by G. K. Lund
“What the hell was that anyway?” Jones tested her bindings carefully and didn’t look even remotely happy.
“Didn’t you see? The electric charges coming from her hand?”
She didn’t answer me at first. Kept tugging at the thin rope that kept her hands bound. “That’s not possible, Ben. If you haven’t noticed, our situation isn’t good. Don’t waste my time with bullshit.”
“Fine then. How do you explain it?”
“Some contraption. This company probably produces it.”
“She had nothing in her hands. You saw that.”
“Just get up and help me.”
I groaned as I tried moving a leg. It still felt like the electric pulses ran through the body, like a wave that just kept coming. And the head was in pain again. Not only the simmering threat of a headache that had constantly been there the last few days.
“Seriously, are you hurt?” Jones asked at this magnificent display of movement.
“Aren’t you? She shot those green bolts of lightning right through us.”
There was a pause again. “I’m doing fine. It hurt like hell, but—”
“Exactly.”
“No, not exactly. It passes. Get up.”
I made another attempt, as successful as the last.
“Not good with pain are you?”
“Not used to it.” At least the talking got easier as I was forced to keep at it. “You should have seen me earlier today when I hurt the elbow. It almost made me lose my hold of—”
“Elbow? What the… do you live in a plastic bubble? It’s just pain.”
“I told you I’m not used to it.”
That made her laugh, then cough briefly. “First time, huh?”
“Third.”
There was silence again as she stared at me. “You almost sound like you’re not kidding.”
“Why would I, Detective?”
“Lucky me,” she sighed again and leaned against the desk. “Knocked out by my murder suspect, and trapped with an alien.”
“Listen, Detective Jones. I don’t think I am an alien.” I didn’t know why I was being so upfront. In part, it was the numbing pain. In addition, I didn’t think she could have me locked up anywhere. Who would believe her anyway?
She shifted her position a little, trying to get a better look at me. “Did she shoot all that electricity out of her hand?”
I forced the head to nod and then winced.
“Are you Ben?”
“No. Ben is dead.”
She drew breath between her teeth. “Then who are you?”
“Don’t know, Detective. I do in fact suffer from memory loss.”
“But you’re in…”
“The body? Yes.”
“So when you say you’re not used to pain…”
“I say it because it’s true, Detective.”
Jones looked around the office, then tried sitting up more. Stretching as far as her trapped arms would let her. “She’s busy gathering what she needs.”
“Needs?”
“To flee. She’s planning her escape. We’re not part of that.” Jones sat down again and relaxed. “If we’re going to get out of here, I need you to move, Ben.”
“But, Detective—”
“I think we’re at the point where you call me Olivia. Now listen to me. Never mind what your body is telling you. Just force it to react when you want it to.”
“Um…”
“Just do it,” she hissed at me, clearly wanting to scream at me, but not wanting to draw Saphia’s attention.
I closed the eyes and groaned as I forced the body to sit up. It happened slowly, the shock of the pain stronger in the time after than during the attack itself. Still, the arms, legs, torso, obeyed. The protests in the form of nerve signals to the brain were won-over by me. Considering our predicament it was a bigger victory for me than it should have been.
“Good, Ben,” the detective said. Olivia that is. “Now, move over toward me as far as you can. I need your belt.”
“For what?”
“To get out of here. Just do it.”
I did as I was told, stretching out so the feet touched her. Lying there on the back, like a straight log in front of the desk, I couldn’t see how this was helping. Olivia, however, looked around to see if Saphia was nearby before focusing on me.
“I don’t think you can reach,” I said as I looked at her hands. Saphia had tied them with twine, the leg of the desk between Olivia’s arms.
“Not with my hands, no,” she agreed and bent forward. She could not be called helpless or unpractical as she began loosening the belt with her mouth. She bit into the leather with her teeth and tugged at it until it started loosening. In the midst of this, she stopped a moment and looked up at me, smiling for once.
“Any other guy would have made a joke by now. I’m starting to believe you’re not Ben Reed in there.”
Whatever she meant it was lost on me, something she could apparently see because she gave a short laugh before getting back to her task. At least she wasn’t mad at me. I heard the clicking of Saphia’s heels on the floor somewhere outside the office. It didn’t sound like she was nearby, but the deserted floor made the sounds carry better.
“Okay,” Olivia said through clenched teeth as she got the belt open. “Hipsh upf,” she added as she pulled the belt free from the belt loops. As she got the thing free, she dropped it into her hands.
“How’s that going to help?” I still felt weak from the pain, but she was right about ignoring it by forcing the body to do my bidding. I slowly sat up, the cuffs giving a soft metallic clink as I did.
“She used twine. Not exactly the strongest or thickest rope there is. Common in offices though.” Olivia began cutting at it with the prong of the belt buckle. Perhaps scraping is the best word. She put force behind it. All she needed was one string to break and she would be free. The angle of her hand was a challenge though.
“Seems she thought you a bigger threat than me,” Olivia added with a quick glance toward the handcuffs.
“Well, in her defense, she doesn’t know I’m new to all this.”
“Life, you mean?”
I shrugged as the twine gave way and Olivia began moving her hands to get free of it. I noted deep red marks on her wrist as she managed this. Apparently, she was speaking the truth about ignoring pain and doing what you needed to anyway.
“What about these?” I said and held up the hands to remind her of the cuffs.
Olivia glanced around the room, noticing her jacket on the table where Saphia had gotten her things. Looking a little closer I could also see Old Ben’s wallet, phone, and keys there.
“She’ll see you,” I said.
“Yeah,” Olivia agreed and reached up to the top of the desk, moving her hand around, searching for something. “Luckily though, I’m a thinking ahead kind of gal. I’m sure there’s something up here to pick the lock with.”
Chapter 35
“Don’t get up yet,” Olivia told Ben as she freed him from the handcuffs. The man made no move to do so even before she said it. The pain from Saphia’s weird green lightning still made him want to stay immobile, but there was no time for that. Olivia was nauseous, weak and had a headache, but she couldn’t deal with that now, and neither could Ben. She knew what Saphia was up to. They had nothing but a few minutes at best.
“Listen, there should be a door here somewhere,” she said and looked around. So far she had been too busy with freeing herself. She hadn’t had the chance to check.
“How do you know that?”
“Saw a surveillance tape of someone stabbing Mr. Winter. They didn’t leave by that door.” She pointed to the main office door that Saphia had used.
“So he’s dead then?”
It struck her as odd that he looked genuinely worried; he seemed a little too selfish for that. Then she remembered he needed Winter’s help. “Don’t know, and now’s not the time to find out. Saphia wants us dead. That’s mo
re urgent, don’t you think?”
“Well, obviously the door is over there,” Ben said and pointed behind Olivia – straight at the wall.
“Be more specific.”
“There, next to the bookcase. Don’t you see the slight hint of light coming from a crack where the wall meets the bookcase?”
She did and wondered at his sense of details. They seemed to be getting better. Maybe he was evolving? Whatever he was. She shook the thought away and took action. “I need my gun,” she said, and they both went over to the table. No blood on the floor she noticed as she grabbed her things while Ben did the same. Of course there wasn’t. They would have cleaned that up, wouldn’t they?
“Saphia,” Ben said and grabbed Olivia’s arm for emphasis to get her attention. She looked up and saw the woman come running down the glass hallway toward them.
“Shit,” Olivia shouted as she drew her newly holstered gun. Before she could even aim it at the approaching woman, Saphia raised her hand and sent a shower of green lightning toward them. They could only watch as the crackling, moving angles of pure electricity and pain shot toward them through the air; and was stopped by the glass wall in front of them. The flashes of lightning were flattened against the glass. It made Olivia think of an octopus spread out against it before the energy fizzled out. On the other side of it, Saphia screamed in outrage.
“We need to get out of here,” Olivia told Ben and dragged him the first couple of steps toward the secret door. He didn’t seem shocked, like herself, only slow as he forced his legs to move.
Luckily the door was not locked, and it opened with a proper push. A second later they found themselves at the top of some metal stairs that wound down to the floors below. Extra back stairs, Olivia realized. Probably used by the higher-ups in the company. As they ran down the steps without even thinking about it, they saw a few more doors here and there. They needed to get all the way down though if they wanted to get out of the building.
For a few floors, there was nothing except their feet on the steps, a hollow clanging sound, and their breathing intensified from the horror of what was behind them. Then Saphia’s voice rang down the shaft they were fleeing through.
“Stop. You can’t get away from me.” Her voice was sharp. It cut through the silent understanding between Olivia and Ben. Run or die. Saphia gave no more warning. And as Olivia glimpsed a flash of green from above, she realized on another level that the stairs were metal. And Ben stopped. She reached for him to keep running even though it was futile, but his eyes were a little glazed over. Like whatever he was seeing, it was not in front of him.
“Come on.” She yanked at his arm, but he didn’t move. Then his eyes came to life and met hers.
“The edge protection,” he yelled and pointed straight down. Olivia looked and thought no more. She stepped onto the narrow edge protection, put there to prevent people from slipping. Made of rubber. They grabbed each other’s shoulders to keep their balance as they stood on their toes. The green lighting crackled down the shaft, dancing around the metal toward them. No glass walls this time.
What was this madness? A woman shooting electricity from her hands? That was not supposed to be possible. And the man whose hands she felt on her shoulders, heavy and as real as anything, yet he was not who he was supposed to be either. Olivia closed her eyes as the lightning reached them, turning everything around them green. She could see it through her closed eyelids. Hissing and crackling as it let the metal lead it, though not the white rubber at the edge of each step.
“It’s gone,” Ben whispered softly after a few seconds. She opened her eyes and saw that he was looking up. They couldn’t see Saphia, but suddenly they heard her shoes clacking against the steps.
“Run,” Olivia shouted and followed her own advice. They heard Saphia yelling at them to stop when she realized they weren’t dead. Before she could send another charge against them, they reached the bottom floor. Olivia yanked open the door and they ran through, Ben slamming it shut behind them.
“How did you know about the rubber?” she asked him and simultaneously dragged him by his arm toward the main entrance as she noticed they had now emerged in a secluded area not far from the front desk.
“I just had a memory of someone… dying from electrocution.”
“What?”
“And at the same time, someone else was wearing rubber gloves. It kept it at bay and—”
“Forget I asked, Mr. Alien man—”
“Not an alien. First time in a body remember?”
Olivia let go of him now that he followed at a decent pace, and shook her head. This was not the time to be confused by him. One weirdo at a time. She headed straight for the door, and as she reached it, she remembered how they had gotten into the building in the first place.
“Damn it,” she shouted as the sliding doors did not react to them. She banged a fist at one of them in frustration.
“What do we do now?” Ben asked as he looked back.
Olivia stared in the same direction. “Where is she?” Saphia had been right behind them. Why hadn’t she followed them down into the lobby? She knew they were alive.
“We need to get the doors open,” Ben said and attempted what they had going in earlier – prying them open. That was not going to help. Olivia was sure of it. Instead, she put her hand on his shoulder and urged him to step back. She drew her gun and stepped back as well – far back. Hopefully, a ricocheting bullet wouldn’t hit either of them.
She fired two shots at one of the doors, the sound reverberating throughout the empty lobby. Except for small white marks in the glass, there was nothing. The bullets ricocheted and hit the concrete ceiling.
“What the fuck?” she whispered and stared in disbelief at the tiny white cracks the bullets had made in the door. “Bulletproof glass? Are you kidding me?”
Ben turned around again, probably expecting Saphia to appear, but she didn’t. Olivia was beginning to suspect why.
“Detective Jones, Mr. Reed,” Saphia’s voice broke through the emptiness and quiet of the lobby. It all but confirmed it for Olivia.
“You won’t be able to get out that way,” Saphia continued on the building’s emergency intercom. “I had hoped to make this the least bit painful as I possibly can for you, but now you leave me little choice. There’s no way out.”
“The tablet,” Ben said as realization hit him. “She controls everything with that little machine, doesn’t she?”
Olivia nodded, her eyed darting around the whole lobby looking for a solution. “She controls the whole building, and she’s trapped us in here with her.”
Chapter 36
“We can’t stay here. We’re too exposed,” Olivia said. She thought briefly about holstering her gun, it hadn’t been useful so far, but she kept it in her hand. It was hardwired into her brain by this point in life, and besides, no one had ever trained her for murder suspects breaking the laws of nature. She glanced sideways at her new sidekick, who likely couldn’t kick anything even if he was paid to do so. No one had ever trained her for people breaking the laws of nature in general. He had to be messing with her. Right?
“Let’s take the stairs,” she said and headed for the large white stairs that dominated the lobby. No way was she going back into that narrow shaft to use the winding metal staircase again.
They ran up a few floors, and went into a new office space, not unlike the main offices where they had met Saphia. The offices were smaller here, quite a few workshops as well. Developers of some kind? Olivia found she didn’t care too much at the moment.
“Maybe if we find something useful, we can get out through a window,” she told Ben and headed into an office. It had an actual wall one couldn’t see through, except for the window. It turned out to be shut, almost like it had been welded to the wall.
“She must have locked the whole building, not just the doors,” Ben said. At least he wasn’t the panicking kind. That would have slowed her down. And she needed to make sure
he was okay. That was her job, and she silently berated herself for allowing him inside the building in the first place. It didn’t help that she knew she’d had no right to keep him out. She was a little too intrigued by him, and she wanted to know what irked her so much about him. So she had not done what she should have and sent him running. Now, he might pay for it. She was going to try her best to prevent that. She got her phone from her jacket pocket. Saphia had turned it off when they had been unconscious. Olivia turned it back on, but soon found it had no signal.
“What about yours?”
Ben obligingly turned his back on as well, but there was no more help there.
“Two phones with no signal in the busiest place in the whole city?” She stuffed her phone back into her pocket and picked up a phone from one of the nearby desks, a landline. It was dead as well. Not a dial tone to be heard.
“Seems our Ms. Bishop has cut us off,” she told Ben as she hung up the phone. There was no calling for help then. What a ridiculous system. Olivia could well understand it during an emergency, but when your employees went full on postal, them having complete control of the building was not a good thing. They needed to find another way to get help or get out.
“What are you doing?” Ben asked as she started going through the offices systematically.
“We need to check all the windows, emergency exits, the offices… maybe we can find something that can help us. Hopefully a walkie-talkie. I bet she can’t stop those, not that anyone here would have one stashed away in a drawer.”
“Wouldn’t we need another one on the outside?”
“Thought you didn’t know anything about technology.”
“Do you know how old radios are compared to cell phones?” he shot back and then stopped in his tracks, looking like he didn’t know where those words came from.
“I can’t believe you actually suffer from memory loss.” Olivia opened several drawers on a desk. Nothing but an abundance of office supplies, diet bars and a pair of socks. Not helpful.
