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11
Cole
"What's happening? What is that? What are they doing?"
On the screen, four new vehicles drove up, surrounding the two NHP vehicles and the stolen Corvette. One of the officers dragged Annie out of the car, slamming her into the side of it with unnecessary force. She was a cop, she was in great shape, but she wasn't huge.
My fists bunched. I breathed shallow and didn't take my eyes off the scene unfolding. "You can follow." I said it flat, because they could. They had to.
"Yes, sir," Charles said, and no one else added anything.
Of course they could. The drone would follow and I'd have eyes on the scene as soon as they were in place.
Only next instant –
"What's happening?"
The techs were silent. They were hackers and coders and IT workers. Even Scott beside me hesitated for an instant before he hissed between his teeth.
"Fuck! Can you get it closer?"
"No." I said it fast. "April, don't move in."
She hadn't moved. When Scott and I were both in the room it was my room.
Scott looked at me. "They're – "
"I know what they're doing." Because now I did.
The black SUVs, the enormous ones that stretch for a block, had surrounded the scene. Even from the air it was almost impossible to see and I didn't want to tip the hand of the drone. It was possible it was some enthusiast working the thing but I wasn't taking a chance they'd believe that.
I was going to let her go without surveillance. Because that felt like the safest choice. And the worst.
We watched, tense, silent, as doors opened and people moved but there was no way to tell exactly what vehicle Annie was in. Only that almost definitely she wasn't being put back into a cop car.
It took about 90 seconds. Then the cars split up, some going back the way they'd come, others spreading out on the highway that crossed the one she was on about a quarter mile up.
They'd run her to that spot. They'd wanted her close. Far enough out they could lose her in the desert. Close enough to the other highways even the drone couldn't make out which car she was in or which way that car was going.
In seconds, she was gone.
I stalked out of the IT room and went for a run. When I came back, I pummeled a heavy bag. When I finished that, I took one of the floggers and then a crop to my own back.
There was no relief. There wasn't even any sensation.
