Gage’s Goal, page 10
“Get used to it,” Wade teased. “Once you’ve got a partner, you’ll be going shopping all the time.”
Bursting out laughing, they carried on, first to the bakery and then on to the butcher. By the time they had everything loaded up, Gage looked over at his buddy and asked, “Did you get any update on the tail?”
“Nothing besides satellite confirmation that it’s still on us, which we already know.”
“I’ve got to wonder how much of this crap is our own damn government,” Gage suggested.
“Well, it’s the right kind of vehicle and a pretty standard surveillance operation.”
“By the book, all right. I wondered that too, but why?”
“I would say because of Lorelei.”
“The whole she’s dead but not dead thing?” Gage asked. “Meaning, she’s not only not dead but from somewhere came the message and an identification saying she was.”
“Right, so somebody thought she was dead, now knows that she isn’t, so are they looking for her, or are they looking for us?”
“Probably both, and I’m hoping nobody knows who I am,” Gage noted.
“We sure picked up that tail quickly. It could be that they were staking out the morgue, and our appearance just made them curious. Or maybe that guy at the morgue set them off.”
“And that’s possible too, damn it,” Gage replied. Looking around, he added, “We have to shake them now, so we can get our groceries home.”
“You can do that,” Wade agreed. “I definitely know you have the driving skills. Just try not to crash us in the process, okay?”
Gage snorted. “Why would I crash us at this point in time?” he asked his buddy. “Besides, I’m the best driver we’ve got.”
Wade looked at him, and his lips twitched, then had bloomed into a full-blown grin. “Oh, boy, here we go again with that—though I suppose you’re right, as long as we’re not counting all the other stuff, like laws and speed limits and that sort of thing.” Wade continued to smile.
As the two hopped into the vehicle, Gage drove off, racing through different parking spaces, twisting and turning, until he shook off the tail.
“I find myself wondering if we should have shaken off that tail,” Wade added.
“Don’t worry about it,” Gage said, with a grin, “because I came around behind them.”
Wade looked at him in surprise and then in delight, when he saw the vehicle up ahead. “Good Lord,” he declared, “you’re crazy. Now what?”
“Well, what are the chances that he’ll lead us somewhere?” Gage asked. “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting damn tired of being followed. It’s about time for us to get ahead of these guys and go frontal.”
“Well, going frontal is one thing,” Wade agreed, “yet going full-frontal is a whole different story.”
“Not to me,” Gage argued. “These assholes have had us shaking our leg for a long time, and I don’t know which one of them is responsible for killing off our admins, trying to kill off our team, but, damn it, I’m done with their shit, whoever it is. We still need the rest of our team back up and on their feet. I’m not sure how to make that happen either,” he added. “I don’t think Terk has any idea how to help the other guys, other than with more of his energy siphoned off to them and more and more time passing.”
“I know, and he’s not talking about it at all. Don’t know if that is good or bad. Now there’s two of us plus Damon, but the others are still down. Losing Wilson and Mera was a blow that Terk hasn’t recovered from either. I feel bad for Tasha too, as she worked really closely with them as admins. Obviously they were considered to be a threat to someone.”
“Damon mentioned she’s taking it pretty hard. Of course those were the people she worked the closest with,” Gage admitted quietly. “We were all part of the same team, but they were in her field. Their deaths hit close to home, almost taking her out too, so, of course, it’s been pretty rough on her.” He nodded.
“She’s also pretty upset that they went back after Mera, I hear.”
“According to Damon, if they had moved Mera, like they had tried originally, she would be alive right now. Terk had one of the last conversations with her too, so he is pretty upset about that. However, apparently Mera felt safer where she was, considering she’d been shot and didn’t want to be on the run.”
“Well, she might have survived if she’d come in, but, on the other hand, maybe the others would be dead,” Wade reminded him. “Who knows what would have happened. Just remember. One event changes another.”
“I know, but trying to convince Tasha of that is a whole different story.” And, with that, they pulled right behind the truck that had been following them. At that moment, the driver seemed to realize that he was now in a dangerous position, and he took off, pushing his vehicle as fast as he could.
“Interesting move,” Wade noted. “It’s almost like he didn’t know who the hell he’d been following or something.”
“Yeah,” Gage agreed, “like he suddenly realized that we’re following him, and he’s now the one in danger. I get the instinctive reaction,” he added, as he stuck with him. “It was a shit idea on his part to run though.”
“Why do you say that?” Wade asked curiously.
“Because now we know that he’s no professional and that he really was following us. And every bit of information is needed intel.”
“We also have details on the vehicle,” Wade stated. “Of course it was stolen.”
“How long ago?”
“Overnight.”
“Somebody needs to call it in,” Gage suggested, with a grin.
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m sure they’re already on it,” Wade stated. “Knowing Sophia, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we aren’t on satellite and if they’re watching how you handle this.”
“Oh, great,” Gage replied. “Terk will give me a royal talking too after this.”
“Not if you don’t lose our tail,” Wade added, with a chuckle.
“Well, well. Looks like word got out,” Gage replied, immediately reducing his speed, as several cop cars converged on the vehicle up ahead, lights and sirens blazing.
“Yeah, the trouble is, I don’t know that this guy would let himself get caught.”
“No, I don’t think so either. And he shouldn’t be doing a stakeout alone anyway.” Gage pointed, as the tail vehicle sped up, faster and faster, then lost control up ahead. They couldn’t see much of the collision itself because vehicles were everywhere, cops in front and more coming up from behind. The tail vehicle flew into the air and came down hard, landing upside down. Gage pulled off to the side, letting the cops go flying past. “Damn. That’s not quite the way I had hoped this would end.”
“The last thing we need is more dead bodies.” Wade groaned.
Gage nodded. “I do want to go take a look though. Stay here.”
Wade looked at him and asked, “Where is it that you think I’ll go anyway?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Gage replied, with a bright smile. “I’ll be in deep-enough shit with Terk as it is, so I can’t afford to lose you.”
Chapter 6
Lorelei had watched the chase from the satellite feed. “So does that mean we have another dead guy?”
“I’m not so sure.” Tasha tapped the screen. “Look. We’ve got one person out and running.”
“And a second one running,” Sophia added, “but that one is based on our tracking, so that must be Gage.”
“And one’s still in the other vehicle,” Lorelei noted.
“Probably Wade because he’s not quite healed enough to be in a foot chase like that.”
“Better not let him hear you say that,” Terk suggested, coming from behind them.
“Oh, I know,” Sophia murmured, “all that fragile male ego.” He just looked at her with a flat expression, as she smiled sweetly back up at him. “Not yours of course.”
Terk didn’t comment but continued to stare at the screen. “Not sure what’s going on right now,” he murmured.
Just then Wade phoned Terk. “So the vehicle that was following us earlier has had a major accident,” he explained. “Once the cops joined in on the chase, our tail made a run for it, and now looks like someone has taken off on foot.”
Lorelei watched in concern, as the figure they believed to be Gage came closer and closer to the one running away. “Wow, he’ll really capture him, won’t he?”
“Well, I don’t know if we should hope for that or not,” Terk replied. “Gage is still not nearly healed either.”
“Yeah, but he’s a little touchy on that topic.” She snorted. “As far as he’s concerned, he’s as good as new.”
“He always is,” Terk admitted quietly. “In fact, he’s much better than that. But he can’t use as much of his energy as he should. He can’t use anything but brute force right now, and he’s expending a ton of his own energy.”
“Meaning he’ll crash and burn when he gets home,” Lorelei suggested.
Terk looked over at her and nodded slowly. “That’s a good way to look at it, … and he’ll have to because he’ll need to recharge.” Terk continued to watch the screen closely, as it looked like Gage had nearly caught up to the fleeing driver.
“Now what’ll he do?” It was like watching a movie, and yet Lorelei could see that the tension she felt was universal, as they all waited for the climactic moment. “Good God,” she said, “surely he won’t try to bring him down himself.”
Just then they watched the driver jerk several times.
Lorelei gasped. “Oh my God, he didn’t shoot him, did he?”
“Nope, he wasn’t even looking at him.”
At that moment Gage was looking around, trying to find the shooter. Then Gage bent down, placed a finger on the guy’s neck, and suddenly turned, as other people raced toward him. With his hands up, he slowly pointed to show that he had no weapon. The others raced forward and checked out the man on the ground.
“Now he’ll be trying to fast-talk himself out of this,” Terk noted quietly.
“Shit. I gather that’s the cops then?” Lorelei asked.
“Yeah, not only is it the cops but these assholes took out their own guy on us again.”
“Damn it,” Lorelei muttered. “So now we don’t have anything, do we?”
“Not unless they can find the shooter.”
As they watched, everybody split up, except for the one man standing beside Gage and the dead man, and it looked like a heated argument was taking place.
But finally the other man relaxed, and Gage was allowed to leave.
“He’s good at persuading, isn’t he?” Lorelei asked Terk.
“He also would have to provide his ID and a reasonable excuse as to why he was there.”
“Of course he was trying to help the police, right? Just a concerned citizen,” Damon noted, joining them.
At that, Tasha hopped to her feet, walked over, and asked, “Hey, how are you feeling after your nap?”
“Like hell, but I’m alive, and I’m working, so it’s all good.” Damon gave Tasha a gentle hug. Watching them hug, Lorelei felt tears in her eyes. It seemed like this whole explosion mess had brought a completely different energy to the group. She caught Terk looking over at the couple, frowning. “Is there a problem?” she asked softly.
He shook his head. “No,” he murmured. “It’s good for him.”
Yet she wondered at that, but then realized Terk had to be considering his own scenario back in Texas. She winced at that. “Do you think Wade is okay?”
“He’s fine,” Sophia replied, holding up her phone. “We’re texting. He knows what happened, and he’s waiting right now for Gage to return.”
“Well, we do have all the information on the truck, but it won’t be of much help since it was stolen,” Lorelei noted.
“It’s all a help in that we’ll find out the location it was stolen from, and we can go from there,” Tasha added.
That’s exactly what they did, and by the time the guys drove back home again, the admins had mapped out the suspected pathway, showing where everybody had been and had come from.
When the guys started unloading the groceries, Lorelei stopped for a moment in awe, as she realized just how much food they had bought.
Gage took one look at her, then grinned. “Well, it looks like you gals eat a lot,” he teased.
“We do.” She nodded in agreement. “But I blame Tasha for most of that.”
Immediately Tasha turned on her. “What is that supposed to mean?” she cried out. Then she looked at all the groceries and joined the guys in the kitchen. “Oh, yum! Thank you. I will live to work another day.”
At that, the rest of them burst out laughing.
“And maybe you will too,” Lorelei said, walking toward Gage and giving him a hug. “If you’d stop chasing down bad guys, you wouldn’t burn through so much energy.”
“Hey, it wasn’t my fault,” Gage countered. “I was hoping for a chance to bring one back and get more answers.”
“Like that worked out so well with the last one.” Lorelei smirked.
He nodded. “Right, but we did get some intel. I keep living in eternal hope that something will change, you know?”
She smiled. “Something probably will, but not necessarily in the way we want.”
“Well, something needs to turn around,” Gage stated. “What I did get was a photo of the latest dead guy at least.” Gage shrugged. “I have no idea who he is or anything about him, and I did hang around long enough for the cops to check for any ID, but nothing was on the body.”
“Of course not.” Terk shook his head. “That would be too simple. Let’s get facial recognition moving on that photo.” Almost immediately his phone rang. It was Merk.
“Hey,” Merk greeted his brother through the Speakerphone. “Was that you guys?”
“Well, let’s just say that our guys were being followed, so they turned that around to become the pursuers. When the cops joined in on the chase, the guy completely flipped out and crashed the vehicle.”
“Damn it,” Merk muttered. “Why is everybody such a noob when it comes to the cops? We could have used him.”
“True, but, as Lorelei just said a minute ago, the last guy didn’t give us much of anything either.”
“Do we have a name?” Merk asked.
“Yep, we’ve already just sent it over to Ice.”
“Good and—”
“Wait, no. Sorry, no name but we have a face.”
“Well, we’ll take that,” Merk noted. “Hopefully Ice can run it through some database and see what pops up.”
Shortly after he hung up, Tasha called their attention to her computer screen. “Hey, guys, have a look over here.” And several photos of the same face were on her monitor.
“Wow, that was quick. Facial recognition picked up our tail guy right away,” Gage noted.
“He’s on Interpol’s watch list,” she replied quietly. “And they’re not at all unhappy he’s dead.”
“Of course not,” Gage replied.
Everybody stepped forward, including Lorelei, who stared at the face. “He almost looks familiar.” She frowned. They all turned immediately to look at her. She shrugged. “Hey, I added almost.”
“That just means that he’s familiar to you,” Gage explained, “but you’re not yet sure how you know him, how to find that in your brain.”
“Maybe.” Lorelei was a little unnerved at the heavy attention. “But it isn’t that easy to immediately figure it out.”
“Of course not,” Terk admitted. “But chances are, your brain will fill in the details, if you give it a chance.”
She nodded. “Well, it needs to get on it.” She then returned her attention to the groceries. Suddenly she stopped, looked back at them. “Wait. I feel like he may have been at the hotel.”
“The hotel where you were staying?” Gage asked.
“Yeah, I think he was wandering the hallways there one day, with someone else. I may have even spoken to him,” she added.
“Now that’s interesting. I wonder who else you might have seen.”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged, showing her palms. “I didn’t see the pictures of the two guys at the park.”
Swearing, Gage pulled out his phone and showed her the picture of their prisoner, plus the guy in the morgue. “This one is Joachim, who we had here for a while. This is his buddy, Walter, who Joachim shot at the park the other night.”
Lorelei’s face visibly paled when she looked at the guy in the morgue. “He was definitely at the hotel.”
“Okay, so Joachim killed his buddy, Walter Woods, who was supposedly the first one who tried to run you down. Maybe Walter was with Joachim?”
“There was more than one,” she remembered. “I think there was like …” She stopped, looked at him, and said, “I’m not sure. … Three maybe? I don’t know. I … this is kind of freaking me out.”
“Just sit down and relax. Then close your eyes and see if you can figure out exactly what you saw and when.”
“No. I don’t need to—” As she looked around at all the faces, she could see there was no sense in objecting. “Oh, fine,” she murmured. “Just let me head off to a private corner and think about it for a minute.” And that’s what she did.
When she opened her eyes, Gage smiled down at her. “Hey.”
“Did I fall asleep?”
“You sure did.” He chuckled.
She flushed, horrified. “Oh my God, why didn’t you wake me? I’m supposed to be thinking of the guys at the hotel!” She yawned, and he nodded.
“You were supposed to think about the men in the hotel.”
She nodded, matter-of-factly. “There were four of them. Those two, the two park shooters, the dead guy and another one.”
“Any idea who the other one was?”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t know. He’s the one I didn’t get a very good look at.”
“Well, that man is probably the last one standing of the group, aka Bingo, who was hired to take you down.”
She let out a breath. “That’s a little unnerving because that still means one is left.”
