Page 20 of S.O.S. Perk

“Hello everyone,” he said magnanimously. “Welcome to SOS. I’m Henry Perkins.” None of these agents—with the exception of Sloane—were ones he’d worked with before. Whilehe included them all in the greeting, he had eyes only for the stunning woman who looked hot as hell in her regulation attire, even after a full day of work.

Perk cleared his throat. “Follow me, and the boss will make the rest of the introductions.”

Of course, Sloane wouldn’t need any. They’d all met her before. The director and Del were also old friends. But the other two individuals, a male and a female, both a little older, were a blank slate.

Once in the room, Sloane and the other female agent went right to the coffee pot and poured themselves big mugs. The others…

“Can I get you two something to drink?” Perk asked the pair of male agents. “Water? Soda?”

“I’ll take a water,” Baskins said, but the older man just shook his head—his face permanently set on “dour”—before he sat down.

“Okay,” Del called the meeting to order, and in quick fashion, he and Baskins introduced everyone who was unfamiliar with each other. Once that was out of the way, the SOS team greeted the newcomers who were…Baskins, the head of the department, Agent Tertia of the coffee, and Agent Smalley of the grizzled glower.

Del then addressed Director Baskins. “So, Emil. Why don’t you fill us in on what you’ve got.”

The director came right to the point. “I’m sorry we had to call this meeting on such short notice, but time, as you will find out, is already not on our side. We found out about this case just a few hours ago. The local police in Waterston have been sitting on it for the last seven weeks, thinking they could solve it, but yesterday things escalated and this afternoon the shit hit the fan.”

Del leaned forward, as did all the members of the team while Baskins outlined the salient points of the case, starting with the money grabs from people’s accounts, and ending with the disappearance of one Kaelyn Jefferson.

“I contacted the detective in charge,” Baskins went on. “And after finding out that Kealyn went missing, he eagerly gave me all the information his department had already amassed, which isn’t much.” Baskins handed each SOS member a single sheet of paper.

Perk read his quickly, and huffed. There definitely wasn’t a lot to go on.

“I won’t put any blame on the locals…except for not contacting us sooner. They did what they could, not knowing of course, that things would move beyond theft. They tried to do their best with what they’d uncovered, but as you all know, dealing with crypto is a nightmare.”

There were nods all around, except from Sarge, who looked…smug?

Del must have noticed. “Sarge? You have something to say?”

“Yeah. I’ve been experimenting a lot with AI,” he apprised the group. “With that as a tool, I’ve been making some decent inroads into following trails to and from crypto accounts.”

Sarge held up a hand when Baskins went to speak, clearly needing the director to give him another minute. “That’s not to say I’m anywhere near as proficient as some of the kids in that high school might be. Their supple-synapses absorb new technologies far faster than what our older, ossified brains are capable of. But I’ll dig into things and see what I can find.” He looked excited at the prospect.

“Good,” Baskins replied. “And our Agent Smalley here is also computer savvy, so you and he will be working together, closely.”

Perk almost wanted to laugh at the pained expression that crossed Sarge’s face. Sarge was a bit of a savant, and didn’t play well with others—except the team, of course. But clearly he was going to have to suck this up.

“Right. Now to get to the meat of things,” Baskins continued, addressing Del. “We want your man Perk, here, to go into the high school, undercover. Agent Vessers told us he could pose as a student, and I see,” he let his glance glide over to Perk, “that she was correct.”

He addressed Perk. “You don’t look a day over seventeen, Mr. Perkins.”

Perk managed to hold back his grimace. “It’s Perk, Director Baskins, and yes, at the age of twenty-eight I still get carded when I want a beer.”

“That’s good. It plays into just what we need.” His face grew serious. “Del?”

“You have my blessing,” the boss answered without hesitation. Time really was of the essence.

Baskins outlined details. “Late today my office fast-tracked some paperwork and transcripts to the school, giving Perk a fake name and background as a transfer student. We’ve made it look like the info was given to the administration weeks ago, but somehow it got lost in their system and overlooked.” Once again, he glanced at Perk, directly. “When you go in tomorrow to introduce yourself, those records will magically appear, and I’m assuming they’ll be very apologetic about the screw-up.

“You’ll meet with Agent Vessers’ contact, Melissa Phillipoff, who will then get you settled. She doesn’t know your real identity, nor your connection to Agent Vessers. No one at the school will. Your objective is to stay under the administrations’ radar thereafter, acclimate quickly to the student body, come off to your fellow classmates as somewhat of a troublemaker, thenswiftly attempt to infiltrate whichever of them is perpetrating these crimes.”

“With an emphasis on finding out what happened to Kaelyn Jefferson,” Perk added astutely.

“Correct,” Baskins agreed. “We have to hope that, for now, they’ve got her stashed safely somewhere. But the more time that goes by, the more the possibility becomes that they’ll need to get rid of her.”

“I understand,” Perk responded solemnly.

Finally.Here was a case where Perk could put his youthful appearance to good use. If he could solve this kidnapping, it might help make up for years of him railing at the universe for not letting him age appropriately.

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