Scalped Book 3: Dead Mothers (#12-18)

"What's with the war party? I thought you n'me was old buddies" - Agent Nitz.

Continuing our look at Scalped, the Vertigo series about life on an American Indian reservation.  The backbone of the story is about an incident thirty-years prior in which two FBI agents who came onto the fictional Prairie Rose reservation in South Dakota were shot by one member of a group of four Indian radicals.  They were Red Crow, who is now the tribal leader, a man known as "Catcher" who is now a shiftless drunk who has visions, Gina Bad Horse, and the one who definitely didn't kill them but who is the one in prison for life for the murders - Lawrence Belcourt.  At the end of the last volume a guilt-ridden Gina was going to confront the person she knew could get Lawrence free.  Then her body was found next morning by Dino Poor Bear.  FBI agent Nitz has two undercover agents on the rez hoping they can catch Red Crow in any involvment in any murders to make up for the fact he wasn't found guilty of the FBI agent's deaths. They are Dashiell Bad Horse, Gina's estranged son, who is now part of the tribal police and also shagging Red Crow's daughter Carol.  And Britt "Diesel" Fillenworth a white, sorry... one-sixteenth Kickapoo, man who has been part of Gina's resistance movement protesting the opening of Red Crow's casino and who broke into his office and stole something mysterious that pleased Agent Nitz greatly. The murder of Gina Bad Horse adds a second on-going strand to the overall story as we see om this volume how it impacts those who knew her.

DREAMING HIMSELF INTO THE REAL WORLD: Art by John Paul Leon. Before the main "Dead Mothers" arc begins we get a one-shot dealing with Dash and his dreams.  Every night he has the same dream, that Red Crow knows he's an undercover FBI agent and "I lose.  I fail.  I fuck up. I die. And then I wake up." Only the feel of a gun in his hand can calm him down before he has a beer and gets back on the clock.

Dash has bad dreams.

He's living in the "Badlands Motor Lodge" which is full of ne'er do-wells.  He could make a case on all of them, but he's only here for murders that can be tied to Red Crow.  Nitz doesn't care what he does, how he does it or who he hurts in the proces, bring Agent Nitz Red Crow and he might cut Dash loose.  Dash is now having his psyche tell him things.

We see Red Crow "talking" to him, he tells him that he wouldn't hesitate to kill Dash despite the relationship he had with Gina in the past.  He's already suspicious of Dash, "how much longer before you slip up and I get wise?"  Then he's with Carol.  She tells him that rule number one of undercover work is never get involved in improper sexual relationships.  "Whoops, guess you fucked that one up already, huh, hoss?" she says.

Carol: "The trashier I am, the more you want me, am I right? What sort of deep-seeded psychosis is that, I wonder? Though a better question is... how much lower will you go, just to get your rocks off?  Personally, I'm wet with anticipation.  Whadda ya say to that, lover?"

Dash thinks about how he's got here.  We see a succession of images: him as a teenager cowering from someone, nine years ago holding a gun to his head, eight years ago in the army and six months ago in prison.  But more important is how he gets out and why does he feel the worst is to come.  He lies back and starts having the same dream again of being taken into Red Crow's office and killed.

Dream Gina to the rescue.

But this time Gina appears and kills Shunka before he can kill Dash.  She tells him to listen, he doesn't have much time.  She tells him about Crazy Horse dreaming himself into the real world so he'd be unbeatable in battle.  Suddenly they are standing by a mass Indian grave and she tells him, "if you're gonna live through what's coming for you, Dash, then you're gonna have to open your eyes and accept who you are".  They are both shot in the head and she says to him, "this is who you are".  He responds, "fuck you mom."

Then they are being hanged and she tells him that he may hate her, but "these people hate you more". Next they are suffering advanced smallpox, he demands to wake up from this crazy nightmare but she tells him to look around, "this is what the white man thinks of you."  Back to normal she asks why he is risking everything for the FBI? She tells him if he wants something to fight for, "just look to the dirt at your feet".

Gina: "The ground you're standing on.  The people who live on it.  Your people.  Your heritage... those are the only things in life worth dying for."

They stand on Mount Rushmore and Gina apologises for not being around to help him.  She warns him that things are going to get ugly around the rez and more people are going to die.  And before it's over, "you'll have done some horrible things".

I don't think this will sway Dash.

Dash doesn't understand what she is talking about.  But she says he will and it will have started already by the time he wakes up.  She says that when he finds out he'll want to kill him, but he's not worth it because if he does he'll pay dearly.  Dash can't hear her over the rain, so she gives him one last hug, tells him she loves him and is gone in a crack of thunder.  Dash wakes up dismissing it as a "weird-ass dream".
Elsewhere a cop radios in the discovering of Gina's body.  Dash doesn't hear it as he is showering  and getting ready for work.  He tells himself he needs focus and to brush aside "crazy dreams". 

Dash: "I ain't looking to make up with dear old mommy or get in touch with my injun roots.  Ain't looking for true love or God or any other such make believe bullshit."

He's here to do a job and once the job is done he is gone from this place. And the job will be done most assuredly so long as things don't get more complicated.  And we close the chapter on the various cops and crime scene techs exmaining Gina's body out in the desert where it was dumped.

DEAD MOTHERS: Co-creator R.M Guera is back on art duties for this five part arc.  We begin with Red Crow sat looking down at Gina's body still where she was killed.  He pulls an anguished face and says to himself "Goddam you Gina!"  Watching from some distance away the cops say the coroner can't collect the body until Red Crow says so and they have been trying to raise Dash but he is on a meth bust.

We cut to Dash as he takes one of the meth cookers down and start going through the house arresting everyone until they come to a room with five children in it.  They start to cry in fear and a lady cop - Officer Bindle - draws Dash's attention to the fact that the room next has a dead woman in it.  She's been strangled and some hours earlier. The older child comes up behind Dash and queries "mom?"  Dash tries to tell him his mother is dead but Officer Bindle says she's just sleeping and gets someone to take the kids down to the station.

Shelton and his siblings.

Downstairs a man called Clyde is being interrogated but he refuses to say anything about the dead woman.  The techs find Hydriodic acid in the fridge and so a coldly furious Dash orders the other cops to pull down Clyde's pants and put his dick on the counter.  They do so and Dash holds the acid beaker over Clyde's dick and asks again about the dead woman.

Her name was Pamela Bittan, she sometimes lived there and those were her kids.  The person who was having sex with her last night was a crazy guy, "looks white but says he's part Kickapoo.  I don't know his name... but he calls himself Diesel".  At that Dash demands the case and is given it by Officer Bindle.  Dash then delivers a powerful kick to Clydes balls. Back with Red Crow he walks away from Gina's body and he says that no one tell Dash until he's had a chance to tell him.  Then he tells everyone to get to work, they have a murder to solve.

At the station Dash and another cop are watching the kids through the one-way mirror.  The unnamed cop tells Dash that he brought them all cheeseburgers and when he gave the eldest one - Shelton - his, he tore it into five pieces, "when I showed him that they each had their own burger, I thought he was gonna cry".  Dash says someone has to tell them about their mom, they have a right to know.

Red Crow comes in and tells him he is off the case, and that Gina has been found dead.  He tells Dash to take some time off, but Dash just says "why would I wanna do that?"  Red Crow says she was still Dash's mother for all their differences.  But Dash says he is on a case and he is not going to be taken off it and he walks into the room with the kids.  Then played out with no dialouge we see the kids reactions with Shelton taking it hard.  Dash leaves the room as all the others crowd round Shelton who is wailing in grief huddled in the corner.

Shelton reacts to the bad news.

Seventeen years ago and Gina is showing a bored teenage Dash round "Wasun Wiconiya Wakan.  Sacred Breath Cave.  Wind Cave" which was where the Spider Trickster Iktomi had told the underground dwelling Lakota to go through to the upper world where there was plenty of buffalo and nice weather.  But when the Lakota got up there they found harsh winters and scarce buffalo.  They tried to get back but the entrance to the cave had been hidden.  So the Lakota learned to survive the winters and hunt the buffalo and became the founders of the seven council fires. 

Dash: "That's stupid! This is just some dumb cave.  There ain't nothin' special about it.  Them stories is all bullshit!"

Gina says the stories are his heritage and he needs to learn respect for his Lakota ancestors.  But Dash just storms out of the cave saying he isn't listening and he doesn't care about "any of this crap!"  Gina calls to him, then we are back in the present watching her being zipped up and pushed into a morgue draw.

Gina.

Dash comes in and he and the coroner discuss Pamela's murder.  She died of manual strangulation by a big guy with strong hands although she put up a fight.  The killer left semen in her so they'll be able to DNA match her killer.  As Dash leaves the coroner points to Gina's stuff saying he though Dash would want it.  "That ain't my case" says Dash and he's gone.

Outside the police station Shelton approaches Dash and they talk awkwardly.  The children have relatives in Canada coming down, Dash rather lamely says that's nice. Angrily Shelton says:

Shelton: "I can't wait to leave this place.  I hate it here.  I don't wanna be an Indian no more.  I just wanna be a regular person.  I wanna go someplace where nobody knows who I am.  But I'm not leaving until you catch the man who killed my mom".

Dash tells Shelton he promises he will.  Shelton says he wants that person hurt, he wants Dash to hurt him, will he promise Shelton that?  We don't see what Dash's reply is.

We jump to the evening and Dash is out talking to Nitz.  He has a plan, they help him find Diesel then he takes Diesel to Red Crow who'll want to kill Diesel for wrecking his office on the night of his casino's grand opening.  He'll then see Red Crow with blood on his hands and Nitz gets his murder tied to Red Crow.  Problem solves and they all go home.

Nitz says "no".  Dash asks why not and Nitz evades and tells him to forget about Diesel.  Dash keeps pushing it until Nitz yells, "Diesel is not to be touched!"  And Dash realises the truth, that Diesel is another undercover FBI agent.  He tries to take a swing at Nitz and Newsome holds him back.  He then says he is walking and Nitz says no you won't or he'll take those kids and put them through the system until the boys are stone cold bangers and the girls peddling their asses like pros.  And Dash knows he'd do it.

He tells Dash the only dead woman he's worried about is Dash's mother, "if Red Crow didn't kill her, he sure as shit gave the order."  Dash needs to pretend like he cares about her and get Red Crow to talk about it.  Then he tells Dash to call him when he has something he can use.  As they drive away Newsome says to Dash "sorry about your mother". Frustrated beyond belief Dash punches the hell out of his old pickup truck.

Dash takes out his anger on his truck.

Next day Shelton comes to ask his daily question as to if they have caught his mum's murderer yet.  Dash says he can't keep coming to the station every day.  Shelton starts to walk off and Dash calls him back and asks if he wants to come for a ride to Wind Cave and when Shelton seems unenthused he begins to tell him the story Gina told him.

Red Crow is sitting in the casino restaurant examining the crime scene photos of Gina's death.  His right-hand man Shunka comes in, Red Crow immediately asks if he did this, he told him Gina was not to be touched.  Shunka says has he ever given Red Crow a reason to doubt his loyalty?  Red Crow grabs him and asks again if he did it.  Shunka says no and they have a bigger problem right now.  It's the enforcer for the Hmongs, an East Asian criminal gang who gave Red Crow cash towards the casino, the one-armed Mr.Brass and a couple of back-up goons.

Mr. Brass and co.

Seventeen years ago, Gina brings some arrowheads to a bored teenage Dash.  He barely acknowledges her before going back to reading a magazine and listening to music.  She leaves him be.  Back in the present the executor of Gina's will hands over the keys of her house to Dash, he doesn't take them telling him to burn the house for all he cares.

He gets into the patrol car which has Shelton inside, he hands Dash a beer and says he heard Dash mum had been murdered as well.   When Dash tries to explain they weren't that close, Shelton says:

Shelton: "She was still your mom though.  My mom wasn't so great either.  But I still always loved her."

Dash just says does he want to talk all damn day or does he want to learn to shoot?  They line up some bottles and Shelton fires off a shot that misses.  Dash says the key is to think of something you really want to shoot.  He imagines the bottles are his troubles and he fires destroying every bottle.

Red Crow is out on the balcony drinking when Shunka comes in a queries why he sent all the evidence from Gina's murders to the FBI Crime Lab in Rapid City, Red Crow says if they didn't kill her he'd sure like to know who did.  Shunka thinks it was Mr. Brass, but Gina was shot in the back and scalped post-mortem, that's too humane for Brass.  Shunka says it should have been buried, her death is a can of worms they can't afford to open.

Shunka leaves and Dash walks in, exchanging snide digs at each other as they pass.  Red Crow wants to know what Dash wants and Dash fumbles his way through a speech saying he knows Red Crow had Gina killed, she pushed her luck and now she's dead and he understands why it had to happen and is cool with it.  This enrages Red Crow who lays a righteous smack across Dash's face and yells at him to get the fuck out of there.

Red Crow did not kill Gina!

Dash goes back to the station and has Carol, who had been arrested for smoking a weed on a cop car.  She says to Dash she has to go to crazy lengths to see him now he's off camping with twelve year olds.  Dash has her cut loose then asks where Clyde is.  He's being interrogated by Mr.Brass.

We see Clyde saying he told the cops everything over and over.  It was Diesel and he doesn't know where he is.  Mr. Brass opens up a kit-bag full of unpleasant looking instruments and says, "I'm a man who does not ask a question twice".  He is very polite as he introduces himself as working for Johnny Tongue.  He has a vested interest in the casino and Diesel has proved himself to be at odds with those interests.

He is going to ask a question and Clyde will only have seconds to answer, "be so kind as to pick a number between one and nine".  A panicking Clyde picks three. "That would be the right eye" says Mr. Brass "Splendid choice!"  The goon fits a gag around Clyde's mouth and Mr.Brass uses a pair of tongs to fix round the eyeball.  Then there are noises and lots and lots of blood.

Interrogation Mr.Brass style.

Dash marches over and tries to barge past the goon left outside.  They start to get into it, but Mr. Brass tells him to put Dash down and apologises to Dash saying he is merely here to assist in the murder investigation.  Dash tells them to fuck the hell off and starts to walk away.  But it turned out Clyde did at least know Diesel was in Nebraska. 

Mr. Brass: "I'm afraid your prisoner could not be any more specific than that, despite my best efforts at persuasion. You're welcome to try asking him yourself.  But you might first want to provide him with medical care.  He seems to have suffered a most grisly accident."

And they depart as Dash ponders the unconcious and severely injured Clyde.  Later that night he and Shelton are camping out.  Shelton says his mom is being buried on the rez.  He asks if there are any knew leads... and Dash abruptly goes for a walk.  He goes into Gina's house, sees his bedroom still as it was when he left, his arrowhead collection framed on the wall and seeing that he has to compose himself.  Shelton comes looking for him as Dash walks back saying he'd been "just.. nowhere."

Next day he travels to White Haven, Nebraska showing a sketch of Diesel to various shiftless young men out drinking. Then he is interrupted by the local Sheriff a braggart of a man called Karnow. He says Dash might be the law on the rez but not here.  He says he's something of a living legend in these parts, played football, did multiple tours in Vietnam as part of the Green Berets, didn't come home until '75. 

Karnow: "You like John Wayne movies? ...Rio Bravo, True Grit, High Noon.  My motto is, never trust a man who don't like John Wayne".

Dash says he isn't a fucking movie critic he is looking for a murder suspect.  Karno thinks he means Gina, "good luck with that.  That woman had more enemies than there's niggers on welfare."  Realising this is going nowhere Dash starts to leave.

Sheriff Karnow.

Karnow tells him that he'll track this man down but he wants Red Crow to know that him starting to sell booze on the rez has cut into White Haven's business supplying alchohol to rez dwellers. And it's made he less inclined to look the other way at the truckloads of drugs that pass along his roads, if you catch his meaning.  In response Dash says Gary Cooper was in High Noon, not John Wayne and his instructor at Fort Bragg was with the Special Forces in Vietnam and they all came home in '71.  Furious Karnow tells him to deliver the message to Red Crow and get the hell out of his town.

Back with Red Crow the tribal council is badgering Red Crow about having two murders on his opening night, and why can't he control this shit.  "It's being handled" says Red Crow.  They tell him the council is freaking out and they also think he killed her, which Red Crow again denies.  They them if it was Mr. Brass?  Another says whoever it was they created a "big fucking mess.  We gotta make it go away."

They tell him to catch Diesel and pin both murders on him.  Press will eat up a "crazy white guy killing Injuns".  Another says it has to be done fast, they don't want the FBI sticking their nose in this mess.  Unfortunately the FBI is already there, they are sent over to see Agent Nitz sitting at a table grinning.

Nitz pays Red Crow a visit.

He tells Red Crow that the rez is still FBI jurisdiction when it comes to murder and there's just been two.  He says he heard a white guy is the main suspect for one murder, "I don't need to remind you that a non-tribal member is completely outside your jurisdiction, no matter what he's done."  He tells Red Crow to turn over what he has on that investigation to him and he'll track the killer down and Red Crow can concentrate on finding who killed Gina.  Red Crow tells him not to tell him how to run his affairs.

Nitz: "I'll tell you whatever I goddamn well please, Lincoln.  You don't like it... go tell your ancestors they shouldn't a' signed all them fucking treaties."

Red Crow says Nitz won't get a rise out of him.  Nitz says putting a casino in this place is like "putting tits on a boar hog" and if anyone else dies he expects a call. When they catch Gina's killer call him too, "I'd like to shake the motherfucker's hand".  And he leaves.

Red Crow, walks off into one of the back corridors where Karnow is who tells Red Crow they need to talk, but Red Crow tells him to "FUCK OFF!"  Then he spots a man being ejected from the casino for cheating, in a rage Red Crow punches him to the ground and kicks and stamps on him over and over screaming "FUCK YOU, MOTHERFUCKER!" Dino witnesses this, Red Crow gives him a significant look and leaves with Dino getting ready to clean up the bloody footprints he left.

Sometime later Dash is getting ready to say goodbye to Shelton, he doesn't want to leave with his mom's killer still out there.  Dash says they'll find him.  Shelton says he hears he's hiding out in Nebraska now, it's what everybody says.  Then Shelton smiles and says thankyou to Dash for showing him round and teaching him to shoot these past few days.  Dash says it was "cool" and as a going away gift gives Shelton the framed arrowheads from his house.  Shelton thanks him and leaves.

That night Dash pulls over some drunk drivers, he checks the backseat of the car and finds the framed arrowheads.  He demands to know how they came about them and the men say some kid traded them to him in return for a ride to White Haven and "a gun.  He wanted a gun".  Horrorstruck Dash jumps in his patrol car and guns it towards White Haven.

Shelton meets a tragic end.

The final chapter of this arc starts with a slow pan out from the face of Shelton's dead body, two bullet wounds in his chest and a huge pool of blood blossoming out from underneath him.  Diesel is kneeling on the ground, hands on head saying it was self-defence to the officer pointing a gun at him, the boy came up and opened fire on him.  Karnow tells him to "shut the hell up".

Dash screeches up and gets out of his car, rushing over to Shelton as Karnow says that he was dead when they got there. Diesel complains that he nearly got killed, "who the hell taught him how to shoot anyhow".  Suddenly Dash turns and fires at Diesel hitting him in the shoulder and thigh. Karnow kicks the gun out of his hands and tells him to stand down or he will shoot Dash. As Diesel is taken away Karnow says, "you want him.  You tell your Chief Red Crow to come and beg me for him."

Next day is Gina's funeral.  There are many mourners but Dash is not one of them.  When Red Crow reaches the coffin he takes a knife and cuts a lock of his own hair off and puts it in with Gina, "travel well, mita kola."  We then cut to his office where he is talking with officer Falls Down.   He says he wants the murder of Gina solved, "I don't care who gets pissed or who gets hurt".  He's giving Falls Down a blank cheque what ever he needs he'll get.  He wants to see someone answer for Gina's murder but first they need to be found, "will you do that officer Falls Down?" 

Falls Down will have to think about it.

Later Nitz is visiting Gina's grave.  He tells her that he regrets she died without knowing Dash was working for him.  And he's sorry it wasn't him who put her in the ground, but he won't look a gift horse in the mouth and he pisses on her grave saying "rot in hell.  You murdering bitch".

Sitting alone at night a morose Red Crow tries to phone his daughter Carol but can't think of what to say to her and she hangs up.  In the mortuary, Shelton's body is zipped up and stored away, while elsewhere Dash is getting blackout drunk.  He goads some fellow bar patrons in to beating him up and nearly gets run over as he staggers along the road.

He finds himself somehow on the doorstep of Gina's house.  He kneels and looks at it, then begins to cry.  And as he sobs he staggers inside and goes to sleep.  We finish this arc with Catcher in his old shack scrubbing himself as he babblingly prays to God that he doesn't understand, "why won't the blood wash off?" And we see him naked and his hands coated in the substance.

Gina's killer revealed.

FALL DOWN:  Art by Davide Furno.  We finish this volume with another one-shot, this time one looking at Officer Falls Down, the incorruptible member of the tribal police.  He narrates that everytime he tries to sleep he tries to concentrate on the beautiful things in life.  What he loves about his homeland. Star Quilts, hot fry bread, the dancers at summer powwow, tobacco ties fluttering in the wind, sunrise on the Mako Sica.

Falls Down: "Every night I try to focus on the beautiful...but instead all I ever see is ugliness.  The ugliest moments from my 25 years as a cop on this rez."

Red ants eating the brains of a man with his head blown off. Hearing the confession of an old high school buddy who is telling him how he beat a four year old to death. The stench of burned rubber, engine fumes and alcohol.  The taste of blood on his lips as he tried to resucitate his wife, killed by a drunk driver.  The eyes of the men who shot him.

He reflects on being set up to be killed in a routine bust a couple of months back as shown in Book 1.   Vest stopped most of the bullets but not all and it hurts when he breathes.   He knows it was Red Crow who was sick of him being the "one good cop" on his crooked force. Falls Down is tired too and thinks he could retire today, read more romance novels, stay caught up on his stories, wouldn't get shot, wouldn't have to arrest no more friends.  Wouldn't have to care who killed Gina Bad Horse or why Red Crow wants him to take the case so badly, "only problem with that is... I do."

Falls Down takes a punch.

He returns to the station and is sent to help out on a bust, which goes a tad awry when the meth house they are busting has a huge tattooed guy come bursting out the back window where Falls Down is. Falls Down points his gun at him but his hand shakes and the big bloke punches him and knocks him out briefly where he remembers more awful stuff like two drugged up kids dead from cold and a man bragging about raping his sister. The other cops rouse him and he discovers the tattooed man took his gun.

Captain Rayfield gives him a bollocking then we cut to Falls Down round at Granny Poor Bear's place talking to her.  He complains to her that his grandfather policed the rez for 30 years and never carried a gun.   He'd solve problems according to the old ways, avoiding blood feuds and only using his jail for drunks to sleep it off.  The world out there now is a world for "young psychos like Dashiell Bad Horse.  Not for me."  He's just a fuck-up who lost his gun.

He tells Granny that Red Crow wants him to investigate a murder but he doesn't think he can do the job anymore.   Granny asks him if he sees the man, Parker Louvin, who killed Falls Down's wife around.  Falls Down says he sees him all the time, staggering back from White Haven.  He pretends not to notice him.

Granny tells him that his grandfather Alfus Louvin got so liquored up he beat his wife with an axe handle until "she never was right no more".  He went after his kids and killed one or two and the rest ran away.  Falls Down's grandfather tried to handle it, but there wasn't no handling a man like that.  So one day he was put on the back of a truck at gunpoint and disappeared.  Never seen again and no one ever asked why.

Granny: "Things ain't changed as much as you think they have Franklin.  This world has always been a harsh place, especially for us,  You can't let that change who you are though.  Do you remember who you are Franklin Falls Down? If not, don;t let it worry ya none.  We can help ya remember".

We cut to him naked in a sweat lodge with some other older Indians.  They share round a bowl of something and Falls Down eats some as they chant in Lakota.  We flashback to him holding the bloodied corpse of his wife. 

Falls Down: "This is where I forgot who I was.  This is where life tried to crush me.  When my wife died it seemed like everything that was ever beautiful to me died with her.  But I can't let that be true anymore.  Beauty is all around us. You just have to fight for it."

And as he thinks this, his wifes body  and the blood flowing from her turns into flowers.  Some men appear behind him and he tells them he is not afraid to die.  They shot him through the head and flowers burst out of his forehead. Now when he closes his eyes he'll remember how much he loved her and he'll remember who he is and "what i'm fighting for."

The ceremony.

Next day he returns to work.  The captain asks if he's decided to take the Gina Bad Horse case, Falls Down says he'll let him know when he gets back and he goes to the scene of a bust which the cops won't start until Dash arrives.  Falls Down arrives on the scene and marches up to the door and tells the man "O'Ray" he knows he's in there and that he has Falls Down's gun.

O'Ray points the gun at him and when Falls Down says he won't shoot, O'Ray fires over his shoulder.   Falls Down presses his forehead against the gun barrel and says that O'Ray will turn the gun in and they'll go to the station together.  O'Ray says he'll fire in five seconds.  Falls Down says either you hand over the gun or "you use it."

Later he is snoozing and thinks of sweet grass and sage, Granny Poor Bear's fry bread and plum wojapi, the old songs, the smell of his wife coming out of the shower.  He is woken up and told the prisoner is ready to see him and it turns out he's in Kansas now talking to Lawrence Belcourt as he was the last person Gina spoke to before her death.

Falls Down: "I do:n't give a damn about Red Crow or his interests.  All I care about is finding Gina's murderer.  All I want is the truth.  Why don't we start with that. Tell me everything".

Falls Down takes the case.

So some interesting revelations here.  We're filled in more about what a rebellious kid Dash was and he doesn't seem to be able to listen to his mother even during a highly prophetic dream.  Yet it was interesting how he chose to bond with Shelton, another kid who wants out of the Indian identity, by telling him the story he reacted so violently to in his own past.  His horror at finding out Diesel couldn't be touched as he is FBI and this leading, along with the fact he gave Shelton shooting lessons, to Shelton's demise just added a boatload of guilt to his already fragile psyche.  He's scared every day about being found out and now he has the death of a kid partially on his hands.  This will explain some unwise personal choices he makes in future volumes as the anguish on his faces as he staggers into his childhood home at the end shows he is not coping at all well with the pressures place upon him.  Nitz shows what a despicable huan being he is holding the fate of the kids over Dash to stop him going after Diesel.  And as for Diesel, what is there left to say?  The man is a monster through-and-through and although we'll get some more backstory for him in a later volume to show how he came to be like that, it doesn't excuse him one bit.  The affably evil Mr. Brass is another spanner in Red Crow's works too. And yet it's not all grim stuff.  Falls Down is spiritually healed by an Indian ritual and learns once again to see the things that make life worth living and to remember his dead wife with joy not sorrow.  He has now taken the Gina case and will doggedly pursue it through the next few volumes.  So join me in a few days time (internet service permitting) for "The Gravel In Your Guts".

DMZ Book 9: M.I.A (#50-54) PART ONE

"If there is a Big Picture to be found here, I'm not seeing it.  Just a lot of smaller ones." - Matty Roth

Catch up time, in a noughties version of the USA a Second Civil War fought between the south-western Free States Army and the sitting U.S.Government came to a halt when mistakes made by U.S. soldiers during the occupation and battle for Manhattan caused the U.S government to negociate a ceasefire between them to the west and the FSA hanging round in New Jersey at the Lincoln Tunnel.  This ceasefire caused the Island of Manhattan to become a Demilitarised Zone and the people left trapped inside after a botched evacuation tried to carry on as best they could.  Reporter Matty Roth came to the DMZ by accident, but soon brok important stories about abuses going on in there. Then elections were held and helped along by a star struck Matty, the charismatic Parco Delgado was elected governor of Manhattan.  Immediately he bought a nuke which one group had hidden away, and when Matty broadcast this to the world things turned bad fast.  Matty had jettisoned his journalistic ideals and was running a death squad.  Then Parco disappeared as the U.S.army invaded to look for the nuke.  Matty was beaten up by soldiers and his attempts to have them killed want badly wrong as fourteen civilians were murdered by his goons instead.  Left alone, with not one person willing to take his calls, he wandered out onto the streets only to see a mushroom cloud billowing up from where the U.S. had bombed the defunct nuclear powerstation the nuke was being hidden in.  This volume "M.I.A" contains the one-shot "Notes From The Underground" and the four-parter "M.I.A".  Now although I said it was my policy to only split volumes when they exceeded seven chapters, "Notes From The Underground's" unique construction means It's the longest I have spent on one issue, I wanted to include a visual sample from every short in it and wrap things up in a conclusion seperately from the "M.I.A" arc.

Matty ponders his notes.

This was DMZ's 50th issue and to celebrate several artists illustrated some short stories and single-pagers all written by Wood.  The conceit is Matty, just before the tragic events of the end of the previous volume is sorting through his notes which cover all four years of his time in the DMZ, ones he hasn't for various reasons written publicly about.  So, enjoy some of Matty's unused stories in NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND.

NGO: Art by Rebekah Isaacs. In a taxi an excited man in the front finds Matty in the back.  He's off the clock, he sometimes comes for a ride with the driver because "sometimes shit just gets so fucking boring round here he comes and hangs out with me".  He has one rule in his taxi, "no jounalism".

The excited man fills Matty in on what he is there for, his investors see unlimited potential in providing progressive communication access to the citizens of the DMZ.  He hopes they can "liberate the masses through information technology".   Matty say their cellphones still work, "the telecoms saw to that.. no cost. It's not like they can send us the bill."

The excited man says his way would shine a light on the people and show them the world that's been passing them by all these years, "we can usher them back into the arms of society... we can free them.  Educate them." He wants to set up shop in New York for a new comms network and will donate free access to select Americans. The taxidriver asks "So wait... you hired me to drive you real estate shopping?"

Touring the DMZ.

The man says yes, many buildings are abandoned and can be purchased cheap.  The driver points out the buildings are under the control of militia and warlords.  The man says he's been authorised to buy the real estate from the squatters.  Matty says he hopes he bought lots of cash.  The man says he has vouchers.  Matty and the driver burst into laughter, the driver offers the man a beer then screeches to a halt.

They get out, the first stop on the man's real estate tour.  Right now Matty reckons they have less than a minute before a nasty guy calling his soldiers to the roof starts dropping grenades on them, "your future telecommunications HQ is a restricted area".   The driver tells him to hurry up with his beer, he has thirty seconds.  Then they return to the car and drive the hell away. Matty tells the man "Tell your investors you can't liberate us, educate us, or buy us.  You sad dumb tourist.  You don't know how lucky you are". End of short story.

MATTY+ZEE: Art by Jim Lee.  A single pager showing Matty taking shots of Zee searching through some rubble.  The text talks of their history although is dated to before she left him a couple of volumes ago.  Matty admits he has a hard time living up to her standards, "I cannot imagine living in this city without her, I cannot imagine this city existing without her".  Her leaving him can probably be said to have influenced his bitter spiral into violence in the previous book.

Zee remains the heart of the DMZ.

LITTLE PLASTIC TOY:  Art by Fabio Moon. A wordless story, a young boy finds a small cluster bomb and not realising what it is takes it home and sleeps with it under his pillow.  Next day he has wrapped a small red scarf round it, but one of the other kids recognises what it is and calls for help.  He doesn't want to hand it over until Zee intervenes and she is able to take it and hand it over for safe disposal.

He put a scarf on it! *sob*

LOOTED: Art by Ryan Kelly. We join Matty as a serious looking older man has him put gloves and booties on, then asks him "ready?"  Matty thinks about this story, a man scouring the city for works of art, paying the city warlords and mercnaries to help him and buy their silence.  He shows Matty his rooms full of artwork.  He then tells Matty he is dying "and I don't now what's going to happen to my babies when I'm gone".

He tells Matty that "patience and drive" amassed this collection, he loved money but loved art more.  Matty points at a Van Gogh and the man says has recovered 60% of MOMA's collection.  Matty thinks how there is billions worth here in tha townhouse.  The man says he's kept meticulous records "I claim no ownership, just the privilege of caretaker."  He needs Matty's help now.

An unsung hero.

He wants Matty to use his communications with the outside world and find the proper people to talk about this. His system of barters, payments, trusts, bribes and blackmail will breakdown once he is gone.  He leaves to Matty containing a list of the catalogue, missing pieces and repairs he made.  There are codes for the security system and secondary location as well as a Swiss bank account with money to help with restoring the museums after the war.  He tells Matty he is the first person he trusted, now he must go to the people he trusts. Matty can only leave in awe of what this man had done "something for humanity that I can barely wrap my mind around... much less put a price on".  And he leaves the man contemplating the art. End.

SNOOZER, THE GHOSTS: Art by Lee Bermejo.  It's a single pager about the ethos of the Ghosts of Central park and their mission to save trees and wildlife.  Soames told Matty one day that when the dust settles after the war, people will mourn the decimation o the parks and open spaces, the tainted water supplies, the poisoning of the air and destruction of historical spaces, "And, I firmly believe" said Soames "the first question we'll ask is 'Why didn't we do something when we had the chance?  Our excuses will ring hollow'".

Enviromental activism in the DMZ.

HEART OF NEW JERSEY.  Art by Riccardo Burcielli. This story starts with Matty being driven right out into a New Jersey forest to meet the Supreme Commander of the Free States of America.  When his blindfold is taken off, he is greeted by an unassuming man called Commander Townes standing outside a parked caravan.  They go inside and start to have a chat.

He tells him after some chit-chat that the first year of the war was hardest for them, the rise of the Free States wasn't just the rise of some predestined idea.  The second year was better:

Townes: "That was when we started buying mayors.  A couple of governors.  A couple of FBI field agents, too.... Okay I lied about the agents.  Some halfwit under my command shot them.  We just used their badges.  Opened a lot oof doors for us, literally.  Amouries, National Guard bases, banks even".

Matty asks more about the banks and Townes says the first secret is that the FSA is suprer rich like "own-the-country rich".  They are so rich they outright bought Chicago. They never made a move on it because the "famously neutral Chicago... is like a sleeper cell".  He makes a call and it goes hot, opening up a new front in the war.  They have no need for Texas, the power is in the East.  They'd love Florida, but in the end won't need Miami when they have New York.

The leader of the FSA in humble surroundings.

Another secret is they have four divisions coming down through Canada to assault New York from the north, straight down the Hudson valley. "Why are you telling me this?" asks Matty. First because the Federal army won't be able take on four divisions at least until New York State. And he is telling Matty because he knows he's conflicted and will take his time in sorting out "what's news and what's intelligence".

He tells Matty what he's going to take away from this interview, about the Redneck army who buy cities and governors, assissinate heads of state, field multiple divisions of troops and have brought the most powerful army to its knees.   He's had foreign heads of state sit where Matty is right now, "and knew they were looking at someone they can do business with".

Matty is left with much to mull over.

He tells Matty to hand over the tape recorder when he leaves, "I'm not going to make it that easy for you".  Next day Matty returns to the DMZ thinking they talked for ages more, got wasted and fired off some M-60's. It left a lot of stuff swirling in his head, and as he takes the memory card he had hidden in his mouth he thinks "Information that, even if I tried to bust it open, I'd not be able to verify.  Or so says that old hermit in the woods".  End story.

KELLY CONNOLLY:  Art by Philip Bond.  A one-pager of Matty's on-off girlfriend, a fellow reporter who helped him break a big story. Matty's "notes" on her here date to just before she committed suicide in the DMZ.

The late Kelly Connolly.

WILSON'S KITCHEN: Art John Paul Leon. Another early story for Matty, invited to the legendary kitchen of Wilson, the Triad boss who runs Chinatown now.  As he looks around he sees how the kitchen is two buildings basements worth.  He shows the bean curd fermenters at work and the fresh greens grown by hydroponics.  Matty watches in fascination, "He takes some of the bean curd and mashes it into peanut oil, chili, garlic, rice wine cut with a little water".

Wilson and Matty become friends.

The wok is heated and the mixture dumped in it, the greens are added and in thirty seconds cooking time he has a plate full of bean curd, soft not soggy greens and sauce.  As he eats with Wilson, he is told the make all the bean curd, "easy to make, down here". He says he'll show Matty the greenhouses after they finish.  The cooks hustle out, "It reminded me, quite pointedly, that this was Wilson's kitchen, and this was Wilson's Chinatown.  And it's the rest of the world's loss".  End story.

WILSON:  Art by Eduardo Risso. A one-pager that tells us under Wilson, Chinatown has not only kept its original character but more-or-less its original boundaries.  After a failed assassination attempt he became untouchable, "equal parts kind and cruel, and whatever power he uses to keep the glue of his dominion intact, it's practically invisible to outsiders".

Wilson, Kingpin of Chinatown.

DECADE LATER: Art by Dave Gibbons.  A final one-pager, Matty's notes tell us about the titular grafitti artist who had moved on into the realm of "Street Artist" working on fine and conceptual art. But also "he and others like him act as custodians of the soul of New York City, embodiments of hope against the forces arrayed against them. Their work should not just be preserved but celebrated".  And that brings this issue, "Notes From The Underground" to an end.

A respected street artist.

A great selection of shorts, we've got single-pagers whose out of date notes make for somewhat tragic reading when you compare what happened to them or how Matty's relationships imploded with them. "NGO" is a light-hearted story poking a little fun at the naivete of clueless outsiders who assume the DMZ's real estate is up for sale with reasonable people and which also shows how native Matty has gone by this point.  There might not be any words in "LITTLE PLASTIC TOY" but it paints a heart-breaking story of being a kid in a warzone, not only does he take a bomb home, he ties a little scarf round it as well, that detail just kills me everytime.  Says so much about the resilience of children even in a place like the DMZ.

"LOOTED" answers the question of what happened to the cultural treasures of the city.  One man who could have lived comfortably elsewhere risked life, limb and spent enormous amounts of cash to preserve as much as he could, for no other reason than because he loved art. Matty is suitably awed by him as am I. He reminds me of a man in the game Fallout 3 (game about people surviving a nuclear bomb ravanged Washington) who wants to keep history alive for the people in his free museum in one of the most successful communities in the Capitol Wasteland.  He uses his money and mercenaries to search for relics in museums and the National Archives.  In one you find the Declaration of Independence for him.  I like to think him and the man in this story would be exist in any place where there was great culture and history to be preserved.

"HEART OF NEW JERSEY" finally fills us in (or does it) as to how the FSA made such great strides as it did against the biggest and best equipped army in the world.  There's an interesting dynamic going on between Townes and Matty, how much is bullshittery, will Chicago flip to the FSA at the drop of a hat?  Are there four divisions on their way through Canada as they speak?  The Free States will be coming back into focus soon enough, maybe we'll find out then.  Finally "WILSON'S KITCHEN" gives Matty his first taste, literally of one of the ways Wilson has been able to keep the culture and character of Chinatown alive in the era of the DMZ. WILSON elaborates some more on Matty's feelings about him before they fell out and DECADE LATER shows that while DL might be gone from the DMZ now, he's left a lasting legacy like he wanted. With a line up of superb artists including legends like Jim Lee and Dave Gibbons, this was an excellent celebration of the further flung stories of the DMZ in a landmark issue.  Join me in a few days for the rest of this volume: "M.I.A."