Grant and I do a morning run today together. Last night I wrote down everything I know about Grant. Last night I wrote down everything I knew about Grant. I also researched his family name. From the articles his little brother died as a child. I hacked shield and the files say he is still alive. Odd he was just a child. He must have been like me. Raised within shield.
I also found out that Grant was sent to Military school and juvie. He tried to burn down his house with his brother in it. There has to be more to this story. This can't be it. I've noticed rich people generally have skeletons in their closets. Some more, then others. He disappeared from juvie doe a couple of years. I'm guessing that was his time in the forest with Buddy the dog. Would John Garrett take him to the forest because he broke Grant out of juvie? That's unlikely shield has a library of things that could erase that. Including and not limited to erasing his entire record. The only thing I can think of is he wants to control Grant.
"You're quiet today," Grant observes.
"Sorry, I have a lot on my mind," I tell him.
"Thinking about Bucky Barnes?" he asks.
"Yeah," I lie. "I can't imagine what it would be like to be prisoner of HYDRA for decades. He must think everyone has given up on him," I give a sad sigh.
"Shield will rescue him. He's one of us and if shield won't go, you, Miles, Leslie, and myself will go. No one deserves to be held captive like that," Grant comforts me. It almost seems like he is understanding something of what Bucky is going through.
"We will have to find him a house and job. And bank account." I say. "He has been declared dead."
"Why would you think about those things?" he asks confused.
"Because he needs something to come back to. He needs some reason to want to live." I say. "I'll talk to Nat and Clint. They might have an idea for me." We arrive back at my dorm from our run. "Wait… on the first day we went for a run. Why were you in our kitchen?"
"You guys have the best kitchen. The water in ours comes out brown. So, I came here for yours. I was terrified you were going to say something, but you didn't." He explains.
"You brought your own bottle and took tap water. I'm pretty sure that's not a big deal," I reply.
I head in and shower. I crawl back in bed for class. During my programming class, I get a text from Leslie saying that we have an off-campus assignment. That's exciting. She texts me the lecture hall to go to, to find out what we are doing. Programming finally finishes. It seemed a little longer in my excitement to go on the assignment. I walked to the lecture hall. Leslie saved me a seat. So, I go sit beside her. Grant and Miles are on my other side.
"She wouldn't let us sit there," Grant says.
"She was looking out for her roommate. My roommate knows where I sleep," Leslie jokes.
"Listen up everyone. To start this may seem hectic but you are all getting a target. This target is hiding a secret. You must find this secret out. You cannot ask them the secret. I expect you to all behave yourselves. You have exactly twenty-four hours after you receive your target to get this secret. Good luck!" The professor announces. They hand out or targets.
"Who did you get?" Leslie asks.
"A Hannah Roman," I say. "You?"
"Lucy Toews," she replies.
"I believe our targets are related or married. I have Damien Roman," Grant says.
"Do you have an address?" I ask him.
"565 Stone Road," he says.
"Mines the same. I'm going to guess married." I tell him.
"Miles who did you get?" Grant asks.
"Some Jonathan Toews at twelve Hungry Lane." He offers.
"Lucy lives there too. She must be married to him." Leslie says with a squeal.
"I would suggest going to your targets house first," the professor announces.
"Do you know how to drive?" I ask Grant.
"Yeah," he says.
"Good, can you drive us to the house?" I ask.
"Yeah, I can why?" He asks.
"I really hate driving. I'll do it if I have to, but I hate it." I say.
We head to the professor they hand us keys to a car. We leave the building and head to the parking lot. We find the car and set off to the address.
"I wonder if they just gave us a bunch of P.I. cases." I say.
"They probably did. Had a team sole them then hand them off to us." Grant says.
"The research teams probably dug all the people up. That's usually how they do it." I say. "I've always wondered what it would be like to be a P.I."
"They mainly deal with cheating spouses. It's rather boring all around." He says.
"You speak like you've done it," I say.
"No, Garrett had me tailing one once. I was very bored the entire time." He says.
"Oh, I was hoping a P.I. would be more exciting." I reply.
"Why?" he asks as we pull up to the house. He parks on the street a few houses down at a house with a for sale sign. There is no car in their driveway.
"I was hoping that would be my retirement plan." I say seriously.
"Your planning for retirement already?" he asks shocked.
"Yes, I'm not getting any younger." I say.
We walk up to the Romans house. I sneak behind the fence keeping look out. I quickly scan for camera's and see none. That is very surprising. This is a very nice neighborhood. I look in the windows and see no one is home. I slide one open. It not being locked. I head inside. I look for camera's still seeing none. I look through the open mail. They look like they have a lot of debts. Why? They live in a nice house. They seem to have good paying jobs from what I am seeing. Where is the money going?
I snoop through the washrooms. I see no drugs that aren't prescribed to them. Oh, look Viagra. I head to the bedroom and check there. I see the computer is on and logged in. How lucky I am. I check the browser history and see a bunch of gambling sites. They are in debt due to gambling. That was easy. There has to be a bigger secret. I head back out after I take pictures of my evidence. Grant and I walk to our car and sit in it waiting for the Romans to come home.
"What did you find?" Grant asks.
"I found they are both in debt from gambling." I say.
"So, that's our secret. Why are we still here?" he asks.
"Because no debt collectors have come from what I have seen. So, how are they keeping them off their backs? There has to be a deeper secret. I feel like I'm missing something. I don't think it's drugs because all I saw was prescription to them. Nothing else," I explain.
"I see your point," he agrees scrolling through my pictures. "You have a blueprint of the house?"
"Yeah, I was thinking in this neighborhood they would have a hidden safe. But I didn't see one. I also didn't see a place on the blueprints that one would get and be worth the money to put in." I say.
"You thought of everything," he says.
"Not everything, but Natasha taught me well." I say. I look down and pat my pockets. Grant gives me a questioning look. "Shit! I forgot to bring snacks."
"We can go pick something up. If you want, we can go pick something up right now," he says.
We hear a knock on the window. Grant rolls it down.
"Hello, can I help you with anything?" Grant asks the man standing at out window.
"I was just about to ask you the same thing." He says.
"We are just waiting for our realtor. He is so late," I say quickly thinking up a believable lie.
"Alright, I hope you two like the house," the gentleman walks away with a wave. We wave back.
"Good thinking," he says.
"Thanks. It was the first thing that popped in my head that made sense," I tell him.
"Did you want to still get food?" he asks.
"Sure, we can just go to the supermarket and pick up protein bars," I say. "That will tide me over till I get some real food in me."
"Alright," he says driving to the nearest supermarket. We head in and I buy a box. "Why a whole box?"
"Better to be safe then sorry and what if you get hungry," I say.
"I'll be fine for the twenty-four hours." He tells me.
"Right, you lived in a forest and lived off the land for a while. Accept the thoughtful gift. Why starve when you don't have to?" I say.
"Thank you for thinking of me," he says as we drive back.
We pull into our spot just as the Romans pull into their driveway. They seem to only have one car. It's easier for us that way. I pull out my binocular's and watch them. I notice they head upstairs out of view. I would presume bedroom or bathroom.
"Do you think they will be home for the night?" He asks.
"No, they are gambling addicts and did you see the bags under their eyes. They definitely don't sleep at night." I say.
A couple of hours later they head back downstairs all dressed up. They leave and get in the car. We follow them they go to a club. We head inside. Good thing they don't have a dress code. We sit close enough to hear them speak, but far away enough for them not to see us. A big guy meets them. They exchange pleasantries and talk about meaningless stuff.
They seem to be talking about dolls and teddy bears and the sale of them, then it hits me. Clint and Natasha were working on a case where they referred to the children being trafficked and sold as dolls and teddys. Boys were teddys and the girls were dolls. They never could take down the operation. I take Grants hand and lead him out.
"They were just talking about toys the whole time. What did you hear that I didn't?" Grant asks seeing my facial expression.
"Nat and Clint were talking about a case a couple months ago. One that really bugged them that they couldn't solve. It was a child trafficking ring. They could only figure out that the girls were referred to as dolls and the boys teddys. We have a chance to break the case. They were saying to the guy that they want to show him the merchandise. They mean the kids, not toys." I explain quickly and quietly.
"Holy shit. That's their secret. That's what you had a feeling about. That's how they are funding their gambling addiction." He says shocked.
They exit the club. They get back into traffic. They weave in and out of people probably checking for a tail someone without them noticing. They head to a dead-end parking lot. We stay outside I was looking at the map at possible locations they could go to next so we keep track of them and they don't notice us tailing them.
We decide to switch cars. I call Leslie and Miles to see if their done. They are. They come swap cars with us about thirty minutes after we swap, they leave the parking lot, we follow. They head out of town. We turn our lights down. I notice that there is a warehouse area this way and a town. If asked, we are heading to the town. Hopefully they don't go too much past the town or we have no explanation of why we are there. They turn off at the abandoned warehouse.
"We should drive by their house and wait for them there." I say. "Or I can get a bike delivered and follow them. You head back to the house, and we meet up there after."
"I like the second idea better," he says.
"Okay, bye." I say getting out.
I'm so grateful I'm wearing black. I text Leslie to bring me a bike and stash it behind a bush. She tells me she will be there ASAP. I head up to the roof quietly and creep around. I see a vent up top and creep through it. These are the moments I'm praying I'm light enough. I crawl to a vent and look down. That one is abandoned. I crawl to the next and see an office with stacks of cash sitting on the desk. That explains the lack of a safe at the house. I keep crawling making sure to be extremely quiet.
I see another vent and see cages holding kids. They can't be older then five and they look to be as young as one or two. That is disgusting. I check my phone and see the Leslie left my bike. I crawl out quietly and carefully. I leave and head back to the house. I want to beat them to there to hide the bike.
I get there and see Grant sitting there. He looks over to me and I point to the truck. He opens it and I place the bike in there. Good thing we swapped out for an SUV. I sit in the passenger seat.
"What did you see?" He asks.
"There were kids. Lots of kids. I only saw kids between the ages of one and five years old." I tell him disgusted.
"Holy shit!" he exclaims.
"Yeah," I agree.
"We should sit on them to see if they go anywhere else after," he says.
"Sounds good," I say. We hang out till they arrive home. It's almost check in time, so we leave. We head to the check in room.
"You're late," the professor says.
"We found out the secret, though. They run a child trafficking ring," I tell him.
"They what?" the professor asks.
"I have proof. See?" I show the pictures I took.
"This was not planned." The professor says.