Something major

The birds were annoying Journee with their chirping. Even the sunlight directly streamed into her eyes. She forgot to shut her window last night and the wind was pulling and pushing the curtains with it. The cold air made her pull her blanket even closer.

"Oh, shut up!" she shouted at the birds and went back to sleep. But she knew that the open window was the culprit. She thought of calling Kay to close the window but was too lazy to even shout his name. She suddenly sat up with a jolt throwing her blanket away from her.

"Oh shit, Kay!" she suddenly remembered that she left him alone to do the research. She was aware of what kind of person Kay was. If he was given a task, he would not rest until he would complete it. She hit her forehead with force and jumped out of the bed.

She ran to her library and saw that the door was open, and Kay was sleeping on a chair with his head on the keyboard. The screensaver was on, and the pictures would change every two seconds. "Poor Kay!" she exclaimed.

"Kay! Kay!" she patted his back.

"What? What?" he sat up with a jerk. One side of his face had the indentation of the keys.

"Let's go to your room," she tried pulling him up, but he was too heavy.

"Five more minutes, mom," groaned Kay.

"He is calling me mom, great," Journee shook her head with disbelief.

With difficulty, she woke him up and took him to his room. His large stature was difficult for her to handle but somehow, she helped him walk to his room. The moment he fell on the bed, the room was filled with loud snoring. She covered him with a blanket and left the room after locking the door.

She got ready for her work, made breakfast, and left a note for Kay. She gave him strict instructions to eat and then work. She reached the office and waited for Kay to call.

It was afternoon when her phone rang.

"Hey, Kay! How are you feeling now?" asked Journee.

"Feels like I was hit by a truck," moaned Kay.

"Ha-ha, keep on drinking. You are old now," teased Journee.

"Who are you calling old?"

"You. You are not the old Kay anymore who would take up on an army. You need to rest properly. What will I do without you?" pouted Journee.

"Okay, okay, enough with the emotional blackmail," even Journee heard his eye roll.

"You see right through me. So, what do you have?" asked Journee.

"Nothing!"

"Kay!" screamed Journee.

"I brought a board inside, placed it, and started listening to the audio but fell asleep. I will go and listen to it now," explained Journee.

"Oh, sorry forgot to tell you, there was nothing on yesterday's audio," said Journee.

"And you could not have told me that before?" Kay expressed his disappointment.

"Sorry!"

"Well, me too, I could not even open Amber's file. You were thinking of going to your dad's old house today," said Kay.

"No worries, we can put a hold on that. Keep working on Zion," said Journee.

"Okay, see you at home."

They disconnected the call and Journee went back to her work. There were few reports of a shooting, a fire, and road rage. She sent her officers to the crime scene and kept coordinating from the station.

For a few days, it was their routine. Kay would keep working on the audio files and if he would get the time, he would work on the kidnapping case of Amber. Every night the IT team would inform about the blankness of the audio tapes except for weird sex noises. Journee was shocked to know that girls were ready to have sex with Zion every night.

Meanwhile, Archer was busy guarding Zion and his team members were trying hard to identify the girl in the video. But she was absolutely golden in being evasive. There was no trace of her. They checked the guest list, the room was booked in Adam's name and there was no mention of another guest.

In every camera, her face was hidden. The IT team was trying to recreate her complete look by inserting the visible half in an AI program. But the program too gave many options for how she would look. Distributing so many options to every field office was not feasible. They couldn't even search for the clothes she wore as they were nothing special. But they knew that it was part of her disguise.

No matter how many times Archer asked Noelle about the girl, she always had the same answer "we are still looking". They even called Adam again to find out if he remembered something but that too was a dead end.

Then one night, the unexpected happened. Kay and Journee were sitting in the hidden room inside their library listening to the incoming audio. First, it was Zion's and Archer's voices talking about sweeping the room for spy devices. Then they heard a woman's voice and Journee knew that the sex noises would start soon.

"I will make coffee. We need it," Journee rolled her eyes.

"I need to flush my ears after hearing so many sex noises night after night," groaned Kay.

"I understand, old man," she placed her hands over his shoulder and patted him.

She had just left the room, it was not even a minute when Kay started shouting, "Jo! Jo! Get in, now."

Journee who was taking out cups from the shelf, slide them harshly on the counter and ran to Kay. "What? What?"

"You need to hear this," he said and rewound the audio. He pressed a button on the system and the speakers of the room came online.

She could hear a faint conversation. He moved towards the speakers to hear clearly but it was still faint. Kay increased the volume and a girl talked out of the speaker, "but I want to see you tomorrow."

"Sorry Candice, it is a family get-together, and when I say family I mean Hall crime family," informed Zion.

"So I can't come to your family gathering?" one could hear the complaint in Candice's voice.

Journee immediately hit the pause button. "Wait! Did he say, Candice?"

"I think so," replied Kay.

"He was having sex with 'Candy' every day?" she said while air-quoting the word "Candy". "What, is he in love with her or something?" her face had disgust written all over it.

"Not everyone changes sex partners like you," taunted Kay.

"Why? Are you jealous?" teased Journee, back.

"I have my fair share of sex, thank you," replied Kay.

"When? You never leave the house," stated Journee.

"How do you know?" Kay raised his eyebrows at her.

"Right!" she pressed the play button and the voices started talking again.

"Do you want to come?" asked Zion.

"You never asked, you just imagined that I would not want to come," Candice was still angry.

"You know about my empire. All criminals would be there," informed Zion.

"I don't care about your criminal empire. All I know is that I love you and want to spend all my time with you," cried Candice.

Instantly Journee pressed the pause button and picked up the trash can kept under the computer table. "Ew… Blech!" she acted as if it was difficult to control her vomit.

"Real mature," Kay just rolled his eyes.

Journee grinned from ear to ear. Kay opened his mouth to give her a piece of his mind but she interrupted, "Shh… listen."

After pressing the play button, the recording again started playing. Zion's voice streamed in, "I love you too. Then it's fixed. Me and you, this Saturday, Central Park. I will pick you up at 9."

"I will wait for you, Zee," and the atmosphere filled with kissing noises. Kay immediately pressed the pause button.

"Great! Even criminals find love but not you" he looked at Journee to see her expression after his taunt. But to his surprise, she was staring at the wall in front of her with a blank expression on her face. She was chewing the inside of her lower lips and her eyes were filled with deep thoughts. He waved his hand before her eyes and said, "Kay to earth, what are you thinking?"

Without looking at him, still staring at the wall, she replied, "Whole Hall crime family will be there for the picnic? Really! What, now even crime family do retreats? Something is up."

"Why do you think I called you immediately?" interjected Kay.

She turned towards him instantly. "I am listening."

"When a crime family plans a big event, it means that something will happen in that event. All the bosses, lieutenants, foot peddlers, everyone will be present not to get familiar with each other, to discuss something major or something major will happen in that event," he informed.

"You are thinking of another coup?" questioned Journee.

"No, Theo is too smart for that. This is something else," replied Kay.

"Well, you are not wrong. If Zion had any idea of a coup, he would not have invited Candy for the picnic," noted Journee.

"Right!"

"I need to be there on Saturday," declared Journee.

"You will work on a weekend?" he asked surprised. "What about your dad?"

"What about him?"

"You need permission to go on official surveillance," he replied.

"Shit! You are right. Oh, I will have to lie to him," she pondered. Then the next instant she shouted, "oh, I won't."

"What do you mean?" asked Kay.

"Captain will lie to him. He can say he got the information from CED," Journee had a devilish grin on her face.

"Oh, you cunning girl!" exclaimed Kay.

"Learned it from you," she mischievously touched his nose.

"Do you need backup?"

"You know I have backup," she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheeks.

"Those two idiots!"

"Yes, those two idiots," smiled Journee.