Tempest: The Scarab Beetle Series: #6 (The Academy) by C. L. Stone

Author:C. L. Stone [Stone, C. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcato Publishing
Published: 2019-12-19T18:30:00+00:00

THIEVING NEVER CHANGES

The Citadel Mall was a location I hadn’t been to in a while but was the closest to where we were. Which meant an inexpensive bus ride. The mall was also smaller, with fewer crossways to duck into in case I made a mistake.

Still, it would have to do.

Axel worked with the cell phone he picked up. He was wearing a faded local softball T-shirt and jeans. He wore a baseball cap, too, mostly hiding his face from cameras where possible. Wearing all this, his features somewhat changed. His body was masked by the bulk of the out of shape T-shirt, and the cap hid the length of his hair and changed the angles of his face. Some of the scruff on his face was growing out, as he hadn’t shaved that morning. He blended in pretty well.

“There’s reports about a fire at the Jasper,” he whispered to me. “No arrests, just questions.” He lifted up his head, squinting to look out the window. “The police don’t have them.”

“So they got away or…”

“That was over ten people,” he said. He counted on his fingers. “Our people, your father… the guards, maybe Gretta. All of them.” He shook his head slowly and then waved the phone in my direction. “No reports about missing people. None.”

My heart raced. “Like they disappeared?”

“How do you get rid of that many people?” he asked. “No witnesses, no one asking where they are now.” He blew out a short breath. “They do have them. It’s the biggest cover up I’ve ever seen. She must have more on her side within the department than we realized.”

I absently scratched my arm, looking around the bus at a few other people. Most looked asleep or had headphones on or their cell phones in their faces. “So we need cash to help us get to her?”

“Yeah.”

We arrived at the mall and walked in quickly along with a few others who had gotten off the bus with us. We got away from them as quickly as possible.

“What do you need me to do?” Axel said.

“Ideally?” I said. “Turn off the cameras and send the guards home. Maybe even turn the lights off on cue. Or make everyone pass out.”

He coughed shortly once. “I can do one of those things. Stay here.”

I sort of hoped he was going to make everyone pass out. Picking pockets of people who were unconscious would have been so much easier.

When he returned, he motioned to me to walk with him down another hall. “We’ve got maybe an hour before the security guard catches on that the cameras stopped recording. Maybe more if he’s super lazy today.”

I wanted to ask him how he’d done it, but it didn’t matter. “If you can keep an eye out for guards…”

“I’ve got your back.”

With Axel as my lookout, I kept an eye on people, watching them open their wallets for whatever they bought. If they used a card and I couldn’t spot any green, it wouldn’t do any good to waste a lift.

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