Chapter 11
218Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMPU9OmoIW3
Everyone in the room clapped their hands over their ears.
“WHAT’S WRONG, GIZ?” Ethaniel yelled over his girlfriend’s horrified scream.
Shaking and pale as the moon, she pointed towards the wall-sized computer screen. Cameo let out a frustrated cry and would have sent his fist through a smaller monitor, but Tanner stepped in front of him and caught the punch in his chest. Swallowing the pain, Tanner grimaced.
“No punching any of this stuff, got it?” he said, raising his eyebrow. Cameo snarled in response.
“Jaiden’s back, can’t you tell? Stupid idiot pinged us. And no one’s that ugly!”
Harley typed a few things into the nearest monitor.
“He’s right. Far as I can tell, he’s wearing a mask that looks like he did a few years before the fire, but the facial structure beneath the mask, plus the body structure and the scars completely enveloping his hands suggest that it’s Jaiden. That’s-”
“Not good. We gotta move it. Where’d it ping from?” Infinity asked shortly.
“Place called Battle Mountain. Nevada. I got another ping. Groth. He’s not disguising much either. A little plastic surgery, it looks like. Good thing these things are so well calibrated. The technology is so-”
“Harley!” Infinity interrupted. “Groth’s ping. Where?”
“Baker. Also Nevada. This is weird.” Harley paused. “Rendezvousing, maybe? But where are they headed? And why?”
“Giz, that’s been our question for the last six months, remember?” Cameo grunted exasperatedly, wrenching his wrist free of Tanner’s grip.
“Yup, sorry. It looks like they both have a few guards with them, so I’m just gonna… There!” she exclaimed triumphantly. “The guards haven’t been hiding whatsoever. Jaiden’s first popped up just above the Canadian border, right about there,” she said, pointing to an area just right of Vancouver. “And constant pings have popped up in a near perfect diagonal from Canada all the way to Battle Mountain. Same with Groth’s. His popped up just above Lake Superior and continued down to Baker. And, if I read the trajectories accurately, they should intercept each other right about… here, in an open area between route 375 and 318. Looks like a desert to me.”
“What the- Hey, Harley, pull up satellite images for that area, please,” Colton asked, sidling up to the computer. Harley did as he asked and stepped back. “Look, look, look. While I was helping the Wretch set up HQ, I figured out how to identify where the halves meet on the door. It’s never perfectly hidden, so I just saw this little bit of distortion…” he explained, jabbing his pinkie finger at the tiniest warp in the landscape. “I think there’s an underground facility in this area.”
“If you’re right,” Harley whispered, shaking her hands in nervous excitement, “Then we have less than twelve hours before they reach that spot.”
“Wretch,” Cameo said, turning to the girl in the ball gown. “How soon can you get the plane in the air?”
She narrowed her eyes. “It can be ready in one hour. Can you?”
“I’m always ready when it comes to Jaiden. I want that plane ready in thirty. Get your people moving.”
She flounced out of the hidden room, doors closing silently behind her. Cameo turned to the rest of the gang. “How long?”
“Give me ten,” Harley responded.
“Ten,” Ethaniel agreed.
“Same,” Tanner added.
Cameo glanced at Infinity, eyebrow raised. She shrugged.
“You dragged me outta my own yard in, like, thirty seconds. All I got is what’s on me. Although, anyone got a Glock? I didn’t have time to grab mine.”
Harley tapped a button on the wall. Panels flipped over to reveal an intimidating array of weapons, from slingshots to machine guns.
“So, should we gear up?” Tanner asked, not even trying to disguise the huge smile on his face. Cameo rolled his eyes.
“Sure, sure, grab whatever. But make it quick.” His pocket buzzed. “I’m guessing that’s the Wretch. Everybody in the limo. How long's the flight?" Harley typed another command into yet another computer.
"Roughly seven hours to the Vegas airport. I'm gonna say three and a half hours to the rendezvous point."
He sighed. "Better get going. Not much room for error this time."
Infinity slung an ammo belt around her waist and looked at him. "Was there last time?"
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