Boston Blues - BLACKBIRD book 2

1. any given morning

"Someone feed the monkey
While I dig in search of China."
Maynard J. Keenan, Weak & Powerless

A uniform brought a long box to the new SCU office. Fred hurried to take it to the closest desk, unwrapping it as a child with a present. Aldana came in with a bunch of folders and approached him, curious.

"So soon?" she asked.

"Yep," replied Fred, grinning. He took from the box a print of Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' cover art, in an elegant black frame with glass.

"Oh, boy, that looks classy. Where are you gonna hang it?"

Gillian came in then and saw Fred go to the storage-room wall with the poster.

"What about here?" he said. "We can hang both of them on this wall."

"Both? There's another?"

Ron worked at his desk on a small device, the size of a phone, and warned them, "I would give it a while before hammering that wall." He turned to the open door of the storage room and called, "Hank! Let's try again!"

Gillian frowned when Aldana dropped the pile of folders on her desk.

Aldana shrugged. "Cook says hi."

"More paperwork?"

"Reports of our last three cases."

"Damned runt, he's still getting back at me 'cause we took the week off for the holidays."

Hank came out of the storage room step by step, holding a shoebox. Ron's device started beeping and Hank stopped.

"Crap," murmured Ron. "Not good."

"What're you working on, Ron?" asked Gillian, approaching him.

"Oh, hey, Reg. It's a scanner."

"A scanner?" she repeated, inviting him to elaborate.

"An explosives detector."

Gillian stiffened and scowled down at him. "Ron Bellison! Did you smuggle a bomb into the station to try your new toy?"

The others admired how Ron didn't flinch at Gillian's death glare. "Well, yeah, but a very small one. And if I can make my new toy work, nobody will be able to walk right through our front door and all the way up here with explosives, ever again."

Gillian set her jaw, hating his logic.

"Are we done yet?" asked Hank with an ominous look at the box in his hands.

"Oh, sure. Thanks, Hank."

The biochemist went back into the storage room, from where they heard Tanya's squeal. "Keep that thing away from me!"

"And what's she doing in there?" asked Gillian. "Wiring a nuke?"

Aldana chuckled. "Nah, just our server,"

"I don't know which is more dangerous."

When they moved into their brand new workspace, Gillian refused to have a private office, and turned that space into a meeting room, with a long oval table, a couple of boards and a large plasma screen, which Kurt was currently connecting to their new server. Now he walked out of the meeting room to join the others, as Fred took the second framed poster out of the box and placed it on top of a nice long modular, next to the Pink Floyd one.

"Hey, Reg," Kurt said, and turned to Ron. "So?"

Ron huffed, shaking his head. "It still sets off at five yards. We need to double that. At least."

"I'll take a look at it la—" Kurt trailed off at spotting the posters and crossed the office to admire the second one. "A Perfect Circle!"

"Well, not that perfect," said Aldana.

Gillian agreed. "Yeah, that's two separate curved lines, not even a circle."

Hank came out of the storage and glanced at it. "Looks more like a Q, doesn't it?"

Kurt scowled at them. "You blasphemous heathens," he said.

"Hey, you know I like A Perfect Circle!" said Gillian.

"Blasphemous... That's a Depeche Mode song, right?" said Ron. "Blasphemous Rumors?"

Fred winked at Gillian. "We're doomed. Now they're gonna sing it."

Gillian nodded. "Yeah, I'm so outta here."

"You're leaving? But you just got here!" said Aldana.

"Told Banks I'd swing by."

"Meaning you're gonna stalk green Taylor, you perv."

"Never mind her, Reg," said Ron. "Al's just jealous 'cause Russell's been outta town with Brockner for over a week now, while you can still have fun in town."

"Wait! What about the reports? Cook said they're urgent!"

Gillian winked at Aldana on her way to the door. "Then you better get to it right away," she replied.

Aldana watched her walk out and glared at Ron. "Very funny! I should have you doing that paperwork!"

"Sorry, got a bomb to defuse."

"And you better hurry, if you don't wanna find it wired to your car," said Hank.