Midnight Squad: The Grim (20 page)

           
“So what do we do?” She asked. “We figure out who we can
trust. First, we need to figure out what the problem is. Is Alhambra just
messing with me, or is there more going on? Then after that we need to figure
out who exactly we can trust.”

           
“And after that?”
Janine
questioned. Her voice was taut like a violin string. I watched as she nervously
picked at her nails. It was funny to watch the clippings fall to the ground,
only to disappear before they struck the ground. As fast as she tore at her
nails, they kept growing back.

           
“Honestly, I don’t know. Let’s just work on seeing if
there’s something screwy first. There’s no reason to look for a paddle until we
figure out if we’re in shit creek or not.” I did my best to keep my voice even
and calm. Janine was excited enough for both of us. The last thing I wanted was
to add to that. It would have been like throwing gas on a fire.

 
I watched the ghost take a deep calming
breath. Actually, I guess it’s more accurate to say she mimed taking a breath.
I mean ghosts don’t actually breathe. Well anyway, it only worked for a moment.
“So what can I do?” She asked. The woman was practically vibrating she was so
excited.

           
“You can help me figure out who else is watching. You can
go around invisible to the cameras if you want to. Therefore, I want you to
check out every camera. Go into the walls and follow the wires to see where
they go. Follow the others and listen carefully. There aren’t any cameras in
here. Therefore, any discussions we have will have to be in my room. The rest
of the place has cameras everywhere.” I stated.

           
“Even the bedrooms?” I nodded.
“The
bathrooms?
I thought they were just like that on my floor.” Janine’s
face darkened in frustration. I was a bit confused as to why she‘d need a
bathroom, but then again this complex had been used for something else prior to
this, so maybe it was already there.
“Yep.
Other than
a few exceptions, the only other places that are definitely camera free are the
closets, and if we used those people would get suspicious.” Janine listened
patiently. “Grim, as soon as we figure out what’s going on we have to tell the
others
.“
Apparently, she wasn’t worried about any
cameras on her, but knowing the other women might be giving an impromptu
peepshow really upset her. Considering some of the images I’d stumbled onto
when I flipped to the shower cams and bed cams I couldn’t really blame her. If
I was a little more perverted, I could have spent my evenings watching those
channels. As it was, I only spent the evenings being tempted to watch those
channels…usually.

           
“I can check everyone but Elizabeth, DD, and Gina. They
had Katy cast a spell that keeps me out of their rooms
.“
Clearly, I must have looked confused because Janine explained, “Gina…Dr. Gina
Nowitski
.“
Ok, so I forgot. You’d think being
unconscious twice and shot should earn me a free pass.

           
 
We had a few hours
before we’d all begin work so she was going to a quick run down through all the
wires. We agreed she’d start spying on the others after tonight. She’d also
follow the camera wiring to see if it all went to me, or if it split and went
to other locations in the complex. Janine hugged me, and gave me a kiss before
fading off to go rest and refresh. She had a lot of work ahead of her.

           
I dialed my cell. “Hey! What’s up loser?” My sister’s
voice was playful as always. With everything going on, I just wanted a
comforting voice. “Niki, how are you? More importantly how are those giant man
hands?” My oldest sister laughed. I could here voices in the background. Niki
closed a door behind her and the voices became quiet. “So how’s work?” We said
simultaneously.
“You first!”
Damn…another tie. The
giggles were slowly building. There was a brief pause before we both blurted
out, “No, you first!” Finally, we both broke down. Before we finished my ribs
were sore from laughter.

           
“Ok. Ok. I’ll go first. It’s good up here Niki. I can’t
talk much about it, but I’m sure you understand.” Niki laughed, “Sure, you
never tell me the good stuff. You and Dad both just keep your secrets, like they’re
that important anyway.” She tried to sound irritated, but after all these years
she was really used to it. “Well at least give me something to keep me going.
You know how a little innocent girl like me just lives to hear stories.”

           
“Innocent? I still remember walking in on you and your
girlfriend. That thing you were using on her didn’t look too innocent. I still
have nightmares.” I growled playfully using my best authoritative big brother
voice. I used to try to use my big brother voice to take charge of the
situation, but it never worked with her. She always just laughed me off.

           
“Oh come on. You’re just jealous because mine is bigger,
and when I get bored with it I can take it off and put it up until I need it
again.” Niki taunted. “Bigger?
Maybe.
I just wish I
could get mine to vibrate.” We both laughed. I still remembered my little
sister screaming and trying to cover herself up. It was when I found out she
was a lesbian.

 
The on button stuck, and she had so much
lubricant on it that she couldn’t get the thing turned off. To make matters
worse, the vibration was so powerful it shook her voice so each word sounded
like she was riding in a car down an endless street of potholes. Meanwhile her
girlfriend at the time, I think her name was Shelly, huddled in the corner
mortified. I remember starting to be angry about her keeping secrets from me.
Under more normal circumstances, I probably would have been one of those angry
assholes that practically disown their sibling because they are gay. However, she
looked so scared, and she kept flip-flopping between trying to explain what was
going on, and trying to tell me that it wasn’t what I thought it was. The whole
time the world’s largest fake penis I’d ever seen kept vibrating my little
sister across the floor like some kids windup toy. I actually fell down
laughing. Whatever awkwardness we might have had because of the situation
disappeared right there.

           
I was just rolling on the ground laughing, and of course,
that made her mad. She’d stomp her foot and yell, “It’s not funny!” This made
the strap-on wag like a dog’s tail. It was so large it actually made her hips
sway as it moved back and forth. It actually affected her balance. Her whole
body moved like a perverted hula dancer. The more it made me laugh, the angrier
she got. Right up until she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Then we
were both on the floor laughing. Niki’s poor girlfriend Shelly was mortified.
She tried to find place to hide, or at least slink away from two demented
siblings. Whatever relationship they had ended that day, but thankfully Niki
didn’t blame me for it. It also helped that Niki was beautiful and never had
any trouble finding a date. I don’t think it was even a week before she was
“sleeping over” with her “new friend”.

           
I was the only one that knew. Niki wasn’t convinced that
Dad would accept a gay daughter no matter what I said. She was sure Mom wasn’t
ready to hear that news either. Honestly, I was sure they both would have loved
her no matter what, but I didn’t want to press it and ruin the trust I had with
my sister. I just hoped she’d come out soon, because she was cheating herself
and our parents both. I did my best to respect her decision, and tried not to
laugh when Mom kept setting her up with potential husbands. Yep, Mom was
already trying to get Niki to climb up on the grandbaby express. Apparently,
she had already given up on me giving her bouncing bundles of joy, and so Niki
was getting a double dose.

           
“So Bro, whaddya know?” Oh great she’s rhyming. “Well Sis,
I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere, but I like to affectionately think of it as
the devil’s butthole. I’m training, so at least right now I’m about as safe as
can be expected.” Ok I probably shouldn’t lie to my sister, but somehow I don’t
think it would be very good to tell her that I was shot. It also would be a bad
idea to discuss that I’m either neck deep in a conspiracy, or that I’ve stepped
off the deep end and finally have become the full on paranoid whack job she was
always afraid I’d eventually become.

           
“So
Bro,
let me guess. You took
them all out, got them drunk, and you all whipped them out in some
hyper-masculine ritual to bond as a team. Am I close?” Wow, I guess I’m getting
somewhat predictable if Niki can just rattle off my routine like that. “No,
there was no whipping out of anything. In fact, we watched The Notebook. Shows
what you know!” It started with a little snicker, and then turned into a
choking sound as if she was fighting back something. The snort told me I needed
to pull the phone away. The phone rested at arms length when my sister’s voice
screeched out from the phone in hysterical laughter.

           
“Oh Jesus!
That’s just so
awesome. See…I told you Karma was going to bite you on the ass someday for
taping my dolls to bottle rockets. It’s finally happened! My big, jarhead
brother, surrounded by the gays! Oh it just can’t get any better than that!
Whatever you do…don’t drop the soap! I always said that bug in your ass needed
to die, I just didn’t know it was gonna take a bunch of sweaty men stabbing at
it with their summer sausages. So do they take turns on you, or do you just lay
there and let them turn you into a glazed donut! Oh Dad’s gonna pop a gasket!”
I waited for her to finish. It took awhile, but I could tell she was winding down
when she finally got to the jokes about small woodland creatures turning my
butthole into their own critter canyon.

           
Finally, mercifully, she took a breath and I could speak,
“They aren’t gay. They are chicks. Hot chicks!
Very hot
chicks!”
It got quiet.
“Women?
They have you
training women?
Hot women?
Hot women
in uniforms shooting guns and getting sweaty?
WAAAAAAAAH!
UNNNNFAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRR!”
Ok I admit
it. It was good to have a trump card to pull on my little sister. She always won
these discussions, but for once, I had a first round knockout. I could have
been a gentleman and left it at that, but this is my sister. If I didn’t rub it
in then I’d be doing a disservice to sibling rivalry everywhere. “Not only are
they hot, but I’m already sleeping with one of them. She’s six foot, thin,
blonde hair, blue eyes,
the
definite model type. I’m
telling you Niki, it’s as if I’m training a militant arm of Victoria’s Secret.
So take your Karma and shove it up your ass.” I couldn’t help but laugh as my
little sister sputtered. Ok, so maybe I glossed over the fact that these
beautiful women were also highly dangerous, and one of them had already nearly
killed me. Also, I neglected to mention the one I was sleeping with was more
dead than disco. Technically that made me a necrophiliac, but I tried not to
think about it because it was a little creepy. It might also have been a
slightly intentional oversight on my part that I avoided discussing Alhambra’s
role on the team, and in my previous torture, but for once, I was winning. I
wasn’t going to pass that up over some small details that might put me in a
pine box.

           
“Not fair! Not fair at all. I work my butt off, and the
best I can do is find some lonely soccer mom that wants to relive her college
days with her sons tutor, and here you are living some weird porn star life.
I’m telling mom.” Niki said playfully. “My one consolation is that you had to
watch The Notebook. As a straight heterosexual male, that has to be the
equivalent of slow dancing with your priest. I mean you did tell them you’d
already been tortured before.” Niki giggled out a few more taunts, and I did my
best to laugh with her, but she caught on that something was wrong. She’s just
too good at sniffing out a problem.

           
“What’s wrong?” She asked. I said everything was fine,
and then tried my best to support that statement. Niki answered me with
silence, so I started saying how it wasn’t really anything. That damn silence
again had me doing my best to assure her that it wasn’t really worth her
worrying about, that same silence drug out everything. I told her about my job,
the women, my suspicions, and more importantly how awkward I felt in this
situation. There must be a gene in there for what my sister did to me, because
Mom could do the same thing. Somehow, they both could make me spill my guts
about everything. Luckily, at least Niki kept her secrets.

           
“Seriously?
Werewolves?
Vampires?
Ghosts?
Witches?
Are you sure you haven’t been sniffing glue, or
maybe smoking some bad granola?” I had to assure my sister three times about
what I said. She got quiet again, but this time it was so she could gather her
thoughts. Finally she said, “Ok, I don’t know about supernatural creatures, but
it sounds like deep down they are all just women. Treat them like you’d treat
any woman and you’ll get along with them just fine. Probably better than fine
if I know you, you dirty old horndog!”