Rivals: The Killjoys vs. The Youngbloods

21. The Guy's a Straight-Up Hustler

"We need to go find him!" Mikey jumped to his feet. "We have to go now!"

Ray put a hand on Mikey's forearm. "Mikey, you need to think about this, it's most likely a trap."

"I don't care!" Mikey shouted and shoved Ray's hand off of his arm. "They're going to kill him."

"Well, they're going to kill us if we just rush into this," Joe said under his breath.

"Wait." Andy leaned towards the computer screen. "Did you see that?"

"Pete getting his ass kicked?" Mikey snapped. "Uh yeah, I saw it crystal clear."

Andy shook his head. "No, not that. Pete was tapping on the chair."

"Courtney just talked about killing Pete in 72 hours, Jon is a traitorous bastard, and the only thing you noticed, was that Pete was tapping on the chair?" Brendon asked slowly.

Andy rolled his eyes and rewound the video. "I'm not making this up, look closely. Right after Jon stops hitting him, he looks directly at the camera and starts tapping on the chair."

Sure enough, Pete was tap-tapping away like a little drummer boy.

"It's Morse code," Spencer said.

"Pete knows Morse code?" Patrick raised an eyebrow. "When did he learn that?"

Andy grabbed a pen. "I need paper."

Patrick reached across the table and tore a piece of paper out of a notebook. "Here."

"Where did Pete learn Morse code?" Joe pushed.

"I taught him a couple years ago," Andy began writing letters down onto the paper. "He said he wanted to learn how to spell his name, probably for all that kinky shit he does-"

"So that's what he was doing," Mikey nodded, "I thought he was having finger spasms."

Everyone groaned, disgusted looks on their faces.

Ray rolled his eyes. "What's he saying?" He changed the subject.

"I-T-I-S-A-T-R-A-Y." Andy spelled out.

"It is a...tray?" Spencer read over Andy's shoulder.

"I think he meant trap." Brendon offered.

"There's more." Andy said. "B-O-M-B."

"Bomb." Joe said. "I hope he was referring to how awesome the plan is, not the fact that there is an actual bomb in that building."

Andy shook his head. "No, I'm pretty sure he means there's a bomb."

Brendon groaned. "For once, can we please have a normal evening?"

"So now, not only do we have to find Pete and rescue him before Courtney kills him in three days, we also have to worry about a bomb," Mikey paced the room, his hands on his head.

"What if we didn't have to worry about the bomb, but got someone else to worry for us?" Andy proposed.

Joe nodded, thinking on the same wavelength as Andy. "That's a good idea."

"Who did you have in mind?" Patrick asked.

"The Hustlers." Andy said. "They specialize in the arms race and they know their stuff. They might be able to disable the bomb while we try to find Pete."

Patrick nodded. "I like it. Now we just need to figure out how we're gonna get them on our side."

"That's where I come in." Mikey raised his hand. "Diplomatic missions are my specialty."