Once again the four boys were piled in the car, but this time all were solemn. The DHL office proved to be a fruitless endeavor. No one knew about the Mengsk-like delivery man; apparently he didn't work there. James managed to get the numbers of several other branches and the address of the main corporation headquarters, yet none of his questions were answered.
Eric knew one of the employees. His own uncle was in charge of the paperwork and hiring of employees. But all the nephew could get from the conversation was a short statement of not being involved.
"Sorry, bud, don't know anything about the guy. Doesn't look familiar or anything. Maybe you should check with headquarters. Scratch that, leave it to the police. If the HQ had anything to be delivered to this area, they'd send it to us. Whoever's taken your friend must be dangerous, and I know he doesn't work here. Must have stolen a truck and uniform somewhere along the line." With that, the uncle promptly kicked them out of DHL for 'disrupting' proper office goings-on.
So the boys just drove on down the road, planning for their next move. Or rather, Kyle, Devin, Eric were. James was sitting quietly in the backseat, even though it was his car, silently mourning. Kyle sat next to him, not certain what to do for his friend so sat uncomfortably.
Devin, at the wheel, made a suggestion. "Eric, your uncle said that a truck and uniform must have been stolen if Mengsk-dude had it. All we have to do is check with the DHL places around here and see which one had a truck and stuff taken."
"Aren't the police working on that?" Eric piped up. "Maybe if we let them check on that, Kyle can get his dad to search the cop files and say what happens."
"But what if..." Kyle guessed. "What if it's a conspiracy? Say that they don't report the truck stolen, or if it wasn't stolen at all. Then the cop records wouldn't show anything. Not the DHL records either."
"Man," James muttered. "That's ridiculous. You're starting to get Angie's knack for fiction."
"Hey, all I'm sayin' is you never know."
"Whatever."
As Devin pulled the car into his driveway, he noticed a Hispanic man at his door, as if he was ringing the doorbell. The man turned as the car stopped, and the boys got out of the car.
The stranger approached, lifting a police badge. "Hi, boys. I'm Inspector Pablo Guerrez from the TDPD and I need to talk to you four for a moment."
"Do you know something about Angie?" James excitedly asked.
"No, I know as much as you boys have told the police. But that's not what I'm here to talk about. It seems that you like to take matters in your own hands. I've received several calls today from the local DHL and from Miss Angela's neighbors telling me that you four have been badgering people for information."
"Badgering?" Eric exclaimed. "We've just been asking questions."
"Questions you had no legal right to ask. And I know that you've been searching through Miss Angela's house, and I hope I don't have to tell you how illegal it is to disturb a crime scene."
The boys were dumbfounded.
"Look, you seem like good guys, don't get me wrong. But I'm going to have to ask that you leave this matter to the police. Angela was a good friend of yours, I understand that, but that doesn't give you the right to ignore federal law and go vigilante. If you continue doing so, I'm afraid I'll be obligated to arrest you. Do you understand?"
"Uh, yeah, we get it." The boys agreed.
"Good."
With that, Inspector Guerrez just walked off. He didn't seem to even have a car waiting for him. While the others went inside to discuss this weird, frustrating situation further, Kyle just stared after the Inspector with curiosity in his eyes.
"Hey guys," he spoke up. "We live in Southerland, and that guy said he was from 'TDPD'. What police department is that?"
Devin turned from the doorway. "Nah man, he didn't say TDPD. He said SLPD. That's Southerland Police Deparment, alright."
"No way! It was definitely TDPD. It's gotta stand for something important..."
James scoffed. "Dude, he said SLPD. Get your hearing checked."
"Whatever, man. Hey, does this really mean we're backin' off?"
Eric shook his head. "I don't see what we can do. We can't help Angie if we're arrested, and we can't help her doing nothing. I say we live life, and let the police take this. They got the manpower, resources, and authority to go in where we can't, so it's theirs now."
"I dunno." Devin said quietly. "I think we should do something for her mom. Talk to her, try and see if we can like do any chores or something that needs to be done."
"Good idea, man." James said as he went up the porch stairs. "Let's go inside and figure out what we can do."
Devin and Eric went in, but Kyle called James back from the door.
"So, what?" Kyle asked. "You're just gonna give up? I thought you guys cared a lot about her."
James came and sat solemnly on the porch steps. "We do. But you know what that Guerrez guys said. And Eric was right about us not helping her if we're in jail. I don't know...I think Angie would be happy if we just let go and be happy, you know, live life to the fullest. She would want it that way..."
Kyle was shocked. "Dude man, you sound like you think she's dead."
"Well, yeah. I kinda think she is. I mean, Angie's tough and all, but if someone can steal her away without leaving a shard of evidence..." James sighed. "It really doesn't look good for her. If she was alright, Angie would've emailed me or called. I know what she's like."
"Whoa...I mean, don't you love her enough to have faith? Maybe she can't reach you right now."
"It's been a week. We had a system. She always keeps her cell phone on her, and I'm on speed dial."
"But man, she always keeps her laptop with her, so you guys always say, and that was at her house."
"Look man," James stood up. "I love her enough to know when to let go."
James went into the house, leaving his bewildered friend in the yard. As the door shut, Kyle turned and looked back, in the general direction that Inspector Guerrez had gone. He walked to the street and searched the neighborhood with his eyes, noticing nothing out of the ordinary. Just houses and cars, fences and dogs, and the occasional toy abandoned on the lawn of a family home.
"TDPD..." Kyle murmured to himself. "Terran Dominion Police Department....I've so got to stop playing Starcraft for a while. It's really starting to mess with my head."
---
The room was dark. There was barely enough light to see two people, both sitting at a table. One was Arcturus Mengsk. The other was a middle-aged man with very neatly trimmed hair that formed deep sideburns and covered his upper lip. He pushed up his wire-rim glasses as he gazed at the source of light in the room, the TV monitor. On it was the image of Kyle, retreating back inside Devin's house with reluctance.
"He's beginning to suspect something, Arcturus." he said rationally. "I don't think it's safe for him to be on the streets when he could possibly do something to ruin our project."
"There's always people like him, Bill." Mengsk responded. "They want to hold on, and it's natural. Don't worry, by the time this is over, Angela will have returned to her own time, and none of this would ever have happened."
Bill shifted in his chair as the lights went up and the monitor went off. "That doesn't mean that we can afford to be careless."
"I can't monitor every single individual that enters the program, Bill, no matter what your organization pays. There isn't enough time. I do have an empire to run here."
His friend shruggled. "Alright, but I'm still going to have to watch that boy. Oh yes, before I forget, there was something I meant to ask you. I've noticed that every single female that is enlisted into the program is isolated from the other girls. Why is this?"
Mengsk smiled. "It's a proven motivational technique that I've been using for years. I've found that most lonely soldiers are willing to do anything for an attractive woman. If ladies such as Angela are dedicated to the cause, the men will go through any kind of danger with them. Kerrigan herself proved that when she worked for me. Do you think many of those soldiers would have gone down to Tarsonis if she wasn't leading them?"
"I would say it depends if their possible leader was charismatic."
"Those types are few and far between. The only one that even qualified in that manner was Raynor, and he has no loyalty to the Dominion. Besides, when women are gathered together, there is a huge tendency to argue and fight amongst themselves, I don't understand quite why. It's simply not productive for the kind of cohesiveness the Armada needs."
"Now hold your horses, Arcturus. There's nothing wrong with a good cat fight every now and then." Bill grinned.
The Emperor laughed. "I see your point."