Page 93 of Bad Enough

“Our work entails a number of things. Fishing is one of them,” Gilgamesh inserted.

“And was the fishing good in Sallum?”

“Most of what we caught wasn’t… useful. But we did hear that the season was over for what we were hoping to catch and that the schools had moved on from that area. Since then, we’ve been traveling the country here, looking for leads on other opportunities.”

TB looked hard at them both. “Thank you for the info. Next time I’m in Egypt, I’ll have to check it out. Maybe I’ll be luckier.”

TB lowered his mouth to her ear. “No need to push the questions about the girls. I know what I need to know. Sort of.”

With that cryptic comment, the hand around the back of her neck moved to rest around her shoulders, his fingers idly playing with a strand of her hair.

They sat and talked about inconsequential things for a short while longer, and then TB made their excuses. Instead of taking her around the club further, he escorted her out to the parking lot and took her home.

“You didn’t need to ask more questions?”

“Not tonight. That triad we spoke to isn’t who we think they are, and I didn’t want you to ask more questions of them and put them in a bad spot.”

“Well, sassafras. I had more questions about triads. And I didn’t get to earn my punishment research either. What a bummer.”

He flashed her a look she didn’t understand, but it was a moot point anyway. The whole evening seemed rather anticlimactic until they got to her house, and he booted up his laptop, opening a video link. Then she understood why they’d left so early.

“Conversation with the triad came through loud and clear. Interesting discussion,” Waters said when he came online.

One by one, the others popped up from their various locations. Waters was driving in his truck. Demon had drawn watch duty tonight and was sitting in his Jeep a short distance from Flame’s house. Nemo, dressed all in black, including a balaclava pulled down around his neck, was sitting side-by-side with Midas in the back of a panel van they’d had parked down the street from the club. God’s soundwave was present, and who the hell knew where Steel was, but it was pitch black except for the light of his watch screen reflecting up on his face.

TB tagged her around the waist absently and sat her on his lap. Sylvan saw that the others noticed. None of them seemed surprised.

“There are more eyes on the club and these girls than just one undercover cop. I don’t know who they are, but Loki, Gilgamesh, and Medusa are clearly not who they say they are. However, they’re also not responsible. They’re clearly looking for the girls or whoever took them. Their focus was definitely in the bar tonight, though that could have been because they were watching for someone to come in from the outside. They waited specifically for a particular booth to clear, and it was one with a direct line of sight to the main entrance.”

“I’m still near the club, and they haven’t left yet,” Steel piped in. “I’ll try to follow them.”

“If they split up, follow the woman. She may be posing as the sub, but I’d be willing to bet my paycheck for a year that she’s in charge.”

“Roger that.”

“So we still have nothing?” God asked.

“On the girls, no, but Waters, where’s Kubrick?”

“She had a meeting in Napa Valley. What’s up?”

“Good. Don’t want her to hear this just yet. You catch what I catch?”

“Yeah. A lead on Ka-Bar. It appears your new friends have seen him as recently as April. He was in Sallum, Egypt, just off the border of Libya.”

“It’s a port,” God confirmed. “Whoever has him is moving him somewhere else.”

“And maybe moving other things,” TB added. “I got the impression that our friendly triad has been casing The Library the same way they’ve been casing other nightclubs. They mentioned being in some major cities between then and now. They said they were in the fishing business.”

“Sounds like they’re intel gathering,” Steel interjected.

TB agreed. “That’s what I thought, too. My guess is they’re some sort of mercenaries, like us, but they’re following traffic patterns, one in particular that runs through Sallum.”

“Sex trafficking?”

“That, and he mentioned they were in the business of other things, as well. I’m guessing any sort of supplies people are trying to move that they don’t want out in the open.”

Midas chimed in, “I’ve already got another search running on the dark web for anything and anyone looking for particular traits, like hair color. That’s going to be a lot to comb through though.”

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