Heartbeats

Chapter 4

      “Genie, we´ve got a situation.” Reach said through the small earpiece.

      “No shit.” I said, turning away from the guy´s startled face.

      “I can´t reach Cammie.”

      I froze mid-step, my hand pressing the earpiece hard against my ear, hoping I had heard wrong. “What?”

      “Something´s wrong. Her line´s dead.”

      “I´m on it.”

      I turned back towards the door, but before I could walk through it, his hand grabbed my shoulder, stopping my progress.

      “Where do you thing you´re going?”

      I shook his arm off. “I have work to do.”

      His arm grabbed me again, this time by the elbow. “No, you don´t. We need to figure this thing out.”

      I lashed back at him, giving him the glare I usually reserved for when Reach ate my secret stash of candy.

      “Let. Me. Go.”

      He finally did, his face a stony mask, and I sprinted through the door, frantically peering through the bodies in search of Cam.

      “Cam!” I yelled over the music.

      I climbed on a chair, searching for blonde curls.

      “Ginny? What are you doing?” my headset crackled to life.

      My eyes widened. “Cam?”

      “Why are you standing on a chair?” she asked, amusement clear on her voice.

      I sighed. “Oh, Cam.”  I stepped down the chair. “Reach, hear that?”

      “Yeah,” he sounded distracted. “Looks like something interfered with our signal. I´m trying to find what.”

      I nodded and peeked at my watch. “Cam, how ´bout we get this over with?”

      “Sure, I´ll meet you by the stage.”

      I glanced around, noticing that Jerkface was nowhere to be seen. I wasn´t worried. Something told me I would see him again.

      I pushed the thoughts of the guy and yesterday´s mission away, and focused on the current mission.

      It went smoothly. So smooth that it was almost boring.  The guys in the transaction were acting all jumpy, their faces pale. They had no idea what they were doing. A chuckle or two escaped Cammie every once in a while and I almost joined her. By midnight, we were back in the van, Reach currently counting the money.

      “Okay girls. This will last us for a while. What do you want to do?”

      “Mmm. Relax? There´s this spa I´ve been dying to go to…” Cammie suggested.

      “We have bigger problems,” I interrupted. “Reach? Did you hear my conversation with Jerkface?”

      “Huh?”

      I rolled my eyes. “The ear pieces are there for a reason, Reach.”

      “I was too worried about Cam. What was that about anyway?”

      She shrugged. “No idea. I hadn´t even noticed the thing wasn´t working.”

      He frowned. “I think the signal was jammed, but it doesn´t make any sense. Those earpieces are top of the line.”

      I cleared my throat. “Guys?”

      “Yeah?” Both intoned distracted.

      “The guy from the failed mission was there. Which,” I continued as they snapped their attention back to me. “You would have already known about if you´d put attention to the comms.”

      Reach winced. “Sorry Gin.”

      “No worries. But he´s coming back, and we need to find out what exactly is happening. Apparently the papers I found in the desk were faked. The real papers had already been swapped.”

      After a brief silence, Cam finally asked. “You trust what he says?”

      “Not particularly, but there´s no reason for him to lie about it.”

      “You know, we could just leave it be.” Reach commented, his eyes flickering between my face and the computer. “We could just ignore it, move on.”

      “I guess.” I said uncertainty.

      A beep from Reach´s computer broke the sudden silence.

      “It´s never done that before.” Cam remarked.

      “Because it had never picked up another incognito signal before.” Reach´s hands were furiously tapping on his computer, his eyes flickering back and forth along the screen.

      “What do you mean? Another incognito signal?”

      Reach didn´t pause what he was doing as he answered. “There´s someone else using a program like ours. It has also hacked into the hotel´s security system. I think I just discovered what interrupted Cam´s signal.” This time he glanced up at us. “If my computer picked up their signal, they probably picked up ours as well.”

      Cammie cursed under her breath. “What do we do?”

      I sighed rubbing my eyes. “We go after them.”

      “What?”

      “Yeah,” I said as I tried to dispel my sudden tiredness. “I think its Jerkface´s team.”

      Reach pinpointed their position easily. They were almost at the other side of the parking lot, probably on another van.

      “Put you earpieces back on.” I instructed. “Cam, get your sniper. I want you on the building on the other side of the street. If anything seems wrong, you fire.” I turned to our tech guy. “Reach, you do what you do. Keep an eye on the parking lot cameras. Lock the doors; if anyone comes close to the van, you call us. Let´s just hope they don´t have the same idea as us.”

      I waited a few minutes inside the van as Cam go into position, in her left hand a black metal case containing the sniper.

      My earpiece crackled to life. “Alright guys. I´m in position. I have a clear view of the parking lot and the black van. There doesn´t seem to be any movement.” There was a distant sound of a click through the earpiece as she put the sniper into place. “I´m up and ready.”

      I nodded at Reach before climbing out of the van. “Alright, I´m going in.”

      I walked on a straight line through the empty parking lot to the black van, confident that both Cam and Reach would warn me if anyone approached. The black van was similar to ours, perhaps even the same model. I was still about ten meters away when felt a tingling in the back of my neck.

      The deserted parking lot was eerily quiet, and considering that they had probably picked up our signal, it was weird that they hadn´t approached us. I stopped dead in my tracks, observing the tinted windows of the car. Someone was probably watching me from inside. And – my heart skipped a beat at this realization – there was a good chance that the van didn´t belong to Jerkface after all, could be anyone else.

      I pressed the button on the earpiece. “Any movement?”

      Cam´s response came in first. “Negative.”

      “Nothing on the cameras either.”

      I exhaled, steeled myself, and walked the remaining distance. I approached the back door, raised my hand, and knocked. The door swung back, and I found myself face to face with a gun.

      “About time you showed, love.”