Sparrow & Tulip

An older woman's voice started reading her the riot act about not coming home for the Fourth of July holiday. Marisol counted, writing a series of words down as she listened. Jonesy held up the timer, it was closing in on two minutes. Marisol nodded and continued taking notes. When the conversation reached two minutes and twenty seconds, she disconnected mid-harangue and handed the phone to Jonesy. He pulled the battery and sim card out. The card and phone were snapped in half and thrown in the trash. Marisol went back over her notes, lips moving soundlessly.

"How does that all work?" Nate asked, as he watched.

"Boss?" Jonesy asked.

Marisol nodded once without looking up.

"Okay, this key is synched with an exact copy in Echo," Jonesy said. "They flash the same rotating list consisting of a phone number and an elapsed time. This time, the key gave me a hundred and forty seconds. Mari watches the timer, she has her own list of numbers. For example, say the integer for this call is six. She would take note of the word used at six seconds, twelve seconds and so on. Then, at two minutes twenty seconds, exactly, the call ends. Too long or too short and the home office knows something is up."

"There's co-ords on the on-time pad," Marisol said. "Confirm page 34, yellow copy."

Jones pulled a plain receipt book out of the box, thumbing through it until he tore out a page. "Confirm page 34, yellow copy. Nate, numbers and more complicated messages go through a one-time pad generated for the op."

Nate nodded approvingly. "Someone had Jenkins in mind when they sat this up."

Marisol took the page from Jonesy and took out a small penlight. She played the bright blue beam back and forth over the receipt until words appeared.

"UV brings it out," Jones said quietly as Marisol added to her notes.

When she'd finished, Marisol handed the sheet back and Jones rubbed it between his palms. The friction and small amount of heat it generated reduced the paper into dust. Marisol finished the substitution and went back to her notes. After looking back and forth between that and her work, Marisol sighed and pushed the note over to Kawehi.

"I'm going to fucking smack someone," Marisol said quietly.

Kawehi turned the note around. "Snapdragon absent ten to twelve hours ago, destination Ivory Nine. Contact and collect before return. Apologies, AC."

"Yeah," Marisol, rubbing her eyes again. "Snapdragon refers to Emma Cosineau. Ivory was a series of emergency meeting points from the eighties. No one uses them anymore. Ivory Nine is in Twin Lakes, Colorado. Way the hell out of the way, of course. Deidre, we need another goddammed stop."

"You got it," Deidre said. "Lights coming up."

"How did the Administrator's daughter find out what was going on?" Jones quietly asked Marisol once everyone was starting to stretch and move around.

Marisol smiled grimly. "I plan to discuss that with her BFF when we stop."

~~~~

Theo had experienced enough of the team's schedule to know that pulling into the truck stop was unusual, they'd just stopped an hour ago. Over the radio, someone announced a meeting and Rachel, along with everyone but him and Deidre and Doctor Aeolus, gathered around one of the rust bucket cars.

"Is something wrong?" Theo asked.

Deidre shrugged. "I'm standing here with you, how would I know? Mari looks kind of pissed though."

Theo looked back out the window. "Yeah, she's pretty intimidating."

"Once you get to know her, she's much worse," Deidre said cheerfully.

Theo looked wary for a moment and then belly laughed. Deidre laughed along with him.

"But that's not really true," she said. "The boss is getting upset because she's trying very hard to get us back home, but things keep happening."

"Like that thing that Doc took out of me."

"Sure, and the ambush. But there's probably other stuff that has nothing to do with you, so stop looking worried. In fact, let's go get something to eat that's really bad for us."

"As the Jones is being for his needs," Aeolus declared, coming out of the back. "It will be that there is smoke."

They both stared at him.

"It is to be cursed," Aeolus sighed. "It is the idiom, impossible to utter correctly."

Deidre laughed. "You're Jonesing for a cigarette?"

"Perhaps. And the fierce Lieutenant is threatening my beloved skull if smoking within this horrid rolling box-thing."

"Why don't you use smokeless?" Theo asked as he got out of the RV. "You never heard of chew?"

"Smokeless and chew," Aeolus said, looking at him intently. "To beg this little one to be explaining further."

Theo explained chewing tobacco as they walked over to the store. Deidre was having a hard time keeping a straight face.

"And it is that a child shall be leading them," Aeolus said happily. He threw the door open and marched in.

"Good thing you're too young for Cultural Affairs," she said as they followed him inside.

However, no one else was remotely amused.

"Listen up, we've got another delay," Marisol growled. "A fucking detour this time because Emma Cosineau went left Echo yesterday. She left word that she'd like to meet us at one of the old Ivory rally points."

Rachel wanted to sigh when she heard Emma's name. It wasn't surprising, she lost what little sense she had when it came to Theo. Still, Rachel was surprised she'd found out and decided to screw with an active op. When she got home, she'd be bouncing her little sister off the dojo walls.

"Never heard of Ivory," Betsy was saying.

"They're mothballed, but that's not important. What's really on my mind is the comms security of this team. Anything you'd like to share, Cadet Szercherin?"

Rachel mentally added a few more wall bounces to Emma's total. "We grew up together, but I'm not sure what else you're looking for here, Chief Sergeant."

"Didn't anyone tell you what the penalties are for misleading a team leader are, Cadet?"

Rachel was getting angrier and stared right back at Marisol. "They did, in excruciating detail. Have you ever considered the penalties around false accusations, Chief Sergeant? If you'll take a moment to think, I transferred to your team directly after leaving the 9-Alpha orbital. I had no idea what was going on until your pre-op briefing, after I turned in my datapad to your comms spec. Not that it would've mattered, I follow my orders."

Kawehi saw that Marisol's fists were already clenched, and as her friend took a deep breath, she knew that Marisol was about to come unglued on the younger woman. Before she could say anything, Willi interrupted.

"Hold up a sec, Chief. I've got comms security and I can tell you that there hasn't been a peep from anyone here, and that we tore everything out of the rigs two days ago, specifically looking for transmitters."

"Marisol, there's a chance that I know how this happened," Kawehi said. "Can we speak privately?"

Marisol rubbed her face with her hands. "Only if you tell me what the hell is going on here. Rachel, I am burnt out, but it's a shitty excuse for jumping all over you. Shake?"

Rachel immediately shook hands with Marisol. "No problem, Chief. I'm an obvious choice."

"Come on, Kawehi, you can tell me a story," Marisol said tiredly, heading for the RV.

~~~~

Deidre was waiting when Marisol finally climbed down from the camper.

"We got the troubles?" she asked.

"Is there a time we ain't got the troubles, Doc? These just aren't the ones I'm used to. Everyone settled?"

"Fed and dewatered, Chief. And I brought you something to make you feel better."

She handed Marisol a flat box smelling of grease and hot cheese. Marisol's mouth was watering even as she lifted the lid.

"Oh my god. This looks really bad for me."

"It is, everyone is going to be going down with clogged arterie." She grinned and held up a familiar squeeze bottle. "Siracha?"

Marisol grinned, covering a slice with sauce. Then she took a huge bite of pizza and closed her eyes as she chewed.

May 21, 2041

Rally Point Ivory Nine (inactive)

Twin Lakes, Colorado

Rachel and Jonesy were in the front seats, Theo was in the captain's chair right behind them, staring out the windshield. He'd never seen real mountains before. The ridge at home was steep but it was covered in trees. Seeing all of the land at once, he was amazed that something could be so big.

"They're something, huh?" Kawehi said.

Theo nodded, looking back at her for a moment. "Someday I'm going to come back and look at them all day long."

Kawehi smiled at the young man. "Getting tired of the road trip from hell?"

"No. I don't think I've been happy like this before. Even with..." Theo gestured at his neck, still not comfortable talking about it. "I just wish we could stop and look at things sometimes."

"Well, we've got some time," Marisol said from behind him. "Why don't you get out and get a better look?"

Theo looked back at her, searching her face. He suddenly grinned and headed for the door. Marisol watched him go and shook her head slightly.

"I saw that," Kawehi said.

"You saw what?"

"You almost actually smiled."

"You wish. It's probably indigestion from that truck-stop pizza." Marisol grumbled.

Theo opened the door to the camper and hopped down. The mountains, seeming even bigger, were right in front of them and he climbed a small hill next to the parking lot. A few steps further and both lakes were visible as well. The others were getting out of the RV and the sedans, stretching and yawning. Theo turned back to the mountains and tried to figure out which one was the tallest. He walked up the little slope, wanting a better look.

Behind him, Deidre stuck her head in the door of the RV. "Want me to stay close to him?" she asked Kawehi.

"Let's give him a few minutes alone. Do you see his sister anywhere?"

It was a nice spring day, and the parking lot was full of people, along with their cars and motorcycles. Deidre shrugged.

"I don't see her, but she might not have made it this far yet," she said.

~~~~

Theo took a deep breath of the clean air, delighted to be out of the RV. The wind blew from up the valley, carrying the faint turpentine scent of the pines. He glanced back at the camper and for once, people weren't running from one task to another. It made him wonder what they were doing here but he'd learned over the last few days that it was pointless to ask. Marisol hadn't told him to hurry but Theo was about to turn around when something hit him hard, nearly knocking him down.

There was a flash of panic as whoever had run into him grabbed him tightly. Theo started to struggle, the person was grimy and smelled like they'd done a couple of long days in a hayfield. Then, underneath everything else, he caught a scent of something hauntingly familiar. He managed to take a half a step back and saw her face. It was a surreal moment, Theo saw the same eyes he saw in the mirror.

"Sparrow," Emma said, looking at him through tears spilling down her cheeks.

Something about her, the name, or just her presence, made him feel like something had finally been unlocked. There was no flood of lost memories, but he knew exactly who she was now.

"Tulip," Theo whispered.

She sniffed and let go of him to drag the back of her hand across her face. Tears and dust made muddy tracks across her cheeks. "I'm so sorry, I knew you were out there, but no one would listen to me and..."

Theo finally wrapped his arms around her, as tightly as hers were around him.

"Doesn't matter now, we're together."

Below them, the team stood around and watched the reunion. Willi put his arm around Toni as they watched and Deidre sniffled a little.

"That almost makes up for the rest of this goat-rope," Marisol said, arm around Kawehi.

Nate still wasn't over the aggravation the kid had caused but he had to admit, this was a pretty happy ending. But the warm feeling was disconcerting, he didn't do warm feelings, especially on the job.

Looking around, Nate saw Kawehi, along with the rest of Marisol's squad, watching the pair and nothing else. His feeling of wrongness got stronger and Nate scanned the crowd of people around them, searching for a threat.

At first, it just seemed like an unusually nice day with a lot of very happy people. In fact, he didn't see anyone who wasn't holding hands or hugging. Then his eyes widened. He quickly walked over and put a hand on Kawehi's shoulder. She looked back, smiling at him.

"They're together again."

"Yeah, great. Snap out of it, the kid has to be casting," Nate said quietly. "Look around you."

Her happy expression disappeared as she glanced around. "Oh shit, he's strong. Marisol, we have clear out of here."

"We can give 'em a couple of minutes more," the other woman said. "I've been pushing everyone too hard anyway."

Kawehi grabbed her arms and stared into her eyes for a few seconds. Then Marisol shook herself. She and Nate started getting the team back to their vehicles. Kawehi jogged up the slope to where the pair was standing. She led them back down to the RV and made sure everyone was moving before following them inside.

"Kid, where's your ride?" Marisol demanded as Emma came in.

"It died a couple of miles up this road, just leave it."

"Project vehicle?"

Emma shook her head. "Junkyard salvage."

"That old Enduro?" Rachel asked.

Emma was very surprised to see her, but nodded.

"It's clean," Rachel said to Marisol.

"Then let's get home before they dream up something else for us to do."

The RV eased its way through the parking lot of affectionate tourists. After a few minutes, both sedans pulled out and followed.

"What are you doing here?" Emma finally asked Rachel. "And why do you look so nervous?"

"Kawehi wanted someone he might remember making the snatch, so they brought me down to help. I don't want you thinking I knew about this and didn't tell you."

"Come on, I'm not that bad."

Rachel snorted. "When it comes to Theo you are."

Emma wasn't terribly affectionate physically, and her tight hug surprised Rachel.

"Thank you for bringing him back."

"Thank all these other people, I just rode along."

Marisol took one of the seats at the table as the RV started to accelerate. Emma sat next to Theo and Rachel took the other captain's chair. She introduced Marisol, Kawehi, and Nate to Emma.

"Am I under arrest?" Emma asked Marisol when she found out she was the team leader.

The older woman shrugged. "I was just told to meet you. I'm concerned about you knowing this rally point though. Ivory was abandoned before you were born."

Emma looked at her blankly. "That was a rally? I didn't know anything about it. Jax just gave me a route to get here."

Marisol frowned. "Jax. We're talking about the Synthetic running Echo?"

Emma nodded. "He caught me sneaking out of the house. I thought he'd bust me for sure, but he helped me instead. It was kind of weird."

"Very weird," Kawehi said.

Marisol gave her a look and then sighed. "Chauffeur, can we please go home now?"

"Twelve hours," Nate called back.

~~~~

As the RV crawled across the desert, Kawehi watched the twins. They were sitting side by side at the table. Emma occasionally said something in a quiet voice. Theo would nod, and then they'd be silent again. Then she noticed their hands.

At first it looked like they were playing a game on their fingers, tapping each other's fingers and hands with the tips of different fingers. Theo movements were clumsier than Emma's and she repeated a gesture over and over until he was as smooth as she was. As she watched, Emma looked up at her and smiled. Kawehi braced herself for a cast, not sure if Emma was a Talent as well.

"Are there any spare clothes I can borrow? I smell worse than a Ta'avi's goat."

"Racist," Deidre said from the passenger seat.

Beside her, Nate laughed. "What's racist about a goat?"

"Why would our goat smell worse than anyone's goat?" she protested, laughing herself.

Kawehi searched until she'd found something Emma could wear. Theo was already asking what Ta'avi and Terries were, and she was happy she didn't have to deal with that conversation. Things were starting to feel more relaxed. They weren't home yet, but they were in easy range of Echo's air support. She doubted they'd have any other issues, Lady Amanda was hell on the enemy when they stumbled anywhere close to her town.

May 22 2041

LOCATION DATA REDACTED

Jacob had driven like hell for the last fourteen hours. Pebbleman said over and over that they would be waiting for the RV when it came. The whole time, Jacob figured he was guessing wildly but he didn't have a better idea, so he followed the man's directions. They got off the interstate and Pebbleman pointed out places to turn. On a deserted two-lane road, he urgently pointed at an overlook at the top of a hill. Jacob pulled in and switched off the car.

"It won't be long. We must be ready."

"Then tell me how you want to this."

"Hide the weapons, we must appear to be innocent victims of a malfunction."

Jacob nodded and tucked his pistol under the seat where he could grab it quickly.

"And my...machete device is ready?"

Jacob nodded and got out of the car. In the distance, they could see the glow of approaching headlights. If this wasn't them, some poor bastard was going to get quite a surprise.

Something hit him in the middle of his back, knocking him facedown onto to hood of the car. There was a sharp ting followed a second later by a boom that echoed across the desert. Jacob tried to catch his breath as he fell to the ground but there wasn't any air for him. Pebbleman was immediately kneeling beside him, turning him on his back.

"You've been shot. There is a sniper."

The area around them lit up as the approaching engines got closer. Several vehicles sped by, not slowing down. Pebbleman prodded his stomach, making Jacob want to scream but there wasn't enough breath left in him.

"Your viscera has been badly damaged," Pebbleman said flatly. "You will perish."

Jacob nodded slightly. "Go and run them down," he whispered.

Pebbleman looked after the disappearing taillights. Then he looked back down at Jacob. "Bah, that road ends in the dessert. They will become stuck in the pink confectionary topping."

"Don't you try to make me laugh, you dirty sonofabitch," Jacob coughed.

"Brother Rock, listen to me. You must go and terrify that imaginary god. Storm the gates of His paradise, tear the walls to the ground. It's likely the only way you'll get in."

"I'll save you a spot." Jacob's voice was getting weaker. "You a space alien?"

"Correct. More, I am an outlaw."

"Good," Jacob breathed. "Some dogs...they jes' gotta..."

He exhaled one last time as his head slumped back.

"Yes, Brother Jacob the Rock, they certainly must run," Pebbleman said, putting his hand gently on the other man's head. "You saved me from the Clamor and I enjoyed your company, as irritating as it was. I will feel your absence."

After a few seconds, Pebbleman reached up and opened the door. He reached inside and retrieved the machete. Then he reached into Jacob's coat and got his pistol. Pebbleman peeked around the tire and looked in the direction the shot had come from.

"For now, there are dogs that require...no. As correctly said by Jacob the Rock; some dogs just got to run. Woe to any who would dare to chain them! The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away and I am the LORD THY GOD!"

~~~~

The sniper tried to make out what the second target was yelling but it didn't matter. She wasn't about to leave one of them alive. She nodded at her spotter and they used their night vision scopes to search for the target. A slow hour passed as they waited for him to break cover.