Disclaimer: 'Power Rangers' (all incarnations) belong to BVE, who are related to Disney. No infringement is intended.
BOND ENFORCEMENT
By Etcetera Kit
Part One: On the Run
Chapter Three: First Impressions
"Eric! Where did all those boxes Bio-Lab sent over go?"
"They're in the front room until we figure out what to do with them."
"Where's the label-maker?"
"Why?"
"I need to make labels for the shelves of the downstairs closet."
"Whatever happened to reading the labels on the boxes?"
Cam listened with idle interest to the exchange between Mike, Kendrix and Eric going on downstairs. He wouldn't have been able to hear it, if he had the door to the room he shared with Eric closed. The other rooms upstairs were locked, including the connecting doors in the bathrooms. Kira and Kendrix had their room. He and Eric had theirs and no one was able to get into the other rooms. He supposed they would recruit more people in a few months.
He was sitting in his desk chair, with his feet propped up on his bed, his laptop balanced across his thighs. The purpose of this exercise was to see if the network he had set up on the mainframe computer downstairs would be picked up by his personal computers. His desktop computer had picked it up without a problem. He was waiting for the laptop to finish booting up to make the test complete.
Glancing from the computer screen, he looked at Eric's half of the room. It was typical from what Cam could glean of the Quantum Ranger. (Mike had informed him, upon his arrival yesterday morning, that all of them had been rangers, so there was no need to keep it under wraps around each other.) His bed was neatly made and the only thing on the surface of his desk was his laptop. He had used his nightstand for a TV stand, so that piece of furniture was pushed in one corner, so everyone in the room could see. The dressers were in the closet and the closet door was shut, meaning no one could see the few articles of clothing the pair of them had that needed hanging up. No pictures of friends or family… nothing remotely sentimental. Cam hated to think what an entire house of Eric's must have looked like.
Before he left, the other Ninja Storm Rangers had pushed photos, mementos and other pointless trinkets on him. He had put the framed photos on his desk, but regulated the rest of the junk to his bottom desk drawer.
"You guys going for the Christmas look?"
Cam looked up from his laptop to see Kira standing in the doorway of his room. He then glanced around the room, looking for the basis of her question. He had a dark green plaid comforter. Eric had a dark red comforter. Red and green… Christmas colors…
"I guess so," he shrugged.
"That's okay," Kira replied, coming in and perching on his bed. "Mine and Kendrix's room looks like a flamingo and a canary threw up in it."
Cam snickered, his fingers flying over the keyboard as the computer started searching for the network.
"What are you doing?"
"Setting up a network," he replied. "I need the mainframe to be connected to my computers in order to download the surveillance system."
"Sounds logical," she said. Kira had arrived early that morning and had spent the morning unpacking and talking with Kendrix, until Mike recruited Kendrix to organize the boxes of stuff downstairs—guns, cuffs, pepper spray… you name it, it was downstairs. She nodded towards the TV and combination DVD/VCR. "Clever," she commented.
"You can blame that on Eric, not me. He did that before I ever got here."
Kira stood up and studied the movies that were neatly lined up on the shelf that made up the bottom portion of the nightstand. "He's got decent taste in movies," she decided. Cam had to agree with her on that. Eric did have decent taste in movies, even if he did have a prickly personality. He could almost see himself and Eric as different ends of a spectrum. Almost.
Cam smiled in a self-satisfied way when his laptop picked up the network. He moved the surveillance files and training simulations to the 'shared documents' folder. He wasn't sure how much use bounty hunters would get out of ninja training simulations, but it was something worth having around.
It was nice to have Kira here, he reflected. While he had wanted to leave the Wind Ninja Academy and branch out on his own, it had been a little frightening, thinking of throwing himself into a situation where he knew nothing and no one. He arrived yesterday morning and found out that Kira had joined the squad as well. Granted, he didn't know Kira as well as he knew the other ninja rangers, but he knew her. That had been enough to quell his nerves and launch him into professional mode, looking at the software they had and assessing what else they needed.
The computer and accessories Collins had provided would be enough for now. He could work within in the confines of it. In other words, he could still tap into military and police satellites and feeds for the information he needed—illicitly if he had to.
"I wonder if we'll have time to watch movies."
Cam looked up at Kira and smiled. "I'm sure we will. Eventually."
Kira moved back to her earlier perch on his bed. "I can't see you as the type to sit around and watch movies."
He shrugged. "Look at the people I had to hang out with for a year." During that year, he had been forced to sit through more stupid movies than he cared to remember. Shane and Dustin liked comedies, Hunter and Blake preferred gory, action films, while Tori gravitated towards romances. And when someone was lacking a movie buddy, he was the one they all defaulted to. His father always took their side, claiming he needed to get out more. Sitting through dumb movies was not his idea of a good time.
Of course, Eric's movies were more classic than anything else. Star Wars, Indiana Jones and things of that ilk were on the partially filled shelf. Cam had added his meager movie collection to it—the Time Machine, Rollerball and some other cult classic movies, including his copy of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Not that he ever talked to anyone about his interest in the latter…
"Cam! Kira!" Mike called from downstairs. "We've got a meeting with Collins in half an hour and we need to leave now!"
"Duty calls," Kira said with a grin as she left his room and was heard shuffling around in her own room.
Kendrix passed by his door, also going to the girls' room. Cam shut down his laptop and put it on his bed. He picked up his jacket and pulled it on, meeting the two females as they came out of their room.
"Come on!" Mike called again.
Cam followed the girls downstairs and to the cars. He wasn't sure what the meeting with Collins was supposed to tell him, other than the things he already knew.
'We must look like a seriously motley crew,' Kendrix thought as the five of them gathered around Mr. Collins' desk in his office in the Bio-Lab building. She had never been summoned to his personal chambers before, mostly because she was on the bottom of the heap. Now, it was almost like Collins was viewing this as an experiment that he wanted to succeed. He never had meetings with entire groups of his employees… so this was automatically odd.
Motley crew… she tried not to smile at the phrase. Collins was not in his office. His secretary had shown them in and told them that Collins would be there in a moment. Eric was leaning against a filing cabinet, his eyes guarded and expression neutral. Mike was standing as well, but he looked comfortable being here. Cam and Kira were in the armchairs in front of the desk and both looked nervous. Kendrix just wanted this meeting to be over with, so she could get back to the townhouse and finish organizing the supply closet downstairs. She hated leaving a job unfinished. Mike had decided that ammo, extra cuffs, pepper spray and the like would be kept in the closet, but all the actual guns would be in Eric's possession. He would hand them out as he saw fit—meaning all of them would have a gun and have an idea of how to use it before they went on their first apprehension.
The silence was filled with tension. "Why aren't we talking?" Kira whispered.
That was enough to break the initial tension. Cam and Kendrix laughed, while Mike smiled appreciatively. "Everyone's too nervous to," Cam replied.
"The guy's our boss," Kendrix added. "We might as well get used to having meetings with him." She paused. "Especially because we're the difference between him making or losing money."
"I'd hate to be his kid," Kira muttered.
"No kidding," Cam agreed.
"How are we on the computer stuff?" Mike asked Cam.
The Green Samurai Ranger suddenly looked like that was a topic he wanted to talk about and felt comfortable doing so. "So far, so good," he replied. "I've got the network set up and I'm going to work on installing and configuring the programs when we get back." He paused and looked thoughtful. "I could also set up a VR training program I have in the front room. It's designed for ninjas in training, but it might be useful for us."
"Go ahead and set it up," Mike said. "Can't hurt."
"I'm also going to need satellites. We can set up our own on the roof or we can ask Collins for permission to tap into the ones the Silver Guardians use." Cam looked thoughtful. "I assume they can do heat-readings, traffic cams and satellite surveillance."
"They can," Eric said suddenly, causing everyone else to turn around and look at him. It was the first time he had spoken since everyone crammed themselves into Mike's SUV to come over here.
Cam was only thrown off for a moment. "Good," he replied. "I don't imagine it will be a problem since we're both branches of the same company."
"Shouldn't." Eric was into almost monosyllabic answers. Of course, in the limited interaction Kendrix had with him, it shouldn't have surprised her. He didn't waste time with idle chatter.
For the first time since arriving yesterday morning, Cam looked truly happy. Kendrix inwardly smiled. She knew nothing about Cam, but he seemed like a reserved person who hadn't had a lot of appreciation for his talents before.
"That is cool," Kira was saying. "I've only ever heard of that stuff being used on TV shows!" She might have been the youngest of the group and the one who had the most reasons to be jaded, but she looked more enthusiastic about the computer system than Cam.
"What kind of shows do you watch?" Mike asked in a teasing tone. "They don't talk about that stuff on the things I watch."
"Then you're not watching good shows," Kira replied easily, falling into the kind of easy banter that Mike was known for.
Mike held up his hands in surrender. "TV on Mirinoi sucks because we have to get most of it from Earth. Consequently, I stopped watching."
Kira shrugged. "I didn't used to, but I started when I would go on tour. It gets so boring that you're just looking for something to fill the time."
"Don't worry," Kendrix reassured her. "I don't think we'll have to worry about being bored."
The doors to the office opened and Mr. Collins entered. "Sorry to keep you waiting," he apologized as he rounded his desk and sat down behind it. He put a dossier in the top drawer and pulled out a file folder. He then looked up at them with a cool blue-eyed gaze. "I guess 'welcome to Bio-Lab' isn't appropriate for everyone present?"
They chuckled appreciatively. The sentiment was true. For all intents and purposes, she and Eric had worked for Bio-Lab before ever becoming bounty hunters. This was striking her as one of the times where it was unwise to differ with the boss.
"You're all clear on your duties?" he asked.
Five heads bobbed almost in unison.
He opened the file folder and pulled out their contracts. "You've all signed your contracts already, but I'd like to go over a few of the finer points. The initial contract duration is one year. Bio-Lab does have the option to renew it." He paused. "If we don't choose to renew the contracts, you will be given two weeks' notice."
Hardly enough time for them to find other living accommodations and a new job, but Kendrix hoped she would save up enough to money to make that a non-issue. Hopefully, all of them would still have jobs when the first year was up. She couldn't think of a reason for Collins to terminate them, unless they proved to be the most inept bounty hunters of all time.
Collins launched into the code of conduct expected of all employees especially the ones living in company housing. In other words, be discreet if a wild party or orgy was going on. Random drug testing, requests for equipment, operating reports, bonuses and pay raises… it was nothing that Kendrix didn't already know about. There was a company-wide Christmas ball held yearly and random picnics and parties for certain divisions, meaning (since they were their own division), all of them would be expected to attend parties held in their honor. He went on to detail their petty cash use and payroll procedures. (All of them should have already been down to payroll to get things straightened out.)
He asked if there were any questions. No one had one. "I hope you'll all be happy here," he ended, before putting their contracts in his desk and leaving the room.
"That was like a bad lecture from high school," Kira muttered.
"Hopefully it will be the last one," Mike commiserated.
Kendrix doubted that. They had to send a representative to the monthly board meetings and that person was going to spend an afternoon each month being bored. Maybe they could take turns going to the board meetings—it would make it more bearable.
"Come on," Mike said. "Let's go see Carmella for our first round of skips."
Not only did they have to send someone to board meetings, they also had to send someone down to the Silver Guardians headquarters every two or three days to pick up the stacks of FTAs that came in. Eric found that irritating. The Silver Guardians had people that acted as couriers, bringing memos and information around to the squad cars. They couldn't spare someone to bring the FTAs straight to their townhouse?
He didn't know what to think about that. Something was afoot, but he wasn't sure what it was or how to respond to it. Had someone forgotten something in the works?
"How do these people get off on bail?" Kendrix asked.
"Who's the skip?" he asked.
Kendrix was holding the file away from her as if it contained something poisonous. "Andy Kruper," she read off. "Brought in on domestic abuse charges, assault on a police officer and arson."
"Welcome to the world of the law, babe," he muttered.
"Excuse me?"
Eric shook his head. "I've had to bring him in for failure to appear before. He knows the drill. Just watch out. If he can't find his gun, he resorts to throwing food."
Kendrix had a horrified expression on her face. Eric chose not to respond to that. He glanced at the stack of file folders. For now, they needed to be divided into the ones that he and Mike needed to bring in and the ones that Kendrix and Kira could handle while Cam concentrated on getting the computer up and running.
"Sampson Chandler," Mike read aloud.
"Drunk," Eric replied. "Probably driving drunk. You can find him in the bar on Chestnut. He's no trouble to bring in—he's always too drunk to remember his court date."
Mike nodded, placing Andy Kruper in one stack and Sampson Chandler in another stack. It was almost sad that he knew who most of these people were—they were the chronic failure to appear crowd and he had had to send out Silver Guardian squads on more than one occasion to bring them in. In fact, he had to do the take-down more often than not.
"How do we go about bringing these people in?" Kira asked.
"Cuff them, shackle them, throw them in the back seat of the car and drive them to the Silver Guardians' headquarters." He paused at her surprised expression. "Al is normally posted on the backdoor drop-off and he'll take over from there."
Mike smiled as he continued dividing the files. There weren't too many considering that it was their first official day on the job. He supposed it was a good thing that he used to be a Silver Guardian and knew the drill. Of course, the others would pick it up quickly enough.
"Sampson Chandler, Arthur Moon, Jack Newcomb and Delilah Caplan," Mike read off the names of the 'easy' stack. Eric nodded. All of them were complacent drunks, stoners or bag ladies downtown.
The others would take more work. They might catch them hiding out at their houses or it might take a few days, planting seeds with relatives and friends, letting the person who had posted the bail know that they could lose their house…
Kendrix looked horrified as Mike handed the files on the easy skips to her. "You and Kira work on these for today," he said.
"Us?" Kendrix squeaked.
"You have to learn how to do it," Mike replied.
Kira let out a long breath as she and Kendrix stood up and went upstairs to get their things. He could hear them talking, but couldn't make out what they were saying. He could pretty much tell them where to find the people. Chandler was in the bar on Chestnut. Moon would be stoned at his house. Newcomb would be drunk with Chandler. Caplan would be downtown in the park, sitting on her bench. The take-downs wouldn't be too difficult, if the girls didn't buy their stalling.
"Think they can do it?" Mike asked.
Eric shrugged. "If they don't buy the excuses."
Distant clicking of a computer keyboard was coming from the front room. Cam was holed up in there, setting up the surveillance system and tapping into the feeds that the Silver Guardians used. As soon as the computer work was done and Cam had given everyone a crash course, he was going out on take-downs and stakeouts as well.
The girls reappeared in the kitchen. "You guys have everything?" Mike asked. "Gun, cuffs, pepper spray, shackles?"
They nodded.
Time for the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question. "Are the guns loaded?" Eric asked.
"Of course," Kira said as they disappeared into the garage. They listened as the garage door opened and a car started.
Mike pushed the remaining files towards him. Eric picked the one on the top up. Oh this guy… Vito Baldacci was a retired mafia member who had relocated to Silver Hills for retirement. He was forever being caught in drug busts, arms busts and just about any kind of busts there are to be caught in.
"This guy is going to be holed up somewhere," Eric said. "Normally if we go by his house and remind his wife that she'll lose the house and be out on the streets if Vito isn't brought in, she spills where he is." He paused. "The actual take-down will be a little more complicated. He's in pretty good shape for someone almost seventy."
Corbett grimaced. Eric looked at the next file…
"Want me to give you the lecture on this guy?" he asked.
Mike shook his head. "Let's concentrate on finding these people. If you're sure they'll be hiding out at their houses, then we'll get them this afternoon. If we can't find them, then we start the searching thing tomorrow morning."
Eric nodded. "Logical."
"I just want to see Kendrix and Kira bringing in these people."
"We could always go over the Silver Guardians' headquarters. There's an office no one uses on the second floor that looks over the back alley. Best seats in the house."
"Let's go get Baldacci."
They got up from the kitchen island and Mike went into the front room, where Cam was still working furiously. "Keep working on the computer," Mike told him. "If you have time, we need a communication system. Also be ready to be back-up if Kendrix and Kira need help."
There was an affirmative noise.
"Let's go," Mike said.To Be Continued...
Author's Note: Thanks for the support and feedback so far! I hope everyone is clear on what is happening. :) So, onto review responses for the people that reviewed chapter 2 and everyone gets a smiley:
cmar: Thanks! The idea for this came from reading one too many Janet Evanovich books. I do like to throw odd groups together- it's one of those things I think about during boring classes. :) The ante will be upped in the next part, but for the first part nothing too out of the ordinary happens. I hope you keep on reading!
fenestrae: Thanks! Keep on reading... :)
Firehunter: Thanks:)
Funky In Fishnet: Thanks! I've been watching Time Force on PRG in the mornings and have come to this conclusion- Eric is a such a bastard but I love him for it! Glad you like the story so far. :)
jenny: Glad you like it! I've always thought that Eric has a penchant for over-reacting to strange things. I'm not a fan of writing OCs in fan fiction, but this group was never supposed to feature OCs. As for the rest, that will come in later. Thanks for reading:)
Juzblue: Updating... here 'tis:)
Sreym: I'm glad you approve of the choices. I hope this stays interesting... :)
Warstock-Leonhart: Thanks! You are so sweet! I appreciate the support and the encouragement. :)
white time ranger: Oh Wes... he will figure into this much more in the next part. The original idea for this story was to have the sixth rangers from LR through NS being the four males with Kendrix and Kira as the two females. In other words, Wes wasn't part of the original line-up. I'm glad you like the story. :)
