Warlock of Omaha

Warlock of OmahaChapter 4: Lawyers, Guns and Money ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

So back at the lab, it was quiet. Holly was at class. Miranda and Diane were working on things at University. They were all grad students, classes are important and there's always something to do, something to study, some project to further and they had wasted the weekend too. They were eager to be back at it.

So, with a batch of bolts begun and a sandwich in hand, Miranda's homemade pastrami and bread are hard to quantify, I started to feel a bit calmer.

Through one of my clients, I had access to some Dark Glass private detectives. I gave them a call and had them put a team of at least three around the building in Carter Lake 24/7 until further notice. Two on this side of the river and one on the other.

"Do you want any drone over flights or on premises reconnoiter?" He asked.

"Nothing overt please." I replied. "Keep sending me updates at the secure e-mail and don't spare the thermograph."

The thermograph would be able to look through walls and give me a good sense of what they had inside and if they had set up anything interesting.

I was watching the debit card and cell phone I had given Jake. He had put some fuel in the bike and had eaten at a Chinese buffet so far.

I had an intuition about the Fomor. Sane people would use land transportation. If I had a typical young girl and needed to move her, well sedated in a box in the back of a van would likely be pretty convenient, cheap and fool proof. If I was really well heeled and, in a hurry, a chartered jet. But the Fomor would think of the water as their ally. I would bet good money there was something in the water on the dockside of that warehouse guarding it. I would also bet they'd want to use the water to move her. So, I looked around my contact list and found an expert on barge traffic.

Yes, they still use barges to move large cargoes of coal, cotton, oil and food crops up and down the river. I tracked down an expert on the matter at one of my clients, and I gave Sally Clark a call.

"Hello!" She answered promptly and cheerfully when I called by phone. I explained my problem, I was looking for a barge heading to Omaha without clear provenance.

"Well," Sally explained, "there are only so many barges and most have clearly defined paths, they want potential clients to know where they will be when, so they can get the next load. Time spent waiting or deadheading is expensive time lost for a barge."

After some review, we did find a barge moving in strange ways without clear provenance and it would be in Omaha by Friday afternoon.

That settled that, we had till Friday afternoon, which meant we were go for Thursday night.

I called a friend named Jim.

A lot of people reading this might be thinking, "He's taking advantage of those big financial company clients of his."

And maybe they're right. Of course, you don't get to be a big financial company without having broken a few eggs so it's not like they're charity cases deserving of great sympathy.

The truth is I do, for various reasons, spend time prowling around their networks and systems and I have detected irregularities which I have then reported to them. Whether and how they acted on those irregularities was their business. I have not noticed enough in any one firm to justify my fees directly. However, all of these firms depend on a reputation for fiduciary soundness and security. If any of these "irregularities" had popped out in public on their own, the damage to the firms' reputation would have been potentially catastrophic, so I feel like I give good value for money.

Beyond money, I gain a wide variety of benefits and services. The Dark Glass boys cost a pretty penny, but I have discretion to use them from one of my clients, so they get to pay. I found Ms. Clark and got her candid help the same way. I also get unlimited sys admin access to a huge amount of the financial system so when I say I'm reading someone's e-mail, I am.