No matter what, I needed to make sure they got arrested and charged with something. I finished my deliveries and headed back to my apartment for the night. I needed to get a good night’s sleep; the next day could be the end of the informant’s captivity, my undercover assignment, and Mason’s reign of terror. It would be a busy day. The thought of finally getting Mason off the streets brought a smile to my face as I drifted off into a deep sleep.
I woke the next morning in plenty of time to get ready for the meeting. I showered and got dressed, wearing the typical torn jeans and a sweatshirt like I’d been wearing for working at the warehouse. I pulled my hair back off my face in a short ponytail—another thing I’d be glad to get rid of after this assignment; my normal style was much shorter and cleaner.
As I looked in the mirror, I sighed. I wouldn’t impress the two cops with a professional look, but I would preserve my cover. I got my gun out and put it into the shoulder holster under my leather jacket before grabbing my keys and heading out the door. The drive to the coffee shop took about fifteen minutes. After I parked my motorcycle I walked in, checking for anyone who seemed to be waiting for someone.
The shop wasn’t too busy, so I spotted them almost immediately. The first thing I noticed was that Detective Farrow was hot. Not a very professional thought, but I’d been working with the meatheads at the warehouse for six months, not a lot of pretty women to be had in that climate. The second thing I noticed was that she was furious. Her partner seemed calmer, and was evidently keeping her from flipping out completely.
I was clearly missing something. She was angry, but there was fear shining through her eyes as well. She and her partner were talking quietly, and for a brief moment it seemed like Farrow was tearing up. Her reaction confused me. The anger and fear I saw in her was what I had seen many times in worried family members or friends. Not what I’d seen from the other cops and agents I’d known when something happened to some random street kid informant. There was worry in her partner’s eyes also, but his was slightly more detached.
The street kid was clearly more than just an informant to both of them. I took a breath and walked over to their table.
“I was wondering when you’d join us,” Detective Farrow said. “You stood there long enough.”
Her brown eyes sparkled as she noticed my surprise. “You cased the place when you walked in. You checked for threats, exits, that kind of thing. Besides, you’re wearing a gun. I figured you were either trying to rob the place or you’re the agent we’re here to meet,” she spoke softly enough that the other people in the shop wouldn’t hear her, so I didn’t worry too much when she’d called me an agent.
“Alice, ease up,” her partner said quietly, putting a hand on her shoulder in restraint.
I shook my head. “It’s all right. The lady’s observant. There’s nothing wrong with that.” I held out my hand. “Mark Jones. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Dan Carstens,” the older detective said, shaking my hand. “And she’s Alice Farrow. Now, what can you tell us about Jason?”
“That’s your informant?” I asked. Both of them nodded. “I’ve been told that Mason most likely took him out to a property he calls ‘the Farm’. Supposedly it’s where Mason took his former partner after the man tried to kill him. I don’t know where it is, but I’ve gotten the okay from Mason to go out there.”
“How’d you do that?” Despite herself, Detective Farrow seemed interested and a little impressed.
I cringed. “I needed to pretend that I wanted to see him suffer for hurting Mason’s business. The manager at the warehouse I work at got in touch with Mason’s second-in-command to get me onto the Farm. They’ll be picking me up at six from the warehouse. I won’t be able to tell you where we’re going, but I might be able to get a GPS chip so you can find us once we’re there.”
Alice still seemed angry—a condition I suspected she’d keep until Jason was found—but she said, “Thank you for risking yourself like this. When it’s all over, you should meet Jason so you know it was all worth it.”
I shook my head. “I already know that. I’ve heard what he’s done, and what he’s been put through up until Mason took him now.”
The detective narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. “What else did you hear?” she asked protectively.
From her tone, I assumed she knew about her informant’s abilities, so I took a shot in the dark. “I know he has some amazing abilities.” I almost expected them to react as if I were crazy, but from her and Dan’s lack of surprise I had figured correctly that they knew what this boy could do. “What I don’t know is exactly what those abilities are. I heard he managed to demolish a house, throw chunks of cement and dirt around, and that he was able to find one of Mason’s drug warehouses and get it shut down.”
Dan and Alice exchanged glances, Dan giving her a look and a slight wave of his hand. She nodded and looked at me. “Jason can control the earth. He can read people’s footsteps in the ground and follow fresh prints or ‘echoes’ as he calls them. He calls himself a Tracker. The destructive aspect of his power is the stuff you were talking about. He can cause the ground to rise up, in the case of the warehouse, or shake violently—like at the house. Anything else he can do, I am not sure of,” she admitted. “I think sometimes it gets away from him, and he doesn’t even know what he’s fully capable of.”
My eyes were wide at her revelation. I had half-expected her to explain away the wild rumors, but she had instead confirmed them. I shook my head. Her description of what he could do explained the name Mason had given him. Though from the name he’d given himself, it seemed he mostly wanted to ignore the more dangerous aspect of his gifts. I was beginning to understand some of the fear the detectives were showing. If Mason managed to somehow use Jason against people… It was time to get back to work.
“That’s amazing,” I shook my head, needing to get to business, but finding it hard to hide my interest in Jason. “But I suppose we need to start planning for tonight. My handler told me we would have several agents ready to storm the Farm, but I’m not sure of the timing. I have no idea how far out of town this place is, so I will stall things as much as possible once I get there to give you time to get there. I'll call you, Detective Farrow, as soon as my ride comes. I’ll call you Allie and pretend you're a girl I’m dating and that I need to explain why I won’t see you tonight. That will be the sign that we’re heading out.”
Alice nodded. “We’ll have all available units ready to roll shortly before six and we’ll start following the GPS tracker once it gets out of town. We definitely don’t want to follow too closely and alert them. When you arrive, be prepared to stall so we can get there before anything else is done to Jason for your benefit.”
I checked my watch. “I should get to the warehouse,” I said. “Until tonight, I guess all we can do is wait.”
THIRTY-SIX
Jason
I woke sputtering a couple hours after falling asleep. I glared up past the stream of water to see The Bulldog standing over me holding a bucket. His approaching footsteps hadn’t woken me, so I must have been out cold. I continued glaring at him, but he just grinned.
“Boss, he’s up,” he said cheerfully. I looked past him in surprise as I realized the biggest threat I’d ever faced had managed to stroll in without any kind of warning twinge from my power. I had been completely unaware of his appearance until The Bull…Mick, had mentioned him.
“I can see that, Mick,” Mason said wryly. “Get him up. It’s time to continue.”
My whole body was stiff and aching, both from yesterday’s events and from passing out chained to a pole. Movement was not something I was looking forward to, especially since it promised more of the abuse like the day before. The fact that it was Mick who would be ‘helping’ me up would make the movement even more torturous.
I briefly kicked myself for not attempting anything when they’d left me alone for the night, but realized quickly that it would have been impossible
. The door would have been guarded, and the guard would have had a control for the collar. Kicking myself was worthless.
My muscles screamed in agony as Mick removed the cuffs and yanked me to my feet, and I wanted to do the same. I managed to keep it down to a pain-filled groan. He pulled my arms over my head, reattaching the cuffs to the hook in the ceiling, and my arms felt like they were going to fall off.
I took deep shuddering breaths, trying to get through the pain. As the worst of it passed, I glared up at both men, my resolve strengthened. One way or another, this would end today. If I were left to this treatment much longer, I’d give in to whatever Mason wanted me to do in order to end the pain. I would rather die in an escape attempt than let that happen—if I took them with me, it would be an added bonus; no one else would have to worry about them anymore.
Today I needed to reign in my power, to hold it back until I was able to unleash it in one quick strike they wouldn’t be able to stop. Somehow I needed to incapacitate Mason and all of his men before anyone could hit the button on the control. That was the only way I could get out of this.
Mason was again walking around the room, and my eyes followed as he looked through his torture devices. He felt my gaze on him, and looked up at me with a smile. His next words were not directed at me, but at Mick. “Blindfold and gag him. I don’t want him to see what we’re doing, and I’m tired of listening to him scream. He gave me a headache yesterday with all his bellyaching.”
I glared at him defiantly, but he ignored me as Mick grabbed some cloth and silver duct tape. I tried to fight him as he put on the gag, but he forced my mouth open and stuffed the cloth in. I bit down hard before he could pull his fingers out of my mouth and I tasted the thick saltiness of blood as he yelled in pain. I felt a primal satisfaction that I’d been able to draw blood from my enemy, but it was cut short as he backhanded me hard across the face. While I was still blinking away the stars suddenly in my vision, he wrapped several layers of the tape around my head, holding my mouth shut.
As promised, Mason did not use the collar to punish me since I hadn’t used my powers. Despite the pain it had brought me, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Anything to cause pain to the men torturing me. Perhaps he was right; maybe the collar was an effective training tool. Of course I was still planning to fight back, but I was more hesitant to use my powers against them and risk electrocution than to fight them physically. Mason was watching dispassionately while his man prepared me for the day.
Mick started unwrapping more of the tape, and I realized he was planning to use that over my eyes instead of a normal blindfold. I kept my eyes open as he raised the tape, the last thing I saw was the glint of satisfaction in Mick’s eyes at the fear I’m sure he saw there. I closed my eyes quickly as he wrapped the tape around my head, holding my eyes shut. He rubbed the tape over my eyelids, making sure it was tight against the skin. That was going to hurt coming off.
I felt even more helpless hanging there unable to see or speak, and panic threatened to take over. I wouldn’t be able to tell where they were coming from or what they were going to use against me. My body stiffened in fear as I felt hands on the skin of my back, running lightly along the edges of the cuts already there. I felt a chill at the light touch, and goose bumps rose over my arms and chest. I started breathing quickly through my nose, and nearly hyperventilated.
I used a tiny amount of power to keep track of where both men were, but I still had no way to tell what they were about to do. There was a click and a few seconds later my body bucked away from a sudden sharp pain in my side. They were playing with a knife again. This time, from the click beforehand, I would guess some sort of switchblade or pocketknife.
Mick was playing with the knife, and had apparently mistaken it for a brush and my skin for his canvass. Every cut he made caused me to jerk in pain, making keeping track of Mason more difficult. The only sounds in the shed were my grunts of pain—the only noise I could get past the gag.
My ability to track Mason flickered off and on, but I could tell he was approaching me from the front. There was a slight rattle of chain right before Mick stopped cutting and moved out of the way. I tried to scream as I was suddenly hit hard with a chain that ripped at my chest and stomach. I panicked for a moment as I couldn’t catch my breath, and a muffled scream escaped as he hit me again across the right side.
My power tried to escape, and I used precious energy to hold it back. It wasn’t yet time to strike. Not with me hanging helpless, surrounded by people who would stop me before I could get free. If they let me down, or paused long enough for me to conserve some energy, then I could attack. If they all gathered into one area that I could hit quickly and it could work. Until then, it would be as good as trying to commit suicide. And no matter what he had done to me, I wasn’t ready to die in a pointless escape attempt. Not yet.
As Mason continued hitting me with the chain, I soothed the power with the thought that the time to strike would be soon.
For now, I just had to wait.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Alice
The meeting had gone well. Mark Jones seemed more competent than his handler, so I felt more comfortable with him as a part of the raid. He had also seemed open-minded, even impressed, about Jason’s powers. It seemed like Mark had admired what Jason had accomplished with his powers against Mason’s crime syndicate. We stayed at the coffee shop for a few minutes after Jones left, and then headed to the station to prepare a plan for the night.
“He seemed good,” Dan said. “With the groundwork he’s laid, his idea could work. He has to be a good actor in order to have gotten permission to go to Mason’s most private hideaway.”
I nodded. “We can only hope he’s good enough to keep them from finding that GPS chip. The whole plan hinges on us being able to follow him to the Farm. Without that, we’re back at square one.”
Dan shrugged, his blue eyes glinting in frustration. “We don’t have any other choice,” he snapped. He took a deep breath. “Sorry. We’ll just have to pray that they don’t find the chip,” he said more calmly.
“We need to contact Agent Jenson,” I said, naming Jones’ handler. “He’s supposed to supply us with the GPS tracker. We’ll also need to coordinate our department with his agents. We don’t want to be tripping over each other when we go in.” I added the last part with a lightness I didn’t feel.
Dan looked over at me with a frown. “Maybe I should call him,” he said. I winced. It would probably be better; last time I had spoken to him I’d threatened his job.
“Good idea,” I agreed. The less friction between the two groups, the better. I was still mad that Jenson had tried giving me the runaround last time, so Dan talking to him would be a good thing.
“I’ll call him in just a bit,” Dan said. “For now, we should figure out how many units we’ll want to go in.”
“That’s going to be difficult,” I said with a frown. “We don’t know how many people Mason has out there, and we don’t know where ‘there’ is.”
I paused, considering how many people would be best. We didn’t want to be tripping on each other, but we needed enough to cover anyone that needed arresting. “Maybe three or four plus us?” I suggested finally.
Dan shook his head. “SWAT would be better. Do you think we’d be able to get approval for that?”
“Maybe. We should talk to the captain and find out. Maybe see if we can get SWAT plus a couple units to bring in the perps,” I suggested. Dan nodded his agreement.
With a tentative plan in place, we went to get approval for the use of SWAT and two back-up units. The captain approved it quickly. He had been giving us a lot of leeway with this case; Mason was a major threat, and he wanted the criminal to be brought to justice. After getting the approval we needed, I called the SWAT leader and the captain set up a couple of units to go with us. Dan called Jenson and we coordinated our meeting time to be five-thirty that evening. We’d meet in front of the station and wait for Jones to c
all.
After setting everything up we left the station, stopping at the hospital to pick up Paul and Sam. Paul helped Sam into the car, and when we got home he helped to keep the others from swarming him. Hannah gave Sam a gentle hug and brought him into the living room, setting him up among some soft pillows on the couch.
“How’s everything going?” she asked timidly. “Are you any closer to finding Jason?” She didn’t meet my eyes as she asked and there was only a hint of hope in her voice.
“We may have a way to get to him,” I admitted. “I can’t tell any of you what’s going on, but I will let you know if and when we find him,” I promised.
“You’ll bring my brother back safely?” Sam asked quietly. “I need him.” He looked at his group of friends. “We all do.”
I blinked, feeling tears welling up at the innocent statement. “We’ll find him,” I promised.
Dan frowned at me, but I meant it with all my heart. I wouldn’t let Jason die for my mistakes. Or worse, become a tool for Mason’s criminal empire. I went over and gave Sam a hug, looking him directly in the eye before I released him. “We’ll find him,” I repeated.
“You should eat something before you go back to work,” Hannah said, turning to the kitchen.
“I’ll help,” Ginny said, jumping up eagerly. She had become attached to my sister in the short time they’d been living here, and it made me happy to see the smile on the little girl’s face. It was moments like this that would make it easier for me to get through whatever came tonight.
“We’ll stay and eat,” I agreed. “But before we do that, I need to talk to Dimartino. Where is he?”
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