Audio Assault

by Jeff Adams

  “He’s… a little shaken.” She appeared sheepish. I cocked my head and raised an eyebrow. “He in the bathroom downstairs. Sounded like he might be sick.”

  I nodded. “I’ll go check on him. We’ll debrief at HQ at one.” I turned and pointed to Zan. “You owe me at least a case of Dr Pepper. I’ll see you guys later.”

  I left to find Darnell. A few people along the way stopped me to chat about the simulation or congratulate me on the job we’d done. I didn’t know the success rate on this one but planned to check before the briefing to see how we measured up.

  I found Darnell gripping the sides of the sink as the water ran. He stared into the basin.

  “Hey. You okay?” I stepped close but not too close. “You did good. Mission accomplished.”

  “Coming out of that room… seeing you….” His voice cracked on nearly each word. “I shot somebody.” As he looked at me in the reflection of the mirror, his haunted expression indicated his distress. “What if this had been real?”

  “Then you did what you needed to finish the mission and get out.” I tossed aside my previous strategy and stepped close to put a hand on his shoulder. “This simulation focuses on how to cope with the stress of a field mission.”

  Darnell straightened and I moved back. “I may not be cut out for this.”

  “Maybe. Or it could be the shock of the first time. There’s a lot of discussion and analysis to come. We’ll sort it out. Not all of us are made for the field and we don’t all have to be.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. You did good and these reactions are okay.”

  “Did you know this was a simulation?”

  I nodded. “I knew there’d be one, but I didn’t know the scenario. Lorenzo threw a curveball with what he did to the security system to force me into the building.”

  I tried to keep things light so he wouldn’t be harder on himself. I knew how difficult missions could be, and I hadn’t had the benefit of training like this my first time out.

  He nodded, and I made a mental note to flag him for additional counseling. Sarina and Darnell would both get psych reviews to check on their mental state following the exercise, but I’d have to report this because he may be right about not being fit for the field.

  “Come on. Let’s get some lunch before we spend the afternoon talking about this.” Another sullen nod. “And trust me when I say that your reactions are all okay. I’ve been out on missions twice and it’s a lot to process.”

  He smiled weakly as we walked. “Seems like you do okay.”

  “You haven’t seen me in the immediate aftermath. It’s rough out there, but I’ve learned how to take care of myself, and so will you.”

  “What if I can’t?”

  “Like I said, there’s plenty to do around here without field certification.”

  Once again, he nodded and his mood seemed to improve a little.

  Chapter Two

  SWEAT DRIPPED off me as I sprinted to the puck in a race against a hulking defenseman. These pickup games brought out all kinds, and that made them insanely fun. The only consistency, for me at least, was that Mitch and I did this together.

  He’d gotten us into roller hockey, and I’d come to appreciate playing in the heat. We were in an ice league for the summer too, which was great, but the contrast of playing the game on pavement proved enjoyable.

  I scooped the puck out of reach of the defensemen and crouched low to get by him in a move I wasn’t sure I’d be able to execute on ice. The traction of the pavement helped. After taking off toward the opponent’s goal, I lined up to shoot, but I saw Mitch get into a good position at the last minute. I passed to him. The goalie hadn’t expected the change up, and he left a wide-open net for Mitch to score.

  We fist-bumped as we headed back to the sidelines, satisfied with our shift.

  “Two minutes left!” called the timekeeper.

  With so many playing today, it was unlikely we’d get another shift. At least we went out with a goal.

  As we stood with our teammates, I peeled my wet T-shirt off. The roller hockey gear was light, which was good on super-hot July days like this. I grabbed one of the water bottles out of my backpack and drank.

  I’d returned from Tactical Operational Support HQ yesterday afternoon just in time to have dinner with Mom and Dad. We were home together for the first time in nearly two months. Then Eddie and I went to the movies, where the latest Avengers movie played while we made out in the back corner of the theater. And this morning was about hockey.

  “Jesus, Theo,” Mitch said, “I’m still getting used to the angry scar the bullet left, but now this epic bruise. What’d you do?”

  “That’s from a slap shot.” Mitch couldn’t take his eyes off the dark, angry splotch that spread from my sternum across part of my right pectoral. “I got invited to a pickup game, and I was able to borrow gear, except the shoulder pads.”

  That rolled right out of my mouth like it was the truth. I’d used it on Eddie last night, so I was used to saying it.

  “Game!” That call rang out and the teams lined up to shake hands. Our team had lost by two and that was okay. Unlike Tigers games, this was purely about fun.

  We continued to talk as we gathered our gear. “You need to be more careful. You get hurt way too much. Your parents’ll put their foot down eventually.”

  I laughed as he sounded more like a parent than my friend. If only he knew what my parents actually thought. I’d discussed the training exercise over dinner. My team had performed in the top 10 percent of participants—well beyond expectations for a team of all techs with limited experience. Mom and Dad were proud.

  “They’re glad this is only a hockey injury.”

  I pulled out another bottle of water, opened it and poured it over my head. The cool water felt wonderful. Eddie and Iris approached as I toweled off. Even though I’d seen Eddie last night, my heart sped up from the excitement of spending the afternoon with him. There’d been a big empty space in me while I was gone. I hadn’t expected to miss him so much. Despite talking and texting daily, it wasn’t enough to satisfy my need to be around him.

  We planned to spend as much time as possible together this weekend.

  “I don’t suppose you’ve got an extra bottle?” Mitch picked up my backpack and looked inside. “Actually, what do you have in here? It weighs a ton. How’d you even bike here with this and a stick on your back?”

  I snatched the pack—I didn’t like people digging around in there because there were plenty of hidden compartments—and got the last bottle for him. “You know me. I like to be prepared. Besides, if I hadn’t brought all this water you’d be dehydrated. And I need a change of clothes.”

  “If you told me you played without a shirt, I would’ve come to watch.” Eddie wrapped me in a quick hug despite the water and sweat.

  “For sure,” Iris added. “How often do you get to watch hockey with a bunch of shirtless players? Are you hiding something from me, Mitch?”

  Mitch gulped down water before he answered. “You didn’t miss anything. Everyone was properly clothed.”

  Eddie sighed wistfully. “Suppose that’s a good thing. This one’s getting hurt enough already.” He lightly ran his fingers across the bruise, just right so it didn’t cause any pain. “Every time he goes away, I fear how he’s going to come back.”

  “Right?” Mitch looked at me and Iris looked at him. “He gets a little more battered every time he leaves town.”

  “That’s not true.” I laughed to make light of the situation since they weren’t wrong. “The abduction happened right here in Boston.”

  Iris scowled at me. “That’s not funny, Theo.”

  It’d been nearly six months since the computer science tournament, and it seemed like everything had shifted back to normal. School had been out for a month, and so far I’d been away, supposedly working for one of my clients, for just two of those weeks.

  I was surprised at everyone’s re
action to the bruise because Mitch and I, and the entire hockey team for that matter, got banged up all the time. Maybe it was because this happened while I was gone. I’d stayed in touch while I’d been away, though. Besides Eddie, I texted with Mitch every few days. They should’ve known I was okay.

  “I appreciate the concern, guys, but I’ve been hurt worse in McKinley games.” To help break up the conversation, I toweled off and pulled on a fresh shirt. I got out of the roller hockey pants too, so I was just in shorts. “What’s the plan for this afternoon?”

  “There’s a concert in the park.” Iris took out her phone and swiped some screens before passing it to Eddie. “Lots of local bands and food trucks with tons of food. I thought it be a great way to hang out. Oh, and admission is free.”

  “Way to keep the best part until last,” Mitch said.

  “Wow. This is pretty cool,” Eddie handed the phone off to me. “I love some of these bands.”

  “I have no idea about this music, but I’m in. You can’t knock free and close by.”

  “Exactly. We won’t even have to repark the car.” Mitch dried off and changed. “We can drop all the stuff in the car and head over. We need to get there soon ’cause I need food.”

  “See, I thought that’s the first thing this one was gonna say.” Eddie put his arm around me, and I looked up to roll my eyes at him.

  “I’m not even going to debate the need for food with another athlete.”

  I shoved everything in my backpack, which had more room since the water was gone. Eddie grabbed our sticks, and we headed for Mitch’s car. I thought we looked cute walking down the street. Mitch and Iris in front held hands, and Eddie and me followed with our fingers intertwined.

  “How can you possibly not know any of the bands?” Iris glanced at me over her shoulder. “I mean, sure, there’re a few I haven’t heard of, but most of these are played on the local radio stations.”

  “I don’t listen to much music.”

  “All the time in front of your computer and you don’t even have an app open to play music? How’s that possible? Eddie, is he serious or does he listen to something weird he wants to hide?”

  Eddie looked at me, and I shrugged so he knew he could say whatever. “It’s true. And when he does listen, it’s usually older stuff. He got most of his musical taste from his parents with a lot of eighties pop, but there’s other stuff that I’ve never heard of.”

  Iris’s mouth hung open in disbelief as we got to the car. “We’ve got to do something about this. There’s such amazing music. You’re missing out.”

  I chuckled. “I don’t know. I hear random stuff all the time that I can’t stand.”

  “Are you questioning my taste?”

  “Of course, not. It’s just….” The smirk on Mitch’s face told me that I was about to get in trouble, so I stopped short. “Tell me what I’m supposed to like at the concert, and we’ll see if I can trust you to DJ for me.”

  “Whoa! That’s more control than he’s ever given me.” Eddie looked shocked, and I worried I might suddenly be in trouble with him.

  Mom’s personal ringtone sounded and I was saved. “I gotta take this. Shouldn’t be a minute. Probably need to pick up something on the way home.” I answered, “What’s up, Mom?”

  “Hey, Theo. Just wanted to see when you were going to be home.”

  Something was off. I told Mom and Dad yesterday what I had planned today and they’d said nothing when I’d left this morning.

  “I’m headed to get some food and catch a concert. Should be home around four. Was planning on dinner with you guys before I headed to Eddie’s.” She sighed, which was another strange thing. “You okay?”

  Eddie shot me a concerned look.

  “Yeah. No need to rush home. But we’ll need some time to talk before you go out.”

  Cryptic wasn’t usually her style. She must not like what we needed to discuss.

  “Okay. I’ll shoot you a text when I’m on my way.”

  “Thanks. And don’t worry. Go have a good time.”

  “Okay. See you when I get back. Bye.” I looked at Eddie and shrugged as I disconnected the call. “I’ve got no idea what that was about, but I’ll find out later. Now let’s go before Mitch and I starve to death.”

  Chapter Three

  THE AFTERNOON was great. Iris introduced me to some good music. Eddie coaxed me to dance a little and convinced me it didn’t matter if I looked like I was flailing about. We stayed for the few hours we planned and then made our way back to the cars and my bike. I tossed the bike into Eddie’s Jeep, and he drove me home.

  Mom’s call made even less sense when I arrived and saw her and Dad. They were on the back deck, and Dad had the grill fired up. Because of our schedules, it’d been more than a year since we’d grilled.

  “Hey,” I said as I opened the screen door to step outside. They sat at the table, engrossed in their tablets. With the light breeze and shade from the trees, it was very nice. “So what’s the big news?”

  They both looked at me, then Mom set her tablet aside. “I’m sorry about that,” she said. “I shouldn’t have called. I hope you didn’t worry too much.”

  “Nah, there were plenty of distractions.”

  She smiled.

  “I hope you’re hungry.” Dad got up and headed for the house. He stopped and looked back just as he got to the screen door. “I made the hamburgers you like, and we’ve got your favorite ice cream for dessert.”

  It felt like when they had to tell me my guinea pig had died while I was at school. They prepared all my favorite things for dinner that night—with enough food that we could’ve fed a family four times as big as ours.

  Should I press to get information before dinner or wait it out?

  “Why don’t you get cleaned up while your Dad gets the burgers on. Then we’ll talk.” Mom picked up her tablet and looked at me. The message was clear—we’ll tell you when we’re ready.

  So that’s how they wanted to play. Had I been dropped into a parallel universe? My parents didn’t usually act like this, especially now that I was older. I trusted that there was some reason for it.

  “Sure.” I sounded as upbeat and unsuspicious as possible. “Give me fifteen minutes or so.”

  She nodded and went back to her reading. I went inside as Dad approached with a tray loaded down with hamburgers—too many of them. He smiled and went out without a word.

  I’ve seen movies where aliens take over people’s bodies. I never thought I’d see that here given how unusual we were already. I’d play along and see what bomb dropped over dinner. For secret agents, they weren’t doing a very good job of acting like everything was normal.

  I stayed upstairs a little longer than I’d planned. I took a long shower and looked at my TOS email. After about twenty minutes, I returned to the deck as Dad took burgers and buns off the grill.

  “We were just about to call you down.” He put the platter of food on the table and took a step back looking proud of the spread. Baked beans, fixins, and a fruit and Jell-O salad were on the table too.

  “Oh, there you are.” Mom carried a bowl of potato salad, another of my favorite things. “I think that’s all the food.” She looked around the table, set with everything else that we could possibly need. “Let’s dig in.”

  I may have eaten at the concert, but that didn’t stop me. My plate nearly overflowed with two burgers, and hearty helpings of the sides.

  Once everyone had served themselves and I’d sampled some of the very delicious food, I decided it was time to find out whatever it was. “So are we moving? Is someone visiting we don’t want to see? I’m guessing if someone had died, you would’ve told me by now. So just rip off the Band-Aid and tell me.”

  They looked at each other, and Dad sighed. “I knew we were making too much out of this.”

  I chuckled. “If this is how you keep secrets in the field, you might want to go back for some remedial training. Just tell me. I can’t imagine—”


  “We need you to come to New York with us for a few days. Maybe a week.” Dad interrupted, and my mouth dropped open in surprise. “We’ll keep it as short as possible.”

  “What?” I was louder than I meant to, but it summed up how I felt. New York was not in my plans. “You know I have the weeks before school all planned out.”

  “We know.” Mom spoke softly. “We wouldn’t take you away if it wasn’t important.”

  This wasn’t an ask. Very unusual. There had to be a good reason. I couldn’t remember the last time they’d forced me to do anything.

  I sighed and ate a mouthful of burger. I didn’t know what to do. Part of me wanted to act like a child—get up from the table and storm off to my room. That wasn’t really who I was, though. They expected me to be the responsible teenager and TOS agent who would do what was necessary when asked. But this wasn’t a mission, and they weren’t my bosses. Yes, they were my parents. But it wasn’t cool to just assume that my plans could be rearranged.

  “I know this isn’t exactly fair, Theo, and I can see you don’t like it. Here’s the situation.” Dad rubbed his hand across his forehead and looked at Mom before he continued. “I was contacted today by a good friend from college. We haven’t seen each other in about a decade, but we stay in touch. Over the years, he’s become quite the music mogul. You might have heard of Glenwood Music. Oliver Glenwood is the CEO, and his daughter is one of the label’s biggest stars. Yesterday in Central Park, Oliver and Sofia were nearly abducted at a photo shoot. Their own security just barely prevented it.”

  So far this seemed more like a job for the police. When I didn’t speak up, he continued.

  “Because of our covers, Oliver thinks I’m with Homeland and your mom is FBI. He’s scared for his family, and because his own highly trained security force can’t seem to ensure their safety, he’s asked for help. Primarily he wants us to bolster his security. But we’ll also see if we can find out who’s behind this.”

  So it was a mission. Just not a TOS mission.