by Saul, Jonas
She opened the stall and walked out of the bathroom. As soon as she stepped into the wide corridor again, she realized that her escape plan was right in front of her.
Rod won’t even know what hit him.
She couldn’t believe it hadn’t hit her earlier.
First, she had to get rid of the tracking bracelet.
She jogged along the corridor until she found a hotdog stand with a small line. On the side, down behind the booth, she saw an employee breaking down boxes from a shipment.
He held a pair of scissors.
Perfect.
The clock continued, unabated. She knew time was short, but for everything to work right, she had to remove the bracelet first.
She stepped up to the young guy who didn’t look older than twenty.
“Excuse me, can I borrow those scissors?” she asked.
He stopped what he was doing and looked at the scissors and then back at Sarah. She smiled and rolled a finger seductively down the length of her hair. “I just need them for a second.”
The employee shrugged and handed the scissors over. Sarah took them, lifted her sleeve and applied them to the bracelet.
“Hey, what’s that? Is it one of those things you have to wear when you’ve broken the law?”
Sarah nodded. “Something like that.”
After two tries she still couldn’t budge it. “Damn the fucking clock. I’m almost out of time.”
The clerk had stepped back a few feet.
“Here,” she gestured with the scissors. “Help me with this.”
No one had noticed them yet. Since the baseball game was almost over, the hotdog stand wasn’t as busy. People still walked by in the wide hallway, but no one looked at them.
“I can’t help. That’s illegal.”
As fast as she could, Sarah stepped up, slipped her foot behind the guy’s ankle and pushed his shoulders back. He lost his balance and fell to the floor backwards. She pounced down and landed beside him, the scissors at the base of his throat just above the collar bone.
“Don’t scream. Don’t do anything crazy or these scissors will enter your neck. Do you want to bleed out and die?”
She wondered what crime he was conjuring up that she would’ve committed to be wearing the bracelet. This act of violence would fill his mind with many scenarios.
He shook his head in response to her question.
“Good, because I’m sick and tired of having to kill people.”
His eyes widened as far as they could.
“After I kill you,” Sarah continued, “they’ll probably give me two of these fucking things. So, I’ll make you a deal, cut this thing off and you’ll never see me again. Tell me you won’t help and I’ll have to jam these scissors as far into your throat as I can. Cool?”
He nodded his head like an insane bobble-head figure. Sarah brought her wrist up and applied the scissors to the weakest part of the bracelet. She held one side of the scissor’s grip so the hotdog stand employee couldn’t turn them on her and waited. He inserted his fingers inside the grip and pushed. It took two strong attempts, before the bracelet snapped in half.
Sarah got up and stepped back from him. She tossed the bracelet in a corner and then threw the scissors after them.
“Thanks. Oh, and I was kidding about hurting you. I never would do that sort of thing.” She smiled. “Have a good one.”
She had to try to make him feel better. He looked like he had just shit his pants.
Sarah turned away and ran, looking for a clock. She still had to get to Drake’s seat which, based on how the colors worked, was coming up a hundred meters ahead.
The whole time she watched her back. Somewhere a cop wasn’t to be trusted. She would hate to be gunned down because some asshole wanted her dead. Too bad her sister couldn’t have been more specific to which cop she was supposed to be cautious of.
She reached the blues with less than five minutes left. At the top of the stairs that led down to Drake’s seat, she stopped and looked for any cops. Even though she hated them and one was hunting her, she needed their help with Rod.
Two uniformed officers were walking her way, talking animatedly about something.
She ran over and stopped in front of them, making the two cops cease talking. They both took her face in and looked at each other.
“You recognize me? I was told all the cops here got my picture.”
They nodded in unison. “How can we help?”
“You’ve all been had. The American, Rod Howley, is lying. He’s the one behind everything. He’s not the shooter, but I suspect he has ties to the shooter.”
“The shooter? What are you talking about? We were told they’re here to apprehend a suspect or a witness. That was it.”
Sarah shook her head. “No, listen. A man is here to shoot someone named Drake. Because Howley is behind it, he used his influence to deflect the Toronto Police force. I don’t want to be killed, but he has a gun and someone will be shot within five minutes. Tell the rest of your men.”
“Are you absolutely certain? I’m going to have to verify this story.”
“Go ahead.”
The older cop of the two stepped a few feet away and repeated on his radio what Sarah had said about a shooter and that a man was supposed to be shot.
At the right moment, with only minutes to spare, Sarah waited until a trio of baseball fans were walking past them. She turned toward Drake’s aisle and hit the stairs running as fast as she could, using the fans as cover.
The crowd roared as someone at bat hit the ball. She couldn’t look up or she’d fall down the wide stairs. A quick glance at the seats told her she had about ten rows left.
She also knew she was down to a minute.
She slowed her pace and started looking ahead at all the people watching the game in their seats. Two uniformed officers were running along the front rows, heading toward the bottom of the stairs she was on. It relieved her to see that she’d make Drake’s seat before they even started up.
Three rows away now. She slowed and looked behind her. The two cops she’d stopped were coming down the stairs after her.
Shit. This is unwinding too fast.
With cops running at her from both directions and time running out, Sarah stepped up to Drake’s row and scanned the seat numbers until she saw seat number 126.
It was empty.
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About Jonas Saul
Jonas Saul is the author of the Sarah Roberts series and The Kill Trilogy. Visit his website, www.jonassaul.com for upcoming release dates.
Contact Jonas Saul
Website: http://www.jonassaul.com
Twitter: @jonassaul
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