Gotta Catch The Pretty Ones
© 2011-2014 by Mr. David R. Dorrycott
Chapter Fifty-Three
“Since when did I rate being monitored” Sara said to Dell as the kitchen door closed behind her. She slammed down a device, one marked with PokeyGuild markings. “This wasn’t where I found it, not two weeks ago.”
Dell gently picked up the now battered little device, turning it around in his hands. After a bit, with Sara still glaring at him as though her eyes could burn through him, he simply snapped the box in half. Within was a mass of tiny circuits interconnected with wires. Prodding about a bit he nodded to himself, then tossed the broken thing back to Sara.
“It isn’t one of ours” he reported. “Yes, the symbol is outs but the insides are too crude. I think that this may beling to the police.”
“Police?” Sara repeated, staring at the now ruined device.
“Or the ComCompany” Dell continued. “Have you had any work telephone done in the last two weeks?”
“No, none” Sara answered, dropping the device in her kitchens rubbish bin. “Just the random group of Pokehunters, they do keep me busy time to time.”
“Pokehunters” Dell mused. “Well this didn’t come from your average Pokeyhunter, or the local Pokeyhall, these things run around a thousand P even used. No, someone want’s to know something about you, or your style of operation. Do you talk much about your discoveries in the shop?”
“We talk in code” Penny explained from Dell’s left. “We talk as though we are catching women in Pokeball’s, the numbers, names and such indicate how close Sara is coming to a breakthrough. That’s why when Graham stumbled in it was a terrible shock, we were all so certain that such things were impossible.”
“Thus the code we made up for something like this, but we never expected a bug” Sara continued, having realized what her wife was doing. “It’s too late to change the code now, for example Patricia O’Donnel was our ‘fourth capture.’ Certainly we never expected her to stay with us, still ‘forth capture’ meant that I had discovered a forth subroutine, one that I now understood it fully.”
“I can see why when Graham showed up it shocked you both, and it explains your nervousness Sara” Dell agreed. “Use something you know is impossible, so that if someone hears it they think your doing something else.” He smiled then, “But to have the reality of it shoved into your face like that, you knew that you were dead, you just knew it.” He stood, looking out the kitchen window at nothing, yet everything. “You will have to make up a new code now though, you don’t have any choice in the matter. That thing though.” He pointed at the junk in Sara’s hands. “That tells me that someone big is looking at you, maybe even a criminal element, or a well heeled private investigator. Give me an hour, I’ll instruct Gidget to make a new code for you, that is something that she excels in. With luck she should have it by tomorrow.”
Looking around him he sighed almost in defeat. “Check for those things after every large group, especially ones that demand your attention. That is probably how that thing was planted. If you will agree to pay for it I can have a detector delivered, one that will pick up that trash.”
“Who do I write the check to” Penny asked, “And how fast can you get one here?”
“The Guild Mrs. Robertson, and I’ll deliver it myself next month, what with the Graham problem that is the fastest I can get it to you. Gidget probably knows exactly the model you will need, can I show that thing to her?”
In answer Sara handed over the disabled device, still looking at it as if it were something that had crawled out of a septic tank. “It’s all yours Dell, and I’m sorry I snapped at you.”
“No harm done, now let me go talk to Gidget.” He left then, knowing full well that all three women would be tearing their own home apart looking for the illegal devices.