Taylor had come down to the kitchen to get something for lunch. Object achieved, he sought out Isaac.
He spent a lot of time in the music room lately, which coming to the realisation of couldn't stop the smile on Taylor's face. He knocked on the door before poking his head through.
"Ike, you in here?"
Isaac
Isaac didn't pause in his playing.
"Yep," he said, looking up. "Whatcha up to?"
Taylor
Taylor came in and closed the door behind him, before going to sit close to his brother.
"Have you noticed anything strange about Tad recently?" he frowned.
Isaac
"Ummm..." Isaac considered.
He strummed a few bars.
"I suppose, now that you mention it, he's been easier to get along with."
Taylor
"Keep playing, in case he comes by," Taylor insisted.
"When... when I got back from going after... going after him, I got an apology the next night. I probably should have told you. He apologised for the way he was treating us and tried to be more lenient."
He scratched the back of his neck.
"Of course the spology itself was odd, but I couldn't help but get the feeling I was missing something."
Isaac
Isaac, who had no intension of stopping, continued to play.
"Like he had an ulterior motive or something?" he suggested.
Taylor
"Well, yeah, but I couldn't figure out what," Taylor looked confused.
"And of course I didn't want to voice it in case he actually was being genuine and it was just my power screwing up. But lately... that feeling hasn't waned, you know?"
Isaac
"Then he probably does have an ulterior motive. And 'what' is a good question," Isaac affirmed. "I don't have any ideas... maybe he's cotton's onto the fact that agitating you doesn't help? We all know how much he wants to get out of here. Personally, no sympathy. He got into this job, and he should have known he would have to spend time away from his family."
Taylor
"Yeah I know," Taylor admitted uneasily.
"I just hate the idea that he might be using us for something. Lord knows I've had enough of that, even if it's no longer physical."
Isaac
"Well, that's a possibility too," Isaac said. "Although what he would be using us for, I have no idea. Unless we've stumbled on a crooked agent."
Taylor
"Or..." Taylor began carefully.
"He's using us to get to someone else. Like Chris."
Isaac
"Chris does seem to be a popular target," Isaac agreed. "Actually... you've probably hit the nail on there head right there. Remember the way he ranted and raved when you got back? And you say he apologied that night? He probably heard about Blaksley being brought in and put two and two together. He was there when we rescued Christian and you asked him about it, remember?"
Taylor
"I don't remember," Taylor admitted, "but that's not unusual. Oh wait,t hat's the whole reason I used to rescue him in the first place."
He snapped his fingers.
"That cheating son of a- umm, maybe we should call Chloe. They're in contact with Chris. Tell him not to come around here anymore or something. They have our phone numbers so he can call if he wants us."
He began to look worried.
Isaac
Isaac nodded slowly.
"If he's really that interested in bringing down Christian," he said, "we may have to consider the possibility that when Tad's been unaccountable and Christian's been over... I don't know... do you think Tad would stoop low enough to eavesdrop?"
Taylor
"I hope not," Taylor insisted.
"But I wouldn't put it past him. He is pretty desperate."
Isaac
"I hope not either. That's a serious breach of privacy," Isaac said. "But if we're going to go down that track, it's something we should consider."
Isaac paused for a moment (but not in his playing).
"I'm just trying to think if we've said anything sensitive about him lately... I don't know... It's hard because what's common knowledge between the three - four - of us wouldn't be to anyone else. So we can talk freely and joke about it, and stuff, but only ever between ourselves. If Tad overheard any of that... I think you should definitely advise Christian one way or another to stay away for the time being. I think Zac's still got Chloe's number... once we've told Chloe we should get rid of that in case Tad get any ideas... assuming he hasn't, uhh, aquired a copy already."
Taylor
Taylor nodded, his eyes on the guitar.
"I'll get on it," he insisted, beginning to stand up already.
"If only we thought we could get away with checking his computer. it makes you wonder exactly what he reports to Tanya."
Isaac
"Tanya is probably safe with stuff about Christian," Isaac mused. "Let's hope he hasn't reported anything that's not his business to someone else."
Then he realised what he said and his eyes met Taylor's.
Taylor
Taylor stared back for a moment.
"Shit," he said simply, then ran his fingers through his fringe.
"I have to call Chloe. back in a moment."
He left the music room and made his way up toward the livingroom and kitchen area.
"ZAC?!" he called.
Zac
Zac heard his name being called and moved to find the caller.
"You hollared?" Zac said blandly to Taylor.
Taylor
"Where's your phone?" Taylor asked softly when he was in sight.
"I need it for a second."
Zac
"Ummm..." Zac considered for a moment. "It's in my room. Why?"
He stood up to go get it.
Taylor
"I can't say right now," Taylor kept his voice down, keeping an eye out for Tad as he waited for Zac to get back.
"Just hurry."
Zac
Zac frowned, but hurried off to get the phone. He was back within minutes and handed it to Taylor, after turning it on and plugging in his PIN.
"When you can say..." Zac trailed off.
Taylor
"Come down to the music room," Taylor said in Dathrian, at the same time making it sound to anyone but Zac like he'd told him not to worry in English.
He took the phone and found Chloe's number, showed Zac who he was calling, then pressed the call button and quickly began to head back to Isaac.
Zac and Isaac
Zac's frowned deepened, but he followed. Isaac was making some notations on some music paper, but went back to playing when he saw his brothers come in.
"I suppose we want to be loud enough to keep from being overheard, without preventing Tay from hearing," Isaac said.
Taylor
"I'll go into the sound booth," Taylor suggested.
"Tell him what's going on," he said to Isaac, nodding to Zac before slipping in and closing the door.
His call was soon answered.
"Hello, this is Cathy..."
"Hi Cathy it's Taylor Hanson. Is either Chloe or Steel around...?"
Zac and Isaac
"I love that sound booth," Zac beamed. "I totally loved how I just asked the house for a sound booth, and he gave me one."
"Are you sure the house is a he?" Isaac teased. "Maybe it's a she?"
"Or maybe he's an it," Zac replied. "I'll just refer to the house as a 'he' until I find out otherwise. Maybe. I'm sure the house will understand. In fact, I think we should stop calling him 'the house' and give him a name."
Taylor
"Certainly Sir, I'll put you through to Chloe."
"Thanks," Taylor glanced back at Isaac and Zac before Chloe picked up the line.
"Hi Taylor."
"Hey. Look, I need you to do me a favour."
"Sure, what can I do for you?"
"You know about Tad, right? The guy who has to stay with me and Ike?"
"Sure."
"Well he's been insistant on finding otu as much as he can about Chris. And just lately we think he may have been eavesdropping on our conversations with him and such. Could... could you just tell Chris it's probably not a good idea for him to come around here anymore? I mean you guys have our numbers, if he needs to see us he can call..."
Isaac and Zac
"Anyway," Isaac said, "What's going on is this: Tay and I are beginning to suspect that Tad might be after Christian. Have you noticed he seems to be easier to get along with lately?"
"Yeah..." Zac said slowly. "But I figured he was just trying to stop Saku from hissing at him all the time. Hasn't worked. So you think he's after Christian?"
"Yeah, Taylor's calling Chloe now to get a message to hm not to come here anymore, and then he's going to take her number off your phone."
Zac frowned.
"That won't prevent him from getting the number if he really wants it," Zac pointed out. "All he needs is the sim card - it records all incoming and outgoing calls. The number will be there if he wants it badly enough."
Chloe & Taylor
"I'll see what I can do," Chloe insisted.
"Thanks. Now I'm going to delete your number in case Tad decides to trace it. Guess I'll talk to you later."
"Bye Taylor. Thanks for letting us know."
"You're welcome."
He hung up and stepped out of the sound booth.
Isaac and Zac
"Hey Tay," Isaac said. "Zac was just pointing out... his sim card records all calls - so if Tad wants it badly enough he can still get the number."
"I don't want to have to change that number," Zac said warily.
Taylor
"Well we don't know if he knows you had her number or not," Taylor pointed out, "but it's a good point. If it's recorded you can delete them though, right? To save memory?"
He began looking through the options anyway.
"He wouldn't go looking at your phone bill, I'm sure."
Zac and Isaac
Zac shook his head.
"You can delete the number from the memory, but I don't think you can through the sim card. The sim card is what remembers your phone number, and it also records other stuff - stuff that can't be deleted," Zac paused, "My facts are right assuming that all them spy shows are telling the truth."
"Watching too much ALIAS are we?" Isaac teased.
"Jennifer Garner is hot," Zac confirmed. "But there was this episode where they were after the information on the sim card soooo..."
"Of course, Taylor also has a point - we don't know that Tad knows."
Zac shrugged.
"Where was he when we got it and otherwise talked about having it?" he asked. "Does anyone remember? No? Too many possibilities, too long along? We're probably better off assuming Tad knows everything we've spoken about."
Taylor
"Then he knows way too much," Taylor murmured, "but he wouldn't know your PIN number."
His eyebrows rose.
"So unless he actually steals your phone and takes it to a telekinetic I don't think we'll have a problem in this case."
He finally deleted the number from as many places as he could find it.
"We got it just before I left, so he can't have known about that or he wouldn't have been 'worried' looking for me. But I did mention it when I was on the phone to Steel a couple of weeks go, so if he was eavesdropping then he would know now."
Zac and Isaac
"Oh! I've an idea," Zac said. "Well, I'm not totally sure how effective it will be after a couple of weeks, but we could always ask Saku to sniff my phone. He has a pretty good sense of smell, I dunno, maybe he'd be able to smell it if Tad's touched my phone?"
"It has been a couple of weeks," Isaac pointed out.
"I said that," Zac replied. "It's probably a long shot, but he's pretty good at sniffing things out."
"Well, it can't hurt. But there are other things we should figure out too. Exactly how much he knows, and what has he been doing with the information."
Taylor
"As Zac suggested, I think we should go on the premise that he knows a lot. Until it's proved otherwise. Who he's been talking to..."
Taylor hesitated, trying to think.
"We'd have to get on his computer or something. I think you'd be the best for that, you'd probably know what you were doing better than us."
He was looking at Isaac.
Isaac and Zac
"I'm a lot of things Tay," Isaac said, "but a hacker isn't one of them. First password I come up against, and I'm stuck."
"Shame Hunter isn't here," Zac said. "He's a technokinetic. Bet he wouldn't have any problems."
"Would he be able to get in remotely?"
"Good question. We should ask him. Or maybe one of Steel's crew could help us, should we get an opportunity to ask them."
Taylor
"Steel probably knows a thousand technokinetics," Taylor murmured, before throwing Zac's phone back to him.
"Shame we can't contact him now."
Isaac and Zac
"Well, we can find out if Hunter can help us," Isaac said. "Or we could just wait until Steel contacts us. Hunter might be faster, but that will also mean risking him finding out."
"Probably better if we wait for Steel. I doubt he'll let this one slide any more than we will, right?" Zac said, looking at Taylor.
Taylor
"He wouldn't," Taylor agreed.
It was barely a moment before Zac's phone rang.
Zac
Zac stared at his phone for a moment before hitting the button and putting it to his ear.
"Hello?"
Kirk & Taylor
"Zac, what's going on?" Kirk basically demanded.
Taylor couldn't help but roll his eyes. He could hear who it was.
Zac
"Weeeeellll," Zac said. "It has come to our attention that Tad has been rather easy to get along with lately. Making us a bit suspcious that he might have some sort of James Bond delusion and spying on us. We figure he's probably after Christian. Hence why Taylor called Chloe to warn Christian to stay away. Y'know, just in case. Say, do you suppose you could send someone around to hack into Tad's computer? Just in case we're right, and he's reporting to someone other than Tanya?"
Kirk
"Technikinetic? Sure. Now?"
Kirk quickly began to type something into a nearby computer to find available technokinetics in their area.
Zac
"Yeah, why not?" Zac said. "Just as long as you think... y'know... given Taylor's, ahh, little secret, shall we say... whatever they find they might find out about that."
He shot Taylor a concerned look.
Kirk
"Don't worry. Anyone I call on is here strictly for business, and it's verified constantly," Kirk promised, finding one.
"Ok. A red head by the name of Kristy will be knocking on the door in the next fifteen minutes. She lives maybe three blocks away."
Zac
"Great," said Zac. "With any luck this'll all just be paranoia. We'll find a way to distract Tad."
He looked at his brothers.
"That everything?" he inquired of both his brothers and Steel.
Kirk & Taylor
"We'll let Christian know. I'll let you get going," Kirk nodded as Taylor just shrugged.
"Thanks again for informing us."
Zac and Isaac
"No problem. Talk to you later," Zac said.
They hung up.
"Red head named Kristy is gonna come around," he said. "One of us should wait for her while the other distract Tad."
"Saku!" Isaac suggested mischeviously.
Zac snickered.
Taylor
"Great," Taylor sighed and shook his head.
"I wish I could have picked up on this sooner. Who knows what he's found out since then... And for that matter if he is telling someone other than Tanya, what are we going to do about it?"
Isaac and Zac
"Well, I guess, first we need to find out who," Isaac said. "Let's cross that bridge when we come to it."
"If we come to it," Zac said. "Assuming it's not paranoia. Okay, Kristy'll be here in 15, so I'll go hunt down Tad. Talk to yas later."
He left the music room and went looking for Tad, or for Saku. Whoever.
Taylor
Taylor glanced at Isaac, then scratched his head.
"I'll go wait for Kristy," he said finally, before heading up to the livingroom.
He could hear Zac and Saku in the dining area.
Zac and Saku
Zac sat down at a seat opposite Tad, who was finishing off his lunch. Zac put his feet up on the table and start reading a newspaper. Then Saku came slinking in. He sat down at Tad's foot, looked up at him and hissed.
Tad looked down and frowned. He glanced at Zac who was ignoring the whole thing, and went back to him lunch.
Taylor
Taylor kept an eye out the window, hoping Kristy wouldn't get a chance to knock and let Tad know someone else was there. When he saw her coming up the path, he quickly opened the door and stepped out.
"Ah... hi," she said nervously, "I'm Kristy."
"I'm Taylor," he nodded, "I don't know how much Steel told you, but we have the guy distracted for a while and we just need you to..."
"Hack his computer and find out what he knows and who he's been telling about Christian Thomas. I got the low down on the way here."
"Ok cool," Taylor nodded, then went to open the door again.
Isaac, Tad, Zac and Saku
Isaac decided that he would be best suited to keep an eye on Zac and Saku's progress. He could step in if need be, and at worse be able to warn Taylor and Kristy that he was coming.
Tad finished eating, and stood to take his plate into the kitchen. But Saku insisted on blocking his path.
"Get out of the ca- Saku," Tad said warningly.
Saku hissed at him again. Zac had told him that they suspected Tad might be spying on them, and they were going to have someone hack into his computer to find out. But they needed to distract him so that he wouldn't realise what they were doing. The idea of being betrayed, even by someone he didn't like, angered Saku, and he was more than happy to help.
Taylor
Taylor guided Kristy through the house, a hand in the small of her back. They found their way up to Tad's room without going near the dining room (perhaps another quirk of the magic house) and quickly slipped inside and closed the door.
When Kristy spotted the computer, she quickly started it up. Taylor noticed it seemed to be happening a lot faster than usual.
"Is that...?"
"I'm a speed technokinetic. Steel knew this had to be done quickly," Kristy explained, as Taylor's eyebrows rose.
She was in in no time.
"Ok. Running a search for anything in relation to a certain Mr Thomas..." she murmured.
Taylor couldn't even watch the screen, it was flashing so fast.
"And bullseye. To Mr Brown, here is the report I sent Tanya. Additional information is at the bottom. Yours in f***ing breach of privacy goodness, Tad Forrest."
Taylor's eyebrows rose again, and she shot him a look.
"Sorry, I met Chris and I kind of like him."
"What does it say?" a look of concern crossed Taylor's face.
Tad, Saku and Zac
"Saku!" Tad scolded when he still couldn't get past. "Let me through."
Frustrated, Tad went to kick Saku, but he was way ahead of him and created a wall of fire around him. Tad pulled back, and looked around in horror.
"Zac!" he yelled. "Your kid just lit the place on fire!"
Zac turned the page. Saku smiled a cat smile. He was in full control of the fire - it wasn't actually burning the house at all. But it would burn Tad if he tried to move through it.
Taylor
"Some rot about him being one Taylor Hanson's clone and breaching station security without getting caught. Increasing contact due to trials... with Steel. Ok he's going to want to know about this..."
"And you can tell him. Thanks Kristy."
"No problem."
"Do we know who this Mr Brown is?"
Kristy bit her lip.
"It's a private YIRAAS email address. First name begins with 'L'. First name hasn't slipped anywhere."
"Ok, thanks. We'd better get out of here."
"Let me cover my tracks and I'll be out the door."
"Ok."
Tad, Zac and Saku
"Zac!" Tad roared. "Control your son!"
"Unless he's setting the house on fire, I don't want to know about it," Zac responded, hiding his smile behind the newspaper.
"That's what he's doing! I just told you that!"
"Doesn't smell like anything's burning to me."
"You're a temperature manipulator! Can't you feel the heat? Put down that blasted newspaper and look for yourself."
Saku decided he was bored with the firewall, and took it down just as Zac pulled down the newspaper.
"I don't see anything," he said. "Really, Tad, stop telling stories."
Tad growled as Saku innocently jumped up on the table and started washing himself.
Taylor
"Ok, done," Kristy nodded.
Taylor indicated for her to lead the way out, then quickly made sure everything was as Tad had left it before closing the door behind them and following her.
They made it to the front door and he extended his hand.
"Are you fine to tell Steel everything?" he asked as she shook it.
"Fine with it? I can't wait. The look on his face will be priceless."
And with that, she left. Taylor quickly headed back to the music room, letting out a shrill bird's call on the way. Normally his way of saying he wanted to practise something.
Isaac, Zac, Saku and Tad
Isaac heard the call and entered the dining room after a moments pause.
"Hey Zac, Saku, Tad."
Tad pursed his lips and managed to nod before finally making it to the kitchen.
"Tay wants to practice."
"So I heard," Zac said, putting the newspaper. "Thanks Saku."
Saku took a moment to mew in response before going back to his bath.
"And Saku? No bathing on the dining room table. Off. Now."
Saku, looking disapointed, reluctantly got up.
Isaac and Zac them moved to the music room. Isaac picked up his guitar and started to play as Zac began the conversation.
"So, how'd it go?"
Taylor
Taylor scratched his head and whined a little like a small dog before starting to pace slowly.
"He's been sending copies of the reports he sends to Tanya to someone else," he came out with.
"As well as stuff about Chris. He knows Chris is my - our - clone, and he knows he's been to the station."
Zac and Isaac
"Crud, it's not paranoia," Zac said.
"Do we know who?" Isaac asked.
This was not good.
Taylor
"It's a private YIRAAS email address," Taylor shrugged.
"'L. Brown'. It sounds familiar, but the first name didn't leak."
Zac and Isaac
"Leroy Brown?" Zac suggested.
"Bad, bad, Leroy Brown,
Baddest man in the who damn town
Badder than old King Kong,
Meaner than a junk yard dog!" Isaac sang. "Uhh, sorry. Couldn't help myself. But seriously. Leroy? Aren't he and Tanya in a relationship? Why would he do something like this?"
"Just because Tanya and Christian might get along doesn't mean Christian and Leroy do," Zac pointed out.
"Yeah, but why would he go through Tad and not Tanya if he were so interested?"
"It's work," Zac shrugged.
"Christian is hardly work."
"Hunting down Christian's type used to be Leroy's job. Well, probably worse than Christian's type. But that's not the point."
Taylor
Taylor groaned and sat down on the piano stool.
"Question. Do we tell Tanya?" he asked, his head in his hand and the respective elbow leaning on the piano.
"Steel will work it out, so Chris will probably find out if he doesn't know already.
Zac and Isaac
"I think we should tell her," Zac said.
Isaac paused and nodded.
"Tanya will be able to confirm one way or another," he said. "She's going to be plenty mad. If you're right Zac - and there are plenty of 'L Brown's out there I'm sure - he's been like, checking up on her - and it's not exactly his line of work any more."
"Besides, if Steel or Chris are in contact with her, they might tell her anyway," Zac pointed out.
Taylor
"Steel will probably work out that it's not safe for any of them to contact her directly anymore."
Taylor pulled out his cell phone.
"So who wants to do the honours?"
Zac
"Given the givens," Zac said. "It's probably best if you do it. Everyone knows you have regular contact with Tanya, so it won't seem odd."
Taylor
Taylor nodded, before finding her private line in his phone and standing up.
"Better get in the sound booth again," he sighed, before making his way in and pressing the call button.
Isaac, Zac and Tanya
Isaac and Zac decided to jam together while they waited - just to keep the illusion that they were having a band practice going so Tad would stay away.
"Hello?" Tanya said, answering the phone.
She leant back in her chair.
Taylor
"Hi Tanya," Taylor began, regret in his voice.
"I'm... I'm afraid I have some bad news. But first I need to know, are these calls recorded at all and are you alone?"
Tanya
Tanya frowned.
"Other than Kit, yes," she replied. "And this is a secure line. What's this all about?"
Taylor
"Well, I've warned you before that we thought Tad was after Christian," Taylor began carefully.
"And it turns out... Well, we're getting a lot more than we bargained for. He knows. A lot. He knows Chris is our clone, he knows he's been up to the station, and he's been sending copies of his reports to someone other than you. We noticed he'd been acting differently for the past few weeks and worked out why - he's been eavesdropping our conversations."
He gulped and waited for the first reaction.
Tanya
Tanya pursed her lips.
"I see," she said tightly. "Do you know who he's been sending reports to?"
Taylor
"Yes," Taylor murmured regretfully.
"Well, we worked it out. We got a technokinetic to hack his computer. I mean screw privacy issues, he obviously doesn't care about ours."
Tanya
"Obviously," Tanya replied. "Who is it then?"
She was mentally reviewing what people she knew would be after Christian. Guffery, maybe? Tad could have lied to her in his reports...
Taylor
Taylor hesitated, more debating with himself how to come out with it than anything else.
"L. Brown," he said suddenly.
Tanya
Tanya felt the blood rush to her face.
"L. Brown?" she repeated.
He wouldn't! Surely not Leroy... Surely... Tanya's cheek twitched a little. He would.
Taylor
"I'm sorry you had to find out like this," Taylor shook his head.
"But we just found out ourselves and we knew you needed to know and we've told Chris to stay away from us because we know Tad will just stick his nose in where it doesn't belong and we can't afford for Leroy to find out more than he already knows..."
His voice got quieter as he rambled.
Tanya
"I, I... Thank you Taylor, for telling me," Tanya replied. "I'll find a way to deal with Leroy. Is there anything else I should know?"
Yeah... finding the way... that was the trick.
Taylor
"Umm..." Taylor stopped to think.
"He also knows something about... they were planning to keep checking up on me because of trials, btu I'm not sure that's happening anymore... So... that's about it."
Tanya
"Okay," Tanya replied.
She was going to kill Leroy.
"Well, thanks again for letting me know. I'll get right on it. See you at your next treatment."
Taylor
"Umm, yeah," Taylor replied hesitantly.
"Just... don't do anything too drastic, right?"
Tanya
Tanya chuckled.
"Don't worry Taylor. There aren't going to be any annoucements of suspicious deaths on the station," she said.
Taylor
Taylor couldn't help but smile.
"Ok, just making sure," he insisted, "I don't particularly want this to get out and I know it's close to. I'll let you go. Let us know if anything comes up."
Tanya
"I'll keep you informed," Tanya replied. "I don't want this to get out either. See you later, Taylor."
And they hung up.