I watched on my screen as the woman went about changing the license plates on the van and car before I heard her ask, “How long do I have till they wake up?”
“Possibly an hour, at most.”
“Shit. Help me give them another dose before you leave. I’d rather be safe than sorry.” She walked over to the car’s trunk, opened it, and pulled out a big black duffel bag. She dug around in it until she pulled out what looked like a medical bag.
The man opened the van’s doors, and this time, I had a pretty good view of the inside. The back of the van was completely cleared out, so there were no seats or anything back there,
But on the floor lay three unmoving bodies.
I moved the borescope around to try and get a better look at the bodies, but there was no chance of seeing their faces from here. Oakley wouldn’t be able to see inside the van from their position, so this was as good as it got. Dammit.
The woman injected something into each victim—which was a good sign they were still alive—before shutting the van’s doors and sending the man on his way. The man took her car and left without another word, and the woman smoked another cigarettebefore flicking the butt on the ground, throwing her duffel in the passenger seat, and climbing into the driver’s seat.
I watched her turn the van around in my direction before driving right toward me.
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a small twig, ran my thumb over it, and activated the spell inside. A shield covered me instantly, only this shield was different than your typical one. It was covered in shadow magic that helped you blend into your background and basically made you invisible unless someone was looking very hard for you.
I held still as the van passed me, and the second it was far enough, I used all my strength to run back to my car as fast as my feet would take me.
Oakley was already in the driver’s seat, heading down the road—likely having left their post first when it was obvious the van was moving toward me—so as soon as they pulled to a stop, I hopped in.
Without preamble, I said, “There are three people in the back of that van. They looked unconscious, and the target injected them with something.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“This is it.”
I nodded even though they weren’t looking at me. “It is. We can’t lose her.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t.”
Oakley kept their headlights off as we followed a good distance away from the van. I was a little surprised when we headed out of the city, although I wasn’t sure why I was. It made sense to take them to a place where no one would see or hear them.
We drove for over an hour before the van finally slowed and turned down a long driveway that belonged to a farm.
I took a quick picture of the address as we drove past it and searched for what little information I could.
“The place is owned by a Silas and Villy Sanders. They’ve been living there for the last forty years.”
Oakley grunted. “You don’t think this has been going on for that long, do you?”
With a frown, I scrolled through an article about the farm from about fifteen years ago. “I sure hope not. There’s an article about them winning some pig contest fifteen years ago and not much else.”
“So we have no clue if Silas and Villy Sanders are involved, if they’ve been killed by someone wanting to use their place, or if they were sold into slavery with the rest of the victims.”
“Correct.”
They blew out a breath. “Alright. Let’s park over there. We can hide the car in the trees and walk back for some recon.”
I almost wanted to laugh at the fact that Oakley had been calling the shots all night, even though I was the one who was supposed to be running this mission, but I honestly didn’t mind. I didn’t like when they put themself in danger, obviously, but I didn’t mind letting them take the lead. So far, everything they’d suggested was exactly what I would’ve done anyway.
“Sounds good.”
Oakley drove the car between some trees, and we took a few minutes to cover it in more branches so it’d blend in better. We’d likely be out of here before daybreak, but it was a good precaution since we never knew what might happen.
After ensuring we were both loaded up with plenty of weapons, spells, and recording equipment, we headed back to the farm. It wasn’t far, and when we were closer to the driveway, we hopped over the small fence and walked toward the barn and house through the grass, staying low and on alert.
