Page 106 of Being Lost

I’m not the only one to exhale my breath loudly. “Okay, fan out. Look around. Pennywise, is the coast still clear?”

“Not even a mouse moving,” he replies. With the powerful scope that he’s got he’s probably not exaggerating what he can and can’t see.

I head to the office, Token with me. He fires up an ancient looking and grubby PC, while by the beam from my flashlight, I look through the paperwork. There doesn’t seem to be anything that shows it’s anything other than a legit business, but as a front, they’d need to be seen to be doing the work.

I glance at Token who shakes his head. “It’s clean as a whistle, Prez. I’d guess they’re prepared if they ever have a visit from men carrying a search warrant.”

Unless we’re wrong, and they’re legit and keep their noses clean. “Need Bones to look at anything?” He’s good at digging out financial shit that doesn’t make sense. He should be, he puts ours in order often enough.

Token points to the screen. “Bookkeeping is good, there’s nothing to see here, Prez.”

“Prez?” I hold my hand to my ear as Salem’s voice comes through. “Out here, in the bays. We found something.”

Sparing a brief glance for each other, Token closes down the PC, and I put the paperwork back just how I found it, then go out to see what Salem’s found. It’s a second before I can see him, and that’s only when Niran points down. Looking over into the mechanic’s pit, Salem isn’t immediately visible, then he appears like a conjuring trick.

“There’s a soundproofed room through here.”

As he indicates where he’d just emerged from, I jump down.

“Wait.” Salem holds up his hand, he points. It looks like the side of any other pit in any auto-shop in town.

“There’s something behind it?”

“Sure is.”

When I shine my flashlight on him, it shows he’s only got his weight on one leg. “You hurt?”

“Accident, Prez. When I jumped down, I slipped on some oil and my leg shot out from under me.” He rubs at his backside where he obviously went down. “Wrenched my ankle, but I’ll live.” Salem brushes away my concern. “When my foot hit the wall, I heard a noise that sounded hollow. Once I knew I was looking for something, I found the mechanism that opens it up.”

It, as I find once he opens it to show me, is a room which is heavily padded. There are bunk beds on three sides, six in total. There’s barely a foot of clear ground in the middle, and some of that is taken up by a bucket. It doesn’t take a genius to work out what we’ve found.

“Another one here,” Niran yells from two pits along. “I’ve got six bunks here.”

“Nothing in the other pits,” Token shouts.

“Found the fuckin’ tunnel,” Dart’s voice says grimly in my ear. He reminds me he’s been listening to what’s been going on over here. “Their operation includes both the restaurant and the auto-shop.”

“Jesus.” I wipe my hands down my face realising we’ve got proof now. We’re on the right track. Then suddenly, I realise something. “This is a place where people trafficked will be stored. Soundproofed so no one can hear them screaming. And if they’re going out tomorrow night…”

“It’s possible they’ll be bringing them in tonight under cover of darkness.”

Else why have a place ready to hold them? I don’t bother addressing Salem’s comment, just give a terse command. “Everybody out. Now. Dart, you copy?”

“Copy that. We’re moving.”

“Curtis?”

“I’m ready to swing by and pick you up.”

Knowing my VP will have his end well in hand, we go out the same way we came in, Token taking far too long in my view to rearm the alarm, then we’re relocking the door. Salem’s limping badly, but when I question him, he again says it’s just strained and nothing’s broken.

“Movement, Prez,” Pennywise suddenly says hastily. “A truck’s just arriving out the front. Make that two. Men getting out, coming in your direction.”

“Want us there, Prez?” Dart’s voice sounds.

“Get the fuck clear and back to the compound,” I instruct him. My aim is for us all to slip away without anyone being any the wiser.

“They’re outside the shop now,” Pennywise warns.

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