Baby only smiled and held out her hand, palm up. “Can I borrow your phone?”
Mel didn’t have to ask why. Some part of her already knew. Some part of her already understood. She handed over her phone and watched as Baby flipped through the apps.
The girl let out a little sound, then dug into the pocket of her jeans, pulling out a thin sheaf of cards. There were cards for every single major music streaming or purchase service. Baby selected the one she wanted and put the rest back into her pocket.
“Where did you get those cards?” Mel asked, genuinely curious. Baby had retained no possessions at all after the raid.
“I bought them,” she said, not looking up from the phone.
“With what money?”
This time Baby looked up and waggled her brows. “I’m a gifted pick pocket.”
Mel rolled her eyes, but Baby was already focused once more on the phone. She tapped more, then asked, “Is this email account secure?”
“Which one?”
Baby held up the phone for inspection and Mel nodded. “That’s my private account and it’s not sponsored, so it’s as secure as we can get.”
“Good,” the girl said and tapped a few more times. Mel was getting curious but before she could ask the questions, Baby finished with the phone and held it out.
As Mel tried to take it, Baby’s grip tightened and she said, “Everything you need is in an email you’ve just sent yourself. Keep your account secure. Also, the second song isn’t yours, so it’s safe for you to listen to. When you do, you’ll probably feel like you have to find someone and it will bother you. That’s good, because it will help you do just that. It took me years to find you after I heard your song, so don’t get impatient. You’ll need to tell her what to do.”
Mel glanced down at the phone, a little alarmed at the idea of trying to tell any reasonable person any of this. She wasn’t even sure she believed it yet. She noticed for the first time that Baby had a marred fingernail. A black dot under the nail. Maybe not a dot, but a small irregular shape.
“You should get that checked,” Mel said, eyes on the spot. “It could be melanoma.”
“It’s not melanoma. Trust me. You’ll find out.”
Both of them were still gripping the phone like some slow-motion game of tug of war. “What else?”
“Don’t listen to the other song until you’re ready. By that, I mean actually ready at that exact moment. You’ll want to. You’ll be curious, but don’t do it. It’s not safe.”
Mel felt herself pale at the words. This was really happening. But was it real? Was this some shared delusion? Sometimes those things happened.
“And one more thing.”
“What?” Mel asked, afraid of what else might come out of Baby’s mouth.
“Green means go.”
“What?” Mel asked again, but this time in confusion.
“Just what I said. You’ll see.”
With that, Baby released the phone and stood up, shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket and walked away.
“Wait!” Mel called, standing to hurry after the girl. “Where are you going?”
Baby spun to walk backward a few steps. She grinned broadly and winked. “You know, this and that. Don’t worry. I’ll show up at the home later. When I leave, they’ll never connect it to you. We’re good. A sister has to watch her sister’s back.”
Mel stood there, mouth opening and closing in indecision, the phone gripped in her hand. She still hadn’t decided if she should go after her by the time Baby disappeared along the path leading deeper into the park.
She looked down at her phone and wondered how fast she could get home so she could read her email in private.
Sick…Ish
“Yeah, Captain, I’m gonna be okay. I just need a day or two in bed.” Mel held the phone away from her mouth and gave a cough so spectacularly fake that she winced.
“Did you just fake cough at me?” Captain Mann asked. “Never mind. I don’t care. I just wanted you to know that the feds took the case from us. Jumped right over us and swooped in with the orders.”
“When? How?” Mel asked, forgetting to make her voice croaky in support of her claim to be sick.
Mann gave a bitter laugh. “Just a little while ago. Screens went fuzzy, then that lovely red stripe showed up on the case file and everything else was greyed out. Took everything right off the servers. Must have been an inter-sponsor deal or something. I’m checking the floor for monitoring, but I’m betting they got wind of our plan to throw some roadblocks and decided a pre-emptive strike was the right way to go. Take our files before we started using paper, you know.”
Mel grunted, understanding immediately. It had happened before and it would happen again. A winning case was hard to find and the sponsors liked winning cases. The fight for funds was eternal.
Even so, the case itself was secondary to the most important things; the girls.
“What about the girls? Are they alright? What’s going on with them?” she asked.
The Captain’s voice took on a softer tone. He cared more about the victims too. It was obvious in the way he fought for them. “They’re alright. Social services was my first call. They’re a pain in the ass, but they’re bulldogs. Right now, they’re probably plastering the judges with paper and they’ve got the media chops to make any judge that rules badly into a pariah. They’ll keep them safe.”
Mel threw up her free hand and sat heavily in a chair. “What do we do?”
“What we always do, Mel. What we can.” He paused, then his tone changed, like he had a card up his sleeve. “Also, the feds jumped the gun and I think they’ll regret it.”
“Why?”
“Our warrant went through. Didn’t even get onto the server by the time they snagged the files. Four more of the girls showed up for familial matches.”
“Which means they’re not clones?”
“Yep, dates
