The Mission (26 page)

Marcus pulled back a fraction, his lips leaving hers moist. ‘Was that your phone?’

Jaz pried her eyes open as his words registered. ‘Oh, maybe.’ She slipped her hand into the small pocket on her dress and pulled out her phone. ‘Yep, it was.’ Damn, it was on vibrate.

Jaz froze when she saw who the message was from. It was from Dark, her code name for Ryan and his dark mysterious eyes. She swallowed as a sweat broke out. Was the heater on? Jaz tapped to open his message. Just three words.

I do care

Her heart lurched and her legs lost all strength.

‘Are you okay? Is it bad news?’ asked Marcus.

Jaz brought her eyes up to his while her mind was racing. Why had Ryan sent this now? To stop her? To tease her? What did this mean? Did he
care
care or just care enough not to want her to sleep with a target? Oh, what did all this mean! Either way it had probably done its job. Jaz had lost any interest in being here with Marcus.

‘It is. I’m sorry, I have to go. Simon has had an asthma attack.’ Yet another lie trickling from her lips like the air she breathed. Jaz took small comfort in the fact that Simon did actually have asthma, but he hadn’t had an attack since he was four.

But it still made her feel like shit when she saw the real concern and worry on Marcus. He wasn’t worried that their night was interrupted.

‘Can I do anything? Drive you home?’

Jaz put her phone away and put her hand to his cheek. His deep sea-green eyes so alive and bright. ‘Thanks, but I’ll get home okay. Thank you for being so understanding.’ She lent forward and kissed him with everything she could give him. He deserved so much more.

‘Wow,’ he said as she stopped. ‘Can we pick this up another time?’

Jaz didn’t know what to say so she just nodded and gave him a reassuring smile. Then he walked her to the door, not even bothering to put his shirt back on.

‘Thanks for an amazing night. I’m sorry I have to rush off.’

‘No, go to your brother. He’s important. Text me, let me know how he’s going?’

‘I will.’ Jaz squeezed his hand, and then ran to her jeep while fishing for her keys in her other pocket.

It wasn’t until she was back home, parked in the driveway, that she pulled out her phone and read Ryan’s text again. How could three little words throw her so much? She was angry with him. Why did he do it? Did he enjoy toying with her emotions? Was he serious? Her heart refused to believe he was admitting he liked her. It hurt too much when he pushed her away last time. He was clever, maybe he knew those words would upset her enough to leave Marcus.

Jaz got out of her jeep before she screamed or hit the steering wheel. She stomped to the house. She told her parents she was just getting some stuff and staying the night with Taylor.

‘Why?’ asked Tasha. ‘Did something happen?’ she asked, getting up and walking to her.

‘No, well kind of. I just want to cool things with Marcus, and Anna is with Taylor so I’m sure they can help me feel better,’ she said.

Her mum seemed relieved the moment the words ‘cool things with Marcus’ were uttered. ‘Okay. I’m here if you need.’

‘Thanks Mum. I’ll be okay.’

Jaz sprinted up the stairs to her room and changed out of her dress. She put on black leggings, black boots and her black skivvy. She chucked a jumper over the top just in case her mum saw her on her way back down. Then she packed her black beanie, gloves and a change of clothes into a bag. She stopped in the kitchen, checked everyone was still busy doing their own thing before she raided the freezer for meat, and hid that in her bag too.

She needed enough to keep a snarly dog happy. She also took the switchblade from the top drawer, which was a present given to Simon, one he has no use for. He hated camping and knives. Jaz, on the other hand, had a feeling it would come in handy. Tonight she’d decided to visit the warehouse and see what she could find out about Carl. She wanted to find out how he was involved and to get photos. And she wasn’t going to tell Ryan about it either.

Jaz drove to Taylor’s house and left her car nearby on the road. Taylor was home, along with his dad, which Jaz was happy to see. Without disturbing them, she called a taxi. She didn’t want to risk her car being found near the warehouse in case they linked it back to her, so it was safer left near Taylor’s house. When the taxi picked her up, she took only the things she’d need: her bag of meat, beanie and the switchblade.

‘Just here thanks,’ she directed the driver when he was close to the warehouse. Quickly she paid him and waited until he left. It was a residential area where he’d dropped her off, but now she had to leave the safety of streetlights and homes to walk towards the darker industrial area. It was gloomy and getting late, probably around ten o’clock she guessed. She stuck to the shadowed bush line so passing cars couldn’t recognise her in their headlights, worst of all Carl!

She reached the trees that edged his warehouse area. Jaz pulled her skivvy up over her chin and then put on her beanie, pulling it low. It managed to cover most of her face. Her hair was piled up on her head so the beanie covered it all. She’d morphed into a black ninja, something Anna had always called her when she accidently dressed in black. Tonight she just hoped she could live up to the name if needed.

Jaz looked out over the yard. It was black but she could see the building and the outline of the sea containers. No outside lights were on, just the glow from the inside ones. From her last visit she knew there was a light sensor near the office so she’d have to go the other side, where the toilets were. She only wanted to look in a window and see if she could witness something naughty.

She moved closer to the fence: the main gate was ajar. On closer inspection, it had been loosely locked. Maybe because they were inside?

Her pulse was pounding in her wrists and Jaz seriously wondered if she should be doing this. Maybe they were complacent and maybe they wouldn’t think to look outside and she could remain undetected. One could only hope. Seeing as she was here and all dressed up, she may as well take a look. At least she knew if they gave chase, she could get back through the gate, whereas they’d have to unlock it first. Jaz squished her body through the small gap. Every movement was careful and when the chain rattled against the gate, she paused in fright, half expecting Cujo to bark the alarm. When she was happy that all she could hear was her frantic breaths and the soft thrum of voices from the warehouse, she continued through the gate. Each step was carefully placed so the gravel wouldn’t crunch loudly.

Jaz made her way to the left, trying not to trip over the pallets that were stacked by the warehouse wall. Her hand was holding the bag of defrosting meat, ready to throw at anything hairy and snarling. Cujo was tied up last time she visited, so she hoped he was only let off when no one was here. With a bit of luck, the dog was inside with Tommy.

The only window along this side of the warehouse was to the toilets. Damn, she wouldn’t see much through that. Jaz didn’t want to go to the other side of the warehouse near Cujo or the open shed door. That would be too risky and she was nowhere near ready to be mauled by a dog or get caught. She glanced up at the toilet window; it was black so it was empty. It had bar work over it but the slats of glass could be removed. Jaz felt a plan forming in her mind, but wasn’t sure if she should follow it through.

She felt to the side where the pallets were. Would she be able to stack them quietly? With as much stealth as possible, Jaz put her bag of meat down and went and picked a crate up. It wasn’t light, but it wasn’t heavy either. It was difficult to carry because of its shape. She moved one under the window and realised she’d need at least another six.

Another pallet down. Jaz stopped. Listened. When all she could hear was the adrenaline pumping through her body, she continued. Another pallet. When she had six stacked, she lifted her leg and climbed on top of them. It gave her maybe three quarters of a metre in height and she could reach the windows with her hands, but had to stand on tippy-toes to see in. No wonder they didn’t worry about this window, anyone would need a ladder. Jaz got down and stacked two more. Her arms were feeling sore from trying to control each pallet quietly. When she got back up this time she had a much better view, but she couldn’t see anything without a light on. The wooden architrave around the window was rotten and wobbly. Some of the screws holding the bars up over the window were loose. Jaz took the switchblade from her pocket and used the Phillips head to unscrew the bar work. It wasn’t easy with her gloves on, but there was no way she was taking them off and leaving evidence. She’d watched crime shows.

Jaz pulled the bars free and nearly fell back as the stack of pallets rocked. If she were game enough to speak she would have sworn. With the bars held up over her head, she got her footing back and then lowered them to the pallets. Slowly she pulled out each slat of glass from the window.

As she heaved herself up into the open window, she had a frantic thought: how would she get back out? She got her phone out and checked it was on silent before using it to see into the bathroom.

There were two cubicles with toilets, and right under the window was the hand basin. That was her exit. She could work with that. Sliding her phone back into her leggings, she jumped back up the wall and climbed into the window. It wasn’t graceful and it took a lot longer to manoeuvre herself around so she could get a leg in to get down with. Please don’t need to pee, she chanted as she watched the door of the toilets. Unless she was Spiderman, there was nowhere for her to hide in the window.

Once she was inside, she collected her breath before stepping to the door. The handle was cold as she gripped it and turned it as calmly as possible. She could hear metal being moved and tools dropped to the floor, along with voices, and hoped that these would cover any noise she made.

When the door was unlocked she pulled it slightly ajar, just enough so she could see through it. Inside the warehouse it was flooded with light. It looked much the same as it did when she was here with Marcus. Bubble wrap, boxes and the sea container. Only this container was a different colour. A new one?

A man came out of the sea container and Jaz didn’t recognise the skinny man in the blue clothes and beanie. She tried to look for any features she could lock away for later. Unshaven, couldn’t see his eye colour but he did have a funny walk, as if his back was sore. This man was also carrying something in his hands. Jaz followed his path to the other man. His lips were moving but she couldn’t hear what he was saying. Something about ‘This is it. Last one’, if her lip-reading was right. He passed the package over to the other guy, who was also in blue work clothes. He turned and Jaz instantly recognised the bald head and face. Tommy.

‘Let’s go.’ She heard him say. Lights were then turned off and the screeching of a metal door being slid closed pierced the night.

Jaz stayed frozen behind the door, listening as the truck drove off. She waited another five minutes after that before carefully opening the door.

Using her mobile as a torch, Jaz stepped towards the sea container. She didn’t dare make a sound in case she stirred up Cujo, and she was a little worried they might have other sensors or alarms. Anything was possible with drug dealers. Taylor’s dad had told them many stories of the booby traps set up around drug crops, but they were out in the middle of the bush. At least here it was all locked up. Well, except for the bathroom. Jaz didn’t dare crack a smile, she was not out of this yet. And she didn’t have anything to show for her breaking and entering either.

Lifting her arm, she shone the light into the sea container. It was empty. She moved the light around the warehouse. There were no masses of artwork or sculptures, and you would fit a lot of that in one sea container. So where did it all go so quickly?

She remembered that skinny guy had walked out with something. So Jaz took a few steps inside the sea container. About three quarters of the way down she saw some welding gear. Moving the light, she noticed some metal panels. Long and skinny, just like the size of one of the ripples in the sea container. Jaz got closer and trod on something squishy.

‘Please don’t let it be a body part,’ she whispered to herself as she took a look.

A black mouldy lump. It could be anything. Jaz squatted down for a better inspection and found a few more, and then a pile near the wall of the container. Where her foot had squished this one she could see a familiar pattern. Oranges? Really old and rank oranges.

Jaz moved up the ripple panel on the container. If that had been welded closed and filled up with drugs, well, that would be a lot of drugs. Jaz wondered how it wasn’t picked up. Maybe the oranges killed the scent of the drugs for the dogs? Didn’t they X-ray these containers? Jaz would have to ask Ryan. She was sure he knew a lot more about the process than anyone she knew.

And realistically, who would see anything wrong with some welded bits? This sea container was bashed and dented all over. Jaz took her phone and did a circle along the walls of the container and found a spot on the other side where another panel may have been. Whoever had cut the panel off hadn’t bothered to make it neat. No doubt this sea container wouldn’t be used again. Is that why the others were outside? They had done their job. Is this why Carl was interested in that sea container sale?

Jaz moved to the outside of the container and looked for its number. It wasn’t the same number as the one he’d written down in his office, so did that mean there was a container waiting at a yard for the sale with drugs in it?

Had she just figured out how Carl’s operation worked? Could they catch them in the act with the next container? Jaz felt an excited buzz jump through her body. Two seconds later, she was telling herself to get the hell out of here.

The only way back out was the toilet. She crept back in, shut the door and then scaled the wall.

Using the basin to heave herself up to the window didn’t go according to plan, as it let off a crack, pulling away from the wall. ‘Shit.’
I hope they don’t notice that
, she thought.