Page 31 of Carver’s Crusade

Axel doesn’t look up. “Both trackers are active. The toolbox and the cash box are still together. They’re moving east.”

Jackson pulls out into traffic, merging smoothly.

Axel taps the screen, zooming in. “They just pulled into a fast-food place. McDonald's.”

We roll past a few minutes later, slow enough to spot the beat-up truck Axel flagged earlier. The brother is driving while the sister is in the passenger seat. They don’t notice us as they pull back out into traffic and continue heading east.

We follow at a distance, letting a couple of cars stay between us. The city thins out, buildings giving way to open space and trees. My gut tightens.

“Where the hell are they going?” I ask.

“Chollas Lake Park,” Axel answers. “They’re turning in now.”

Jackson slows as we approach the entrance. The truck ahead disappears down a narrow access road, half-hidden by overgrown brush.

“Shit,” Jackson mutters, pulling over near the edge of the park. He kills the engine, and the silence settles around us, broken only by distant birds and the hum of wind through trees.

I stare down the road where the truck vanished. “I was expecting a warehouse or a storage unit. Something like that.”

“Yeah,” Jackson says, scratching his jaw. “Not a damn park.”

Axel finally looks up. “Signal’s still strong. They stopped moving.”

Jackson glances toward the tree line. “We could hike in. Get eyes on them.”

I shake my head slowly, already piecing it together. “Too exposed. If they’re using that road, they know the area. We go stomping in there, we risk spooking them.”

Jackson turns in his seat to face me. “Then what?”

“We need more bodies. I want to approach them with an army. They need to start talking, and the only way to make that happen is to put the fear of the Demon Dawgs into them. Axel, you and Jackson head back to the work site. Before you go, contact Flame and see if he can find someone to replace me on guard duty.”

“What are you going to do?” Jackson asks.

“Call in for reinforcements. I’ll get Ranch and Torch to join me. I’ll also call Chaos and see if he’s up for a road trip out here.”

“I can stay,” Jackson offers.

I consider his offer and shrug. “If you want to stay, we could use you. It might be a good idea to have a civilian with us.”

Pulling out my phone, I call Ranch and tell him where we are. “I need you to grab Torch, and whoever else you can get to join us here. I also need someone to come pick up Axel and cover guard duty on the mini mall.”

I spot Axel gesturing at me while he’s talking on the phone. He pulls the phone away from his ear and calls out. “I got it covered. Scar’s picking me up.”

I relay the information to Ranch and end the call after getting his ETA. Thirty minutes later, Ranch pulls up along with Torch. He isn’t alone. Chaos, Babe, and Dante are with them. Scar drives up behind them and parks. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Dante came with them; however, I am surprised when Maestro climbs out of Scar’s SUV. While the others joined us, Maestro retreats to the back of the SUV.

“What have we got?” Dante asks.

“They drove into the woods via that access road,” I explain. “The trackers we slipped into their cashbox and toolbox are showing that they’re about two miles inside.”

“Maestro,” Dante says, turning to our tech-savvy prospect. “Will that reach?”

Maestro steps up, holding a small drone in his right hand. Axel comes with him. Maestro is studying the app on Axel’s phone that he used to track our prey. “Yeah, no problem. I have a feel for the area they're in. I should be able to find them and keep an eye on them.”

A few seconds later, Maestro has the drone up in the air and zipping over the treeline. It takes him less than ten minutes to locate the target. Dante and I stand behind him to study the footage on the iPad.

“I spot four people,” Maestro says. “Two look to be a few years older than the other two. Looks like they’re eating.”

“Yeah, they stopped for burgers on the way back here,” Axel chimes in.