Phoenix Phire

"Last chance to stay here and take your chances, but if I'm right, this is going to get very hot, very fast." Quicksilver had disappeared for two hours before returning with a large maintenance van that had been refurbished into a personal RV.

Dex stared at the RV like he was seeing the Taj Mahal. The vehicle had been lovingly repurposed into a comfortable living space by someone who knew what they were doing. On the outside roof was a solar panel with a hand-sized satellite in each corner. It had the latest Tech-nex battery core capable of running an average house for a week without recharging. Inside the engine was an additional excelsior alternator that had the sole purpose of restoring the battery whenever the vehicle was driven.

"You have four mini-sats?" Dex felt jealousy oozing from his pores. As excellent as the outside was, the inside was even better.

The blond smiled widely and nodded even though they were working under pressure. Quicksilver always talked while she worked; her innate ability was to thrive when others wilted away. "Had to drop my baby off to make room for this clunker."

While she was gone, Dex had carefully disassembled the Trip-777 capsule. Because of the need to not disturb the outer coating, he was forced to gut the inner components so that the two of them could move the outer shell down the barn stairs.

"I can't believe you took this apart in less than two hours." Quicksilver helped lift one side of the pod as they carefully slid it through the open rear doors of her ride.

Dex felt the smallest resurgence of jealousy. He had been looking forward to seeing her pod. Judging from the inside of the RV, it would have been the latest cutting-edge capsule.

The inside of the van had all the comforts of home but on a smaller scale. Oven, stove, small kitchen counter complete with sink, shower stall with a toilet, comfortable couch, and a full-sized fridge. Dex noted that the refrigerator was the newest top-of-the-line model; without a doubt, Quicksilver was a foodie.

Quicksilver slid her end of the stealth pod in; it was large and cumbersome compared to her own. She noticed Dex's inspection of her RV. "Staring at my fridge? Don't judge, Dextron!"

Dex sighed heavily; of course, she could read minds… "Where's the bed?"

Immediately after the words left his mouth, he felt the awkwardness of the statement. "What I meant was…." The sentence was left incomplete; his people skills were somewhat tragic.

Quicksilver laughed good-naturedly. "We'll work on your conversation skills; until then, let me do the talking."

Dex nodded in agreement.

"Beds on the ceiling, above the pod." Quicksilver pointed to a large square panel that blended in seamlessly with the ceiling of the van. "It lowers down one meter, and houses a comfortable bunk, but I usually sleep in the pod."

They finished their reconstruction of the pod but left the hard drive out of it. Quicksilver stored it away under the van's counter and locked it up. While she was doing this, Dex disappeared inside of his home. When he returned, he was carrying a small duffle bag that was covered in dirt.

The female hacker frowned at the grime-covered bag; it obviously had been buried. "Don't make a mess of my home, Dex!"

"No worries." Dex opened the duffle and removed a slightly smaller bag before casting the dirty one aside. "Double bagged it."

Quicksilver stared at the bag in question; if Dex had buried it, obviously, it was something he wasn't allowed to have. "What's your plan for Casper?"

The word Casper for hackers was self-explanatory, it was an industry term for disappearing without a trace. "I set up a relay inside that will piggyback my ankle bracelets self-diagnostic. It should fool the local monitor station for a while; I'm guessing two hundred miles." Dex entered the pod since he wanted to remain invisible from the eyes of the DoD satellite while he worked.

"Don't use the ankle bracelet's router; my ride has a better built-in." Quicksilver glanced back at the barn. More than anything, she wanted to peek at the kid's relay. "Did you keep the toaster array?"

Dex nodded and grabbed the pod's door. "I did. Probably should have tossed it."

Quicksilver grinned suddenly. "Don't even think about it! Gonna show my boys that thing!" She waited while he finished closing up, noting that he had his precision toolkit ready to go. "Tell me if you don't finish in time."

"Okay." Dex had to open up the ankle bracelet and disassemble the key components. Ideally, this should be completed as close to the 200 mile limit as possible. They'd be safe in Canada before anyone knew he was missing.

There were two methods to driving across the Canadian border from the U.S. side. One involved leaving your vehicle and having it inspected while you waited. The second was much more expedient. First, you presented your papers, and then your vehicle was scanned.

"Darsi Hildebrandt?" The Border Agent glanced down at the I.D. he held in his hand. It showed a twenty-year-old blond female from Syracuse. "Reason for visiting?"

"Camping!" Darsi favored him with a smile. She had changed into jeans and a University of Syracuse sweatshirt.

The guard used his hand scanner to check her credentials before handing it back to her. "Please pull into the scanner station. Do you wish to leave the vehicle?"

Some people refused to be scanned since whoever was operating the device could see through just about everything, including clothes. The standard conspiracy theory was that these scans were the government's attempt at mind control. "No, I trust you."

The guard smiled at her words but didn't comment. "I have to ask… Are there any illegal weapons, devices, or undeclared persons inside your vehicle?"

Darsi shook her head. "Nope, just me."

"Please pull ahead." The guard motioned for her to pull into the scanning station.

She watched as he headed to the control booth. "Slick bastard is still going to ogle me, even after I chatted him up." She glanced over her shoulder at the pod and crossed her fingers. "Guess we'll see how old tech stacks up against the new shit."

The scanning station was a lot like having your picture taken by one of the old flashbulb cameras. The lights strobed for half a minute or so while taking a series of images that were then analyzed by a computer. The entire process was streamlined to last about forty-five seconds.

Darsi let out a sigh of relief when the green light came on and the door exiting the station slid open. "We crossed the border, Dextron!" She yelled back to him once they were well away from the station. "Fucking stealth pod… Had I known about this tech, I could have ruled the hive by now."

The pod was silent; the border was only a few miles from Massena. Dex made a mental note of their progress but continued to work.

****************

Gene frowned at his parolee; his patience for the middle-aged father of three had long since expired. "Your kids are going to be visiting you in prison if you don't wise up." He was stopped from further lecture when his desk hud buzzed. "Excuse me." Since it was the police Captain, he took the call. "Morning, Captain."

"Hey Gene," Felix Sune was the youngest Police Captain in Massena's history. Yet, despite his youth, he was known for his calm, confident demeanor. "Got an ankle bracelet going off again."

"The Wallace kid?"

Felix Sune nodded. "Drones are already on site. Want to head out with the squad cars?"

"Yeah, tell them to wait for me while I grab Kendal." Gene closed the hud quickly before sparing a glance at his guest. "Get out of my office, Silas."

Five minutes later, Gene was driving toward Dex's house, escorted by two squad cars. Kendal sat calmly in the passenger seat, holding the remote tracker that was synced with Dex's ankle bracelet.

"Anything?" Gene glanced at his department's best tech guy.

Kendal shook his head slightly. "The bracelet was reading green until 15 minutes ago; at that time, it went black, along with all the redundant backups."

Gene swore loudly, making the younger man jump. "Think someone grabbed him?"

"No idea."

"Do your best to figure it out. If this is just a parole violation, I can wrap it up tight with a closing investigation. However, if a kidnapping or worse has occurred, I'll have to push this to the police department.

While the police cleared the house and property, Kendal and Gene entered the loft.

"The pod is gone." Gene stopped at the top of the stairs when his hud buzzed. An unidentified caller, text only. " Look around for any clues." He opened the message after Kendal walked past.

[Gene]

"Kendal is dirty. He was the one that tried to break into my home. He's also involved with some serious shit, the same shit that led to Saul's 'accidental death. I sent a file with everything I know to your message service. If you don't want to know more, erase everything and walk away."

[Dextron]

Gene stared at the hud message for a moment before clearing it; his eyes moved toward Kendal, who was studying a small device that had been left on the kitchen counter. "Anything?"

"Shit… That kid…" Kendal didn't touch the object but bent closer so he could identify the components. "Some sort of homemade relay."

Gene kept his face expressionless. "Is it foul play?"

Kendal shook his head. "No, it looks like he Caspered."