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Chapter 8- Connection

"Sure. You're a scientist who just associated with them for the past few days." Tara claimed.

"I swear, I have nothing to do with it." Ackerman said, keeping his hands up.

"Alright. Where's the food?" Irene asked, pushing towards a new subject.

Mairi waltzed into the room and threw us each a wrapped burger.

"A&W? Never heard of that place." I said, unwrapping the bacon cheeseburger.

"What? It's all over here in Canada." Cedric told me.

"Well, we are Americans." Michael added.

I took a bite of the burger and then almost died of pleasure. "Yep, totally better than Mickey D's or Wendy's."

It was silent after that; we just chilled in the living room and munched on our burgers and fries.

"I think they got rid of the base because it was rendered useless. Since you guys already jacked all of the information and ransacked the place." Ackerman stated.

"Where did they go then?"

I thought of the unconscious secretary, laying on the cold slate floor. All the guards.

"I'm not sure. But I know Von Kleist is looking all over for me."

"Who's Von Kleist?" I asked.

I threw my burger wrapper in the trash, flicking my wrist like it was a basketball. It landed in the trash bin and I internally whooped.

"The guy who runs the whole scheme." He answered.

Michael threw his wrapper in the trash and high fived me after it landed in.

"We should talk to this guy. Then we'll really know what he wants. Maybe we should give him a beating too." Jason proposed, cracking his knuckles.

"I don't know if that's particularly a good idea..." Michael said.

"I can't come. I can only tell you where the base is located." Ackerman said.

I slouched deeper into the couch and leaned my head back. "We need some type of plan because we can't just go in there, beat up all the people, and then take Karina back." I pointed out.

"That reminds me. Have you tracked her yet, Michael?" Irene asked.

"I did last night; it said she was somewhere in Oklahoma."

"What?! You're saying they took her back into the states?" Tara exclaimed.

"Check again. There is no existing home base in Oklahoma, last time I checked." I said.

Michael fumbled around in his bag looking for his laptop. A few minutes later, he pulled out his laptop and typed up a bunch of things. Then his smile disappeared.

"What?"

"The tracking has been deactivated."

I tried to lighten the mood. "Bummer. Totally saw that one coming."

"What are we going to do now?" Tara asked, crossing her arms.

"I guess we're going to have to go with Jason's crazy plan. Ransack the Vancouver base and demand information." Michael answered.

"Are you crazy? You know what happened last time right?" Irene interjected. Cedric tried to calm her down.

"That's kind of the only option left. Other than ditching everything and going back to Baltimore." I replied.