Page 65 of Unraveling Connections

“Where’s Emmerson?” I ask, I honestly have no idea, as soon as I heard Ever scream, I was running, and I didn’t focus on anything else.

“She’s where we found her, someone gave her a blanket and she’s being debriefed by one of the others in case she noticed anything before she charged in here,” Cash explains.

“Got it,” I reply. “She is going to need to stay put for a while, Ever, Luc and Pete are with the kid, and he needs them, he most likely won’t talk to anyone else, he feels safe with Ever. We also need to help open as many of these as possible.”

Trick nods, “Yeah, she knows all that. She is happy staying put.”

“Alright, let’s open some of these crates then,” Atlas says, not looking exactly excited about the prospect.

Not that I am, either. I can completely understand why Ever screamed when she came face to face with eyes. I would have too, and I'm trying to convince myself that I won't yell if ithappens to me. I should be alright because I am now expecting it.

“We’ve got a person over here,” Someone yells to Trick, he has automatically become the one that is in charge of this.

The organization doesn’t run on seniority, where the older you are or the more years that you have been with the organization the higher up the chain of command you are. It is done on skills and success rate, and we have a very high success rate, which is why many of the teams weren’t too fond of us in the beginning and are still slightly off with us now. It has gotten a lot better since we saved a lot of their lives when the mole was trying to kill off as many of us as possible. They are at least less combative than they were, and they now automatically accept that Trick is calling the shots in this sort of situation.

It is a lot of pressure, and I have no idea how Trick handles it. I couldn’t do it, but fortunately, no ones ever going to ask me to. At least not on a scale this size.

Chapter Twenty

Jensen

Igo with Trick over to the crate that a team has opened, while the others all carry on trying to open the crate that we had chosen. I'm not sure which is worse, opening the crate to see if there is something in there or knowing that there is something in there and that there is a possibility that the condition of whoever is in there is going to haunt us for a long time.

As we get closer, the smell hits me, and I think I should have stayed with the others.

“She didn’t survive,” the guy says unnecessarily as we look into the box and see the corpse of a woman.

“She’s been dead for a while,” I say, my voice tight. “She must have managed to get her hands unbound at some point, look.”

Trick and the guy lean forward to study the area that I am pointing at, and then Trick asks, with horror in his eyes, “Those are nail marks.”

“Looks like it,” I reply, “she tried to claw herself out.”

“That is an absolutely horrific way to die,” the agent comments.

“Yeah.” I agree, “Let’s open some more of these crates, it’s too late for her but we may be able to save some of the others.”

For the next hour, that is what we do: we search through as many crates as possible, which becomes much easier when Mr R’s backup arrives. We still end up sending for more EMTs and two coroners vans, and the sight is absolutely horrific.

The warehouse is a hive of activity; people are everywhere, opening crates, helping survivors, and operating forklifts to get the crates down from the higher shelves. It is a small mercy that not every crate has a person, dead or alive in it. There are more crates without them in than there are with, which is a relief since there are hundreds of crates in here.

The ones that don’t hold the horrific sight of a person inside have the things that you would expect to be found in this situation, things like drugs and some guns too. However, there were a lot of ordinary things in it as well. It was a real mix, and somehow, finding a crate filled with baby clothes next to a crate containing a dead person made everything so much worse; the contrast between the innocence of the baby clothes and the painful death of a prison in such close proximity.

“Let’s go and find Ever and the others; we need to get Emmerson home and figure out what to do with Joe,” Trick says.

It doesn’t take us very long to find Ever, Pete, and Luc because they are still sitting in the same place with Joe, who has fallen asleep tucked under Ever’s arm.

“I got a message from Mr R. He wants Emmerson back at headquarters,” Trick says.

“What about Joe?” Ever asks with a frown of concern.

“He said to bring him. He is the only child that we have found so far, and he has got someone in mind that can watch over him until we figure out if he has got people looking for him or not.” Trick replies.

Ever nods, “Okay, let’s go and get Emmerson then. I am ready to get out of here, and I’m especially ready to get Joe out of here; he has seen enough of this place.”

“Agreed,” I say, and then look around, not spotting the others, “I’ll just send out a message in the group chat and get everyone to meet us by Emmerson.”

“Good idea,” Trick agrees. Looking at Ever, he asks, “Do you want me to take him?”

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