Just as I was about to despair—I couldn’tshow up at a school dance in my uniform!—my eyes lit on the scarfI’d discarded. An idea struck. I quickly slipped out of the jeansand started wrapping and tucking the scarf around my waist. In oneminute flat, I had a stylish draped skirt—perhaps a little shorterthan I would have preferred, but still school-dance appropriate. Afew well-placed safety pins ensured the skirt would stay in placethe whole night. I smiled in satisfaction.
Luckily, I had a pair of slim, strappy blackheels in my go bag—they didn’t take up much space, and they tookthe waiter disguise upscale if necessary. I quickly traded them formy raggedy sneakers, then I used my mirror and wipes to completelyclear myself of the disguise makeup and put my normal teenagemakeup back on. After carefully arranging my go bag so that ifanyone looked inside they’d think it merely a high-schooler’s bag,I brushed my teeth. After a quick once-over with the mirror, Ideemed myself completely transformed and hurried out of thedeli.
I listened in on the girls the whole time,figuring out a new plan for the evening. If they were going to thedance, perhaps all the other thieves would be at the dance, too.Maybe I’d be able to ID the two I’d seen in Shareweather’s class,but didn’t recognize. If I could figure out who they were, thatwould give us nine kids to track, including Jericho and Mikado.More bodies to track would be a definite bonus. I could also keeptrack of all the thieves and give the team a heads up when theyleft the building in case of equipment failure. Maybe I’d overhearsomething that would give us a jump on the gang.
The only interesting thing I heard from thegirls was a comment about how they hoped no one would be by aparticular door. I figured that was my only clue. They would mostlikely be sneaking out a door at the dance to go do whatever it wasthey were going to do. I hoped it had to do with stealing cars.Best case scenario, Halluis would place his tracker on whatever carthey stole, and then the tracker would lead us to the storagefacility where they kept all the stolen cars. We could then go in,retrieve the Mercedes 300 we’d been assigned to retrieve, and sendthe authorities to get the rest.
I let my team know about the change in plansas I continued on my way to the school. Since we weren’t able touse the com except to listen in on the girls, I pulled out my phoneand sent a coded text.
The girls are going to the schooldance. If they leave, Halluis will have to follow. I’ll beat the dance, trying to learn everything I can about S-Dub’s gang.There may be more kids involved than just the ones I saw thismorning.
A moment later, my phone buzzed, and I readthe coded response. Got it. Halluis is in position to tail thegirls.
I heard the girls arrive at the school andenter the main lobby, where the dance was held. I had to promptlyturn the volume down on my earpiece. I wouldn’t be able tounderstand most of what they were saying unless they left the room.That was when I wanted to hear them anyway.
Once I arrived, I listened to the same spielgiven to Karina and Gina from the people at the door.
“Once you enter the dance, you are obligatedto stay until nine. No ins and outs.” I wouldn’t be leaving. My jobwas to keep track of anyone else who left the dance.
I signed in and went through the doors tothe sound of pounding bass. Tables and chairs lined the walls, butonly a smattering of kids sat in them. I stood back and perused thecrowd. I found the five kids I had ID’d from Mr. Shareweather’sauto theft class. Only Gina and Karina were together, but they wereall dancing their hearts out. I set my bag under a chair by thebathroom and turned back to the dancing mass, intending on workingmy way over to the girls.
Before I could do that, though, a curiousthing happened as I looked over the crowd. A teacher made her wayout to the dance floor and tapped a guy on the shoulder. He steppedout of the dancing mass and leaned down to listen to the woman,then they both looked my way. He immediately started toward me. Iturned my head to see if someone was behind me, but no one was. Hekept on the path to intersect with me. I felt my face flame forsome reason as I started to walk out onto the dance floor.
The guy heading my way was in no wayknock-your-heart-out gorgeous, but the idea he was heading for memade my insides buzz. As he got closer, I squeezed my handstogether and realized this guy was slightly cuter thanaverage—someone I could easily talk to and not worry that I wasabout to come face-to-face with someone way out of my league. Hecould make a good cover as I tried to inconspicuously keep track ofthe thieves at the dance. By the time he reached me, I had calmedmy thudding heart and was able to give him a genuine smile.
He spoke first. “Hi. I’m Carson. Would youlike to dance?” He cocked his head to the side, the minimal lightdancing off the light blond highlights in his dark blond hair.
“Sure.” I smiled at him. Dancing would giveme plenty of casual-seeming eye contact on all the differentelements of S-Dub’s little group. This would be a piece of cakesurveillance job.
He bit his bottom lip with his front teeth,and I took quick stock of my dancing partner. I couldn’t tell ifthe close-cropped beard and mustache were permanent or if he’dsimply chosen not to shave today. Permanent was good in this case.It would be nice to have a good-looking guy on my arm while I keptan eye on the crowd.
“Great.” He held out his hand to me, and Itook it. He led me out
