by Ho, Jo
“Good. Now get down on your knees.”
He glared at me but sank to his knees. I looked over the top of his head, back into the helicopter, hoping to find something I could tie him up with, but other than a few headsets whose cords weren’t even a foot long, there were just some seat belts, which if I had a knife on me, I could do something with, but of course, I didn’t, which left me with only one option. Despite not liking the pilot, I gave him an apologetic smile as I swung the gun at the side of his head. This time, my technique was better. The gun connected with his head. He fell onto his side, out for the count.
“Is he really unconscious?” I asked. Bandit tilted his head at him, sniffed, then woofed. Great. I slid my hands into his pockets and came up with a leather wallet, a phone, and some keys. Tossing the phone on the ground, I stamped on it, HARD, until I felt the metal give way and heard the distinct snap of breakage. I’ve seen the movies, I know how cell phones are basically personal tracking devices and I wasn’t about to take any further risks. Besides, look where my VPN trick had gotten us.
Flipping open the wallet, I saw a photograph of our pilot with his wife and two kids. They were smiling into the camera, looking like any other happy American family. Wonder if his wife knew what line of work her husband was really into? I scanned through the bills, some three hundred or so, resisting the urge to take them, and finally came upon a strange looking swipe card.
It was strange in that other the name “Joe Kramer,” who I guessed was our pilot, there was only a barcode beneath and a discreet logo on the top right corner.
I stared at that logo, recognizing it from my Google research.
Platinum Industries.
Bullseye.
CHAPTER 118
CHASE
Bandit and I were outside Platinum Industries.
We were crouched beside a van in the busy parking lot. I kept my eyes peeled for security cameras, but unless they were camouflaged, I didn’t see any.
From our position, I could see the main entrance, where a set of double doors separated us from the secrets within. Occasionally, a person passed by behind the doors, but it was relatively quiet — which was bad news for us. If we walked straight in through the entrance, they’d spot us immediately. We had to find another way in.
As I was contemplating our options, a car pulled into the parking lot. Some kind of weirdo pop music in another language played from the radio. As the engine died, an Asian lady got out. She wore white shoes and the overalls of a cleaner. Locking her car, she started walking towards the building, but instead of the main entrance, she steered left, taking a discreet path set into the manicured lawn that I had missed before.
Feeling a tingle all over, I whispered to Bandit, “Follow her.” We kept low as we followed the cleaner to the side of the building, where she came upon a door. This one wasn’t glass, and it wasn’t see-through, but it was locked. The cleaner took out a card and swiped it on the door. I heard a few beeps before the door swung open and she stepped inside as the door swung automatically closed behind her. Bandit looked at me and whined. He knew what was coming next.
We hurried to the door, then, before I could second guess myself, I took out Pilot Kramer’s card and swiped it.
The door swung open revealing a long, dark corridor ahead. Swallowing my fear, I looked down at Bandit.
“Stay behind me at all times.”
And with that simple instruction, I stepped inside.
CHAPTER 119
CHASE
We’d been swallowed by corridor.
Or at least, that’s how it seemed. Light fell in slants through those weird upper windows, leaving the bottom half of the corridor covered with shadows. I was filled a sense of foreboding so great, it took all my willpower not to turn and run back outside. Hysteria was bubbling under the surface, and I had to bite down on my lip to keep from giving in to it. I looked to Bandit for strength and saw that he was sticking to those shadows, blending in like a ninja. I was surprised at how good he was at this, then remembered that this was the dog who had broken out of here not that long ago. He had experience with this place.
The cleaner was nowhere in sight, apparently in a hurry to do her job, and who could blame her? This place was so damn jolly. We followed the corridor, past closed doors and offices — all blessedly empty — and down to a main hall. Discreet signs hung from the ceiling announcing boring departments like HR, Admin, and Research. Nowhere was there a sign with “Unethical Secret Lab That Tortures Dogs.” Hitting a dead end, I frowned. What to do? It isn’t like we can just ask someone?
The answer that came was unexpected.
Bandit, who had been standing by my side while I studied the signs, suddenly shook with fear. His mouth opened and his tongue fell out, panting loudly before whining, a high-pitched, pathetic sound that stabbed at my heart. Then shockingly, he peed himself. Right there in the middle of the hall. I grabbed him and we ducked behind a giant cheese plant, seemingly growing out of the marble ground.
“What is it?” I asked quietly, holding up the iPad. Bandit tapped quickly.
“I smell him. The Bad Man.”
I hated myself for what I was going to do next, but I knew there was no other choice. “Take me to him, Bandit. It’s the only way.”
He whined again, circling in agitation. I stroked him, trying desperately to calm him down. It took several counts before the panting died down, but the trembling continued.
On shaky legs, Bandit started leading me towards the department labeled “Research.”
CHAPTER 120
CHASE
We headed down more corridors, all gloomily lit, like they couldn’t afford the electricity here, which, very clearly, they could. I wouldn’t be surprised if Forbes owned all the electricity in America. Judging by what I had read of him, he seemed the type.
We went past a door. Closed, with only a small window containing glass that couldn’t have been bigger than a twenty centimetre square to see through. They were all like this, the doors. All hiding the experiments that must be being conducted on the other side. I never would have thought I’d be thankful for this, but as it was, it made being stealthy a whole lot easier.
We were approaching a doorway up ahead now. Beyond this, the corridor divided into two. I couldn’t see past it, but I trusted Bandit, and right now he was my eyes. But as we crossed through the doorway, disaster struck.
An alarm SCREAMED overhead.
Too late I looked up to discover we had just walked under a security camera. As we hadn’t seen any before now, I had gotten complacent, and it was our downfall. I guess Forbes only put cameras in the ultra-secret areas.
We froze.
As I tried frantically to figure out an escape plan, a guard rounded the corner at a sprint.
“You there, STOP!” he called out.
Of course, we didn’t. We spun around, and started sprinting back the way we had come, only to find one — make that — TWO guards flanking us from behind. Bandit barked loudly in warning. I was pretty sure he was telling them to back up, but either the guards didn’t speak dog or they just weren’t scared.
They advanced in unison. The guard who had spoken marched up to me.
“Hands up,” he commanded.
Bandit bared his teeth at the guy, growling fiercely in response. I’d never seen him look so feral before. I totally bought his act, if that’s what it was. The guard didn’t consider either of us a risk, however, as he went to grab my shoulder. And that’s when I didn’t even think. Just reacted.
I jabbed him hard in the Adam’s Apple. He choked, staggering back at his suddenly crushed windpipe. Feeling a sense of power, I spun around to face the remaining two guards. One kept his focus on Bandit, but the other’s attention was on me. Roaring, I charged forward, meaning to destabilize him. My foot lashed out and I kicked behind his knee.
Nothing happened.
He didn’t fall like those YouTube videos had showed. Undaunted, I went for him aga
in, but he was ready for me. At the exact moment my foot should have sent him tumbling, he bent his knee and caught my foot in it, vice-like. I was left hopping on one foot, trying frantically to disengage, but he wasn’t letting go. He laughed at me.
“Someone’s been learning self-defense I see,” he taunted.
I’ve gotta say, that was the last thing I expected or wanted him to say. Not wanting to show he had the upper hand, my mouth ran off as per usual. “Amazing what you learn on YouTube,” I snapped back.
In hindsight, that probably wasn’t a smart move.
He smiled menacingly then punched me in the stomach. It happened so fast I wasn’t prepared for it. Pain EXPLODED in my stomach, bringing tears to my eyes. I doubled over. I was fully focused on breathing, so my mind didn’t make the connection of what was about to happen. In a very deliberate move, he round-housed kicked the back of my knee and that was it.
I went tumbling to the ground.
Bandit LAUNCHED himself at the guy, but was tasered with a baton-like stick. Electricity sparked and hummed as Bandit hit the ground, unconscious. I screamed, crawling towards him. Before I could touch him, the other two guards hauled me onto my feet.
The guard who had struck me laughed again.
“Now that’s how you do a Krav Maga takedown, girlie.”
CHAPTER 121
CHASE
The next few minutes passed by in a blur.
Holding my throbbing stomach, I could only watch helplessly as Bandit was laid onto a stretcher and carried beside us through the building. In the back of my mind, I knew I should be paying attention to our surroundings, that I should be memorizing the route so we knew how to break out, but the only thing running through my mind were the words, please don’t die, please don’t die...
The guards ushered me to the second floor and into an office. At least, it was adorned like one, with a giant glass desk and black couches arranged artfully around a coffee table. It was furnished like an office, but one entire wall was made out of glass, and this glass wall looked down over the entire building. From where I was standing, I could see just how gigantic this place was.
Hundreds of white lab-coated minions toiled away at stations, working on scientific equipment I had never seen before. In one direction, I caught a glimpse of a room that was dark, with what looked like thousands of cages in it. I couldn’t see what was inside them from here, but I had an inkling. Everywhere, as far as the eye could see, experiments were being conducted. The scope of the operation took my breath away and caused my heart to thump wildly in my chest.
How would we have any chance of beating this? The man owned an entire universe!
And as that thought entered my mind, the man in question strolled in.
“So you’re the girl who’s been giving me so much trouble?”
I looked over at the sharply dressed man standing in front of me. He wore an immaculate suit of steel gray. Everything about it was precise, including the purple handkerchief folded into the upper left pocket. He had a commanding presence and walked like he owned the world, which probably wasn’t too far from the truth. I was surprised to see he was bald, and younger than I imagined him to be. He didn’t look much older than Sully. But then I noticed how his cheeks were too smooth, how his forehead was empty of lines. Forbes wasn’t adverse to cosmetic enhancements, it seemed. His voice was soft, cloyingly gentle, and there was something about it that set my teeth on edge. I glared at him defiantly.
“And you’re the jerk who put a tumor in Bandit’s brain.”
I wasn’t sure what I was hoping for by antagonising him like that, but it wasn’t the small arch of his brow.
“Bandit? How quaint.” He managed to make it sound like the worse insult in the world. “But, cute as your display of bravado is, it’s time for you to leave. Alpha — my apologies — Bandit, is back where he belongs, in the lab that created him.”
While Forbes was talking (don’t the bad guys always have to spout some spiel?), I had been reaching my right hand behind my back. It was a slow movement. I was counting on the fact that neither Forbes nor his men would notice, their attention, as it was, drawn to Forbes and his rant.
Feeling my fingers tighten around the base of the gun I had taken from the ranch, I swung my hand in front of me now. Before any of them could move, Forbes found himself staring down the barrel of a Beretta 92. His men froze, not expecting this. Forbes’s eyebrow twitched, the only outward sign of his disapproval. He looked at his men like they were something he had just scraped from the bottom of his designer shoes.
“Why does she have a gun?” he asked, his voice unnervingly soft.
The guard who had taken me down flinched, embarrassed… but there was something else in his expression… fear. “We didn’t think to search her. She’s just a girl after all…”
“A girl who has travelled across the country and broken into my building,” Forbes replied, still softly, but now with a chill in his voice.
From the corner of my eye, I saw one guy try a flanking move. “Freeze, or your boss is going to eat a bullet.”
He stopped immediately. My eyes darted from guard to guard, hyper aware of their positions. My finger was tensed on the trigger. I was prepared to use it and they knew it. What they didn’t know, was how utterly terrified I was, and I was desperate not to show it. Willing my hand not to shake, I started backing towards the door.
“Let go of Bandit,” I ordered.
The two men holding him in place released their grip on him. Bandit started moving over to me. Hope was beginning to rise up in me. We can do this! I can get him safe! Bandit was three steps from me and freedom when he dropped to the ground, shaking violently, head knocking against the floor.
It happened way faster than his other fits and was ten times as fierce. Losing it completely, I screamed, “Help him!”
The men didn’t move, waiting for Forbes to respond. Forbes merely smiled at me before pressing a button on the intercom. “Please ask Dr. Robins to step in with Alpha’s meds.”
I ran towards Bandit, heedless of my own safety. Gathering his head in my lap the way Sully had shown me, I tried to stop him from hurting himself, all as I kept the gun trained on Forbes.
After what seemed an eternity, but was, in fact, only seconds, a woman rushed in holding a syringe. She wore one of the same white labcoats I had seen others wearing, but unlike the emotionless robots working for Forbes, there was panic all over her face.
“Alpha?!” she cried. Seeing him convulsing, her eyes flared open in alarm and she darted towards us with the needle.
“Stop Elora.” Forbes’s command was chilling in its authority.
The woman, Elora, looked over at him, confused. “But he needs his meds. I’ve never seen a convulsion as strong as this. He was never supposed to survive this long without them. He might have only seconds before irreparable damage is done to his brain,” she cried.
Forbes looked down at me. “Well that depends on our young friend here. Kick over the gun and Dr. Robins will save Alpha. Or you can watch your friend die.”
Every nerve in my body was screaming at me to do as he said, but I knew this was the only bargaining chip I had. I had to try one last time. “After everything you’ve done to get him back, you wouldn’t risk his life any more than I would,” I said.
Forbes just looked at me, a half smile playing on his lips as if this whole thing were just a slight inconvenience. “What I need from him I can get whether he is alive or not. Can you say the same?”
I’d called his bluff, but he’d called mine, and as we all know, I’m a terrible gambler. Laying the gun down, I slid it over to him. One of his guards picked up the gun as Forbes nodded to Dr. Robins. She ran over and injected the contents of the syringe into Bandit’s flank. I found myself counting in my head as I watched his small body convulse. One, two, three, four… by the time I reached five, the fit had stopped. Bandit’s chest was rising and falling at its regular speed. Another two seconds and h
e opened his eyes. This time, there wasn’t any of the confusion that had preceded his previous episodes.
Dr. Robins let out a relieved breath. I was surprised that she actually seemed to care for Bandit. It made her decision to work for Forbes even more baffling. I shot her a grateful look, regardless. She had just saved my best friend, after all.
“Thanks.”
She took me in, blinking behind her glasses. I guess she hadn’t really noticed me until now. Since her arrival, her attention was only on Bandit. Now, she saw the way we cuddled, how Bandit pressed up against me. Her eyes softened.
“Alpha, you made a friend,” she said.
Bandit woofed in response. “One bark for yes, two for no,” I explained. At this, her eyes teared up. So she wasn’t a monster. Maybe Forbes wasn’t either? Could I try appealing to his nice side? I looked back at him.
“I’m sorry I pointed the gun at you, but I was desperate. Bandit’s not just my friend, he’s family. He’s all I’ve got. Can we figure out a way for you to get what you want while keeping him safe? Then we’ll get out of your hair and you’ll never have to see us again. We just want to live a normal life.”
My voice cracked with emotion. I was on the verge of tears, but for the first time ever, I didn’t care who saw it. I meant every word I said. Bandit’s tongue snaked over and licked me across the face.
Forbes watched us emotionlessly.
“That was a lovely speech, and I truly feel your pain, but unfortunately, the answer is no. I will never let Alpha go.”
CHAPTER 122
SULLY
While I didn’t think much of Frank’s integrity, I had to hand it to the man; the guy could fly a plane. We landed an hour later in a field near Platinum Industries, a good hour ahead of his initial estimation. We were still a good football field away, but I figured this was far enough that we shouldn’t be spotted unless someone was looking out for us, in which case, nowhere would be far enough.
