Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 122609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
“Nope… Deep breath, baby. It’s okay. I want you to take the card reader tag you had, turn it upside down and hold it—not up to the light, but just in front of it.” She did as asked. “Now, flash it, quickly, across the scanner. It’s going to scramble it and do a reset.”
She followed the instructions and the countdown stopped. She sighed with relief.
“How do I get in now that he’s changed the reader?”
“There’s still an emergency backup that all of those readers have, just like the one on my garage. He uses the same password for all of these locks. His password is ‘médecin.’”
“Doctor in French?”
“Yeah. Now you’re losing time, so let’s make this fast. Put the tag up to the scanner seven times.”
“Seven letters in médecin.”
“Yes, exactly. Hurry.”
When she was done, the countdown stopped then the light turned green. She about jumped for joy.
“It’s open… It’s open!” she squealed as quietly as possible.
“All right. You got this.”
Archer quickly ended the call, and she entered a back building that smelled strongly of urine and feces.
A queasy feeling settled over her as she looked in the far back to see rows of enclosures, populated by exotic animals. As she neared, a small light-haired monkey began to move about his tight space. There were cages full of rare albino snakes, huge tarantulas, and too many birds to count. One cage even had a dog in it—looked like a Husky of some sort. Squawking. Barking. Hissing. Meowing. A cacophony of sounds ensued as she took picture after picture. She looked all around, unable to believe her eyes. Some of those creatures she’d never seen before in person, in all of her life. Like a bearded dragon. A part of her wanted to grab every damn cage, take them to the zoo, or if push came to shove, unlock them and set them all free. She didn’t consider herself a crazed animal lover, but this tugged at her heart, and her eyes moistened as she looked into the tired, scared eyes of a small chimp. The creature’s human-like fingers clung around the bars as it stared at her with big, syrupy brown eyes.
The chimp made no sounds, seeming malnourished, and its water dish was practically empty. She reached into her purse, took out some almonds, and dropped them inside the cage. The chimp immediately grabbed them and ate them so fast, she wasn’t certain it had actually chewed the food. She stared into those eyes for far too long, so much that when she looked down at her watch, she realized she was almost a minute behind schedule.
“I’m sorry… I gotta go.” She blinked back tears. “I’m going to help you get out of here.”
She ran her fingers along the chimp’s fingers that clutched the iron bars so tight, then snapped a few more pictures and left the room, locking the door behind her. Now that she’d uncloaked Bannon’s dirty secret of exporting exotic, illegal animals, which alone brought the man millions of dollars each year, she packed up her things in her purse, slung it over her shoulder, and made her way to the back door on the opposite end of the big, dark room. As she was typing in the code to exit, relieved there was no surprise door panel sprung on her at the last minute, she heard footsteps.
FUCK.
This was not the time to make mistakes.
This was not the time to panic.
…But she was. Oh hell, she surely was!
She heard her father’s voice as she struggled to get the code in without making too much noise. COME ON, HONEY!!!! YOU’VE COME TOO FAR TO MESS THIS UP NOW! She heard Archer’s voice. She heard Chasity’s voice. She heard Irish’s voice. The door buzzed, then opened, and in that moment she could hear someone say very faintly, ‘Did you hear that? Was that the door?’
She ran with all she had in her, clutching her bag to her body. Don’t give him any reason to look at those cameras. You can’t afford to be seen!
If she didn’t get to and inside the car before they came to the door and peeked out, and they caught her ass running like an Olympic marathon champion across the lot, she was done for.
She caught sight of the truck and pushed herself all the more, unlocked it and tossed herself inside, then slammed the door closed. She sat in the driver’s seat, her chest rising and falling like torrential ocean waves crashing against a beach. Her body was covered in sweat. Eyes swelling with angry tears born of sadness and pure adrenaline.
Sure enough, the door of the building cracked open, but she was so far across the parking lot, sitting quite a distance away on purpose, there’d be no way they could make her out in that sea of cars. There were too many neighboring businesses that shared the same lot. She just needed to remain perfectly still. A man peered around, looking to and fro, then shrugged and disappeared back inside the building. Filled with relief, she waited a few seconds before starting the engine. She slowly eased out of the parking space and drove off the lot.