“If you have access to the Internet, I’m confused,” Tank said. “I thought you wanted no part of the outside world.”
“You misunderstood me. Years ago, we’d had enough of that world. We didn’t want any part of it, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t keep on top of how it’s being destroyed by countries, governments, and corporations. You know, such as Wenn Enterprises.” He looked at Alex. “That would be you, correct?”
“I own Wenn,” Alex said. “But I’m destroying nothing.”
“Is that so?”
“It is so.”
“So, you outsource parts of your new phone to Singapore to help those who would like to have those job opportunities in the States?”
“We went out to bid. We needed specific parts to build our phone. Singapore came in as the least expensive option. The majority of our SlimPhone is made in the States. We only went to Singapore for the phone’s memory card. That’s it.”
“And because you’re a greedy bastard, you took it.”
“Are the people of Singapore not allowed to make a living?”
“Are you fucking kidding me? How much are they making per hour? Have you even considered that? You’ve fucked them over while you made a profit.”
“Since you have access to the Internet, I would suggest that you look into just how much of Wenn’s business is conducted in the States. More than eighty percent of it is made there. As for Singapore? Yes, they won the bid for a few reasons—they were less expensive, and they offered a great product.”
“Whatever, man. You’ve got a beard now, but that’s the face I saw in all those news stories about you, so you must be the great Alexander Wenn everyone is moaning about. And because we know what you’re worth, we want fifty million dollars to get you off this island.”
“Fifty million?”
“That’s right. Fifty million.”
“If I’m to come through with fifty million dollars to get us off this island, how do you expect me to proceed? And even if I did follow through in good faith, who’s to say that you will do the same?”
“I guess there’s no saying that we will. You’ll need to take our word for it.”
“What’s your word worth?”
“Fifty million dollars.”
“For fifty million, it had better be good. So, here’s the deal—at least the first part of it. You have penicillin on this island. Our friend is in critical condition and he needs help ASAP. You can help. Give us twelve shots of penicillin, and then I’ll trust you enough to take a chance on giving you that money.”
“Not happening. Money first. Then we give you the penicillin.”
“Are you sure you want to risk that?”
“The question is whether you want to. We didn’t flee the States on some whim, Mr. Wenn. We came here armed with enough money to last us for years.”
“Who is us?” Alex asked. “Your generation? Perhaps the generation after you? Regardless, at some point, that money will run out. And when it does, the third generation will suffer because of it. And then there are the generations after that. Do you care about your great-grandchildren? Your great-great-grandchildren? And those who will come after them? I know you do. Believe it or not, I think you’re probably a good man who wants to protect what he’s built here. You wouldn’t have come to us this morning otherwise.”
“We don’t need your money, buddy.”
“Long-term, I think that you do. And that’s not a judgment on my part. It’s reality. If you’ve been here for thirty years, at some point you’re going to need a fresh influx of cash. I’m happy to offer you that. But I’m not going to give it to you if you won’t help our friend. If you don’t, there’s still a good chance that we’ll be found, and then you’ll be out fifty million. Think about that for a minute. So, what’s the conclusion?”
The man thought about that for a moment before he spoke.
“How bad is Cutter now?” he asked.
“He already told you,” Tank said. “Today might be it for him. If not, then certainly by tomorrow.”
“If we bring you six shots of penicillin and agree to contact the right people to get you off this island for fifty million dollars, then we can go forward.”
“I asked for twelve shots,” Alex said.
“And I’m offering six.”
“How do we go forward?” Tank asked.
The man’s brow furrowed. “That’s where it gets complicated,” he said.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
“How does it get complicated?” Alex asked.
“The money needs to be wired to our Swiss bank account. You know how those work. We have a numbered account. Our names aren’t attached to it. Your wire won’t go to a name—it will just go to a number, which will retain our anonymity. And I think all of you know by now how important it is for us to remain anonymous. We’re here for that very reason. It’s the key to everything we’ve built for ourselves here.”
“If I give you that money, people will know that I’m alive. I’ll need to personally authorize the transfer. Do you understand that?”
“Given the amount of the wire, I do. And they’ll know exactly where you are when you make that transfer. But you’ll be calling from another island—a populated island—not this one, where your wife and your friends will remain waiting for you. If you try something stupid, you’ll die, and then they’ll die. It’s that simple. If you’re smart, you’ll wire the money, and then we’ll bring you back here. All they’ll know is that you’re alive…somewhere. Somewhere hours away from here, in fact, because reaching that island is a three-hour journey by boat.”
“Here’s my final proposal,” Alex said. “Give us the twelve shots of penicillin to get our friend through the worst of this, and then take me with you to wire you the money. Before I send it to your accounts, you will need to make a call to local authorities telling them exactly where we’re located. I’ll personally need to see and hear you make that call. Otherwise, it’s a no-go. That’s me being straight with you. You will get your money, and that money—if invested wisely—can sustain your people for decades.”
“I don’t want anyone to know that we live here.”
“If that’s the case, then how do you propose that you alert the authorities that you’ve seen us on this island?”
“All they need to receive is an anonymous call from someone who flew over the island, saw the smashed plane, and called it in because a crash in this area has been all over the news. So, here’s my concern—what if you tell them that we are here?”
“Here’s my word to you. All we want to do is save our friend, hopefully save our child, and get back home. As for the rest of you? As far as I’m concerned, you can live on this island for the rest of your lives. What does it matter to me if you do? It doesn’t, so none of us will say anything for one very good reason—you chose to help us.”
“For a financial gain.”
“Money means nothing to me if it means that we’ll soon get back to our lives in New York. Can we just be reasonable about this for a moment? All we want is the penicillin—twelve shots of it, not the six you offered earlier—and to get the hell out of here, which you can make happen. If you agree to this, I’m hardly going to undermine you. In fact, I’m only going to be grateful to you. You have the power to make a call that I can’t. But this has to happen today. Not tomorrow. Today. Everything has to happen today because Cutter is fading fast. Soon, they’ll be searching for us again. A rescue helicopter will be equipped with everything he needs to keep him alive. So, take me to the bank, make the call, and I’ll wire the money. Then, you can bring me back here, and we’ll be out of your lives when they come for us. I don’t care about the money. I’m serious about that. It’s just money. All I want is our lives back. Are we understood?”
“Actually, I’m uneasy. What if you pull something on the phone at the bank? What if you expose us?”
“Are you even listening to me? Do you really think I’m going to jeopardize our
welfare by making a stupid decision like that? I get it. You will kill all of us if I don’t transfer that money. I know that you will. So, make your decision, do it now, and be wise about it. You can use the money to secure your futures going forward. To make sure the funds have been transferred, all you’d need to do is make a call to your bank to see if it went through. It’ll be there. And with that, we’ll be square. I will have come through with my end of the deal, and you already will have come through with your end of the deal because you’ll make that call to authorities just before I transfer the money. If the money isn’t there, then feel free to kill all of us. Does that sound serious enough to you?”
It was a long moment before the man spoke, but when he did, all he said were five words: “Fine. You’ve got a deal.”
“Just to be clear—because I feel I need to be very clear with you before we leave—I’ll go on that boat with you, but you’ll make the call to the authorities just before I enter the bank. And you’ll also come through with the penicillin before we leave. Agreed?”
“We’re in agreement,” the man said. He lifted his rifle at him, nodded at one of his men, and turned to Alex. “But not before you’re patted down.”
It was then that I saw the genius Tank had displayed in the hut—disarm Alex in case anything like this happened so we could keep the knife for ourselves.
“He’s clean,” the younger man said when he was finished with Alex.
“Great,” the older man said. “So, let’s go.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
“Not before I have a word with my wife,” Alex said.
“Why?”
“Because if you pull something on me and I don’t return or see her again, I have plenty to say to her.”
“You’ll see her again. And then all of you will get the hell out of here.”
“I still want a word with her—in private.”
“Ten minutes.”
“In the meantime, I suggest you use that time to get the penicillin,” Alex said. “Because we’re not leaving here without it.”
“That will take longer than ten minutes.”
“Then one of your men needs to hurry up and get it. Because I’m giving you nothing without it. I can promise you that.”
Reluctantly, the man turned to the same man who had patted Alex down, and told him to get twelve rounds of the drug. I saw this as a positive sign, especially when the young man ran away from us down the beach past our ruined plane, and cut out of sight as he sliced into the jungle.
When he was gone, Alex turned around, took me by the hand, and led me just far enough away so no one could hear us when we spoke.
I was shaking as we walked toward the ocean. My heart was beating so hard after their exchange, I felt faint at what might happen to Alex without me there to protect him. Or Tank. Especially Tank. My husband was about to go into this alone, and the thought of it terrified me. I couldn’t imagine my life without him, and here he was, willing to put his life on the line for all of us.
“I’m scared,” I said when we were far enough away from them.
“Don’t be. They want the money. I have a feeling they need it. They’ve already caved to one demand—the drugs. That says it all to me.”
“But what if they don’t make that call? Or if for some reason, you have trouble coming through with the money? They’ll kill you.”
“They won’t do it there. They’ll give the money time to show up in their account. If it fails to go through the first time, they’ll have me try again. They’re not going to be so quick to just walk away from that kind of cash. Don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry? Are you serious? You’re my life. I don’t want you to do this.”
“We’ve been here for nearly two weeks, Jennifer, and no one has found us yet. It’s time to take a risk. Don’t think that I’m taking any of this lightly. But I do know this—it’s time to at least take a chance on something that actually might get us out of here, as opposed to doing nothing at all.”
“How are you planning on handling this?”
“I’ll call Ann. She’ll know it’s me the moment she hears my voice. She has the authority to transfer whatever funds I need transferred, so she’ll take care of the rest. The entire process should take no longer than fifteen minutes. But I won’t do any of it if they don’t alert the authorities of our location first.”
“And what if they don’t?”
“Then they won’t get a dime from me.”
“If you fight them, they might kill you for that.”
“We’re going to an island large enough to have a bank. If they try anything there, I’ll call them out in front of everyone—and don’t think that they don’t already know that. Or expect it. With any luck, we can save Cutter. With some more luck, we might be out of here by tonight.”
“All of this could go wrong in ways that none of us see coming. Have you even considered the thought that they might kidnap you and hold you for ransom for more money?”
That caused him to pause.
“It’s a possibility,” I said. “Why don’t you insist on taking one of us with you? Tank will go with you. I know that he will.”
“You need Tank here in case the others on this island try something when I’m away.”
“What are one gun and one knife going to do for us against all of them? We’re screwed either way.” And at that, I reached out and held him. And kissed him. “I’m trying to be strong, but I’m frightened. If anything happens to you, I won’t be able to bear life without you. You have to make this work, Alex. You need to come back to me. And to our child, should we be fortunate enough to still have a child. And to our future together. This can’t be it for us. It can’t!”
I was so emotional, he held me more tightly than he ever had. He kissed me hard on the mouth, and when he did, his beard prickled against my skin. I sank into his embrace as if this was it for us. This could be the last time that I had my husband’s arms around me, and the very idea of it wrecked me to the point that I was nearly inconsolable. For whatever reason, I started to cry, and that cry turned into a heaving release of all of the fear and anger that was inside of me.
“Stop,” he said.
“How can I stop? Look at what I’m facing. Look at what I might lose.”
“You need to trust in me. When have I ever let you down?”
I wiped the tears from my eyes, took a breath, and then just looked at him. “When we first met, there was that time on the dance floor, when we were on our first pseudo ‘date.’ You remember that night? You went berserk on me.”
He smiled at that, and his smile was so warm, it was enough to bring me back into the moment. “That’s because I was crazy about you, and I didn’t know how to process it. You surprised me. You continue to surprise me. And you will go on surprising me.”
I did my best to pull myself together, but I couldn’t. I just held him again, not wanting to let go because, in my heart, I was afraid that this might be it for us. Who were these men? What might they do to him? For several moments, we just stood there together, holding each other and absorbing each other’s energy as if this could be our last moment together—our most important moment together. Neither of us knew what was ahead of us, but I did know this—I had serious doubts about this group’s intentions when it came to my husband.
“Listen to me,” I said when we parted. “If there are banks on that island, then there must be a drug store. I need you to do something for me. For us.”
He furrowed his brow at me. “What?” he said.
“I need you to buy me two pregnancy tests.”
“Jennifer—”
“I need to know,” I said. “I need to be able to either accept the loss and grieve it, or swell with relief that somehow, the baby survived the crash, and we’re still pregnant. I can’t wait until we get home. Not knowing is eating me alive inside. I’m sure it’s doing the same thing to you. I’m trying my best not to let the depth of it show, but I can’t hold up
that facade much longer. I need to know. You need to know. Right now, we have an opportunity to know. A test will answer those questions.”
“Presuming I can even find a test on that island, how accurate will it be? Was it made in the States? Was it made in some third-world country? How much weight are we to put on such a test?”
“Those tests have been around for years. It isn’t rocket science. They all use the same methods to predict whether or not you’re pregnant. Whatever you find will be accurate. So please? Do this for me? I need an answer. I need to know so both of us can move on—however this works out.”
“I’ll find you one.”
“Two. You’ll find me two. We need to make sure.”
“All right,” he said gently. “I don’t know what’s on that island, but I’ll try to find you two.”
“I love you so much. It’s killing me that they’re taking you from me.”
“And here’s how much I love you,” he said. “I’m going to win this game. They’ll make that call. They’ll get their money. And then we’re getting off this island.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
When we returned to the group, fifteen minutes had passed, and it took the young man who went for the drugs another ten minutes to return with them. When he did, he gave them to the elder man, who counted the syringes before coming forward and handing them to Alex, who then gave them to Tank.
“You got your drugs,” the man said. “Now, give us our money.”
“I have a question,” I said.
“What question?”
“How long will you be gone?”
“I’ve already told you. It takes three hours to get to the island. I imagine we’ll be there for about an hour. Then, it’s another three hours to return. You’ll have your man back well before the sun sets. Don’t worry about it.”
“That’s the thing—I am worried about it.”
Annihilate Me 2: Omnibus (Complete Vols. 1-3, Annihilate Me 2) Page 34
