“Why the fuck are we out here?” Jacks grumbled as we stopped on the side of the road about three blocks from the impound lot. All we needed from this vehicle was the damn prints if there were any.
We needed eyes, though.
Not answering him, I got out and opened up the trunk, making sure to shut off the interior lights. My computers had a dark screen on them that wouldn’t show up in the night.
Tapping into the police cameras at the impound lot was seriously easier than it should’ve been. A good thing for me to remember. Hopefully I’d never need that skill again, but who the hell knew when Ravage was concerned.
“Alright, Mr. Robot. What the fuck you got?” Jacks jabbed, and Nox chuckled. This was going to be a long night if this what I had in store for me.
“Do you want to alert everyone that we’re fuckin’ here?” I said back to him, scanning the lot to find the damn car. It was a black Impala, so it shouldn’t be that hard to find. Said no one ever.
“Dick. Figure it out,” Jacks ordered.
Ignoring him, my heart dropped when the car appeared on the screen. “Fuck,” I growled low.
“What?” Nox asked as I pointed to the screen to show them what we were up against.
“Back lot, behind the main lot’s fence.”
“Shit. We gotta get through two,” Jacks observed.
This wouldn’t be easy. My mind raced with how we could get this done without getting caught. Spending the night in jail wasn’t the plan for me tonight. I had a beautiful woman and my kid to get to. Staying with these two in a cell wasn’t on the menu.
Pulling up all angles of the lots, the front of the lot had an armed officer who upon zooming in looked like he was watching Wheel of Fortune. To each their own. It also meant he wasn’t paying attention to things around him. That would be on our side at least.
“Cop here distracted with the TV. Don’t see anyone else. You?”
Nox answered, “One patrolling the back.” I looked at what he saw on the screen. The man was smoking a cigarette and looking at something on his phone.
I pulled out the small box from underneath the seat and opened it up, pulling out a bottle and a syringe.
“What the fuck, man?” Jacks accused.
“It’s ketamine. It’ll knock the guy in the back out for about an hour. He’ll wake up and be none the wiser.”
“How the fuck we gonna do that so he doesn’t see us?” Jacks had a serious stick up his ass.
“I’ll come up behind him and put the puncture to the back of his head. He’ll never see the pin prick when he wakes and won’t know what the hell happened.”
“Jesus. Who the fuck are you?” Jacks asked. While I wanted to smirk, there wasn’t time for that shit. We had a short window for this mission, and we couldn’t fuck it up.
“A man who knows how to get shit done in the shortest amount of time. You good?”
Jacks said nothing.
“And the TV guy?” Nox asked, surprisingly not questioning my use of the drug.
Pointing to the screen and enlarging the images, I told them, “One of you’ll need to come around the west side. It’s his blind spot. All you’ll have to do is reach through that small window, put the needle in back of the neck, and he’ll be asleep before you get to us in the back.”
“This shit won’t work,” Jacks chastised. “What if they don’t report in? Or say shit about bein’ knocked out. What the fuck then?”
“We worry about that shit after we get what we need. I’m gonna set the cameras on a continuous loop until we get done. It won’t alert anyone, and it’ll show the feed still going. We can go in and get out without anyone the wiser.”
They did not appear convinced one little bit.
“So this shit will for sure knock them out?” Jacks asked, looking to Nox for answers.
“Fuck if I know. Hittin’ the butt of my gun on his head would do the same thing,” Nox answered as if I weren’t standing right here.
Patience. I needed it at the moment. “You hit him with your gun, they have proof that someone was there because it will leave marks. We give them the tranquilizer, and when they wake up they’ll think that they fell asleep. Then they won’t question it. Done. Mess cleaned up.”
“This shit won’t show up in their system?” Jacks challenged once again. I’d be proving myself a lot to this man.
“Yeah. But seriously. Neither one of them will want the other to know they fell asleep. They won’t talk, and they won’t have reason to be tested. The shit will be out of their system in a few hours.”
“This goes to shit, it’s on you,” Jacks growled low.
“It’ll fuckin’ work. Trust me.”
“You see.” Jacks took a step closer to me, our eyes connecting. “I don’t trust you. Don’t think I’ll ever will trust you.”
“Then that’s on you. You wanna do this or not? Not, we’ll leave. You wanna do it, let’s get this shit done.” It was my turn to throw down the gauntlet. I was only a prospect, therefore if they said no, we’d go. I wouldn’t fucking like it and might have to bring Dryerson back to get the job done later, but I’d find out who was in that fucking car.
Nox and Jacks exchanged looks. “Let’s do this shit and get back.”
At least that battle was over. I pulled out the small vials, calculated the correct dosage, and filled each of the syringes.
“You’ve done this before, I see,” Jacks said, arms across his chest.
“One learns a bunch of shit they never thought they’d use again.”
“How did you get this shit?” Nox asked.
“My stash,” was all I responded. The less they knew about that the better. If they were ever questioned, they’d have no idea. It would keep them clean.
“Whatever. You ready?” Jacks said, holding out his hand for the syringe.
Interesting. I thought Nox would take it and Jacks would come with me, if nothing else but to give me shit. Maybe I was getting somewhere. If we weren’t in this situation, I’d probably laugh at that thought.
“Aim for the back of the neck.”
“Why?” Jacks asked.
“Because when they look in the mirror, they won’t think to look there. They’ll search the front and sides of their neck, but not their backs. People only believe what they see.”
Jacks lifted his chin as I started the cameras on a loop. “We have about thirty minutes. You all know the plan?” That probably should’ve been the question I’d asked before we even left the clubhouse. It was too fucking late now.
“Yeah.” They both flipped me off. Guess that was their way of telling me yes. Good.
“Hop in, Nox. We’ll pull around to the back about a block down. Jacks, you’re up here. Ready.”
We took off, and I parked the SUV down a side street. While I wanted to check the computer once more, there wasn’t any time. The clock was ticking.
Holding the syringe in my hand, Nox walked in front of me, gun at the ready, but also had the fingerprint kit. My weapon was strapped to my side, but I needed my hands for the shot and to hold the guy up until I got him down slowly.
We wouldn’t know if Jacks had his end taken care of until we saw him.
Here went nothing and everything.
The cop was inhaling his smoke, savoring it, then blowing it out. It reminded me of my dependence on those things. It also brought up the fire and the smoke inhalation. Would those two things be forever connected in my mind? If so, quitting should be a lot easier now.
Today it was easier to breathe, but the tightness was still there along with the coughing. Not to mention my damn arm, but I stayed focused on the task at hand.
We stood in the shadows as the cop walked back and forth at the gate, not paying attention to his surroundings. Once he turned his back, I gave a sign to Nox. His gun was still up as I looked once more, seeing him still in the same spot.
Blowing out a deep breath, I moved on quiet feet right behind the man, stuck the needle in his neck, and released the meds.
Instantly, the cop started to fall. I was able to catch him and lay him down gently.
“Let’s lean him up against the gate,” Nox suggested, and I nodded.
Nox picked up the man’s legs, and I carried his torso. We propped him up, and it really did look like he was taking a nap.
Taking the lead, we made our way through the gate and into the lot. Weaving in and out of cars wasn’t helping. On the screen they looked a little further apart, but the cops sure liked to pack them in.
There didn’t appear to be anyone around. All was silent. The only thing that could give us away was if anyone saw us under the lights. I hoped like hell that shit didn’t happen.
Making it to the Impala, Nox and I bent down at the trunk and grabbed the kit Nox had brought in. Opening it, I pulled out the small flashlights, powder, duster and lift pads, handing Nox a set. He took off around the side of the car.
A shiver went down my spine and senses pricked in awareness. Someone was here. I grabbed my gun and turned around, pointing it right in Jacks’ face.
“What are ya gonna do? Shoot me?” Jacks was a cocky motherfucker. I put the gun away, bent down, and gave him a set. With all three of us doing it, it wouldn’t take long.
“Move quick. We have twenty-three minutes now,” I replied, looking at my watch.
Time was our enemy. Once the minutes were up, the officers could wake up at any time. Some people digested the tranquilizer differently, and since I didn’t want to overdose them, I went on the light side just in case.
I wanted to give us enough time to get shit done and get out, but not give them enough tranq to kill the fuckers.
Jacks took it and moved to the driver’s side, while Nox worked on the passenger. I started at the trunk. The damn thing had a shit ton of prints, and I started dusting and lifting as fast as possible.
The time flew by, and as I checked my watch, we had three minutes to get out. “Now. Let’s go,” I said, packing up all the shit and waiting for Jacks and Nox to put theirs in the box too. Judging from the number of lifting pads, there were a ton of prints everywhere and not just the back.
There’d be a ton of scanning to do just to run them through the database.
“Move,” Jacks ordered. This time I carried the kit in one hand, gun in the other. Jacks and Nox were ready too. We were bent at the waist, eyes alert, and kept to the shadows. Lights were the enemy in that moment.
We made it outside the gate and stopped dead when we heard voices. Two of them, I thought as I listened harder. Nox motioned for us to stand out of view, but we were already on the move.
Looking to the left, the cop was still out, sitting up with his foot propped and back against the gate. The other one was surely out as well. So who the fuck were these two?
We listened.
“Can’t believe you let the fuckin’ cops get the car, dickhead.” The first voice was deep and had a small scratchiness to it with certain words. Almost like he wanted to roll his ‘r’s’ but couldn’t quite commit to it.
“The guy said he’d be by to get it and take it to the crusher. How the fuck would I know he’d bail on us?”
Two flashlights could be seen through the slots of the wooden gate we were hiding behind. With a nod from Nox, I figured I was the one who would be watching them.
The two men wasted no time finding the car. They opened the door and looked around to see if anyone was there. They had to have seen the guy in the front shed asleep because they weren’t being quiet. Which was seriously odd. Anyone trying to steal something or do something illegal was always quiet. If not, they were a moron, plain and simple.
“Shut the fuck up,” the first guy spoke as they opened the car door.
“They’re throwing something in the car,” I warned the two beside me. “Can’t see what, but if these two were the ones who set the…”
There was no finishing that sentence because the car exploded. Sharp lights surrounded us as we threw ourselves to the ground, covering our heads and closing our eyes tight. Parts of cars flew everywhere. A tire landed next to Jacks then rolled down the street.
A rearview mirror came at me, and Nox got the fun of the rats from the yard scurrying to get away from the mess.
Smoke billowed up, reminding me of when Austyn and Emery’s homes blew. I could feel my lungs wanting to seize up again, and fighting it was hard. Especially when my ears started ringing, forcing me to remember being in the desert.
Instead, I pushed that down and thought. The thing was, those two idiots didn’t set off the bomb because they were in small pieces all over the other cars. They obviously thought they’d be the ones to set it off because of the caviler way they were throwing the bombs into the car.
They thought they’d have tons of time.
Someone else detonated those when the time was right. Same as Austyn and Emery’s places.
“Go!” Nox ordered as we took off like shots, racing down the block to get to the SUV. I wasn’t sure how the other two felt, but my ears were ringing like a sonvabitch. We were way too close to that blast, and my ears were feeling the pain.
Jacks stopped and rubbed his eyes. “Fuck. Shake it off and let’s go!” I yelled, grabbing Jacks’ arm and leading him to the SUV. “Let the adrenaline fuel you, and stop fighting it. Move!”
“Fuck you,” Jacks clipped, still rubbing his face, then moving to pop his ears.
Seeing the SUV, I bleeped the locks, and tossed Jacks into the back. Getting in the front, we took off fast, trying to get as far away from the scene as possible.
The place would be a madhouse in a matter of minutes.
What in the fuck had just happened?