by Nick Thacker
Ben pointed across the alley, at the building across from the one they were currently standing behind. He waited for Joshua to follow his outstretched arm, to see what Ben had seen.
About eight feet up, on the corner of the building, sat a mounted surveillance camera.
Pointed directly at them.
Chapter SEVENTY-TWO
JULIE’S ARMS WERE NEARLY BLEEDING where the zip ties had been forced back onto her skin. The second time her hands had been tied was worse than the first — the bonds were much tighter, pulled through a few more clicks than they had before, and the man had even gone to the trouble of finding exactly where the previous zip ties had been and placed the new ones right on top. The deep red lines on her wrists made this an easy thing to do.
She was tired, and at the same time feeling the same way she felt when she overslept. She guess she’d been here almost two days now, or something like that, but she couldn’t be sure of how long it really was.
Or what time of day it was. The blacked-out windows offered no information. No sunlight — or moonlight — cast its glow through them, and if not for the blinding lights on the ceiling of the gym that had been on for an hour or so, she would still be in the dark.
Men were milling about, working on tasks she neither understood nor cared to understand. She’d long since given up trying to gather information, no longer believing she could get an edge over The Hawk and his team.
If she was going to make it out of here alive, it would be because of Ben and the rest of the group.
She heard commotion behind her. Suddenly a few men’s voices shouted, and a crashing sound — a door, far away — slammed.
She tried to turn her head, but her neck wouldn’t lend her the range of motion. Everything felt tight, and even her toes seemed to be disconnected from the rest of her body.
She thought about screaming, but knew it was useless. What would it accomplish? No one out there is going to be able to get in here unless they take out all of Vicente Garza’s men.
And there were a lot of men.
In the time Julie had been tied to the chair, the one piece of information she had been able to gather was that there were between ten and fifteen men. Some looked similar, or they were the same man and she just hadn’t recognized them. Some may not have even come into the gym at all, staying somewhere else on the premises. She’d overheard that some of the men weren’t really Ravenshadow but recruits hoping to be chosen.
Her team was four, not including herself, and even though she knew Joshua and Reggie were more than capable shots, when bullets started to fly there was no telling what the outcome would be.
It was very likely that any engagement between the forces would end horribly for Julie’s side.
Had they gotten reinforcements somehow?
Mrs. E was, to her knowledge, staying in Alaska, to help with communications and research, and to provide support for her husband. Derrick, the FBI man, may have been able to call something in, but he’d seemed to be alone the entire time they were together and she had a feeling that sending in a team of agents was a long shot.
The commotion ended, and she sat still, waiting, trying to hear more.
Footsteps.
Multiple people — maybe five?
The gym’s door opened behind her, and she tensed up.
They’re coming in here.
She waited, listening. The footsteps did indeed begin their steady march into the room. Louder with each step. One of the sets seemed to be dragging a bit. Another seemed disjointed, the rhythm of them not matching up with the others.
“Ms. Richardson,” a man’s voice said. The Hawk. “Someone’s here to see you.”
Chapter SEVENTY-THREE
THERE SHE IS, BEN THOUGHT. She’s right there. Sitting in the chair. In the middle of the —
“Ms. Richardson,” the man announced as he stepped into the room. “Someone’s here to see you.”
“Listen, bastard,” Ben growled. “Let her go and I won’t —”
A rifle butt smashed into his hip, and felt the searing flare of pain shoot up his right side. The rifle had hit bone, and it was bound to leave a nasty bruise.
But he wasn’t dead, and he still had a mission. He shoved sideways, forcing his large frame into the man who had hit him. He caught him off guard, and the soldier flew backwards, into another man he’d entered with.
Another rifle butt crushed his left knee, and he went down. Before he could fall all the way to the floor, however, he felt himself lifted up from behind. He balanced on one foot, allowing the man behind him to help.
Then the man behind him socked his ear with a hard fist, and Ben fell again.
This time, no one offered their help. Joshua was being held tight by three other men, and a fourth was pointing his rifle at his gut.
Ben scowled at the man who’d smacked him, and he lay on the floor, looking up.
“B — Ben? Is that you?” Julie’s voice, cracked and strained, reached his ears.
It gave him strength. His knee wasn’t broken, and he pulled himself up. He’d limp for a time, and his hip was going to need a serious bag of ice, but again — he was alive.
As long as I’m alive.
He didn’t hesitate. As soon as he felt the man’s hand on his shoulder once again, he crouched with his good leg and slammed upward and back as hard as he could. The soldier behind him yelped in pain, but his voice in Ben’s ears was drowned out by the sound of his nose being crushed.
And to think, that was only with one leg.
The man fell, but there were two more on him.
“Enough!” The Hawk yelled. “She’ll be here soon, and we need to be ready.”
Daris Johansson, Ben thought. That’s who he’s talking about.
He looked at Joshua, but the man’s expression was unreadable.
We need a plan. We need something.
He wondered where Reggie and Derrick were, and if they were having any luck finding the treasure.
“Boss, I have the chopper inbound.”
“We have clearance, right?” The Hawk asked.
“Yes sir, it’s been clocked and approved. Private chopper, landing for ‘emergency refueling’ at the hospital next door.”
So that’s what Daris wanted with this place, he thought. He wondered what the original ‘house’ was, and what it had looked like before Daris had torn it apart. She’d replaced it with this monstrosity, and if not for her other crimes, Ben would have still hated her for it.
The ‘gym’ they were in now wasn’t really a gym, but it had some of the same markings. Tall, brick walls on four sides and a wooden floor. It could have easily been a simple warehouse or storage building, but the huge square fluorescent lights on the ceiling gave the entire place very much of a ‘gymnasium’ feel.
He heard the sound of a helicopter, undoubtedly the same chopper the man in front of Vicente Garza had referenced.
The men seemed to hear it as well, and they all stopped and listened for a moment.
“Won’t be long now,” The Hawk said. He clapped. “Everyone get to work. I want to be ready when she walks in that door.”
Ben bristled. They were staging something in here, that’s why Julie was sitting in the middle of the room.
And Ben was supposed to be one of the audience members for this show.
Chapter SEVENTY-FOUR
REGGIE COULDN’T SEE A THING. A thick black covering had been slipped over his head as soon as he was inside the chopper, and it still hadn’t been removed. Aside from knowing they were somewhere in Philadelphia, he had no idea where exactly he and Derrick were being taken.
The chopper descended, and before the struts had touched down he was being shoved out an open door, a man on either side of him holding his arms down. He could only assume Derrick was enjoying the same treatment, but he wasn’t concerned with the other man at this point.
This whole mission had gone south. A complete failure. He wasn’t sure if they could sa
lvage any of it, but he knew if any part of it could be salvaged, it was the part about rescuing Julie.
“Stairs,” one of the men said, and it was barely enough time before Reggie felt the floor give out, the first of a set of stairs beginning under his feet. He followed them down, the men yanking him back and forth as they jangled around in the stairwell, and he heard Derrick grunt as he slammed up against a wall just behind him.
Good, he thought. At least they’re keeping us together.
The stairs ended and he felt the movement of air outside his hot, stuffy head covering. We’re outside.
The feeling was short lived, and he was soon thrust into an open door and up another short set of stairs.
He heard people inside, walking and talking. The room felt large, cavernous even. Derrick entered behind him, and Reggie heard the rest of the team that had captured him step up into the room as well.
His covering was violently pulled from his head, and the shock of it caused his head to loll. The bright lights were the next surprise, and he blinked, squeezing his eyes shut tightly. When he opened them, his heart sank.
Julie was there, front and center in the room. The wooden floors and bright lights told him immediately where he was: this is the gym, he thought. This is The Hawk’s facility.
But there was more. Ben and Joshua were here as well.
Ben looked like he’d already been in a fight — and lost — as he was scratched, bruised, and his ear was trickling blood. He was being held by two men who looked both pissed that they’d pulled guard duty and a bit frightened that their loose cannon of a prisoner might explode any second.
Be afraid, Reggie thought. Be very afraid. He eyed the men holding Ben and then shook his head.
Joshua was also being held, but it was at gunpoint. Two men had rifles pointed at him, and he seemed fine, but visibly distraught.
Reggie knew the feeling. Yeah, buddy. We failed.
Vicente Garza’s arms spread wide. “Gareth, kind of you to join us! I have to admit, I was not expecting you this early. We thought we were preparing for the arrival of our current benefactor.”
“Yeah?” Reggie shot back. “I’m excited to see that b —”
“Knock it off, Red. You and I both know your mouth was far bigger than your skill set. If that wasn’t true, you wouldn’t be standing right here, right now. Would you?”
Reggie didn’t respond. His nostrils flared, his eyes darting back and forth from one man to the next. Far too many to take, and especially without their weapons.
He saw the handguns, two of them, sitting on a crate that had been wheeled in using an industrial forklift. The lift sat in the corner of the room, the crate resting on the forks themselves.
Mance appeared by Reggie’s side, then he walked over to the crate and placed his and Derrick’s 9mm on the top of it. “This the delivery, boss?”
The Hawk whirled around and glared at Mance. “You will refer to me as ‘The Hawk,’ or Garza, until you have been officially hired.”
Reggie felt the intensity ratchet up in the room. This is familiar, he thought. This is how the man runs his team. Reggie recognized the sharp, pointed way Garza had dressed the man down, using only a few words. Mance’s demeanor immediately changed, suddenly seeming to realize the same thing Reggie already knew.
You didn’t find the treasure, idiot, Reggie thought.
The Hawk walked over to Mance and the crate and forklift. “Son, I expected you to deliver something to me. Not these two men.”
“We — we couldn’t find it, sir — I mean The Hawk.”
Garza stared at Mance. “You failed. Failure in this organization is unacceptable. You will be punished, but I need you and the rest of the recruits until after the presentation is completed.”
Mance gulped, the fear in his eyes almost comical to Reggie. Almost.
The Hawk waved for two of his men to join him and the three of them —including Mance — began stripping the planks of wood from the sides of the crate. Reggie watched with interest as the package appeared within the shipping crate. One of the men slid the plywood cover off, balancing the four handguns on it and carrying it over to another side of the room.
Reggie watched him place the lid of the crate and the weapons on the floor near a rolling cart. Besides the cart, forklift, and package, there was no furniture in the room.
And the chair.
Reggie shuddered as he realized he’d nearly forgotten Julie. He turned to look at her, and was shocked to see that she was already staring at him. She had no interest in Mance and the two soldiers’ attempt at freeing the package.
He locked eyes with her.
Please.
He knew what she was asking.
Please help.
He knew she would be wanting him to not help her, but to help Ben. She would be begging for his life before her own.
He felt his heart tear. He’d loved someone like this once, and it had been the most painful experience of his life.
This, compared to that, was nothing.
The realization dawned on him.
No matter what happens to me now, it can’t be as bad as that.
Reggie felt the strange thought giving him strength. He let it build inside him to an intensity, a rage, that he could use. He’d used this same rage in Antarctica, killing a man with nothing more than his bare hands and the tiny latch on his watch.
He knew now.
Whatever else happened here today, men would die.
Chapter SEVENTY-FIVE
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN nearly two days, they were all here together again. But Julie felt no happiness, no satisfaction. She wasn’t excited, and she wasn’t joyous at their reunion.
This was bad, and it was quickly getting worse. The Hawk had them — all of them — where he wanted them, and she knew, vaguely, how it would play out. She was a guinea pig, and whatever was in that crate was somehow going to be a part of her experiment.
She looked at The Hawk. The rest of his men were busy, scurrying about in the gym, some of them still guarding Julie’s team.
Julie herself was unguarded — there was no point in wasting a man on her — and it strangely made her feel even more alone. No one was bothering with her, as if she wasn’t even in the room.
As if she were already dead.
The two men and the one called Mance walked over to her carrying the box they’d unpacked from the crate. They set it down about ten feet away from her, letting it fall a few inches to the wooden floor.
“Careful!” Morrison yelled. “Stuff in there’s worth more than all three of your miserable lives, combined.”
One of the men nodded, but Mance and the other soldier did nothing to acknowledge Morrison’s words.
The Hawk was busy setting up three chairs on the side of the room. Julie was going to be a sideshow, an attraction at a private carnival.
One for The Hawk, she thought. Who are the other two chairs for?
The rest of the men would stand guard, obviously, their massive assault rifles far more than would be necessary to keep her and the other four members of her team in place.
There was a knock at the door behind Julie.
The Hawk straightened up, ordered a few of his men to continue with some task she couldn’t hear, and then he turned and marched to the door.
She heard it open, heard the clacking of heels on the hardwood floor.
It’s her.
Daris Johansson appeared to her right, trailing behind The Hawk.
“Welcome, Ms. Johansson,” The Hawk said.
“Garza. Thanks for setting this up.” She looked at her watch, then over to Julie, then back at Vicente Garza. “I thought we were going to use the FBI guy?”
Julie stiffened, looking over at Roger Derrick, standing near the wall a head taller than the man guarding him. I’m just a fill-in for the real target. A test run.
“Ms. Richardson here was, uh, available. She’s been more than willing to cooperate thus far, and I don’
t suspect she’ll be changing her mind.”
Daris nodded. She looked coolly at Julie.
Bring it, bitch, Julie thought. You and me. Right here, right —
“I can see how Derrick’s replacement would be a suitable test subject. She did seem a bit ‘on edge’ when we first met. She’ll do fine.”
“Good,” The Hawk said, extending his arm down toward the chairs. “Please, take a seat. We’re almost ready.”
The men seemed to speed up at hearing this, and within another minute the soldiers who weren’t guarding Julie’s team had all lined up near the wall, next to the forklift and pieces of the crate. Morrison took a seat next to The Hawk, with Johansson sitting on the Ravenshadow leader’s opposite side.
The box next to Julie and the rolling cart on the opposite side of her sat unmanned for the moment.
The Hawk stood up, walked over, and turned to face Johansson. “Our chemist’s work is complete, and we have been able to extract the scopolamine-like residue from the silver.”
Julie’s mind raced. Silver? Extract the chemical?
She thought back to the very first conversation she and the team had had regarding this mission, back at the cabin. Mr. E had told them about the theft at the pawn shop, then the murder of the old widow. Both had been related to a small vial of some sort of rock, or mineral.
Silver.
“My team was unable to locate the remainder of the silver, unfortunately, but as you predicted, Ms. Johansson, we were able to create a suitable alternative to the real thing. The synthetic material, we assure you, will be a perfect replacement.”
Johansson shifted in her chair. If she was upset about Ravenshadow’s failed attempt to find Meriwether Lewis’ treasure, she didn’t show it. She watched Garza, tracking his every move.
She’s as sharp as Roger Derrick said she was, she realized. She’s taking everything in, memorizing every detail.
So she can use it later.
Julie was still spooked with the whole ordeal, but she realized that there was a strong chance that she was not going to die here. At least, not from the ‘test’ of this material. She’d already been injected with a sample of the drug and survived. It had been a painless experience, and though she had no recollection of what she’d done, or told Garza, while under its influence, she felt confident that this test would be no different.
