“Not gonna happen. Didn’t happen when we were kids, ain’t gonna happen now. Get your shit together, bro.” Ash walked off, and Sloane put his hand to the elevator panel. Had someone drugged the water around here? Released some toxic gas into the vents he hadn’t become aware of? How had he ended up the bad guy in all of this, with Ash defending Dex, no less? Had the world gone crazy?
“Screw this.” He had way too much shit to do to go chasing after Dex. His partner needed time to cool off and come around to the fact Sloane was right. In the meantime, he would head to the Recon department and try to get some answers from someone. This whole case wasn’t sitting right with him. Not so much from Isaac’s end. The man was a lunatic bent on vengeance. That Sloane understood.
What he didn’t understand, was why everything was moving so goddamn slow around here. Something was going on, and he had every intention of finding out what it was, with or without Dex.
Chapter 9
OVER AN hour later, Sloane was in even more of a foul mood, if that was possible.
According to Recon, Allan’s information from the CDC Therian registration office had come in seconds after the Therian Youth Center bomb went off, meaning it had been put aside, priority falling to the youth center, as it should. Themis had run its algorithms, showing Isaac Pearce had visited the center a few weeks before planting the bomb. He had signed in under a random name, worn a different disguise, and done exactly what he had the second time he’d visited. Sloane’s guess was he’d been casing the joint, doing a test run of sorts. Isaac was smart. He wouldn’t have gone in blind. Themis also found what Isaac had been doing on his tablet. He’d been accessing the registration office’s network and their files, namely Morelli’s.
Sloane stalked toward his office and tapped his earpiece. “Rosa, Morelli’s registration file led Isaac to the Therian Youth Center. Apparently, Morelli had spent some time there when he was a teen. I’m willing to bet he had a file there as well, and Isaac accessed it before he set off the explosion. I want to know what was in that file.”
“I’m on it,” Rosa replied.
Maddock’s voice came over his earpiece. “I want everyone listening to this to meet in briefing room ‘A’ right now. Don’t care what the hell you’re doing, get in here.”
Sloane hurried to the briefing room, his eyes instinctively landing on Dex. Their eyes met before Dex turned away to face the front of the room. Ignoring the jab, Sloane took a seat behind him. He wouldn’t let his partner’s brooding stop him from getting on with his job. The room filled with agents from Beta Pride and Beta Ambush, including Agent Taylor. Although plenty of seats remained empty around the huge semicircle conference table, Taylor decided he was going to sit in front of Dex.
“All right everyone, settle down.” Maddock stood behind the podium at the front of the room and tapped his tablet. A video player appeared on the large flat screen TV positioned high on the wall behind him. “This video was uploaded on a Humans 4 Dominance forum that popped up a couple of days ago. Intel has been monitoring it since it launched, but until now, it was mostly a bunch of idiots talking trash. A few minutes ago, Themis sounded the alert.” He tapped his tablet and the video played.
They all watched in uncomfortable silence as what started as a sunny, serene day on a quiet street turned into a war zone. Every minute of the horrific Therian Youth Center bombing was there in gory HD. At the end, Maddock switched over to the forum.
“Have you read the comments?” Ash asked from across the table, shaking his head in disgust as he scrolled through the forum on his tablet.
“Don’t,” Dex said, his jaw muscles clenching. “It’s better if you don’t. Let Themis read that shit. It’ll only make you want to hit something, preferably one of those assholes’ faces.”
“What kind of sick bastards get off on watching shit like this?”
Dex turned his attention back to Maddock. “More importantly, whoever uploaded this was there. Do we know who it was?”
Maddock brought up a large black screen with undecipherable white text scrolling at unreadable speeds. “Themis is trying to pinpoint a location, but it looks like it was uploaded via cell phone. We should have the owner any second now. There we go.”
The screen flashed and a second narrow screen slid in from the side with a John Doe avatar instead of a photograph, along with a name. Themis continued to scan for more information, but came up with nothing.
“Looks like we’ve got a name. Dr. H Freedman. No visual, driver’s license, or social securi
ty.” Maddock frowned down at his screen.
Damn. Sloane sure as hell hoped they got something. A GPS setting, IP address, something. Whoever had uploaded the video knew what they were doing.
“We’ve got an address,” Maddock declared.
Maybe not. One mistake, that was all they needed, and they could nail this bastard.
“All right. Everyone, suit up, and head out. Destructive Delta, you’re going in. Agent Taylor, Agent Stone, you and your teams are going in as backup since Destructive Delta is down three agents since Agent Simmons won’t be in until tomorrow. “Keep me informed. I want this Dr. Freedman brought in.”
Sloane hurried out of the room along with everyone else, aware of Dex close behind. They’d yet to say a word to each other. Rosa came running up to him and he welcomed the distraction. “Give me something, Rosa.”
“This isn’t looking good. According to the Therian Youth Center’s head organizer—Dr. Michaels, the network was completely fried by the explosion, and the backup files would be accessible through their corporate office, but when I called the corporate office, I was told they no longer had access due to security restrictions and were waiting for clearance from the founder. I decided to cut the middle man and get a hold of the founder, except, whoever they are, they don’t exist.”
Sloane stopped in his tracks. “What do you mean they don’t exist?”
“Well, they exist on paper. Everything is meticulous and thorough. All the paperwork is legit, except there doesn’t seem to be a body to go along with the information provided. Every phone number I call leads me to another number, which leaves me to another message. One big loop de nada.”
“So suddenly there’s a lockdown on the files and the founder goes missing, if he or she ever existed. Fantastic.” He hurried out of the department to catch up with the rest of their agents, annoyed when his eyes continually strayed to Dex, as if his body couldn’t stand not making some kind of contact with him, even if it was just visual. “Rosa, I want you to tell Intel to keep trying. I want some goddamn answers.” The elevator was full, but Sloane pushed in, finding himself squeezed in against Dex, the top of his head under Sloane’s chin. Sloane closed his eyes, silently urging the elevator to get moving. It didn’t help that he could smell Dex’s shampoo, or feel the softness of his hair when Dex shifted. It especially didn’t help when someone decided to squeeze in at the last minute, forcing Dex back against Sloane, their bodies pressed together.
Sloane hated how he was starting to doubt himself. Had he made the right decision? Was he willing to give in to see Dex smile again? Get your shit together, Brodie. He wasn’t going to stop being Team Leader, or running his team the way he always had because he’d gotten into a fight with his lover. If he gave in now, what kind of message would he be giving Dex? That he could get away with what he wanted because they were sleeping together? The elevator pinged, and Sloane all but fled. He had more pressing matters to deal with. The rest would have to wait. At least that’s what he kept telling himself.