Chapter 3- Genevieve

Chapter Three Genevieve

 

          I pressed my thumb and index finger to the bridge of my nose and inhaled deeply, then checked my watch. Not even mid-morning and I was already dealing with bullshit.

“Arie are you live?”

“I’m here. You wanna tell me what that was all about?” Arabella Santiago- Arie to everyone- CFO, top weapons expert, and what most people would call my oldest friend.

“Kinda early for onimous phone calls don’t you think? I haven’t even had breakfast yet.” She sighed.

“I’m sending you the recording, have someone isolate the background about 47 clicks in.”

“I was listening, sounded like a whisper.”

“I wanna know what it is, find out if there’s any truth to her claims.”

A notification flashed across my mirror: a video message. I clicked it, Aries face replaced my own, minimized, and then several photos appeard. The first, a young African American male, maybe 14, kneeling in a blue and yellow basketball uniform, a ball spinning on his index finger.

“And why am I looking at this?”

“This, is Ahmad Boujo Hadal, the son of Ahmed Bouton.” Arie introduced.

“There’s no record of him having a son, six daughters… how didn’t we know he had a son?” I studied the photo of the young man, recalling every scrap of intel I had on Ahmed Najat Bouton.

The arms dealer, whose namesake alone held one of our oldest, most dangerous contracts.

Contracts like his weren’t just agreements. They carried consequences. Death sentences if violated.

I had protected some of the worlds most dangerous men and women, some politicians. Ahmed Bouton ranked in the top three. And apparently… no one noticed he had a son.

“So why now?” I asked.

“Well,” Arie tapped her keyboard and images and copies from news articles popped up, “yesterday at approximately 0900, a drive by occurred directly in front of Berks Prep School just as students were exiting the van.” A photo of the front of the school, roped off, buses and vans riddled with bullet holes.

I swiped through the images. “And we weren’t notified? How many casualties?”

“Seven DOI’s, three critical, twenty-three injured. Identifications aren’t completed yet; you’ll have them by the time you get into the office.”

“Was Ahmad the intended target? Last I checked the security on that school was under…”

“Daniel Graves is head of security for the school, I already have SOPHIA combing through every bit of information stored on school computers.” 

“Has local PD identified the shooter?”

“Nope.”

“Who’s lead on the case?” Arie typed away at a keyboard.

“Detective Grayson Lee Jones. First homicide, moved from Boston worked security in Odessa, clean history.” Arie’s whistle echoed through the video. “Familys… well, you know. Big legal name in the city. The DA’s his sister.”

I rolled my eyes. Candace whatever-the-fuck Jones. This was gonna be fun.

I grabbed my phone and started my journey to the airport. “Get Mira. I want every file one Bouton; hard and digital. Everything and everyone linked to Agira and Ahmad. And find out how the hell he slipped through our nets for this long. Who dropped the ball?”

“Got it, any other orders while you’re in such giving mood?”

“Fuck off Arie, it’s bad enough these cards pop up all over this god forsaken continent, but one in the hands of a terrorists sidepiece is bad for business.”

“Noted.” She said, before the line disconnected.

                              ****************************************

 

The ride to the airfield was quiet thankfully. Before leaving the Farlowe Estate in Colorado, Ida, the no nonsense head housekeeper handed me a large basket filled with home baked goods for Arie and Amarie. The Farlowe family ran one of the largest estate mangagement services this side of the hemisphere generations deep, back to slavery. Loyal, meticulous, indispensable.

 “Made yall a little treat,” Ida said, thrusting a brown paper bag into my hands. The smell nearly knocked me out; marijuana.

“Pot brownies, Ida?”

“Sho is, Donovan made the butter smoother. I aint eatin’ ‘em, won’t do nobody no good sitting in my house. Tried one last night wit a bit’o wine, slept like a baby.”

I chuckled. Ida lived ninety-seven years on this earth, and moved like she was thirty. Quick, sharp, and impossibly funny.

“You tell them damn twins to get they behinds up here and visit me, preferably before I start pushing daises.” She spat, her pointer finger sashaying in the air, “they act like I’ll live forever. Oh, before I forget,” she slipped back inside, returning momentarily with a file folder, “this came in just before you came down.” She slid the file through the window then turned and left without another word. No goodbyes. Typical Ida.

I had tucked the folder inside my tote, intending to keep it private until the jet. Fore the instant my Jimmy Choo’s hit the jet carpet, SOPHIA would undoubtedly light up like a christmas tree with notifications.

Granted, my stop in Colorado wasn’t exactly part of the plan, but it was a necessary detour.

The plane came into view.

Then, my wristwatch vibrated.

I groaned as Mayor Culminos number flashed once again across the screen. I ignore it- again.

The jet was private, as always, minimal staff, unknown location. Land, runway and lift purchased over a century ago. Sacred.

 

Like clockwork, my wristwatch went off yet again. An image of a pig wearing a Tootoo flashed followed by Oscar Mayor.

Declined.

The car pulled up directly inside the hanger, thank goodness, it had started to pour incessantly, and I had meetings and debriefings scheduled all day.

Ezra, the head attendant, grunted as he took my bags. “Good god Ezzie, what’s got you in such a tizzy this early?”

“You tell me Ms. Lady. Nobody takes a shit on company time without you knowing. What’s up with this tortured-ass child on the plane?”

“The who?” Ezra simply pointed through the open door to the main cabin.

I shook my head and made my way to my usual seat at the back though I hadn’t made it a few feet before I was stopped in my tracks, momentarily; my senses slowed, my limbs felt heavy, and my mind went blank.

I recognized the scent but I couldn’t place from where which wasn’t common. Every step I took the stronger the scent became.

I listened for a heartbeat, and a faint thumping sounded, slow and steady I noticed a slight double beat that paused the heart completely every few beats. “Ezra.”

“Unh hunh,” Ezra sucked his teeth and rolled his shoulders back, “I have absolutely no clue how she got here or where she came from.”

“Girl?”

“Yes Ms. Lady, is you hard of hearing today? There’s a damn girl on the plane, right there.” Ezra pointed to the middle seating, “she cute too. Like cute, cute.”

“How-.”

“Don’t ask me how the hell she got here cuz I don’t know. But imma gone get security.”

I snatched my phone, “Arie, who is she?”

“No clue, but I’m sure it has something to do with an encrypted file I just recieved. I assumed it was from you.”

“It wasn’t. FIND OUT!” I snarled.

The girl stirred slightly, tight curls falling across her face, nearly hiding it entirely. Only the soft parting of her lips was visible, her breathing slow and even, as if she’d been sleeping there for hours.

I stepped closer, carefully brushing a few strands of hair away. She shifted onto her back with a quiet sigh, in the distance I could hear Ezra returning two armed guards in his wake.  He was speaking hurriedly and loud enough for the entire hangor to hear.

“I turned my back for like a minute to set up, - oh no baby imma need ya ta go’on ‘head and remove them shoes,-.” One of the guards protested insisting on apprehending the suspect, but was immediately cut off, “the girl is maybe a buck sixty-five in there with Genevieve… but do you booboo, go on in there with them dirty dusty ass lil combat boots if you want to and that’ll be yo ass not mine.”

The commotion caused her to open her eyes slightly, just enough to reveal the most unusual shade of green.

Not the soft mossy green you saw in forests or fields, no. These were sharp. Bright. Almost luminous. A shade that didn’t quite belong in nature.

Then they closed again, as if the effort to open them had been too much.

Ezra rounds the corner. I raise my hand to stop them before they could come any closer. I put a finger to my lips; signaling for everyone to exit quietly.

One of the guards, finger on his semi-automatic started forward, I drew my SIG and pressed the barrel against his temple, mouthing the words GET THE FUCK BACK, carefully.

His eyes widened.

Behind us the woman shifted again, settling deeper into the couch.

Her back now turned toward us.

Her hair draped lazily over the edge of the seat, nearly touching the floor, exposing the delicate curve of her neck.

Two beauty marks rested just behind her ear.

And below them…

A small red dot, barely visible. Almost like a bug bite, or an injection site.

Had she been drugged?

I lowered my gun and motioned for the guard to back away before he accidentally got himself killed.

The other one, a new recruit, responded quickly when I addressed them in sign and introduced themselves as Sergeant Kadence Preston. Smart enough to stay quiet at least.

I instructed them to upload every camera feed from the hangor to SOPHIA and have their badge replaced with the proper access credentials.

Then I dismissed them.

Ezra returned moments later carrying a glass of bourbon I didn’t ask for and a thick blanket. I took the blanket before he could drape it over her and sent him away with instructions for the pilot to take off.

Whoever she was, she was now coming with me, he didn’t argue.

I unfolded the soft mound and slid it over the sleeping form.

The moment my fingers brushed her arm, a warmth spread through my chest like a spark catching dry tinder.

Strange.

Too familiar.

I had lived long enough to remember faces across centuries. Empires rose and fell in the time it took for my memory to fade.

And yet..

I knew with absolute certainty that I had never seen this woman before.

A face like hers would have carved itself into my memory permanently.

Still…

Something about her presence stirred a quiet storm somewhere deep inside me.

Like a forgotten instinct waking from sleep.

I leaned back into a seat across from her, studying the steady rise and fall of her breathing.

The jet engines hummed softly as the aircraft lifted from the runway.

For a moment, everything was quiet, too quiet.

Then my watch vibrated and SOPHIA’s familiar double chime sounded, “go ahead,” I muttered.

The AI’s smooth voice filled the cabin.

                    Good afternoon Genevieve. I regret to inform you that the encrypted file mentioned earlier has just decrypted itself.

 

A pause.

Then…

          Oh dear.

Another pause.

Longer this time.

          I’m afraid you’re not going to like this.

 

I glance at the sleeping girl again.

Something in my gut tightend.

Because if SOPHIA was worried…

It meant whatever storm was coming had already begun.

And somehow…

This girl was now directly at the center.