The four men reached the intersection without incident, where they met Devon. The two groups parted ways with few words exchanged, each party heading toward their target. Jared and Barry were on their own with the team of horses now. Knowing the two lacked any significant equestrian experience, Calvin had done his best to identify a few of the finer points of handling the animals. In the end, Jared led the horse on the left by the bridle while Barry controlled the car.
When Jared and Barry reached Solar Green, they realized they couldn’t get in. How in the holy hell had they screwed this up after all the planning and late-night discussions about their grand plan? Jared started to get angry with John, but quickly realized they all shared blame in this mistake. Barry’s eyes were wide as they stood outside the business with a team of horses attached to a car, where anyone passing by could see them. Barry looked at Jared, cocking his head as if questioning what to do now.
“What do you think?” Jared asked, having nothing else to offer.
“What do we do? I mean, John should’ve been with the car, and you should have gone with Carlos and Calvin.”
“Thanks, Barry. I think that’s pretty clear now.”
Jared took a deep breath, creating a whiteboard in his mind. They were faced with a problem; they couldn’t access the building, and there wasn’t a darn thing they could do about it. Jared surveyed the door, which was metal and encased in a steel doorframe. He doubted he could just kick the thing in. Smashing it with something over and over might work, but would create problematic noise.
Considering their predicament, they would just have to wait for John. How they waited would either increase or decrease their chances of avoiding conflict. Slowly a plan began to form on Jared’s imaginary whiteboard. Quickly the men unhitched the team of horses before pushing the car into a parking space next to a number of other nonfunctioning vehicles. The priceless vehicle was essentially hidden in plain sight. Jared secured the key in his pocket, then led the horses to the rear of the business. He tied them to a downspout on the side of the building and moved two large blue dumpsters in front of the animals. It wasn’t the perfect situation because Jared could still see the horses’ heads when they were upright, but it had to do for now.
After the vehicle and horses were secure, Jared and Barry slithered into some bushes that lined a drainage ditch on the back side of the business, where they waited. The two men drank water, but neither man ate a morsel of food. Nerves always killed Jared’s appetite, and after realizing their mistake, his guts were churning. The sun sank lower on the horizon as the day wore on, and still John hadn’t appeared, causing Jared to start thinking about what they were going to do if he and Barry ended up spending the night outside.
He kicked himself for not planning for this earlier by taking turns trying to get some sleep so they could pull a two-man security watch that night without being completely exhausted. Better late than never, Jared thought as he leaned over and whispered in Barry’s ear, telling him to grab a nap in case it turned into an overnighter. Barry agreed and lay back on his pack, closing his eyes. Sleep was hard to find time for, but was not in the least difficult to achieve. Within seconds, Barry’s rhythmic breathing told Jared the other man was fast asleep, his arms crossed over his chest while his eyes fluttered and danced to the cadence of some unknown dream.
The sun set, and still Jared stood watch, allowing Barry to sleep peacefully next to him. It was almost a mental thing to Jared, knowing the longer he let the man sleep, the more sleep time Barry would owe him. Jared was tired, but not overly exhausted, so he remained vigilant while Barry rested. Sometime after 2100 hours, Jared’s heart nearly stopped when he heard a scraping noise come from the alleyway along the side of the Solar Green building.
John sent Devon to scout the area around Solar Green and report back on whether there were any unsavory types wandering around the neighborhood. Devon failed to reconnect with John, Calvin and Carlos, but he also hadn’t fired three shots, so John figured the teenage wraith was lurking about and would show up after he got situated at Solar Green. John realized his mistake before he even reached the U-Haul business and had not stopped beating himself up over it. The lack of communication equipment drove him nearly mad at times like these, but what choice did he have? Calvin attempted to ease John’s worry by reminding the younger man that in Calvin’s day, he didn’t have fancy radios or cellular phones and they’d all gotten along just fine.
John listened, but it didn’t help much. He felt he should be better than forgetting a simple thing like the fact that he was Jared’s only way inside the building. Now, John could only imagine what Jared was being forced to do or, worse yet, if the younger man hadn’t done anything and chose to sit in the VW and wait. John pushed the last thought from his mind, knowing Jared was a smart person and would have figured out some way to tip the scales in his favor.
As John and Calvin guided the horses down the side of the building with
