Chapter 9: Streaming the Past

"Well stooges, let's get this show on the road!" Casey announced, taking a seat near Wang.

"Well, well, well, Shemp returns!" Simon retorted. "Are you ready to play in our sandbox, now, Major?"

"Yes, I am."

"Good, because there will be no more outsiders allowed. We are closed, the tracking network is full!"

Simon adjusted a few knobs and Althea typed in some codes. "It's all yours, Wang! Let's resurrect the Buy More. I always liked their prices better than Target."

Casey rolled back in his chair, letting the experts do their work, but carefully inspecting their every move. A few minutes later he felt a light tap on his shoulder and turned to see Agent Jones. She placed a steaming, large cup of black coffee before him and tossed down a bunch of sugars. She put a paper bag in his lap and he opened it to find thick pastrami on rye with pickles and coleslaw.

"Deli fresh, Major, I made sure of it."

"I hope it's New York style."

"The best kind."

Casey dug into the food hungrily as she pulled up a chair alongside him. He noticed she'd changed into a pair of jeans and a fitted purple T-shirt and sneakers. The glare from the screens caught her pretty dark eyes and Casey grinned. He couldn't resist flirtation.

"Did Van Morrison have you for inspiration?"

Rhea batted her long lashes. "You said so yourself, Major, nothing wrong with brown-eyed girls. So, did these ghouls explain anything yet, or are they just amazing you with their imagery and tech skills?"

"I imagine they haven't even begun to show off." Casey said.

Wang turned to them. "Okay folks, we're ready on three…" Within seconds, the Buy More appeared on the screen.

"Major, tell us where you'd like to go?"

"What do you mean? You're there already."

"He means, what section of the store, Major." Althea said.

Wang played with the dials. The POV shifted and to Casey's astonishment, they were transported into the store. Wang worked the tracker like a pro, flicking back and forth at high speed, zooming in and out. Casey's widened eyes struggled to keep up with the images; it were as if he were in the store running like a madman from aisle to aisle. He spotted Lester and Jeff playing rock-paper-scissors and arguing over who would fix a PC from 1993. Wang slowed down on the keypad, and it lingered on Anna Wu, massaging her purple painted nails through Morgan's new spiky hairdo in the storeroom. They talked about their plans for the night, yet another fun-filled evening with Morgan.

"Wow, isn't she a hot muffin!" Wang sighed. "What is she doin' with that hairy midget?"

Casey ignored him, straining to listen. "This thing picks up audio? Turn it up!"

Althea raised the sound bar and their voices filtered through crystal clear.

"I do like it, Morgan…it's easier to manage. I like touching it…just stop making it so stiff with all this gunk."

"You saw my hair before, Anna, it flops more than my dad does on the couch."

"Hmm, that's true…maybe if you just tried…"

Wang froze the image, still ogling Anna. Casey rubbed his mouth, trying to hide his disbelief. "Show me more, I'm not entirely convinced of what I'm seeing."

Wang changed the POV and they found themselves staring at a sorry looking blue Marlin with black electrical tape wrapped around its neck. The tracker slowed down on Big Mike ready to take a massive bite out of a stuffed Hoagie. Simon cringed at the unhealthy fusion of salted meats and cheeses, onion, lettuce and tomato all dripping with Russian dressing, mustard, mayo and…a little ketchup.

"I could go for one of those." Wang drooled. "Rhea, where's the love? You only serve dinner to the Major?"

"Please, Wang. Your mood for food changes with the tides. John's our guest, he gets special treatment and I don't wanna hear anymore about it."

Casey stared at her; the only person who seriously called him 'John' was Julia. He wasn't sure how comfortable he felt with Rhea using it, but she didn't understand. He ignored the feeling and continued to watch Big Mike grunt and dribble as he chomped down and scratched lotto. Wang was a wise guy and wouldn't let it go.

"Oh, it's John, now! What's going on Agent Jones…getting a little cozy with the hired help, are we?"

Casey put a rigid grip on his shoulder and startled him. "You just keep your mind on your work, Wang. If things happen to get cozy around here, that's my business!"

"Oww, oww… oww!…okay, okay…I don't think there's much more to see here, moving on!"

Rhea couldn't hide her smile; she was weary of Wang's constant asides and sarcastically unfunny jokes. She caught Casey's eye and mouthed, 'Thank you.' He nodded and turned back to the screen.

"Let's stop here for a minute, people. I want to know how all this is done. How did you get all these shots into one stream?"

Casey turned to whom he felt was the head tech expert. "Well, is Simon gonna say?"

Simon stretched his arms and rubbed his eyes. It was way past his bedtime. "First of all, as you can see, the satellites pick up distinctive vantage points, it's like having different people watching the scene at the same time."

"I get that much, go on."

"It takes four days to render a single fluid shot. We have exactly one look at any one time. We can't go back ten minutes, we can't see if there is a second gunman so to speak."

Rhea cut in, trying to make it even simpler. "Right, we can't go to nineteen eighty to see teen Casey busting heads for lunch money."

Casey wagged his finger with a smirk. "Correction, I busted the heads of the jerks that stole the lunch money…made a profit too, but good call, Jones."

"Always the hero, aren't you, Major?" Althea asked, warming up to him.

No, he wasn't. Anyone who would murder innocent Chuck Bartowski was a dirty fink.

"When duty calls, I answer…and justice prevails." He mumbled, hoping they didn't catch the uncertainty in his voice. As he presumed, only Rhea caught it, but he expected she knew more about him than the others.

Simon tapped his watch impatient. "Spoken like a true hero. Can I go on, please? Before I pass out on the console?"

"Yes, please do." Casey bowed.

"Thanks. Now, given enough lead-time… that is what we attempted to have by letting Rhea hunt you down… We can look anywhere within the target area. It's the when, that's always constant. It's always four days and uhh…twelve hours ago, we'll say for sake of argument."

Simon made a trail with his hands. "It's always like a single trailing moment of now…but in the past."

Wang changed vantage points again, only this time; he went out of the Buy More, across the parking lot speedily, and closed up on 'Orange Orange.'

"Anyone want a frogurt?"

The watched Sarah through the store window and Simon's eyebrows rose up and down.

"Now she's a real dish!"

The 'Orange Orange' swarmed with kids from a school trip. Casey chuckled at the alarm on Sarah's face as she struggled to take the orders. Frozen yogurt spilled everywhere; M&M's and other fruit and nut toppings went flying. The machine squirted out of control and she raced around trying to sop up the mess.

"Haha! I knew she couldn't handle that highly complex piece of equipment! She comes into the Buy More all cool and composed, neat as a whistle! I just don't get it."

"Maybe she's a cartoon?" Simon winked at Wang and their vantage point shifted behind the counter. Underneath, on the top shelf was a box with a bunch of orange tank tops wrapped in plastic.

"Caught ya, little lady!" Simon laughed, very taken with Sarah's image.

The satellite flew back to the Buy More and Casey made them pause.

"Okay, I got the gist of this, but if you can't move backward or forward in time, how do you speed up like that?"

Althea answered his question. "It's not the image moving faster. It's the shifting point of view. Like Simon…uhh…told you, the passage of time remains constant but we can shift our POV within the data stream as fast as we want."

Rhea finished up the explanations. "So come the next four days…well…three and a half or so…we can solve this tragedy and literally see who did what…when and where."

She touched his arm and he couldn't ignore the wounded expression on her face.

"This is why we need you, John. You can tell us where to look, three days from the present could be too late, and all would be lost."

Casey glanced at the screen again. The stream panned slowly to the Nerd Herd. Chuck lounged absentmindedly over the desk, his hand on his face. His mouth curled down and his eyes roved lazily around the store. Casey had often seen him in that position and wondered what he was thinking. Aside from being stuck in a dead end job, Chuck must've been thinking about Sarah and the fact that his dreams of a normal life were shattered. Casey wouldn't fail him again. He wouldn't fail any of them. Justice would prevail.