Part 22 (1/2)
Enter the new plan...
That plan entailed me sitting in the pa.s.senger seat of a car that Jared had parked outside the cafe. Courtesy of the vampires that Antonio sent, we were in possession of four cars that had been borrowed' for the night. It was a given that if we screwed this up and the vampires realised that someone was onto them, they would disappear and we might possibly lose any chance of getting to them or the person behind the op. Worse still, that would mean not only would babies continue to go missing and their mothers be killed, but we would be unable to track the children that had already been sold. None of that was acceptable to any of us.
With all that in mind, it was agreed that in order to follow the Handlers without attracting their attention, we would need to be extremely careful. While watching from a car seemed beyond cliche and could often attract suspicion, Chico had been right when he said that a car parked outside a cafe wasn't going to look suspicious. As an added precaution, he had instructed me to go shotgun, reading a newspaper; that way, it would simply look as though I was waiting for someone.
Inside the cafe, Jared was having a coffee at one of the tables near the window with David and Butch, who would soon be using the car that was parked beside mine. All three of them were very subtly monitoring the target. Of course, a human would have extreme difficulties with monitoring from such a long distance, but our enhanced vision gave us that advantage. What we had to bear in mind was that Zeke and Blake also had that advantage and would be able to see us as clearly as we could see them hence all the cautiousness.
Helping the situation, Stuart and Denny were hovering near the house in their alternate forms, ready to report back with any movement from inside the building. As the house was on a one-way street, it had made it possible for Chico and Jude to wait in another vehicle around the corner the Handlers' car would have to drive in their direction, and so Chico could pick up the tailing from there.
Salem and Reuben were waiting at the bus stop that was one hundred yards in front of Chico's car, who would pick them up as he pa.s.sed by. Chico felt that for all four of them to be sitting in the car on watch would attract the attention of pa.s.sers-by or neighbours, and attention wasn't what we needed. I wasn't all that convinced that so much cautiousness was necessary, but as he had been on stakeouts before, I trusted his intuition. Apparently, he had been on a couple of stake-outs that had been ruined by simply a nosy old woman seeing a strange car parked near her home. These days, people were wary of strangers hanging around. They had every reason to be.
Max, Harvey, and Damien were sitting in another car in the parking lot of a store located not far away, awaiting telepathic contact from Jared. Basically, everyone was in position, and all we needed now was for the Handlers to get moving.
Soon enough, a trail of molecules entered through the open window of the car. Taking a sneak peek around me and satisfied that no one would see anything, I quietly said, ”You can change back.”
A second later, Stuart was lounging on the backseat with his head rested on his hand. ”We have movement. The two guys from Ryder's sketches were putting jackets on and switching off the T.V. I reckon they'll leave any minute now. From what I could gather, they're the only people in the house.”
Time to move, I told Jared.
Quickly yet still managing to appear casual, he, Butch, and David abandoned their coffees and headed for the door. They would have managed not to attract any attention if they all weren't so b.l.o.o.d.y gorgeous. One of the women in the cafe actually said something to Jared as he pa.s.sed, which I imagined was a line of some kind.
”s.l.u.t.” I hadn't realised I'd spoken aloud until Stuart started laughing. I shot him a scowl, but he just laughed harder. ”Your time will come, Stuart. Then I'll be the one laughing.” He just gave me a dismissive, sure, sure' look.
A little of my irritation must have been showing on my face, because the first thing Jared did when he hopped inside the car was give me one of his whatever it is, I didn't do it' looks. I merely snorted.
”They're leaving,” announced Stuart. We all looked in time to see two male vampires exit the house.
”Those are definitely the guys from the sketches,” stated Jared. ”I'll warn Chico and all the others to get ready to move.”
Obviously having heard Jared's telepathic announcement, Denny travelled in his alternate form to the car beside ours, wherein Butch and David were already waiting. Once inside it, he returned to his human shape on the backseat.
We all remained very still as the Handlers' black SUV drove by. I had no idea whether or not they took a look at us, because I focused on my newspaper to avoid any chance of eye contact. When I saw in my peripheral vision that they had turned the corner, I looked up again. It was only then that Jared having known better than to immediately slip behind the SUV started the car. At a steady pace, he exited the car parking lot and followed after the SUV. Butch kept close behind us.
As Jared drove along another street, keeping a fair distance between us and the Handlers, my enhanced vision was able to spot Chico's car up ahead, tailing the SUV from the front. I guessed that was one way to avoid suspicion, though following from the front seemed a little complicated to me.
A left turn took us all onto a very busy road.
Jared exhaled a loud sound of annoyance. ”We could have done without the heavy traffic.”
He was right. Keeping the vehicle in sight would be much easier for us, but that didn't mean we could afford to leave a lengthy distance between us and them. Doing that would be to risk losing them in the traffic. So, as advised by Chico, Jared kept two car s.p.a.ces between us and the Handlers as he drove. He was careful not to remain directly behind them by changing lanes every now and then. At one point, Max and Butch positioned the cars either side of the Handlers, so that we had all effectively boxed the SUV in.
About ten minutes into the pursuit, we came to a roundabout. Startling the h.e.l.l out of me and I'm pretty sure it equally startled the others the Handlers didn't take the first, second, third, or final turn; they instead continued to circle the roundabout...leaving us no choice but to drive on ahead of them, or expose that we were following them. b.o.l.l.o.c.ks.
Chico, too, had been forced to take the final turn or expose himself. In the visor, I was able to see that the SUV actually circled the roundabout three times. At that point, they then took the same turn that we had taken, placing them six car s.p.a.ces behind us.
Stuart took the words out of my mouth. ”What the h.e.l.l was all that about?”
”Chico thinks they're testing to see if anybody's following them,” said Jared.
”They've sensed that they have a tail?”
”It's more likely that they're doing a standard test. Chico said a lot of guys do things like quickly change their course, or enter a public building.”
I thought it wasn't a bad idea, actually. ”Circling a roundabout...I wouldn't have thought of that.”
”Chico's pulled over up ahead,” Jared told us. ”He's going to fall in from behind and take our place at the rear of the Handlers. We're going to now take his place at the front.”
”Oh, right,” I said. ”I suppose the question is, though...how do you follow someone from the front?”
”Well, according to Chico, I shouldn't watch for signals. He says that most drivers take a couple of seconds before flas.h.i.+ng the light to signal that they're turning. I should watch the driver and the tyres.” So that was exactly what Jared did. And he did pretty well at it. That was most likely a lot to do with the fact that Jared's vision enabled him to observe very well.
But then the Handlers turned down a side-street.
”s.h.i.+t,” Jared uttered.
”It's okay. Chico or one of the others can stick with them.” But Stuart was wrong. Chico didn't stick with the Handlers. He instead stopped just before reaching the corner, where Salem hopped out and proceeded to follow the Handlers on foot.
Having crossed the intersecting street, Jared made a somewhat illegal U-turn and drove down the opposite side. He parked outside a Chinese takeaway, placing him parallel with Chico. It was at that moment that Salem had returned to Chico's car.
”They've parked at the end of the one-way street,” revealed Jared, obviously having telepathically heard the info from Salem. ”Apparently there's a white van waiting there. A van that looks a lot like the mobile hospital that Erik had.”
”Stuart, time to go spying.” My announcement was met with an excited smile. Then Stuart reduced himself to molecules that went zooming out of the slightly open window and across the road. ”Where are Max and Butch?” I asked Jared.
”One of them is parked at the end of this road, and the other is waiting at the end of the other side.”
I understood why; this way, both possible routes that the Handlers could take were covered.
”Nervous?” Jared suddenly asked me, and I understood that he wasn't talking about the a.s.signment.
I smiled. ”Not in a way that means I'm unsure. But I'm nervous of being the centre of attention. And of seeing the dress that Fletcher played a part in designing.”
Jared's brows arched. ”He did? Good. I always like the stuff that Fletcher picks out for you.”
”That's because you're a pervert.”
He gave me an unapologetic, devilish grin. ”So you're not going to try to run on me?”
I shook my head, still smiling. ”You're stuck with me.”
”I like being stuck to you.”
Just then, the molecules returned to the backseat. ”They've just collected their package',” revealed Stuart, angrily, once he s.h.i.+fted back. ”How can people sell babies? How can they kill their mothers and sell their babies? It's f.u.c.king sick.”
”You'd be surprised what people would do for money,” said Jared, ”especially those who want it there and now which seems to be the case with the vampire running this op. He wants a lot of cash, and he wants it fast. I'm guessing he has to be young in vampire years. The longer a vampire has lived, the more time he's had to acc.u.mulate money. An older vampire wouldn't need to do this, or to take these kinds of risks.”
Stuart leaned forward. ”Do you think he wants it fast because he needs it fast?”
”No. Maybe he was used to a certain lifestyle as a human and he wants it back. I'm willing to bet that he was involved in criminal activity as a human and this is the only way of life he knows.”