Sang waited until Gabriel had walked down the road and turned the corner before she took off after him. She would have to maintain a safe distance in order to prevent him from spotting her and finding out that she was following him to the warehouse. As she walked down the quiet road she took a moment to take in her surroundings. It was the rundown and rather shabby part of town where crimes frequently occurred. More often than not, the place was swarming with police and cop cars, arrests were made almost daily and it wasn't a very nice neighbourhood to live in. Phone still in hand, Sang took the opportunity to call Matt. He picked it up almost immediately and she was thankful that she had him on speed dial.
"Sang."
"Matt, I just had a run-in with one of the Academy's members before I reached the warehouse. I parked a couple of blocks away to hide my car and I'm trailing him on foot now."
"Sounds good, just make sure he doesn't see you. You can introduce yourselves to the others later but for now just make sure you get to the warehouse in one piece."
"I hear you. Thanks Matt, take care." With that she ended the call and put her phone on silent. As she rounded the corner, the old warehouse came into view; it was a large rusty building, the signs of abandonment evident by the half smashed and boarded up windows and graffiti-sprayed walls. There was an opening on the side of the building where a door used to stand before it was kicked down, probably by the local street thugs. Sang could just about see a few dark figures making their way into the building; she was close enough to make out their masculine forms but was too far to make out their individual appearances. Gabriel, still a few meters in front of her, entered through the same eerie opening and was the last to enter. Sang looked around and decided to wait behind a dumpster for a few minutes just in case there were more men to come. Taking a deep breath, she left her hiding place and stealthily made her way to the entrance of the warehouse. Sang flattened her back against the wall and turned her head to peek out from behind the wall. From here current position she could see a bunch of men, half of which wore casual or formal-type clothing – these she pegged as the Academy guys. The other half however were dressed sloppily and untidily; they looked like they were in their mid-to-late-twenties and were of a mixture of ethnicities. Sang could make out their gruff voices but could not make out what they were saying clearly. She'd have to get closer. There was a giant pile of fallen debris along with large pieces of broken furniture scattered around the ground floor of the warehouse where the meeting was taking place. Due to the boarded windows and dark interior of the building, she decided to take advantage of this lack of light and tiptoed towards a pile of debris that was close enough to the men and hid her slight form well. She pulled out her small compact mirror that doubled up as a recording device and switched it on as she could relay the information she gained back to TIBI.
Focusing her attention on the meeting at hand she listened in to their conversation. It seemed that the drug ring leader had sent his trusted lackeys to meet with the Academy guys and discuss details of their next deal.
"We'll have the goods by tomorrow evenin'," one of the lackeys said. He wore a navy hoody and had tanned skin. "It's just bein' shipped in from Chicago. Y'all don't need to worry, everything is under control." he finished, rubbing a hand over his forearm.
"That sounds great. Remind me again of the name of the product?" said one of the Academy guys – he was one of the finer dressed men, wearing a suit and tie. His eyes were grey and his demeanour portrayed confidence and self-assurance. It was Owen Blackbourne; he looked even more striking in the flesh. It seemed that the group had made a collective decision to solely allow Owen Blackbourne converse with the lackeys, the others seemed to be there for backup and to make the group look bigger in number. Sang realised that all nine members of their team were there, Gabriel standing closest to where they had come from as he was the last one in.
"It's called JH-15," began another one of the drug guys, who had short red hair and wore a dirty plaid shirt and worn jeans. "It's basically a refined version of JH-14, which is synthetic weed. We had a bad batch of it before so we had to stop dealing it and we created a new one. This one is selling out fast so y'all better keep up your end of the deal and give us the money." Owen Blackbourne seemed to contemplate this for a moment as a thoughtful expression overtook his otherwise blank face.
"I see. It's a deal," he said, extending his hand out. Certainly not a man of many words, Sang thought to herself. The deal was done fairly quickly after that. Hands were shook, dates were arranged, and forced smiles were exchanged. Sang switched off her recording device and put her compact mirror back into her bag, taking their distracted conversation as a opportunity to escape. She hurriedly and carefully walked back to the entrance and broke into a sprint to create distance between herself and the warehouse. A few minutes later, from her hidden position, she eyed the guys coming out of the warehouse; the lackeys had their hoodies up and were walking in the opposite direction to the Academy guys. It took a moment for her to register the fact that the Academy guys were coming straight towards her. There was honestly no way for her to come out and walk away without being spotted by one of the Academy guys – it would most likely be Gabriel himself who would recognise her and call out to her. She couldn't just hide there and do nothing... there was absolutely no way they would walk straight past her without noticing she was there. She'd have to think fast because they were approaching rapidly. Spotting a piece of rock lying nearby, she quickly crouched and picked it up. Finding the sharp end, she used the rock to make a long, but shallow cut on the side of her ankle. Instantly, blood rose to the surface of her pale skin and began trickling down. It wasn't too painful, for after spending years with her mother, she had acquired much worse injuries from her cruel punishments. Her scars ran deep, both physically and psychologically. Looking up, Sang realised the guys were approaching rapidly. She sank to the ground and budged out a bit from her hiding place to make herself a little more visible, sticking her ankle out at a weird angle. She pinched her cheeks to add more colour to them and cause a few tears to spring up and pool in her eyes. It wasn't hard for Sang to act like she was upset and in pain – she'd been through so much in her mere nineteen years that she could play the part on command. Playing injured would not only give her the realistic look of a girl who had just tripped, but would also give her the opportunity to meet all nine of the Academy guys at once.
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