“Let’s find out if that’s the Senator’s gate for tomorrow,” Jewel said as they strolled past the two.
Tommy nodded and Jewel went over to a woman working at a Southwest computer out of sight of the two Brigade men. Tommy watched as Jewel merged with the woman and within a minute had the flight information that the Senator was coming in from Denver and that was the gate assigned at the moment to that flight.
She left the woman after clearing the search and putting her back on the task she was working on.
“That’s the Senator’s gate,” she said. “About nine hours from now.”
K.J. appeared next to them. “Got them all wrapped up like little gifts under a Christmas tree?”
Jewel laughed and Tommy just shook his head. “We know where they are if that’s what you mean.”
“You police types are never any fun,” K.J. said, pouting.
“Trust me,” Jewel said, smiling at Tommy, “I can vouch for him being a lot of fun.”
“On that fine sexual note,” K.J. said, “I’m going to go scout for any other Brigade members in the area. Make sure we have this covered.”
“And figure out how they knew where we were,” Tommy said. That was the information he wanted more than anything else.
K.J. nodded and vanished.
“Now we wait,” Jewel said.
There was a nearby bar and Mexican food restaurant, so they went in there and found a table in a place they couldn’t see the two Brigade men, but would see if they left the gate area in a normal way.
Tommy was worried they could just go through a wall and come around behind them in some fashion, so as Jewel grabbed a basket of chips from a passing waiter and two glasses of ice water, Tommy kept watch.
And then together, they spent the next hour munching on chips and trying to make sure the two men didn’t come at them in any way.
A very stressful hour.
It was just midnight. There was still eight hours left to wait.
It was going to be a very long night.
THIRTY-SEVEN
JEWEL WAS HAPPY that they had gotten something to eat, but at some point they were going to have to move since the restaurant closed at midnight. They would look out of place otherwise sitting in a close restaurant.
At one point Tommy had shaken his head and said simply, “We don’t look like passengers. Keep guard.”
He stood and quickly went to another couple sitting near the back of the restaurant and picked up the ghost versions of their bags. The woman had a small blue roll-around and the man had a leather briefcase.
Jewel was impressed. Something she had not thought of, but he was right. You almost never saw a person inside security without a carry-on bag or two.
He brought the bags back over and set them so that they could be seen from the main aisle of the terminal.
It was getting late enough that there just weren’t many people around, which worried Jewel as well. It was a ton easier to hide in a crowd.
Suddenly K.J. appeared and sat in a third chair. “Luggage,” he said, looking at their bags. “Nice thinking, but you could have had a little better taste than that ugly blue and the phony leather briefcase. You two were in Montana far too long, that much is clear.”
Jewel, laughing, glanced down at the luggage and saw nothing at all wrong with either the small suitcase or the briefcase.
“So anything?” Tommy asked.
“No other Brigade soldiers closer than Los Angeles,” K.J. said. “And I understand how they found you.”
“How?” Jewel said.
“I forgot to tell you how to shelter yourself, so you two were broadcasting on all bands. Sorry, my bad, very bad.”
“Broadcasting?” Tommy asked.
“Shelter ourselves?” Jewel asked.
“Are we broadcasting now?” Tommy asked, glancing in the direction of the two men with machine guns.
K.J. shook his head. “Been a while since I trained new recruits. All of us in this realm of real, but not real, this ghost realm, including Brigade members, sort of send out waves of faint energy through the air. Actually, live people do as well, but the waves don’t get far from the body. The waves have been photographed, actually, on live people. They are called auras.”
“Do these waves look like auras?” Jewel asked, “because I’m not seeing anything.”
K.J. held up his hand for her to wait a moment. Then he said, “Again, my fault on this. I should have given this ability to you earlier. Anyone in this realm can see the aura waves others let off and find others. On missions, we block our own waves.”
He then reached forward and touched Jewel on the forehead, then did the same for Tommy.
“See them now?” K.J. asked. “They are kind of pretty in an induced drug state sort of way.”
Jewel instantly saw what K.J. was talking about. Around all three of them orange and yellow and blue and green waves sort of radiated away in all directions from each of them. But the waves were stopped by a large sphere about five feet away from them.
Wow, it was pretty. And very, very distracting.
She looked toward the Brigade men and could see black waves radiating from the area of the gate. No color, just all black.
“The sphere is our block,” K.J. said. “I made it larger so you can see it. Another advantage besides looks and smarts and charm that we have over the Brigade soldiers is that we can block our signal waves and they cannot. We can always see them coming which helps a ton, let me tell you.”
“And their auras are always black?” Jewel asked, stunned at what kind of person could just emit all black.
“Always,” K.J. said, nodding. “Like a bad funeral without flowers.”
“So how big are our the blocks normally?” Tommy asked.
“Skin tight,” K.J. said. “I gave you both the ability to do it, so go ahead and try and I’ll hold the larger block to keep from giving us away to our friends around the corner.”
Jewel had no idea what K.J. was talking about.
Tommy clearly didn’t understand either.
“No idea how to do that?” Jewel said.
“Just think the words aura skin tight,” K.J. said.
Jewel did and the colors flowing from every inch of her body stopped instantly.
Tommy did the same.
“Now you two really look like live people,” K.J. said. “Auras tucked in tight against your skin.”
“So how come they didn’t see us when they passed us in the airport? And in the buffet earlier.” Tommy asked.
“I was blocking your waves,” K.J. said. “I had a hunch that was how they found you in the hotel, but I had to make sure first. Again, my bad.”
“So how long do they stay tight in like this?” Jewel asked.
“Until you release them,” K.J. said, shrugging. “But honestly I see no reason to release them since you can then be seen by those idiots.”
“How do we release them?” Tommy asked, “just in case we need to be seen.
K.J. looked puzzled, put the bubble around them again, and then said, “Just think that you want your auras open.”
Jewel did that and again beautiful colors radiated off of her in all directions.
Tommy did the same and their colors mixed and blended in so many different places. She liked how they blended.
Jewel studied it for a moment, then thought about bringing her aura tight again and the colors from her body disappeared.
Tommy did the same.
K.J. nodded. “Quick learners as expected. Now look.” He pointed out into the area of the gate.
The two Brigade men were clearly still there, and black waves filled the gate area like dirty waves of dark water.
“How far can that be seen?” Tommy asked.
K.J. shrugged. “A ways, which is how I knew there were no other Brigade members in this area.”
“Look,” Jewel said as the two people from whom Tommy had taken their ghost luggage walked past. She was stunned
. She could, if she looked hard, see the auras of both people. The woman’s aura was brown with only a few faint colors left. The man’s was mostly black, with only shades of brown left.
She could see, without touching either person that they were unhappy and the man was working toward evil in some form or another and clearly dragging his wife down with him.
“Wow,” Tommy said softly as he stared at them.
A woman and a small boy about six were coming up the concourse. Jewel stared at them until she could see the colors that radiated off them. They had auras bright and colorful and active.
“Pretty amazing tool,” K.J. said. “As time goes on, you’ll learn how to use it on missions and other things. For example, see the woman’s red area around her hips?”
Jewel stared hard and then nodded as the woman went past them.
“That is a sign she’s fertile right now,” K.J. said. “A signal to men to come a calling to keep the species reproducing in that old tried and true heterosexual way.”
“So the various colors all mean something?” Tommy asked.
“I’ve been learning them for decades and I still don’t know all of it,” K.J. said. “But they mean a great deal. And black is evil, pure and simple.”
Jewel glanced at the black waves radiating off the Brigade soldiers out of sight in the waiting area, then at the clock over the arrivals board.
Midnight. Another hour down.
Seven hours to go.
THIRTY-EIGHT
AFTER K.J. MADE sure they were all right, he said that they should call him if they had questions, he was going to bed. He said something about satin sheets and a fluffy panda to hug, but Tommy missed most of it, even though Jewel laughed.
They moved down the concourse a ways to a Japanese restaurant that seemed to allow people to sit in it all night, even though it was closed. They could still see the black waves radiating from the waiting area from their location.
They got some snacks from a vendor and then took turns napping for an hour, stretched out on the floor.
When Tommy awoke a little after five a.m. to give Jewel a moment to go to the restroom and then get some more sleep, it dawned on him that they needed to take the fight to the Brigade men and do it before the senator arrived.
So when Jewel got back from the restroom after splashing water on her face, he called K.J. “Sorry to wake you, K.J. but need some advice on a plan.”
Jewel frowned at him.
“Just a hair-brained idea,” he said.
She smiled and kissed him.
A moment later K.J. appeared wearing one-piece flowered pajamas with feet. Tommy was surprised the feet didn’t have bunnies on them. K.J. had a bright pink sleep mask pushed up on his forehead and a white teddy bear in one arm. And he looked like hell, his eyes barely a slit.
“Sorry again,” Tommy said. “But people are starting to show up here and we have under two hours until the senator arrives.”
K.J. said nothing, just nodded that Tommy should go on.
“You said you knocked out a Brigade man with a pan once?”
K.J. again nodded.
“So what happens if we go through that wall they are sitting against and hit them both with something hard, knock them out? Can we tie them up and make sure they can’t bother us for the day?”
“Oh, I like that plan,” Jewel said.
K.J. blinked, then said, “Let me go get dressed and brush my teeth. Night breath is never fun unless you have spent the night in wonderful and strange positions with a partner. And bunny here doesn’t count. You two get something to eat for yourselves. I’ll be back in thirty minutes.”
He vanished.
They both grabbed their ghost luggage and headed toward a fast food restaurant that was just opening up. They both managed to grab cups of coffee and something that passed for a breakfast sandwich, then went back to the still-closed Japanese restaurant and sat down to eat.
As they were finishing, K.J. appeared and wrinkled his nose at their food. “Luckily you are already dead or that stuff would kill you.”
K.J. looked freshly showered and was dressed in dark blue slacks, a pink shirt, and a light sports-coat-like jacket. He almost blended in. Almost.
“So can we do that?” Tommy asked. “I’m thinking we knock them out, tie them up, just before the senator’s plane arrives.”
“Is there something that can tie up a ghost?” Jewel asked.
K.J. nodded. “There is a ghost element to everything as you two have been learning. A ghost element in this realm is real to us, just as that food you ate was real. Bad, but real.”
Tommy nodded. “So you like the idea?”
“I do,” K.J. said. “But not sure you two can pull it off.”
Tommy was shocked by that.
Jewel looked puzzled.
K.J. laughed. “You two are not the violent type. I’m not sure that even if you knew you couldn’t hurt the two men for more than a day, you could swing something at a man’s head hard enough to knock them out.”
Tommy nodded. “I don’t see us having a choice.”
“I don’t either,” Jewel said. “We need to be free of those two to really make sure the senator isn’t killed in that room with that girl.”
“I agree,” K.J. said. “But if either of you miss, they have machine guns remember? It has to be either them or you in a fight like that and you have to know it going in. One of you hesitates or doesn’t swing hard enough and both of you will be waking up in a great deal of pain in a few days.”
Tommy nodded and the three of them sat there in silence for a moment, thinking. Then Tommy decided to move to his next question.
“If we knock those two out of the picture,” Tommy said, “would the Brigade send reinforcements? Would their bosses even know their two men were down?”
K.J. nodded. “They would know. And if they thought this assignment was important enough, and had someone close enough that was free, they would send two more, more than likely from LA.”
“But they might not,” Jewel said.
“And they might not have anyone free,” Tommy said.
“They might not,” K.J. nodded.
Again they sat in silence. That was worth a chance as far as Tommy was concerned.
Finally Tommy looked at Jewel. “You up for giving a guy a bad headache?”
She laughed. “I am.”
“Then let’s do it,” Tommy said. His stomach twisted when he said that. They were risking the entire mission right here. But they had to get those two with their machine guns out of the way.
Jewel glanced at the clock at the top of the arrivals board outside where they were sitting. “Senator arrives in fifty minutes.”
Tommy stood and went through the counter and into the back kitchen of the restaurant. There, hanging from hooks were two very large and very heavy skillet-like pans.
Tommy took both of them back out into the restaurant, making sure that the two Brigade men were out of sight before handing a pan to Jewel. “Think you can swing that with some force.”
Jewel hefted it and then nodded. “They won’t know what hit them.”
“And that’s exactly what needs to happen,” K.J. said. “Good luck. I’ll go scout them out and make sure they are still against the wall. Watch for the black waves and follow them to their source through the wall.”
Tommy nodded and he and Jewel stood as K.J. disappeared.
“You all right?” Tommy asked.
“Scared to death, but I’ll be fine.”
“Oh, good,” Tommy said, smiling at her. “I was hoping I wasn’t the only one scared.”
“Deputies aren’t supposed to be scared,” she said as they headed for the wall that divided the men from the area they were in.
“Doctors are not supposed to be scared,” he said.
“So much for those myths,” she said, laughing.
“Yeah,” he said, laughing with her.
But it didn’t help the fear filling his
stomach and clamping it tight around the breakfast sandwich and coffee he now wished he hadn’t eaten.
THIRTY-NINE
JEWEL MANAGED TO keep her eyes open as they went through the wall and into a storage room for cleaners in the area between the two waiting areas. It had dim light and was full of cleaning carts. It smelled like bleach.
She could see the black waves coming through the wall directly in front of them. Two sets of waves about chest waist high.
“Both men are in position,” K.J.’s voice said in a whisper from the air. “Both have their heads back, both are asleep. But better hurry, a couple is heading toward them and if they sit on them, the Brigade men will wake up.”
“Ready,” Tommy whispered.
Jewel nodded and made herself take a deep breath and grab the heavy pan with both hands.
Tommy moved over to the wall about three feet from the men and stuck his head through, then pulled it back. “Wall is only about five inches thick,” he whispered. “We swing from here as hard as we can through the wall. Swing at the top of the waves about here.”
He showed her where on the wall. Then he braced his feet.
She stood beside him and braced her feet as well.
She couldn’t believe she was doing this, but she just made herself think of it as only an exercise. She forced herself to breathe and focus.
Breathe and focus on the spot just beyond the wall.
Tommy raised the pan over his head.
She did the same. It felt surprisingly heavy.
Focus.
“On the count of three,” he whispered.
She nodded, staying focused on the point just beyond the edge of the wall, gripping the pan like it would fly out of her hands at any moment.
“One, two, three.”
She swung the pan down as hard as she could at the same time Tommy did.
Her pan went right through the wall and hit something hard.
The impact stung her hands, and the impact vibrated up her arms, but she didn’t drop the pan.
Tommy hit something hard as well.
The sound was a dull thud and crack.
Smith's Monthly #10 Page 21
