by Alec Peche
“I assume the Brotherhood didn’t bother you yesterday.”
Damian paused debating whether to tell her, but since they were co-parenting Hermione, he supposed he should say something in case she ended up with sole possession of the kid.
“Actually, I guess I should have called you last night. They attacked around mid-day. I had help from two different police agencies.”
“Oh my gosh Damian, you should of called and updated me. Did the police catch them?”
“I don’t know and no. A boat came over with five presumably gang members. Two got on my island and three drove away with a copter chasing them. I didn’t hear if they found them, but I don’t know why they wouldn’t have, but they didn’t call me to let me know.”
“How about the two guys on your island?” Ariana asked urgently. “Surely they caught them?”
“No actually they didn’t. Apparently they had wet suits on under their clothes and carried mini-scuba units and masks. You’ve probably seen them; you can carry them on your shoulder in case your own unit fails. They’re good for like five minutes of breathing. They dove into the water and disappeared. They must have come by earlier and buried a regular scuba set near some landmark under water as we never saw them again.”
“Maybe they bled to death and a shark ate them.”
“If only I could be so lucky. Anyway, I’m safe and I’ll tell you more about my evening later. I’m completely unharmed.”
“You live a dangerous life. We need to do some planning on what I’m going to do if you fail to defend yourself. We have Hermione now and I don’t have your expertise to create identities. If either of us dies, the other person has to completely assume care and legal guardianship of her and we need to make sure all of our ducks are in order.”
“Ah, good point, Ariana. I’ll think about your issue and you do also and we’ll talk to make sure it’s all set up. Do you want me to come over about noon?”
“Yeah, we’ll see you then.”
They ended the call and Damian thought ‘whoops’ he should have thought of the very issue that Ariana brought up. They had taken control of the teenager without any legal approval. If Ariana died, he needed a legitimate legal course to care for her. Likewise if he died, Ariana needed enough of a paper trail that her right to the kid would never be challenged by anyone other than Hermione’s real parents.
He went down to his lab to pack his scuba supplies and air canisters thinking about what he’d done to create Hermione’s background to get her into school. He felt really good about the set-up and didn’t think there was anything more he could do. He would leave the kid perhaps half of his large estate. Ariana could easily cover the kid’s expenses including college, but perhaps that half of his estate would give her the financial freedom to do whatever she wanted.
He turned back to the location for Barbara Watson and dropped Natalie a note asking her if she could tell from the police report if they used Luminol on her house or car. Some of the police abbreviations were hard to decipher, so he couldn’t always understand a report.
He then sat in front of his computer terminals and put some thought into how he would increase his security. He had cameras around his island looking out onto the water. Perhaps if he put some kind of facial or object recognition software in place, it would sense the approach of the men that had attacked his island. Trouble was he doubted that the same ones would be back. He studied the men on board the boat and those that made it ashore.
They were so convinced that they could conquer his island that they failed to try and hide their identity. He would have thought that they would at least wear balaclavas. He studied their images and wondered what he could program into the alarm system? Search for white and heavily tattooed individuals that were on a direct course for his island. Looking at the film of both attacks, the men were indeed Caucasian. Most of them you could see had many tattoos. Not one of them had a naked arm free of tattoos. It was a vague description but better than nothing. He bet he’d get a lot of false alarms. How many sailors out in San Francisco bay had tattoos? A lot he’d guess. He would set the alarm to ring at a distance of one-hundred yards and see how many alarms he got. If the bells were going off hourly that would drive him nuts and he would reduce the range. So far they had strictly gone for daytime attacks. Maybe he would have to add some night vision lenses to the cameras at night for better detection in the dark.
He was out of time so he set his system, made sure the cats kibble and water bowls were full, than took off for Ariana’s house. He decided to take a fast and circuitous route around Alcatraz Island. He hadn’t seen anyone following him on the water and they didn’t know where his watercraft garage was so in theory they were watching the wrong side of his island, but it never paid to be careless with his, Ariana’s, and Hermione’s security.
Despite his detour he was soon pulling up to Ariana’s dock. The little two seater was a joy to drive and ever so quick. Miguel greeted him as he pulled up, ball in mouth. He flung the ball up on the sand as it wasn’t time yet for him to get wet. He pulled a chair up at the island to watch Ariana put the final touches on their meal. Hermione was watching and duplicating Ariana’s motions where possible. They both seemed relaxed and content.
“How’s it going? Need any help with your homework?”
Hermione rolled her eyes and replied, “I do my homework while I’m sitting in class.”
“Really, how do you listen to the teacher and respond if you’re concentrating on homework?”
“You must be really old or not as smart as I am when you attended school. I can do all three at once. I’ve always gotten good grades for class participation.”
“I think it’s that I’m old. I grew up in foster care so no one paid attention to whether my homework was done, but I guess I probably did what you’re doing.”
“Wow, you grew up in foster care. That sucks!”
Then as though a switch had been turned on, out of nowhere it seemed, Hermione sobbed, “Oh my gosh, I’m in foster care. I’m an orphan just like you Damian.”
Ariana and Damian hugged the girl as a unit. Ariana was tearing up and Damian thought great I’m hugging two water pots.
“You know, I never got to stay with anyone as smart and cool as Ariana. I stayed with one boring couple after another. I was never an only child in a household. Your situation may be temporary or it may be permanent until you leave for college if we don’t find your parents by then. They could be looking for you right now, but we’ve done such a good job creating a new identity that you’ll be hard to find. Let’s hope they see your Facebook post to know that you’re alive.”
They could feel her rub her face on Damian’s shirt to dry her tears and then she leaned back a little embarrassed.
Ariana saw the look and said, “Sweetie, you’ve had an amazing week adapting to a new school and swim coach. At your age you are also raging with hormones so I’m surprised you haven’t been overwhelmed by your situation before now. Now let’s finish making lunch and we’ll sit down and eat and listen to Damian describe his second go round with those terrible thugs.”
Soon they were all munching on a delicious salad filled with four kinds of greens, nuts, strawberries, chicken, and numerous other colorful things. It was topped with a creamy goddess dressing and very delicious. They washed the food down with a variety of iced teas. Dessert was chocolate chip cookies that Hermione baked.
Once Damian took the first bite from the cookie, Hermione said “Tell us about the thugs. Did you blast them with the water cannons again?”
Chapter Thirty Four
“Sort of. This time there were five of them and they pulled up to my beach, which is on the other side of the island from the water cannons you were firing. The two that came onto my island were prepared; they were wearing dive masks expecting to be shot with pepper juice, but I don’t have that loaded into the cannons on that side of the island; it’s just straight bay water.”
“Did they get up y
our hillside?” Ariana asked.
“This time I called the police as five guys with assault weapons is a little much for me to take on. They sent a boat and a copter and two officers went to the Richmond Marina and caught a second boat. The copter chased the boat containing three men and I was left with the two men on my beach for about ten minutes before the boat from the Richmond Marina arrived.”
“What happened next?” asked Hermione “Weren’t you scared?”
“Two bad guys with assault weapons? You bet I was scared! I put security enhancements into my house, but it was with the thought of a single guy with a gun; not a party of five with automatic weapons. Plus I was worried for my cats, hoping they had the common sense to take cover in one of the many small caves on the hillsides, but it wasn’t as if I could go outside and yell for them to come in.
“The deputy suggested I aim the water cannon at the assault weapons rather than the men’s faces to cause their gun to fail so I did that and it worked with one of the guns. I also dropped homemade green ink bombs on the guys in the boat and purple smoke bombs on the beach to block their vision.”
Hermione clapped her hands while Ariana gave Damian a high five as she asked, “Why green ink?”
“I developed this heavily staining lime green ink that I filled a water balloon with and had my drone drop it on the guys in the boat until the poor drone was shot down, but the guys won’t get the ink off of themselves likely for a month or so. That makes them easier to capture when they’re wearing the evidence.”
“This sounds very funny but it’s not since you could have been killed,” Ariana remarked in a serious tone.
“If it makes you feel better, I paused for about two seconds to laugh at the guy with green ink on his face. I was musing earlier that they obviously thought they would be successful at killing me as they arrived with no disguises on their faces. That just made them easy targets for me and my green ink water balloons.”
“I don’t need to go to the movies anymore,” Hermione observed. “I’ll just call you up and ask you about your day.”
Damian chuckled.
Ariana asked, “So backup arrived to help you with the two goons left on your island?”
“Yes the deputies beached their boat on the skinny shoreline in the cove next to the one that contained the two men. About the same time a second police boat arrived as well as two copters from neighboring municipalities.”
“So they were arrested and hauled away to jail?” Hermione asked.
“No, although I didn’t realize it at the time, the masks the guys on shore were wearing were diving masks. They pulled their clothes off and dove into the water in wetsuits. Just as they went under I noticed they had one of those mini tanks that allows you to breathe for about five minutes underwater. We never saw them again so we think they left scuba tanks underwater, swam down to pick them up and escaped.”
“Wow!” said Hermione.
“How about the guys in the boat with the green ink? Did they at least capture them?” Ariana asked.
“I just got word on my way over here, that they headed straight out to the ocean and the copter pilot had to let them go when he became worried about having enough fuel to return to land.”
“That sucks,” declared Hermione.
“Yeah that’s pretty much my feeling. All those bullets, all that effort, and the police have nothing to show for it. Their crime scene team stayed behind on my island for nearly eight hours collecting evidence, but I haven’t heard of any identification of any of the five men so far.”
“You must’ve had a hard time sleeping last night. I know I would’ve worried that the men would come back and yet been exhausted, from the adrenaline rush from earlier in the day.”
“Yeah that pretty well sums up my evening. I needed to chill out and debated coming over here, but in case I was somehow being watched at that time I didn’t want to lead anyone to you guys. So I went to my favorite bar in Oakland where they make the best cheeseburgers in the world.”
“You should’ve come here; we could’ve played a game to take your mind off the day,” Ariana suggested.
“We could’ve played Destiny on Xbox. I’m really good at it and you would’ve had to concentrate hard on the game rather than the problems you’re having with these people if you wanted to beat me.”
“Ladies, thank you for your support, but it turns out I made a good choice in going to Pete’s. I met an ex-gang member there. I asked him how he had left the gang alive. Natalie, my friend the detective, is checking his story out but everything I could find on the guy says he’s legit.”
“What was his advice?” asked Ariana.
“The strategy that Natalie and I used against the brotherhood was to share some of their more explosive emails with the Black Guerrillas who are their natural enemy inside the prison walls.”
“Sounds reasonable, but given the attacks on your island, I would say your strategy is not working,” Ariana commented.
“You’d be right about that; it’s not working. Angus Walsh is the ex-gang member and he was sent to prison for a murder he claimed he never committed. After DNA testing and twenty years in prison, he was exonerated and released. He knew the gang would expect him to work for them on the outside and he wanted to cut all ties. The Brotherhood is hard to run from as they generally have a branch in every prison in the United States. They get their income from drug trafficking on the outside.”
“So what was his suggestion?” Hermione asked.
“The guy strikes me as having an above-average intelligence and he indicated that he had a photographic memory. So photographic that he could remember every conversation of his adult life and a good part of his life when he was a child. He pretended to be illiterate and slow while in prison and so the gang leadership relaxed while they were in his presence and said things they shouldn’t have. He collected all their comments about other brotherhood members both in prison and out and threatened to share it with them if he was harmed. Their leadership would not have survived such a betrayal.”
“So how can you use it on these guys that are after you?” Ariana asked.
“I was going to talk to Angus at length, but first I wanted it confirmed by Natalie that he was who he said he was. I’d hate for the gang to be setting me up for a big fall.”
“Okay, makes sense. You think you’ll have an answer soon?”
“Yes, I would expect one today.”
“Good! Let’s go teach Hermione scuba diving in the meantime!”
Ariana had the girl read the course as though she was going to be certified. While both Damian and Ariana were certified, they were not instructors and therefore could not certify Hermione. If the kid liked what she did today, then they would get her certified and take her somewhere special.
In less than half an hour, Hermione mastered using the scuba equipment in Ariana’s pool. They moved on to the bay and practiced on the shore with the distraction of the waves. They’d had to put Miguel inside as the dog wanted to participate in this experience. Once they were comfortable that Hermione was operating the equipment as it was supposed to be operated, they took her farther out to explore the bay. Damian was tempted to put a diver’s flag on the water to inform nearby boaters that they were underwater, but they were moving all over the place and the flag wouldn’t really indicate where they were in the water.
After some time passed, Damian indicated that it was time to return to Ariana’s house. Without diversions along the way, the return trip was much faster than the one going out. Damian thought it a terrible place to scuba dive as there was so much junk on the floor of the bay and none of it interesting.
They surfaced and began walking up the beach.
“So what do you think? Would you like to get certified?” Ariana asked.
“Yeah, I would. I’ve seen pictures of how beautiful it can be, just not here. There was a lot of pollution down there.”
“Awesome,” exclaimed Damian. “Ariana, do you want
to sign her up or should I? I’ve a friend who’s an instructor and he taught me.”
“Why don’t you take the lead on this one? You’re a more careful diver and so it’s better to learn your habits rather than mine.”
“That’s for sure. I don’t want her to learn your carelessness for scuba diving,” Damian agreed.
“Are you ever going to let go of my mistake?” Ariana asked.
“No, but the tea you sent me is softening my memory,” he replied.
Hermione clapped her hands in glee and laughed. “I wish I’d been there to see it. Sounds pretty funny when you described it last time.”
“I told you the story so you remember not to be dumb like Ariana and run out of air. If she’d been far below water, it would have been dangerous to come up quickly and if she tried the long swim back to her house, she risked being run over by a ferry.”
