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It’s dark by the time I get back to Tony’s house.
Tony is on the phone, pacing. Quinn jumps out of his chair and meets me in the hallway, keeping his voice low.
“Where have you been?” He whispers, not unkindly, but clearly worked up about something.
“I got caught up at home, had to help my cousin and left my phone upstairs. I sent you both a text when I was on my way, though.”
“We’ve both been on the phone for the past hour pretty much.”
“What’s going on?”
“Brenda called. Bennet is missing. Apparently, he went in for a meeting with Adley and left on a jet, possibly unwillingly. The girl, Six, and the other guys called Brenda to see if she knew where he was. She tracked his plane to Raleigh, but we don’t know if Bennet is with him or if he’s okay.”
“Shit,” I mutter, putting down my bags and looking over at Tony. I gesture over to him, silently asking Quinn what’s happening.
“Tony’s trying to get through to Bennet’s PI, some guy named Vince. But he isn’t answering. He tracked his cell phone to Raleigh, right around the warehouse.”
With an aggravated sigh, Tony puts his phone down and comes over to where we’re standing. He bends down to kiss me on the cheek and I wrap my arms around him.
“I’m sorry.” Bennet is more than just his employer, he’s his friend and someone he likes and respects very much. I know he’s got to be more upset than he’s letting on. “What can I do to help?” I ask as he releases me.
“We’re just now trying to put together a plan. All we know is that Adley went to Raleigh, and that Bennet’s people think he may have been taken there with him against his will. We have nothing concrete just yet. I was just trying to get Bennet’s PI on the phone. He’s supposed to be staking out the warehouse, but he isn’t answering.”
“If Jackson Adley took him to Raleigh, there’s a good chance one or both of them will end up in that warehouse. We need to get eyes in there.”
“But how?” Quinn asks.
“By doing what we do best, of course,” I tell him, patting his shoulder.
***
“Here, I’m making another pot.” Quinn fills my coffee cup with the last of the coffee. Not that it’s helping much. My eyes feel like sand at this point.
We’ve been up all night trying to find a backdoor into the warehouse lab. I wish Tony could get ahold of that private investigator. I’d like to know how hard it would be to get into the building. If I could place a few concealed devices in the building, it’d be easier to hack the signal.
“Fucking shit!”
Quinn and I jump up and run into the office, where Tony has managed to get into the video feed for the security system at the warehouse.
We stare at the screen in horror and disbelief as we watch a man, tied to a medical chair, get hit with a cattle prod repeatedly. There are all kinds of equipment set up around him, including various monitors. Someone in a lab coat is standing in front of the monitors, taking notes. Like they’re studying him .
Horrified, we watch them do this for hours until the man finally passes out. They drag him through some hallways and drop him in a room with a thick metal door.
“Was that Bennet?” I ask, tears in my eyes.
“Yeah,” Tony says quietly.
Quinn interrupts the silence as we watch the door, waiting to see what happens next. “Just so we’re clear, there’s no doubt that we need to call them back now, is there?”
Tony’s been unsure about calling Bennet’s friends back. If it ended up being a false alarm and Bennet was fine, he’d be mad at Tony for sharing his personal information. Apparently, he’s an especially particular and private person. He sounds like a douche to me, but it’s clear that Tony cares for the man.
Nodding, Tony picks up his phone. He dials and puts it on speaker.
A deep voice answers. “Hello?”
“Hey. This is Tony. Brenda called me yesterday. I wasn't going to call you back—Bennet's big on privacy, you know. But I happened to already be working on hacking the security system at the warehouse in Raleigh. I got in a couple of hours ago and I saw some pretty disturbing shit, so I figured working together on this would be our best bet.”
“Best bet at what?” Asks Luis.
“On getting him out, I hope.”
There’s a scuffle in the background, and then a woman speaks, the worry in her voice so obvious that it makes my chest hurt.
“Did you see him? Is he there? Is he okay?” She asks.
Tony hesitates and then answers truthfully, as best he can. “He's alive. I wouldn't say he's okay, though.”
“Should we call the police?” A different deep voice asks, farther away from the phone. “Never mind, that was dumb.”
I’m shaking my head, but Tony and I have already compared notes on just how corrupt Jackson Adley is.
“The chain of corruption goes pretty high up, too, so I don't know if I'd feel safe reporting to anyone in case it puts Bennet in more danger. He's been working on pulling together evidence against his father for years. He might have a safe FBI contact, but he's never shared who it is or how he got in touch with them,” Tony says.
“I've been thinking that there might be something on his computer. We have it here, but of course, none of us can get into it.” I’m having a hard time keeping up with the amount of unfamiliar voices coming through, I have no idea who’s talking.
Tony’s mouth twists, and then he reaches for his keyboard and opens up a new screen. “I can probably help you get into his computer. But knowing Bennet, he likely has all the important stuff locked down. I taught him well. This could take some time.”
I sit at my station on his other side, working on getting into the rest of the system while Tony talks to a guy named Lukas about getting into Bennet’s computer.
Bennet’s computer has a lot of information, but nothing that is very new to us. He definitely has been keeping meticulous files on his father. The information for the FBI agent that he’s been working with is there as well, but it doesn’t feel safe to bring them in.
“Even if we tried to take this information and the warehouse footage to the FBI, there's no promise that he wouldn't get tipped off and slither out of it. There's a reason Bennet has been sitting on this information, collecting evidence and biding his time,” Tony says to the phone, mirroring my thoughts.
“How do we get him out?” The girl, Six, asks in a small voice. I can hear her heart breaking through the phone and I feel for her.
Making brief eye contact with Tony and Quinn, I can see that they’re both thinking the same thing. Looks like we’re in it to win it with these people.
“I should be close to getting into the BioCere files. Hopefully, those will help. Once I do, I'll call you ASAP,” Tony tells them before hanging up.
We all go to work immediately. Tony and I work on getting into their server much the same way that he got access to The Adley Corporation, by exploiting bugs in their system. Quinn makes calls to anyone he knows in the area, just in case we need some kind of backup. Clearly, we’re going to need a hospital on standby.
***
A couple of hours later, we’re wading through files and files of information that I wish I didn’t have to see. I knew that Adley and BioCere, Inc. were corrupt, that they have paid off and murdered people. But even I couldn’t guess the depths of their depravity.
They aren’t just doing animal testing and unsanctioned human trials, they’re experimenting on people. Holding them hostage, breeding them even, to run all kinds of sick tests and experiments. Apparently Adley and BioCere are trying to create some kind of serum to enhance abilities ? physical abilities, healing, learning patterns. In the process, they actually bred a series of human experiments.
And Six was one of those experiments.
Tony dials the phone again. He doesn’t even wait for an acknowledgement, he starts talking the moment they answer the phone.
“I got in,” Tony announces. “You will not believe the crazy shit they have going on in that lab. The files on your girl are pretty disturbing, man. I already uploaded everything I could get so far. I'm still working on hacking into their mainframe to see if I can take control of their systems. If I can, I might have an idea to get Bennet out.”
He hangs up quickly, and I wonder if he’s feeling as sick as I do over everything we’ve seen so far. Who knows what else they have going on there that we haven’t uncovered yet.
“What’s your idea?” I ask, Quinn rolling his chair over next to me so we can hear him out.
He runs his hands over his face. “I actually need to think it through a little more and process before I can even voice it. It might be a little crazy.”
“Okay, yeah, whatever you need, man.” Quinn pats him on the arm affectionately, and it makes me happy to see that they’re getting closer.
“I need to go for a run, and then take a long shower. We should all probably try to get a nap in. It’s going to take a while for the programs to find anything we can use, anyway.”
He gets up without another word or glance in our direction, closing the bedroom door behind him. A few minutes later, dressed for his run, he walks out the front door.
Quinn and I look at each other, and he shrugs. “Dude’s gotta process his way. I say you and I go process in the shower together while we wait for him to come around.” He adds a ridiculous eye waggle and stands up, holding his arm out like he’s escorting me to a ball.