Encrypted Connection

Blaise: Eight

Blaise came back in, tray in hand, to find Joey being mauled by his ardent protector.

"Damnit, BLUE!" Blaise yelled, setting down the tray on the side-table, "I told you to get your ass down from there! I got a perfectly good bed for you so you wouldn't have to leave, and I only gave you ONE rule! One rule! Get. Off. The. Bed!"

Blaise used his drill instructor tone, too, but Blue was no soldier. She was a damn good dog, but she was touchy. Blaise found out the hard way.

Yesterday, they'd just come in front a walk, and Blaise had had to bribe the hell out of Blue to leave Joey's side. He'd promised her a treat, but on their walk, she'd tripped him multiple times, so Blaise thought this was a perfect time to teach her a lesson.

However, it was Blaise who learned the lesson.

When he told Blue she wasn't getting the treat, she laid on the floor, paw over her face, and chuffed, like she was crying. It broke his cold, hard heart, and he spent the rest of the evening doing anything she wanted so that she'd be happy again.

Silvo had laughed his ass off and given her a treat behind Blaise's back--like he wouldn't see.

It seemed she'd learned who the weak one was.

As soon as Blaise raised his voice, she curled up and covered her eyes, peeking up at him from a kowtow position, that sad, sad look in her eye.

Blaise sighed, wiping both hands down his face, then fishing a treat out of his pocket and tossing on her dog bed, which she happily hopped down to get.

... then she hopped back up, thankfully this time at Joey's feet.

Blaise rolled his eyes, then looked at Joey. "No sympathy. That's all your fault."

He walked over to the side of the bed, leaned over and reached for the blanket to pull it back, but Joey slapped at his hands.

Blaise slapped back. "Stop. Let me look and I'll get you the wi-fi password."

That seemed to mollify Joey, so he checked his bandages, took his temperature, which was thankfully back to normal, and took a seat beside the bed.

"Listen," he finally said, "we don't know much. Right now, to the team, though, you're MIA. Luckily, Silvo's been handling things so there's not too many questions. But the only people who know you're here are me, him, and the lady I called in to work on you and I know she won't talk."

Blaise reached back and pulled a cup with a bendy straw from the tray, handing it to Joey.

"You're at my house," he finally told him, "and I think it's best if you stay here. Sil's setting you up a room. Most of your equipment was damaged by gunfire, it looked like. The rest he said you probably wiped."
Blaise pointed to a bag in the corner.

"Nobody's touched it. So, as soon as you're ready, we'll get you in that room and you can start moving around."

Blaise turned to see Silvo peek his head in, his grin sly. "Wi-Fi password is StarkSucks."

Blaise didn't get it, but Silvo ducked out pretty quick, whistling, and Blue prompted out behind him.

"That damn dog never minds me," Blaise grumbled as he stood and offered Joey his arm and some support to pull himself to a sitting position. Blaise made sure he had enough support behind him, then he picked up the tray and set it over his legs.

"Soup and crackers. You eat it all, you can have pills."

With that, he stood, dropped the pills on the tray and walked out, giving the kid some privacy.

Blaise didn't want to admit it, but the fact that he was awake was a good sign. For a few days, it was tough, with the fever, but it seemed he was on the mend. He texted Julie that the patient was awake, and she said she'd be by after work to check him out.

"Alright," Silvo said, pulling up his screen on the television for everyone to see, "Here's where the tracker stayed. Now, intel on the property says that it's owned by a shell company that we've tried to tie to Madame K since the beginning. This shell company and another were tied to several of the containers we tracked."

Silvo threw up the map, showing the surrounding area.

With his pointer, he highlighted a few of the buildings.

"These residences are occupied," he said, "and each is sitting on about two acres, give or take."

"Any word on Joey?" Brick asked,

Blaise looked around the table quickly, then settled his gaze on the medic, "No. We're using all our resources, talking to his handlers, but they don't have any more information than we do."

It seemed that explanation wasn't sitting well with them. Blaise, though, didn't make it up for discussion.

"We're going to put a detail on the house. We'll set a shift schedule. Bray, you and Nate will figure out how to get eyes and ears inside."

Silvo started plugging in names into the spreadsheet, and it only took about five minutes to set the stake-out schedule. Blaise let the guys do what they did best, sitting back and looking around.

It broke his heart that one of these people could possibly be the one who shot Joey because it was a betrayal of his trust, of the trust of all of them, and without trust, a team can't function. This op was important, and if there were any fuck-ups, more children would die.

Finally, when a preliminary schedule was set up, Blaise dismissed them and turned to Silvo.

"Did they find anything in the apartment?"

He just shook his head, "No prints. No fibers. No witnesses. Nothing."

"Damnit," Blaise said, leaning back in his chair and staring at the ceiling, "Cells?"

"All here and accounted for," Silvo answered.

"Surveillance?"

"Negative."

Blaise stood, walking around and clapping Silvo on the shoulder. "Keep me updated."

Silvo nodded, watching Blaise leave, waiting for that webcam he'd hooked up for his buddy to come online.