Devious Origins

by Thad Phetteplace

CHAPTER 35

  I rocketed from the alley like a guided missile, my eyes darting between the phone and the road as I tried to aim the scooter toward Dee. I wove through traffic with uncharacteristic recklessness, zipping between cars and running yellow lights, taking every opportunity to reduce the gap between me and the SUV. Slowly, the distance displayed on the geo-app shrunk. A cargo van directly in front of me turned right, and suddenly I could see the SUV only three cars ahead of me. I hoped that nobody in that vehicle was looking back, or if they were that they would not recognize the Vespa. To be cautious, I slowed down and kept most of a city block between me and my quarry.

  The chase carried us toward the college campus, and as we drew near, I began to suspect where they were leading me. My suspicions were confirmed when they pulled into the alley running behind ‘fraternity row’, the area where most of the fraternity and some of the sorority houses are located. I hesitated at the end of the alley only long enough to verify they were stopping at the Omicron Upsilon Iota house. As they pulled into a garage facing the alley, I parked Martin around the corner and a few houses down from the frat house.

  I jumped off of Martin and began to run toward the fraternity house, realized I’d forgotten my phone, and ran back. Grabbing the phone, I then also thought to look in the scooter’s storage compartment. Under the crash helmet I had neglected wear was Dee’s backpack. I grabbed that and headed back toward the frat house, dialing Liz as I ran.

  “They’re at the Omicron house,” I shouted into the phone.

  “I see that,” she replied, “Brian is still a few minutes out. Sebastian and Kate will be even longer.”

  I stopped in front of the fraternity house. “We should close the trap.”

  “Not quite yet. They only just got there.”

  “This is killing me, Liz.” I stared up at the impressive colonial revival mansion, feeling helpless.

  “I understand,” Liz replied, “but, hang tight. It’s all… oh… oh crap.”

  “What? Liz, what’s happening?” I was nearly shouting now.

  “The GPS track just went dead. It… it could be nothing. The signal might be blocked by the building.”

  “Why am I not comforted by that? What aren’t you saying?”

  “We used really good hardware. A wood and plaster building shouldn’t block something on the SMS band.”

  “I’m going in.” I started up the steps toward the front door.

  “Barry, NO,” Liz shouted into the phone, “Wait for the rest of the team.”

  “They found the GPS. It’s the only explanation. She’s in real danger now.” I reach the front door. “Hell, she was always in danger. This was an insane idea from the outset.” I muted the phone and flung the door open.

  I was inside. There appeared to be another party going on, though more subdued than the massive bash that Tilly and I had attended. Several people looked my direction.

  “Don’t mind me,” I said, “I’m just here to see John.” I didn’t actually know the names of any of the fraternity members, but the odds were in my favor that at least one of them was named John. I headed toward the back of the house before anyone could object to my presence.

  I pulled out my phone and switched the geo-app back to map mode, then turned on the historical position trace. Dee’s path came in from the back of the house and headed toward the southeast corner. I cut through the Hallowed Hall of Alumni, into a hallway on the other side, a part of the house I had never been in before. My position now converged with her path. I followed the trace to a closed door. This had to be the southeast corner of the building. I hesitated only a moment, then threw the door open.

  The room was empty.

  Nice oak floors with expensive looking rugs. Leather chairs. An antique desk. Bookcases filled with leather bound books. But no Dee, and nobody else. Across the room was another door. Dee’s GPS trace led right to it. I flung the door open… and found an empty closet.

  I stepped back from the closet and spun around, looking at every part of the room. No other way out, and the trace didn’t go anywhere else. I turned back to the closet. I stepped inside the closet and looked at my position on the map. Dee’s trace went a few feet more, to the other side of the wall.

  I unmuted the phone. “Liz, how accurate is that GPS unit? Within a couple of feet, right?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “I’ll explain in a minute.” I looked closely at the back wall of the closet. It looked like run of the mill drywall, painted the same color as the rest of the walls. It was subtly different than the other walls, however. Smoother. The other walls were probably original lathe and plaster.

  I stepped into the closet and looked closely at the wall, looking for seams, for any sort of catch or lever that might open a hidden door. Nothing. I pressed on the wall. It didn’t move. I leaned into it with all my weight, then I hauled of and kicked it. Then I hopped on one foot for a minute and cursed. The wall was much more sturdy than one would expect from drywall.

  “Hey, you’re not supposed to be in here,” a voice called from behind me. I turned and was confronted by a college age guy dressed in khaki pants and a polo shirt.

  “Oh, sorry,” I apologized, “I was just looking for the bathroom.”

  “Well, it’s not in here. Down the hall, to your left. I’m John. Someone said you were looking for me.”

  “Thanks, just give me a minute.” I strode past him and turned right.

  “No, not that way,” I heard him shout from behind me.

  Back in the Hallowed Hall of Alumni, I stopped and looked up at the wall. Yes, this was just what I needed.

  I ran into John in the hallway. His eyes widened as he saw The Ax of Divine Justice in my hands. He got well out of my way as I ran past him and back into the room with the closet. I started heading across the room, then turned back. John was standing just outside the door.

  “I’m going to need some privacy,” I said as I slammed the door shut and locked it. The door was decently heavy, but the lock was a simple interior model that could be jiggled open with a butter knife. I grabbed a bookend from one of the shelves. It was a finely tapered wedge, perfect for what I needed. Jamming it into the space between bottom of the door and the floor, I whacked it with the dull end of the ax, driving it firmly into place. For good measure, I also pushed one of the overstuffed leather chairs against the door. Hopefully that would slow them down enough.

  I fell into that wall like a lumberjack. Drywall came way in large pieces, revealing rows of two-by-fours connected together with drywall screws. I could hear shouting and banging at the door to the room. I kept swinging until two of the boards had splintered, leaving a gap large enough to reach an arm into.

  I stuck my head against the gap, but too little light filtered in to see much of anything. I reached an arm in, stretched, and could just touch another wall at the far reach of my arm. The noise from the other side of the room became louder. Something or someone heavy impacted the door, and I heard a splintering sound. Frantically, I began feeling around the back of the two-by-four barrier, looking for some sort of mechanism that might open. I nearly fell over when I finally tripped the latch and the hidden door swung inward.

  I stood at the top of a narrow flight of stairs. The bottom was lost in darkness until I located a light switch. Florescent lights flickered on. Another impact hit the far door, splintering the door-frame and sliding the leather chair a few inches. I closed the closet door. I didn’t expect that to fool them for long, but any delay would help. I also closed the secret door before starting down the stairs.

  It was like progressing through the geologic layers of an archeology dig. The wood and plaster construction of the ground floor gave way to the old stone blocks of the original foundation, then poured concrete of newer construction at the lowest level. The stairway ended, deeper than I expected, at a plain metal door. I held my breat
h, grabbed the doorknob, and went through.

  I’m not sure what I expected, but it wasn’t this. It was a huge space, with a roof at least 12 feet overhead. The roof was constructed of thick wooden beams with what looked like gold leaf filigree hammered into them. The walls were paneled in dark wood divided into rectangular sections by borders that looked like picture frames. The floor was terrazzo, smooth polished marble assembled from different colored pieces, the pattern of the pieces forming a map of the world complete with a compass in one corner and sea serpents poking up from the oceans. More overstuffed leather chairs were scattered around the periphery, and a well stocked bar was tucked along one corner, rows and rows of expensive looking bottles arrayed against a mirrored wall. Again, this room was empty of people.

  I ran around the room, looking for another door but not finding one. I walked to the center of the room and looked around. I felt a strange sense of déjà vu followed by a rising feeling of panic. I looked at my phone and saw that I had no signal. Taking slow breaths, I tried to remain calm and think things through. There had to be another hidden door. I just had to find. it. I began making a slower examination of the walls, listening the whole time for sounds from the stairwell.

  A third of the way around the room I found it. One of the picture frame like borders on the wall had a recessed bit, a space you could slide a hand into. I grabbed it and pulled. The panel sprang open, revealing a hallway beyond. I quickly slipped through the door and closed the panel behind me.

  The hallway was nothing like the grandeur of the previous room. It was all concrete and cinder blocks and pale florescent lights. The block walls were occasional interrupted by featureless metal doors, most with RFID card locks like those used at the Freedom Birthright Foundation. The first door I tried was unlocked, but it contained only a storage room with folding chairs and a few tables. The next few doors were locked, and then the hallway stretched on for some time without any doors at all. I finally reached another unlocked door at the very end of the hallway. This one led to a flight of stairs going up and a door like in the closet at the fraternity house. I popped the latch, and the door swung in. Unsurprisingly, this door also led through the back of another closet, this time containing a few cleaning supplies. I stepped into the closet and was about to close the hidden door but then realized it would probably lock behind me, so I instead left it open with a box of chlorine pellets in the way to make sure it wouldn't swing shut accidentally. Finally, I let myself out into the room beyond.

  I found myself in what must be a pool house. It had tile floors, wicker furniture, and large glass doors that led outside to an enormous in-ground pool illuminated dimly by underwater lights. Beyond the pool was an enormous house constructed of cream colored bricks and granite and terracotta roofs. The house was well lit, but the grounds were dark, hiding the scale of the estate. I crept closer to the glass doors, crouched behind a wicker lounge chair, and peered at the house, trying to decide what to do next.

  Suddenly floodlights snapped on, illuminating the entire estate and briefly blinding me. An alarm began to sound in the distance, and then a well muscled guy in a dark windbreaker and carrying a hand gun ran past. I slid down farther behind the lounge chair even though he was looking toward the house and not in my direction.

  Gunshots. Three in quick succession. Then a couple more. One of the floodlights snapped off. More gunshots. Another light went off. Then the light closest to the pool exploded.

  And then I saw him. Light reflecting from the glass had hidden him only a moment before, but now I could see him standing at the mansion's French doors, a silhouette against the lights still on within the house.

  Siegleshust.

  He stood there, peering out into the darkness, seemingly unworried by the chaos and gunshots around him. I just sat there, transfixed, peering back, until he turned and disappeared into the mansion. A let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding, then stopped mid breath again when another figure holding a gun appeared outside the pool house. The person scurried over to the glass doors, slid them open, and slipped inside.

  It was Dee.