Girl Jacked by Christopher Greyson Page B

loud.
    It was the super warm comforter and his pillow! Jack smiled.
    Replacement, you're a clever kid.
    He removed both items and brought them to the bedroom. He’d have to thank her later.
    When he remembered that he had to go to work, he grumbled. All he wanted to do was have one drink… or four. Instead, he headed over to his computer and began searching his email. Jack didn’t keep many emails so it was easy to find.
    Victor Rodriguez. He met him four months ago at the TEVOC training and the two got along. Victor was on the police force out in Sonoma, California. It was two towns over from Western Tech, but Jack knew that Victor would check it out for him. As he finished typing the email, he thought of one detail he didn’t have and he groaned as if someone had squeezed his heart. He put his head in his hands and rubbed his face.
    A picture. I don’t have a current picture of her. Some brother I am.
     
    He took a quick half-hour nap.
    The glamorous life of a cop.
    Jack dressed and headed out the door. He had a love – hate relationship with the police station. Part of him loved going to the new, sprawling two-story building with rows of police cars parked out in front. Power seemed to surge into his muscles as he walked the halls. Another part of him hated it. There were times when he couldn’t stand the place because of all the people whose lives seemed to be broken apart there.
    Jack would walk the same hallways and stare into the face of someone just arrested. Their eyes conveyed that they knew the life they had known would never return. Some days a victim would glance up, their eyes communicating their pain. That anguish would sear itself into his mind.
    He checked into the station, picked up his car, and went straight out.
    Today was a day when he hated it. Patrol Day. Sheriff Collins had received a call from the County Commissioner’s Office asking how often a marked cruiser patrolled the homes that lie on the edge of the county. One call and now every week, some lucky stiff has to drive in a gigantic circle around the whole county. Today, Jack was the lucky stiff.
    Boring. Very, very boring.
    Today wasn’t what Jack wanted when he decided to become a cop. He figured that after the army, he would be a cop for two years while he finished active duty. Then he would go for something more exciting like the FBI or the CIA, but he kept putting that off. The problem was with his training.
    After September 11th, money poured in for police training. At his last job, he took every class he could but he had to fight with all the other cops for a spot.
    Training was the main reason he had transferred to Darrington. Jack had no idea how Sheriff Collins did it, but the police department’s training budget was a well that wouldn’t run dry. When Jack contemplated taking the job, another cop told him that no matter how many classes he signed up for, they would all be approved. Collins initially hesitated about letting Jack take so much training. He said he wanted to give everyone a chance, but it soon became clear that the only one who wanted that chance was Jack. The other cops here were either too busy or nowhere near as ambitious. When Collins realized that those funds would go to waste, he approved almost every course Jack wanted.
    Ever since Jack had joined the army he had started taking specialized classes in everything from terrorism to profiling, high-speed pursuit to sniper training; he just couldn’t get enough. Now that he had transferred to Darrington, it was even better. It made the down times bearable. Jack could learn how to wiretap, conduct electronic surveillance, survive in the wilderness, or get TEVOC driver training.
    The list of classes he planned to take went on and on. He loved it. To top it all off, he was paid to do it! He felt like a thief.
    Who in their right mind would pay me to learn to fly a drone?
    The vehicle in front of him slowed to a crawl because a police car was following.
    Jack