"While the Boss is Away..." Part 2

Guardian Angels

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While Erica and Saipia are away on vacation, James gets sick, leaving Jimmy in charge over Jack and Bryan. However, when the boys attempt to make a simple drug bust, they come face to face with Mayor Ashely, causing the plot to thicken. Meanwhile, at Saipia's Hawaiian house, Erica is introduced to Saipia's housekeeper, a human cyborg by the name of Saundra. While spending lunch on Saipia's recently acquired beach, however, Mayor Ashley sent the girls a clear message, as well. Now, with James back behind the desk, it is time the Angels deal with Ashley's recent attacks.

Episode 16: "While the Boss is Away..."

Part 2

James stared at herself in her full length mirror and smiled. It had been two weeks, but she was finally over her flu and back in her police uniform. The woven cotton fibers felt good against her fur. She even topped off her outfit with her police cap. "Well, look at you. I forgot how good you look in your uniform," said Jason, her husband.

The old maned wolf's tale wagged in pleasure while her ears turned in the direction of her mate's voice. "Yeah. I do believe that is how we met in the first place. Of course, you nearly cost me my job."

Jason laughed at the memory, "That God Saipia was there, though. Hey, speaking of us, why don't we go out tonight or sometime this week. It's been a while since we've been on a date or had sex, and I was hoping that we could..."

With a smile, James walked over to Jason and gave him a loving kiss. "I think I am ready to give you another chance. I've had some personal issues in the past, but you've been taking great care of me these past couple weeks, and I think you deserve a reward," she said and gave him another, longer kiss. "But, after work. If there's time. Now, I've got to actually get to work, so, I will talk to you later."

With one final kiss James grabbed her holster and gun, badge and her taser. "I love you, Elissa. Stay safe," Jason told her as she snatched up her keys and her coffee mug.

"I love you, too, Jason. And I'll certainly do my best to stay safe. As should you. Anyways, see you tonight," James replied as she opened the door to their garage.

* * *

James was very thankful for the uneventful drive to the precinct. She usually had to drive through or around the Dark Side of the city to get to work. That was why she often drove a patrol car to and from the station. However, since she was gone for a few days, she had to drive her own car to work that day, and she was rather surprised she didn't see any serious crimes. It seemed like everyone was on their best behavior. As if someone was constantly watching them. James suspected Mayor Ashley had something to do with it, but, nonetheless, she was grateful not to have to delay her journey.

She hadn't told the rest of her team she was coming into work, though. She wasn't too worried, though. They would be glad to see her moving about. All of the Angels had restricted accounts at their homes where they could keep up with cases and events while they were sick or on vacation. This was very useful, and was one reason why Saipia stressed that everyone have their case reports in on time and submitted on an encrypted flash drive. However, most knew how to post their reports directly to the site, and that was something Saipia encouraged. However, the boss also wanted the reports submitted to her so she could file them into a secure location and submit them to the chief.

As she pulled into the secure garage beneath the police station, she noticed Saipia's Challenger was missing, which she thought was odd. There was an odd feeling about the garage that caused her to glance around. She didn't recognize any of the personal vehicles in there, and decided not to park her car in there. As she pulled out, she soon found where everyone else was parked. It was a small parking lot about three blocks from the precinct. It was actually rather hard to see in and there was a gate over the entrance that opened for her, but she suspected it did so, solely for her.

It didn't take James long to walk to the precinct, but she did observe some odd things on her way. Never once did she see a fellow Genoid and when she came across a human, they seemed to pause and stare at her as if she were an alien. She knew this was partially Ashley's doing and if it kept up, the Angels would have to build their own station on the Genoid side of the city.

What was even stranger, as she passed a couple of human cops that were taking a smoke break, they greeted her with a friendly smile, as if seeing Genoids were an everyday thing. James attributed that to Saipia and the chief, and was thankful that she wasn't about to walk into a trap of some kind.

The maned wolf was glad when she finally swung open the door and entered the precinct and heaved a sigh. As she always did, James journeyed up the stairs to the third floor of the building where all the detectives and the Angels had their desks. The relief she felt grew when she laid eyes on Bryan, Jimmy and Jack all huddled around their desks discussing what they should do about things. It was Jimmy who first noticed the red and black canine and he gave her a warm wave. "Hey, there, James. You look well."

"I am well, in fact. So, I'm in charge again. Sounds like you've done an excellent job, while I've been gone. Although, it would appear that Ashley's been very busy," replied James.

"Yes, she has. So, since your back and it would appear that you're up to date with most of the situation, what are your orders?" asked Bryan.

"Well, first of all, I want to know everything that's been going on. I live so far away from this side of the city, that I had no idea that it was this bad. Then, I want to know where Saipia's Challenger went. If that's not back before she is, she's going to be very pissed," said James.

The three Genoid men glanced at each other at the announcement that Saipia's police car was gone. "Wait, the Challenger's missing? That's new to us," replied Jimmy.

"Yeah. But, I think she put a few tracking devices on it," added Jack.

"I bet she did. I would assume that she put enough tracking devices on it that it'd be impossible to get them all. Unfortunately, I only know of a few of them and I might just have to call her to eventually track it down. I would rather not do that, though. I don't want Saipia to come back early. She and Erica both deserve the vacation time and I want them to enjoy all of it. But, first thing's first. What the hell is going on? Why have you guys parked in a different parking lot? What's with the odd looks I've been getting from the humans?" James questioned.

"Well, we were tipped off that Ashley was impounding any cars owned by Genoids on some crazy trumped up charges, so, we hid ours and no one can get into that garage but us G.U.E.S.T. Agents. That and some other random acts of stupidity by the mayor have caused Genoids to become very rare over here. It's been a while sense humans have seen Genoids that some of them are amazed to see us," explained Jimmy.

"That bitch is pushing her luck. Especially after she passed that Genoid Equality Law. Now, she has the balls to violate it. I suspect if we were to simply charge her with it, she would argue that it was our own fault or some crap like that. However, I would assume Saipia's already working on a plan to bring her down. And any evidence we find with the Challenger will be vital to that operation. In fact, it could just be the piece that gets her arrested, for theft if not anything else," James announced.

"Right. So, that's the mission for now? Find that car? What about the rings?" Jack asked.

James sighed in frustration. "Damn. I nearly forgot about those. Well, we can't do anything about them anyway with Ashley breathing down our necks. We all know she's got her hand buried up the ass of those rings, and will probably try something stupid to protect her own ass. For now, we'll deal with things in the Genoid Zone. Speaking of, I'm not going to walk three blocks in a city that doesn't want me there. We'll set up shop in the Genoid Zone. It'll be closer for the majority of us, anyway."

"Except Erica. Although, I hear she and Erica are looking for a place together. And that Gjai is going to be joining them, as well," said the hyena.

"Yeah. Anyway, Jimmy, since you're the computer expert, why don't you see if you can hack into one of those tracking devices. Jack, you can check the tapes from the garage security cameras to see if you can see who took it. Bryan, well, you're the doctor, so I don't know how you can help but I'm sure you'll find something. I will inquire around the station to see if I can't uncover any information. But, by all means, be careful. Who knows just who's on Ashley's payroll. We'll meet in my office in an hour to go over the findings," ordered the maned wolf.

"Roger," the three men said in unison.

* * *

Jimmy and Jack sat back to back, staring at their respective computer screens. Jack went over the video from the several cameras in the garage while Jimmy pounded away at the keyboard in front of him, sifting through the many tracking devices on his boss's Dodge. About half of them were deactivated, and it seemed that the other half were locked out. But, finally, after three hours of work, he finally was able to access one of them. "HA! YES! Finally. For a second there, I thought I was going to have to call Saipia herself. Man, for someone who wants to protect her car, she sure doesn't make it easy to access most of the tracking devices."

"Yeah, that's our boss. So, where is it?" Jack asked, swiveling his chair around to look at his teammate's screen.

Jimmy clicked on a menu that had popped up and almost instantly a global map appeared. Another pop-up came up and told him it was calculating the location. Once it was done, a little car icon appeared about a mile off the coast. "What the hell?"

"Damn, Saipia's not going to like that at all. Too bad, as well. It was such a nice car," Jack commented.

"Crap. I'm not looking forward to telling James about this. Anyway, you got anything?" the border collie asked.

"Well, kinda. Most of the cameras were temporarily disabled when the car was stolen, but there was one camera that caught the theft. Unfortunately, you can't really tell anything by it, other than it was a woman. Not even the body recognition software can make out who it is," the hyena replied, the ears of both Genoids alerting them to James' approach.

"Hey, Sub-Boss, we've found the car, but we still don't know who stole it. But, I would certainly hate to be the person who stole it, considering where they decided to dump it," Jimmy reported.

"Yeah, and all we know is that is was definitely a woman who did it. However, I can't even tell you a hundred percent if it's a Genoid or human. Whoever it was knew how to conceal their form from the one camera that they couldn't disable," Jack added, turning partway back towards his computer.

James nodded in approval of her team. "So, where is it? Saipia sent me an email saying that she was going to be checking in on us in about half an hour. She'll want to know where her car is."

"You'd better take a look for yourself," said Jimmy, turning the computer monitor towards the maned wolf.

"What the hell? That bitch has officially crossed the line. We will definitely be dealing with Ashley once Saipia gets back," commented James as stared at the little flashing icon.

"In the meantime, we should probably get out there and see what we're going to need to retrieve it," replied Jack.

"Right. You two take Bryan with you. I'm going to report our findings to the chief and then report them to Saipia. Once you pull that car out of the ocean, I want it put somewhere safe and I want it guarded twenty-four-seven. No one but us Angels and the chief will be allowed near it, understand?" ordered the Captain.

"Yes, ma'am," commented Jimmy while he and Jack quickly backed up all their data onto disks and other things. Saipia had always told them that if they had reason to suspect someone close was leaking information, or would destroy any evidence to always make copies of anything important. Even the Angel's casefiles had about a hundred copies spread around in various locations.

* * *

The looks the locals were giving them made Jimmy nervous. Jack and Bryan however, didn't seem all that worried. The three watched as the salvage team hoisted the police car from the bottom of the ocean. "Damn. I mean, I know I shouldn't be that surprised, but you'd think that bitch would find a better place to dumb a car," remarked the dog.

"Are you kidding? If there was ever a place to send a car off a cliff, this is the spot," Bryan defended.

"Yeah. I mean, this place is the human version of the Dark Side. So much crime goes on here, that someone launching a car off a cliff would just be cheep entertainment, and if that car was a cop car, it'd be even better. That said, I think if someone stole Saipia's Challenger, I wouldn't be surprised if anyone saw the culprit here, they'd give them up like diseased hooker," Jack agreed.

Bryan laughed. "Yeah. And most everyone knows that car belongs to Saipia. Most people here aren't stupid enough to cross her. And won't be withholding any names. If Ashley did do this, she definitely didn't think it through very well. I mean, she took out a couple of the tracking devices, and some of the others were destroyed when it hit the water, but the majority of them were protected. And I'm sure the on board computer and security system will give us plenty of information. And, to top it off, she drives here of all places. I bet you anything all I have to do is ask and they'd all point directly to the idiot who did it. The one time these criminals would honestly cooperate with the cops is to protect their own asses from Saipia."

"Yeah, there probably isn't a dumber crime than this. Of course, at the moment, we can't confirm it was Ashley herself, but it is something she would order, and I doubt she'd be able to pay any moron any amount of money to touch that ride. And by the time Saipia returns, we'll have all the information we need to bust her," said Jack.

That made Jimmy curious. With a shrug he walked over to a woman in the crowd. "Excuse me, miss. You happen to see who drove this car into the ocean?"

"It was that mayor lady. Tried to pay a bunch of us to do it for her. But we ain't stupid. Ain't none of us gonna get on Saipia's bad side. We don't need that kind of trouble around here," the woman said quickly.

"Thanks, ma'am," Jimmy said with a smile and returned to his teammates much more relaxed. "Well, there you have it."

"Told ya," Jack snickered as the vehicle finally emerged from the deep. The damage to it was far more than they had anticipated.

Jimmy whistled. "Oh boy. The Commander is going to be pissed. I know I'm not going to break the news to her that her beloved Challenger is destroyed."

"Alright, we'll let you break the news to Erica, then," Jack commented.

"Wait, why would I have to worry about how Erica will react?" Jimmy questioned.

"Because she's probably going to be tasked with rebuilding it. Although, I'm sure, I the long run, she won't mind. But, I doubt she'll be pleased with the work she'll have to do. Especially with all the technology Saipia put into it," Bryan said.

"Ah. I never thought about that," Jimmy replied.

After a few moments of pondering over what they were going to tell Saipia and James, Jack's phone rang. As he slipped from it from his pocket and read the name on it, he sighed. "Speaking of Saipia..."

* * *

Saipia's car was a mess. The water had been shallow when it was driven off the cliff, so it sustained a lot of damage. Plus, the saltwater had taken it's toll and coral had already begun to take hold of it. Jack just shook his head at the pile of twisted, still dripping metal as he stepped up to the small table where the rest of the Angels were gathered. "So, how is she?" asked James who stood with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Gjia's Fine. Busy, but fine," said Jack.

"Good. Anyways, Now, I was able to pull the computer from the car and that should give us all the information we need. However, Saipia doesn't want us to go after Ashley by ourselves. In the meantime, there are still some things we can take care of here, on this side of the city. Although, it would appear that Ashley is slowly trying to push is out of here, as well. However, her reign is just about over. Sai mentioned that she has a lot of information on Sebastian and some of that information connects Ashley to Sebastian. Our beloved mayor has her hands in so many cookie jars, it's not surprising she got caught more than once. But, hopefully this will give us even more against her," explained James.

Getting the information they wanted was Jimmy's job. The border collie clacked away at the keyboard of a high powered laptop and soon, the information on the beat-up carbon-fiber box was being uploaded onto the main computer. "Holy smokes, she had a lot of security measures built in. Let's see, we've got fingerprint readers in the steering wheel, radio, doorknobs, and star button, cameras all over the inside and outside of the car, pressure sensors in the seat that uses a body recognition program, retinal scanners in the windows, several other biometric sensors and gadgets. It'll take a while for all the information to run through all the databases, though."

"Right," James said with a nod. "In the meantime, we should focus on something else. We cannot let Ashley know we're on to her. Now, the chief tells me that she hasn't even called for a while, so it's unlikely that she knows that we know Saipia's car is gone. However, with her snooping around even over here, that doesn't leave many places we can work. So, I think we can do plenty of work in the Dark Side. There's no way Ashley would be stupid enough to poke her head there. There's plenty of people who wouldn't hesitate to cut it off."

"I don't know. She did steal and destroy Saipia's car," commented Jimmy.

"That's true. Speaking of, Jimmy, I want you and Bryan to stay here and guard that car. I'm having a couple of others help out with that. But, I want you here because you can call me when you get information," James replied.

"Right. Speaking of the Dark Side, Saipia wanted us to check out something there, anyway. Said that there was someone she knew who had some information on Sebastian that we would be very interested in," Jack said.

The maned wolf nodded and stood of a moment to think about everything. She never liked going to the Dark Side, but there wasn't any way around it, now. Not until Saipia came back and they started to close in on arresting Sebastian and Ashley and everyone else they needed to. But, for now, there wasn't much could do. "Well, anyway. We should get going."

"Right. Hey, Saipia's not going to be coming back early, is she?" Jimmy asked.

Jack and James both shook their heads. "No, she and Erica are having too much fun. They'll be boarding the boat back in a couple days, but, the trip back is a week. I mean, even if she wanted to, she couldn't. And she's really fixated on using up her entire vacation time," replied James.

"Alright. Just thought I'd ask. Anyways, I'll talk to you two when you get back." Jimmy and Brian waved at the two officers as they got in one of the four patrol cars parked inside the warehouse and drove off.

* * *

When Jack and James arrived at the location Saipia had given Jack, they had to look at each other with quizzical expressions. The place was a strip joint on the outside, but on the inside it was all kinds of illegal activities. From selling slaves to drugs to murder and prostitution. The strip joint was only a single room on the first floor to keep the cops off their trail. But, both officers had been out to it enough times to know what really went on there.

As they approached, they were greeted by a young, female tabby cat who smiled at them warmly. "Hello, officers, is there something I can help you with? Perhaps you'd like a discount on our many services?" the feline greeted.

"Liv Ashton wouldn't happen to own this place, would she?" Jack questioned.

"Own it? No. She is, however in charge of the brothel portion of the building," said the cat, honestly.

"Right. Anyway, we're looking for someone named Rex," remarked James, eager to get the mission over with.

"Ah. Yes. You would be the officers we've been expecting, then, wouldn't you? If you would follow me, I'll take you right to him," beamed the woman who quickly turned and headed into the old building that looked like something out of a horror film.

The initial strip club wasn't all that exciting. The VIP rooms were a bit more impressive, but the main area wasn't anything to write home about. It was dimly lit, and there were times when it was so full of smoke you couldn't see the dancers unless you were right up next to them. However, at that time, it seemed a lot better. Not as dim and you could see clear across the room. James was impressed. As they entered a door marked as "Exclusive," both officers were more even more impressed. It was a door they had been through before, but it usually lead to a filthy hallway where you could taste and feel the disease and grime. Now, however, the white tile looked like it was brand new, as did the light blue walls and white ceilings. Someone had done some major renovating. "Well, it looks Liv knows how to spend her money," commented James.

"Albeit ill-gotten money," added Jack.

"Actually, all of the businesses that the Madam currently owns and operates are completely legal, meeting or exceeding every safety code. Even her ladies and her guys have to go through weekly testing. This building, although not owned by Madam Ashton, was of particular importance to her. When put in charge of the brothel and strip club, she inspected the building and spent nearly ten million dollars to fix it up and make it the way it is today. In fact, this isn't even the original building. The original one was torn down because of it's condition," corrected the feline.

"Going straight, now, isn't going to absolve the crimes she's already committed. Most likely, someday, she's going to have to go to jail," replied James.

The cat threw the canine a polite, but knowing glance. As if she knew something that James didn't that would prevent Liv from going to prison for the rest of her life. James didn't like the way the cat walked and looked at them. As if there was nothing illegal going on behind the closed and probably locked doors that they passed. However, they were not there to make any arrests.

They were led up a flight of stares and through a final door. Behind it was a room that appeared to be home to a detective or reporter. Ever little newspaper clipping was either about Saipia or Sebastian, which was a little odd to the two police officers. "So, where is this Rex, guy?" Jack asked as he scanned the empty room.

"Right here, sir. Just washing up," replied a voice from within a small bathroom that was attached to the office.

After a moment, a tall white panther stepped from the bathroom. He looked the two officers over and smiled broadly. "You must be Saipia's friends. She told me you'd be here."

"Yes, and she told us you have some important information for us," replied James.

Rex nodded. "Right. And, indeed, I do. Now, normally, I don't take cases like this, but Miss Jones can be very persuasive when she wants to be. So, I've been digging into Mr. Sebastian for a while now, and I've turned up quite a bit. It would appear that he has a personal grudge against Saipia. Apparently, she sent his brother to jail or something. Anyways, that was the reason why he decided to overthrow Liv. He caught on that Liv was good friends with Saipia and determined Liv was part of the problem."

James laughed. "The boy definitely isn't smart. I've done my homework on Liv and she isn't someone to mess with. Neither is Saipia."

Rex smiled at that comment. "Exactly. Nor is the Pride which he has now employed. Although, they're now known as the Coalition, Sebastian is playing with a lot of fire."

"Damn. That guy's got what's left of those crazy cats?" Jack asked.

"No. He's got all of them. The one's that were killed, he bought prosthetic bodies for. But, that's not what concerns me. What concerns me is that he's gotten his hand into a sex slave ring. The only problem is he's not kidnapping them with any sort of plan. He's simply putting a bunch of names together and kidnapping them. I'm worried he's going to kidnap someone that's going to get himself killed, or worse. Someone who will make Saipia reveal all her little secrets to the world. However, I don't think there's much you can do about that, though. However, Mayor Ashley is a different story," continued Rex as he took a seat at his cluttered desk.

"Don't worry about her. It would appear that she decided it would be a good idea to steal Saipia's Challenger and toss it off a cliff," commented James.

"Oh, well, that was mighty stupid of her. But, she and Sebastian are interconnected. Don't think he won't jump in to help her out. It is through her that his little empire is thriving. She's basically turning us Genoids into criminals while letting Sebastian do whatever. I would think that if you were to take down her, Sebastian would begin to have a hard time moving around, as well. However, I also think that Sebastian isn't dumb enough to rest all his weight entirely on her. Which would explain why he's been trying to build up his forces. If I were you two, I would let Saipia and Erica handle him. You and the rest of the Angels can easily handle Ashley," warned the white feline.

"Saipia and Erica? Why can't the rest of us help with..." started Jack.

"Jack, don't argue with him. I was planning on letting Saipia handle Sebastian alone anyway," James interrupted.

"But, James..." the hyena protested.

"Officer, do I need to remind you that while Saipia is away, I am in charge. I don't want to have to tell her that you were disobeying orders again. Trust me on this one. If you don't want to see Saipia at her very worst, than I would highly suggest you let her handle that bastard," James ordered.

Jack stared at the captain for a moment, her tail swaying gently behind her while his sat perfectly still. He knew from the look in her eyes that there was nothing he could do about it. She did, after all, out rank him. "Yes, Captain."

"That's better. Now, is that all the information you have for us, Mr. Rex?" asked the maned wolf, turning her attention back towards the pure white panther.

"Yes, ma'am," Rex replied.

"Alright then. I think we can find our own way out. It was a pleasure meeting you, Rex," James said as they turned to leave.