Now 

          “Shae, I can’t just give you their addresses,” Sergeant Martinez said, “it’s against protocol.”

          “Can you give them a message, at least, Sergeant?” Shae asked.

          Ellie twitched her lip a little.  “Sure.  I can do that.  And it’s Ellie, not Sergeant, okay?”

          Shae’s eyebrows shot up.

          “Okay, it is Sergeant,” Ellie admitted, “but only when you’re in trouble or I’m trying to impress the rubes.”

          Shae couldn’t help it.  She wanted to be mad at Ellie, but the older woman was just too damn reasonable.

          A phone rang on Ellie’s desk and she picked it up, holding up a finger to ask Shae to wait.

          “Martinez,” she said.

          She swept aside the encroaching piles of paper gathering on her desk, neatly excavating a small city map drawn on a double sheet of laminated paper.  She took out a Sharpie and marked a dot- another dot, Shae corrected herself- on the page.

          “Jesucristo- they’re really picking up.  That’s the third one this week.”

          Shae craned her neck and read the title of the map- scrawled in Ellie’s blocky printed letters- upside down at the top of the page.  Ellie saw her looking and flipped the map over on her desk, shaking her head in quick negation.

          “Don’t worry, Sid- we’ll get ‘em,” she said.  She listened for a little longer, then hung up.

          “What’s Boost?” Shae asked.

          “Bad stuff.  Leave it alone, Shae.”

          “Sure.  Why do you look frustrated?”

          Ellie smiled a little.  “You were the smart one in your family weren’t you?”

          “Don’t change the subject,” Shae persisted.

          “Bad guys aren’t cooperating,” Ellie said, “they just don’t make any predictable mistakes.”

          She closed her eyes.  “Or maybe I’m just tired- I’m running on the memory of coffee and adrenaline.  I think I’m getting stupid.”

          Shae grinned.  “I’ll leave you alone, then.  Maybe you can get some shuteye before our big to-do this afternoon.”

*****

Now

          “Hey, Network,” Shae said into the microbud she’d filched from Ellie’s stash, “I need you to do something for me.”

          There was a faint buzzing in her ear, not unlike soft static, then a synthesized voice answered.  “Activation in progress.  Hold please.”

          Shae arched her eyebrows.  She wasn’t certain why she was surprised; she supposed she’d just assumed Network- whoever she was- lived by the comms, feeding herself with an IV loaded with caffeine and glucose.  Ridiculous, of course.

          “Please state identity used for network resources.”

          “What?” Shae paused, nonplussed.

          “Please state identity used for network resources.”  Apparently the AI guiding the responses was at least advanced enough to recognize that her startled interrogative was not an answer to the system’s request.

          “Oh.  Um… Will-O-Wisp, I guess,” Shae decided, picking the name out of a hat.  It fit her, she thought, given how she glowed whenever her powers were active.

          “Please confirm.  Oh.  Um… Will-O-Wisp.  Is this correct?”

          Shae groaned.  Apparently the AI was not that advanced.  “No,” she said, “just Will-O-Wisp.”

          There was a brief pause.  “Please confirm.  Will-O-Wisp.  Is this correct?”

          “Yes.”

          There was another brief pause, then a more natural-sounding woman’s voice came on the line.  “So… Will-O-Wisp, eh?  I don’t believe I recognize that name.  New in town?”

          “Brand-spanking,” Shae replied.

          “Call me Network, then.  What can I do for you?”

          “A couple things.  First, can you correlate deliveries to several different addresses and let me know if anything stands out?  Better would be if you could get me the raw data, I think- I suspect police are already working this angle, but they may not be looking for the right thing.”

          “Of course.  I don’t suppose you want to tell me what I’m looking for?”

          “Mm.  Not yet, anyways.”

          Shae recited the addresses she’d seen from memory, thankful for her nearly photographic recall.  “I may have made one or two errors,” she admitted, “but I’m pretty sure those are all correct.”

          “Churches, huh?”  Shae was impressed- either Network was already looking at the data, or she’d figured all that out just from the addresses in less time than it would’ve taken her to type it.

          “Yeah,” Shae admitted, “specifically, I want to know if there are any religious supply services that ship to all of them- and have done so recently, say, within the last six weeks.”

          “I’m pretty sure the popo are already working that angle,” Network agreed, “but I have a few resources that they don’t.  I’ll get back to you on what I find- give me half an hour.”

          Shae nodded, then realized Network couldn’t actually see what she was doing.  “Sure thing.”

          “Now.  What was the second thing you needed?”

          “I need you to help me get a costume.”

*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************

This scene makes me happy- we're just on the cusp of Will-O-Wisp's big reveal- it's only been one-and-a-half full stories in the makings...  Also, any time I get to do a little interplay between Network, Minerva, and the rest of the world is a happy day for me.  This picture- and all the artwork for Shooting stars- is brought to you by the amazingly talented and lovely .

Shooting Stars is an epic tale (okay, maybe that's pushing it, but I've always wanted to call something I wrote an epic) taking place in  and will feature characters by , , and an appearance of Esau by .

All the characters in this section belong to .

You can find the previous section here: 

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