Midnight Squad: The Grim (26 page)

           
After unloading everything, I was so tired I went
straight to bed. I could hear DD chattering away with the others as I slowly
made my way back to my room. When I stepped inside, I just piled my stuff on a
chair and flopped into bed. My body was so tired from the day that I didn’t
even get my clothes off. I’m not entirely sure, but I think I may have been
asleep even before my head hit the pillow. Then the nightmares came. It was
turning into a regular bedtime tradition. Every night my dreams would start out
like normal. In this case, it was Penny and Janine wrestling nude in an
inflatable child’s pool filled with warm baby oil. No matter who pinned who, I
was clearly the winner.

           
Then like all my recent dreams things just started to go
off the rails. Originally, the room swirled with a faceless crowd cheering the
women on, but little by little the people I’d killed replaced the nondescript
faces. Janine and Penny stopped wrestling and began leading the others towards
me. I turned and ran. They chased me like hungry wolves after a scared rabbit.
I never stood a chance. I didn’t get far before they caught me and all of them
began tearing me apart. Mercifully, I woke up to Janine’s own version of a
wakeup call. I wasn’t really in the mood, but the combination of Janine’s eagerness,
and my own relief for escaping the dream helped be a great motivator.

           
We cleaned up and discussed our situation. Janine had
tailed everyone around the building for several days, and when she wasn’t
observing our teammates she was tracking the camera wiring. She took a deep
breath and started, “I followed the camera wires. They all lead to the computer
mainframe. After that, I can’t tell who has access since I can’t get into
Gina’s, DD’s, or Elizabeth’s rooms. It could be that you are the only one with
access, or they could all have it.” She waited patiently while I processed her
information.

           
“I asked DD about it, and by the way she acted I think
it’s safe to say that I’m not the only one with access. I’m pretty sure she
knows more about it, but I can’t push too hard or she’ll get suspicious.”
Janine’s shoulders slumped, “DD, that’s a shame. She’s so nice. It’s hard to
believe she’s in on this.” I nodded, “I don’t know how much she knows, but I
know she knows something. She may not know everything, but she’s our best lead.
You might want to follow her and see what she’s up to.” Janine nodded, but I
could tell she didn’t like the idea of stalking DD for the next few days. I
wasn’t very happy about it either. I hoped I was wrong.

           
“I followed everyone else, there’s nothing particularly
unusual. Penny plays videogames, reads, or writes in her diary. She doesn’t
leave her floor unless it’s time to work. She really seems lonely. Danika talks
to your sister on the phone nonstop. If she’s not talking, she’s texting, and
sometimes sexting. I held up my hand for Janine to stop. “Can we skip the part
covering my sister’s sex life? It’s a level of creepy I don’t want to get into
if I can help it.” Janine snickered, “You’re kind of already in it. Whenever
Danika gets…finished…she comes to your room and snuggles. It’s just adorable
when she starts hugging you like a giant teddy bear.”

           
“She’s doing that because she thinks I might smell like
Niki. I can’t say I’m not a little creeped out that she‘s using me in that way,
but I’m glad she and my sister are getting along so well. Besides, it isn’t as
if I can talk to Danika about it without giving us away. I think it’s safe to
say that she is on our side, but I don’t want to tell her anything because she
doesn’t really strike me as the type of person that keeps secrets well. Janine
just nodded.

           
“Alhambra is strange. It’s as if she’s two different
people. She just does things that are…weird. One minute she seems normal, and
the next she’s tearing herself apart and begging for mercy. I feel stupid
saying this, but it’s like there are times that she has control of herself, and
other times it’s like someone else is in the driver’s seat.” I nodded. Janine’s
words mirrored my own experience. It was obvious that there was some outside
influence on the Jinn, but so far, I hadn’t been able to piece it together.

           
“Katy spends a lot of time with DD in the recreation
room. I’ve listened to them chatter. She’s just so young and naïve. They talk
about you a lot. She’s frustrated that you two haven’t clicked. DD keeps
telling her to be patient, but I think the difficulties you two are having on
the practice field together are really starting to bother her. It’s funny
because after being in your head and knowing your thoughts it is like hearing a
recording. You two think so much alike it’s kind of scary. I don’t mean she is
like you when it comes to fighting and killing. She can’t stand violence. Deep
down I’m sure Katy is a closet pacifist. I think she really hates fighting and
killing, but she’s still just like you where it counts.” Janine reached out and
touched my chest.

           
“You both just have more heart than sense. Katy sees it
as her duty to carry out your orders, and she’s almost as afraid of
disappointing people as you are. She’s absolutely convinced that if she keeps
screwing up we will kick her out, and she doesn’t have anywhere to go. It’s
really weighing her down.” I chewed a little on my lower lip as I mulled over
Janine’s words. “So, what you’re saying is that Katy and I are just smart
enough to know that something isn’t good for us, but still stupid enough to
keep trying?” Janine giggled, “Yes, although I think I prefer the term
stubborn.”

           
I smiled back, “Well, we’ve certainly clarified our
situation a lot, but it’s still pretty murky. I mean we know DD clearly has
some secrets, and if DD is playing on the other team then that means so is
Elizabeth. I think we both are sure Danika is on our side, but we can’t really
tell her anything because she can’t keep her mouth shut. Katy might be on our
side, but with as much time as she spends with DD just chatting, I’m afraid to
go to her about this because she might decide that her loyalties are with DD.
There’s Alhambra, we could tell her what we’re thinking, but she doesn’t seem
to be in control of herself, and that could put us all in danger. Then there’s
Penny. I wish we knew which way she fell on this. If we knew she would side
with us then I’d be willing to move forward, but if she leans the other way
then we’re basically fucked.” I took my time letting my words sink in.

           
“I mean I’m strong, but I’m nowhere in her league. If we
fight, I have to make sure I take her down on the first blow, because there
sure as hell won’t be a second one. She’s just too strong, and too fast. She could
probably thump me between the eyes and it’d have enough force to decapitate me.
Danika is the only one here that can match up physically with Penny, but
Penny’s just a much more skilled fighter, and I just can’t see Danika stopping
Penny without a whole lot of luck. Barring a lucky hit, I think she pretty much
cleans our clocks in a fair fight, and outside of the training center, there
isn’t a place in the compound with enough room to fight her from a distance.
Even if you kept phasing me in and out so that she couldn’t hit me, eventually
you’d wear out, or we’d mistime it and she’d knock my head right out through my
ass.”

           
Janine nodded and asked, “So do you want me to keep
watching everyone?” I nodded and then changed my mind, “No. We know something screwy
is going on. We just don’t know what it is. What we need to do now is start
working on getting Penny on our side. That’s our top priority.” Janine gave a
nervous smile, “Do you have any idea what could be happening at all?” I shook
my head, “No, I wish I did. I mean it could be anything. I’d like to think I’m
just paranoid, but there’s something happening around here. It might not be
anything dangerous, but I’ve been in enough fucked up situations to not plan
ahead just in case.”

           
“Grimmy, you won’t be angry if I keep hoping that you’re
just really paranoid and it’s all a misunderstanding?” I couldn’t help but
laugh a little. “Honestly, I’m hoping the same thing, but just in case we need
to prepare. So how do we win Penny over?” Janine thought it over and finally
said, “I don’t think you can win Penny over, at least not if that’s your only
goal. After watching
her
the last few days all I can
say is that she seems really lonely, but she also seems to be more than a
little fond of you. If you want her on our side, then you can’t treat her like
a chess piece. You’ll have to treat her like a person. She deserves that much
either way.” I certainly couldn’t argue with Janine’s logic.

           
“You know your special wakeups aren’t going to win me any
brownie points with her.” Janine wasn’t exactly thrilled to hear that, but took
it in stride. “Oh, well it was good while it lasted. I’m going to miss the
extra energy I’ve been getting from our time together, but it isn’t like I’m
not getting plenty of juice just by riding around inside you during training.
It was fun though, and you are absolutely delicious.” I think I blushed a bit.
I had to assume that was a pretty big compliment by the way she said it.

           
“Just curious, but is riding around in me eating up my
ambient life energy going to have any long term effects? Baldness, heart
attacks, erectile dysfunction…I mean there isn’t anything I need to worry about
right?” Janine smiled and said, “It’s not like there have been any studies
about this, but I spent a lot of time at a monastery with a monk. He was a
charming fellow. I miss him. We used to spend so much time together. I took in
his ambient energy for thirty years before he died. He was in his nineties by
then. So I assume it’s got to be safe.” That wasn’t exactly comforting.

           
Janine left to go do God knows what. I made my way down
to the recreation room. When I got there, Danika and Katy were playing
checkers. “Hey, who’s winning?” I asked. Danika looked irritated and pointed at
her opponent, “I still say she’s cheating.” Katy shook her hand out at the
werewolf as if she was trying to swat away an annoying fly.
Danika
Griffin…werefly.
It sounds like an old science fiction flick.

           
I sat down hoping Penny would come in. I wanted a chance
to chat, and I wasn’t very comfortable about going down to her floor and
talking with her there. In the meantime, I watched the two young women play.
Well actually, I watched Katy give an old-fashioned ass whipping to Danika. It
was getting ugly when Danika’s phone rang. Her whole face brightened, and she
was smiling from ear to ear. It had to be my sister on the other end of the
line. The happy little werewolf pranced off, leaving Katy without a second
thought.

           
Katy looked irritated, and since I didn’t have anything
else to do, I walked over and said, “I got next, but I warn you. I’m not very
good.” The witch smiled, it was the most insincere smile I’d ever seen, “Well
you can’t be any worse than I am.” I sat down and we started to reset the
pieces. We focused so intensely on the game that we both forgot everything
around us. I’m normally not a checker player, and Katy really didn’t seem like
she much cared for the game either, but we both did care about one
thing…winning. We eventually finished in a draw, but rather than accept it and
move on we started over.

I
heard people coming in during our second game, but we were both focused so
intently on beating each other that I don’t think either of us actually paid
attention to who it was. By the third game we were both pretty frustrated. We
practically mirrored each other. Katy was aggressive, smart, and reckless.
Frankly, she was a female version of me. It was no wonder why we kept tripping
over each other in training. Our instincts were practically identical. We were
always trying to shoot the same person, and we both kept blocking each other
because we were trying to take the same firing angles.

           
The third game continued, and I heard the door open. I
looked up and realized Penny was walking out of the room. Her red hair
disappeared behind the door. I stayed so focused on the game that I forgot to
keep an eye out for her. I’d have to try to catch up to her later. “Grim, come
on, quit staring at her ass and pay attention!” I grumbled, but I can’t really
defend myself. After all, I was following that hair down like a flaming arrow
towards her…well as I
said,
I don’t really have any
defense. I turned my attention back to Katy. “Sorry about that. Now let’s get
back to me stomping your witchy ass.”

           
Katy laughed, “In your dreams jarhead. I’m gonna beat you
like you owe me money!” It was on. We were both ruthless, and with each move,
we took turns taunting one another. Every time she took one of my checkers
she’d gloat, and I wasn’t any better. Before we were halfway through the game,
we were standing up and yelling playful insults. It started out with her
calling me loser, and midway through the game she was calling me a goat fucker.
By that time I was calling her
a herpes
infested
she-bitch. I’m not proud of it. We started picking up our checkers and slamming
them down harder and harder each time we took one another’s piece. Near the end
we were hitting the table so hard all the checker pieces were bouncing up, and
around on the board. Before we knew it, we were both down to two checkers
apiece. I took one of her pieces, “Take that oh bitchy witch, queen of all
donkey shows.”