DYNAMITE ► DUSTIN HENDERSON [2]

EIGHT

THE SKY WAS UNFORGIVING THAT NIGHT as the teens continued their mission, buckets of rain pouring down that made their colorful ponchos stick to their backs after only seconds of hiding out on the rooftop. Lightning and thunder coupled in the sky briskly after one another, making the scene displayed before them even more sinister.

"It's Imperial Panda and Kaufman shoes," Robin informed over the sound of the sopping rain, her red jacket barely providing any shelter from the storm they were heavily exposed to.

Jasper found herself sandwiched between Dustin and Katie, their body heat mixed with the warm rain hailing from the sky making her twitch uncomfortably. She kept her eyes steady on the large delivery truck backing into the bay, squinting her eyes in attempts to see past the streaks of gray and black at the gunned men crowding the loading dock area.

Beside her, Dustin was peering quietly through his pair of binoculars, watching wordlessly with his hood casting a shadow on his face. "They're with that whistling guy, ten o'clock," he almost had to shout over the storm, pointing a soaked finger.

"What do you think is in there?" Steve asked, turning to the smaller boy out of curiosity.

"Guns, bombs?" Dustin tried.

"Chemical weapons?" Robin guessed in a similar uncertain tone.

"I wish it was just Chinese food," Jasper grumbled, wiping a few dark strands of hair that had begun to cling onto her forehead. "Orange chicken sounds so juicy right now."

"Well, whatever it is, they're armed to teeth," Dustin continued, but not without a dry snort at Jasper's comment that derived from her slight pangs of hunger.

"Great," Steve huffed, hardly able to keep his eyes open through the merciless rain paving down on their faces.

Katie leaned over, whispering in a hushed voice to Jasper, "Yeah, I don't think evil Russians would carry extreme weaponry over chow mein."

Jasper responded with soft giggle, poking the girl's side with her elbow. "A hungry enough one might!"

"What's in there?" Robin called out, noting the men as they began to lumber into what appeared to be a large opening past two metal doors.

Steve began clawing eagerly at the binoculars cradled in Dustin's hands. "Let me see," he demanded, his wet fingers prodding at the device as Dustin shied away from the older teen defiantly.

"I'm not done looking!" He cried as the two boys began playing tug of war with the binoculars, their dripping bodies rocking wildly back and forth until both of their grips slipped, sending the binoculars into the shingles with a loud metallic clang.

All five heads instantly dropped to the ground, and Dustin even reached his hand out in the darkness of the storm to curl his wet fingers tightly around Jasper's. The group remained like that for a while, their heads pressed against the cement rooftop quietly as they huddled together in their hiding spot.

Jasper, being the first to regain her senses and latch onto a whim of bravery, peeked over the rooftop to see that the bulky crew of men had shifted their focus back onto the boxes being lugged into the room. "All clear," she spoke firmly, earning a chorus of relieved sighs. "This was a total waste of time."