A little over two hours later, we were in Philadelphia, a city I had never seen before. I soaked up everything I could see.
Besides human anatomy, modern warfare theory, advanced espionage, and constant refinement of the art of Close Quarters Battle, my education had been surprisingly heavy on political science and its attendant focus on history. Maybe not so surprising for a covert operator whose primary mission would likely include societal disruption. And I enjoyed it. Math and science came easy to me, the first because of the nano devices inside me that granted me computer like understanding of mathematical concepts, and the second most likely due to a slug of my mother’s own genetics. But history was just inherently interesting, and being as the organization that funded my creation was Agents in Rebus and thus itself heavily focused on America, anything to do with my own country was outright fascinating.
Philly was the birthplace of our Constitution and, therefore, our country itself. Unfortunately I wouldn’t have time for sightseeing, but just being in the city itself fired up the neurons in the small, tucked-away scholar side of my brain. My eyes took in every detail of every glimpse I could get… at least until we got to the hotel downtown.
Jay was much different from Agent Krupp; just as decisive but much, much more willing to listen, able to crack a joke, and seemingly interested in her people, but she could, on occasion, share Krupp’s demanding attitude. We had our mobile outpost set up in our suite, secure connections up and tested, in record time.
“Mitch is in charge of dinner—we’re ordering in. It’ll be a working dinner because I want to hit the ground running tomorrow,” she said, surveying the workstations and two folding easels holding a computer SMART Board on one and a standard dry erase whiteboard on the other.
“Me? Why me?” he asked. “Caeco is junior in seniority.”
“You complain about food the most. She’s not fussy at all, while, you… well, let’s just say I’m not going to listen to that again.”
“Fine. Then we’re going with a local steakhouse. It’s not far and there should be something for everyone. I’ll get the menu up,” he said, caving in so easily, it was almost suspicious.
The others must have felt the same way because everyone was staring at him. “What? Just means I get to control the menu,” he said with a shrug, already typing on his laptop.
Jay’s mouth twitched in a quick smile before she spoke at the secure phone Alice had set up. “Eve? You and Morris there?”
“I’m here. Morris just ran downstairs to get our own dinners. Glad I’m not eating from a steakhouse.” Eve was a vegetarian.
“What have you come up with while we were on the road?”
“Many of the earliest posts come from a section of northwest Philadelphia named Holmesburg. Additional posts were made from this area over the last few months, with the most recent being three days ago. Both Omega and myself feel it might be ground zero, or at least as close as we’re going to get now,” she answered. The tone she used when mentioning Omega held a note of excitement mixed with awe. Odd how Omega evoked either very positive or very negative responses, almost never anything neutral.
A map popped up on our SMART Board, showing the city and outlying suburbs. Holmesburg was northeast of the city’s center, right on the banks of the Delaware River. Three dots appeared on the street map, spread out around the neighborhood.
“None of the IP addresses are currently active. All three locations are rental apartments, with long-term leases in place for the current residents. The most recent renter is Morgan Patterson, who moved in two years, three months ago. The other two lessors have been residents for four years, four months and five years, nine months. They are Cecil Clarett and Jaleesa Brown, respectively. None of them have police records, although Cecil Clarett has an unpaid parking ticket from Philadelphia PD. Morgan receives Social Security and a pension from the Philadelphia Public School Employee’s Retirement System. Cecil and Jaleesa appear to both be employed, Cecil as a customer service representative for a utility company and Jaleesa for a car dealership. Credit histories are a mixed bag, with scores ranging from the high five hundreds to the low seven hundreds. Online presence is also a mixed bag. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts for Cecil. Facebook for Morgan; and Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram for Jaleesa.”
“Politics and activities?” Jay asked.
“Two Democrats, Morgan and Jaleesa, and Cecil is an Independent. None of them has posted much online about politics other than a few negative reviews of the previous president and some positive remarks about Polner by Cecil.
“Jaleesa seems to attend a local gym, where she takes yoga and kickboxing classes. Morgan belongs to a seniors group that takes road trips, mainly to casinos in Atlantic City, and Cecil appears to spend a significant portion of his disposable income at various gardening centers,” Eve reported.
“Wow, most boring alien espionage suspects ever,” Mitch said as he handed a pad, a pen, and a freshly printed menu to Agent Mazar.
“Which is exactly the kind of low profile a good spy should have. What about the posts that led us to them in the first place?” Alice asked, side-eyeing the menu that Mazar laid out on the suite’s coffee table.
“Eleven different usernames across four sites. Three from Morgan’s address, three from Jaleesa, and five from Cecil’s. The odd thing is that all eleven utilize similar syntax and word choice,” Eve said.
“Like they were all copying from the same script?” Seth asked.
“More as if they were all written by the same individual,” Omega suddenly interjected. My teammates all looked at each other, eyebrows raised, clearly startled. It’s possible that I rolled my eyes a little.
“Any sign of botnets or Trojans?” I asked, earning a smile from Mazar, interest from Jay, and blank looks from Seth and Alice. Mitch gave me a mock shocked expression and mouthed Trojans at me, bringing one hand to his mouth dramatically. Daring behavior in today’s politically sensitive world, but nothing compared to the soldiers I had grown up around.
“That was our first thought,” Eve said. “But we haven’t found a thing. We did, however, find that Cecil recently had email from an individual that mentioned something called the Order, capitalized as in a group, although it could possibly be a written command or something. However, digging deeper, we found four other references to an Order, used in a group context, in Cecil’s emails.”
“Nothing else? What about the others?” Jay asked, interest piqued.
“Negative, at least with these individuals. However, I have set a watch bot to look for the term Order in current comments or blog sites across the internet. Order or Loyal Order has appeared twenty-two times in the last hour. I am running those sites down now.”
“Omega, have you entered their systems?” I asked.
“No, Caeco. Subsuming computers leaves a mark, one that can be obvious to the right viewer. Vorsook technology would certainly detect my activity.”
“Good call, Omega. Our first step is observation only,” Agent Jay said, absently receiving the menu and order pad from Barrows. “I am interested in this Order business, but it might not be anything at all.”
“It sounds like some nerdy fraternal group or something,” Mitch said.
“Yes,” Jay said, taking a quick glance at the menu and almost instantly writing something on the pad. “Tomorrow we will visit each of them, and we’ll have to figure out an approach that doesn’t set off alarm bells. We’ll start early, o’dark hundred. Seth, I want you to work with Eve and Omega on any of the hits relating to anything about an Order. Morris, you there yet?” She handed Seth the menu and pad as she spoke.
“Yes, boss.”
“You’ll be our info systems support. Now, we need to figure out an undercover approach. Ideas?”
“Insurance sales?” Alice asked.
“Eww. Gross,” Mitch said, making a disgusted face.
“Yeah, not likely to get past the front door,” Jay said, giving Mitch an odd look.
“Cable guy? Utilities with the gas leak thing? Religious fanatics?” Seth asked.
“No, no, and double no,” Mitch said, shaking his head.
“Yeah, I don’t let any of those in,” Morris said. “Last people through the door at my house were some kids selling those coupon books for their lacrosse team.”
“Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner,” Mitch said.
“Are you crazy? High school kids?” Alice protested.
Mitch turned to me and pointed one finger with a smirk. “Please, sir. My gymnastics team is raising money to get to the Nationals,” he said in a horrible butchery of a teen girl’s voice. I definitely rolled my eyes at him this time. Stupid idea.
“Shit… that could work,” Alice said, eyeing me. What? I turned to the boss, looking for a quick negative response, but her eyes were narrowed and I didn’t like her expression.
“Morris, can you lay your hands on that coupon book?” she asked.
“Yeah, it’s in my messenger bag.”
“Can you and Eve copy it? Customize it to Philly and then duplicate the look?” Jay asked, still looking at me.
“Yeah, that would be pretty easy,” he said.
“Cake,” Eve said.
“You can’t be serious?” I asked Agent Jay.
“Youth is an asset we can’t duplicate. You have any athleisure gear with you?” Jay asked.
I nodded. Workout gear was always part of my go bag, plus it doubled as casual wear. My friend Jetta practically lived in it.
“Better if we found a local club or school team and borrowed some gear,” Mitch said, eyes narrowed at me in thought.
“Three club teams in the immediate area,” Seth Harwood said, his laptop open in front of him.
“Okay, first thing tomorrow, we need to get hands on a team uniform top or warm-up jacket. We’ll need a handful of realistic-looking coupon books,” Jay said, getting more animated.
“You honestly think I can sell a fundraiser?” I asked.
“Hmm, adult men and pretty, athletic high school girls trying to raise money? Add Spandex and start counting the green,” Mitch said with a snort as he moved to look over Seth’s shoulder.
“Internet browsing history supports the idea that both men are heterosexual. In addition, social media postings indicate that Jaleesa may be possibly bisexual,” Omega said through the secure phone.
“You too?” I asked.
“Agent Allen’s idea has significant merit. The likelihood of you gaining entry is so high as to be actually dangerous to most teenage girls. In your case, I think we can all agree that should any of these individuals prove to be sexual predators, they will be the ones in danger.”
The whole team was looking at me expectantly. What could I do? I was here to investigate, and undercover work had been part of my training. Just never thought I would be imitating jailbait. I nodded.