by Julia Derek
I leaned against the back of my couch and thought of Nick then.
The usual pain I felt whenever my thoughts went to him was not nearly as strong as usual, barely there at all. I didn’t even feel like crying.
Well, I thought. It isn’t strange. Compared to what I’m now facing and all that I’ve been through lately, it’s amazing I can feel anything at all.
Then I remembered that Brady had emailed me a couple of days ago, informing me that they had arrested two suspects that he himself was going to cross-examine later that same day. He had also told me he would get back to me as soon as he had done so. I had been so caught up in Emma’s suicide followed by her letter, and then accepting what Ian had been trying to tell me forever that I’d forgotten all about Brady’s email. I hadn’t even responded to it.
Had he sent me another one that I’d missed in the midst of everything, one in which he gave me a rundown of the cross-examination?
I walked over to the desk where I kept my laptop, preferring to check my email there instead of on my smartphone. There was no additional email from my captain in my inbox.
I chewed on the inside of my lip, wondering how come I hadn’t heard from him again. Hadn’t he done the cross in the end? I shot him a quick email to ask him what was going on with the two suspects just in case his follow-up email to me on the matter had somehow gotten lost in cyberspace.
Unlikely, but still possible.
Staring at my computer, I waited for him to get back to me while at the same time thinking about whether I should contact George. I soon decided against it, even though I was fairly sure George would accept the truth a lot quicker than my captain would, even quicker than Dante had. Even so, it would take some work to explain everything and I was too tired to talk on the phone was George to pick up.
It was better that I told him about it when Ian and I had a better formulated plan about how we were going to go about this situation. At the moment, everything was continuing as normal for both of us, with the exception that I was no longer focusing on trying to find my husband’s killers. Unless it turned out that Brady had found the right guys, Ian had to be correct in claiming that The Adler Group had just staged Nick’s death to send everyone looking in the wrong direction.
I yawned, stretching my arms over my head. I should go to bed instead of willing my laptop to produce a response email from Brady.
Now, more than ever, did I need to be rested and focused when I went to work. All the time, really.
The stakes had suddenly gotten a lot, lot higher—the world as we knew it really did hinge upon my and Ian’s shoulders.
***
Ian and I met for a session the following day at noon. We would use it to begin strategizing our seemingly insurmountable quest.
After going to bed and sleeping poorly all night, I felt even less convinced we stood a chance against this evil, worldwide movement. How could we ever stop them? According to Ian’s estimations, there were likely thousands of super humans in different countries, many of them killer hybrids specifically designed to destroy as many people as possible in a short amount of time and who were themselves hard to kill. We didn’t even know exactly what kind of special powers these hybrids possessed, but based on what Ian had learned so far, they were surely not only faster, stronger and smarter than us regular humans, but might be able to fly and climb buildings like Spider-Man. God only knew what else they could do. As if that wasn’t enough, there was all the political muscle in every major country to consider, powerful individuals who knew exactly where to apply the deadliest strikes, that was assisting Adler to realize their vision. The worst part might be that it was so hard to tell who was in on it, and who was not.
But as disillusioned as I felt about it, I knew we had to at least try to stop them. It was either that or we might as well do what Emma had done—check out. Now I could definitely relate to the despair she must have gone through that drove her to kill herself.
To be absolutely sure no one could overhear us, Ian and I went out to run on the rubber track that wrapped around the huge club.
“I’m gonna be honest with you,” I said as we began jogging, “I can’t see how we could ever stop this from happening. It’s too big. They’re too powerful.”
“I can see how you feel that way, and I’m sorry if I made it seem so hopeless. It isn’t. We’ll find a way. We have to. Remember, we have a little more than six months before the coups will take place. And I really don’t think they know I’ve found out about how they’re intending to do this so soon. That’s a huge advantage.”
“Let’s hope they haven’t. Let’s also hope they don’t change their minds about keeping us alive until then.”
Ian sighed. “Yes, you’re right about that. But since there’s nothing we can do about that, we just have to keep going like they won’t.” He nudged me with his elbow. “Cheer up, soldier. It’s not over until it’s over. What happened? I thought you were a fighter.”
I frowned at him, even though he was right in calling me out. “I am a fighter. But I’m also realistic—it’s not looking good. Anyway, what do you propose our first step should be?”
“We’ll go straight for the jugular of course.”
I hiked a brow at him. “What’s that supposed to mean? Are you telling me you know what their weak spot is and haven’t told me about it yet?”
“Not exactly. What I meant is that we need to find out where their leader, Mr. Stenger, lives. I’ve been trying to find him for a while without success. He’s a very, very secretive man. When we know where to find him, we’ll make him tell his closest men that plans have changed. We’ll make him deactivate the chips in the killer hybrids because he’s had a change of heart.”
“Huh?” I turned my head to stare at Ian. “Are you kidding me? You really think it’s just a matter of telling this psychopath that he’s gotta stop all his crazy shit? Pardon me for poking a hole in your great plan here, but I don’t think it’s gonna work. Why don’t we just find a way to control those chips on our own? Intercept their networks and make the hybrids work for us.”
“I’m of course working on that, but we can’t count on me being able to figure out how to do that in time. So we have to try to find Mr. Stenger and make him change his mind about the coups somehow, then go from there. I’ve been looking for him since the day after the luncheon at the Pavillion when I first heard of him. I don’t even know what he looks like. I’m assuming he must be quite old, though, considering how long they’ve been at this.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right about that.”
“Just to be clear, I don’t think for a second that, when we do find him—because we will find him one way or another—that it’ll be a piece of cake to make him end his world vision. But we need to at least try. Because, like you just said, they’re too many, too well-organized and too powerful. To really end this once and for all, we’ve got to cut the head off the snake. And I’m thinking he is it.”
I didn’t say anything, just jogged next to Ian in silence for a couple of minutes, mulling over his words. It didn’t take long until I had decided that he made a very good point—we had to try every approach to end this, even ones that appeared futile. Maybe we could make the elusive Mr. Stenger change his mind somehow. That is, if we could find him. While Ian worked on cracking their security, we might as well try looking for him. If Mr. Stenger refused, maybe we could at least stop him from sending orders to the killer hybrids. What else could we do? Trying to mobilize the rest of the world against these maniacs was going to be difficult. After those articles in the national press, who would take Ian seriously? That meant I’d be the one who’d have to convince everyone, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to convince my own captain even. When Brady found out that I’d lied to him about my whereabouts all this time, he’d not only be disappointed with me, but would surely also think that grief had made me snap. It had taken Ian months to finally get me on board—as well as Emma’s letter—so I couldn’t coun
t on, or even blame Brady, if he didn’t buy what I told him. Before I’d even try to tell my captain, we’d need to gather some more tangible evidence that I could present to him. I also wanted to see what had happened with the two suspects he’d emailed me about. He had yet to get back to me about that. Finally, even if I did get Brady to take me seriously, we still needed to consider that, in the process of convincing the rest of the world, we would surely telegraph to Adler that we were trying to stop them. Did we really want to be that open about it? I didn’t think so.
“So what do you think, Gabi?” Ian asked when we had completed a full loop around the building that housed Nikkei.
“That you’re right. We do need to try to find Mr. Stenger and work our way down the chain of command. If Stenger refuses to change his mind, we could make him at least send different orders to the killer hybrids via the microchips. Unless he’s invented something that’s made him impervious to pain, he’ll do what we want…” I gave Ian a wry smile. I wasn’t a believer in torture in general, but in this case I was willing to make an exception. “But at the same time we should think of ways—quiet, non-obvious ways—how to get the rest of the world to help us stop these monsters. For example, we should talk to my captain back at the station in L.A. He has a lot of contacts in law enforcement across the country.”
“Agreed. But finding Mr. Stenger should be our main focus.”
“Fine.”
As we approached the entrance to the club having rounded the building a second time, Jonah came out, one of his clients walking behind him. Almost immediately, the tall, handsome trainer spotted me and Ian jogging toward them. The broad smile that was on his face suddenly twisted into an ugly grimace, making him look like he was about to snarl. When we were about ten yards away, I realized that Jonah was glaring at Ian only, not at me. I didn’t think I had ever seen so much hatred spelled out on someone’s face the way it was on this young man’s right then.
What the hell?
What did Jonah have against Ian?
“Let’s go inside the club,” Ian murmured, grabbing my arm and making me slow down to a walk.
“Okay,” I murmured back, throwing a glance in his direction. Based on his frown, I could tell that he had also noted how Jonah was glaring at him. But it didn’t seem like he was about to let that stop us from entering the club. We would have to pass Jonah in order to do so.
Jonah said something to his client, who nodded and started to jog along the track, away from me and Ian. Jonah himself remained a few feet before the club entrance, having placed his fists on his hips, all the while looking at Ian like he wanted to jump him.
“What the hell’s wrong with him?” I muttered to Ian as we got closer to the entrance.
“You got me beat,” Ian muttered back.
As we were only a couple of yards away from Jonah, he took a step to the side so that he completely blocked the entrance. We stopped before him.
“What, are you not gonna let us through?” I asked Jonah with a tentative smile on my lips, like I thought he was only playing with us. I didn’t think that for a second.
“You’re not gonna get it,” Jonah hissed at Ian, his pretty blue eyes having narrowed into tiny slits.
“Get what?” Ian asked, not appearing perturbed in the least by Jonah’s aggressive demeanor and strange words.
Jonah scoffed with disdain. “You know exactly what I’m talking about, man. It’s going to be all mine, rest assured of that.” He nodded at me. “She too.”
Ian smiled. “Whatever you say, pal. For now though, if you’d let us through, I’d appreciate it.”
I expected Jonah to lunge at Ian then, but instead he took a step to the side, giving us room to open the glass door that led into the club.
“Thanks, bloke,” Ian said and pushed the door open, letting me go in first. A moment later, we were both inside Nikkei again, Jonah’s angry gaze burning through the glass as he watched us leave.
Chapter 5
We continued down the walkway next to the track and then took a right, heading farther into the club, out of sight of furious Jonah, before we opened our mouths.
“Okay, so what the hell was that about?” I asked Ian in a low voice. “What was he talking about?”
Ian shook his head slowly. “I’m telling you, I have no bloody idea.”
“Really?” I couldn’t help but finding that hard to believe. Then again, I found pretty much everything that I’d learned in the last forty-eight hours hard to believe, so what else was new?
“Really,” Ian confirmed. “I don’t even know the guy. Where are we going?”
“Let’s go to the fifth floor and lift some weights. But you have seen him before, haven’t you? He’s the same trainer who was so annoyed that we were hogging the row machine once, remember?”
Ian nodded. “Ah, yes, I do remember that. Other than that though, I haven’t noticed him.”
We reached the stairs leading up to the fifth floor and began climbing them.
“Well, can you at least make an educated guess about what that was all about considering all that you know?” I asked. “Do you think he has something to do with Adler? I’m thinking he and his twin sister are super humans now. Actually, I think several of the new trainers might be.”
“Yes, you’re probably right about that many of them are super humans; I’ve long thought so myself, and that certainly includes this bloke now. Unfortunately, I can’t make an educated guess about what he’s so pissed about, though.”
“Well, clearly I seem to be part of it. I mean, since I’m gonna be his one day.” I rolled my eyes and scoffed at this silly idea. Whatever made Jonah think this? I had always known he had something of a crush on me, but I’d never thought it had been all that serious. I must have been wrong about that. Even so, what had that got to do with him being so incredibly furious with Ian? Something struck me then. Looking over my shoulder to be sure no one was walking behind us as we kept climbing the stairs, I said to Ian, “Is it possible that he knows you and I are hooking up?”
Ian gazed at me. “Only if you told him. I personally don’t kiss and tell.”
“I haven’t said a word.” Having reached the fifth floor, I nodded toward the far corner of the huge workout area we entered where all the heavy free weights and machines were located. “Let’s go do some pull-ups. No one’s there.”
I smiled and waved at a couple of trainers and members I knew on our way over to the pull-up machine. As we neared it, I thought of how Jonah had been at the club the evening I was supposed to meet up with my text stalker—who didn’t turn out to be Ron after all.
Is Jonah the person behind those nasty texts?
He definitely had easy access to my phone number and was well aware of the rape murders that had been happening here on the Upper West Side of Manhattan; it was a topic that had often come up in the trainers’ lounge, especially after one of our own members had fallen victim to the rapist.
No, I decided. Unless Jonah was also a computer whiz like Ian, he couldn’t be. Only someone like that would have figured out how to use Ian’s network to route the texts, making it seem like Ian was behind them. As far as I knew, Jonah’s college majors had been biology and Latin.
Then again, the fact that he seemed to hate Ian so much would explain why he’d want to make it seem like Ian was behind the texts. Maybe someone had helped him figure out how to route the texts…
As we reached the pull-up machine, I turned to Ian and told him my thoughts.
He rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes while pondering this. “Interesting… Have you received more texts since the one that wanted you to come to the sundeck?”
I had to think about that for a moment to be entirely sure. “No. That was the last one.”
“Well, he may very well be the one behind the texts even if he isn’t a computer expert. If he’s a super human, which we both believe that he is, chances are he’s in touch with people at Adler. And we know they are very good with
computers, to use those words lightly. He might be using someone there to help him, exactly like you suggested.”
I nodded. “It does seem that way, doesn’t it. Do a set of twelve pull-ups now.”
“Okay,” Ian climbed up the machine and grabbed the handles, then pulled himself up and down twelve times. He lowered himself back to me. “How’s your relationship with him?”
“So-so. It started out good, but lately he’s become kinda moody. He barely says hi to me when I see him these days.”
“Based on what he said out on the track, it sounds like he may have a crush on you. Have you seen signs of that?”
“Yes. He flirted with me quite a bit when I first got to the club and kept that up for some time. Then it was like something changed and he became increasingly pissy around me.”
“If you didn’t reciprocate and he sensed that you instead had become involved with me, his feelings might’ve gotten hurt. Do you think he’d talk to you if you confronted him about what happened on the track?”
“I have no idea, but I suppose it’s worth a shot.”
***
When I was back home later that night, I checked my email to see if Brady had gotten back to me. There was still no sign of him in my inbox.
I scrunched up my mouth as I tried to make sense out of that. Brady was nothing if not reliable. If he told you he’d do something, you could count on him following through every single time. So why was there no email from him?
I found George’s number among my contacts and dialed him. He answered after the third ring, much to my relief.
“Longoria, how are you? It’s been a while. Everything good?”
“Yes, yes,” I said hurriedly before I remembered that everything was not good at all—the world as we knew it was going to come to an end unless Ian and I could find a way to stop it. A way that wasn’t as tenuous as just trying to make Mr. Stenger change his mind. But at the moment, I didn’t feel like getting into all that with George. There was plenty of time for that later. So I said, “Captain Brady emailed me a few days ago about two suspects that had been arrested for Nick’s case. Do you know anything about that?”
