“She’s going to need to rest for a while. You all are lucky the bullet went through her shoulder. You mind telling me what the hell you were doing in a fire fight?”

An older man looks over towards Terry and Elizabeth as they stood nearby.

“We were doing a job and got attack by someone trying to steal the cargo. That’s all I can tell you right now without my boss authorization.”

Terry just stood quietly by, while Elizabeth was talking.

“Fine! You girls keep your secrets. Make sure she doesn’t use her right arm for a while.”

The doctor gathers his stuff and walks out with Terry escorting him. Terry comes back to her apartment and shuts the door. Terry walks into her bedroom and looks at the white face girl laying in her bed. She couldn’t be any older than nine or ten years old.

“So, young.”

“I don’t know. I think she’s older then she looks. Did you see the scars around her wrist and ankle or the needle tracks in her arm?”

“No, I didn’t notice those. So, you mind telling me why you were following the box truck?”

Terry turns around to look at Elizabeth. The dark brown hair woman was just a little taller than she was and appeared to be a little bit older then her as well.

“My job. I was sent to find out what was going on at one of our satellite cold sites. What, were you doing with the people in the cargo truck?”

“Making a delivery, which now I’m not going to get paid for. You said you were investigating something going on with your satellite cold site?”

“Yes, why?”

“Because, I was delivering a satellite decoding component.”

“So, you were delivering a satellite decoding component and then what is in the back of the box truck?”

“I don’t know. It seems our diminutive thief in there, was sent to steal the box truck. Now, who hired her to steal the truck and why did they
try to kill us and her?”

Terry was looking at their thief as she slept.

“To many questions and not enough answers.”

Elizabeth picks up the two dart guns the thief had been carrying with her.

“These things are custom made. I wonder where she got them?”

“May I?”

Elizabeth hands Terry the dart guns. She picks up the knife to look at and notice it’s just an ordinary kitchen knife. Nothing special about it.

“Interesting. These guns fire a needle projectile suspended in a liquid solution. It uses an ordinary co2 cartridges for the power to fire it.”

“Like a modify blow gun.”

Elizabeth looks over towards Terry.

“Exactly”

Terry puts the guns down and look at the deck of cards that have “In This Style 10/6” printed on the cards which look old, but were brand
new.

“The strange thing is, her guns are new, her cards look old, but are new. Most of her thieving gear is new, but she carries around an ordinary kitchen knife with a sharp blade on it.”

Elizabeth couldn’t figure this girl out.

“Even her clothes look old and have no designer labels or anything on them. They do need to be clean. They smell like she has been wearing them for a while.”

Terry was holding up the girl’s shirt and jacket.

“She’s a complete mystery. Her pockets were filled with junk.”

Terry had empty her pockets to wash the girl’s clothes and fix the bullet hole in her jacket and shirt.

“You’re right. It is junk.”

There were bottle caps, stones, string, little bits of paper, gum wrapper, fishing weights.

“God, this girl is a mag pie.”

Elizabeth couldn’t believe the junk. There had to be some reason for her collection.

“Look, let’s go downstairs and see what is in the back of the truck before my brothers and the rest of my employees get here. They don’t know about my after-hour job and I want to keep it that way.”

Terry looks at Elizabeth with a determine look on her face.

Elizabeth holds her hands up like she was surrendering.

“Your place, your rules.”

Terry leads Elizabeth back downstairs and through the hidden doorway to the hidden garage and out to where they had parked and camouflaged the box truck. Terry breaks the lock on the roll-up door and opens it.

Elizabeth climbs up inside.

“Okay, what are they doing with Russian Igla and Strela missiles and more satellite equipment?”

Terry climbs up after her and the two of them look at the rest of the equipment that was in here.

“All of this is US and Russian government equipment. No one is supposed to have this equipment.”

Terry couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“We can’t let this get out on the streets or into their hands.”

Terry looks towards Elizabeth.

“I agree with you. We need to put this equipment somewhere safe or give it to someone we can trust.”

“I think it’s time for me to call my boss and inform her about this. This is starting to get serious.”

Elizabeth climbs down and then helps Terry down as well.

Terry locks the trailer with one of her spare locks and goes around to the front of the truck and pull the main power fuse so it can’t be started.

“Come on, let’s go and check on sleeping beauty. I’ll take her finger prints and see what I can get on her.”

Both women head back inside and up to Terry’s apartment where their thief was still out of it.

“How long do you think she’s going to be out?”

“Probably till this afternoon. The doctor did give her a strong sedative to keep her under for a while.”

“You have an ink pad or packing tape?”

“Yep, I have both.”

Terry goes to get the ink pad and an index card for Elizabeth.

Elizabeth goes over and notices her fingerprints have been burned off.

“Well, that shoots that idea.”

“What do you mean?”

Terry looks down at the hand of their thief.

“She burned her fingerprints off. My boss is going to have to do an image search of her face or description.”

Elizabeth takes ten pictures and send them to Jaager to see if she can identify their thief. She checks the time and notice her wife will be getting up soon.

“Look, I need to go. Why don’t you keep sleeping beauty here with you and we get together later this evening?”

“Fine with me. Come around seven. Everyone should be gone by then.”

Terry knew her employees and brothers would be gone by six o’clock today.

“Here, this is my cell phone number. Call me when you find out about sleeping beauty and the equipment.”

Terry hands Elizabeth one of her business cars with her cell phone number on the back.

Terry escorts Elizabeth to her car and watches as she drives away.

“It’s going to be a long day.”

Terry heads back inside and start opening for business. She washes the thief’s clothes and mends her jacket and shirt while she waits for everyone to show-up for work.