Page 53 of Fight
As we say goodbye to the grandparents and head home, I’m filled with relief and entirely confident that Harry is going to be in the best possible place for him. Francis took my number and said that as soon as their new phones arrive, she’ll make sure that she’ll keep me updated on him since it was obvious that I had grown attached to him in the short amount of time that I got to know him.
“Well, I sure as hell didn’t expect to deal with all that at your place,” Mal mutters just as we pull up to the house.
“Tell me about it.” Rip replies.
“I’m hungry,” Ace interrupts as we walk into the kitchen, having used the back roads in order to get here.
“You’re always hungry.” I reply and then add, “I am too though. Why don’t we make some sandwiches and then see what we can find out about the smugglers and the buyer? That way, we have something concrete to give the Conspiracy team when they arrive.”
“Sounds good to me,” Ace replies, “I’ll go and grab my laptop. Hopefully, we’ll be able to use the cameras that I used to check on the town before we arrived. We can then at least hopefully work out where they meet the buyer.”
“Good idea,” Rome replies.
It’s not long until we’re all eating sandwiches, and Ace, unable to stop himself from a new project, has his laptop on the table at an angle next to his sandwich so that he can type with one hand and eat with the other. There’s absolutely no point in us trying to get any conversation started with him because he is hyper-focused on what he’s doing, and I begin to realise that it might be more beneficial in the future to leave him to find the information than it is to get him to put it up on the TV and have him talk us through it.
He's in his element.
I catch Rome’s eye, and he nods, clearly having picked up on the same thing I have. It’s surprising that we haven’t picked it up before; it makes a lot more sense that he would work quicker, not having to explain everything to us as he searches for it and just showing us what he’s found after he’s found it.
“Got it,” Ace suddenly exclaims, pulling me from my thoughts and proving them correct at the same time. He turns the laptop to face us as he begins to explain, “So I’ve gone back a few weeks, and they always meet at the same entrance, the same one that we met Alaric and the guys at, actually. Now the interesting thing is I have no idea who they are. Either they were aware of the cameras or were just lucky, which seems unlikely, but the exchange always happened behind the van where the cameras couldn’t see.”
“So they most likely knew that the cameras were there then,” Rip points out.
“Yeah, that’s the most likely scenario,” Ace replies, “but because of that, there’s no way that we can identify them. I can tell you that they always come in a black van, plates removed so I can’t trace them, and that because of the size of the van, there will be between one and six people, which is the absolute maximum that will fit in the van.”
“Well, that’s good information that we can give the Ravens when they arrive, and they shouldn’t be outnumbered, which is another bonus, and since we know exactly where the meeting usually goes down, some of their members can be out in the woods, with weapons trained on them like Atlas was.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Rome replies, “Do we know what vehicle usually meets them? We don’t want them to get spooked and leave or open fire before we can talk to them. We need them to know that this town is off-limits now.”
“Yeah, it’s a standard SUV; it looks close enough to ours that we could get away with using it and not arousing suspicions,” Ace confirms.
“That’s great work, and done really quickly, man,” Mason tells him before adding with an amused smile, “The rest of us haven’t even finished eating our sandwiches yet.”
Ace glances around at our plates, all of which still have something still on them left to be eaten. He frowns, “You guys eat really slowly.”
“Oh yeah, because we’re the oddity here.” Rip chuckles, and Ace sticks his middle finger up at him.
I decide to intervene before the conversation devolves even more than it already has, “What about the actual smugglers? Did you manage to find anything out about them?”
Ace frowns and shakes his head, “That’s why it took me so long to tell you guys anything,” he starts, and he completely misses the incredulous look that the rest of us share because it really didn’t take him very long at all. Before any of us can say anything though he says, “There aren’t any cameras at all down by the docks, which means I can’t tell you anything useful. I can tell you that because of the size of the docks here, the boat can’t be too big but could still be big enough to carry ten people plus cargo, so we need to be prepared for that.”
“That’s helpful,” Rome points out, “don’t sell yourself short.”
Chapter Nineteen
“He’s right, dude.” Rip adds and then asks, “What about the timeline? When do smugglers get the weapons to the buyer?”
“The same day,” Ace replies, “this part is assuming based on the time that the buyer normally meets them, but I’m guessing that they arrive early in the morning, take the weapons straight to the buyer, and then from what Thomas told us, spend the next two days in town causing trouble and getting supplies before they ship out for another two weeks.”
“That makes sense. At least we can get it all sorted in one day,” I reply.
“What’s the plan?” Mal asks me, finishing off his sandwich.
“We ask for a meeting with the smuggler's boss. I’m assuming that he’ll be there, or there will be someone on board who can pass the message that we will no longer be on their route,” I explain like it’s going to be that easy.
“And if he’s not compliant?” Rome asks.
My smile has a definite edge to it as I reply, “Then we make him compliant.”