Crossing the Lines

FOURTY FOUR

Ace's POV

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"What do you mean 'Ben's alive'?" I ask Annika.

"Before I left, I tried to find Hannah. I knew she was in the cells but Jack wouldn't let me go near them for some reason. I went to the late at night and I couldn't find her. However, two guys came around the corner, two guys who were carrying Ben."

"Shit." I sigh. My best friend is alive. "Listen, don't tell Sarah."

"Why? She has a right to know."

"I understand that but, if she finds out he's alive, she won't have a clear head on this mission. Plus, he won't be in good shape when she sees him. I can't have her risking her life, or anyone else's."

"Will you have a clear head?" She asks, referring to Hannah. I ignore her question and walk inside.

I take Annika to my office where the others are already waiting. They have a map of the U.S. laid out, as well as the map that Leo and Thea made of the sightings. I walk over to my chair and sit down while Annika looks tensely at the map Leo and Thea made.

"Who did this?" She points at it.

"Leo and Thea." I tell her, pointing to them.

"This is really smart."

"Thanks but it hasn't led us to anything." Thea shyly speaks up.

"Actually, it has, you just don't know where to look. Like here for example." She points to an area on the coast of Maine that's covered in the dots. "There are loading docks around this area. It's where the get most of their shipments."

"Good to know. Wheres Hannah?" I ask. This was great information and I definitely wanted to know more later, I wanted to find Hannah first though.

"Here." Annika points to New York on the map. "The compounds in upstate New York, near Albany."

"How many men are there?" Antony asks, studying the area.

"If I had to guess, I would say around 300 hundred."

"Specialty?" Vinnie asks. Some compounds are grouped by specialty. For example, you could have a compound where everyones specialty is bow and arrows. We have a few, but ours are mainly mixed.

"Mixed."

"Where are the cells?" Oliver.

"With the torture rooms on the basement level. The rooms are on hallways on the left and the cells on the right."

Breaking into a compound is a hard mission. It still happens though, so mafias always make it as hard as possible for people to find their way. They can have tons of random hallways, doors that lead to nothing, I know Cixi has a compound that has a fifty foot drop behind a couple doors.

"Do you know which cell they are in?"

"They?" Antony asks me. I look around the room, making sure Sarah isn't in here. She wasn't so I guess they took her to a bedroom.

"Ben's alive." Everyone was silent.

"Are you serious?" Vinnie was the first to speak up. I look to Annika.

"I'm almost positive." She tells him.

"Almost?"

"It looked like Ben but he was so beaten up, covered in blood. It was hard to tell."

"Okay, we need to focus right now." I tell them. "Annika, I need you to do your best to describe the compound to us, Antony call-"

"I can do you one better." Annika interrupts me. "Can I see your computer?" I nod, turning it to face her but making sure I can still see the screen.