by Kathi Daley
“That’s a good idea, but I don’t want you to be in any danger either. I should go in alone.”
Levi shook his head. “Not going to happen. I’m coming, and unless you can overpower me there isn’t a thing you can do about it.”
“The last task very likely will be dangerous,” I argued. “You have a wife and a child. You need to keep to the sidelines, out of harm’s way.”
Levi turned and glanced at me. The look on his face was hard and unyielding. “I’m not letting you do this alone. I understand your concern and would probably be saying the same thing to you if our roles were reversed. But I love you and Ellie loves you, and neither of us would choose for you to go in alone even knowing the risk.”
I knew Levi was right and I really might need his help, but I’d never be able to live with myself if I ended up getting him killed. Of course, if that was the outcome I’d probably be dead as well, so I wouldn’t have to live with the guilt for all that long. I thought of Ellie. She would suffer so much if something happened to Levi. And the thought of Eli growing up without a father was more than I could bear. Maybe I could sneak into the warehouse before Levi realized what I was doing. If the door did lock behind me, Levi would be unable to get in. Yes, I decided, that would be my plan. It was the only one I could live with.
Levi must have anticipated as much because when we arrived at the warehouse he grabbed my hand. “We go in together.”
“But…”
“There is no but. If I have to drag you into the warehouse I will, but we’re going together.”
I nodded. I wanted to argue, but suddenly I felt too weak to even speak. Levi helped me out of the car. He released his grip on me but kept me within arm’s reach. He gave one of the handheld radios to Ethan and explained the plan. No one mentioned the danger or the possibility that this was a trap and Levi, Zak, and I would all die.
Levi took my hand and led me into the large, windowless warehouse. The door clicked shut behind us in such a way that there was no reason to wonder whether we were locked in.
“Showtime,” Levi said as he headed toward the middle of the room, where the burner cell awaited our arrival.
Chapter 5
Levi and I waited for the phone to ring. The walls were tall, at least fifteen feet, and made of cinderblock. The roof looked to be made from some sort of aluminum, which might theoretically be possible to cut through, if you had a way to get to the roof and the right tool to do the cutting. Inside the warehouse were various items, including old furniture, artwork on the walls, and a variety of devices that looked a lot like ancient torture devices. The oddest item in the room was a giant screen that took up almost an entire wall. I wondered if the game master wasn’t finally going to make him or herself known.
Despite knowing the phone was going to ring, and that I’d been waiting for that very thing to happen, I jumped when it did. I picked it up after the first ring and pressed the Answer button. At the exact moment I did, the screen on the wall came on. I put my hand to my mouth as tears streamed down my cheeks. On the screen was the image of Zak tied up and sitting in a chair. It looked like we were viewing the room where he was being held in real time, so at least we knew he was alive.
“Zak,” I called. “Can you hear me?”
Zak didn’t respond in any way, so I doubted he could hear or even knew I could see him. I had no idea where he was and didn’t like the object, which looked a lot like a bomb, sitting on a table next to him. I held the phone to my ear and listened.
“Welcome to the locked room. As you can see, your husband is alive and well. The image you are seeing is in real time. However this ends, I wanted you to be able to see the love of your life one last time. The final game is simple. The object you see on the table next to Zak is a bomb. If it goes off it will destroy the building, killing him instantly. The bomb has been set up with a computer-operated Off switch. You will be given four tasks. Each one you complete will be communicated via the computer in the warehouse to the computer monitoring the bomb. If you complete all four tasks before the timer runs out the bomb will be deactivated and you will be given the location where Zak is being held. If you fail to complete the tasks in the time allotted, the bomb will be go off and you will watch your husband die. From the time this call ends you will have two hours to do everything to save your husband.”
The phone went dead. Levi looked at his cell. “There’s no reception. I’m setting my timer for one hour and fifty minutes. There’s no way I want this to come down to the wire.”
“Oh God,” was my only response as I stood frozen, looking at Zak on the screen. My heart was slowly bleeding and I knew it wouldn’t be long before I would no longer be able to maintain what little sanity I had left.
Levi grabbed me by the shoulders. He turned me so I was facing away from the screen. He looked me in the eye. “We don’t have time for a breakdown. Do you understand? You need to pull yourself together.”
I nodded because I still couldn’t speak.
“The door is locked and the clock is ticking. We need to act quickly and efficiently.”
“But Zak…” I tried to turn my head.
“Don’t look at Zak. Look at me.”
I did as Levi instructed.
“You have to get it together. If you don’t Zak will die.”
I took a long, slow breath. “Okay. You’re right. Where do we start?”
Levi tried the radio, which worked. He briefly told the others what was going on. He described the room in which Zak was being held to the best of his ability and then instructed them to call Salinger to fill him in and then stand by. Then he looked around. “It’s odd they didn’t tell us where to find the instructions for the first task.”
I looked around as well. I wasn’t sure if the tasks needed to be completed in a specific order. The voice on the phone hadn’t said. I scanned the room slowly and methodically. There were a lot of things in the room. The instructions could be anywhere. I noticed a metal box that looked a lot like a makeup kit. “There.” I pointed to it. If Claudia was behind this the makeup box would be as quintessential a clue as there was likely to be. Luckily, I was correct. Inside the box was makeup and a sheet of paper.
“How’d you know where to look?” Levi asked.
“Knowing it’s probably Claudia behind this provided the clue I needed. Where better to leave a clue than a makeup box when you’re a master of disguise?”
“Good thinking. What does it say?”
“'Find the sailor’s trunk and open the lid. Take out the game controller and press the green button.’”
Levi and I headed in separate directions, frantically looking for the sailor’s trunk. I tried to stay focused, but I couldn’t help but be acutely aware that with every minute that passed Zak was one minute closer to death.
“I found it,” I shouted as I opened the lid of the trunk and took out the controller. I pressed the green button and a message popped up on the screen where Zak’s image had been.
Levi read it out loud. “'In ten seconds a video game will replace this message on the screen. If you can beat the game in twenty minutes or less you will have completed one of the tasks required. If your character in the game dies at any point or you fail to finish within twenty minutes, Zak dies.” Levi never looked away from the screen, but he did reach over and take the controller from me. “Set the timer on your phone for twenty minutes.”
As I slipped my phone out of my pocket, a game appeared on the screen. It was one Zak had developed. He’d showed me the object of the game and shared with me some strategy to beat it, but my character usually ended up dying in the first sixty seconds. As I watched Levi’s thumbs work the controller with steady accuracy, I knew for the first time since we’d been locked in the room that choosing Levi as my one friend had been the right decision. Not that I chose Levi exactly. It was more that he chose me. But I was pretty sure not one of the seniors waiting outside had every played the game, and I knew without a doubt I would neve
r have made it to the end.
I wanted to ask Levi how he was doing, but I didn’t want to break his concentration, so I simply stood and watched him, all the while fighting the feeling of dread in my stomach. I cringed when his avatar suffered an injury. It could continue even with the injury, but he would have lost some of his weapons and would need to earn them back. I just hoped Levi had the time to do it.
He never took his eyes from the screen. He never spoke or even moved except for his thumbs on the controller. I wasn’t familiar enough with the game to know if he was far enough along to make the twenty-minute deadline, but again, I didn’t want to break his concentration, so I didn’t ask.
When the timer on my phone revealed that fifteen minutes had passed I began to sweat. At the seventeen-minute mark my heart was pounding so hard in my chest that I could barely breathe. I wasn’t particularly religious, but I found myself praying harder than I ever had before.
“How long?” Levi asked just as the second hand approached the nineteen-minute mark.
“You have one minute left.”
Levi seemed to focus even harder. His thumbs moved even faster than they had before. I could see he was in the zone, so I kept quiet even as the second hand moved past the nineteen-minute and thirty-second mark. At nineteen minutes and forty seconds he stopped what he was doing.
“Are you done? Did you beat the game?”
Levi grinned. “Of course. I always win. I can even beat Zak a lot of the time.”
I threw myself in his arms as the screen changed from the game to the next set of instructions. They were written beneath Zak’s image, so I could see him and the bomb as well. I noticed that where there had been four little green lights on the bomb’s casing before, now there were three green lights and one red. Apparently, we needed to turn all the lights red.
Levi began to speak as he read the words on the screen aloud. “'The instructions for your next task are taped to the ceiling. You have thirty minutes to retrieve them and complete the task.’”
I set my timer for thirty minutes and then looked up at the ceiling. “So how are we going to get them down?”
The ceiling was about fifteen feet in the air, so I knew we’d need to build a ladder of some sort. The problem was, there was nothing around other than the sailor’s trunk that looked like it was both sturdy enough and shaped right for stacking.
Levi must have come to the same conclusion. “The trunk is about three feet high. I’m six feet tall and you’re five feet. If I stand on the trunk and you stand on my shoulders you might be able to reach it.”
While this was further confirmation Levi had been the right choice of friend—none of the seniors would be able to support my weight—I still had my doubts it would work.
I helped Levi pull the trunk under the envelope taped to the ceiling. He stood on it and then I carefully climbed onto his shoulders. I reached my hand over my head; I was about a foot short of reaching the ceiling.
“I can’t reach it. We need to find something I can use to knock it free.”
“No time,” Levi said. “On the count of three, bend your legs, jump up, and grab the envelope. I’ll catch you.”
I hesitated for just a minute and did as Levi suggested. I figured even if he failed to catch me and I landed on the cement floor, I probably wouldn’t die, but if we didn’t complete the task in time Zak would. Luckily, I was able to grab the envelope and Levi caught me.
He set me down on the chest next to him and we both jumped down to the floor, where I opened the envelope. “'Go to the garment bag and find the keyboard. Type in the number that corresponds to the record of most completed passes by an NFL player in any single season.’”
I looked at Levi.
“Drew Brees set a record of 471 completions in 2016.”
I looked around for a garment bag. There was so much stuff in the warehouse, finding any specific object was difficult.
“I found it,” Levi said after a minute had passed. He took out the keyboard and typed in the answer. Once again, Zak’s image disappeared from the screen and was replaced with a puzzle. This time it was a partially filled in Sudoku. The instructions said to use the arrows and keypad to fill in the rest of the numbers.
“I don’t suppose you’re a master at this game as well?” I asked hopefully.
Levi shook his head. “Sorry. Looks like you’re up.”
I took a deep breath and looked at the puzzle. I’d done these in the past and understood the basic idea. Every row and column, as well as each individual box, could only have one of any specific number, yet every number, one through nine, needed to be represented. The problem was, I was a beginner, or on a good day an intermediate player, but based on the scarcity of numbers shown on the screen, this puzzle was meant for an expert player.
I had little choice but to play, so I did. I took a cue from Levi and focused on the screen and the game. I had the feeling if I made one wrong move Zak would die. I had a few uncertain moments, but I was making steady progress. The problem was, unless things started to come together a bit more quickly, I was never going to make the deadline.
“Five minutes left,” Levi said from beside me.
I was at the point where I knew if I could just get two or three more numbers everything would come together and I could fill out the rest without too much effort. But I was stuck. I’d looked at every open box a dozen times, but I could do no better than limit the options to two numbers for each box.
“Four minutes,” Levi said after I had been staring at the puzzle for a good minute without making a move.
I didn’t have time to go over everything again. The only option was to guess. I located the box where I felt I had the highest probability of guessing the right answer and typed in a three.
Nothing happened. The game didn’t beep at me and Zak’s image exploding didn’t show on the screen. I must have guessed right. Filling in that one number gave me enough information to fill in the whole row, which gave me enough information to finish the puzzle with a whole minute left over. When the puzzle disappeared and was replaced with Zak’s image, as well as words beneath it, I felt the knot in my stomach relax just a bit.
I immediately looked at the face of the bomb to find two red lights and two green.
Levi began to read. “'Go to the sailor’s trunk. You will find a thick board with wires attached to it. The board will have two handles on each side. Plug the wire you find into the keyboard and then stand facing each other with the board between you. Your task is to level the board. When you do the light will turn green. Your task at that point is to keep the green light on for fifteen minutes. If the board isn’t kept perfectly level a red light will come on. If that happens Zak dies. If you manage to keep the board perfectly level for the entire fifteen minutes a buzzer will sound to alert you that you have been successful.’”
Levi headed for the trunk, while I radioed the others. “We’re being timed so we can’t talk now. We’re doing okay so far. Stand by.”
“We’re here if you need us,” Ethan responded.
Levi retrieved the board and plugged it into the keyboard. A timer popped onto the screen. I imagined that was how long we had to get the board level in the first place. Levi and I stood facing each other, legs slightly apart to provide more stability. We each took the handles on our own side of the board and worked to get it level. It was harder than it sounded at first. Eventually, the green light appeared and we both froze. Even the slightest movement would move the little bubble in the center, killing Zak.
Two seconds after the green light went on my nose started to itch. I knew I couldn’t remove a hand from the board to scratch it, so I tried to ignore it. My eyes met with Levi’s. He didn’t say anything and neither did I. I think we both knew the smallest distraction could be disastrous. We stood staring into each other’s eyes for several minutes until I looked away.
Each minute seemed like an hour. The board was heavy and my arms started to scream when we were only
about five minutes into the fifteen minutes we had to stay completely still. Once again, I was certain Levi had been the correct friend to help me. None of the seniors could have held the board for fifteen minutes. I wasn’t even certain I could do it, but with Zak’s life on the line I’d find a way.
I let my mind drift to thoughts of Zak while keeping part of my attention on the board. When Zak had first come back to Ashton Falls after making gazillion dollars developing computer software, I hadn’t been happy at all. When Levi invited him to come along with him to a BBQ I was having at my boathouse I was downright livid. But over the next few weeks Zak did a lot of little things that forced me to like him. When he bought an empty building to renovate and turn into an animal shelter after I was fired from my animal control job with the county, I found myself starting to love him.
I found, once I opened my heart to him, that Zak was kind and funny and patient. He had a few quirks I’d found amusing, like using a spreadsheet to choose the most cost-effective brand of laundry detergent, but as we spent time together and I was able to see the man he’d become, the man he’d most likely already been, I realized there was no one in the world I’d rather build a life with.
Of course, it still took me a ridiculous amount of time to say yes after he proposed to me. Three months, to be exact. And even longer to finally get myself to the altar after that. But looking back at everything Zak and I had been through, the good and the bad, I realized I wouldn’t trade one minute of our time together for anything in the world.
My arm jerked when the buzzer sounded. I started to panic and immediately began to cry, but Levi grabbed my hand and told me the noise had been the timer letting us know we’d been successful.
I wrapped my arms around Levi’s neck and sobbed anyway. He hugged me hard and took a step back. He looked me in the eye. “We have one more task.”
