“Track’s still working on trying to find a face which might take a while. In the meantime, what exactly the fuck is it that you do?” This guy is hilarious. We’re on a plane headed to unfamiliar territory on the heels of someone who’d just removed a human’s guts and nut sack, and he’s now asking how I do what I do with as much inflection in his voice as if he was asking me to pick up a gallon of milk.
“I pick up people’s scent.”
“You what now?” I wasn’t sure how much of myself I should share at this point. Most people wouldn’t understand this shit; some wouldn’t believe that it’s even possible, but it’s true. I can pick up human scent the way tracking dogs can. It gets confusing when I have to pick the scent out of a lineup, so to speak, like with this case.
I have no idea who I’m after, have never met the person, so will have to separate scents once I get there. The trick is isolating all the scents I pick up in any given place. Usually, when I’m going after a kid that has just been taken, all it takes is a piece of clothing or something touched by the kid. The good thing about what I’m about to do is that my target was just at the kill site, which is where I’ll be headed once we land, so the scent should still be fresh.
All it’ll take is identifying the victim’s scent, which shouldn’t be too hard since it was his home I was heading to. Then there’s the person who’d found him, the investigating team and last is the killer’s. I wasn’t about to try explaining all that right now, though. “It’s complicated. Let’s just say I can use my nose like a hunting dog.” I hate the analogy, but it’s the best I can come up with without going into detail.
“Okay, so you pick up the scent, and then what?” Logan leaned forward in his seat with his hands clasped between his knees and asked.
“Then, I retrace their steps. Once I have the scent, I can follow it from the house and find wherever that person went, even if they’ve gone through water.” Now they were all looking at me like I was some sort of scientific freak.
“Yo, can you bottle that shit?”
“What do you mean, Tyler?” I’m confused as hell.
“He means that with that kind of ability, we wouldn’t have to pay Simon as much as we do to keep tabs on our women. We could just sniff their asses out and have some peace and quiet.” Everyone laughed, but I got the feeling that Lyon was dead serious.
“Wait, you guys use Simon too?”
“Who doesn’t use that fuck? He’s the best.” Yeah, and his shit costs more than most people’s homes. Just exactly how much do SEALs make? Lyon went over and over the plan with me again as if trying to find any loopholes that could trip us up.
The safe house was a place owned by…them…us, I guess. Just one of many apparently that was spread out all around the country and the world. This one is in the heart of the capital, which meant it came with a hefty price tag. My only concern were the eyes that would be on us if eight bigger than average men just suddenly appeared in that ritzy neighborhood overnight.
“There’ll be two blackout SUVs waiting for us once we land. Law and Creed will drop you off close to your destination before heading back to a safe distance away, while the rest of us will be going to the house to make sure everything is set on that end.”
“There’s no guarantee you’re going to find her tonight, so…”
“You think we’re looking for a female too, Lyon?”
“Who else would be vicious enough to take a man’s whole nut sack?” The conversation for some strange reason turned to their wives and each one’s level of viciousness, which seemed to amount to nothing more than words. In other words, these grown men, tough guys, if you will, were comparing shit their wives have said in anger to see whose was worse.
I went back to planning my movements in my head, and it wasn’t long before we began our descent. I don’t know why I thought we were landing at the airport, but instead, we ended up on a landing strip seemingly in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night. The air felt completely different here after leaving the island; heavier.
As promised, there were two G-Class SUVs waiting for us. Law jumped into the front seat of one while Lyon and the SEALs headed to the other. Lyon rolled down his window and indicated for me to do the same. “Put that shit in your ear, kid.” He put his on as well, and the others followed suit. I got the feeling he was genuinely worried about me. The guy is an enigma. He certainly doesn’t look like the type to care.