“Thanks, Denise! Hey, can we keep this between us? We don’t want to get Joe in trouble for screwing up, am I right?”
“Yes, sir. Of course not. Have a good day now!”
“Bye, Denise. Thanks again.”
Tim disconnected the call. Anna was staring at him in shock. “I can’t believe that worked.”
“I just pretended to sound like my dad when he made work calls,” Tim said shrugging.
“But how did you know they do pick-ups? We don’t even know what they do in there.”
Tim shrugged again. “I took a guess. Most companies sell something. Whatever that something is would need to be picked up at some point.”
Fifteen minutes later, Tim knew they had another problem. The “warehouse” wasn’t just one building. It was a very large complex and Tim could see at least ten buildings from the street, alone. The whole thing was fenced and there was a guard station at the gate. Tim followed the streets around the fence line, looking to see if there was another way in. He’d almost made a complete circle around the complex before he saw it. Part of the fence wasn’t permanent. It looked like at some point, the fence had fallen down and instead of replacing it, a freestanding fence, like the ones around construction sites, was put up instead. It could be moved back enough to slip through, quite easily. “We need to wait until it’s dark. We can’t risk any employees or guards seeing us,” he told Anna.
Anna didn’t respond. He could tell she wasn’t happy with waiting. Tim found a place to park the car where they could still the temporary fence. They had about three hours until it would be completely dark. Anna was fidgeting in the seat next to him. “Why don’t you put the seat back and relax for a bit? We have time.”
She started to argue, but then stopped and put the seat back. “It’ll be okay. It’s almost over,” Tim said, giving her hand a squeeze.
She didn’t let go. Tim tried to help relax her by running his thumb back and forth on the back of her hand. He could tell she was fighting to keep her eyes open and decided to help a little more. He sent a pulse of power, telling her to sleep. She finally relaxed and Tim breathed a sigh of relief when he finally heard her breathing slow and saw her eyes stay closed.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
The next few hours passed slowly for Tim. Anna continued to sleep and Tim kept watch. He was watching to see if anyone came or went near that part of the fence. He was also studying the buildings he could see, and it looked like one, not too far from where they could get in, wasn’t in use anymore. It didn’t even seem like any guards patrolled this area. He also tried reaching out with his power to see if he could sense any thoughts of anyone nearby. The buildings were either empty, or he was too far away.
When it was finally dark, he gently shook Anna awake. “Hey, sleepyhead. It’s time.”
Anna woke up slowly. At first, she looked at him, eyes still half closed, as if she didn’t remember why they were in the car. Then, suddenly, her eyes shot open as she remembered everything that was happening. “I can’t believe I fell asleep.”
Tim just nodded, letting the lie of omission remain. She didn’t need to know he had helped. “Can you hear any thoughts?”
Anna closed her eyes and concentrated. “No! Do you think we’re wrong? That no one is here?”
Tim shook his head. “I tried too. I didn’t get anything either. I think we’re too far away. We need to get a little closer to that building there,” he said, pointing to the building he’d focused on earlier.
They both exited the car, taking care to close their doors quietly. They snuck closer to the building. Tim had his power reaching out in all directions. If someone came near them, he wanted as much warning as possible. He could tell Anna was on high alert as well. They slipped through the fence, easily. Once inside the complex, Tim could make out faint footprints in the dirt. He pointed them out to Anna, and they decided to follow them. They led directly to the empty building. The building’s windows were boarded shut, but when they reached the door, it opened quietly, with no problem. Once they were inside the building, thoughts began tumbling into his head all at once. It seemed that whatever the building was made of had blocked them until they were inside. I noticed that too.
Anna spoke in his head, after hearing his thoughts, which was much handier than whispering. We’ll have to look into that when this is all over.
Yes.
They kept walking. The first floor seemed like one large empty room. There were broken tables and crates scattered around. Around the top of the room, Tim could tell there were rooms on the second floor, with windows that looked out into the empty space. At the far end of the room, one of the second-floor windows had a faint, flickering light. Tim pointed towards it, incase Anna hadn’t noticed it yet. I see it.
Tim could hear Einna’s and Tre’s thoughts loud and clear by the time they reached the halfway point. They were confused and scared. Tre was also thinking telepathic powers would be nice at a time like this. Tim finally saw steps leading up against the wall. They were going to have to walk under the room to get to them. I’m going to send my words to your parents to warn them we’re coming before we go up the steps.
Anna nodded. Tim closed his eyes and concentrated on sending his message to both of them at once. Einna, Tre. It’s Tim.
A thud sounded above them. Anna and Tim both froze.
