 00:50:16.800
and safety of government witnesses and their
immediate dependence whose lives were in danger as

560
00:50:16.800 --> 00:50:22.880
a result of their testimony against drug
traffickers, terrorists, organized crime members,

561
00:50:22.880 --> 00:50:30.719
and other major criminals. Witnesses and
their dependents got new identities, with authentic

562
00:50:30.960 --> 00:50:37.280
documentation, housing, medical care,
and basic living expenses provided for them.

563
00:50:37.119 --> 00:50:44.519
Federal marshals cooperate fully with local law
enforcement and court authorities to bring witnesses to

564
00:50:44.639 --> 00:50:51.280
justice or to have them fulfill their
legal responsibilities. Marshals provide twenty four hour

565
00:50:51.400 --> 00:50:55.719
protection to all witnesses while they are
in a high threat environment, including court

566
00:50:55.760 --> 00:51:04.119
appearances, pretrial conferences, and trial
testimonies, among other things. One day

567
00:51:04.480 --> 00:51:08.920
in early nineteen ninety five, Ryan
got assigned to a case, a witness

568
00:51:09.000 --> 00:51:15.840
protection case that would forever change him. A little girl named Nicole needed him.

569
00:51:15.400 --> 00:51:20.400
He had sworn an oath to protect
her from the bad guys, and

570
00:51:20.559 --> 00:51:25.639
these particular bad guys just so happened
to be members of a Mexican drug cartel

571
00:51:27.239 --> 00:51:29.280
and the little girl's own father,