Page 51 of Redemption

“Thank fuck for that,” Luc replies, sounding relieved. “Getting into an argument with airport staff is not something that I want to do.”

“Right, let’s get back on track,” Trick says. “Pete has everything outside and inside looped. We’re good. As you know there was an alarm that we had to bypass, which is why it took so long. It was far more sophisticated than the rest of the system, which suggests that it was put in more recently.”

“That also suggests that whatever has been going on wasn’t a quick decision. There was definitely some forethought there, either from her or from Hunt,” Atlas says with a raised eyebrow. “She might not even know it’s there.”

“That is a possibility,” Pete says, looking perplexed as he thinks over the idea. “As we said, it was really quite sophisticated, and in comparison to the rest of the system it would make sense that she wasn’t aware of its presence. Equally though, as a professional, why would you put in such a sophisticated alarm knowing that the rest of the system is so weak?”

“That’s a really good point,” Riot replies with a frown. “Forget that for a moment. We need to focus on finding the information that could be here. Luc, where should we be looking?”

“So there are the usual places. The hidden bottom in her nightstand, tampon box, and then there’s the bottom right of the bed under whatever floor cover is there, floorboard or tiles. It doesn’t matter, that was always a favorite hiding place of hers. If there’s nothing there, then we could check one meter from the far-right corner of the bathroom in the ceiling,” Luc suggests, and I feel my eyebrows rise. “There are a couple more places that we can check, as well as the usual things like her desk and computer, but those two are the ones that she favored the most.”

“Your mom is weird,” Cash says simply.

Luc nods in agreement, still stroking the puppy. “You don’t know the fucking half of it, dude.”

“Right, Peter and Ever, you head into her office and see what you can find. Luc, Riot, and Rage, you check the bathrooms, there are multiple. Everyone else split up and check the bedrooms. As you search, look in the usual places as well,” Trick orders.

We all nod. I smile as Luc gently puts the pup on the floor so that he has his hands free so that he can search the ceiling. The puppy doesn’t run off, she stays glued to his leg, walking to heel like she’s been trained to do so, as her tail wags happily.

I have never seen a dog belong to someone so quickly and so fully as she seems to belong to Luc.

She was meant to be his.

Honestly, I can’t wait to have her back at the house. Puppies are adorable, and thankfully, there are a lot of people who can watch her if we’re on a job or something.

It’s actually pretty good timing.

We’ve got the Hunt job, which should only be a couple of days away from home, and then we’ve got some time off to celebrate and relax before the next job hits our inboxes.

Knowing Trick, he’s most likely going to organize the jobs to make sure that someone is always available to look after her, just like he does for the other animals, and probably also make sure that we don’t do any overnight jobs for a while.

Failing that, there are some places that she can come with us. She will be extremely well trained.

My mind rapidly switches direction and back to Knox.

What the fuck was that?

The more time that passes, the less certain I am that it was Knox that called me. I mean, why would he? We haven’t spoken in maybe a decade, and while admittedly I do wonder if he’s okay and how he’s getting on, I have no idea why he would call me. Especially after all of this time.

Then there’s the fact that he sounded like he needed something. It didn’t sound to me like he was calling for a quick chat and catch-up. It sounded like there was a problem.

He called my secure phone, that shouldn’t be possible. Not only because he shouldn’t be able to find my number, but also because even if he did somehow manage to find my number, Pete has the phones set up so they don’t accept phone calls from any number that isn’t programmed into the phone, and I definitely didn’t program his number in there.

Also, we have no bars here. None. Pete told us before we arrived here that we wouldn’t have any, and I checked when we got here, and when I got to where I was watching the house from, there were none, not even one.

Let’s not forget the fact that the number disappeared. Thank fuck that Cash saw it do that too, because I wouldn’t believe my own memory otherwise. I didn’t even realize that there was tech that existed that was capable of doing that, but clearly there is.

Do you need to be close to someone to use that kind of tech? Like within a certain radius? And if you do, does that mean that he’s on the island somewhere?

Hopefully Pete can explain it as simply as possible because I have a feeling that it’s incredibly complicated, and if anyone knows about that sort of tech, it’s going to be him.

There are so many questions churning through my mind, new ones and old ones, some of which I had forgotten about.

“Jensen, are you coming?” Cash asks me, with a slight frown.

I smile. I had tuned out for a moment, and everyone else has already gone to do the job that we’re supposed to be doing too.

“Yeah, sorry,” I reply, and follow after him. “I was thinking about Knox.”