Bellwether
10
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Bellwether Chapter Ten
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ProPhile: I should have something to send your way tonight or tomorrow.
Readers/Reviewers: Thank you so much for reading and reviewing as you can!
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“They probably
just went to
Kitty insisted, tapping her fingers rapidly on the edge of the desk, beating
out a staccato rhythm that seemed to have no rhyme or reason.
from her monitoring duties but Kitty had only given up one cramped desk for
another, Rogue standing at her elbow as she stared at the black background on
her computer screen.
“I thought you
said they’re not going to
otherwise they’d have filed a flight plan,” Rogue pointed out, more tired than
irritated. Pressing her fingers to the
bridge of her nose, she vented a harsh sigh.
“This is stupid. I’m all freaking
out over this; they’re with
for fuck’s sake. It’s not like they’re
going off to get laid or something…” She
paused and raised a brow. “They’re not,
are they?”
Kitty
snorted. “I doubt it.
really doesn’t like thinking of any of us as having sexual urges so as far as
he’s concerned, we have as much sexuality as a Kewpie
doll.” Chewing on the edge of one nail, she frowned, something niggling at the
back of her mind, taunting her with it’s subtle
presence. “Damn it… I’m missing
something!” She flexed her fingers, the
knuckles cracking loudly in the otherwise quiet room, making Rogue wince.
over the keys before her, a smile curving her lips into an almost wicked
smile. “I’m, like, stupid as a bag of
hair!”
“Nice
Southernism,” Rogue shot back, thickening her accent for affect.
tree…”
“Like a menorah,
thank you,” Kitty grinned. “I so totally
forgot about the tracking devices on the Blackbird! Duh!”
screen. “I have to work fast because
this will start setting off security protocols but I don’t need much time.”
Rogue opened her
mouth to speak but promptly shut it; she knew how Kitty got when she was hot on
the trail of something that interested her, whether it be
a shoe sale or some arcane bit of information.
Twisting her white shock of hair around one long finger, Rogue watched
as the screen fairly exploded into a scrolling miasma of numbers and letters, moving
fast enough to make her queasy. “Ugh,”
she muttered, “I don’t know how you can deal with that…I may yak…”
“It’s not so bad,”
Kitty muttered, her eyes scanning for one phrase, the one key piece of
information that would point her in the right direction.
visual white noise as the scrolling seemed to pick up speed.
She leapt out of her seat and did a bouncy dance, pointing at the
suddenly still screen. “Found it, found
it! La la la
seeing Rogue’s annoyed and fairly amused gaze, she cleared her throat and
ducked her head, tugging at her ponytail out of habit.
“
glanced at the screen and did not see anything that looked remotely
recognizable. “I’ll skip the how and go
to the huh.”
“Well, they’re not
heading for
Kitty noted with a frown. “We don’t have
anywhere in
they can sneak into… not in the direction they’re going anyway.”
“So…
“Doubt it…”
out of the system, belatedly remembering the security protocols.
deductive reasoning that led her to that conclusion, but, seeing Rogue’s face,
she decided to keep that tidbit of information to herself.
out a breath she had not been aware she was holding.
being kept in the dark. I don’t like
being kept in the dark.”
“So now we find
out what it is. And I know just who to
ask…” Rogue’s eyes glinted with grim
amusement as she headed for the door.
“Undo the top button on your sweater,” she ordered over her
shoulder. “Boobs will help.”
Kurt exhaled
slowly, closing his eyes. He hated
turbulence. He hated the bouncing and
weightless feeling between jolts. He
hated knowing how high up they were and what was more to the point, he hated
not being able to step out and feel solid ground to calm himself.
teeth, not looking at any of his companions.
“We just took off
forty five minutes ago,” Scott pointed out dryly, flipping through the filed
folder
had given him. “We’ve got a while
yet. You and Todd should be reading
these files—
blindly.”
Kurt did open one
eye at Scott’s grim tone but Todd beat him to the commentary.
ever been. Chill with the Charles
Bronson crap.” Stretching his legs out
to rest on the seat across from him in the limited seating area the Blackbird
afforded it’s passengers.
eye. “All of you read the files,” their
mentor ordered. “There’s some specs in
there you’ll need to be familiar with.
There’s not going to be a lot of time for on-site organizing.”
another bout of rough air. “Don’t
unbuckle for a while…this storm’s stretching out far as I can tell.”
Storm herself. He had left with the most
cursory of goodbyes, unable to get her alone for a moment during her last
lessons of the day. There would be more
than enough time to make up for that later, he thought firmly.
,trying to compensate for the weather, he called out to his charges,
“We’ll be there in a few hours. Sit
tight and read the files. This is
serious, guys. I don’t want to have to
explain to anyone why I’m coming back a man short.”