Chapter 56

"While we are gone," I said to Alice, as Jeremy and I headed out the door to plant the camera and relay, "Why don't you update those floor plans for the youth hostel."

"I did as you suggested and made lots of cell phone pictures. I will annotate the building's interior with those," Alice agreed. "The Church must have liked three story structures. The nunnery is the same basic design as the school. It is smaller but everything else is the same, a center hall with rooms or cubicles on either side and like the shelter the third floor is empty. They didn't much want me up there, but I convinced them to let me at least verify there were no hazards. None of the rooms seemed to be ready for use. But they were basically the same as the other rooms. They could be made ready in just a few minutes. I planted the bugs as well as the infrared markers," Alice said in a burst that stopped us from our chore long enough to listen.

"Okay get to your drawing while we are gone," I suggested.

"You got your stuff?" Jeremy asked.

"What's to have. I have a camera, a repeater, and a deer hunters night scope," I replied. The taxi dropped me off two blocks from what had been the school. It was the homeless shelter at that time.

The playground, behind the school building, had been converted to a park. At 2 AM the park was empty. I made sure no one was using it as a short cut, then I slip into the darkness. I quickly found the tree Wilson had pointed out. I managed to locate a thick branch jutting out of the tree. I would have liked it to be a foot higher but I managed by standing on the tips of my toes to mount the camera. The base plate had a gizmo that looked like a short corkscrew on it with a tee handle. I twisted it into the tree limb at a spot that would give me a decent view of the hostel's rear. I didn't worry about prints or DNA since I wore gloves because of the cold. Wilson had been extremely careful in prepping it for me. I also hoped that it wouldn't be found until several years had passed. The repeater, which looked like a cheap cell phone, I placed on a different limb of the tree. That I secured with a gray hose clamp. It would not be noticeable. Any passerby, who even bothered to look would mistake it for a tumor on the tree.

The camera would also be able to pick up the heat signal of any thing, or anyone inside. I was mostly interested in the third floor. We wouldn't be able to tell who, but maybe we could tell how many, I thought.

I left the park and called Jeremy for a pick up. When he arrived at the pickup site a block from the compound, I got into the rear like any other customer would have.

"Well?" Jeremy asked.

"The nunnery is on line now. We should setup a site for people to watch what happens in there," I suggested. "I bet we would soon be the hottest porn site on the net. Ghosts of nuns watching two girls having sex."

"Not a bad idea when this is over," Jeremy said.

"We will have to take turns monitoring the cameras and bugs till you go in tomorrow," I suggested.

"Now that everyone knows about phone cloning, guys who have a lot to hide are extremely careful how they do business," he suggested.

"Yes even if you clone his phone and I GPS mark his car, we still have to consider burners and the dead air spaces in his home," I agreed.

"When the so called good guys get here, we may have to follow him with a directional mic," Jeremy said.

"We will see. Let's get home, I need sleep badly," I said.

When we got home, I checked the mail. I had an email from Andrew. It read simply. 'Guest will be in at 07:00 party of six.' It was in what they called open code. Any number given was to be modified based on the misinformation. I knew there should be 3 people in the party. So we had to add three to the original number making the arrival time at 10 AM.

"Now what?" Jeremy asked.

"We check the DMV for his car," I said.

"It's a new Cadillac Escalade and I got the license number," he said once he checked the info Wilson left us. "I didn't even have to look it up."

"Let's take the cab and go to his condo parking lot. We can get a marker on the car. Looks like you might get a reprieve from playing a homeless old man," I said.

It was a three and a half minute drive to the parking lot outside the condo. Even though it was a gated community, the gate was open and unmanned. There was a cctv camera on the post. The homeowner's association had no doubt exchanged a paid employee for a camera. It was a heck of a lot more efficient. It almost never needed a day off.

But it can't question the people, not even the ones who arrive in a taxi driven by a man with a beard and knit cap.

"There we are," Jeremy said pointing to the caddy.

"Pull in behind him and stop," I said. I quickly slipped between the cars, and gently attached the GPS chip. I did it so gently that it didn't set the alarm off. I was back in the cab within 15 seconds. We left quickly enough so that the call might have looked like a mistake. I don't think anyone ever saw the taxi, even if they did, the neighbors might think it was a false call.

On the way home I had Jeremy stop so I could pick up some take out biscuits. The sun would be up in a couple of hours and I was hungry.

"I have the coffee pot on," Alice said when we walked into the house. "It is really hard to monitor all these cameras."

"You really only need to monitor the door cameras right now. If you go wide angle you can see the driveway entrance and just watch where the cars or trucks go. To be honest I'm expecting the good guys to call us, if there is a problem. Then we will be on duty. Somehow tomorrow we need to clone the Good Father's phone. Jeremy get some sleep you still might have to go in there."

"Okay, I know you are beat, but can you give me a couple of hours break? I promise I will be back to the monitors soon?" Alice asked with a suggestive smile.

"Sure, but do what you have to do by noon. I expect you to give me a break then. Nothing is going to happen till after 10 AM for sure. You haven't heard anything that might be a plan have you?" I asked.

"No I would have told you, if I had," she said.

The Good Father showed for breakfast with the homeless and the hungry immigrants. I could hear him on the inside bugs. "How are the eggs this morning?" he asked a woman with a young child,

"They are very Good Father," she replied. "Thank you so much for the food."

"It isn't me you should thank, it is all the good people who donate to the charity. They are Compadres and some North Americanos as well."

He walked past her then asked a homeless man, "How did you sleep last night?"

"I don't like sleeping inside. If it wasn't so damn cold, I would be outside where I can breath," he said.

"The weather will change soon, but you will always have a place here padre," he said then moved on to his office. The office was bugged thanks to Alice.

I wondered why I hadn't picked him up on the alarm companies microphones in the Good Father's house. I should have heard him dressing before he left for the shelter. I wondered if the microphones were turned off or something. Then I found it. For some reason Wilson had turned the volume of the device that monitored the Good Father's house almost off. Too much sensory stimulation I suspected. It was too much for me for sure. He and possibly Alice knew which ones to monitor. The bugs were spread over three tablets. The cameras required the use of two more notebook type devices.

The cloning of the phone became less important, but I still wanted to do it if for no other reason than to be thorough. Jeremy and I also needed to purchase a motor scooter. It was going to be another full day, I expected.

Jeremy got out of bed when Alice did, so I had them both to deal with at lunchtime. Alice went into the kitchen to reheat some frozen pot pies. I didn't hate them, if there was enough hot sauce on them. While she ate in front of the monitors, I explained to Jeremy.

"We need to get that scooter today. The man should be here by now," I suggested. "Even though we aren't going to follow him, I have an idea about cloning the Good Father's phone, maybe even the burn phone.

"Oh yeah what kind of idea?" Jeremy asked.

"I will follow him on the scooter and when he gets on the phone while driving, I will pull up along side and clone him. So we need that scooter today," I said.

"What if you can't keep up," Jeremy asked.

"Then you pick him up with the taxi and let me know where he is just to be sure I don't lose him."

By 3 PM I had the scooter with its paperwork in the name of Lillian Anderson. I have no idea where Andrew came up with those names and fake IDs, but I had plenty of them yet to go. I paid $2500 for 150cc scooter and the man threw in the helmet. I chose it because it was a small scooter with a big engine. It would do what I needed it to do and still look small enough so as not to need registering. I would need to fake it for only a week or so, I suspected.

The weather was still cool enough, so that I didn't draw any attention wearing gloves even during the warmest part of the day. If I had to bail from the scooter, I wanted to leave no fingerprints behind.

Jeremy and I sat down the street from the shelter with Alice carefully monitoring all the equipment. My burner rang, "The dog is on the prowl," she said. I had no idea where she got that, but I understood it.

Jeremy started the taxi and we stood by. I got out of the warm car and into the chilly afternoon air. The sun was also over the horizon when he finally hit the road. I fell in behind him on the scooter with the visor tightly secured.

I followed the Good Father through the streets until we ended up in front of a fancy restaurant in a fashionable part of Washington. I was dressed for warmth not for posh, so I had to wait outside. I did want to know who he met, but I couldn't do it myself.

I called Alice and told her to put on a dress and Jeremy would be by for her shortly. When she got inside I told her to wait in the bar for her date. I also gave her a few other instructions. Then I sent Jeremy's taxi service for her. I told him not to take time to change, but to hurry back.

I could only hope that in the fancy setting the Good Father would not recognize Alice as the building inspector. I had that thought over and over until Jeremy pulled over beside me. I pushed the phone cloning device through the taxi window to Alice. I watched as the taxi delivered Alice to the restaurant.