Page 89 of Nuclear Option (Owens Protective Services)

Since no one else moved, I walked forward. Cash grabbed my arm, shooting me a warning look. “We need this,” I said, pointing out the obvious.

His lips thinned, but he nodded. “I’ll go first.”

I allowed him that since I knew it was hard for him to swallow what just happened. I followed him below, as did everyone else. The man moved around the massive computer lab he had set up, making what I had seen at the OPS office seem like child’s play in comparison. I could tell everyone was impressed by the setup.

The man was scattered, walking around frantically, shoving his long hair behind his ear as he suddenly sat in his seat and started typing. His eyes darted between screens, as his fingers flew across the keyboard frantically. I watched in amazement as the man switched from one keyboard to the next, until he finally spun around with a grin on his face.

“I know where Noah is. I had to check in with him and make sure he was good for company. You can’t trust anyone nowadays.”

“Is my aunt still alive?” I asked, suddenly desperate for information.

He frowned at me. “Well, we don’t really talk about that stuff.”

“Where can we find him?” Cash demanded.

“He’s—”

But he was interrupted by the sound of a helicopter flying over his house. We all glanced up, waiting to see if the helicopter would pass over us, but it was clear they weren’t going anywhere. The man shot up from his seat and raced over to the hatch, pulling it shut so no one would find us. Then he ran over to the wall and hit a button. All his computers started doing something funny, and then a skull appeared on one screen, laughing at us.

“What are you doing?” Cash asked.

“Destroying all information,” he said, running over to the corner of the room. He grabbed a messenger bag and flung it over his shoulder, then turned to the wall. “I assume one of you got tagged. Not surprising. I should have expected that one of you wasn’t as good as you thought.”

“Hey,” Rae snapped. “Do you really think I would have found you if I was stupid enough to get tagged?”

He felt along the wall until he found whatever he was looking for. A hissing sound filled the air as the wall suddenly opened and led into a long passageway.

“Obviously, you were tagged, or they wouldn’t have found you.” He stepped over the hump in the ground and started walking quickly down the passage, leaving no choice but for us to follow. “Shut the door behind you,” he called over his shoulder.

Fox immediately turned and looked for a handle or something to shut the door, and when Cash turned on the flashlight on his phone, we saw the switch on the wall. Rae was already running to keep up with the man who was practically flying through the tunnels, muttering to himself.

“The fact that you even thought you could find me without them catching on is just stupid. I bet you were being followed the whole time. Did they have a cell phone when they talked to you?” He snorted. “They could have even given you a tracker in your arm. You might not have even known it. Sometimes it’s just a clear dot that absorbs into your skin. They touched you, didn’t they?”

I didn’t even know what he was talking about, but I wasn’t about to question him, and it seemed no one else was going to either. The tunnel started to get skinnier with a lower ceiling, until we had to get down on our knees to follow him. It was nearly impossible to crawl with one arm in a sling, but the hard part came when the crawling turned into scooting on our bellies. By that point, Cash was ahead of me, his hand grasped onto my arm, pulling me through the tunnel.

By the time we reached the end, he hoisted me out and set me on my feet. We were in some kind of cavern and the guy had a flashlight pointed at us so we could see.

“What is this place?” Cash asked, coughing at the dust around us.

“My underground lair,” the man answered.

“Sorry, but what is your name?” I asked, waving the dust away from my face.

His face went serious as he quickly ran over to me, grabbing me by both arms. “You don’t know me!”

I winced at the pressure on my shoulder, but moments later, Cash ripped him away from me and tossed him up against the wall. “You don’t ever touch her, do you understand me?”

“Cool, man. It’s cool!” His eyes were wide as he held up his hands. Cash nodded and released him. The man grabbed a rubber band and tied up his long hair with it. “People know me as Mole. I don’t go by another name.”

“Mole,” I said slowly.

He nodded, then shone the light around the cave. “Nobody can track us down here.” He opened his messenger bag and pulled out a foil hat, slipping it over his head. “Just in case. You never know when they’re listening, and I’m pretty sure the last time they visited me, they inserted something into my brain.”

“Mole,” Cash stepped forward. “We need to get to Noah. Can you tell us where he is?”

The man grinned. “Better than that. I can show you. Come on,” he turned and started walking. “It’s just another five mile hike.”

We all exchanged a look, none of us sure if we should follow. But what were the alternatives?

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