DANNY Chapter 42 by Roberta J. Cabot This is a story about Daniel, a guy with a unique talent and an even more unique problem: A great singing voice and the looks of his gorgeous sister. And how he and his family deal with his having breasts. And how he ends up as the female lead singer for a high-school cover band as well as a radio DJ. The band's first real concert was a complete success, and, with all the planning involved and their flawless execution, the identities of Robin, Dannie, Daniel and Danielle were fully cemented. What was next for everyone - no one knew. But one thing's for sure - there's never a dull moment with Batch Fourteen, and Dan & his gang.

 
Chapter Forty-Two:  Mission Improbable

***** (Valerie) *****

Since I met Danny and Tracey, my life had changed. I wouldn't say that it was all sunshine and light, but it was so much better than how it was before.

Sure, I'd find myself still arguing with my dad a lot, with mom usually ending up as our referee, but we would also make up afterwards now, and we'd have wonderful family moments, when before we virtually had none. Dad had made it a point to stay home every weekend now, so that I could come home and spend time with them. And, slowly, we had started to heal whatever it was that had to be healed.

Saturday mornings were my time with my therapist, and I dutifully went (So there'd be no chance I'd miss it because of my doctor's appointment, I would record Danny's program so I can listen to it in the evening).

On the second Saturday, though, my therapist suggested that my mom and dad should join me, and when I brought it up to them, my father agreed right away. Mom looked at me then, and gave me a wink and a laugh, and, though our new "family sessions" were never easy, it was something that we went into with hearts and minds open, especially my dad.

He was still as stiff as a board and a stick up his ass, but his sincerity couldn't be doubted. Slowly, he had opened up and I started to understand him. Sure, he still acted like he had a stick up his butt, but that was okay.

And we were putting closure on my sister's death.

A few times a week, Danny or Tracey would call, or I'd call them, and we'd have a chat about nothing at all, and almost by accident, we'd end up talking about how it was with us. The girls were happy for my family's progress, slow though it may be, and I, in turn, was so fascinated to hear what was happening with them.

And that's how I heard about the concert-show. I, of course, was offered tickets. I had to turn them down, though, because I had our therapy session in the morning and our family Saturday & Sunday dinners at home. Though I wanted to see the show, my priority was my family now.

Danny and Tracey didn't push, though, and I was grateful for that. They did, however, get me a bootleg copy of the concert that some enterprising kid had DVR'd from the TV and uploaded as a torrent file in Piratebay. I could have downloaded it myself, but Tracey had done it for me, giving me a blueray-playable disk and as an MKV file in a little thumbdrive.

So I gave the folks the disk and I kept the thumbdrive. Dad said we'd make the following Sunday night Video Night, complete with popcorn and stuff, and I made sure I would be home for that.

That weird Danny-slash-Danielle-slash-Dannie-slash-Robin thing still fascinated me, and was worried it would all come crashing down eventually, but they seem to have it all under control. I did offer my help if they needed anything, and that was how Danny ended up calling me up a couple of weeks after the concert.

She needed my help, she said. She was reluctant to bring it up over the phone, so I invited them to the house for Saturday lunch. Mom and Dad were happy to finally meet them, and made sure to have something nice ready.

So Danny and Tracey came over in Tracey's FJ Cruiser, and we had a pleasant lunch. Dad had "interrogated" the two (I had warned them that this might happen) and was pleasantly surprised to hear that Danny was in the Honors Section and Tracey's mom was Melody Piper, the head of the PiperCorp conglomerate.Dad had already respected the two, but it was clear that the two had gone several notches up in his personal rating with this added bit of info.

After coffee (Dad's coffee was Irish while ours were just regular), Danny, Tracey and I retreated to the garden outside to talk.

I pre-empted the two's questions by saying I haven't seen the concert, though we were planning on watching it the following night on Dad's ultra-wide TV. I, in fact, invited them.

"Thanks for that, Valerie," Danny said, "but I hope you don't mind if we take a raincheck. After our gig at Mario's last night, and my show this morning, plus our usual practice session later, I really just want to go home and get some shut-eye."

"No problem, Danny."

"Val…" Danny said hesitantly, "we need your help on something."

"Something not so… legal," Tracey said.

"Let me hear it first before I agree," I said.

"Well…" Danny continued, "you know about my situation, right?"

"You don't need to worry, Danny - I haven't mentioned it to anyone. I…"

Danny waved it away. "We know we can trust you, Val," Danny said. "That's not it. It's this…"

They explained that the Danny-Dannie thing had sort of come out already, but they engineered it in such a way that Danielle ended up being Dannie-the-singer, which meant Danny would act as if he was his sister Danielle when he was singing, while Danielle masqueraded as Daniel, who was also their supposed manager.

So, that meant Danny, while in Dannie-the-singer-mode, would disguise himself as Danielle, and Danielle would disguise herself as Danny - Robin's and the band's manager. They went into detail on how they would manage it and I was fairly sure they'd be able to make it work somehow. Sure it sounded screwy, but the way the two explained it made it seem totally reasonable.

The issue now was Robin-the-Nighthawk.

Danny would also continue to be Robin, but the worry was, because of the high visibility the band and the station now had, if someone were to do some research, it would come out that Danny had done an internship with KRPQ as an announcer, and that would pose problems for her. I mean, him.

He didn't need to finish the internship since his school changed its mind and he was made to sign up for the Glee Club instead, but it was still in the records that he had done several hours interning at KRPQ.

But, as luck would have it, Mrs. Gortner, their high school's counselor, would be retiring in a couple of weeks and would move to some place abroad to be with her daughter and her family. She was the one who approved the internship: no one else knew. So, since Mrs. Gortner was leaving, that little piece of info - of Danny doing a radio production internship at KRPQ - was more-or-less safe. But there was still a chance it might come out.

So what they needed was a way to erase any references to KRPQ in Danny's records inside Mrs. Gortner's files, and no one would be able to backtrack KRPQ to Danny at all.

"We decided to ask you because you know computers and, maybe, you can help, ummm, alter Danny's records?" Tracey said.

I looked at them. And after a minute of silent contemplation I shrugged. "Is that all?"

The two of them looked at each other and broke out laughing.

- - - - -

***** (Valerie) *****

Tracey then pulled out a folder from her bag, and, inside the folder were several eight-by-ten glossies.

"These are pictures of a bunch of our friends, so, if you need help, these guys can help you." Eh? Pictures? What?

She started with the first one.

"This is Morgan, Danny's best friend," she said. "He's a sporty kind of guy and was part of their school's basketball, baseball and soccer varsity teams. He decided to leave the teams because of the demands on his time. Also because they never really won any game. Heehee. He knows his way around the school as well as many of the teachers, and can help you navigate."

She brought out the next one.

"This is Joanne. She's one of Danielle's best friends. The reason we included her is because she has access to her mom's minivan, and is a pretty good driver. She can be your ride today. Joanne said that she already made excuses with her mom at the salon already so you can use the van for the entire afternoon." I was told later that Joanne liked to work at her mom's beauty salon when she can, and that she was a pretty talented hairdresser in her own right.

Tracey then brought out the next picture.

"This is Jerome, or Jerry to his friends. He's not exactly the quickest nor the most versatile in our group physically, but he's our closest to a tech-nerd. If you need an extra hand that's computer-savvy, chances are he's the person that can help you the most."

Then the next picture.

"This is Mike, or Mikey or Mickey. He answers to any of them. He's very dexterous and agile, and if you need someone to squeeze into tight spaces or whatever, this little guy's your man."

And then the last one - a girl this time.

"And this is Melanie. Or Mel. She's one of Danielle's friends."

I looked at Tracey. "And?"

Tracey shrugged in embarassment. "Well… She's very close to Jerry."

"Huh?"

"Sorry, Val. Mel insisted that she wanted to help."

I looked at the two and exploded in laughter.

The two looked at me, and laughed as well.

"You know, this all feels like an episode of Mission Impossible, and I'm Jim Phelps."

"Jim Phelps?"

"From the TV show? Anyway, think Tom Cruise's character instead."

"Ahhh…"

So. At around three that afternoon, the guys came in Joanne's minivan. Tracey and Danny weren't around anymore so being shown pictures helped. Ahhh! So that's why Tracey showed me their pictures.

There were handshakes all around, and Morgan outlined the plan they had thought up. It seemed reasonable enough. We all got in the van and started for the high school.

We parked about a block from the school, and put on our "disguises."

Since I wasn't part of their school, I wasn't in any of the school records. So my disguise only consisted of sunglasses and a baseball cap.

For the others, their disguises were a bit more elaborate.

All of the guys wore wigs - just cheap, synthetic women's wigs that they hacked chunks off from the bottom to approximate men's hair. They all wore jackets, as well as sunglasses and caps or hats that they borrowed from friends or other people ("so people won't associate the jackets with us," Mike said in a conspiratorial whisper. Really, dude?).

As for Joanne and Mel, they just wore sunglasses. After all, they're just staying in the van.

Jerry handed out thin latex gloves - not the colored kind but more like the neutral-colored kind used in hospitals. If you didn't stare, you'd probably not notice them.

"Best to be sure," he said.

Mike led us, and told us to walk where he walked. So we followed him as he walked on the parts of the sidewalk where there were lots of overhanging trees. And, instead of walking through the main gates, he walked along the perimeter of the school's outside wall.

He then led us to a little gate and opened it.

"Jerry picked the lock before so we could get into the campus through here, and there are no CCTVs covering this gate," Mike explained. Mike pointed to one of the CCTV cameras and we saw it hanging by a wire.

"We knocked that out with a rock just a couple of days ago, so the school's maintenance people haven't gotten the chance to fix it yet."

We then walked through and started walking to the main building. Mike said there were no CCTV cameras covering this part of the school so we were safe to walk directly to the main building. Morgan said for us to walk normally, so if we missed a camera, at least we didn't act suspiciously.

Mike led us up to an access door with the padlock conveniently taken off.

From there we basically walked until we got to the corridor leading to the Counselor's Office. Mike pointed to an old-style CCTV camera and watched it as it slowly swiveled around. Jerry handed Mike a key. Mike timed it in such a way that the camera was facing away from him, and then he ran along the wall and then stood directly underneath the camera.

When the camera was facing away again, Mike ran for the counselor's office, unlocked it with the key Jerry gave him, and stepped in, while I sprinted to the camera and stood under it just like Mike did. When the camera had moved around again, I sprinted for the door. I knocked once and Mike opened the door for me. Jerry then did the same thing, until all three of us were inside. Morgan remained outside to keep watch.

Jerry was sure that there were no CCTV cameras inside the office, except perhaps for the computer's Internet camera.

First thing's first - I covered the lens of the computer's camera with a bit of tape, switched it on and waited for the linux sign-on screen. Normally, it would be Jerry doing this, Morgan had explained, but Jerry didn't know linux at all.

Anyway, since I did, it wasn't that difficult, especially since Jerry knew where Mrs. Gortner kept the system passwords.

Using a paperclip, Jerry jimmied the desk drawer's lock, and found a little index card with User IDs and Passwords. So I used Mrs. Gortner's ID and logged on.

It wasn't too complicated - I just looked for Danny's files and found the relevant records.

The transaction headers for the records I needed just said "Internship - radio station announcer, KRPRQ" and then followed by the address.

In the approval field, all it said was "M. Piper - Supervisor," followed by a telephone number.

Other than that, there were no other traceable pieces of information. So, in the header, I replaced it with "Internship - Technician," with no company name nor address, and in the approval field, I just replaced it with "approved by supervisor." As for the telephone number, I put in "number not supplied."

There were several transaction records - over twenty in all, so I basically changed their details just like the first one. And when I was done, I then logged out, logged back on with the super-user ID, erased the access entries for the day, and changed the date and time-modified stamps of the records. I also fiddled with to the date- and time-created date and time stamps.

While I was doing all that, Mike and Jerry looked through all the paper records in Danny's file. They found the time cards. Each card was taped to a piece of typewriter paper. They took the sheets out of the folder and used Mrs. Gortner's printer-scanner to make photocopies.

Jerry had artfully covered the name of the company with a little slip of paper, as well as the printed name of Danny's supervisor. They did that with each time card.

And, instead of trying to replicate the time cards, they just basically scanned the entire paper in black and white, and just put these in the folder, pocketing the original cards. And since they were black and white, the covered up portions didn't look like they were covered up and just ended up blank. Jerry explained that if we were to fake them, it would just look more suspicious.

They went through the rest of the papers and found the official application form. So they did the same thing and just made a scanned copy, covering up names and telephone numbers with little bits of paper.

So, it was all done in less than an hour. I shut down the computer, turned off the printer-scanner and looked for any stray bits of paper. Jerry pocketed all the original paperwork they replaced, locked the cabinet and checked to make sure everything was okay.

When the computer was powered off, I then took off the little tape over the camera.

"I think we're set!" I whispered.

Mike nodded. He called Morgan.

"Dude," he said, "we're set. Signal us when the camera's in the right position."

"Okay," he said. "Okay… whoever's first - get set, and go!"

Mike signaled me and I sprinted out the door and stood directly underneath the camera. After a few moments, Morgan signaled and I sprinted towards him and out to the bend. I was then followed by Jerry and then Mike. We then went back out the way we had come, but this time locking the padlocks in the access door and the gate.

We then walked back to the van, again being careful of the cameras.

As we slid into the van, Joanne turned to Morgan. "Mission accomplished?" she asked.

Morgan pointed to me and Jerry.

"Well?" she asked us.

"Yep," Jerry said, and we high-fived each other.

"Yeah!" Mike echoed. "Nothin' to it. Slicker than snot!"

"Ewww!" Me and the girls went.

After a few minutes, as Joanne drove away from the school and back towards downtown, Mike cleared his throat.

"Say, Val?" he said. "You know I have some problems with my English grades… you don't suppose…"

"Mike!" Joanne reacted, and Morgan hit him on top of the head.

"What did I say!"

No one said anything after that. Which made everything a little awkward.

To break the awkwardness, I hummed the Mission Impossible theme.

"Dum-dum-dumdum-dum-dum-dumdum…"

And everyone laughed at that.

to be continued...

 

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