Colin MacGregor

Colin sat on the couch in the lounge and scowled. The Sportscenter twits were having absolute fits going on and on about American football, again, as though there were no other sports to report on. Of course, there were no FA matches scheduled until later in the week and the Rugby World cup was over, so he supposed he could forgive them this week.

He looked over at the remote sitting on the side table and grumbled again. Many advantages tae nay having a physical form, Liz says. Righ'. Like having tae tire meself tae change the bluidy channel. He looked around the room again, but it was the middle of the working day and it seemed all of the living agents were too busy with their duties to spend their time in the lounge.

With impecable timing, though, Sean stuck his head in through the doorway. "Hey, was hoping to find you here!"

The ghost grinned. "Aye, nay much else tae do until we ge' another mission. Kate says she may ha'e something, bu' will nay tell me any more until later." He shrugged. "Wha ' did ye need?"

Sean walked over and plopped down into one of the overstuffed brown easy chairs next to the couch. "Is it possible to skinride someone without their knowing it?"

Colin blinked. "Nay", he said quickly. "I dinnae think so. There's always some sense o' fighting off the intrusion. E'en taking o'er someone who's asleep will usually wake them up."

"Hey, before ye go, can ye change the channel? Saves me having tae manifest jus' tae punch the button."

Colin shrugged. "BBC, I guess. No, wai', we jus' go' summat new from Netflix - should be tha' new Matrix DVD. Can ye pop tha' in?"

"You got it", Sean chuckled. He quickly ripped open the familiar red and white envelope and put the disc in the player. "Enjoy - you want the commentary on?"

"Nay, I've nay seen the movie ye', so I dinnae wan' tae hear someone babbling o'er top o' the explosions."

"Aye, laters!" Colin gave the skimmer a wave as he ducked back out into the hallway.

Colin leaned forward, enjoying the chase as Trinity hauled down the L.A. freeways on her motorcycle. He was so intent in the movie that he didn't notice CJ until she stepped in between him and the TV with a cough.

"Sorry", the skimmer replied with a grin. She tapped the pause button on the remote before turning back to look at him. "Won't take a minute, just had a question."

Colin nodded, a bit embarrassed to have been so caught up in the movie. "Aye? Lay i' on me."

"Oh", the skimmer shook her head. "Right, look, can you possess someone without them noticing?"

He frowned a moment, then wiggled his eyebrows as he broke into a grin. "Why do ye ask? Afraid I'm gwan tae be spying on you?"

"Poin' taken", he replied as he broadened his grin. "The answer is nay, more or less. The one being posessed will always feel i', jus' may nay recognize wha' i' is."

CJ closed her eyes and moved her lips as though trying to work out what he said.

She turned to leave, and stopped as Colin coughed pointedly. "Oh, right", she blushed. "Sorry." The skimmer tapped the pause button again, and the movie resumed mid car-chase.

"Ye know we're nay supposed tae go ou' alone", Colin called after her, but the skimmer's only response was a dismissive wave of her hand. The ghost's face split into an evil grin as he murmured softly, "As me gran liked tae say, 'time tae kill two wi' one stone'."

The skinrider quickly stood and phased through the back wall of the lounge. He hurried through a couple of large rooms that had been broken out into cubicle farms, hardly disturbing the agents working there. He knew there was an unused office near the elevator, now he just had to beat CJ there...Aha.

As CJ rounded the corner and walked towards the elevator, Colin extended a hand from his hiding place in the darkened office. He snagged a grip full of the silvery strands that , to his eyes, covered the skimmer's body and carefully pulled himself into her mind. He didn't want control - not yet anyway - just to ride along and keep an eye on her.

She stopped shcok still before spinning around to look first back toward the Lounge, then into the empty rooms on either side of her. She saw nothing, however, and continued to the end of the hallway where she mashed the call button for the lift.

Perfact, the ghost thought to himself. I jus' said tha' i' would be noticeable. I ne'er said the host would know wha' they noticed. Tis a sense they need tae learn, anyhow, and this should drive the lesson home well and proper.

CJ walked into the tech room whistling to herself and carrying a venti mocha. Ryan was present, staring intently on another Starbucks coffee cup. He was speaking softly, and Colin recognized that the banshee was foreboding something.

"The coffee was poured, but the employee needed more lids", Ryan said, entranced. "She ran off to get one, leaving the coffee on the counter. Out from under the counter snakes a small plastic tube. The tube plunges itself into the coffee, squirts something into the cup and disappears back beneath the counter just before the girl returns with a stack of lids."

Ryan shook his head and blinked. "Then she handed the coffee to Sean, CJ smelled the bleach, and we know the rest." He looked up at the ex-detective standing in the doorway. "You sniffed that one before drinking any, right?"

Aye, she did. Colin thought amusedly from deep within CJ's mind. I made sure o' tha'.

CJ simply nodded. 'Well, at least you found out it wasn't anyone working there, which means the search warrant is probably a moot point." She shrugged and took a seat at the table.

Sean rubbed his goatee thoughtfully. "Maybe they, whoever they really are, sent along a haunter to sit in a part of my car that Liz didn't slip into, like a tire or wheel, and took advantage of that moment..." He shrugged. "It wasn't someone puppeting the Starbucks people, we know that, too."

Ryan shook his head. "Not yet, was just about to take a look." He placed his gauzy hands around the small Sony camera and closed his eyes, falling once more into a trance.

"It was in a pawn shop", he intoned. "Some Matrix reject woman bought it, took it up into the mountains. Gravel road, I can hear it crunching under the SUV's tires. Some old cabin, Mitchell is inside, records the message, and the camera goes back to a barn behind the cabing. There's two more people there, our friends from the fracas."

Ryan shuddered, looking drained, but he continued on. "There's a lot of equipment. One of the guys inhabits the camera, then there's humming and a zap from the gear. The guy inside tells the other one to pick it up and not let go, says it will go back to solid as soon as it touches any other solid matter. The non-haunter guy - his name is Cal."

"The woman nods, says she wants to get this done, doesn't want to leave their 'cash cow' by himself for too long. There's another one outside, Jaff. Apparently he's the wisp. They drive down, park near Mitchell's apartment and stake it out until we get there before Jaff wends them over."

Ryan opened his eyes and sagged back into his chair. "That's it. Now if you don't mind, I am going to go veg in front of the TV for a bit. Do you mind turning the channel to TLC? They are doing a Trading Spaces Marathon."

Sean chuckled. "Thanks. You may have to fight Colin for the TV, he was watching a movie earlier. Let me kick off this search..." He typed quickly on his laptop, then stood with a satisfied smile. "There, I'll see what I can find on properties up in the mountains, maybe we can narrow this guy's location down."

The wisp and the banshee strode from the room, leaving CJ nominally alone, while Colin remained submerged within her psyche, waiting for the right moment to reveal his presence.

The ex-detective continued drinking her coffee while waiting for Sean to return, then picked up the phone and dialed a number. Her friend in the APD, Joe, answered and she asked him to see what he could find on recent purchases or leases, maybe spanning from the beginning of the year, on any cabins in North Georgia.

After a few minutes, Joe responded with. "Got one here that flagged. A "fixer-upper" near Dahlonega. Purchased by a local lawyer named Erin Bolles."

"You owe me lots," he laughed. "Okay, I'm sending the address to your email. Should be able to access it via your cellphone." He hung up.

CJ looked up as Sean returned. "I'd think we've got a hit. Know anything about a lawyer named Erin Bolles?"

"Oh?? Sweet!!!" Sean plopped down in the chair and began typing frantically. "Erin Bolles? Hmmm...it strikes a bell, let's see why..."

"I think we have another hit, CJ. Mizzzzzzzzz Bolles is a lawyer here in Atlanta on retainer for T&S." Sean broke into a grin that CJ echoed.

She patted Sean on the back. "Great. It seems our Ms. Bolles recently purchased a fixer up cabin in the North Georgia Mountains - near Dahlonega. Joe's emailing me the address. This looks like a good lead in where Mitchell is, but it doesn't really answer the question as to who toyed with that tube at Starbucks."

"At least we might be able to tie Mister Jones into T&S deeper now, CJ. What's our next step?"

She stood and retrieved her coffee from the other desk. After taking a sip, she turned to Sean. "We did kill our theory that perhaps one of the employees was being 'ridden', though I'm still unsure if they'd have known it or not." She shook her head. "But are the two linked? Was it one of the Matrix goons? And how'd they get into that Starbucks? Through the camera?"

"Hard to say", Sean replied. "My first thought when hearing that had been that either we were tailed without one of us catching it - and we were rather distracted with the camera at the time - or one of them hitched a lift on my car in a piece that Liz may not have thought to extend herself into..."

The wisp paused a moment and looked at Mitchell Jones' still image on the camera. "I do think the two are linked...the Matrix-wanna-be goons and your coffee..."

Sean trailed off thoughtgully. "I wonder what kind of machine they used to phase the camera from the material to the 'extra-material', as our resident skeptic would say? I'd enjoy getting my hands on it to see what makes it tick."

Sean nodded with a grin. "Well, now that we have an idea where Mitchell may be holed up, do we go in directly, work this out to not only implicate him but also tie in Bolles, T&S and the Wanna-bes, or leave the information in the hands of the authorities?" He stood up and stretched, cracking his knuckles as he turned a more serious look on the ex-detective. "I'm still worried about the possibility of a leak here in the office. The appearances of the Wanna-bes both following us to Savannah and at the house near St Genesius, as well as your coffee, seems way too coincidental. I'm becoming more of the opinion that we're being tagged by someone good."

CJ nodded as Sean stood to stretch. "Ryan's in no condition to forbode anything else, so we might have to sit on it for a while, but I have the pieces from my bike in my locker." CJ looked pulled her cell phone out from her pocket and stared at it briefly.

The former detective shook her head as she replaced the cell. "No...just looking for Max. I'd hoped the skinriding theory would pan out. Though I doubt any of the kids that work there could have given me a decent answer about it."

She closed her eyes a moment and swayed a bit unsteadily before putting the coffee down on the table. Her expression twisted and she looked confused.

Sean watched her expression change as she pocketed her celphone with rising panic in his eyes. "CJ? You ok? FUCKMEMUTHEROFHELL! They did get something into the coffee!" He made to catch the swaying detective when she suddenly straightened.

Colin took control of CJ's vocal cords, steadying her as her mind tried to fight off his intrusion. "No lass", he said through her. "They almost certainly would not have known they were being 'ridden'. As I said, I don't know of a way to take someone over without them noticing something, but with no way to identify the feeling, well..."

"It would be much the same as when you felt that chill in the hallway, but had no idea what caused it", Colin finished.

He could feel the former detective growing angry as she backed away from Sean, whose own expression had gone from curious to a bit frightened. She lowered her head and balled her hands into fists. "C-colin! Get out...NOW!"

Several spiderweb like strands detached from CJ's body before Colin's gauze reformed seated in a chair on the opposite side of the mahogany table with his white Addidas sneakers propped on the expensive furniture.

"Sorry, lass, bu' I wanted tae prove a point", he said, grinning, before he turned to Sean. "And dinnae worry, she sniffed before she drank, I made sure o' tha'."

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Last Updated: January 15, 2004 by Blake Sorensen

#0772 - Threat Analysis

1 December, 2003