Department of Student Loans, Kidnap & Ransom

by Christian Hale

  Chapter Seventeen

  Walking down the street to no place in particular, Mick felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

  Only two people had his number.

  He looked down at the message from the unknown number on the screen: ‘He’s dead. His partners and his boss are dead. Nobody else is coming for you. It’s over. You won’t hear from me again. Goodbye, and good luck.’

  Ally’s message felt more than slightly impersonal. But Mick pushed that thought aside as he ran through the steps required to wipe his phone clean. After clearing the data, he decided he should destroy his phone. He then felt the strange but familiar sense of paranoia arriving, from an unclear direction. As if on cue, the solution presented itself: a nice restaurant with a zapping booth at the entrance. The sign promised that their state-of-the-art equipment offered a shock far more tolerable than that found in the older booths. Mick was sold.

  Sitting at a table in the back of the restaurant, with his back to the wall, Mick looked at his completely dead phone. He didn’t know what he was expecting. The phone was now a useless piece of plastic and metal with the internal electronics now destroyed. But he felt reassured that if someone had stuck a tracking device in his clothes or his flip-flops, it too was dead. And he had no intention to return to his hostel dormitory. His spare clothing, shoes and small collection of toiletries – all of them possible locations for trackers – could be easily replaced.

  Mick had cash in a money belt strapped to his thigh, a clean passport with a new name, the clothes on his back, and a head full of account numbers and passwords. He had everything that he needed. And he was free.

  But as he waited for his dinner, he felt far less cheerful than usual. Why, he asked himself, did Ally just disappear on him? Why did she not at least pretend that they would meet up sometime, and hang out for a few days? Why did she not set up any system whereby they could get in touch with each other in the future? It’s not as if Mick never had any friends that he had eventually lost contact with before, but Ally was far more fun and engaging than any he could remember.

  Now Mick didn’t feel particularly good about anything. He was thinking too much again.

  But then, as the waiter placed the seafood platter on the table, he remembered: that stupid appetite suppressor was also destroyed in the zapping booth. He was now quite hungry.

  As the food settled in his stomach, Mick began a quick mood shift. Now it seemed that today was going to be a good day. It was to be one of many good days ahead of him.

  Mick tried to trace the reason for his sudden mood shift. Then, suddenly, Mick realized that he had not eaten the night before, and that he had also neglected to eat breakfast.

  ‘Silly me. All I need was some food,’ thought Mick to himself.

  Mick was now positive. He felt it strongly and he knew it: everything was going to be alright.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Ally walked quickly down the dirt path towards the river. She didn’t know how much daylight was left, but it wasn’t likely very much. The ten hours straight of driving from Los Angeles had given her ample time to think about what was bothering her. And now, as she descended the trail, her thoughts started to converge into a feeling. This feeling was somewhat like an instinct. Ally sensed that this wasn’t something that would change along with her mood. It was time to make a decision. All of the things that had happened to her in the previous months were outside of her control, or they were unintended consequences of her actions. But the decision that she was going to now make now would be entirely hers.

  Ally gave herself an ultimatum: when she turns her back on the Colorado River to return to her car, she will make a final decision. But the river was to be for Liz and for Liz only.

  As she got closer she could see the rim of the canyon opening up, revealing an ever deeper chasm. Ally kept expecting to see the river, but the canyon only went farther and farther down. Finally, the Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River came into sight. It was exactly as she expected: the water looked cold and blue. The enormous bend in the river was so much more dramatic than she had expected. The river flowed towards her in a giant sweep and then wrapped around the canyon, away and out of view. There was not a single other person there.

  There were many overviews of the canyon, but Ally was looking only for one. She opened the photo of Liz’s parents spreading her ashes. Pointing the phone towards the canyon, she quickly found the exact spot.

  Sitting on the flat rock ledge, Ally looked down at the river far below. She imagined Liz’s ashes slowly mixing with the red earth at the bottom of the canyon, on a long and slow journey to join the river. Ally sat quietly and thought about nothing. Her mind was, for the first time that she could remember, clear.

  Ally looked at the sun in the distance as it was about to go below the horizon. She decided to leave before the sun set. And, as she turned around, she knew exactly what she was going to do. Ally was destined for something so much bigger than being merely a feared member of a fringe social force. She was going to leave that all behind her. There was no doubt about this. Ally knew it.

  She was now free, and bound to no person and to no organization. But the next step was not so clear. Ally promised herself that she would not get into her car until she made that decision.

  It was going to be a long night.

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  About the author:

  This is Christian Hale’s first book. Expect another book soon…or eventually. For now, you can follow his progress, or lack thereof, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChristianHale77