Catalyst

Part 24

I sat in the backseat of Hobi's car while we drove through a neighborhood I didn't recognize. He pulled into a church parking lot and killed the engine.

"Jin should be here in about 20 minutes." Hobi glanced at me in the rear-view mirror. "Jimin has the laptop you'll need, and you'll work from the back of the van. It shouldn't take him more than 10 minutes to install your device so you can control the camera feed."

"My device? Isn't it Yoongi's tech?"

Jimin turned in the passenger seat to look at me. "You actually made it."

I let that news permeate my brain a little.

"Wait," the word coming out as a sigh. "When you guys said not to worry because 'we've done this before,' did the 'we' include me? Have I done this shit before?"

"Only two or three-"

"Four," Hobi interjected.

"Four times," Jimin said trying to appear nonchalant.

"Sweet," I deadpanned, and turned my attention out the window.

The neighborhood was quiet, not many cars driving by, and no one was out walking. It seemed fairly typical for a Tuesday morning. Trees lined the sidewalk separating the parking lot from the road. It was peaceful.

I listened to the boys chat in the front seat, discussing how Hobi and Namjoon were going to create a distraction. They had yet to decide on whether Namjoon should turn into a bear or a cougar before entering the Kronos lobby.

"How about a wolf?" I suggested.

A squirrel running the road caught my eye. It was using the crosswalk. That's a courteous squirrel. Jimin was a squirrel. I'm in love with Jimin?

"Yes!" Hobi exclaimed and began rapidly typing out a text message. "That's a great idea."

We didn't have to wait much longer before a red van with the words 'Inland Fire Safety' pulled alongside our car in the church parking lot. Jin emerged from the driver's side wearing a red vest and baseball cap baring the same logo as the van.

Jin slid open the door on the passenger side of the van and waited as Jimin and I climbed out of Hobi's car.

Jin flashed me a smile, and shut the car door for me. "Hop in the back, there should be some buckets you can sit on."

The back of the van was surprisingly clean and well organized. There were a few buckets stacked next to a rack with different tools and fire extinguishers. I grabbed two buckets and flipped them over for Jimin and me to sit on. Jin closed the van door as soon as Jimin was inside.

"Let's get it!" Jin exclaimed as he climbed into the driver's seat and started the van. "Once we get there, stay in the back of the van. I'll go install the bypass device. Let me know once the feed is up, and signal Yoongi."

As we stopped at an intersection, Jin pretended to be singing along with a song on the radio.

"Traffic cams," Jimin whispered.

"I actually have to check the sprinklers at Kronos today, so we'll be there a couple hours at least. Unless they go into lock down because of the security breach," Jin mused and tapped out a beat on the steering wheel. "But I'm going to try to get the bypass device back if I can. If I can't, Yoongi says there's nothing that would tie the device to us and they probably won't find it unless they replace their CAT6 cables."

We drove for another five minutes, Jin chatting away in the front seat, while Jimin and I held onto the storage racks installed in the back of the van, trying not to slide around.

"We're here."

Jin pulled to a stop and turned off the engine. He climbed between the captains chairs in the front of the van and pointed to a large canvas bag which Jimin handed him.

Off the top of one of the storage racks, Jin grabbed an extendable pole with what looked like a small, plastic, dome-shaped cage on one end.

"What's that for?"

"I use it to check the sprinklers that hang down from the ceiling." Jin gave us a toothy grin, "Here we go! Fighting!"

Jin exited the van with his gear, and locked the doors.

Jimin pulled a laptop out of the backpack he was wearing, and handed it to me. He flipped over a third empty bucket and set it in front of me. "It's a table!"

"Thanks." I opened the laptop and found a program already running on the home screen. "Is this- is this one of my old laptops?"

"Yeah, I think so." Jimin ran a hand through his hair.

I checked the computer, making sure we weren't connected to Kronos' wifi and that a VPN blocker was being used, just in case.

"What is this wifi connection?" I glanced at Jimin, he was messing around on his phone. "When did you get a phone?"

"There's a wifi mobile hotspot thing in the backpack," Jimin pulled out the small wifi router to show me, then let it fall back to the bottom of the bag. "Yoongi set up a new phone for me."

He showed me the lock screen. It was a picture of the two of us looking extremely cozy and happy.

"You were right. You do look good blonde."

Jimin smiled and swayed toward me, lightly bumping our shoulders together. Gah, he's so pretty!

Jimin pointed to the computer screen.

"Cameras are up."