The Day After Yesterday: Ch 5
A/N: Sorry this took so long. Minor issues like final projects/papers/presentations/debates/tests/ect . . are to blame.
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Frankly no one could argue Mickey’s assessment of the creature. It did look a bit like Chia pet. With sooth moves Johnson took a containment box she’d brought in, then using a cloth scooped up the creature and secured it.
Jack looked back at Baker who had tossed the clicker on the table in front of him, then collapsed back on to the table. They weren’t going to get anything more out of him. He grabbed the devise and stood, “Ok people lets go.” Mickey and Johnson left and Martha stopped by the door on her way out.
Gwen grabbed his arm as he turned, “but what about Baker?” she whispered.
“What about him?”
“We should arrest him.”
“I told you when you fist joined we aren’t the police.”
“But he killed his wife and daughter,” she hissed.
“And I killed my grandson,” Jack challenged.
Gwen’s eyes went wide, “No, that’s not .. . that’s completely different,” she fumbled.
“Is it?” Jack stared her down until she practically fled the house.
Jack turned to follow her out as he came to the door Martha stopped him with a hand on his arm, “It is though.”
“What?”
“It is different,” Jack opened his mouth, but she forestalled him, “and I know that doesn’t mean anything to you right now, but it dose mean something.” She let him go and left. Jack sat there for a few seconds before following her out.
~*~
Martha stood taking notes from the many scans and graphs displayed on her screens. “Can I play with the Chia?”
She sighed in annoyance, “Mickey, didn’t Jack tell you to figure out what that devise does?”
“I got it. Now I want to see what the Chia does with the clicker,” he nearly whined as he sat down on the top step of the autopsy.
“And I want to find out as much as I can about it first.”
“Sure, I’ll wait here.”
“Works for me,” Martha went back to the scans when she heard a rhythmic thumping start. She took a deep steadying breath, “Mickey.” She turned to see the man catch the ball he’d been bouncing off the opposite wall.
He looked at her with an attempt at an innocent face, that was ruined by mischievous glint in his eyes, “What?”
She rolled her eyes, then turned back to her screens. “Mickey Mouse are we going to see what you and Nightingale found?” Jack announced as he stepped over Mickey to lean on the railing around the autopsy bay.
“Yes!” Grinned Mickey as he jumped up. At the same time Martha growled throwing up her arms. As Johnson and Gwen joined Jack on the upper level.
Martha shot a look at Jack who had no idea why, before she turned to the graphs, “Not much to say about the creature really couldn’t find out how it might have caused the heart attacks, but I did find what appeared to be a larger pores that I think might lead to glands,” She shrugged.
Jack glanced over at Mickey, “This clicker, is a basic sonic devise,” said the man holding it up. Jack and Martha opened their mouths at the same time, “Not anywhere near the level of the screwdriver, I’m talking really simple,” he corrected to the confusion of Johnson and Gwen. “It will emit two different sonic signals, thus the two buttons. We saw that this one calls the Chia to it. The other, we’ve no clue.”
“Is the container secure?” asked Johnson nodding to the box containing the Chia.
“Yeah, air tight and reinforced,” agreed Martha.
“So Mickey, press the second button,” directed Jack.
Mickey pressed the button grinning from ear to ear. The reaction was immediate the Chia curled in on itself, but other then that they didn’t see anything.
“Is that it?” asked Gwen, “That won’t kill anybody.”
“You sure?” asked Martha looking over her shoulder, she turned back to the screens, “Look at the air quality in the box.” She pointed at the screens, “those chemicals will cause a heart attack. . . .and . . .it dissipates quickly.”
“But what about the pets? Someone wasn’t trying to kill them?” asked Gwen.
“It’s probably a defense mechanism,” said Johnson from where she was leaning against the wall, “The animals probably came up to mess with it and,” she gestured to the box.
“So we know what and how,” said Jack “What do we know about the who?”
“ looking at Baker’s finances I found the most likely purchases,” Johnson put in, “Then with Smith’s help we compared the other victims where a spouse survived and found one purchase in common with most.”
“The other’s we assumed must have been gifts from people who wanted the victim out of the way,” Mickey added.
“They passed the info onto me,” Gwen took over, “I went through the victims phone records and got a phone number.”
“But no location?” Said Jack.
“But no location,” confirmed Gwen.
“Ok, plan of action?” asked Jack.
There was silence for a moment. Then Johnson stood forward, “We need to send someone undercover.”
“Really?” asked Mickey.
“Baker said he was given the number. The standard operating procedure for this kind of organization is prospective buyer calls and is given a location to meet a representative who then takes them to the actual location.”
“So an undercover operation makes sense,” Jack agreed leaning on the railing. He picked his head up and looked at his team, “Who to send?”
“Smith is a no, he speaks like a child of the estates,” Johnson spoke flatly.
“I’ll go,” said Gwen.
“No,” Jack said.
“Jack, I can do it,” She straightened up, squaring up for a fight.
He looked straight at her as he opened his mouth Johnson cut him off, “Cooper, your speech is also not on the level needed, nor is your bearing appropriate. Neither is mine,” Gwen seemed to accept that, but only just. “The Captain or better yet Dr. Jones are the only two real possibilities.”
“I’d think Jack’s too well known,” added Gwen.
“Then it’s settled, I’ll go,” said Martha. She didn’t give Jack a chance to argue like he obviously wanted to, “We’ll need to set up a believable identity.”
“Why not use something like Baker’s?” asked Mickey, “She’s a well off business wife who wants to get rid of her husband.”
“For life insurance? Or maybe he’s getting ready to divorce her?” added Gwen.
“Those situations seem very plausible,” agreed Johnson, she turned to Martha, “Do you think you can act the part?”
Martha let out a laugh, “The circles my parents moved through? I’ve got several perfect models.”
“Ok, let’s get to making that story,” The autopsy cleared out leaving Jack alone. The staging had been rapid fire not giving him a chance to argue against putting Martha under cover again. Well, he forced a smile, at least he knew they’d be good when he left. He pushed himself off the railing and turned to help the team.
~*~
“Everybody ready?” asked Jack he received nods all around the conference room table, “Then it’s show time,” he nodded to Martha.
She reached for the phone in front of her and dialed the number, it rung a few times before a cold professional voice picked up over the speaker on the table, “Hello, I’m afraid I don’t know this number.”
She answered in a similar tone, “I was given this number by a friend. I was told you help with difficult people,” the emphasis on the word difficult left no question what she was referring to.
“We do,” there was a pause, “I would like to know who I’m speaking to?”
Martha looked to Jack who shook his head, “All you need to know now is that I can pay, and I have a problematic person I would like out of my life.”
There was a longer pause. Mickey signaled to the screen which showed someone tracking the number back to the false Identity they’d set up. Perfect.
“Yes, of course. We will meet at the coffee shop on Barber St. tomorrow at two in the afternoon.”
“That is fine. How will you know me?”
“We’ll know. Tomorrow then.”
“Tomorrow,” agreed Martha as she hung up the phone.
“Sound like we got it,” said Mickey.
“It does,” agreed Jack, “And hopefully they will either take Martha to their facility or we can follow them back.” Jack turned to Gwen, “Still have those contacts?”
“Yep,” grinned Gwen, “UNIT didn’t think anything of me having contacts.”
“Martha will wear those, Gwen and Johnny will be in the coffee shop, Mickey and I will be in the SUV around the corner. We’ll watch what’s happening on the computer. As for tonight Gwen you can go home, I need to familiarize Mickey, Johnny and Martha with some of the basic tools we use.” Gwen was going to argue, “Gwen go home to Rhys and Cerys.”
~*~
Gwen sighed as she sat across from Johnson in the corner seat of the coffee shop in an awkward silence. They were here twenty minutes before Martha was supposed to meet and were expected to just wait.
How did she end up with Johnson? What was she supposed to talk with the woman about? She couldn’t even bring herself to relax around her. Mind you, that was not aided by the former agent’s military set. They would draw too much attention if they didn’t talk though.
“So, uh . . .Johnson, how have you been?” She tried, she really did, but frankly this was the agent that had hunted them a little over a year ago. What was Jack thinking bringing her in? Gwen had yet to get a chance to corner Jack about it yet.
The other woman merely raised an eyebrow, “Ask what you want to.”
Gwen stopped for a moment blinking, “Fine. Why are you working for us?”
“It was the thing to do,” was all she said.
The thing to do? Gwen felt her anger rising. The thing to do? To come work with the people you hunted, shot at, blew up the base of, blew up, buried in concrete and abducted the kid and grand kid of? How was that the thing to do? She had to take a sip of the coffee she’d ordered, they would stand out too much if she started yelling. She forced her voice mostly even, but her eyes showed disdain as she looked at the other woman, “Really? I wouldn’t think so?”
The other woman didn’t even look at her, continuing to scan the coffee shop, “Neither would I, but it seems it is.”
Gwen’s frustration rose at the dismissal, “Why? Is the government not paying you well enough to kill people any more?”She spat, “I don’t know what Jack was thinking hiring you. . . ”
“Neither do I,” Gwen was cut off, as Johnson looked at her, really looked at her, with an unidentifiable emotion in her eyes.
“What?” she asked a bit weakly.
“I don’t know what the Captain was thinking either. As for the government, I don’t work for them. Haven’t for over a year.”
Gwen stopped adding the time up. She quit after the 456? Why? A million questions went through her head, but she fumbled to try to vocalize any of them. They sat in tense silence for a few seconds when Jack’s voice cut across their coms, “Looks like someone’s approaching.”
Gwen and Johnson both turned away, to discretely watch the man that had walked up to Martha’s table.
The man was on the shorter side but slim in a severe suit, his dark hair gelled back and dark wrap around glasses on despite it not being a particularly sunny day. “I’m Mr. Anglin,” he sat down and offered his hand to shake.
“Rebecca Worthington,” Martha answered she was dressed in designer clothes to fit the profile.
“So who exactly are you having issues with?” he asked.
Martha looked round as if making sure no one was listening, “My husband if you must know. It would just be so much easier if he weren’t in the picture.”
“Oh I understand. There are a lot of people in you position,” Anglin answered smoothly.
“Can we not talk about this here?”
“Of course. A woman who means business,” he said approvingly.the man stood up, “You must understand, we don’t give our location over the phone.”
“I do,” she agreed picking up her bag, “And I appreciate the care that shows.”
“It is not far, so we will walk. If that is ok?”
“It is,” Anglin led Martha out of the café and out onto the street.
Johnson and Gwen waited a few minutes before simultaneously standing up and leaving the shop, both turning left and getting into the SUV that pulled around the corner.
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