Chapter Nine
Fear...
(part 3)


    Damian went from slowly relaxing to absolutered alarm defcon one panicking. His stoic mask finally broke, a muscle in his jaw started jumping and he fought the urge to run. 
Rhett just looked mildly irritated that his day had been interrupted for this. They were lined up and the bigger of the Keepers started moving down the line.
At each person he scrutinized their papers. AGAIN. And then patted them down and asked them a few questions. Damian was in a pitiful mental state now. He was mentally rehearsing all the psychological tactics he’d ever heard and especially the ones involving suppressing nervous sweating.
The man reached Rhett, just before Damian. He triple read all the lines of the papers then patted Rhett down.
Then the questioning. “Business crossing the border?”
Rhett just shrugged, “I dunno, I didn’t plan the trip.”
The Keeper continued. “Destination.”
Rhett rolled his eyes, “I dunno that either.” The Keeper frowned, “They don’t tell you these things?”
Rhett shrugged, “I don’t care enough to ask. Someone knows the destination, I don’t need to. In fact I didn’t even really want to come.”
The Keeper was becoming more irritated. “You are being insolent. Answer my questions or be punished!”
Rhett frowned and shook his head, “Technically I have been answering your questions. And honestly at that.”
The Keeper’s whole body went rigid and he started to breath heavy. “Do you want to go to jail!”
Rhett sighed and blinked tiredly, “No.”
The law enforcer’s face was getting red and he spoke through gritted teeth, “Then you will stop being so difficult and tell me what I want clearly.”
Rhett just gave a dead eyed stare and compliant shrug. The other Keeper tapped his wrist, urging speed on the process.
Damian's turn came and the Keeper took his papers before staring at Damian's face. in the moment Damian felt something click mentally and everything calmed.
It must have worked because the Keeper finally glanced back down at the papers saying, “Don't drive tired, you can be fined.”
It turned out good in the end because the interrogator was rushed and irritated enough that he didn’t bother to ask more than one or two easy questions.

Cont...

Chapter Eleven
Needle in a Haystack
(part 2)

    Cypher typed away at his computers in near darkness as usual. Things were going well, money was coming in, sass was going out. He was still rankled over the meeting with the other agents.
He was a loner for sure. When he was around other people it tended to end up in a fight, that’s just how it was. The only girls he’d every hit it off with were only interested in his mysterious bad boy image and disappeared after their shallow attachment didn’t survive his bad moods. So he stopped trying.
Number strings and screens filled with digits and codes made sense. They were unaffected by his mood and they couldn’t leave since he had complete control over them at any time. That’s how he liked it.        But unannounced his comfortable environment was disturbed by King barging in, leaving the door open to the blinding sunlight, and talking on a cellphone. Cypher didn’t stop typing but he did send a death glare towards this unwelcome visitor.
King shot off a few more quick sentences then bounded towards his hacker frenemy eagerly. “That was Conner and Landon and they need a little help!”
Cypher sighed deeply and sank into his beat up black leather wheely chair, “Please don’t tell me you signed me up to h-”
King shouted over the end of his sentence energetically, “I signed you up to help!”
Cypher frowned and grumbled, “I’ve got lots of stuff to do. He’s psychic! Let him do his thing by himself Danny boy.”
King’s mood dimmed at the nickname but he held his smile, “Well this is kind of what you’re here to do you know.”
Cypher smiled a tiny bit, “Yeah but I’m going to go kicking and screaming.”
King rubbed the bridge of his nose in exasperation. “Fine. Just please narrow Alex’s location down if you can and tell the boys. Here’s the list of contacts we have in New Zealand right now.”
Cypher took the sticky note he was handed, “This is only three names….you realize that right?”
King chuckled dryly, “Yeah and they’re all retired too. Have fun trying to communicate with them.”
King made his exit evilly chorteling and the door closed loudly behind him.

Cont...

Chapter Eleven
Needle in a Haystack
(part 2)

    Cypher typed away at his computers in near darkness as usual. Things were going well, money was coming in, sass was going out. He was still rankled over the meeting with the other agents.
He was a loner for sure. When he was around other people it tended to end up in a fight, that’s just how it was. The only girls he’d every hit it off with were only interested in his mysterious bad boy image and disappeared after their shallow attachment didn’t survive his bad moods. So he stopped trying.
Number strings and screens filled with digits and codes made sense. They were unaffected by his mood and they couldn’t leave since he had complete control over them at any time. That’s how he liked it.        But unannounced his comfortable environment was disturbed by King barging in, leaving the door open to the blinding sunlight, and talking on a cellphone. Cypher didn’t stop typing but he did send a death glare towards this unwelcome visitor.
King shot off a few more quick sentences then bounded towards his hacker frenemy eagerly. “That was Conner and Landon and they need a little help!”
Cypher sighed deeply and sank into his beat up black leather wheely chair, “Please don’t tell me you signed me up to h-”
King shouted over the end of his sentence energetically, “I signed you up to help!”
Cypher frowned and grumbled, “I’ve got lots of stuff to do. He’s psychic! Let him do his thing by himself Danny boy.”
King’s mood dimmed at the nickname but he held his smile, “Well this is kind of what you’re here to do you know.”
Cypher smiled a tiny bit, “Yeah but I’m going to go kicking and screaming.”
King rubbed the bridge of his nose in exasperation. “Fine. Just please narrow Alex’s location down if you can and tell the boys. Here’s the list of contacts we have in New Zealand right now.”
Cypher took the sticky note he was handed, “This is only three names….you realize that right?”
King chuckled dryly, “Yeah and they’re all retired too. Have fun trying to communicate with them.”
King made his exit evilly chorteling and the door closed loudly behind him.

Cont...