Page 27 of Wyatt
“You know, there’s a part of me that gets that,” said Noa. “I’ve never been much of a drinker, but it never made sense to me that I was old enough to vote, old enough to take a bullet for my country, but I couldn’t have a beer. I’m not going to call that out.”
“Agree,” nodded Nate.
They watched as a woman sat next to U-Jin, and Moose stood, excusing himself. He sat at the table next to theirs and just watched the interaction.
“What’s happening?” asked Ulani.
“She walked up and smiled at him, touched his arm, and asked if he was one of the ‘sexy’ pilots.”
“That’s pretty direct,” frowned Wyatt.
“I don’t think subtlety is their forte. She’s definitely rubbing him in all the right places. AJ? Hiro? Do you have eyes on this?” asked Ulani.
“Eyes and ears. She’s trying to get him to go out to her car. Oops. Princess just put something in his beer.”
Moose dropped his glass, causing it to shatter. The young woman jumped, turning to look at him as U-Jin swapped his beer with hers.
“Sorry,” called Moose. “I’ll clean it up.”
“I got it, honey,” said a waitress. She swept the glass and the floor and brought him another beer. Moose tipped her generously, then watched as U-Jin stood to follow the woman out of the bar.
She held his fingers, pulling him close so his hand touched her nearly naked ass. The skirt was so short that if she bent over, the entire world would know her true hair color.
Ethan, HG, Moose, Wyatt, and Ulani went out the back and around the front of the bar, while the others followed out the front. U-Jin was leaning against her car door, pretending to be slightly disoriented.
“She’s got something in her hand,” said Abe. Just as they approached the couple, the girl took the syringe from her purse and had it poised to hit his thigh.
“Uh, uh, uh. Not very nice at all,” said BJ, gripping her wrist, forcing her to drop the syringe.
“Hey! What are you doing? We’re having fun. Leave us alone.”
“Fun?” said U-Jin. “I’m not having any fun at all.”
“You were supposed to. I mean, you’re not–”
“Not what? Confused, drugged, disoriented? No, I’m not. Let’s go, princess. We’ve got some questions for you.”
When the young woman realized that they were going on base, they could see the panic in her face. She started to cry, begging to be let go, or her parents would kill her.
“Should have thought about that before you started drugging pilots,” said Wyatt.
“Listen, I don’t know who they are. I mean, we’re told they’re pilots, and we should play to their egos, but that’s all. What we inject doesn’t hurt them, it just relaxes them.”
They shoved her into an interrogation room on base and closed the door. Ulani sat across from the girl, staring at her face.
“What’s your name? How old are you?” The girl lifted her chin and lied.
“Cindy.Twenty-two.”
“Liar.One more chance.Name and age.”
“Bethany.Seventeen.”
“What the fuck are you doing?” asked Wyatt.
“I’m making money! Don’t you get it? I get five thousand dollars for every pilot I stick. That’s all I do. Hit you with the drug and then disappear. Someone else comes and takes you, and then you wake up in a few days. No one gets hurt.”
“No one gets hurt? Have you lost your fucking idiotic teenage mind?” growled Ethan. The girl started to cry again, but Ethan had no sympathy. “A pilot died because of this.”
