by L. Ann Marie
“Good job Brother, get a plate from it.” I keep watching. Got it! I run it again zooming in and tag the plate. “Jason check the yard for the plate I just dropped you then run it.” He rogers and I drop the feed on the flash. “Billy get the plate to Jason and drop me the section of feed.”
“Brantley what do you have so far?” I turn surprised to see Taylor and Jessie standing by Prez.
“One, the truck jammed at the gate, the guard went to move him when the feeds went down. It went hot just before.
“Two, because it’s so close to the daycare my best guess is that it jammed them too. We have no alerts or hits when I ran admin for the server. Jamming is the only other way to shut it down.
“Three, we didn’t see the car go hot because of Prince’s light, but it did just before it blew. The same thing happened with the truck.
“Four, running the feeds back we have two vehicles, one for the car running slow on northbound that tags hot just before it blew then on south for the truck just before it blew. This tells me they were blown by remote that had to be close to them.
“Five, Jason’s running the plates for both of those now.
“Six, we have a file labeled ‘Teller’s Ride’ with all the information we’ve gathered so far.
“Seven, I have a flash showing the feeds for all the vehicles I just mentioned.
“I haven’t had a chance to get into the Teller’s Ride file to give you anymore and I haven’t looked at the daycare feeds.”
They look surprised. “You did this while running control?” Prez asks.
“Well, not the whole time. I had Jason and Billy running the plates and throwing feeds while I ran the gate feed. It will take some time to get through all the information they dropped in the file. There’s over forty documents in it now and I need to see what happened in the daycare. I’m not even close to telling you all you need.”
Taylor and Jessie laugh. I look at them not getting it. Darren gives them a look and they stop. I look at Prez knowing he has more questions than I can answer, but he needs to know how we failed so it can be fixed. “How’d you track him when his tracking was off?”
I smile. “The alternates. When we lost the first satellite we lost tracking. We started adding the second tracking chips on the alternates whenever we put it in anything for the kids. Some of the new stuff on old ladies too.”
He shakes his head. “Is there anything I need to know right now?”
“I wish I could tell you more, but right now I’d say the daycare isn’t safe. We need the drivers from the vehicles that blew the car and truck. Because they’re still out there, how they got in can be given to anyone. Since the server and satellite wasn’t hit, our problem is jamming. I need to talk to Mitch about how to shield from that. The only way the kids will be safe is when that’s in place or if Security for them is in physical form.”
“Jesusfuckinchrist!” Jessie throws his hands up. His team is spread thin now.
I look at Prez. “I told Dell we appreciate their assistance, but you’d give Big K a call when this settled.”
“I did, thanks. You’ve done a good job, Brother. I like you running lead on control like Geek does on trafficking. You’ve gotten more information faster than ever before on top of getting Teller back. With the pictures Phoenix was throwing, we saw the feeds go down in the daycare. The side door was opened and Done had S48 move the kids because he heard something. Done was tasered when he pulled his phone to call in the lost feeds and Omega when he was jumping in front of Teller. Phoenix was already throwing to me. When I jumped into Ops, S48 went to check the feeds and was hit knocking him out. Brandon had the kids moving to the safe room, but Phoenix went back for Teller. He was already picked up in the hall. They ran with him when the fire alarm sounded. Again thanks to Brandon.”
“Holy shit.” My little buddy is the man!
“Yeah. Why I’m telling you is I don’t need the daycare information, the kids supplied it. What I need is who the fuck is gunning for the kids and a way to stop the jamming so we can keep them safe.”
I nod. “I’m on it Prez. Are we running Teams to pick up the pussies?”
He smiles. “Yeah. I have two teams to run tonight and four in the morning. I’m sure when MC gets this they’ll add more. I’d like this to be done before they can jump in.”
I nod and look at Jason. He gives a barely noticeable nod. “If you can give me ten minutes I’ll get you the addresses we have.” He nods.
I spin around and open the file then see the OC open for Jason. He’s dropping the addresses in for me. I put them on the locator form and send them to the printer. Opening the docs in the file I scan and find the owners of the truck and car and put them on a detail form giving what we know. Billy has some common names tagged and I look through adding them to the detail forms then sending them to print. When I feel like my ten minutes are up I grab the flash and pages and run to the meeting room. I set the flash on the computer and hand Prez the pages then sit. He reads them then looks at me. “How much am I missing?”
“It’s what I pulled from a quick scan. They’re still following leads, but I thought my ten minutes were up.”
He smiles. “Go nail this down. We may finish tonight.”
I get back and read the docs again making sure I didn’t miss anything. While I’m going through them, Jason and Billy are adding pages to the file. I’ve been adding new names for questioning to the detail forms as we get them. It’s easier to just put them on the board so Darren can give them to the teams to clear.
Our last lead dead ends just after five a.m. “We’re clear VP.”
He calls Dakota to be ready and sends Taylor back to the chopper. We wait for a clear from Jax. Running night Ops works well. People are scared and tired so they fuck up or give more information than if they were alert. Clean-up has four coming back to holding. Jax calls clear and I breathe easy once they get the bike secure and lift off. It’s been a fuck of a day.
Me, Jason and Billy head back to the compound. I check Mucimi, secure my gun and fall into bed. Holly rolls on me making me smile.
Chapter Twelve
Brantley
Alex and Trapper take Mucimi and Brandon fishing, cracking Holly up. I’m glad they do. I hate not keeping a promise.
In Ops I set a meeting with Mitch. We need a way to stop the jamming. I start going over all the docs from the Teller’s Ride file and make spreadsheets for the hologram board. Once all the names are in, I open it on the board. Prez comes in and I stand fast. “I’m working on connections now. I have a video chat set with Mitch for shielding at one.” Fuck I don’t have shit for him and I’m nervous.
He comes around my desk and hugs me. “Thanks for getting my boy back. Using alternative tracking was fuckin’ smart Brother.” I’m surprised and slap his shoulder.
He sits in front of my desk. “I already got a call from the MC. With nothing to do, I had Jacob send the Teller file up to them. They’ve been running the same leads we have. Geek says you did a hell of a job. That’s high praise coming from Geek.” That feels good. He looks at the board. “Every one of them connect? Do we have how?”
If we did, we’d have our threat’s name and face. “No, I just set it to the spreadsheet. I haven’t looked at the rest of what they pulled last night and this morning. I need the information from the detail lists that the Teams got.”
He nods. “Is there a hope to getting a shield for jamming?”
“There’s technology that stops signals from being transmitted, but it’s not used anywhere but government buildings and that’s with area limitations. Since I know about it, I’d guess what they actually have is better and hidden. If we could expand on what we know they have, it’s possible to get that here. Even with limited area we could shield buildings like the daycare, this building, and the PD. I don’t have the how, but Mitch might.”
He thinks for a minute then looks at me. “I’ll call and have Geek, Jeremy and Jared added to Mitch’s video cha
t. Maybe it will spark something or an idea.” I nod and watch him stand. “Billy working out all right?”
“Yeah. He worked with Rich a lot and makes excess comments, but he’ll get how it is it here. He’s right up there with Jason, but doesn’t have the hacker mentality. He runs through the programs we have like lightning, so it worked well last night.”
He nods. “I’ll get with them sometime today.” He walks out. I smile. They’ll be thrilled to have a good word from him. I always am.
Most of the time my job is not very exciting. I enjoy running leads until they play out. For the Kids’ Club and LB Security I ran a lot of code, building programs and getting the most we could out of the programs we had. Here I run leads and build on the information we have, getting clearer pictures of what we’re dealing with. I like it until I can’t go any further. It’s like hitting a brick wall. I have a new tier of people, but not the higher that gives me where the fuckin’ threat is coming from. It sucks.
Meeting with Mitch gives me hope. She’s seen the technology and had it in her rainy day file, but hadn’t done anything with it. She will now. The threat to the kids is a huge motivator to her. Justice and Aquyà were there and hidden by Brandon when Teller was taken. She’s not going to rest until she has something in place. Jeremy looks interested and asks for more information. VP says maybe something can be done with the items tracking is already on. It’s another thought and Mitch is nodding. Prez asks if getting them tracking under their skin would be better.
Mitch looks at me and I answer him. “The jammers stopped us from getting the regular tracking right up front. Once tracking was off they didn’t need the jammer on constantly. There will be people with the ability to use jammers the entire time. Mitch already has that technology. The tracking under the skin would be useless. The other side of that is if someone does get one of them they may dig under the skin to take it out.”
“Fuck.” He looks pale. I wouldn’t do it to Mucimi with the technology that’s out there now. Jeremy has that tracking and it comes in handy for us, but he’s also got the ability to keep himself safe.
Mitch looks at us and I can see she’s done. “I’ll start on this today and get back to you.”
Prez thanks her and we stay on with Geek, VP, Jeremy and Jared.
“Like the skin,” Jeremy says and I look at Jared.
VP nods. “Maybe on a cuff or jewelry.”
Jared has a thoughtful look on his face. “Jess isn’t into building that type of technology, but I can get with her once my mom comes up with something and get a way to make it part of personal security if it’s doable.”
Jeremy nods and stands up. VP laughs. “Goin’ to the Lab.” Geek cracks up.
I smile at Prez. “They’re going to build it.”
Prez thanks them and closes the chat down. “Good fuckin’ job Brother. I’ll breathe easier when it’s done, but at least now it’s being looked at. I can’t imagine all the shit she has in her rainy day file. She can be a little scary at times.”
I laugh. “She works for good, Prez. I’d be afraid if I ran up against her, not working with her.”
“Yeah.” He walks out and I think about that. What she can do is amazing and sometimes scary, but she builds to better our world. Even if that’s just to keep us safe.
I check the file and see nothing new was added. I’ll look again later. With nothing to hold me here I grab my bag and head for home.
***
Holly
I close my laptop and stretch. It feels good. Mucimi was tired when he came back from fishing. Alex and Brandon said he had fun. I smiled the whole time. How does a baby fish? When they left, I cracked up.
Since they fed him, I only had to wash and change him. He crawled into his teepee and fell asleep. That was two hours ago. I haven’t heard anything from the monitor so I go in to check on him. He’s sitting outside his teepee staring at his bed. I sit beside him and wonder what the heck he’s looking at. I wave my hand in front of his face, but he doesn’t even blink. Crap. What am I supposed to do for this? I pull my phone and call Lily. She has freaky kids she must know.
“Just a question, but it’s a weird one. Mucimi woke up from his nap and is staring at his bed but he’s not seeing his bed. He’s not seeing anything, like at all, just staring.”
She laughs. I hope that means it’s just a stupid question. “Teller freaked me out doing that one. The next week he had the dog bringing him toys.
Okay. I tell myself to stay calm. “We don’t have a dog.”
She laughs again this time longer. “Sorry, but you’ll get how funny that is when you get a handle on the a somethings.”
“A somethings?”
“Eliza’s name for them, the specials or ability kids.”
“How many are there?”
“So far all of ours.”
Crap, crap, crap! “Are there any normal kids here?”
She’s laughing again and I think I should have called Jess. “They’re all kids with abilities, but the abilities are all different. I can see not growing up with them would make this difficult, but they’re good kids, just a little freaky.”
I get freaky. I understand the Indian healing, the reading thing and the vision thing, but it doesn’t tell me what I’m supposed to do about Mucimi staring off not responding even to this whole weird conversation. Luckily I hear the door close. “Brantley just walked in. Thanks Lily.” I hear her laughing as I slide the phone off. I’m kind of relieved because I really don’t understand any of it; I just accept that it happens. “In Mucimi’s room!” He still doesn’t move.
“What are you doing?” He bends and kisses my head.
“Just watching him stare at nothing.” I wave my hand in front of his face to show Brantley what I mean.
“This is different.” He sits down.
“Lily said Teller did it just before he had the dog bringing him toys.”
He smiles. “We don’t have a dog.”
I throw my hands up. “That’s what I said! She laughed like it was funny.” I watch him try the wave in front of his face thing. It doesn’t work. “Do we move him or wake him up or something?”
He pulls his phone. “I’ll ask Dakota.”
I nod. Maybe he’ll have better luck. As he’s talking Mucimi moves his hands. He’s signing, ‘dad type.’ That’s cute. It would be cuter if he was looking at us, but at least he’s moving. Brantley slides his phone off and says Mucimi is throwing pictures to Justice.
I look at him wondering why he’s so calm. He’s throwing pictures. This is like the seeing Brantley at the hospital thing? Okay I can do this. “Does that mean he won’t feel pain if we’re not close now?”
He shrugs. “Throwing pictures to Justice is a big thing because they’re away from each other. He doesn’t have to see him to do it so maybe it will work that way for pain.”
“He’s signing the same thing over and over.”
“Yeah.”
Since he doesn’t explain, I sit and watch – telling myself they’re good kids, but a little freaky. Myself thinks they’re a lot freaky, but still good kids. It’s a calming thought for some reason. I’m bored and tell him I’m going to look for dinner. He nods and I lean over and kiss him. “I keep looking at my ring wondering if it was a dream. With it still on my finger, I know it wasn’t, it just feels like it.”
He smiles. “For me too babe.”
I have my head in the freezer when the door opens. I look thinking it is Jacob, but Dakota is walking in. “Hello Holly. Congratulations.”
“Thanks Dakota.” He doesn’t stop walking. I watch him go through the doorway smiling. Jess said all the kids are freaky. From what I’ve seen, most of the adults are too, even the ones that seem normal like Nancy. Who the hell can pick clothes like what I have? That’s got to be something freaky. She even got my favorite colors and I never said a word to her about clothes. They don’t have a problem with me being here and I don’t have anything freaky. Maybe they like mixi
ng the people up, I laugh at that thought, like watering down the blood lines.
Dakota laughs walking through. “Definitely need that here, freaky seems to be taking over.” He walks out.
I laugh so hard I sit on the floor before I fall. Jacob comes in and runs to me. “Laughing,” I tell him putting my hand up and laugh more. He’s looking at me like I’m crazy. I clamp my mouth closed and stand up. “They’re in Mucimi’s room.”
“Are you okay?” he asks like that’s never an option for me again.
I’m afraid to answer so I nod and stick my head back in the freezer looking for dinner and hoping I can hold the laugh in long enough for him to be gone. When I look back, he’s gone and I go into the bathroom to try and calm down with my head between my knees. Holy crap. I get a hold of myself and go back to the kitchen.
Brantley comes in with a moving Mucimi in his arms. He starts jumping up and down and I’m relieved. “I’m glad he’s back to moving.”
Jacob laughs. “He threw pictures to me letting me know Brantley was done with work.” I thought he was sending pictures to Justice. I nod like I understand. “My shift was canceled last night. I thought I did something wrong, but they were running Ops. I can’t believe Teller was taken right from the daycare. No one tells me shit here.”
“Teller was taken from the daycare?” I look from Jacob to Brantley. My stomach drops and I think I’m going to be sick.
“We got him back within an hour. He’s fine and home safe.”
My body starts shaking and he hands me Mucimi. I hug him tight. He could be taken from daycare. Crap, crap, crap! “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t Lily tell me?” They are very strange people, but I would tell someone if they called me. Hell I’d probably call them freaking out.
“He’s back Holly. Everyone is safe and I haven’t had much time to talk to you since it happened.”
He’s serious. I look at Jacob. He shrugs. “See what I mean, they don’t tell you shit, then it’s over. Jeremy throws me every fuckin’ thing. Here I get nothing except Mucimi.”