Jhondie

Jhondie

The errand we were running actually had nothing to do with any cases we were working on. EO told us that another informant told him that there was a set of disks at a construction yard that was needed for something EO was working on personally. Apparently the company was doing little things like billing for so much concrete, but not really buying it, and pocketing the money. The construction was shoddy, and there had been two buildings collapse in Seattle, killing nine people. It was hard to revitalize an economy when the buildings were too dangerous to go into.

Boss-man thought that the owner of the construction company was in cahoots with someone else. The someone else didn't like competitors, and was making sure their places were unsafe to enter. A set of disks had just been sent to their LA office, and then run out to this construction site. EO didn't say what was on the disks, just that they were very important. He knew we weren't adverse to a little breaking and entering in the name of justice. It had rained yesterday, turning their site into a mud pit. There wasn't going to be any work today, so we figured we should be able to get in and out easily.

It was a little awkward, and a bigger exposure, having to take two cars, but I didn't want to waste time going back to my house, and then all the way back out here. That would have been two hours of my weekend wasted, and I wasn't going to give up any more than I absolutely had to. Saving the world was just going to have to take a backseat to having a good time this weekend. The boss might not agree, but I had a feeling he wasn't eighteen anymore, and when he was eighteen, saving the world was not his top priority. I left my car about a mile from the site and went with Justin the rest of the way.

This would be so much easier without Justin, I thought as we surveyed the site from a short distance. He had binoculars. I had my enhanced vision. There was a ten-foot high fence surrounding the place, and then the foreman's trailer was about ten to twelve feet from the fence. It would be easier for just me to go. One jump over the fence, a second to get to the trailer, and maybe thirty seconds to disable security and get inside was all it would take for me. I already knew not to try and suggest that Justin stay in the car. He did not make a good sidekick. He liked to be part of the action.

"It looks like there's a secondary gate near the trailer," he said. I could see that. That would be a much better place to go in. There was a small service road that went around the perimeter. The building site was up on a hill, and I was willing to bet there were some stairs or something. The back gate was probably for any brass that showed up. Wouldn't want anyone to get messy going through a dirty construction site.

"I don't see any cameras," I said, but I'm willing to bet there's a security system on the trailer. He didn't say anything. He knew I could handle it. I looked over at him and smiled. "In and out, get the disks, and then the weekend really begins." I said. I was so glad neither of us had classes on Wednesday this semester.

We drove around the perimeter. There weren't any cameras around, just a few "Beware of Dogs" signs. I couldn't hear any mutts. It was probably a bluff. Most places couldn't afford guard dogs, so they just put up signs. I had broken into a few places where there were signs but no dogs. The security here was pretty simple. Not even a rent-a-cop. Everyone was off for the holiday. This was going to be a breeze. As we got closer, I saw a single camera at the front of the trailer. That was easy enough.

There weren't any stairs, just a dirt path. It was now a mud path. Lovely. Oh well, I needed to go home and make the yum-yum anyways. I would just change my shoes then. I still needed to make one more protest before starting this.

"I can be in and out of there in less than two minutes on my own," I reminded Justin.

He rolled his eyes. "I know." He was such a pain to argue with. He had already made up his mind and there was no turning back. Logic and reason had no place at that point. I thought about just jumping the fence and not picking the lock for Justin. No, he would just climb the fence and get stuck or something and then I would really feel bad.

I picked the lock in fourteen seconds. It wouldn't have taken that long normally, but it was hard for even me to keep my footing. I know mud is supposed to be good for you, but this was a bit ridiculous. My hearing was on alert for the high-frequency sounds of silent alarms. Nothing. This was going quite well. Justin stayed behind the trailer, and with an easy jump I was on the roof. The camera at the front was pointed down, letting me check the wiring. Some cameras have sensors that tell if they had their position changed. Nothing here. I disconnected the wiring, reminding myself to hook it back up afterwards. Didn't want anyone to notice it wasn't working.

I signaled Justin to move and he came around. I was already working on the keypad entry. It took less than a minute. Honestly, since I left Manticore, I had yet to find a security system that could present me with a challenge. Maybe it was because I was an adult now, but everyone seemed so amateurish. We went in and started looking for the disks. It was a problem because there were quite a few, but EO said they would be very distinct. Probably in locked case or something like that.

I started to look for a hidden safe while Justin went through the desks. There was the desk for the secretary, and then another for the foreman. He started with the secretary's. Was he deliberately wasting time? Secretaries do not keep secret documents. There had to be a safe or something where they would hide important disks.

"Damn it!" Justin snapped. I glanced back, seeing him holding a paper. He was glaring furiously at it. He looked up at me. "One thing I learned from Dad," he said. "It's always the secretary that knows what the hell is going on." I took the paper from him. It was a carbon copy receipt. A package had been couriered out to the site, but attached to the receipt was another slip. It was from the same courier company and said that a package had been taken to another office in LA. It had the destination, but it also had the words "computer disks" in the contents section. After the Pulse it became mandatory to list package contents, the only slightly helpful thing Martial Law had done for the US. Now it seemed the disks had been there, but they were already safely stored somewhere else for the holiday. This sucked. Oh well, not much we could do at this point. I memorized the address that the disks had been sent to and we got ready to leave.

We made sure that everything was back to where it needed to be and walked out. I wasn't thinking. I wasn't being careful. The brain was already situated on the weekend. I had already decided the disks were just going to have to wait. Maybe that night I would do some recon, but I was not giving up my weekend for anything. I should have been on full alert. We walked out, and I relocked the door. That's when I heard the growls.

Justin had been watching me, trying to learn how I did all of this. It was hard to explain. I caught the smell first and then half-a-dozen vicious growls. We spun around and there were six of the meanest looking dogs that I had seen in a long time, and I wasn't referring to Haille's friends. Their fur was standing on end, and all of them were looking at me. Not this again.

"Justin, this might be a bad time to tell you this, but dogs don't like me," I whispered.

"You don't do that animal DNA bonding thing?" he whispered back. Why did he like to pick weird times to be a smart ass?

"Actually, I think they can sense the cat DNA," I whispered. It was true. Dogs had never liked me. I had thought my dislike of them stemmed from the Manticore years when dogs were used as guards, but maybe it was more instinctive. I had never met one that liked me on sight.

The dogs were starting to close in on us, growling harder. We were going to be very hurt in about ten more seconds. "Break left," I whispered quickly. "I'll distract them and jump the fence." Before he could protest, I took off at a dead run to the right, full speed ahead. The dogs immediately took off after me, probably wondering as much as their doggie minds would allow why there was a human they couldn't catch. I was just going to run about fifty feet and jump the fence. One problem. The camera. Crap!

I changed direction and headed back to the trailer. The dogs were getting closer and I jumped high, landing on the roof. They were leaping and growling, but they were no match for that little feat. I motioned to Justin to stay put. The last thing I needed now was for him to try and rescue me off of the roof. I readjusted the camera, and looked at my options. One of the dogs had climbed up the stairs and was trying to leap up. I had to get caught by the smart ones. Okay. I had one option. I accelerated into a run as fast as I could, so fast that human eyes would have a hard time following. At the last possible second I leaped, my legs flipping out into a split, my body tucking in to become as aerodynamic as possible. I heard a slobbering growl just behind me and had a feeling that I had missed becoming dog food by an inch. Twelve feet. It was going to be close.

Justin

When she jumped off of the trailer I thought my heart was going to stop. Granted, there wasn't much of an option, but it was still scary to see her move like that. One second she was a blur on the roof, the next she was doing the long-jump. I didn't think she could see how close it was, but at the last second she tucked her entire body in, almost into a mid-air somersault, and cleared the fence by less than two inches.

If the ground had been dry, we would have been fine. She hit the mud hard and started to slide. She went backwards, I tried to catch her and promptly lost my footing. We both slid down the muddy slope, ending up in a heap by my car. I was dirty. Jhondie was covered from head to toe in black mud. She sat up slowly and looked at herself. Mud was caked in her hair, her clothes were brownish-black, shoes filled with the muck.

"If I hear anything from him for the rest of the weekend," she said with particular emphasis. "I will find a way to make him pay." She fell backwards into the mud and groaned. I did my best to keep from smiling. She would have killed me. I was so glad we had two cars. I could laugh myself sick the entire way back to her place.