Alisha chuckled.
Joshua waited until he was out of earshot before leaning forward over the table, missing an errant mustard blob by a fraction of an inch. “Someone has a crush on you!”
Alisha grabbed a napkin and cleaned her hands dismissively. “Don’t be silly. It’s Cleavon. He just likes a challenge.”
“Yes, but I think we’re disagreeing about the type of challenge!”
Alisha rolled her eyes. “Have you finished? We should get going so we have something to report to the Director at the evening debrief.”
Joshua screwed up his empty wrapper. “I’m ready.”
Alisha folded the remainder of her bagel up and shoved it into her bottom drawer. “Good. I need two minutes to wash up.”
CHAPTER NINE
Clandestine Location #2
The city was alive with activity. It would make a good cover, and easier to slip away if they were being watched. But Hans had decided to mix the game up a little. After all, if Philip did insist on doing these briefings as a way of refining their skills then they should stretch their imaginations too.
He only hoped that Philip had managed to decode the time and location he had sent him via an old-fashioned paper note. Things were different since his day and Hans had been becoming increasingly aware of how differently the two generations processed information. He hoped that the awareness was going to be enough for him to manage to work with others in the field when he needed to.
He thought briefly about the teams and the bonds that were forming between the members of the task force. In some ways he envied them. But out here, on his own? That was where the real action and opportunities lay. His loneliness was a small sacrifice to make.
He peeked around the corner of the big concrete block in the car park. He hoped that Philip knew the building as well as he gave the impression that he had. Hans had been trying to work out all the blind spots in the cameras since day one: since they told him that kind of knowledge was important for an operative.
He heard footsteps. Two sets. Footsteps that were making absolutely no attempt to stay quiet. It was probably someone else. He heard a female laugh, and a male’s voice. It was Alisha and Joshua. He waited, listening. A car door opened. Then the other. They both closed, and the engine started up. He listened to the sound of them driving away.
He was about to peek around the column again when a sound to his left pulled his attention. He looked around, and there was Philip! Making an approach without Hans detecting him, again.
Dammit, he thought to himself. He had felt sure he would make him this time.
Philip smiled. “Good spot.” He looked up and pointed with his eyes at the two cameras they had avoided.
Hans sighed and stood up from the column. “I had been trying to make sure I could see you coming,” he confessed.
“Ah, don’t take it so hard. I’ve been a spook longer than you’ve been alive,” Philip told him. “Sometimes there’s no substitute for experience.”
Hans didn’t feel any better, but he nodded and moved on anyway. “I’ve made some progress on the assignment,” he told his handler. “It seems that their pressure is coming from two individuals. One I’ve already taken care of, but I needed the okay from the university for the other.”
He offered his holoscreen for Philip to skim. He nodded as he eyes quickly took in the intel, catching him up to the situation.
“Cunning,” he said after a few moments. “I like the way you handled the first situation. Very resourceful. How did you ensure that the agreement would go through?”
“I called the contact at the government, pretended to be an old school friend, and said that the request was coming from higher up and not to ask too many questions. Then I hacked the system and gave the employee a small pay rise to coincide with them fulfilling the request.”
“Very resourceful. And untraceable?”
“Absolutely.”
“Excellent. Okay, report both these to the Director when you go back upstairs, and make sure that they are on board with the other request before you grant it. Frame it as if it’s a fait accompli though… no point giving them a reason to undo it.”
Hans smirked. He realized that Philip was actually a lot smarter than he appeared. Hans understood the way that team dynamics worked, how people with different ideas and agendas could unravel a carefully thought out plan in a matter of minutes.
“Yes, sir,” he confirmed.
“Ok, and one last thing, Hans. You managed to get to this spot, but you were seen coming here on camera. See if you can get back to the office without your path being traced. You have as long as it takes, but I’ll be having one of your team pulling footage for me by end of play today.”
Hans felt his stomach sink. He was so tired of this messing around when there was no real danger. He tried to keep his face straight, though. “Yes, sir.”
Philip strolled off, whistling, in full view of both cameras, as casually as if he had been coming from his own car after a delightful lunch break.
Hans leaned back against his concrete column and growled quietly to himself as he wracked his brains.
So much for forcing them to be more creative, he figured.
Heddon Mocha Shop, Midtown, Spire
“This is it,” Alisha said, double checking the number on the door. “A mocha shop.”
Joshua looked up at the signage. “It’s an ideal public place to disguise the sender of the message, it’d be impossible to know who sent it even if we did manage to pinpoint the place of origin.”
Alisha leaned on the old-fashioned door plate and pushed it forward, allowing Joshua to stalk in ahead of her. “Age before beauty,” she teased.
Joshua made a face at her as he stepped inside. His gaze flicked around the cafe, searching for clues as to the type of clientele, quickly profiling their average customer.
Alisha was the first to spot the camera in the corner. “Let’s hope that’s actually rigged up and not on the net.”
Joshua nodded. “Yeah. If this hacker is good enough to have Cleavon unsure of himself for even a moment, he’s probably wiped any images of himself.”
Alisha’s eyes fell on a sticker on some of the point-of-sale material. She pointed to it, quietly.
Joshua smiled. “The GRX payment system. Nice. Good to have a backup. Let’s see if we can cross reference the time of the message with transactions just ahead of the time code.”
Alisha plugged away at her holo.
“What can I get you?” Suddenly the pair had the full attention of the server behind the bar.
Joshua reached for his badge, but then hesitated. He pulled his wallet out of his inside pocket instead. “I’ll have the mocha renaissance with cream on top. Alisha?”
She looked up, suddenly aware she was being called upon. “Oh um, just a straight mocha for me. Thanks.”
Joshua completed the transaction, checking the time it was taking to put the transaction through, and for them to get their drinks and sit down.
Alisha showed him the list of transactions for their time period. They sat down, and he clocked the time again. “Ok. We’re looking at three and a half minutes. Then he’ll need time to log in, jump through his security protocols and then write and send the message.”
Alisha was already punching away into the holoscreen on her wrist. “Ok. Sending the estimates to Cleavon. See if he can help us narrow it down. I’ll also ask him to tap the camera.”
Joshua nodded. “If we can pull it remotely we won’t need to start flashing badges and risk tipping anyone off.”
The pair drank their mochas waiting in relative quiet for Cleavon to come back to them.
“What you thinking?” Joshua asked eventually, noticing the distant look on Alisha’s face as she looked out of the window.
She shrugged with one shoulder. “Nothing much. I was just wondering if we should ask to have Cleavon on our team?”
“You mean ask Bates to transfer him?”
�
�I guess.”
Joshua pressed his lips together. “Do I detect a hint of—”
“No. You detect nothing, mister. It’s just, we’re asking a lot of him, and I think he’s better suited to investigation than protection.”
Joshua shrugged. “Well, this is only our second assignment. Who knows how the teams are gonna pan out and what we’ll be tasked with in the future.”
“You don’t get the sense that we’re better with intel than interference, then?”
Joshua took another glug of his mocha. “I’m… well. I guess you have a point.”
“I’m gonna mention it in my report,” Alisha told him decidedly. “They’re probably looking to optimize the group anyway.”
Joshua bobbed his head from side to side, conceding the point. “Maybe,” he muttered, wondering if Carol Bates was going to like being told how to do her job.
Alisha’s holo pinged. “He’s got it!” She turned the tiny holo-projected screen so that Joshua could see it.
“We got a name?”
“Arnold Sloth,” she told him. “It sounds familiar…”
“It would,” Joshua confirmed. “That was the fixer. For the smoke bombs incident, remember? The one that brought Duo into the fold.”
Alisha’s eyes flew wide. “You’re right!” she exclaimed, excitedly. She quickly lowered her voice and leaned forward over their table. “So he’s our link to the Northern clan!”
Joshua chewed his bottom lip. “Yep. That’s our link.” Before Alisha had time to process the implications he was up and out of his seat, pulling his jacket back on. “Looks like Cleavon came through for us.”
Alisha couldn’t hide her good humor. “Looks like you owe him drinks,” she added, getting up.
“I owe him drinks?”
“Yeah, that was the deal I struck. I think he wants time to hang with the boys.” She winked, then grabbed her jacket and takeout cup as she led the way out of the mocha shop.
Aboard The Empress, Agresh Quadrant
Molly moved toward the back of the cockpit. Joel got up and followed her.
“If they’re Federation, then surely Sean and Karina will be safe?”
You’d think. But I’m getting the sense that this person has gone off the reservation. She’s out here, beyond the boundaries of Federation Space. And she just looks volatile. Don’t you think?”
“I’d agree, actually. Her body language is characteristic of… well, let’s put it this way. She wouldn’t pass as a soldier, that’s for sure.”
Molly glanced back at the screen of the empty cockpit on the other ship. “Maybe we need to check in with Lance. Find out what the deal is.”
Joel bobbed his head from side to side. “We could. But this is happening now. We don’t know how long it will take to get a response, and once we loop him in, haven’t we effectively failed.”
Molly smirked. “I thought it was just me that thought like that?”
Joel shrugged. “Yeah, and you’re our leader, so of course we adopt your parameters for success and failure.”
Molly was amused but forced herself to stay on task. “Well, if it’s just ego getting in the way, then we should reach out to him. The mission is more important at this point. Especially if Sean and Karina are in genuine danger.”
“Well, hang on. Slow down. Sean and Karina can look after themselves. She’s not going to space them without moving them to another part of her ship. She has the weapons in that space, and her pet Skaine.”
Molly took a step forward. “Emma, show us the cargo holding again please.”
The cargo holding room flicked back up on the screen. “You’re right,” she muttered to Joel. “So she's going to have to shoot them, or she’s going to have to move them. And in that time, we can have a conversation with her and find out what the score is. If we need to, Sean will be able to immobilize her. Oz, can you communicate with Sean and Karina and let them know what we’re thinking.”
Sure. On it.
She turned back to Joel. “Looks like our call to the General can probably wait a little longer,” she said smiling.
He put a hand on her shoulder and they returned to the front of the cockpit to stand behind Crash.
“Emma,” she called out more loudly. “Patch me through to the Skaine ship again, I need to talk to...” she trailed off, trying to remember the name. “Nickie.”
“Patching you through now,” Emma confirmed. Molly’s eyes never left the screens of the now empty cockpit of the Skaine ship, and the cargo holding area, watching like a hawk for the girl to appear somewhere again.
Director Bates’ office, Special Task Force Offices, Undisclosed location, Estaria
“Okay. Is there anything else you’ve discovered?” Carol looked up again from her holoscreens.
Hans stood politely in front of her desk. “No, ma’am. That’s everything.”
She nodded sharply and went back to her work. He took that as a sign that he was dismissed. He hesitated. “Ma’am?”
She looked up again.
“Does this mean I need to report back to Agent Bates?”
Carol smiled. “The spycraft exercises in town wearing thin?”
He permitted himself a half smile. “Well, erm… if I’m honest.” He didn’t need to finish the sentence.
“I’ll have a word with Philip,” she promised. “He can get a little over-enthusiastic about the old school craft elements. In the meantime, see if Bravo team needs any assistance. I’ve noticed that Cleavon has been spending a lot of time doing analyses for both teams. I sense a change is needed after this case.”
He nodded once. “Thank you, ma’am.” He turned quietly and slipped out of her office, relieved that he wasn’t required to jump through the tedious hoops of setting a spy meeting with his handler, only to tell him what he’d just told the director in a matter of minutes.
Carol waited until he had disappeared down the stairs into the bullpen before she opened her personal holo. She connected a call and waited for a response.
The call connected. “Greetings of the day to you,” the responder said.
“Greetings, Arlene,” Carol responded quietly and evenly. “I have news.”
“That was fast.”
“Well, we may not be the Federation, but we know what we’re doing down here.”
Arlene started to say something, but Carol was already moving on. “I’ve just had word from one of our agents that the root of the problem remains two-fold in terms of the two proponents.”
“Uh-huh.”
“There are two key influencers who pushed this forward,” Carol explained. “Each for their own reasons. You were right. They think they’re going to benefit from the school not existing. One had been taken care of.”
Arlene drew breath quickly. “You didn’t—”
Carol’s voice sounded almost warm. “No. We didn’t. Turns out there was a family business, sports equipment. All we needed to arrange was to have one of our assets in the district arrange to buy the school sports equipment from them for the foreseeable future.”
“That sounds… simple.”
“Yes, simple. But not easy. It’s been handled.”
“And the other?”
“That one is a little trickier. I need your help on it.”
“What’s the situation?”
“Well, the other influencer is backed by family money, so no such leverage. They were acting out of an ideology.”
“Oh… this is going to be more difficult.”
“Not quite. My agent discovered that there is a son. A son who is flunking out of Spire University and last weekend got into trouble for drugs. There’s an investigation pending. We can make the charges go away, but that doesn’t solve the problem of his education.”
“You want me to see if we can take him at the university.”
“It would seal the deal and mean you get to stay open.”
There was a pause on the line while Arlene considered her response. She sighed. �
��I guess we can make it happen. It’s a small price to pay.”
“It is,” Carol agreed firmly. It was clear that she didn’t want to get into a discussion about ideologies, or fairness. This was a job. She’d been asked to do the impossible, and she delivered. Whatever the tensions she and Arlene had, Arlene realized she respected Carol’s ability to get the job done.
“Who will reach out to the boy?” Arlene asked.
“We’ll handle it. I’ll have someone send over details for arranging his enrolment and you can take it from there.”
“Thank you, Carol. I appreciate everything you’ve done. And I’m sure Molly will too.”
Carol felt herself smiling. “Not a problem, Arlene. I’ll let you get on,” she added.
“Thanks. Bye Carol.”
The call ended.
Arlene sat back in her seat, shaking her head softly.
“Everything okay?” Ben’or’s voice came from the living room. She’d left the office door open so that he could hear some of it. The last thing she wanted was to shut him out of an operation he’d practically saved.
Arlene got up and wandered through. She could see he’d been working on his new wristholo while she’d been doing some work.
“Everything is going to be fine,” she smiled. “Thanks to your brilliant insight.”
Ben’or chuckled. “Glad I could be of assistance,” he told her. “Now, how about we discuss dinner plans?”
Houston Residence, East Waterside, Outskirts of Spire
Rhodez rang the doorbell of the large house on the outskirts of town. Large and white, it stood as a reminder of how the city had sprawled to devour the old terraformed farming communities. An industrial generator from the previous century stood several hundred yards in the rear grounds of the house, the ground now arid and barren. He turned back to look at the track he’d driven up. The terrain was too unpredictable and unmapped to go antigrav around these parts, and it had felt like it had taken him forever just to get from the edge of town to here.
A uniformed marshal answered the door. Rhodez had his badge already in his hand. He knew how jumpy these marshals could be when they had someone high risk in custody. Last thing he wanted was to be reaching into his jacket pocket. “Afternoon. I’m Detective Rhodez with the 41st. I have a few questions for your ward.”
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