Chapter 51 Ty #2
I rushed up and down each aisle, looking for anything out of place. All I found were old reference books and a few microfiche machines. Nothing seemed out of place, so I ran back up the stairs.
Nico met me in the main lobby, letting me know that the third floor had been scanned by his team. Everything was in order. There were no signs of further clues, and there were certainly no bombs.
There had to be something specific we were looking for. I checked the time, and my heart jumped into my throat. We were running out of time, but what the hell were we trying to find?
After working with Nico to search the reference desk area, I found Liza in the nonfiction section of the library. Moving in her direction, I passed a row of encyclopedias. A thought suddenly occurred to me.
“Everyone, listen up!” I shouted, hoping the entire team could hear my voice. “The dates of the disasters must have some significance.” I pulled up the notes app on my phone again. “Meet me in the archives section and I’ll assign each of you a date.”
Everyone lined up, diligently receiving their assigned date and making a note of it on their phone. We all spread out and wasted no time finding the dates, digging through the books, hoping to find the clue.
Liza joined me in searching for the same date Hurricane Harvey had caused so much destruction in Houston.
“How much time do we have left?” she asked in a tight voice.
I quickly glanced at my watch. “We literally have fifteen minutes left.”
“Holy shit!” Liza yelled and stood to her feet. “I found something.”
I rushed to her side. On the inside cover of the book she was holding, a small rectangle had been carved out, and an SD card was pressed into it.
A few more shouts filled the room as everyone realized Liza had done it again. She held the clue in her hands.
“Somebody boot up one of these computers. Now!”
Dad stood behind me, staring in awe at the small SD chip that would save our pack from impending disaster. “Shouldn’t we scan this for viruses? What if it somehow fucks up the library system?”
“There’s no time for that. Worst-case scenario, we buy the library new computers.” My heart was close to exploding. As soon as the computer booted up, Liza shoved the SD card into the slot. A few seconds later, a long number popped up on the screen.
“Fuck. What does it mean?” I squinted at the screen, expecting some additional verbiage to be hidden behind the numbers.
Liza tapped the screen with her fingernail. “It’s a Dewey decimal number. You know, the number used to organize the books.”
I checked the time. We had three minutes to find the book.
Liza grabbed the mouse and opened the library’s online catalog system, typing faster than I thought was humanly possible.
The name of the book and its location popped onto the screen, a green available flashing below the title, letting us know that we could, indeed, borrow the book.
“This title looks familiar,” I said as Liza jotted down the location.
“Yeah, it’s a book about betrayal. It’s about a king who built his empire on lies and deceit, and the eventual fall of the empire.”
Of course. Nothing Castro did was accidental. He took jabs wherever and whenever he could.
We ran to the adult fiction section, scanning each shelf as we rushed by, following the alphabetically ordered signs until we reached the letter of the author’s last name.
Finally, we found the book. Liza flipped it open. A rectangle had been carved out of the pages, and a phone was nestled inside it.
If I didn’t hate the bastard so much, I might’ve been impressed with his creativity.
I grabbed the phone and powered it on, but just as the screen lit up, the timer on my phone went off. It was too late. Our time was up.
Liza looked at me with tears in her eyes, and I couldn’t find the words to comfort her. We were fucked.
Once the phone powered on, the screen lit up with an incoming call.
I pushed the green button and put the call on speaker phone.
My heart dropped as Castro’s voice echoed off the library walls. He chuckled. “Wow, I’m impressed. You all were so close.”
His words hung in the air as the rest of the team gathered around. Nico pulled out his phone and recorded Castro as he spoke.
“I commend you for figuring it all out. To my own surprise, I’m feeling a little generous, considering you were only seconds off.”
My anger was its own living, breathing entity. Liza pressed against my side to try and keep me calm, no doubt sensing my rage.
Dad spoke up. “What the hell do you want from us, Castro?”
Castro laughed in his own sadistic way, making the hairs on my neck stand at attention. “Is Liza there?” He laughed again. “I’m sure she is. She’s the actual brains behind figuring all of this out, isn’t she?”
My hands tightened around the phone as I imagined squeezing Castro’s neck until his face turned blue, choking the very life out of him.
“My request is simple,” Castro began. “I want Dominic to tell Liza just how he massacred her clan.”
What the hell? Liza already knew all about it. What was Castro getting at?
“He needs to tell her that, even though I was the one who pulled the trigger, her parents were still breathing when she ran from the cabin.”
Liza’s entire body went stiff as she pulled away from me. “No. That’s impossible.”
Castro sighed into the phone. “I shot them in the chest, but they weren’t dead when I left the cabin.” His voice was stern as he turned his attention back to Dominic. “Go on, Alpha Keller. Tell Liza how her parents really died.”