In the meantime, we had a new suit to try out. And Cami had done something to mine since we got back that she wanted to show me.
Cami, Marty and I headed down to the still-unfinished amphitheater with my suit and the new one. Marty was just as excited to test the second suit as Cami. “Does it have all the same stuff?” he said as Cami handed him a dark blue backpack. “I mean, like it’s voice activated with all those weapons and cool shit Roger has?”
“Yes, they do the same things,” Cami said with a giggle. “Plus, I made slight modifications to both of them, so now they’re coded to each of your voice patterns. Even if someone else gets their hands on them, they won’t be able to use them.”
“Oh, that’s sweet!” I said, and then handed my black backpack to Cami as an idea occurred. “Let’s test the voice security. You can try to use this one.”
Cami nodded. “Okay, sure,” she said as she slipped her arms through the straps. Then she walked a few paces away and said, “Suit up.”
Nothing happened, just like it was supposed to.
“Dude, I can’t wait any more. I’m trying this,” Marty said as he finished putting the dark blue pack on. “Suit up!”
The suit responded, building itself into an undershell and an outer layer of armor the same way mine did, only Marty’s was blue with silver accents while mine was black with gold. “This is so wicked!” Marty said, his voice clear through the suit’s speakers. He held out an arm and said, “Gun.”
Lightning crackled over his hand, and the glove formed a gun. Marty waved the weapon around, laughing. “This actually fires bullets instead of black goo, right?”
“Yes, it fires bullets, smartass,” Cami said with a grin as she handed me the black suit and I activated it. “Go on, try it.”
Marty whirled and fired at the drilling machine I’d smashed up earlier. The sound of the shot echoed in the open space of the huge room, and there was a metallic thunk as the bullet buried itself in the debris of the machine’s ruined cockpit. “Yes!” Marty said, pumping a fist in the air. “Gun off.”
The gun disassembled itself into an armored glove again, and Marty turned back toward me. “Hey, Roger. Blast me.”
“Um, what?” I said.
“Hit me with the concussive blast thing,” he said, taking a defensive stance. “I want to see how much protection this thing has.”
“Dude, are you sure? This thing packs a hell of a punch,” I said as I checked the holographic visor display and watched the readouts come online.
“Yeah, I’m sure. I mean, worst that could happen is I get knocked out for a few minutes, right?” he said, and I could practically hear his grin beneath the full-face helmet. “That’s why I said concussive blast instead of gun. Just in case. I’m not quite ready to get shot at yet.”
“All right, if you say so,” I laughed and held an arm out. “Blast.”
My suit configured itself for blasting, and I gestured at Marty. The air rippled between us and the blast lifted him off his feet, sending him a few feet in the air to crash down on his ass. He landed with a harsh grunt.
“Holy shit. You all right, Marty?” I called out.
He started laughing. “Actually, I’m perfectly fine!” he said, waving an arm in the air as he pushed off the ground with his other hand. “All that did was kind of knock the wind out of me. The suit took most of the blow.” He started toward me. “Okay, your turn. Let me blast you.”
“Why don’t you try the laser on me instead?” I said as I planted my feet. “I already know it’s bulletproof thanks to that asshole at the diner, and you just proved the suits can take the concussive blasts. So, the laser’s the only thing left to test.”
“You two are both crazy,” Cami pronounced, laughing a little as she moved back further than she’d already been standing. “Just keep me out of the firing zone, okay?”
“Don’t worry. I promise not to shoot you. Just Roger,” Marty said as he raised an arm. “Laser.” As he spoke the command, the suit responded with the right configuration and he pumped his hand toward me.
A blue energy beam exploded from his palm and hit me square in the chest. Though I should have had a hole burned through me, or at least seen the outer layers of armor start to melt, I remained cool as a cucumber. In fact, other than the outer shell starting to glow from building heat, it barely scratched the paint.
“Wow. I barely felt that,” I said with a grin. “It’d probably take a tank or something to get through these suits. You did an awesome job on these, Cami.”
“Thanks,” she said, flashing a pleased smile. “These are definitely the coolest things I’ve built so far.”
I was about to suggest that Marty try out his rocket booster when Skye rushed into the amphitheater. “Roger, I’ve got it,” she said as she strode toward Marty, and then her steps slowed as she looked from him to me. “Uh, which one of you is Roger?”
I laughed and raised a hand. “Right here. Power down,” I said, and the suit crackled with energy and started to retract into a backpack. “What have you got?”
“A lot, I think,” she said a little breathlessly. “After I age advanced the photo you gave me, I ran facial recognition against the possible sites for Henry Aaron’s operation that my program identified, and I got a really strong match. I think I found him,” she said. “Can you come check it out?”
“Absolutely. The sooner we take this guy down, the better,” I said as I heard Marty powering down his suit. “Let’s see what you have.”
The three of us followed Skye back through the base to the main entertainment center room, where her laptop was set up on a folding table. Just about everyone else was hanging out in here too, though I didn’t see Ronnie right away.
“Right here,” she said as she punched a key on her laptop and brought up a map showing Las Vegas, with a red pushpin icon just outside the city to the northwest. “I’ve got a few photos from satellite surveillance and security cameras that I hacked into. The place is big, and it looks like it’s heavily guarded too.” She tapped a few keys, and there was a photo of a huge compound surrounded by chain link fence, featuring one massive warehouse-type building, at least four smaller buildings, and what looked like a private truck yard.
A frown surfaced on my face. Even with the satellite photos, I could see a handful of armed guards patrolling the place. The fence was topped with barbed wire and floodlights at regular intervals, so it looked like there was no way to sneak up on the compound.
“Well, that’s awesome. But not impossible to break into,” I said as Skye started clicking through more photos from different angles. “I don’t know what a drug manufacturing operation is supposed to look like, but I’d bet it looks a lot like this. And you said facial recognition picked up Henry Aaron here?”
“Yeah, it did. The match was only around 90 percent, but it was from an age-advanced photo so it wouldn’t be perfect.” Skye hit a few keys, and a cropped image of a scowling, dark-haired man who looked in his late twenties appeared on the laptop screen. “That’s him, more or less,” she said.
I stared at the image and memorized the face as I imagined myself punching it repeatedly, for everything the self-named Presley had done to me and my team, and apparently a bunch of other women too.
“Now check this out.” Sky changed the image again. “This is what facial recognition picked up.” In the new surveillance photo, the man was standing inside the compound fence by the front gates with an assault rifle slung across his back, talking to a man in a uniform just like the ones the soldiers who’d destroyed the base.
“That has to be him,” I said as I studied the entrance to the place. There was a guard booth set into the fence beside a rollback gate, and at least two guards inside the booth. Besides the man Presley was talking to in the image, there were two more armed men in uniform standing outside the gate. He definitely had a lot of security, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from taking him down.
“Okay, let’s get everyon
e together and figure out what we’re doing,” I said, stepping back from the table to scan the room. “Anyone seen Ronnie around?”
“And Lisa?” Marty added as he came up next to me. “I just tried to call her, but she didn’t answer.”
Amy looked over from one of the couches where she was sitting with Felicia, watching some movie. “Ronnie and Lisa aren’t here,” she said.
For some reason I was instantly worried. “Where are they?”
“With Ronnie’s sister, I think,” Felicia replied. “I guess Ronnie was supposed to meet up with her a few days ago, when she came back with you? Anyway, she said her sister called and was all worried, so she went to have lunch with her. And Lisa went with her because she was bored and hasn’t been out of the hotel in a while.”
I tried to remember if I even had Ronnie’s cell number, as Marty got his phone out and called Lisa again. “Anyone know where they went for lunch?” I said.
Amy shrugged. “They didn’t say.”
Just as I pulled out my phone to see if I’d put Ronnie’s number in, it rang. The number was from inside the Medallion somewhere. Once again feeling that tug of worry, I hit the answer button. “Hello?”
“Mr. Stevens?” an unfamiliar female voice said. When I confirmed it was me, she went on. “This is Jenny, I’m calling from the front desk. You have a courier delivery here that you need to sign for.”
I blinked. “Delivery? I wasn’t expecting anything,” I said. “Can you find out where it’s from?”
“One minute, please,” she said, and I heard a muffled voice as she covered the phone with a hand and spoke to someone. “The package is from Loman Withholdings and Development,” Jenny said when she came back on the line. “The courier doesn’t know what’s in it, but it looks like paperwork.”
“Oh. Right,” I said as I rubbed my temple. It was probably the transfer of ownership stuff I was supposed to sign so I’d officially own the casino. “Thanks, Jenny. I’ll be right up,” I said, and then ended the call. “Hey guys, I have to go up to the lobby and sign for a delivery,” I said to everyone in the room as I replaced the phone in my pocket. “Keep trying to get hold of Lisa or Ronnie, if anyone has her number, okay? I just want to make sure they’re all right.”
“Do you think they wouldn’t be?” Marty said with alarm in his voice.
“I don’t know. It’s just a feeling,” I said, shaking my head a little. “Listen, I’ll be right back and then we’ll figure it out.”
I headed out of the base and took the elevator to the main floor of the hotel, then walked out to the lobby. A young guy in a brown uniform and cap stood off to the side of the line at the reception desk, a clipboard in one hand and a large, thick envelope with a mailing label in the other, watching me as I approached and waved at him.
“You have a delivery for Roger Stevens?” I said.
“Yeah, right here,” the delivery guy said as he met me by one of the huge columns that adorned the lobby. “If you can just sign here?” He handed me the clipboard.
“Sure thing.” I took the pen from the holder above the form and scrawled my name on the line at the bottom of the delivery form. As I handed it back, the courier held out the package.
But he didn’t let go of the package when I grabbed it. Instead, the courier gave a startled blink and stared at nothing for a few seconds, and then smiled an unpleasant smile.
“Hello, Roger,” he said. “Are you missing a couple of your whores? Or maybe you have so many now that you can’t keep track of them all.”
“Presley,” I said in a low, angry voice. “You don’t have anything. You’re lying.”
“Am I? Maybe you should check your phone,” the courier who wasn’t himself said, just as my pocket buzzed with a text notification. “I think you just got an important message.”
Dread pooled in my gut as I pulled my phone out and checked. The text was from Lisa’s number and contained a photo of Ronnie and Lisa, bound and gagged in back-to-back chairs. Wherever they were, there was nothing in the background to help me figure it out. Just a plain concrete wall.
I replaced the phone slowly and glared at the possessed delivery guy. “I’m going to kill you,” I said deliberately. “And if you hurt them, I’m going to hurt you first, and then I’ll kill you. Got it, jackass?”
He laughed. “I love the way you think you’ve got the upper hand,” he said. “No, Roger, you’re not going to kill me. What you’re going to do is come to Club Ace tomorrow morning at ten, alone. You’re going to trade yourself for these whores, and you’ll be brought to me to give me your pen. I haven’t decided whether I’m going to let you live, but I might not kill your friends if you cooperate. If you don’t …” He grinned and made an obscene gesture. “Well, I’ll just let you imagine what I’m going to do with these two. And I promise that whatever you imagine, what I actually do will be far worse.”
My jaw clenched hard enough to hurt my teeth. “Fine. I’ll be there,” I ground out. “But things aren’t going to shake out the way you think they are, Henry. That’s my promise to you.”
“We’ll see about that,” he said, laughing again. “Tomorrow morning at ten. Don’t be late, or you won’t like what’s left of your friends when you get there.”
As I tried to draw a calming breath, the courier shuddered and blinked, then abruptly let go of the package he still held. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that,” he said with a confused look on his face. “Um … You’re all set, Mr. Stevens. Have a good day.”
“You too,” I managed to say as the courier turned and wandered across the lobby, still looking a bit lost. It wasn’t his fault he’d been possessed by a lunatic.
But since I knew exactly where the lunatic was, there was no way I’d wait until tomorrow morning. I was going after him, right now. I’d get Ronnie and Lisa back, and make this bastard pay dearly for everything before it was over.
Even if he stopped me from using my pen, I wouldn’t need it to beat him.
35
I pulled off to the shoulder of the access road about a quarter mile from our destination and turned off the engine. I’d traded the flashy Rolls Phantom for a plain, dark sedan that wouldn’t be looked at twice, and Marty and I had headed out to the facility Skye had identified as Henry Aaron’s.
When I’d told everyone what happened to Ronnie and Lisa, they all wanted to come with us. But I didn’t want to risk any more lives, especially since I wouldn’t be able to use my pen here. Once Presley figured out he was being attacked, he’d know it was me and start erasing anything I wrote. But Marty had insisted he was coming along, and I hadn’t refused. At least he had a bulletproof suit.
Besides, the bastard had taken Lisa too. There was no way Marty would’ve stayed behind.
We got out of the car and suited up, and I tested the comms. “Skye, you there?” I said into the earpiece I’d worn beneath the suit.
“I’m here,” her voice said in my ear. “I hacked the surveillance system, and I’ve got eyes inside. Presley’s in the small building behind the warehouse, or whatever that huge one is.”
“Got it. We’re heading for the main entrance now,” I said, looking over the car to nod at Marty before I started walking.
“Be careful, guys,” Skye said. “I know you’re bulletproof and everything, but there’s a lot of them and it’s still broad daylight.”
“Exactly. They won’t expect to be attacked right now,” I said with a fierce grin.
Marty caught up with me, and we walked in silence for a minute until Marty growled, “If he’s even touched her, I swear to God I’ll rip all his limbs off.”
“I think he got that impression when I talked to him,” I said, trying to sound confident that the girls were okay. Unfortunately, after everything I’d heard about the guy, I highly doubted Presley had left them untouched. “Don’t worry. We’re going to get them both back.”
“I know,” Marty said with flat determination. I hadn’t seen him so furious since he went aft
er Lisa’s abusive ex, and I had a feeling there wouldn’t be much left of Presley once we were done here.
It wasn’t long before the main entrance to the compound came into view. Just like in the photos, there were two guards outside the gate, and they’d already seen us coming. They were reaching for their guns, turning toward what must’ve looked to them like a couple of guys out of a sci-fi book who’d just appeared on the road.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m going for maximum reach, minimum casualties,” I said as the guards started shouting something I couldn’t quite hear yet. “Presley’s the one who needs to die. The rest of these guys are just the poor dumbasses working for him.” I held an arm up and said, “Blast.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Marty said, and spoke the command to enable his concussive blast. “I only want to kill that son of a bitch, and the blast will hit more of his goons at a time.”
“Hey, you!” one of the guards called as both of them started heading toward us, their guns out. “This is private property. You need to turn around and go back where you came from.”
I lifted a hand, feigning a greeting. “It’s okay. I’m just looking for a little help,” I said as I kept walking forward. “See, our spaceship broke down back there. We were just wondering if you guys had a few gallons of interstellar fuel we could borrow.”
Both guards stopped with utterly confused expressions. “What the hell are you talking about?” the one who’d spoken before said.
“Never mind. We’ll just take a look around ourselves,” I said, and thrust my hand forward.
The blast wave knocked the guards back in opposite directions, and they hit the ground hard. They didn’t get back up.
“We should probably start running now,” I said to Marty, who nodded in agreement. We sprinted toward the gate, which was now opening as the guards in the booth came out shooting.
Both guards managed a single shot before Marty and I each took one down, and then ran past the downed men for the open gate.
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