Page 36 of Devil's Marker

“Stars & Bars caught him alone at a gas station out on 35. They kicked him and beat him with chains, set his bike on fire out in a field, then rode off and left him like that. Guess the station attendant called the cops and an ambulance.”

“Okay.” Win was up and moving toward the door.

“You got my number in your phone?”

“No.”

“Where’s your phone?”

Win held his hands up. He was wearing sweats cut off at the knees and no shirt. “My room.”

“Let’s get some numbers programmed before we take off. Awesome responsibility bein’ left in charge of the house.”

Win was fishing the key out of his pocket as he walked back to his room. When he opened up, Cue followed him in and looked around.

“Jesus Christ,” Cue said.

“What?” Win grabbed his phone off the dresser.

“You’re a neat freak. You sure you’re a biker?”

“Your surroundings affect your brain. You live in chaos, you think that way.”

“Wow.” Cue took Win’s phone and put in his contact info plus Zipper and Boss. “You need us, you’ll get one of us. Lock the place down. We’ll pay our respects. Make sure Hops is secure and most of us’ll be back in an hour or so.”

“Got it.”

“Bo and Catcher’ll show you how the security works. Good a time as any for you to figure it out.”

Win nodded. It was exactly the kind of information the Ranger could use. How to get inside should that become necessary.

He watched the monitors with Bo as the Marauders who were in residence roared away in formation.

When the gate was closed, Bo said, “Cue says you want a workshop on the system?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, nobody knows more about it than Catcher. It’s his monster baby.”

“Yeah?”

Bo nodded. “He’s good with that stuff. Boss has even talked about investin’ in a security company for him to run. Make a little clean money for the club. It never hurts to be able to say we’re legitimate businessmen. Right?”

“Right? So where is he?”

“Command central.”

“You actually have a place you call command central?”

Bo laughed. “Yeah. It sounds overblown, but wait till you get a look. It’s on the other side of the president’s office. This way.”

They walked past the office to where the hall ended in a trio of identical doors, one at the end and two facing each other. Bo stopped in front of the closed door on the left. Like the other two, it was unmarked and unremarkable in every way except for one thing. None of the three doors had handles or knobs. Instead they had digital security pads.

Bo punched in a code that was followed by a click indicating a super heavy duty lock. The door opened a crack. Stepping back after he opened the door further, Bo gestured, “After you.”

It was easy to see why they called the room command central. It was about twelve by fourteen. Not huge, but not small either. The walls were lined with a modern built-in, continuous desktop that featured several stations with keyboards. Just above the desktop were twenty-inch flat screen monitors that could be angled and adjusted according to the task and the preference of the person on duty.

Above those were grids of camera monitors, similar to the ones they had in the common rooms, that stretched to the ceiling. There was one key difference. The monitors in the common rooms kept track of what was outside. These monitors surveilled every room and hallway except the members’ private rooms. Even the president’s office had a camera on it.

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