Sylvie

Witnessing the pain that crossed Ellie’s face, Sarah held perfectly still and stayed quiet as Ellie worked through the moment before speaking. “After seeing how brazen you are, I seriously doubt you weren’t enough, Agent Miller.  I’ve known you for half a morning, read your file and I know that isn’t true.”

“Thank you for the confidence, Director Powell.”  Ellie chuckled, “I was ready to just sit here and think about Angelie’s eyes for the rest of the day.”  Ellie forced her former lover’s eyes from her memory and resumed. “Things had deteriorated to such a degree that I kicked her out of our bed and forced her into another bedroom.”  She shrugged, “I told her to figure out what she needed and wanted, then she could come back to our room.”  Ellie shoved the captain’s insignia back in her bag, “What she ended up finding was a cult of some kind.” She once more paused and made an odd looking face. “I barely understood it, she said she would be awake, or they were woke, or awakened?”  Ellie shrugged, “All I know is that out of nowhere Angelie was almost herself again.  She said she was in charge of people and they were doing important things.”  Ellie held up her hands and used air quotes. “She never told me what they were doing, it was contractional or some mess.”

Freeing a section of a newspaper from the pile in the folder,  Sarah pointed at another image. “This picture is much more detailed, yet very rare for this area.  I suspect it wasn’t taken digitally, but with film.  Looks too much like old soup kitchen photos.”  Tapping her finger at a figure standing at the end of a driveway, Sarah looked at her agent. “I believe that to be Angelie Kino.”

Having learned through years of practice, Ellie reached into her bag and pulled out a small magnifying glass and studied the image for a couple seconds. “Yeah, that’s her.  I would know that stance anywhere.” Ellie looked at the article attached to the image, “Feeding the hungry?”  She looked at Sarah. “Why tell me it’s a secret then let a reporter take pictures and allow publication?”

Folding the paper back up, Sarah shrugged. “Good question.  Perhaps one that you can look into.” Sarah looked at the confused look on Ellie’s face, then decided to relinquish the remaining information. “Since we are collaborating here, you should know that the person covering that story died of a burst appendix two days later.  This story never officially ran.”  Sarah closed her eyes and sighed. “The editor’s wife is a friend of mine from college and asked me if I could do anything.”

“This was a few years ago.”  Ellie mumbled and tried to match the timeline. “I think this fits, Ma’am.  She seemed to have found her ‘revitalization’ as she called it. She even wanted me to meet the leader, called her Darla, I think.” 

Retrieving another hazy picture, Sarah placed it in front of Ellie.  “Probably for the better that you didn’t.  Perhaps you might have had a revitalization as well.”  Sarah shrugged and pointed at the large building. “This building I am sure you recognize.”  Ellie affirmed by nodding her head and Sarah pressed on. “Good.  Look at the date and time.  This was early evening at Phantasmagoria.”  She shuffled to another image that was just as lousy. “This was later that evening, a wider look at the city from the building.”

Using her magnifying glass once more, Ellie scanned over the more wide angled image, “I’ve never seen these.  Whatever took this was by accident.” She looked up from the city layout. “All access looks to be cut off.”

“Right.” Sarah chuckled. “A kid with his toy drone heard sirens and screaming.  Uploaded them to a ‘Quirky news’ Reddit.  The irony of a drone, Miss Miller.”  Sarah pointed to the four large things blocking the street. “All of the official satellite images have been curiously removed.  One of my other agents sent this to a post office box I have for personal use after seeing the Reddit.  These were removed by the moderators without explanation.”  

Gazing over the wide angle picture Ellie shook her head, “You’d think from a drone the images would have been sharper.”  She tapped her lip for a second. “Looks like moonlight giving some detail, just not much.”

Sarah waited until Ellie had finished with the picture before she pulled out a final one that showed a formation of people marching into Phantasmagoria with batons. “I can’t be a hundred percent sure, but I think that is former Captain Kino out front.  The building looks completely drenched but it's not raining, and there’s no sense of fire inside.”  Sarah tapped the image, “See anything strange, other than what I pointed out?”

“Two figures on the roof, yes ma’am.”  Ellie poked at the twin blurs and used her magnifying glass again, “If I had to guess that is a hole in the rooftop.”

Quickly shuffling the things back into a workable pile, Sarah closed the file. “The agent that discovered this photo is in an insane asylum.  I assigned another agent to the oddity and she’s now missing.  I can’t even find her credentials.  She doesn’t exist, and I was told that she didn’t…that I might be losing my mind and to take a little time off, if I can’t handle the stress.”

“This isn’t anything major, these terrible photos can be called fake.”  Agent Miller pointed at the manila folder. “There is nothing to investigate, I can’t question anyone with those.  I know that it was Angelie in front.  She’d been practicing and looking at videos on how to use a police baton.”  Ellie paused, “I even showed her how to properly handle it.”  Folding her arms, Ellie added, “I can’t prove any of it.  Sitting here discussing this, we are no closer to the truth.”

Handing Agent Miller the scant evidence she had, the officer in Sarah came out. “I am aware of that, Agent.”  She paused and opened her own cloth bag and handed Ellie a small manual. “SOP for our unit, Agent Miller.  We have a little leeway when it comes to investigation.  Behavioral Science is fairly encompassing.  Typically seen as a bunch of psycho-babble for reasons to explain human behavior, there have been times in the past where we looked into odd claims such as ESP.”

 “Go on.” Ellie perked an eyebrow, genuinely interested in the conversation. “If this lets me get my fingers around that River’s girl, I will do whatever I need to.”

Deputy Director Powell held up her hands, “Cool your jets.  You can’t touch her without new evidence.  I mean, new legal evidence.  I don’t even want you poking around and spying on her.”  Sarah held up a single finger. “If you so much as dig in the garbage for DNA without my permission, I will shoot you myself.  Leave the girl alone for now.  I think what you want is buried in those tiny leftovers you have.  Everything else has been stricken from evidence or denied by Tatum Blackwell and company.  We can investigate strange claims, Agent Miller.  Use that to your advantage.  Start with something that hasn’t been bleached clean.”  

“Phantasmagoria.”  Ellie smiled at her boss and tucked away the SOP and the folder into her leather bag. “What does the Suffolk office have to do with this?”

Looking behind her as a few construction workers passed by eating the remains of their lunch, Sarah whispered. “Suffolk is about halfway between both cities and has a nice bed to sleep in.  It is also an off-books facility with private connections for anything we need.”  She got up and walked over to Ellie and patted her on the shoulder. “Black ops.  There are only about six people that go in there, with two of them being you and I.  The other four are on our team as well.  Get us something we can use, Agent Miller.  Legal.  A new source.”

Ellie felt a phone slip into her pocket and looked up at her boss. “How often do you want me to check in and change this SIM card?”

“Daily.  There are spare SIMs in the Suffolk field facility.”  Sarah helped Ellie to her feet. “Let’s get  justice for Angelie.” Deputy Director Powell headed for the glass door exit, “With some luck we won’t end up in a hidden missile silo somewhere in South Dakota.”  She pointed to the darkened hallway, “Now get out of here.”

Making sure that she’d gathered all of the evidence she had, Ellie then overturned the benches the two had used, then headed for the back exit. 

-Angelie, I hear you baby.  I will set things right.-