Demons Grasp

Chapter 13

When I walk down the metal stairs to the hangout, I meet Flex. "Good morning" I greet him. "Hey. Whatcha got there?" He eyes the cartons I am carrying. "Breakfast." "Nice." He opens the uppermost box and grabs a muffin. Chewing, he continues his climb.

Downstairs, Tess and Maya are sitting at a desk, talking. Dylan looks like he has not moved all night. And Max is nowhere to be seen. I drop off my boxes on the counter of the kitchenette and join Tess. By the time I reach her table I can see several people already circling in on the food.

"Any luck with the phone?" "Piece of cake" Maya responds. "We already have full access. The call history was recently wiped, but the last call was still on it. Max is tracing it. Tess and I are working on his recent movements. That moron used google maps. So we have already a number of potential locations to scope out. I am assuming this is the cottage where you were attacked?"

She points at the map displayed on the screen in front of us. A map marker indicates a wooded area about 200 km south of here. "Yes." "He went straight to an abandoned paper factory about an hour north-west of here" Tess says, indicating another marker. A blue line connects the two locations. "Then he moved in a 20 km radius around that area" She presses a button and a chaotic cluster of blue lines appears. "And after that he came to this town and went to the vicinity of our encounter more or less straight away." Another press of the button and the line changed again.

"Do we have any idea how he even found me?" Tess swivels her chair around to face me directly. "We think that he might have bugged your car." How could I have been so stupid? "Does that mean I led them right to you guys as well?" "Possible." The sudden sound of Max' voice right behind me startles me.

"Isn't it dangerous to stay here, then?" "We have cameras in the area, access to CCTV and a security system. We will see them coming." I am not fully convinced by his confidence. But I am distracted by Dylan coming over. "I have not found any cameras directly on the premises of the abandoned paper factory. But I was able to access CCTV in the area and I have screened the recordings." He sits down on the edge of our table and runs a hand through his hair, messing it up even further.

"Two days ago around ten thirty pm a car entered the premises. No further activity until about 6 am the next morning. The same car returns in the early afternoon hours of the same day. Shortly before midnight the car leaves again." I am not even asking how they managed to access not only the current CCTV but also recordings of it.

"This fits the google maps timeline on the phone." Tess. "So we can assume that this was his car. And that there is a likelihood of Jake being held within that abandoned paper factory." "But we do not know that for sure" Max replies. "I will get back to tracing this call now. Maybe this will tell us more."

At that moment Flex comes stumping down the metal stairs again. Arriving at its foot, he holds up a hand showing off a small, black device. "Looks like Flex found something." Dylan gets up and walks together with Max towards Flex' desk.

I drop down on the recently vacated space. "I wish I had paid more attention to the video yesterday, when they hacked us. Maybe there would have been some hint on their location in there." "That is a good idea, MC!" Tess exclaims. "Maybe one of the others was thinking quick enough to hit record." "Right" Maya chimes in. "I'll ask around."