Page 14 of Tooth and Nail

“I know it’s a lot to swallow.”

“The whole honeybee shifter afraid of honeycombs, leaving his colony, and living quietly under the radar as a human, while inventing the personal computer thing? Nah…why would that be a lot to swallow?” Ari asked. “By the way…do you call him a sleeper bee?” The humor in his question was infectious.

“Listen,” Eoghan said, trying to keep a straight face as he pointed to the dashboard clock. “We’ll be there in two minutes. If you don’t let me finish, you won’t have all of the relevant facts and know our game plan when we get there.”

“Sorry.”

“When we arrive, we’ll get status from the sanitizing teams and then see what’s happening with Derwin inside the building.” Eoghan said. “Hopefully, he’ll be honest about why he’s inside the Broad museum which has to be triggering to him just by looking at it.”

Ari held up his hand to stop him. “What’s a sanitizing team?”

“With smaller, contained sightings like the inside of an art gallery, we pass an incident off as a hazmat spill and give each person who’s been exposed a tablet to take which wipes their memories. With larger sightings, we use a localized gas. If the sighting is very large, we’ve been known to dose the city water supply. Each method is effective and completely harmless. While that’s happening, a sanitizing team uses EMP devices to wipe any digital tech from onlookers’ devices including cell phones with cameras, computers, iPads, anything digital.”

“An electromagnetic pulse device? I didn’t know that tech was available in compact form.”

Eoghan nodded. “We have them. In fact, our sanitizing teams’ devices are set to precisely cover the period of exposure up to the present so that it doesn’t erase all of a person’s pictures. In fact, Derwin is the one who developed the upgrade to our tech when he first entered WITSEC. Prior to those upgrades, our EMP devices wiped devices of all their photos and wiped any nearby computer hard drives of everything. It was problematic when our sanitizing teams had to do it in a confined space of an office, for example. Conspiracy theorists started catching onto the I.S.R.’s work and it was becoming a real problem for us. We owe a lot to Derwin for helping us upgrade our tech.”

“That’s so fucking cool. So, the sanitizing teams will use the pulse on everyone inside the museum and outside and then what?” Ari asked. “We can’t stop people from talking to the press about what they saw if they left the scene before the sanitizing team arrived.”

“No, but that’s where our rapid response team jumps in.”

“That’s right,” Ari said as if just remembering. “They deal with sightings and breaches using the media or whatever. I remember what the chief said. I get it.”

“Good.”

“Then what?” Ari asked.

“That’s where we come in. We need to find out why Derwin’s in the museum and talk him into giving up his hostages and turning himself over to us with a new plan of relocation. It doesn’t make sense that he’d enter the place under his own power.”

“Yeah. Oh—”

Eoghan chanced a glance at Ari who was tugging on his short facial hair, looking straight out the windshield. “What?”

“I finally get why Wordy said the Broad was a really bad place for Derwin to be,” Ari said.

“I told you,” Eoghan said, frowning. “His tryphophobia would make him so sick, he literally couldn’t go into the museum under his own power.”

“When I saw it in the holographic image and then heard what Wordy said in the garage about it being a really bad place for Derwin, I didn’t realize…I mean…look at that shit.” He pointed out the window as Eoghan pulled up to the Broad and parked on the street.

Eoghan had to admit, it was a very impressive building. The architecture itself, was a work of art. He watched Ari stare at the building for a couple of more seconds, but when he glanced over at him with excitement dancing in his glittering eyes, he couldn’t help but grin.

Oh, yeah, this partnership was going to be fun.

Chapter Four

When they got out of the car taking their backpacks which held their gloves and bangsticks, Eoghan caught sight of the sanitizing team leader who’d been assigned to them and almost groaned. Kellen McGillis was a little over six feet tall, built like a brick shit house, and the most arrogant creature Eoghan had ever met. He was also the man who’d somehow charmed his way into his bed more than once, promising him a future, before cheating on him. He couldn’t stand him and dreaded every incident he had to work with him.

McGillis wore a yellow hazmat suit, complete with the familiar emblem of the cleanup crew. Many years before, an early deputy I.S.R. chief had come up with the idea of using the suits anytime they had to go out to perform a cleanup. It was a lot easier to explain away a sanitizing unit’s arrival by saying that a toxic or biological spill had to be dealt with. It also helped their rapid response team come up with a plausible story to disseminate to the media. The moment McGillis turned and caught sight of him, he lifted his hand in a wave and came toward them, sauntering over in his yellow clothes like he hadn’t a care in the world.

“Fuck,” Eoghan cursed under his breath.

“What is it?” Ari asked, turning to look at him as he locked the car.

“Someone I can’t stand,” he said.

McGillis took off his hood as he got to them, tucking it under his arm and staring at them with glittering, obsidian eyes. Kellen was what one would call black Irish with darkeyes and deeply tanned skin. He sported a perfectly groomed beard and had spiky, black hair to match on top of his head, giving him an almost Middle Eastern appearance. Under the baggy yellow suit, Eoghan was very familiar with his almost too perfect body, ripped with muscle. He’d been the last man Eoghan had let into his bed and even though it had been over a year since he’d learned he was fucking around on him; it still stung every time he had to work with the man and try to stay civil.

“Nice to see you, Eoghan. You’re looking gorgeous as usual today.”

---