Trying Times (The Valens Legacy Book 14)

by Jan Stryvant

  "The clothes and everything in them are clean," Rachel said and passed them back.

  "Put your clothes back on, Elliana," Cali told her. After she'd finished dressing, Cali continued.

  "Elliana, are your roommates also playing the game for the voice?"

  "Yes, yes they are."

  "Do you remember when you first heard the voice?"

  "When I was ten! My parents took me there! I was scared at first, but the voice made everything better."

  "Who are your parents?"

  Elliana cocked her head a moment. "I don't know. I think they're dead."

  "So you haven't seen them since they left you with the voice?"

  "Nope!"

  "Do you remember what they looked like?"

  Elliana cocked her head again, and hesitated a moment. "I think so?"

  "Do you remember any of the other people you've met since the voice sent you here?"

  "I'm not supposed to," Elliana said, sounding a little guilty.

  "What if the voice asked you to?"

  "Oh! Then I would!"

  Cali nodded and thought a moment.

  "Where there other games you were trained to play?"

  "Oh, yes! There were several, but this is my favorite! The voice even told me so!"

  "What were those games?"

  "Well, I was taught how to poison people, how to shoot them, and even how to make a bomb and blow myself up!" Elliana giggled. "I didn't do very good at blowing myself up, I kept setting the bomb off at the wrong time.

  "But I was really good at poisoning them! That's why I work at the coffee shop!"

  "Have you ever poisoned anyone at the coffee shop?"

  Elliana frowned. "No. But they did tell me I would get to play that game one day!" she said, smiling again.

  "I'm done," Cali said.

  "Elliana," Stewart said, "this is the voice talking; you remember the voice, right? I'm the one who tells you what to do."

  Elliana nodded. "I remember."

  "You're not to remember anything of what you did from the moment you left the takeout place today until you get home. Okay?"

  "Sure!"

  "And if you need to talk to me, you're no longer going to go down to the beach and swim to Europe."

  "I'm not?"

  "No, you're going to travel to Reno by airplane, and when you get there, you go to the police station and tell them you're looking for Stewart. Okay?"

  "Okay!"

  Stewart nodded. "Come on, Elliana, I'll take you back to your car. Remember, I am the voice now, and you will do whatever I say whenever you hear my voice."

  "Okay!"

  They watched while Stewart took her back to the car. She got in it and drove off.

  "You know, I thought what you did to her was scary," Billie said as Stewart rejoined them, "up until I heard the bit about 'the voice'! Damn, that's just messed up!"

  Stewart shivered a bit, put an arm around Rachel, and hugged her.

  "That's not the worst of it," he said.

  "How does it get any worse?"

  "I think they wiped her mind clean before they did that to her. That's why she's so bubbly and shallow sounding; that's all there is left of her. I don't even know if she can be fixed."

  "So it was magic then?"

  "I'm not sure. I didn't see any traces of it, but I'd have to spend some time on her. I'm not a real expert on mind control."

  Cali sighed. "It can be done without magic. They got her when she was too young to have much resistance, when she was still easy to mold. Then they made her into what they wanted her to be. There are drugs that help, and I'm sure they used them all on her. It's not like they expect her to be of use for long. But," Cali looked around the van, "when this is done, we're taking all four of them back to Reno."

  "Why?"

  "Because they deserve more than to be thrown away. If Stewart or someone else can remove their conditioning, they deserve a chance like I was given."

  "You weren't conditioned, Cali," Sean said and, sliding over, he gave her a hug.

  "Actually, I was," Cali sighed, "but not as badly as that."

  "Well, let's catch up with the others and find out if the stakeout of the house has turned up anything."

  "I guess we struck out here, then?" Billie asked.

  Sean shook his head. "No, we learned something, something important."

  "Yes, the people who did this could teach my cousins something about cold-blooded cruelty," Cali said sadly.

  "So nothing from the stakeout then?" Sean asked when they got back to the office.

  "Nope, nothing yet." John sighed. "I think once the sun sets I'm going to fly one of my micro-drones in there and see what I can find. If things look safe enough, we can go inside and see what's really going on."

  "This whole thing seems way too far over the top for something as simple as spying," Sean said.

  "Not really," John said. "You have to look at it from the point of view of a country. They have all sorts of intelligence assets and sources. But the problem is always which ones are good? Which ones are bad? Who's been suborned, turned, or discovered? How do you find out?"

  "I don't follow you."

  "These girls are throw-aways. Probably rejects from some more intense training program for spies or whatever. They're too attractive; that makes them worthless for normal work."

  "It does? Why?"

  "Because a good spy doesn't stand out, he blends in. Also, maybe they didn't train up right or something. So rather than just dispose of them, they put them in a place like this. There are no visible connections between them and any agency. All the gear is old, and there's nothing in their house at all. If anything happens, they're programmed to suicide in a manner that won't leave any bodies floating around. The girls just disappear."

  "Okay," Sean said slowly, "but what are they getting for this?"

  "Confirmation. These girls are picking up information that may be minor, but when you're getting a lot of it from a number of different sources, a team of analysts can put it all together and use that to validate their main sources, or better yet, find out which main sources aren't producing anymore.

  "Think of them as canaries."

  "That's not a very pleasant picture, John," Sean said, shaking his head.

  "Yeah, I know. But I watched a group of people slaughter a bunch of helpless women and children just 'cause they could. When you give some people the whole 'your country is depending on you' speech and tell them the lives of everyone they know and love depend on them, I guess some folks just lose any morals they might have had. That or they just pick really heartless bastards to do the job."

  "Stewart wants us to grab them before we leave," Sean said, "and I'm afraid to say 'no', because then am I any better than the people who did this in the first place?"

  "Why not just have him do to the other three what he did to that one?"

  "I'm thinking about it, trust me. But I'm also thinking about finding out who did this and killing them all."

  "Yeah, well, one battle at a time there, Sean. This one isn't your battle, though it may be worthwhile to tell your Secret Service friends about what we found. If you think you can trust them, that is."

  "I think I'm gonna drag one of the wives off and try to forget about all of this for a while. Call me before you leave."

  "Course I will, I need Cali, and I know she won't go without you."

  "What do you need Cali for?"

  "Those cameras are old Eastern Bloc tech. She was trained on a lot of their security systems. That, and Sheila's been teaching her the new stuff, which still makes her better than anyone else around here right now."

  Sean nodded. "Later," he said and went off in search of something a bit less depressing. All this time he'd thought magic users were the worst, and then he'd gone and found someone who raised the bar.

  Sean was watching John and Cenna, who were both flying a pair of micro-drones, examining the outside of the house. It was after eight, so while
it was dark out, there was still a lot of traffic throughout the neighborhood, which both covered the noise of the drones, and helped keep their parked van from standing out.

  "See anything, Cenna?" John asked. Both of them were wearing VR headsets; apparently the drones had dual cameras and gave a complete 3D view to the pilots. Sean was impressed; the level of John's gear had really improved over the last year.

  "No, there's nothing out here at all."

  "Okay, I'll go in; you stay outside and watch the door for me."

  "Got it."

  Sean watched the monitors over their heads; he could see it as they flew up to the window. Cenna was careful to stay back and well clear of the cameras and other gear, as John carefully flew to the top of the window casing, staying just outside, and slowly scanned the room.

  "Stop!" Cali said.

  "What is it?" John asked.

  "See that small rectangle up to the left?"

  Sean watched as the view shifted until the device in question was in the center.

  "Is that a motion sensor?" John asked.

  "Yes, it's a cheap store-bought one. Easy to defeat. It's infra-red activated, so don't shine any lights on it, and don't get too close. Your drones are small enough it shouldn't see you if you stay close to the ceiling. What else is in there?"

  As they continued to watch, John scanned the rest of the room. There was a second motion detector in the room, but it was set to focus on the door.

  "What's that on the ceiling?" Sean asked.

  The view tilted up.

  "Looks like a small garage door opener," John said, and then slowly turned in place. "Yup. They have a shutter that rolls up and down."

  "I'm ready," Cali said, then smiled. "Let's go take a look!"

  Sean gave Cali a hug and a kiss, and then Roxy, who was going with her. Both of them, as well as John, had told him he couldn't go. Not because he was a target or they were worried about him, but because he was simply too big to squeeze in through the window without blocking the cameras looking out of it.

  Both of the girls were dressed in dark clothing so they wouldn't stand out, with black stocking caps to hide their hair. Once in the backyard, they'd roll them down further to hide their faces, just in case.

  Roxy peered out the door to make sure the coast was clear, then she slipped out, with Cali close behind. Sean watched as they disappeared into the shrubs between the houses, and then went back to watching the displays and listening to Cali and Roxy on the radio.

  Roxy led the way, looking around carefully. She had shifted into her hybrid form as soon as she was out of sight. She had better hearing, better night vision, and a heightened sense of smell this way, which would cut down the odds of them being surprised by anything.

  When they came to the back of the house, they stopped and looked around. The house was split into an upstairs and a downstairs apartment. While the upstairs appeared to be empty, the downstairs was not, and they had to be careful not to be seen by the couple living there.

  "Okay, let's go," Roxy whispered and dashed across the backyard quickly. Jumping up, she caught the edge of the roof in her hands and pulled herself up onto it.

  Cali followed along behind her as Roxy dropped a rope, which she then wrapped around her body as she dug all four sets of claws into the roof.

  Cali climbed up the rope quickly, then carefully moved over to the window as Roxy recoiled the rope.

  "Cenna, you can move out of the way now," Cali said over the radio, and the small drone, which had been hovering by the window, pulled back to the other side of the yard.

  "How do we get in?" Roxy asked as Cali surveyed the scene.

  "Carefully," Cali said with a smile, and as Roxy watched, she took her small pack off and pulled out two small plastic bundles. She then pulled out two hand pumps.

  "Here, pump one of these up," Cali said, handing Roxy one of the plastic bundles and a pump. It looked like an air mattress.

  "What are these for?"

  "To block the sensors," Cali told her. "They work by detecting body heat. We fill these up, give them a few minutes to equalize, then set them in front of the sensors."

  "Wouldn't it be quicker just to blow then up?"

  "The air coming out of your lungs is too hot."

  "Oh!" Roxy said, then smiled a little guiltily. "I'm not used to being the one who doesn't know the answers."

  "Oh, I don't know, you sure know how to abuse our husband."

  "Well, that's only because I've had a lot of practice," Roxy said with a snicker as she attached the pump and started to inflate the mattress. "What's your excuse?"

  "Years of unclean living!" Cali giggled back. "Though I am surprised at how much he likes his butt rubbed. I can understand the neck, but his rump?"

  "Oh, it's a cat thing." Roxy giggled. "Haven't you noticed I like it too?"

  "Um, girls, you know everyone can hear you, right?" Sean grumbled over the radio.

  "Well, he definitely likes to pay attention to all our butts!" Cali giggled back.

  "Yes, he definitely has very talented teeth, as well!"

  "Not to mention his tongue!"

  "Girls!" Sean sighed, blushing now. Travis' team and several members of the local DC team were in the area in different cars, and they were all listening in.

  Cali winked at Roxy, who was smiling back at her as she carefully unhooked the pump from the now filled mattress.

  "Okay, back to work," Cali said.

  "But we didn't talk about those well-trained hands of his, did we?" Roxy replied as Cali cautiously peeked inside the window.

  "Oh, I think I enjoy the tongue a little bit more," Cali whispered and took in the situation. The cameras and the gear were all mounted far enough back that she could squeeze through on the right side of the window without obscuring their view. Pushing the air mattress through first, she angled it between herself and the sensor, then very slowly started to climb inside.

  "Entering," she said.

  "That's my favorite part, too," Roxy teased.

  Cali stopped and looked back at Roxy as they heard Sean sigh very loudly over the radio.

  "Is there something you want to tell us, my Husband?" Cali asked.

  "I love you both; now be careful, so I can give you the kind of tongue lashing you so obviously desire." Sean grumbled then. "Right after I put you both over my knee and give you the spankings you so richly deserve!"

  "I love you, too," Cali said, grinning back at Roxy, then continued her entry into the room.

  "I'm in. Let me set up the mattress, then it's your turn, Rox."

  Pulling out a roll of painter's tape, Cali got the mattress in position, then took Roxy's mattress and put it in place for the other sensor as Roxy slipped into the room.

  "Okay, time to give this place the once over," Roxy said as they took out their own flashlights, being careful not to shine on anything that would give them away to the recorders.

  "Huh, the entire room is painted black," Roxy noticed as Cali examined the equipment.

  "This is all older equipment," Cali said. "Well used, too. Lots of scratches. There are some numbers and other markings on it; give me a moment to copy them down."

  "What are they connected to?"

  "A couple of small boxes..." Cali paused a moment. "This is not something I'm familiar with, John, could you fly over here and take a look at this, please?"

  "What is it?" John asked as he carefully moved the micro-drone from the corner of the room it had been hovering in.

  "Network equipment."

  "What?"

  "I think it's one of those 'wifi' things," Cali said, moving aside for the drone.

  "Well, I'll be. It's a new one, too. They probably come by once a day, connect from the street, and download everything from the night before."

  John thought a moment. "Is there a computer nearby?"

  "I'm not sure," Cali said.

  "I see it," Roxy said. "It's a really small one. About five by five by two. It's got a lo
t of wires attached to it. Says 'System Seventy-Six' on the top of it."

  "Any open USB ports?"

  "Several."

  "Great, give me a moment. Cenna, bring your drone back, you gotta make a delivery. Give me five minutes, girls."

  "Okay. We'll just talk about Sean some more." Roxy giggled.

  "You know you're only digging the hole deeper, right?" Sean growled.

  "But we like it deeper!" Cali snickered.

  Sean sighed as John and Cenna both started laughing. No doubt there were a lot of very entertained wolves listening in right now.

  Five minutes later Cenna's drone returned and flew into the room.

  "Take the USB stick off the bottom," John told them, "and plug it into one of the open ports."

  "What are we doing?" Roxy asked as she carefully did as she was told.

  "Infecting them. I've already scanned the WiFi networks in the area. Theirs is a hidden one. This will let me pick it up and tap into their machine. Let me know when the light on the stick stops flashing."

  "It just stopped," Roxy said after a minute.

  "And there's the network. Okay, give me a moment... got it! I'm in! And sorry, Sean, but Cenna's more my type," he added with a snicker.

  "Okay, Roxy, pull the key out. Cover up your traces and come back to the van, we're done here."

  The Reveal

  "Okay, so what did we learn tonight?" Sean asked as they sat around in Steve's office.

  "Well," John started off, looking up from his laptop, "it's all old Soviet-era gear, and I mean ancient. From like, before the wall came down. They just hooked a bunch of brand-new off-the-shelf converter dongles up and plugged them into that small computer, which just stores the streams. Then someone logs in remotely over the Wi-Fi and downloads everything."

  "Why would they use such old equipment?" Tisha asked.

  John shrugged. "Because they already had it? The gear may be old, but it still works. Money-wise, they spent less than five grand on everything in that room. The biggest outlay, I'd say, is the rent."

  "John's already told me he thinks this whole affair is a low-budget one." Sean sighed.

  "Also," John continued, "the kind of surveillance gear they're using is custom made and easily traceable, if you use something new. Everything in there is either old or something easily bought in any computer store. Whoever is doing this is either on a tight budget, wants people to think that the Russians are doing it, or they just don't want anyone to figure out they are doing it."