Pursuit of the Patriarchs

Chapter 2

Johnathon had downloaded the information onto his private server and told Donna about what he heard whispered from the man somewhere to his right. They scanned the images of the other homeless and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Too many covered their mouths or mumbled to know who owned the voice.

Maggie was a few miles north of Brighton. The blurred image of the car was all they had to go on. Jason, Donna's computer expert was growing frustrated trying to undo whatever had been done to conceal the image. His longish blond hair danced a little as his olive fists pounded the desk.

William, the strategist and leader of Donna's group, went from staring at monitors to her location. His black hair was tightly trimmed almost to the point of being shaved. Dark eyes stared out from beneath his ebony face as he tried to make sense of Maggie's movement.

Donna's black hair was pulled back tight, and hands pressed against Jason's shoulders in a vain attempt to keep him calm. Her normally pale complexion stood against the other two, but outside she looked like everyone else in that part of the world.

William's baritone voice was seeped in frustration. "Someone should've taken responsibility by now. Why would someone go through all the trouble to set up a bombing and not take credit? It doesn't make sense."

Johnathon stared at the map without turning towards William. As far as he knew there were none of the traditional targets in Brighton by the more violent IRA factions, but the London deli hadn't been a traditional target. He was still trying to fathom the reason for the bombing. William wasn't the only one trying to make sense out of the senseless.

He hadn't been read in on any of their operation outside of London. "Do you have anyone in Brighton who can try to get eyes on the car?"

There was a slight delay before William answered that went uninterrupted by everyone. "No one we can trust. Can't send a drone without risking our only lead."

Johnathon grew tired of looking at blurred images on the monitors. He turned to the small group and held his frustration in check. There was something he was missing.

He already knew the answer before he asked. "Are you sure the deli wasn't used by someone an IRA fringe group would want to kill?"

Donna shook her head without a single strand of black coming free. "I wish there were. I really do. But there's nothing. It shouldn't have been any interest at all."

The IRA fanatics didn't hit targets without a political reason behind it. If Donna said there was nothing of interest, then there was nothing of interest.

Doubt could be heard in Johnathon's voice. "Are you sure Maggie's IRA?"

Donna was clearly perturbed by what he asked. "The other bombings she's responsible for in Belfast, Glasgow and London were all typical IRA fringe targets. What else could it be?"

There was something very wrong with the bombing of the deli. If it were IRA related, there never would've been a bombing, at least not by one of their factions.