The Huntress

8. Safe House

"Terry, pass me your phone." I state, urgently.

Terry doesn't hesitate, handing me his phone. I dial Jace's number, hoping desperately he's with Damian right now.

Jace picks up on the first ring. He recognizes the number, so answers immediately.

"Huxley." Jace remarks into the phone.

"Jace. Is Damian there with you?" I ask, getting straight to the point.

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Are you somewhere private, where no one can listen in on you- including tech?" I ask.

"No. But I can be. Just a second." He comments. The line goes quiet before soon I hear Jace pick the call back up.

"Asher? You still there?"

"Asher? Is he ok? Where is Sienna?" I hear Damian frantically remarks in the background.

"Ya, I'm still here. Pass the phone to Damian. I need to talk to him." I state.

Jace isn't happy but ultimately obliges. The sounds are muffled slightly as I can only guess that Jace is switching to his headset, giving an earbud to Damian in the meantime.

"Asher? What's going on? Where are you? Where's my daughter? Is she ok?" Damian frantically questions.

"Damian, I need you to listen to me really carefully. What is taking place in the next two hours?" I ask. The line goes silent, noting that I caught Damian by surprise.

"I have a final collaboration meeting scheduled with Johnson Pharmaceuticals. But it's a trap." Damian comments, making me realize they somehow got a step ahead of us.

"How did you find out?" I ask.

"We made the connection between Silvio and Jakob Johnson. We believe he planned the meeting as a way to take both parties out at the same time." Jace replies.

"I think you're right. While I don't know all the details, I do know that Hunter and I have been bugged. We have trackers in us, but I also suspect that we may also be the detonators."

"Detonators?" Jace questions.

"Before we made it out. Silvio strapped a bimb to Sienna. We don't know his plan, only that I saw a timer flash on her chest. So wherever is about to happen, is going to happen today at 4PM. This means we have just less than two hours before it's too late." I inform them of what I know. However, as I suspected, the sudden news renders Damian silent.

"We're already on it. I have my team working overtime on our plan." Jace comments for Damian.

"I won't give you all the details, but just know that we have already planned on there being a bomb." Jace remarks.

"So what do we do?" I ask, needing to know how we continue.

"Did you get a good look at the bomb?" Jace asks.

"Yes."

"Do you think you could deactivate it?"

"I'm not entirely certain. It appears Silvio has planned quite a large amount of fail safes. Hunter and I being one of them. I'm sure if we go anywhere near the building, the building will explode." I say, thinking of all the reasons why Silvio would want a tracker in us.

"I believe you're right. We believe Silvio isn't working alone." Damian states.

"I agree. We believe his mother is involved as well." I comment.

"That's news to me. But that isn't who we were referring to. We believe Zach Montgomery is involved as well and has been the one helping both Kevin and Silvio." Jace informs.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. So we need to work together on this. Asher, you're our bombs expert. If you were to plant a bomb in Stone Enterprises, where would you go about doing it?" Jace questions.

Before I have a chance to reply, Damian interrupts.

"I'll send you the building schematics." He states, knowing it would be far easier to figure out where the best location for a bomb to be, to cause the most damage.

A beep from the phone, has me pulling it away from my face to check the screen. Sure enough, it's a text from Jace. I open the attachment and analyze the image as best as possible. Creating a mental picture of the building in my mind.

After fully analyzing the map, a few key areas stick out. I circle them, then send the map back to them.

"I've circled the high-risk areas. I recommend sending a team in to search. But you'll have to be careful. Silvio has everything thought out to a T. Which could only mean that he's able to anticipate our moves. We need to make sure he doesn't think we're on to him, otherwise, he may activate his plan sooner than expected." I comment.

"I agree. For now, we'll work on locking the bombs. If we do, can we get you to figure out a way to deactivate them? Even if it's only temporary so that it gives us enough time to activate our plan." Jace questions.

Admittedly, it's hard to reply yes or no to his question without seeing what I'm dealing with in the meantime. But ultimately, I agree.

"I can't promise anything. But I'll try my best." I reply.

"That's all I'm asking." Jace comments.

I nod my head, knowing that they can't see me. But remain silent nonetheless.

"What should we do in the meantime? I think to be safe, we shouldn't go near either building. We don't know how large of a radius these things have. I don't want to activate the bombs prematurely." I comment. I share a look with hunter, indicating that we're both in the same boat. Both of us are unsure of what will happen in the next two hours.

"I'll text you an address. It's to one of our safe houses. It's far enough away from both buildings, while also making sure it doesn't look suspicious that you're going in the wrong direction. I'm certain that Silvio will be tracking your movements. So until we can figure out how to disconnect the bombs from the interface. It will be best not to make any attempt to remove the trackers until we know it's safe to do so." Damian comments, ending the call.

A notification appears on the screen with an address not too far from here. I pass the phone back to Terry, giving him a chance to figure out the address. After a quick moment, Terry starts the car, and we make our way to Damian's safe house.

After a short drive, we make our way to what appears to be an upscale condominium complex. The towers are relatively newer, probably built within the past couple of years. We make our way into the main entrance of the building, to come across a security guard. The building is quite secure. There are multiple levels of security that needs to be crossed before even entering the building. I may not be a computer genius, but my knowledge of clandestine services along with my time spent with Sienna has taught me a lot about how sophisticated technology can be. The tiles on the wall are not just your ordinary tiles, rather, they have built-in cameras to provide a 360-degree view of the lobby. The floor also serves as a scale, to ensure no one is coming in without being seen. Using what the computer calculates our weights to be in order to see if there is something off.

The security guard gestures for us to enter the waiting elevator. On our way in, he passes each of us a small key card, before pressing a button for the car to move. I watch as the card turns green when I grab it from the guard. I can only guess that the card serves as a Biometric gauge to ensure the occupants claim who they really are.

The door opens as we arrive at our floor. I take a step out, passing the threshold of the elevator doors when I feel an electric-like current surge through me. I feel a quick pulse in my chest before the feeling washes away.

"What the hell was that?" I wonder. I look at the guard for a response.

"A bug detector. The doors serve as a sort of bug detector. It sends a powerful surge throughout the body and would normally destroy any bugs that attempt to make it past the threshold of the elevator."

"Normally?" Hunter questions.

"Yes. Mr. Stone requested that we lower the frequency so that it only confuses the tracker, without removing it from offline altogether." The guard informs, making my breath come back. If something were to happen to our trackers before we figured out how to prevent the bombs from going off, it could serve to make the issue worse.

"Man. this place is more secure than the white house." Terry comments as he follows us out of the elevator.

"That's the purpose. Mr. Stone will never take a chance when it comes to the safety of his friends and family." The guard comments. And without asking, I know this must have to do with what happened all those years ago, when Chase and Blade managed to attack Damian and Haley in their own home.

"Right this way." The guard gestures as he heads to the door at the end of the corridor. I hear Hunter hiss from the pain of the tracker being zapped inside him, making me smile. I know I shouldn't laugh, but it's hard not to, considering the kind of man Hunter is. While he's not my enemy, I wouldn't necessarily consider him to be my friend either. Rather more of an amicable relationship because of who he's dating.

Hunter looks in my direction, hearing me chuckle, sending me an annoyed stare but otherwise ignoring me. We follow the guard out of the elevator towards the entrance of the safe house. The guard opens the door for us before stepping aside to allow us entry into the room.