I'm back! I know it's been awhile, but life has interrupted. And, I haven't been neglecting my MX fiction! These little plot bunnies for the sequel to this sequel hopped into my head and scared off the ones for this story. So...the good news: I've got an entire outline for my next story. The bad news: I haven't been working on this one. But I'm hoping to get more done soon!
Chapter 28: Normal
The next day, forty five minutes before noon, Brennan ambled into the common room. It seemed that, despite the fact that all of Sanctuary was underground, and thus no windows to give away the sun's position, his internal body clock just couldn't let him sleep away the day. His intent was the med lab – he wanted to relieve Adam of Jessica babysitting duty so the older man could get some sleep. His stomach had a slightly different idea, though. So he ended up in the kitchen, looking for some leftover takeout or a sandwich that would take the edge off his hunger.
It was as he was wandering into the kitchen, one hand scratching his abdomen, that he found Jesse, who was sitting at the table, flipping through something on his PDA. Not letting his surprise show, Brennan paused for only for a half second before continuing on to the fridge.
"What's up, man?" Brennan asked, rifling through the contents of the fridge, finally withdrawing a carton of chow mien from two days ago and pulling a set of chopsticks from a nearby drawer. "Given what happened yesterday, I would have thought you'd try to sleep in until 2:00 at least. How long you been up?"
There was a moment of silence as Jesse continued to stare at the wall and sip the – no doubt amazingly strong – coffee in his hand. Finally, "Not long, maybe half an hour. Guess I'm just too uneasy about everything to sleep." There was a pause. "Brennan, I want to apologize. You were right about me working with Dr. Robinson. It was a stupid thing to do. I was being selfish. There's no telling what kind of damage I could have done."
Now it was Brennan who was silent for a moment. "I'm not going to disagree with you, man. But apology accepted. I mean, we've all done some stupid things. Hey, remember when Emma brought a friend of hers to Sanctuary who was a GSAgent? An honest to God GSAgent."
Jesse gave a half-hearted laugh of remembrance, but didn't say anything. Brennan interpreted it as a good time to change the subject. Taking another bite of food, he asked, "Does Adam know you're up? He was kind of fussin' over you last night."
Brennan realized that this subject was just as bad as the previous one when, this time, Jesse scoffed. "I'm sure he was. He's been doing that a lot lately, to all of us. Fussing over little things that we're perfectly able to take care of ourselves."
Brennan blinked. "Yeah, I've noticed that. So he's changed a bit in the last year. He'll settle down once he gets used to everything again." Inhaling the last of the chow mien, he added, "How come it bothers you so much?"
"I don't know." Jesse took another sip of coffee. "Maybe he's not the only one who's changed," he added softly.
Brennan started to frown, but didn't have time to linger on the enigmatic statement because Shalimar chose that moment to bound into the kitchen.
"Hey, boys. How's it going? Did the computer come up with anything? 'Cause I'm ready to go out there and kick some ass."
"Okay, based on the parameters that Jesse and Lexa came up with last night, our best bet is Richardson's Park in Jersey City." A map appeared in the air in front of Adam. "The park meets all the criteria; it's relatively small, has a jungle gym and is a 20 minute, 2 bus ride from the corner of Cherry St and Willow Ave in the greater New York City area, and the area is primarily residential. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's primarily residential, and we have a two block radius in which to search."
Lexa crossed her arms and shifted her weight to the other hip. "Well, without anything more to go on, it looks like we're going to have to do it the old fashioned way. Just go in and have a look around."
Adam nodded. "That's what I was thinking. Earlier this morning I took a look at the satellite photos of the area. The topiary is simply too dense to get any idea of house color or the layout. Now Shalimar, I want you, Lexa and Brennan to go there in the Helix. Jesse, while they're airborne, I'd like you to do an information search on the area. Check out the names on leases, that kind of thing, see if you can get any help from that vantage."
Jesse, who until now had been staring at the holographic map, frowned. "Are you sure you want me back here Adam?"
The older man sighed. "Jesse, I need you here to do the search while I get some rest. And I need you to stay here in case anything happens with Jessica."
"But Katie is already helping on both counts. But if you need me to do that search, I can just as easily do it from the computers onboard the Helix. Besides, if I go with them, we can split up into teams of two. Everyone has back up and we can search the area twice as fast."
Adam's head tilted. "Fine. But I want the four of you in the air in 15 minutes. The sooner we take out who's behind this, the sooner we can relax. Let Katie know when you land, so she can help you guys if you need it."
Adam tapped a key on the panel. The holographic map blipped out. Eleven minutes later, the Helix was airborne, already in stealth mode to protect itself and its occupants from ever present satellites above and curious onlookers below.
The ride to Jersey City was fairly quiet, save for the sound of Jesse pounding away at the onboard computer and Shalimar tapping her feet. Lexa spun back and forth in her chair while Brennan piloted with his usual efficiency.
"Any luck, Jess?" Shalimar asked.
Jesse pushed away the keyboard. "Nope. I pulled up the names on the leases and rental agreements for all the houses within a three block radius of the park and cross referenced them with known Dominion agents as well as the local criminal databases. Nothing. But then again, I didn't expect to find anything." Then, in a voice so low Shalimar was sure she was the only one who could hear it, "I'm sure Adam didn't expect me to find anything either."
Shalimar frowned. If Adam didn't expect Jesse to find anything, why would he want him to stay at Sanctuary? The tension between Adam and Jesse that she had already noticed was definitely escalating. She was going to have to sit the two of them down sometime soon before the tension started driving her – and everyone else – crazy.
She had no more time to ponder the situation, as Brennan announced that they had arrived. She turned her mind to the mission at hand.
Brennan brought up the rear as they exited onto the roof of the nearby parking garage on which Brennan had landed. "I say we go with Jesse's idea," he said as they made their way down to ground level. "Split up. Shal, why don't you and I take the north side? Jesse, you and Lex can take the south side, and we'll meet up on the other side of the park in an hour or so."
Lexa glanced at Jesse for a moment. "Sounds good. We'll call you if we find anything." She and Jesse turned right, stepped of the curb to cross the street, and were soon out of sight.
"It seems like such an idyllic little neighborhood. Your nice, average mom-dad-two kids-two car garage kind of neighborhood. So…so normal."
"Yeah, it does. But just think of all the dirty laundry that goes on behind all those doors. For all we know the guy that lives in that house" he pointed to the house across the street "is a mass murdering pedophile, and the guy in the house next door has two kids but beats them and sleeps around on his wife."
"That's a pretty cynical view there, Brennan."
"It's a pretty cynical world we live in."
"I know, but don't you ever just imagine yourself in one of these pretty little houses with a family, gathered around the tree at Christmas with everyone talking about crazy Uncle Bob or something?"
"No."
She reached out lightly punch his arm. "Oh, come on. I'm sure you have once or twice."
Brennan rubbed his arm, feigning injury and laughing a bit at her indignation. "Jeez…why are the women I live with so violent?"
She arched an eyebrow.
"Okay, fine. Sure, once or twice I have wished I could be in one of those picture perfect homes you see on TV where the worst thing you have to deal with is getting bad grade on a report card. But it's not realistic, Shalimar. I mean, all these houses look perfectly normal, but…well, living the life we live….we shouldn't trust what we see at first. There's always something – or someone – behind everything."
"I see your point. I guess I shouldn't bother asking you any metaphysical questions like if you think there's a reason for everything. But it's still nice to dream, though."
Brennan said nothing. Then, "you see any green houses around here? All I'm seeing are gray, white and brown."
Shalimar turned her attention back on the task at hand. She focused her concentration on her sight, letting her far-point vision focus and scan the area. "No… wait. There's one about 3 blocks from here."
"Great. Let's go check it out and see if this whole trip has been nothing but a wild goose chase."
The south side of the park was no more eventful than the north. Except, it didn't take them nearly as long to find a green house. One block, two left turns and three aborted conversations later, they found a small, single story forest green house.
Lexa stopped one house away and folded her arms across her chest. "So. Would you like to knock on the door, or shall I?"
Jesse said nothing. He simply stared at the house with his brow furrowed.
"Jess?" Lexa waved one hand in front of his face. "Are you coming?"
"Yeah…" Jesse let her take his arm and lead him toward the house. Something seemed off, though, and he couldn't quite place it. Everything about the house looked normal. Right down to the tire swing hanging from the sturdy limb of a giant oak tree and small two-wheeler bicycle lying on its side. They passed through the picket fence surrounding the house, but Jesse barely noticed. He was trying to figure out what was wrong. Looking down the street, he could see half a dozen children playing in a small park. Hmm, he thought. That must be Richardson's Park. Two boys were climbing on a metal jungle gym. On the inside, a little girl hung upside down from her knees, her hair swaying as she moved…
A little girl…
Hanging upside down inside a jungle gym…
"Lexa, no! Look out!"
