36. Taking Them Home
Taking Them Home
Fly
Voice changers have been around forever, and I’ve used them a few times when needed, but listening to Everett turn into a nosy eighty-year-old woman ratting on a wild party is as hysterical as it’s freaky.
He even had her send a ‘picture’ to prove what she was seeing to the cops.
“What made you decide on using the handler’s phone to take the picture?” This kid does nothing random. I’m good at what I do, but his mind is on a whole new level.
“There can’t be any blowback on innocent people.
Even though nothing is real about this woman, including her name, they still might go looking for an old woman.
If anyone enhances the image, it will show it was taken by our friend.
The phone call also shows his number. And if they’re sophisticated enough to reverse engineer the voice, it will come up being his. ”
All that was done in a half an hour…
“Jackpot. Goon on the left just got a message. Tracking it back. Oh, they’re smart.
It didn’t come directly from a phone in the precinct.
He’s making us work for it…even though he has no clue we’re here.
I love a challenge.” Everett’s narrating as he’s cyber hunting, which hopefully will give us an edge if we need to act fast. “Got the phone it was sent from. Oh, he didn’t hide his number.
It was Ewan Masters that sent the message from his personal phone. ”
“Check again,” Maddox snaps. “You're wrong.”
Everett doesn’t even look up. “I’m not wrong.”
Maddox moves until he’s standing over Everett and says, “Check again.”
Max hops up and steps between the two. “Back up.”
“He’s wrong. I know Masters. He wouldn’t do this.”
Max shoves him back. “Do you think I want it to be him? That’s my brother-in-law we’re talking about. Now step back.”
“Ewan Masters has saved so many children. He helped them find The Street when nothing else was working for them. He wouldn’t do this to a kid.”
“And what difference does it make if he’s selling them at the same time?” Max shoves Maddox back. “Cool down, or I’ll take you down.”
“You can try.”
“The number checks out. It’s Ewan Masters’, but I’m not sure it was him.
Look.” Everett's hands move faster than would be possible for most people. Half of that has got to be muscle memory. He’d do well as a pickpocket.
“But there’s a tracker on every badge. Ewan Masters walked out of the precinct ten minutes ago without his phone.
Now, could we please focus. Carves is approaching Vandal. I’m putting them on speakers now.”
Music blares through the speakers, loud enough to make this place feel like a club.
“Filtering that out now.”
The room goes quiet.
“Shut it down. Shut it down now. The cops are coming.” Carves practically jumps out of his skin. “Shut it all down. I’m out of here.” He runs for the door while the two babysitters hustle the kids out a little slower.
Some of them appear to be so high or drunk it’s hard for them to stand.
Vandal smiles in relief for the first time tonight as he walks towards the DJ.
“Are we going to pick up Carves?” Rogue asks. “Or are we going to let him walk, hoping to catch the bigger fish?”
“He walks.” Maddox pulls out his gun and checks it. “But those girls are free tonight. My team is ready to take them out as soon as they pull out of the parking garage. Or if you kill the cameras, they’ll do it there.”
Max shakes his head. “There are too many entrances and too many people parked there. We don’t want any witnesses. Wait for them to leave.”
“Or wait for them to head to their home base.” Everett pulls our attention away from the current plans. “I think I found their home base.” An old office building on the edge of town comes up on the screen. “A check of phone logs shows two dozen phones operating in the last week at that location.”
Two dozen. That means…
“There are more children,” Maddox says the words I was thinking. “Scan the area. Look for an empty hotel nearby.”
Everett swings around. “How did you know that?”
“I’ve got a really bad feeling about this. We cleared out a nest that worked the same way a while back. Except the man we tied it to died.”
Which means…“You cut off a leg and two more grew back.”
“We aren’t prepared for an operation of this size. Not now,” Havoc says the words none of us want to.
“Those children aren’t going back into that pit. We can’t let them suffer more. How do we take them out without making the whole cell suspicious until we can come up with a plan to clean it out?”
“Like Pit would say, there's nothing there a few hand grenades wouldn’t fix,” Maddox mutters under his breath.
And that’s why everyone is afraid of the Adders. They’re nuts.
“Anyone got any bright ideas? Speak now. They’re starting out of the parking garage. It’s a twenty-five-minute drive back to their base.” Everett puts several maps up with possible routes they might take.
How do we make it not look suspicious? “Everyone gets into a car accident.”
All eyes turn to me.
“We’re going to stage a car accident.”
“Those girls don’t have seatbelts on.” Maddox shakes his head. “They could get hurt. That’s not an option. Try again.”
“I didn’t say they’re going to get in an accident. I said we’re going to stage one. Find me a spot on their path that doesn’t have any cameras. Also, when your team takes them, I’ll need blood from each man. Not a huge amount, maybe half a liter total, but it needs to look fresh.”
Leech steps up from the background. “I’ve got what we need to make that happen.”
“Then we'd better get to work. Everett, text me the location you find and keep that dot moving even when it stops. Maddox, you have ten minutes to take that minivan and get me the blood. I’m going to go get dressed.”
He nods. “I’ll only need five.”
The space goes from pent-up rage to focused determination in the blink of an eye.
***
Jumping out of a moving van isn’t as easy as they show in the movies.
Rogue pulls up next to me. “You’re going to feel that in the morning.”
I shrug. “It could have been worse.”
“It’s going to be for the handlers. Maddox is bringing them down to the catacombs. Wanna come see them squirm?”
Do I? “Not really. Who’s planning the larger rescue?” I hop—well, more like carefully climb—into the car.
“Max and Everett moved the party back to Willow Street. Vex called. He’s irritated he didn’t get an invitation to the party. And he also said to tell you the next time you send Sheri home crying, he’ll kill you.”
“Wait? What? Why was she crying? Where’s Integer? He was supposed to see her home safely. Where is Sheri? I need to go see her. Make sure she’s okay.”
Rogue shakes his head. “No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do. I need to go see her right now. To make sure she’s alright.”
“First, you smell like a porta-potty that they forgot to clean out for two weeks in the middle of summer, which is why we’re driving back with the windows open.
Second, you really, really don’t want to get near Vex right now.
Your woman ended up making his woman cry. He’s not a happy camper right now.”
“I don’t care. I need to see her. I need to make sure she’s alright.”
“You don’t walk in front of a shark while bleeding. You’re not going to see her tonight. We’ll sit on you if that’s what it takes to keep you alive.”
“You and what army?”
“Brother, don’t test us. You know we’ll all do what we need to keep you alive. Shower. Take a nap. You’ll see her in a few hours.”
“Do you have my phone?”
Rogue nods towards the glove box.
I grab it, almost dropping it in my haste. There’s no message from her. No angry text. Nothing.
What do I say? It’s not like I can explain what we just did.
Fly
Are you still awake, Your Royal Highness, or should I say, my princess?
The silence on the other end echoes inside of me. I made Sheri cry on what was supposed to be the perfect first date.