by P. S. Power
No, the issue there was that they were acting like they knew her at the same time. As if she were intimately part of their operations. It hadn’t been the feeling with the others, at all. Brian clearly knew Kate, since the woman was hunting him like a prime stag. Denis and Kerry had both responded to her like she was very nearly a stranger.
None of the Agents were doing that. They kind of did with him, though not the others.
She glanced at him, and then shrugged.
“They do more of the day to day work, really. So, benefit more from my attention. That’s all it is.”
The others looked at her then, because she was being weird. Basically, reading his mind, even if it worked differently than that. From her old description, if he recalled that part right, she just understood things, to her own perception. There had to be more to it than that, but it wasn’t the same as hearing what anyone was thinking directly.
It also wasn’t his business, except that he didn't really want to be nabbed by the feds, if he could help it. Sure, they were in with him on the one job, so far, and Kerry had claimed he was untouchable for petty or even major theft, as far as the real law went… A lifetime of avoiding a certain kind of person wasn’t just going to go away in an instant, even given all of that. For one thing, he wasn’t all that certain how much of it was real or not. Using him to get the work done, then tossing him in a cell kind of made a certain level of sense to him.
That idea got him looked at by Kate again, and she shook her head, but didn’t comment this time. Which could mean anything from her claiming it wasn’t the truth at all, to wanting to talk about it, but later, when the suits and possibly the others, were all gone.
The fellow in front, holding the folder, looked through it quickly, as everyone else just stood there, waiting. Finally, he nodded. It was terse and seemed a bit pissed off.
“There’s a short time window for the pickup. We’ll probably be facing enemy fire at the same time. Denis, can you take out the driver, do you think? The guards as well? Then we’ll just have to get inside the vehicle, if we can, before reinforcements get there. After that… Well, then it’s a car chase, probably. This facility seems connected, so we have to figure that the police will be brought in. Even if we can legally remove the boy from them, being our area, the boys and girls in blue won’t know that at first. How do we get around that?”
To Howard it seemed obvious enough. After all, they had time to prepare.
“Dress as cops. That way NYPD will back you up first thing. It won’t hold up under scrutiny, but if we can get some cars for you, that will buy you some time. Then you put little Noah in the back seat and just drive away. It’s illegal, but…” Well, if they wanted to be law abiding, they needed to not help out with heists and kidnappings.
Tall blond suit grinned a bit. He seemed a little tense, but didn't scream about the idea.
“Not too horrible. We can refine that, I bet. The police know their own and will see too many little discrepancies. We can go in as EMTs? Possibly fire rescue. That will give us nearly the same coverage from the locals, without sending up half the red flags.”
That got a nod, from several of the other men. Given it was their behinds on the line, that probably meant they had a good idea. It sounded about right to him. Then, his police plan wasn’t a horrible one. At least he didn’t think so.
They spoke for a bit, with Denis finally speaking up. Kerry was behind him, looking around the place they were in, which was just the woods, as far as Howard could tell. There wasn’t even a path, just soft loamy earth below them.
He got what had been said on that score, without asking. It was a different reality. One that felt pretty nice, as for what he could see. Wild looking, but that didn't mean the whole place was, really. They had forests back home, after all. It could be like that.
Den tapped his watch.
“Fourteen minutes. Brian needs to get set?” That was to the plan.
Howie nodded, feeling like people were going to ignore him for being too young seeming. No one had at all, though. Which probably meant the only age driven bigot in the group was him. Looking down on people for being too young like he did.
“Get on that Yi? Anyone have anything else to set up? We need a way to keep in touch.” He thought for a few seconds, then shook his head a little.
“Get with that Cindy? She can do that part for us, if she isn’t too busy. I bet that’s harder to trace than the phone is. We should try to keep the contact down, if we can.” He snapped his fingers then, recalling something. “Right! Alibis on the day of the event and before that. We all need to be seen doing something that’s public and recorded, as close to the job as possible. Normally we’d need to fake that, but we have Yi doing transport, so that will be fast enough. Do we have a backup plan for that? In case he gets… Um, called away?” They could build a little time into the schedule, but if he had to take someone’s place at the wrong time, that could keep them from moving in, or out, to plan.
They could take a half month to get out of the area though, on the far side. Not making the hit window on the front would ruin everything.
Leader suit tilted his head.
“Lariat, from Team Four? He can do the teleportation in a pinch. Solid Operative. Locked on, with no mental or emotional issues.” That got a look around, but the taller man in black grunted a little.
“Also, flashy as heck when he does his trick. It’s distinctive and can be traced. If we have to use him, we will, but it would be better if we didn’t. We could get Sinclair in for it? She’ll have to bring everyone in one at a time, and can only go about fifty miles or so that way, right?”
Brian nodded.
“Less, if she’s carrying someone else. That would probably be too slow. I might know a guy that can help with that. Or we could… I don’t know. I’ll make sure that I’m ready, but I don’t have control over all of it.”
Which was a problem.
Howard shrugged then.
“If too many things fall through, we abort and reset. That will mean a lot of kids being raped and possibly killed between times. Us messing this up won’t help them either, so we do what we have to that way. The smaller the operation, the better, of course. This is already growing out of control. It’s taking what should be an impossible job for a normal crew and turning it into two massive things already. We have ten people in on a three-man job, as well. That’s a lot of variables. Not that we don’t have a decent base plan. Just that, if it comes to it, we need to retreat, rather than get caught.”
To him that sounded almost too simple, but from the looks on other people’s faces, opinions varied on the idea. Yi shook his head, and Den looked pissed about the concept.
Tall blond suit wearing man both frowned and nodded.
“I hear that. I agree, too. If we have to pull the operation, then we do it and fall back. We can help those kids more by being able to take a second or even third stab at things than we do by having our people killed. Brian?”
The man rolled his eyes.
“Transferring out in twenty-two seconds…”
The world turned green again, and they were back in the other pine grove. The sparser one that smelled more of dust and less of rich earth and sap.
Katie cleared her throat.
“Twenty-seven seconds. You need to tighten that up a bit, Brian. We can work on that later?”
She was being playful about it, but Howard nodded.
“It’s already in the plans. We also need to get the explosives practice worked up. Do you have anything for that?”
That, it turned out, was very doable. Not there, at the IPB base, of course. Rather, they had everything needed in a different location. It might be noticed, so they had to go around that part of things. Since it was him that had to know how to use it at the right time, Howard was going to push for at least one, if not two, full practice runs on it first. More than that, really, though he got that making things explode a hundred times would be too exp
ensive.
That didn't mean seeing, hearing and feeling it once or twice wouldn’t help him a lot. Also, he had to have a backup plan for that, meaning they needed the same kind of bulletproof window to work on. Several of them, if it was possible. Combining the various projects made a lot of sense to him, so he tried to work out how to get that part done. They’d also need tools and a safe.
Without doing more than nodding, somberly, the five men that had come, their kidnapping crew, or most of it, walked off. It was still daylight, but if they’d been informed correctly, it should look like they walked out, waited two minutes and went back in. That wasn’t a night op, but they seemed like pros, so would figure that part out on their own.
Brian had kept them under the trees, which was probably on purpose. That way satellites wouldn’t find them as easily.
Speaking softly, Howard waved to get Yi’s attention, moving toward him, his hands out to grab people. Katie did the same thing, getting his plan already.
“Back to our base. As fast as you can.”
He took the other man by the arm, and snagged Kerry by the hand with Kate, or Brie as they were calling her for the job, on the other side, with Denis.
When the front room of the nice house blinked into being, the woman nodded.
“Seventeen seconds that time. Better. We need to get that down as well. What’s next on the docket, counselor?” That was a funny turn of phrase, even if it kind of made sense.
She was looking at him directly, so Howard shrugged.
“Everyone should take a break and make sure to get plenty of sleep. Working too hard will make people stale. We have a deadline, but everyone has been doing well, so far. No drinking or drugs… Other than that, meet back here for breakfast at seven tomorrow?” That was just because he was an early riser, or had been when he was younger. Old habits had died down as he got older, since it didn’t matter at all.
Now, suddenly, it felt like it did.
Everyone else, except Brie, seemed at a loss then.
Denis finally just shrugged.
“We could… watch a movie?”
Their hostess just laughed a bit.
“Great plan. I’ve stolen the prerelease for the new Star Wars? You saw the new one, right?”
Howard hadn’t even heard that they were doing one of those, being out of life for a while. Denis actually grinned.
“The one with the Mary Sue girl who could do no wrong? I actually liked it. I know that makes me one of the fifty percent that did. That sounds fun. I should change first. I think I have some things that will fit you, Rich?”
That was nice of the man to think of, since he didn’t really have anything there yet. That needed to be stolen, of course.
Which got him to snap his fingers.
“Right. I need to corrupt Kerry here some more. We should get some things from a thrift shop, and have you make some outfits out of them for me. That’s work though. I’m fine for now.”
They were supposed to be resting and having fun, after all.
It turned out that Denis didn't mind watching things twice, so they sat through the other movie in the new trilogy first. It was interesting, since he’d actually seen the old ones in the theater, back in the seventies. The same people showed up in these. Even the whining boy, Luke. That, interestingly enough, was different, since Hamilton seemed to have actually learned how to act in the decades between the two shows. The girl that was the main character was a bit perfect all the time, but other than that, not bad. There were reasons given for it, so it worked for him.
She lacked a bit in charisma, and sex appeal, but no one had ever said that a space wizard needed to be a bombshell.
At nine, or a little past, he got off to bed. That part was interesting, since before his head hit the pillow, Tabby was there, next to him.
“Meow.” The word was conversational, seeming to be more about how his day had gone, than anything else.
The feeling from her in that regard was strange. Pointed and focused, as if she really meant to be asking about things like that.
“Not so bad. Things are a little hectic around here. Stressful. That’s how good jobs go, though. You scramble to make sure everything is being done right and cover it all ten times more than you think you should have to.” He stopped then, and nodded. “And your day?”
That was different, since the single meow that came at him told him a lot. About how she’d managed to get outside and hunt for a while. Several insects had died that day. There had also been a strange man, who’d come and watched the house. A picture of him tried to come up, but it was just a light-colored blob with two arms and legs. A human, but not anything more specific than that.
Thinking fast, he nodded.
After all, they might be being watched. Why that was, he didn't understand, but if it was happening, they needed to get on top of it. Not that he was going to be doing anything about it right then. After all, he needed to sleep and frankly, sneaking around in the dark, for no real reason, wasn’t the best or most efficient use of his time, personally.
Rest didn’t really come easily that night. It wouldn’t, being that there was a job in the offing. It was too exciting. Like Christmas was coming for a gentile kid. After a while he managed to get to sleep, not waking up until about six. There was light coming through the window, and handily enough, even though he was on the second floor, a peeper was right there as well.
The man looked to be about thirty, and seemed too heavy to have scaled the side of the building. He was wearing a distinctive white ball cap and a light-colored shirt. A button up that reminded Howard of what Safari hunters used to wear on television, back in the seventies or eighties. Tan in color.
Instead of screaming, since the man was just taking pictures, he got up, shirtless, wearing only tight shorts, and ambled over to the window. The man tried to get away, but he couldn’t negotiate the ladder fast enough.
Not that Howie bothered to use that, himself. No, he just hopped to the right, where there was a first-floor overhang. Then he dangled and dropped, rolling at the bottom of the move to absorb the force of it.
Doing that meant he was behind the ladder before the other man was even halfway down. Then, given the load he was carrying, a camera in one hand and an extra hundred and fifty pounds or so, all over, that was probably fair enough.
“Hello. I couldn’t help but notice that you were peeking through my window? Mind sharing why with me?” It was hard not to sound upset about it. The man was probably trying for one of the girl’s rooms and had missed, getting him, instead.
Without missing a beat, the man, about four feet from the bottom of the green ladder, made a soft noise.
“Just getting some pictures. You have Denis Tompkins and Kerry Yoder in there. I was hoping to get pics of them doing it. You know, having sex? Even kissing or holding hands would do it. Instead I get some kid. I don’t suppose you’re famous at all?”
The man kept coming down, forcing Howard to step back and let him. At least if he didn’t want to fight about it. That was tempting, even though violence wasn’t his way in life. At the moment that was a no go, however. Doing anything that might jeopardize the job was. Having the police called to investigate a break in, or a fight would put him on the books as well. At the moment he didn't have identification, which was an oversight on his part. All he had was a fake name, or an old name that would hold up, but mark him as being ninety-four, not the age he looked at the moment.
So, he just spoke, trying to seem confident.
“Nope. Not even a little bit. I’m also pretty sure that Kerry and Denis aren’t doing things like that. Related, you know? Both seeing other people, too, so I bet that just doesn’t come up for them, day to day.” It was still possible, of course. People did weird sex things from time to time. The idea of a guy doing his half-sister wasn’t even that strange, being from an incest family like they were.
Which was probably what the hefty fellow had in mind as well.
&n
bsp; “I know. I just figured I’d give it a try. I don’t… This is just a hobby for me. I take pictures of interesting people and things and put them up on line, you know?”
That sounded like a good story. Too good, actually. Howard hadn’t asked for that much information at all. Which meant that the guy probably had more than that going on. The problem there was that, while Katie could probably pick up what the man wanted with them, she wasn’t there to see who the fellow was.
Hitting him and dragging him inside were possible enough to do, but could cause problems. Instead, he shrugged.
“Well, I don’t know that I can get sex pictures for you like that, but I bet they’ll pose for some more normal things? If we ask nicely enough. Come on. We can ask, if nothing else. I’m Rich.” He didn't give his fake last name, since people didn’t normally do that.
Instead he just walked away, expecting the other man to trundle off, probably down toward the beach, since going up the hill behind them would be more work and slow him down.
Instead the guy just followed him to the door, the ladder being left in place, against the side of the house.
“Really? That’s nice of you. I’m Barry. Barry Simons. I live in the area.”
Trying not to roll his eyes at the lies, Howard walked, making a point of staying far enough ahead of the other man that hitting him wasn’t going to work too well. Just as they got to the kitchen, the man surged forward, trying to do exactly that.
It didn’t work too well, since Kerry spun and glared at the fellow, pinning him against the far wall, with her mind.
Howard nodded at her then.
“That is such a good trick. You need to teach me that one, some day.”
Then they called for help. Loudly.
Chapter twelve
The whole thing was decently funny, when Katie got into the room and saw the fat man hanging on her wall. Being glared at a bit by a rather red faced and pissed seeming Kerry. Brian had a gun in his hand when he got into the room. A small black thing that was pointed, not at the subdued fellow decorating the room, but at everything else.