Summer of Jonnor

That Plaidboy Fragrance

Taylor put the luminol in her pack and brought out a strange, heavy-looking gizmo with various wires and attachments. Shining her light on the wall, she located a power outlet and plugged the thing into it.

"I'm getting tired of asking," Jude said to her.

"Signal jammer and electromagnetic pulse generator. It will disable all the electrical systems in building, including any alarms, security systems, CCTV's and anything else plugged into the power."

Jude frowned at her. "And where exactly did you get that?"

"A Serbian website. My mom's Serbian...did you not know that?"

Jude shook his head. "You can buy signal jammers off of Serbian websites? Where do you come up with this stuff?"

"It's actually Russian military surplus."

"And how did you find out how to use it?"

She laughed. "There was a manual, silly." She dug in her backpack and handed a small, thick booklet.

"It's in Russian,"

"Which worked out, that's one of the four languages I'm fluent in."

He passed the booklet back to her. "I seem to be learning something new about you every other minute."

"Well, that's one of the reasons you're such a good friend, Jude. You're able to appreciate a complex girl." She looked at Sophia. "Is the cellular link working?"

Sophia nodded.

Taylor turned to Jude. "You remember how you thought Mariana was at dance practice? She was actually coding a mobile app for us to remotely control the jammer."

Jude stared at her. "Just how many people are in on this undercover Connor operation?"

"It's on a need to know basis," she winked at him. She nodded to Sophia. "Let's start the sweep."

Jude's phone buzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket. "It's a text from Lena. Adam's leaving in just a few minutes to come down. We've got to hurry!"

The main areas of the warehouse were empty except for some old equipment, so they were easy to move through. The offices were a bit more challenging as there were quite a few of them, and it took time for Jude to sniff them out thoroughly. 

They found an office that had clearly been occupied recently, judging from the trash, some magazines and a chess board. Jude sniffed carefully and shook his head.

The moved up to the second floor. "How many stories are there?" Jude asked.

"Six," Sophia whispered. "This floor has the most offices and our algorithm calculates it most likely for him to be here."

Jude nodded and started sniffing in a room.

***

Connor and Miguel had been tied up for hours again. Connor had been talking to Miguel, trying to reassure and comfort him, unsure if his English was getting through at all. Hopefully if not, at least the tone would. Miguel had stopped crying and was just looking at Connor doe-eyed, clearly trying to understand the words even if he couldn't.

The door opened and the woman entered with their lunch. She was alone again. "They'll be down to untie you in a few minutes," she said.

"Please," Connor said to her. "I'm asking you again to help us. Do you have kids?" He watched her reaction closely. "You wouldn't want them to go through something like this, would you? What they're going to do to him?" He nodded at Miguel. "Maybe he is gay but no kid deserves to get raped by a bunch of men. Would you want that happening to one of your children?"