Undetected

Chapter Ten

In no time, I found myself on Trade Street, an area known for businesses and warehouses. A nearby side street where bright lights were missing caught my eye; so I parked my car and turned the engine off. I cracked the window just enough to let myself escape, and glided towards the back of the complex.

The front entrance of Suite B faced an open field of tall, dry, grass. If someone decided to light a match, it looked like a fire could rage for miles. Because of the wide openness, the air here was sharp, and the nights darker. This meant the roll up doors of the warehouse were on the other side, I flew back there to make sure. As I approached, I saw that the seal on the door was too tight for me to enter. I buzzed around to the front, and felt the draft from underneath the door suck me in.

Once in, I was greeted by a frigid and dark hallway, with security cameras on top of the walls to capture every move. Being invisible and having 20/20 vision had its perks. I followed the empty hallway, and noted a faint smell.

"Cordite," I uttered. Artillery was near.

Continuing to the back of the warehouse, I saw a metal shop. A cutting table with pieces of metal lying around, a forklift, hard hats, drill bits, grinder discs, and personal protective equipment took up a large portion of the room.

Off to the side, was a huge metal cutter with metal scrapings on the floor next to a small room shaped like a box. Its open door was made of custom trim, with metal around the wooden frame. Inside, a small porcelain sink, and part of a toilet were visible.

My nose led me to the right back corner, across from the bathroom. The cordite smell became more intense as I hovered above what looked like a trap door. Through the scrapings, dirt and dust, a small O ring attached to the floor caught my eye.

"Ah" I muttered.

I pulled on it, but had no luck. That would be too easy. There had to be a lock of some kind. I hovered an inch from the O ring, looking around the outside of it. Nothing. I searched the wall next to it for a hidden opening. Still nothing. That drew me back to the ring. Although small, it was thick, so I fitted myself inside its hollow space; halfway around the ring, there were four tiny squares, so small that they could easily be missed. I fumbled around with them and saw that they moved up and down.

As my eyes adjusted to them, I saw a smaller set of numbers, on the squares, all set to zero. A digital lock. Mari's coded message from earlier came to mind. 23:10 was the time.

"Of course," I said, smiling.

I learned a long time ago, that when it came to missions, all of Mari's messages revealed clues, and that numbers were especially important. I pushed the tabs up and down to match the numbers. Although there was no sound to measure if I succeeded, I pulled on the O ring and felt a slight lift.

But it wasn't going to be easy, the trap door was going to require quite a bit of strength. The owners of the warehouse did a great job to throwing anyone looking for anything off their tracks.

My veins bulged as I pulled open the floor panel. As I peered inside, I saw an attached ladder go into an underground space. Looking down at it, it looked empty, another ploy. Making my way to the bottom of the stairs, the space was bigger and darker than it appeared from the top. Off in the distance was a wall that reflected silver-shiny objects, like glow in the dark. I moved closer, to the glow, a large stockpile of weapons awaited me.

Take your pick, from the Glock 19's, Rugers, Ak-47's, and sawed off shotguns, even a few hand Grenades, and Ghost Guns. A common tool for criminals. I didn't need to get closer to identify that the ammunition was from the black market, but when I did, there were several with no serial numbers, as well as guns that weren't registered. I looked around for any other possible weapons and saw nothing.

Time to back the unmarked van up to the front door of the warehouse and load the weapons in.

I texted Mari, ready.

Soon thereafter, a white city truck, with a large flat bed backed up to the front door. I pulled the back latch down to load the weapons in. Mari and Raul appeared, dressed in all black, including ski masks.

Although I disabled the cameras from recording, Mari was all about completely covering her tracks. Raul had a large folded up tarp that could hold the weapons.

No words were exchanged, as I led them down to the trap door. Raul spread out the tarp, which unfolded four times its size, with a thick durable zipper built to hold heavy weight.

Between the speed and strength of Mari and I, we were able to load up the tarp with all the weapons and place everything into the sturdy vehicle in five minutes flat. The sound of Raul zipping up the tarp, reminded me of the sound of body bags being zipped up in the morgue.

In a split second, Raul changed from his all black into a city worker uniform and drove off in the city utility truck that he borrowed for our mission.

Mari vanished, and I flew through the air at the speed of a plane to meet Raul at the designated spot, in front of the police department.

He needed to return the city truck and the uniform he borrowed before they showed up missing. And I needed to fly back to my car and get under the covers of my bed, like nothing happened.

When I arrived, the van was already turned off, back in its original spot and Raul was nowhere to be found. I flew on top of the flatbed, and took two ends of the tarp over my right shoulder and to the drop-off spot. As I lowered the tarp to the ground, I noticed whoever was on duty behind the check-in desk was gone. Maybe a bathroom break. I placed the tarp and all the ammunition in the drop-off spot, without signing in.

Mission completed.

As I elevated across the sky, I felt a strong energy zip past me, and then around me, with such force that it felt like turbulence on a plane, shaking me up a bit.

My head did a swivel. "What the heck!" I exclaimed.

I flew into a tiny space on the ground between two buildings, to take cover and see what would happen next.

Once my feet touched the concrete, I looked up and saw a white streak in the sky, like that of a plane, zooming by, making an angry pattern of letters that said YOU WILL PAY.

The danger that I felt at that moment let me know that it could only be one person, Shadow.

After that, all was quiet. However, the realization that I was not alone kept me in that tiny space a little longer. I snapped a picture of the words and texted it to Mari.

Seconds later, Don't go back to get your car tonight. Get back in human form, call an Uber, go home and go to bed.

"Good idea," I commented to comfort myself.

Under the warmth of my comforter, my body was tired, but my mind was filled with a million thoughts. I wondered what powers Shadow had? Did she detect me while I was invisible? She apparently had the power to become invisible. Did she know who I was in my human form?

I fell asleep, keenly aware that my secret identity had expanded out of my immediate circle. What was still a mystery was just how much she knew.

Something told me that I would find out.