by Alex Hyland
‘Relax!’ said Geary. ‘Give me the phone!’
Something moved to my left, I was sure of it. I stopped dead. I gestured for Ella and Geary to stay quiet. I peered into the dense trees and waited. Just darkness and silence.
The darkness then moved.
Fuck.
‘Run!’ yelled Geary.
A rippling shadow tumbled though the trees toward us, branches collapsing around it. A brown bear – a grizzly, the size of a car and moving as fast. I turned and ran – Geary in front of me, Ella behind, the ground shaking beneath us. Geary reached for the handgun and span round.
‘Get out of the way!’ he yelled.
Ella and I leaped to one side. Geary fired – emptied the clip, but the bear pounded on. We threw ourselves down the slope, zigzagging through the trees. The bear roared as it gained ground – twenty feet behind us – rocks flying up around its feet as it hurtled down the slope. Geary freed his rifle. As he glanced back, I heard another roaring sound ahead of us – but it was no animal – it was water. We skidded to a halt at the edge of a ravine. A river tore through the rocks a hundred feet below. Geary raised the rifle – he managed to get out a shot, but it was no use. The bear crashed through the branches behind us – I stared down at the river.
‘Don’t think about it,’ I said.
I grabbed Ella’s hand and jumped, Geary leaping out after us. We fell through the air – I closed my eyes and waited for the hit.
We slapped into the water so hard it was like we’d hit rock. I felt numb instantly. I lost hold of Ella’s hand as the giant current picked me up and fired me down the ravine. I fought my way to the surface, gasping for breath in the freezing water. I twisted around, but couldn’t see Ella. The river sucked me back under. I bounced and toppled – then falling again. Spray all around me as I was thrown down into rapids. Rocks on the river bed tearing against my limbs – the cold washing the feeling out of me. I was fading. Out of breath. I felt myself going limp as the black water carried me on.
The river then went quiet. Moonlight swirling in the water above me – glittering snakes of light. A shadow loomed over me as a pair of hands pulled me out of the water.
‘Where is she!’ Geary yelled at me.
I spluttered and coughed. Geary let go of me, then stumbled around in the shallows, looking for her.
‘Ella!’ he shouted.
I got to my feet and stared up and down the river. Large broken branches drifted by. One of them stopped, caught on something in the water way off to our right.
‘Ella!’ I yelled.
Geary and I splashed our way toward her body lying motionless in the river.
We grabbed her and pulled her out onto the bank – her soaking black hair like a shroud across her face. She wasn’t breathing. Geary tried to revive her. He started chest compressions – water spilled from her mouth. He pushed repeatedly against her ribcage, opened her mouth and breathed into her lungs. He kept pushing at her chest, but she didn’t respond. He glanced at me – it was the first time I’d seen him look scared. He pushed his mouth against hers again.
‘Ella! Ella, come on!’ he shouted.
She lay limp as Geary kept pushing – kept breathing into her.
‘Ella!’
She convulsed. A gush of water erupted from her mouth. She rolled onto her side, coughing up more water as she fought for breath. I leaned down and tried to get a look at her eyes to make sure she was OK. I wiped the hair away from her face.
‘Ella?’ I said.
She focused – then nodded at me. I dropped my head with relief.
As she dragged herself upright, I caught my breath. I checked my aching ribs, my arms and legs. I felt like I’d fallen down an elevator shaft.
‘Who are you?’ came a gravely voice from behind us.
Geary and I turned and peered into the trees. A man in a tattered brown leather coat stood in the shadows. The moonlight caught the barrel of a shotgun he was holding.
‘Hikers,’ I said.
‘Uh-huh,’ said the man.
‘Bear attacked us,’ I said.
The guy stepped out of the shadows. In his late forties – long gray hair tied back in a pony tail. Greasy-skinned, he looked like he was made of wax. He turned to someone waiting back within the trees – a Japanese woman, also in her forties. Fragile looking, she was wearing a flower patterned robe and carrying a shotgun that was nearly as big as she was.
‘You stay there, Miko,’ the man said to her. He carefully looked up and down the river, then walked toward us.
‘You got any ID?’ he asked.
I nodded. I unzipped my jacket pocket.
‘Slowly,’ he said.
I delicately reached into my pocket and produced the fake passport that Dixie had put together. I threw it on the ground in front of the man.
‘A little late in the year for hiking, don’t you think?’ he said.
He picked up the passport and checked it. As he did, a small sheet of note paper fell out of the passport – the coordinates that Ella had given me. The man picked it up and studied the numbers. He aimed his shotgun at us.
‘Who the fuck are you?’ he said.
‘Hikers,’ said Geary.
‘Yeah?’ He waved the sheet of paper. ‘What the fuck is this?’
‘The coordinates where we left our Jeep,’ I said.
The man laughed. ‘No, they’re not.’
I glanced at Geary – our rifles were long gone, the pistol too. Miko stepped forward with her shotgun.
‘You get up now, you cocksuckers!’ she said.
‘You’re coming with us,’ said the man.
9
Miko and the man kept a safe distance behind us as they marched us through the trees. We might have outnumbered them, but they had pump-action shotguns and a twitchiness that bordered on the crazy – the odds definitely weren’t in our favor.
‘The knife on your belt,’ the man said to Geary. ‘Toss it.’
Geary undid the knife and threw it to one side.
‘We’re not looking for any trouble, OK,’ I said.
‘Yeah?’ laughed the man. ‘You’re carrying the coordinates to our cabin, and you ain’t looking for trouble?’
I shot Ella a look. I didn’t know whether she’d decoded the book wrong, but these two couldn’t have been who we were looking for. The trees then thinned out as we approached a moss covered wooden cabin in a clearing. Damp black wood. Black door. A generator humming outside. As we neared the cabin, Geary slowed a little and glanced at Miko’s gun. She pulled way back from him.
‘Cocksucker!’ she yelled at him. ‘I’ll cut your fucking toes off!’
‘Yeah, baby,’ smiled the man.
‘You don’t need to do this,’ said Ella.
‘On the contrary,’ said the man.
He pushed open the cabin door, then aimed his shotgun squarely at us.
‘Get inside!’ he said.
We stepped into a dimly lit room that reeked of fish and alcohol. It didn’t look any better than it smelled. Damp bare floorboards. A table and two chairs that looked homemade. The only light in the room came from an old cathode ray TV set that sat next to a DVD player – it was showing a porn movie. Assorted handcuffs hung from nails in the walls. Two huge vibrators sat in a cracked red vase over the fireplace.
‘Get in the corner!’ said the man. He gestured toward the far wall by the fireplace.
‘On your knees!’ he said. ‘Keep your hands where I can see them!’
We knelt down on the warped floorboards in the corner. As Miko held her shotgun on us, the man grabbed a set of handcuffs from the wall. I could feel the tension rise in Geary – he was going to pounce the moment this guy got near him. The man stepped toward us, then stopped midway across the room. He wasn’t going to risk getting close to any of us. He threw the cuffs at Geary, then pointed his gun at him.
‘Put them on!’ he said.
Geary kept his eyes on him. The shotgun made an ugly crunc
hing sound as the man pumped the slide.
‘Fucking put them on!’ he said.
Geary stared defiantly at the barrel of the gun, then clicked the cuffs around his wrists.
‘Now pull at them,’ said the man.
Geary tugged at the cuffs to show that they were secure.
‘Harder!’ yelled the man.
Geary yanked at them. The cuffs rattled, but didn’t loosen an inch.
The man grabbed two more pairs of cuffs from the wall and threw them to Ella and me.
‘Same,’ he said.
He waved his shotgun at us – the fucking thing looked like it could stop an aircraft carrier in its tracks. Ella and I put the cuffs on, then tugged at them to show they were secure.
‘That’s good,’ said the man. ‘We’re communicating. I like that. Now, I want you to lie face down by the fireplace, arms out in front of you.’
Ella glanced at Geary. He looked back at her – we had no choice. We laid face down.
‘Go get the chain,’ the man said to Miko.
Miko smiled and headed outside. We waited. Silence. Just the sound of heavy groaning coming from the porn movie. I glanced at it – some guy was fucking a woman in the ass. The man winked at Ella, then nodded toward the screen.
‘You like that, do you, honey?’ he asked her.
She eyed him coldly.
‘Yeah, I don’t go for anal so much either,’ he said. ‘Hell, why go to McDonald’s when there’s a sushi bar right next door. Am I right?’
He laughed to himself, then re-aimed his gun as Miko appeared at the door – she was carrying a long steel chain.
‘OK,’ he said to us. ‘Any of you move so much as a fucking hair, I’m going to blow your heads though the floor.’ He stepped toward Geary. ‘You got me, big boy?’
As Geary nodded, Miko giggled excitedly. The man kept his shotgun on us as Miko threaded the chain through each of our cuffs and padlocked the ends to a steel grill in the fireplace. The grill was bolted into a huge flagstone underneath – we weren’t going anywhere. Miko took the key from the padlock, placed it in her gown, then tugged at the lock to make sure it was secure.
‘Alright, sit up!’ said the man.
As we got to our knees, I stared icily at Miko. Even on my knees, I was nearly as tall as she was. Her left eye twitched as she smiled back at me.
‘What are you looking at, cocksucker?’ she said.
I continued to stare. The man laughed.
‘Are you going to stand for that, baby?’ he said.
Miko giggled. She grabbed a poker from the fireplace, and smashed me on the side of the head. I stumbled and fell to the floorboards, the chain tugging Geary and Ella down with me.
‘Good girl,’ said the man.
As Miko and the man sat down at the table, Geary glanced at me. I subtly eyed my left hand. In it I had the key to the padlock – Miko hadn’t felt a thing as she’d hit me. Geary nodded.
The man rested his shotgun on the table in front of him, then leaned back and folded his arms.
‘Where did you get the coordinates from?’ he said.
‘No one,’ Geary replied.
‘Fuck that.’
‘Just kill them,’ said Miko.
‘Hang on there, baby.’
‘Chop them!’ she said.
I stared nervously at them. They were a couple of stir crazy, cabin-fevered fuckheads.
‘Look, the coordinates are wrong,’ I said. ‘We’re not here because of you.’
‘Sure you are,’ he said. ‘Who gave them to you, Swan?’
I couldn’t believe it – we were in the right place?
I took a chance. ‘We’re looking for someone,’ I said. ‘Swan said you might be able to help.’
The man laughed. ‘Did he really. What’s my name?’
‘He didn’t say, he just gave us the book.’
‘I don’t fucking think so! Now, you’re going to tell me who you’re working for, or I’m going to blow holes in all your heads and throw you back in the river.’
Miko threw her arms around him and started rubbing his crotch.
‘I know, baby,’ he said. ‘Later.’
I shifted around uncomfortably on the floor, then came to rest with my left hand on the padlock.
‘We’re not working for anybody,’ said Ella.
The man laughed. ‘I ain’t playing games here, honey.’
‘We’re not here for you,’ she said.
The guy snapped. He picked up the shotgun and bounded toward us. ‘The book! The coordinates! Who gave them to you!’
‘I stole it from Swan’s apartment,’ I said.
‘That either makes you a seriously talented thief or full of shit,’ he said. He aimed the shotgun at my head. Miko started to clap excitedly.
‘We’re looking for Miranda,’ said Ella.
The man look confused for a second. I twisted the key into the padlock. The shackle made a clicking sound as it sprung open. Miko sat bolt upright – she looked for the padlock.
‘Baby!’ she shouted.
The chain slipped free.
‘Motherfucker!’ the man yelled.
I leaped and crashed into him. The gun went off – blew a hole in the cabin wall. We tumbled to the floor, both of us clinging to the shotgun. But my hands were cuffed, I couldn’t fight. As Ella and Geary freed themselves from the chain, Miko screamed and ran for her gun. The man let go of the shotgun with one hand and punched me in the jaw – the gun slipped from my hands. He swung it around and pointed the barrels at my face.
‘I wouldn’t,’ said Geary.
The man went still. Geary had Miko’s shotgun pointed at the side of his head. The man looked around for Miko – she was lying unconscious by the far wall. Ella was standing over her.
‘You don’t touch her!’ the man screamed. ‘You don’t lay a fucking finger on her!’
He shook with rage, his finger quivering on the trigger as he pushed the shotgun barrels into my cheek.
Geary winked at him. ‘You pull that trigger and you and your little fuck puppy here are gone too,’ he said.
The man kept the barrels on me.
‘Your call,’ said Geary.
The man stared at Miko for a moment. The fear in his eyes then overtook him. He crumbled and let go of the gun. As Geary grabbed it from him, the guy ran over to Miko and held her in his arms.
‘Baby?’ he said.
Miko groaned and opened her eyes.
‘Bitch,’ she said. ‘She hit me!’
‘I know, baby.’
‘Rusty-legged whore!’
‘The keys to the cuffs,’ said Ella.
Miko burst into tears. The man hugged her close to him.
‘The keys!’ repeated Ella.
‘In the vase,’ he said.
Ella threw the vase on the floor – it smashed, sending the two vibrators and a set of keys skidding across the floorboards. Ella picked up the keys and unlocked our cuffs.
‘Get on the floor,’ Geary said to the man.
The man stared venomously at Ella. He picked Miko up in his arms and walked over to the fireplace. Geary held the gun on them as I cuffed and chained them to the grill.
‘Let her go,’ said the man. ‘It’s me you want.’
‘Just shut up!’ I replied.
‘It’s me you want. Don’t hurt her,’ he said.
I wiped the blood from my head where Miko had hit me.
‘Who are you, what’s your name?’ I said to him.
He bowed his head and said nothing.
Geary stepped forward with the shotgun. ‘We can do this easy or hard. It’s up to you.’
‘What’s your name?’ I asked him again.
‘Walt Travers,’ he replied.
‘How do you know Philip Swan?’
‘I used to work for his business partner.’
I stared dubiously at him. ‘You worked for David Fisher, the financier?’
He nodded. ‘Years ago.’
&nb
sp; ‘Doing what?’
‘I used to write software for his security company.’
‘Why did they hide the coordinates of this place?’ asked Ella.
‘Because of me!’ he replied. ‘They needed to be able to get hold of me in case of any problems with the software. You see a phone here? The internet? We don’t want anything to do with the outside world. Swan and Fisher didn’t want anyone finding me either. Look, it’s me you want. Let her go.’
Geary pointed the shotgun at Miko. ‘She ain’t going anywhere.’
Miko burst into tears again.
‘Baby, I promise, it’ll be fine,’ said Walt. He glanced nervously at me. ‘Look, I don’t know what’s on it, OK. I never did. I just wrote the software, that’s all. You’ve got to believe me.’
I stared curiously at him. ‘You don’t know what’s on what?’ I asked.
He looked puzzled for a moment. ‘The disk,’ he replied.
I didn’t know what he was talking about.
‘The disk,’ he repeated. ‘The Charter Berghoff Bank? The robbery?’
This was the news story – the gang who’d kidnapped David Berghoff, tried to open the safe deposit boxes, then shot his wife and kids.
‘Berghoff?’ I said.
‘Yeah,’ said Walt. He glanced curiously at us all.
‘What do you know about a necklace?’ asked Geary.
‘What necklace?’ said Walt.
‘Miranda!’ said Geary. ‘Who the fuck is Miranda!’
‘I...I don’t know what you’re talking about!’
I unzipped my jacket pocket and took out the necklace.
‘This mean anything to you?’ I asked.
I turned it around so he could see the inscription. He stared blankly at it.
‘Never seen it before,’ he said. It sounded like he was telling the truth.
I sighed – fuck.
‘What disk?’ asked Ella.
‘The Berghoff robbery,’ Walt replied. ‘The DVD in the deposit box.’
‘Wait, hang on,’ I said. I tried to remember the story. ‘The gang didn’t take anything…Berghoff couldn’t open the boxes.’
‘Yeah, they fucking took something!’ said Walt. ‘You think they went in there looking for cash? They went in for the disk, and they got it by the sound of it. None of this shit would be happening otherwise.’
