Page 26 of Ignite: Tony's Story
“I’m sorry.” Bennet is more than just his employer, he’s his friend and someone he likes and respects very much. I know he’s got to be more upset than he’s letting on. “What can I do to help?” I ask as he releases me.
“We’re just now trying to put together a plan. All we know is that Adley went to Raleigh, and that Bennet’s people think he may have been taken there with him against his will. We have nothing concrete just yet. I was just trying to get Bennet’s PI on the phone. He’s supposed to be staking out the warehouse, but he isn’t answering.”
“If Jackson Adley took him to Raleigh, there’s a good chance one or both of them will end up in that warehouse. We need to get eyes in there.”
“But how?” Quinn asks.
“By doing what we do best, of course,” I tell him, patting his shoulder.
***
“Here, I’m making another pot.” Quinn fills my coffee cup with the last of the coffee. Not that it’s helping much. My eyes feel like sand at this point.
We’ve been up all night trying to find a backdoor into the warehouse lab. I wish Tony could get ahold of that private investigator. I’d like to know how hard it would be to get into the building. If I could place a few concealed devices in the building, it’d be easier to hack the signal.
“Fucking shit!”
Quinn and I jump up and run into the office, where Tony has managed to get into the video feed for the security system at the warehouse.
We stare at the screen in horror and disbelief as we watch a man, tied to a medical chair, get hit with a cattle prod repeatedly. There are all kinds of equipment set up around him, including various monitors. Someone in a lab coat is standing in front of the monitors, taking notes.Like they’re studying him.
Horrified, we watch them do this for hours until the man finally passes out. They drag him through some hallways and drop him in a room with a thick metal door.
“Was that Bennet?” I ask, tears in my eyes.
“Yeah,” Tony says quietly.
Quinn interrupts the silence as we watch the door, waiting to see what happens next. “Just so we’re clear, there’s no doubt that we need to call them back now, is there?”
Tony’s been unsure about calling Bennet’s friends back. If it ended up being a false alarm and Bennet was fine, he’d be mad at Tony for sharing his personal information. Apparently, he’s an especially particular and private person. He sounds like a douche to me, but it’s clear that Tony cares for the man.
Nodding, Tony picks up his phone. He dials and puts it on speaker.
A deep voice answers. “Hello?”
“Hey. This is Tony. Brenda called me yesterday. I wasn't going to call you back—Bennet's big on privacy, you know. But I happened to already be working on hacking the security system at the warehouse in Raleigh. I got in a couple of hours ago and I saw some pretty disturbing shit, so I figured working together on this would be our best bet.”
“Best bet at what?” Asks Luis.
“On getting him out, I hope.”
There’s a scuffle in the background, and then a woman speaks, the worry in her voice so obvious that it makes my chest hurt.
“Did you see him? Is he there? Is he okay?” She asks.
Tony hesitates and then answers truthfully, as best he can. “He's alive. I wouldn't say he's okay, though.”
“Should we call the police?” A different deep voice asks, farther away from the phone. “Never mind, that was dumb.”
I’m shaking my head, but Tony and I have already compared notes on just how corrupt Jackson Adley is.
“The chain of corruption goes pretty high up, too, so I don't know if I'd feel safe reporting to anyone in case it puts Bennet in more danger. He's been working on pulling together evidence against his father for years. He might have a safe FBI contact, but he's never shared who it is or how he got in touch with them,” Tony says.
“I've been thinking that there might be something on his computer. We have it here, but of course, none of us can get into it.” I’m having a hard time keeping up with the amount of unfamiliar voices coming through, I have no idea who’s talking.
Tony’s mouth twists, and then he reaches for his keyboard and opens up a new screen. “I can probably help you get into his computer. But knowing Bennet, he likely has all the important stuff locked down. I taught him well. This could take some time.”
I sit at my station on his other side, working on getting into the rest of the system while Tony talks to a guy named Lukas about getting into Bennet’s computer.
