We talked a little about what we are up to, but they got the same story as Principal Duncan. Not because I don’t trust them, but they are all really quick to jump in to save me and we need to really know the origins of the trouble here at school. I need to know what the Cunningham’s are up to and what their angle is and I can’t do that with the guys in tow. Actually they are going to be helpful in keeping them distracted for us.
“I can’t believe you took Cunningham’s office from him. I thought you were joking.” Mateo laughs as we walk in.
The single mahogany desk is very upscale for a school, but very on par with his tastes and styles. Kevin Cunningham loves all things expensive and opulent. The wall behind the desk has a large window that overlooks they courtyard area behind the school between the elementary and middle and high school areas. This is where most students eat lunch on nice days. The wall furthest from the door has an extensive bookshelf that I thoroughly plan to look through. I’m not sure if all the books are decorative or if he actually uses them. The wall in front of the desk has a dark brown leather couch, similar to what Alpha Lucas has in his own office at the packhouse. The wall with his office door leading to the hallway has framed photographs of his family. Everything is very formal and no one looks happy to be in the photos.
“Perfect!” Jena growls, sitting behind the desk.
“What?!” We all ask at the same time.
“Lil, check your lock, has it been tampered with?” She doesn’t answer any of us, but that is Jena. She’s like a bloodhound when she’s on a mission and nothing is going to distract her train of thought.
“Doesn’t look like it from the outside. Why?” Jena puts her index finger up to her mouth indicating we should stay quiet. Someone has been here.
“I think someone has been in here, but they were good about covering their tracks.” She gets up and starts to move around the room, not making a sound. I’ve seen this before. She thinks someone has eyes or ears on us. “High school students are probably trying to play tricks on us, since we are new in the pack and the building.” She rolls her eyes as she looks through the books.
“What are you looking for? Can we help?” I ask over our team mindlink.
“Someone wiped the hard drive and then installed a mirroring code, but they are stupid or have no idea that someone in your team has basic computer knowledge and would have set up defenses for general, remedial level hacking. The microphone is live on the computer so I have to assume another one of those cameras we found in the hallway yesterday is probably here.”
“Should we help look, or stay put and act as a distraction?” Lil is always hoping to be a distraction, usually in the form of destruction.
“Let’s go with minor distraction in the form of talking too much, Lillian. Do not destroy the office!”
I link Oliver and Mateo to let them know what is happening while Lil rambles on.
“Well, I don’t know sh*t about computers. So we are just going to have to wait. I know Alpha King Reggie wanted us to go through all the high school files and start to pinpoint potentials for the next trials. We didn’t have as many people last summer as we did when Midge ran them. That was our biggest year yet.”
“We had just started so hopefully we can recover the information we gathered. It’s so frustrating to have to start over again.” I whine a little, walking over to the wall of pictures.
“What does that mean for your investigation?” Mateo asks.
“Nothing, really, we will have to gather our candidates manually which will take up more time, so we will have more hours here. Less time to hang out with you guys.” I keep up my pout while following my instincts to the family picture of the Cunninghams sitting on a side table. All the eyes seem to follow you no matter what angle you are to the picture. I get the chills thinking about any of them watching us, ever.
Then I see it, a small black camera set into the thick frame. If I hadn’t been training with Jena and Nathaniel and looking for sh*t like this for the last year, I would never have noticed it.
“Jena, got it.” She looks over at me and nods.
“Keep talking, I’ll take care of that one. We need to look for more. If it was me I would have one on each wall to cover all angles and blindspots.”
I relay to the guys and they keep playing along.
“You missed the first bonfire of the year, Shorty. We should
do another one to welcome you back, now that you are
stuck with us for a little while.” Mateo says.
“That would be awesome. We really don’t get a lot of downtime in between missions.”
“Are there really that many problems? Doesn’t Alpha Reggie have a lot of teams to work different missions?”
“Yeah, but our team has unique skills that make us the obvious or only choice for certain missions.” I shrug. Lil waves pointing to a camera inlaid in the frame of the window.
“Then we really need to relax one night.”
“You still the DD or have you graduated into the land of underage drinking with the rest of us?” Oliver’s attempt at being a smartass has Lil, Jena and I all laughing.
“I smile at him playfully, you’ll just have to find out. And this time the girls get to take body shots.”
“Yes!! I have no idea what you are talking about, but it sounds like a challenge.” Lil points at me. “I will always take a drinking challenge. When is this happening?”
“Sam is going to be so pissed he missed this conversation.” Oliver laughs darkly.
Mateo smiles, but ignores his comment. “The twins should be done with their patrols around lunch and we will trade out with them. They have a few things going on with the Alpha this afternoon going over pack business since so many imported things have been restricted or slowed down because of the rogues. Maybe after dinner we can make plans. That’s really the only time we are all together right now.”
We get a thumbs up from Jena as she moves to the desk and opens her laptop then logs into the desktop. Her fingers are flying away on the keyboard, moving between the two devices.
“Is there anything we can do to help with supplies? That is one of Lil’s specialties.”
“Not sure, I think the twins have it handled. I mean I haven’t seen any shortages yet, but we can mention it to them.” I just nod not really knowing how to respond.
After about ten minutes of silence, the only sounds are our breathing and the keys, Jena looks up.
