Luke

by C. L. Stone

  Luke had to agree with that. It wasn’t unusual for some of their team members to get a job and the others were excluded. This one was so very unusual, but with the others completely distracted, somehow it was Luke and North on the job instead.

  “We’ll just set up,” Luke said. “We could get a few cameras up, even at the check in desk and inside the business center once whoever is in there goes for the night. I can map out the front area, maybe even check for more utility areas we can use. Most important, we should be alert when this... person walks back and forth, get a photo, maybe some fingerprints...” He thought about what else. “We should check if Victor can gently see what is being done on the computer without it alerting whoever it is.” Not to mention, what if this person wasn’t someone the Academy was talking about? Just some random dude using the computer? Even so...maybe it’d be good to check what someone is doing at a computer in a run-down motel.

  North eventually got off the phone, likely texting checking in with Kota and Mr. Blackbourne about renting the motel room and what the plan was. Luke took turns with him to go check and make sure the person they were looking for was still in the business center and then set up a couple of small cameras in the walkways on either side of the motel for each building. They were live feeds with short battery life that they could swap out. They only needed them short term.

  “I don’t see cameras,” North said. “Not from the motel.”

  “There was a notice at the front,” Luke said.

  “If there are any, they might just be in main office, and it’s a strong possibility it’s for the safe... or to keep the manager in line with the owner not here. Not for the whole place. Probably cut down on expenses.”

  Their own cameras didn’t take too long to set up, and within minutes, they had access on their phones. They weren’t perfect, just enough to keep an eye on things for a while.

  When the Academy was interested in someone, they were interested for a reason, and it wasn’t just about how intelligent someone was. It was likely the person was in trouble too. And too young to take any sort of action.

  Luke was kind of curious about this one, but there was Sang, too. At least with Sang, he knew the name and would likely meet up tomorrow.

  Something to look forward to. A different face.

  7

  Luke spent most of the early evening texting Sang, telling her about how his Uncle wanted to open a restaurant, and the church building on her block was one of the chosen locations so far.

  Sang: It sounds like a good idea to me.

  He was glad for that. Given it’d be in the neighborhood, it was better if the neighborhood was interested in having a diner so close.

  Luke: It might be a lot of fun to set up, too.

  He wanted to go into further detail about it, but he kept zoning out, imagining what a diner would be like to operate.

  He could make pies.

  He’d get to sample the menu anytime he wanted.

  He could take girls there on dates and not have to pay. His Uncle owned the place.

  All the pancakes he could ever eat...

  The more he thought about it, the more he thought it’d be fun. Maybe North was just being too negative about the idea. Maybe North didn’t want to own a diner. He had other plans. Wouldn’t it be fun to be able to try it out at least?

  Luke wasn’t totally sure he wanted to run a diner, either. He didn’t cook as well as his Uncle. He felt working in the same location every day might make him feel stifled. Uncle loved it... but was it for Luke?

  He tried to explain this to Sang, although he felt like he was rambling. Eventually, he had to stop. He was talking all about the restaurant and didn’t get to ask her much.

  Funny how he could open up and talk to someone else, who was nice and friendly. That other tone and personality was comforting compared to North’s incredibly quiet and often cantankerous method of being... himself.

  Eventually, Nathan and Gabriel stopped by to take over. For once, North had to go to sleep somewhat early, because they’d be up again to go look at the diner.

  The moment they walked in, North and Nathan went to go check if the person they were looking for was still in the office. There had been no action on the cameras, but it could have been the person went a different direction. It might take a few tries to get it right.

  Gabriel waited in the motel room with Luke.

  “You’re here just in time,” Luke said to Gabriel. “It’s been a long day.”

  “North’s being a grump ass again?”

  “Yeah,” Luke said. “Same old thing. He doesn’t hide the fact that he’s mulling over something. He just gets angrier and more irritable.”

  Gabriel launched himself onto one of the empty beds, and sprawled starfish on his back. His brown blond hair settled on his face. “I don’t really want to do this job. What’s the fastest way to get through this?” he asked, fishing hair out of the way with a hook finger.

  Luke smirked. “Are we all just thinking we’ll be too busy with school? We’re not normally so much in a hurry to get things done.”

  Gabriel fell quiet for a moment, staring at the ceiling. Luke thought he wasn’t going to answer, but after a minute he spoke. “There’s just something else going on I’d rather focus on right now.”

  Luke looked at him, surprised. “What is it? Pam?”

  Gabriel shook his head. “Did you get that text message? From Sang?”

  Luke tilted his head. He fished out his phone and showed it to him. “Yeah, I don’t understand. I talked to whoever it is.”

  Gabriel sat up quickly. His hair fell against his eyes and he had to comb it back with his hands. “What do you mean you talked to her? You called her?”

  “I texted,” Luke said. “I didn’t know... her... I didn’t know anything. I just said hi.” He moved to the other bed and crawled on his knees, and then sat on his heels on top of the bed. “What’s with her, then? She’s the neighbor up the road from Kota? I wasn’t sure how to ask directly.”

  Gabriel uttered a few guttural noises. “It’s complicated, but yeah. Something’s a bit...wrong with her.”

  “Wrong as in...she’s bad?”

  “She’s not bad,” Gabriel said quickly.

  “So she’s...good?”

  “She’s not good...”

  Luke scratched at his scalp, close to where his long hair was tied at the back of his head. “What?”

  Gabriel waved a hand shortly. “Look, she seems like a nice girl so far. She has something going on at home.” He placed his hand over his heart. “I personally think she’s more important than this. I don’t know. I’m just sayin’. We could let someone else handle this.”

  Luke bit his lower lip and then said, “I can’t disagree with you because I don’t know either...but what I do know is that there’s someone our age in a motel like this, in a neighborhood like this, who is smart enough to do...Victor things...on his own using office computers at this motel.” As much as he was very curious about Sang, and as much as he had been annoyed by North nearly the entire day, it felt wrong to want to abandon a job halfway. Why were they in the Academy except to do projects like this? And it was to help themselves, lightening the load by recruiting more people.

  Gabriel pursed his lips, breathing out of his nose. “Good point.” He gazed around the motel. “I mean, it doesn’t seem too bad...”

  “If they’re living here...it’s not good.” Luke paused. “So what’s Sang like? Give me something to go by. She seems nice. Are we going to be friends? Is she interesting? Is she cute?”

  Gabriel opened his mouth to respond and then twisted his face at Luke’s last question and shook his head. “Naw, ugly as you wouldn’t believe. Don’t worry. You don’t even have to meet her.”

  “I’m supposed to meet her tomorrow.”

  Gabriel’s mouth opened in an “o” shape and he waved his hand quickly. “You wouldn’t like her. Not your type.”

  That wasn’t like him. The
re was something in the way he was saying it that made Luke wonder...

  The door opened, North and Nathan walked in. Nathan winked quickly at Luke and then said. “Well, we’re here. You all might want to go get some sleep. We’ll be ready to leave in the morning and let someone else take over...whoever that might be. Victor should be here soon to check out what’s going on with the computer.”

  “We’ll be out tomorrow morning,” North said. “But we can make it for the afternoon, maybe.” He grunted. “We might need to rotate a little more... might even have to call in Mr. Blackbourne. Or Dr. Green.”

  They said goodbye and Luke, in the Jeep and in silence with North driving, spent the time by checking his phone, looking over the conversation he’d had with Sang.

  8

  Luke spent all evening thinking of what Gabriel had said.

  He was probably lying.

  Gabriel would never call anyone ugly. Never in a million years. Gabriel was the one person who could look at Quasimodo and find the attractive features and figure out how to enhance them.

  It didn’t matter what she looked like anyway. Luke talked to her a bit via text, and she was super nice.

  No matter what, he would never think her ugly. Whatever Gabriel thought... It was more likely he was up to something.

  It was still dark when Luke woke up in his own bed. There was movement across the room and for a minute, Luke was sure someone was in there with him.

  In the corner. Hunched over. Scuffling about quietly.

  The dog. They’d brought her here.

  North. He was hiding and watching him.

  More scenarios ran through his mind, but the outline didn’t fit.

  It lightly scratched against the wall, and for a short moment, he was terrified. It was like something out of a horror movie.

  Scratch. Scratch. Pause. Scraaatch.

  Shuffling.

  Scratch.

  Demons.

  A ghost.

  And then he remembered the balloon.

  The gold star balloon.

  He breathed in sharply. Did that wake him up?

  There was another sound in the hallway, heavy boots against wood. In a moment, a darker shadow materialized near the door.

  “Come on,” North hissed at him, his way of whispering. “Didn’t you hear me?”

  That must have been what woke him. Luke shifted to sit up.

  The scratching noise came again, and North moved so quickly, so mind bogglingly jagged, that it was like he contorted. He scanned the darkness.

  “What the hell is that?” North asked.

  “It’s a balloon,” Luke said, and then yawned and scratched his chest.

  There was a deep murmuring from North, a lot of curses. He turned and walked out, down the stairs, out the front door again before Luke could find some clothes.

  He chuckled to himself. North getting scared of a little balloon... totally worth keeping it.

  They took North’s motorcycle this time. Luke would have preferred the Jeep, but it was a cool morning and he’d likely stay with someone at the motel tonight...or somewhere with the other guys. So the one ride over to Kota’s street wasn’t too bad. North didn’t get to ride the motorcycle as much as he liked.

  By the time they got to Sunnyvale Court in Summerville, it was light out. They followed the road around a bend, parking for the moment at Nathan’s house.

  As a precaution, North sent a text to Nathan, checking to see where he was and if his dad was home.

  Nathan sent word back: he was on his way back, no, his dad wasn’t home.

  North used his keys so they could get access.

  Luke yawned and went to the kitchen, opening the fridge to see what there was to work with. “Maybe we should have stopped somewhere for food.”

  “I want to be here when the real estate guy gets here with a key to check the place out. If this isn’t ideal, we need to tell Uncle and let him know so he can start looking at other places.” North found the coffee and set up the maker.

  Luke fished out some frozen egg and sausage biscuits and set them up on a paper plate to heat in the microwave.

  He’d prefer bacon and eggs. Something... fresher. Pancakes...

  Don’t think about it.

  Hard not to think about it. He was hungry.

  In the middle of the microwave making a turn, North got a message. He read it out loud. “The church door has a real estate padlock and here’s the code. You can go check it out. The real estate agent will be busy but will show up in the afternoon...” He mumbled the rest. He sighed. “So, we can go check it out on our own. Good. We can take our time without pressure and a sales pitch...and explaining why two teenagers needed to go look at an old church.” He found a to go cup and dumped his coffee into it. “I’m going over.”

  “You go,” Luke said, waving him off as he opened the microwave. “I’ll eat first and then head over.”

  North headed out. Luke sat himself at Nathan’s kitchen table with the two sandwiches and a glass of milk. He ate, checked his phone...and hovered a bit over the conversation he’d had with Sang the night before.

  He’d meet her today. A girl. A girl with a number to all the other guys. Someone...likely in trouble. He still didn’t have a clear picture. Maybe he should ask Kota before meeting her, but he kind of didn’t want to.

  He wanted to discover Sang on his own. Get his own impression. Maybe because Gabriel said she was ugly. Maybe because it was the first interesting thing...a different person...added to the group in general in a while.

  He shook off the thought, trying to clear his wandering mind from figuring out what she might be like.

  First, the diner. Then, Sang. Maybe if he had time, he’d head to the motel later and help out Victor.

  After the diner...maybe some pancakes. He really wanted some.

  Luke took the back way out of Nathan’s yard, through the rear gate and through the woods. He knew the way to the old church. The day was starting off cool, but summer heat lurked, promising to warm quickly. It was a good idea to check out the church—which likely didn’t have any AC on—in the morning.

  Beyond the wooded path, the church came into view. For a church, it was barely distinguishable as a church building. Tall, wide, like a utility building with its narrow windows and painted corrugated metal walls. From any other side but the very front, it looked like a warehouse or business building. Only the front made it look like a church and most of that was the large cross that hung at the front over the door.

  Big building. Big gravel parking lot. It faced the main road that ran into downtown Summerville. Plenty of cars traveled the route during the day, so it was a good spot. As a bonus, it had a worked in neighborhood with a few more surrounding neighborhoods.

  And no other actual competition. Not for a couple of miles. There was a rundown gas station that was the closest thing, the gas station didn’t pump any gas at all but the little shop was still running. That was it, and that was a little further down the road.

  He went to the front, stopping shortly at the front door to check it. There was a key sitting on the ground with a clip. Just to not lose it, Luke added it to his own keyring. Instead of going in, he took a loop around, checking the outside from all angles. Now that he was here, and it was going to be a diner, he wanted to get a good picture, envision what it could be like.

  From the back part of the church, he followed the yard to where it met with a property line for the neighbors in the rear. He didn’t know them personally, but he followed their fence line. Out of habit, he was mapping the land with his brain, considering making more paths through the woods with Nathan just to make easy access back and forth to his house. That side of the neighborhood might just use the paths to walk back and forth from the diner. He found another good route to try to create closer to the rear neighbors.

  He was wondering where North was when suddenly from the woods, from a different spot than where he’d come out, someone emerged.

&nb
sp; A girl. Wearing a green skirt and a yellow top. She was short...er than himself, from what he could tell. Her hair was twisted up in a clip on the back of her head. She gazed at the church. He was still standing near the woods, mostly out of sight at the moment. He waited, curious, wondering...

  She studied the church with some intensity for a minute. Then, she made her way to a blue jungle gym and swing area leftover from when the church still operated. She picked her way through the grass, and sat on a level area of the jungle gym, swinging her feet, looking dreamily toward the building.

  The only one who was told about the church...who might be interested...was Sang. He didn’t recognize her, and she’d walked here...it was either Sang or her sibling. In either case...one way to find out.

  He inched closer, sticking to the woods, walking quietly, mostly out of habit, until he was behind her. She remained distracted, still gazing at the church.

  He hoped North didn’t come out there and scare her off before he had a chance...

  He took out his phone and sent a message to Sang. If it was her, she’d look.

  Luke: What’s your favorite breakfast?

  He waited.

  After just a minute, she shifted, reached for a phone...from where he wasn’t sure, he couldn’t see from behind her, and she looked at it.

  Gotta be her.

  She wasn’t ugly. Gabriel was lying! But why? He still hadn’t gotten a closer look at her face, coming around the way he’d done.

  She typed and a message came back. He checked his phone.

  Sang: Chocolate chip pancakes.

  He smiled at his phone. It was the best answer. He liked her. He didn’t care if she’d a fat wart on her face or whatever else. She was nice. She listened to him ramble. She already knew all the other guys. Best of all, her breakfast choice was correct. They were going to be best friends.

  “With syrup?” he asked with a surging hope she was as nice in real life as she seemed to be.

  She gasped shortly and twisted to look at him, and in doing so, she nearly fell from her seated position, correcting herself by holding on to a pole.