Wednesday 8 July 2020

Rainbow Sparkle Power Friends Reunion Part 7

Rainbow Sparkle Power Friends Reunion Part 7. {better get to some action soon, if not this time next one for sure, promise} The group chat went well that night, Kat arranged to go round to Angel and Claire's in the week and go through the meditation process with them. The Monday morning was the usual "breakfast" fill coffee machine with water "brush your hair!" fresh coffee in "brush your teeth!" filter you bastard! "water bottle?" where's my mug? "home work!" fuck's sake "shoes!" with Amy and Thea on the school bus, Kat sat down with her coffee and breathed out and took a long drink of her coffee, she turned the lap top on and put in a few hours work, she checked the time, with 2 counciling appointments in the afternoon on line, she had 90 minutes to go and pick up a cheap phone in town. Locking up the house, she drove into town, parking on 3rd, she looked at the bar, but as she had work this afternoon she went straight to the Preston and Daughter phone store. The bell dinged, as she went in, the man behind the counter looked up from the tablet he'd been working on, "welcome to Bill S Preston Esq and Daughter's, how can we help you today?" "hi, I'm looking for a basic smart phone," Kat remembered what Amy had said the yesterday," something a luddite boomer can use, without much repeat instruction, we're looking at maybe WhatsApp being the most technical thing to download so they can keep in touch with the grandkids." "we have several, would you like a new phone or a reconditioned one?" Kat thought about what would be done to it, "reconditioned would be best I think, the old man likes to take things apart. I'd prefer not to spend too much in case he does." a couple of phones were presented and Kat picked the cheapest, paid on her card and left, noting a decent looking lap top by the window. Rather than going straight home she dropped into the bank, moved some money around and bought the lap top as well, she'd give this one to Amy, bring Amy's in for an upgrade and give that to Thea. Once home she connected to the WiFi and installed WhatsApp, added hers, Angel's and Claire's contact details, and invited it to the group chat, with that done she transitioned to the Tomb and the got the Intelligence to raise the interface, the whisp appeared and observed what she was doing, she found herself talking to the whisp, "you might need to install something that allows you to connect to the local phone network," "What would I need?" the intelligence asked "I'm not sure exactly, radio antenna, cables, an interface of some sort, maybe a satellite dish, someone would have to go outside and set that up, I'm not a tech guru, I can do basics but that's it." Kat's timer went off. " I have to go and work, send a WhatsApp message when you get it sorted okay?" " I will. " the intelligence replied almost distracted, Kat transitioned back, noticing it had clouded over, it was looking like rain, and liking not beening stunned by the difference in the light levels at each end of the journey, she poured herself a cup of coffee and got the lap top set up and put some time in working until the kids came home, she explained the lap top situation to the pair of them, and left Amy to copy her school work and music from the old one to her new one while she cooked the evening meal, after they'd finished and washed up, Kat started, "as I said yesterday, I'm off to Claire's tonight and Angel 's on Wednesday okay? Home work first, screens after, I should be back for 10pm, behave okay?" Eyes rolled so far back in teenager (&soon to be) heads all Kat could see was 4 lots of whites. She took the wand and the flip phone, checked her phone for messages before she got in the car and drove to Pamona, she took 57, then 60, turning off and heading up to the DMV, turned right and then third left, pulling up into the cul de sac and parking in front of Claire's small house, looking at it she again thanked her deceased Aunt for leaving her the home she lived in in her will and vowed to leave some flowers on her grave this weekend, she knocked on the door and there was some clattering from within. "Parkin' it in a doorway is not a good idea, move cat" came through the door as Kat waited, the door opened and Claire let her in, she was wearing training pants, and a t shirts her hair was down, rather than the usual conservative pony tail, "come in, mind the ass holes." she waved Kat through into her living room, walked to the mantle piece and handed her a card, "WiFi password, drink?" "juice as I'm driving, thanks" she connected to the WiFi, still nothing in the group chat, Claire disappeared into the kitchen and came back with some juice, "thanks," she took a drink, "how are your folks?" Kat asked, Claire sat down on her sofa, a black main coon cat, sauntered in, made a show of looked around and did Claire the honour of sitting on her lap, "older, dad's less tense since he retired from the Anahiem PD, mom has all her stuff to keep her busy, when I was in hospital they asked about you, they wanted to know you were alright, I did track you down when I recovered and you were with your aunt, I just didn't want to cause a problem and butt in, so I just kept a loose eye on you, hope you don't mind. " Claire answered, " which is how you had my land line number?" Kat asked " oh no, that was very much an illegal use of Agency time and equipment," Claire said, smiling as she stroked the cat, she absently picked up a brush and started on to brush. Kat smiled at the thought of her friend doing anything that underhanded. "so what's new with the old guy?" "I left a phone for him to learn, we might need some equipment to connect it to the networks though, unless he can do that himself somehow." A short haired tabby walked in, sniffed Kat, then went and sat in the cat tree in corner and looked down at everyone, Kat pulled her phone out and set a timer for 2 hours, before she guided Claire through the meditation, it was a little easier to connect to the flow for Kat this time, she could feel that there was an up swelling of energy beneath them, she guided Claire to tease a filament out and draw it towards her, feeling the freshness and potential of it welling up around them, then let it fall back into the flow, they both repeated the process a few times, getting used to the feel and the required mental muscles that needed to be used, then the buzzer went off, and it brought the pair back to the real world, still an half an hour to go before she would be setting off for home. "top up?" she asked shaking the glass, Claire took it off her and disappeared into the kitchen, Kat followed. The kitchen was clean, each cat looked to have their own side, Claire put the glass in the sink and got 2 fresh ones out, grabbing some orange juice from the fridge, "ice?" she asked, Kat nodded, Claire dipped into the freezer and got a handful of ice, " 'sques fingers," she said pouring half of the ice into each glass before filling both with juice, she picked one up and handed it to Kat, put the juice back in the fridge and grabbed her own. "you mentioned a visit to the head cultist?" kat asked "I put the request in on Friday, I'm expecting a confirmation email by Wednesday at the latest hopefully get to see him before the weekend, but I did a search in the database and the only matches were all dated 2012 and 1999, there isn't anything on the FBI radar that matches last time." " can you use the NSA database, they watch everything anyway?" Kat asked "Inter agency actions like this require authorisation that can take up to a month to come through, I asked on Friday." Claire said "when we were there, you suggested my armour might be on the other side than yours, why?" "both mine and Angel's beams have a white core, yours had a black core, ours were on one side, yours the other, speculation based on observations and a smattering of reading Terry Pratchett, he talks about a black rainbow in one of the books that covers the Assassin's Guild, and opposites a lot, like the Brits do the Morris dance in the spring and summer, well one troupe also does the other dance as the year gets darker in one of the countries on the Discworld. I guessed you might be from the other rainbow, I guess I was right. " " possibly, we are talking about stuff that predates recorded human history, and even before that. " " Yeah not a conversation I thought I'd ever be having." Claire took a drink," oh yes, I went over the dna database and found a couple of names that have the gene, there's Jessica Hyde somewhere in Scotland, hard to find, next to no digital footprint, she's in her late 20's, no pictures of her. The second lady we have in Northern India, Binu Dalal, lives in Siliguri, not far from the Tibetian boarder. There is a few more, but I haven't yet been able to back track the data in a way that won't get me reprimanded by the area commander." " Do you want to ask the old guy if we can go to them by transition or are we talking flying, as there is no way I can afford round the world flights, or should I, if get time during the day tomorrow?" Kat asked. " if you have the time free could you do it? " " okay, maybe you could use some of your spy contacts, and find us a portable satellite dish and a lot of cabling," Kat asked with a smile, Claire laughed, " spy contacts, I'm a super cop not a spy" "but that badge can get you a better grade of gear than I could buy at retail." "I have never tried to use it that way, I'll see what I can do tomorrow at the office." They both finished their drinks, and Kat gathered her stuff and got ready to leave, Claire walked her out to her car, " okay I may have lied to you a little bit before, I didn't track you down after you where with your aunt, I did it before, while you were on the streets, I hacked the LAPD system from my dad's pc in his home office, when your photo came up for drunk and disorderly in Santa Barbara, I drove around the place for 3 days looking for you, when I was sure I found you, I phoned Soomin and told her where to look for you." Kat looked down at her car keys, black hair, slipped over her eyes, and thought for a moment on what to say. " thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. I don't know where I'd be if you hadn't but I think dead somewhere is fairly high on the list," Kat looked her friend in the eyes, and hugged her tight, pushed herself up on her tip toes and kissed Claire's forehead," I pretty much owe you everything." Kat got in her car as the tabby walked up to Claire, she picked the cat up and waved at her with one of it's front paws "you're not mad?" she asked "I would have been at the time, if she'd said something, I think, but as me, here and now, I know you did the right thing, why would I be mad? I'll leave the madness to you, crazy cat lady." Kat replied. "I am not a crazy cat lady" Claire answered, dropping the cats paw and smiling at Kat, "I felt guilty about that for almost twenty years." "if you hadn't done it, it'd just be you and Angel today, you did the right thing, let us know when you get that confirmation." Kat unlocked the car and got in, pushed the button to wind the window down, and the key in the ignition, before she turned the engine over she leaned out of the window, and looked up at Claire," your parents, ask them if it'd be okay if I got in touch, would you?" Claire held up a finger "give me a second," she disappeared into the house, Kat started the car, as Claire emerged, still with the tabby in one hand, a card in the other, "they send me this for you every year, it's their contact details" Kat took the card and put it in her phone case, and put the phone in the cradle on the dash, "thanks... What do I say? Its been so long." Kat asked, regret rushing in all of a sudden. "hi Mr and Mrs Walker , sorry I've been out of touch for so long? He already knows I hacked in from his pc so you don't need to tell him that part." "I'll send them a letter, hopefully I can write one before Christmas." she put the car into reverse and did a 3 point turn, she waved out of the window, looking back in the mirror she saw Claire dancing back into the house with her cat. The drive home was quiet, and the living room light was on when she got home, Amy was up on her laptop, Thea seemingly had gone to bed, Kat closed the door and locked it, made sure everything was locked, fixed herself milky decaf coffee, and sat down, Amy, who'd waited for her to sit down, closed down the lap top and came and sat next to her, "Dad phoned tonight, was surprised you were out." "okay, what else did he say?" kat asked expecting some crap to unfold in the next sentence. "He asked if he could pick us up Friday night rather than Saturday morning as its Granny Green's birthday party on Saturday and it's a surprise bash so we need to set it all up on the day" Kat nodded and took a sip of her drink "oookkkaayy," she replied slowly, as she formulated her next question, "I take it you 2 are in agreement over your course of action?" she looked at Amy "yes, we're happy for a Friday pick up, I told him we'd check with you, but I didn't think you'd have a problem with it, he said he'd pick us before dinner time Friday, and drop us off at the usual time on Sunday." Kat looked at this information from several angles, " Okay, if you guys are okay with that, then I can't stand in the way now can I?" mixed feeling warred within her, she always missed them on the overnights at their dad's but this gave her 2 nights in her house alone, she was mentally booking an uber for Friday already, no idea where just out for a drink and maybe a film, Saturday, lay in bed, training with the new stuff and Sunday go and put some flowers on her Aunts grave. Kat looked at Amy "he'd better not cancel now, I'm making plans and a shopping list, brunch on Saturday and Sunday sounds lovely to me." she smiled at Amy, "did Thea take her phone upstairs?" she asked. "yes, I told her not to." kat fished her phone out and texted Thea that she had half an hour then she was coming to collect the phone and turned the TV on. Tuesday Kat took the old laptop to the Preston store and negotiated the price for the updates, which would get it about level with the new one ram and hard drive wise, afterwards Kat put some time in for work on the lap top with several councilling appointments during the day, at lunch time she Google searched portable satellite dish and cabling to see how much this was going to cost, then emailed links to Claire with questions about them. Wednesday was more of the same, the training with Angel went well, again it was easier each time Kat tried it, this time she also focused on what the intelligence had said about the Rift in Mexico while Angel drew the strand, she rode the flow south, seeing a stain in the flows, like an ugly brusie, the energy flowed around the area, but it looked calm, so rode the flow to England. Whatever was causing the rifts formation was effecting the flow of the Earth Energy in the south of the country, the energy was looking like it was boiling, the surface extremely agitated, she tried to bring some flow back to this part but couldn't do anything from where she was. The buzzer sounded, very distantly, it took Kat longer to come back herself this time, unsure if it was down to the distance or what she'd been doing while away, she talked about it with Angel and left a message for Claire in the WhatsApp group, Claire had left a cryptic "in transit" message around lunch time that she'd missed, before Kat left she asked Angel about her parents, and getting in touch with them, "They missed you," Angel said, "worried themselves sick when you ran off, my dad drove all over So Cal looking for you. 'can't have a nice girl like that living o a the streets,' he even visited your mom and dad, to see if you'd gone there," "I was never that desperate." Kat replied. "I'll try and write a letter to explain." she started. Angel interrupted her, "you don't need to, drop them a line, I'm positive they'd love to hear from you". Again she was home by 10pm and made sure both girls were in bed by half past. Thursday was a normal day with nothing unusual happening outside of the kids actually packing a bag for the weekend away and Thea getting a shower before bed with only being asked twice. Friday dawned with the usual "teeth!" "hair!" "shoes!" "bags!" pre school bus fun. Work was an in the office day so involved driving into the city for the meeting that could have been an email and printing off her case notes from the councilling sessions she'd done this week for the archives, the drive home through Friday evening rush hour traffic was terrible and by the time Kat got home, the Green's car was parked outside, her ex was sat on the sofa. "hello Lincoln, wish your mom all the best from me won't you?" Kat handed a card over that she'd picked out at lunch time, Thea and Amy were upstairs getting the last things ready before going. "Of course," Lincoln replied, "Thea tells me you've bought her a lap top?" "No I bought Amy a reconditioned one for school, and currently got the old one being upgraded in town." Kat tried to see where this was going. Lincoln nodded, "I was going to buy Thea a lap top for her birthday and you've gone and given her one" Kat took this information on board and processed it quickly, "And now you're not going to buy one for her?" "Well she's got one now, hasn't she, so what's the point?" Kat walked to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water to drink. "Okay the machine she's getting from me is a hand me down from her sister, you are buying her a new one, which do you think she'll prefer? I wish you'd said something sooner I wouldn't have bothered with the upgrades." Lincoln thought about it for a moment and seemed to reach the conclusion Kat thought he'd reach, "Okay." Kat reeled off a list of specs, "you'll just have to make sure it's better than that though, as that's what Amy's is and the old one is being brought up to the same level", Lincoln swallowed "Can you email me those so I can make sure it's at least the same?" Biting back a smile Kat agreed to send him the specs, the girls came down the stairs, overnight bags packed and ready. "Okay see you Sunday, have fun at the party tomorrow, and remember to wish Granny Green a happy birthday from me." Kat hugged and kissed both girls and hustled them out of the door, dragged the hoover out and cleaned the house before mixing a drink and relaxing for half an hour before she checked her phone, there was a message from Angel, Claire and a new message from the Intelligence. "Finally" she muttered opening WhatsApp, "is this connected now?" the Intelligence asked, Angel had replied already, Claire's message was asking for meet up tomorrow to discuss her trip upstate to the ultramax prison, Kat offered to host.

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