Lucy Kelly (8 page)

Becky could hear Addie getting ready to interrupt.

“I’m not done.  Addie, it’s the middle of the night.  You were sleeping.  Grace was sleeping.  Hell, even I was thinking about heading to bed. 

“Now Grace and Justyn will soon be getting out of surgery and heading into recovery.  They will be in ICU for a couple of hours, at least.  They are going to be really wiped out and need their rest. 

“In fact, I’d be surprised if they even wake up before morning.  You’d only show up to watch them sleep.

“Plus, any plan to get you in would need time to be put together.  Therefore, Addie, do us all a favor and take it easy.  I understand your frustration - I really do.  You and the people you love have been put through an agonizing and dangerous night.  You want to touch them and make sure everything is like it was yesterday.  We want that, too.  Are you going to help us get there safely?” she asked simply.

“I’m being unreasonable, aren’t I?  No, don’t answer that, I know I am.  Thanks for talking me down, Becky.  I’ll try to take a nap and wait until morning,” said Addie.

Addie hung up the phone and lay back in bed.  She shut her eyes and tried to calm her mind.  She also needed to get control of herself.  If she were going to be an effective Queen, she couldn’t allow her own wants and desires to take precedence. 

She had to start thinking less of her own needs and more of the needs of her people.  She couldn’t forget how important her staying alive was. 

This is going to be hard.  I don’t know if I can do this,
she thought. 
I’m so lucky to have people close to me to help me stay grounded.
 

This was the last night she would be spending in this bed, and she decided that she wasn’t going to let the bad guys ruin it for her.  She rolled over and snuggled into her pillow.  She only wished she had one of her
Ankida
to snuggle with; she didn’t think she could sleep alone anymore.

Just then, the door opened and Kylan walked in.  He was dressed in the sweat pants he’d thrown on when the alert had come in.  He shucked them and got in the bed with her.

“I was just wishing I had someone with me,” she said.

“Well, Arjun got a text from Becky.  She suggested that you might need a little help relaxing.” 

He reached for her, and she gave him a little smile as she went into his arms.

Chapter Five

After Becky got the word from Arjun that Addie had gone back to sleep, she checked in with Jett and Jalen again. 

Justyn was still in surgery but holding his own.  He’d received one transfusion from Jalen and was expected to recover.  She knew that Delpha and Zephyr were going to want to move him to the ship to complete his healing. 

They had arrived at the hospital in the middle of the surgery.  Jalen told her they were only going to observe and be there if Catherine had questions or needed their help. 

They didn’t want to push her out of the operating room.  They felt it would be disrespectful of their future
Join
.  Ever since Miranda had told them they were matched with a human doctor, they had anticipated meeting her.  Unfortunately, these were not ideal circumstances. 

Becky was working with Jett to make Justyn’s and Grace’s transfer out of the hospital safe and covered under the guise of police protection. 

Justyn would not be testifying, so he could stay in hiding, his fast recovery would be too difficult to cover up.  Grace would wear a shoulder brace during the trial even if her shoulder had healed.

Becky began thinking that she wouldn’t be putting the BEIP back in the safe.  She’d gotten five hours of work done in an hour and a half.  Of course, she’d have to make sure no one knew she had it.  There was similar tech here on Earth, but it only interfaced with a few gaming programs for now.  Certain people would be very suspicious if they saw it in action.

Checking her data, she now had identities on all the assailants at Grace’s condo and Arjun had sent pictures of the attackers at Addie’s farmhouse.  She’d identified them, as well.  She was very close to getting the information she needed. 

She’d found two bank accounts so far and they both had deposits.  Now she would have to match deposits to withdrawals.  She needed to match up more of them because the two deposits she found, while large, weren’t the same.  An hour later, after cracking three more bank accounts belonging to hit men, it appeared that payments were based on jobs - bigger risks, bigger payoffs.

Becky was keeping track of all the amounts and had extrapolated the total amount paid for each attack, based on what she’d found so far.  She was hooked into the FBI Mainframe through her computer, so she was able to run simultaneous searches in NCIC, the National Crime Information Center, as well as other databases.  She’d used her CIA pass codes, so she had a little leeway. 

So long as she was out of the system by seven am, she shouldn’t tick off anyone – at least not enough for complaints to go up the chain of command and start anyone asking questions.  The fact that most of the people she was running searches on had international travel and international accounts, made her searches legitimate.

She felt she was closing in on the banker.  At the same time, she’d been doing deep background checks on as many as she could.  She was tracking passports, travel, prison terms, criminal histories, and known associates - pulling any thread she could.  She wasn’t going to let these slime balls hurt her friends any more. 

She also felt somewhat responsible for tonight’s attacks.  She had helped find all the Kadyrov assets, or so she thought.  Obviously, she’d missed some, she was on a mission to rectify that error.

She continued to get updates from the hospital and from the farm over the next hour.  Everything was calmed down now.  Glancing at the clock, she could see it was close to four am.  Arjun had passed the glasses to one of the guards.  They had a microprocessor and Wi-Fi connection to send and receive text messages over distance.  Of course, if you were within a radius of a hundred feet or so, you could send a text message with a thought. 

This new guard was interesting.  She’d talked to a guard named Kai yesterday morning, and he’d seemed sweet.  She knew he must be worried about his brother.  She didn’t know this new guy.

“What’s your name?” she texted, after he gave the report that the house was quiet and the shuttle would be landing in another thirty minutes.  They had to move the landing location because the Sheriff’s office had placed a deputy in a car out front.  Addie was well liked in the community, and they wanted to look out for her. 

“I am called Ishme.  Did you find the person responsible for this atrocity?” he asked.

She didn’t have time to explain the ins and outs of organized crime to this guy, but she gave it her best shot in short, concise sentences.  In between, she continued to run her searches.  She began to narrow in on the Kadyrovs’ remaining source of funds. 

She really needed to go pee.  All the Mountain Dew she had been drinking was hitting her bladder hard, but she was so close.  She didn’t want to leave her desk.  Then she realized she could switch the computer screen to the other lens; she'd forgotten she had two.

She ran up the stairs.  She was pushing open the door to the bathroom when Ishme texted her again.  There was no way she could use the restroom connected to him.  Even if he couldn’t see or hear her, it was just too weird.

“I’ll be back in a minute.  Will you do me a favor?  Take off your glasses for three minutes,” she texted.

“I don’t understand.  I need to remain connected,” he answered.

She blushed red, but she couldn’t put down her own glasses.  She was running too many simultaneous functions.

“I have to go to the bathroom, and I can’t do that if I feel like you’re in the room with me,” Becky said.

“I am not in the room with you.  I am many miles away.  I am only monitoring the lens,” Ishme answered.  He was baffled and couldn’t understand her request.

Becky started to do the potty dance in the hallway.  “Work with me here, Ishme.  I only need three minutes - actually, two minutes would be enough.”

“Alright.  I will take the glasses off for two minutes,” he texted.  He didn’t actually take off his glasses, though, he simply closed the lens connection to Becky.  Exactly two minutes later, he reconnected.

“It has been two minutes, Becky.  Have you returned to your computer?” he texted.

“Almost, I’m washing my hands,” she texted. 

Moments later, she text again, “I’m back at my computer now.  However, I can’t keep talking to you.  I’m close and need to concentrate on this. 

“Also, with the men all coming down early, many of them don’t have proper identification.  I’m going to need to work on that, too.  I’ve been up for twenty hours already.  If I don’t concentrate, I may start making mistakes.  The every fifteen-minute check-in is no longer necessary.  Text me when the shuttle pods have landed, and you’re all on the road to the rendezvous point.”

“Yes, Becky, I will do that.  Get some rest.  You can’t help us if you harm yourself,” replied Ishme.

“Don’t worry, Dad.  I’ll be good.” 

Before he could answer, she cut the connection, replacing it with another function.  She’d turned on a third computer to run additional, simultaneous functions.  She had noticed a slowdown in processor speed on the first computer.  She didn’t want to lock up her system and have to reboot.

Ishme Namkin was worried about the female Becky.  According to Arjun, she lived alone.  Arjun had related to all of them the story of how, with one phone call from Addie, after they had first come to this world, she had let six Nephilim stay in her home.  She had then provided the necessary papers to allow them to move unrestrictedly around this planet.

Since he was now wearing the only pair of glasses with an embedded receiving lens interface, he couldn’t contact the other guards.

They, however, could send him text messages using their BEIPs.  He knew that Jett was working on technology that would allow BEIPs to receive, as well as send.  It would be as if they had mental telepathy, passing messages from mind to mind -
if
he could get it to work. 

Ishme knew Arjun was still awake, waiting for the shuttle landing; he would talk to him about his concerns.  Walking through the house, he checked in on Kai, who was once again on guard duty outside the Queen’s bedroom. 

Then he went to the guest room to see how Ari was recovering from his wounds.  Rapha had treated him quickly after he had been injured.  Rapha had removed the foreign projectiles, which he had been told were bullets, and then used a cell regenerator to repair the internal damage, along with a surgical suturing wand.  Ari would need to remain immobile for a few hours, up to a day, to allow the healing to take hold.  He would feel residual pain for the next week or so before being completely healed.

“Rapha,” he said in a soft voice, poking his head around the door, “How is he doing?”

Rapha looked up from where he had been dozing in his chair beside the bed.  “He does well; though we should keep him calm and take care he does not move for the next few hours.  I don’t want him tearing my sutures,” he stated.

“Don’t worry; Kai will sit on him if he has to.  We’ll all help him understand he needs to give his body time to recover.  I’m going downstairs to speak to Arjun.  Do you have any messages?” asked Ishme.

“No, I have no messages.  I’m going to try to rest until it’s time to leave.  The last months in this house have been very nice; I will miss it.”

“Have you spoken to your brothers; did they meet your mate at the hospital?  It was your mate that was operating on Justyn, was it not?” asked Ishme.

“Yes, they have met her,” answered Rapha with a sigh.  “She is being difficult.  Catherine does not wish to be joined, even though we know she wants us.  We are hoping to change her mind; Zephyr thinks something is bothering her.  She did agree to let Delpha and Zephyr stay at her house for the rest of the night. 

“Rune is planning to remain at the hospital, helping Jalen and Jett keep watch over Grace and Justyn.”  Rapha changed positions in his chair to try to get more comfortable. 

Ishme said his good nights and headed down the stairs.  He sent a sign to Kai as he did, to let him know his brother was sleeping peacefully.

He went out of the house through the French doors in the family room.  They were all avoiding the mudroom because of Sugar and her pups.  Sugar and Jalen had bonded; it was unfortunate that Jalen wasn’t here to calm her.  He could see Arjun at the end of the garden.  Lucy and Ricky were still sleeping off the drug that had been fed to them; they were on the back porch.  Ishme leaned over to check their breathing before continuing into the garden.

As he approached, Arjun turned when he heard his steps.  “Do you have something to report, Ishme?” he asked.

“All is well.  Arjun, I wish to speak with you about a concern of mine, Commander,” he answered.

“You may speak freely, Ishme; all concerns should be spoken of.”

“Thank you, Commander.  My concern is for the female Becky.  She is a close advisor of our
Nam-Nin
, is she not?” he asked, leading up to his idea.

“They have been close friends for many years, yes.  Aditya thinks of her as another sister.  Why is she a concern?  She is loyal to both Addie and our cause,” said Arjun, wondering where Ishme was going with this. 

“Come, the night has grown cold.  Let us walk the perimeter together.  The shuttle will be landing soon and I will have to leave to pick up the first wave of men.  As you know, we moved the landing zone,” said Arjun.

“My concern, Commander, is for the female Becky’s safety.  She is treading on dangerous ground.  If these evil lawbreakers discover her existence, she has no protection.  She lives alone, does she not?  It is not right that such a woman be unprotected.” 

Ishme was speaking quickly because, for some reason, he felt that protecting Becky was important to him.  “With all of the new men arriving, surely a Fighting Cluster can be spared to put into her home.”