Page 52 of Jeremy
Ifthere was ever a time they’d be watching me, it’s now, since I texted him I wascoming back home today, so my first stop is the decoy apartment. I park outfront and get out with a suitcase I packed at home. I let my shoulders slumplike I’m tired and make my way inside.
OnceI’m out of the public view, I walk around, peeking out different windows untilI see the same car they used to follow me before, parked one space over fromlast time. They really aren’t very subtle about this. Tucker would lose hisshit at this kind of sloppy surveillance.
Itake a shower and change into different clothes before heading back to my carfor the drive to True Life. My stalker falls in behind me, staying one laneover and two cars back the entire trip. Hopefully, they saw what I wanted themto. A guy returning from a trip, getting cleaned up, and heading to them, likeI claimed.
Anthonygreets me when I walk into True Life, and leads me back outside. We take a seaton the steps.
“Gladyou’re back. Did you get everything straightened out with your emergency?”
“Yeah,I owed the guy a favor. He helped me out a while back. And he was in deepshit.” I look around to make sure no one else is listening. “Some chick he wasfucking got smart, and he popped her one. She fell and cracked her head open onthe cement. It wasn’t his fault. He didn’t mean to hurt her, but they’d havelocked him up anyway.”
“Damnstraight they would have.” He studies me. “So, you know how to help inthose…situations? Might come in handy someday.”
“Ido.”
“Wantto explain how you’d handle it?”
Ilean my elbows on my knees and drop my voice as if I’m afraid of being heard.“Okay, let’s say, hypothetically, you have a package to hide. There are twoways to guarantee that package is never found, that no pieces or scraps get youin trouble later.”
Anthonynods at me to continue. “The first is tricky and takes some planning ahead. Youneed a private place where a wood chipper wouldn’t draw unwanted attention. Afarm or an isolated field. You run the package through the chipper, and catchthe scraps in a bag on the other side.” I grin at him. “A water proof one.”
“Thenyou need to find a place where pigs are being raised. If you go out in thecounties, it isn’t hard to find a farmer raising pigs. Even a few are enough.Dump the bags into the trough. The pigs will lick that shit clean. They don’tleave a chip or anything behind. I don’t know of another animal that will dothat.”
Iswipe across my forehead. “But that takes some planning, machinery, and thelocation of a pig farm. It’s not the most convenient option. Not how I’d doit.”
“So,how would you hypothetically dispose of an unwanted package?”
“Peoplemake the mistake of trying to burn it, you know, which is understandable, butit takes one hell of a hot fire and a long time to do that successfully.Fortunately, crematorium workers don’t make much money and tend to fall on themorbid side. Most have no problem chucking an extra package in the oven.Nothing left but ashes. That’s more my style.”
Anthonystares at me for a moment, then throws back his head, laughing loud enough toscare a flock of birds out of the yard. “You know, sometimes my instincts aredamn near supernatural. I knew when I met you that you’d be an asset.” He getsto his feet. “Come on. I want to show you something.”
Yeah,we’re just a couple of murder buddies as far as he’s concerned. He walksslightly in front of me, and I can’t help but wonder if he’s the one. Someonefrom this group fathered Mel’s baby. Someone hurt her. She said she’s knownmonsters, but she has no idea I’m about to slaughter the monsters for her.She’ll never have to be afraid of them again.
Anthonyleads me to an outbuilding behind the big house. While he fumbles with the keysto unlock the two padlocks on the door, I study it. Whoever taught him how toprotect his shit didn’t know much. It’d be easy to take the hinges off and getin here.
Wewalk inside, and he pulls a cord, illuminating the room and the stockpile ofweapons. Assault rifles, ammo, protective armor, gas masks. The place is adamned armory. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. None of this stuff would behard to buy. Hell, any eighteen-year-old can walk into a superstore or pawnshop and walk out with most of this stuff.
AfterI fail to react to his pile of weapons, he pulls a chest out from under aworkbench, grinning up at me when he opens it. “We finally found a legitimateseller.”
Fuck.Wrapped packages of C4, enough to bring down a damned building, share the trunkwith blasting caps and a detonator.
“Igot to be honest with you, Anthony. I don’t know anything about explosives.Playing with fireworks is the closest I’ve come.”
Helaughs and closes the box, shoving it back under the bench. “No worries. Idon’t need you for that part.” He gets to his feet and leans against the wall.“It’s actually really easy. We’ve got a guy who can rig it up. This is theexciting part.”
I’mholding my breath, hoping he’s going to reveal their target. I’m going to haveto take these guys out quicker than I thought if they’re already planning. Ican’t let them kill more innocent people.
Hepulls out a geological map. “Are those mines?” I ask.
“Coalmines.” He grins at me. “We both know all that clean coal talk is bullshit.It’s one of the main pollutants dumped into our air every day. These threemines.” He taps the paper. “All converge here. Our guy thinks he can get downthere, plant the C4 in a few strategic places and bring them all down. There’snot an overnight shift, and we’ll have to take out a couple security guards,but it shouldn’t be a problem.” He chuckles, nodding toward the assault rifles.
“Right.”I force a laugh. “Won’t take two seconds. How do we know we won’t get blown skyhigh though? It could go off early.”
“Nothreat of that. It’ll be triggered by cell phone. It won’t go off until I callthe number and trigger it.”
Istare at the paper. “Will it be enough to permanently shut them down?”
“Idon’t know, but it will definitely make anyone think twice about working forthem. Don’t you remember when those Chilean miners got trapped? It was frontand center on every news channel for months.”
