Chapter Six
Jordy wasn’t one to lie around in bed once her eyes opened. She whipped off the noise-cancelling headphones she wore when she slept, and turned towards the other bed in the room. It was made, but obviously slept in. No other sounds in the room. Good.
Her roommate must have already started the early morning shift at the Staff Childcare, or as Jordy called it, “Whelp Help”. Katie seemed all sweet and nice, but she had that air that Jordy recognized. Katie was definitely hiding something.
Jordy could sniff that shit out, since she had quite a few secrets of her own. And maybe she could find something useful, something she could use to blackmail Katie with. She wasn’t even sure what she might need from her, but Jordy always liked to have the upper hand.
She crammed her feet into the plastic clogs that she used as slippers and started her search. First, the two bags that Katie had brought. It was already suspicious that she hadn’t brought that much, as if this was a spur of a moment decision to work here. Jordy already assumed that the car Gabe had arranged to get towed into town belonged to Katie, but one bag didn’t have all that many clothes. Not at all like someone who was planning to stick around even for more than a day. The pockets didn’t yield all that much, but Jordy didn’t expect them to. The other bag held a teacher’s certificate, and what Jordy recognized as components of a go-bag. Interesting.
On the nightstand by the bed Katie used was the misshapen brown lump of a stuffed animal, already covered with stitches as if it had been repaired a lot over the years, perhaps even recently. Jordy’s lip curled into a sneer, although that was pretty much her usual expression.
She didn’t think much of grown-ass women who still slept with stuffed animals, especially ones that resembled fuzzy, oversized turds. She fought the urge to do her roomie a solid and bury it somewhere.
She knew there had to be something. She just felt it. And it was Katie’s bad luck that Jordy was an army brat, with a lifetime of parent-conducted room inspections behind her. She knew to look at the less obvi hiding places, especially the ones that she wasn’t already using herself.
After feeling along the sides of the mattress and even lifting it up, she decided to check out the drawer in the nightstand, in case her roommate was clever enough to tape shit to the top or behind.
There was nothing there except for the standard motel shit, which this used to be before they turned it into employee housing. The Gideon Bible lay on top of the print outs with information about stores and gas stations nearby. The sort of intel that was useless to someone without a car.
Jordy picked up the Gideon Bible so she could pull out the drawer, and what do you know.
Paydirt.
There was something tucked into the back cover. She opened it, and saw the photographs. Boring. Just your standard kid pix with her moms, or…ok, her dad was somewhat interesting. The moms looked average height, but Katie’s dad was tall, and there was something about him that made Jordy think of Puma. He was tall, well built, and had some of the look of the First Nations, or Native Americans.
There weren’t any pictures of him alone, or with her other than as a small child, as if he had died or ghosted. Too bad, so sad, what’s next. Jordy whistled. Now, looky here. That’s what she was talkin’ about.
She held two current drivers licenses in her hand, both with photos of Katie. Both had addresses with Denver zip codes, but the names were different. Chances were the addresses were fake too.
What was this girl doing with two current IDs? Jordy examined both closely, holding them to the light, scraping her fingernail gently along the edges. She whistled again. The job that was done on these was good.
Jordy placed them back into the Gideon Bible, humming to herself. Despite Katie’s penchant for plush turds, she was interesting after all. She was going to keep an eye on her, that was for sure. Leverage was always a good thing, especially if Katie turned out to be useful to her.
She was a big believer in making her own luck. And it was great luck that she made her way here, working for Puma, after recently being disowned by her Naval officer dad. Apparently he had hit the limit in getting hauled in for yet another dressing down by his CO. Fights, trespassing, stealing, drug-dealing – her father managed to cover it all up, not because he cared about her, but because if she’d ever actually been convicted, it would have reflected badly on him. His competence was called into question, because he obviously couldn’t control his kid.
His bad kid, that is, since effin’ Franklin, aka her ex-brother the suckup, was more than thrilled to turn her in. He was the junior version of dear old dad, even though they were both adopted. Trying to force her into the military mold didn’t take, as evidenced by her penchant for breaking into abandoned buildings and locked up mausoleums in cemeteries for shits and giggles. Her father had hit the roof when he’d found her books on magic and Tarot; that had been the last straw.
Now that she was here, in a much better place than that standard issue everybody-better-fit-in Naval base where she would never, ever belong, she was going to do whatever it took to make the most out of it. Especially as it was rare that she actually came across someone she respected like the head of Ops.
His right hand person was a thin, dark-haired woman named Trish, but Jordy had been watching her critically. Trish was competent, but barely that, in Jordy’s opinion. Puma deserved someone better.
Someone like Jordy.
Maybe after a stop at the Staff Caff for some food she’d jump on the shuttle to town, pick up some necessary ingredients, and get herself a promotion.
She smiled to herself with the plan. And then it would be back here, for another night of working alongside people who she could barely tolerate, with their annoying inferiorities.
Jordy pulled out a Tarot card for the day, a practice that served her well. The worn card was from the Major Arcana, which heralded something significant. The Hierophant. Interesting. A Teacher coming along, with ancient learning.
Jordy tucked the card back into the deck, humming to herself.
* * *
TheWaryeorswere out with Miller, trekking to the site where Col had been held the previous day, while Simon remained at the house.
Simon turned to his computer, something in the details that Col had reported tugging at his memory. The machine was a powerful piece of technology, and ensconced in his spacious office overlooking the forests and mountain range in the distance. The scenery was wasted, since Simon studiously pored over the various high resolution monitors that were lit up like NASA’s Mission Control center with all the custom programs they were running.
“You’re amazing, Simon,” the voice of Jemima Danes, the hot TV actress, cooed. He had paid her to record his computer alerts and ring tones —not in person, of course—which he then had programmed in to his various systems. He particularly enjoyed waking up to her affirmations in the morning.
