Bitch: Puncture (book 2)

I couldn’t believe that she’d been able to pull it off. Arlene’s faith in people was strong. She had a deep abiding sense of the general goodness of most people, mixed with her belief that she was a strong judge of character. Something about being able to see their aura if you looked at them sideways. She had been creating the plan somewhat along the way and there were some unknown pieces of the puzzle, but all we could do now was to wait to see if her gamble would pay off.

We’d know one way or the other if Arlene was right about her ability to read people. For the present moment, we were off the roads which was good because I would have bet that after the stunt she pulled with the Sheriff’s car, he’d probably lock her up on principle alone. Better to let his anger fade and have him expand his search pattern out wider and thinner before looking for gaps to slip through.

Several hours later we heard a car on the road it slowed down and turned down the path. The lights bouncing wildly in the gloaming darkness around the trees. Apoc and I watched from the back of the mini bus. An older panel van pulled into the clearing. Arlene turned the light on near the door of the minibus which threw down a small cone of light that included the van and stepped down into the circle between the vehicles.

A young woman opened the door of the van. She had short red hair and a number of piercings. She waved. “Hey Arlene. Glad you found the place.”

“It was easy to find with the ribbon, Natalie. Are you alone?” wondered Arlene.

Natalie smiled instead of answering, with a gap in her top teeth that somehow didn’t diminish her unvarnished youthful beauty. “C’mon Dr. Broon.” She winked at Arlene “So where’s your dog?”

“I’m just getting my bag,” came the annoyed perfectly enunciated voice. The van door shut with a thunk. A young Indian man stepped around the front of the van with an unhappy look pulling on face. His eyes were partially hidden by large corrective lenses.

“Hello Doctor, thank you so much for coming.” Arlene smiled and put out her hand.

“Well, I wasn’t given much of a choice now was I?” He looked pointedly at Natalie and then found his manners. “Doctor Sanjev Broon. You know I’m not comfortable doing this in the middle of the night unless it really is an absolute emergency.”

“And your boyfriend, the deputy?” Arlene looked pointedly at Natalie.

“He wanted to come but he said the Sheriff is so bent out of shape about the cold case and then his... uh car trouble... that he doesn’t want to risk coming out. But if he’s able to get away he said he’d swing by. He’ll probably call in a bit. We did have plans tonight, I mean originally...” Natalie’s grin got wider as she talked.

The vet cut Natalie off. “I hate to be a wet blanket ladies, but I also had plans this evening. Can we get to it please? Where are the animals that need treatment?”

“Well we want to remove the RFID and any other tracking chips that they may have,” said Arlene.

Dr. Broon’s mouth gawped for a moment. “Other tracking chips? This couldn’t wait for normal office hours? Forget it I don’t want to know. Patients please before I completely lose mine.” He held up his hand to forestall any further discussion.

Arlene turned and opened the door and they stepped inside. I stepped to the front of the bus as we had agreed. Apoc was resting quietly on the bunk in the back in the dark.

Dr. Broon set down his bag. Arlene turned on all the front inside lights.

Dr. Broon did a cursory examination and kept stopping. “What kind... ? Where did you say you got this dog?”

“I didn’t say actually.” Arlene watched Dr. Broon’s curiosity with a bemused expression.

“It doesn’t look like any breed I know of, and something is off... about it... something is not quite right...The bone structure it’s... I... ” He trailed off when he looked up at Arlene. His face shifted and he blinked so loud I swear I heard his eyelids snap. “Okay, Natalie please hand me the transponder.” He motioned to his bag.

Natalie pulled out a hand held device with a plastic hoop antenna at the top. He waved it over the back of my neck and then proceeded to run it over the rest of my body. Finally, satisfied he stood and faced Arlene. “Well it appears you have wasted my time, there is no RFID in this animal.” He handed the transponder to Natalie and began to strip off his gloves.

Arlene stopped him with her hand stilling his. “Well, that is only one of the animals. And I’d like you to check to see if she is emitting any other frequencies that could be tracked.”

“I don’t have anything that would test for that.” Said Dr. Broon.

“I do. Jessie, uh ‘borrowed’ it from the Sheriff’s station.” Natalie went back to the van and returned lugging a hard plastic case onto the minibus. She set it on the small foldout wall table and opened it. She handed a plug to Arlene and opened the sleek silver box labeled STINGRAY. A number of knobs and dials was revealed, and a large LCD screen in the upper lid came to life with a long beep.

“Are you sure they won’t miss it? Is Jessie going to be getting in trouble for this?” asked Arlene.

“Well they are technically supposed to be using it all the time to ‘monitor the public’ but there aren’t enough people to have somebody just sit there and listen in to peoples phone calls all the time.” Natalie didn’t even look up from the machine as she chewed her lip and worried over the switches.

Dr. Broon was incensed. “I beg your pardon?!? What are you talking about? You’re listening to private phone calls?”

Natalie was focused on the machine and not paying a bit of attention to the surprise on the faces of her audience. “You know, cell phone calls. They can listen in to peoples phone calls and save all the data, you know, to prevent criminals from doing bad things.”

“That doesn’t sound legal at all.” Dr. Broon’s voice continued to rise with tension the longer he talked. “What about peoples privacy? And what data can they save?”

“Anything. You know text messages, pictures, meta data that kinda stuff. It's crazy the amount of people that send naked pictures of themselves to other people.” Natalie found the button she was looking for and the screen lit up.

“Pictures? You save the pictures? Private pictures of people? Without their knowledge?” Dr. Broon was shocked.

“What? I don’t save them, and I’ve only seen a few of them. They were passing them around the office for the first few weeks after they got it, but then I guess they got bored.” Natalie continued to scan the frequencies.

“So how do they only take the information of the criminals?” Dr. Broon couldn’t let it go.

“Oh they take everybody’s information, you can’t know who the criminals are unless you go through all of it. But like I said they don’t have the manpower yet to really run the thing, they’re waiting on a computer that will save and archive everything and upload it to the closest nexus center.”

“What?!?” Dr. Broon was in shock.

“I said that they’re still waiting on the computer. It costs like more than a couple of police cars. But it’s supposed to prevent crimes and stuff - automatic policing.” Natalie continued to turn the frequency knob and watch the screen for any blips.

“But I’ve... what about privacy? My privacy? I had no idea that my phone had been hacked.” Dr. Broon was indignant.

Arlene was grinning quietly.

“Your phone wasn’t hacked. Why are you so upset? It’s fine and besides you don’t have anything to worry about unless you’re breaking the law.” Natalie sounded a little annoyed.

“I’ll tell you why I’m upset. Am I accused of a crime? Or even suspected of one? And they just spy on everyone? This is supposed to be the land of the free. Haven’t you ever read the Constitution? I had to read it to become a citizen. And I am quite frankly deeply disturbed that pictures that I have sent to my significant other, may have provided hours of entertainment to the local law enforcement while they spied on me. The way you describe it, it sounds like those buffoons are trading private information that they have no right to, like... like baseball cards.” Dr. Broon was snarling.

“Look, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen a picture of your junk if that’s what you’re worrying about. It’s just so we can find the terrorists.” Natalie was trying to placate him.

“Terrorists? Are you kidding me? You are talking to a dark skinned Hindi man who lives in a rural mountain farming community that is approximately 60% white Christian, and 40% native American. I’m the darkest guy in the whole town except for Winston, the one and only black man in the entire town! Of course they’re spying on me. How many white Christian terrorists have you ever heard of? ZERO! And don’t even try to count the random mentally ill people who kill people as terrorists. They are talking to invisible cats! They wouldn’t know reality if it came up and bit them. Terrorists know full well what they are doing. The crime statistics just don’t support your rationalization of unlawful behavior on the part of local law enforcement as being proportional or necessary.” Dr. Broon had talked himself back to calm tone of voice but was still visibly upset.

“Proportional? Look, you and I know it’s not illegal, but what are we gonna do about it? The cops and government they just have more guns and tanks. I mean do you want to die just to be right? The America that you are talking about, well it’s different now. Nine eleven happened and everything changed. Besides why are you pressing me? I don’t make the laws.” Natalie had stopped searching and was watching Dr. Broon.

“Well, that’s just not right. Something must be done about it. I feel violated, like I’ve been lied to.” Dr. Broon continued.

Arlene put her hand on Dr. Broon’s shoulder, “And now maybe you understand where all those ‘white terrorists’ or protestors that the establishment is so terrified of, will come from... if the general masses wake up to the fact that their liberties and freedoms have been legislated away by a small but powerful group of people who control the purse strings of the country. Those people aren’t afraid of actual terrorists. They are afraid of the revolution, like the one that created this country and that they know they so richly deserve. And like any other tyrants they aim to demonize and destroy anyone who threatens their hegemony. So they label dissenters, with socially repugnant labels like hippie, tree-hugger, conspiracy theorist, whacko and fascist, to marginalize and undermine the truths they expose.”

Natalie sighed and twisted the dial. “Okay I can’t see any blips on any of the frequencies. You said there was another dog.”

Arlene looked at Natalie for a long moment. “Yes there is one more. Okay, look I want Dr. Broon to sit in the driver’s seat.”

“What?!? Why?” Dr. Broon was surprised.

“Well, he’s a bit shy and I’m not sure about him with new people. It’s really for your safety.” Arlene finished.

Something in Arlene’s tone sent Dr. Broon to the drivers seat. Arlene looked at me, “Can you go get him hon’?”

I nodded.

I walked the few steps to the back bunk. Apoc’s eyes hit mine as soon as I arrived. I tried not to stutter step. His eyes were just so bright, even in the dark. He looked at me, I could see his canines glinting in the dark. He was smiling at me.

I turned and walked back out. I heard his paws feather soft on the floor and felt the minibus shift with his weight. I was watching their faces when Apoc appeared out of the dark. I heard the gasps and saw Natalie on her feet in an instant. Now that I thought about it, I was betting that somewhere deep down he enjoyed the reaction that he got from people. I watched him pad silently past me and realized that he was strutting.

And to be perfectly honest Apoc was magnificent. I watched his flanks ripple with sinewy muscle. He sat down in front of Natalie and the machine. Then he turned and glanced back at me and Arlene grinning. That smug bastard was having fun with this.

“But that’s not a dog!” The ever eloquent Dr. Broon, gripped the seat back so tightly his brown knuckles went as white as his eyes in his glasses now that his eyelids had apparently completely retreated into his head.