Mom shook her head. I felt her chin scrape the top of my head with each shake.
“Why didn’t you just go home?” I asked.
“Hey, times’ tough. This place is filled with food, supplies, plenty a stuff to last for months. I figured I’d squat here in the middle of the building and just use everything up ‘til it’s gone. Doesn’t seem like anybody’s gonna be needin’ it any time soon.” He rubbed his hand against his chin, and the scraping sound made me squirm.
“Why do you stay in a classroom? Why not one with an actual bed? There has to be dormitories around here somewhere.”
Harlow pointed around him. “See? No windows. I can’t see out, but no one else can see in either.”
Mom finally spoke. “But the children can’t just be GONE. And what is this place? This isn’t somewhere fit for children at all. What happened?” She sounded frantic. I’d heard her sound angry, sad, happy, but not frantic. Saying that seeing her like that made me uncomfortable would be an understatement.
Harlow laughed again. “Look, lady, I don’t know where you come from, but ain’t nothin’ new and different about this school. This is how they all are. All of them.”
Mom’s knees buckled again. It didn’t get any easier each time she heard the children were gone. Bo and I had to grab each of her arms to keep her standing. “That can’t be.”
Harlow rose from his chair. “Yeah, at first there was some decorations. Good staff too. But there were just too many.”
“Too many what?” Bo asked.
“Children.”
Mom’s legs buckled completely, and before we could tighten our grips she slid to the ground. “No…it can’t…”
Harlow continued. “They just kept bringing more of them. Everything was fine when it was just the children of those druggies, drunks, and whatnot. But then they started bringin’ in kids whose parents committed crimes all the way back when they was teenagers. I mean, who didn’t shoplift a thing or two when they was teenagers? Then it was the kids whose parents were in too much debt. Then there were the ones whose parents was out of work for too long. Got so bad, there was kids who were in here who said their parents just hadn’t paid their parkin’ tickets. Whether that last part was true, I dunno. But the school had to cut somewhere. So first the decorations went. Then the computers. Then the really good teachers left so the councilors had to do everything. Then, one day, the children were gone too.”
A sob escaped from Mom’s lips. “What have I done?”
Bo helped Mom to the corner of the room and sat her down in one of the desks. He knelt next to her and just played with her hair as she cried, holding her hand the whole time.
I stayed with Cain and Jordyn. Jordyn moved closer to Harlow. “Harlow, I need to know if you remember two twin boys. We have reason to believe they were here. Brown hair, big brown eyes.”
Harlow ran his hand over the stubble on his chin. “Yes, I seem to remember some twin boys. They was here.”
Jordyn’s eyes twinkled. “Where do you think they would have taken them?”
“They had a filing system. That’ll tell ya. I know where the files might be. Aren’t in the security office, but I know where they probably are.”
Jordyn grabbed his hands in hers. “Please, tell us where to look.”
Harlow smiled. He removed his hand from Jordyn’s grasp and brushed her cheek. The way he towered over her made me feel lightheaded. I had seen that same smile before: on Olivia’s father’s face, then on Carl’s. “I think we may be able to come up with an arrangement.” Something bubbled up from my stomach and into my mouth that tasted like bile and tuna fish when she nodded. She took his hand and told us to leave.
“NO! You’re not doing that!” Mom sprang back to life, kicking desks out of her path as she made her way back to Jordyn. She slapped Harlow’s hand from Jordyn’s and looked her square in the eyes. “You can’t do this. Please. I can’t let you. Not today.” I held my breath.
Jordyn hesitated, but looked at Cain. He reassured her. “We’ll just have to find out where they are ourselves. This place isn’t that big.” Jordyn smiled. “Deal’s off.”
Cain told Harlow that we were going to stay the night in one of the dorm rooms around the corner. We followed Cain toward the door. Harlow grinned. “Suit yourself. But you’ll never find those files without my help.” He winked at Jordyn. I managed to meet his eye and glared back at him.
When we found a room to sleep in, Jordyn spoke up again. “He’s right, you know. We don’t have time to find those files ourselves.”
Cain squeezed her shoulder. “We’ll figure it out in the morning, I promise. He’s not going to keep them from us.”
Jordyn nodded, but I could tell she didn’t mean it. She stared off into the corner of the room, looking at God knows what.
I went up to her and took her hand in both of mine. “We’ll find them.”
The dorm room held a series of bunk beds. The stiff blankets reminded me of the cots we slept on in Cain and Jordyn’s hideout. I took the bottom bunk and Mom took the top. I don’t like heights. I wasn’t afraid of much, but put me on the top bunk and I’d freak—break out in sweat and everything. Jordyn was on the top bunk in the one next to us, with Cain on the bottom. I felt more at ease with him right next to us, but what Jordyn said about the files kept replaying through my mind, and my eyes refused to shut. Bo slept in the bottom bed of a third bunk, closest to the door.
Everyone snored around me, especially Bo. He sounded like a semi-truck barreling down the freeway. Sometimes he just made a gentle hum, but not that night. How anyone else was asleep, I had no idea. So I used my downtime to try and think how we were going to find those files. Jordyn wouldn’t want to leave without following that lead on her brothers, and I didn’t want her to change her mind about saying no to Harlow’s arrangement. Harlow seemed very proud of himself: “You’ll never find the files without my help.”
You’ll never find the files without my help.
…without my help.
I sat up straight in bed. I knew exactly where the files were.
I liked to think of myself as somewhat of a spy, a secret-hunter if you will. I knew my dad was going to file for divorce before he left us. He didn’t tell me, but I found the papers when I was looking for the tootsie roll stash that he thought I didn’t know about. The papers were right next to it in his office drawer.
I slid out of the blankets and put my feet on the floor. My favorite wool socks were still on my feet, so I was able to slide out of the room without waking anyone. The hallway was pitch black, but once my eyes got used to the dark, I could see little bits of light illuminating my way.
My plan was to be in and out before Harlow woke up. I would creep into his room. Sure, he would probably have the files close to him, but I could slip the files out of the room no problem. I thought I was that good. Cain had even noticed how quiet I could be. That had to count for something.
I slowly opened the door and peered inside. I could barely see without any windows to allow in moonlight, but I could make out a human-looking lump on the ground, covered with a blanket. Snoring came from that direction. I thought it would be easy. I crept closer.
Looking down at his sleeping face, I tried to see if there were files hidden under his pillow. I thought something so important he would bargain with would be on him while he slept. I was wrong. There was nothing under his pillow except hard concrete floor.
He didn’t stir, just steadily breathed in and out, his blanket vibrating slightly with each breath. I looked around to see if there was maybe another place in the room where he could have stashed the files. There was a cabinet on the other side of the room that looked like a file cabinet. Would that be too obvious? It was too tempting not to take a look. Just in case.
I tiptoed between the rows of desks, being careful not to hit any of their legs with my feet. The cabinet was a dark gray metal, and I stared at it long and hard, trying to figure out how to open it without its
drawers clanging and giving me away. It seemed to look back at me, daring me to press on. My fingers gently touched the handle, and I inhaled as I found the strength to pull.
The same hand that had covered my mouth earlier sealed it again, and I found myself trapped in Harlow’s arms once more. I kicked at the file cabinet, but he swung me around and my legs ended up smashing into several desks instead. He somehow managed to fold my own arms around my stomach like a strait-jacket. Warm air drifted across my cheek when he leaned in and whispered in my ear.
“Shhh…”
CHAPTER EIGHT
I started drowning. Of course I’d never drowned before, but it felt like how I imagined drowning would feel like: the ticking clock, the crushing feeling on my chest, the realization that I only had seconds to make the right decisions at exactly the right time or it would be all over and I would be lost.
His body stole my air. I thrashed around as hard as I could, but I only managed to move one arm from his tight grasp. I tried to recall flashes of moments where Mom and I took a self-defense class. Key words surged through my mind. Eyes. Throat. Nose. Groin. Though our instructors never actually had us practice trying to hit those sweet spots with a two-hundred-pound man on top of us.
Mom, where are you?
I used the arm I managed to break free to reach over and swept a lamp onto the floor with a loud smash. I hoped it was loud enough to signal to the others that I was in trouble. But I was swallowed back up. And my body was losing strength by the second.
Please help me…
Lying face up on his blankets, even in the darkness I could see the glossy rage in his eyes. His dry, cracked hand fumbled at my zipper while he kept the other glued over my mouth, and he threw the weight of his body on top of me so I couldn’t move. I dug my fingernails as hard as I could into the hand that tried to undress me, but it kept coming. I tried so hard, but I couldn’t breathe. My muscles ached. My knee found his groin, but what I wanted to be a swift strike came out a soft tap. His eyes hardened with every breath, and the heat from his lungs burned my skin. Muffled words escaped his lips. Nothing that I could understand. Thank God.
It’s over…I’m gone…
I almost didn’t hear the crack from Jordyn’s gun. The only thing I felt was the tickling of concrete dust sprinkling down onto my face from where the bullet entered the wall above our heads. “Get the fuck off of her. Now!” Jordyn grabbed Harlow by the shirt and pulled him off of me with one hand while keeping her gun aimed square at his head with the other.
The pattering of footsteps echoed in the hallway, and moments later Cain, Mom, and Bo entered the room. The door smashed into the wall with a loud bang from the force of Cain’s hand. They only had to look at me, still frozen on the blanket, jeans half opened, to realize what had happened. Bo charged at Harlow, knocking him to the ground, smashing his head on a desk along the way. But that was nothing compared to the blows Bo gave to Harlow’s head once he landed on the floor. It seemed to bounce from fist to fist, blood exploding with each contact.
Mom came over to me, tears already flowing. “Oh my God, baby, are you okay?” She grabbed my face, pushing my hair out of my eyes. “Did he…?”
I didn’t make her say it out loud. “No…Jordyn came in time.” I buried my face in Mom’s shirt. No tears came, but my body trembled and I worried I would be unable to stand.
While cradling me in her arms, Mom spoke to Jordyn. “Thank you. Thank you more than I can ever tell you.”
I looked up just long enough to see Jordyn smile bleakly back at me.
“I’m just glad I had to pee.”
Cain pulled Bo off Harlow, but not before his face had turned into a swollen, puffy mess. “What are you doing?” Bo asked, wiping the blood from his hands. “I’m going to kill him.”
Cain calmly spoke. “No, you’re not.”
Bo kicked a desk in response. “Fuck you I’m not!”
“We need some information from this man.” Cain reached his hand to his leg and pulled out one of his knives, then looked right at my mom. “And I am going to get it.”
Mom reached out and ran her finger down the blade.
Bo looked at Mom’s face as she inspected Cain’s knife. “Okay.”
Cain guided everyone toward the door, but Mom hesitated. “Claire, you don’t want to see this.”
Mom looked Cain square in his eyes. “Yes. I do.”
She didn’t blink.
Despite Mom’s best efforts, she couldn’t argue when Cain said that I needed her more than she needed to be there for Harlow’s “questioning.” So the four of us went back to the room where we had been sleeping. I crawled in Mom’s bed with her like I used to, back when I was younger and not too proud to admit I had nightmares. I didn’t imagine this nightmare would ever go away though. Not completely.
The school creaked. And every time a sound snapped through the air, my heart sped up and Harlow’s face appeared again in my mind. It didn’t matter if the sound came from Mom shifting her weight on the bed or a tree hitting the roof outside. Every single time, I shuddered and I was back on top of Harlow’s blankets, with his face hovering over me. His eyes had glazed over, like someone possessed. Maybe he was.
From that moment on, I believed in demons. I’d always been more of an if-you-can’t-see-it-it-isn’t-real type of person, but not after that night. I HAD seen it. Harlow’s eyes were real. Harlow’s breath was real.
And Jordyn getting out of bed at exactly the right time was real too.
Bo sank down on the bed across from us, his head in his hands. “I’m sorry, Riley. I’m so sorry. That never should have happened. This whole thing has been one disaster after another. I should have never gotten you into this.”
I just huddled there. I tried to open my mouth, but words just wouldn’t form.
Mom spoke for me. “Bo, you didn’t get us into anything. You saved us from never seeing each other again. I owe you everything.”
“Claire, I…” Bo stopped. “Thank you for saying that.”
Jordyn couldn’t sit still and walked from one end of the room to the other, arms folded tightly across her chest. She was probably hoping Harlow didn’t bleed to death before he told Cain where the files were. The longer he was gone, the more likely that seemed.
Finally, Cain opened the door. His clothes looked exactly the same as they had before, except for a small red mark on the bottom of his shirt. His hands glistened with water; freshly washed, of course. “I know where the files are.”
We practically ran toward the kitchen, the last place that I would have thought the files would be, which made it the perfect place. As we went, I asked Cain where Harlow was.
“He won’t hurt you again.”
I believed him.
But I still heard Harlow’s whisper in my ear, and felt his breath on my cheek.
Jordyn and Cain arrived at the kitchen drawer before the rest of us and threw the files open on top of a nearby table. One large file held a collection of smaller files, all thin with only a few sheets of paper between their folds. I peeked around Cain’s arm to see. Bo hung back behind us.
Papers flew out in a fan, and pictures of children looked back at us: an African-American girl with long wavy hair, a white boy with big blue eyes. Not a smile among them. The papers each had one photo of a child, as well as basic information: hair color, eye color, where they were born. Someone had stuck a little colored dot in the corner of each sheet too: red, green, blue, yellow, and orange. “What are the dots for?” I asked.
“I have no idea, but it has to say somewhere.” Jordyn took each paper out of the file one by one, frantically searching for her brothers. “Where…are…they?” With each word, she slammed down another paper that disappointed her. When she was almost through all the small files, I noticed something written on the larger file itself, peeking out from behind the smaller files. I managed to push past Cain and slid the larger file out from the pile.
The colored dots were there again, ex
cept this time, each had a country written next to it, except for one: Ireland, Italy, China, and Kenya. The last dot, the orange one, had the word “adopted” written in red next to it. “It’s a key!” Everyone turned and looked at me. “Look! Each color stands for a country! Red is Ireland. Italy’s green, blue China, and Kenya’s yellow. And the orange dot means they got adopted. This has to be where they got sent to!” I was proud that I figured it out, but Mom snatched the file from my grasp, frowning at me.
“This can’t be. It just can’t. The children are supposed to stay here. There’s no reason why that would change. It just can’t be right.” She looked at Bo. “This can’t be right, can it? Tell me she’s wrong. Please. You would have told me before, wouldn’t you?”
Silence.
“Bo, what? Please tell me! Say something!” I wasn’t used to Mom begging. It didn’t suit her.
Bo found a chair and sat down, eyes never leaving the floor. “It was supposed to be for the parents. Just some of them, not all of them. The ones whose kids got taken away for something non-criminal, like being out of work for more than a year. Those parents were supposed to be able to let their children go overseas and possibly earn enough money to allow the parents to get them back. Some of the advisors presented the plan to President Gray as a way to help thin out the overcrowded boarding schools and help the parents at the same time.”
“Wait, the children were supposed to make money so they could go home?” Mom sifted through the children’s profiles. “Jennifer, ten…Kyle, eight…Zachary, twelve? They’re just babies! This wasn’t supposed to be for profit!”
Jordyn and Cain looked at Bo. “Go on,” Jordyn said.
“I swear to you, Claire, I thought it would just be a few. Only for a little while. I didn’t know they’d extend it to so many. But that has to be where they are. The country’s gone broke and there’s just no money anywhere anymore. Look at this place. It’s a box. It would make sense that they started shipping the children off. Everybody panicked.”
The Extraction List Page 10
