Burning Road

Bad Blood- Part II

"Hello, Califia.  What can I do for you this morning?" answered Agent One.

"Agent One, This is HighCaliber."

"I know that, Califia, and call me mom!"

"I need a status report on the minions.  I've been AFH for a few days now."

"AFH.  As usual, Califia, I barely understand a word you are saying."

"That is why you and Agent Two were given the High Caliber Code Handbook... AFH, Away From Home.  I'd like a status report, Agent."

"And I'd like a normal daughter who can call me mom."

Agent One sounded exhausted, and Cali was growing equally exhausted of having the same conversations again and again.  She wondered why she bothered to make the three volume handbook if no one was going to read it.  Frustration made her take a different tact.

"Okay, mom, what is the status of home base and the minions?"

"By the grace of God.  Did you just call me mom?  Pastor Taylor will be ecstatic that our prayers have been answered!  And let me not forget your father, he won't believe me at all."

Cali rolled her eyes.  While DotPrince and Mimi were pretending like they didn't want to suck each other's face, Agent One was on the verge of prayer dancing.

"Agent, focus!"

"Sorry.  The white one and the black one-"

"Belle and Maleficent."

"Belle and Maleficent."  Agent One mumbled something under her breath about Agent Two being better at remembering the minions' names.  "The pair seem fine, they come to the door whenever I come by and they wait patiently to be fed.  The tiny tabby-"

"Tiana," Cali corrected.  It was clear that Agent One hadn't even glanced at the amendments to volume two of the handbook.  "That one is easy, she's a little princess."

"The little tabby, Tiana, hides in the bedroom until I carry her out to her food."

"Just like a princess, told ya."

"Did you train her like this?  Califia, this is ridiculous.  When are you going home?"

"I'm assessing the situation.  What about Stitch?"

"The crazy one?  I put food in her bowl and it's gone before I leave. I haven't seen her, but I feel like she watches me."

"She's not crazy, she's woke.  She knows the truth about this world and the next.  She's harmless unless she senses fear, then she'll rally the others and give you real problems.  There was this one time I-"

"Goodbye, Califia," Agent One had reached her limit.

"Thanks for the intel, Agent.  Over and out."

Cali ended the call and sat in the stink of the rental van.  She needed to get home and make sure the minions were receiving proper care.  They were lost without her, and if she didn't keep a tight leash on Stitch then the cat was liable to lead an insurrection.  It was hard running a super secret spy network when the best operative was also a liability, but Stitch had been by her side for years and Cali trusted her to tend to the other minions more than she trusted Agent One.  She dug around in her backpack and found some Vicks to smear under her nose.  The body in the back was ripe.

She watched traffic zip by and thought about her current predicament.  Cali put the vapor rub back in her bag and noticed a fat envelope with her name written in Moses's hand.  She opened it and smiled.  She fished around for a pen and began to correct the symbols he hastily scrawled across the page.  Happily, she turned around to hand Mimi one of the pages and froze.

"What?" the goblin asked.  She'd been staring at the back of DotPrince's head with darkened cheeks.  Even as she asked the question he had much of her attention.  The night before it was Khouri that couldn't take his eyes off Mimi after dinner.

"Moses wanted me to give you this," Cali said, passing the page over her shoulder.

"It looks kind of like Under Common."  Mimi tilted and turned the page.  "It looks like a child's drawing," she remarked in her native language.

"They thought it might, Asa and Moses.  It's a crude nursery rhyme that uses the most used symbols from the binder text we've read."

"I understand a lot of this."

"Don't be so surprised!  It was my great idea, VICTORY POSE!"  They both struck the best poses they could manage while seated.

"Guys!" DotPrince growled as he slammed his hand on the dashboard.  "Yeah, I'm here.  I need your help.  You probably won't like any of it."

"Won't like what?" Cali asked.  DotPrince was being vague and that wasn't like him.  He looked at her and gestured to his phone.  He was on a call.

"I'll tell you this much, Jaeger will be pissed and we might even get to kill a demon or two.  No, my team has killed two this week.  We're like devil magnets."  Khouri laughed.  "Jaeger will definitely be mad at us.  Okay.  I'll bring the beers, just meet us downtown Brooklyn."

"Sounds like our trio is turning into a foursome," Cali said.

She smiled and handed DotPrince a page from Moses's care package.  He looked at it quizzically but then smiled.  He nodded, folded the paper and shoved it in his pocket.  His family seemed to awaken a light in him, she hoped they would be okay.

Things were starting to feel final and his smiles were more ominous than encouraging.  It was hard for her to put it into words.  A feeling of impending sadness, doom on the horizon, a sense of foreboding.  It was all of those things and none of those things.

"Called a hunter I know who'll back us up.  He's eccentric, but he's good in a pinch and doesn't ask too many questions."

"You sure it's a good idea to bring in more people?"

"I gave it some thought, and we'll need help getting into the guildhall and he'll do anything to get under Jaeger's skin."

"Sounds good, but Littlehawk's the enemy not Jaeger."

"Yeah, but breaking into the archives is going to anger both of them.  What I need you to do is make us a plan to get us inside," DotPrince said with a nod in Cali's direction.

Cali smiled. She was already playing with a few ideas.  She'd need a blueprint of the building and an idea of the security measures, but those were just the details.  This was right up her alley, the kind of thing she lived for.  Ever since they were attacked by Wally it'd felt like they were going from one kick in the teeth to another.  It was about time they got back to the fun stuff.

"HighCaliberCali, is on the job!"

"Good, I'm gonna grab something to eat and see if I can grab some cleaning supplies from the 7-Eleven over there. Smells terrible in here."