Part 4 (1/2)
Andrea laughed, shaking her head. ”No thanks. I learned not to walk in on my sleeping brother during his teenage years.”
”All right, I'll go take care of Riley,” I said laughing. ”Maybe he can use the patrol as a reason to get out of bed early, have a lunch date with Janet or something.”
I found Mom in her office, reading over some reports. MJT had certainly moved from its original location, the building in the warehouse area that was now in fact the strike base Riley and Andi would be using that evening. After the collapse of the Confederation and Owen Lynch's syndicate, MJT was able to in fact purchase the entire Hamilton Building. Now occupying the top three floors, the Building was still one of the financial hubs of the city. ”Hey Mom, how's it going?”
Even though she was my mother, my admiration for Tabby McCaffery was genuine. She called it luck, and maybe there was a bit of it in the way that her relations.h.i.+p with Sophie had led to her meeting Mark. But the growth of MJT was as much due to her hard work and genius as Mark's. More than once she'd made decisions and done things that she hadn't consulted Mark on, and she was almost invariably right. Her actions had saved or made MJT hundreds of millions over the course of the years, to the point that Mark had merely turned over everything except his personal stock market work to Mom and let her consult with him when she needed it. That was during the time we all jokingly called him the World's Richest Groundskeeper.
Mom looked up from her desk and smiled. ”Good morning honey. How was the house?”
”Things are fine. I had to tell Riley he needs to reschedule his date with Janet, Mark needs our help with some work tonight,” I said. We never spoke directly about vigilante work outside of the house, although we'd get around it at times using euphemisms. ”Wish Dad didn't have to go up to the capitol to talk with the governor, but it happens.”
I sat down at my desk. Officially, I was Mom's executive a.s.sistant, although the reality was, I was learning how to be an executive in the company. Mom knew that part of the reason MJT had been able to be successful for so long was that she was able to harness the ambitiousness of youth to keep it ahead of companies being run by so-called older and wiser heads. She wanted fresh blood in the executive chairs as quickly as possible, and that meant me. Andi was more interested in Dad and Mark's work at City Hall, Riley was still in school, and while Barbara was overseas, she'd be unavailable in general. ”So what can I help you with today?”
”First I'm going to need you to review the contracts with that charitable group you were working on,” Mom said, ”then get tickets for Sat.u.r.day night. I just heard that the Philharmonic is doing a special with Hans Zimmer, and I thought Sophie and Mark would like to go.”
”And if Mark says he's too busy?” I asked. ”You know how he gets.”
”Then I'll tell Sophie to tie him down to the bed,” Mom said with a grin. ”Although he might like that too much.”
We went to work, Mom on her projects while I worked on mine. Mom preferred to have an open setup to her office instead of closed cubicles, so even though I was technically her a.s.sistant, I shared the s.p.a.ce with her and her other a.s.sistant, a quiet but very competent girl named Alicia who handled a lot of the day to day correspondence and stuff like that. She was a product of the MJT community centers, second generation in fact. Her mother had been part of the first wave of job trainees at the MJT centers, getting her and her two kids off of welfare. Alicia followed suit and had actually gotten into college with the training she'd gotten at the centers, and for three years had been Mom's a.s.sistant. She was twenty-six now, and made Mom's work at MJT as stress-free as possible.
After reviewing the contracts, I called up the Philharmonic. MJT was a diamond patron of the Phil, and as such, we could land tickets even on short notice. ”Hi, this is Carter McCaffery from MJT Holdings.”
The names McCaffery and MJT swing weight in certain areas of the city, and I reflected that I was glad that I had my night work. If I didn't, I'd actually start thinking I was somehow more important than other people. The way the person on the other end of the line practically kowtowed over a phone line was evidence of this sort of treatment. ”Of course, Mr. McCaffery. How can we help you?”
”Yes, I'd like to get two tickets to your performance Sat.u.r.day night. Do you have any prime seats left?”
While floor seats were sold out, the Phil did have a luxury box available, which I booked. It was the price of four tickets, but I didn't think Mom would mind. It was for Sophie and Mark, after all. Hanging up the phone, I flashed Mom a thumbs up. ”Luxury box, Sat.u.r.day night. I'll leave the rest to you.”
Chapter Seven.
Riley
I double checked my right shoulder-mounted weapon, a three millimeter sniper round that was accurate out to a mile if I aimed it right, and sent it back over my shoulder. It was still a key part of the sniper's trade that aim and eyesight were important, even with all the benefits of technology. ”Ready.”
Andi nodded, clipping her backup sidearm to her left thigh. With the reports of increased gang activity, we weren't taking chances, and both of us were going out with more firepower than we'd done in a long time. We double checked each other, knowing that Mom was on coms and had to not only deal with us, but with Carter who was getting ready for his own op. ”How're you feeling?”
Andi shrugged. ”Okay, I guess. Don't want to be out tonight.”
I understood her feeling. Janet hadn't been too upset when I told her that a family situation had come up, and that we had to delay our next date, but it still wasn't something I wanted. I'd been looking forward to it, with an antic.i.p.ation that I didn't expect. I could tell by the way she kissed me good night on the front steps of her house that she wanted to invite me in, or maybe better yet, for me to take her to bed. And in a total surprise to me, I was ready for it to go further, not in terms of s.e.x, but in terms of something else that I wasn't even ready to admit to myself what it was. ”Stay frosty, and we'll get through this.”
”Stay frosty?” Andi asked, giving me a smile. As the 'ice' side of the red and white teaming, she and I both had nicknames from the cold side. ”Looking at a new nickname?”
I smiled and shook my head. ”Not at all. Do you think Carter would ever let me live it down if I did? Every patrol would be an unending series of quotes from that d.a.m.n song and cartoon. I just mean we stay alert, and we can both go home safely. You to a warm bed, and me to a soft one.”
”Speaking of which, are you getting anxious for it to not be just you?” Andrea asked.
I thought about it for a second, then nodded. ”Yes and no. I mean, I like Janet, of course. But not as a short term thing, you know?”
Andrea studied me for a second, then laughed softly, shaking her head. ”I never thought I'd see the day.”
”What?”
”When my little brother becomes a man. Come on, we stay radio silent any longer and Mom's going to worry. Let's go.”
We left the base, the old MJT headquarters. The building was now just a strike base for us, our motorcycles parked inside the secured building. I wished we could have taken them up to Filmore Heights, but the mission tonight was to gather information, and they were too noticeable. We needed to go to the rooftops.
Thankfully, our suits made sure that even a long gap between buildings was not a challenge. Back when Dad and Patrick had been doing this gig, they'd never jump a gap bigger than ten feet, which in all honesty meant they often had to meander their way through patrols, or move at street level a lot.
But with the suits that Andi and I wore, even a twenty five foot gap was no problem. With a little device that we wore on our backs that acted like a miniature hang glider, it was a piece of cake.
Outside on the roof, Andi and I turned our comm units on. ”Checking in. Everything sound good, Mom?”
”All good.” Mom was handling the computer coordination for us all tonight, while Dad acted as backup to Carter. Patrick was unfortunately out of town for the night, having been called to the state capitol for a meeting with the governor, and we wouldn't see him until the morning.
”Mom, how's Carter?”
”I'm just making the last of my load out checks now, babe. How're you two getting along?”
”Just fine, Carter. You worry about yourself, we'll handle this,” I interjected. ”Think you can avoid getting run over by a Boeing?”
”Pretty sure, Riley. Think you can avoid getting your a.s.s kicked by the Eighty-Eights?”
I laughed, Carter wasn't going to rile me up that easy. ”You'll see. Stay safe.”
I clicked off, looking at Andrea. ”Ready?”
Andrea nodded. ”I'll take the lead. No offense Riley, but you've been out of the game for what, eight months now?”
”No, I did one over Christmas vacation, but yeah, go ahead,” I said. Andi started off at a light jog, the two of us hopping rooftop to rooftop. It's much faster than going by city streets, since you move as the crow flies most of the time. In less than twenty minutes, we were standing on the gray slated roof of St. Timothy's Church, which gave us a commanding view of Filmore. I was slightly warm, but not too bad overall. While my Harvard dieting had cost me some muscle, I still had my endurance.
We stopped on the steeply slanted sides and held onto the top of the peak, catching our breath. ”Hey, you did pretty good,” Andrea said. ”I was worried.”