To The Grave - Chapter Four

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Having sent two of his teammates on errands, and suddenly feeling claustrophobic, Kyle stood from his chair, grabbed the light jacket off the back of his seat and motioned with his head. "Come on," he said while pocketing a few things off his desk.

Celia looked up at him. "Where?"

"It’s too stuffy in here. Grab your portable, download what you need, and let’s go." He turned and walked to the door.

She caught up with him outside, and hurried to keep pace as he started to walk without a word. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"You’ll see."

They walked out of the main gate and into the street that lead to the downtown core or Halifax, and continued on for about twenty minutes in silence. She had tried to start conversations, but dropped the idea after getting nothing beyond one-word responses. He seemed to be walking no where in particular, although seemed to have a set destination in mind. They had stopped for a coffee on the way, and headed through the city after leaving the vendor.

The tall buildings of the downtown core rose above them, the glass structures reflecting the noon hour light. Traffic was normally heavy for the time of day, and both pedestrians and sightseers crowded the sidewalks.

For a few minutes, she thought they were heading for the Citadel, but he bypassed the historic property and headed back towards the harbor. Suddenly he stopped on a small bluff overlooking a beach area promenade, and sat down on the grass.

"Here?" Celia asked, not overly impressed with having to sit on the grass, or the distance they had traveled. She could see the military base from where they sat, and wondered why he had taken a rather scenic route instead of one that would had taken them less than five minutes.

He gave her an unimpressed look. "We just walked the route that Senator Plow is scheduled to take in eight days time for her speech on the Promenade below."

Celia could feel her cheeks burning with embarrassment and slight shame. She hadn’t noticed the route they were taking, and had figured that he was just trying to annoy her.

"Logically thinking, that would be the best time to hit her, since security would be stretched to its limit." He took a sip from his coffee, regarding her over the rim of the cup. "Although, the rumored assassin doesn’t like to do things the logical way, so that would cut down the opportunities significantly." He paused for another sip. "There are seven locations that are promising, and that we are going to check out after we’ve checked a few other things."

"Such as?" she asked, suddenly feeling the need to have some input in the conversation. She had assumed him to be a ‘has-been’, but he was showing her that her assessment might have been wrong.

He finished his coffee and tossed the cup easily into a recycling receptacle a few feet away. "For starters, you’re going to have to pay attention to your surroundings." He noticed that her face turned red again, this time from annoyance. "Then, we’re going to get the other two ‘kids’, have them check long range weather forecasts, building business hours, and current employment records for everyone who works in the buildings that are most likely to appeal to the assassin.

"We won’t have to check on any residential buildings, since it would be too obvious to notice someone who doesn’t belong there," he paused and looked out over the harbor. "Also, I want a distance reading from the Dartmouth shoreline, and from the bridges. We need identification on all personal craft registered in the harbor, as well as registration for all business vessels that are scheduled to be here that day."

"Is that all?" she asked in a mildly sarcastic tone.

"For now." He looked at her. "After we’re done that, we’ll need to sweep the area below."

"Her own security will already have done that."

"Her own security couldn’t find their asses with a map and directions." He noticed that she had to suppress a smile at that. "Keren Pelgrew is a consummate professional, and is very expensive. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a contact either inside the Senator’s office, or inside CAA."

Celia realized her mouth was open in surprise and she closed it. "You think she has someone inside?"

"There’s always someone inside." He shrugged. "We have people inside other countries, they have people inside ours...its all politics. Keren knows too much and gets her information far too easily, so it’s not…unthinkable…that…" He stopped as he noticed a woman walking across the cobble stone pathway on the promenade below. She had a see-through shirt on and tight pants. It wasn’t her look that had attracted him, but her walk. He would know that walk anywhere.

"Record," he said in a hollow voice, not noticing that Celia immediately took out her small computer, flicked a button, and pointed it in the direction he had been staring.

"What am I looking for?"

"Female, mid-thirties, dark blonde hair, walking in front of the café." His voice sounded strange to him, and he was wondering why he was sitting there watching, instead of running down the hill after her.

"Got her," Celia whispered. "Do we follow?" She looked at him and noticed he was staring at the woman. She looked back in time to see the woman stop, turn, and look directly at them. Then she strolled away as if she didn’t have a care in the world. "Commander?"

Kyle shook his head slightly. "No. We don’t follow. She knew we were here, or knew we would be here. She’s playing with us, and I’m not biting." He brought his small communicator up and spoke into it. "We’re sending a video now," he paused to point at Celia, who immediately sent the recording back to their office. "Run it, print it up, and have people on the look out for this woman. I want three teams following her. The first is to make it obvious, the second not so obvious, and the third is to be invisible. We can’t spook her or else we’ll never find her until it’s too late." He shut off his communicator and looked at his partner. "Break’s over."