Chapter 18

Pov Linda

My plane arrived half an hour ago and I’m heading to the Metropolitan Police department’s headquarters. I’ tell my driver from our local office not to wait for me as we arrive to the HQ. It’s right next to the superior court of DC.

It’s a big light brown building with three main doors at the front. I walk the short distance from the parking place to the door. When I enter, there is a receptionist desk at the front and a police uniformed sergeant sitting behind the glass.

“Greetings. I’m Major Linda Shelia from the J.A.T.F. I’m here to meet the detective in charge of the two resent shootings that happened in the DC area.” I greet the Sergeant and show her my credentials.

“Good day. You´ll find them on the third floor in organized crime division. Captain Perry is in charge of the investigation and it is led by Detective Anthony Simmons.” The grey haired lady sergeant answers me.

I thank her, and head for the stairs. I already contacted Captain Perry, and let him now I wish to be looped in as I may have some information about their suspect. He agreed and told me to meet with his detective. There probably will be some argumentation when and if we catch Calla, about what to do with her.

They certainly want her to be processed by the local court system and I want to take her with me. Well, if it comes to that I have to change favors with them, though I hope I find Calla on my own, without the presence of the local police so I can talk her into coming with me.

Now, what information should I give them about Calla. They certainly want to know something or else they will not be as cooperative as I want.

As I think about that, I arrive to the organized crime division. There are desks lined in a big room in four different rows with men and women sitting behind them, and at the end of it, are two glass walled offices. The detectives all seems busy investigating their respective cases.

The office on the left reads Det. Simmons and one on the right side, the corner office reads Cap. Perry.

I walk to the office on the left where I can see an African American man going through some papers with a Caucasian man. I already know who they are as I researched detective Simmons and his partner detective Riley on the plane.

Before I have a chance to knock they notice me and waive me in. I’m wearing my uniform and Captain Perry has probably already notified them about my arrival so they recognized me immediately.

“Major Linda Shelia. I’m an intelligence officer for the J.A.T.F. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” I introduce myself.

“I’m detective Anthony Simmons and this is my partner detective Joshua Riley. The pleasure is all ours.” Det. Simmons says.

“So we were told you know something about our suspect. Is she one of yours?” Riley gets right to the point.

I guess they have been suspecting that since they heard that I’ll be coming and it’s no wonder. Even an idiot would have realized that Calla has some form of training.

“She was with us only for a month until something happened. She was involved in a kidnapping incident and left us after that.” I tell them one version of what took place.

“Did she have anything to do with it?” Simmons asks.

Should I tell them it was done to harm her and she is now hunting the ones responsible?

“Hmm, you could think of her as hostile witness for the incident. She didn’t do anything, and was more of a victim than a perpetrator. She left us and I suspect she is now hunting the ones behind the incident.” I tell them what took place vaguely.

“Tell us about her. Is there a chance she would surrender?” Simmons asks.

Surrender? Yeah right, I cannot see that happening.

“I’ll doubt she would come in voluntarily. There is a chance I could persuade her to come back to the J.A.T.F. but I’m not sure about her state of mind as of the moment, so I cannot say for sure.”

“What’s she’s like?” Riley ask.

What’s Calla like. Hmm. Psychotic? No, that isn’t the right word. Cold, ruthless? Rational, straightforward, and effective? She can be quite adorable too if she wants.

“She’s many things, and highly trained is one of them. She may not know much about how the world works so she may leave some obvious clues that criminals would never leave but there is one thing I can tell you.

If you are an obstacle to her objective, she will use you as a stepping stone and you will not live to tell about it.” I say, what is in my opinion, pretty accurate description of her motivation.

She came halfway across the world to hunt the people after her, so I doubt she will let the local police to stand in her way.

“Yeah, I got that feeling when she had a gun aimed at my head…” Simmons mutters to himself.

I guess they have already met then.

“Let me ask you something simple, what’s her name? And any known aliases?” Riley asks.

That isn’t simple.

“I call her Calla, like the flower you found at the crime scene. I hope you don’t mind that I checked where you were on the case when I was flying over. And she has no known aliases as far as I know. I didn’t know she had any.”

“We don’t mind. She was going by the name Erica Grahn when we met, and we found some blank ID’s on her apartment. She probably took the ones that fit her age and gender with her.” Simmons says.

Where’d she got fake ID’s?

And money to operate in the first place?

“You know anything about the people she is going after or why she attacked the Aryan Nations.” Riley asks.

“We know nothing for certain. We suspect it’s some kind of organization but its nature remains a mystery to us. They may have some connection to Calla’s past which we know very little about.

And she went after the Aryan Nations probably just out of convenience. She needed guns, they had guns.”

“Convenience? It was a pretty big amount she took.” Simmons questions.

“I assume she thinks she will need them.” I say, though I know that the amount she took is enough to do some serious harm to society.

“I see. Let’s go over the evidence and say if something comes to mind from them.” Simmons says as he indicates for me to take a seat opposite side of him.

Riley starts placing crime scene photos on the desk with a forensics reports.

Pov Calla

I’m exploring my new base. I decided to take the floors from ten to twelve for my personal use. I will place cameras to the whole building but floor ten will be sort of a buffer floor with locked or barred doors. Eleven is for surveilling the safehouse as it’s on the same level and twelve is for my personal use.

These floors are just like the rest of the building. Large rooms with empty cubicles, and offices on the sides and by the corridors.

There was a basement in the building, and it was connected to the parking structure that is beneath the building next to this.

Some of the renovations had started at some point in the floors below, but they were halted for some reason. The workers have left some tools and construction material behind so I intend to use them. I’ll turn the tenth floor in to a maze using the cubicle walls, and I turn the elevator shaft to my primary escape route.

I will cut or disconnect the elevator wire from the bottom and lift it to the eleventh floor so I can use it as a rope to get down but others can’t use it as a rope to get up.

I will plan secondary escape route by the roof, as there isn’t a gap between the buildings. I will find another building that’s a good spot to go back to street level.

The tertiary, is that even a word? Tertiary. heh.

The tertiary escape route will be by a window and for that, I’ll need rope.

There is a problem I encountered though. There isn’t electricity in the building. The water runs just fine but the power is out. I have to do something about that. I also need the equipment to put up surveillance, the listening devices and other miscellaneous things.

And a TV! I want a TV. I have never really watched one but I listened when my neighbors were watching in my old apartment. I also need monitors for the cameras.

At the moment I’m browsing the web, heh. I’m so tech savvy. So I’m browsing the web to look for places that sells what I need but none of the normal shops seems to fit the bill. There are cameras and monitors in them but not exactly what I had in mind.

And there’s another thing. I read the instructions how to install them. I thought that I could manage it as I’m expert in taking them apart but that doesn’t seem to be the case when doing the opposite. It’s complicated to do it right.

As I’m searching some forums of people who had similar problems I found some links to something called ‘the dark net’. Sounds menacing but it seems there are people with similar mind set with me over there.

I downloaded the browser I needed for it and I’m now searching if I can find somewhere I can buy the stuff I need and maybe even some help to install them if the seller seems trustworthy.

…

…

I’m meeting a man in the park. I know next to nothing about him. I found a way to contact him on the dark net and we arranged a meeting. He goes by the name of Mox. He sells stuff and buys it. I don’t really know what he’s involved in but from what I gather, a little bit of everything from art theft to cons.

I understood that he doesn’t do killing though or deal in weapons and drugs. He is a respectable underworld liaison to many people on the irc.

He told me in the internet relay chat that I am to wear a blue skirt and a red scarf and be in this park reading a newspaper at midday.

The park is one of the largest in Washington dc. It’s mostly just grass for people to picnic on. There are some trees here and there with flower beds.

I’m at a place where four walkways meet and there is large fountain in the center of it with benches surrounding it in a circle.

He seems a bit odd and paranoid.

I had to go shopping for new clothes because of him but that was in my agenda anyways as the police saw my clothing during my great escape yesterday. I bought other clothes too but as I didn’t know anything about fashion I just picked the same clothes the mannequins were wearing and left the heels out.

“The parrot sings at midnight” I say the ridiculous sentence that I was instructed to say.

“The song is heard over the ocean.” I hear the equally ridiculous reply I was told to expect.

I turn and look from the bench at the man who said it.

He is a short man for his age, as tall as me and looks to be in his late twenties. He is wearing jeans and a buttoned up orange colored flower t-shirt. He is wearing dark, rectangular shades on his head.

His face looks kind of funny and very harmless, with his shaved head. I can see that he is balding. His hair length is only a millimeter or two but I can see the receding hairline none the less.

“Mox?” I ask him

“Depends who is asking.”

“Calla. You said to meet me here.”

“So you say. But how do I know you are who you say you are?”

Yep, he’s paranoid.

“Who else would I be? I’m the only one wearing the blue skirt and red scarf.” I say to him waiving my hand upon the knee high skirt and the red scarf that is hanging over my shoulders. I also decided to wear the new hat I bought as I don’t like the idea of cameras seeing my face and hair so clearly.

He briefly looks around and nods to me.

“So what do you need? I have you know I’m prepared to run at moment’s notice. Fifty steps to my right is the car waiting for my instructions and twenty steps to my left, is the noble ice-cream stand owner who would give his life to save me.”

What is he babbling about? I look to our right and see no car, I look to our left and see the ice-scream stand owner who is picking his nose.

I decide to play along that I believe him.

“I’m not dangerous to you, you know?”

“Ha! And Paul McCartney wasn’t replaced by a look alike in mid-sixties! “

That dude is crazy. And who is Paul McCartney?

“Can we just do the business?” I ask him.

“Fine. But not here. Follow me.” He says as he raises from the bench and starts walking.

We walk down the street and he hails a cab for us. We get on as he tells the driver the address.

The area the cab is heading is a shopping district. There are many of different kind of small stores and street stands that sells everything. From watches to clothes and electronics.

He walks to a tea-shop and bows and greets the owner in Chinese while the owner greets back. He walks by the counter and walks the stairs up into a spacious room with nothing but support pillars.

“So what do you need and how do you pay?”

“I need...”

I tell him what I need to make my base and tell him that I’m paying cash. He drops in some small suggestions and he seems to really know what he is talking about. Towards the end of the discussion he started to get really enthusiastic about the project.

After our chat I decided that no matter how odd and crazy he seems that I could probably trust him. He had a fair amount of respect in the web and his subtlety and hate for the ‘G-men’ was legendary.

He agreed to help me out with installing the equipment to my base so we are now heading there. He had a van and I helped him to load the stuff we need to it.

He drives the van to the parking space under the building next to my apartment near the door that connects the parking area to my building’s basement, and we start to unload the van to there.

Before we started he discreetly went to the camera that points towards the connecting door and turned it to point the other way.

Once the van is unloaded he started doing something to the electrical box and in no time, the power is on. I have no idea how he did it.

“I would suggest you do not use the lights much as people will then notice that this building is not quite so unused as it’s supposed to be” He informs me.

He begins to install the cameras as I start carrying the monitors up to the twelfth floor.

The day turns to night as we work on my base.

I mostly worked on the tenth floor. I took apart the cubicles from it and arranged the walls to block some corridors and changed the big rooms with office space so that there would be plenty of cover and that people coming in wouldn’t see where the exits in said rooms are.

I used some of the construction materials in there to help with my crafting.

Mox installed the cameras so that the first floor has plenty of them and put some on the other floors. Floor ten also has many cameras as that is intended as the buffer floor.

He also cut the elevators wires completely off, trapping the elevator to the basement level and put a rope by the shaft in floor twelve.

He also put a rope by the window in floor eleven to be my tertiary escape route.

The monitors for the cameras are on the twelfth floor with my brand new TV and computer.

I helped him install the surveillance for the safehouse on the eleventh so that I would be more familiar with the system. I told him that I wanted to also plant a bug to the safehouse but he had a better idea.

From his car he got a microphone that pics up sounds from a distance and also pointed one camera towards the safehouse. When the camera notices movement, it activates the microphone and sends a signal to a computer, which in turn sends an alarm to a phone number of my choosing, that there is movement.

The computer also records everything the mic pics up.

Same sort of alarming system is also installed in the security cams of my building.

As a payment we agreed to half of the rest of my money, so I paid him 3000 Us dollars and 2500€ as he was happy to accept both currencies.

That wouldn’t have been enough, and I already thought that I have to get my other go bag but when we were installing the equipment I mentioned about the tracker software I got in my hands. The apparently highly classifies tracker software.

He copied the software for himself. He didn’t even ask where I got it and I didn’t offer an explanation.

Now we are sitting on the office chairs on the twelfth floor in front of the many monitors that shows the insides of the building and one monitor that shows the surveillance feed from the safehouse.

“I’ve been meaning to ask this, but who are you really?” He asks me while warily glancing my armory that is laid out on the floor next to us.

“I’m just a girl with motivation to strike back.”

“I see” He says as he sips his wine.

“Well remember: ‘The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting’. Sun Tzu said that” He informs me.

“Sun who?”

“Sun Tzu. I hope you don’t need all those weapons.”

I kind of hope that I do.

“Who’s your opponent anyway?” He asks

“I actually have no idea. I suspect they have their fingers in little bit of everything but we’ll see. I just wish I didn’t have to wait here for them to show up.”

“Well, the only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”

He sure likes talk in riddles.

“Sorry if this drags you in to this. The ones I’m after are kind of ruthless.” I apologize for the possible future if the ones I’m after finds out we have a connection and he helped me.

“Are you kidding me! Building a secret base and suspected conspiracies are what I live for.” He says as he sips his wine.

“Well, thanks for the purchases. I’ve got places to be and things to steal, so I’ll get going now. Here.” He says as he hands me a card with a number.

“If you ever need my services again. Sayonara!”

“See ya!” I bid my farewells to him and watch as he walks to the stairs with his wine bottle in tow and starts descending.

Is he going to drive after drinking? That’s illegal you know, I muse to myself as I’m inspecting one of the stick grenades.