12:00 Midnight
Closest is a relative term. While Mego had been the closest of the searchers to the old factory it still took him almost twenty minutes to find the obscure location. His adrenaline was pumping, even though he rationally knew there was no proof yet this was the proper address.
Cardinal Ximenes Drive was a one block, dead end street -- hardly wider than an alley. The area had seen a lot of heavy manufacturing almost a century earlier, but most of the old buildings were now used for storage if they were still used at all. One side of Cardinal Ximenes Drive was the back of a building where auto chasses were once built for a model of car only auto historians could remember. The other side of the street contained the single address for the Drive, an old building whose exterior presented no clues to what work might have been done there over the decades.
And if this had been the hideout of Obtinus Matt knew he needed to take it easy. In life Obtinus had demonstrated the ability to put together traps even for someone as small as Mego. Matt hoped none of them had been left around in working condition.
Ron and Shego continued to methodically work their way through the list of addresses. George called to tell them that Obtinus's hideout had probably been located, but until they received confirmation they felt it was better to stay with the jobs they had.
George paced nervously around the large room of the tower. He wanted Mego to report back with any news.
Dexter drummed his fingers on the table, “It's probably the right place,” he assured George. “If it was the wrong place he'd have called back already.”
“Yeah, but if it's the right place he knows we want to hear it. God, I hope he didn't get captured. I don't need two missing sons. How long should we wait before we call the others to go look for him?”
Matt had no intention of getting captured. He worked his way in carefully. He felt a little nervous about how little he encountered in the way of security measures. Surely Obtinus would have set up an elaborate system. Mego wasn't sure if the poor security meant it was another worthless search -- or if he had missed a security system that was simply too sophisticated for his abilities.
Light shone underneath a door, and Mego slipped into a large room and discovered his brother -- hanging by his arms so he could get no leverage to use his strength. A woman was tied up on a worktable perhaps twenty feet from Hego. Mego stayed small and began to move around, checking for traps although he was coming to believe that neither Obtinus nor Hellpike had given thought to this hideout being discovered.
Before Mego could alert Hego to his presence a door was thrown open and Hellpike entered, smiling. “Time for another round of everyone's favorite game -- You Bet Your Life. Who wants to play? Will we have the lovely lady as a contestant this time?”
“I'll play again,” Hego said weakly.