Novels2Search

Chapter 9

Breanna entered the silent tech room. Glancing around, she located the voices in the room's far corner. Valencia and Birgit were arguing between them. Frowning, she moved in their direction, worry tugging at her. Did she have to incarcerate them again? It wasn't easy the first time. A second time would wound her more than Valencia.

“Everything okay?” she asked, pausing as they startled.

“Oh, Bre,” Valencia gasped, “everything is fine.”

“No, it isn't," Birgit said, "you need to tell her."

“Tell me what?” Breanna asked. Silence followed the question. Breanna cleared her throat.

“Valencia was going through the information from the searches,” Birgit said, “she found that there are a lot of people who have gone missing, most like Mandy and Alexis.”

“Okay, so where are they disappearing to?” Breanna asked, looking at the computer screen.

“It seems they are being moved out of the country,” Valencia said, “we found a ... path between the missing people’s reports and where Jaxon has been travelling.”

“Go on,” Breanna sank into the chair next to their station, “what did you find?”

“When Jesse and I went through the information about Jaxon's travels, we noticed a few anomalies," Valencia said. "For instance, there would be many police reports on missing persons in an area days before he arrived. We ran missing person reports and used a facial recognition programme to try and locate any or all of these people."

“Another search was put into place to track Jaxon's travels globally," Birgit said. "Not only did we find the missing people, but we also found what we believe Jaxon was searching for."

Breanna waited, sighing with impatience. She met their gazes. It was always a strange sensation, "Tell me."

“Most of the missing people were found in or around those facilities we discovered," Valencia said, "there is more."

“Yes? Tell me everything,” Breanna said, “and I mean everything.”

Valencia grimaced.

“Heavens," Birgit muttered, frowning slightly, "the missing people were found in and around those research facilities were moved through a private port and shipping company."

“I know Jesse searched for information about the port and company," Breanna said.

“It came back to Jasmines’ Fathers company,” Birgit said, “Madden has been using the Calderone empire to extend this madness to a global scale.”

Breanna closed her eyes, breathing deeply, "This just keeps getting better ... by the look on Valencia's face, I can see there is more to this story than what has been told."

“We found that Jasmine has viewed that information," Valencia said quietly, "a few days ago. She knows about Madden's use of her father's empire."

Breanna pushed out of the chair, striding away before turning on her heels and pacing back toward her seat. Suddenly she stopped.

“Why hasn’t she said anything?” Brigit asked.

“She probably needs to process before being able to talk about it," Breanna said distractedly.

"What concerns me is how long Madden has been moving people out of the country? Where is he taking them to, and are they meant for experimentation or are they already enhanced?"

“We can look into that," Birgit said, "but Bre ... Jasmine saw that information nearly a week ago. Why hasn't she come to you about any of this? Do you think she knew about it and was hiding it?"

Breanna sighed, "I have no idea," Breanna said, "I mean to find out, but right now, I need more information."

“These are humans," Valencia said, pointing to a list of names on a missing person report. "These in this list, I'm guessing, are enhanced beings ... but I'd have to look into a few things before I'm sure."

“Can you not tell if they are enhanced?” Breanna asked.

“I need them to be present physically, " Valencia said. "I'm not able to know just by looking at a list.

The only thing telling me the possibilities one list has backgrounds, driver's licences and the like," she pointed to the list marked "possible humans.

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“I take it that the other list doesn’t have that against the names,” Breanna said, nodding.

“The names cannot be reported due to no birth certificate," Valencia said. "Those that have been reported are simply listed, a bulletin put out, but there is no case file due to no record of the person actually existing."

“How did Madden know of these people?” Breanna asked.

“Probably the same way he knew that Calderon empire was ready for the picking,” Birgit said,

“Jasmine did a lot more digging around than Jesse and Val.”

“How much digging?” Breanna asked.

“Further than the point we have gotten to," Birgit said, "there is a lot of traffic to and from that private port. Ships leave every week."

“Ships? Not a ship a month, but plural?” Breanna frowned, leaning on the back of the chair and hanging her head between her shoulders, “that is a lot of people. Are we talking steamers, passenger ships, cargo ships ... what exactly?”

“All of them,” Valencia and Birgit said in unison.

“Jasmine knew this?” Breanna asked.

“Yes,” Valencia whispered, “but we weren’t arguing about whether to tell you about that or not. We were arguing because we made a link between the ships, the transport trucks and the facilities.”

“Excuse me?" Breanna raised her head, "you found where these people are."

“We know where most of the missing people are," Valencia said, "Birgit wants to tell you where they are, and I wanted to wait until we had confirmation."

“Where are they?” Breanna asked.

“That is where we are finding a problem," Birgit sighed, "no matter how much we try and triangulate the exact positions of the facilities ..." she cleared her throat. "We seem to hit a technical wall ... if it could be called that."

“What kind of technical wall?” Breanna shook her head, frustration curling in her gut.

“It would seem there is either a signal jammers or we're locked out," Valencia said.

“Locked out by whom?” Breanna ground out.

“By me," Jasmine said from the open tech room door. "I needed to make sure of the facts before I ..." Jasmine moved toward them. "The information is damning, and I wanted to understand what I was looking at before I came to any of you."

Breanna straightened, looking at the pale woman, "Do you know what you're looking at?"

“I believe I do," Jasmine said, "here Val, punch in these codes, and you'll find what I did. If I correctly interpret what I'm seeing, Madden has been doing this for years."

“Will it stop with both Darcia and Madden terminated?” Breanna asked.

“If it's a well-oiled machine," Jasmine sighed, "I don't see why it would. But if they needed to authorise a part of the process, it may be a stumbling block to the entire structure.”

“What do these facilities do?” Breanna asked.

“Various things," Jasmine said, sinking into the chair Breanna had vacated. "I've put in for a full search of what each facility does, who runs them and what their standing is in the medical and scientific communities."

“When is that going to be available?” Breanna crossed her arms at her waist.

Jasmine glanced at her watch, “In another three hours.”

Nodding, Breanna turned to leave, "Keep on it. I want to know the driver's identity of every damn truck used and every ship's Captain's favourite flavour of ice cream by the time we're finished."

The doors opened, and Breanna turned to head to Michael's office, stopping short as Jasmine's now familiar vapour appeared in front of her.

“Bre,” Jasmine said as she appeared, “I wanted to apologise for not coming to you the moment I found that information.”

“Apology accepted,” Breanna said, making to move past her.

“Is that is? You're not angry?" Jasmine frowned.

Breanna turned suddenly, surprising a gasp out of Jasmine, her eyes flashing with anger, "Yes, I'm furious you kept this to yourself. I understand why you did it, and I'm willing to let it go. I am not willing to let go of the fact that you have distanced yourself while doing it. The teams have needed you. But you're either present and distracted, or you're not there at all."

Jasmine swallowed hard, “I was trying to put the pieces together before coming to you.”

“That's just it," Breanna said, "it wasn't necessary. You could have done so without putting the team's safety at risk. That trust has flown and will need to be earned again."

Breanna glared at the heavily breathing woman. Anger barely on a leash roared through her, she waited, but Jasmine simply nodded, murmured her agreement that she would do her best to earn everyone's trust and returned to the tech room.

Curling her hands into frustrated fists, Breanna stalked toward her brother's office, snarling a greeting to whomever she passed. She stopped at the training room and noted an empty shooting range and the training arena. Striding to one side, she located a punching bag. Emitting a rage-filled roar and let her fists fly, making contact and sending the bag swinging dangerously from the chain, holding it to the ceiling.

Never had she felt such hot rage before today. Never before had she required to vent her temper on someone after coming across the diabolical deeds found. Thudding her fists into the bag, she released her rage until she panted hard, her black t-shirt clinging to her sweaty, heaving chest and her arms hanging tiredly by her side.

“Feeling better?” Cara asked from the shadows.

Swinging around, Breanna scanned the room until she found the woman leaning against the wall inside the training arena.

“How long have you been standing there?" Breanna asked, walking to the drinking fountain, sluicing water over her face before drinking.

“Long enough to know that you're battling to keep your dark ability under control," Cara spoke softly. "I commend you for using a punching bag and not Jasmine."

Breanna reached for a towel to dry off her face as she stared at Cara, "Are you here to make sure I don't erupt or is there something else?"

“At first, to calm you down. After hearing your thoughts, I figured you'd feel better venting on something built to sustain your punches," Cara nodded toward the swaying punching bag.

“And now?” Breanna asked, wiping her damp arms and neck.

“Now I think a shower is in order and perhaps as chat with Michael about Craig being replaced by Phoenix on some of the black ops we’re doing at night.”

“What black ops?” Breanna frowned, stilling at looking at Cara searchingly.

“That's what I call it when our team goes out into the field," Cara grinned, "I can't think of a better name since we've had to go dark. I think it'll catch on."

Breanna stared at Cara for a moment before chuckling.

"Thank you. I was finding it hard to come back from ..." indicating the punching bag, "your sense of humour is," Breanna frowned in thought, "unique."

“You are welcome," Cara smiled at her, "get going. You don't want your brother to come looking for you ..." she waved Breanna toward the doorway, "go ... go ... go."

Shaking her head, Breanna left the training arena leaving Cara standing where she left her. The doors closed, Breanna disappeared, and the smile vanished from Cara's lips. Concern and worry were etched deep between her brows.

“How much longer are you going to ignore the warning signs?" she whispered the question to the empty room. "I hope you take time to figure yourself into the many equations in your head."

Clenching her hands together, Cara closed her eyes, breathed deeply, releasing the residual tension from her body and followed Breanna from the room. There was much to do on this long journey they were all on. A small voice whispered in the recesses of her brain that this was just the beginning of shocking and frightening discoveries. Hoping they would make it out alive and bring innocents with them. Cara answered a mental request and left the room.