by Margaret Kay
Shepherd focused his gaze on Garcia. “Tell me how you see this discussion with Saucedo going.”
“It’s simple, the Birdman, Mother, Lambchop, and I walk right into whatever dive bar he’s set up shop in and I let him know Razor’s been promoted. We pull him into a back room for privacy and I let him know that Gomez thinks he is feeding info to the DEA. Then I pump him for info on his activities over the past six months, in an attempt to let him try to prove he’s not the leak. It’ll be recorded on a wire so we can analyze everything later. Then we haul him out of there and he disappears.”
Shepherd nodded. “You do realize that if you do this, the biker Razor will permanently be burned.”
Garcia laughed out loud. “That is one persona I would be happy to never revisit. Those cartel fuckers are some of the most ruthless sons of bitches I’ve ever encountered. Gomez would whore out his own mother to make a buck, and if he even suspects someone is not loyal, there’s blood. The thing is, I’ve had this feeling that there is a lot more going on than business as usual this past month. There are too many pieces that aren’t fitting together, that’s why I think this move is worth the risk.”
Shepherd nodded. He agreed. And he trusted Garcia’s instincts. He glanced at Cooper. Cooper agreed too. “Okay gentlemen, give Cooper, Garcia and I some privacy for that call with Manning and I’ll notify you when a decision has been made.”
The other’s filed out of the room and then Shepherd placed the call.
“Manning,” he answered abruptly on the second ring.
“Hello Manning. You know who this is, don’t you?” Garcia greeted.
“It’s been a long six months. I sure hope this woman is worth blowing your cover.”
“Nothing’s blown and I believe she has everything to do with this Op. There’s no such thing as a coincidence,” Garcia answered.
Manning chuckled a low rumble. “You sound more like Shepherd than Garcia. Go ahead and make your pitch. I know why you’re calling.”
Garcia laid out his plan and the rationale for the risk, leaving out any mention of the CIA. “In six months, we haven’t gotten anything concrete. This is our best chance,” Garcia said in conclusion.
“And if I decline your Op?” Manning asked.
“I don’t work for you. As far as I’m concerned, this conversation was a courtesy. I’m going after Saucedo with or without your blessing.”
Shepherd cringed, but he remained silent.
“Razor will be permanently burned if you go in there and then make Saucedo disappear. As soon as his second in command reports to Gomez, you’re done.”
“I’ve got news for you, Manning, I’m done either way. I’m no longer with the DEA. You have no jurisdiction over me.”
“Those credentials you carry say otherwise,” Manning threatened.
Garcia laughed aloud. “Do you really want to go there?”
“There are a few higher-ranking officials in DC that might have something to say about that, Manning. Don’t threaten to pull any of my team’s credentials. That’s way over your paygrade.” Shepherd’s voice was a strong warning. Big Bear could roar!
Manning sighed out loud. “Fine, when are you going in so I can let my people know?”
“Tonight,” Garcia replied before Shepherd could.
“Garcia will be wearing a wire. We’ll send you a copy of the tape,” Shepherd added.
“Thank you for the courtesy,” Manning spat and then the line went dead.
Shepherd pinned Garcia with a stare that needed no words to decipher.
“I’ll make it count. We’ll get what we need,” Garcia assured him.
Shepherd nodded.
After Madison and Sienna left Shepherd’s office, Madison led her up the stairs to the eighth floor, to her office. Sienna was surprised by the security measures, the palmprint and pin code access to the floor and all the security cameras that Madison pointed out to her. “Just like Fort Knox, without the gold,” Madison said with a smile. At the door to her office, she pointed back down the hall. “Bathroom is there.”
She settled Sienna in at her desk with her laptop and queued up the database. After a few questions on the general description of Collin Lowry, Madison showed her how to mark anyone who might look familiar and advance to the next picture. “We’ll start with men who look the appropriate age, height, build, and eye color as the man you met.”
“Sounds good,” Sienna agreed.
“I need to go across the hall and check in. Just stay here and look through pictures. I’ll be back in a little bit.”
Sienna nodded. “No problem.”
“Oh, and see that button down there on the floor, under the desk?”
Sienna rolled her chair back and peered under the desk. “That one?”
“Yes, it’s a panic button. This is a secure facility in all ways, but we even have safeguards within, just in case. Unless you want about ten agents running in here with guns drawn, you probably want to be careful not to step on it by accident.”
After Madison left, Sienna drew in several deep breaths to calm herself. Then she got busy flipping through pictures. The men all looked like normal, everyday men, just like Greg, except for the fact that they all wore white dress shirts, ties, and black jackets. She had to chuckle to herself. Talk about fulfilling the stereotype of what a CIA Agent looks like. Greg had all dark suits too. She remembered suggesting a light gray suit one time and how he wouldn’t even consider it. So much made sense to her now.
Hotel
Madison returned a few times for short periods to see if she needed anything, but Sienna appreciated that Madison seemed to realize that she needed the time alone. After an hour and a half, there were a lot of voices coming from across the hall, the sounds of a loud reunion. She heard Anthony’s unmistakable voice, and only then did she get up and go to the doorway to take a peak.
She got there just in time to see Anthony in the arms of a woman with short red hair, who was hugging him ferociously. After that embrace broke, he was immediately engulfed in another woman’s arms, a petite dark-haired beauty from what she could tell. That ridiculous feeling of jealousy spiked in her again, no matter how hard she tried to push it away.
“I’m so glad your back,” Michaela said as she released her tight hold of Garcia. “We have all been so worried about you.”
“I wasn’t worried at all. You all had my back.”
“Why are you still dressed like a thug?” Michaela asked.
“They’re going back in tonight,” Yvette said.
“My last performance as the notorious gang leader,” Anthony vowed. Then he caught sight of Sienna at the door to Madison’s office. He held a hand out towards her. “Sienna, come meet my friends and coworkers.”
She forced a smile and stepped towards him, taking his hand.
“This is Yvette, lead in Ops when I’m not around. She’s had my back since day one under cover.”
Sienna reached her right hand towards Yvette, to greet her, but Yvette swallowed her up in a hug. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m so glad you somehow made your way to Garcia. I don’t even want to guess who’d have you right now if you hadn’t.”
Sienna was taken aback by her greeting and her words. She hadn’t really considered what would have happened to her if she hadn’t gotten hooked up with Anthony. But she was sure this was by far the better outcome of all those possible.
“Thank you,” Sienna said, when Yvette released her. “Someone was definitely looking out for me.”
“And this is Michaela, our Tech-Goddess whose inventions keep us safe and connected to home base and each other,” Anthony then introduced.
Michaela took her hand in a double-handed embrace. “It’s nice to meet you.” She had a warm smile.
“It’s nice to meet you too,” Sienna replied, sizing this woman up. She was beautiful, and younger than Yvette. She tried to tamp down that insecure feeling, but it kept bubbling up.
“And this is BT,” Garcia made
the final introduction.
He shook her hand and then stepped back to the door. “Nice to meet you. I’ve got an active situation I need to monitor though.” Then he disappeared behind the door.
Sienna’s eyes shifted to Madison’s. The truth was, she didn’t really know what they did, or what that active situation could be. She hated that she continually felt like an outsider. And this news that Anthony was going back in as the biker tonight rocked her. How long would he be gone?
“Anthony, why don’t you show her what we do in the Ops Center before I bring her down to Meredith?” Madison said. “I’ll get permission from Shepherd for her to be in there observing during your Op tonight.” She flashed a knowing smile at Sienna. “That way, you won’t be wondering and worrying.”
“Thank you. That would be awesome,” Sienna said with a big sigh of relief. Her eyes went to Anthony. “How long will you be gone?”
“Just a few hours. I’ll be back before you wake up in the morning.”
Like Sienna would sleep with him gone? She knew that wouldn’t be possible.
“We’ll set up in the guest apartment on nine tonight,” Anthony said. “I want you with her while I’m gone, Madison.”
“Of course,” Madison said with a smile to Sienna. “I’m thinking chick-flicks and popcorn.”
“I thought we’d be able to watch when he goes in?”
“We will,” Madison assured her. “But the time post-Op can stretch into several hours before he’ll be back. Once we know it’s over and they’re all out of there, we’ll move up to the apartment on the ninth floor and settle in for the night.”
Sienna smiled and nodded. “Red wine with that popcorn sounds good.”
Madison wrapped an arm around her. “If anyone deserves a couple glasses of wine, it’s you.”
Anthony opened the door to the Ops Center with his code and his palmprint pressed to the scan pad. “Let’s see what Charlie Team has got going. We have a little time before you are due at the hair salon.”
Sienna stepped in behind Anthony and was surprised by the control room within. At least a dozen monitors of various sizes flickered with footage, computer panels lined the counter of the small room that had three comfortable looking desk chairs not occupied by anyone. BT wore headphones and he stood before the largest of the monitors.
On it, was footage of several men doing work within a large electrical panel. Anthony reached to one of the panels with multiple switches and dials and flicked one up. Sounds of an engine humming and voices filled the room.
“That should have you tapped in, home base,” a male voice with the faintest of an east coast accent said. “Please confirm you’re receiving telemetry.”
BT moved to one of the computers and tapped on the keyboard. Data scrolled over it, filling the screen. “Affirmative, Taco. We’ve got good signal from track one.”
“Enabling track two,” a second male voice came into the room. This one had a smooth, low timber quality that was pleasing to Sienna’s ears.
BT adjusted a few dials on the control panel and a different video feed displayed on the largest monitor. This one showed a large panel with what looked like motherboards and other internal parts of a computer. A set of gloved hands were attaching small clips with wires to the components on the monitor.
“And that should do it. You should be receiving data, home base,” that second male voice said.
BT typed more on a keyboard. He flipped a few switches and dials. “That’s a negative, Powder. I’ve got no communication coming through.”
“Let me double check the path,” the smooth voice BT had identified as Powder said.
The run of the thin wire was traced throughout the equipment. The gloved fingers checked the connection of each clip. It ran over several boards and then into a device that was tucked within a corner near the bottom of the panel.
“It all looks correct, home base. I don’t understand why you’re not receiving telemetry.”
BT clicked a few more keys. He glanced back at Garcia. “You got any ideas?”
Garcia stepped up to one of the monitor stations and began tapping out on the keyboard. Characters filled the screen. Sienna watched in fascination. It wasn’t readable text but based on how both Anthony and BT scanned the display it had to mean something to them.
“Powder, I sent a reverse signal and it looks like it failed at the control relay. There might be a bad switch on your end,” Garcia said.
“Fuck,” the man cursed. “The engineers assured us all relays had been verified prior to us coming on site. Could our equipment have blown something out?”
“Unlikely,” Garcia answered. “Switches, relays and solenoids go bad at prescribed intervals.” He was clicking through several programs up on the display screen in multiple boxes. “I’m not showing any power surges or drains from our equipment, so it’s unlikely we caused any failures. A hacking attack prior to your arrival may be the culprit. Replace out the relay at position omega-one-alpha-seven and let’s try again.”
“At least going forward we’ll detect any attempted cyberbreaches,” BT remarked.
Everyone in the room watched the gloved fingers replace a part on what Sienna had thought of as a motherboard. The fingers moved quickly and nimbly, without any hesitation or tremors. All wires and clips were reattached to the new part and then that smooth voice spoke again. “Replacement complete, repeating feed attempt, home base.”
Garcia clicked the keyboard. New feed displayed over the screen in neatly aligned columns. BT smiled, viewing it, but then immediately got busy on a second computer, typing commands into its keyboard. Yvette had just reentered the room. Her eyes scanned the activity.
“This can’t be good,” she said.
“There was a small issue. We worked through it,” BT answered. “I think we’re back in business.”
“Ready for the third and final track,” Garcia said.
“Roger that,” a southern accented male voice answered.
Madison stepped in and manipulated switches. The main feed switched over to yet a different view. It showed a large panel being removed from a gleaming cylindrical piece of equipment. Within, blades resembling a fan were in tight rows. Until a man came into view, she did not understand the size of the piece of equipment. It was as tall as he was and as wide as his height. Only then did Sienna notice the original two feeds were on smaller monitors to the side of the large screen her eyes had stayed on.
Yvette stepped up to the final of the three computer workstations and began typing as well. Sienna’s eyes darted between all four of them and the three feeds on the monitors. On the open piece of equipment, deep within the fan blade structure, she watched the man mount a piece of equipment similar to that device that was tucked near the corner of the one panel. Wires from the host equipment were plugged into it. It was nestled into a crevice there as well.
“Running diagnostics now,” Yvette said. Columns of numbers filled her screen. After a few minutes and a few more keystrokes, she spoke again. “Looks good, receiving telemetry, Charlie. The loop is closed, and the signal is constant. We’ll know if there are any attempted breaches.”
BT clicked out of the screen he was in and went into another program. “Watchdog with fake-out is armed with backtracking capabilities. Seal it up, gentlemen. We’re ready to rock and roll.”
“Roger that,” the first voice with the slight eastern accent said.
On the monitors, Sienna watched all the equipment get sealed up. And then the men approached each other from different places in the room. Each of their hardhat mounted cameras transmitted the images of the others. They were all dressed in dark blue coveralls. They all converged on a fourth man, at a computer control station far across the room from the equipment.
“I’ve just powered the turbines back up. We’ll complete a final diagnostic and then be out of here,” that fourth man said.
“Good job, Charlie Team,” Madison congratulated.
“Damn, yo
u’re in there too Xena. Full house today. Not fair, you guys are having a party and didn’t invite me,” the man with the slight eastern accent said. Through the feed, Sienna saw him as he removed his hardhat. He was attractive. His blonde hair was long enough that it touched the collar of the coveralls. His eyes were a brilliant blue. He had a golden tan and an easy smile. Physically, he didn’t appear to have the same muscular build as the others. And here she thought being muscular was a requirement.
“Not on rotation, Taco, just stepped in to visit. This show is all BT and Control’s today,” Madison said.
“Ops isn’t a spectator sport, Xena,” Taco playfully admonished.
