Nomad #3
Cool Cats and Cry Babies
Nomad, aka Jack Monroe, has been trying to unravel a conspiracy that ties a Miami drug running operation to Cyberoptics, an electronics company that is developing equipment for the US government. The trail has led him to Minneapolis. In order to find out who is running organized crime in the area, Nomad ambushes a couple of john trying to pick up a prostitute off the street. He asks who who runs things in town and learns that the leader of the local mob is a man named Eddie Vanelli. She offers this information freely as she hopes that she can get Jack to return something important to her that Vanelli is using to blackmail her. When Jack learns that the mobster has the prostitute’s daughter, Jack agrees to bring the girl back.[1] He also asks the woman how the city’s drug supply gets into town and what she tells him fits with the evidence he has been gathering.
He then heads to the veterinary pathology building to look into some dead horses that were shipped in from Tennessee. These horses were owned by the late Orrin Boothe the owner of Cyberoptics who has been having a lot of bad luck with his horse ranch as his stock kept on having bad accidents, or so it seemed. For insurance purposes, the horse cadavers have been shipped up to Minneapolis for autopsy in order to confirm the cause of death as accidental. Breaking into the building through the ventilation system, Nomad makes his way into the morgue. From a vent he watches as the pathologist is cutting open one of the dead horses under the supervision of some very mysterious men. He’s not performing any kind of autopsy though. Instead, he is cutting open the horses so they can get at packages of cocaine that have been smuggled into the state, confirming Jack’s suspicions. Once he has his proof, Jack ambushes the guards and demands that the pathologist hand over everything he has on this drug running operation. Sure enough, all of the information he could ever want is on a ledger that the men were carrying on them.
Meanwhile, in Washington, DC, the Commission on Superhuman Activities is meeting once more to discuss the issue with Nomad. Jack Monroe’s one man war on drugs is putting a three year government operation in serious risk. While Val Cooper wants Monroe eliminated, General Lewis Hayworth points out that this could have a negative response from the superhero community. That’s when Henry Gyrich suggests they call Captain America at Avengers Mansion and convince him into thinking that Nomad has crossed the line and compel him to bring Monroe in.
Back in Minneapolis, Nomad decides to pay Eddie Vanelli at his penthouse apartment. He manages to get into the elevator by tricking the guard at the front desk that he is one of Vanelli’s delivery guys. Once inside, he catches Vanelli literally with his pants down as he entertains two women. A gunfight soon errupts and Nomad discovers that Eddie has been keeping the stolen baby in one of the bedrooms. Grabbing the kid, Nomad leaps out a window and uses a grappling hook to safely repel to the ground below. The guard from the front desk is waiting for him downstairs as Jack makes his way back to his truck. He runs the guard down but has to bail out of the truck when Vanelli comes outside with a rocket launcher and blows the vehicle up. Annoyed at the loss of his vehicle, Nomad summarily executes Vanelli by shooting him right between the eyes.
Nomad then takes the baby back to her mother and demands to know why Vanelli was blackmailing her. The woman explains that one of her clients works is an inventor who works for Cyberoptics. He has a very expensive drug habits as he uses stimulants to keep himself working around the clock. Realizing that this made the inventor a security risk, the woman attempted to blackmail him and he in turn complained to Vanelli. Eddie then took her baby in order to force her to keep her mouth shut. Nomad gets her to tell him who this person is and where he can find him. When she asks for her baby back, Jack tells her that she might get her kid once he verifies everything she just told him.
When Nomad goes to confront the inventor he finds him strung out on drugs. He tells him that the drug running and everything was to fund a secret project Cyberoptics has been working on for the government. Some kind of super weapon that won’t work without the proper hardware. When Jack asks why the man was selling company secrets on the side, he explains he did it out of his love for Elia Rodriguez, the young woman whose shooting sent Jack going down this rabbit hole of conspiracy. Before the inventor nods off into a drug fueled stupor, he is able to tell Jack that there is some kind of trade off for the final product that will be going down in Juneau, Alaska.
Meanwhile, the Commission has called in Captain America and told him about the situation with Jack Monroe and how he is interfering with government business. Val Cooper understands that Cap doesn’t full trust them but says that unless he takes this job for them, she cannot guarantee Jack will survive if they send someone else.[2] Understanding what’s at stake, Cap agrees to take the mission and asks them where he needs to go.
Recurring Characters
Nomad, Bucky, Bucky’s mother, Val Cooper, Henry Gyrich, Lewis Hayworth, Captain America
Continuity Notes
This woman even though she will appear in many Nomad stories from here on out is never identified by name. As of this writing in October, 2022 the name of Bucky’s mother has never been revealed.
The reason why Cap doesn’t trust the Commission on Superhuman Activities is for two reasons: the group once accepted false information to arrest the Avengers and at one point stripped Steve of his Captain America identity until he won the right to wear it again. See Avengers Annual #15/West Coast Avengers #1 and Captain America #332-350.
Topical References
General Hayworth mentions the “War on Drugs”, a long running American law enforcement campaign that has utterly failed at actually stopping the flow of illicit drugs into the United States. Anyway, it was at the height of its “popularity” (for lack of a better term) in the 80s and 90s. Back then there was a propaganda level support of the drug war in all forms of American media of the time. These days it’s not seen so rosy as experts have pointed that the war disproportionately affects the poor and visible minorities and has led to mass incarcerations for crimes that, really, aren’t that big a deal. Since the War on Drugs is still on going it’s not a topical reference yet, however some day (maybe) it will be.
Bucky’s mom states that the John who works at Cyberoptics has a weekly drug tab of $20,000. That’s equivalent to $45000 in 2022 money.
Supplementary Material
This story has a one page feature on the Systems In-Close Cybernetic Autonomous Electric Gun or SICCAEL Gun for short. It includes a detailed schematic and explains how the weapon operates via a mental link with the user allowing it to aim and fire from the thoughts of the operator.
