Morning after the airport

When it became apparent that her phone wouldn’t stop pinging her awake, Ellie flipped over and touched the screen.  Noting that the time had just clicked beyond 7am, Ellie sat up and looked down and saw the twenty notifications from her boss as well as another six voicemails.  

-I am not dealing with this right now. I need coffee.-

Having heard the magic word in her head, Ellie sleepily stumbled her way into her kitchen and found the big red bag of ‘Cherrybean Pickers’ one hundred percent Kona.  Once the pot had started brewing, Ellie went back into her room and picked out the best blue suit she could find and placed it on her bed.  Given the volume of messages that she’d chosen to ignore, Ellie skipped a shower and quickly brushed her teeth, shook out her short brown hair then put on the skirt-suit she’d laid out.

Once she had strapped on her service pistol and affixed her badge to her skirt, Ellie went and poured herself a cup of coffee then pressed the button to listen to the oldest voicemail.

‘Agent Miller, this is Miss Moss from Deputy Director Richard Mums office, please contact him when you get this message.’

Quickly deleting the message, Ellie scanned the others and picked the first one that was more than six seconds.

‘Miller, Why am I awake at 1 am listening to Tatum Blackwell of all people screaming into my ear?  She’s telling me you have pictures of her farm…and did you kidnap a woman from a plane?  Jesus Christ…what a … Call me.’

Ellie poured a second and third cup while she finished listening to different rants her boss had given her as well as the myriad of texts he’d also sent in his rampage.

-You knew that was a bad idea.-

Quickly pushing the doubt of the encounter with Casey to the back of her mind, Ellie tossed a breakfast sandwich into her microwave and shook her head while looking at a picture on the countertop. 

-I had to see the reactions, I even saw a bit of worry in her eyes.  I’ll take the heat.- 

Given the response from the attorney’s, Ellie wondered how much ‘heat’ she would have to take as she walked up to the three-story building she worked in.  Tapping her badge to the door, Agent Miller heard a little buzz and the light turn yellow.  Grateful that she still had access, she made her way through the metal detector checkpoint and to the main desk to badge in a second time.  When the little pad again popped up a yellow light, Ellie looked at the secretary. “What’s going on?  I was told that Deputy Director Mums wanted to see me.”  She pointed at the light, “This means something else.”

Clicking a few buttons on her computer, the man behind the desk nodded a couple of times and called over a guard. “Agent Miller.  There is a bit of a complication with your access right now.  I see here that your meeting is now with Deputy Director Sarah Powell.”  He spoke to the guard, “Please escort Agent Miller to the third floor, office 340-A.”  He looked back at Ellie. “Please surrender your firearm to the guard.”

Groaning out of frustration, Ellie slowly reached for her sidearm and offered it after ensuring the safety was in place. “Here.”  Slightly confused when the guard pointed to the magazine, Ellie perked one of her eyebrows, “You want me to clear it here?”  When she got the affirmation, she shrugged. “Not procedure, but since it appears I have no choice...”  She cleared and left the slide back. “There, all safe.”

She stuck the magazine back into its slot on her shoulder holster and diligently followed her escort to the elevator.  Content to stand in silence, Ellie began coming up with different sounding answers to possible questions that the Deputy Director might have for her concerning Casey.

-I certainly did not kidnap anyone.  I put a hold on her passport.  She could have left anytime she wanted.-

So lost in her possible answers, Ellie didn’t initially register the ding of the elevator until the guard cleared his throat.  “Oh, sorry.”  Ellie blinked herself into the present and followed the large man to the office she’d been summoned to.

Knocking on the door hard enough to shake it in the frame, the guard stepped back when a businesslike female voice answered. “Enter.”  When the guard made no effort to move, Ellie knew that she had to open the door and once again be followed.  “Agent Miller, as requested.”  Ellie stepped into the middle of the office and stood patiently as the guard placed her service pistol on the director’s desk and left, locking the door behind him.  

Briefly looking over the large space, Ellie took in all of the adornments around her new surroundings.  Various framed certificates and degrees for Criminal Law, Forensics and Psychology hung in sturdy frames of oak with the name ‘Sarah Powell’ scrawled out in beautiful calligraphy.  Opposite of that wall, another had almost a library of text dealing with case law, criminal law and Supreme Court rulings.  Lower shelves along that same wall had small manilla folders that were organized by open and closed cases.  Turning to face the woman pacing behind a large desk made of cherry wood, Ellie took note that the woman had three computers spaced out, with two of them being laptops.  Behind the screens held an old landline phone, a mountain of files and a couple pictures that Ellie couldn’t see.

“Agent Miller.”  Sarah’s voice was stern as she pressed a button on her earpiece killing whatever conversation she was having.

“Ma’am?”  Ellie answered humbly.

“Skipping over the fact you didn’t respond to your immediate supervisor to the point where I intervened to save your ass, I have to pose this question.”  She pulled the earbud free from her and tossed it onto her desk, “Have you any idea what happened overnight?” 

Shaking her head and raising her eyebrow, Ellie responded. “No clue, Director Powell.  I left the interview and went home, ate dinner then passed out.”

Clasping her hands together, Deputy Director Powell laughed. “Interview?  You call that an interview?  Let me show you something, Agent Miller.”  She picked up a remote and pressed the button to power up the television behind Ellie. “Turn around Agent Miller.”

Slowly turning to face the screen she’d not noticed before, Ellie saw what looked to be an older woman holding up a set of pictures and half screaming into a microphone. “Ma’am, I can’t hear what she’s saying.”

Powell froze the image on the screen, “You don’t need to.  That is an estate, civil and criminal attorney named Tatum Blackwell.”  Sarah slammed the remote on her desk. “You might recall her being one of the attorneys involved with that mess in Petersburg earlier in the year, along with..I might add, Douglas Dunbar.”  She paused as Agent Miller turned back to face her. “Ah, the look on your face says it all.  I take it you recall him from the conversation you had last night, after you absconded with Miss Casey Rivers.”

“Absconded or kidnapped is a …”  Ellie started to speak then was interrupted when Director Powell pounded her desk once.

Pointing a well manicured finger at Agent Miller, Sarah shook her head. “No.  You don’t get to talk just yet, Agent.”  She paused, “I use the term agent loosely, because you are on very thin ice.  There’s even talk about removing your qualified immunity.”  Sarah stood up again and paced behind her desk. “Best case, that means you go to an American prison.  Or it could be a lifetime of fun in Cuba, how’d that be?”  Sarah waited for the color to return to Ellie’s face. “Good, you get the gravity of the situation.”  She pointed to the screen once more, “Tatum Blackwell.  You apparently used FBI resources to take pictures of a private dwelling that has a twenty-five foot security wall around it.”

Clearing her throat, Ellie managed to say one word. “Drone.”

Resuming her place in the large executive chair, Sarah pointed to one of the chairs that Ellie was standing between. “Have a seat, Agent.”  She sighed, “You are aware that this country has laws forbidding what you did.  You even swore to uphold those laws.”  She looked at one of her laptop screens briefly. “When this all blew up, I took a few minutes to look into why a young and driven agent such as yourself would do such a boneheaded move.”  She turned the laptop around and showed Ellie the picture she had pulled up.

Feeling the strength escaping her body, Ellie was relieved when she sat down and then came face to face with an enlargement of the picture on her kitchen countertop. “My girlfriend..um..fiancé, I should say.”  Ellie paused and looked down at her silver engagement band. “Angelie Kino.”  Taking the time to pull her leather satchel from across her chest, Ellie pulled out the evidence bag with her girlfriend’s dog tags and placed it on Sarah’s desk. “I was the one that found them, discarded close to some abandoned mine.”

Pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head, Sarah grumbled, “What a disaster, Agent Miller.  I suppose you got the tags with the drone too?  If memory serves me, then the privacy wall goes all the way to that mine entrance, which is sealed with a steel plate.”  She looked at her defiant agent, “Assuming you didn’t try to break into that as well?”

“No Ma’am.”  Ellie quickly acknowledged. “You have everything.”  She waited a few uneasy silent minutes while her new boss typed on another laptop, “I, Ma’am..If I may, what now?”

Finishing the small amount of typing on her desktop, Sarah sent the email she’d finished and then answered Ellie. “There is a small measure of luck.”  She held up one finger, “First, I managed to save your job and keep you out of prison.”  She popped up another finger, “Two.  I take the illegally gained evidence you have obtained and hand it over to Miss Tatum.  Somehow she’s made an arrangement already with the government to not sue in trade for this…junk.”

“But…”  Ellie choked lightly and tried to reach for the dog tags, “These are a personal nature..”

Tucking a few strands of her red hair behind her ear, Sarah glared at her agent. “You should have thought of that before you broke no less than a dozen privacy laws and then paraded them in front of a call that was being video cast of an illegal interview.”  Sarah popped her third finger up, “You have a new desk across from me, and a stack of folders.  Consider you on permanent desk duty here and in the substation in Suffolk.”  Sarah handed Agent Miller her service weapon. “You can have this back now.”

Meticulously placing the firearm back in her holster, Ellie then looked to her new boss again. “So what’s in the folders?  I don’t even know the division I am part of now.”

“There’s more.”  The Deputy Director leaned back in her chair. “You are under my direct supervision for no less than ninety days, and in that time if there are any..let’s just call them anomalies, then you will be terminated.”  She whispered, “More likely stuck in an old missile silo and forgotten about.”  Sarah opened a drawer to her desk and handed Ellie another badge. “You are part of Behavioral Sciences now.  We are less action and more research.  Your next ninety days will be following up on the stacks of interviews with inmates and using the questionnaires within those folders.”

Taking a moment to flatten out the wrinkles in her suit, Ellie stood up and put her arms behind her back. “Ma’am, with your permission, I will go and get started.  Thank you for the opportunity.”

Giving Agent Miller a single nod, Deputy Director Powell pointed across from her office. “340-B.  I will send you the address for the Suffolk substation in a few minutes.”  She raised one thin red-brown eyebrow, “Welcome to the team, Agent Miller. Dismissed.”

Exiting the office, Ellie heard a few more typing strokes and could have sworn she heard the officer say the name ‘Jeremy’ under her breath as she closed the door behind her.

-Demoted and nearly tossed into a black government pit.  Nice move.-

Pressing her new badge to the little access panel, Ellie breathed a sigh of relief when the light turned green and the door unlocked.  She stepped into her small office and shook her head in disbelief.  Walls covered in what she guessed to be lead based gray paint, brown carpet that bubbled up from the floor and a basic pine desk that looked as though it would fall apart if anything more were placed on it.

-I might as well be in prison.-

Ellie told herself and looked at the locked door and the small windows that reminisced of being behind a set of iron bars.  Shaking her head and thinking and picturing a small cot and toilet on the other side of the office, Agent Miller pulled out her small rolling chair and sat down.  Springs popped and the hydraulic level released then dumped Ellie squarely on her butt. “Fuck.”  She yelled and kicked the broken seat across the room, where it banged against the heavy glass outlining the door. “Unbelievable.”  Picking herself up from the floor, Ellie pulled the chair out of her office-cell and into the hallway.  Exploring for a couple minutes, she managed to drag a metal and plastic stacking chair into her office and finally settled down long enough to look at the junk cluttering her desk.   

Like Ellie was promised, the center of her desk had no less than two stacks of old manilla folders that had scribbled names of various jails and penitentiaries that encompassed the area.  Left of one stack was an old metallic push button phone with a line of buttons that occasionally blinked a pale yellow.  Frustrated, she picked up the phone and then slammed it back on her desk making a small indentation. “I could kill someone with this stupid thing.”  Ellie griped aloud and then looked to her right.  A flat screen monitor with an accompanying keyboard and mouse gave her the only connection into the modern age, other than her own iPhone.

Lost in absent-minded thought while the lights on her phone blinked, Agent Miller wasted what she thought was the better part of thirty minutes before she picked up the first old yellow folder and blew off the light film of dust.  Glancing at the name on the folder, Ellie stared at the name ‘Lineage’ on a white sticker for a few seconds and then out of curiosity glanced at a few more folders that all had normal names such as ‘Smith, Walker, and Evans’ before once again looking at the folder in her hand.

-It’s an anagram of Angelie.-

Smiling to herself for getting the silly puzzle so quickly, she first tore the sticker away and opened the folder to find a long piece of yellow legal paper with a message scrawled hastily on the page.

‘Agent Miller,
Tuck this folder into your leather satchel and go to the abandoned twelve screen cineplex a few miles from here.  Time is tight.  Consider renovations in your search.

Be patient.  If you are still alone at 1300 hours, then return to the office.  Destroy this letter before leaving.’

Afraid to set off any alarms, Agent Miller tore up the note and then stuffed the remains in her jacket pocket with the intent to get to another location before setting the contents on fire.  Tossing the folder into her bag as instructed, Ellie smiled and darted out of her office-cell and headed for the place mentioned in the letter.

Striding into the large executive room alone, Deputy Director Powell greeted the two attorneys on the opposite side of the long mahogany table. “Good morning, councilors.”  She put down her briefcase and the few items that she’d carried under her arm.  Taking a moment to sit in one of the plush chairs, Sarah then opened her briefcase and laid out a few files and then placed the leather carrier on the carpeted floor. “I apologize for making you both wait, I needed to get the necessary agreement forms and have a little meeting with one of my agents.”

Adorned in a white dress suit, a woman who appeared to be in her mid fifties stood up and held out her hand. “Tatum Blackwell.”  She waited for the director to shake her hand before sitting down again and shaking out her light brown and gray hair. “Think nothing of it, Deputy Director Powell.  I take it you have everything that was agreed to by your superiors?”  Tatum blinked her hazel eyes and turned to the man beside her. “My apologies as well.  This is Councilor Douglas Dunbar, representing the interests of Miss Casey Rivers.”

Taking a second to pull her red hair into a tight ponytail, Sarah reached out and shook the older man's hand as well. “Good to meet you as well.”

“Likewise.”  Doug briefly stated and then pointed to Tatum, “She will be doing most of the talking.”

Sarah leaned back in her chair and nodded, “Up to you.  I think everything has been settled though.”

Tatum handed Sarah a huge stack of paper that was held together by heavy metal pins from the top. “The government’s copy.  You as the representative need only sign the top page of both copies and the issue is settled.”

Deputy Director Powell raised one eyebrow with a concerned look on her face. “You expect the government to just sign a document that we don’t fully know what is in it?  How do I know that you haven’t…massaged the wording?  I am no lawmaker, I leave that to the folks in D.C.”

Smiling confidently and folding her arms across her chest, Tatum countered. “You don’t.  It’s a matter of trust really.  It is certainly within your rights to get a team of attorneys and paralegals in here to go over every word on the..”  She bobbed her head thoughtfully for a second, “..about two thousand pages, or trust my office.”  Tatum watched as the elder FBI agent stood up to leave, “Your choice, Deputy Director.  I caution you though.  Everything in these two thousand pages will go public, trial by opinion to start.”  She laughed and patted Doug on the arm, “Then the real battle begins.  I am willing to go the distance, is the government?”

Imagining the fallout as well as the yelling from all of the department heads, Sarah once more resumed her seat. “Fine.”  Sarah grabbed the unwieldy stack of papers and signed the top sheet, and witnessed Tatum do the same.  Opening her own folder, Director Powell handed Tatum another set of documents. “Your NDA.  You say a word about this and the contract is null and void.”  Glaring at Tatum with her hard and intelligent brown eyes, Sarah nodded as the woman in white signed the last of the formal documents. “Here, as was promised..by the government.”  Writhing inside, The Deputy Director handed over all of the illegally obtained evidence from the Crow farm. “Be lucky she used a drone after the fact, and not during the initial search of the property.”

Gathering up all of the items and smiling with the dog tags in hand, Tatum started packing away all of the documents. “It wasn’t luck.  I am not responsible for the lack of detail when it came to the government issuing warrants of the property.”  She tapped her chest lightly, “I am responsible to my client and my client only.  This was all supposedly settled months ago.  False accusations of explosives, chemical agents and illegal slaughtering of animals.”  She winked, “Without checking what permits were in place.”  Tatum stood up and snapped her fingers. “Gone in an instant.  You have a nice day Deputy Director.”

Unafraid of any lingering fallout, Sarah waited until the two attorneys reached the door before popping a simple question. “How’d you do it, Miss Blackburn?”  Sarah gathered her things and stared directly into the older woman’s eyes, “How’d you charm them?  I have seen it time and again, when the government wants something, they get it.  I have seen legitimate claims get tossed out on a technicality.”  She pointed at Tatum. “How’d you do it?”

Carefully looking around the executive room, Tatum smiled as she spotted at least twelve different cameras with matching recording equipment.   Tugging and flattening out wrinkles in her immaculate white suit, the older woman lightly smiled, “Deputy Director Powell.”  Tatum paused and waved her hand so that the agent would get closer. “Ever seen the Wizard of Oz, my dear?”

“I think we all have.”  Sarah chuckled.

Lightly placing her hand on Sarah’s shoulder, Tatum continued. “Unlikely events happen all the time, right?  It just so happens that a house landed on a bad woman and Dorothy had to have a little adventure and come to terms within her own heart to get home, does that track for what you know, Director Powell?”

“Yes, but…”  Sarah tried to comment, when Tatum raised her finger and she felt compelled to quiet herself.

Content that the director wouldn’t say anything for the time being, Tatum finished. “In 1947 a small chunk of debris caused mass panic about UFOs and aliens, didn’t it?”  She watched Sarah mindlessly shake her head. “Good.  The greater good, right?”  Sarah again shook her head. “Then I leave you with this, my new friend. A quote from Glinda herself. ‘You don’t need to be helped any longer.  You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas.’  Questioning me isn’t the answer, you already know what you need to do, Deputy Director.”  Tatum used her right hand and touched Sarah on the nose. “Boop.”  Spinning on her heel Tatum darted through the door and out of sight.

Initially taking three different trolleys, so she could double back and see if she was being followed, Ellie felt confident that she’d shaken anyone that might have been following her from the office.  Happy that the city had extended the use of the open air street cars, Ellie was able to see who left and boarded the little train as she made her way to the location in the letter.

-There are two possibilities. One is the complex that was damaged in Hurricane Hazel a few years ago, the other is from Royal-Heaven Mall abandoned when the internet made most of the stores obsolete.-

Noting that the train was closing in on her first possible location, Ellie quickly retrieved her phone and tapped the screen to learn the differences between the two places. “Gotcha.  Royal-Heaven here I come.”  Ellie bounced lightly in her seat and waved when the lady beside her stared at her oddly. “Just excited, ma’am.”  When the woman smiled and nodded, Ellie settled back down and waited for her stop.

Jumping off the car while it was still coming to a stop, Ellie had to stop herself from running a few times as she approached the deserted mall.  Aware that the area was mostly devoid of people, Ellie crossed through a construction fence and headed directly for the old movie theater.  Thinking to check her pocket once more, she found the ripped note in her pocket and cursed herself for a few seconds before burning it and watching the ashes float away into the air.   Content that she’d done as asked, Ellie walked up the four flights of stone stairs and looked around.  

Right in front of her was the wide expanse of glass and doors that made the huge movie building such a draw.  Once used billboards that had all manner of paper that advertised sales or rentals now had the remains of tack pins rusting in the corkboard.  White walls that once ushered people towards the ticket box and the ornate glass doors, now were covered in soot and debris from the construction crew diligently working to free up the land that the mall once used.  Plastic displays that once held movie posters and flashed with different lights, were nothing more than empty shells that now had various spray paint splattered on them with various illegible words and symbols that Ellie knew to be local gang emblems. 

Turning over her wrist to look at the time, Ellie noted that it was already half past noon, and didn’t see anyone other than the few people running cranes in the distance.  Taking a chance, Ellie walked to the windows and peered inside to see nothing but overturned benches and torn carpet. “Damn.”  She huffed and walked to the rear of the building, pushing and pulling on the exit doors the best she could.  She pulled her phone free again and looked at the two locations once more. “This has got to be it, damnit.” Ellie cursed and jumped when the door behind her opened.

“It is, get in here.”  Sarah’s voice whispered from the darkness.  Quickly closing the door after Ellie entered Sarah smiled. “I had to be sure that you weren’t followed.”  She shrugged, “It would appear that no one is interested in us.”  Pulling a small device from her pocket, Sarah pressed the button and waited.  Within a few seconds a band of yellow lights pulsed softly for roughly a minute before the yellow lights stopped spinning and went solid neon green. “Okay, safe.  Supposedly we can’t be tracked.”

“That’s a relief.” Ellie sarcastically spoke, “What’s with the cloak and dagger, boss?”

Laughing, Sarah led the two of them to the front and into the wrecked lobby. “That’s the second time a movie has been used today.”  She looked at Ellie, “Cloak and Dagger?  Old movie from the 80s?” Sarah picked up one of the half broken benches, “Help me with this so we have a place to sit and discuss things in private.”

Assisting her boss with the few pieces of furniture, Ellie sat down across from her boss and handed her the folder. “You asked me to bring this.” She pulled off her satchel and sat it beside her. “I still don’t know what this is all about.”

“First, I needed someplace outside the building that wasn’t being monitored.”  Sarah pointed her finger up and whirled it. “I highly doubt that anyone else would think to use a broken down movie theater for a meeting between colleagues.”  Sarah waited until Ellie nodded.  “Second, simply put, I believe you.”  Deputy Director Powell opened the dossier and pointed to the images. “I think what’s in this folder can assist you with the situation we both want to know more about.”   She pointed to a grainy satellite photo. “See that?”

Ellie peered at the horrible picture. “Yeah, but all I see are half images of white and green.”

“That was all I could get before the more detailed images were somehow removed.”  She tapped the picture. “That was real time.”  She pointed at the barely perceivable outlines. “There, that is the farm, the ground that is whited-out and what looks to be green lightning.” Sarah paused and tied her red hair into a tight bun, “This wasn’t a digital camera, or it would have been perfect.  I suspect the better images are no longer in existence..”  She tapped the image. “Something went on down there that night.”  She slid the picture to Ellie. “Can you fill in the blanks? Let me hear from you what your girlfriend had to do with all of it?  I mean it had to be pretty bad for you to put everything on the line.”

Nodding slowly, Agent Miller took a deep breath and looked at the distorted image of the farmhouse. “Angelie Kino and I were set to get married, oddly enough, back in September.  She used to love everything to do with harvest time at the end of Summer.”  Ellie let out a nervous laugh, “She would have loved this year, the summer lasting longer than it has in years.”  

“I am sorry she’s gone, Agent Miller.”  Sarah softened her tone, “If it is too hard, I will understand.  I can go on with my idea without the information, but it will help me put the pieces together if you continue.”

Clearing away a few tears that had streaked down her cheeks, Ellie shook her head. “No, it’s alright.  It is just hard to think about.”  She sniffled then reached into her bag and pulled out a handkerchief, politely clearing her nose. “It was a cascade of events that I couldn’t grapple with.  I was up to my neck in work thanks to all the gang violence in Richmond and the locals asked for FBI assistance.”

“I remember that.”  Sarah paused, “Not much changed there, Richmond is still a shithole.”

Thankful for the tension breaker, Ellie briefly smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I didn’t do a good job there either.  I think it was mostly because of what Angelie was going through at the time.”  Ellie paused and leafed through the other documents, not paying attention to the pages. “She’d just left the Army.”  Ellie looked up at her boss. “She’d been in for ten years, and didn’t want to get another deployment to the Middle East.”

“I can understand that.”  Sarah patted her Agent on the hand lightly. 

Leaning back and dropping her hands to her lap, Ellie exhaled like she’d been defeated. “I agreed with her.  My own selfish whim for her to stay here with me, she gave up a career where she only had to wait out another ten years for a pension.”  Relieved when Sarah leaned in to pay better attention to the little story, Ellie took a breath and kept going. “At first it was alright, she had plenty of savings and still about three months of leave that she used as her separation package.”  She held up three fingers. “It was after those initial months that stress replaced affection.”

“Unable to find a job?”  Sarah inquired and slowly moved the first image to the bottom of the pile.

Ellie shook her head and squinted her eyes, “That was part of it, sure.”  Ellie reached into her bag and pulled out a cloth with a couple metal bars on it, “She was a captain.  She was used to a company and command.”  She waved her hand and rubbed the metal rank in her fingers. “Nothing around here could give her a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging.”  Ellie looked down at the emblem again, “I wasn’t enough.”

Witnessing the pain that crossed Ellie’s face, Sarah held perfectly still and stayed quiet as Ellie worked through the moment before speaking. “After seeing how brazen you are, I seriously doubt you weren’t enough, Agent Miller.  I’ve known you for half a morning, read your file and I know that isn’t true.”

“Thank you for the confidence, Director Powell.”  Ellie chuckled, “I was ready to just sit here and think about Angelie’s eyes for the rest of the day.”  Ellie forced her former lover’s eyes from her memory and resumed. “Things had deteriorated to such a degree that I kicked her out of our bed and forced her into another bedroom.”  She shrugged, “I told her to figure out what she needed and wanted, then she could come back to our room.”  Ellie shoved the captain’s insignia back in her bag, “What she ended up finding was a cult of some kind.” She once more paused and made an odd looking face. “I barely understood it, she said she would be awake, or they were woke, or awakened?”  Ellie shrugged, “All I know is that out of nowhere Angelie was almost herself again.  She said she was in charge of people and they were doing important things.”  Ellie held up her hands and used air quotes. “She never told me what they were doing, it was contractional or some mess.”

Freeing a section of a newspaper from the pile in the folder,  Sarah pointed at another image. “This picture is much more detailed, yet very rare for this area.  I suspect it wasn’t taken digitally, but with film.  Looks too much like old soup kitchen photos.”  Tapping her finger at a figure standing at the end of a driveway, Sarah looked at her agent. “I believe that to be Angelie Kino.”

Having learned through years of practice, Ellie reached into her bag and pulled out a small magnifying glass and studied the image for a couple seconds. “Yeah, that’s her.  I would know that stance anywhere.” Ellie looked at the article attached to the image, “Feeding the hungry?”  She looked at Sarah. “Why tell me it’s a secret then let a reporter take pictures and allow publication?”

Folding the paper back up, Sarah shrugged. “Good question.  Perhaps one that you can look into.” Sarah looked at the confused look on Ellie’s face, then decided to relinquish the remaining information. “Since we are collaborating here, you should know that the person covering that story died of a burst appendix two days later.  This story never officially ran.”  Sarah closed her eyes and sighed. “The editor’s wife is a friend of mine from college and asked me if I could do anything.”

“This was a few years ago.”  Ellie mumbled and tried to match the timeline. “I think this fits, Ma’am.  She seemed to have found her ‘revitalization’ as she called it. She even wanted me to meet the leader, called her Darla, I think.” 

Retrieving another hazy picture, Sarah placed it in front of Ellie.  “Probably for the better that you didn’t.  Perhaps you might have had a revitalization as well.”  Sarah shrugged and pointed at the large building. “This building I am sure you recognize.”  Ellie affirmed by nodding her head and Sarah pressed on. “Good.  Look at the date and time.  This was early evening at Phantasmagoria.”  She shuffled to another image that was just as lousy. “This was later that evening, a wider look at the city from the building.”

Using her magnifying glass once more, Ellie scanned over the more wide angled image, “I’ve never seen these.  Whatever took this was by accident.” She looked up from the city layout. “All access looks to be cut off.”

“Right.” Sarah chuckled. “A kid with his toy drone heard sirens and screaming.  Uploaded them to a ‘Quirky news’ Reddit.  The irony of a drone, Miss Miller.”  Sarah pointed to the four large things blocking the street. “All of the official satellite images have been curiously removed.  One of my other agents sent this to a post office box I have for personal use after seeing the Reddit.  These were removed by the moderators without explanation.”  

Gazing over the wide angle picture Ellie shook her head, “You’d think from a drone the images would have been sharper.”  She tapped her lip for a second. “Looks like moonlight giving some detail, just not much.”

Sarah waited until Ellie had finished with the picture before she pulled out a final one that showed a formation of people marching into Phantasmagoria with batons. “I can’t be a hundred percent sure, but I think that is former Captain Kino out front.  The building looks completely drenched but it's not raining, and there’s no sense of fire inside.”  Sarah tapped the image, “See anything strange, other than what I pointed out?”

“Two figures on the roof, yes ma’am.”  Ellie poked at the twin blurs and used her magnifying glass again, “If I had to guess that is a hole in the rooftop.”

Quickly shuffling the things back into a workable pile, Sarah closed the file. “The agent that discovered this photo is in an insane asylum.  I assigned another agent to the oddity and she’s now missing.  I can’t even find her credentials.  She doesn’t exist, and I was told that she didn’t…that I might be losing my mind and to take a little time off, if I can’t handle the stress.”

“This isn’t anything major, these terrible photos can be called fake.”  Agent Miller pointed at the manila folder. “There is nothing to investigate, I can’t question anyone with those.  I know that it was Angelie in front.  She’d been practicing and looking at videos on how to use a police baton.”  Ellie paused, “I even showed her how to properly handle it.”  Folding her arms, Ellie added, “I can’t prove any of it.  Sitting here discussing this, we are no closer to the truth.”

Handing Agent Miller the scant evidence she had, the officer in Sarah came out. “I am aware of that, Agent.”  She paused and opened her own cloth bag and handed Ellie a small manual. “SOP for our unit, Agent Miller.  We have a little leeway when it comes to investigation.  Behavioral Science is fairly encompassing.  Typically seen as a bunch of psycho-babble for reasons to explain human behavior, there have been times in the past where we looked into odd claims such as ESP.”

 “Go on.” Ellie perked an eyebrow, genuinely interested in the conversation. “If this lets me get my fingers around that River’s girl, I will do whatever I need to.”

Deputy Director Powell held up her hands, “Cool your jets.  You can’t touch her without new evidence.  I mean, new legal evidence.  I don’t even want you poking around and spying on her.”  Sarah held up a single finger. “If you so much as dig in the garbage for DNA without my permission, I will shoot you myself.  Leave the girl alone for now.  I think what you want is buried in those tiny leftovers you have.  Everything else has been stricken from evidence or denied by Tatum Blackwell and company.  We can investigate strange claims, Agent Miller.  Use that to your advantage.  Start with something that hasn’t been bleached clean.”  

“Phantasmagoria.”  Ellie smiled at her boss and tucked away the SOP and the folder into her leather bag. “What does the Suffolk office have to do with this?”

Looking behind her as a few construction workers passed by eating the remains of their lunch, Sarah whispered. “Suffolk is about halfway between both cities and has a nice bed to sleep in.  It is also an off-books facility with private connections for anything we need.”  She got up and walked over to Ellie and patted her on the shoulder. “Black ops.  There are only about six people that go in there, with two of them being you and I.  The other four are on our team as well.  Get us something we can use, Agent Miller.  Legal.  A new source.”

Ellie felt a phone slip into her pocket and looked up at her boss. “How often do you want me to check in and change this SIM card?”

“Daily.  There are spare SIMs in the Suffolk field facility.”  Sarah helped Ellie to her feet. “Let’s get  justice for Angelie.” Deputy Director Powell headed for the glass door exit, “With some luck we won’t end up in a hidden missile silo somewhere in South Dakota.”  She pointed to the darkened hallway, “Now get out of here.”

Making sure that she’d gathered all of the evidence she had, Ellie then overturned the benches the two had used, then headed for the back exit. 

-Angelie, I hear you baby.  I will set things right.-