The Price of Disrespect (Gray Spear Society Book 6) (24 page)

"We'll work as quickly as we can," Aaron said.

Neruda pointed past his shoulder. "Is that a kid?"

He turned around. Except for Jack, the entire Chicago cell had assembled outside the van. They were all dressed as gas workers. Wesley stood among them in the same costume.

"Yeah," Aaron said. "It's a crazy new company policy. Just keep everybody away while we do our job."

He jogged back to his team. In addition to the van, they had brought a truck for hauling scientific equipment.

He spoke in a low voice. "We'll split into three squads. Squad one is Smythe, Odelia, and Kamal. Squad two is Norbert, the twins, and Nancy. That leaves Tawni and Wesley with me. Don't get separated. I'm not expecting trouble, but we could easily run into some."

Nancy raised her hand. "Sir, what are we looking for?"

"Hopefully, we'll know it when we see it. Get your equipment together and move quickly. Our time is limited."

"Yes, sir," everybody responded.

Aaron went to the truck to retrieve the item he would use tonight. It looked like a hand-held vacuum cleaner, except the controls were futuristic. It was actually an air sampler designed to sniff out bombs. It would detect trace amounts of many kinds of dangerous chemicals. Tawni grabbed a portable radiation detector which was the size and shape of a deck of cards. She had received a ten minute lecture on how to use it, but the controls weren't complicated. Wesley would just employ his very perceptive eyeballs.

The three of them entered the building through a door on the north-east corner. Aaron took the lead. They walked into a narrow hallway with brown carpeting. There were odd stains on the floor and on the yellow walls. Cheap overhead fixtures provided uneven lighting. He smelled cat poop.

Tawni kept glancing at Wesley.

Aaron stopped and faced them. "Let's do this right now. If you two have anything to say, say it, so we can focus on the assignment. Tawni, go first."

She had slept a few hours and looked better than she had in the morning. At least, there was less danger of her passing out.

"Thank you for saving my life and fixing my mind," she muttered, "but did you have to be so nasty about it?"

Wesley looked down. "I was cruel. I'm sorry. Normally, I would use three or four sessions for somebody like you, but you made me mad. I pushed you through the whole process all at once."

"You actually feel bad about it?"

He nodded. "My gift isn't for punishing people. I made a mistake last night. I won't do it again."

"Don't worry about it." She put a hand on his shoulder. "You're just a kid, and kids make mistakes."

"Everybody expects me to lead the human race when I grow up. I'm not allowed to make mistakes."

"Lead it where?"

"I don't know yet." He shrugged. "You called me a punk last night, and maybe I am, but that's not a surprise. I never had a friend my own age. No brother or sister. My parents are dead. I'm always surrounded by creepy super-killers. No wonder I have issues."

"I didn't realize. How did your parents die?"

"Norbert killed them. Not directly, but he led the attack."

She stared at him in shock. "Really? You're not mad at him?"

"It's not his fault. Destiny can be a real bastard sometimes." He sighed.

She contemplated the boy for a long moment. Finally, she knelt down and gave him a hug. "I'll be your friend. I'm not your age, but I'll do my best. I promise I won't become a creepy super-killer."

"You'll break that promise pretty quickly. You'll be as bad as Atalanta soon."

She furrowed her brow.

"Are we done?" Aaron said. "Can we proceed without further distractions?"

"Yes, sir," Tawni said.

Wesley nodded.

They entered the first apartment in the hallway. Aaron had to use his lock picks, but the cheap lock presented no challenge.

The main room of the apartment contained unpainted furniture which had been assembled by amateurs. A half-eaten bowl of macaroni and cheese was on the coffee table.

"I'll take the kitchen," Aaron said. "You two work on the bedrooms. Look under the bed, the closets, the dressers, under the sink, everywhere."

He went into the small kitchen. The floor was dirty with crumbs, and dishes were piled high in the sink. He went through the cabinets. He found a lot of cheap canned and dried food, but all of it looked normal. He poked around in the garbage with a spatula.

He waved his electronic sniffer around. It found nothing of interest in the air.

It took about fifteen minutes before they were done searching the entire apartment. Aaron realized they would have to move quicker. The building contained two hundred apartments, and the police would get suspicious if the "gas workers" spent more than a few hours fixing the mythical gas leak.

He, Wesley, and Tawni worked their way down the hall, checking each apartment. Aaron found the experience depressing. He couldn't imagine living in one of these dirty little pigeon holes. Even when he had been an underpaid cop, his lifestyle had been better than this.

"This is the kind of place I grew up in," Tawni said.

"Which reminds me," Aaron said, "you need to find an apartment for yourself. It has to be within walking distance of headquarters."

"How nice an apartment can I get, sir?"

"If you like it, take it. We'll create a false identity to sign the lease and pay the utility bills. Bethany can take care of all that for you."

Tawni smiled a little. "My own apartment for free. Where does the Society get the money, sir?"

"Bankers who work for the Manhattan cell manage our accounts."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"You're not allowed to know the rest," Aaron said. "I'll just say there are secret places where God orchestrates the elaborate illusion called the financial system."

"I thought money was the root of all evil."

"The Lord created good and evil. Both are required for free will."

She contemplated that statement.

When Aaron opened the door of the next apartment, he was assaulted by the noise from a loud television. It was showing an animated program involving militant penguins. They spoke in exaggerated accents like characters in a classic war movie. He immediately walked over to turn it off.

"Wait!" Wesley said. "Don't touch it, sir."

The boy came over and stared at the television. Aaron could see the light reflected in his eyes.

"It's just a dumb show for kids," Aaron said.

"Something is wrong."

Wesley touched the flat television screen. He slowly swept his hand across the surface.

The show was very annoying, so Aaron looked at the rest of the apartment instead. Dirty clothes and food wrappers were scattered around. There was a large burn mark on the carpet. A hole had been punched in the thin wall between the living room and a bedroom. The smell from the kitchen warned him to stay out of there.

Aaron went into a bedroom. The sheets and blankets were tangled in a wad on the bare mattress. One of the pillows was torn open, exposing the foam inside. A dresser had been knocked over. It was clearly a place where a very angry person slept.

"It's lying," Wesley said.

Aaron rejoined him in the main room. "What is?"

"The TV."

"It's a fictional show."

"That's not what I mean, sir." Wesley looked under and behind the television with a puzzled expression.

"Then what do you mean?" Aaron said.

"I don't know, but this is very important."

Aaron looked long and hard at the television. It had switched to a toy commercial, which he found just as annoying as the regular show. He couldn't figure out what Wesley was talking about.

However, the Voice of Truth never lied. Aaron used his phone to summon the other two squads. A few minutes later, the whole team was gathered in the apartment and staring at the television.

"I detest this program," Smythe said.

Aaron looked at the faces in the room. Everybody seemed perturbed, even the twins, and they rarely showed any emotion.
Interesting,
he thought.

Kamal had a complex device for detecting electromagnetic waves. The long antenna on top had a triangular shape. Several lines of text showed on the LCD display.

He waved the detector around the television and studied the results. "No odd readings. Just the usual high frequency noise you'd expect."

Bethany checked the wiring. "It's a standard coax connection. I don't see anything strange."

An old-fashioned VCR was underneath the television. Aaron pushed in a tape and pressed the "record" button.

"You think it's the show, sir?" Smythe said.

"I can see the effect on all of you," Aaron said. "Wesley is definitely onto something. Television is a way to reach a lot of victims at one time."

"But it's just light and sound. It can't hurt people."

"Our eyeballs are hardwired to our brains."

Wesley flipped to the next channel which was showing a local news program. "It's the same effect."

"Try all the channels," Aaron said.

Wesley made a systematic survey. He identified thirteen channels where the phenomenon was present, and the rest seemed normal to him.

Aaron popped the tape out of the VCR. "Now let's try another apartment."

Everybody went next door. Wesley went through the channels again and found the same ones were affected.

"The source has to be in the cable system," Bethany said. "Some kind of subliminal video signal? A high frequency sound? A physiological resonance?"

Aaron nodded. "Finally, we have a good lead! Leanna, analyze this." He gave the tape to Leanna. "Bethany, start doing research on the local cable company. Get lists of workers. Search for patterns of covert activity. You know what to do."

"Yes, sir," Bethany said.

"Let's go home. We're done here."

The team left the apartment building and headed towards the vehicles. Aaron split off to quickly meet Lt. Neruda.

"We found the leak," he told her. "You can let everybody go back inside."

"Thank God," she said. "It was starting to get ugly out here."

Aaron noticed a man standing on top of the building across the street. He realized it was Carlos. Atalanta sat near him with her legs dangling over the edge even though she was three stories up.
How are they following us?
Aaron wondered. It was a question that needed an answer.

He walked off to rejoin his team.

Chapter Ten

Tawni and Odelia stood at opposite ends of a blue mat in headquarters. Both women had put on sweat suits. They were facing Aaron who wore formal gray robes. He had told Tawni they were the official robes of a commander, and they certainly made him look important. She wanted her own nice robes.

"Tawni," he said, "this is your first real lesson in fighting, so it will be very basic. I'm not talking down to you. I'm just making sure you have a solid foundation."

"Yes, sir," Tawni said.

"First off, women have weak arms. It's not your fault. You're just built that way."

She felt insulted and opened her mouth to shoot back a nasty reply. With great difficulty, she stopped herself. Aaron waited. She thought of another response and realized it was just as offensive. He watched her patiently.

After taking a deep breath, she said, "You're testing me again, sir."

"Indeed." He nodded. "But it's true. Your arms are weak, so you'll use them for defense most of the time. Keep them close to your body. Odelia, demonstrate, please."

Odelia dropped into a fighting stance. She held her arms almost against her chest, and her hands were tightly balled into fists.

"A female
legionnaire
attacks with her legs primarily. That's where her strength lies. Odelia, kick me in the head, nice and hard."

Her back leg whipped around at phenomenal speed. Her foot flew up in an arc aimed at his temple. He caught her ankle in the air just before impact. Even though he was much bigger than her, the momentum of her attack made his whole body rock.

"Odelia has very strong legs," he said. "She's also very flexible."

He lifted her ankle until her leg was pointed straight up. She didn't seem to mind. He put his free hand against her belly and gave her a hard shove. She hopped backwards on one foot a few times without falling over.

"And she has tremendous balance," he added. "Try to become like her."

Do I have to become a white Barbie doll, too?
Tawni thought. She fought a strong urge to speak the words out loud.

"We'll start with the most important element for a woman: balance. Lift your right knee and hold it up, both of you."

Tawni and Odelia lifted their knees. Tawni needed to use her arms to stay balanced.

"Look at Odelia," Aaron said. "Do see how quiet her body is? How still? She's relaxed but ready to fight."

He abruptly swept Odelia's supporting leg with a hook kick. She flipped backwards onto her hands and stayed upside down. She was just as steady in that position as before. Tawni couldn't help but be impressed.

Odelia pushed off with her hands and hopped back to her feet.

"Work on balance for a while," Aaron said. "Practice standing on one leg. Try to go a half-hour without getting tired or falling over. When you can do the exercise on both sides, we'll move on."

"Yes, sir," Tawni said.

The exercise sounded very boring and grueling, but she understood its importance.

Tawni heard a woman scream hysterically. It had come from the computer room. Aaron took off running, and Odelia and Tawni followed close behind.

When Tawni entered the room, she discovered one of the twins was huddled against the wall with her arms over her face. The other was savagely kicking the shit out of her sister. Odelia ran towards them.

Aaron was frozen in the middle of the room and staring at one of the computer monitors. Tawni couldn't see the front of the screen, but she heard the television show with the penguins. His eyes were bugging out like a crazy man. His fists were tightly clenched, and he was breathing rapidly. A vein pulsed in his forehead.