by Aman Gupta
For the next several days, she carried life’s mundane chores like clockwork. She wanted to reach out to Sylvia again but wasn’t sure it was safe. She felt her mystery caller that night, was Josh. She didn’t want to get back into Josh’s radar. She had lost so much due to Josh, and its presence in her life again was her new nightmare. She learnt about Morrow’s current situation from the guards when she overheard them while assigning an errand.
One late night, she couldn’t resist and dialed Sylvia’s new number. The phone rang a couple of times before Sylvia picked it up.
“Hey, it’s me,” said Sarah.
“Hey, I thought you had gone offline,” said Sylvia.
“Yeah, I had to take a risk. How are things there?” asked Sarah.
“We had a lot of hiccups, but we’re online now. Josh just left. We don’t know why,” said Sylvia.
“Hmm, that’s strange,” said Sarah. “How’s my father? Swooning over finding about Josh after all this time?”
Sylvia chuckled. “Just a minute, I’m getting a call on the other line.”
Sylvia forgot the phone on mute, before picking Clay’s call on her other phone. Sarah overheard Sylvia talking about Vik, and that Victor had told Clay to bring Vik to Sierra. Sylvia gave the address to Clay and told him about Nucleus, before disconnecting the call.
She picked up the phone and saw Sarah was still on the call.
“Sorry, I forgot to put it on mute,” said Sylvia.
“Yeah, you were talking about laundry or something. I couldn’t quite hear,” said Sarah.
“Yeah, I was,” said Sylvia. She was glad that Sarah didn’t hear about Vik.
“Anyways, nice talking to you. Keep me posted about any other developments,” said Sarah.
“Sure,” said Sylvia. “Bye.”
Sarah had already disconnected the call. She thought all night about meeting Vik. She knew Victor was planning something since he was bringing Vik to Sierra. This could be Sarah’s last chance.
The next morning, she gave a list of supplies to the guards for an entire week so that they didn’t get suspicious. When they delivered her supplies, she told them to turn away any visitor as she wanted to be left alone for the next few days. The guards agreed. They were happy, as it meant no more errands. They bumped fists when Sarah closed the door.
Sarah used a cavity in the brown picket fence in the south side of her compound, behind her house to escape. She often used that cavity to unofficially visit TS – 17 as Victor had given the guards instructions to keep Sarah under house arrest before departing for Sierra.
Sarah travelled through the thick grass before taking a path that led to a local market. Sarah paid a local an obscene amount of money for his car and fuel supplies. She went towards Sierra, a place she had never been before. She only knew it was near TS – 51. She figured she would call Victor once she reached there.
****************************
Late evening, Clay and her team arrived at the compound close to the 50 meter high cliff. A soldier threw a gas cube on the van’s floor before leaving Vik alone in the van. A minute later, Vik dropped on the floor, unconscious.
He was carried on a stretcher by the guards into the compound’s only building, escorted by Clay. The compound had a big rectangular building in the middle, surrounded by forest on three sides. The corridors were dark and gloomy. It looked like a front office to an industrial warehouse. A couple of guards were guarding the staircase on the left as Clay walked past them. On the right were a couple of locked doors. The corridor led to a huge open room, almost fifty feet wide and forty feet deep. It was the back portion of the compound, and there was no upper floor in this portion. The high ceilings, almost 50 feet high, made it look like the warehouse belonged to a shipping company for storing containers. There was a stage like platform in the center of the warehouse room, a feet high. No more than five people could stand on it without invading each other’s private space. There were barely any lights in the room, apart from few poor lit bulbs placed strategically to denote the important spots in the warehouse. A bright spotlight was aimed at the stage.
Clay gestured to the guards to take Vik on that stage. Four long chains were dangling from the ceiling. They removed Vik’s coat. Two of the chains were cuffed around Vik’s wrists, while the other two were tied around his ankles. A guard approached with a bucket of water and threw it on Vik.
Vik woke up. His vision was blurry. He could see water in front of his eyes. He felt like he was looking at the world from the bottom of an ocean, where the light could barely reach. The light reflecting from the water on the floor allowed Vik to see the faces of the people standing in front of him. He saw Clay, who was standing with his arms crossed.
“Hope you slept alright,” smirked Clay.
Clay looked to his left, at a person standing on the top balcony almost forty feet above the floor. He nodded, looking at the guy.
Soon, Vik could feel his wrist leaving his body, almost as if the ceiling was pulling him. A few seconds later, the rest of the body left the stage as Vik was dangling in the air, almost 8 feet above the ground. Vik tried to grab the chain to ease the pain in his wrist. A minute later, the other chains tied to his ankle also started retracting towards the ceiling, as the guy on the balcony pushed the lever that activated the motor to pull the chains via giant pulleys hinged to the ceiling. The chains stacked on the feet of the guy like an anchor that was being lifted from the ocean floor. The noise of the chains rubbing against each other drove Vik crazy. The stress in his arms and legs had transferred to his brain.
A minute later, Vik was hanging in the air like he was lying face down on an imaginary incline at a 45 degree angle. He couldn’t see anything above his head, as his face was looking at the floor, while his legs were pointing towards the floor line almost 20 feet away.
Vik’s hands were spread like an eagle’s wings. Only he wasn’t touching the ground anytime soon. He felt like he was an airplane about to leave the ground, but instead of looking up, he could only look down. He tried looking up towards the left, but his head was still spinning from the dosage.
Clay left soon, while the drops of water and sweat dripping from Vik’s shirt turned the stage below him into a pool.
Clay made a call to Victor and told him that he had brought Vik to the compound.
“Good,” said Victor. “Make him sweat. See if you can get him to tell you about the chip.”
“I don’t think he’s going to talk,” said Clay.
“Get creative,” said Victor.
Clay went back to the front building and went to the first floor. The guards were patrolling the corridor. He entered the last room on the left. He looked through the glass as he saw Katie sleeping in her bed.
She had sketched many pictures of her moments with Jay and Sarah and pasted them on the pink walls. Clay went to his room after telling the guards to pull Vik down after a few hours. They did that, and Vik lied on the ground sleeping in his sweat.
The next morning, Victor Daulton arrived early at the compound while Vik was sleeping. He entered the room adjacent to the warehouse so that he could see Vik through the two way mirror. Vik could only see his reflection when he looked at that mirror an hour later, when he was again being lifted off the ground by the menacing chains.
Vik felt like he was levitating in the air. His arms and shoulders hurt, but he knew he couldn’t afford to break at this point. It was a test, and he needed to stay strong to proceed to the next level.
A couple of windows on the wall behind told him that it was morning. The sunlight almost filled the room with fresh air, even though there was thick glass on the windows. He spent the time looking around the warehouse, trying to gather intel about the guards and their movements. He looked for places he could use, vantage points that he could utilize to take out the guards after grabbing the rifles that the guards posted on the balcony on either side. Anything that could keep his mind from the sad reality that he might die in this dump
.
Around 12 PM, Clay came inside the warehouse after a conversation with Victor.
“How’s the air up there?” asked Clay as he circled the stage above which Vik was hanging.
“Sorry, can’t hear you,” said Vik.
Clay chuckled.
“What time does your boss get here?” asked Vik. “Or is he already here behind that mirror?”
“Yeah, he’s already here,” said Clay. “You’re looking at him.”
“Yeah, because an idiot like you can pull this off,” said Vik. “No offence, but not even the guards respect you here.”
“Believe what you want, but I’m it, Jay,” said Clay. “Isn’t that your name?”
“I’m hanging here for the past 5 hours, and all you got is my name,” said Vik. “You could’ve just asked me.”
“Oh, I know a lot about you. The crimes you committed, the lives you ruined. I’m your chance at redemption, Jay. At everlasting peace,” said Clay. “Commit yourself to me, and I’ll let you live out your life in peace with your family. You aren’t going anywhere. Your drone over the compound has already been taken out. Your other drone was blown away the night we met, shortly after the mystery hacker left Sierra’s system without a trace.”
Vik gave that piece of information a thought, before speaking again.
“Sorry, you’re not that good looking for me to commit to you. Where’s Maia? I’m dying to meet her,” said Vik.
Clay raised his eyebrows, looking at the mirror, almost as if he was telling Victor that they couldn’t break Vik that way.
“Is that who you want to meet? I thought you wanted to meet your daughter,” said Clay.
“Not right away. I would like to take a shower first,” said Vik.
“That can be arranged,” said Clay.
He looked at the guards standing near the door. They went towards the right into a dark corner and returned a couple of minutes later with a huge water pipe. They pointed the hose upwards towards Vik and turned on the flow. A huge canon of water came out of it, aimed right at Vik’s face. The water was colder than the deep ocean liquid in winter. Vik turned his face away, but the radius of the canon was too big. He couldn’t breathe or move. It only took a few seconds before Vik felt he was drowning. Thirty seconds later, Clay asked his men to stop.
Vik was coughing incessantly. He felt his face was frozen, and his eyeballs might’ve fallen on the ground. He couldn’t see a thing.
“So, what do you say? You want to join me?” asked Clay, knowing Vik was in no condition to utter a word.
Vik kept coughing.
“Again,” said Clay, to the guards.
Vik got his second water canon aimed at his face. This one lasted for twenty seconds. The pressure of the canon was too much for him to bear. He felt he would lose his face due to the canon’s flow.
“Stop!” said Vik.
“So, is that a yes?” asked Clay.
Vik gathered himself, shivering.
“Wake me up when Maia gets here,” said Vik, before passing out.
Clay went back through the door and entered the room on his left. Victor was standing near the two-way mirror.
“He doesn’t respect you,” said Victor. “If you want to win, he needs to respect you.”
“You want me to be his friend?” asked Clay.
“There’s more than one way to gain someone’s respect. Friendship falls at the bottom half of that list,” said Victor.
“What then?” asked Clay.
“Try pain,” said Victor. “Not physical. Emotional. We need to break his heart, not his body.”
“Okay,” said Clay.
Clay went to Katie’s room in the front building. He asked a guard to record everything. He entered her room as she was drawing a sketch.
Clay snatched the pad off Katie’s hands. She tried to grab it back, jumping on him and scratching Clay’s neck in the process. Clay pushed her and slapped her across her face. Katie went down on the floor. He pulled her up by her hair and slapped her again, this time on her right cheek. Katie started bleeding from her mouth. Then again. She was crying, as Clay left the room. He had taken her pad, which was worse than her swollen cheeks.
Clay ordered the guard to play the recording on his instructions.
An hour later, Vik was again lowered to the surface. After a splash of water on his face, he woke up. Clay was holding a wireless screen.
“Play,” said Clay as he held the screen over his right shoulder.
The video started playing after hearing Clay’s instructions. Vik looked at the screen and saw Katie alive for the first time in more than three and a half years. He was delighted. It didn’t look long for tears to crowd his eyes, but those tears of joy turned into tears of pain and anger a few seconds later. He started screaming and growling at Clay, as he saw Clay beating his daughter mercilessly. Clay chuckled like a monster.
He looked at the guard on the balcony, who again raised Vik towards the ceiling. Clay waved to Vik, before leaving.
“Katie! Katie!” yelled Vik.
Clay went back to Victor’s room. Victor was sitting on the chair, looking at Vik, yelling Katie’s name.
“How was that?” asked Clay.
He didn’t need to listen to Victor’s answer to know he was disappointed.
“You have lost him,” said Victor as he walked out with an angry face.
Vik refused to eat when he was lowered an hour later. He was still fuming in anger. Clay was standing at the door. He told his guards to force feed him, if necessary. They shoved water and food down his throat.
An hour later, Clay approached Vik. Vik was calmer than the sea at night. Clay was surprised but happy. He felt Victor was wrong. He had finally gotten Vik’s attention.
“So, should we start again?” asked Clay.
“What do you want?” asked Vik.
“You,” said Clay.
“I want you too,” said Vik.
“Awesome. See, that wasn’t too hard,” said Clay.
“Quick question,” said Vik.
“Yeah?” said Clay, excited like he was on the verge of success.
“Did you slap her because she scratched your neck, or you wanted me to take you seriously?” asked Vik.
“What do you think?” asked Clay.
“You want me to think it’s the latter, but your face tells me it’s the former,” said Vik. “As a special gift, I’ll burn down your village in TS – 18.”
“That’s a shame,” said Clay, as he looked for Vik to be lifted in the air again.
“Right after I skin alive Maia,” said Vik.
Clay got furious and grabbed Vik by his throat. Vik saw anger in Clay’s eyes, while his eyes smiled. Clay looked back at the mirror and let go of Vik.
Clay punched Vik on his face, before stomping out. He stormed in the room next door to see Victor Daulton, who was smiling when Clay came in.
“What did I miss?” asked Clay.
“He’s gotten into your head. Now every time you try to break him, he knows he just have to take Maia’s name and watch you spiral out of control,” said Victor. “What I wanted you to do to him is exactly what he has done to you.”
“What do you want me to do?” said Clay.
“It’s time he and I had a chat,” said Victor.
“Are you sure?” asked Clay.
“There’s no other way,” said Victor. “If I want to carve out Jay from Vik, I need to hit him where he buried Jay.”
“Where’s that?” asked Clay.
“In the past,” said Victor.
Victor received a call from Sylvia, who told him that Sarah had arrived at Sierra. Sarah was staring at Sylvia sitting across her.
“She knows we have Vik,” said Sylvia. “She wants to see him.”
“Put her on the phone,” said Victor.
Sylvia handed the phone to Sarah, who scoffed.
“You promised me that I’d get to meet him before he died,” said Sarah. “Where are you?”
“I’m busy,” said Victor.
“I don’t care. I want to see him,” said Sarah. “Immediately.”
Victor felt Sarah could be his ace in the hole if he failed against Vik. She could get him to do things he never would. But there was a huge risk that alarmed Victor. He didn’t want Sarah to know about Katie. After giving a thought, Victor told Sarah to wait in the car downstairs.
Sarah handed the phone to Sylvia. Victor informed Sylvia to arrange for Sarah to be escorted to the compound near the cliff.
Victor hung up and had a moment for himself before turning towards Clay.
“Lock the staircase,” said Victor. “Sarah doesn’t get to know about the girl.”
“Okay,” said Clay, as he nodded.
Clay immediately went to make arrangements. Victor saw Vik being lifted in the air once again. He didn’t know if he wanted to approach Vik as a friend or a foe. He couldn’t get a read on Vik’s endgame.
Around 6 PM, the lights in the warehouse were dimmed. The windows were covered with black blinds. The place was dark, and Vik couldn’t even see the floor. He felt he was falling into a bottomless dark abyss. He only had his ears to afford some comfort, when he could hear guards moving or chains rambling. He reconnoitered the area for any signs or sounds.
The door opened in the silent room. He heard the heels of a shoe punching holes in the floor as he travelled forward. Slowly, the sound grew louder and louder. The sound suggested that the person was strutting in the room as if he was trying to impress Vik. Perhaps, it was a surprise. The amplitude of the sound waves suggested it was a man.
Soon, the sound stopped, close to the stage. But no one said a word. The room was still dark.
“Anyone there?” asked Vik as his voice echoed.
A few seconds later, he was slowly lowered onto the stage. Vik was down on his knees as he tried to gain his balance by inspecting the surface of the stage like a blind person. Slowly, he got on his feet. The chains tightened their grip on his wrist as if they were pulled upwards, almost stretching him. He stood with his hands raised. He could smell someone standing in front of him. He could hear their deep breath. He could sense the person had been drinking recently. The perfume suggested it was an old man, as it wasn’t something a young person would wear. The smell was too pungent for Vik.
