Suspicions

Aarti studied the outside of the police precinct. It was a stone building with artful touches of whimsy in the form of gargoyles perched on the top. Stone columns bulwarked the walls at regular intervals. People were streaming in and out of the building in somewhat orderly lines.

"You'd never think there was so much crime," Dawnie commented as she sat down beside Aarti. She opened a bag of jellybeans. "Candy?"

"What is this?" Aarti asked, picking up a bright purple jellybean and eyeing it suspiciously.

"They're called jellybeans, and they're fantastic." Dawnie popped a couple of red ones into her mouth. "You should eat them by the color. They're all different flavors."

"Then what one is this one?" Aarti sniffed it experimentally but still couldn't figure it out.

"That one?" Dawnie peered over. Then she frowned thoughtfully. "I think that one's grape or sorta grape? I always eat the red and pink ones first. That's cherry or cinnamon—depends on where Don got them from—and bubble gum."

"Wouldn't it be easier to just get some cherries or bubble gum?" Aarti squeezed the jellybean between her fingers, watching in fascination as it developed white lines. "Are you sure it's grape?"

"They're made out of sugar and flavoring. That's why I love them," Dawnie explained.

Aarti popped the jellybean into her mouth and paused. There was a definite note of artificial grape in her mouth that she vaguely remembered from her time before Liberation. She'd eaten a lot of lollipops and popsicles then. Most of them had been of the flavored sugar and flavored water varieties. She still wondered how they'd decided that that was what a grape should taste like.

"So, any movements yet?"

"Not that I've seen," Aarti said. She reached for another jellybean. "There's something off about this." Aarti gestured at the busy police station. "Is it supposed to be so busy?"

"Not really. I have no clue what's going on. You'd think there was a crime spree or something, but this isn't Gotham. Who'd go on a spree here?" Dawnie poured the last few jellybeans into her mouth.

"Lucy isn't going to do anything without Court," Aarti mused. "There aren't that many criminals to keep this one precinct busy."

They watched as a police cruiser pulled up, and an officer opened the back door and escorted a prisoner up the stairs.

"Do you find her familiar?" Aarti finally asked.

"I do, but I can't remember where I've seen her," Dawnie answered, arrested in the act of opening another bag of jellybeans.

As the first cruiser pulled away, another one pulled up. The same act repeated itself. This time, one of the crowd of people pouring into the station glanced at the prisoner.

The sight of it had Aarti's throat tightening.

"Did you—"

"—I did. We have to go get Lucy."

*****

"I'm not your Moms. You can do things by yourselves," Lucy said, pushing past Aarti and Dawnie to reach the new kitchen island.

If anyone had told Aarti that Lucy would be cooking, she would have laughed her butt off before decapitating the idiot. Still, the proof was hard to disprove as Lucy was the one who'd had a much chastened San pull in the kitchen island. Neither Aarti or Dawnie could figure out just how she'd gotten it hooked up, but it had a fully functioning sink. Another panel of kitchen cabinets, complete with refrigerator, stove and oven had also appeared.

All Lucy had said when they'd asked was "food shows." Dawnie had nodded sagely at that, but Aarti had still been confused. Then Don had sat her down and introduced her to a television network that was nothing but various people cooking. She still couldn't wrap her mind around someone's job being showing other people how to make food.

Were they all insane? Cooking wasn't that difficult from what she could tell.

"This is different," Aarti said.

She knew that Lucy wanted to wait. They were holding Court until he could be transferred to a juvenile detention area. At least that was what the documents that Don had dug up had said. Dawnie was the one who'd suggested the scouting. If Don hadn't agreed, Aarti wouldn't have bothered.

"Just how is it different?" Lucy asked as she cut up various vegetables.

If it wasn't for Dawnie and Don having such swift metabolisms, they'd probably be swamped in food. Aarti had never pegged Lucy as someone who cooked while stressed, but ever since they realized that Court was in custody, she'd been cooking up a storm. It'd especially ramped up when Don had said that getting Court out would be far more difficult than it had been the first time.

Aarti, after watching the police precinct, agreed with him. She'd never seen a place so busy with law enforcers before. Even the stations and bases she'd seen during the Liberation hadn't been as busy. Then she frowned to herself. There was a reason that they were so busy.

"We think it's been infiltrated," Dawnie said, swiping a quesadilla from the stack on the counter.

Lucy finally paused what she was doing. From Aarti's perspective it had to do with vegetable forms of quesadillas. There was already chicken, beef and cheese arrayed in little piles along the countertop. Lucy gently set her knife down.

"What do you mean that it's been 'infiltrated?' Infiltrated by who? Who'd want to willingly go to a police precinct?" Lucy asked, finally giving them her full attention.

"I'm not sure, but I think it's connected to Ella's kidnapping?" Dawnie ventured. She snagged another quesadilla. "These are so good! You should make more!" She added as she waved the half-eaten one around.

Aarti couldn't prevent the eye roll from happening. She scolded herself internally. It'd been one of the first things the other Amazons had targeted as a tell. Then she relaxed just a little. Aarti realized that she didn't have to worry about that just yet. They had bigger fish to catch.

"If they're plants, then Court is in trouble." Lucy untied her apron and hung it on a hook beside the refrigerator. There were several other aprons hanging there as well.

Aarti was finding the whole situation pretty interesting. It was like everyone was starting to spruce up the warehouse as their real hideout.

"So, how exactly did you get this warehouse? And why is it full of all this furniture?"