It was a little independently owned thing situated a few miles away from the power plant. As soon as I saw it, I was beyond positive that someone from Omar’s group had been there. He probably thought the transaction would be harder to trace since it wasn’t at one of those large chain stations, but boy was he fucking wrong.
There were probably ten, maybe fifteen chain stations in the area. Whoever it was chose the only station we could very, very easily look up and locate.
Tara and I waited in the car while Travis went in and checked it out. A few minutes later, he returned and leaned up against the window. “Nothing,” he said.
“Nothing?”
“Just a gas station, man,” he said. “No Omar. No terrorists hanging around. Pretty normal.”
I frowned. “They were here.”
“What about that?” Tara asked, pointing.
I followed her gaze. There was a motel a bit farther down the street with a large sign advertising vacancies lit up outside it.
“What about it?” I asked.
“Well, if someone used the station, they could have walked here. Maybe they’re staying at that motel.”
I looked at her and then back at Travis. He shrugged. “Honestly, man, we’re going by the seat of our fucking pants right now,” he said. “Any lead is better than no lead.”
“Okay then,” I said. “Get your shit together, because we’re going on stakeout.”
Travis sighed. “I’ll get supplies.”
“What do we need?” Tara asked.
“Junk food, obviously.” He grinned and walked off.
I climbed back in the car to wait for him. Tara put her hand on my leg, and I grinned at her. “You’re a lot more useful than I thought.”
“I could be wrong, though,” she said.
“Yeah, you could be, but it’s the best guess we have right now. The Navy is analyzing all that data, so hopefully we get a hit soon.”
“Hopefully.” She frowned and moved her hand, looking out the window. “My parents are near here. They’re hostages.”
“Yeah, they are, but they’re useful hostages.”
“So?”
“So, it means Omar isn’t going to hurt them, not yet at least.”
“My mom isn’t useful.”
“If Omar kills your mom, your dad might not cooperate. No, they’re still alive. Maybe a little worse for wear, but they’re alive.”
She nodded slowly. “Okay. I have to believe that. Otherwise, I don’t know what any of this is for.”
“Hey,” I said, pulling her against me. “We’re going to beat this. You’ve got two of the best working on it and more men on the way.”
“I’m just afraid we’re too slow.”
“Don’t be.”
Just then, Travis returned. He pulled open the back door and climbed in. “You two crazy kids ready?” he asked.
“Sure are.” I started up the engine and Tara leaned away, looking back out the window.
I pulled out into traffic and headed down toward the motel. I didn’t know what we’d find, but something about this felt right. Everything about the trail was telling me that we were going the right way, that we were heading in the right direction. It was lucky and winding, but it was right.
My gut was screaming at me to keep going, and I was. Tara was by my side; Travis was ready. This was going to end, and I was going to end it.
29
Tara
As the sun dipped down through the sky, nothing happened.
The three of us sat in that car and waited. Emory and Travis took turns watching closely while I mostly sat there trying to keep myself from dying of boredom.
I understood why Travis had needed to get supplies. Stakeouts were boring, really, really boring. We were basically just sitting there watching the motel. People were coming and going, but nobody that seemed even slightly suspicious. Lots of truckers, one or two families, but mostly men with women who looked far too young for them.
“Hookers,” Travis said at one point.
“What?” I asked him.
“You were staring at that young blond girl and wondering why you keep seeing older men getting rooms with younger women.”
I laughed and nodded. “Yeah,” I said.
“Hookers,” he said again.
“Don’t ruin the girl,” Emory said, grinning. “She’s not ready for the seedy underside of the world.”
I shook my head, and we all went back to watching. I shouldn’t have been surprised that they were prostitutes, but I was. The motel did look like the place you’d bring a hooker, though. Cheap rooms, crumbling architecture, the kind of place that hasn’t been updated in twenty years. It was probably pretty nice back in the day, and now it likely only existed because of hookers and their clientele.
Soon it was night. Hours passed and absolutely nothing happened. Travis passed out the snacks, and our dinner was basically just junk food and more junk food. I was getting restless and antsy, but I wasn’t going anywhere. I needed to stay. I couldn’t let myself give in to my own weaknesses.
Finally, at around nine at night, Emory’s phone started ringing.
“Yeah?” he answered. He nodded along. “We saw that charge too. Sixty percent sure? Say that room number one more time. Okay, Lucy. Thanks. You were a huge help.” He hung up the phone.
“What did the brains say, cap?” Travis asked.
“We’re in the right place,” he said. “Now we have a decision to make.”
“Spit it out,” I said to him.
He grinned at me. “Well, seems a security camera caught some footage of a few men walking into room fifteen of this motel. One of them tripped the facial recognition software.”
“Omar,” Travis said.
“Sixty percent certainty,” Emory said, frowning. “Not a great match.”
“But it’s a lead,” I said. “We’ve been staring at this motel for hours. What else can we do?”
Emory looked back at Travis, who shrugged. “She’s right. And if they’re planning something, we don’t have time to waste.”
“Shit,” Emory said. “Fuck. Okay.”
“Okay what?”
“Travis, we’re getting inside that room.”
“Hell yeah we are, cap.”
“I’m coming too,” I said.
“No,” Emory said seriously. “You can’t come. You have to stay in the car and leave the engine running. If something happens, you have to be ready to drive.”
I sighed. “Okay. Fine.” I figured there was no point in fighting it. Emory wasn’t going to let me come with them, and besides, if something did happen, I wouldn’t be much help. I’d just get in the way, force Emory to have to watch out for me while fighting the bad guys.
No, I knew I needed to sit this one out as much as I didn’t want to. At least he was giving me a real job to do.
I watched as Travis and Emory got out of the car and popped the trunk. They began strapping on vests and tossing jackets on over top of them. I rolled down the window. “You know people can see you, right?”