“All right. So we go and rough up the Commandos and get everyone out?”
“No, you only engage if you can handle it on your own. Otherwise, you call and I send Marco and Ryan for backup. Just go and check it out—quietly, okay?”
The three of them nodded, and Peter returned to Skull and Phoenix.
The girls exchanged confused looks.
“I can handle pretty much anything on my own,” Pain said with a shrug.
Jane shrugged back at her. “I know, right?”
Chad grinned—and followed them up into the sky.
Chapter 44
“If we sit here for one more minute, my butt’s gonna fall off,” Pain grumbled, shooting an irritated look at her sister.
Jane didn’t reply, squinting at the windswept storage units from where she sat on a long, sturdy branch next to Pain.
Pain smacked her arm. “Stop daydreaming about Ryan’s ass and tell me what we should do.”
Jane turned to her with a scowl. “I’m not—” she broke off, as if she had suddenly decided not to respond. Her expression sure told Pain that much.
They’d circled the place three times, looking for any sign of activity, anything to help them decide on their next step, but it looked deserted. No guards, no lights, just a few cameras and row after row of big, snow-covered storage units.
Looking for their abducted people was important, no doubt, but not at the cost of screwing up the main operation, and that might easily happen if the Commandos were watching the place and spotted them snooping about.
Pain flexed her freezing fingers, shifting on the branch. “So? Come up with anything, Sherlock?”
“Let’s just sweep it row-to-row, and if we don’t find anything, report back and leave it up to Peter.”
“No point in sweeping it—haven’t found anything from the air, not gonna find anything down there, trust me. Except if they have a big sign somewhere, saying Commandos’ Captives Locked Up Here.”
Jane growled. “We’re already here, aren’t we?” Then she jumped off the tree.
Pain joined her down on the ground, turning her gaze to Chad who stood leaning up against the tree, arms crossed and shoulders rounded against the cold. She followed his example and huddled her shoulders, sticking her gloved hands into her jacket pockets.
“So…” She forgot what she was going to ask as her fingers found some small, flat object in her left pocket. “What the hell is this?” She squinted at it, holding it up.
“One of them dog trackers?” Chad said with a shrug.
“Yeah, I know what it is.” She glanced at him, annoyed. “What the fuck is it doing in my pocket?”
Jane reached out her hand, taking the GPS tracker the size of a large coin and turning it in her fingers. “You probably put it there back then and forgot?”
“It’s new gear. Only put it on a couple times. Besides, I never put anything in here.”
“At all?” Chad asked. “You know, that’s what pockets are for.”
She held up her hands. “It’s where my hands go.”
“All right, all right,” Jane cut in. “So you think someone put it there? Who, Peter?”
“Why?” Pain made an incredulous face. “Rooney’s tracking our phones at all times already.”
“So who else? Who was the last person to touch you before we left HQ?”
“I don’t know. Marco? Him?” She pointed at Chad.
“Didn’t Dave give you a hug right before we left?” Jane asked.
“Ugh, don’t remind me. Made me cringe inside.” She shuddered. Chad smacked her arm, and she mouthed, What?
“So it must’ve been Dave,” Jane continued speculating.
“Again, why? He knows where we are. He was at the meeting.”
“We might’ve gone somewhere else if this place didn’t check out,” Jane said. “Maybe he was going to follow us, after all.”
Pain squeezed her eyes shut, a headache brewing. Snapping them open, she pointed her finger at Chad. “Call him. Now. We’ve got no time for this bullshit.”
Chad took out his phone with a sigh. The call went straight to voicemail.
“Give it to me. I’m gonna text Peter, and then we’ll get back to work.”
“What about the tracker?” Jane asked.
“Keep it. Better he comes here and we deal with it, whatever he’s planning.” Pain returned Chad’s phone and looked at the two of them. “Let’s sweep this place quickly and get out of here.”
“Fine by me,” Chad said.
“How do you propose we do it without triggering any possible motion detectors in those cameras?”
Jane opened her mouth, but Pain elbowed her in the side, waiting for Chad’s answer.
He tilted his head, looking at the dark units on the other side of the fence. “Easy. The cams are all around the perimeter, so we stay clear of it. Drop down in the center, split up, sweep every row, jump over the units. Meet up back in the center.”
Pain nodded, satisfied, and patted his shoulder. “All right. Ten rows. Jane will take the far three, I’ll check the middle four, you take the rest.”
Ten minutes later, positively frozen, she and Chad met up on a rooftop in the center, still no closer to finding anything.
“I told her it’s pointless,” Pain said. “Let’s go back, warm up in one of the cars, then return to the others.”
“Okay. Let’s go find your sis.”
They jumped from roof to roof, until they found Jane wandering in the last row. Pain went straight to her, spraying her with snow as she landed a few feet away.
“Come on, Jane, there’s nothing here.” She kept her voice low, just in case she was wrong.
Jane sighed. “You think he could’ve meant some other place nearby?”
“I don’t know.” Pain rubbed her freezing nose. “We’re not gonna find anything, not like this. Maybe search the area from the air in daylight. Take a chopper.”
“Right.” Jane chewed on her
