Durance by Lyn Gala Page 0,12
tip to link the sites to one of our active cases.”
“We’re already breaking enough regulations by not reporting any of this,” Kavon said. He might get hives from how many rules they were breaking, but every possible outcome he could imagine ended with chaos and panic if he told White. White would want a full inter-agency task force, and any hope of secrecy would go out the window. “We are not going to misappropriate FBI resources by falsely linking them to cases we already have. If we do that and get caught, we will betray the trust the FBI has placed in us.”
“Given that the world could potentially be ending, that upsets me much less than it would have yesterday,” Les said.
“Enough.” Kavon did not need Les distracting the team.
Les snorted. “Your disapproval is also less upsetting than it was yesterday.”
In a soft voice, Darren said, “Les.”
Where Kavon’s anger did nothing, Darren’s disapproval brought Les’s head up off his arms, and he nodded. “Right, right. I'm just having an existential moment here. I’m on board.”
Coretta tapped her fingers against her knee. “Then we don't link it to any current cases. We use the new resources we have. Your computer guy is driving me up the wall.”
“Milton?” Given that he had asked to be assigned to Coretta’s team, Kavon had expected him to impress her in an effort to earn a transfer.
“He's a menace. All he wants to do is show me his damn programs. He's like a flea buzzing in my ear.” Coretta pressed her lips into a thin, angry line.
“Fleas don't buzz, flies do,” Darren offered.
She glared at Darren. “Milton is a menace, and I don't want to send him out in the field right now,” Coretta said. “I have too few experienced field agents, and two newbies. How about we give Milton all of the data on the hotspots, and ask him to write a program that predicts where another one might show up. That would be helpful to us in terms of identifying patterns of crime or potential crimes, and literally we are checking into the potential of crime. It's not a lie.”
Kavon hadn’t considered that. “Could he do it without knowing why we want the information?”
“If he is one quarter as good as he claims he is, he could write a program that would predict the time of the second coming,” Coretta said dryly.
Les added, “He is a little arrogant.” Coming from Les, that was a harsh condemnation.
Coretta shrugged. “But if he's good, we might not need a geographical profiler. And if White asks why I’ve assigned him to busywork instead of active cases, I can honestly say that I question your sanity in hiring him and I prefer not to put him in the field with any of my agents.”
“His magic is solid,” Les said in the weakest defense Kavon had heard yet. Kavon hadn’t worked with Milton long, but his only impression of the man was of a quiet, weedy young black man who always had his nose in a computer. Kavon was a little concerned about the others’ reactions.
“His magic, absolutely,” Coretta said, “his interpersonal skills.” She held up a hand and rocked it from side to side while giving Kavon a pointed look. “But he's on your team so I don't have to worry about it. Just as soon as you get back from vacation, you can handle him.”
“Assuming we don't all die first,” Les added.
Darren reached around Kavon to throw a pillow at him. “You’re sounding like a broken record.”
“I’m just saying that the rest of you seem to be ignoring the potential for death. Hey, let Milton do his best, but I’m worried that we’re treating this like a case instead of Armageddon.”
Rima kicked him with a socked foot. “I thought you were supposed to be the laid-back one.”
“If you're talking about someone stealing my parking place or being late for dinner, I am more laid-back than any of you, because those things don't matter.” Les took a second before adding, “Death matters.”
“Look at the bright side, we could just be looking in a case of enslavement by evil gods,” Darren said with exaggerated humor
Everyone gave Darren incredulous looks.
Kavon stood, his movement commanding everyone’s attention. “So we have a plan. Coretta, have Milton work on a predictive model. We don’t know what’s causing these hot spots, so it’s a reasonable assignment. Darren and I are on vacation, so we can go out and do some interviews. We can check out