Her eyes, his lies

Chapter 21

Jane didn't respond as she peered this way and that, craning her neck around the bushes. It was hard to see in the dark, even with the light of the street lamps, but if Watson had complied with her request- There.

Watson had obviously thrown it from his car window, most likely in an attempt to not be seen. To his credit, the paper wrapping was intact, apart from a few grass stains, and, with any luck, the IMSI catcher would be as well.

Tucking the rectangular package beneath her arm, Jane tugged on Victoria's sleeve, and pulled her around the side of Beatrice's house.

They crept along the fence ringing her property, keeping low. Jane's legs burned as she was forced to crouch-walk beside the fence, keeping herself hidden from view.

The narrow passage between Beatrice's fence and the adjacent walls of the neighboring house was almost claustrophobic, a thin pathway lined with slick greenery underfoot.

With a muted sigh, they rounded the corner, now immediately behind the building. The windows of the home were placed in such a way that spotting them would be difficult, especially in the dead of night. It was as good a hiding spot as they would be able to find.

"What're you holding?" Victoria asked, lowering their bags to the ground.

"It's an IMSI-type cell catcher. If I use this with a customized PI, I should be able to pull off a middle-man attack and intercep-" Jane abruptly cut off as Victoria shot her a comically exaggerated glare.

"In English?" Victoria asked, sarcastically.

"We can lift data off Beatrice's phone," Jane said.

A devilish grin was spreading over Victoria's face. "I hope she says something embarrassing. Let's play it over the school intercom."

Jane laughed at the thought.

"We're here to try and take down the syndicate," she reminded Victoria.

"I know, I know. I just hate that prissy little queen so much."

Jane reached out and bumped Victoria in the shoulder. "We'll get her."

The mischievous grin on her friend's face turned to a genuine one. "Yeah. We'll get her"

Jane unzipped her bag and withdrew her laptop from within, propping her back against the fence. The screen would be visible in the dark, and so she did her best to obscure it with her own body.

The particular article of police tech that Watson had given Jane resembled a miniature mobile radio, sans a receiver. A pair of dials adorned the front, one of which was simply labeled 'Power'. It was as simplistic a device as one could get.

What was not as simplistic on the other hand was the customized computer Jane had spent much of the previous night working on. The dark circles beneath her eyes weighed heavily as she wirelessly connected the green computer-board to the fake cell tower. Almost immediately, her laptop screen recognized the new device, and began reporting various statistics about its operation.

Victoria was watching in fascination beside her, though she did not seem to understand what she was looking at. A single blinking light on the board indicated that everything was going smoothly. Well, almost everything.

Jane frowned. "Huh."

"Something wrong?" Victoria asked.

"There's two signals coming from the house."

Victoria glanced over her shoulder, up at the once-impressive home. "Maybe she has two phones or something?"

Jane gave a half-hearted shrug in response, and chose one phone signal to intrude on at random.