“Not necessarily,” he said. “We’re a little more high-tech than some of the police departments are.”
She sighed. “Man, I would really like to catch some of these gunmen.”
“So would the cops,” Hudson said. “But they are looking for really tall shooters.”
Baylor and Hudson collapsed in a fit of laughter.
“Oh, you big jerks! I knew that didn’t sound right,” she said.
“Sorry. I couldn’t help myself,” Baylor said.
“And he kind of boxed me in, so I had to go along with it,” Hudson said.
“Fine, whatever, let’s move on.”
“Okay, in that case, are we assuming we had two shooters?” Baylor asked.
“Two sets of footprints,” Hudson said with a smile.
“Well, when Dane gets through hunting down the bad guys, you want to tell him to pick up some dinner and bring it back? Especially with coffee,” she said, with a sideways look at Baylor.
Hudson laughed. “We’ll do that, just as soon as we can.”
“Don’t you want to make sure he has some backup with him?” she asked.
“There’s more than just the three of us on our team,” Baylor said. “We’ve got three other guys out here right now.”
She smiled. “Three more. Well, now I feel better,” she said, with a sarcastic edge to her voice. “And here I was afraid you guys were going out there to face these killers on your own.”
“We do that often enough,” Baylor said quietly. “But remember. We do know what we’re doing.”
“What I remember is that these guys are assholes, and they don’t really care if you know what you’re doing or not,” she said, with a tap on his chest. “You can take a bullet just as easily as the next guy.”
“I’ve taken several,” he said cheerfully, with a big grin.
“Ha, nobody else knows how to shoot apparently.”
At that, he chuckled. “Very funny,” he said, “but it’s also time for us to move you.”
“Move me? What do you mean?”
“This safe house is no longer safe,” he said with a smile.
She groaned and nodded. “I guess that makes sense. I didn’t even realize you guys had two apartments here.”
“We don’t,” he said. “This one is somebody else’s. We have no clue who it belongs to.”
She stared at him in shock. “What? We’re squatting in somebody else’s place?”
“Yep, so we better leave.” She bolted for the front door; only Baylor caught her and said, “Just a sec, we’re not quite ready.” They quickly packed up the rest of their stuff and stepped out into the hallway. Some cops were still there but not too many, and they were mostly corralling people down on the far side, who seemed to be spectators.
Baylor let her look for a minute and then nudged her toward the stairway on the left. “We’re trying to avoid the crowd,” he murmured.
She nodded. “Still I guess, for them, it’s excitement, isn’t it?”
“If you want to look at it that way, yes, but it’s not exactly the kind of excitement we want.”
“Of course not,” she said, then she let herself be led downstairs and back into a vehicle once again. She smiled at Dane who waited behind the wheel for them.
*
Gizella was holding up remarkably well, considering what she’d just experienced. Baylor could tell from Hudson’s reaction to her that he admired her ability to handle the stress too. They saw all kinds of reactions from people, and he was prepared to accept it all because everybody had a different way of processing stressful events. No doubt this was one of the most stressful situations Gizella had likely ever experienced.
As Baylor pulled out of the parking lot, she asked him, “Where are we going?”
“To another place.”
“Still not back home though, huh?”
“Not until morning,” he said.
“Okay fine,” she said. “Can we make sure that wherever we’re going has food?”
“Seriously?” Hudson asked at her side.
“Yes, seriously,” she said. “I’m really hungry, and I’m guessing you are too.”
“We’ll get food,” Baylor said, “but not until we’re settled into the new place.”
“Fine,” she said with a sigh. As they kept driving, she asked, “Are we going across town?”
“Maybe,” he said. “I just have an address.”
“What if somebody is monitoring your texts and phone numbers?”
“Then we’re in trouble,” he said in a serious tone.
“It’s not that easy to do though, is it?”
“Nope. We’re not using our own numbers. We’re using burner phones right now, which means they can’t be traced.”
“Ah,” she said, “I never thought of that. I don’t know how all this superspy stuff works.”
“Which is a good thing,” Hudson said, laughing at her.
“It’s a good thing that, if I don’t know, maybe a lot of people don’t know, yes?” she said. “But it seems like a lot of people know that stuff already. I’ve never been into hacking, I’m way too upright and honest.”
“For some people it’s just a game,” he said, “like a challenge, because they can.”
“And I get that. It’s just never been my thing.”
“And no reason to go down a path that you’re not comfortable with. I imagine you’ve got plenty to do already.”
They took a series of corners as Baylor followed the GPS directions. He pulled into another parking lot and drove past slowly, checking to see if it was safe. Sure enough, he saw the same middleman guy he’d spoken to that morning. He was talking on his phone, right beside a couple vehicles. Baylor looked at him, surprised, his mind already trying to figure out what was going on. He looked over at Hudson and said, “I don’t like this.”
“Neither do I,” Hudson said. “Let’s get out of here.” Baylor gunned the motor, and, even as he did, a shot was fired, shattering the windshield of the car. “Duck,” he yelled out as he quickly ripped through the back alley and came up on another corner. By the time they were finally free, he pulled into a crowded shopping mall. It was a little too obvious that they had a blown-out windshield, but Baylor had pulled up in a shady spot
