Page 10 of Captive Beta
As long as they’re walking and aren’t in a car or some other way that cuts off the pheromones, I can keep up with them without a problem.
I’ve been following them for a couple of minutes now, I don’t know how long exactly, but long enough to get an idea of the situation.
There are four adults and a number of kids, I think around six to nine. Some of the kids talk quietly and others are totally silent. I caught a glance of them when they crossed the streets between the buildings, but the adults are keeping the kids close between them, and carrying some, so the exact number is hard to know.
The kids seemed unhappy to be herded along like this, but they didn’t seem scared, mostly unhappy with their situation. It’s late at night, so they’re probably tired and would prefer to be in bed and not out here in dark alleys.
I have no idea what’s going on, who these people are, but one of them is my mate, so I can’t let them go. I have to get to my mate.
If I’d come across them in any other situation, I would probably have called for backup from Miles immediately and confronted them. But one of the adults is my mate, and I don’t want to cause them any more trouble than they’re already in. I need to make sure that they’re okay before I do anything else.
We reach another crossing, this street is busier than the previous one. One of the adults picks up the smallest kid, holding the hand of one of the others. The other three adults keep a watchful eye on the traffic, the people on the sidewalks and the shadows from trashcans and trees, as they surround the kids closely, before they start crossing as a group.
That’s when I notice that the children seem to mostly look to the man holding the smallest child, like they’re used to listening to him. He’s dressed in jeans and a simple jacket, comfortable and nondescript clothes, while the other three are wearing what looks like ‘civilian’ versions of the gear Mathew and the others put on before the mission.
As they keep moving, it’s clear that the man in the comfortable clothes doesn’t particularly like the other three adults. He tries not to get too close to them and when they’re not careful enough with the children he glares at them. He doesn’t say or do anything else, but I have a feeling that’s more down to the fact the three in gear carry weapons and he doesn’t seem to have any on him.
Anger flares in my chest, but I push it down. The kids might not be scared, but everything is wrong about this situation. I can’t see a legal or moral reason for a group of young kinds to be herded around like this in the middle of the night, especially not by what look to be armed guards.
I can come up with a few scenarios of what’s going on and I don’t like any of them.
As soon as the group has disappeared between the buildings on the other side of the street, I cross the street too, immediately finding a new place to hide. This dress won’t be salvageable after tonight. It’s already dirty with grease and many things that I don’t want to think about and I have a feeling it’s probably only going to get even more stained.
But I do what I have to do to not lose the group, even if that means squeezing myself between trashcans, cars and whatever else I can use as cover.
Where are they going?
I made sure to at least have a general idea of the layout of the city. That way, I would know where to go if I ever got lost or if I got into trouble.
The direction we’re moving in is made up of older neighbourhoods. It’s now mostly stores, warehouses and some apartment complexes that have seen better days. Not really a place where you’d take a group of kids.
Then I remember what else is in this area. The Hearts own multiple buildings here too. All of them pretty unremarkable, nothing that would attract too much attention, unlike their brothels, but that doesn’t mean that the warehouses aren’t used. They could be bringing these kids to one of the buildings to then move them elsewhere later tonight, possibly out of town, which would mean we likely lose track of them for good.
Fuck.
I shouldn’t go after them alone if they’re from the Hearts. But I left my phone and bag behind, so nobody can trace me or —if I’m captured— they can’t use my things to find out who I am.
It also means that I can’t reach Caleb or any of the others right now. So I have to hope that Jorge has called Caleb and that Caleb is following the system that we set up over the years.
I’ve left traces behind, like he taught me to, and if he follows that, he should be able to find me.
But that means that I need to survive on my own until then.
It’s not like I’ve not done it before, but this is a little different from taking out some people hired to bring Caleb and I back to Hubert. In the past, when I followed people like this, it was to take them down, to make sure they couldn’t surprise us, usually I solved the problem by killing them. But I don’t want to kill people in front of the kids, and there’s at least one of the adults that I don’t want to have to kill at all, unless absolutely necessary.
I want my mate.
I can do it, but it won’t be so easy and I’ll have to come up with a plan while still tracking them…
Great…
As I feared, they’ve taken the kids into one of the buildings owned by the Hearts. I recognise the location, it’s one of their warehouses where they store non-human ‘goods’ that they traffic in. Derrick has shown me pictures of it, so I would be able to recognise it, if needed.
Which now comes in handy, as it means I know exactly where I am and I have some idea of what the building will be like.
Derrick didn’t have detailed plans of the building, but from the pictures of the outside and from the layout of the surrounding buildings, we could make some estimates, if the Hearts haven’t changed too much about it. Which we don’t know, so I’m going to have to go purely of guesstimations here.
The four adults and the kids went into the building through the side door. The front and back have large rolling doors, to let trucks and vans in and out. But to the side of the building are a couple of floors with smaller storage options and offices and things like that which can be reached from the outside through a single side door.
