Galen's Gemma - Dale Mayer Page 0,11
area. One of those over-the-shoulder purses which women carried around that seemed to hold everything. And, sure enough, she pulled out a modem, several battery packs, a mouse, and then a notebook.
She sat down at the small kitchen table and quickly turned on the laptop. “My thoughts had been one for the front road, one for the back door, and one for inside somewhere along this transition wall.” She pointed up to where the wall was. “We could then potentially see the kitchen and living room and somebody coming up and down the stairs.”
With that agreement in place, the men quickly secured the cameras as best they could to be out of the way, hidden, even bringing some greenery in to make it look like it was a decoration.
With that set up, she brought up the software and motioned to the computer. “Numbers one and two are online.”
Galen stepped behind her to take a look. “Good enough. Number three isn’t picking up anything though.” He walked over and readjusted it. “I don’t like the looks of the sensor in the back.”
She went to a box and brought out a smaller box from inside. “Here. These are replacement sensors.”
He looked at them in surprise. “Where did you get this stuff?”
“I have connections.”
He grinned at that. “So do I,” he said, with an approving nod. “They’re good to have.” He could feel more easing of her stiffness.
She nodded. “They’ve been a saving grace so far.”
“That’s how you got the car?”
“How do you know it’s not mine?”
“I checked.”
“Hell, yes, that’s how I got the car.”
He was glad that Gemma had somebody capable of helping her right now. He wished that he’d been the one she called. Something was just so compelling about that quiet take-charge way about her, to the point that he was getting irritated with the sister and would like to just ditch her. But that was hardly the point, when keeping her safe was why they were here in the first place. “What about at Joe’s home?”
“Three,” Gemma said quietly.
He smiled. “Different system I presume?”
“Yes, and different software. The software has some glitchy crap that keeps throwing me.”
“But you’re in IT, right?”
“Medical systems,” she said. “But honestly, the security in the back end of many of these big systems is similar.”
“I’ve heard that,” he said. “Not sure I’ve seen any medical systems to know though.”
“Nothing really to look at,” she said. “Take a look at any banking system, and you’ll find something similar.”
“Ah, they’re all built on the same backbone, aren’t they?”
“They are,” she said. She switched off several other screens and brought up the house.
He watched as she connected to all three of them. “How long does it hold the feed?”
“I’ve got it running for two days right now,” she said. “I’m hoping that we can check on it at a regular basis, but I don’t know how steady the internet will be for that kind of access.”
“Can you get it longer?”
“I’m hoping to,” she said. “I’d like at least four days, but I haven’t been able to get it to work. It keeps glitching out when I try to save the new settings.”
“Mind if I try?” he asked.
She hopped up and took a step back. “Be my guest.”
“What is this?” Rebecca asked, coming out of the bigger bedroom and up behind them. “That’s my house,” she snapped. She turned to glare at her sister. “Have you been watching me?”
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Gemma said, “I set it up so we could see if anybody goes through the house now that we’re gone.”
“Well, somebody did,” Galen said, pointing out the cops.
“I know, but that was before. And then Zack went through. And that’s how you called me, I presume?” she said to him.
Zack nodded. “But I didn’t see the cameras, so that was a nice job, Gemma.”
“You weren’t looking for them,” she said.
“You’re right. I wasn’t. And, once I realized that Rebecca’s personal cell phone was still there, I knew something bad had happened.”
“Of course.” Rebecca turned on her sister. “I told you that he would.”
“I was counting on it,” Gemma said calmly. “I hope you came armed?”
“We both are,” Zack said with understanding. “So you wanted us to follow you?”
“Just like you wanted Galen for backup,” she said, “I needed backup too.”
Just then a faint cry came from the bedroom. “Mommy?”
Chapter 4
Gemma smiled when she heard Becky’s voice. Rebecca headed toward the bedroom, calling out, “It’s okay, sweetie. Mom’s here.”
Gemma looked at Zack to see his gaze following