Chapter 23
“Good morning team,” Mr. Turner began. Everyone she had met the night before was seated in the living room area of the warehouse. Mr. Turner’s personal assistant, Casey, sat in a dining chair near Mr. Turner. Lily, Landon and Malaya were seated on one of the black leather sofas. Lily saw no sign of the man who had kidnapped her and assumed that he had been put on probation, demoted, or fired. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to deal with that jerk ever again.
“Our assignment this week will involve a raid on a warehouse, newer than this one obviously, but similar in size. We will need five van men, and at least thirteen street men.”
“What are van men and street men,” Malaya whispered nudging Lily in the ribs.
“I don’t know,” Lily whispered back. “I’m sure we’ll find out later.” Lily turned her attention back to Mr. Turner’s commanding voice.
“On top of that I will need three people to guard Lily, who is vital to this job’s success. I would like Sam, Javen, and Trish to cover Lily, and I would like Shazzi as street lookout.” Mr. Turner paused to watch each team member he requested nod their heads in acceptance before he continued.
“Miles and Jameson, I want you in my van men crew for sure. Who else would be interested in this one? I need three more as van men.” Four team members raised their hands, and Mr. Turner picked out three. Casey was scribbling down names as they were decided on.
“Now we need the street men. Who’s up for it?” More hands rose in the air, and the assistant quickly wrote until they were all recorded.
“Now that we have our team for the week, the rest of you are dismissed. Thank you for coming. The next meeting will probably be in a couple weeks. I will give you further details as soon as I know myself.” The people who weren’t chosen for the assignment left the room through the door leading to the garage. Everyone else stood and walked knowingly to the kitchen. At the back of the kitchen was a walk in pantry. Mr. Turner opened the pantry door and stepped inside. He turned on the small exposed light bulb and felt around underneath one of the pantry shelves. Suddenly there was a click, and part of the wall popped out away from the rest of the wall. Mr. Turner pulled on the edge of the small handless door and held it open for everyone to go through. Each person stooped down and through the small doorway into a gigantic room, much larger than the room they had previously been in. It was much closer to how Lily thought the inside of an old warehouse would look like than the other room. There were still no windows. The room was divided into stations. One station was filled with blue gymnasium mats, punching bags, and other athletic and exercise equipment. The next area was a small kitchen and living room combo, much like the one in the other room, but on a much smaller scale. The third area was filled with computers and technical equipment. There were boxes filled with computer parts and other paraphernalia Lily didn’t recognize. The last station was filled with weapons. They were everywhere, on the walls, in boxes on the floor, and were laid out on tables. They were organized according to type and size. There were guns and knives as well as other contraptions Lily didn’t recognize. In the middle of the gigantic room, surrounded by the stations, sat a large black conference table, where all of the team members were now seated. Lily sat in between Landon and Malaya who were as distracted by the room as she was. She had a hard time pulling her probing eyes away from it when Mr. Turner began to speak.
“Welcome to the bunker,” he said addressing the three unfocused teenagers. “As you can see this is a secret room, and it must remain secret. I’m sure that won’t be a problem for any of you. You might have noticed that the warehouse has windows on the outside, but none on the inside. That is because this room, as well as the other one, is a separate building. It is a building within a building. It has been reinforced to withstand whatever may come at it. If there’s ever an apocalypse, this would be the place to be. The exterior building, which is the original warehouse, could collapse around this one, but we would still be safe. Hence the name,” he said smiling at those around him.
“As you can see, there are stations where we work to prepare for our assignments. During the days or sometimes weeks prior to an assignment, all the team members that have been selected will live here and prepare for their personal assignments. There are two bunk rooms through that door,” he said pointing to a normal looking door near the computer station, “That is where everyone sleeps. The men’s bunks are to the left, and the women’s to the right. Lily will only be here on Saturday, but if she chooses to join us on future assignments, she may be spending more time here to see how everything works.” Everyone nodded and smiled at Lily. She felt awkward at the attention, but tried not to let it bother her.
“Now,” he said a little louder, clapping his hands together in front of him and rubbing them together. “On to the assignment. The warehouse we will be raiding is a personal warehouse owned by none other than our good friend Mr. Vincent Gambino.” By the looks on the faces of those around her, it appeared they knew Gambino well, and were not too excited about going up against him.
“I know, I know, we haven’t always come out victorious when we are up against this guy, but we have some extra help now that we didn’t have before. Lily has a special talent that will help us. Lily, would you care to explain what it is that you are able to do?” Lily flinched. She hadn’t thought about giving the people around her an explanation. She had assumed Mr. Turner would tell them himself. What was she supposed to say? There was no way they would believe her. It had been hard enough trying to convince her friends. What would these people, who were total strangers, think of her? Suddenly a warm, comforting hand slipped into hers. Landon’s firm, but tender grip calmed her racing heart slightly. She glanced up at him and gave him a “thank you for supporting me even though I know you really don’t want to be here” smile. He gave a small encouraging smile back and nodded his head prompting her to say something.
“Uh, sure,” Lily started shakily. “Well, where should I begin?”
“Anywhere you want. Usually it’s best to start at the beginning,” Mr. Turner said taking a seat at the head of the huge black table. Lily nodded her head at him and began her story about how her gift came to be.
“And so here I am,” she said when she had come to the end. Lily looked around at the faces surrounding her. Some of them stared blankly, and others crinkled in disbelief.
“Prove it,” one of the assigned street men dared.
“Alright,” Lily agreed. She had known someone would say that. Everyone did. “What’s your name?”
“Gary Phillips.”
“Gary, think of something truly terrible. It’s best if it’s a thought aimed at hurting someone else in some way.” Gary pushed his fingertips together and thought for a moment, and then said, “Okay, I know.” Lily’s head buzzed and she flinched as she heard the contents of Gary’s thoughts.
“You want to slice Gambino’s neck the next time you see him,” Lily paused listening. “You want to kill him. No, not just kill him. You want to see him suffer.” Everyone in the room turned to look at Gary.
“That’s right,” he said in amazement. “How did you know that?”
“She already told you Gary,” Mr. Turner piped in. “She has a gift.”
“So you really can hear people’s thoughts,” Shazzi said in astonishment. It was more of a confirmation than a question. Lily nodded, and everyone all at once was asking her to hear what they were thinking. Lily’s head hummed terribly. She let go of Landon’s hand to rub her temples with her fingertips.
“Hey now, settle down,” Mr. Turner yelled over the frenzy. Everyone fell silent and Lily’s head was cleared of all thoughts that were not her own. “You have all seen a demonstration already, and what she said is true. Her talent will help us immensely on this raid. You can talk to her individually about this later if you wish, but we have other things we need to discuss right now.” Everyone leaned back in their chairs and listened as Mr. Turner laid the plan for Saturday morning before them. He told each person what was expected of them, thanked them for coming, and told them to go home to get anything they might need for the next couple of days. The team members left speaking among themselves, but not saying much to Lily or her friends. Shazzi flashed them all a friendly smile on her way out, but said nothing.
“You are free to go now,” Mr. Turner said smiling at Lily. “I think that went pretty well. They seemed to accept it. I think seeing you in action will be what will seal the deal for them.” He stood and adjusted his blue checked tie.
“When will I need to come back?”
“The job is on Saturday, but it will be early enough in the morning that it will be best for you to spend the night before here in the bunker with everyone else. It will also give you the chance to get to know the team better. I will have Mr. B. bring the three of you over on Friday night. I will feel more comfortable having Landon and Malaya in the bunker while we are on the job, just in case. I’ll walk you to the limo.” He cocked his head in the direction of the tiny door, and began to walk in that direction. Lily, Landon and Malaya followed him back through the small pantry door and out to the awaiting limo.
“Remember,” Mr. Turner reminded them. “I’ll be sending out team members to keep an eye on you. If you spot someone following you, give this sign.” He extended his thumb, pointer finger and middle finger, but kept his last two fingers held down against his palm to make the sign for “three” in American Sign Language.
“Show them the sign, and if they don’t immediately give it back, then press the red button here.” Mr. Turner pointed to a small, flat button on a silver metal bracelet. He handed them each one as they stepped into the limo. “These are very accurate tracking devices that will let us know the location of each of you. Wear them at all times. The blue button is to call for Mr. B. whenever you need him. Just press the blue button and he will be there within five to ten minutes. Have a good time sightseeing. Here’s my card. Call me if you have any questions or need anything at all.” He handed his card to Landon and shut the door gently.
***
“Wow,” Malaya said. Her eyebrows rose to the ceiling and she let out a big sigh. “That was interesting.” That was an understatement. “It’s like we’re in a movie or television show,” she said with a hint of excitement in her voice.
“Yeah,” Lily said a little dazed by the morning events.
“Only this isn’t a movie,” Landon said seriously. “This is real.” They were all very quiet on the drive to lunch as the reality of his words sunk in.