by Izzy Szyn
“Yes, I understand,” Amy told him.
“You've got one hour.” He said before hanging up.
“You're not going there alone.” Noah sounding very Dark Master-like.
“I know I'm not,” Amy said. “How are we going to get her out of there?”
Noah walked up to Williams, grabbing him by the collar. “I want all the details of the shithole that your spawn is hiding out in.”
“Let me go,” Williams started to struggle.
“Not on your life,” Noah said to him. “If Ruby ends up with so much as a scratch, you'll be sorry that you were ever born.”
“Commissioner, tell him to let me go,” Williams demanded.
“Not on your life,” James replied. “Tell Dark Master what he wants to know or I'll make it my personal mission to make sure you share a cell with someone who is looking for a new prison wife.”
“Wait until I talk to the Governor, he will make sure you are busted down to meter maid.”
Amy knew he'd never give up Graham. “He's of no use to us.”
“What do you mean?” Vanessa asked.
“It's obvious that he isn’t able to keep track of his sons, even the psycho ones,” replied Amy. “If he did, then he'd know that he could be facing federal prison. Even the death penalty. Isn’t that what they do to terrorists?” Amy took pleasure in watching him turn white.
“Vince Williams, you’re under arrest,” Noah said to him.
“You can’t arrest me,” Williams protested.
“Yes he can, so can Calypso and in just a little while, Artemis,” confirmed Commissioner James.
“Me?” Amy looked at the Commissioner.
“Yes, you,” James said.
Amy was stunned. She never thought in a million years that she’d be deputized to arrest people. Her? Amy Wilson? How freaking cool. Once they rescued her mom, she’ll be jumping for joy.
“Are you okay, Artemis?” Vanessa asked her.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” admitted Amy. “Let’s get him out of here so we can rescue my mom.”
“You called us, Commissioner?” two uniformed police officers asked.
“Yes, take Mr. Williams down to be booked and processed,” ordered the Commissioner.
“Yes, sir,” one of the cops smiled. Something about him looked familiar to Amy.
“Don’t I know you?” She asked him.
“Not that I’m aware of,” he said. “Who are you?”
“This is Artemis,” introduced Noah. “She’s joining us.”
“Holy shit, I mean crap,” the officer said.
“How do you know Artemis?” Asked the Commissioner.
“She helped my family,” the cop said.
“You mean she hacked into your father’s account?” Williams asked.
“No, well yeah, she helped my mom get the money she needed to take care of us, but she was also a real whiz with coupons,” the cop said.
“Coupons?” Noah asked. “Were you one of those extreme coupon people?”
“Sort of still am,” Amy admitted.
“Her mom had this room and if someone was in need of food we could go over there and get some,” explained the cop.
“Wow, I had no idea,” Commissioner James said.
“My mom still does it at her place,” Amy admitted. “We’ll get the coupons and go shopping to refill supplies.”
“You know if parents who are supposed to support their children would do so, then there wouldn’t be a need for what you and your mother did. Or for you to begin hacking in the first place,” Commissioner James stated.
“Are you condoning her breaking the law?” Williams asked.
“Condoning may be a strong word, but I admire what she did,” the Commissioner told him. “If you’d have manned up and paid child support like you should have, than Artemis wouldn’t have resorted to hacking.”
“Wait, you’re her father?” the cop asked. “You're even a lower pond scum then I thought. What are we booking him on, sir?”
“Terrorism, accessory to kidnapping, obstruction of justice,” Commissioner James read off the charges. “If something happens to her mother, murder.”
“I'll have your badge,” Williams threatened.
“I'm sure none of the officials that are in your pocket will back you up. Terrorists are automatically candidates for the death penalty,” Noah told him. “Now, if you tell us where he is, we might go easier on you.”
“I'll talk,” Williams seemed to realize that he was up Shit's Creek without a paddle.
“Knew you'd see reason,” James said. “Where is he?”
“Graham needs help,” Williams said. “He's blaming Artemis and me for his actions. He said that if Amy wasn’t born then he'd have gotten her tech know-how. That he was cheated.”
“How is it my fault?” Amy asked. “He always did act like a spoiled brat.”
“So what does he want with Amy?” Noah asked
When Williams remained quiet, Amy spoke up. “He wants to completely turn off technology. Doesn’t he? He’s managed to do it some, but not to the extent he wants. I’m guessing worldwide, cause that’s what a lot of psychos want. My guess is he wants to hold it for ransom. Get governments to pay big money to get it turned back on. One day without cellphones and some people might be willing to give up their first born.”
“He honestly thinks that you’ll help him?” questioned Vanessa. “He’s not that bright.”
“She did it once,” reminded Williams.
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Amy said. “It was more of an oops and holy shit what did I do? I also helped the feds put into place ways to prevent it from happening again.”
“He knows, because he's tried, he needs you to tell him how to work around it,” Williams explained.
“If I do that, then what? He's going to kill me, isn’t he?” Amy knew that was part of his plan. But now he had her mother. His ass just became a candidate to become a piñata. Williams didn’t answer the question. His silence though just confirming her suspicions.
“We're not going to let anything happen to you and your mother,” promised Noah. “We happen to like you a little bit. “
“Thanks, I like you, too,” Amy told him.
“Is there any kinds of booby traps we need to be aware of?” Vanessa asked Williams. When she was met with silence she went up to him, caging him in the chair. “Listen, you sorry excuse for a human being, an innocent woman is in the hands of your psycho son. A son that I'm sure that you're more than aware needs to be taken off the streets. Tell us what we need to know.”
Again she was met with silence. “What the hell did she ever do to you? You're the son of a bitch who seduced her and got her pregnant. You made me swear to keep silent that I'm a result of that seduction, which I was glad to do. So what the hell? You’re going to sit on your ass and let us die to keep your secret? Why?”
“I can answer that,” said a voice behind them.
Amy turned around and saw a man that was an older version of Williams. “Please, enlighten me.”
“You look just like her,” the old man said.
“Who?”
“My wife, your grandmother.”
“I don’t have grandparents,” Amy said. “My mother’s parents kicked her out when she was pregnant.”
She watched the man take something out of his wallet and hand it to her. “This was your grandmother. “
Amy took the picture and stared at it. It did look like her. “I see it, but what does that have to do with me?”
“There was a clause in her will that I knew about and agreed with. Have you ever heard of Electric Megabytes?”
“Yeah.” Electric Megabytes was one of the top game makers in the country.
“That was hers. She had it that her company would go to a granddaughter. If there wasn’t any, then it would go to the youngest male, since the eldest always ends up getting the bulk of the estate.”
“But I'm not...” she started to sa
y, she wasn't sure how to exactly phrase what she was thinking.
“Yes, you are,” the man said. “It doesn’t state that the child had to be legally born in wedlock. I admit that I became curious about you when he became upset whenever he heard the name Artemis mentioned. I did a little digging and have to say I’ve never been more ashamed of my son.”
Amy didn’t know what to say. She needed time to think things through, but now wasn’t the time to do it. “We can discuss what I am or am not to you, AFTER my mother is rescued.”
“She does have a point,” Commissioner James pointed out.
“Thanks. Mr. Williams? Can you tell us where you think your grandson is hiding out?”
“We own several empty warehouses near the dock,” answered the older Mr. Williams. “Some of them were once operated during the Prohibition-era.”
“I remember that a lot of those places were booby-trapped, so to speak,” Noah said.
“Yes, there’s one or two that I think my grandson is sick enough to use,” Mr. Williams replied. “One was once known as The Wet Whale, and it had a very handy way to dispose of the liquor when word came that they cops were on their way to bust them.”
“The Wet Whale?” Amy said.
“You’ve heard of The Wet Whale?” Mr. Williams sounded surprised.
“Yeah, Mr. Gregory told me about that place. Said his grandfather used to work as a bartender there and made all these kinds of drinks,” answered Amy.
“Who is Mr. Gregory?” asked Commissioner James.
“He watched me while my mom had to work. He’s the one who showed me about computers,” smiled Amy. “He was a great guy, treated me like his own granddaughter. He also helped me with my homework. We had an assignment about the Prohibition-era and he spent an entire night talking about that time in history. How alcohol was suddenly illegal, which to me sounded stupid. Telling people not to drink is like telling people not to watch porn.”
“No kidding,” Noah commented.
“The one thing that always stuck in my head was that Mr. Gregory said that when they received word that the place was about to be busted, he’d pull a lever and the floor would open up, dumping the booze into the ocean,” Amy got a look of horror on her face. “My mom can’t swim.”
“Also, there are sharks underneath,” Commissioner James said. “We’ve kept this bit out of the news, with the tech stuff happening we didn’t want to freak people out even more. There have been pieces of bodies found near the warehouses. They’d obviously been attacked by sharks. One of the victims was identified as Carlos Turner, a criminal with a long history of robberies, and drug use. Another was a woman named Patti Griggs. She was reported missing by her husband a few days ago, and was just discovered this morning.”
“Carlos Turner?” Vanessa said. “That was the name given to us when we questioned that guy hanging around Amy’s apartment the night the ATMs spit out cash. He looked suspicious because he was just hanging outside and looking up at the apartments. We weren’t sure which one he was looking at in particular.”
“When Hinderer contacted me the other day, that’s the name of the driver he told me would be waiting for me,” Amy remembered.
“Why was Carlos supposed to be waiting for you?” Commissioner James asked.
“The night that I took over the airwaves was because I’d been contacted by Hinderer. He said that he wanted me to join him. When I declined and called him psycho, he got hysterical, and said that I better reconsider saying no. That he’d have the police at my door by nine-fifteen the next morning if I didn’t get in the car,” explained Amy. “He also told me not to contact the cops. So I knew that if I did something it could either bring you guys or Dark Master and Calypso to my door. It was worth the risk.”
“Why didn’t you call us?” Commissioner James asked.
“If I were to call you, would you’ve believed me?” Amy responded. “I knew that I could trust Dark Master and Calypso to at least listen to my side, and since there isn’t a direct number, I did what I had to do.”
“She also recorded it,” Noah spoke up. “We’d just listened to it, when you’d called us. We’d started putting two and two together.”
“Mr. Williams? Do you have an address for the Wet Whale?” Amy asked him.
“Not offhand,” he admitted. “I’ll have to look it up.”
“No need,” Amy told him. “Commissioner? Can I borrow your computer again for a minute?”
“Certainly,” he answered.
Going to the computer, Amy tapped into the search bar the name of the speakeasy. Unfortunately, there were a million, or seemed to be a million, places named the Wet Whale. After a few more searches she was able to narrow it down to the location where Graham had her mom. The son of a bitch was going to wish he’d never been born. Never mess with a Wilson woman.
“I found it,” Amy finally said. She then went to the city records seeking a blueprint of the warehouse and pulled it up on the computer.
“Good job,” complimented Noah. “We should have recruited you long ago.”
“Yes, you should have,” agreed Amy. It felt good to be back, but this time legally. “He said for me to come alone. I’m not stupid enough to listen. How do you plan to hide yourselves?” She asked Noah and Vanessa.
“Well, for one thing you’re going to need different clothes,” commented Vanessa.
“Too bad, this is comfortable,” complained Amy. It really was. The fabric was lightweight enough that she didn’t feel like she was going to sweat to death.
“What are we going to do with the other Mr. Williams,” the cop asked.
Amy looked up with shock, forgetting he’d been there the whole time. “Can you put him in solitary confinement or something?” She questioned the commissioner.
“Certainly, but why?”
“I don’t trust him enough to not make his one phone call to his sleaze ball son and alert him to what our plans are,” answered Amy.
“You don’t think that he’s dumb enough to do that do you?” Noah asked her. “Wait, maybe he is.”
“Are you calling me stupid?” Williams started to turn red. “When I get out of jail and I will, I’ll make sure Quail City is rid of everyone in this room. Including Dark Master and Calypso.”
“Oooh, so not scared,” Amy went up to him. “Here’s the thing, you don’t have any power here. You’re just another scumbag who thinks that he’s above the law. That just because you’ve got money you can do whatever you want. But the truth is you’re more of a criminal than I ever was. You chose to do the wrong thing. You chose to let me starve, you’ve also foreclosed on homes with families. Granted, that’s not against the law, but it should be. Besides, you’re aiding and abetting someone who may have killed at least two people that we know of. Plus, he is holding technology hostage, which makes him a terrorist.”
“You’ve got no right to speak to me this way,” Williams sputtered.
“Yes, I do,” Amy walked away from him.
“Artemis does bring up a good point,” Commissioner James agreed. “Officer Camp? Escort him to a holding cell. We can’t book him anyway, because oops, the equipment is offline. Darn.”
“You’ve got it,” the officer smiled. “Also, if you need help rescuing her mom, I’d love to help. Her mom is a nice lady.”
“We’ll let you know,” promised Noah.
Amy smiled to herself as Williams was escorted out of the office. “Now that he’s gone, what are we going to do to get my mom out? He’ll notice the two of you right away. You can’t take off your costumes, because people will know who you are.”
Before they could answer, Amy’s phone rang again. Seeing it was Graham again, she answered the phone. “What do you want Graham?”
“Don’t talk to me that way,” Graham whined. “I’m not Graham, I’m Hinderer.”
“Whatever,” Amy answered.
“You’re so getting spanked for baiting him again,” Noah whispered in her ear.
&n
bsp; “I called to give you the directions to where I’m located. Remember, if I so much as smell a cop or the Dark Duo, your mother dies,” Graham said.
“You harm her, and you’re going to wish that you were dead,” promised Amy. She was done playing with him. She wanted this over.
“There will be a car waiting for you outside of The Bean Dive in thirty minutes. If you are not in the car, or even a half a second late, well then, her death is on your hands.” He threatened before hanging up.
“We’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” Calypso said.
“This is what’s going to happen. We’re going to the warehouse, Amy you’re to go into the warehouse dressed normally. We can stop and get you something to put on instead of your costume. That way he doesn’t know you’ve joined us,” instructed Noah.
“We’ve got some disguises that we can put on in the car that will disguise our identity,” Vanessa told her. “Let’s go. I want to be able to see inside, to see what we’re dealing with and where your mom is.”
“Okay,” Amy agreed.
“Amy?” The older Mr. Williams called her.
“Yes?”
“I hope you get your mom out safely,” he said.
“Thanks,” Amy nodded before following them out the door.
THE RESCUE
Amy sat in the car watching as Noah and Vanessa went into the trunk. She needed to tell them how she felt. Just in case something were to happen to her. “Can I talk to you guys for a minute?”
“Sure,” Noah got in the car with Vanessa and shut the door. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Amy said quietly.
“No, there’s something wrong,” insisted Vanessa. “If it’s about your mom, we’ll get her out.”
“I know,” admitted Amy. “But just in case something goes wrong, I just need to tell you guys how I feel.”
“I think that I can safely say for Vanessa and myself,” Noah kissed her. “That we love you. I think we always have.”
“I love you both, too,” Amy replied. “I think I fell the minute I first met the two of you.”
“Nothing is going to happen to you,” vowed Vanessa. “We’ve waited way too long to be together. We’re going on vacation as soon as this is over. I’m thinking the beach? Quail City will have to be without us for a couple of weeks.”
