Colin sped down the street towards the café I’d been to only twice. Both times with Francine.
“What are you talking about, dude?” Vinnie looked at Colin’s reflection in the rear-view mirror, inhaled sharply then leaned even closer to look directly at Colin. “You know what’s going on!”
“Vin, give Millard space. He’ll talk when he’s ready.”
“Bastard doesn’t deserve our compassion.” Vinnie threw himself back on his seat. “He’s being a complete asswipe.”
“We’re here.” Colin parked in front of the café in the street. The cars legally parked wouldn’t be able to leave, but I assumed Colin didn’t care about that at the moment. He put on the hazard lights and turned to me. “Ready?”
I nodded and got out, pulling my coat tightly around me. It was colder than yesterday. I hoped this cold spell would end soon. Just as I met Colin on the pavement, Vinnie’s phone rang. He looked at the screen. “Gotta take this. One of my contacts getting back to me.”
“Meet us inside.” Colin took my hand.
We walked to the café and Colin held the door open for me to enter. The smell of coffee immediately surrounded us as well as the typical buzz found in cafés. People were chatting, cutlery clanging against sturdy plates and mugs, the coffee machine’s hissing completing the aural stimulation. At times I enjoyed it, but the second time Francine and I had been here, I’d left after only thirteen minutes. The noise had been too much for me that day.
I took off my coat and looked for Caelan. Colin was also looking, but as always he looked for more than the obvious. At first I had found it disconcerting that he and Vinnie both would scan a venue before deeming it safe to enter. The way Vinnie looked at everything and everyone was an observable search for possible threats to our safety. But Colin’s narrowed gaze was different. I’d once asked him if he was looking for valuables to steal. He’d laughed, but had never answered me.
“There he is.” Caelan was sitting at a small round table, partially hidden behind a large pillar, another pillar on his other side. The pillars as well as all the walls looked like they were in ruins, plaster only covering parts of them and the exposed brickwork damaged. Francine had called it boho-loft-industrial chic. I didn’t know what that meant.
All I cared about was the way Caelan was rocking slightly, clutching his stress balls. We weaved through a few tables, nobody stopping their conversations or work on computers to look at us. Only one more table separated us from Caelan when Colin’s hand tightened around mine. It was so slight that I might not have felt it had I worn my gloves.
I glanced at him and immediately all my muscles tensed. He shook his head. “Pretend that everything is okay, love.”
“What isn’t okay?” I gripped his hand tighter and started looking around the café. The two officers who’d been assigned to keep Caelan safe were sitting at a small table closer to the door. I hadn’t seen them when we’d entered. They had empty plates and oversized mugs in front of them, their body language completely relaxed. I wondered if they’d even noticed Caelan’s distress.
“Hey, bud.” Colin pulled me to Caelan’s table and pulled an unused chair closer for me to sit down. He removed Caelan’s coat from the other chair and sat down as well. “We need your help now more than ever.”
He took his phone from his trouser pocket and started texting. We were sitting so close, it was easy to see he was addressing Vinnie. I didn’t care to read the message. I looked at Caelan. “What is triggering you?”
“The men in black. The Earth’s inner core is about the same temperature as the sun.” He put both stress balls on the table and started tapping his thighs. “They’re bad men.”
I studied him. I’d seen Caelan in many phases of his shutdowns. This was just another one. He was not suffering a psychotic break. That meant we had to take what he’d said literally. I turned to look for men dressed in black, but Colin stopped me. “Don’t look around. Just pretend like everything is okay.”
“This is the second time you’ve said this. What do you mean?”
“There are three men sitting close to the door I think leads to the kitchen.”
“The toilets.” Caelan opened and closed his hands, then reached for his stress balls and squeezed them slowly. “That door goes to the toilets.”
“You saw them, right?” Colin leaned towards Caelan. “This is why you’re worried.”
Caelan nodded. Then couldn’t stop. I looked at Colin, finding it impossibly hard not to turn around and search for these men. “Why did you notice them?”
“With the exception of the cops dressed like cops, everyone else in here is either a hipster, a student or a worker on a quick break. Those three are wearing black suits, their hairstyles are definitely not from France and they look way too alert and interested in other people.”
“I need to see them.”
“Hmm.” Colin frowned. “Move your chair closer to Caelan. That will put you behind the pillar and you will be able to observe them without them noticing.”
I didn’t even try to be covert. I moved my chair and ignored the increased tension at being this close to Caelan. I needed to see these people.
Colin reached across and put his palm flat on the table in front of Caelan. “I know you’re worried, but Vin is going to get Daniel and Manny to come and help us.”
“Who are they?” I leaned back and searched the area Colin had indicated. There, against the back wall, sat three men at a table as small as Caelan’s. They did indeed look out of place with their military-neat hairstyles. They were shockingly unsuccessful in their attempts to manipulate their nonverbal cues into appearing relaxed. All of their feet were flat on the ground, their legs not trapped under the table, enabling them to move at a moment’s notice. Their gazes roved over the café the entire time.
“I don’t know who they are.” Caelan squeezed his stress balls, then stopped rocking. “But I saw them on the app.”
“Explain that, please.” Colin’s tone was calm, his body language communicating that he was having a relaxed conversation with a friend.
“I was at home.” Caelan nodded towards the officers. “They were sitting outside my apartment and I was safe. And bored. So I went to the app to see what was happening. Everyone was talking about the cops taking them to safety.”
“How did you see that?” Colin asked. “Do you have some kind of social networking place online?”
“Kind of. It’s an app within the app. It’s not as good as Facebook or Instagram, but it’s better for us. We don’t see stupid news or ads. We just chat there and we upload photos of our cache hunts, parties, dinners and other things. It’s really—”
“The men.” I could see that he was losing focus. “Tell us how you recognised the men.”
“Oh, yes.” He breathed deeply three times. “There were a lot of photos uploaded last night of the police taking people to safer places or the police sitting outside people’s flats. There’s even one where they insisted the police stayed inside. They had dinner together.”
“The men,” I reminded him.
“Yes. I looked at all the photos, then realised there was a stranger in two of the photos. Two photos in different places and uploaded by different members. They both live here in Strasbourg, but I don’t think they’ve ever met. Julie is like me. She stays at home. She took a photo from her window, showing the cops sitting in their car outside her apartment building.” He swallowed and looked towards the back wall. “The big guy was standing on the corner of the street.”