Gifted Connections 3

Chapter 23

I had almost forgotten that we weren’t on vacation, that this was actually a mission. We had just got back from skiing at almost eleven o’clock at night, waiting on our pizza delivery when our doorbell rang.

Jace got up and opened the door. One of the techies, Darren, was standing on the other side of the door.

“Come on in,” Jace said. “We just ordered a pizza. Want some?”

The techie seemed somewhat starstruck for a minute. Admittedly, we barely ever talked to them or hung out with them unless it was work related.

“Sure,” he nearly stuttered out. He was the stereotypical nerd. He had glasses too big for his small narrow face and they were extremely thick. Troy called them BCG glasses, birth control glasses, when Darren wasn’t around. He was extremely skinny and barely taller than me. His complexion was pale like he had an aversion to being outdoors.

“Is Terrance coming over?” Jemmy asked as she came out of her room wearing her pajamas.

Marcel and Dawn laughed. “No,” Sam said with a shake of his head. “He has alternated between the fireplace and hot tub all day.”

Terrance, along with a few others, had refused to leave the cabins today. They weren’t too keen on skiing, snowboarding, or even learning how. A few people that we went skiing with today had returned back to our place for pizza. Jaxson had popped in Couples Retreat, a compromise for the guys and girls.

“Did you stop by for any reason?” Troy inquired as he pulled out a beer and offered Darren one.

Darren looked further flummoxed as he eagerly accepted it. “Um, yeah,” he pushed his glasses up onto his nose. “We were able to find Randy on surveillance and traffic cams in this area. She’s definitely within a ten-mile radius of us. We were able to positively identify her on three separate occasions. She was just in town yesterday.”

“Doing what?” Remy asked as he slid up behind me and pulled me into his chest. I hadn’t even realized I had began to hold my breath until he embraced me. It was one thing to know we were after her, but another thing entirely to know she was so close, yet so far away.

“Grocery shopping,” Darren answered. “She probably got a week’s worth of food.”

“So, we know that she’s able to cloak herself and buildings,” Drake stated. “Is there a possibility that we can find all the properties

within a twenty-mile radius of us? Then can we tap into the satellites and do aerial searches to confirm that the properties are still there.”

Darren’s eyes lit up with excitement. “We can probably do that, but Paul will have to get us clearance to use the satellites. We were also thinking that we should have teams go down to town and hang out in the library, coffee shop, laundromat, and grocery store. They seem to be her normal haunts. The grocery store is a little harder to hang out in, but the book store across the street has a good view of the grocery store and has a coffee shop attached to it.”

“I’ll create a schedule tonight and we will have teams of at least two hang out there every day. Does she have a specific time that she seems to come down?” Jace asked as he pulled out his lap top.

“She seems to be there anywhere from ten o’clock to four o’clock when she visits town,” Darren confirmed.

The doorbell rung once more, and Jaxson went to go answer it. The smells of the pizza wafted into us the moment the pizza guy stepped into the door. Noah went over to assist Jaxson to carry some of the boxes.

“Thanks, dude,” Jaxson said as he handed the pizza guy the cash.

“We’re still saying dude?” Kade laughed as he sat down at the large dining room table, eager to be first in line for a slice. I had given him forty dollars earlier for food at the lodge, and he had spent it all. His appetite was outrageous. Jaxson, Troy, and Remy reassured me that it was completely normal for a teenage boy.

I grabbed a slice of supreme pizza and a slice of ham and pineapple. When we placed the order, some of the guys and Rachel had been horrified that we ordered pineapple on a couple of them. They believed fruit didn’t belong on pizza.

“I’ll go down to the coffee shop every day. They should have wi-fi, and I can do my school work down there,” I stated as I took a bite of my pizza. I immediately opened my mouth and started fanning it. Hot cheese on the roof of my mouth DID NOT feel pleasant.

“It’s hot,” Noah teased.

“I thought it would be cooled down by now,” I protested loudly.

Remy chuckled as he placed a pop in front of me and took the seat next to mine. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, disgruntled.

“I’ll go down with Blake,” Jaxson stated.

“Me too,” Kade insisted as he took an inhumanely big bite out of his pizza.

“Jemmy and I can go to the library,” Rachel stated with a smirk at Jemmy.