The Truth of a Liar

by Cassie Graham

  One of the men, just a few inches taller than me with light skin walks in first. He’s not tall but he’s stalky. He gives me a once over and seems unimpressed. I hope he’s Lance, I won’t be able to reach the other guy’s nose. The other man is taller, leaner than the other, and by the looks of it, crazier. His right eye twitches when he sets me in his sights and a sadistic smile crosses his mouth as he takes in my body. I so badly want to retreat within myself, but that’s not part of the plan.

  Peter lets go of my arm and the two men stand beside me on both sides. “Lance,” he says to the short one and I breathe a small sigh of relief. “Trip,” he says in a clipped tone to the other man. Thankfully they don’t touch me, but I follow them as we walk out of the room. Just like Peter said, the wide hallway is barren, no one around. Thank the Lord for tiny miracles.

  We’ll have to walk almost a half mile to the viewing room, Peter said earlier. I wasn’t too happy to find out I had to walk that far in heels. You won’t have to actually walk that far. About a thousand feet outside your door is when we’ll attack. Be ready.

  I prepare myself for what’s about to happen. By my estimation, we’re a good seven hundred feet from my room, and I quickly become nervous, but squash it down. Now is the time to fight, Rowan. You can do this.

  I feel a very light tap on my back, Peter’s sign to count five steps.

  One.

  Two.

  Three.

  Four.

  Five.

  It all happens at once. Peter speed walks up to Trip and elbows him in the nose, pulling him into a room. Blood spurts all over the ground but I don’t take the time to look at them. Lance stops, obviously confused, watching the brawl unfold, but I keep walking.

  Click, clack. Click, clack. My heels echo off the metal walls, but I keep walking.

  Click, click, click. I begin to jog. My feet feel heavy and already tired.

  I begin to run. I sprint down the long corridor. You’ll come to a fork in the tunnel. Take a left. Not a right. Take a left and that’ll lead you to the door outside. Peter’s words ring in my ears and I hope he makes it out.

  I can see the fork ahead of me. The lights are brighter there. I stumble, tripping over my long dress. Someone catches me by the arm. I’m momentarily filled with hopefulness thinking it’s Peter—or maybe even Lark. But it’s short lived. Lance pulls me forcefully back, stopping me.

  He whips me around, facing him. I use every ounce of strength I have in me and powerfully shove my hand into his nose. Lance releases my arm, catching the blood now oozing out of down his face. He curses my name, calling me a word I absolutely loathe while falling against the wall.

  “Rowan, go!” Peter shouts from down the tunnel.

  My eyes go wide and I turn, sprinting down the hall.

  Anticipation for escape overrides my body and I no longer feel pain. My feet don’t hurt. My lip doesn’t hurt. The only thing that matters is the door fifty feet away. I know if I can just get to that door and turn that handle, things will be better. I kick off my heels, leaving them behind.

  “THIS IS A REALLY AWFUL IDEA, mate,” Liam warns in an exasperated tone as we make our way to the entrance of the underground tunnels. We’ve walked almost two miles on foot in full gear, equipped with a few handguns and knives. The location wasn’t very difficult to find once I knew where to look. A quick search on the Internet back at base, and I was more than prepared to charge in, guns blazing.

  I keep my eyes trained on the path ahead. “Shut it.” Though, I know he has our best interest at heart. I just don’t see any other way around the situation.

  Liam adjusts his shoulder holster. “I just think we might need to make a better plan.”

  “We don’t need a better plan,” I say through my teeth. Sure, it’s a reckless plan…not a bad plan. Okay, so maybe it is but I’m too proud to admit it.

  Liam huffs, but keeps quiet about what he’d really want to do. As we shuffle along the path, I wonder how exactly it’ll go down. The only thing I know for sure is that I have to get inside. That’s my only mission right now. If I can get into that bunker, and find the room where they’re holding Rowan, I can figure out a way to get her safe.

  Liam’s hand grabs my chest, stopping me mid step. “What the?” I say, but halt when he signals.

  Movement at approximately seven hundred feet away catches Liam’s attention.

  “Shit,” Liam says under his breath. “New plan?”

  I kneel down on one knee and Liam pulls his backpack and sets it on the ground. My shoulder holster not only holds my 9mm guns, but also a sniper rifle across my back. I carefully grab it and set the big gun on the ground. “Take them out,” I instruct, motioning to the men guarding the tunnel.

  “I can do that,” he says with a smile pulling at his lips. It’s not often we actually get to use a sniper rifle. So this is almost like Christmas.

  Shuffling around the contents of his backpack, Liam pulls out a pair of high definition binoculars and holds them to his eyes. “Two men. Top of the tunnel.” He scans the area, adjusting the distance, moving left to right. “Four by the side door.”

  I take a deep breath and check the magazine, ensuring it’s loaded. Upon my quick inspection, I find that it’s missing two bullets, so I quickly pull out the box and snap them in.

  I’ve always found the clicking sound of a magazine into a firearm to be soothing. It’s the one situation I feel truly in control. Only, this time, it terrifies me. The future that lies with these bullets is completely unknown.

  “I’m going to go around back.” I pat both sides of my paddle holster, pulling out each gun. Clicking the eject button, I make sure the magazines are full of bullets. Pushing the spring with my thumb, I’m satisfied when both don’t budge.

  When I slide them back under my arms, I look to Liam. “Give me about twenty seconds and begin.”

  “I’ll start at the door and move my way up. Be safe, mate.” He stands from where he was on the ground, setting up the rifle and pulls me into a hug. “Don’t get yourself hurt.”

  I nod and slap his back. “I won’t and you do the same. Be my eyes.”

  “Yes, sir.” He salutes and I shake my head, laughing. It’s an inappropriate time to be joking, but it’s all I can do to hold my anxiety together.

  We don’t have any back up. They were told to get here, but we’ve yet to see a man in the field. For all we know, they left us here to do the job ourselves. When I spoke to Logan earlier, I made it clear that I was going with or without troops. I knew the location and I was moving as soon as possible. And at the time, Logan agreed. “Do whatever you can to get Rowan out of there,” he had said. But it’s been hours since we’ve talked and I’m beginning to wonder if we missed some sort of order.

  I give one brisk wave and start jogging down the path, forward toward the side of the tunnel. There’s a slight hump in the ground where the tunnel is located underground. If you weren’t looking for it, you’d just assume it’s a change in the soil. It’s rather genius how they disguised themselves, if I do say so myself.

  I keep myself on the hill next to the tunnel and follow along the path.

  I’m praying I can take them down in their blind spot. Wrap around the side and take them by surprise at the same time Liam begins to fire.

  Moving my right hand to grab the gun under my left arm, and my left arm mimicking the right, I switch off the safety, cock it and wait for Liam to fire the first shot.

  Zoom. Liam fires and the man closest to the door goes down in agony. Chaos breaks out. Every man on the ground turns to where Liam is hidden and begins shooting at an empty space. He’s concealed just enough to stay inconspicuous. Bullets bounce off the tall trees, ricocheting every which way. Dings and bangs echo off the quiet valley. Running at full speed, I fire the gun in my right hand, hitting one of the men at the top of the gorge in the leg. He howls in pain, pulling at his wound. I fire another in his other leg for good measure.

  Snap. Another
shot from Liam and an additional falls. Three down, three to go. I lift both of my hands, shooting two of them at the same time. One man flops limply on the blood stained snow as the other topples over in a heap. The last man on the top of the tunnel looks my way, but I pop his right arm and left knee, one after the other, before he’s able to see me. A knife slices through the air near my face and I dodge to the side, tumbling down the hill. Rolling head over ass, I plummet to the bottom of the tunnel.

  Pop. Liam blasts another one and he falls into a heap on the ground.

  The last man standing at the foot of the gorge notices me and raises his gun. The firearm in my right hand jams, causing the trigger to stall. My eyes go wide as he fires. I watch it sail through the foggy air, penetrating the snow. The hot, burning bullet grazes my left arm and I wince, the pain making its way up my shoulder and into my face. But before I can allow myself any more time, I hurriedly discharge my other gun, hitting the man square in the chest. The chest. I hate I had to do that. I don’t like to put people down for good. If anything, I’m more about hurting without killing. Logan always told me it was my downfall. That it would get me killed one day. And maybe he’s right. But when it comes to Rowan, I can’t take too much caution. I can’t make myself feel bad for what I just did. That man would have killed me without blinking.

  I’ve never understood the expression, ‘kill or be killed.’ I guess now I do.

  “All clear,” Liam says into the radio and it transmits into my earpiece. He sounds out of breath and I know this isn’t new to him, but taking people down isn’t an easy task.

  I angrily pull at the top of the barrel of my 9mm and pop out the bullet that was jammed.

  “You good?” Liam radios.

  “Good,” I say, grimacing as I touch the ripped skin on my left arm. Tinges of blood spots my fingers when I withdraw it from the wound.

  “What’s next?”

  I walk cautiously down the side of the tunnel making my way to the entrance. “Meet me down here. I only wounded some of these guys. We need to go take their guns. Thankfully, doesn’t seem like anyone heard the fight.”

  Clicks of his gun fill the background of the radio noise. “Gotta thank the arseholes who decided it was a good idea to use tunnels underground instead of houses like civilized people,” Liam jokes. “Plus, by the sounds of it, they all had silencers.”

  I nod and wait for him at the base of the gorge. He rushes down within seconds, and meets me in a huff.

  Together, we pick up the discarded weapons, and throw them into the backpack Liam has strapped to his back. He hands me two new magazines full of bullets and I discharge my previous ones. Placing them back in my holster.

  “Now it gets complicated, right?”

  I level my eyes. “It’s not going to be fun. Stick to the plan and we might be okay.”

  “That’s a huge understatement, mate,” Liam says, wiping the sweat from his forehead. “We’re going in blind.”

  I try to force my unease down. “I know. All we have to do is be stealthy. If anyone can do it, it’s us.”

  Liam cracks his knuckles. “Let’s do this.”

  We both retrieve a gun from our holsters, screw on the silencers, and walk to the door. I knock three times, winging it. Liam gives me an apprehensive look and I shrug. I don’t know why it seemed like a good idea to knock.

  The door swings open, and Liam shoots. Bang! Bang! The man grunts and falls to the ground. Liam drags him through the door, closing him out.

  When we investigated what the inside of this tunnel looks like, I find out there are countless rooms that run along the inside. I’m hoping there are enough rooms and I can throw people in them as we go. Like I said, I’m sort of winging it.

  The space looks clear as I step inside and signal Liam to follow behind me. Twenty steps down into the earth, we make our way to the left. According to the blueprints I found online, there isn’t anything down the right side for at least a half-mile. I figure, if they are doing a showing of women today, it’ll be somewhere close to the exit. Quick getaway for all of the low life scumbags they have convened.

  There are only small windows on each door, and cold steal along the walls. Liam walks backward behind me, keeping watch with his gun aimed as I move forward. Room by room, we come up short. Nothing. It’s until we pass the ninth door that a man with a bloated belly and a fake gold chain around his neck walks out and halts when he sees us. He appears terrified when he sees my face. He reaches for his belt, which is probably where he keeps his gun, but it’s not there and he runs backward, falling onto the cold ground, his head hitting the concrete with a sickening crack.

  I run, throttling him, shoving him to the ground, delivering blow after blow to his face. My hands strike at lightning speed. He grunts and attempts to block my fists, but to no avail. He quickly gives up and after one last hit to his face, I shove him into a closet on my left, breaking the lock as I close the door.

  “Shit, mate,” Liam says, shaking his nervous hands.

  I close my eyes and blow air out of my nose. Pain shoots through my knuckles. It hurts but I let it ignite my want to find Rowan.

  Three knocks sound from the front door and I put my finger to my mouth to silence Liam. We move our backs to the wall, away from the light, attempting to make ourselves invisible in case anyone makes their way to the door but within seconds, it’s evident no one’s coming.

  I check the time. Ten minutes to eleven. Without thinking, I run back up the stairs to the door. As I look through the peephole, a man in a nice dress suit, dark sunglasses and a black hat stands waiting. I open the door slowly, sure to turn off the light above me and step back as he enters.

  He’s tall, maybe an inch or two taller than me. He seems to be about the same weight, too. His eyes blaze when he realizes that I’m not someone he’s familiar with. It’s common knowledge these guys run in cliques that never change. Most of the guys who have bought from Davis are the same guys who have been buying for years. And there’s usually communication if there is any sort of modification. Plus, my attire is a pretty damn good indication.

  My hand snaps back and I pop him in the jaw. He grabs at his face, chasing me down the stairs with a venomous gaze. The moment his foot hits solid ground, Liam grabs around his neck with his right hand from behind. Liam’s bicep and forearm applies pressure to both sides of the man’s neckline. Grabbing his bicep with his free hand, Liam presses the man’s head forward, cutting off air to his throat. The man quickly passes out, and Liam shoves him into another empty room down the hall.

  “We have to undress him,” I say, and Liam gives me a look that lets me know he thinks I’m crazy. “I need to wear his clothes.” I huff. “And hand me his I.D. I’m going in.”

  “Where?” Liam asks, his breath coming in short spurts. He’s seems confused by all of the change of events.

  “I’m going to the viewing. This is my only way in.”

  Liam tilts his head, unsure if he likes my idea, but I don’t give him enough time to think. My hands grab at the man’s suit and within minutes, I’m dressed in his clothes and shoes. I shove his wallet into my back pocket and check the rest of the suit. A blue coin clanks against my hand and I yank it out, inspecting it. It doesn’t look to be anything significant, so I return it back in my pocket. Placing the hat on my head, I shove my hair inside, as the man had short blonde hair, and slide the sunglasses on my face. I look to Liam. “Ready?”

  He rolls his eyes, clearly not okay with my new plan. “As I’ll ever be, I guess.”

  “Let’s go, then.”

  Turning the knob, I gradually open the rusted door and check to make sure the coast is clear. When I don’t see anyone, Liam and I make my way to the viewing room. After what feels like miles, we begin to hear the low hum of talking. The tunnel isn’t well lit, only lights on the floor to guide your feet, so when we get close enough to the group of three or so guys, Liam backs away into an opening of a room, staying out of sight.

  I
gulp one last lungful of air and walk up to the men, who all oddly enough, look similar to me. This must be proper attire for a viewing.

  “Colter,” a man with graying hair and wrinkled skin greets me with a grin. “Didn’t think you were going to make it.”

  I smile and nod, not wanting to say much.

  “Got your chip?” the man asks.

  Behind my glasses, my eyebrows furrow and I reach inside my pants, producing my blue coin. I nod.

  “Good,” he says, pulling out his red coin. “You’re damn lucky you got the blue coin in the draw. You get first crack at her.”

  First crack? I attempt a smile but keep my mouth closed and clench the coin.

  The door to my right opens and a baldheaded man who’s covered in tattoos stands in the doorway. “Welcome, gentlemen. It’s so good to see you all here.” He moves to me, shaking my hand. “Let’s give a special welcome to Colter. This is his first time here.”

  I duck my head, but wave once.

  “Let’s get the party started, yes?” Davis says and my skin crawls as he walks past me to the back of the group of guys. “We only have one girl for you today. She’s a keeper, this one. The bidding will be high.”

  The other men grunt in anticipation and I clench my fists, willing myself not to blow my cover.

  Davis lines us up inside the room, offering us all a chair. When I take my seat, the rest follow suit. Once we’re all situated, Davis stands in front of us, clasping his hands. “Coins.”

  I open my hand, offering the coin and Davis takes it, sliding it into his jeans. “Very good. You’ll go first,” he says to me. “Red, gold, and then silver. Whoever has the highest bid at the end of the night will get to take Ms. Townsend home. Would you all like to see her before you test her out?” he asks in a giddy voice and I instantly want to punch him in the balls. I’d blow them off with my gun if I could.

  The men nod, no one seeming more excited than the other. Which seems odd to me. I don’t know what the appropriate protocol is for this type of situation, but each of them seems too calm.