Eye of the Sh*t Storm Jackson Ford (detective books to read txt) 📖

plenty. As far as they know, touching the building won’t kill you, even if it hurts like hell. But they have no idea if it’s the same the whole way through. If Teagan got stuck, couldn’t get away from the shocks…

“I refuse to believe,” Reggie says slowly, “that someone as much of a pain in the ass as Teagan Frost is dead.”

Annie makes a sound that might, under better circumstances, be a laugh.

“She’s there all right,” Reggie continues. “She just can’t hear us. Keep—”

“Wait,” Africa says.

“What?”

“Something… it’s different now.”

The two video feeds turn to look towards the storage unit.

Reggie has to suppress the urge to raise her voice. “Different how? Talk to me.”

It’s Annie who answers. “The hum’s stopped. There was this, like… buzzing sound coming from the building. Subsonic. I don’t know if you could hear it on the comms – like from an electric fence, you know? It’s not there any more.”

“Ya, I feel it too,” Africa says. “You don’t think maybe…?”

“Shit, one of the cops has figured it out.” Annie’s camera swings towards the police line, where a uniformed officer is approaching – the same one who briefed them when they arrived, it looks like. Annie’s voice rises to a yell. “Hey! Step away from the scene, right now!” She mutes her connection, presumably so she can shouts at the cops without deafening everyone on the channel.

“Hold on,” Africa says. “I have an idea. Boss Paul – did he keep a volt measure machine in the van?”

It takes Reggie a second to work out what he’s saying. “A… what, like a voltmeter?”

“Ya.”

“Should be in the middle tool drawer,” Annie says, breaking off from scolding one of the officers. Africa moves towards the van, his camera feed bouncing as he runs.

Reggie tries to raise Teagan again, knowing it won’t do any good but doing it anyway. Nothing. The woman has gone completely dark.

Dark. Not dead. Not a chance, not Teagan Frost, not after all she’s been through.

If she was dead, Reggie thinks, there’d be no more China Shop. I wouldn’t work for the government any more. I’d be free.

The thought is so horrifying that Reggie physically recoils, grunting and turning her head away, as if she’d just bitten into something rotten.

“OK, got it.” Africa’s voice snaps her out of it. He’s in the van, the feed showing a messy tool drawer. In his huge hand is the voltmeter, a device used for measuring live electrical connections. Reggie cannot for the life of her fathom why Paul would have had one in the first place, but then again, Paul treated all equipment like condoms. Better to have and not need, than need and not have.

A bittersweet pang at the thought. Paul would have gone bright red if you’d said the word condom to him.

“Good thinking,” Reggie says. And it is. He can hold the voltmeter out ahead of him, letting the two wires trail along the ground. He’ll be able to see straightaway if the current in the concrete starts increasing. “Hurry.”

“Nothing,” Africa says. He’s looking down at the voltmeter’s twin wires, now brushing the concrete surface of the parking lot. “Still nothing… getting closer to the building now.”

“All right, I got the cops to hold off for a minute,” Annie cuts in. “But Reggie, sooner or later, this shit is gonna blow up in our—”

The wires touch the concrete lip of the storage unit’s loading dock. The audio distorts – Africa letting out a held breath. “Nothing. Voltmeter is quiet.”

“Teagan,” Annie says. “Teagan, do you copy? Come back.” Then, as if she’s forgotten she’s on an open line: “Come on, gordita, say something.”

Reggie licks her lips, looking between the windows on her monitors, trying to find anything that might help – building blueprints, the feeds from Annie and Africa. Tanner said she’s getting live satellite imagery up, but it’s not quite ready yet. That has nothing to do with whoever is disrupting their communications; just good old orbital physics, not playing ball. Not even the US government has satellites watching everywhere all the time.

They are not in control of this situation. Not even close. She, Reggie, is not in control of this situation.

“OK,” Annie says. “I’m going in.”

Reggie’s eyes go wide. “Like hell you are.”

“It’s not electrified any more, Reggie.”

“And if it suddenly dials up again while you’re inside? Did you think of that?”

“Of course I’m thinking of that. But what other choice do we have? Teagan’s in there—”

“And she’s probably still hovering above the floor.”

“No, no, no, listen.” Africa pauses, as if getting his thoughts in order. “Annie is right. I don’t think it’s gonna go electric again. I think it’s finished.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“OK, so maybe whoever has the power is trying to lure people in. They want us to think it’s safe, and then we come in, and bang! More people dead. But what I am thinking is, that does not make sense. They only kill a few people that way, and then Mrs Tanner decides to destroy the whole building anyway – even if they don’t know who she is, they must know someone will fire a missile or drop a bomb, huh? It is not worth it for them.”

“No, that can’t be—”

“Reggie,” Annie says. “Either we’re gonna go inside the unit, or someone else is. Cops, the real FBI, NSA, whoever decides to leapfrog Tanner on the chain of command.”

“You’re putting yourselves in danger.”

Annie makes a sound that might be a laugh. “Won’t be the first time that bitch almost cost me my life.” She doesn’t say if she’s referring to Tanner, or Teagan.

“None of us have any infiltration training. They drill special forces for months on that alone—”

“Teagan went in, didn’t she?”

“And she has extranormal abilities. You don’t.”

It’s a feeble argument. Truth is, China Shop has been involved in some pretty hairy ops over the years. They may not have traditional training, but they can handle themselves.

“If we wait for the cavalry,” Annie says, “whoever’s messing with us will be