by Randal Sloan
Julie sent Zeke a quick mental “Thank you”.
Speaking out loud, Julie told the group. “Great! I appreciate you getting everything rolling. We are extremely time constrained. We have to be ready for the meet tonight with the bad guys. I also suspect that we have at best until tomorrow to find the girl.”
Julie buzzed Caitlyn on the conference room VR. “Caitlyn, we’re expecting someone from Homeland to be here shortly and we will probably be tied up in here the rest of the afternoon. I need you to catch all my calls except for emergencies, unless I specifically tell you I need someone to be put through. I also need you to arrange to have lunch brought in here.”
Some of the seriousness of the situation must have shown in Julie’s expression as Caitlyn just nodded. “I was about to page you. I just got a VR message from Security, and they are bringing two up as we speak. That’s probably your Homeland team and they should be up shortly.”
“Great. They really made good time. Thanks.” Julie gave her a quick smile. “Send them back when they get here. I may be buzzing you later.”
Julie made herself a cup of coffee, sitting down to wait with Zeke sitting beside her. She didn’t have time to drink more than a couple of sips before Caitlyn stuck her head in the door.
“Jimmy Cooper from Homeland,” she said, stepping to the side so that he could enter.
Jimmy was accompanied by someone quite familiar, and Julie mentally checked off one of the items on her to-do list. The woman accompanying him was Officer McAvoy as she knew her. That made easy another decision she had been mentally considering while waiting. “Jimmy Cooper at your service,” he told them. “And this is Special Agent Kris McAvoy. She has considerable experience in the local area, having served on the local police force, which is why she is here today. She has been working with us for only a couple of weeks, but she already has been a big asset to us, so I know she will be of assistance.”
Smiling, Julie answered, “I believe you know almost everyone in this room, but I will do the introductions for Agent McAvoy.” She quickly introduced everyone in the room, saving herself for last. “Julie Randolph. However, the two of you know me under my other identity, something I will tell you, but will ask you to keep this information to yourself. I am also known as Miranda Summerlin, a name provided by witness protection at the time I attended school at Space Academy.” She saw an immediate recognition of that significance from Jimmy and a mixture of understanding and questions in Kris’s eyes.
“Jimmy has experience working with me in the past as Miranda,” she explained to Kris. “We helped foil a terrorist attack on Space Academy that would have been devastating if it had been successful.”
Kris stared at her a moment. “I read the file on that incident on the way over here. That was you and your friends?” She looked intently at Julie and Zeke. When they nodded, she went on. “You were the real heroes of that day. And rather astonishing shooting by you. Our experts tell us that only a handful of snipers in the entire country could have made those shots, Master Sergeant Lewis obviously being one of them. Not to mention a dead-on pitcher in softball, or rock throwing as the case may be.”
Julie smiled at her. “For the sake of Jimmy and the others in this room, I will explain her last statement. Most specifically for my fiancé Zeke, who was not aware of this incident until an hour or so ago. A few weeks ago, when Emily first introduced me to Thomas Jacobs at the venue where their band was playing, Emily and I were walking out to our car with Thomas accompanying us, when we were accosted by two men. One of them had a gun, and I was able to disarm him by throwing a rock to knock the gun out of his hand.”
Kris laughed at her understatement of the event. “A rock thrown so hard and accurately, it not only disarmed the man, but broke his hand in three places. And now I’m wondering something else. The gun accidentally landed in the garbage bin behind them. At least that’s what we thought at the time, a lucky occurrence. Now I’m thinking you deliberately hit the gun at the angle needed to make sure it landed there as protection against an accidental discharge.”
Julie nodded. “I wanted to make sure I protected my friend and Thomas. I didn’t tell you at the time, but I haven’t played softball since I was quite young and only in a summer league. The only reason I was the pitcher was that my Dad had insisted that if I do something, that I do it right. He sent me to a training camp the week before the league started, so that I was ahead of everyone else.”
Smiling at the reaction in Kris, Julie slid a sleeve up enough to show one of the sheaves of knives she wore. “This is actually my in-close weapon of choice. I didn’t have them on me that night, or I might have used them. They have been bloodied already more than once, something I regret having to do but circumstances have forced me to use them.”
Julie saw the look in the eyes of both DHS agents. “No, I’m not just a pretty blond. I had to use both the knives and my sniper rifle to kill in our rescue of my friend Carla in Kinza, and again my knives to stop two assassins at the stockholders meeting.” She saw their look turn to one of understanding, especially in Jimmy.
“But that’s enough about me, other than helping the two of you to understand that I’m not going to hide in the background on this. I can take care of myself. and I’m going to do what I need to do to rescue this girl and protect the students from Space Academy.” Julie stopped to look at Zeke, who she knew would want to argue with her.
Zeke stared at her a moment before he nodded. “As long as you let me watch your back. And take overwatch when I can’t be at your back.”
“No one else I would rather have there, Zeke.” That seemed to satisfy him. “But let’s move on. Mr. Cooper, please tell us what Homeland can bring to the table on this.”
“We can promise as many agents as we need. We have approximately one hundred field agents in the area, plus a huge number of analysts we can make available across the entire country. We could bring in more field agents if necessary, but not without compromising any covert operations. I’m sure they would pick up on a large scale movement of agents across country.”
Julie nodded. “I agree. I see two things that we need to accomplish. The first is that we need to locate and rescue Allison Winston. I feel very strongly about that. Emily and I know her personally. I know that none of it is my fault, but I still feel I should have been able to do more to fight the Organization. The second is that we need to prevent whatever the Organization has planned for tomorrow night. We have to stay covert until we accomplish the first one, and then the gloves can come off. I don’t care if we have to wipe out the whole local faction of the Organization to accomplish the second.
“By now, I think you know that I hate the Organization and everything they stand for.” Julie paused a moment before she looked around the room with fire in her eyes. “And they’d better hope to God they haven’t hurt that girl!” She held the eyes of any who dared to look back but none of them flinched. Zeke reached over to take her hand. He alone of those in the room knew the depth Julie could go to back up that declaration. He couldn’t help but shudder.
Julie’s declaration accomplished what she wanted. It galvanized everyone in the room, and it made them understand how much this meant to her. They all knew what had happened to her mother and who was responsible, but that was only part of why she felt the way she did. In a way, her whole life situation now was all due to that evil Organization. She loved the good parts, but she would have given them all up to have her mother back. Well, maybe not all. Zeke meant the world to her.
While they ate the food Caitlyn had ordered, they rather quickly put together a plan of action. Priority One was to find Allison. Homeland’s analyst staff would immediately be tasked to work closely with Space Tech Intelligence to do that. Julie suspected that would be eye opening for both groups of people, having to work together and use their individual strengths. She also knew that if anyone could find her, those two groups would. Ted and Carla would coordinate the two groups. They were the fir
st to leave, Ted heading back to his office to work with Space Tech Intelligence and Carla traveling to the local Homeland office.
Plans were made for the meet in the evening at the Black Tavern. Miranda and Emily would be there, their friendship with the band already known to the Organization. Jimmy, Kris and a couple more Homeland agents would be undercover in the Tavern. As well, a number of agents would be located covertly in the area.
Zeke insisted that he would be on overwatch, pointing out an office building across the street where he could set up with his sniper rifle. He compromised by agreeing to allow a couple of Homeland agents to accompany him, but he insisted he would be in charge of the group. Seeing the look in his eyes, Jimmy didn’t argue with him.
Jimmy and Kris left next, returning to the Homeland field office to coordinate the details for the evening’s operation. Jimmy promised to courier over the gear they would need to communicate with the Homeland field team during the operation, as well as a set of DHS friendly passes for each of the three of them. As soon as they left, Julie, Zeke, and Emily put in a VR call to Thomas.
“Are you guys doing ok?” Julie asked them. “We’ve got a lot of people working to help us on this, but we need you two to hold up your end.”
“I can’t help but feel guilty over all of this, and it’s made me literally sick. Jason is barely keeping it together. But we’ll do our part.”
“We’ll be there with you and we’re going to have some Homeland agents in the Black Tavern. Agree to do what they ask, but the most important thing for you to remember is that you must stress you won’t do anything until you have proof that Allie is alright. We think that is the one thing that will keep her alive.”
“We know. Thank you again for doing this.” There were tears in his eyes and a waiver in his voice.
Julie needed him to be strong. “Understand this, Thomas. I’ve dedicated myself to wiping out this evil Organization and there is nothing I would rather be doing than helping you guys. You need to stop being sorry about what you did and join me in this.” She watched as he digested that, a look of steel taking effect in his eyes. Good. His guilt would have just gotten in the way. This way, he would do whatever he had to do.
Grasping Zeke’s hand, she told Thomas, “The two of us are going to leave you and Emily alone on the call for a few minutes. Call me if you need anything, or if you have any questions. If we find anything else out before we meet, we’ll call you.”
#
Not even with all the groups involved had they come up with a definite location for Allison before time to leave for the meet at the Black Tavern. They had it narrowed down to a dozen or so spots, but that was just too many to be able to search covertly. Julie was hoping to use the “proof” that Allison was alive to give them additional clues to pin things down.
As they prepared to leave, Julie broached the subject she was concerned about with Emily. “I need to talk to you a minute, Em. I’m a little concerned about your safety tonight. I may have to insert myself into the conversation, more or less forcing them to include me, but I don’t want to put you at risk. I’m already worry that they might decide you’re a backup target to use on Thomas.”
Emily didn’t see the significance. “I’m not worried. There are way too many witnesses for them to manage to grab me too, and you will be there.”
Miranda had expected something like this. “Even so, Em, you could excuse yourself to the restroom and thus stay a little more in the background. I could even have Kris meet you there to keep an eye on you. Will you do that for me so I don’t have to worry about you?”
Emily nodded. “Only because you would probably put yourself at risk trying to protect me. I don’t have to like it, but I will do it. But you’d better be careful. Who’s going to keep an eye on you?”
Miranda laughed. “Only a crazy fiancé who would do almost anything to protect me, as we have already seen. Oh, and several DHS agents.” She patted her sleeve. “Plus, I’ve got my knives. I’ll be fine.”
Miranda drove the two of them to the Black Tavern, again driving carefully to avoid the risk of being stopped. She still had her knives on and her sniper rifle was in the trunk. They arrived without incident. Dropping her mirror, pretending to do her make-up, she said, “Em, do your thing with the make-up.” Emily quickly followed suit.
Instead of doing make-up for real, Miranda did a sound check on her ear piece and mic. Everything was working. She used her com to call Zeke, knowing he was supposed to be already in position. “Are you there, Zeke?”
“Yes love. I’m here. I have a clear visual of you two from here. I also set up a tweak to the com system so I can track the two of you on a monitor here, even when you are inside.”
Miranda was impressed. As usual Zeke was ahead of her. “Why am I not surprised? One possible change in plans. When they start the meet, I’m going to send Emily to the restroom to get her out of harm’s way. I’m going to have Kris meet her there to keep an eye on her.”
Zeke immediately agreed to that suggestion. Protecting his sister sounded really good to him. “Yeah, I like that. That way I can concentrate on you. Be sure you contact Kris to tell her.”
“I’m doing that now. Then we’ll be going in. Miranda out.”
She quickly got Kris on her com, explaining her plan. Kris agreed to do it, but Miranda knew she wasn’t keen on it. “I’ll be fine,” Miranda told her. “Jimmy and the others will be there, and Zeke is watching like a hawk. But don’t worry, you’ll get plenty of chances to be in on the action later. I can pretty well promise you that.” Then quickly, before Kris could think of an argument, she said. “Miranda out.”
Shoving the mirror back up, Miranda opened her door, Emily mimicking her moves on the other side. “Let’s go, Em. We’re going to knock ‘em dead.” Under her breath she mumbled, “Literally, I hope!”
#
Of course, nothing happened for the first hour. Miranda kept an eye out for their friends from Homeland. She was able to spot Jimmy and Kris only because she knew to look for them. The other agents were there based on the signal on their coms, but she couldn’t spot them. She also looked for the bad guys. She hadn’t paid much attention to the man talking to Thomas that first night, but she was able to go back into her memory to see his face. No sign of him or anyone else acting suspicious. It was harder not knowing when they would show up.
The band played their usual sets, but they didn’t have their normally great sound. Especially Jason, although he did his best to hang in there. At their break, they came over to the girls’ table, pulling a second table over to sit with them. The remaining two members of the band didn’t know what was going on, with everyone agreeing it was best to leave them in the dark. Less chance for one of them to slip up. So Christopher, the more talkative of the two, pretty much carried the conversation. James, the bass player, was quiet as usual. One day Julie was going to have to get his story. But if anyone was watching, they probably thought Thomas and Emily had had a fight or something.
Nothing appeared to be happening during the break, the time they all had expected Kincaid to show up. The guys were getting ready to go back on stage, Thomas and Jason all the more agitated since they hadn’t heard anything, when a waitress came by bringing a message for Thomas. Make sure you leave a backstage pass for Mr. Kincaid and two members of his staff.
Thomas made sure the note was where Miranda could see it for a moment, then he crumpled it up, dropping it to the table. He quickly complied, sending a note back through the waitress to the security guy that controlled access to the backstage. Miranda suddenly realized who one of the DHS agents probably was, because the security guy there was new and looked just a little too alert. Good. Moving everything backstage both simplified and complicated things. At least they would have one agent close, and it made it easier for her to make sure that Emily was safe. She had discretely taken a quick VR shot of the message, so she sent it over the coms to the team.
The band played their secon
d set, Jason struggling even more. But he managed to get through it, although even the audience recognized something was wrong with their sound. About halfway through the set, Kris came by Miranda and Emily’s table, pretending to recognize them, and stopping to talk. After a couple of moments of small talk, she pretended to stop to check her VR. Speaking in a low voice, the sound of the band loud enough to drown it out even a couple of feet away, she said to Miranda, “Jimmy wanted to be sure you were ok with the change for the meet. I told him you could take care of yourself. I’m more afraid for them.”
Miranda spoke in an equally quiet voice, “Yes. You should be. I have a strong dislike for anyone associated with those terrorists. The only reason they don’t have to worry yet is that we need to get Allie out first. I still want to keep Emily out of the room, so I will really need you to look after her.”
Kris replied, “I figured that. I’ll watch after her. Try not to kill any of them.” Then she stood up, speaking in a slightly louder than normal voice. “Sorry, got to get back to my date. I’ll catch you two later. Don’t be strangers.”
While the band finished up their set, Miranda quietly explained the change of plans to Emily. “The bad guys moved the meet to backstage. When the band goes backstage, I’m going to go back too. I still want you to go to the restroom and Kris will meet you there. I’ll send an all clear when it’s ok for you to come backstage. Oh, and I’m pretty sure the security guy checking the passes is one of ours if you need help afterwards.”
Emily nodded. “Ok, I would say be careful but that’s a waste of breath. Try not to kill them would be more appropriate.”
Miranda laughed. “Kris said the same thing. Not sure why I’ve gotten such a bad rep.”
Emily laughed with her. It felt good to still be able to laugh. “Remember, we’ve both seen you in action.”
Miranda grew serious. “You’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. I’ll do whatever I have to do. I’m going to get that girl back if it’s physically possible. And these guys are going to pay, I can promise you that.” Her face turned hard. “Especially if they’ve hurt her.”
