Lost and Found

Chapter Fifty-Three

Trubel's POV

"What time is it?" I whispered to Coltin, a Uhranuti that worked for Cash. He was a birdlike person with incredible vision which was why I wanted him on the second floor of an abandoned building next to the warehouse with me. We were overlooking the warehouse, waiting for some kind of sign that North End was here or coming here.

"10:15," he said. "Something's not right. They should be here."

He was right. North End should have shown up by now. I was wondering what could possibly have gone wrong. Maybe Andre's friend didn't successfully leak the meeting information? I didn't know, and I definitely wouldn't know how to explain such a pathetic mission to Cash.

"Maybe they are here," I suggested, mostly trying to reassure myself. "Maybe they're just waiting to make a move."

"Well if they are, I don't see them," Coltin complained.

We waited for a minute or two when we thought we heard something. It sounded sort of like footsteps, only there was a lot of them and they were surprisingly quiet. Coltin woged and looked out over the streets and buildings before finally making a bird sound. That was the signal that North End was here. I heard another bird sound in the dark which told me that Lewis, a Steinadler, had heard Coltin and was passing on the signal to the others that were farther away.

Of course, to people who didn't know our plan, it would have just sounded like two birds, chirping casually in the dark.

I squinted through the night, trying to see anything, but I couldn't. Luckily, Cash's people could; they were all bird, and cat, and fox Wesen that were all able to see in the dark.

Another few minutes passed until North End actually reached the warehouse. I could see them now because of the dim streetlights that were right outside all of the buildings. There were fewer of them than I had expected...

If Cash's people were following the plan, they were already headed down to the warehouse from the other buildings and were just waiting for North End to go inside.

But North End was hesitating. I wasn't sure why... until I heard yelling in the direction of the other abandoned buildings. I looked down and saw that the people standing outside the warehouse turned around and started walking toward the abandoned buildings where Cash's people were.

"What's going on?" Coltin asked me.

"North End knows," I told him.

"What?" he asked.

"We have to go!" I yelled. If I was right, we were being surrounded. North End probably had people at the back exits of the abandoned buildings and now people from the warehouse were heading toward the front exits.

I ran downstairs and found four of Cash's people huddled around the front exit, paying no attention to the back one. I suddenly realized that that's how people in the other buildings were getting killed; they were only paying attention to the warehouse, so when North End came around the back of the buildings, Cash's people would be completely surprised and then slaughtered.

I couldn't be sure, but that's what it looked like to me. I had been on enough assignments with HW to know some basic plans of attack.

"What happened? They're coming over here," Logan, a Lowen, asked.

"I think someone tipped them off," I told them. It felt like years, but it had only been half a minute since everything started falling apart.

"What do we do?" another person asked.

"We fight them," I said. "It's too late to bail."

Everyone in the room woged in preparation.

"Watch the back door," I commanded. I ran to the door and waited along the wall for people to come through. Sure enough, four Yaguarate bursted in through the door, and about four more were headed this way from the warehouse.