White Shadows

Interlude 2 - Cat Got Your Tongue?

Dominic Park couldn't help but yelp in fright as a stray cat crossed his path with a sudden "Meow!"

"Fraidy cat," Russell teased him as he emerged from the door to his building at almost the same time, carrying a canvas bag stamped with the familiar logo of Whole Foods.

"Tell me you haven't learned to summon the animals yet," Park grumbled, glaring in the direction taken by that cat.

"Nope," Russell said, pushing the Whole Foods bag into his arms.

"Good." Park peered into the bag, examining its contents - three pairs of C-4 bricks, with a bunch of wires sticking out of them. "Save it for the Halloween party if you ever do."

"What if I wanna practice now?"

"Oh, like you wanted to practice for that pissing-in-the-lake contest back in summer camp? Which, if I remember correctly, you lost. Miserably."

Russell burst out laughing. "I'd definitely win if they did that now. Just ask those guards at Alcatraz Landing."

"What do you-" Park began. "No, forget it. I don't wanna know."

"You know what to do?" Russell asked. Park nodded once, even though he was quite taken aback by the sudden change of subject. "Good. Now I gotta get back inside, make sure the rest of the troops get their, uh, rest." Russell turned around and retreated back into his building, waving goodbye to Park before the door closed.

"You got it, boss," Park said, casually flipping the bird at the door before setting off.

Before long, he found himself riding a BART train bound for SFO. For most of the ride, he was all by himself in the car - until Glen Park station, where a girl in a black hoodie and skirt boarded the train and took a seat next to him.

They never once exchanged eye contact, or even a single word in thought or out loud. Park knew who she was, of course - she was Russell's deeply-embedded source in Holly's camp. Her function, right here, was to collect the equipment that had failed to destroy the Alcatraz ferries and take it all back to her boss. It would be, as Russell liked to call it, "repurposed" - in this case, cited as evidence against the incompetent scriv guards that had been installed on the landing. No doubt Holly would want to severely punish these men, make an example out of them. Perhaps by drawing and quartering, or castration, or some other graphically violent technique for getting medieval on your ass.

The only communication between Park and the source was a single handwritten note, which she passed him mere seconds before their train arrived at SFO. "Is it true that RJ pissed on the guards back there?"

Park fought to stop himself snickering at the use of Russell's nickname, which was known only to his closest friends and confidants. The source, she qualified as neither, though she used to be considered both. Instead, though, he simply gave her a silent thumbs-up in response.

As they reached the station, the source leaned down and picked up the bag of plastique. It sounded risky, carrying C-4 into an airport less than 24 hours after a terrorist attack a few hundred miles away. Luckily, the source wouldn't have to worry too much about security. Like most major international airports, SFO's choice of location was influenced by scrivs who wanted an easy place to come and go to the Prime 'Verse. Somewhere in the airport - in the International Terminal, to be precise - was an entrance to the Terminal.

Park disembarked from the train and waited for another one to come and take him back into the city. As he did so, he thought about the one glimpse he'd gotten of the source's face. He still couldn't believe who she really was - hadn't she proven before that she was not to be trusted?

Hopefully,Jensen was able to vouch for her as much as Russell could. Park didn't want tothink about what would happen if she revealed her true allegiance to be wherehe suspected, in the back of his mind, it had been the whole time.