Apartment 905 by Sahin, Ned (best color ereader TXT) 📗

counter. I see several laptops, barcode scanners, security cameras, RFID cards, external hard drives, and cables. I have no idea how this stuff made it to this boutique, but they can certainly be useful.

Toshi finds shopping baskets and fills two of them with the equipment. Once he walks outside to put them in the car, I pull the radio from my pocket and set it to the higher frequency Saviors never use.

“Miguel, are you there?” I ask. On my second day at the control room, I stole an old model radio and threw it on the other side of the wall where Miguel checks for my paper notes. Since that day, I have been radioing him whenever I get a chance. I am the one always initiating communication. He stays near his radio all the time to answer my signal right away.

“Aquí, Matt. Any news?” he says.

“I haven’t had a chance to talk to headquarters to find out where Val is. I will try to do it today,” I say. I have been looking for an opportunity to talk to the headquarters about her. They are the central base overseeing three states including ours. They keep records of every person working in the camps and every person who is captured by Saviors.

“Looking forward to it, hijo. Me and Diego are still in the same place,” Miguel says. They are still at the condo we had discovered when we first came to Asheville.

I didn’t see Toshi come back from the car. I quickly switch the frequency back to the Saviors channel. He looks at the radio in my hand.

“Any new orders from the camp?” he asks.

“No... William was curious about what we found here.” I’m hoping he didn’t hear Miguel’s voice. Toshi nods and starts filling the shopping baskets again.

“Stop right there!” one of the patrolling Saviors yells outside. I see a teenage girl running by the boutique.

Toshi and I run to the door to find out what is going on. The patrols are a block away and running in this direction. I wave my arms, pointing to the right and left streets. They get separated running to parallel streets to cut her way. I run after the girl. Toshi follows me.

She keeps running straight and checks if we are behind at every block. We are faster. She decides to enter an alley. We follow her.

She slows down while holding her chest. She looks exhausted. Toshi grabs her arm and pulls her back. She falls down.

I see a broken basement window next to a garbage container.

“Quick! Get inside!” I say, helping her to get on her feet and through the window. Toshi looks at us but doesn’t do anything. I see her landing in the basement.

“Toshi, help me move this container!” I say. After a second of hesitation, he helps to push the giant garbage container to cover the window. I check the ground to make sure there is no trace of her.

One of the Saviors runs toward us from the other side of the alley. “Where did that bitch go?” He says trying to catch his breath.

“We lost her... She was faster than I expected,” I say.

“Shit. I had amazing plans for her,” he says with an annoying smirk.

We walk back to the boutique and finish loading the equipment with Toshi. He drives us back to the camp.

“I hope Big Six doesn’t hear about what I did there,” I say, looking at Toshi. I try to get a clue about his intentions.

“You can trust me...” he says. I know that he meant what he said. He is not like other Saviors.

We unload the car in the storage room of the camp, and I go back straight to the control room.

“How did the treasure quest go?” William asks.

“Oh man, we found a whole bunch of laptops and cameras. We can set up our own CCTV system here. Do you want to check them out?” I say.

“I do. You stay here. I will be right back.” He leaves the room with a satisfied look. This is the opportunity I have been waiting for. As soon as he closes the door, I put my headset on.

“Fairfax, Fairfax… This is Asheville COP, over,” I say.

“Asheville COP, this is Fairfax, over,” she says.

“We have an AWOL. Can you check her last recorded location in the system? Over,” I say. I hope pretending to be worried about a fellow Saviors will help me get the information I need.

“Go ahead, tell me the name, over.”

“Valeria Hernandez, over,” I say.

“Checking, Asheville COP, give me a second, over.” I wait impatiently. It won’t take too much time for William to come back from the storage room.

“No record found, over,” she says. It’s unlikely for them not to have a record of her. It’s been a week since she was kidnapped. The operator on the other end of the radio either found my request suspicious or there is really no record of her for some reason.

“Fairfax, can you repeat the name? Over,” I say.

“Valerya Hernandez, V-A-L-E-R-Y-A Hernandez, over,” she says.

“Bad copy. Correction. It’s Valeria, V-A-L-E-R-I-A. Over.”

“Copy, one moment, over.”

I should have spelled the name at the beginning. I am running out of time. William might be back in any second.

“Last known address is Raleigh base, over,” she finally says.

I got what I wanted. It looks like they took her to the state capital.

I think about asking Kathleen’s location as well, but I quickly decide not to. I don’t have enough time. The operator may also get suspicious about my queries—if she hasn’t yet.

“Thank you, Fairfax. Over and out,” I say turning off the channel right on time before William opens the door.

On my way to the barrack after my shift is over, I go behind the bushes near the far end of the perimeter and change the frequency of the radio.

“Miguel, can you hear me?” I say.

“Yes, Matt. What’s going on?” Miguel says.

“Val is in the Raleigh base. We will have a regular delivery to Raleigh leaving the camp