Page 11 of Of Sinners & Salvation
“We’re not kicking him off,” Saint says firmly. He frowns at Angel. “Get it together, man.”
Angel scowls, but he doesn’t accuse me of working with a rival gang again, so we’re making progress.
“So,” Nathaniel says. “An ordinary tracker will ping off a cell tower, but the problem is, they’re too easily detectible and too easily tampered with. I use something more secure. The downside is, it can be traced back to you easily, as it’s more like pairing your device, but it works at a much longer range than a photo drop or something along those lines.”
“But they deactivated it,” Saint says.
“Not quite,” Nathaniel says. “It looks like the signal has been blocked, but it’s still active. I’ll see if I can work around it, but it might take a while, so settle in. By the way, my overnightrate is double.” He beams at Saint, like he’s trying to piss him off for his earlier comment about not needing payment.
“We talked to a guy earlier,” Angel says. “One of the guys from the video. He said it was the Disciples.”
“Why didn’t you bring him?” Saint demands.
“He’s dead,” Angel says flatly.
“You dumbass,” Saint snaps. “We could have gotten information out of him.”
“I did,” Angel says. “Before he had a tragic and sudden accident.”
“What if he remembered something else?” Saint grits out.
“He wouldn’t,” Angel says. “But there were two other guys there. We can get information out of them.”
“Yeah?” Saint asks. “Then where the fuck are they? Because the only Disciple I’ve seen around was Salem Sincero.”
“You saw Salem?” I ask. “What did she say?”
“Nothing much,” Saint says, shrugging. “She was at Sinner’s Tower. Just being weird and refusing to answer my questions.”
“What exactly did she say?” Nathaniel asks, looking up, his fingers going still for once.
“I told you,” Saint says. “Nothing.”
I glance at Nathaniel, frowning. I’m not sure how well he knows the Sinceros, but his reaction indicates he knows at least a bit.
“Sinner’s Tower is closed,” I say. “And Salem doesn’t say ‘nothing.’ She might be cryptic or elusive, but she doesn’t talk for the sake of it.”
“Agreed,” Nathaniel says. “Tell us exactly what she said. There might be a clue there.”
Saint sighs and pulls out a chair opposite Nathaniel before dropping into it. “Let’s see. She called me ‘sailor,’ and ‘Little Boy Blue.’ She said she was a siren luring me in orhypnotizing me. She said she thought Mercy was my girlfriend, and when I said she’s my sister, she asked if I had more sisters, asked if our parents were looking for her, and then made some comment about her dad not caring about her.”
Nathaniel’s fingers fly over the keyboard as Saint speaks, taking notes of what he said. When he looks up, Saint hesitates, like he’s not sure if he wants to reveal more.
“And?” I press, frowning at him. “We need all the information we can get.”
“She said Nate should be our first suspect,” Saint admits. “That he’s the ‘main freak on campus.’ And she said I could tell you that.”
Nathaniel nods, inputting the last bit. “That tracks,” he says. “I’m probably the smartest person at Thorncrown. I could definitely make someone disappear—at least digitally.”
“Then why the fuck are we trusting you?” Angel growls. I’ve never seen him so volatile. He’s usually easygoing and agreeable.
“What choice do you have?” Nathaniel asks. “The only other hacker in town was Baron Dolce, and he’s been gone for months. You could bring in an outsider, of course. If you know one.”
I can tell Angel’s about to clock the kid for his smugness, so I rest a calming hand on his shoulder. He relents, though he shoots me a dark look.
“I don’t think Nathaniel has any reason to lead us astray,” I point out.
“Maybe we should go back to Sinner’s Tower,” Saint says. “See if we can get some straight answers out of them this time.”
