by Teya Tapler
“Oh, hi!” Agatha smiled politely and looked in the woman’s eyes as she shook her hand. “Nice to meet you! What brings you to the conference?”
Agatha was pleased to see someone from her neck of the woods. After so many symposiums, conferences, presentations and interviews, she was still not used to the big crowds at the cocktail parties and was feeling like a fish out of water. She looked at the unfamiliar yet to her face and searched for something that reminded her of home. Mary was in her early fifties, with a round face and a few shy freckles at the top of her cheeks. Her curly, dark ash blond hair was cut in a flattering, ear-length bob.
Mary smiled reassuringly. “My cousin is a member of the Swiss archeological society. He exchanged his ticket to this cocktail party for a weekend of home-cooked meals. He travels a lot and gets tired of restaurant food.”
“You must be a very good cook, then?” Agatha said. “I understand that with the school year just starting, you cannot afford to be away for too long.”
“I spend all my days with my students and the rest of the time with my family, not getting out too much.” Mary noticed a question in Agatha’s eyes, and added, “Archeology has been my hobby since high school, and then in college I graduated with a major in Chemistry and a minor in Archeology. It turned out to be a pretty weird combination, so I followed my first love: chemistry.” Mary shrugged.
“How interesting!” Agatha exclaimed. “I majored in Archeology because I fell in love with my husband, but secretly I always wanted to study chemistry,” she said, and the two new friends shared a laugh.
“To be honest, I was lucky to do some research and participate in a few archeological digs. If I hadn’t missed the application deadline, I probably would’ve made it onto your team,” Mary confessed.
“I’m sure you would’ve been a great asset. We do need good chemists, too, you know.” Agatha then asked. “Aren’t you teaching on Monday?”
“I came only because this event was during the weekend. I have to prepare the questions for the Monday Chemistry quiz on the plane.” Mary smiled uncomfortably and continued. “It is a little too crowded, here. Would you mind going out on the terrace?”
“Not at all,” Agatha said and took a glass of pink champagne from the tray of a passing waiter. She lifted her black dress slightly with her other hand and carefully followed Mary to the terrace. It was nice out there. The mountain air was crisp and the sky was sprinkled with stars. The two women leaned on the thick, stone railing and looked ahead. The event was hosted in an old castle up in the Alps, located above a charming and picturesque town. From the terrace the women could see the lights of the town reflected by the lake ahead of them, mirroring the stars in the sky. The music from the party was coming from the distance like a crickets’ concert in the summer.
“The night is so beautiful.” Mary took a deep breath.
“Agatha! Agatha!” professor Shtuttgart shouted from the wide-open doors of the cocktail room. Agatha waved and he ran to her. Shouting was not an acceptable way of communication at cocktail parties and running was not a customary way of moving around at such events, either. The professor looked distressed. He stopped, supported himself with one hand on the thick railing and tried to catch his breath.
“Albert? What happened?” Agatha said. “Calm down or your blood pressure will spike!”
“It’s Evan! They got Evan! They’ll kill Evan if we don’t give them the pearls!” He spoke extremely fast, trying to catch his breath at the same time.
Agatha dropped her drink. The glass fell on the stones and shattered as the liquid meandered among the sharp glass pieces and settled in an indentation between two stones. The sound was muffled by the music from the cocktail party. Agatha’s face lost all its blood. Her lips turned white. Since the first pearl discovery, she had become wary that they may be in danger, but she never expected they would have to pay with the life of one of their daughters. Now someone had kidnapped her child and wanted to exchange her for five pieces of stone, which, regardless of their age and pearly looks, were still pretty useless. Someone had kidnapped her child and wanted to exchange her life for a few useless items.
“Did you hear what I said?” Albert grabbed Agatha’s shoulders and shook her gently. “They’ll kill Evan!”
His words etched in Agatha’s mind but her expression didn’t change.
“Excuse me, professor,” Mary interrupted. “Maybe I could help you.”
Albert looked at Mary and then at Agatha. He didn’t know who Mary was and preferred to talk to Agatha, but his wife seemed unable to communicate and had a glazed look on her face. The professor turned back to Mary. With her formal dress and nice hair-do, she didn’t come across as a person who could save Evan … but then probably she knew something or someone. Professor Shtuttgart was open for any kind of help.
“Would you mind if we go to your room, sir? We need a better privacy than this terrace could offer.” Mary smiled politely and gently pushed Albert and Agatha toward the building.
The Shtuttgarts moved slowly through the cocktail party, up the elevator and to their room. They tried to smile and greet the people along the way. Mary was following them at a distance. She tapped her right earring and said quietly, “Contact established.”
“The bird is in the cage.” A male voice came into her ear. “Proceed as planned. Sylvester will save Tweety. Over.” She tapped her right earring again and got into the elevator with the Shtuttgarts.
The three of them got off on the fifth floor and headed left toward the Shtuttgarts' room. Albert’s hands trembled and he couldn’t open the door. The hotel key kept on sliding between his fingers before reaching the slot above the door knob. Agatha stood close by, still with that distant and blank look on her face.
“Let me help you,” Mary took the key from the professor’s hand. She unlocked the door the first time and opened it with a friendly smile. “Here you go. Have a rest.”
The Shtuttgarts had one of the bigger suites in the hotel with clearly separated dining, seating and sleeping areas. Agatha got in and sat on the sofa. She rested her back on one of the pillows and focused on something in the distance visible only to her. Albert placed his cell phone on the coffee table in front of his wife and went to the window. He pulled the corner of the curtain and looked outside. The night was quiet and the lights from the little town in the valley were still trying to mirror the stars in the dark sky. Satisfied with the stillness beyond the window, the professor sat on one of the armchairs and glued his eyes to the cell phone.
“He said he’ll be calling with instructions, soon,” the professor said in a trance.
“What else did he tell you?” Mary asked. She pushed the other armchair close to the professor and sat down.
“He asked for the pearls.”
“What pearls?” Mary said.
“The pearls my wife and I have discovered over the last five years.” He sighed and looked helplessly at Mary. “I can’t give him the pearls and I cannot let him kill my daughter.”
“The police will figure something out. Why don’t we call them?” Mary said.
“We can’t. He said that we shouldn’t.” His cell phone rang. The professor tried to pick it up immediately, but Mary put her hand over it and stopped him. The cell phone rang again. She removed her hand, nodded toward the phone and the professor took the call.
“You need to drop off all five pearls in the red trash bin on the corner of Broadway and Fifth Avenue in New York, tomorrow at five o’clock in the afternoon Eastern Standard Time.” A deep, digitalized male voice said, “If you do not comply you’ll never see your daughter again.… And professor Shtuttgart, don’t be stupid to call the police. Just follow the directions.” The call ended abruptly.
Professor Albert Shtuttgart slowly put the cell phone on the coffee table and looked helplessly at Mary. “He wants the pearls by five pm in New York tomorrow. We have tickets for the two pm flight from Geneva. We won't make it to New York on time,” the profes
sor said, his eyes pleading for help.
“My cousin, might be able to help you get there. He has a private jet.” Mary tried to sound optimistic.
“I don’t have the pearls.” The professor sighed and added even more quietly, “They were stolen several weeks ago. Not even the police know where they are.”
“Could we use something else?” Mary wasn’t giving up. “My cousin has this big workshop-“ she started.
“My little girl!” Agatha had finally caught up with the situation. She had moved to the dining area and was now crying and blowing her nose with the cocktail napkins from the mini-bar.
“She’ll be all right.” Mary patted Agatha on the back to calm her down. “Why don’t you two pack and get ready to leave. I’ll check you out of the hotel and drive you to my cousin's house. Let’s meet in the lobby in ten minutes,” Mary said, closing the door behind her.
“We need a private jet to New York for tonight.” She tapped her communicator.
“You must be kidding,” the male voice from the other end said.
“Oh, and get the workshop ready, cousin. We are coming to see you. Over.” She ended the conversation.
Chapter 19
Zander and Emil parked the car and shut down the lights and the engine. The parking area around them was bustling with activity as the high school seniors were arriving at the Thunder Gate Mill mansion. They were parking their cars and rushing to get in. None of them had been in the house before. Ever. Before the Morts bought the mansion seven years before, it was empty and stories about ghosts of the witches killed in the nearby lake frightened any visitors. Later, when Kevin’s father renovated the place and Kevin came to their school, everyone started hoping to be invited inside someday. Rumors about indoor and outdoor endless swimming pools, a huge modern cinema area and enormous play room with video and arcade games circulated the school for weeks before the party. Now the wait was over and the high school seniors were more than curious to see if any of the rumors were true.
Zander and Emil sat quietly in the car and waited. Their night-blue Saturn merged nicely with the rest of the cars there. It was slightly over ten years old, but the people in the front seats didn’t have to worry about seatbelts. The car automatically buckled them up every time they closed the doors, saving precious seconds when they had to leave in a hurry. Now, looking at the other cars, Emil and Zander started discussing the option of probably upgrading to a truck. They would have a pretty good torque when they needed to outrun someone and plenty of horse power to carry or pull any kind of 21st century gear with them all the time instead of trying to figure out what exactly they would need every time they left the base.
It didn’t take long for the parking area to fill in with guests. Then Emil and Zander saw Kevin in his red Maserati with Evan sitting next to him. The red car drove by and swung behind the building. Its back tires threw a handful of small stones at the other cars as its taillights disappeared among the bushes. After a while, Kevin came from behind the house, alone, straightened his shirt, slicked back his hair and entered through the front door. He had a big grin on his face.
“D’you see that? D’you see him smile? Yeah. He has her locked back there and now he’s all smiles,” Zander said angrily and hit his right knee with his fist. When they learned about the Morts’ plan to kidnap Evan, he wasn’t surprised. Knowing the methods of the 906 Inquisitors gang, he hadn’t expected anything less. But now, seeing this plan unfold step by step, knowing that Evan was trapped and tied and alone, he became angry. He didn’t want her to get hurt and that was what was happening so far.
“The bird is in the cage.” Emil tapped his left year and reported. “Over.”
“Wait for contact.” A male voice came through the communicators in their ears. “Over.”
“Calm down. Mary will establish contact soon.” Emil looked at Zander.
Zander made an effort to compose himself by taking long, deep breaths and exhaling more slowly. Focusing on his breathing took his mind off Evan. He was slowly getting his clarity back, remembering that if he did his job tonight, everything would be all right.
Soon a female voice came through their communicators. “Contact has been established. Proceed as planned. Over.”
“That’s our signal,” said Emil. They left the car and headed to the house.
There weren’t any security cameras, bodyguards or dogs in the yard. It looked as if the Morts were not afraid of intruders, trespassers or burglars. There were two lonely lights at the house entrance that threw unfocused light around the area of the granite staircase. The rest of the parking lot, all the way back to the lanterns at the property gate, was lit by the moon, which had fewer and fewer chances to peek between the darkening and thickening clouds.
Emil and Zander kept a low profile. Sneaking from shadow to shadow, they reached the house and hid behind one of the huge rhododendron bushes at the side of the staircase. From their hiding place, they could see and hear the party on the first floor area going at full speed. Emil gestured that they had to split and meet again at the back of the house. Emil went to the left and Zander went to the right. Both of them moved quietly from shadow to shadow, listening for every noise. None of them saw or heard anything until their rendezvous point at the back of the house.
The sides of the house were covered with ivy growing from behind the various conifers. The back of the house was covered with a trellis. There were no basement windows, only a single door under the stairs to a balcony at the back of the house. Zander and Emil met under the stairs and gestured to each other that the area was clear. Then they split again to search the rest of the house: Zander headed to the hidden basement door and Emil up to the second floor.
Zander turned the knob of the hidden door and pushed in. The door was unlocked. He opened it slowly and quietly sneaked in. The humid and moldy air from the basement surrounded him as he entered into a small corridor. The passage was narrow with rough, stone walls, partially lit from the other end by what looked like a larger room. In the middle of the corridor, Zander saw a pink rose lying in the lighted spot. It had been stepped on and the petals were spread around. Some of them were squished; others were still fresh but lay helplessly away from the stem.
“And professor Shtuttgart, don’t be stupid to call the police. Just follow the directions.” A deep digitalized male voice ended a conversation over the phone.
“You’re a genius!” an inviting female voice said. “He has no idea that the trash bin in the park will teleport the pearls to the apartment.”
“Get off me and stop guessing what’ll happen next,” another male voice said angrily. Zander recognized it as belonging to Zull Mort. “It’s too early to celebrate.”
Zander closed the door he came in through as quietly as possible and pressed his back to the wall on the darker side of the corridor. He lowered his breathing and waited.
“Go upstairs and start packing. I’ll let Kevin know he has to clean up down here after the delivery. I’m sure he’ll be happy to have the honor of disposing of the little brat.” Mort said.
Zander heard two pairs of footsteps move around the room, then the lights went off and all the footsteps disappeared up the stairs. He swallowed slowly and heavily. Evan was somewhere down there and they were planning to kill her. He waited for a while, then took a flashlight out of his back pocket and switched it on. The torch made a round, lighted spot on the floor, encircling the smashed pink rose. Zander moved slowly into the room, trying not to step on the rose as he walked. He looked around the basement starting from the left wall, and saw a bookcase full of magazines and books on archeology, yachts, fishing and investing. The bookcase took up the whole wall all the way to an opening where stone stairs lead to the first floor. The wall next to the stairs was empty. The third wall had big iron cage doors. They were constructed from heavy metal rods that could hold the most vicious animals inside. The first cage was open and empty. The second one was closed, but empty, too. The third one was closed a
nd there was something in it. Zander moved closer, trying not to run into any of the furniture in the middle of the room. He focused the flashlight on the thing and saw that it was a girl dressed in black with a brown sugar-cane bag over her head. Moving closer to have a better look, Zander focused the lighted circle on her. The girl instinctively moved away, trying to protect herself; her hands tied behind her back.
She must be very frightened. He spoke in a quiet voice. ”I’m not going to hurt you. I’m here to help you. Do you understand?”
The girl nodded, and he saw strands of her hair peek from under the brown bag.
This must be Evan. Zander tried to open the door of her cage. It was locked. His eyes scanned the basement but the keys were nowhere to be found.
Suddenly a door opened at the top of the staircase and Mort’s voice said, “Leave these downstairs for Kevin.”
Zander quickly hid back in the corridor and switched off his flashlight.
High heels tapped down the stairs as Amanda descended and threw a cardboard box on the table. The sound of its landing filled the room. Amanda came close to Evan’s cage and said with an evil tone in her voice, “Don’t be frightened, my dear … it’ll be over soon.” Her high heels made a distinctive noise on the tiled floor as she walked.
Zander heard Amanda tap the rods of the cage one by one with her long nails. The sound echoed in the room and he thought of Evan. He wondered what could be going through Evan’s mind at that frightening moment. The thought of confronting Amanda came to him. Being a woman, she wouldn’t be hard to overpower. But then, it was Mort who sent her from upstairs. He might be waiting for her by the basement door. Zander clenched his fists and waited. Anything else would mean putting the whole operation at risk.
He held his breath and waited in the dark of the corridor until Amanda switched off the lights and left. When she closed the door at the top of the staircase, Zander turned on his flashlight and headed to the table where Amanda had left the box. It contained a set of clothes, a transcaster gun, and a package of blue transcaster bullets. They looked like blue lifesavers: one inch thick and one inch in diameter with a hole in the middle. When used with the transcaster gun, the person shot would be sent through the time and space to a preset location. Zander smiled, picked up the gun and hid it in the back of his jeans under his T-shirt. Then he lifted the clothes to pick up a handful of bullets and a key dropped at the bottom of the box. He quickly stashed the bullets in his pockets, took the key and headed to Evan’s cage.
