by G. K. Lund
“Who are you?” she asked and was promptly silenced as Evy jumped down from the ventilation and heating pipes.
I gaped at the sight of the flailing woman as surprise transformed her whole face. Evy landed on the woman’s back and effectively knocked her sideways into the wall. Despite the pain in his jaw, Peter didn’t hesitate. Before the woman could get to her senses, he flung himself at her legs and knocked her over. As she fell toward me, I grabbed her and put an arm around her neck. I hesitated a second and then squeezed.
The woman fought back halfheartedly as she tried to grab me from behind her. Evy got up on her knees and stretched her hand out toward the woman who then proceeded to kick free from Peter’s grasp. It felt like she tried escaping backward through me. She was terrified of Evy touching her. I could feel it in her tense body, fighting to get away, if not from me, then with me.
“Stop it, Ben,” Peter said, breathing hard. “You’re killing her.”
There was no indication of that. I felt no forewarning. No presence. He was wrong.
“No,” I said, my voice level. “She’s not dying now.”
And somehow, he believed me. At least he sat back and waited as the blood flow was cut off to her brain. She fought until the end to get away from Evy who made no move to actually touch her; merely kept her hand threateningly close to the woman’s face.
As her body became unconscious, I let go of her and she slumped to the floor. Evy and Peter both fell back a moment as they both groaned in agony in unison for a moment. I knew what Peter’s pain was, but Evy’s? She was clutching her left hand, cuffs dangling from her right wrist, and she was not only pale but shaking. She also had a sheen of sweat on her skin despite looking cold. Something was not right.
“We need to move,” she wheezed. “I can’t climb up there again now.”
I stepped over the unconscious blond woman and helped her up. “What’s wrong with you?” I whispered back. So far, we had by a miracle not made any sounds that would carry far. We heard no one approaching. Were the others still in the room at the other end of the hall?
“It’s nothing,” she said. “Let’s move. Peter?”
Peter was on his way up. Taking a fist to the jaw was one thing, but a fist powered with a rock-hard shield was something else. I was surprised he was standing.
“Okay, follow me,” I said and headed down the hall as they did as told. “What happened to your hand?” I asked over the shoulder.
“I broke my thumb, or part of the hand, to get free from the cuffs,” she said.
“What?” Peter said. “That’s insane.”
“Better than staying there.”
“I thought they used ropes on you,” I said, remembering the red burns around her wrist the first time we met.
“They did. But when I learned to get out of them, they learned to use something else.”
“Why didn’t they find a way to lock the door?” Peter asked.
“They did. Some magnet thing. It doesn’t always work. That’s why they tied me up in the first place. One of them forgot about the door last time as the explosions happened. That distracted them. This time I paid attention every time they closed the door. The lock didn’t always click shut. Then I managed to get free from the cuffs. I learn as well.”
“No shit,” Peter said. We had come armed with nothing and she had picked up on that.
“You’re a very interesting rescue party.”
Steps coming the opposite way distracted me from their conversation as I stopped to listen. They caught on and soon heard the same. Was it because the blond woman had taken too long? She was only supposed to deliver a tray with food after all.
I didn’t hesitate and ran toward the corner where I knew the new threat would soon emerge. Had I waited to see I may have thought twice about it, but as I rounded the corner, a giant of a man came toward me, luckily completely unsuspecting. He probably thought Evy was being difficult. With no point of return possible, I stayed the course and ran into him, pushing him against the wall. He gave surprised “whoompf” at the impact before his training kicked in and he twisted out my grasp before I could do any real harm. Turned out that discombobulating him was enough. While twisting away from me, he turned halfway around to gather himself. Then he tripped over one of the hoses coming from a room and leading to the dehumidifier. He fell flat on his face, a heavy drop with all that muscle.
And then Peter ran forward and kicked him in the head. He looked absolutely petrified as the giant cried out in pain but didn’t pass out. Behind him, I could see the blond woman coming to as well.
Evy must have noticed my expression, because she never turned around. She simply grabbed and hauled at Peter with her good hand and ran past the giant man and toward me, before we all made a run for it toward the stairs.
A shout sounded behind us, as they no doubt got to their feet. I saw someone exit the room on the other side of the stairs but didn’t stop to look. I only saw the shoulder-length dark hair on the person that came out, before the door leading to the ground floor was in front of me. I slammed it open and stepped aside as Evy and Peter ran past me. A quick glance back down showed the furious faces of the man and woman we had gotten past.
I banged the door shut and ran after the other two, through unfamiliar hallways, hoping we could remember the way out. Finally, we tried desperately not to stumble over the debris of the campaign. The body heaved for air, but willingly pushed on as I forced it to.
At the door, Peter ripped the plywood screen off and we jumped over the stalagmite-like shards of glass. Peter ran blindly to the left for no other reason than to get the hell out of there, and as Evy and I followed we heard our pursuers reaching the door. The sound of their feet landing on broken shards of glass gave them away.
And then the whole damn square was lit up by blue blinking lights as a sharp electronic sounding voice shouted, louder than the cacophony of several others accompanying it, that everyone was to “freeze”.
Chapter 28
The blinking and sharp lights blinded me as I followed the others. The screaming voices behind us made every attempt at thinking straight difficult.
A figure stepped out in front of Peter, gun aimed in our direction. I never heard if anything was said, but Peter stopped, forcing Evy and myself to do the same.
“What the hell?” the figure said as I was near enough to hear, and stepped closer, revealing the ever-suspicious face of Olivia. She made a snap decision as she lowered her weapon and indicated the narrow space between the two buildings closest to us. “Quick. Get in there.”
Too shocked to do anything else, we did exactly that. Olivia held me back a second. “You stay there,” she told me, voice stern and low as usual, but I could still hear her now that the shouting by the door had subsided into frenzied talking. “Don’t move until I get back. You got that?”
I nodded and she let go of me as she ran back to her colleagues. I stepped in between the buildings, the space barely wide enough for one person to fit. So, we ended up standing in a row as we listened to the noise from the square. The space was not a passageway, meaning that if we were to try and leave, we risked being spotted by the police.
“Why are the cops here?” Peter whispered. In our enclosed little space we could hear each other and so could a police officer walking by if we talked too loud.
“Did you guys tell them about me?” Evy asked. From what little I could see of her face, there was a true worry there. And then I noticed they were both looking to me for answers. Why? I leaned back against the wall and inhaled sharply and then regretted it immediately. The passageway smelled of urine and vomit – sour and almost chemical.
“Only one person knew we were here.” I gave Peter a pointed look. He, in return, looked down at his feet, so at least I got through to him. The silhouette of course. Winter’d had a lookout keeping an eye out for us when we arrived. I suspected that person had called the cops.
“Who?” Evy asked.
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�So,” Peter began as his eyes left his shoes, “Winter helped us find you. He must have called the police.”
“That makes no sense.” Evy caught her breath while talking. The broken bones in her hand had to cause her serious pain after all the chaos in the basement and the subsequent running. “He knows better than that. That’s why we trust him.”
“Yes, well trust is a fickle thing sometimes,” I snarked. Yes me, like a petulant child.
“Hey. Shut the fuck up,” Peter snapped. “She’s out, isn’t she?”
I sighed. “Yes.”
“Then stop being a dick.” Peter winced and then moved his jaw tentatively. “Fuck that hurts. What did that woman do?” At which point Evy halfway leaned and fell against the wall.
“Are you okay?” I asked as both Peter and I grabbed an elbow to keep her steady.
“I’m fine. It’s only a little painful…”
“She needs a hospital,” Peter began, but Evy stopped him by shaking her head.
“No, no.” She swallowed hard and forcibly got herself together, straightening up, her left hand hanging limp by her side. “No hospitals, no cops. Please. They will find me.”
“It’s a little late with regards to the police,” I remarked, the blue blinking lights ever-present it seemed out in the square. They were a faint echo of themselves in our tight space, but quite noticeable nonetheless. “Let’s hope Olivia knows what she’s doing.”
Whatever that was, it took its time. We could hear voices and car doors slamming. People moving around out there and sometimes more muffled voices that made me think some of them were inside the building.
“What’s going on do you think?” Peter asked after a while of silence. “Are they looking for us?”
It had been chaotic when we exited the building. And dark until the lights came on. They might not have seen us clearly. I hoped not. Maybe they were looking for more people. No police officers came our way though. “No idea,” I said and stepped toward the square.
“Hey, weren’t we supposed to stay here?” Evy whispered.
“I’ll just have a little look,” I said and concentrated on drawing myself in as I walked toward the opening out onto the square itself. The little trick had come in handy before, why not now? I was getting impatient, and Evy couldn’t stand there like that the whole night.
“What just happened?” I heard Evy say behind me.
“Oh my God, it actually works,” Peter chimed in.
I paid them little heed as I walked on, hidden by shadows and my own encompassing shade. I rounded the corner and saw the square lit up from the lights on the police cars. Three uniformed men came walking out of the building we had escaped from. The blond woman and the big man we had encountered in the basement were wearing handcuffs and directed into the back of two separate police cars. A little further off I noticed a familiar face as the long-haired man was given the same treatment. Why had he been following me in the first place? I realized I wanted to know. He must have seen my way of cloaking myself on my way out from the charity event. According to Evy that was the kind of thing these people were interested in. A small part of me was a bit disappointed at his arrest. He could tell me nothing now.
The sight of Olivia exiting the building drew me out of that dangerous thought process. She was scribbling something down on her notepad before joining the other police officers. Dressed in civilian clothes, she stuck out in the uniform crowd she belonged to. She always seemed a little out of place wherever I saw her; like she kept most people at a distance. Maybe that was safest, I thought gloomily as I decided to head back to Evy and Peter. The anger I had felt when I realized Peter had made his little arrangement with Winter could be avoided if you stayed away from people. Still, I thought as I caught sight of the two of them leaning against the wall while waiting for a moment to be able to leave, I hadn’t had to go alone tonight. I would not have found the right place if I’d been at it alone. I had lost track of the long-haired man each time. Keeping a little distance had always given him enough time to enter the building before I could see where he’d gone. I didn’t know anything about his employers so how could I have known? I was beginning to hate reason much more than denial.
I shed the concealing shade as I stopped beside them. “It’s going to be a while,” I said and ignored their staring at my sudden appearance. After a little while, it got boring anyway.
Turned out I was right. We were there for a couple of hours as we waited for the police to leave. It dawned on us that they had found the room where the abductors had kept Evy, and it would not look good. Of course, they had to take their time. A couple of the cars left during everything. The tight space of the square forced them to drive slowly around all the construction equipment and then out through the one alley that allowed vehicles access to the square.
Eventually, though, the last car left, and the square fell into silence and darkness again. The three of us remained silent and immobile a long while.
“Should we move?” Peter whispered.
I tried hearing if there was anyone else out there, but except the sounds of the city further off, there was nothing.
“I guess so,” I said, noticing Evy looked like she was about to keel over. “She needs to leave at any rate.”
“I’m fine,” she repeated, almost like a mantra for her that night.
“Yeah, but—”
“Hey, guys,” Olivia’s voice interrupted as her footsteps approached. “You still in there?”
I answered in the positive as I supported Evy on our way out from the foul-smelling space.
“Are you okay?” Olivia asked at the sight of her. Evy did not look good, her skin still pale and pallid, eyes a little unfocused now and then. The pain needed to be dealt with.
“I’m fine,” she repeated as we stopped by a low stack of planks where she could finally sit down. Olivia did not believe her as she knelt in front of her and gently took her hand to have a look. “Am I right in guessing that the blood on the wall in the basement is yours, Evy?” she asked.
How did she know this was Evy, I wondered. I had mentioned her, but… “How—” I began but was silenced by a gesture from Olivia.
Evy gave Olivia a look of suspicion but nodded. She didn’t like the police, but this particular cop had helped us.
“Did you do this to get free?” Olivia made certain not to touch the bloody and bruised hand, but she didn’t have to in order to see the damage.
Evy nodded again.
“Okay,” Olivia continued. “We’re going to have to get you some help with that.”
“No hospital,” Evy croaked.
Olivia didn’t answer that one as she straightened up into a standing position. “What happened here?” She looked to me for clarification. Why was everyone thinking I had all the answers? Sure, I had some, but my whole existence in this place was a mystery to me. Still, I told her what I knew, and what had happened, aided by Peter.
Olivia listened with an impressive patience given her reaction afterward. “You witnessed an abduction and you didn’t call the police?” she asked Peter with reproach.
I attempted to help explain that one. “But she really didn’t—”
“Uh-uh. Not a word, Ben. I get that had to be the case after Saphia’s attack, but this is different. What if you hadn’t found her?”
“We just did as Evy and Winter said,” Peter argued. “They do seem to know more than we do.”
That shut Olivia up a moment before she folded her arms and nodded.
“Damn it,” I blurted. “He called you, didn’t he?”
Olivia rolled her eyes and unfolded her arms. “Yes. Fine. He did.”
“And?” All three of us asked her simultaneously.
“Well, I was minding my own business. There’s been stuff going on unless you’ve been on another planet lately.” She waved her hand to indicate the square we were standing in and eyed me with suspicion at that one. That made me do the eye-rolling. Somehow I thought I couldn�
��t pull it off quite like her. “And then Winter calls and tells me that he’s going to give me an anonymous tip. Didn’t even ask if I would treat it as such. Anyway – he tells me that I should bring some backup because someone I know,” again the annoyed glance my way, “was going into a certain building.” He had told her that Evy was in there, that she needed help and that Peter and I would likely be there. Coming across us on our way out seemed to have been a bonus, and that was only due to Peter turning left on a whim.
I was suddenly glad Olivia was not my enemy, as I was even more convinced that silhouetted person had been a lookout for Winter. He had not minded me being arrested for breaking in. At the very least we would have spent some time talking ourselves out of that one.
“What happened there?” I asked Olivia and nodded back to 16C.
“We arrested three people for breaking into Strand’s election headquarters. Seems they’ve been squatting there for a few days.
“Longer,” Evy almost whispered.
Olivia looked closely at her again. “Listen, I saw the room they kept you in. You can come with me you know. Give your statement and we can have them for kidnapping. As it is now, it’s only breaking and entering.”
“No.”
“Whatever they did to you down there, it’s not your—”
“No, nothing like that,” Evy protested, trying to keep Olivia from taking her anywhere near a police station. Olivia glanced at me and Peter, clearly considering whether to tell us to step away from this, but Evy wasn’t finished. “They’re not allowed to. It messes with the brainwashing.” The words came so matter-of-factly that the rest of us only stared at her a moment. “I just want to get away from here. Please?” Evy sat there, left hand limp in her lap, staring at the ground more than us. She was having a hard time with the pain.
