Black Forest, Denver Cereal Volume 5 by Claudia Hall Christian Page A

in more
trouble.”
    “ We really should turn it
off,” Noelle said.
    “ I bet we’ve broken about
a billion laws,” Nash said.
    “ I’ll call my Dad,” Teddy
said. “He gets away with murder from Mrs. Alex. Forges her
signature all the time.”
    Nash and Noelle looked at each other. They
both looked up at Charlie.
    “ You don’t have anything
to say?” Nash asked.
    “ If I tell you to do it,
you’ll just say that the low life scumbag made you do it,” Charlie
said. “Uh huh, no way. I’m not getting kicked out because you stole
a satellite code.”
    “ It’s your friend!” Nash
said.
    “ No way,” Charlie said.
“You make your own decision.”
    “ You’re our brother now,”
Noelle said. “No one’s going to kick you out.”
    “ You say that…” Charlie
started.
    “ Look, they activated the
heat imaging,” Teddy said.
    The kids eyes riveted on the screen
again.
    ~~~~~~~~
    Monday night — 9:25 P.M.
Middle of Denver, CO
     
    “ They have information
that a young man is being held prisoner in a bunker under the
salvage yard,” Raz said.
    “ Information from whom?”
Matthew asked.
    “ That kid Charlie,” Raz
said. “You know the one Sandy and Aden took in from the
streets?”
    “ If there’s a hostage,
this entire action is under our purview,” Alex said.
    “ Let’s use this as
training,” Matthew said. “We need as much practice as we can get
with exactly this kind of thing.”
    “ I’m in my PJs!” Troy
said. “I don’t want to go scrabble in the dirt.”
    “ Oh waa,” Max
said.
    “ Charlie’s a good kid. I’m
in,” Colin said.
    “ We’ll stay here,” Alex
said. “Assess all the information and pass it along to the Denver
PD. They probably don’t need our help…”
    “ They said they’d love our
help,” Raz said.
    “ There you go,” Matthew
said. “Olivas, get your computer. We need to run
scenarios.”
    “ I want to hear that phone
conversation,” Alex said.
    “ On it,” Raz
said.
    “ Max, can you help with
the audio?” Alex asked.
    Max nodded.
    “ How much time do we
have?” Troy asked.
    “ Four minutes,” Raz said.
“They move in four minutes.”
    ~~~~~~~~
    Monday night — 9:25 P.M.
    Sand Creek Greenway
     
    “ I’ve gone from not liking
this to really not liking this,” Delphie said.
    Seth raised an eyebrow in her direction and
turned back to watch the entrance. There was a two foot by two foot
hole where the pieces of stacked concrete created a tunnel. The
dogs had indicated that there were explosives in or around the
tunnel. No one had seen movement in or out of the chamber. The SWAT
Commander in charge forbade them from moving on the location.
    But Seth was stubborn. This was his case.
Like it or not, he was going in.
    “ The heat readings
indicate a person inside,” the SWAT commander said.
    “ The boy is there?” Seth
asked.
    “ We have no way of knowing
until we go in,” the SWAT commander said. “We can only tell you
what we see. There’s a body in there. The dogs hit on explosives.
We could send a rover but it can’t get up the steep river
embankment. I’d have to send one of our guys to the
entrance.”
    Seth nodded.
    “ But sir, I have to tell
you,” the SWAT commander said. “This has every hallmark of a trap.
Ma’am?”
    “ It’s a trap,” Delphie
said. “Yes, that’s correct.”
    Still nodding, Seth put the night vision
binoculars to his eyes.
    ~~~~~~~~
    Monday night — 9:28 P.M.
    Middle of Denver, CO
     
    “ Heat?” Alex
asked.
    Alex, Raz and Matthew leaned over the
satellite’s heat reading for the area.
    “ Warm body,” Matthew
said.
    “ But dead,” Raz
said.
    “ Not asleep or medicated?”
Colin asked.
    “ Dead,” Raz said. “Just
barely though. Within the hour.”
    “ Radar?” Alex
asked.
    The computer’s screen switched to a radar
reading.
    “ There’s a small room
under the airplane salvage yard,” Matthew said. “It was probably a
part of the old airport. Built in the 1920s.”
    “