Chapter 21

It had been a week since Mac left. The case was taking more time than anticipated. He was trying to get to the angel, but he had surrounded himself with humans. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that he apparently had multiple locations and kept porting to different ones. Mac was also left trying to disarm the multitude of booby traps that the guy had set at all his camps. He had installed bombs or kill-switches of some kind that were able to be remotely activated. Mac was trying to be as covert as possible to avoid triggering anything, but it was taking a lot of time.

Both God and Lucifer were pushing for a quick close, which he would love to provide so he could go home and get back to wooing his mate. He had had phone service most of the places he was at, so they were texting and calling each other at night. At least they were getting to know each other even though he was gone. He had learned Viv’s favorite color was blue, she preferred dark chocolate, and loved watching meteor showers and eclipses. He only discovered that last one because when he had called, she had been sitting in the backyard waiting for a meteor shower. It didn’t matter that it was freezing out, she was bundled in blankets on the outdoor couch, waiting for the show to start. She had switched to video call and shown him the sky. It had been nice sharing it with her. He wondered if she would be willing to visit the Netherworld with him if they mated. They had some pretty spectacular eclipses with their two suns. One glowed red, one blue. Their moon was a deep green color. He had no idea why they were such odd colors, but it certainly made it pretty.

Tonight, he was meeting up with another Enforcer, an angel by the name of Bert. He had worked with him before and was hoping the guy would have some insights into their perp.

“Hey, Mac,” a deep voice said behind him. Turning, he saw Bert. Bert wouldn’t fit anyone’s stereotypical image of an angel. Short, shaved head, goatee, tattoos, worn jeans with holes in the knees, black biker boots, black t-shirt showing off his abs and biceps, carrying a leather jacket. All that was missing was his motorcycle, but Mac assumed he had just ported in.

“Hey, Bert,” he responded. “Anything new on your end?”

He shook his head. “I’ve cleared two other locations, but he keeps jumping. Between the two of us, we should have come across him by now. I don’t know if he’s getting tipped off or if he’s just that lucky.”

“I wish people would stop listening to him. He’s gaining followers every day and they don’t even realize that he’s using them for his own goal, whatever that is. For gods’ sake, he has self-destruct mechanisms at every location I’ve been to.”

“Same here. The bastard’s always been charismatic. We grew up together and even went to training together for a short period. We weren’t friends, just grew up in the same area and went to the same schools. He was always looking to be the center of attention and he loved shortcuts of any kind. He never made it past the first year of Enforcer training. He tried shortcuts there too and almost got his team killed. I don’t know how he managed to stay off the radar for this long. You would think someone would have picked up on his behavior before it reached this level.”

“You think he has help?” Mac asked.

“It’s the only explanation I can think of. I’ve been letting Base know which direction I’m heading just in case there’s problems. If there’s a leak, it would explain why he’s already gone. What I haven’t figured out yet is why he has all these booby traps but hasn’t set them off yet.”

Mac hummed, letting Bert know he heard him but was thinking. “Killing an Enforcer would bring a lot more heat on him, for sure. Instead of one or two of us, he’d have everyone gunning for him. That could be a reason. Or worst-case scenario, he could be planning on detonating them all at once. I don’t know what he would gain out of that. Unless it’s as clichéd as he had them all put him in their wills and he’s going to collect the money when he kills them.”

“That wouldn’t surprise me actually. It’s a type of shortcut to get rich fast. We live a long time and human money is needed if we’re going to live for any amount of time on Earth and not Netherworld or Arlysium. If he can get the attention he wants here, then he’s going to need to find a way to sustain himself while he’s here. Although he could also be mooching off his followers for things. But he’s getting these properties somehow and it’s not triggering anything in our system. I don’t know if he’s using an alias or if his followers are giving him the properties. I’m thinking there is someone covering for him somewhere in our system. There are too many things that should have thrown a red flag before now.”

“Got anyone in mind?” Mac asked.

“He’s got a couple of friends and family that work for Arlysium. Want to help tackle breaking into their computers? If we can figure out which one is tipping him off, we can take them in for questioning and hopefully get an idea of where this guy’s going to be next. I want to get him before he causes any destruction,” Bert replied.

“Are we hitting their work computers or their home computers?” Mac asked.

“Let’s start at the office. It would make sense if they tried it there, they would have more access to the database. For the level most of them are at, their at-home access would be limited.”

“Makes sense. You lead, I’ll follow,” Mac replied. He figured Bert already knew which offices and desks to hit.

Before he ported out, he sent a text to Viv.

Off to follow some leads with Bert. I’ll try to call tonight if it’s not too late,Mac typed out.

He got a reply almost immediately. Who’s Bert?

Another Enforcer. He’s on the Arlysium side.

There’s an angel named Bert?!Viv replied. Be safe, please.

I will. Have a great night. You should be getting something delivered tonight, he sent with a smiley face emoji. He had arranged a delivery from her favorite bakery to drop off some cannoli for dessert. He hated being away from her this long, especially since she seemed to be opening up to him more. Of course, maybe that was because it was over the phone and that made it easier. Whatever the reason, he was just grateful that she was giving him another chance. He had hopes that it would lead to a second chance to be her mate, but he’d take it one day at a time and be grateful she was even talking to him after how he acted.

Mac put his phone away, opening a portal to Arlysium’s base office. Stepping through, he saw a cubicle-filled space. It didn’t look much different than any other office setting, including the Netherworld’s home office. He didn’t do well in cubicle land. When they were in Enforcer training, they had been stuck in the office to learn the other side of the process; how reports came in, how to file their reports, all that good stuff. Back then it was all handwritten, computers and even typewriters hadn’t been invented yet. But the general layout of desks after desks, no wall between him and noisy chewer Jimmy, drove him insane. He did much better out in the field. He technically had a desk at the Netherworld office, but he was rarely there. He checked in maybe once a week but didn’t stay long.

Bert was already at a computer, logging in and running a scanning program that all the Enforcers had. It picked up a lot of things, but they would probably need to do a deep search themselves as well.

“Hey. I’ve got four computers to look at in this office. Can you get started on one? I put a pink sticky note on top of the cubicle wall to show which ones we need to inspect.”

Mac nodded and walked down the rows looking for pink. Finding one, he sat at the desk, pulling out his USB drive with the scanning software on it. As it opened, it overrode the login screen, letting him type in his own password to gain access. Hitting the run command, he took a look around the desk. There were family pictures, one of them including the angel they were looking for. He looked so normal. There was a pad of paper, the top sheet had been messily torn off. Mac borrowed a pencil and lightly rubbed it over the paper, trying to find what the last thing that had been written was. It looked like a grocery list. Boring.

The program beeped as it finished. Mac typed in the angel’s name, Angel’s Love Church, the last known locations, and a few other keywords. He dug around in the desk drawers, looking for any other clues or indications that they had been in contact with the guy. There were pieces of scrap paper with all kinds of notes, nothing that made much sense, but if it was an address or phone number, he took note. He’d cross-reference them later.

Bert had moved on to his second desk, a scowl on his face. Mac would bet that the first scan hadn’t turned anything up. He looked at the screen as it beeped again. Nothing suspicious. He took over and did a manual search, but it also was a dud. Disconnecting the flash drive, he made sure to close the computer and leave everything as he had found it. He moved to the last desk, starting the whole process over. This person was a little more organized, but there weren’t a lot of personal items around.

“You get anything?” Bert asked, disgruntled.

Mac shook his head. “I have a few random phone numbers and addresses that were on scrap paper thrown in a drawer, but I have a feeling that they won’t lead anywhere. You?”

“Nothing. I have one more desk to search, but I need your help with this one.”

“What is it?” Mac asked.

“His brother is a supervisor here. I never heard bad things about him, he was always in John’s shadow. He’s the youngest one and used to follow John everywhere. I have a hunch he’s part of this somehow, but he has cameras in his office. Which in and of itself is weird. I don’t have the ability to cloak myself in shadows like you do and would be seen for sure. Can you slip into his office and log on?”

“Sure. But how am I getting into the office? If I open the door, it will trigger the cameras. I’m assuming he’d have alerts if there was a portal that opened in his office too.”

“He might. I didn’t think of that. He would have access to the files at his home, since he’s higher up. We can port to his house and try a computer there, or I can open the door to his office and pretend to leave a note or something. You slip in behind me and run the program. Do you think that will work?”

Mac shrugged. “Might as well give it a try. I’d rather do it here than risk going to his house and having civilians involved. If his brother has kill-switches at all his properties, I don’t want to risk that he might have the same setup.”

“Makes sense. Alright. Let me get all official looking,” Bert said.

Mac laughed as he simply smoothed his beard and grabbed a padfolio from someone’s desk.

“That’s your official look?” he teased.

“Yup. Have a padfolio or a clipboard and people think you’re in charge. I don’t know why, but it works. Okay, his office is one floor up. Let’s port there, since that’s what I would normally do, especially since there’s no one here right now to let me in the building. Let’s meet back here to talk about what we find,” Bert said.

Mac nodded and shadowed himself before porting after him. This floor was all the supervisors and their assistants. He followed Bert to an office. It looked like any other office, but when he looked closer, he saw there were small cameras pointing in all directions. They were small enough that most people wouldn’t even notice them.

Bert politely knocked on the door before trying the doorknob. It was unlocked, which struck Mac as strange. Of course, with all the cameras, maybe the guy felt safe. It wasn’t like the public could really access the building either. Mac stuck close to Bert as he entered the room. Bert leaned over, blocking the computer screen and keyboard from view. Mac crouched on the floor, throwing the USB into the drive. Mac held in a laugh as Bert placed his padfolio on top of the screen to write, and in the process knocked the mouse, making it look like the screen turned on because of him. It also blocked the view of the screen. It was an awkward position to try to reach up and around Bert to type, but Mac made it work. He quickly ran the scan, using the same keywords as last time. He had hits within seconds, and he downloaded it to the drive. He could examine them later. The important thing was that they got the proof. The scan and download finished, Mac popped out the drive and tapped Bert’s leg to indicate he was done.

Bert left the note folded on the keyboard. He had left the door wide open when he had entered the office, so Mac exited first, walking around the corner to open a portal to the floor below. Seconds later Bert appeared.

“What’d we get?” he asked hopefully.

“I think we got good stuff. I didn’t get a chance to look at it much, but from what I saw we definitely have enough to talk to him. Do you want to grab him first, or head to one of our offices to go over the data?” Mac asked.

“Let’s go to my office since we’re here and we can get a better idea of how involved he is,” Bert suggested.

Mac nodded, following Bert to the Enforcer’s floor. Bert’s desk was just as bare as his was. Locked drawers, a few pens, a notepad. There was a stack of notes and mail in his corner box.

Bert quickly scanned through the papers, dumping most of them in the garbage. “I’m not here much,” he said.

“I’m the same. I’d rather work from home or in the field. I don’t do well in an office setting,” Mac agreed.

Bert unlocked his drawer, pulling out a laptop. Mac handed over the drive, grabbing a chair from another desk.

They scanned through all the documents. “We’re going to get him,” Bert said gleefully. “His brother is definitely in on it. At the very least, he’s helping cover John’s tracks and suppressing the property information. I wonder how much he knows. Feel like talking to him tonight?”

“Let’s do it. I want to get this case finished and be able to get home,” Mac said.

“See you there,” Bert replied, porting out.

Mac shook his head and followed.