Lookism: What Am I Even Doing?

Chapter 78

(Daniel's POV)

"Well that was a fucking bust. Maybe I should've planned the whole thing. If not, you should've let me hit the bar instead of those two."

Jace glanced around the street. His gaze lingering at the nearby stores and the traffic light a few yards away from us. Despite coming out empty handed he didn't seem that disappointed at all. It actually seemed like he expected something like this to happen. Well if he expected this to happen then what was the point of us going in there in the first place?

"This was expected. To be honest I knew that we wouldn't get very far. If these people already knew what you, Jay, and Daniel already looked like then it wasn't too far off to guess that they would know about Vasco and I. I sent Daniel and Jay in first knowing they would be on guard after the warehouse incident. Zack, you went in as a distraction as well. I hoped that you three would divert their focus enough from us two so that we could take a look around.

Though something unexpected did happen?"

"Unexpected? What do you mean?" I asked.

"I sent Zack to the kitchens thinking that there wouldn't be much resistance there until he caused some sort of scene. But almost as soon as he walked in there was security there already. Which raises the question as to why someone would have security near the kitchens unless there was something there they don't want us to know about."

He was right. Zack was caught too quickly and it wasn't because they knew we were coming. If they did they'd stop us right at the door before we even took a step in. It was more like they were already guarding something back there. Wait, didn't Jace mention that this place was underground?

I turned to Zack, "Zack was there an elevator or something there?"

"Elevator? No. I didn't get very far though. That gray suited fucker was standing at the door that led to the unloading zone or whatever the fuck you call it."

The unloading zone? Did he mean like the place where trucks would come by and drop off supplies to the hotel? What could they possibly be protecting there? What kind of shipments were they trying to protect?

"I also noticed something strange. Right when Jay and I were about to leave, I saw this woman waiting in the front with someone. She had the same golden feather on her coat like the Masked Man. As soon as she saw me she called for security."

Jace put a hand on his chin thoughtfully, "If that's true then that means this is definitely the place. This also answers another question of ours."

"It does?" Zack and I said at the same time.

Jace nodded, "It does. The flash drive that Daniel received had the logo of this place but if they were quick to throw us out then doesn't that mean they're not the one that reached out to us? At least the organization didn't. So we can guess that whoever sent us that flashdrive is either someone who works on the inside or an outside party who planted the golden feather to lead us in the right direction."

"So what do we do now, Jace? Should we go back inside?"

"No, Vasco, that would be too dangerous right now. Judging by the size of this place, they probably have a lot of protective measures in place. The security that threw us out didn't look on the weak side either. Whoever's in charge of the Bird Garden is someone we have to be careful of."

I sighed, "What do we do then? We can't just walk away from this."

"I'm not saying that we do. There's somewhere else we need to start instead."

Zack raised an eyebrow, "And where's that boy detective?"

"We start...by finding out what happened the week before Ila died."