Page 19 of Seamus: Unconventional
My feet stall, then go again. Who the hell is this? I send a red flag to Ops. Shadow chuffs telling me he isn't into the chatter either.
“Roger, Brother.” The voice, again has me sending ‘unprofessional’ to IT.
I breathe deep and move to the stairwell to meet Shadow and Ranger. Thankfully, that's without commentary. Max shows at the door I’m heading in. I take the bag from him and keep walking while he heads into the stairwell. He’s on point every time. I send it through the link getting a chuff back. I’m smiling when I walk through the office door. The reception area is empty so I keep going. Izzy has the woman cleaning a spill in the kitchen area they use for lunch.
Walking through the hallway, I avoid the bigger corridor and take the small one that leads to the big boss. He’s our target and the only one to use the side hall to escape or return without an audience. He’s sitting in his expensive looking executive chair with pure horrified fear on his face. I smile at my partner holding his throat and Ranger with a hold he actually got under the doughboy belly.
Holding up the bag, I tell him, “I brought lunch. You’re looking a little doughy lately. Salad will do you good. Let’s eat outside, it’s a nice day.” The guy looks even worse now. Maybe he thought I’d save him from my partners.
We get the bastard out to the oversized fire escape that has a sleek, black, pipe butt ashtray and chair. “Nice.” I smile as Shadow growls and the guy sits. “You listen well. Time to pay the piper. Release.” Both partners sit while my hand renders our doughboy useless. I open the bag and squeeze Italian dressing for three seconds on our target making sure to hit the metal grated floor. Checking for marks that my partners took pains to avoid, I give them props for effectively holding the guy without any evident force. The guy is a big pussy. I don’t know what he did but he deserves an undignified death.
Shadow pulls his foot through oil making sure I’m covered. I nod and stand him up, then let him go. Ranger gives me the bag with the salad and I open the lid and drop it just over the stairs. The doughboy fell over the side but the salad stopped a tier down. Looking at the grate, I see the swipe Shadow made fits with falling back so it works. Stepping over oil, I check my gloves before opening the door for my partners. Ranger follows me out the side while Shadow goes out the bigger main hallway door. I don’t look back and make my way to the stairs. Walking out the building at the back, I never look at the dick on the ground. Max is sniffing around him but moves down the alley going in the opposite direction.
“Unbelieva…”
“Stand down. This isn’t a fuckin’ game. Shut the fuck up.” That sounds like Kristos.
I make it back to the weird abandoned building that isn’t abandoned and board the chopper. Donny comes in with Izzy and sits, handing me a big manilla envelope. “This is what Max brought.”
I take it and slide it into my hoodie under the flannel. Max and Ranger jump in together and a minute later Shadow is in.
The Lead closes the doors. “All present and accounted for, Pres.”
Everyone is quiet on the way back. “Pres, Ops on for you.”
I stand and take the engineer’s seat. Cort and Kristos are on but split screened. “Bosses,” I say and lean forward.
“The IT was replaced. Are the partners okay?” Cort has me smiling using the partner’s word. I noticed last week he says partners all the time now.
“Yeah, Boss. We’re not used to a control on with us but no one had a problem.”
His eyes narrow. “You froze.”
I nod. “I did for a second but sent the alert to shut them up before it became a problem. Shadow was Lead so he’d have said if it was a problem for the rest.”
Cort nods but doesn’t look happy with that. “Did he get the safe contents?”
The feeds were jammed from the office stopping them from seeing that. Shadow isn’t in gear so he didn’t have a bodycam on. I unbutton the flannel and pull the envelope from the hoodie. “Right here. He sent reports to IT but I didn’t read what it was. I was moving up to them then.”
Cort looks to the side. “Does it have the water collection activity Alder said we need?”
I open the envelope and scan through the pile. “Yeah, it’s page twelve.”
He looks back at me. “Thanks. They’re dumping toxic shit in the water. That dicktwat is the lawyer that took out the owner then bought the company from the widow for a song. She’s who turned him in.”
Holy shit. “Toxic in the water?”
Kristos answers me while Cort is talking to someone off his camera. “Alder has something that will neutralize the toxin. You’d have to ask him but it will be cleaned up. He needed the locations from that activity sheet. All the woman had was two dump sites at reservoirs.”
Oh, my fuckin’ God. I turn the sheet so he can see it. There’s a list and a half on it.Fuck. He nods.
Greed. Killing water instead of safely neutralizing the chemical shows how far from decent we’ve veered. How did making a buck replace caring for our neighbors, our community? They sign off and I run a shaky hand through my hair. I don’t know if it’s because I grew up in a smaller place, but there was a time when our neighbors were like family. They showed for me and celebrated my good grades, my milestones and my birthdays. They showed on the hard days too, death anniversaries were tough but they were there with food and stories of my dad.
Shadow leans his head against my shoulder sending help and hope. “Thanks, I feel it, Brother.”
Tiredly, I move back to my seat feeling old. Toxin in water. “Myers, get a flight plan to ABSZ at IT. We need to drop this off for Alder.”
“Roger, Boss.” He moves but I tune them all out and watch the activity with the partners on the chip. They’re pissed about the water too and have the Ops K-9 boards up. Someone is testing BSC water but it goes by too fast for me to see who. I’m just glad it’s getting done. This is a community that isn’t worried about making a buck. Ranger has my eyes open when he leans against my leg. I give him a cranial scratch. “You all did good today, Brother. Alder will clean the water because you got the intel for him.” I should have said it sooner.
