InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Patchwork Family ❯ Eyes, Ears, and Unexpected Connections ( Chapter 16 )

A/N: All Inuyasha characters and references belong to the creator of Inuyasha, Rumiko Takahashi and published by Shogakukan. Any other characters are more than likely my own creation. If I borrow from another story I will do my best to make sure I give credit where credit is due. I will also be pulling some material (ideas and inspirations) from Burn Notice, Supernatural, Scorpion, and Lockwood & Co.


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Inuyasha and Kagome made their way back up to the driveway and he checked on the burn barrelgoing into the work shop. She looked around curiously at the roominto the back of the four car garage, which was currently only filled by a large black pickup truck with a camper topped bed, a brick red Toyota Highlander, andsilver motorcycle. The workshop was insulated, with two large workbenches built in an L shape.


Shelves and cabinets lined the space. Tool chests sat pushed against the far wall andswing arm lamps and shop lights were installed in various locations. There was evena window at the end of the room facing the ocean. Inuyasha went to a tall metal cabinet and opened the doors, sifting through the contentsuntil he found a large cardboard box, labeled along the side in neat kana symbols of the Japanese script, drawn out in black marker. He closed the cabinet and grabbed a black tool bag from under the workbench.


They came through the front door to find Axel once again lying in a dejected heap in thehall. Inuyasha snorted and laughed. "You never give up; do you buddy? She'll bein a while."


At Kagome's curious look he explained, "Axel is Rin's dog. Every day she goes to school, and his worlduntil she gets back." Kagome smiled and leaned down to run her fingers through the dog’s fur. When theyinto the front sitting room the big black dog followed Kagome with a halfheartedwag.


Inuyasha set his things down on the big coffee table and walked over to open aglass fronted shelf full of DVDs. After a moment he found what he had been lookingfor and turned the big flat screen on. He waved a hand at the couch and Kagome took aher eyes trying to creep into the box until she heard the familiar theme song of the oldScooby Doo cartoons.


She couldn't help but smile at the thought that he’d remembered her preference. He sat down near the corner of the L shaped sofa. "You aren't the only fan. Rinot the whole series on DVD for Christmas a few years ago."


Kagome settled back and he noticed that she’d arranged herself incorner of the couch where the sun shone in from the big picture window, tucking her body into the patch of light like a cat. He shook his head and smiled to himself as Axel settled on the floor in front of her with a huff.


Inuyasha opened the box and began pulling things out to see what he had to work with. It had been some time since he’d done anything but a little in-person surveillance. He found that he had about a dozen different cameras and recorders. Ten of them were basic outdoor cameras with hooded lenses; the kind you would normally see on the outside of a small supermarket. He took two of those and set them aside, along with their corresponding cables and two bulky battery packs. The rest of them went back in the box and he was left with two round, white plastic discs that looked like smoke detectors.


He flipped them over and pulled them apart, using the kit he found in the box to carefully clean the lenses before he loaded fresh batteries and closed them back up. Kagome watched all this with interest and gave him an curious look. He explained, “I’m going to set this stuff up at Rosie’s apartment in Arcata. That’s where Naraku thinks she is and I want to see who comes knocking. As it’s empty now, we’re going to use it to run a little test. We’ll see if the leak that brought Naraku’s stooge to my apartment is coming from where I think it is.”


Inuyasha turned the volume down on the cartoons and pulled out his cell phone. He scrolled through the contacts for a second before choosing a number. Kagome watched him, wondering for a moment at the strangeness of it. His ears were at the top of his head instead of at the sides, but they were sensitive enough that they could hear whatever came from the ear piece if he held it to the side like a normal person or even just near his mouth for the sake of the microphone. After a few rings, whoever he had dialed picked up the call.


“Hey Vini- how are things down there?” Inuyasha asked in a relaxed, friendly tone.


There was a pause as Inuyasha listened to whatever was being said, then continued. “No, everything’s alright here, but there’s been some issues. Someone came after Kagome at my place… yeah, I know. I left to meet with Sesshomaru and I caught the bastard as I was coming back in the window. He broke the fucking doorframe…”


His golden eyes flicked up to look at Kagome as he spoke. “No. He and I disagreed violently on the matter, and he doesn’t have to worry about it anymore… uh hugh… The thing is, Sango came in and surprised him. Things got out of hand for a minute and the bastard shot Kagome… No, it was ugly but she’s alive. We got her stabilized for now.” His voice was a little rough for a moment as he remembered the sight of Kagome, slouched against the wall, covered in her own blood. He didn’t have to fake the tension in his voice. “It was a close thing last night.”


He looked away from her and back down at the equipment on the table while he listened, then said, “yeah, we vacated my building. I moved her to Rosie’s place downtown; we’ll hole up here for the time being. It’s going to be a while before I want to move her far. Are you still back in town soon? She really needs to be looked at, and I think her leg is getting infected… I washed it out with peroxide and we’ve kept it wrapped up… yes…”


His ears twitched a little as he listened, a slight frown pulling his brows low. “Okay, sounds like a plan.” He put the phone back on the coffee table and sighed. “The bait’s set. Now I’m going to install this stuff and see if anyone bites.”


Kagome frowned down at the hardware and pointed at her eyes, looking back up at him in clear question. He explained, “I’m going to put eyes on the front and back entrances, and in the hallway and apartment. These are already set up to work with a computer we have here at the house.”


He laid a hand on the black metal boxes next to the larger cameras. “Battery packs will keep the ones outside running for about five days before they’ll need more juice. I don’t think we’ll need them up much longer than that. These things,” and now he picked up the smoke detectors. “Have two 180 cameras inside; one pointed each direction so they can cover 360 degrees. The nice thing is they’re motion sensitive, so the battery won’t run out unless there are constantly people walking in and out. It’s a crappy place. I think half the apartments up there are empty, so we should be alright.”


Kagome seemed to be deep in thought as she looked at the equipment. Then she glanced up at him again and gestured to her ear and back at the cameras, lifting an eyebrow.


Inuyasha asked to clarify, “do they give us sound?”


She nodded.


He shook his head with a slight frown. “Nah, these are all just video. Sound would be nice but all we have for that are a few button microphones that only work if you talk right into them.”


Kagome rubbed her thumbnail against her bottom lip for a moment as she considered. Then she asked in a slightly ragged voice, “do you have access to any cheap cell phones that can be cannibalized?”


Inuyasha thought for a moment and said, “actually- yeah. We keep a box of prepaid burners. Let me go see if I can find it.” He disappeared into the back of the house and Kagome swung her feet back to the floor, leaning forward to pick up one of the faux smoke detectors. She grabbed one of the mini screwdrivers Inuyasha had left on the table and pulled the casing apart, looking at how it was put together, and at how much room there was inside for modifications.


Rosalind walked in the living room and laughed at the cartoons on the television. She sat down in the arm chair by the empty fireplace, across the table from Kagome. “So you’re a cartoon girl hugh? How old are you, if you don’t mind my asking?”


Kagome hesitated, then set the camera down in her lap and flashed ten fingers, and then nine fingers.


Rosalind crossed one leg over the other, sitting back in the chair. “19? Then you’re only a year younger than me. You’re built so little I wasn’t sure, no offense meant. I’m not saying you look like a child or anything. You don’t… I’m sorry…” Rosalind trailed off, sounding a little awkward.


Kagome gave her a reassuring smile and nodded her understanding. She waved at the screen and gave the other woman an inquiring look, at which Rosalind let out a small laugh. “Do I like cartoons? Oh… they’re alright I suppose. I wouldn’t watch them by myself but I enjoy them with Rin and Shippo. Mostly if I get free time I like to paint and draw.”


Kagome picked up the camera again to pull the components apart. Rosalind looked curiously at all the pieces on the table. “What on earth is all this for?” Kagome opened her mouth, then closed it again, trying to figure out how to explain. Inuyasha came back in at that moment carrying a shoe box under one arm. “It’s for your place.”


When Rosalind looked confused he elaborated. “Since you aren’t there now I’m using it as a test site.”


Rosalind raised a skeptical eyebrow. “A test for what?”


Inuyasha sat down next to Kagome at the corner of the table and handed her the box. “I told Vini that Naraku’s man came by, and that Kagome was shot, but I didn’t tell him about Sesshomaru’s sword. He thinks she’s still wounded and that we moved her to your apartment downtown.”


Rosalind looked apprehensively from him to the cameras and sighed heavily. “Bye Bye apartment. Try not to damage the place- if you can. I’d like my security deposit at least, if I’m not going to be able to go back.”


Inuyasha scowled at her. “You wouldn’t have been moving back there anyway. If you want a place of your own again when this blows over you can get one, but it won’t be a fall-apart fire trap like that one.”


Kagome raised her eyebrows and looked at Rosalind, who shrugged and sighed. “It wasn’t much, but it was mine.” Kagome understood. She gave the girl a sympathetic smile. Kagome still had some things that were hers, but nothing that was close by. Now that she couldn’t go back to the only place she’d ever called home, and she didn’t have access to even a stitch that was hers, she could appreciate the position Rosalind was in.


Kagome opened the orange shoe box and smiled in satisfaction. There were about two dozen cell phones stacked neatly inside. Inuyasha asked, “are those what you were thinking of?”


Kagome nodded and sorted through the devices, asking, “how big is the apartment?”


Rosalind leaned forward in her chair to watch. “It’s just a small one bedroom.” Kagome pulled out two of the oldest, cheapest looking phones. She found the charging cord for one of them, plugged one end into the phone and handed it to Inuyasha.


As he walked to an outlet in the corner, she turned the other phone over in her hands, removing the back panel and battery. She looked from it to the smoke detector camera thoughtfully. She set the shoe box to the side and picked up the small screwdriver again to dismantle the casing of the phone, murmuring in resignation, “these things are great but they burn power like nobody’s business.”


She set the parts of the phone down and picked up the smoke detector again, frowning down at the battery. She shook her head and sighed, putting the casing back together. She coughed twice into her elbow and asked, “is there a power outlet in the hallway near your front door?”


Rosalind thought for a moment and nodded. “Yes, there is. I used it to vacuum the hall a few times.”


Kagome turned to Inuyasha and asked, “do you have any extra outlet face plates? Or maybe we could borrow one from your room?” He disappeared to the back of the house again with a screwdriver and Rosalind watched Kagome as she continued to pull the cell phone apart until she was left with separate micro components. She picked up the black tool bag and poked through it.


When Inuyasha walked back in she was still rummaging and wearing a mild frown.


He set the plastic outlet plate and its two little white screws on the table. “What are you after now?”


She bit her lip for a moment before whispering doubtfully, “do you have a soldering iron and a little copper wire? And a some Duco cement or epoxy? And either a set of walkie talkies or a baby monitor…”


Inuyasha snorted, a wry smile tugging at his lips, and commented, “demanding little thing aren’t you? I’ll go look. I think I’ve seen a soldering iron out in the workshop.” He left again, muttering the list to himself, and Kagome carefully worked at further dismantling the pieces of metal, plastic, and circuitry from the phone. Finally Rosalind asked, “so what exactly are you doing?”


Kagome separated a small green circuit board with a medium sized little black square of plastic wired to it with copper. She held it up and said hoarsely, “ears to go with the eyes.”


Rosalind nodded her understanding and Kagome asked, “is there a place in the apartment I could plug in a cell phone out of sight? Like behind a television?”


The other girl thought for a moment and said, “I have a really old Dell desktop. It can’t do much, just check email and stuff. One of our regulars at the bakery was going to trash it so I got it for free.”

Kagome nodded and rummaged through the shoe box and tool bag again, murmuring, “that’s perfect.” She pulled out a rubber band, and a set of ear phones. She set those aside just as Inuyasha came in with another small box in his hands. He set it down on the couch next to her. “I think I have a set of old walkie talkies. I don’t know if they still work. Since cell phones have been around I haven’t used them much.” He was gone for a minute more and then returned with a pair of dusty old black walkie talkies. Kagome took them and set them down. They were old. They were boxy things, with thick antenna stalks on the top. Inuyasha plugged in the soldering iron behind the couch and ran the cord over the top to set it on the coffee table next to her.

As Kagome fished out some cutters and the spool of copper wire she asked, “Rose, would you be able to help me with this for a second?” The girl looked surprised but nodded. Kagome gestured to the small pieces on the stone table top and explained, “I need someone to hold this still, and you have smaller fingers than Inuyasha.”

Rosalind knelt on the floor next to Kagome. Axel decided the corner was getting too crowded for him and picked himself up to go sit on the other side of the table with a huff of protest. The girls smiled and Rosalind exclaimed, “sorry Axel, I’ll get you something special later.”

Axel’s ears went up for a moment but when Rosalind didn’t move he just laid his head on the rug and made another ‘humph’ sound. Inuyasha sat back down on the couch and watched while she worked at the table, soldering this, gluing that, and switching pieces back and forth. Sesshomaru walked in after about twenty minutes and sniffed the air, smelling the tang of melted metal. “What’s going on?”

Inuyasha shot him a grin and said, “Kagome’s making us some audio bugs. I’m gonna put them in with the cameras at Rosie’s place.”

Sesshomaru stood at the corner of the couch, watching as she soldered the last wire in place and put the iron down on its stand, blowing gently on the cooling metal.

Sesshomaru frowned slightly. “And how is it she has the knowledge required to make such things? I’ve gathered this skill is only slightly more common among humans than it is demons.”

Kagome stiffened and set the bug on the coffee table, now attached to the inside of the outlet plate. She coughed into her elbow to clear her throat and said softly, “I’ve been working with a small private security firm since I was about nine years old. My uncle and my father both worked there for years and they noticed I was good at this kind of thing early. I learned about building and breaking security of many kinds. When I was little, I thought they were just playing games with me.”

Rosalind looked impressed. “So you were essentially a B&E specialist before you could drive?” Kagome bit her lip for a moment and shrugged. “Essentially, I guess. I never looked at it that way. It was just fun, and I was able to help people. I learned some physical breaking and entering methods, but data was what I worked on more.”

Inuyasha seemed to search his mind for a moment and asked, “like what? Computer hacking?” Kagome responded with a hesitant nod and a reproving correction. “Cyber security, yes.”

Sesshomaru looked at her, his expression flat for a moment as he thought. At first she wasn’t sure he believed her and she felt herself becoming more nervous. Clearly he wasn’t sure whether to trust her or not. And why should he? He didn’t know anything about her. ‘He’s smart,’ she thought, ‘not to trust a strange girl who just dropped into his home and started building jerry rigged surveillance tools on his coffee table.’ Finally he said, “I think Inuyasha mentioned your last name was Higurashi.”

Kagome nodded again slowly. Sesshomaru sat down on the end of the couch and asked, “Is your father Akira or Koske?”

She raised her brows in surprise and said softly, “Koske… did you know him?”

Sesshomaru nodded once. “I do. Not well, but I call for his services occasionally. He’s an intelligent man and I’m impressed with how thorough he is. He provided me with what I needed to calibrate an RF detector several years ago at my office in Portland. Is he well?”

Kagome’s face fell a little and she said, “no… he’s gone. He was killed more than a year ago, possibly by Naraku’s men, though there wasn’t any proof.”

Sesshomaru said carefully, “I see. I’m sorry to hear it. You have my condolences.”

Kagome nodded and pulled in a breath to change the subject, if only slightly. “You had a bug problem?”

Sesshomaru’s lips formed a small, chilly smile as he added, “and a server breech in two locations, but not for very long.”

Kagome licked her dry lips and looked back down at the table thoughtfully. She closed her eyes for a moment, as if searching her memory, then opened them and looked back up curiously. “The Taisho Corporation? Was that you? You had bugs in the air vents, and someone hacking your system from Beijing?”

Sesshomaru was the one who stiffened now, his gaze sharpened perceptibly, and he straightened in his seat with a somewhat severe expression. Inuyasha gave him a warning look as Kagome’s scent spiked a little with nervousness. Her fingers fiddled anxiously with a bit of wire as he asked, “how is it that you have this information?”

Kagome smiled apprehensively, looking unsure. “Dad had me help. It was three years ago. I was the one that tracked the malware user to China. They routed through several other IP’s in Lagos. Plus, I was their best candidate for taking that RF detector through the rest of your vent ducts to make sure we found all the devices. There were 14 in total, if I remember right.”

Sesshomaru’s expression eased a little and he nodded. “That is correct.”

Kagome picked up one of the walkie talkies and began screwing the casing back together, murmuring, “I hope you had the Maintenance Director sacked. He was the one that took the bribe from the Chinese wasn’t he?”

Sesshomaru’s eyes narrowed again at the memory. “Yes, that man was very sorry he betrayed me. Whatever they paid him can’t have been enough to cover what it cost him in the end.”

Kagome muttered, more to herself than to anyone in particular, “that- and I’ve crawled through a vent system in a steel cutting factory that was cleaner than that one. The guy clearly took no pride in his work.”

Rosalind grinned and Inuyasha snorted in laughter. Sesshomaru leaned back, looking at her thoughtfully. A reluctant smile tugged at his lips as well. “It seems this is a smaller world than I knew.” After a brief pause he continued, “but there is a matter I’m curious about. Your father, and uncle, and by extension you, were employed with a small private security company. Correct?”

Kagome relaxed a little and nodded. Sesshomaru’s face was unreadable as he studied her face curiously. “I contract with GK Sierra for corporate matters. They’re not an entity I would consider small. They are, in fact part, of a large organization called Genoa-Knowlton. If what you say is true, how is it that your sire did the work for me?”

She seemed to ponder her words, avoiding eye contact with anyone for a moment. A part of her was definitely reluctant to say any more than she already had. The information he asked for was not necessarily secret. But at the same time, one was generally safer if it was kept under the radar.

With a sigh, she relented and explained, “my father and his associates were very good at what they did. In order to continue doing their work effectively, and as safely as possible, they worked contracts under other company names. In most cases, they would contract as a private security consultant, on behalf of GK Sierra, IIL, ACADEMI, DynCorp, ICTS… even the CIA on occasion. Uncle Akira actually worked for Triple Canopy for almost ten years when he was younger. Before that he ran special ops for the military.”

There was a silent moment while Rosalind, Sesshomaru, and Inuyasha just stared at her. Finally Inuyasha asked, “ACADEMI? That’s Blackwater’s new, more politically correct rebrand, right? You guys worked with Blackwater? And ICTS does a lot of contracts in North Africa. Your dad must have been traveling constantly.”

Kagome shrugged, eyes on her work as she untangled some wire. “Yes and no. He took me with him a few times; we actually moved overseas when I was a kid, just for a few years. He did a lot of work for U.S. troop support in Egypt and Libya from 97 to 2001.”

Sesshomaru leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees, hands clasped together before him as he asked, “did you and your father work with GK Sierra often?”

Kagome shrugged again and said, “I suppose so, more than some of the others I guess, since they’re headquartered in Portland.”

Sesshomaru was quietly pensive for a moment before he asked curiously, “there have long been rumors that they employ high-ranking Mossad. Have you ever heard anything that supported those allegations?”

Inuyasha frowned and asked incredulously, “are you joking? GK Sierra’s running with Israeli intelligence?” He let out an amused snort, “…sneaky little bastards.”

Sesshomaru’s shoulders moved in a stiff shrug. “It is possible, but officially remains an unsubstantiated claim.” He looked back to Kagome for an answer. She was fiddling with the spool casing of the mutilated cell phone again, her gaze turned inward as she searched her memory. After a moment she said in a measured, hoarse voice, “it is possible. There was never anything official that I saw, but here and there I came across little things in the work we did for them that could fit that explanation.”

Sesshomaru’s lips twitched in an amused smile. “Very interesting.”

Kagome smiled a little too and commented, “it always is. That’s one of the reasons I liked the work.” She tossed the tools in the bag, and set the finished pieces in the center of the table. She gathered the rubber band and head phones up and limped the dozen or so feet across the room to check on the charging phone in the corner. Inuyasha leaned forward and picked up the outlet face plate with the newly attached hardware. “So how do I install this?”

Kagome plugged the ear buds into the phone and wound the cord up tightly, rubber banding the whole thing together. “You attach the stripped ends of wire I left on the back with the corresponding wires that run into the outlet. You strip the coating and twine them together. Just make sure you connect the right ones or you’ll have either a useless hunk of dead plastic or an electrical fire, depending on the age and health of the system.”

Inuyasha looked up at her as she unplugged the cell phone from the wall and brought it back to the table. She clicked through the menus on the phone and coughed roughly again into her elbow, grimacing as she said, “I’m setting this to silent, and auto answer.”

She rummaged through the box of burner phones and picked one out, handing it to him. He looked at the blocky old Nokia in his hand and she explained. “You’ll call this phone, with that one. We’ll leave this one,” and she held up the one she had just unplugged from the wall, “hidden in a mess of wires behind Rose’s computer… if it’s in a central location?”

Rosalind nodded and said, “it’s right in the middle of the apartment, the cords hang out into the hallway a little.”

Kagome smiled in satisfaction. “Perfect. So I’ll plug the phone in behind the computer. It’ll have a power source and will last as long as you need it to, or until it’s removed. This model was known for its crappy microphone. It picks up any sound in the room so it’s the eavesdropper’s best friend. Leave the Nokia on speaker phone and mute your end of the call. Then keep it with you and keep the call connected to monitor the apartment.”

She paused then and remembered something else. “And remember to keep it charged. You wouldn’t believe how often some crooks go to all this work and then forget to keep the phone from dying in their pocket.”

Kagome picked up one of the walkie talkies, which she’d marked a star on with a white paint pen, and handed it to Inuyasha. “This is connected to the device I put on the outlet plate. It will be a little cumbersome to be carrying both that and the Nokia around, but…”

Inuyasha shook his head and set the things back on the table. “No, this is great… thanks.”

He looked at the wires on the outlet plate with apprehension and Sesshomaru asked smugly, “you think you can handle that without burning the place down?”

Inuyasha shot him a sour look but admitted, “actually… no. I’m not exactly an electrician.”

Kagome offered hesitantly, “I could come with you and put it in.”

Inuyasha shook his head. “I don’t want to take you into downtown Arcata right now. Especially not after I told Vini that’s where you’d be.”

There was silence for a moment before she asked, “you don’t expect anyone to show up in the next few hours do you? I could set up the inside stuff while you’re installing the cameras at the front and back. We could be in and out of the place in twenty minutes… unless your part takes longer.”

Inuyasha stood and paced the living room once, thinking. Finally he sighed and said, “my only other option is getting Miroku or Gabriel to help.”

Rosalind commented, “if Gabe can deal with the electrical system on an SUV, surely he could do this?”

Inuyasha nodded once and said, “but then I’ll have to wait longer. He already left for the garage and he won’t be back until late. Maybe he could take a break and meet me there.” Inuyasha pulled out his cell phone and dialed his friend at the garage. After leaving a message on the unresponsive cell phone and talking to their clerk at the garage, Inuyasha found out that Gabriel had gone to take a shower. Some idiot had knocked over an open container of gasoline near where the demon had been laying on the floor under the car he was working on, and he’d been half soaked.

When he sighed and delivered the news to the room at large, Kagome just shrugged. “Then it looks like you can take me with you or not use the hallway bug. You’d still have the phone in the apartment, so you’d have some audio.”

Inuyasha looked at her for a long moment before he glanced at the time. With a slightly resigned expression he asked, “do you want to go?”

Kagome shrugged again. “Sure, I don’t mind.” In her eyes he could see the underlying part of the statement she made. She trusted him to keep her safe. He gave her a nod and said, “alright, do you need to change? We need to get moving.”

She smiled and stood, setting the smaller pieces gently into the top of the tool bag before she said, “give me five minutes.”