Chapter 250 - 250 The Next Plan

250 The Next Plan

Malachi sighed as he looked down, but then his eyes widened in shock. “What?” I asked, making my way towards him. “Uh, he isn’t splatted dead on the sidewalk. I think he escaped, Connor,” he said, slowly turning around. I sighed. Luthor Bane and his men went back inside the building, probably to get out of the scene.

“What do we do now?” I muttered.

We’re going to find him,” Malachi said.

“Where do you think he might go?” I asked. “How could he have possibly gotten away from them?”

“Luthor Bane has been known to come up with a lot of different plans,” Malachi said. “And I’m sure that he knows where they’ll head to look for him.”

“You’re right,” I muttered. “We need to follow Luthor Bane, and then he’ll find Matthew Lock. But let’s get back to the other teams and tell them what happened. Something tells me Mr. Drails is going to have a field day.”

***

“You gotta be kidding me,” Mr. Drails sighed. We were in the briefing room back in the YMPA, in which he was notified of the exploding failure. What a great way to put it. The entire plan had gone down in flames.

“But why didn’t you guys do something to stop it?” he asked. “You guys literally have the resources to stop him. How does the TSA show up early to the deal, and suddenly everyone is against each other. Please explain that to me!”

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I kept my mouth shut, because he wasn’t asking me, he was demanding. “What plan do you guys have now? Explain please,” he hissed. September didn’t do anything, nor did anyone else. It was like they knew what I was thinking. “I want a plan. So far, nothing has worked. Tell me how this plan will work,” he continued, looking at us with disgust.

“Well, we could follow Luthor Bane, and therefore, we find Matthew Lock. Luthor is a complete genius, and he knows how to do things. He probably knew that we were infiltrating the deal and successfully stopped us in the process. It’s funny how Luthor Bane was supposed to be his bodyguard, but now he’s hunting him just like us. It’s like a race, sort of,” Tisiah said, finally speaking up. I nodded in agreement, but September and the rest of my team looked defeated. And I understood. It stinks.

“You say that you are planning to follow him. Have you thought about this plan at all?” Mr. Drails asked.

“Yes,” said Malachi. “We’re going to put a tracker on Luthor Bane. Now that means we would actively have to find him, which shouldn’t be hard. We put the tracker, then we see where he is. Now the tracker connects to one of the YMPA special cameras: The HDR-07, which basically switches automatically to cameras that are near our suspect.”

When he said that, I thought about it, and a light-bulb lit open inside my brain. That was the thing Greg used to keep watch on Mr. Drails. That wasn’t Greg’s little trick. But this, this was the real deal.

“And then we find Matthew Lock,” Malachi continued. “He’s hiding somewhere, either in an abandoned building or maybe even in some type of a hotel room. Then we’ll try to convince him to give up the briefcase.”

“And what makes you think he will hand it over willingly?” Mr. Drails asked.

“We capture him. He has nowhere to go. We neutralize rogue agents in this spy mage business. He has nothing to live for, he’s gonna die anyways.”

The three of us stared at each other, because I understood his point, but it felt like we were taking a big risk. What if Luthor Bane captured him, and he killed him? It was a dangerous situation. But what choice did we have? I didn’t want to say anything, because I really wanted to hear what the others would say.

“Well, I’m sure you guys can come up with something,” Mr. Drails sighed. “At least I hope you can. Because time is running out.”

“Time?” Tisiah asked. “How much time do we have left, exactly?”

“I don’t know,” Mr. Drails said. He looked over at me, as if that was his problem and the only thing he needed to know.

“What about the other two agencies?” I asked. “The ISM and the TSA. What time do they have. Why do we even have a limited time.”

“No, you’re looking at it the wrong way,” he said. “The TSA are going to look for him, so we have to beat them in time. If we are to win this, we must find him before the TSA. And you know, that might sound risky. But the truth is, the more we wait, the less likely we are to find him.”

“You’re right about that,” I said. “You’re right about that. The question is, where is Luthor Bane. If he’s not hard to find, then surely we should already know his location. Right?”

I waited for their replies, but none came. I knew it was a dumb question, and I shouldn’t be asking it, but Mr. Drails looked at the five of us.

“What are you thinking?” he asked, looking at each of us in turn. September frowned, and Malachi crossed his arms over his chest, as if deep in thought. Tisiah’s eyes wandered through the entire room, before an idea clicked in his head. His eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open.

“That’s it!” he shouted. “I think there’s one place to start.”

“But where is it?” I asked.

“I have an idea, let me think it out.”

He then left the room in a hurry, almost tripping over himself. He was definitely confused, but I hoped he was on the right track. I scratched my chin, then looked at Nikki, September, and Malachi. They shrugged, but Mr. Drails had a smile on his face that showed confidence and excitement. Tisiah just booked it out of the room, to do God knows what.

“We’ll just wait for him,” Mr. Drails said. He wasn’t worried at all.

“Hey, I don’t know why we’re sitting here, waiting,” said Malachi. “Let’s go get some coffee. There is a Starbucks in the lobby. I heard they’ve got really good coffee there. Do you guys want anything?”

“What does any of this matter when we’re waiting?” September asked.

Mr. Drails sighed, clearly annoyed. “Can we please just do as we were told? We’re waiting for a plan. There has to be a reason that we are staying here, instead of going to get coffee or something else.”

Then Tisiah busted into the room, with his laptop in his hand. He went to the other side of the table, facing the laptop towards us. “See what’s on the screen?”

The screen showed a screen that showed what looked to be an abandoned building. But that’s not what caught my eyes. I saw TSA and BMO vehicles parked all around the building. And two men that seemed to be right in the middle of the two cars upfront. “Redford Bane, and the leader of the BMO,” Tisiah said. “This was a few months before Dr. Mord created the virus. And guess, who’s there.”

“Dr. Mord. But didn’t we kill him already?” I asked.

“No, he’s at a YMPA prison all the way in Alaska,” Mr. Drails said. “I can question him, and tell him to call Luthor Bane. We put a tracker on him right there, and now while he’s searching for Matthew Lock, we anonymously follow behind him. He won’t even see it coming.”

“And then we find him?” I asked.

“Yeah, that should be easy enough.”

“Just like that? It’s done?” I asked, skeptically.

“That’s not how this works. You know that, Connor. I don’t think you understand it completely. So just leave it alone. I’m sure that if you listen to what Malachi has said, then we’ll succeed.”

“I know,” I said, because I did.

“Now do you understand?”

“Yes.”

Mr. Drails closed his eyes and took a deep breath. That was his signal that he was thinking things through. A smile formed on his face, and he turned to look at me. “Well, I think we’ll start tomorrow. But I want you guys to get some rest tonight,” he said.

It was obvious that he had something planned, and I knew from experience that he wouldn’t just blurt out what it was. We could probably use some rest, too. I nodded, and the others followed suit. “Okay, thanks,” said Tisiah. “You guys want to meet up later for coffee or something, just to talk about how tomorrow will go?”

“Which time?” I asked, looking at my watch.

“There are three coffee places in the lobby, which one would you prefer?” he asked.

“I don’t drink coffee,” I lied. I very much enjoy coffee, but Mom seems to be really against it for me. Maybe it’s just a bad habit, like biting my nails, something to break. Either way, I have a hard time finding someone to make the drinks for me. And my mom always scolds me when I buy them. “What do you suggest?”

He looked at the screen of my laptop, then shook his head, as if he were confused. “I don’t know.”

“Why don’t we all meet up at ten o’clock in the morning?” I asked. “Tomorrow is a Saturday.”

“Sure.”

“Good, that’s fine with me. And what are your plans for the night? I might be going to the library to take a few courses, so I’ll be busy. But I guess you can come with me. I’m thinking about starting a little research of my own.”

“Oh, that sounds interesting. What kind of research are you doing?”

I told him that I wanted to focus on the YMPA, and the world around it. “To begin with,” I added.

Tisiah seemed pretty excited about that. “I’ve been interested in this subject too, actually. I mean, it’s really important, isn’t it?”

“It’s mostly for Mr. Robbs class,” I muttered with a chuckle.

“Yeah, that’s how I feel, Connor. You should really try to do a great job on that assignment. It can really help you on a project you do.”