Page 12 of Operation: Discovery

That meant she’d had at least one patient who used a chair, so she didn’t try to get everyone walking again. He quickly put the left wheel on, then transferred from the car to the chair. Connor came down the front steps and met them at the edge of the parking lot. “Welcome. Lunch will be served in about twenty minutes. Lacy is still putting a cabin together for you, so why don’t you come on inside and we can talk for a minute about what we can do for you.”

Moira looked nervously at Dee, then back to Connor. “Would it be alright if Dee came with us? I’m just not comfortable walking into a room alone with a man I don’t know. Not after today.”

He held up his hands. “I don’t mind at all. Brendon, I’ll come down to your office after the Bixbys are settled in.”

And then he’d find out what in the world was going on with Connor. How often in the past had he said that they couldn’t take in everyone? They had to help those who were best suited to the program, or they risked losing funding. Had all of those thoughts gone out the window when they’d started their second-chance missions?

He headed to the opposite end of the porch and rolled up the ramp. For the first time in months, he felt the slight chill of fall in the air. School would start in a week, and then the cool weather would descend on Wyoming like a blanket.

Rolling toward his office, he calmed as soon as he entered the hall. This was his space, an area he could control. Not like out there, where he had to constantly think about his next destination and how he could maneuver to it. Then again, he’d been that way before his injury too, always looking for the easiest and shortest way to a goal.

As he passed Connor’s office, he heard Dee’s voice, and he slowed his pace.

“Brendon worked with the police to get the situation in hand, but as far as I know, no one was apprehended, and they got away with one eight year old boy. They’d all left the building before the police arrived, like they’d known the police were on the way.”

Connor answered, “That building is perfect because there are two parking lots, one in the front and one in the back. The one in the back is literally one turn away from the freeway.”

Brendon kept going so no one would notice he’d been listening in. He didn’t know Piper’s Ridge as well as Connor did, since he hadn’t lived in the area his whole life, and Piper’s Ridge, being an older town, wasn’t as easy to navigate for his chair as Cheyenne. Even though it was further for him to drive, he usually chose to simply drive further for an easier trip.

He pulled in behind his desk and locked the brake on his chair, then unlocked his desk and opened the file drawer. While it was possible there was another trafficking ring in Cheyenne, he suspected they were dealing with Viceroy again. He ran his finger down the front page until he found Scarlet’s phone number. A one-time patient, she was in Duluth now, living on a rural security compound where The Guardians, who had helped Wayside in the past, were now headquartered.

Dialing the number, he waited, tapping his pen. Scarlet might not have any answers. She wouldn’t have been part of any organ harvesting. But she may have seen children and he wanted to know everything she knew. If this was Viceroy, he wanted every scrap of information he could find.

“Hello?” Scarlet’s voice sounded tentative.

He couldn’t blame her. He doubted she’d given out her number to many people, and she wasn’t the type to reach out to strangers. “Scarlet, this is Brendon Ruse. How are you?”

Silence filled the line for a moment. “Fine. But I doubt this is a call for a friendly chat to catch up. What’s wrong?” Her voice was hard, like it had been the first week or so when she’d had sessions with him.

“You’re right. We’ve encountered something new here in Piper’s Ridge and I’m not sure if we can pin this on Viceroy or if we have someone new on the scene.”

Scarlet remained silent for a few seconds. “Let me go to my room and turn the phone on speaker so Trace can hear, too.”

He’d forgotten Trace had found his voice, at least in part, before they’d left for Duluth. “Thanks.”

He waited until Scarlet got the phone set up. “We’re here,” Scarlet said.

Brendon waited for a moment and his training forced him to slow down. “How are you and Trace doing?”

“We’re both working, being careful, trying to live normal lives,” Scarlet answered.

Trace’s gravelly voice came next. “We’re helping Artemis some.”

Artemis was the leader of The Guardians, the security team that had helped them against Viceroy a few months before. “And he’s okay with that?” Trace was barely an adult and though he could hold his own, was still small after what he’d been through.

“Yes, why wouldn’t he be?” Trace answered.

Brendon went through a laundry list of reasons why security might not be a good fit for Trace, namely his anger issues, though Brendon could understand why he had them. Trace had been through a lot, including losing most of his teeth at the hands of Viceroy’s men.

“Trace, he was only asking. There’s no need to get touchy,” Scarlet scolded.

“I have every right to be part of the security team, just like any of the others.”

Brendon had noticed that Trace, despite his inability to speak while he was at Wayside, had always wanted to be part of what was going on, to help or be noticed. Maybe Artemis had observed the same and was giving Trace a way to feel needed and appreciated.

“I’m glad you’ve planted your feet on solid ground. I’m calling to ask about something that might be difficult for both of you.”

“We assumed as much,” Scarlet said.

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