New Kid On The Block

Ch 10: Lost and Found

Third Person P.O.V

"There you are! We've been looking for you all morning." Sitara laughed as they walked into the Hackerspace spotting Marcus. She was glad to finally be up and out of the car. Driving in a car for five hours with three guys was just as pleasant as it sounded. Especially when those three guys were Wrench, Horatio and Josh. "Turns out Swelter Skelter doesn't have a lost and found."

"No, it's more of a finder's keeper policy out there in the desert." Ray said stepping into the spotlight. Until then he'd been off to the side, fiddling with something on one of the work benches against the wall.

"What in the hell is he doing here." Horatio muttered under his breath as he passed Marcus.

"Yeah, Marcus, why did you invite this stranger into our house?!" Sitara glared crossing her arms over her chest. Horatio copying her as they all stared at him expectantly.

"Look, it just happened alright." Marcus said. "Besides you've already met Ray. Let me introduce you to Raymond Kenney." he said motioning towards him dramatically. Ray did a little mock bow.

"That's Raymond Kenney?" Wrench asked, exclamation points flashing across his mask.

"I'd thought you'd be.....cleaner." Sitara hummed looking him over.

"I get that a lot." He chuckled.

"Can I have a hug?" Josh asked.

"Sure but I have this two second policy-" he said before being crushed in Josh's embrace. "I get this a lot too." He said looking at the group and awkwardly patting Josh's shoulder.

"Can we keep him?" Josh asked excitedly. "Like a hacker in residence?"

"He can help us, Sis." Marcus begged.

"He can, he should, he can stay here right. He should, he should stay here." Josh rambled looking at Sitara with the same pleading look.

"Okay, fine." She agreed throwing her hands up in mock surrender. "But if he fucks with any of us." She said narrowing her eyes and stepping forward pointing a finger directly at his chest. "I'm going to pop his nuts like ripe grapes."

"Message received." Ray gulped.

"You want a beer?" Wrench asked.

"Sure. Or two."

"Kit has got to tell us how you to know each other." Horatio said with a laugh shaking Ray's hand. "Did you guys work together?"

"For a short amount of time." Ray stated with a shrug. "A third party introduced us, and Kit has got some style when it comes to Trojan horses and Black holes. Created some programs that got ctOS into some deep shit back when it was still 1.0."

"Speaking of the devil, where is she?" Sitara questioned.

"Haven't seen her." Marcus stated.

"We thought she was with you." Horatio said his eyebrows drawing together as concern covered his expression.  "The tires to your car were slashed when we checked. We figured that since her and Ray were buddy buddy...."

"Not with us, last we saw her she was dragging Wrench off somewhere." Marcus stated and all their eyes turned to the hacker who had just cracked a beer open.

"I don't know where she is." Wrench replied. "I saw her last by the car....."

"The car with the slash tires?" Sitara asked. "You don't think she could have been...." she trailed off not daring to say it as if it made it true.

"Shit." Wrench hissed slamming the beer bottle down on the wooden work bench.

"Wait, wait, wait. That's a jump. Has anyone tried calling her?" Marcus asked trying to diffuse the situation. Wrench already has his phone out.