Aztec Gold

TEN

Licking their wounds, Crouch’s team melted into the night before finding a vehicle and using it to take them to a hotel. Alicia wondered if their escape hadn’t ended up being a little too easy in the end. Maybe all the enemy had wanted were kills and a kidnap. Clearly, they thought Caitlyn had been a part of the team since the beginning.

The worst part was, she hadn’t been. She didn’t have the whole picture, not by a long shot. Alicia knew the type of pressures their enemy would exert on her and it was driving her crazy.

“C’mon,” she said as the remainder of the team unloaded their belongings into the new hotel room. “We have to track down these bastards before they start hurting her.”

“Can’t believe they took Caitlyn.” Healey’s face was despondent. “Poor girl’s only just joined the frickin’ team.”

“At least she won’t be able to tell ‘em anything,” Lex said gruffly.

“That’s part of the point,” Alicia explained. “It will be worse for her.”

Crouch said nothing, but opened and booted up a laptop as soon as he found a seat. Alicia herded Healey straight over to him. “The tattoo. Show him.”

Crouch took the cellphone from the young soldier. “This is good. Gives us a fair starting point at least.”

“One thing worries me—” Russo began.

“Only one?” Alicia shook her head.

Russo ignored the comment. “Greg Coker. From what we know about the man this doesn’t come even close to his modus operandi. What are we missing?”

Crouch was busy downloading the tattoo from Healey’s phone onto the laptop. “We have to assume Greg’s merely a pawn, part of something that goes way deeper. Greg Coker would not do this to our team. It’s the criminal organization behind him that’s the concern.”

“But what could they do to Coker to make him cooperate in such a way?” Healey asked with an air of innocence.

Alicia eyed him but saved her comment. If the kid stayed in this game he would learn soon enough.

“You get any other pictures down there?” she asked, thinking a little ribbing might help take his mind off Caitlyn. “Tangled up with so many men?”

“Umm, no I—” Healey suddenly looked sheepish. “Oh, I see.”

Russo jumped to his rescue. “Did you? Seemed kinda at home underneath all those men.”

“They were throwing themselves at me.” Alicia spread her hands. “What’s a girl s’posed to do?”

Crouch made a noise as he finished uploading the data. Once he was happy with the picture he turned to his phone. “Let’s see who we can find.”

“Hope you never lose that thing,” Russo pointed out.

“Oh yes, the contacts on here are a treasure themselves. Cleverly though I’ve saved everything to the Cloud.”

“Really? From what I hear the Cloud ain’t exactly unhackable these days.”

Alicia nodded. “Yeah. Thank God I take all my nudes by Polaroid.”

Healey, unable to help himself, glanced over. Lex barked out a laugh. “She’s not serious, man.”

Alicia kept her face straight. “Aren’t I, Lex? How would you know?”

The biker shrugged indifferently. “Whatever.”

“That sounded a bit like ‘fuck you’.”

Lex almost smiled. “Whatever.”

Crouch waved them to silence as his first call connected. “Healey. Get on the database and start trying to match that tattoo. Russo, go for a recce and set up a watch. The clock is ticking, people. If we want to find Caitlyn in one piece we have to find her now.”