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Trick nods, trusting Pete’s judgment as always.
“Not to question you, but are you sure that it’s been seen by anyone else?” Ace asks.
Peter frowns as he replies, “What do you mean?”
“Well, there is a chance that it was simply made to look like we were being watched. The trigger was automatic, and we said that the cameras were on a closed circuit and not sending a signal elsewhere. So it is possible that the bomb was set to get a shorter time frame on it suddenly, and it’s pure coincidence that it happened when it did. I mean, for all we know, it could have been randomly losing time anyway.”
“I hear you, and it's certainly interesting,” Pete replies with a heavy frown.
“So, there may be a chance that Hunt doesn’t know that we were there and will just know that the building exploded because someone triggered it?” Luc asks.
“Potentially, yes, he’s certainly smart enough to do something like that, and he likes to play games as well that would mess with any intruder's heads and make them think that there was a threat to them that there potentially isn’t. that can make people fuck up,” Ace explains.
“I have no idea how to check that though, and see if anyone could see the footage of us?” Peter admits, looking frustrated and momentarily dashing our hope of staying off Hunt’s radar for a bit longer.
“I can have a look at it when we get back and see what I can do?” Ace offers.
“Yeah, that would be great thanks, Ace,” Trick replies.
“Can you show me how to do it?” Peter asks Ace.
“Of course, man,” Ace replies and then asks, “Did you find anything else? The footage starts from when we walk in?”
“Actually, no, that was the thing. So, I dug into the footage and took it further back. At first, it seemed like it couldn’t go back any further, but something wasn’t sitting right with me, so I kept trying. That’s when I found this. It’s literally the only thing that’s on there other than us walking in.” Peter explains as he turns the laptop around for us to see.
I simply stare, unable to fully compute what the fuck it is I’m watching.
“What the fuck?” Jensen exclaims, sounding as confused as the rest of us.
“Someone, please, for the love of fuck, put us out of our misery. What the fuck are you seeing?” Jynx questions, and I love how she phrases things.
“Is it really horrifying? Are you guys okay?” Rome asks, his voice sharper.
“Erm, sorry guys, it’s just not what I was expecting,” Riot is the first one to reply, as he then puts them out of their misery and says, “It’s playing a scene from the Looney Tunes.”
“The cartoon?” Mason asks incredulously.
“Yep, on repeat, until it flicks to where we walk in,” Peter confirms. “It goes pretty far back, and it’s a digital file, so it's not like it’s been recorded over or something like that.”
“Huh, well, that’s definitely not what I was expecting you to say,” Rome says after a beat of silence.
“I’m going to go over it some more when we get home. There might be some data embedded in it that I’m not seeing right now.” Peter replies, thoughtfully and then adds with a frown, “Although I think that’s pretty unlikely.”
“So, he’s playing with us?” Riot asks, his expression darkening.
“Not us specifically, or at least hopefully not if Ace’s theory is correct, but he anticipated someone finding the warehouse, and most likely, whatever that thing on the security system triggered that meant it wasn’t safe to open there, probably would have made the bomb, go off sooner, and the last thing the intruders would have seen would have been the looney tunes. Pretty fucked up thing to do.” Peter replies.
“Yeah, that is fucked up,” Rafe growls.
“Okay, so our next steps are to see if there’s anything embedded in the footage. Check to see if the facial recognition software has found anything yet and see if we can find the second location that Gauld mentioned. Does that sound about right?” Trick asks as we pull into our town.
Everyone hums in agreement as I reply, “Yeah, I think those are our next steps. We’re just looking for the next clue to get us just that little bit further with our progress in finding Rylie.”
“She’s too fucking good at her job, which would usually be a good thing, but right now, we need her to be just a little bit sloppy,” Jynx adds.
“Tell me about it,” I reply, sounding frustrated.
Before anyone else can chime in, my phone starts to go off, and I glance down to see Lyric calling me. Smiling, I answer, “Hey, my preggy bestie.”