“Almost got it…” Jay’s fingers started to cramp as he continued to type as fast as he could on the keyboard.  His eyes were strained from being locked onto the screen for almost thirty minutes.  “Five more minutes and I’m in!”

          Karen rolled her eyes as she sat next to him at the workstation.  “Any longer and I’m going to fall asleep.”

          Jay curled his lip.  “You try hacking into a closed network Chinese security system only through the means of a guards cell phone, which, by the way, has very shaky reception.”

          Throwing up her feet next to him on the desk, Karen stretched herself out while putting her hands behind her head for support.  “I’m willing to try if you’re willing to do my job and jump out of the ship.  What are we, two miles up?”

          Jay stopped typing for a sec and looked at Karen with a blank stare.  Continuing to type, he said, “Let’s just stick to what we’re doing.  Just be patient.”

          “Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!”  Sean’s phone went off, alerting him to an emergency.  After pulling out his phone from his pocket, he looked at what the emergency was.  He stood up from his work station and turned to Karen and Jay.  “Bad news Jay.  You’re going to have to finish this later.  We have a proximity breach off the Pacific shore of Mexico.”

          Pounding his fist on the desk, Jay shouted, “What!  I’m so close!”

          “Radioactive material detected.  It’s priority.  Sorry.”  Sean added.

          After taking a deep breath, Jay replied, “Fine.  What’s a half an hour of eye strain anyway.”

          Karen got up and stood behind him, putting her hands on his shoulder.  With a smirk on her face, she whispered, “If only you were a little bit faster.”  Jay shook his head, trying to contain himself.

          Sean turned to Chad at the pilot’s seat.  “Chad, you got the coordinates?”

          Chad swiped at the controls.  “Yes, I do.  Calculating our path.  Three jumps.  The sky is clear over the targets.  We should have at least a thirty-minute window to check it out before the next commercial plane goes by.”

Chad nodded.  “Alright.  Let’s go.”

          In the dense clouds over mainland China, the triangle craft carrying the four-person crew disappeared as it made its initial jump.  Two jumps later, it hovered over the shoreline of Mexico where six drones were making their way to the shore.

          Jay typed at his computer, tracking where the drones were going and where it came from.  He projected his screen to the front of the ship.  “Alright.  It looks like the drones are heading to a man who is standing on the beach.  An old Toyota Corolla is parked on the ledge, right above the sand.”  Jay expanded the area of his projection.  He illustrated an arial view to show green dots to where the drones were going and red dots to where it came from.  “There doesn’t seem to be any ship from where these things came from in the area.  The battery life on these things is limited so it definitely launched from something.  I’m doing a deep scan back in the direction it came from to see if there is any vehicle under the water.”  After a few seconds, the scanners picked up a metal craft.  “There.  It looks like an unmanned sub under the surface.”  A projection of the sub appeared.  It was long with six hatches on the top.

          Sean looked intensely at the image.  “Chad, launch a bird tracker to follow the sub so we can find out where it came from.”  Chad slid his fingers across his control panel.  A small hummingbird came out of the top of the ship and moved toward the direction of the sub, maintaining its altitude.  “Jay, what’s in those drones?”

          Jay continued to type on his keyboard.  He turned his focus on the six drones heading to the shoreline.  Each drone was scanned, and its contents were digitally recreated as a hologram in the middle of the ship.  The six pieces were put together as they were recreated.  “There it is.  Six pieces put together to form a nuclear bomb capable of blowing a hole in the earth a few miles wide.  That’s a problem.”

          Sean rose an eyebrow as he looked over at Jay.  “You think? Chad, please get Mark on coms.”

Mark’s face appeared in front of the ship.  His eyes darted immediately toward the hologram floating in the center of the room.  “Is that what I think it is.”

          Sean nodded his head.  “Yes, it is.  Nuclear sir.  Being transported in pieces by six drones to a lone recipient on the beach.  Shall we neutralize the situation and go alien abduction protocol on the guy?”

          Before Mark could answer, Jay jumped in.  “Chief, I think it might be a good idea if we hold off on that.  We do not know how deep this is.  This guy could be a patsy that barely knows anything.  I think we should follow him and see who he leads us to.”

          Mark grinned at Jay’s comment.  “First off, thank you for properly addressing me by my self-given title of Chief.  Second, I think you might be right.”  He looked back at Sean.  “You will have to have a tight grip on this.  Be prepared at all times to intercept if needed.  I’ll have another team on standby.  Just give the word and they’ll intercept.  Keep me updated if things change.”

          Sean nodded in approval as Mark’s face disappeared from the screen.  Karen leaned near Jay’s ear and made several kissing sounds.  “Way to kiss the bosses rear.”

Jay closed his eyes and nodded his head.  “I hate you, Karen.”  Karen laughed at the comment as she walked to the center of the ship to sit down.

          The four of them watched and listened as the man on the beach loaded up his car and started his long journey toward the border.

          Sean sighed as he thought about the task at hand.  “Look, following this guy will probably take a while.  I know that we’re already more than halfway through your day, but unfortunately it just reset to the beginning again.  I don’t think I need to tell you how important it is to keep this guy in check.  Please stay focused.  A lot is at stake.”

          Jay realized why Sean wanted to take this guy out quick.  He knew however, with something like this, Mark would have made them follow this guy anyway.  Still, he thought, am I a suck up for blurting out the obvious to the head of the division?  Oh well.

          Jay went to work.  He tapped the man’s phone.  With the information he pulled from it, he dove into their own network to piece together as much information as he could.  Phillip Harrington.  Age thirty-five.  No immediate family except for his mother who he lives with.  He has been trafficking for the cartel for the past couple of years.  No public record of any crimes charged to him.  His texts had been short with no names mentioned.  All phone numbers in his contacts are from burner phones.  Obviously, his contacts didn’t want him to know who they were.  Jay was right about the man being just a delivery boy.  However, according to the texts, this delivery boy knew exactly what his cargo was.

          Twelve hours of constantly monitoring this guy passed with little activity.  As the vehicle finally arrived at the border, they all took their positions, half hazed from the extended mission.  The haze quickly faded as they witnessed the pieces of the deadly device being handed off to a couple of shady men that already had a couple of boatloads of drugs.  Worse yet, there was a woman and child with them that didn’t seem to be there willingly.  Sean quickly called Mark and explained the situation.

          “That’s not good.”  Mark replied over the phone.  “I have Ron, Eric, Teancom, and Hannah heading to your location right now to relieve you.  They will continue to follow the device.  You stick with this Phillip guy.  When he is isolated, abduct his tail and bring him in for interrogation.”  Mark hung up.  As soon as he did, another triangular ship appeared next to theirs.

On his phone, Sean received a message that said, “We got this.”

          Looking up from his phone, Sean explained the new mission to the tired crew as Phillip pulled away below.  “So, how do you want to play this guy?”

          Karen grinned.  “Oh, we definitely need to mess with him.”

          Jay nodded.  “For once I’m in agreement with you.  Mess with his mind.  Leave him questioning reality while sitting in a jail cell when all is said and done, that is if they decide not to surgically erase his memory.”

          Sean clapped his hands together.  “Sounds like a body snatchers scenario.  Jay, who do we have in the area.”

          Jay looked intensely at his computer as he typed frantically.  “Here’s a good match.  According to cell phone tracking records, an officer Juan stops by at a small dinner every morning where a waitress named Maria consistently works in the morning as well.”  He projected holographic images in the center of the room.

          “Perfect!  Upload their profiles into Karen and my devices.”  Sean looked over at Karen.  “Karen, please get yourself a wig as well as a cowboy hat like the good officers.  Oh, and also my gun.”  Karen sarcastically saluted Sean as she got up and walked to one of the two back rooms.  “Chad, where’s our new friend.”

          Chad looked at his screen.  “Looks like he’s a few miles down the road in the direction of some beat up property that he owns.”

          Sean turned back to Jay.  “Jay, tap into his phone and trigger this guy.  Spook him out.”

          Turning his attention to his screen again, Jay replied, “Got it.  He looks to have some religious background.  I’ll go biblical on him.  That should get him.”

          Karen walked back into the room with a black wig on.  “Here you go boss.  Your hat and railgun.”  She handed Sean a plain cowboy hat and a gun that looked just like a Glock 19.

          After putting the gun down on the table, Sean tapped on his phone and held it next to the hat.  A beep sounded on his phone.  With a few swipes, the hat’s color and details changed into the hat similar to the police officer’s hat.  He put it on.  A couple more taps and a hologram covered his face to turn him into the officer himself.

          Chad turned to look at Jay with eyebrows raised.  “Good job Jay!  Whatever you messaged to this guy, it worked.  He just turned his car around to retrieve his phone after throwing it out the window.”

          Sean knew this was their opportunity.  “Chad, we in position?”

          Chad replied, “Yep.”

          Sean looked at Karen and nodded.  She tapped on her phone as she walked to the side of the ship.  Her face changed to that of the waitresses.  As soon as she got to the wall of the ship, she placed her hand on it.  A door appeared and opened, which lead to the outside.  She quickly jumped out and the door closed behind her.

          “Chad, slow this guy down until Karen gets into position.”  Sean said as he picked up his gun.  He checked it, popped the magazine out, checked to make sure it was set to sleeper rounds, then popped it back in.

          Chad turned back to his controls.  “Got it.  I’ve increased the gravity around his car.  I’ll crank it up as soon as he’s at the right spot.”

          Sean turned and walked to a room located in the rear of the ship.  “Give me a countdown when it’s time.”  He put his hand next to the door and it opened.  Inside was empty except for a large square platform with four skinny poles on each corner.  The room itself was triangular in shape in which the roof sloped down on one side.  Sean stood on the center of the platform with his gun at his side.

          Chads voice sounded in his ear.  “He just got out of his car.  I’m going to flatten it.  That should get him running.”  A few seconds passed.  “It worked.  He’s running in Karen’s direction.”

          Sean smiled.  “Good.  Keep him running.”

          A few moments later Chad announced, “Alright, he sees her.  Transporting you in three, two, one.”

          The surroundings of Sean twisted as if it were a rag being rung out.  When it folded back out, it changed from inside the triangular shaped room to a dark desert surrounding.  The scent of the air instantly flipped from a filtered scentless smell to dry chilled sand.  The breeze blew against his face as he stepped off the square platform and onto the desert ground.

          In the distance he could see Phillip stop as he spotted Karen.  Sean continued to walk.  Phillip turned toward him.  He paused only for a moment, then started walking toward Sean, waving his hands in excitement.  As soon has he got closer, he noticed Phillip staring at his gun.  Sean rose his gun and pulled the trigger as Phillip stumbled backwards.  An electric pulse hit Phillip and knocked him unconscious.

          Both Karen and Sean walked up to Phillips lifeless body lying on the desert floor.  Karen looked at him while slightly nodding.  “Well, that was easy.”

          As he reached into his pocket to pull three small discs out, Sean replied, “Just another day at the office.”  Sean put a disc on the back of Phillips head, back, and rear.  It elevated him about a foot off the ground.  He crossed Phillips limp arms on his chest and grabbed a foot.  Karen grabbed the other foot, and they pulled him back to the platform.  Once all three were on, Sean exclaimed, “Control, we are all on.”

          Chads voice echoed in Sean’s ear, “Bringing you back in three, two, one.”  The dark desert scene twisted out of focus and was replaced once again with the triangular room.  They both dropped Phillips feet and walked out of the room.  As they walked back into the main room, Sean took his hat off and Karen took her wig off.  As they did, their fake faces went with it.

          Sean gave Karen his hat and gun, then sat down with bags under his eyes.  “Jay, get a sweeper team to clean up this mess.  Chad, get us back to the Pacific base so we can dump our cargo.  I’m sure they got some questions for him.”

          Chad swiped and tapped at his controls.  After confirming an open spot was cleared in the hanger, he set the coordinates.  The triangle ship disappeared out of the skies of Mexico.