24 Hours

6:00 a.m.

My eyes flew open to find myself in the same interrogation room as before, seated on a hard, wooden chair. Images of being bound when I first arrived flashed through my head. Not again! I hated feeling constrained; it made me too claustrophobic.

But my fears quickly melted away as I realized that my hands and ankles weren't tied together. So they don't see me as a threat. How comforting.

Behind me, the door opened, and the entire gang filed in, led by Raven. He clutched a brown briefcase in his hand.

"I don't like how behind we got," Raven declared. "We're cutting things way too close with this next job."

"I'm sorry, boss, but they woke up," Cougar protested. "We didn't know what to do. The whole situation was a mess."

"But you should have left the premises the moment you heard the police siren. What took so long?"

"Jordan got stuck in a tree."

All eyes turned to me. Every muscle in my body went still. I'm sorry. Please don't kill me!

Raven's beady blue eyes narrowed to slits. "Did you hold things up on purpose?"

I shook my head vehemently. I would have said no, but my throat was too dry, my tongue too tied to speak.

"Go easy on him, boss," Parrot said with mock sympathy. "He's afraid of heights."

Raven inhaled, rolling his eyes to the ceiling. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Look, it's probably our fault," Cougar said. "We should have given Jordan a tighter deadline. He didn't know about the extra job we needed to complete once we got the box."

"He didn't?" Raven raised an eyebrow.

"No. We should have budgeted out time better. But what matters is that we took care of the Mayhads."

Extra job? Took care of the Mayhads?

I closed my eyes as realization set in. Why they needed me to leave, why they needed time for an "extra" job, why the police had shown up—it all made sense now.

Yup, Calico and Cougar had straight up killed the Mayhads. What I couldn't understand was why they waited until after we had gotten the box...ooh. They didn't want me around when they did the deed. It all made perfect sense, much to my dismay.

Those poor people! They didn't deserve such a fate. These people are murderers!

"Let's stop wasting time arguing," Calico declared.

Raven sighed. "You're right, Calico. Our next job is on a tight schedule. It must, and I repeat must, be completed before eight a.m. this morning. That's when Charles Boyd usually heads to work, and we don't want you to be around when he's getting in his car. It's 6:41 right now, barely an hour and a half to complete the job. His home is half an hour away, so we only have time for a short briefing."

Raven waved his hand, a motion to the others to sit down. They plopped down in the four seats on the sidelines—Falcon and Cougar on one side, Calico and Parrot on the other.

"Jordan, this next job rests on your shoulders. I was hoping you would have been back sooner from the Mayhad Mansion so you could complete the job under the cover of night, but you'll just have to remain as quiet and inconspicuous as possible." Raven strode to the front of the room and placed his briefcase on the desk.

"In here, you will find all the tools you need," he continued. He pressed a little button on the side of the briefcase. The lid snapped open to reveal a complete set of tools, ranging from wires, to wrenches, to devices I had never even seen before. He turned his attention towards me. I recoiled in my seat from the intensity of his stare.

"You remember Shark? Our previous hacker and tech expert?" I nodded slightly, though I had no idea what he was talking about.

"One reason we were so desperate to get your help is because our previous tech expert met with an unfortunate...accident right after completing an important job. All on his own, he installed a listening device into the car belonging to a man named Charles Boyd. He had almost got away, and had called to inform us of his success, when the line went dead. We found Shark dumped into a nearby pond a few days later, a knife in his back."

I shivered. Don't think about the knife. Don't think about the blood. But of course, the more I told myself not to think about it, the more I thought about it. I cringed internally. The very thought made me feel like a knife was being plunged into my own back.

"Under the circumstances, we never learned where Shark put the listening device. He likely concealed it in a place that no one would find it, not even the most trained eye. We need a techy like you to search the car. Given your experience, I'm sure you'll be able to spot it, or at least have a general idea of where to look for it."

"That's it?" I said. "I'm just looking for a listening device?" That didn't seem too complicated. The hardest part would be knowing what to look for, but if I could see a prototype, it shouldn't be too difficult.

Raven reached into the briefcase and held up a large, yellow pill. "This is what the listening device looks like. Same size and shape. The only difference is that this is a normal, empty capsule. You are looking for one made of metal, containing more than a week's worth of information that we need. Once you retrieve the listening device, I need you to put it inside this capsule and seal it in a plastic bag."

My eyes grew wide, perhaps wider than the pill itself. "That's what I'm looking for? That itty-bitty thing? How—"

"I only need to tell you the what, Jordan, not the how. You can come up with a strategy while you're driving in the car. It's almost seven o'clock, you all need to get going."

Falcon, Cougar, Calico, and Parrot stood up collectively, so I scrambled to my feet, too.

"Oh, and one more thing, Jordan."

The others sat down. Not wanting to be the only one standing, I sat as well.

"We do not know where Shark placed this listening device. It may be 'hidden in plain sight' so to speak. Or he could have placed it in a more...tricky location. For example, he may have opened up the dashboard and stuck it there. This is why we are giving you the tool kit. If the capsule is attached to wires or anything else, you must be precise while removing it. The slightest disturbance can ruin the device, a detrimental setback to our plans. In general, be very careful when handling the device. Don't squish it or allow it to drop on the ground. If you do so, you will fail this job."

I gulped. I knew what that meant. I'll end up in the gutter with Shark.