Ramon wanted to quip back, something sarcastic, but kept his thoughts to himself. One of the other guys came over, and they walked the janitor down an overgrown path and into the building. “What is this place?”
Inside didn’t look much better than outside, not even after they hit the switches on a couple of floodlights that they’d set up. A massive, abandoned warehouse of some kind, with the moonlight coming in through the windows up high at the peak of the wall, where it met the roof.
Ramon was pretty sure he spotted bats hanging in the rafters above their heads.
Bear’s guys walked the janitor across the leaf-strewn floor to one side, dragging his feet through the debris. His head hanging forward. Out cold still?
When they were out of earshot, Bear said, “I guess it used to be a milk bottling plant. Whoever owned it abandoned the place years ago.” He motioned for Ramon to follow him and set off across the expansive room to a set of tables on the far side where Hollace and one of the other guys, who hadn’t been at the office building, worked on laptops. “We needed somewhere to bring him, or whoever was waiting for us at the company, without them seeing our base of operations. Such as it is.”
They’d get to that. But for now, Ramon said, “I don’t get why you grabbed that guy. Did he do something or say something that indicated he was an agent ofDominatus?”
Hollace sat back in his chair. “Let’s just say, I’m surprised he didn’t try to kill you.” He turned his laptop so Ramon could see the screen. “We’ve come across this guy a number of timesalready. Spotted him tailing us in crowded places. Seen him show up where we are. He’s tracking us. We just don’t know what his endgame is.”
“Was this even about the network, or some name you guys need?”
Hollace nodded. “We do need that name. But even I’m starting to wonder if it’s just a wild goose chase.”
Bear pulled out a chair of his own and sat. When Bear opened his computer, a video call connected, and Hazel, their technician—their equivalent of Maizie—flickered on the screen. “Hey, boss.”
The full-figured woman had a dark pixie cut with three shaved slashes on either side of her head above her ears. “Hi, Ramon!”
He lifted his chin, then went to Hollace. “This guy shows up where you are, and he’s following you. Why be a janitor? He wasn’t lying in wait, ready to pounce. You guys caught him.”
“We set a trap.”
And Ramon was the one who’d fallen for it? At least, along with the janitor. “Who is he?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out,” Hollace said, stretching his arms above his head. “Just as soon as you head in there and get his prints.”
“First, tell me about this name.”
Hollace smirked. “Figures.”
“That I’m not going to walk into this blind? No one knows what you guys are doing. It’s beenmonths. At least we managed to out that general.” Ramon didn’t want to talk about the particulars, especially considering he’d thought the guy had died. Then it turned out he hadn’t; there was another one running around. Nope. Definitely didn’t need to discuss that.
He asked, “What progress have you guys made?”
Whether Hollace thought that was amusing or not, Ramon couldn’t tell. “You think I’ll just run down everything we’ve been doing because you asked?” He dumped the two front legs of his chair back on the ground. “Nice try.”
“Tit for tat.”
“Ramon,” Bear called over. “You have that hard drive?”
He handed it to the team leader. “Let me know if you find any suspicious names on that thing.”
Bear looked at Hollace. “Tell him about the money.”
When Bear went back to his call with Hazel, which involved him plugging the drive into his laptop, Hollace was frowning at his boss.
“Tough luck, buddy,” Ramon said. “Tell me about the money.” He lifted his brows.
Hollace looked like he wanted to punch Ramon, but Ramon didn’t really care. He just needed information he could pass back to Kenna.
Yes, this was about him being a double agent for Banbury Investigations, but it also wasn’t. They trusted Bear and his team. They just didn’t know what on earth the guys here had been doing for the last few months. Kenna needed to know if they were going to do something that concerned her—or put anyone she cared about at risk.
However, Ramon wasn’t acting when he told Bear and the team that he wanted to be here, and if she didn’t know that, he wasn’t going to tell her. Truth was, Ramon had felt like he was on protection detail the past few weeks. He didn’t mind caring for the people on their team, but with the whole ofDominatusto unearth and take down, he’d rather be on the front lines.
Kicking in doors.
