Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
“Is that what I think it is?” Blade demanded when he heard a small beep go off on the tablet Lion was scrolling through.
Hope blasted his chest before he could stop it.
It had been a long day. They’d scoured every corner of the internet for intel on both the shipping company and the trucking company linked to Dr. Gardner’s men. Hours of grueling work, sitting staring at a screen when what he wanted to do was tear apart the world to find his missing little genius.
While it about killed him, he’d agreed to lie down for a few hours while they waited for the sun to set and the moon to rise.
Sleep was the last thing he wanted, and he’d only agreed because the guys were right.
Whitney’s life was hanging on the line, and if he messed something up because he hadn't slept in days, he would never forgive himself.
The enhancements done to his system and those of his teammates meant they could go longer without sleep, but his body still needed it and would function better even with a couple of hours.
The trucking company had been a bust. They’d found some illegal drugs in a few of the vehicles, but there was no sign of Whitney.
Of course, they’d let Prey know what they’d found, and he had no doubt that the cops would be making a visit to the company in the morning, but Blade couldn’t care less about some drugs in comparison to the life of the woman who had swept into his life like a breath of fresh air.
Now they were on their way to the shipping yard.
It would be harder to search, even with their enhanced skills, because it was a whole lot bigger than the yard where the trucking company was based.
Not that Blade cared, it felt good to be out actually doing something, and now he’d heard the sound he’d been praying for.
“Got her,” Lion exclaimed in response, and Blade felt relief rush through his body, easing the tension that had been there ever since Whitney saw her face on the news and decided to use this opportunity to play bait.
“Which tracker?” he asked. Their theory was that Terry Richards had been using a jammer to prevent any trackers Whitney might have on her from being useful.
A jammer would still mess with the tracker that was lying dormant under her skin until she set it off, but if she’d set off that tracker, it meant she was in trouble and couldn’t wait for them any longer.
After all, Whitney didn't know that they hadn't been able to track her. As far as she’d probably been aware, they were sitting somewhere close by waiting for a glimpse of Dr. Gardner before swooping in to rescue her.
“The one she has to activate herself,” Lion replied.
“Think Dr. Gardner made an appearance?” Voodoo asked.
“Possibly,” Blade answered. “That, or they’re moving her, and she’s now outside the range of the jammer.”
“If she just set it off now, she might have been out of the range of the jammer for a while and only just decided she needed to let us know to come to her. Maybe Dr. Gardner arrived, or maybe …” Blade couldn’t even finish that sentence.
There were too many maybes.
Maybe she’d been tied up this entire time and only just been able to get her hand to her wrist to set off the tracker.
Maybe she’d been unconscious the entire time, drugged up and unable to get herself help.
Maybe Dr. Gardner had been there all along, but she hadn't been able to set off her tracker for whatever reason.
Maybe the threat to her had increased to the point where she could no longer wait for the doctor to arrive because she was in danger now.
Maybe they were about to move her, and she knew she’d be spirited away someplace where she’d never be found.
Maybe the tracker had been active for hours, and she’d been waiting all this time for him to come, and he hadn't.
“Drive faster,” he told Thunder, who was sitting in the driver’s seat, already driving their large SUV above the speed limit.
“Going as fast as I can,” Thunder assured him, their eyes meeting briefly in the rear-view mirror.
“Not fast enough,” he shot back. Hope and relief were wonderful things.
Now he knew that Whitney was alive and cognizant enough to set off her tracker, hopefully, that meant she wasn't badly injured. They also had a way to find her now. All they had to do was follow the little dot on Lion’s tablet, and it would lead them right to her.
“I go any faster, and we’re not going to be making it anywhere because we’re going to be crashing into something,” Thunder said.
“You never crash,” Blade muttered. Somehow it was true. Thunder was almost always their driver, and while there should be no reason his enhanced speed would help him to drive faster, somehow he managed to maintain perfect control of a vehicle no matter how fast he was going.
“And I want to keep it that way,” Thunder told him. “What are the coordinates for Whitney’s position, Lion? So I can input them into the GPS.”
“No need. She’s at the docks,” Lion replied.
After spending a day and a half searching for Whitney, to find that they’d already gotten their own lead on her location was the first bit of good news he’d had.
The reason they’d checked out the trucking company first was because it was closer.
The docks were in the next state over, but since they were close enough to the border to drive, they’d gone with that rather than wasting time going to the airport, readying the plane, and finding a private airfield close to the docks to fly into.
Now they were already heading for the docks, less than thirty minutes out.
Thirty minutes.
A lot could still happen in that time.
Especially if Whitney had activated the tracker because she was about to be moved.
So long as the tracker stayed on, they’d still be able to find her, but as soon as she was near a jammer again, they’d lose her, and a jammer was the only way Terry Richards would have been able to get Whitney out of the produce store as quickly as he could.
The tension in the car grew as Thunder sped along the roads. Thankfully, it was the middle of the night, and the roads were quiet. They made good time, and just over twenty minutes later, they were pulling up at the docks.
While the tracker still beeping quietly on Lion’s tablet told them they weren't too late and Whitney was still here, it wasn't going to lead them to her exact location.
Thankfully, they didn't need a tracker to do that.
Between the six of them, there was no way they wouldn't find her, and whoever was with her didn't know they were enjoying their last minutes on this earth.
Climbing out of the car, Blade cocked his head and listened.
Two distinct sets of footsteps could be heard. Running.
Had Whitney escaped? Was that why they’d just gotten the alert of her location, because she’d gotten herself out of the jammer’s zone?
“I smell them. Two of them,” Dragon said from beside him. “It’s him, Terry Richards. I recognize the scent from the store. Definitely her too.”
“We should split up,” Steel announced. “Blade and Dragon will have the best chances of pinning them down, it’s too hard for Lion to see much with all the containers stacked up like this. Thunder and Voodoo with Blade, Lion and I will go with Dragon.”
There was no need to discuss it, this time Blade didn't intend to argue with his team leader. The sound of Whitney’s ragged breathing echoed loudly in his ears, and he could tell from the way it hitched that she was crying while she ran.
Following the sound, Blade took off, Thunder and Voodoo on his heels. This whole place was like one giant maze. Stacks of shipping containers rose up to the sky at every turn, and it made trying to find the right path to take to get to Whitney almost impossible.
Not that he was giving up. Blade would go to the ends of the earth for Whitney Daley, burn the entire planet to the ground if that was what it took to save her life.
“We’re getting close,” he told the others as he stopped to get his bearings. Whitney was just up ahead, but he had to make sure he chose the right direction, otherwise, they’d find themselves blocked again by these damn shipping containers. “This way.”
Neither Voodoo nor Thunder argued, and the three of them dodged around a corner, then another.
“Found where he was keeping her,” Steel’s voice came through to him from wherever the others were. “Open shipping container, her sweater is in here, and her bra.” There was a pause, and then Steel sighed, his voice tight when he spoke again. “Dragon says it smells like sex in here.”
Rage more powerful than anything he’d experienced before clouded his vision, attached itself to every drop of blood pumping through his body, and when Blade turned the next corner, he spotted her.
Whitney, on top of a stack of three containers, and she wasn't alone.
Terry Richards was running right at her.
January 17th
12:50 A.M.
Running wasn't going to work indefinitely.
There had been barely a head start, she’d made it around a corner when she heard the door to the shipping container flung open hard enough that it slammed into the side of it, if the bang echoing through the quiet night was anything to go by.
Whitney hadn't been sure where the shipping container was, because she’d never gotten a good look outside the door the couple of times it had been opened, and she hadn't been sure if she was being held at a shipping yard at a dock somewhere, or if the shipping container had been set up someplace else.
As soon as she’d stepped through its door, she got her answer.
They were at a dock, and there were stacks of other shipping containers everywhere.
It was like being trapped in a maze. She was trying to find her way out, find her way to a road, an office with a phone, something, anything that could get her to safety.
So far, all she’d found were more shipping containers.
And more, and more, and more.