Cassidy Jones and the Luminous (Cassidy Jones Adventures Book 4) (30 page)

“Status?” he asked Emery as he blotted blood off my hand.

“Unchanged. From our end, the disturbance wasn’t detected. Is She-Ra good as new?” Emery inquired.

“Affirmative,” Gavin replied, stuffing the soiled gauze into his pack. I felt like such a moron.

“Any sign of Joe?” Emery asked.

Gavin gestured toward the window, asking me to explore the inside with my senses.

Concentrating, I listened, hearing nothing more than urban noise and crickets, although I could smell Joe.

“I can smell him, but don’t hear him.”

The dead have a scent, too
. . .

Don’t think that way!

“Is his scent stronger?”

“Yes.”

“He’s inside,” Emery deduced.

“Yes,” I confirmed, watching Gavin direct a little wand through the window. It sent a red beam bouncing around the room. A dusty desk and file cabinets suggested it had been an office once. “There are other human scents inside, too. I don’t recognize them.”

“The motion detector isn’t armed,” Gavin informed. He stuck his head through the opening, cocking his head up. “But the window frame is wired.”

“You mean with an alarm system?” I asked.

“Yep.” Gavin dropped his rifle and pack into the room. He climbed through the window.

After he’d collected his weapon and pack and cleared out of the way, I dove through the window, catching the filthy carpet with my palms, and flipped up onto my feet. I inhaled deeply, and Joe’s scent wafted up my nose.

I opened my mouth to call him. Gavin held up his hand for me to wait.

“Find him first,” he whispered. He poked his head out the door, looking from side to side. “No security cameras. Let’s go.”

We crept out into the hall, floorboards creaking under our weight. The forgotten building was old—real old—and spooky. Cobwebs and pests claimed the corridor, and it felt as though eyes were watching us from the abandoned rooms. The building was lifeless, save for Gavin’s heartbeats and the rapid heartbeats of the many rodents in residence. The rhythmic hammering echoed in my ears, like tiny people pounding on even tinier drums.

Joe’s scent grew stronger, and a new human heart joined in the chorus, along with some cautious breaths.

A relieved smile stretched across my masked face. Joe’s shoe soles lightly scraped the floor in an open doorway down the hall. Apparently, Gavin and I weren’t as stealthy as we’d thought.

“Joe,” I called softly, knowing he’d heard us and was trying to get in a position to see who was coming.

His breath caught.

Gavin tapped my arm, warning me to keep quiet.

“It’s okay,” I told him. Aside from an army of mice and the two of us, Joe was the only other warm-blooded creature currently on the first floor—or so said my ears and nose. “Joe, it’s me.
Green Eyes
.”

He poked his head out from the room, squinting. I let out a delighted yelp and ran to him, throwing my arms around his neck.

“Thank God, you’re not hurt!” I gave him a squeeze.

“You’re a sight for sore eyes.” He pulled back to get a look at my eyes, which probably resembled two black holes in the dim light filtering in through the window. But I could see his brown eyes just fine. “I knew you’d come.”

His eyes flitted to Gavin, widening. I glanced over my shoulder and totally understood Joe’s reaction. Gavin’s Herculean physique filled the doorway. He looked quite menacing.

“Joe, this is . . . uh . . .” I had no idea how to introduce Gavin. As a secret agent?
Mendel’s
father?

“Hawkeye,” he introduced himself, saving me the trouble.

“It’s a codename,” I felt the need to explain. How ridiculous did Hawkeye sound?

Gavin held out his hand. Joe shook it.

I loved it when people I loved met, regardless of the whole w
orlds colliding
thing.

“Pleasure to meet you, Hawkeye,” Joe said and then circled a lean index finger around his own eye area. “Military?” he asked of the night-vision goggles.

“Former SEAL. I still have connections to get gear. What are you doing here, Joe?”

“Followed my friend Doc.” Joe lowered his voice. “There’s somethin’ fishy going on. Underneath us.”

Gavin and I automatically lowered our gazes to the floor.
Underneath us?

“I’m guessing Green Eyes told you about me, and about the homeless folk disappearing, and that Doc was one of them?”

“She has.”

“I followed him here the other night. Jimmied a lock after he come in. I saw him turn off the burglar alarm, and knew that was my chance.” Joe glanced at me. “That young gal with the yella hair I told you ’bout, she was with him.”

I nodded, wondering if his “yellow” was the same as my “caramel,” and if he had seen Constance. He did say “young,” but our interpretation of young would be different, too.

“When I got inside here, they were nowhere around. Then I noticed muddy footprints going down the hall. I followed them to an elevator, but I went up the stairs instead, not wanting to tip them off. Figured they’d hear an elevator running. But I didn’t find no sign of them, or anyone else. So I come back down here and found a place to hole up and wait.

“Maybe a couple of hours passed before I heard the elevator power up again. It was coming up, though, not down. Thing is, there’s no stairs leading down to a basement, at least that I could find. Looks like there might’ve been once, in the stairwell. But a wall’s been built up over it.

“Doc, the young gal, and another man came out of the elevator and left the building. I been here since, fixin’ to find a way to open that elevator. Buttons don’t work. It’s one of them keypad set-ups. A couple more folks come through here and went down the elevator. I couldn’t get close enough to see what numbers they punched in on that keypad, though. Doc’s gal and an Asian fella are down there now. Been there since sometime late afternoon. I don’t have a wristwatch,” Joe added apologetically.

“Joe, you’ve been here since last night?” It was the first thing to pop into my head. I hated the thought of him being alone in this dark building, especially with aqua people
traipsing back and forth to the elevator. What would they have done to Joe if they’d caught him?

“Yes. But I got food and water—always keep something on me. And
this
.” He reached behind him and picked up a crowbar leaning against the wall.

Gavin grinned. “That’s how you jimmied the lock.”

“Wasn’t anticipating a crowbar would come in so handy,” Joe said, returning the smile.

“Then why’d you have it with you?” I asked.

“Green Eyes, I’m a sixty-eight-year-old man spying on folks that’re obviously up to no good. I need to protect myself.”

“Absolutely,” I agreed. Joe only knew that Doc and the young woman had gone into the water and didn’t resurface. He had no clue how complicated this was. “But now I’m here to protect you.”

“We’ll look out for each other.” Joe shook the crowbar.

“Cable, status?” Gavin asked Emery.

Joe lifted his eyebrows at me questioningly.

“We have ear buds,” I explained, tapping my right ear. “Hawkeye’s talking to another . . . uh . . .
operative
.”

Joe nodded, and Gavin rolled his eyes. I assumed this meant I shouldn’t have called Emery an operative, but what was I supposed to say?

Emery shared that the plant tour was still in progress and that Stringer was busy searching for building schematics.

Gavin replied with his standard, “Copy that,” then asked Joe to show us the elevator.

Joe removed a flashlight from the pocket of his Seahawks jacket. “My reading lamp,” he called the flashlight, then flicked it on. He really had come prepared.

He led us down a long hallway and hung a left.

“Notice the walls,” Gavin pointed out as we trailed Joe down another hall.

They were scraped and gouged.

“Heavy equipment came through here,” Gavin explained. “We’re not the only ones with a big construction project going on.”

Joe stopped before a set of dinged-up, gray elevator doors. The doors were huge, and installed horizontally, not vertically.

“That’s weird,” I said. I cocked my head to the side so they looked upright. “It’s like they were put in wrong.”

“It’s a freight elevator.” Gavin studied the keypad next to three black buttons. He frowned. “Do-able, but we’re too exposed here. Joe, show us the stairwell.”

Joe led us down a few more halls, taking us farther from the main corridor, where the freight elevator was located. Gavin appeared pleased by this more secluded area. When we reached the stairwell, Joe opened the door and motioned for us to go in first. Straight ahead, a flight of cement steps shot up to the second story. Walls closed in on either side of us. Gavin examined the wall to our left, tapping his knuckles along it.

“New construction,” he said. “This wall was recently built over the stairs to the lower level.” He took off his goggles and handed them to Joe. “I’ll trade you,” he said and collected Joe’s flashlight. “Joe, keep a lookout. She-Ra, hit the wall, right here.” He rapped his knuckles against the spot he wanted me to punch.

“Won’t that make too much noise?” Joe challenged, worry on his wrinkled face. He slipped on the goggles.

“Depends on the quality of construction.” Gavin gestured for me to commence.

Stepping up to the wall, I willed my skin to harden, pulled my fist back, and rammed it into the drywall. It smashed through the wall like a sledgehammer, clear through to the other side. That answered the question on the quality.

I yanked my hand loose.

Gavin grinned. “They just don’t build things like they used to.” He set the flashlight on the floor so the bright beam smacked into the ceiling over us. Then he took hold of the drywall, ripping off a chunk. In seconds, he and I tore a passageway through the wall, with minimal noise, while Joe watched the hallway. Fluorescent light flowed into the exposed dark stairwell from what I assumed to be a slender, vertical window on the door below, like the one Joe was peering through as he stood watch.

“Joe, we can take it from here,” Gavin said. “Get off the grounds pronto, in case all hell breaks loose.”

Joe shook an obstinate head of dreadlocks. “If all hell breaks loose, I aim to be at the center of it.” He wagged a finger at Gavin. “Don’t judge on appearances, son. That would be a mighty big mistake on your part.”

This earned a grin from Gavin.

“I plan on seeing this through,” Joe reiterated. He pointed his crowbar at the opening we’d made. “No more wasting time. The longer we stand here arguing, the more likely all hell
will
break loose.”

“Agreed. Do you know how to handle a nine-millimeter?”

“Yes, sir,” Joe answered, to my surprise.

Gavin removed a spare gun from the holster concealed under his jacket and handed it to Joe. “Cable, we’re proceeding to the lower level. Status?” Gavin squeezed through the opening. Joe motioned for me to go next.

“Unchanged,” Emery replied, which meant the tour continued and nothing had occurred that had raised an alarm. This was good news, at least. Maybe we’d find answers before the tour was over. Emery and Jared could keep Grimm occupied with questions for hours.

Cautiously, we moved down the steps. The door’s vertical window showed no one in the hall, and I couldn’t hear any talking or movement other than our own. That didn’t mean anything, however. Unlike the wall we’d ripped down, the original masonry and fire-rated doors were topnotch, and effectively blocked airflow from the adjoining basement level. Any noise would have to be rather loud in order to hear it in the stairwell, until the seal between the door and doorframe was broken.

“Doesn’t make a lick of sense why they’d block up an emergency exit,” Joe whispered. “Power could go down, or the elevator could break down, or there could be a fire. Then they’d be trapped down here.”

“There must be another way out,” Gavin agreed. He peeked out the window into the hallway. Then he flipped to the other side of the window to check out that view. “Clear,” he announced. “She-Ra, I’m going to crack the door open. Listen.”

He turned the metal doorknob and eased it open. The sound of flowing water filled the space. It sounded like a river.

“What is that?” Joe whispered, slipping off the goggles.

“No clue,” Gavin said, then urged me: “Listen.”

My ears detected a rumbling from machinery
.
I also could hear a faint conversation between two people.

“There’s a man talking to a woman, probably the two people Joe saw. The man has an Asian accent. They’re talking about something called ‘The Rogue.’ That way.” I pointed right.

“The water is coming from the left,” Gavin judged, correctly. “Focus on that direction.”

Underneath the echo of water and machinery, I picked up something odd: a female humming a song. Closer to us, leisurely footfall struck the linoleum. The scent of the approaching person grew stronger.

“Someone is coming,” I whispered. “From the left.”

Gavin nodded and let the door close almost completely. “In a hurry, like we triggered an alarm?” he whispered.

“No.” I listened. “He or she is moving really slowly, like they’re distracted and not paying attention to where they’re going.” No sooner had I said this than the person’s pace picked up. I opened my mouth to tell Gavin, but then I heard a vibrating noise. The person stopped walking.

“Give it a rest,
babe
. . .
gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe
. . . ” a man grumbled loudly. I knew what he was doing in that moment.

“He’s texting,” I whispered. “Fighting with his girlfriend is my guess. And I think he’s listening to music, too.” I’d drawn the conclusion based on the volume of his voice and the cadence of the “gripes.” They were muttered in rhythm to a song.

“Gotta love technology,” Gavin replied, pleased. His sly smile revealed his plan. This distracted man, with tunes pounding through his ears, wouldn’t even know what hit him.

“Joe, when I give the signal, open the door,” he instructed, handing the doorknob over to Joe. Gavin moved to the other side of the window, peering around the edge so he could see the man coming.