City of Nope by Brett Battles

Author:Brett Battles [Battles, Brett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-10-22T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

The sun was low on the horizon by the time the taxi dropped Ananke, Rosario, and Liesel off three blocks from the street where the Estrada family lived.

With the approaching night came a chilling of the air, making Ananke wish she had some warmer clothes. She huddled with Rosario and Liesel on the sidewalk while Rosario checked the tracker.

“They are still in the building,” Rosario said, “but their phones are now on the third floor.”

“Dammit,” Ananke muttered. “All right, let’s go.”

They headed off at a brisk walk, not stopping again until they reached the block where the Estrada building was located.

“Comms on,” Ananke said as she activated her set.

“Check,” Liesel said.

“Check,” Rosario echoed.

“All working,” Ananke said. She glanced toward the grocery store. “You two wait here. I’m going to do a walk-by.”

It wasn’t long into her journey before she saw the market was dark. This was prime business time, when those coming home from work would pick up items for the evening. But as she neared the market’s front door, she saw a sign in the window that read CERRADO, confirming it was closed.

She stopped, pulled out her phone, and called Ricky again.

Straight to voicemail.

She tried Dylan. Same.

She returned to Rosario and Liesel and told them what she’d found. “They might be in trouble. We’re going to have to get inside.”

Rosario worked her phone, then turned the screen so the others could see. On it was a satellite image, focused on the roof of the Estradas’ building.

“That might give us access inside,” Rosario said, pointing at a dark square in the back right corner. She moved her finger to the two-story structure next door. “If we can get into this building, we should be able to climb up to it.”

“But if that is not roof access, we will have wasted time,” Liesel said.

Liesel was right, Ananke knew. The dark square seemed a likely way in, but they couldn’t afford to lose the time if it wasn’t.

“We’ll go in the front door,” Ananke said. She looked at the sky. The sun was setting. “Let’s give it a few more minutes, wait until it gets a little darker.”

Ananke spotted a nook between two buildings, almost directly across from the store, where they could wait without drawing attention. They crossed the street to the opposite sidewalk and walked toward the nook. Before they could get there, a group of five men exited a building ahead and turned in Ananke, Rosario, and Liesel’s direction. The leers and catcalls started immediately, and only grew worse as the gap between them closed.

Ananke mentally forced the men to keep walking past them, but today her Jedi mind tricks weren’t working.

Ananke moved to go around them, but the men were having none of it. Though she was able to get by the first two, the other three surrounded her.

“What’s the hurry?” one man asked.

“Come on, baby, don’t you want to talk to us?” another said.

“Get out of the way,” Ananke said.

The first speaker, who seemed to be the leader, said, “You’re the ones in the way.

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