Chapter 32

Andy Parker stood on the rooftop of his building, and it rained most of the day and washed the thick grime from the air, along with much of the evidence left behind by the destruction of the Crime Cabal's headquarters the night before.

There was something of a chill in the air tonight, and he drew his light jacket closer to him as he stared out at the lights of the city.

It had been a difficult day, to say the least.

After the inferno had claimed Fong's laundromat, he had turned around and found the red panda and the flying squirrel gone.

He supposed it was folly for him to expect anything else,

especially since they must surely have guessed that his original mission

was not the destruction of the crime cabal,

but exposing their secret identities, at least to the police.

But there was still a pang of disappointment.

A feeling that he couldn't escape told him that he had been a part of something larger for a brief time, and now he was once again

just a man. It had been even more difficult to explain what had happened and how he knew that

this subterranean disturbance was the death knell for the city's last big gang.

Chief O'Malley alone had known of his mission, and it was in private conference with O'Malley

that he was able to persuade the chief to excavate the supposed empty lot at the end of the tunnel

under the rubble that had been Fong's shop. The newspapers were all over it already,

and Jack Peters at the Chronicle had taken it upon himself

to brand the entire enterprise a triumph

for the Toronto Police Force in general, and O'Malley in particular.

The other papers followed suit,

and O'Malley had been forced to deflect requests

for more information on the police operation

...