The Girl From Diana Park

by Alec Peche

  Chapter 7

  Damian dropped Hermione off at school the next day after a quiet night. He set out in his boat for the marina in San Francisco where he intended to dock his boat while he observed the court building for the holder of the cell phone.

  He was fortunate that the weather was good with no drizzle as he would have been suspicious sitting in the rain. He had the GPS detector next to him on the planter box wall with earbuds on to detect whenever it made contact with a passing cellphone. Each time it beeped he would glance down at the display inside a bag to read the cell phone number that was displayed. Meanwhile, he practiced taking photos of the San Francisco City Hall which was a beautiful building in the background. He must have shot fifty practice photos before he got the beep from his device that matched the phone number he was looking for. This time his photo captured a man in a business suit walking into the court building. As it was a cloudy day, he wasn't wearing sunglasses and Damian got a perfect picture of his face.

  His work done, he caught a taxi back to the marina and to his boat. In his lab, he ran the man's picture through his facial recognition system and discovered his name, James Spinnaker. Further research revealed him as an employee of Homeland Security, married with children living in Oakland. Damian took another look at the phone's pinging schedule and decided he would take a chance on approaching Mr. Spinnaker that afternoon to confront him about the poster. He could then circle back and assure himself that Hermione and Ariana were safe with John O'Ryan on the loose. In the meantime, he'd head over to his company and get some work done. Hermione's request to work there over the summer had him thinking about another employee of his – Lily and her son Jacob, who was thirteen going on forty.

  He arrived just before lunch and sat down with his employees for a casual discussion.

  After hearing the news of the day, he said, “Hermione asked if she could have a summer job here and it got me thinking about other kids. Lily, your son is too young to work for pay just yet, but if he's interested and if he turns fourteen by the summer, he could get a work permit to work here. I'd like to encourage future engineering brains. What would all of you think about having a teenager or two to assist you with your projects?”

  “I'd love to have him work here,” Lily replied. “He turns fourteen just before school lets out for the summer, so we'll apply for a work permit. I think kids could be useful in having us add features to our projects to make them more commercially appealing.”

  “So what would you have Jacob do here?” Damian asked.

  “He could help me with testing my drone,” replied Haley. “I have to do a lot of repetitive maneuvers either to fine-tune something or to test it as a solution. I'd love to have Hermione or Jacob take that load and do the testing for me.”

  “Are they safe? Could they get hurt here?” Damian asked.

  Angus Walsh, his ex-con and logistics expert replied, “I think we have enough protective equipment to keep them safe. Haley crashes her drone, but we have the glass wall shield upstairs and that would protect a teenager. Of course, they could crash the drone into themselves or do some other equally stupid thing so we would want to choose the teenagers carefully, but I would enjoy encouraging some kid to go into engineering because of their work here. I think we should start with Hermione and Jacob as both kids seem level-headed and we can expand into other kids if it's a win-win for all of us.”

  “You're calling Jacob level-headed?” Lily asked with a laugh. “Look at these worry lines in my face.”

  “What mother doesn't worry?” Angus replied.

  “Okay, I'll have Ariana begin getting the paperwork together so we can employ these kids and set up an appropriate wage for them. They can't work full time, and we'll have to figure out how to work them into our flow, but I'm excited about having them here.”

  “Damian, it's good to start small, but when you're ready, I have a ready-made source of new teenagers through my contact with probation groups. There are a lot of kids that would benefit by working here, and then there are hustlers in that group that I wouldn't let in the door of the warehouse.”

  “I appreciate your source and your honesty. When we're ready to expand, we'll need to pick your brain to develop our application process, but first let's have a positive experience with Hermione and Jacob.,” Damian said and then signaling that it was time to change the topic asked, “What else is going on?”

  After hearing about everyone's progress, he said, “I have a new project for someone. I had an intruder invade my island and I dropped a green dye water balloon on him. I've figured out how to make that dye stain for close to a month. I added something new to this balloon, a liquid filled with micro-crystals that act as a GPS tracker. We've learned the micro-crystals don't adhere to the skin, because the police and I have been tracking him and we've lost the signal. I'd like to develop a solution that will adhere for say five years and sell it to parents who want to use it to tag their children.”

  Damian noticed a variety of expressions on his employees' faces and so added further explanation.

  “I'm working with a retired detective and Haley's mother-in-law, Detective Natalie Severino on a child abduction case. That's why she was here the other day. In looking at the grief these parents must be experiencing over the abduction of their five-year-old daughter, I thought this might be a solution for parents. I want an expiration on it as perhaps when a child reaches the age of fifteen or eighteen, the child would be beyond an age of abduction.”

  “I love that idea!” Lily said. “You need a compound similar to rhodium that decays in something like three years and then you just need to have it stick to the skin.”

  Lily had been looking at the ceiling thinking about the problem and returned her gaze to her colleagues, once she noticed the silence in the room.

  “What!” she asked when looking at the expressions on their faces.

  “How do you know about rhodium?” Damian asked.

  “Oh, I was helping Jacob with the periodic table earlier this week and understanding the decaying of elements.”

  “You're one smart cookie!” Angus said.

  “Thanks, I'd like to work on that project, but I also see problems if there's a substance that you can apply to someone to track their movements,” Lily said.

  “For the most part, all of us are tracked now because of our cell phones pinging off cell towers. Did you ever wonder where those morning traffic reports come from? The telephone company supplies data that shows how fast their company's cell phones are moving through a particular area from their phone's GPS pinging,” Damian said. “I hear you though. It could be used by adults in a spat with one another. I think we would have to have it licensed to an organization like the FBI or the Missing and Exploited Children Foundation, for the substance to be applied. That way it doesn't get abused. Let's find something that works, stays, and doesn't poison a child with radioactivity first, then we'll worry about its distribution.”

  Damian left his company planning to run back across the bay to catch James Spinnaker leaving work. If he changed his schedule and wasn't at the building, Damian would try again the next day. He felt an urgency to confront this man, but at the same time balanced that against the fact that the phone had been active for two months. He'd thought about checking his island lab computer to track the phone, but the man could leave his office just minutes after Damian checked his latest location. After spending an extra hour beyond Mr. Spinnaker's usual departure time, he gave up and returned to his boat heading over to Ariana's house.

  Chapter 8

  “How was soccer practice?” Damian asked as soon as Ariana returned home with Hermione. He'd been sitting on the outside deck sipping tea and working his laptop awaiting their arrival. He and Miguel had been playing fetch, but now the dog was sitting down panting.

  Hermione was wearing long sleeves and elbow padding and her knees were grassed stained, “Let me take a shower, and I'll come back out and tell you.”

  Arian
a came outside with her own cup of tea and said “She had a hard practice diving to the ground a lot today. They were practicing penalty shoot-outs. She's wearing her fair share of the turf from the high school pitch.”

  “She'll be sore tomorrow,” Damian said. “We need to pour lots of fluid and some spinach down her throat.”

  “Spinach?”

  “It will help with the bruising as will vitamin C.”

  “Okay, but I remember the bruises she got from water polo and I think she's just someone who bruises easily. Mostly I think she's satisfied with her performance. She could accurately predict which direction the kicker was going to try and kick it, but she can't cover the entire net, and in a few cases, the kicker didn't have enough control of the ball and went to a different place, then where the girl's brain was aiming.”

  “Not surprising at their age. Hey, while we're waiting for Hermione, I want you to work on a new project for the company. I want to set up a formal program for kids in high school to contribute to my company. We'll perfect the program with Hermione and Lily's son, Jacob, this summer and roll out a full program the following summer. We have to get permission from the state to employ kids, we'll need to set a wage, and find a way for them to contribute as well as learn. I feel almost as excited about this project as I do one of my inventions.”

  “That sounds wonderful and I'll put together a package for you! I have some ideas of where we could source kids to work for you. If it works, I'd also like to expand it to some of the start-ups I influence,” Ariana said. She was a venture capitalist when she wasn't caring for Hermione or being the Chief Operating Officer of Damian's company. Fortunately, she liked the regulatory part of the business.

  Hermione came through the glass doors and joined them asking, “Did you guys solve world peace while I showered?”

  Ariana snorted and Damian replied, “We're a good team, but even Ariana and I cannot herd cats. How's soccer going?”

  Hermione sighed sitting down to pet Miguel and said, “I wish I was taller so I had a greater reach. It's frustrating to know where the ball is heading and know I can't get to the edge of the net to block the ball. At least I practiced falling sideways to get more familiar with how to land and quickly pop up to block the next shot.”

  “How are they transitioning you to doing the same on the turf?” Ariana asked.

  “They already did that. The school brought in an ex-goalkeeper from the San Jose Earthquakes and he taught me how to dive for balls on the mats and then we went outside and practiced the same thing on the turf. He was wonderful. So what else is going on? Do you know who put the poster up about me? Do you know where Ariana's stalker is?”

  And there it was; that quick change of conversational topics that Hermione was famous for.

  “We haven't had an update on the stalker, but it appears his GPS micro-crystals have worn off. All of the local police agencies are looking for him. The two of you are doing a good job keeping the security system on. I'll stay overnight until the man's caught.”

  “And my missing person poster?”

  “The man who has the phone listed on the poster is James Spinnaker and he works for Homeland Security. I returned to the courthouse this afternoon, but I must have missed him. I'm going to approach him tomorrow morning.”

  “What are you going to say?” Hermione asked.

  “I thought I'd start by calling him by name and say that I saw the poster about Hermione and traced it to him and I want to know why Homeland Security is looking for you.”

  “What do you think his answer will be?”

  “I don't know. I'm hoping I knock Mr. Spinnaker off balance by approaching him in person rather than calling.”

  “If he says he knows where my parents are, what will you do?”

  “I'll ask him to arrange a video call with them. If all goes well with the call, then I'll make arrangements for you to meet them,” Damian said.

  “Do you think that will happen? Do you think I'll be reunited with mom and dad?”

  “I have no idea honey. I'm puzzled with why Homeland Security would have anything to do with your parents. Of all the agencies of the Federal Government, this would not make my top five list for contact with your parents as they're American Citizens.”

  “Okay, let me know what he says tomorrow.”

  “Will do, kiddo. What are your thoughts about this man and the idea that he works for Homeland Security?” Damian asked trying to get some insight into what the teenager was thinking.

  “We discussed departments of the Federal government in one of my classes and I remember thinking at the time that beyond the quiz, I'd forget about each of them until they impacted me. So if you say that finding my parents is not a part of Homeland Security than I'd have to agree with you and so why's this guy got a poster of me in Pete's Bar? Did you look anywhere else close to my hometown to see if there was a posting? I wonder if my parents' neighbors saw it in Pete's Bar or some other location in Oakland? If it's only in Pete's Bar than he knows something about you.”

  Damian was impressed with the girl's reasoning and said, “Forget being an engineer when you graduate college, you need to be a private investigator. Those are some excellent questions and you pose things I haven't thought of. This weekend, maybe I'll visit a few places in your neighborhood to see if I can find the poster elsewhere.”

  “Just trying to live up to my namesake – Hermione Granger; she and Harry would have investigated every angle.”

  Damian couldn't stop himself from leaning forward and hugging the girl as he said, “You do her proud.”

  Ariana watched the mush come into Damian and sought to rescue him from the wave of emotion she could tell was hitting him. She had moments like this every day in the wonderment of caring for this unique child.

  “Dinner's ready, let's go inside and eat.”

  Much later, they settled into sleep in their respective bedrooms. Ariana was a light sleeper and awoke to a sound outside. She peeped out her curtains and gasped at lights staring back at her. She ran over to Damian's bedroom and shook him awake.

  “There's something outside my bedroom window,” she whispered when she knew he was awake.

  He followed her into her bedroom, and he could hear the sound she was talking about, and he thought he knew what it was.

  “Just a moment,” Damian said as he returned to his bedroom to look for the tools he brought with him for his stay at Ariana's house.

  He pulled out a high power water gun and asked Ariana to retrieve some honey from her kitchen. She was back in under a minute with a bottle of honey. Damian loaded it into the soap canister of the gun and then went to her bathroom window. He took the screen off the window and aimed and fired at the drone's propellers, while it hovered outside her window.

  The thickness and stickiness of the honey soon gummed up propellers, and the drone started to fly unevenly. He watched the machine start to swoop like a drunk helicopter. He saw it lift over the house after a few attempts and it spun and dived lacking any motion precision. Honey wasn't meant to oil machinery. Damian smiled as he saw it falter and crash into the water just beyond Ariana's dock.

  They hadn't turned the lights on not wanting to wake Hermione nor give the camera on the drone more light to see into the house with.

  Looking at Ariana he whispered, “Unless I'm mistaken, your stalker's drone is forever dead at the bottom of the bay.”

  Ariana held up a hand, and they tapped lightly over a high-five and whispered, “That was brilliant! I thought you were going to shoot it with pepper juice, but honey makes so much more sense. Let's hope that was the only drone John O'Ryan owns. Thanks! Let's get back to sleep now.”

  She gave him a hug and moved to return to her bedroom as did Damian. Just before he gave in to sleep, he thought that Ariana's stalker must be close-by. Most drones required an operator to be within seven hundred kilometers of the drone so he was probably on the street above. He had faith that their security system would keep them sa
fe.

  Chapter 9

  The next morning Damian was waiting at James Spinnaker's office building at the usual time he started. He waited half an hour beyond that usual time then got a taxi back to the marina to head south to the marina where Natalie was going to meet him. He'd head back to his island after the meeting and check on the location of the phone. If Mr. Spinnaker was inside, then he would go back to the building after his meeting with Natalie.

  “Hey Damian, how's the week been going so far?” Natalie asked once she took a seat in her car.

  Damian gave a few moments of thought of what to tell Natalie about his crazy week.

  “It's been unusual. I had a stranger visit my island on the day you and I met. Turns out he's a stalker of Ariana Knowles from a decade ago.”

  “Wow, what did he want and what did you do?” Natalie asked not sure whether to be amused or worried for Damian. She knew he would have some crazy scheme for preventing access to his island that would make her laugh, but stalkers often did serious harm to their targets.

  “I decided to watch him and he climbed up the cliff, knocked on my door, then pulled out lockpicks. Then he sat down at my picnic table and tried to play with his cellular reception. Meanwhile, I used my facial recognition software and saw his criminal record and connection to Ariana.”

  “So what did you do to him?”

  “What makes you think I did anything?”

  Natalie just looked over the top of her sunglasses at him and raised her brows as though to say, 'Go on and tell me what you did.'

  Damian smiled and said, “I used my drone to drop my lime green dye water balloon on him. I waited until he was halfway down the cliff so I would have time to saturate him with water balloons, but this time I tried something new as well.”