Recruit

by R. D. Brady

  Jen closed her eyes.

  Henry pictured the boy that had taken Lou. "Wait, did you say adult crimes? Doesn't he have to be eighteen to be charged?"

  "No. In most states now, you can be charged as an adult when you turn sixteen, especially for the tougher crimes. But that's not what's happening here. Your guy is not a juvenile."

  Jen's eyes flew open. "What? He looks like he's in junior high at most."

  "Well, you've seen from the stills, he's short. He wasn't supposed to be. But apparently his mother locked him to a radiator for years. His height is due to malnutrition. Even though he only looks like he's around twelve, he's actually twenty."

  Henry looked at Jen in shock. "Twenty?"

  "His mother," Laney continued, "was not exactly mother of the year. There's actually a pretty well documented history of him from CPS."

  "What did she do, besides the radiator?"

  "Lots of physical abuse - but also emotional abuse. For example, mommy dearest sent Pascha to the first day of kindergarten in a dress, complete with hair ribbons, as a punishment for breaking one of his toys."

  "Oh my God," Jen mumbled.

  Laney blew out a breath. "Trust me, that was one of her least horrendous deeds. The others range from sexual abuse to cigarette burns to even more that I'll keep to myself to spare you the nightmares."

  "Anyway, his mother was killed when he was twelve. When the police arrived, little Pascha, who only weighed forty pounds, was sitting at the kitchen table eating a bowl of cereal. His mom was sitting in a chair in the living room with over a dozen stab wounds."

  "He's the one killing the women," Jen said slowly.

  "Yeah," Laney agreed. "And not to get all profiler on you, but he's killing his mother over and over again."

  Henry felt the horror crawl over him. "Laney, what does that kind of background do to a person?"

  Laney's voice was heavy with concern. "It depends. No one could be unaffected by that kind of early trauma. But it depends on what direction their personality was pointed at birth. For some, they'll become introverted, no sense of self, no self-esteem. They'll be drawn to relationships that victimize them again and again."

  "But that's not this guy," Jen said.

  Laney's voice was emphatic. "No. That's not Pascha. He's the type that lashes out. You need to get the kids away from him. And while I generally would say that you should try and catch him and send him to Clark, I don't believe that's the best scenario here."

  Laney paused and when she spoke, her voice was deadly serious. "If you get the chance, you need to make sure he doesn't have a chance to harm anyone else. Do you know what I mean?"

  Henry glanced over at Jen whose face had gone white. For Laney to make that kind of statement was unusual to say the least. "Yeah, Laney. We know," Henry said.

  CHAPTER 45

  Lou walked toward the body carrying a sheet. Pascha had picked her and Rolly for body disposal duty.

  Pascha nodded down the hall. "There's a grassy area out back - one floor down. Just dump her there. The rats will enjoy her."

  Lou struggled to keep her revulsion off her face. Rolly wasn't as good at hiding his.

  They placed the sheet next to the body and then rolled the girl into it. I'm sorry, Lou thought as she wrapped the material around her.

  Following Pascha's direction, they carried the body through the hall and down a flight of stairs. Lou tried to tell herself it was a rug but it wasn't possible to keep that reality out. Lou felt her stomach heave more than once as she made her way down the stairs. Kicking open a rusty door, Rolly stepped out into an old courtyard and Lou followed.

  Lou paused. "Um, where do you think we should put her?"

  Rolly nodded toward the back corner. "How about over there?"

  Lou nodded and headed over. They put the body down and then cleared a space, placing the girl in it.

  Lou grabbed a couple of sheets of wood off the windows nearby, covering the body. Rolly did the same.

  They stepped back. It wouldn't keep many animals out, but it was the best they could do for now.

  Rolly stood with his hands on his waist. He looked back at the building and then at Lou. "What the hell was that back there?"

  Lou glanced over at him. Rolly looked really shaken - a lot more shaken then some of the other people had looked.

  Lou glanced around to make sure no one could overhear them. She took a step toward Rolly and lowered her voice. "Look, whatever you do, don't let them see how much this got to you. I don't think Pascha's someone you want to show weakness to."

  Rolly fixed her with a gaze. "Why do I get the feeling you know more about what's happening here than you're letting on?"

  Lou looked away.

  "Not everybody here has abilities, do they?" Rolly asked.

  "No, they don't."

  "And you can tell who does?"

  Lou nodded.

  "So do some have more abilities than others?"

  Lou looked back at him. "I don't think so. From what I understand, there are two types of us. I can tell who has abilities. You can only read your type."

  "The electric shock?"

  Lou nodded. "Look, Rolly, you seem like a nice guy, so be careful okay? If you're scared, mad, whatever - don't let them see that."

  Rolly was silent for a moment watching Lou. Finally, he nodded. "Okay."

  Lou gestured to the door. "We should get back."

  The two of them jogged back across the courtyard and up the stairs. They stepped out onto the landing just as Pascha stepped out of the dorm room.

  "Excellent. Just in time," Pascha said.

  "Uh, what are we doing?" Lou asked.

  Pascha smiled. "Beginning your training."

  CHAPTER 46

  Training, Lou thought with disgust. More like the Pascha show.

  Pascha had led them into the gymnasium downstairs. Spotlights had been hooked up so that they could see. It was the only place in the hospital where they had done so. Lou had the uncomfortable feeling that Pascha expected them to spend most of their time here.

  Pascha walked around the front of the circle that had been painted on the old floor. "We are not like other humans. We do not need to snivel by - looking for crumbs. We were given our abilities for a purpose - to take what we want. Let me show you."

  Pascha moved to the middle of the ring as two men were led in. Each was above six feet tall and heavily muscled. From the homemade tattoos that adorned their arms, Lou was pretty sure they were ex-cons.

  Pascha grinned at the men, waving them forward.

  Lou felt nauseous again. She could tell neither of the men had abilities. She bit her lip and glanced around. There were four other guards in the room, each with guns. Even if she managed to help the two men, the guards would kill her. And them as well.

  Rolly leaned down to her. "Can either of them fight him?"

  Lou shook her head but kept her eyes focused on Pascha. "No."

  One of the men charged. Pascha stood still and then stepped aside unleashing a vicious sidekick to the man's ribs. He screamed and grabbed his side.

  The other attacked him from behind, wrapping his arms around Pascha and lifting him off his feet. Latching onto the man's neck, Pascha curled up his legs and then flung them to the floor, dropping all of his weight.

  The man pitched forward. His skull smacked the ground with a sharp crack.

  Pascha flung him away.

  The man didn't move.

  Pascha walked over to his friend, who held up his hands. "No, please."

  Next to her, Rolly started to stand.

  Lou yanked him down. "Don't. You can't help him."

  "We have to try."

  Lou shook her head, but didn't look at Rolly. Pascha kicked the man in the face then walked around him. Pascha raised his foot above the man's head.

  Lou closed her eyes so she didn't see the stomp. But she heard it. It echoed through the silent room.

  And Lou knew she would hear it every night f
or the rest of her life.

  CHAPTER 47

  After Pascha's little demonstration, it was dinnertime. An hour earlier, Lou would have devoured the pizza in front of her. But now she had no appetite. She forced herself to take a bite, though, because Pascha was watching all of them for their reaction. Lou was comforted to see a few other people looked a little green as well.

  Lou and Rolly sat away from the rest of the group but that wasn't a problem. They weren't exactly a cohesive unit. Most people seemed to be keeping to themselves.

  Twenty minutes later, Lou dropped her slice back on her plate. She'd eaten half of it and that was about as much as she could choke down. She glanced over at Rolly's plate. His full slice sat untouched. Rolly stared off into space.

  "You really should eat something," Lou said softly.

  Rolly looked back at her. "He killed those men. And we didn't stop him."

  Lou looked around but no one was close enough to hear and Pascha had disappeared somewhere. "I know but we are way outnumbered."

  "Outnumbered? How do you know that?"

  Lou glanced around. "You got a slight electric sensation when you saw some of the others, right?"

  Rolly nodded.

  "Well, I get a much bigger one. There are a lot more guards here than you realize. If we said or did anything, we'd be dead right along side those two men."

  Rolly's jaw dropped and he stared at her for a moment. Then he shook his head. "Pascha's evil. They're all evil."

  Lou nodded. Rolly was right - it was evil. And they were going to have to figure a way out of here soon. Because there was no way she could sit through another one of Pascha's 'demonstrations.'

  Lou remembered what Maddox had told her about the camps he'd been in. They tried to find out early on who had the stomach for this kind of work, although how they did that varied by camp. Lou did not want to find out what Pascha's method was going to be.

  She glanced up at Rolly. "Why are you here? Most people here are kind of jerks. But you're not."

  "I could say the same for you," Rolly said, his eyes downcast.

  "I suppose you could." Lou paused. Should she tell him why she was really here? Could she trust him?

  Rolly looked out the window. "You know, I have an older sister."

  "You do? You only mentioned the younger one."

  Rolly shook his head. "Alicia - she's the older one. Her and I got split up in foster care. She called me about a year ago. Said someone had come to her. Said he had a place for her to go where she'd fit in."

  "What happened?"

  "I never heard from her again. When I was approached I knew it was the same people. I'm not here for me. I need to know what happened to her."

  Lou felt a lump in her throat. "I'm sorry Rolly."

  He shrugged. "I'm guessing my stories no sadder than yours."

  Lou gave him a brief smile. "No, I guess it's not." She hesitated for only a few seconds. She took a deep breath. "My sister's name was Charlotte." And the whole story poured out of her.

  When Lou was done, Rolly looked around, keeping his voice low. "So these people, this Jen, they've gotten people out of camps like this before?"

  "Yeah. I had a tracker on me but I lost it when we got changed at that rest area." She pictured Jen. "But they're looking for me, for all of us."

  "If they've gotten people out of camps, they might know what happened to Alicia."

  "They might."

  Rolly nodded and Lou could sense his resolve. "Okay. So now we just need to figure out a way to contact them. Let them know we're here. Any ideas?"

  Lou shook her head. "Well, ideally we could just call them and tell them where we are. Then they arrive with guns blazing."

  Rolly paused. He glanced at Lou, an eyebrow raised. "They took all our cells. But I've seen a few of the guards with cell phones. So we just need to get one of theirs."

  "Okay - but how? I don't think they're just going to hand one over."

  Rolly grinned. "I guess that just depends on how we ask."

  CHAPTER 48

  Lou lay in her cot, trying not to imagine all the bugs that were undeniably living there. She listened to the room, but it had gone silent about a half hour ago. All she could hear was even breathing.

  The cot next to hers creaked and Rolly snuck over to her bed. "Ready?" he whispered.

  Lou nodded and quickly got out of her bed. Quietly, they crept out of the room. There were some electric lanterns placed around the halls, making it easier to see. They knew there was a guard at the end of the hall - a human guard.

  Lou snuck down the hall with Rolly behind her. She tried not to think about the people that had lived here years ago or the fact that she was acting out the beginning of about a dozen slasher movies she'd seen.

  On the other side of the door, the guard leaned against the wall, his back to them. Lou glanced through the door. He was playing a game on his phone - Candy Crush.

  Rolly looked at her and Lou nodded. Taking a breath, Rolly straightened and pushed through the doors, heading down the hall. "Hey man."

  "Where do you think you're going?" the guard asked shoving his phone in his pocket.

  "Just stretching my legs." Rolly stretched his arms above his head once he was on the other side of the man.

  The guard nudged his head back toward the door. "Yeah, well no stretching. Get back inside."

  Lou snuck out the door while the man's back was to her. Moving fast, she reached up and wrapped her arm around his neck. She locked it in place with her other arm like Jordan had taught her.

  "What the-?" The man tried to slam her against the wall, but Rolly pinned him in place. Thirty seconds later, the man was unconscious. Quickly, they searched him and found the phone in his pocket.

  Lou pulled it out quickly dialing Jen's number as they made their way to the stairwell. They were heading to the back of the hospital. Lou had sensed fewer guards back there - which might mean there were more human guards. But she still preferred their odds with the human guards.

  They needed to get out of the hospital now. As soon as the guard woke up, he was going to tell everyone what they had done. The only way to avoid that was to kill him and neither she nor Rolly was prepared for that.

  The call connected.

  "Who is this?" Jen's voice was riddled with static.

  Lou nearly cried with relief. "Jen. It's me. It's Lou."

  "Lou - are - ?" The phone died.

  Lou stared at it in disbelief.

  "What happened?"

  "I lost the signal."

  Rolly closed his eyes. "Seriously?"

  Lou nodded. "We're really not great at this spy stuff are we?"

  "Well, it got through. That's what matters. And if you're right about a genius on the other end, he should be able to trace it, right?"

  Lou nodded, thinking of Danny. He'd be able to trace it. And on TV, they always made tracing a call look simple. "You're right. Plus, when we get outside, we'll probably be able to pick up a signal again. Now we just need to get out of here without getting caught."

  "Easy," Rolly said, quietly pulling open the door to the first floor.

  The beam of a flashlight caught them as soon as they stepped through. "Just where do you two think you're going?"

  Hallway lanterns made it bright enough to see Pascha's angry face.

  "Or maybe not," Rolly muttered.

  CHAPTER 49

  Danny traced the call to the nearest cell phone tower - the area covered was only a few square miles. He was working to get an exact location but Jen wasn't waiting. She and Henry had the whole group converge on the city of Danvers.

  Jen urged the car forward. "Come on." Ten minutes away, Lou had only been ten minutes away this whole time.

  Henry's phone beeped and Jen snatched it up. "What have you got?"

  Laney's voice rang out through the car. "I can't be sure but I think I may have found your spot. Danny's -" she paused "borrowing a satellite feed to get some heat signatures."

>   "What's the place?" Henry asked.

  "Danvers State Insane Asylum," Laney said.

  "An Asylum?" Jen asked.

  "It's been out of commission for years. In fact, it's slated to be turned into apartments in a couple of months. But it's within range of the cell phone tower. And I think it would appeal to Pascha."

  "Twisted little freak," Jen muttered.

  "Exactly," Laney said. "Hold on."

  Jen could hear excited murmuring in the background but she couldn't make out any of the conversation.

  Laney got back on the phone. "Danny found the heat signatures. There are at least forty of them. About ten are ringed around the perimeter of the building."

  Jen closed her eyes. "Okay. What else?"

  "There are two white vans parked round the back of the building. It's them, Jen."

  "Henry?" Jen asked.

  He nodded, pressing the accelerator down.

  "Go get them," Laney said before disconnecting.

  Jen quickly dialed the rest of the group and gave them the coordinates.

  Henry glanced at her from the side of his eyes. "We'll get her out."

  Jen nodded, but wasn't able to speak right them.

  They'd get to Lou in time. They had to.

  CHAPTER 50

  Pascha threw Lou into the middle of the ring in the gymnasium. Two other men threw Rolly.

  Lou got up slowly. She stared at the faces of the people around them. After catching her and Rolly, Pascha had raised the alarm. Guards had surrounded them within seconds.

  They'd been marched to the gymnasium. The rest of the teens had also been marched here. Apparently, Pascha didn't want them to miss the show.

  Pascha strode around the edge of the circle. "These two have broken the rules. More than that, they assaulted one of my men."

  Pascha glared at everyone around the circle. Most wouldn't meet his eyes. Lou saw a tremor run through more than one of them.

  Pascha pointed at Rolly who was just getting to his feet. "Who did you call?"