Page 21 of Zero
Rei
This entire thing felt familiar, I just couldn’t figure out why or how. Patrick, Eton and Jasmine dropped what they had been doing that day and reported to the hanger we’d been using as our base. Eton closed the door behind him, and they all waved at Bailey.
“Bailey…” Patrick greeted her. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s a long story.” She replied.
“First, whatever is said in this room, stays here.” I told them. “This is a matter of utmost importance.”
They looked at each other but nodded.
“Justice is missing,” I reported. “We can’t ask anyone for help because we don’t know why he’s missing. I believe he’s been taken and we’re going to get him back.”
“How can we help?” Eton asked.
“I need information.” I told them. “Anything, no matter how small.”
“Are you sure he’s missing?” Jasmine asked. “I mean, he applied for time off a few months ago. Maybe he’s just away somewhere.”
“He would have told me.” Bailey put in. “My brother and I are really close.”
“Plus, his place was tossed, and his beach house has a shit ton of listening devices.” I glanced around the room. “There is no shame in backing out right now.”
No one moved.
“Seriously guys.” I pushed. “This decision must not be taken lightly.”
“We’re in.” Eton spoke up. “The el-tee has been there for me, no matter if it is personal or professional. He always had time—made time. I never had that before.”
“Me too.” Patrick added. “If he’s in trouble, we have his back.”
“Jasmine?” I asked.
“As you said, this team is family.” She shrugged. “You don’t turn your back on family.”
“Good.” I dragged a chair to sit across from them. “Right now, I have a friend trying to find more information for me. Is there anything that happened with Justice in the last few weeks, months that seemed iffy then but didn’t really require a second look.”
“He started travelling a lot.” Patrick reported. “It was a little weird. We get time off, but that was a lot to be travelling.”
“Travelling? Do you know where to?” I asked.
“No.” Patrick replied.
“He always said it was for personal reasons.” Eton replied. “I mean, I’ve never travelled. I wanted to live vicariously through him, you know? But he always shut it down.”
“About a month and a half ago, he came in with a black eye.” Jasmine told us. “I didn’t ask where he got it. He outranks me.”
I rubbed my eyes. “Okay…Jasmine, I need you to sit on his beach house. If anyone goes in, I need pictures. I’ll give you my camera.”
“Aye, sir.” Jasmine replied.
“Patrick, I need you to go through his bunker here. See if you can find anything—no matter how small.”
“Sir.” Patrick nodded.
“Eton, I’m going to give you a list of places.” I looked at the youngest member of the group. “I need you to visit each of them. See if you can find out what he was doing there and if he came in with anyone. We’ll meet at Bailey’s later tonight to compare notes. Go—explore. Find me something.”
They nodded and after they were gone, I looked over at Bailey while I put in a call to Beast. He was at the HQ with the others, finishing up training. When I sounded the alarm, they all swarmed around the camera to throw questions at me.
