Chapter 60: Unplanned Mission

With all of the stuff in the news about how terrorists were using burner phones, I would have expected more problems getting me a new cell phone and setting it up as a pre-paid account. The woman at the counter could have cared less after I pulled out a credit card with my Jacob David Smith name on it and a fake ID from a high school somewhere in Maine. She seemed more than happy to ring up close to a thousand dollars for the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, SIM Card and case. A few minutes to get it activated and I was good to go. I turned it right back off before leaving the store.

Outside I no idea in hell as to where I was. I walked around a bit until I found I was at the Van Ness – UDC metro station. I quickly went down the stairs to get off the street. Just inside there was a school group of kids talking about different places near various subway stations. I saw that two stops down from here was the zoo. If there was any place to really disappear for a kid, it was a zoo with tons of school groups wandering around.

I was sure the "ghost in the machine" was watching me now. As soon as I got to a vending machine to buy a SmartTrip card, one popped out of the machine along with a paper receipt. It said Thank You for purchasing an unlimited use Smart Trip Metrorail Pass. I didn't stand around wondering about it, I hurried to the train to get to the zoo.

It was a shorter ride than I expected and I was glad I guessed correctly that there would be lots of school groups around. At the zoo entrance there were lots of groups waiting to go in. I found a bench where I could get my new phone working. As soon as it booted up I got a text for me to get my original phone from the front pocket of my suitcase, put the battery back in and turn it on. While I was waiting on my old phone to boot I noticed my new phone was showing a green robot with the front opened up. Something started getting loaded onto it as my old phone started alerting to voice mails and texts.

The emails were all from kids on the busses being bored and sending out Facebook updates, Snapchat invites, Twitter posts and links to webpages they thought were funny. None of them had my cell phone number, so all of the texts were from Paula, at first, and then Steve and Jane. With how the phone was secured, no one but me could get to them or I am sure no one would send me any texts other than those three.

Paula's texts started as generic checking in texts and asking me if I wanted to meet up to go eat somewhere. When I had not answered her, she sent one where she actually apologized for not being able to be around me alone right now. The next started out like that, but then I could tell she was angry I was not replying to the one with her apology in it. The last two were her sounding very worried. She said she hacked the hotel computer and it showed the last time someone used my room was two days before we checked in. Sometime in the middle of first day of my interrogation, Jane and Steve both started sending texts asking where I was staying on my visit so we could get together to do dinner that night. Before I could try reply to them my new phone chimed to get my attention.

"Phone secured and content copied. Running diagnostics on original phone. Answer incoming call," a message said before the phone started ringing.

There was no caller ID or anything and it answered without me doing anything.

A computerized voice said, "No one has followed. Take Uber driver in blue Camry at curb. Make calls from destination."

It took a minute to find the blue Camry. When I was inside the driver said nothing to me as he drove away and through downtown. I was let off right outside the U.S. Mint. I took my suitcase out and got my phone to see if I had something telling me what to do now.

The screen on my phone had a message saying to go inside and to handicapped gate. I was to put my high security badge on a green square with a white X. The gate would unlock and let me around security. A guard may stop me initially, but he would then let me pass without question. I was directed to go to the elevators to the second floor, take a right and enter the third door on the left. My access badge would unlock it. Inside on the right was an empty office I could use to make my phone calls securely.

Other than a lot of questioning looks from people here, no one stopped me as I went to right where the message on my phone had said.

My new phone had a button on the screen which started a four-way call with Steve, Jane and Paula. I heard a message telling me to wait for the parties to all join the call. Once they were all on I gave them an overview about how I met Tia and Tara at the hot tub and then how they came back to my room to crash. They begged to stay to keep from going back to whatever their parents were doing to entertain people in their suite. Steve was really pissed when he heard about how I had been abducted and they tried to torture me to tell them about sleeping with the girls. His people should have seen it happening. They were there to protect me. Steve and Jane were both very surprised about the response I got just by taking the high security badge out of the shielded sleeve. Jane really asked a lot of questions about details regarding the building where I had been with girls.

"Steve there are a lot of embassy's right there and no way to know for sure if these people were only visiting or residents. Without David's phone on at the time, we will have no idea who they are or what they may know about David," Jane told us.

I explained about how the girl's father got very worried looking and pale when I said no one had better ever be able to know anything about me. If any record existed around me or someone said something I would know it.

"Whatever this badge told them when it alerted the guard must have scared the crap out of them. It really sounded like the man on the guard's phone was very important and from how the guard talked to him. The man was really pissed about being called. Not long after he showed up in the room he was promising me anything I could ever want as a way for him to apologize to me for what his security teams did to me," I told them. "I didn't have any idea what I could do or say to him. I was guessing when I tried to make it so no one he knew, would ever know or anyone even remotely involved with should ever think about me again. Without any experience with stuff like this I could only try stuff from movies and TV. Other than the girl's names, I have no idea about anything else. I bet the girls lied to me about their names."

I answered Jane and Steve's questions until they seemed happy finally. I got some suggestions about keeping my dick in my pants and not letting girls I didn't know sleep in my room.

Paula jumped in to say, "Tia and Tara are the correct names for the two girls. I was able to find them based on the body description of the twin's distinctive figures and that fact that one dyes her hair to match that of her twin. I have not yet found any details out about the family name or home country. Someone has gone to great lengths to prevent anything other than their first names to be tied to the two girls. I will continue to dig further."

They were all surprised when I told them I was calling from an empty office in the U.S. Mint. We discussed what I was to do now.

"David the busses from your school are due to arrive at the hotel later this evening. Rooms have already been assigned. It would be best if you could make your way there now. By the time you arrive you should be able to pick up your room key. Paula will be arriving separately later," Steve told me. "If you are able to find a tourist trap gift shop in the vicinity, go purchase a baseball cap and put on the goggles Jane said originated from outside of my companies. For better camouflage you can find a t-shirt that has some completely obnoxious or PG-rated image on it in the brightest possible color offered. The more you look like an obnoxious high school kid trying to piss everyone off around you, the more people will work that much harder to ignore you. Hiding in plain sight is all about being as conspicuous as possible."

Jane added, "Get a pair of earbuds and connect them to your cell phone. You don't have to play any music for people to just assume you are. Also frequently stop to take pictures with your phone using the P-Camera app. This sends high res photos to a server that puts them through facial recognition software Paula has access too. It will quickly analyze faces against all known criminal, state and federal employee databases, including those for off the books and black-ops teams."

Ok this is getting really scary now. Some of these people kill without a thought. I am not sure I want to be in this deep.

"If you go south on 9^th Street to F Street you will find the International Spy Museum store. Across the street toward 8^th Street is a souvenir shop just past McCormick and Schmick's restaurant. Both should have everything you need to make you harder to track. I also suggest you find a store with backpacks and move your stuff out of the suitcase you had before. It will make things a lot easier to ensure you are not bugged," Jane told me.

As I was walking out of this office I heard some commotion coming from the other end of this office space. Carefully I moved a bit that way to try to hear what was going on.

Davey you should know better!

Out of nowhere a man comes up behind me with a scary gun pointing at me.

"What are you doing in here kid? This is a secured facility. Place your hands where I can see them," he yelled at me.

Of course that brought everyone from the other area over, who also just happened to be armed to the teeth, and wearing bullet proof vests with "U.S. Treasury" on them. A few had Treasury ball caps and blue jackets on just like on TV.

I slowly reached into my pocket, opened the secured case and took out my high security access badge before saying, "I needed a secure location to make a phone call. I was directed to this office."

You would have thought I pulled out some sort of pocket nuke from how fast everyone moved away. The one with the gun on me did not look happy to see the badge as he let his gun hang of the attached lanyard.

"Sorry sir for the misunderstanding. Not even the president has access to this staging area. Feel free to continue your business," he told me. "If I or my team can be of any assistance, please let me know."

Wow he actually sounded sincere! What the hell have I got to lose? Smiling back at him, as he appeared to be waiting to be dismissed so he could get the hell away from my high security badge too, I said. "As a matter of fact, on my call I was told that I may be getting followed and need to find clothing so conspicuous as to be over the top outrageous. I am not familiar with this part of D.C. If you have the spare gear, could I gear up with your team and ride to your destination to depart from there?"

Yeah I thought there was no way in hell...

He just yelled, "Agent Summers load him out, full gear. He is riding with us."

I was just expecting to get a jacket and a cap.

I should be clearer in what I request when I have this badge out! How the hell was I to know what to ask for?

Before I even had a chance to think about what I asked, a blond agent came over and told me to follow her. She took me to a wide office door.

"One moment sir, I do not have the proper authorization to access this armory," she told me, "I need to call it in."

The door clicked loudly as soon as I put my badge next to the keypad and said, "Thanks, but I have access."

Her eyes really went wide as she walked into the room in front of me.

Damn she has a nice butt!

I was actually wondering how good she might screw me with such a muscular butt when I made it into the room. That thought blew right out my ears when I caught sight of what they had secured in this room.

This is a video gamer's wet dream.

Things I had only seen in video games were here lining the walls. It was stuff not even in movies!

Not even asking me first, she pulled my shirt over my head. I was trying to kick my shoes off when she pulled my pants down to my feet, ignoring my boxers completely. As I tried to get my stuff out of the pockets she was measuring around me quickly. A black long-sleeved t-shirt was pulled over my head and then she had me walk around the corner. I was made to stand back against a yellow background and she asked me my name.

"Smith"

She did not question it as she typed something into a Toughbook laptop. A bar was pulled out from the wall that she used to take my picture and then had me come back to where we had been before.

More measurements. I was given a pair of stretchy pants to try on. They were a bit too long, but fit great in the crotch.

"Mr. Smith, you will grow into them soon enough," was all she said as she lightly patted my small bulge.

Things moved a lot faster from there. In ten minute she had me wearing some sort of very high tech, light weight body armor. It covered me from my shoulders to my ankles. On top of that I was fitted for a slightly heavy bullet proof vest like she was wearing. It took her a few minutes to find a pair of boots for me, but I was tying them as she quickly moved my laptop, tablet, chargers and cables into a Kevlar reinforced, padded part of a dark blue backpack. In the front she stuffed in the few clothes from my suitcase.

Holding the now completely empty suitcase she asked, "Ok for me to proceed to incinerate?"

I just nodded as I worked myself back to my feet. The armor and vest were heavier than I was used to having on my body. It had me off balance until I got used to how it felt when I moved around.

Without the shield sucking in energy and keeping my muscles charged up I would fall over carrying all of this weight.

When I turned she was shoving things in the pockets of the vest and then she put a strap over my neck that was connected to the machine gun now in front of me.

"MP5SD-N1. Fully suppressed 9x19mm Parabellum. It has a standard 30 round clip with the Navy option, semi-auto, 3-round burst, and full auto settings," she told me as she pointed to the selector switch. "It has very little recoil and you will only hear the charging handle cycling. It is equipped with red, green and blue selectable laser sights. Our team uses blue exclusively. For everyone's safety, do not chamber a round unless ready to engage hostiles."

She then put some smaller clips around my belt, clipped on a holster and handed me a Glock 17 with a 17-shot magazine and spare 30 shot clips. A long black tube was then put into another holder on my belt.

"Insert over the handgun barrel, twist and lock into place should suppression be required in close quarters," she said in an all business like voice.

Finally she took my new phone, removed the case, and replaced it with a black one she said was a mil spec Kevlar and metal composite. I got it back with the new badge she just made me. It had "U.S. Treasury, Smith" and my picture. The badge looked pretty much like the Top Secret ones I had on the mission. I quickly put the high security badge back in the security case. The US Treasury one went on a lanyard she gave me to store it between my vest and body armor.

I pulled on my backpack and grabbed the helmet she held out for me before I followed her back out of the room. We had missed whatever briefing they had been having about their mission. As soon as we got over to their group, we all moved quickly to an elevator just outside the office space and rode down to get into black SUVs and cars having completely blacked out windows. I had no idea where we were going, but I looked the part, even if it was way overboard for what I expected.

Luckily we were not all that far from wherever they were going. With no one else talking I just remained completely quiet. When we got out I saw we were in an alley down behind two, three-story buildings. One group moved to the side and disappeared around it toward the front. The other group moved down toward a door. A man in this group was carrying a shotgun. I stayed back by the cars as there was a silent count and then the one with the shotgun blew the lock off the door.

"U.S. Treasury! Hands in the air," I heard them yelling as they rushed in.

There were a lot of loud gunshots at the beginning, but they slowed down to just a few before stopping altogether. Minutes later, there were sirens and all manners of police and other people running toward the building with guns drawn. I remained by the SUV as they moved around me to slowly approach the building. Only one of them even glanced at the U.S. Treasury ID I had pulled out. For all they knew I could be one of the people they were looking to catch. When I saw people coming out in handcuffs, I couldn't resist walking in to look around. All there was on this floor were lots of computers on desks. Nothing looked worth shooting a people over. I was glad to find that none of the people from the U.S. Treasury were hurt during their raid. Two had taken some hits in their body armor, but that would only leave a bruise.

Maybe it was what I thought I had done to the child sex slavers or too many hours of video games, but the shot up bodies I walked past did not seem to bother me at all. I would have to ask Steve or Jane about it when I next saw them. Shouldn't seeing a guy with half his head missing or one with his guts blown out through a hole in is back bother me? I was sure it had to really stink in here too, but I was not even picking up the smell of guns, guts, blood or smoke from a few smoldering monitors.