CHAPTER 5


   The sun had finally made it clearly above the horizon and Amy knew what that meant for her. Cal had gone to bed some time ago and, for the next few hours at least, it meant tranquility. She could get a few things done. Sadly, as she was well aware, the good side of that tranquility came to it’s inevitable conclusion when she heard a car door slam. Amy walked over the windows facing the parking lot. She could not see much since no one had bothered to trim the tree branches that now obstructed most of their sandy lot. She saw enough though. She sighed in frustration.
It just figured that the first person to get in this morning would be the bouncy little set of sneakers, attached to the bare set of legs, that were currently skipping across the sand towards the building. Amy grunted and wondered if she was going to survive this day. She wandered back over to her chair, sat down, and then checked the status of the choppers. They were almost half way to the continent and everything looked fine. The flight was shaping up to be uneventful and Amy only wished that her day would be the same. She knew better.
The sounds of footfalls on the staircase even sounded perky. The girl with the short blond hair, even shorter cut offs, and a green stripped tank top just oozed energy as she reached the floor of operations. She was also a bit distracted. She was busy typing away on her phone as she walked over to another chair, took a seat, and stretched her legs up on a counter top. She also happily mumbled, with a cute little smile, “morning red.”
Amy did not bother to look at the girl. All she said in reply was, “Leslie.”
If Leslie took any notice of the lack of a response then she gave no hint. She kept right on with her typed conversation as she engaged Amy in the verbal, “I see that April is here. Does that mean there is some real food downstairs?”
Amy still looked out at the ocean and replied, “probably.”
This time Leslie looked up from her screen and took note of the red head who appeared to be somewhere other than the chair that she was sitting in. Leslie decided to tell the girl, “you know Ricky has been bugging the shit out of me all morning. I think he’s got the hots for that little Shannon. He can’t reach her and, guess who he’s asking why.”
Amy still did not even attempt to make eye contact, “she’s flying up to Valley this morning.”
Leslie happily thought about it and said, “do I tell him that?” After some more consideration she said, “no, he’s pouting like a sorry little cocksucker.” Then a light bulb went on and she gleefully announced, “that’s what I’m going to tell him!”
Finally Amy looked at the girl and she sounded a little bit miffed when she asked, “are you going to be like this all day?”
Leslie tossed her phone aside for the moment and then crossed her arms. She seriously asked, “I think I might need to be the one asking that question. I don’t get you Amy. You risked your life to jump in the drink, to save mine.” Leslie stood up and as she did she pointed, “which was stupid by the way.” Then as she walked past Amy and started randomly thumping computer screens she said, “and ever since, you have been acting like you want to throw me right back in. What gives?”
Amy huffed, crossed her arms, and then practically demanded, “would you stop touching things!”
Leslie leaned up against the counter, crossed her own arms, gave a smug smile and replied, “why is it, I get the feeling that touching things is what this is really all about? I got put up here today so you could show me what to touch and what not too. The only problem seems to be that you don’t want to touch anything here.” Leslie motioned to the computer screens, “but you don’t seem to want anybody else too ether.”
Amy’s eyes bulged, “that’s not true.”
Leslie did not buy it for one minute and she became even more giddy, “yeah sister, well, I don’t know how to fly so I don’t think I’ll be touching any pilot’s stick any time soon. So why don’t you just lighten the hell up and show me how all this stuff works.”
The anger that Amy was feeling began to diminish as she became more confused. She suddenly went into meek mode and cautiously raised a finger as she asked, “wait a minute, are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
Leslie dropped the giddy and sighed in frustration, “I’m not saying anything Amy. What I’m trying to get across is the last thing I want to do is be stuck up here all day with a stick in the mud.”
The devil must have heard because the next set of footfalls, on the stairs, sounded particularly angry. Before Amy even saw who was making the noise she said, “good morning Norm.”
Norm had no such greeting to give. He simply walked past the two girls and asked, “did Calvin get my files last night?”
Amy just rolled her eyes, since she expected as much, and then pointed to the bin over by the printer, “yeah and I printed them out. Are you adding on to your house or something?”
Norm was busy scanning the papers and barely heard the question. After a moment he snapped back in to reality and told Amy, “yeah something like that. Is Jake up yet?”
Amy gritted her teeth and shrugged at the question before she finally admitted in a long exhale, “I seriously doubt it. He didn’t get in till after I was already here.” Norm only replied with an evil stare that made Amy even more self conscious than usual. She meekly sniffed out, “sorry?”
Norm rolled up his papers in an agitated kind of way and then walked for the stairs. Once they heard him reach the commissary, Leslie looked to the red head and asked, “is it always like this around here in the mornings?”
Amy only groaned, “pretty much.”
Down the stairs, in the back hallway, the pounding on the door echoed throughout the barracks. The first person to respond was Calvin. He yelled out from behind his own door, “I’m trying to sleep Norm!”
When Jake opened his door, the one that Norm had been beating on, he was easy going enough. He had also, obviously, just gotten out of the shower and changed his clothes. He was still drying what was left of his hair with a towel and acted easy going enough as Norm entered the room and shut the door behind him, “heard tell you was out all night.”
“Sure was,” Jake said without much fanfare. He kept right on with his business and paid Norm very little attention.
Norm crossed his arms and examined Jake carefully. He then huffed out, “you look awake enough.”
“Just cause I wasn’t here didn’t mean I wasn’t sleeping,” Jake replied as he tossed his towel aside.
Norm simply nodded and told him, “fine, get your ass ready. We got something to take care of.”
Jake shoved his phone in his pocket and then said, “that much is true. WE do have something. Only thing is, the stuff we got to do are two separate things today.”
Norm huffed and glanced down at the papers in his pocket. He controlled his temper and then asked, “what’s that supposed to mean?”
“Come on Norm,” Jake shot back, “it’s called division of labor. I know what you’re looking for and you don’t need me. Meanwhile I do have something else that needs to be done. I think it’s just as critical.”
“Care to inform me as to what,” Norm asked in a gruff manner.
“No I don’t,” Jake told him. When Jake did not get a response he stopped what he was doing and looked at Norm. He explained, “it’s better if you don’t know.”
“Really,” Norm sounded unconvinced, “who you really trying to keep this from Jake?”
“Who do you think?”
There was only one answer to that question. Norm just sighed and told him, “look if this about what we talked about last night…”
Interrupting him, Jake said, “we talked about a lot of things last night, Norm. I’ve had some time to think about it since then. You made some valid points and they have to be dealt with before we can go any further.”
“Like what,” Norm burst out with. He was obviously not that happy about it either.
Jake mulled over that before replying, “oh like this is getting a little bit out of hand. Come on Norm, you of all people know what’s on that board in your garage. You probably look at that thing every spare second. You know how much shit that is? I don’t even mean how dangerous. I just mean how much.”
“So,” Norm shrugged it off, “I dealt with plenty of complicated cases when I worked for the city.”
Jake’s eyes narrowed, “not like this you didn’t.”
“They’re a bunch of serial killers Jake,” Norm replied, “when you boil it down, that’s all they really are.”
“And that’s where you’re wrong Norm,” Jake told him as he got back to finishing his business, “they’re not serial killers. They’re professional killers. There is a very distinct difference.”
“Ok fine,” Norm gave in before pointing out, “they’re serial killers who found somebody to pay them to do it.”
“Not even that,” Jake told him. “They aren’t killing people because they think it’s fun Norm. They’re doing it because it’s a means to an end. They didn’t attack us because it was emotionally gratifying. They don’t even have emotions to gratify. Pulling a trigger to these guys ain’t no different than somebody else flipping a Foo King burger on a grill.”
Norm nodded since he didn’t particularly disagree on any point. He just didn’t like these people so he wasn’t going to give them any credit at all. Murder was murder as far as he was concerned. The only reason that the question of why they did it was important at all was, “and that’s the good news Jake. It makes them predictable. It means there’s a logic behind what they do.”
“You don’t get it,” Jake said shaking his head. He took a moment to compose his thoughts and then he said, “look Norm, I know you knew everything I just said. You’re a good cop.” Jake considered that for a minute and then added, “course I never really known all that many so take as much out of that as you want. Not the point though. No offense but, these guys, they are way out your league too.”
Norm bluntly stated, “I’ve handled some contract killers in my day.”
“Sure you have,” Jake told him. “That’s amateur night, Norm. You’re talking about a guy that gets a name on a piece of paper and then jumps his target, the first opportunity he gets.”
Norm sounded unconvinced, “and that’s not what these guys are doing?”
“No they aren’t,” Jake stated resolutely. “These kind of guys don’t wait for opportunities. They create them. These guys are proactive and they are taught how to come at you from directions you didn’t even know were there. They’ll blindside you and, when it’s all over with, you won’t even know it was them that did it. They’re not looking for credit. They’re not even going to boast about it over beers too each other. The only thing they care about is the objective.”
Norm still remained unconvinced, “and what is that exactly?”
Jake admitted, “I don’t know. We’re not dealing with the B team here Norm. The first thing they’re going to do is make sure nobody can figure that out.”
“You know Jake,” Norm replied in a very observant way, “you know a hell of a lot about how they operate.”
“What?” Jake sounded like that was the stupidest thing he had ever heard, “of course I do Norman. You know what my background is.”
“Yeah I do,” Norm simply grabbed the door handle after he decided he was wasting his time here. As he left he simply said, “good luck with your little project.” The tone came off as a definitively angry insult. It was not that disturbing to Jake sense almost everything, that Norm said, sounded that way.
Jake simply finished up and then waited a few more minutes. He stuck his head out the door and when it seemed as if the back end of the building was silent and dead, he left his room. Jake did not walk down to the commissary door. He walked in the opposite direction to the very back of the barracks. He stopped in front of the door to Barbara and Shannon’s room. He looked at the combination lock on the door and he flipped it with a grunt of frustration as he mumbled, “god damn it Barbara. What do you think you’re doing?”