CHAPTER NINE

“Luke, I’m telling you, it was like he knew we were supposed to be in that sporting goods store. We’d been in a dozen stores before that, and then suddenly, he pointed to the sporting goods store. We could have gotten the bikes, the shoes, all of them in the big box store we were in hours ago.

“That gun would have never fired. I had Montana take a look at it. She said it was so dirty there was no way it would have worked. How could Grandpa know that when he didn’t have a close-up look at it?” asked Carl.

“I don’t know,” said Luke, shaking his head in confusion. “What about the guy? Did you find him?”

“We went back to try and find him,” said Adam, “but the strange thing was, the cameras at the store were out during that whole time period. There was nothing on them. Nothing. No one reported a gunman at the store. No one remembered seeing anything.”

“What the hell?” muttered Hex.

“Grandma again,” frowned Luke.

“Maybe,” said Ben. “I don’t know, Luke. Watching Grandpa with that man was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Grandma was nowhere near them. It was all him.”

“Well, he was right about one thing,” said Eric. “That man and his family will now have a good Christmas, and he’ll have a job. We’ve got a gun off the streets, and hopefully, this all worked out for the best. I don’t think we were meant to understand it all.”

“Come on,” said Hex. “I’ll help you get the gifts out to the Sugar Lodge. We’ve got some families who can use all of that.”

Luke watched as Hex and his brothers took the trailers of items to the back of the property. He shook his head, then noticed that his grandparents were holding hands, walking toward the cafeteria, whispering to one another. He wanted to ask about the incident. He wanted to know what was going on with them. But if he asked, he might get an answer he wasn’t ready for. For now, he’d let it be.

“You good, Luke?” asked Eric.

“Yeah, man. Just thinking about them,” he said, nodding at Matthew and Irene.

“They’re special people, Luke. We’ve always known that. Since we were kids. It seems that this time of year, we see it more clearly, more prominently. It doesn’t matter, though. I don’t care what makes them special, weird, strange, or magical,” laughed Eric. “I care that they’re here, with us, still. All these years, Luke, and we still have them. Them and our own folks. That’s a gift few people get.”

“You’re right,” said Luke, nodding at him. Tanner walked into the conference room, tossing several sheets of paper on the table.

“The Boy Scouts. There’s been some chatter on the dark web about them. Mostly, they want to clean up the mess that the government has made. They claim that they will do it by any means necessary, violence included.”

“Well, they’ve damn sure shown us that already,” said Eric.

“They claim they’re going to do it again. They haven’t given a location yet, but the chatter is saying it will be bigger than before.”

“What big events do we have coming up this week?” asked Luke.

“Tree lighting in Jackson Square, mass at St. Louis Cathedral, holiday shopping in the Quarter, Pére Noel Flotilla in the bayou, what else would you like to know?” frowned Tanner.

“Damn. They could be anywhere,” said Eric.

“There’s also the annual jingle bell run downtown. More than ten thousand runners. That seems an easy one for them.”

“What’s the route?” asked Eric, staring at Tanner. He opened his tablet, pulled up the site for the race, and frowned.

“All through downtown. Race begins at 0700 tomorrow and winds through the streets. Buildings everywhere that they could hide in, wait at the windows, it would be a nightmare. We can’t tell them to cancel the run on a hunch. It raises thousands of dollars for the homeless,” said Tanner.

“What do you suggest then?” asked Luke.

“I think we need to have a few runners in it. Hiro, me, Clay, Trak, Joseph, Nathan, Liffey, maybe a few more. We can try to place long-range snipers at the tops of the buildings, maybe in a few of the windows as well.”

“Okay,” nodded Luke.

“I’m in on this,” said Garr, leaning against the door jamb. “I want in on this. They nearly killed Macie. I want to find them.”

“You need a clear head, Garr. I can’t have you doing something stupid in the middle of all this,” said Luke.

“Me? Stupid?” he smirked.

“Yeah. That’s what I’m afraid of.”