Irish Throwdown (What Happens In Vegas Book 4) by Matt Lincoln (short books for teens .TXT) 📕

lab similar to the one Agent Howard had back at the office, and the back of this room was filled with crates that had once contained glass vials and plastic packages. Unlike the guns, whatever was inside those crates hadn’t survived, as the only thing I found were charred and melted bits of glass and plastic.

I would have liked to investigate more thoroughly, but my throat was burning, and my eyes were watering painfully by then. I’d reached my limit, and I doubted I’d find much else in the way of tangible evidence in there, anyway. At the very least, we’d found the guns and enough that it was obvious they were trafficking them.

I made my way back to the lower floor and then out through the entrance. The fresh air outside was a huge relief, though there was still a lingering sting in the back of my nose and throat.

“Did you find anything?” Junior asked.

“Guns,” I coughed. “A lot of them. Enough that either they were planning on arming an entire militia, or they were trafficking them.”

“Either way, not good.” Junior frowned. “I’m glad you found something. That firefighter looked pretty mad after you went in there.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not waiting two days to go in there,” I retorted. “Whoever was in that armored jeep that sped out of here could be out of the country by then. There were some files in there that we might want to look at, though. We might need to ask the firefighters to get them out for us if they don’t want us going inside.”

“I’ll ask them,” Junior said. “It’ll probably go better than if he sees you again.”

He walked off to ask for help in retrieving the filing cabinets, and I went to tell the cops that we would be ready to leave soon. One of the officers was leaning against the side of the patrol car, reading a book. I could see another one inside in the passenger seat, looking at something on her phone.

“Oh, hello,” the one with the book said as I approached. “I’m Officer Felton, at your service. All ready to go, then?”

“Almost,” I replied. “My partner’s just speaking with the fire department. He should be joining us in a moment.”

As if on cue, Junior came jogging up to us right as I finished speaking.

“They said they’ll drop the filing cabinets by the station,” Junior informed me.

“Well, let’s get going then,” the officer smiled as he opened the patrol car’s rear doors for us. I clambered in after Junior and settled into the uncomfortable plastic seat.

“It’s been a while since I sat in the back of a patrol cruiser,” I mused out loud as the officer shut the door and climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Oh, right,” Junior smirked. “You were some kind of teenage delinquent, right? Wait, does that have to do with what you told me about on the plane?”

He frowned as he sat up straight to look at me. I’d almost forgotten that I’d told Junior about getting run out of town by my own mother and my crappy judgmental neighbors when I was just a teenager.

“Yeah,” I shrugged. “There aren’t a lot of options for a teenager without even a high school diploma with no money or connections. Especially one as angry as I was back then.”

“So, you really got into trouble, huh?” Junior asked. “For stealing food and things like that?”

“Yeah,” I chuckled. “Though if I’m being frank, I did a lot worse than that. Like I said, I was really angry and bitter over what had happened. I got into fights, stole, experimented with drugs, pretty much anything you can imagine. Then there were the trains. I almost killed myself jumping onto and off moving trains.”

“That’s why you were so confident about that stunt with the bus,” Junior muttered.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “The first time I did it, it was because I was being chased by the cops. I was sleeping on a park bench, and this cop was hassling me to go away. I got a little mouthy with him, and the next thing I know, I’ve got four cops chasing me.”

I chuckled as I recalled the memory. It had been terrifying at the time. I was just a dumb kid with nowhere to go who just wanted to get some sleep. I could laugh about it now, though.

“So you jumped on a train to get away from them?” Junior raised an eyebrow at me.

“Well, I didn’t want to be arrested,” I laughed. “I took off through the park and into the historic downtown area that still had a train track running straight through it. The train just happened to be passing by at that moment, so I made a split-second decision and jumped on when I saw a flat spot I thought I could land on.”

“And you got away?” Junior smiled.

“You should have seen their faces,” I smirked. “Looking back, it was a stupid thing to do, obviously. But it got me out of that awful little backwater town, all the way to New York, actually. After that, I started using trains as a mode of transportation. There are a lot of tricks to it once you’re used to it, like hopping into the space underneath trucks that are being transported on flat train beds or climbing the stairs that are usually located between cargo carts. After a while, I just started doing it for fun. It was an amazing adrenaline rush. Ironically enough, though, stealing food is how I was ultimately caught. Harry arrested me while I was nabbing some food from a gas station.”

“Wow,” Officer Felton sighed from the front seat. “You Americans sure do lead some exciting lives.”

“Oh, yeah,” I replied awkwardly. I’d been so absorbed in my own memories that I’d forgotten that there was a pair of police officers in the car with us listening to our conversation.

“Not all of us,” Junior scoffed. “Charlie’s life is dramatic even by our standards.”

The police officer behind the wheel