“I bet it’s the janitor. It’s always the janitor.”

  Owen stiffened his face, a thing he did when he wasn’t getting anywhere. “Then you can monitor the janitors.” He got out of the car.

  Sean smirked. Owen hated when he made a joke when he was trying to be serious, but it was only fair when Owen sometimes tried to get bossy around him. Sean hurried to undo his belt so he could catch up.

  “What’s the objective?” He honestly didn’t have a clue.

  Owen mumbled under his breath. “Just keep your eyes open. Find someone on staff you can get on good terms with. Let’s start off on a friendly foot. Also, the others will likely show up today. When they’re here, keep an eye on them... particularly check on what Kota is up to.”

  Oh right.

  Kota. Sean had his suspicions. The gray house. Since whoever had moved in were brand new, some information wasn’t available online just yet. The house sale was there, but the paperwork hadn’t become available online and they didn’t have time to run to the courthouse and inquire about it.

  Besides, that would be going a bit too far... they could just ask Kota, but Kota wasn’t telling them for a reason. They should trust him.

  It was just very hard when they were curious, and also forced to readjust if Kota was keeping himself occupied... without warning.

  He had to have a conversation, after he figured out what was really going on, to talk to Kota about what to do if he found himself busy as family lead. Too many dropped balls and they’d all begin to suffer.

  ♥♥♥

  They had a few hours before registration started, so Sean spent time in their new office setting it up. It took some configuration, and it was totally not Zen, with the confined space and two desks, but it had been the only way they could get a private office.

  The setup was more so Owen wouldn’t be able to see what Sean was up to either at the computer or, more likely, spending time folding paper while waiting for something to do. If Sean wanted to watch cat videos on his lunch break, he didn’t need Owen questioning his life choices.

  But for Owen’s benefit, Sean had found a small radio inside one of the desks, looking to be circa 1970. With a few adjustments and new batteries, the thing worked. Sean put it on top of one of the filing cabinets. And for good measure, he selected what he knew to be a classical radio station.

  Sean sat in one of the office chairs, debating how much he needed to go out and attempt to socialize or if he could fit in a quick nap, when the office door opened.

  It was one of the assistants from the front office. She peered around the room and then settled on Sean. “Ah, I see. I thought I heard furniture moving.”

  “Yes, it was just me.”

  She tilted her head at an angle. “Did Principal Hendricks approve?”

  Sean raised an eyebrow. “He needed to approve where desks are in offices?”

  She blinked rapidly as if this was a strange question to her. “I...” she fumbled a bit.

  Sean smiled. “I’ll take your advice. You’re right, I should talk to him.” This was going to take getting used to. He had been working within the Academy too long. Getting permission on how to arrange a work desk wasn’t something he was used to.

  But the lady approved and nodded and said, “In about an hour, come to the meeting before the doors open for students.”

  Another meeting? “No problem!”

  The woman disappeared. Sean sat back in his office chair and listened for her footsteps to fade out. He could almost hear the shuffling of others in the main office, where clerks or assistants or whoever else worked in a school were gearing up for registration day.

  A school. A large one.

  Was he ready for this?

  It had to be easier than med school, right?

  6

  Sean was fixing up the little things in the office when his phone buzzed to life about ten minutes before the scheduled meeting.

  Luke: I need an adult.

  Sean sighed. Adult meant none of the others could go help him, just Sean and Owen...

  Sean: Now?

  Luke: Yes.

  Of course now. Luke wouldn’t bug him on registration day without it being urgent.

  Well, it looked like he was getting out of the meeting. He sent a quick message to Owen about the situation and grabbed his keys. He’d be abandoning Owen on his own here at the school, but it couldn’t be helped.

  In a rush, Sean rolled Owen’s BMW into the drive of the motel from the night before.

  Sean parked near where he’d been alerted that they had a motel room rented. He found the correct door and knocked.

  Luke answered, holding a rag at his nose, blinking.

  Sean made a face. “What happened, buddy? We didn’t fall off the roof, did we?”

  Luke removed the rag and showed Sean the dried bits of blood and the fresh blood still pooling inside his nose.

  “Is it broken?” Luke asked.

  Sean ushered him inside, and as the motel lights were a bit dull, he used his cell phone’s flashlight to angle into Luke’s nose and inspect the damage.

  “No, it isn’t broken,” Sean said. “But there’s a cut at a strange angle. You holding the rag too tight is probably stopping it from clotting up like it should.” Sean positioned Luke’s head forward and showed him where to pinch his nose. “Stay like that for a bit. It’ll stop soon. Just go easy on your nose.”

  Luke seemed relieved. As he spoke, his voice came out nasally blocked, making him sound funny. “My fault. I wasn’t watching my back.”

  “It’s not your fault, because there was no need for violence,” Sean said. “I’m guessing we were found out.”

  Luke shrugged. “I don’t even know. He could have thought I was snooping too close to his computers. There’s no telling if he knows about the device. It could still be there.”

  “Did you get a look at him?”

  Luke paused. “No. But it was him.”

  “Him?” Sean remembered partly about there being two people, but the way Luke made it sound he knew who this kid was.

  Luke sighed. “There’s two, remember? A girl, older, the one pickpocketing wallets from the mall. This other one, he does online stuff. Haven’t figured out what yet. I don’t know if they’re a couple, and she gets the wallets and he uses the cards and info to make money. But...” He pressed his nose with the edge of a finger, as if testing where it hurt. “They haven’t tried to use North’s cards at all. And his wallet was found. With only a little bit of cash gone.”

  Odd. “So she only got the cash.”

  “Right.”

  “And he’s... this guy... then what is he doing?”

  Luke made a finger gun with his empty hand and pretended to take a shot at Sean. “That’s the question.”

  Sean nodded “Well, it’s enough that he doesn’t want you to know about it.”

  “So maybe you can get the device? There’s a small USB thing sticking out of the back of the computer. Go see if it’s still there?”

  Sean raised a brow. “You were here on your own?”

  “Victor and Gabriel went after him. Apparently, he’s on a bus heading somewhere. I kind of smashed him back to try to get him off of me, so I don’t know if he’s hurt.”

  Sean groaned. “Well, we’re off the case after this. At least us four are, and likely anyone who has been here within the last few hours.”

  The corner of Luke’s mouth twitched upward, just slightly. “Yup.”

  Sean tilted his head. “You’re happy about that?”

  Luke shrugged but quickly blurted out, “We’re just busy. And maybe I don’t want to help someone who just smashed my nose without talking to me first, you know?”

  Well, he couldn’t blame him for that.

  “Besides,” Luke said, “North is out, too. Since they took his wallet last. He’ll have to stay away now. Just in case. If half the team is out...” He didn’t finish.

  “Well maybe we have what we need now,” Sean said. “Let me see if I can find the device.”

  ♥♥♥

  Sean made sure Luke was cleaned up enough and left him to change his shirt. He sent a quick message to Owen about what happened.

  Sean: I’m going in. I suspect the young man might be up to no good if he’s willing to forcefully push someone he didn’t know and flee the scene.

  Owen replied immediately.

  Owen: There’s only one way to find out. Keep your distance.

  Meanwhile, as Sean was a sort of fresh face, he went to the main office.

  The main office of the motel was, however, busy. Apparently, there was an option to pay by the week, and there was a line of a few people waiting as a man at the desk processed cash payments.

  Sean waited in line, but then got bored and ducked out, instead wandering curiously down the hallway, poking his head in to look around.

  However, when he spotted the office, he didn’t see the computers. Only the monitors were left behind.

  He double-checked but he was pretty sure they were gone.

  Now what?

  Suddenly, a voice startled him.

  “Hey, have you seen my brother?”

  It was a girl, probably around eighteen with long, dark hair and smart dark eyes. She had an air of street-savvy about her. Jeans, a white T-shirt, and boots. She appeared tired but very curious.

  Sean paused for a moment before answering, trying to figure out who she was talking about.

  Could this be the girl Luke mentioned?

  He put his hands up as if to surrender but then saved it with an I-don’t-know shrug. “I haven’t seen him. I was waiting in line and was looking around...”

  She squinted suspiciously. “He’s just usually in here.”

  He’d overexplained himself and she was smart. Very smart. He couldn’t change his story though. “Weird how this office doesn’t have computers, just monitors. I wonder why that is.”

  She blinked at him and looked beyond him to the blank monitors. There was an edge of surprise on her face. She hadn’t expected that.

  She hadn’t taken the computers.

  “Do you need help finding your brother?” he asked her, with a practiced voice of concern he often needed when trying to reassure his patients.

  She took a step back. “Hm,” she said carefully. “Maybe he’s just down the hall.”

  She took a turn away from the main office, heading toward doors Sean wasn’t familiar with.

  It was too awkward to follow, so he went back to stand in the line. It had shortened by one person, but another person had come in, so he was in the very back of the line again without much progress. Not that he had much to do. It seemed everyone was surprised about some change in the payments and were discussing options with the manager.

  He sent another quick message to Owen.

  Sean: Luke’s fine. Found the girl. She’s looking for her brother... who might be the one Victor is following now. It’s hard to tell if they are working together but she’s very clearly aware he works on the computers. And she’s surprised they are gone. Also, the computers are gone and so is the USB keylogger. Also, I might be compromised.

  Owen: It’s useful information. Get out of there when you can. We have other work to do.

  He stuffed his phone into his back pocket and then waited.

  And just as he’d expected, the girl returned. Seeming to be in a hurry, she cut through the line, brushing up against Sean for a second before moving on out the door.

  Out of curiosity, Sean checked for his wallet. Still there. Funny how she’d brushed up against him though.

  Was she trying to signal him for some reason?

  He might have been the only one the same age in the whole hotel. Maybe she was flirting?

  Without much left to do, he made some mumbling excuse to leave the office, saying he’d come back later as the line was moving slowly.

  Outside, the girl was gone. Wherever she had gone to, she’d left in a hurry to be out of sight before Sean could follow.

  No time to figure out what she was up to. He had to get Luke out of there.

  ♥♥♥

  Sean met up with Victor and Gabriel as he and Luke got to the parking lot of Ashley Waters High School.

  They parked near each other, and the boys got out of the car. Gabriel was stuffing himself into a Hilfiger polo shirt. The others were already dressed in various degrees, a little nicer for registration day. Apparently, Owen told them all to dress up for today at least. Likely to make a good first impression with the staff. Luke had dressed on the way over.

  There was no visible damage to Luke’s nose.

  “Any luck finding your target?” Sean asked Victor.

  Victor shook his head, “He got off the bus downtown near a medical district where we were sure Kota’s mother is now. We didn’t dare go in if she was working.”

  “So he could be hurt?”

  Gabriel made a face. “Fucker deserved it.”

  “Hey, hey,” Sean said. “We’re supposed to be helping him.”

  “Well, it’s what he gets if he’s slamming into Luke for just poking around.”

  Sean shook his head slowly. “It was likely he realized he was compromised. He was waiting for someone to come back for the USB. Maybe to send a message. He knew. That’s why the computers were gone.”

  The others stopped in their tracks, stood together, mouths open in shock. “Really?” Gabriel blurted out.

  “Unless you all took them,” Sean said.

  Luke threw up his hands. “Great. Just great. We’ll never know what he was up to now.”

  “That has to be it,” Victor said calmly. “I should have taken the time...” he mumbled to himself.

  Sean put a hand on his shoulder. “Listen, it happens. We did our best. But now we know he is up to something he’s willing to go to lengths to hide. And we’re all compromised so we have to back off.”

  They agreed.

  Although Sean caught the twinkle in their eyes. They were happy with this.

  It was getting unnerving. They’d never been happy to lose a case like this before.

  The others waited as Sean himself managed to get new clothes on: khakis, white shirt, green tie. A little more casual but it would have to do. His nicer clothes had Luke blood on them.

  Time to switch gears.

  7

  As soon as they got into the large central hallway, all three boys looked around.

  Fervently looking at the other students. A little too much.

  Were they excited about being here? It had been a while since they were in a real school like this. This was the one year they would be able to get a little fun out of their Academy work. Classes. Clubs. They needed to blend in. Of course, after school, they would take turns poking their noses where they needed to. They’d intentionally get into some trouble to see the reaction times from teachers. Figure out who was up to no good.

  But looking at Luke, Victor, and Gabriel, their eyes weren’t taking on that youthful hope, the glee of something fresh and new.

  No. They were looking for someone specific, it seemed. Because they looked at each student nearby excitedly for exactly a split moment and then moved to the next, and when they had filtered through everyone, they seemed to simmer down and refocus. And when there was the sound of doors opening or more people coming from up another hallway, all of their heads perked up again.

  Looking for the others? Kota perhaps?

  “Well, since none of you need to actually register,” Sean said, “do you want to look around?”

  “Sure,” Victor said quickly.

  “Yup,” Gabriel said and started walking away nearly immediately.

  Luke followed, almost skipping as he hurried to catch up to them.

  Sean smirked, watching as their heads bobbed up like meerkats.

  What are they looking for?

  Or who?

  So Sean lingered in the hallway. Maybe it wasn’t just Kota acting odd. He remembered Luke seeming weird the last couple of days, with the things he’d said.

  What had been going on? Had Sean really been that out of touch since he’d started working at the hospital?

  It was clear now that Kota wasn’t the only one acting off. How many of them were involved in... whatever this was?

  Since Sean had missed the meeting and he wasn’t eager to find someone who was in charge and figure out if he had an assignment for registration day, he lingered in the hallway, pretending to be supervising. He’d wait for someone to find him and ask him what he was doing. He did figure out teachers had nametags, so he collected one from the main office quickly before finding a spot to observe.

  Students eventually started coming in. Mostly seniors arrived early, hoping to get the classes they wanted before they filled up.

  Most knew where they were going. They’d done this before.

  A few stood at the edge of the crowd, looking a little lost. He spoke to them quietly, and mostly they needed to figure out which room to go to. He directed them to the front office. He didn’t know so he might as well send them to people who did. He used an air of confidence to assure them he knew exactly what he was talking about, too.

  At some point amid the throng of people now crowding the hallway, waiting to talk to teachers at a table about classes, he spotted one young man. He wore glasses and was looking stressed, standing near the trophy cabinet.

  Sean put on a warm smile and approached him. “Need help?”

  The young man looked confusedly at him. He was thin, with short hair and appeared nervous. “I don’t know. These classes weren’t what I...”

  It was just then that the paper slipped out of his hand, dropping to the floor. Just as Sean bent over to scoop it up for him, and he only caught the name at the top of the page briefly, Winchester, before a door nearby opened the air pressure sending it shuffling further down the hall.

  Sean lunged at it, taking a jagged step sideways to get it before it flew even further away. Something clattered behind him. He suddenly felt strange, and patted his pockets. Where was his phone? Did he leave it in the car when he’d changed? It wouldn’t be the first time.