Page 58 of Greed
A burst of laughter came from the man. “Girlie, I don’t think you’re in the position to be asking the questions.”
“Lilo, turn around and run,” her father barked.
The brute restraining him punched him in the side of the head, making him stagger and Lilo cry out.
Seeing him like this, she knew she couldn’t leave, no matter what he’d done.
Tears burned her eyes and resolve steeled her spine.
“I’m a reporter for the Cardinal Copy news,” she said. “I’ve taken photographs of you and uploaded them to our cloud facility. If you don’t let him go, or if I don’t get out of here alive, they’ll automatically publish.”
Not a peep from any of them.
Then the leader laughed in a squealing sort of way. He indicated with his Glock for the men to advance on her.
“Oh, love. Do you really think we care if our faces are published? We’ve got friends in high places. We’ve done much worse than this.”
Lilo froze. It would be difficult to extract her cattle prod without being noticed, but she had to try. She began scrunching the side of her skirt, gathering its folds, but before she got far, the cold press of a gun nudged her in the temple.
“Now,” said the leader, as he grinned while his pierced comrade threatened Lilo. “This is the last time I’m going to ask. Did you bring the contents of the safe?”
Before she could scream, before she could breathe, a shot fired, and the man in front of her collapsed in a pool of expanding blood.
The phone fell from her numb fingers in slow motion.
The torch beam sliced through the air, hitting on random sights that burned into her retinas: a pigeon sitting on the ridge of the open roof; the desperation in her father’s eyes as he met her gaze; the dark menacing approach of a hooded, blue-scarfed, leather clad body pointing his recently fired weapon at her head.
Chapter Eighteen
When Griffin dressed in his combat gear that night, he strapped light. Feeling more confident with his new ability, he’d removed all knives and daggers, all throwing stars, darts, picks and iron claws. They weighed on him. He’d kept his retractable metal bo-staff, and secured a grappling hook with a strong, thin rope to his belt. Finally, he’d strapped each fist with boxer’s tape, leaving his fingers free and tactile.
Walking out of the weapons room in the basement headquarters of Lazarus House, he tried not to pay attention to how the leather creaked. He hoped the new prototype was creak free.
Parker, Sloan and Evan were inspecting an enormous computer monitor under a glass table-like apparatus. It was a computer system hooked up to AIMI. Currently, they perused a map. All were dressed in their battle gear, except Sloan. She wore black sweats and a hoodie, dark hair tucked into her collar.
Two walls of the room were covered in ceiling-to-floor screens and flashed different video footage from CCTV cameras around town. There were computers and desks lining the third wall. Flint was seated at one, engrossed in something on the screen. Mary stood behind him with her palm on his shoulder.
“Did you locate Doppenger?” Griffin asked as he flexed his fists, testing the support of the tape.
Parker looked up. “Negative. He wasn’t in his apartment or workplace.”
His hair had been tied at the nape, his face scarf gathered around his neck along with the lowered hood. Hanging from his belt were two metal claws, ready to slip onto his fists and slice his opponents. Coming to stand next to him, Griffin felt slightly dwarfed. Not only was Parker the tallest of them, but the most robust and muscular. Griffin and Wyatt were next in body mass, then Evan. Sloan stood at a modest five foot seven. He hoped Parker would take it easy on her given this was her first time in the field for years.
“Doppenger wasn’t at the Cardinal Copy yesterday or today,” he added.
“We’ve set alerts and virtual traps around the city. If his face pops up on anything, we’ll know, and we’ll be ready.”
“I’m heading out now to the kidnapper’s rendezvous.”
“I’m coming with you.” Evan broke away. “We can take the Mustang.”
“We agreed on me doing this on my own.”
“No,” Parker added. “You agreed on you doing it alone.”
“Dude,” Sloan sighed. “Just let him come. Then he’s not pestering us when we go to find Doppenger.”
Evan pushed her playfully. “I know you’re hurting because we dragged you from your game, so I’ll pretend to ignore that.”
