Chapter 25 Wren
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
WREN
“That’s where the warehouse is?” Dex asks, as we all hover around Elias.
He nods. “Yep, that’s the location Harry gave us.”
“It makes sense,” Sly comments. “It looks like that area doesn’t get much traffic.”
“It’s secluded,” I add, seeing it’s located at the end of a dead-end street.
“So, how do you want to do this?” Pete asks, standing up and leaning his hip against the dining table where we’re all currently gathering around Elias’s laptop.
When we got home last night, we went straight to sleep.
I had planned to wake up before anyone else and surprise someone the way Pete and Elias had surprised me, but everyone woke up at the same time.
At the mention of pancakes, I couldn’t wait to get in the kitchen and make them for everyone, along with a pile of bacon and sausages.
Once that was done, Elias grabbed his laptop and quickly found the location of the warehouse Harry had given us yesterday. Just staring at the aerial view on his screen makes my stomach tighten with unease.
Who knows what we’ll find there? Will we even be able to get close enough to find out what’s going on?
“What’s our purpose?” I ask, frowning at the screen.
“To stop Ivan,” Pete answers, but I shake my head.
“No, I mean today. We go to the warehouse… to do what, exactly?”
“To stake it out,” Elias explains.
“Yeah, but what are we going to do with that info? If we see Ivan come and go, where does that get us?”
“It confirms it’s his warehouse,” Sly says.
“Yes, but how does that actually help us? We won’t be able to get inside to see the guns for ourselves, right?”
Elias presses his lips together like he doesn’t like what I’m saying, but understands my point.
“What do you think we should do?” Dex asks, and when I glance at him, I expect to see him looking at Elias, but I realize he’s asking me.
“Me?” I ask in surprise.
“Yeah, you. You’re the smartest person I know. I want to know what you think.” My heart warms at the comment, and I glance at Elias, wondering if he will object, but he nods expectantly, like he wants to know what I think, too.
I start pacing the room as I begin listing the facts. “Okay, so our end goal is to kill Ivan and get the list, which is at his house. We think the best plan is to kill him first, and our best chance is to do that outside of his home.”
I tap my lip in thought before continuing. “It’s hard to plan an attack when we don’t know when or where he’s going to be, which is why we’ve been listening to his phone calls. But so far, that’s gotten us nowhere.”
I check to make sure they’re all listening before I continue. “What we need is a time and place. He’s likely to visit that warehouse if Harry gave us accurate intel, so it could be a good place to launch an attack. We just need to know when he’s going to be there.”
Elias nods before speaking. “We could go there and assess it as a location for an attack. Maybe not inside the warehouse itself, but here.” He points to the street leading to it. “If these are all abandoned buildings like I think they are, it could be the perfect place to ambush him.”
I nod, feeling a little excited as our plan begins to take shape. “We can figure out our plan, then we just need to wait for mention of when he’s going there next, and we can launch our attack.”
“There could be dozens of men inside the warehouse that could run out at any sign of attack,” Sly says. “We need to get eyes on the inside.”
Elias nods. “It’s hard to plan without seeing it. If one of us can get inside and plant a camera, that’d be ideal.”
“We could just plant a camera on the exterior door and watch how many come and go over the course of a day?” Pete suggests.
“They could be sleeping inside, though,” I tell him. “We have no idea what the inside looks like.”
“I wish we had someone on the inside,” Pete mumbles.
“But then we’d have to blindly trust the info they give us.”
“What about Harry?” I ask as an idea comes to me.
“What about him?” Elias asks. “He’s not associated with Ivan. He can’t get in there.”
“No, but you saw all the gadgets and tech at his place. Maybe he has something to help us spy on the inside?”
Everyone takes a moment to think about it before Elias nods. “It’s worth a shot to ask him. He definitely had more going on than meets the eye.”
“Did anyone else notice his Russian and English accents were spot on?” Pete asks.
“Yeah,” I say with a nod. “It was odd. Maybe he’s spent time in America?”
“Okay, so let's head back to Harry’s place first, in case he has something to help us. Then we’ll go stake out the warehouse,” Elias says, setting our plan in motion. “Wear black and I’ll bring some white sheets in case the best place to watch is covered in snow.”
“I didn’t expect to see you back so soon,” Harry says, opening the door so we can move inside.
“We’re going to check out the warehouse now,” Elias tells him, getting straight to business. “But we need eyes on the inside. Do you have any sort of tech that could help us with that?”
Harry grins, pushing up his thick glasses as his chest puffs up with pride. “I have the perfect thing to help with that.” He moves into the living room and starts rummaging through random boxes, dropping things on the floor as he searches.
“Ah ha!” he cheers, pulling a clear zipped bag out and bringing it over to the coffee table.
He drops down on the couch and empties the contents carefully onto the table.
I see what looks like a remote control and a small metal ball, which is only about half an inch wide.
He carefully picks it up and shows it to us.
“This little guy is one of my proudest accomplishments. It’s a camera.”
“It’s so tiny,” Dex comments, leaning in to try and get a better look.
“Exactly, it makes it easier to get it places.”
“What do we do with it?” I ask, unsure how it’s supposed to work.
“That’s the best part,” he says with a grin, carefully setting it down and lifting the remote. He presses a few buttons, then suddenly the small ball starts to rise.
“Whoa!” Pete says, taking the words right from my lips.
“How is it doing that?” Elias asks, squatting down and running his hand along the place underneath it, confirming that nothing is pushing it up.
“It has a micro-gyro, which keeps it balanced while a ring of magnetic thrusters helps it lift, pivot, and glide silently in any direction, responding to these controls like a trained insect rather than a machine.”
“That’s remarkable,” I praise him. “Why don’t you sell this? I bet you could make a fortune.”
He shakes his head, setting the tiny ball back down before he looks at me. “The second I show this to someone, they’ll just create it for themselves.”
“Can’t you patent it?” Elias asks.
“It means nothing without the funds to back your claim, and by the time it gets to court, a large company will have made millions. Nobody will want to buy it from some random guy after that. And I don’t exactly want to make myself known to the public.”
“That sucks,” Pete tells him.
“Yeah, it sure does, my young friend. Now,” he says, getting to his feet. “Will this work? It’s got a range of three hundred feet. You just have to find a way in, but with this size, it should be easy.”
“But once it’s inside, we won’t know where we’re flying it,” I tell him.
“That’s the best part, you can sync it to your phone, and it will give you the live camera feed.”
“Oh, wow, that’s amazing!” I tell him.
“It’s perfect, and you’ll loan it to us?” Elias asks as we all turn to the man in question.
He smiles, looking a little deranged as he tells us, “Under one condition, I’m coming with you.”
“I need a code name,” Harry whispers as we quietly walk behind the buildings that lead to the warehouse.
“You already have one. It’s Mary,” Pete whispers back, making Dex snicker.
“No, I need something else. Like… Alpha Warrior.”
Jagger glances at me with a look that says, ‘Are you kidding me?’ and I burst out laughing, slapping a hand over my mouth quickly to prevent it from spreading.
“Like you guys can do any better,” Harry huffs.
“He’s got a point,” Pete adds. “We still haven’t come up with a viable group name.”
“How about The Death Bringers,” Harry suggests.
“It’s better than half the ones they've suggested,” Sly tells him as we step through the snow.
“Your name could be Dirty Harry,” Pete suggests, making him narrow his eyes.
“That’s hardly a code name, kid.”
“Stop calling me kid. Elias is four years younger than me,” Pete says with a pout.
“Yeah, but you act ten years younger,” Elias adds, making Dex snort.
“We’re supposed to be staying quiet,” Sly says in warning.
“I still want a code name,” Harry insists.
“How about Black Eagle?” I suggest, his balding hair making me think of the bird.
His eyes widen, and I can see he loves it, though he probably doesn't get the correlation.
“Perfect!”
“We should all have bird code names,” Pete suggests. “Sly could be The Crow, Elias would be The Hawk, Jagger could be The Bat, and I’d be The Falcon.”
“A bat isn’t a bird,” Sly tells him, but Pete only shrugs.
“Close enough.”
“What about me?” Dex asks.
“You’d be The Penguin.” I start to giggle and try to smother the sound, but he hears me anyway, turning to tickle my sides.
“You think that’s funny?” Dex asks with a grin.
“Yes,” I say around my laughter.
“Children, do I have to remind you we are in enemy territory right now?” Sly asks with a sigh.
“Are they always this bad?” Harry asks.
“Yes,” Sly and Elias answer at the same time.
“You’re one to talk,” Pete directs at Harry. “You’re the one who insisted on a code name.”
“Alright, Falcon,” Elias says sarcastically. “Time to zip it, we’re getting close.”
I grab Pete and Dex’s hands as we move closer. Elias leads us between the last two buildings on the street before the warehouse.
We crouch low as we reach the end and wait as he pokes his head out to take a look. He watches for at least thirty seconds before looking back at us and signing, “Coast is clear.”