Black Forest, Denver Cereal Volume 5 (12 page)

He turned the laptop so that she had a clear
view of the beginning of a police action somewhere near I-70 and
the Stapleton housing development on the old airport property.

“
That’s Sand Creek
Greenway,” Alex said. “We’ve trained there.”

“
I remember,” Raz
said.

“
Who took your password?”
Alex asked.

“
I don’t know,” Raz
said.

“
You didn’t check their
webcam?” Alex asked.

“
What?” Raz looked up at
her.

“
There’s a program on
every computer. Some kind of parental control.” Alex opened a
browser to the US Military Intelligence Center. “If the computer
has a webcam…”

“
Which most do,” he
said.

“
New ones,” Alex continued
typing. Voice security came up and she said, “Fey.” She turned to
Raz, “You need to have some security clearance to do it on a random
computer.”

“
Do I have the clearance?”
Raz asked.

“
Sure,” she
said.

She continued typing and clicking. The image
of Nash, Teddy, Noelle and Charlie peering at the computer came on
the laptop monitor.

“
There are your password
stealers,” Alex said.

“
Little shit,” Raz
said.

“
Who?” Max Hargreaves,
Alex’s identical twin, asked as he entered the room.

“
Nash,” Raz said. “He
asked me to show him how satellites work. He wanted me to do it on
his computer to prove that it worked on any computer.”

“
Must have had a keystroke
collection program,” Alex said.

“
I’m going to wring his
neck,” Raz said.

“
Sounds like you were
showing off,” Max said.

“
We just received a memo
about Senior Homeland Security Agents using governmental resources
to show off,” Alex said. “Strictly forbidden.”

“
I showed him how the
satellites work,” Raz said. “It’s not like I did a DNA test on my
partner’s childhood nemesis.”

“
That was international
security, my friend,” Alex laughed. “The PIRA are a registered
terrorist group!”

“
Yes, we’d hate to have
another one of those evil PIRA terrorists living in the house,” he
laughed. “We’re running out of space.”

Alex laughed.

“
What are we going to do
to the kids?” he asked.

“
Nothing nice,” Alex
said.

“
Should I make the
popcorn?” he asked.

“
If you make it, everyone
will come to get some,” Alex said.

“
Do we care?” Raz
said.

The friends gave each other a long look.

“
I’ll make the popcorn,”
he said.

“
Oh look,” Alex pointed to
a SWAT team member in a tree. “I know that guy. And that guy too.
This is going to be fun.”

Alex sat down in his chair. Max pulled a
chair next to hers.

“
Take notes!” Raz yelled
from the kitchen.

“
Hurry up!” Alex
yelled.

~~~~~~~~

Monday night — 8:45 P.M.

Near the Sand Creek Greenway

Seth and Delphie waited at the light on
Quebec to turn on to south Sand Creek Road. Neither had said much
since they left Noelle and the kids at Sandy’s salon.

“
I don’t like the feel of
this,” Delphie said.

“
I don’t like it either,”
Seth said. “But a child’s life is at stake. We can’t take any
chances.”

“
I know how badly you feel
about Jeffy. You couldn’t have saved him, Seth,” Delphie said.
“Even if you’d found him sooner, sent the Brighton Police, brought
a mess of Denver police, or whatever else, Jeffy would have still
died. When the coroner gets her results back, she’ll see that he
was poisoned.”

“
What are you telling me?”
Seth asked.

Seth turned on to south Sand Creek Road and
immediately turned onto Forty-Seventh Avenue Drive. Dodging a
police cruiser, he stopped at the barricade on Quebec Street. The
uniformed police officer looked at his badge. Waving to Delphie,
the policeman moved the barricade and they drove through. Seth
pulled up along the curb next to the Sand Creek Trail.

“
What are you telling me?”
Seth repeated.

“
Razor is dying or already
dead,” Delphie said.

“
How is that possible?”
Seth asked. “It’s only been a few minutes!”

Delphie shrugged.

“
What’s wrong with you?”
Seth’s voice rose with anxiety and frustration. “Usually you’re all
talk. Blah, spirits, blah, universe, blah. We’re in the middle of
all of this with a child’s life on the line and now you clam
up?”

Delphie put her hand on Seth’s forearm.

“
I’ve told you this entity
blocks my vision,” Delphie said. “I can’t get a clear picture. I
only know what I’ve said. I don’t think Razor is alive because I
can’t see him. I can’t be sure and…”

“
And?” Seth
asked.

“
I feel this growing
menace toward you,” Delphie said.

“
The entity is mad at me?”
Seth gave an indignant laugh. “The feeling’s mutual.”

“
No, the killer is mad at
you,” Delphie said. “I’m sorry Seth. I wish I could help you more.
My connection and experience with this entity blocks me.
And…”

Delphie looked out at the night. The
uniformed police moved like waves around them. There was a city of
black uniformed men and women preparing to do what they do
best.

“
And?” Seth
asked.

“
I’m afraid for you,”
Delphie said. “This man is furious. You stole his trophies. You
took his safe haven, the barn. You’re now going to take away
another one of his hideouts. He wants to get back at you. Like he
did…”

Delphie’s clamped her mouth closed. Her lips
formed a tight line. If Seth didn’t know her better, he’d swear
she’d sealed her lips in a zipper like a twelve year old child. He
pushed a piece of her red hair behind her ear.

“
You can tell me
anything,” Seth said. “But you have to tell me fast. We’re moving
in… uh… eight minutes. Action at 9:30 p.m.”

“
Were you working on this
case when Bonita died?” Delphie asked.

“
I don’t really remember.
Everything is a blur from that time in my life,” Seth said. “We’d
just gotten our first case which was…”

“
The bones found at Coors
Field?” Delphie asked.

“
He killed Bonita and the
kids,” Seth whispered. His face went completely blank.
“Oh.”

They sat in silence while Seth digested the
information.

“
I can’t think about this
right now,” Seth said.

“
That’s why I didn’t want
to say anything,” Delphie said. “Just put it away, sweet Seth.
We’ll deal with this later.”

Delphie’s hand stroked Seth’s forehead.

“
What did you just do?”
Seth asked.

“
I helped you put it
away,” Delphie said.

Seth nodded to her.

“
You’ll tell me
everything,” Seth said. “No matter how ugly. Don’t protect me
Delphie.”

“
I protect you because I
love you.”

“
I know,” Seth said. “You
love me like a brother. I love you like a sister. I’ve been meaning
to ask… Are we?”

“
We have been in many,
many lifetimes,” Delphie said.

“
Huh,” Seth
said.

Delphie hugged him.

“
I’m going with you,”
Delphie said. “I wore my hiking boots.”

Delphie held out her feet.

“
Deep inside, I know I
can’t stop you,” Seth said. “But you really shouldn’t
go.”

Delphie patted his arm and got out of the
car. A police officer brought over two Kevlar vests. He helped
Delphie with her vest. When Delphie looked up, Seth was surrounded
by the head of the police units on scene. The officers updated him
on the status of the situation. Walking over, Delphie stood just
behind him. When Seth looked up to find her, he was ready to go.
Delphie nodded.

They jogged down the Sand Creek trail.

~~~~~~~~

Monday night — 9:15 P.M.

Middle of Denver, CO

“
The sound’s off,” Alex
said.

Munching on a handful of popcorn, Alex stood
up so that Raz could take her place in front of his laptop. Raz
clicked a button and the sound came on.

“
Got it,” Troy Olivas
yelled from the other room.

The picture from the laptop came on the
large flat screen television in the living room.

“
That’s perfect!” Cian
Kelly clapped. “Look at those buggers go!”

Raz picked up his laptop and went into the
living room. He kicked at pajama clad John Drayson’s legs. John
vacated a chair at the small table so Raz could sit down.

“
They’re starting to
move,” Alex said. She plopped down on the couch next to
Max.

“
Do we know where they’re
going?” Max asked.

“
Looks like they’re moving
toward that pile of cement,” Matthew said as he came into the
room.

“
How did you..?” Alex
started.

“
Troy texted,” Matthew
said. “Didn’t want to miss out.”

As an ex-New York City police officer, Raz
couldn’t resist explaining the scene.

“
These are SWAT shooters,”
Raz pointed to the men in the trees. “This is a bomb team. Look!
The dogs…”

Raz stepped back to look at the picture. He
shook his head.

“
They don’t know what
they’re getting into,” Raz said.

“
We should help them out,”
Alex said.

“
Why?” Cian
said.

Alex scowled at her brother-in-law.

“
Just got the text,” Colin
Hargreaves walked into the room.

“
I want radar and heat
imaging now,” Alex said. “What else can we get off this
satellite?”

“
We can call NORAD,”
Matthew said.

“
I’ll call Denver PD,” Raz
said. “We can’t help if we don’t know what this action
entails.”

“
Do it,” Alex said. “I
don’t want to sit here eating popcorn while these guys go down in
flames.”

~~~~~~~~

Monday night — 9:15 P.M.

In Sandy’s Salon on Colfax Blvd, Denver,
CO

“
Hey the sound came on,”
Teddy said.

“
Oh shit,” Nash
said.

“
Oh shoot what?” Noelle
asked.

“
They know we’re on the
satellite,” Nash said. “We should stop watching.”

“
Now?” Teddy asked. “They
already know we’re on. It’s not like we can get in more
trouble.”

“
We really should turn it
off,” Noelle said.

“
I bet we’ve broken about
a billion laws,” Nash said.

“
I’ll call my Dad,” Teddy
said. “He gets away with murder from Mrs. Alex. Forges her
signature all the time.”

Nash and Noelle looked at each other. They
both looked up at Charlie.

“
You don’t have anything
to say?” Nash asked.

“
If I tell you to do it,
you’ll just say that the low life scumbag made you do it,” Charlie
said. “Uh huh, no way. I’m not getting kicked out because you stole
a satellite code.”

“
It’s your friend!” Nash
said.

“
No way,” Charlie said.
“You make your own decision.”

“
You’re our brother now,”
Noelle said. “No one’s going to kick you out.”

“
You say that…” Charlie
started.

“
Look, they activated the
heat imaging,” Teddy said.

The kids eyes riveted on the screen
again.

~~~~~~~~

Monday night — 9:25 P.M.
Middle of Denver, CO

“
They have information
that a young man is being held prisoner in a bunker under the
salvage yard,” Raz said.

“
Information from whom?”
Matthew asked.

“
That kid Charlie,” Raz
said. “You know the one Sandy and Aden took in from the
streets?”

“
If there’s a hostage,
this entire action is under our purview,” Alex said.

“
Let’s use this as
training,” Matthew said. “We need as much practice as we can get
with exactly this kind of thing.”

“
I’m in my PJs!” Troy
said. “I don’t want to go scrabble in the dirt.”

“
Oh waa,” Max
said.

“
Charlie’s a good kid. I’m
in,” Colin said.

“
We’ll stay here,” Alex
said. “Assess all the information and pass it along to the Denver
PD. They probably don’t need our help…”

“
They said they’d love our
help,” Raz said.

“
There you go,” Matthew
said. “Olivas, get your computer. We need to run
scenarios.”

“
I want to hear that phone
conversation,” Alex said.

“
On it,” Raz
said.

“
Max, can you help with
the audio?” Alex asked.

Max nodded.

“
How much time do we
have?” Troy asked.