Tiger Threat

by Sigmund Brouwer

  I did. I winced because I’d moved too quickly.

  “Glad to meet you,” Vlad said in a thick accent. “Me, La-Dee-Dah. You, Nail.”

  “Huh?”

  He pointed at himself. “La-Dee-Dah.”

  He put his finger in my chest. “Nail.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I said. “I get the whole introduction thing. But my name isn’t Nail.”

  He kept smiling.

  “You, La-Dee-Dah,” I said, imitating his accent. “Me, Ray-Ray.”

  Some of the guys were giggling.

  “You, Nail,” Vlad said. He made some punching motions. “Him, Hammer!”

  Now all the guys busted out laughing again. I knew they had coached Vlad on what to say.

  I couldn’t help it. I started laughing myself. I mean, could I deny it? Next time I’d make a fist after my gloves were off, not before.

  “You, Nail,” Vlad said again with a broad smile.

  “Yup,” I said. “Me, Nail.”

  It was great to be part of a team.

  chapter fifteen

  “You’re lucky not much worse happened,” Dr. Dempster said.

  I had finally showered and changed. Dr. Dempster was standing over me, using a flashlight and dental mirror to check my bottom teeth. He wore rubber gloves and had wiggled all of my bottom teeth to see that they were still secure.

  “In fact,” he said, “I should be able to glue that cap back in place until you visit me again on Monday morning for a more complete exam.”

  He put the dental mirror back into his bag of emergency dental equipment.

  He spoke as he looked inside the bag for the special dental glue. “I would, however, still advise you to come to my office right now, where we can make sure everything is fine.”

  I shook my head.

  He grinned. “Amazing how much a girl and a Friday-night date can motivate a person to deal with pain.”

  I had told him about my date with Amanda. I had asked her to meet me in the parking lot.

  I nodded. And it was amazing how much a person was motivated if that person thought he might get cut from the hockey team.

  “This won’t take long,” he said. “And it’s just as well. I won’t mind going straight home tonight.”

  He was right. A minute later the cap was back in place.

  “You’re good to go,” he said. “Just don’t do anything dumb again tonight.”

  “Dumb?” I said. The glue tasted a little weird, but it was better than going on a date with Amanda with half a tooth missing.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Like putting your head in the way of anything else that might hurt you.”

  If only I had paid more attention to his warning.

  “Amanda,” I said. “Thanks for waiting.”

  She was in her car, a green two-door Cavalier. She had rolled her window down. The night air was relatively warm. I was wearing my Medicine Hat Tigers team jacket, and the wind didn’t bother me at all.

  “What can I say?” she said. “I’m addicted to Dairy Queen milkshakes.”

  “Oh.” So it was the milkshake she was interested in?

  She grinned. “Not that I’d go to DQ with just anybody.”

  “Oh.” That made me feel better.

  She pointed at her watch. “It’s getting late, though. Maybe I should just follow you there. Saves us the trip of coming back here.”

  I’d hate for you to sleep in and miss school tomorrow,” I said. I was being sarcastic. It was a Friday night.

  “It’s my mom,” she said. “She worries about me.”

  I nodded. The Tigers didn’t have a Saturday-night game, so maybe the guys on the team would be getting together. I’d use my cell phone to try to hook up with them after Dairy Queen.

  “Let’s go,” I said. I was in a good mood. I’d have a chance to hang out with Amanda, then catch up with my friends. I’d survived my first fight, and it looked like Coach Thomas was happy with my new style of aggressive hockey. Things were shaping up nicely.

  Until I glanced over the top of Amanda’s car and saw a big white van at the corner of the parking lot. Just like the one that had pulled up to the Moores’ house the other night.

  A large man was walking toward the van. A very large man. I knew that because he had a grip on Vlad’s arm. Vlad was tall, but this man was much taller. Much wider.

  It didn’t look like Vlad really wanted to go to the van.

  The large man opened the rear doors of the van. He shoved Vlad inside.

  Then he got into the van and began to drive it out of the parking lot.

  “Amanda,” I said, “have you got your cell phone?”

  “In my purse.”

  “And you’ve got my cell phone number?”

  “Sure,” she said. “Why?”

  “Call me, please. I don’t have time to explain. I can talk to you as we’re driving.”

  “We’re not going to Dairy Queen?”

  I had begun to unlock my Jeep.

  “Not yet,” I said. “Vlad might need our help.”

  chapter sixteen

  The white van stopped in a parking lot at Riverside Park, near the Medicine Hat city hall. Here, on a hot summer day, there might be a band playing. There would be moms and dads and kids on the grass, enjoying the nearby river.

  On a winter night, however, there was no one. I kept driving and spoke into my cell phone.

  “Amanda, keep following me, all right? I’m going to park just down the road.”

  She and I had been on the cell phone the entire time. I’d explained to her how I’d seen Vlad go out to this van in the middle of the night from the Moores’ house. I’d told her that I had no idea what was going on, but that I didn’t think it was anything good.

  One of the things that bothered me about the van was that it was a rental. From two cars back at one of the stoplights between the arena and the park, I’d noticed the sticker at the back. Was the guy from out of town?

  Another thing that bothered me was that paper had been taped on the inside of the rear windows of the cargo van to cover the glass completely. What was in there to hide?

  There was only one way to find out.

  “Amanda,” I said into the cell phone, “would you like to park right behind my Jeep and go for a walk with me?”

  We held hands as we walked. I had told her that if the guy in the van saw us coming, it wouldn’t look too suspicious. Actually, I liked the excuse to hold her hand.

  The stars were bright and, except for the wind, it was nice and quiet. Too bad this wasn’t just a walk. Too bad I was so nervous about the situation with Vlad.

  We walked closer to the van. The driver wasn’t in the front. Neither was Vlad.

  “That’s weird,” I said to Amanda. “We didn’t park that far away. I didn’t see either of them leave the van.”

  “Are they in the back?” she asked.

  We were close enough to hear some angry words from the cargo van. Words that sounded Russian.

  “That answers your question, doesn’t it,” I said.

  “Do we call the police?” she asked.

  “Maybe,” I said. “But we should know what’s happening first. If it’s nothing, it will be embarrassing to have the police here. If it’s something, maybe the police would get here too late.”

  “So we look inside,” she said.

  “Not we,” I said. “Me. How about you go back to your car.”

  “But—”

  “I don’t know if anything dangerous is happening or not,” I said. “You—”

  “Don’t treat me like I’m a weak girl who needs protection,” she said.

  “That’s not what I meant. If there’s danger, it would be smart to have you in a place where you can call the police.”

  She patted my arm. “Smart thinking.”

  “I’ll call your cell phone from mine,” I said. “If neither of us hang up, I’ll be able to keep it in my pocket and you can hear everything. If it sounds like I need help
, hang up and call the police.”

  She nodded.

  As she walked back to her car, I rang her cell. She answered. I put my cell in my pocket as planned.

  Then I snuck toward the van.

  I wondered how I was going to see inside without getting noticed. I didn’t want to go around to the front of the van and peer through the windshield.

  Then I smiled at myself.

  Side mirrors. When a person drove, they sat inside and looked backward through themirrors. So it should work in reverse. I should be able to stand behind the side mirror and look back into the van.

  That’s what I did. I walked very quietly up beside the cargo van. Because there were no windows on the side, I knew I wouldn’t be seen. I crouched beside the van and looked into the side mirror.

  It was easier to see inside than I expected. Mainly because there was a light in the back of the van. It looked like a flashlight.

  It took a couple of seconds to make sense of everything. But when I figured it out, I didn’t like what I was seeing.

  The big man was standing in front of Vlad. He had a pair of pliers in his hand. And he was reaching into Vlad’s mouth.

  chapter seventeen

  This was not a situation to call for the police and wait for them to arrive. I knocked on the door. I didn’t see any other option. I didn’t, however, plan to get into a fight with the monster-sized guy who was holding a pair of pliers. If that happened, I’m sure I would have earned my new nickname of Nail all over again.

  I knocked again. There was still no reply from inside.

  “Hey, Vlad,” I shouted. “Dude! What’s happening?”

  That would at least let them know inside it wasn’t an accident that I was outside the van.

  “Vlad! Team party!”

  That was the only excuse I could come up with on short notice. Friday night. A Tigers’ win. The guys were getting together somewhere. We’d join them.

  “Vlad!” I shouted. Knocked on the window.

  Finally, movement from inside. I knew this because the van shifted slightly. That gave me a clue as to how big the guy inside was.

  He crawled into the front. I heard the locks unclick as he pushed a button inside.

  I stepped back from the door as he opened it.

  He moved outside. Spoke to me in Russian. He didn’t have the pliers in his hand. I knew because it was the first thing I’d looked for— because it was the last thing I wanted to have gripping my nose or my ears.

  I smiled and shrugged, hiding my fear. The guy towered over me. The parking lot lights showed a square face, square head, square haircut. Nothing about his face was friendlier than, say, Frankenstein’s monster.

  “Looking for Vlad,” I said. “I saw him get into the van. The guys want him so we can celebrate tonight’s win. I tried stopping him in the arena parking lot, but you both got away on me.”

  The monster man grunted. He put a big, big hand on my shoulder. He pushed me away. I staggered backward. This was a very strong man.

  “Hey,” I said. “Do you speak English?”

  He pointed past me. It was obvious he wanted me to go away. That made it obvious to me that I needed to stay. Back in the van was a pair of pliers. And Vlad. Not a good combination in the hands of this guy.

  “Speak English?” I repeated. I needed to pretend I had no clue as to what was happening in the van.

  There was another way to find out. “You’re ugly,” I said. “Like Frankenstein, except worse. How about I call you Big Frank. Maybe your mother was Big Tank.”

  He kept pointing but didn’t swing at me. He didn’t understand the insult.

  “Vlad,” I said, speaking loudly. “Come on, dude.”

  I pointed at the van. “Vlad. Us. Celebrate.”

  I began dancing and singing a song. “Get it? Celebrate.”

  I realized that Amanda was hearing the entire conversation because of the cell phone in my pocket. She must have thought I was an idiot.

  The man grunted one more time. He turned his back on me to get back into the van.

  Not good.

  The van was unlocked. I’d heard the click.

  I took three fast steps and got to the back of the van before the monster could close his door and lock it again.

  I popped open the rear doors and swung them wide.

  “Vlad!” I said. “Good to see you!”

  I reached inside and grabbed his arm.

  “Amanda,” I said, hoping she was listening to all of this. “Get here. Now!”

  I pulled Vlad. The monster inside was climbing from the front toward us. We had to get a jump on this guy before he made it out of the van. I pulled harder and Vlad stumbled onto the pavement.

  “Come on,” I said. I slammed the rear doors and began running. Vlad stayed with me. We gained some ground on Big Frank.

  “See those headlights?” I said to Vlad. “That’s Amanda. We’ll be safe.”

  “He will follow me all night long,” Vlad said, trotting beside me. “I can never be safe.”

  We had a big enough jump on Big Frank that he had stopped chasing us. Still, I was too busy running toward Amanda’s car to really think about what Vlad had said.

  Not until Amanda had dropped us off at my Jeep. Not until Vlad and I were in the Jeep and I had begun to drive away.

  chapter eighteen

  “Let me get this straight,” I said to Vlad as we drove away. “You can understand English.”

  “I can speak it too.”

  I tried to remember if I had ever said anything around him that had been mean or embarrassing. Couldn’t come up with anything.

  Vlad grinned. “Have no worries.”

  “Huh?”

  “You wonder now if there is anything said about me that came from you.” He spoke with a heavy accent, of course, and didn’t quite put words together like someone who had been born and raised here. But obviously he wasn’t lying about being able to speak English.

  I frowned at him. “You can read minds too?”

  A shrug. “Easy to guess at what you are thinking.”

  “How about now?” I asked Vlad.

  “What is it that you mean?”

  “I mean, can you guess at what I’m thinking now?”

  “Nyet.”

  “I’m thinking I should punch you in the mouth. You’ve been keeping this secret from me since we met. What if I had said something about you that I shouldn’t have? Like maybe telling people that I think you’re a Russian weenie.”

  “Weenie? This word I do not know.”

  “It’s a hotdog.”

  “Ah. Weiner.”

  “And other people would say weenie means dweeb. Dork.”

  Dweeb? Dork?” Those words sounded funny with a Russian accent. “What is dweeb? Dork?”

  “Weenie,” I said. “Look, that’s not fair, letting us talk around you without letting us know you understood every word.”

  “I do not know who I can trust. Now I do know. You. Always, you protect me with your words. And now you protect me from...what did you call him? Big Frank?”

  “I protected you from getting a tooth pulled from your head by a sicko with a pair of pliers.”

  “Sicko? This word I do not know.”

  “You know what I don’t understand?” I said. “You weren’t even trying to fight the guy.”

  Vlad looked at the floor.

  “Come on,” I said. “It’s not like Big Frank was holding a gun to your head. Or a knife to your throat.”

  Vlad didn’t look up.

  “Sure, he was bigger than you,” I said. “But it looked almost like you wanted him to pull the tooth.”

  Then it hit me. Maybe there was more than one capsule hidden in Vlad’s mouth.

  “You did want him to pull it,” I said. Slowly. “You need the other capsule. Or capsules.”

  It was like I’d taken a stun gun and jabbed it into Vlad’s arm. He snapped his head high, stared at me, eyes wide. His long arms began to move
in all directions.

  “You! You know! Impossible!”

  I didn’t know much. Except that there had been a capsule in his mouth with a weird message.

  “What did your father call you when you were a boy?” I asked.

  “I do not understand.”

  “He had a special name for you.”

  “Yes,” Vlad said. “But what does this matter to what we are discussing?”

  I felt my eyebrows crinkle. This wasn’t making sense. Unless...

  “You don’t know what was in the first capsule, do you?” I said.

  “Speaking about the capsule can kill you,” he said.

  “You don’t know what was in the first capsule, do you?”

  “No,” Vlad answered. “I do not want the knowledge. It can kill me. It can kill you. It can kill the players on our team.”

  “Slow down,” I said. “You need to start making sense. Tell me about the capsule.”

  “First you tell me how you know about it,” he said.

  I explained how I’d found the capsule, how Mr. Jewel had opened it and how I’d gotten a friend to translate the writing on the paper inside the capsule.

  Then he told me his story. And when he was finished, I was afraid.

  Very afraid.

  chapter nineteen

  “Amanda.” I was calling her on my cell phone as I drove through the downtown with Vlad.

  The reason I was calling was simple.

  A set of headlights had been following us for the last ten minutes. I wished it was my imagination. But I knew better. Especially after hearing Vlad’s story.

  “Ray?” Amanda said. “Is everything all right?”

  “I’m sorry our date didn’t work out,” I said. “I’m glad to hear you made it home.”

  “Hello? Hello?” This was a female voice.

  “Mom,” Amanda’s voice said on the telephone, “it’s all right.”

  I managed to figure it out. Her mother had picked up the extension. I waited until I heard the click that let me know her mother had hung up again.

  “Amanda,” I said, “I need help. I can’t tell you why. I really need you to trust me.”

  I glanced in the rearview mirror. Vlad and I were near the public library, passing the beautiful old sandstone buildings around it. The headlights were staying with me. I had a good guess about the driver. Big Frank. The monster with pliers.