CH16
My apologies for the what feels like advertising that is a heavy part of this story. I wrote this story immediately after "Just a little help" which was laced with this stuff. For that reason this story is also heavy with it up to chapter 29 which is where i stopped writing this story.
I have no plans on going back to re-write those chapters that have it. You can just scroll down quickly and pass over it or read it, do what you like. You are the reader and are in charge of how and what you read.
However after chapter 29 i promise that you will not have to put up with this much advertisement again. I've learned a few lessons along the way.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Kate, why was I stuck down in the garage until Lucile released us?" Rick questions.
"Our fake Deputy came back with a fake court order demanding entrance to our house. He left or dropped a very high tech listening device in the driveway." Kate tells him.
"A bug? Cool, can we have it?" James asks.
"No, you may not. It was very high tech Rick. CIA, NSA kind of tech." Kate finishes.
"Aaww mom?" James whines. "I'll be careful. I promise not to break it." And James crosses his chest.
"Why is the NSA or CIA interested in us?" Rick doesn't get it. "They find out we are not from here?"
"I'm not so sure the NSA or CIA are involved. I think our fake Deputy is ex NSA or CIA and that's where he got his little toy. It also helps explain how he got to come back here so easily after last time." Kate offers up her theory.
"Can I have it now mom?" James is still after her.
"NO!" Kate and Rick reply in unison.
"I never get to have any fun." And James sulks off.
"Any clues on who sent him?"
"I've got Lucile looking into that. My money is on Ray's father." Kate offers.
"Alexis's jerk of a soon to be ex-husband? That Ray?"
"Well look at it this way, if it is his father then Alexis is involved somehow. It might have been him who got his son to dump her." Kate speculates.
"Meaning Ray is a spineless wimp when it comes to his father. Thank you dad may I have another." Rick tries to make a joke.
"You've spent too much time around Natalie and Jim." Kate says smiling.
"Actually it was a movie, I forget the name." Rick jokes. "And no more than you have Elektra."
"Oh please she is so much more cool. Maybe I can get Natalie to teach me?" Kate tells him excited.
"Just one problem she doesn't have a partner even for comic relief."
"I guess I'll just have to divorce you then." Kate teases.
"Not funny Kate. So not funny." As Kate heads for the kitchen.
"Kate, Rick I have completed the scan out to a mile and there is no indication that anyone is viewing this location." Lucile tells them.
"Well that's one item down. Anything on our friend the deputy Lucile?" Kate is interested in who is trying to make their lives difficult.
"His name is Michael Cera. He was an in the field NSA analyst for exactly 1 years and 3 months before he was discharged for failing a psych evaluation. He is now essentially a mercenary. He sells his services to anyone and displays no ideology for himself. His last known address is a vacant lot in a small town between here and Ohio." Lucile provides.
"And his present location?" Rick is interested.
"He is presently sitting in a stolen car in the lot of a department store a few miles from here."
"And the other Deputy he came with?" Kate asks.
"He is an ex-convict, James Urbaniak. He spent time for assault, shoplifting and car theft. He is presently inside REI in SoHo. He has just purchased some climbing equipment using a stolen credit card. I'm unable to prevent the purchase at this time or have the card rejected." Lucile informs them.
"Climbing equipment?" Rick questions. "He's a thief and apparently not a cat burglar kind of thief. Question is where?"
"Oh I think we both know where. The real question is when." Kate tells him.
"They want in that bad? What have we got that they would want?" Rick questions.
"Well if we can figure out Ray's father, provided I'm right we'll have a better understanding." Kate tells him.
"We need to get rid of these two Yahoos before we go on vacation or Lucile will be here on her own. While I have faith she can prevent their getting in, how does she prevent them from trying again and again?" Rick is worried about what will happen while they are gone.
"If someone after we remove these two shows up while we are gone one of us will have to transmat back to deal with it." Kate just shrugs her shoulders. "I mean I trust Lucile to prevent them from getting in too but she can't prevent them from coming back to try again."
"Lucile keep your eyes on those two, when they go to sleep it sounds like another late night snatch and grab. Just like old times." Rick comments with a smile.
"Except we are on our own this time. No Kev or Javi to help us." Kate does not sound sad, just making a point.
"Maybe not. And I'm still sorry by the way, but we do have Natalie and Jim. Two Marines in a fight sounds like better odds than with two police detectives. Even if one of them used to be special forces." Rick notes with a smile.
"It's ok Rick I'm not mad at you. It was just hard watching them all grow old and die when I hardly changed. We had gone thru a lot together and I miss them." Kate moves in and rests her head on Rick's chest. "I just wish, …"
"I know Kate, I know. I didn't know why then and I don't know why now." Rick takes in a deep breath and exhales slowly.
"You think your planet is still out there fighting?" Kate changes topics.
"I'd like to think so. The alternative is a little frightening." Rick admits.
Kate looks up at him. "And if your wife is still alive?"
Rick looks down at her "If you are asking if I would leave you and our children to go back to my first wife? The answer is no. Would I talk to her? See how she is doing? Yes I would. But I wouldn't leave you even if she asked me to. Even if the Honji Sinhindrea were hot on her tail as she passed thru. Till death do we part, Kate. Not just pretty words."
"I knew there was a reason why I married you." Kate confirms mostly to herself.
"Not just for my rugged good looks then huh?" Rick teases.
"You're handsome? No one told me." Kate teases back.
"You wound me Detective." Rick fakes a dagger being plunged into his heart.
"Come on drama queen; let's go see what our sons are destroying now." Kate starts to leave in search.
"$50 says he's searching for that bug you wouldn't let him have." Rick offers.
"I might as well shred that $50 now if I was foolish enough to take that bet." Kate tells him. And heads for their master suite.
Finding James in their closet down on his knees. "And what do you think you are doing young man?" Kate questions.
"Uhhm, nothing." James states, caught red handed.
"Perhaps you can explain that to Santa and why you found a lump of coal in your stocking." Kate threatens.
At this James jumps up. "I think I have some reading I wanted to do." And takes off at a run.
Sometimes Christmas can be soooo helpful.
Rick and Kate had decided to stay up late to see if their fake Deputy would decide to finally go to bed and get some sleep. Problem was Alexis was old enough now to stay up that late with them.
When Lucile shows herself, "Deputy Fife has finally decided to go to bed and has been there for the last 30 minutes." Lucile tells them.
"Deputy Fife?" Kate questions with a puzzled expression.
Lucile shrugs her shoulders. "Richard is rubbing off on me." Is her only defense.
"Oh great! Now even my super computer is a 12 year old." Kate moans.
"I can hear you you know." Rick tries to sound hurt. Which only gets Alexis laughing. "Laugh it up fuzz ball. Wait till your mother gets around to you next."
"I would never insult my daughter." Kate counters. And Alexis just grins at Rick and sticks her tongue out at him. "Let's just give him another 30 minutes shall we?" Kate tells them.
30 minutes later Kate gets up "Now is as good a time as any." And heads for the front door and is followed by Rick and Alexis.
"And just where do you think you are going young lady?" Kate glares at her.
"I'm going with you and you can't stop me." Alexis states and gets a chuckle out of Rick.
"Ok young lady but stay right next to me the whole time, got it? If I turn and you are not standing rather there, …." Kate is interrupted by Alexis.
"Or you'll ground me until I'm 60. So old I can barely walk or talk. Yea, yea." Alexis finishes for her.
"Well at least you remember something." Kate tells her.
"I also remember that I was the one that shot him and not you mom." Alexis counters.
"Oh, cat fight. Cat fight. Where's my camera?" Rick says excited.
"Richard Edgar Crystal." Kate yells at him.
"Alright, fine. No camera. Spoil sport." And Rick sticks his tongue out at her.
"Focus you two. I'm not losing a husband and a daughter on the same night." Kate admonishes them. "Where are they Lucile?"
"They have adjoining rooms on the second floor of what you would call a third rate flea bag hotel. Both are horizontal and have been that way for an hour now." Lucile informs them.
"Ok you two eager beavers, we step into his room and we stun any and every one we find. Grab him and leave. And after leaving him somewhere, we come back for the other. Clear?" Kate tells them.
"Clear mom." Alexis tells her.
"Clear mom." Rick tells her and gets one of Kate's patented glares. Rick just smiles back.
Kate opens the Transmat wall and they all step thru one at a time. And each stun the single person lying on the bed.
Rick goes to pick up the torso section while Alexis grabs his legs and Kate opens another Transmat wall.
After stepping out the other side. "Hey I know this place." Rick states.
"I figured if it was good enough for a General, it's good enough for a fake Deputy. Besides if memory serves we left Alexis's bike lock here to lock him up with." Kate explains.
"So that's what happened to my bike lock." Alexis calls out. "I never did get it back."
Kate and Rick have a look of deer in headlights but say nothing. They all help strip him of his clothes but only after, "Mom I've seen naked men before." From Alexis.
Using Alexis's old bike lock they lock him up and go get the other jerk. And without any trouble leave him on one of the islands from last time.
After getting home. "It almost feels like a lifetime ago when we last did this." Kate tells them.
"Since Natalie and Jim are a few hours behind us. Natalie." Kate calls out.
"Kate? …. What are you still doing up?" Natalie questions noting the time it is out there.
"We just finished putting our fake deputies to bed. You find anything out there?" Kate prays not.
"Our people say we are clean and so does Lucile. Looks like they are just after you. Any guesses as to why?" Natalie will help. All they have to do is ask.
"We didn't question them. I thought we might try that just before our vacation. There has been nothing new in our lives except Alexis coming home." Kate states still at a loss.
"You think her husband might have something to do with it?"
"I don't see how. He's getting the divorce which is what he wanted. What else is there?" Kate is still clueless of motive.
"You said they were trying to plant bugs so it isn't someone or something they are after. Unless the bugs were to be used as some kind of recon to find out when or determine how." Natalie is also at a loss. "Did Alexis come home with anything he might want back?"
"Just clothes and some knickknacks from the honeymoon trip, which makes me sick by the way."
"Don't beat yourself up sweetie, there was no way for you to know." Natalie tries to calm Kate.
"How goes construction?" Kate changes the subject.
"We had the same problem with the satellites as we did with the fighters and bombers. However with Lucile's help all of their complaints seem to have been misplaced." Natalie chuckles. "We should have the first satellite constructed about the same time as the first prototype of the fighter and bomber are complete." Natalie gives her freely.
"How long before you get the first air wing on-line?" Kate is wondering when the will be ready to fight back. At least a little.
"About nine more months for the first prototypes. Another month for the second. Maybe a little less. Then at least six months of flight testing. Another year before the first flight wing will be ready." Natalie explains.
"So about a year and a half from now before we have anything at all for the most part?" Kate is not happy.
"We might be able to trim a few weeks off of that. But not much more than that. Not unless we were on a war footing like in WWII. Sorry."
"You don't have to be sorry Natalie. You even more than me knows what's at stake. I just hope it isn't more or bigger than last time. Did Rick explain what it cost us to rescue Tom?" Kate asks since Rick hasn't said anything about it since then.
"He has. It was worth it Kate. This is my home. I would have stayed even if they had offered to let us leave with them." Natalie tells Kate her thoughts. "Maybe if we develop fast enough we can join Rick's people and push them back. Provided they are still out there and still there when we get there."
"You think we'll see it in our lifetime? Even our new lifetime?" Kate questions.
Natalie hesitates. "To be honest? No. Our first capital ship might be under construction just before I leave here. But to see us go to them? I'm afraid not. …. We would need a very big technological leap to accomplish that. …. I don't think we are anywhere near having FTL anytime soon."
"Maybe we will get lucky. The Royal Navy captured German U-boat U-110 on May 9, 1941 in the North Atlantic, recovering an Enigma machine, its cipher keys, and code books that allowed code breakers to read German signal traffic during World War II." Kate can pray.
"KATE! You are brilliant. That gives me an idea. I think I'm about to put Lucile's processing powers to the test. KATE, I love you." And Natalie stops talking.
"What did I say this time?" Kate questions open air since she is presently alone.