Cut to the Bone

by Ellison Cooper

  Tino wanted to say something to comfort Vesper, but he could only make soft grunting sounds.

  It was the smell of smoke that sent him over the edge of panic.

  Wriggling like a caterpillar, Tino worked his way against the bedroom wall. Heaving with the effort, he lifted his legs as far as he could and slammed them against the drywall. The drywall cracked and he repeated it again and again until his bare feet thumped against a wooden stud. Sweat began to obscure his vision. Smoke grew so thick in the apartment that his eyes watered. With his mouth covered and his nose clogging, he began to choke on the clot of phlegm in his throat.

  Barely able to breathe, Tino pounded against the wall until a gentle buzz worked its way up his limbs, to his head. As the acrid air burned his nose and eyes, his muscles began to go slack and he faded into unconsciousness.

  SAYER’S APARTMENT, ALEXANDRIA, VA

  The hellfire in Sayer’s dream burned like brimstone, angry and hot. A demon stood among the swirling smoke, banging on a drum. The thuds felt like the dark drumbeat of death coming for her.

  Something about the repeated sound finally filtered into her consciousness, snapping her awake.

  Sayer’s eyes flew open and she was momentarily confused by the thick smoke from her dream there in the apartment. Then she felt the heat.

  Smoke. Heat. Fire!

  She bolted from bed, hunching forward to avoid the miasma gathering at the ceiling.

  The thudding sound continued for another moment and then stopped.

  Sayer tried to orient herself, but couldn’t see well enough. Hands out, she stumbled until she hit a wall and realized she’d gone the wrong way. Outside the window, flames licked the windowsill. She had to make it to the door.

  Feeling along the edges of the room, she got to the living room before a coughing fit forced her to her knees. Unable to draw a full breath, Sayer crawled toward the exit.

  When she reached the door, she managed to pull herself up and unlock the dead bolt.

  She yanked the burning hot door open and cried out with hoarse frustration at the wall of fire concentrated on the landing just outside.

  Even in her delirium of fear, she registered the signs of arson. Someone had dumped an accelerant just outside, trying to block her exit.

  Sayer glanced back into the apartment, but knew it would be deadly to try and make it to a window. Her only hope was to make it past the flames.

  Without hesitation, she let out a shout and launched herself straight out the door. She vaulted the railing and fell all the way down into the garden.

  She landed in a patch of soft earth, body crumpling under the impact. Her rib screamed in agony, but she miraculously managed not to break anything.

  Shaking, eyes burning and her chest heaving, Sayer stood in her once-peaceful backyard, staring back at her town house. Fire engulfed the building like a living creature, monstrous in its hunger.

  Mouth agape at the sheer scale of destruction, it took her brain a moment to process the fact that Tino and Vesper were nowhere to be found.

  Fear exploded her forward and she ran to Tino’s door. It swung open, sucking oxygen into the downstairs apartment.

  The fire flared and Sayer pulled her shirt up over her mouth as she waded in. She swept her arms and legs back and forth, seeking any sign of her family.

  “Tino! Vesper!” she tried to call out, but the roaring fire and cracking wood drowned out her voice.

  Head spinning, Sayer fell to her knees and crawled toward Tino’s bedroom.

  Inside, she found him bound on the floor, eyes rolled back so far that nothing but the whites showed.

  Sayer tried to rouse him, but he was making thick gurgling sounds as he breathed.

  “Tino! Come on!” She tore the tape from his mouth.

  Sayer heard a faint scratching and crawled over to the closet.

  Vesper bounded out, whining loudly.

  Sayer waved him away, trying to convince him to go outside, but the dog stood over Tino, licking his face.

  She tried to give him a command, but the words came out garbled.

  Vesper took hold of Tino’s shirt and began tugging. Sayer joined in, grabbing the rope around his body and pulling.

  Together, they managed to slide Tino almost to the living room, but Sayer’s breath grew ragged.

  Her vision began to spin as her muscles stopped following commands.

  She tried to pull Tino one more time but she could barely keep her fingers curled around the rope.

  The smoky room began to narrow, as though she were moving into a dark hallway, far from reality.

  When the shadowy figure appeared above her, Sayer wasn’t entirely sure he was real.

  She felt a hand wrap around her wrist. In the swirling ash and dancing light, Sayer couldn’t make out his face. He tried to lead her away, but she refused to move.

  “Tino,” she croaked.

  The figure nodded and grabbed the rope binding Tino. With surprising strength, he dragged Tino toward the door.

  Sayer helped, half pulling, half letting the figure guide her out.

  Vesper followed on her heels as they burst into the fresh cold air outside.

  Tino moaned and Sayer fell to her knees, checking his vitals. He breathed ragged but steady. His eyes fluttered open and she let out a sharp sound of relief.

  When she looked up to tell the man to get the neighbors out and call 911, he was already gone.

  UNKNOWN LOCATION

  Kate woke in a small brick room, memories flooding her mind like a stop-action movie.

  The girls assaulting Walter with metal bars. Her frantic race across the sand. Finding the locked doors. The man dragging Nell toward her. Nell so hurt.

  Kate’s attempt to hurt Walter. His easy deflection of her frantic attack.

  Limping and injured, he’d managed to drag her and Nell up the ramp, through the locked doors, and out into a newly hellish landscape of towering grass-covered silos and a field covered by a grid of what looked like hundreds of small black manholes.

  Finally he took them to this squat building with a strange pyramid on top.

  He had dumped Kate here in this room and then took Nell away.

  For a long moment she stared at her surroundings, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.

  Thousands of hieroglyphs decorated every inch of wall space. Even the low ceiling was covered with some kind of hieroglyphic chart.

  Planks of wood covered where there used to be windows.

  She turned in a circle, noticing piles of junk pushed into the corners like someone was cleaning the place. The detritus looked old-fashioned, maybe from the 1950s or even older.

  By far the most confusing thing was the rough wooden sarcophagus at the very center of the room. A long time ago she’d gone on a field trip to the Natural History Museum and recognized it as Egyptian.

  Between the sarcophagus and the hieroglyphs on the wall, she wondered if she’d been taken to Egypt somehow. Was she being trafficked? Had she passed out or been drugged and taken far from home?

  Kate’s thoughts felt foggy. Slow.

  A deep ceramic basin full of water sat at the foot of the sarcophagus. The sight of water made her realize that she was desperately thirsty.

  Dry-mouthed, Kate scrambled to the water and scooped it greedily to her mouth until she felt her belly swell uncomfortably.

  How long had it been since she’d eaten?

  She pictured the rest of the girls still trapped on that damned bus. Were they even still alive?

  Worn out from the intensity of everything, Kate just wanted to lie down in this place that felt like a surreal nightmare.

  Forcing herself to refocus, Kate remembered that she was supposed to run and find help.

  Kate had a job to do and so, instead of lying down, she began to look around for a way to escape.

  FAIRFAX HOSPITAL, FALLS CHURCH, VA

  The annoying rhythmic beeping forced Sayer to groggily open her eyes so she coul
d shoot whatever was making the noise.

  Bright morning sun shone through the window as the hospital room came into view. She frowned, cracking her dry lips at the corners.

  “She lives!” Ezra hovered over her, bright blue eyes scrunched with worry.

  “She does,” Sayer said softly.

  A steady thumping against her leg made her realize that Vesper was lying next to her. His tail wagged faster as she tried to sit up.

  “Tino?” She reached out to pull herself up and realized that her arms were tangled in wires and tubes.

  “Tino’s fine.” Ezra put a calming hand on Sayer’s shoulder as she struggled against the constraints. He pushed a button on the bed to raise the back so she could sit upright. “He’s in the next room while he gets some kind of oxygen treatment. He should be right as rain in a day or two. The vet gave Vesper a clean bill of health. He’s got minor burns on his paws, but was shielded from the worst of the smoke inside the closet.”

  Sayer pulled the clip off her finger and began working on her IV line when Ezra firmly took her hand.

  “Maybe just catch your breath before you pull a Hulk and break out of the hospital? I know you’ve got a reputation to uphold but I promise I won’t tell anyone if you actually rest for a whole minute or two.” He said it lightly, but his face was serious.

  Sayer slumped back in the bed and nodded. “Fine. What happened? I woke up the neighbors. The fire engines arrived. But then they made me get in the damn ambulance.”

  Ezra let go of her hand and eyed her for a long moment to make sure she wasn’t going to keep pulling off wires and tubes. When she didn’t move, he lowered himself into the chair next to the bed. He propped his cane against the railing and let out a deep sigh. “Everyone is fine. Your neighbors all made it out safely. Your town house is a total loss. The units on either side have some damage but nothing catastrophic.”

  As the events of the fire came back to her, Sayer remembered the concentration of flame just outside her door. “Someone set that fire. They didn’t want me to survive.”

  Ezra held up a cup of water with a bendy straw. Sayer frowned again, but nodded and took a long gulp.

  “The arson investigator agrees. And obviously someone tied up Tino. This has gone from intimidation to attempted murder.” Ezra fussed over her blanket.

  Sayer realized that his face was drawn with emotion.

  “Hey.” She stopped him from tucking in the blanket. “I’m really fine.”

  Ezra nodded curtly. “I know. The doctor says you’ll probably have a little lung inflammation and you have a bruised rib, but otherwise you’re completely unharmed. You’ll be free to leave once the doctors do one more check on your vitals.”

  She remembered trying to drag Tino through the burning apartment. Then the shadowy figure. “There was a man…” Sayer tried to picture him. “He helped me get Tino out, but I didn’t get a good look at him. And then he just took off.”

  “We’ve got a description from a neighbor of an adult male wearing a baseball cap, but that’s all,” Ezra said, watching Sayer closely.

  She didn’t respond. Too many thoughts vied for her attention. The car following her. The false witness and the fake FBI agent. The guardian angel at the Hearing Voices Institute. And now this. “We need to figure out if all of this is connected to the Windsor case, or if I’ve got a target on my back for a different reason,” she finally said. “This could be related to Subject 037 instead.”

  “Agreed. Subject 037 has always felt dangerously obsessed to me. You think he’s the one trying to kill you, or the one saving you?”

  Sayer shrugged. “I think he’s keeping an eye on me, but I have no clue why.”

  “Well, we can figure that all out eventually. Maybe you’ll rest for a bit first?”

  But Sayer was already pushing the call button. She wanted the doctor to come give her a checkup so she could get back to Quantico and start figuring things out.

  “Or maybe not.” Ezra threw up his hands, but he smiled at her string of curses as she removed the tubes and wires.

  Freed from everything, Sayer looked around for her phone and realized that it was gone in the fire.

  Ezra held up a new phone. “Figured you would need a new one. It’s all set up, linked to your old number.”

  She turned on the phone just as it rang.

  “Agent Altair,” she barked and regretted the way her throat burned from the sharpness in her voice.

  “Sayer,” Subject 037 said with clear pleasure. “I’m so glad you and your beloved little family are okay.”

  “I’m in no mood—”

  Subject 037 interrupted her, “I’m calling because I have information I think you’ll want.”

  “Go on,” Sayer said reluctantly. She didn’t want help from 037, but she also wasn’t about to turn down information that could help her save the missing girls.

  “I’ve found Luke Windsor for you,” he said with a purr, “and I can tell you where he is right now.”

  TINO’S ROOM, FAIRFAX HOSPITAL, FALLS CHURCH, VA

  Sayer called her team so they could confirm what 037 told her. After filling them in, she rinsed the layer of ash off her body in the hospital bathroom, threw on the extra clothes Ezra brought from her locker at Quantico, and hurriedly stopped by to check on Tino.

  Between his double black eyes and the oxygen mask, Tino looked haggard, a word she never would’ve expected to use for the bristling, sturdy man. But he must’ve heard her approach and he opened his eyes. They sparkled at Sayer and Vesper.

  “Well, aren’t you just taking the brunt of this case?” Sayer said, squeezing his hand.

  He let out a breathy wheeze that might have been a laugh. He started to remove his mask and Sayer put a gentle hand on his.

  “Did you recognize your attacker? You can just nod yes if you can’t talk.”

  Tino waved her off and pulled off the mask. “Didn’t recognize. Bandana over face, hat on, average height. Something else I need to tell you.”

  “What is it?” Sayer’s stomach turned at the serious look on Tino’s face.

  “I know you’re in the middle of a big case, but considering the fire, my big question just became more pressing.” Tino paused to take a few rattling breaths. “Sorry.”

  Despite her desire to rush to catch Windsor, she wasn’t about to act on unconfirmed intelligence again. Plus, she wasn’t even sure if Windsor was their unsub anymore. She could spare some time for something that was clearly very important to Tino. Sayer forced herself to sit down. “I’ve got exactly one minute.”

  “Sorry,” Tino said again, finally catching his breath. “An old friend is selling her house,” he spoke in short sentences between wheezing. “A perfect place. Guesthouse in back for you and Adi. Room for my kids. Big garden. Was going to ask you to go look before I signed. Might have gone a little overboard. Made a cash offer last night. Would be your home, too, if you’d like.”

  Sayer opened and closed her mouth a few times. “You bought a house? How much money did you make off your restaurant?” That was all she could come up with.

  Tino nodded, laugh rattling his chest again.

  Sayer leaned back in the chair and smiled. “Man, if we ever need a family motto, I think it should be, ‘We don’t fuck around.’”

  “Embroider it on a pillow.” Tino laughed, sending him into a coughing fit.

  “Aren’t we a total mess?” Sayer felt her eyes water. She wiped them dry and cleared her throat. “I’ve got to go now, but I promise I’ll go check it out as soon as I can.”

  Tino pointed to a single key on the bedside table. “Key was in my pocket. Only thing left from the apartment. A sign.”

  Sayer took the key and squeezed Tino’s hand one more time. “Sure, if you believe in that kind of ridiculous thing.”

  And with that, Sayer kissed his cheek in farewell.

  Quantico got back to her confirming 037’s tip. They checked footage from a nearby traffic camera and located a ma
n matching Luke Windsor’s description walking on the sidewalk just outside Recovery Village in Vienna, Virginia. Exactly where 037 said he would be.

  Sayer accepted Ezra’s offer of a ride and together they drove off to hopefully catch a monster.

  RECOVERY VILLAGE, VIENNA, VA

  Sayer and the SWAT commander stood next to each other, eyes riveted on the gray brick building at the end of the block. Three stories tall with bars on the windows, it was one of the dreariest places Sayer had ever seen. Even the morning sunshine and blue skies couldn’t make Recovery Village look cheerful.

  “What’s the deal?” she asked with a raspy throat.

  “It’s a court-mandated residential facility used as an alternative to jail. Includes a work program providing jobs and treatment for drug addiction. Most of the people there are homeless and often mentally ill.”

  “The residents can come and go as they please?” Sayer asked, trying to imagine Luke Windsor signing himself out to go kidnap and murder a bus full of kids and then signing himself back in afterward.

  “They get a lot of freedom, it’s one of those give-’em-responsibility-type places.” The SWAT commander clearly did not approve. “Two exits, one front, one rear, both highly secure. Normally I would want to catch our target off guard, but considering that we haven’t been able to confirm that Windsor is even inside right now, and there’s a volatile population, I think someone should go in to recon the situation before we crash through the door guns ablaze.”

  Sayer nodded. Normally SWAT was the first to knock down doors. If they wanted to be cautious, she certainly wasn’t going to disagree. “Why don’t I go in, talk to the front desk, and see if I can find out if he’s in there without raising any red flags. I’ll say it again, there’s reason to believe that the target isn’t actually our man, so go in with that in mind.”

  The SWAT lead nodded sharply. “I understand. Leave the com open. We’ll be just outside if anything goes sideways.” He handed Sayer an earpiece.

  She put it in place and wiped the sweat from her palms. Despite the cold morning, she was still shaky from the fire and her increasingly sore ribs. The scent of smoke lingered on her skin and in her hair. It occurred to her that maybe Ezra was right … it was possible that she was pushing herself too hard, but she wasn’t about to take a step back at this point in the investigation. If Windsor was their man, they could take him down, get him to tell them where the girls were, and wrap up this horrifying case in time for lunch.