Page 18 of Seamus: Unconventional
He sends me a done sign. I love my partners.
Chapter Three
Two weeks
Badass Club Idaho
Light has Shadow with me today. I like the line-ups and send it to him through the link. Shadow puts his paw on my arm. “Fairy is good with the boys?”
He sends me pictures of her with them. I shake my head at him realizing the pictures are from today. “You got the Alpha-Bits sending feeds?”
He shows me a black German shepherd, I shake my head at him. “You know how many black German shepherds there are here?”
Donny laughs. “I know of at least ten, Boss. Some have blue eyes, we could narrow it down by eye color.”
I nod, then shrug for Donny. “He sent me a girl. I think there were only a few females but I wouldn’t know them. It’s an Op K-9.” I turn to my partner. “Once we set down, focus.”
His chuff relieves me. I know he’s worried about the two boys but have never seen him so connected to kids before. We didn’t have kids on any bases we were on. Mostly we were underground so we didn’t see more than other program soldiers.
“Izzy and Max are ready, Boss. Do they need the plan again?” Donny is a trainer, not their handler and he’s new to the chip connection.
“They’re ready and no. Use the Lead glasses to keep up with them. They have the objective and will pick up our responses. IT will keep everything flowing through your glasses. You shoot for them, distract or whatever. They’ll let you know or send it to me and I’ll tell you or get IT to. You’re just following them to open doors quicker, hold packages or whatever.
He smiles looking more relaxed. “Mil said they don’t need us for the jobs. I thought he was kidding. My K-9s are Ops but not chipped like Izzy and Max.”
“Your K-9s are the same, but their job was different. They’re just not trained tactical Leads. If they get training they’d do the job.” Feeling us lower, I stand and focus on the K-9 partners. “No updates from control. Our objective hasn’t changed. Cort indicated ‘secret’assassin protocol with the ‘no breather’ comment so we stick with that.”
Donny looks surprised but the Flight Crew just keep moving without reaction. They know us now since we’ve done two jobs a day for the last two weeks. We do seem to be moving further away from the Maestro Club but I did expect it.
Mase was right, the jobs are small and full teams are overkill. The K-9s tend to be overlooked and are fuckin’ good at the job so we pop in and out unnoticed. Feed static and glitches are ignored when there aren’t two legged threats in battle gear caught roaming the streets from independent security or traffic monitoring systems. Two K-9s are in gear today but they’re both stealthy Brothers that are meeting me in the office building.
Before we jump down, my eyes find Donny. “Don’t follow too close, don’t keep eyes on the partners and for fuck’s sake, act like you have a destination.”
He smiles at me. “Roger, Pres. Mailman showed me O’Rourke’s ride along.”
I shake my head. “He’s a trainer that never worked as an operator. He was never off base here in the US.”
He laughs. “Kandahar was as close as I got. I was K-9 logistics and didn’t see as much action as the K-9s did.”
I nod. “You saw the O’Rourke feed, don’t do that.” I jump down and signal Shadow to move. Every handler has personal signals they’ve trained with their partners on that are only used in dangerous or dire circumstances. That’s the signal I use today because Shadow is a Lead here and I need his head in the game. He sends me a thumbs up and runs with Ranger keeping pace on the other side of the fence line. Ranger has been a good partner on jobs with Light and Max. He’s from the Beta group and knows the job but doesn’t have a handler listed. This tells me his partner or handler didn’t make it. We don’t have much on the groups but the K-9s fill in what they can. If I lost my partners, it wouldn't be up for discussion, but I have to wonder if they had one partner like us or they had a string of handlers that didn’t really know what they were trained for. Ranger always seems relieved to get objectives then a ‘good job’ when the mission is done.
I climb in the first car and wait at the gate. We’re in a lot by a supposedly abandoned factory, but there’s a lot of activity in the huge building flagged red because of the massive power draw, that has two vehicles as far away from it as possible along the back fence.
Donny, Izzy and Max are in the car behind us. I pull out when Shadow’s approach to a main road shows through the chip. Donny turns the opposite way causing my head to nod. He’s following the map his Lead glasses show. This is already better than O’Rourke but I should have known when he said he didn’t know any Irish songs or people. He’s Irish and doesn’t know more than they have ale and corned beef and cabbage sometime in March. The man has no Irish pride at all.
I hit the blinker and pull into a spot on the road five blocks from where the chopper set down. I’ve got two blocks to walk, but there’s a store Shadow stopped at. I’ll take a walk through since he thought it was notable.
I smile coming up to the store with colorful shit in the windows. Bobble heads are on display covering a whole window. Walking in, I stifle a laugh, finding a Rottweiler bobble head just inside the door. I pass it by with my eyes on the wall of tin signs in every color, touting every brand, from the 50’s and 60’s, that gives me a chance to see more without drawing attention to the Rottweiler bobblehead. My partner is good and stealth is a specialty for him but he is a K-9 that could be memorable because of his odd mix.
“What are you doing?”
The voice in my head surprises the hell out of me. I send plausible deniability through the chip and get Shadow’s laughing emoji back. Walking out, I send a hammer and jammer so the feeds will work again for the urban deco store.
The next block takes no time and I’m walking in as Max and Izzy send me they’re approaching. I go right to the elevator and stop a floor below the one I need. I send the hammer and jammer getting a laugh. No one has ever made a sound before so I’m not sure who this is but I’ll find out when we’re done. The Lead glasses are programmed to view our chip when Light opens it but no one said the option comes with comments.
Making a beeline for the bathroom, I pull my hoodie off and the oversized flannel that’s hidden under it. Reversing the layers, I leave the flannel untucked so it looks more like a coat. With a ball cap from my back pocket, I gather my hair in it and I’m ready to go, then do.
“You look totally different.”
