Page 27 of Very Special Forces

"Wherewas the sighting?" I asked.

"On thewest side of town. I'll need to check into the cameras around thereto pick up the trail but I thought you'd want to know rightaway."

"I did,thank you."

"Do youwant me to cancel the search around Chester?"

"No,keep going with that," I decided. "I'd like to build a trail of thetank's journey, but since we know where it was around one am, youcan focus your search on that time and location."

"Onit."

I pushedthe map of Chester to one side and printed a new one forMontgomery; then I printed another that focused specifically on thewest side and outskirts of town. I'd grown up in West Montgomery, anice, safe, family-oriented neighborhood where my parents stilllived. If a tank inexplicably appeared there, the wholeneighborhood would know about it. Since my parents hadn't called tolet me know that some idiot had parked a tank on their driveway,that meant I should focus my search on the outskirts where therewere less nosy neighbors.

First, Ichecked the map for any roads that led out to the highway ratherthan through the West Montgomery neighborhood. There was one but itwas narrow and winding; not the sort of road a tank transporterwould find easy to navigate. That didn't mean it couldn't be done,only that it probably wasn't the first choice.

Several large buildings occupied this area but I rememberedthere were reports in theMontgomeryGazetteabout some kind of financialmismanagement of the land rents a few years back and the businesseshad gradually moved out, leaving the warehouses empty. I stabbed myfinger on the map. These would be perfect places to hide a tank:big, empty and away from prying eyes.

Ichecked my watch. I had plenty of time to drive out there and takea look before I headed home. Plus, it would be nice to get out inthe fresh air. My mind made up, I locked my laptop in the drawerbeneath my desk, grabbed my purse and keys and headed towards theunderground parking lot.

Thirtyminutes later, and after some loud singing along to the radio andseveral curse words later, I exited Century and its jammed-uptraffic backlog. I pointed my inconspicuous VW west. I had zeroplans to actually find the tank — and zero clues what to do with iteven if I did — but some light reconnaissance would be interesting.All I had to do was drive around the industrial park, maybe parkand peek in a few windows, perhaps ask a bored security guard ifhe’d seen anything suspicious recently and then headhome.

Thecloser I got to the warehouses, the more spaced out the trafficbecame until there was only my car. I rolled past the firstwarehouse and pulled over to the side of the road, suddenly awareof how lonely the area was. There was no one around to hear me...no, I had no intention of screaming. I wasn't even going to fullyfinish that thought!

I pulledthe printed map from my purse and spread it across the steeringwheel. The buildings didn't follow a logical grid system. Instead,they seemed to have been dropped into place. Most were situatedalongside the main road with a few more having narrow access roadsleading to warehouses behind other warehouses. The map showed thewarehouses were all different sizes, some small, some sprawling butnow as I looked at the one opposite, I realized even the small oneon the map was huge in reality.

Droppingthe map on the passenger seat, I pulled back onto the road anddrove at a steady pace around the area before heading towards theroad that led out to the highway. Ten minutes later, I'd run theentire length of the road and pulled a U-turn before I was forcedonto the highway. The road wasn't as narrow as the map appeared andthe twists and turns were longer rather than jackknifing. I wasn'tentirely sure of the space a tank transporter took up on a road,but at night and without a single other vehicle around, I couldn'tsee a reason why it couldn't easily take this route.

Startingmy search at the nearest warehouse, I pulled into a small parkinglot in front of a gray building. I got out and walked theperimeter, my phone in hand, just in case. A door around the sidehung open so I pulled it open a little further, grateful the hingeswere well oiled so they didn't scream with the movement, andstepped into the doorway. There was nothing but cavernous space. Ishut the door and made a mental note to tell Solomon to submit abid to manage the security here.

Climbingback into my car, I repeated the same actions on two more abandonedwarehouses and marked a large “X” on the map over the fourwarehouses I couldn't get close to. Two had secure chain linkfences, one had a security guard who said the site was unoccupiedand didn't seem very chatty, and a fourth had a pair of rottweilersthat looked like they intended to eat me. All but one could haveconcealed a tank.

My finalwarehouse was along a service route that led between two emptywarehouses. I drove up, hopped out and started my perimeter walkbut not before something red and blinking caught my eye. An activesecurity camera. I froze, watching it for a moment but it didn'tmove. All the same, I got a feeling that I didn't like. Someone waswatching, but whom?

Twodumpsters were pushed up against the front of the building, andabove them were a row of grimy windows. I hoisted myself up,prepared to take one quick look and then get out of there. Thanksto Lily's commitment to exercising me, pulling myself up onto thedumpster lid was no problem. I climbed up, steadied my feetshoulder-width apart, and leaned against the building, my palmsagainst the filthy glass as I squinted.

Somebody— no, several somebodies! — were moving around inside and I couldsee racks of shelving and tables full of open laptops.

Behindme I heard a click.

Iturned, gulping as fear washed over me, and blinked at the manholding a gun on me. "Maddox?" I said, frowning. Then the dumpstershifted under me and I fell backwards, my arms flailing into theair.

ChapterEight

You knowhow sometimes life doesn't turn out quite like you planned? Thiswas one of those moments. There was no way I could have figured mycurrent misfortune into the day's events. A moment ago, I was onthe cusp of a big discovery; now I lay on my back atop a soft layerof who knew what? All I detected was how much it stank and it wasgetting worse by the minute. Then something ran over myfoot.

"Unbelievable," I muttered as I stared upwards.

"Hi!Lexi?" Maddox's head appeared over the lip of the dumpster. Hebrushed back his short crop of dark brown hair, sniffed, pulled anappalled expression then disappeared.

Wait.Something ran over myfoot?!

"Help!"I yelled as I began to flounder. What if the creature that ran overmy foot wanted to eat me? "Help!" I yelled again, only louder thistime. Grasping for the sides of the dumpster, I leveraged my bodyupright and something squelched under me. That lit a rocket undermy ass. I grabbed the hand that appeared over the lid and launchedmy torso up and over the top, catapulting my body in a mostungainly fashion. I landed on the ground with a nasty thump andwinced. Struggling upright, I leaned my back against the dumpster,my heart racing, and pulled my knees up to my chest.

"Hey,"said Maddox, crouching next to me. He leaned forward and tucked apiece of hair behind my ear. Nope. He didn't do that. He actuallyjust extracted what appeared to be a piece of lettuce from my hair.His nostrils flaring, he mashed his lips together to prevent thelaughter from escaping as he flung it away. "Are youokay?"

"Don'tlaugh." I looked him over, noting his black suit pants and opencollared blue shirt, the sleeves rolled up. I sniffed. He smelledgreat. Fresh. Whatever was emanating from me smelled like shit. Ireally hoped it wasn't.

"I'm notlaughing," he said, his face contorting.

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