Out of Darkness

Escape

Sometimes, I feel like Mr. B gives me the crappiest jobs.  I've been sitting in my living room on observation duty for hours, and I'm bored out of my mind! I call out to North, "Switch with me.  I need a break before my eyes bleed."

He comes into the living room and hands me a sandwich.  I look at it suspiciously and wonder what he put in it.  I'm a healthy eater, but North is a health NUT.  He once gave me a sandwich that was tofu and eggless egg salad.  It was like eating sawdust dipped in mayonnaise.

"Relax, Nate, it's turkey," he laughs.

"And what else?" I ask him.  He chops me on the head and grumbles something about gratitude that I couldn't catch.

"Thanks for the food," I say while North orients himself with the monitors on the coffee table.  Luke did a great job at setting up the cameras.  My brothers are amazing.

"Anything happening?" he asks me.

"Nada.  The dad has been watching porn on his computer for the last hour and the mom and sister left for shopping early this morning and haven't been back." So not what I wanted to spend my afternoon seeing.  A middle aged douche bag getting his jollies in his office.  Like I said...I get the crappiest jobs.

"We should call Silas and see where they are right now," North said while taking out his phone.  I nodded and took a bite.  Not bad.  I think he put kale on it instead of lettuce, but at least it has meat this time. He sets his phone on the table as it rings.

"Please tell me that you are calling to pull me back," Silas grumbles out of the speaker.

"What's the matter, brother, can't handle a couple of hours shopping?" North teases.

"Yeah, at least Gabe's not with you," I add, laughing.

Silas groans and swears in Greek. 

"They have gone into six lingerie stores, guys, SIX!  I can't follow them in there, I'll look like a pervert!  And it makes me furious that they spend this kind of money when they didn't even give Aggele Mou a blanket at night!"

North and I share a look.  It's hard to get Silas worked up, but when you do, he is like any other Greek hothead and liable to make impulsive decisions.  North says something to him that I can't understand, and Silas huffs.

"Fine, but remember that when it's your turn to babysit these skyles!"  The line goes dead and I shrug at North.

"I don't really blame him.  I think I would have punched those two by now," I say.

There's movement on the monitor for the office and North zooms in. 

"Call Mr. B, Nate.  It looks like the dad is contacting someone.  It's coded, but I'm betting he can figure out what the fucker is trying to do."

***

I pull up the screenshot of Mr. Sorensen's computer that the boys asked me to look over. I zoom in and realize that he is using a basic substitution cipher.  I pull out a notepad from my desk drawer and decrypt his message.

one target. sixteen year old female. elimination. standard fee. immediate response. location charleston memorial charleston, sc. photo confirmation.

I look at the time stamp and realize that it was sent over an hour ago.

"DAMN IT!" I slam my fist into the desktop. "SEAN, MR. TAYLOR, MR. COLEMAN!  GET IN HERE NOW!"  I take a breath and send an emergency message to the Reese team, Dr. Roberts, and the boys at the hospital.