Visitors From Terra:Twilight Contingency

Chapter 2

2.

The drive across the states had been uneventful for Ricardo, powering through a few parts with the power of red bull and truck stop sandwiches. He had managed to catch a small five-hour nap by pulling off down a country road before continuing. The radio news stations were full of talking heads on both sides of the political aisle decrying the attack on the convention center.

It always boiled down to the same arguments: vote for me, give money to my campaign, the normal calls for crackdowns on terrorists' organizations and renewed calls for intervention again in the middle east. Yet it was soon overshadowed by the disaster at Mt. San Antonio and the death of Senator Franchesco DiAngelo, that started a whole new line of easily fed bullshit.

Ricardo turned it off for the last part of the drive, analyzing the base information he gathered from the limited news. Throughout the years he kept his ear to the ground to the best of his now limited abilities, still things to him where not adding up properly. It only confirmed his suspicions as he turned into the cookie cutter suburbs, the mid-morning sun still climbing up, of the obvious surveillance van parked two blocks from his sister's house.

From the outside it said "Franks Plumbing and More" parked in front of a for sale house, however the van was still too new. No dents in the fenders, no obvious signs of hard use, he gave them points for the roof rack with some tools and a used ladder. However, the curtains on the front of the van just inside of the driver's seat really gave it away to him as he slowly drove past.

He had his own form of domestic camouflage on his well-used Ford F150 truck, a large magnetic sign on the outside advertising lawn service consulting. The number on them was real and would lead to an answering machine where he could trace the number back should some call. Pressed for time he thought up a better solution, fishing one of the burner cell phones out of his bag inserting a sim card.

"Nine one one what is your emergency?" The operator came on over the line. Doing his best to gravel his voice a bit Ricardo began,

"My name is Thomas Jones, I am over at 1451 north Harris Avenue and like there is this van parked outside one of the for-sale houses. It's been a while and I swear I saw some older looking fella with a camera looking at some of the neighborhood kids...could you send someone to check this out?"

The operator asked for a few more details that Ricardo gave before hanging up on her, pulling the sim card out snapping it in half. He waited on the corner and to the credit of the local police department two cruisers appeared twenty minutes later surrounding the van. A few moments later the cops had their weapons drawn pulling two bewildered looking men out of the back as several more squad cars appeared.

He knew they would eventually be let go but that was hours away, grinning more as he watched one of the cops inside pulling out surveillance equipment and turning switches, he had a gap to slip in. He pulled around the block before slowly approaching his sister's house, getting out of his truck approaching the front door. Digging in his bag he pulled out the cell phone sized multi antenna signal jammer, the old per-Taiwan invasion aliexpress special worked just as well as its American counterpart.

Turning it on he slipped it into his shirt pocket, as he approached the house noticing the ring doorbell camera. He kept his head down the bill of his cap hiding his face from the ring doorbell camera as he knocked on the door. It was the old knock they would use back in teenagers when one or the other used to sneak out as he kept his head down.

The door opened and his sister Crystal appeared, two years his senior, her eyes puffy red with her long brown hair disheveled. She hesitated for a moment before realization stuck her, she hugged him suddenly and began to sob once again. He hugged her back gently for a few moments, hearing her sob into his shoulder before they slowly went inside. Ricardo looked up around the room for a moment before pulling the jammer out of his pocket while sitting it in the front room.