Ayrie: An Auxem Novel

by Lisa Lace

  Farrell's location ended up being a big warehouse. As we approached it, we created an action plan.

  "I'll just see how the situation appears. I'm not going to make any attempt to get the kids right now. If I get confirmation they're here, then I'll set something up with my superior. I've activated my tracker so that if anything happens to me, you'll know where I am. It will record what I hear. I might be able to get some evidence against Harrington. You should go home, Sam."

  "You're sending me away?" I asked, confused.

  "Back to the hotel, whatever. I guess it's not like we have a home together."

  His words stung, but I let the comment pass. "I'm not leaving you," I said. I tried to make my voice firm.

  He looked annoyed. I thought I saw a glimmer of worry in his eyes. "Sam, you're an untrained civilian. It's a bad idea for you to come into a dangerous situation with me."

  "What if you need help? You'll be by yourself."

  He didn't waver at all when I expressed my concern. He shook his head at me.

  "Or what if Harrington sends someone to grab your unprotected wife? I'll need help. You won't be around."

  That made him question himself.

  "We'll stick together. I won't get in your way. If either one of us needs help, we can give the other a hand," I said.

  I was prepared to do whatever it took to prevent his job from consuming his life again. I needed him. I wasn't going to let him disappear on me.

  "Sam, I didn't mean that I would literally disappear. That's unlikely to happen."

  "Are you telling me you can't be kidnapped or killed in action?"

  "Of course I can't tell you that."

  "Then I'm coming with you," I said, trying to sound like it was a done deal. "You saw me back there with Farrell. I have skills."

  "You have a point," he said. "Fine, you can come with me. At the first sign of trouble, you have to go and save yourself. And I'm only letting you come because it's not an assignment, we're just doing a bit of reconnaissance."

  I nodded. Fair enough.

  "Let's get in there," he said, walking away from the big warehouse.

  "Where are you going?" I said, following him back down the street.

  He ducked into an alley and leaned over, lifting a round manhole cover.

  "That does not look pleasant," I said, fear twisting my guts.

  "Get in, Sam. You wanted to come with me, didn't you?" he said innocently.

  I wanted to grind my teeth together or smack him or both. But he was right. Did I want to go with him or not? Just because we had to go in through a small, dark hole in the ground shouldn't stop me.

  "You can go home now," he said. "I wouldn't think less of you."

  How could I go home after that? He wouldn't think less of me, but he wouldn't think more of me, either. If I could do this, maybe I wouldn't seem like poor white trash to him anymore. Maybe what really was holding him back from being with me wasn't his job. Maybe it was his aversion to low-class, poor people.

  I hoped he didn't still think that about me. I was so bewildered by all his lies at this point that I wasn't sure about anything. Most of the deception was not directed at me, but it was still confusing. It was hard to know what was real and what wasn't. He was authentic during our time together on the island. I was certain of that, at least. But the island was becoming a distant memory.

  I stared at the black hole in the ground and tried to swallow my fear. I had always been nervous about going into small spaces. One summer, there had been construction work on our street. I wasn't careful and fell into a hole.

  It seemed like I was trapped in there forever until someone heard my desperate screams and pulled me out. Since then I've had a fear, bordering on a phobia, of enclosed spaces. When I had to crawl through a hole in the ground to escape Harrington's men, it hadn't helped. If anything, it amplified the fear.

  Jori's laughing smile fell from his face.

  "Sam, seriously. You don't have to do this. Don't worry about me. I'll be okay. I'll be home in a couple of hours. Hey," he said, lifting my chin so I was forced to look at him and couldn't stare into the manhole any longer. "You don't have to prove anything. Not to me."

  I felt my heart swoon. I was falling for Jori, and I couldn't seem to stop myself, especially when he said sweet things like that.

  "But I have to go, Samantha."

  "No." That got me out of my trance. "Don't leave me."

  "I won't leave you, Sammy." He stared into my eyes now and held both my hands. "Ever. Not if I can help it."

  I felt like I couldn't breathe. He kissed me softly on the lips. Then he nodded at me and let go of one of my hands.

  "I'll hold your hand. I'll be right here. It's bigger than it looks once you get down there."

  I nodded, scared out of my mind and unable to think. Jori wouldn't let me go. That's all that mattered. I sat down on the edge of the hole with my legs dangling down into the blackness. The fear rose up and threatened to suffocate me but I focused on the feeling of Jori's hand in mine, and I jumped.

  I landed with a crunch. I couldn't see how far down it was and collapsed when one of my ankles gave out. I scrambled to my feet immediately even though my ankle was hurting. I didn't know what might be on the ground.

  An instant later, Jori's powerful form dropped down beside me. He had a flashlight on his wrist, and he shone it around, looking for me.

  "Sam? Are you okay?" he said when he reached me.

  "I'm fine." I tried to breathe slowly and deeply. It wasn't working. Taking shallow gasping breaths was the only way I could get air into my lungs.

  "You're not okay. I'm going to lift you out of here. You can't come with me. I want you with me, but you're frightened. You won't be able to help me if you're panicking."

  I knew he was right. At that moment, we heard voices in the street. Jori checked his computer.

  "I'm sure they are Harrington's men. We have some of them bugged so we can track their locations. You have to come with me now, Sam."

  I nodded quickly. I needed to pull myself together.

  He took out a gun. The sight of the weapon scared me more than being underground. We proceeded into the darkness.

  The tunnel system that crisscrossed the city was part of the first Vandwan monarchy's emergency escape route. Engineers reappropriated them in modern times and used them as fire exits for all the buildings in the district. Vandwans built this city on natural land. Jori had told me a bit about the history at lunch.

  We climbed out. It had been a short walk to the warehouse, but it took us hours to search it completely.

  "This is the last storeroom," Jori said, shining his light in a small window. "They must be in here."

  For my part, I was glad it was the final one. I knew it was wrong, but I almost hoped we didn't find anyone. I was exhausted and wanted to go back to the hotel, lie down beside Jori, and sleep.

  How selfish was that?

  He picked the lock again, just like he had for the last fifteen rooms, and opened the door quietly. He swept the beam of his flashlight around the small room. We didn't see anything. He went in, and I followed to help him search. We looked in every nook and cranny where a child could hide.

  Nothing.

  Jori couldn't believe it. "They're not here. Farrell lied to us."

  "He may have made a mistake," I said.

  "Farrell's never wrong," Jori said. "We're missing something."

  "Why aren't they guarded if they're here? Who's watching these children?" I asked. The complete absence of people had bothered me as soon as we arrived. Why weren't there a bunch of guards to stop us? For all we could tell, we were in an empty warehouse.

  "What if this building is like Farrell's house and has a private, concealed section?"

  "If that were the case, the outside wouldn't match up with the inside," I said. I closed my eyes to picture the length of the building from the exterior. I stepped out of the storeroom back into the open main room filled with enorm
ous shelving. I estimated the dimensions of the room and Jori was doing the same thing.

  "It's definitely shorter," he said. "Do you agree?"

  I nodded. It was.

  We explored the north wall, pushing at all the bolts, running our hands along the beams, searching for some way to release a latch or reveal a door. I wasn't tired any longer. Now we had an idea of where to look. But when we had searched all along the massive wall, and we hadn't found anything, I became discouraged again.

  "If you were hiding children in a secret space in a warehouse..." Jori said, pacing back and forth.

  God, he was handsome. I tried to keep my mind on what he was saying.

  "Where would you put them?" he said, running his hands through his hair and making it stand on end.

  "Children, even if you're making them quiet, are probably going to be quite noisy."

  "Yeah."

  "How many are being held here?"

  "Fifty or sixty? We're not sure."

  "That many kids would be loud, even if they're scared and being as quiet as possible. And what about when they have to use the bathroom and eat?"

  His eyes darted all the place. "Wait a minute," I said. "Does this place have a basement?"

  Jori's eyes lit up. He pulled up a schematic of the building on his computer. He smiled at me and headed for the corner. I followed, trying to keep up with his pace, but he was moving quickly. When we got there, we found a trap door. Did we have to go into another hole in the ground? He opened it carefully, and we saw a ladder going down. Jori was on it in a moment and disappeared.

  "Come on," I heard him whisper from below me.

  I didn't want to go in, but I knew how to give myself the courage to move. I pulled up a memory of one of our kisses and held it firmly in my mind. Then I climbed down. I was afraid, but I did it. The sense of satisfaction I felt afterward was indescribable. I jumped from the ladder into his arms. He squeezed me tightly, then released me. Maybe I was starting to overcome my fears.

  "There's a light up ahead, so we need to be careful," he said as we moved into the passageway.

  The place seemed abandoned, but some noises told me there were people here. Jori spotted the door first. He checked it and had it open before I reached him.

  As soon as he went through, I knew we had found them because there was a chorus of soft voices asking him a million questions.

  "Be quiet." A little girl, about eight years old, shushed all the children and stepped forward as the spokesperson for the group. "Are you here to rescue us?"

  "Why would you think that?" Jori said. His eyes were lit up with happiness to see the children alive and unhurt.

  "Because you're sneaking in. You wouldn't sneak in if you worked for the bad guys."

  "You're right," I said. "We're here to get you out."

  We heard a new noise in the corridor.

  "Quick," the little girl said, shutting the door. "Come in here and hide."

  We were in yet another storeroom that had large, sturdy shelves on three out of the four walls. Our new friend pushed me down and motioned for me to climb onto the bottom of a shelf. Other children had done the same for Jori.

  "Some of you stand in front of them. If they ask what we're doing, say we're playing a new game."

  The children quietly waited. The door opened again, and a man's voice spoke.

  "What are you doing in there?" he asked.

  "We're playing with each other," said the little girl.

  The man snorted. "Go to sleep," he said.

  "Yes, sir," the little girl answered.

  The guard shut the door again.

  After a minute, the kids moved away from us. We sat up.

  "I'm Sam," I whispered. "And this is Jori. We're going to make sure you get back to your parents."

  "My name's Maria," the little girl said. "What's the plan? I'll tell everyone what we're going to do."

  Chapter Eighteen

  JORI

  It was so easy to get the children out that I almost couldn't believe it. Maria told us that there were only a couple guards. Sam and I took them out, tying them up in one of the rooms. We led the first of the children back to the warehouse and out the passageway to the manhole.

  Police were waiting for us when we arrived. I had contacted my senior the moment we had the guards tied up. They took the kids to the police station. The police would reunite the parents with their children. I knew I was going to get an earful from Mara, my supervisor, about not calling for assistance, but I didn't care. I was glad the kids were all safe and didn't want to make anyone wait longer to see their family.

  "I'll be right back," I told Sam. "I'm going to make sure everyone's out."

  "I'll come with you," Maria piped up. "I know where they would hide if they were afraid."

  "No, sweetie, you have to leave now," I told her.

  "But…"

  "She has a point, Jori," Sam said. "I'll come too."

  I tried not to be irritated. They both wanted to help, after all. It turned out to be an excellent idea to let Maria assist me because she found a small child curled up and sound asleep. He was in a large packing crate stacked in a corner of a room.

  "It's one of the little ones' favorite places to play. We don't have bedtimes here, so sometimes they will fall asleep in the middle of playing if they stayed up late the night before. They lie down and will be out in seconds." She smiled and shrugged. "It's cute."

  I picked up the little boy and carried him with me. When we approached the manhole, we heard scuffling behind us. I glanced at Sam. Had the guards freed themselves already?

  "Here, give him to me," Maria said, holding out her arms. "I know you need to go back and see what that is. I'll make sure he gets out. Don't worry."

  "I'm not worried," I told Maria, handing the little boy to the clever girl. He wrapped his arms and legs around her, laying his head on her shoulder. She held him close, carrying him easily.

  "Just get out safely, okay?" she said. "And thank you. You saved us. You're heroes."

  Maria turned and walked away.

  Samantha and I stared at each other for a moment. Heroes?

  I pulled out my gun again. We moved quickly back down the passageway. I thought about telling her to leave, but she would argue with me. I didn't have time for that. If we could only get something on Harrington, we could stop him permanently. It wasn't enough to save this batch of kids. I wanted to arrest him so he couldn't do this to anyone else ever again.

  When we made our way back through the warehouse and down the stairs, I thought again about making Sam stay behind. Having my gun out made me feel secure but it also made me feel nervous. I knew I wouldn't be able to stand it if anything happened to her. I had a feeling she wouldn't stay, so the next best place to have her was right next to me where I could protect her.

  As we arrived in a corridor, I realized that we were in big trouble.

  I wished with all my heart that I had convinced Sam to stay behind. I knew it was a mistake to let her come with me. Stupid.

  The two guards we had tied up were free and had brought their friends. The hallway was full of intimidating figures with guns. I didn't know where they came from, but it didn't matter.

  I started moving backward. They had not seen us yet. Then I tripped over something and fell on the metal railing of the stairs, which made a loud clang when my gun hit it. Immediately, they all turned their heads to look at us. All I saw were guns trained on Sam and me. There was no chance that we could evade capture, so I put my gun down on the floor and kicked it over to them. Then I put my hands in the air.

  "Don't fire," I said. "We surrender."

  "Ah, Lachlan," Harrington said. "We meet again."

  I didn't say anything. Some guards had escorted us to his luxurious offices and forced us to sit on the couch. Everything appeared civilized and aboveboard. The only unusual thing in sight was three armed guards stationed around the room. Otherwise, we might have been visiting him for tea.
/>   "You've stolen my children," he said.

  "First of all, they're not yours. And I returned them to their parents," I said, breaking my silence. "You were the one who stole them."

  "Yes, I suppose you could say that. I was just trying to give them a chance at a better life."

  "And yourself a chance at billions of credits," I said, rolling my eyes in disgust.

  "Some people need those children," he said, frowning at me. "Those people will be able to give them lifestyles they would never have known if they had stayed with their parents. Most of these children are refugees. Their parents can barely feed them. Forget about giving them clothes and toys, or providing for their education."

  I scowled at him.

  "Just because they can't provide those sorts of things doesn't mean they deserve to have their children abducted. Those kids have parents who love them. You can't buy love. There is no substitute for a child's mother and father, Harrington."

  The old man waved his hand in a dismissive motion.

  "Your sentiments are childish. They will have had every material thing they can dream of."

  "Except the only things they desire. Their mother and father," I said, remembering my mom. I would have given away every toy I owned, gone around in rags, and slept on the ground every night if it meant I could have my mother with me.

  "You don't know what you're talking about, boy. You will regret having meddled in my business."

  "No, Harrington, you're wrong," I said. "I will never regret having helped reunite families."

  He glared at me and looked at his men. "Lock them up," he said. The guards moved towards us.

  For a prison, this place was pretty nice, even though Sam had to sit on the floor. I knew from experience. We were in one of Harrington's spare rooms. There was no furniture, but there was thick carpet on the floor, and it was clean. There was even an attached bathroom. I imagined we would only be here a little while until he took us somewhere unpleasant.

  Bars were on the windows. The bars were the only thing destroying the illusion we had moved into our first house together and didn't have any furniture yet. That's what I was pretending in my mind. It was better than facing reality. I had let Sam get captured by one of the biggest criminals on Vandwa. And I felt awful.