Page 39 of Watch Over Me

After Kalei welcomed them and went briefly over thefamiliar agenda for the meeting, Melissa took over, talking about the recent developments of the case she was working on with Keri. Then it was Clay's turn. Then Dave's.

Soon enough, it was time for Ryan and James to speak about the Corners, but they realized quickly that it was hard to talk about one case without the other, the one Jeremy and Martinez were working on with Eddie. Right as James opened his mouth to say it and suggest a joint presentation, the door to the auditorium opened and in came Jasmine in a hurry.

"I'm sorry, everyone, but it's urgent," she told them and headed straight to Kalei, who covered his mic as she approached him.

James was in the second row, though, and was able to catch "Eddie" out of all the words she was saying in a rapid manner.

It was enough to make his heartbeat quicken in response.

Eddie was in danger.

In that moment, James was as certain as ever that his hunch was right. Something was wrong with Eddie.

Before he could react—how, he had no idea—Kalei nodded sharply at Jasmine and uncovered the mic.

"We have an emergency situation, so we're cutting the meeting short," he told everyone. "Callan, Martinez, Fowler, and Dawson, follow me to the comm center. The rest of you, you're dismissed, but teams who are not scheduled for any field work today should be ready to provide assistance at a short notice, if needed."

James clenched his hands into fists under the small desk before getting up. He wanted to grab Kalei and demand to know what had happened, but this wasn't how things worked.

"Be cool," Ryan whispered next to him as they followed their boss out behind Jeremy and Martinez. "We'll know soon enough."

Definitely not soon enough, James thought. Never before had he despised the fact that the comm center was on a different floor as much as now, when it seemed to take forever to get there.

Finally,finally, they all got in, and Kalei started talking as soon as the door closed.

"Eddie has been taken from the street right outside his house."

It felt like a punch to the solar plexus.

James couldn't breathe.

"His tracker was deactivated about twenty minutes ago," Kalei went on, "which means whoever's behind it, they know what they're doing. Or at least they're learning quickly. Before that, the tracker indicated the North Springfield area."

"He was in an abandoned warehouse," Jasmine spoke up from her chair, typing fast on her keyboard as the screenshots flashed on the monitor, one after the other. She put a tracking map on a big screen above her head. "He left a few minutes later, though, and the signal disappeared basically right outside the building."

"They realized he had a tracker on and decided to change the locations," Jeremy said, moving a few steps closer to the screen as if that could help him see better which way they could have gone.

"Most likely, yes." Jasmine nodded without glancing away from her monitor.

Fuck.Fucking damn it. That was not supposed to happen. Not to Eddie.

"Okay, so what does it mean, then?" Jeremy turned towards them. "Did Lavon or Corner realize he'd overheard them?"

"Apparently." Martinez frowned. "It would be too big of a coincidence otherwise."

"But how?" James spoke up, his throat unclenching just so. "They never went into the storage room, which was completely dark, from what Eddie described. And they left first."

"Maybe they saw him leaving after them—or someone else at the party spotted him and connected the dots later on," Ryan said from his side. "Or maybe they didn't see him at all, but figured that if he looked too closely into their project, he'd realize it was a hoax."

James bit his lip hard.

This was the result of risking their comms personnel like that.

A part of him knew that was unfair to say, which was why he stayed quiet. He didn't need to make anyone else feel bad because he was panicking and his stupid brain was running with it.

"Whatever it is, it's almost certainly connected to the CyberMode assignment, and, beyond that, the Corner assignment." Kalei turned to Jasmine again. "Check the trackers on Lavon and Corner. Maybe we'll get lucky and one of them slipped."

They didn't. Both of the trackers had been turned off, which, although allowed, wasn't what the security team recommended at the beginning of any assignment.

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