Page 22 of Snow Blind

The order came fromon high. The Chrysalis ruled the Great Lakes with an iron fist, for not only human trafficking, but drugs, women, and shady after-hours spots. The High Council consisted of the three: Hornworm, Swallowtail, and the Imperial. A simple request came in the middle of the night in a text message:

THAT'S WHERE LAWRENCECanton had made his mistake. He’d engaged with the Technician who, thus far, had no name. She was an enigma. His job, or rather the work order he’d received, simply dictated he track the woman and collect some intel. It wasn't an easy task, and he'd been paid handsomely to get started.

Based on what he knew of the Technicians, each one drove a black late model Ford F-150. The Archangels, or the handlers for each regional crew, the tailgates of their vehicles sported iridescent angel wings. The Watchers, or the Seraphim who didn't engage with bad people or good ones for the matter, simply kept watch, and reported the findings to a higher power. The Seraphim also drove black Ford F-150s with cherubic iridescent angels on the tailgate. These were easy to follow.

However, the woman was not. As far as he could tell, she didn't own a Ford F-150. The first job she undertook, Karlton and Ramon Santos, she was driving the shop of The Cherry on Top, a sniper. The Cherry used to cover Indiana. Thus far, he could find no trails of her, and everything on the woman dead ended.

"Maybe she's taking over Indiana," Lawrence said softly, going over his notes.

This approach also ended nowhere. He went to look over what he'd discovered in Wisconsin where the woman had shut down three Fields of Flowers in one night with minimal loss of life. Wisconsin was the territory of a master tracker, assassin and an all-around Bad Apple. However, his vehicle wasn't used that night. The F-150 used belonged to a Technician out of Pennsylvania, which technically was part of the Great Lakes region, but the dude was not a Fruit. He was a master tracker as well, with no yield in him.

"Dead end again," Lawrence said, continuing to search.

When he could not find a vehicle, he began to look for patterns. Patterns indicated methodology, and the woman appeared methodical, but he couldn't find a name for her. Lawrence looked for more warehouse closures in Wisconsin in the Milwaukee area and found none.

However, for three months, there was a sizeable amount of activity in mid-Ohio, with two Fields of Flowers being raided and a startup in Indiana shut down. It was then he started to pull the footage from CCTV, and an odd thing happened.

"I see you, Miss Ma'am," he said, smiling as he spotted the Wilderness Green Subaru.

He found the Subaru in Wisconsin, up around Janesville. Other tapes showed the same Subaru with Kentucky plates, in Ohio, in Indiana, and recently in the area around Antioch, Illinois. Ironically, as many cameras as the vehicle appeared in, the license plates were indiscernible. Lawrence couldn't even get a partial on the plates.

"Let's see how and where you spend your time, Miss Ma'am," Lawrence said, noticing the frequent stops to bookstores and coffee shops, and she seemed to prefer shopping at Target versus Walmart.

"I've got you," he said proudly after nearly a month of hunting for the woman. "I just have to wait."

Two weeks he spent observing the three bookstores in Antioch, and just as he was about to give up, a Subaru in Wilderness Green, pulled up to the front door. The one day he'd forgotten his camera was the one day when she’d showed up.

"She's black," Lawrence said, watching the woman exit the vehicle.

It wasn't so much the way the manner in which the lady got out of the vehicle; it was the method in which she got out of the vehicle that made him know for certain, he'd found his target. The woman opened the door slightly, checking all the mirrors of the car before slipping out of the door. A crossbody bag was slung over the sweater she wore, then she slipped on her coat. Cautious eyes scanned as if she were checking her sectors, and suddenly, her eyes stopped on him. He almost wanted to slide down in the seat, but that would have been too obvious.

For the oddest reason, he wanted her to know he was watching her movements. She noticed. A scowl came to her face and she pressed the fob in her hand to secure the vehicle. In the store, and based on where he stood on the street, her back never turned to the window.

"This is her," he said, making treks to the bookstore. He needed to see her up close.

The work order said not to engage, but after a month and a half of looking for a woman, he felt as if she owed him at least a smile. Everything in his soul told him not to enter the store, to not engage, just as the work order dictated, but he wanted to hear her voice. He needed to speak to her, possibly know her name.

"Simply lovely," he found himself saying aloud as he got closer to her. She smelled of cinnamon as if she'd been baking. "I've never seen you here before; are you new to the area?"

"Passing through," the woman told him.

He tried to ask her for coffee, or dinner, to talk. She was lovely. All natural. No fake tits, fake eyelashes, or those long acrylic nails with poo stuck under them. She wore a simple glosser on the full lips, and he was drawn to her like a hair on a biscuit.

Lawrence stepped aside as she made the purchases for books to be read by a man. The woman had a man. Jealously coursed through him at the thought of the cinnamon he smelled which indicated she'd baked fresh goods for the big-headed joker to enjoy when he came in from work. He'd be greeted with her loving arms and the gifts she'd been thoughtful to buy for him to read on his lunch breaks at the shit job where he worked.

He found himself craving her attention and wanting to know more about her. Lawrence watched her start up the car, and once she'd reached the traffic light on the corner, he made a beeline for his own vehicle. There were only two directions to head when you left the bookstore.

"She's going to Target," he said, based on what he'd learned about her patterns.

Lawrence found no need to rush since he knew where she was going. He'd give Miss Ma'am time to get to the store and get comfortable in her shopping. Then, he'd find her in the men's department, getting her man new socks, maybe a robe and new slippers that he'd wear as he sat in front of the fireplace, snacking on those cinnamon buns she made for him to eat after dinner.

"Bastard," he said, finding himself growing angry.

The anger showed on his face when he walked up to her in the store. She didn't seem too surprised to see him, although the act was put on for the security guard.

"He's making me uncomfortable," she confessed to the security guard, who escorted Lawrence from the store.

It didn't matter. When she left Target, she would go to a local coffee shop. There was a Big Bucks coffee shop inside the retailer, but she didn't seem like the type to order from the Seattle coffee maker. Miss Ma'am would want a local Mom and Pop shop, and he knew where she'd end up.

---