Chapter 30: Daredevil?

Blind woman lawyer. Business suit, cane, purple sunglasses, and the same blood-colored tie to match her hair. It would seem that what could be threatening about her? And yet, standing face to face with her, Jane Stacy, a police captain and simply a woman of no timid disposition, did not feel like a master of the situation, even in her own precinct.

"Peter is here as a victim and as a witness," the captain replies in a confident tone, but the confidence is ostentatious.

Maybe most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the police chief's usual determination and her current behavior. It would take a great deal of experience, attention, and keen senses to notice what was wrong, and few people could boast such a set. But at the moment there were such men in the precinct.

For example, Officer Doakes, a former United States Army Ranger operative. Having once been part of the Regimental Intelligence Corps, which conducted deep reconnaissance missions, she noticed right away: how insecure the captain really felt in the presence of a lawyer. Besides, she knew Jane Stacy well enough.

"Why are you here?" Doakes intervenes in the conversation again. "Why should Parker have a lawyer? Especially one like you!"

Responding to Doakes' remarks, Murdoch continued to "look" at Captain Stacy, which irritated the officer, because everyone knew that the blind woman had no problem navigating in space, as she repeatedly demonstrated in court, unmistakably addressing people who sat through the entire session without making a single sound. Even now, as she entered the room, in an office full of policemen, she pinpointed Stacy and Parker with impeccable accuracy before she spoke to the captain.

"You've already taken too much on yourself when you brought him here without his guardian's approval, don't make it worse," Murdock turned her sightless eyes, hidden behind maroon glasses, on the man she declared her client before finishing her thought, "if you have any questions for Mr. Parker, go to his guardian first, or..."

"All right, that's enough," the boy suddenly interjected, "why the fervor? I've told you all I know about the case, may I go now?" looking at the captain, the boy asks.

"Yes, of course," replies the woman, casting another unpleasant glance at the lawyer. "Thank you for your cooperation."

Stacy turns around and disappears into her office, indicating that the conversation is over.

All the way to the exit, Doakes glared at me and Murdock with a hard, unblinking stare. I could feel it, as if the spider's senses had returned to me, so strong was the woman's antipathy.

I understand many cops' dislike of lawyers, because they protect criminals, but Murdock... hasn't the man always been on the side of the common man? Something strange is going on with the local cops, can't they tell black from white?

"I certainly appreciate your intervention, but why?" I asked as we were leaving the station. "In fact, how did you find out about me so quickly? I was at the station for barely half an hour."

"You made a lot of noise with your performance last night," Murdock says with a slight patronizing smile, "You were in the news, you were in the morning paper, your youtube video has already had a million views, and you ask me how I knew about you. It would be weird if I didn't know about you."

"Fair enough," I reply.

Meanwhile, Murdock has pulled up next to a black Jaguar XJ with tinted windows. The back door of the car opened obligingly without the woman's input. Perhaps I should have been wary, why would a blind lawyer need a car for two hundred thousand? But for some reason I chose to ignore caution and trust Murdock, for up to this point everyone I had dealt with in this world had been very similar in personality to their doubles from the past.

"As for your showing up at the station..." Murdock continued as we got into the back of the car, "you got the person I work for interested, it was my job to invite you in. That you were in the police station at that moment was just a coincidence."

The car started off, engine roaring ravenously, and the driver was clearly a fan of fast driving. I notice a scar on the neck of the Asian woman behind the wheel, a scar from a knife or other cold weapon. Her hair is cut short, "boyishly," they would say in my past world. Her knuckles were bruised and hard, like those of someone who had devoted her life to martial arts.

And yet I noticed right away that this Murdock was different from Matt, whose lawyerly countenance I had seen a couple of times. Matt always gave an extremely friendly impression, he treated people with unfailing politeness, never put himself above those around him. With the whore and the D.A., he talked the same way.

But this woman was different, different from Matt, and by how much, I was apparently about to find out.

"Aren't you a lawyer?" I asked, wary. "Who's your employer then?"

"You know a lawyer's job is to represent individuals," Murdock replies calmly. "Not necessarily in court."

Now that's something new. Matt Murdock is not the kind of lawyer who is interested in working for rich moneybags. I mean, he's always been extremely picky about his clients. And that fastidiousness was primarily about people's integrity, not their wealth.

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"And who is this person?" I continue my questioning.

"You will soon find out everything, there is no hurry. Questioning will only spoil the first impression," the woman hinted unequivocally that I should shut up.

I have a feeling that the Daredevil hero and the man hiding under the guise of a lawyer with the last name Murdock are different people.

Well, at least she's blind. That's what they said at the station. Taking advantage of the fact that the woman can't see my phone screen, I quickly type "Daredevil" into the browser's search bar. To no avail. Well, more precisely, there are results, but you can tell from them that a hero with that nickname doesn't exist in this world yet.

A note for the future: don't trust the "good guys" from the past world, especially if they became women in this one. Who knows what sneaky things they are capable of now!

Still, I decide to make one last attempt to get rid of the intrusive attention of the new acquaintance and her mysterious employer, at the same time checking my conclusions:

"Didn't your parents tell you it's not okay to impose?" Murdock, didn't dignify me with a glance, not that she would have been able to... "My point is this. Stop the car, I have no desire to meet your boss!"

"There is no need to panic, I promise, nothing will happen to you," says the lawyer, as if he is talking to a small child.

"Either you let me go right now, or I'll make you do it," my hand is already on the injector with the last dose of the Lizard serum. Maybe I'm overreacting, but I'd rather unleash my 'superpowers' by getting into a fight with the kidnappers than let them take me to the unknown. Even if I have to tell the cops about my powers.

"I'd like to see that," the driver spoke up for the first time in a while.

Murdoch pondered my words for a while, then briefly threw:

"Pull over."

"What?" said the woman behind the wheel in surprise. "But Mrs. Fi..."

"I told you to stop," the lawyer repeated with a coldness in her voice.

And my heart suddenly felt so cold. Mrs. Fi... that's not what I thought, is it? Meanwhile, the car stops, and Murdoch turns to face me.

"You don't need to get in trouble where you can solve it with a handshake," she says as I open the door, and then hands me a business card with a phone number.

"If your boss wants to talk to me, then have him shake his ass and come to my house, or at least send me an invitation and introduce himself," I take the business card nonetheless.

"You might not like it if someone like that came to your house, Peter," I glance briefly at the card. Besides Murdoch's own contacts, I see a familiar logo on it. That's brilliant! "By the way, what have you got there?"

The woman points with the tip of her cane to my shoulder, where a serum injector hides under my sleeve.

"Something that neither you nor your mistress will like if you pry into my life."

"How presumptuous," Murdock says before I slam the car doors.

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