Page 136
“Sounds serious,” Bones states.
“It…uh…” my minor understanding of the whole thing causes my response to come out clunky, “can fucking be?”
“Life or death shit?” Bones continues to investigate while we holster our weapons.
“Yeah.” Additional nervousness claws up my vocal cords. “She um…” my head slightly sways, “never leaves home without her emergency medical shit.”
“Fuck,” Bones grunts.
“Fuckkkkkk,” echoes Flames.
“Why’s everyone saying fuck?” Dive jumps into the conversation. “You burn down the school or some shit?”
“We need you to check the feed here,” I quickly instruct. “All of it. Look for any fucking movement. Any.” Giving my tensing jaw a soothing stroke precedes me informing, “Asshole wouldn't tell us where she was.”
“You sure she’s even on the property?” rebuts my best friend, sounds of clicking beginning.
“She has to be.” A slow headshake is attached to me quietly repeating, “She has to be…”
“It’s the only shit that makes sense,” Flames does his best to support. “Dean dickhead or whatever runs this place. You hold your captive somewhere you have complete control and access and can give your fuckheads free rule over for whatever shit you need them to do.”
“Right, right,” Dive mutters to himself and begins typing, “and from what I’ve managed to pull from cameras in the area from the time leading up to this little exchange,” he continues clacking, “this seems like it’s it. There’s a van…” More typing. More waiting. “But…” I lean forward peering into the screen like I can see what he sees in spite of the fact I can’t. “They park in a blind spot, and I totally lose trace of them after that.” He releases an unhappy sigh. “All feeds were taken offline.”
“Fuck!” leaves me at the top of my lungs.
“Schools too big to just wander around looking for her,” Bones announces.
“Yeah,” Dive concedes and continues to hitting the keys, “I’ve seen the blueprints.”
“And his Old Lady has a blood thing,” Flames concerningly discloses, “so we’re kinda on a burning match, man.”
Dive stops all movement to ponder, “What blood thing?”
“She could bleed to death!” exclaims Flames.
“Fuckme. What?!”
I don’t know if it’s hearing Dive’s shock or the bleak imagery that’s getting more and more vivid that has me crumpling forward in dread.
“What about a heat signature search?” Bones quickly suggests, scrambling to help guide the situation.
“What does he mean she could-”
“Ignore Flames,” he sharply bites.
“That’s how houses burn down,” scolds our pyro.
“Focus on what I said.” There’s a minor pause to allow him to recall what was mentioned and when he can’t, Bones investigates, “Can you hack into one of those real time satellite feeds that temp reads and do some shit with that?”
“Oh, I do love playing with sats and thermal signatures,” excitedly murmurs the Misfit on the other end of the phone. “I’m sure there’s something in the area I can fuck with…” Fast clicking begins again. “Some government agency I can piss off for the next five to six fiscal months.”
“Do it,” I demand, voice mainly made of air. “Do whatever it takes to find her before it’s too late.”
Chapter 25
Emaline
Getting the fabric off my glasses to see that I’m in the main custodial storage basement?
