Chapter Six: Opportunities
Bones
I tapped my foot impatiently while Hawk picked the lock on the door of the high school. We were doing this in the middle of the night and there wasn’t a soul around, but I was still eager to get inside. The last thing I wanted right now was to get caught breaking into Holbeck High, home of the fighting tigers, especially since we had coke on us. Charlie was with us and seemed excited to help, based on the grin he wore as he watched Hawk work.
When Hawk said he needed lab equipment, the answer seemed obvious. The school would have everything we needed, not just equipment, but the facility. The only trouble was getting access.
“I’m in,” Hawk said, pulling open the door so we could enter.
The place was eerily dark inside, the only illumination provided by the red glow from the EXIT sign lit up above the door. Our shoes squeaked on the tile as we walked along. We didn’t dare turn on a light. Luckily, I knew my way through these halls very well, since I’d gone to high school here. I’d graduated nearly seventeen years ago, but barely anything had changed in that time.
“The science labs are up ahead.” I pointed.
Hawk took the lead from there.
Inside the lab, I finally saw some real changes to the place. It’s amazing how far technology had come since I’d been in school. A large touchscreen hung on the wall instead of a chalkboard and I shook my head at the sight of it. It was crazy to see things I couldn’t have even imagined when I was younger, now being used daily in the classroom.
Hawk would need light to work, so we finally flipped a light switch after we made sure the blinds were all down. It put me further on edge to have that illumination, like a huge arrow pointing out to the world where we were and that we were up to no good.
Hawk took a seat at an elevated lab table with a full chemistry set already set up and waiting for use by the students. I didn’t know what Hawk was doing as he got to work, but I recognized the super-concentrated look in his eyes. He was in the zone.
Charlie kept picking up stuff from the teacher’s desk and messing with it. He tossed a glass paperweight into the air and caught it, clicked a pen a couple of times, and stole a piece of gum. He seemed worked up, slightly anxious maybe. I understood the fear of getting caught, but in my opinion, this was worth the risk. Someone had seriously crossed a line, dealing in our town. I had to know who it was.
We didn’t talk much, all three of us listening for any signs that we were about to be discovered. It seemed deathly quiet.
Finally, Hawk raised his head, looking grim. “Bad news,” he said.
“How bad?”
“I’m looking at the signature concoction that the cartel uses.”
“Shit…” I groaned. Going up against the cartel was asking for trouble. But we couldn’t let this go. They’d been disrespectful of our wishes. The question was, who were they working with? The cartel didn’t distribute themselves; they worked with gangs or whoever had a network in an area. Rebel Saints used to do it before we got out of the business.
The squeaking of a rubber-soled shoe on the tile down the hall made all of us freeze. Someone was here.
“It’s gotta be a night janitor,” Charlie guessed.
“Damn it, I didn’t even think of that,” I hissed, turning off the light while Hawk cleaned up as best as he could. We didn’t want to leave evidence behind.
Adrenaline flooded my system, but I stayed put, knowing the best course of action would be to wait out the man if possible.
The three of us lined up by the door, tension in every line of our bodies.
Time seemed to drag on forever as I listened to the person in the hall shuffling along. “When he’s gone past,” I spoke in barely more than a whisper, “We slip out of here and hurry outside the way we came in.”
“Got it,” Charlie agreed, while Hawk gave a tight nod.
I waited for the person’s steps to pass, then held up my fingers. One. Two. Three.
On three, I ripped the door open and the three of us rushed out of the room, heading in the opposite direction of the footsteps. I felt a surge of excitement, thinking we’d avoided detection.
Then as we passed the front office, a voice called out to us, “What the hell are you doing here?” She looked like another night-time janitor.
Charlie laughed like a madman as the three of us fled a little old cleaning lady like she was pointing a shotgun at us instead of holding the handle of a vacuum cleaner. I couldn’t help seeing the humor myself, but I couldn’t relax enough to laugh until we got out of here.
We couldn’t be seen outside, but the cleaning van was now in the parking lot. Glad I had thought to park a block away, I jogged in that direction with the other two following close behind.
I didn’t breathe easily until we were back in the sedan and speeding away, but I still had the problem of the cartel lingering in the back of my mind. I had to figure out a way to stand up to them without getting killed.