We’d agreed that it would be lessconspicuous to watch for the girls out here—they’d have to passright by me to get to the nearest subway hole—rather than try tocatch them at Karina’s apartment. Even though I would have done it,I was glad I didn’t have to go inside. The run-down apartments hadan ominous feeling.
In my disguise, I’d be able to place thetrackers and then follow them the whole night, hopefully to watchthem steal a car and follow them to the car’s end destination. Sureenough, at 6:40, the girls walked by, heading for the subway, Ginain a puffy black parka, a royal blue dress underneath it, andKarina in a pea coat with a hint of red poking out. I furrowed mybrow. They were supposed to be stealing cars tonight, unless I’dcompletely misinterpreted their conversation. Why were they dressedfor a dance?
Before entering the subway, Karina spunaround, throwing her arms into the air.
Gina laughed and said, “The guys won’t beable to take their eyes off of you tonight!”
“You either, Gina!”
They stood under a streetlamp, and thedelight on their faces and the way they walked, as if walking onair, made me smile. They looked happy. A tall, husky man with ablack leather jacket over a black hoodie, followed close behindthem, a ski cap pulled down tight against his head. He’d beenbehind them since they’d left the projects. Did they know eachother? My heart sped up. If he tried anything, I’d have to stophim.
“Do you really think this dress makes melook skinny?” Gina asked.
“Girl, it doesn’t make you look skinny. Youare skinny. If I were a guy, I’d be all over your sexyself.” After a few minutes, Karina added, “I barely ate anythingfor dinner I was so nervous.”
“Don’t be nervous. You got this. Those boyswon’t know what hit them.” Gina looked from side to side like shedidn’t believe her own words. They were definitely going to thedance I’d heard kids talking about all day. This complicatedthings.
I didn’t have time to worry about theimplications of this change in plans. The husky man was gettingcloser, and it was obvious he was headed in the same direction asthe girls. He moved quickly in front of them just as they wereabout to take the steps down into the subway. I darted forward,ready to strike, but then had to redirect myself down the steps atthe last second, brushing against him slightly. I mumbled anapology.
“You can’t go into the subway without firstgiving Uncle Laron a goodbye hug. I know you won’t be so willingoutside the school or on the train. I’ll be close enough to helpyou if you need it. Don’t worry, your friends won’t know I’mthere.” He hugged Gina. They knew him. He’d been their escort. Ifelt pretty foolish listening to them follow me down the steps,Laron still talking.
“Have a good time. I’ll meet you at theschool at 10:20. Be safe.”
If they were planning on doing somethingillegal tonight, no one would have expected it. They took a seatfacing the middle of the train. I held onto a pole only feet fromthem. Uncle Laron sat at the other end of the car.
“I can’t wait to dance with Mateo,” Karinasaid. “Sure, I’ll only come up to his waist, but he’s so hot.”
“You can say that again,” Gina said. “And hesmells so yummy.”
They nodded and giggled. Was I following thewrong girls? I wished I could consult Jeremy, but he’d never comeback after the argument with Halluis. I had to go with the intel Ihad, and that was that the girls were involved with somethingtonight, something more than a dance. I’d just have to trust my gutand follow through with the plan. I’d figure out what to do aboutthe dance when the time came. For now, I needed to plant thetrackers.
I pretended to lose my balance on the trainwhen it took a curve, and I plopped the flat locator bug ontoGina’s sleeve, then pressed a listening device on Karina’s collar.They both screamed and squealed, standing up and brushingthemselves off as I stumbled away. Laron made his way over to them,so I hurried into the next car.
I sat in the train car next to theirs, bodyhunched over, earpiece in, listening to the two girls talk abouthow disgusting it was to get groped by some bum and lamenting thefact that they had to ride the subway at night to the school. Thatwould suck. Most kids would find a ride in a taxi or withsomeone who owned a car, especially at an expensive school likeBell. I opened the GPS function on my watch and made sure that thelocator I’d put on Gina was transmitting. A purple dot flashed hoton the screen. They were mine.
Now I had to figure out how to blend in atthe dance, when I’d planned to be disguised as a bum the entirenight.
Gina, Karina, and their escort exited thestation at the stop nearest the school, and I slunk out behindthem, making sure they didn’t notice me. I watched them exit thesubway and head toward the school.
I made my way to the back stall of theclosest restroom in a deli, cleaned off the makeup on my face witha wet wipe, and pulled out the clothes in my go bag.
First, I selected a plain white blouse—thetype commonly used by waiters and valets, a convenient disguise ina city like New York. I quickly shed the coat, scarf, T-shirt, andtorn-up sweater that was my bum disguise and yanked on the whiteshirt. It looked a little austere, so I rolled up the sleeves, thenunbuttoned the bottom five buttons and tied the ends into a chiclittle knot. I went through my options for the bottom half of mybody, but they all seemed wrong—the muddy, baggy jeans I wascurrently wearing were definitely out. The black dress
