Snap, Crackle ...

by Dale Mayer

  “Maybe”—she shrugged—“not that I know anything about it.”

  “No, he said, “maybe not. You’re the strongest person I know.”

  She gave a startled laugh, looked at him, and said, “What?”

  “You heard me,” he said. “Don’t pretend you didn’t.”

  She shook her head. “I’m hardly strong,” she protested. “All I’ve ever done is run.”

  “Run, sure, but that’s what you had to do to survive. Surviving is all about doing what you need to do,” he said. “That doesn’t make you weak.”

  “Well, it sure feels like it,” she murmured, not sure of his assessment of the scenario at all.

  “Maybe, but, at the same time,” he said, “you’re strong. You’re still alive, and you keep fighting. That is all about leading the way for others to follow.”

  Inordinately pleased but not prepared to show him in any way, she shrugged and said, “I think you’re making it all up.”

  “Of course,” he said, “because otherwise you would have to acknowledge that you’ve done something right. All you’ve been doing so far is castigating yourself for having done everything wrong.”

  “I survived,” she said. “That was the right thing to do. The wrong part is to still be running.”

  “What do you want to do about it?”

  She thought about it for a long moment and said, “I want to stop running.”

  “And how will you do that?”

  “That’s the part I don’t know,” she whispered. She turned, looked at him, and said, “Do you have any ideas?”

  He nodded. “We have to go on the attack, instead of always being on the defensive. We have to go on the offense for a change.”

  She said, “We’ll get killed if we do that.”

  “I don’t think so,” he said, with a gentle smile. “You have skills. I have skills. I’m sure between the two of us, plus Stefan and whatever team he can rustle up to help us, we can all get to the bottom of this and put a stop to these guys.”

  “Well, I would love to think that,” she said, “but I think you’re back in fantasyland.”

  He chuckled. “Fantasyland isn’t such a bad a place to be.”

  “And again,” she said, “that’s because you haven’t been there for the worst of the worst.”

  “Nope, and I don’t intend to go there either,” he said in the gentlest voice.

  She nodded slowly. “Maybe not, but that doesn’t mean you’ll escape unscathed though.”

  “Maybe not,” he said, with a smile, but then he stopped because she was pointing.

  “Take a right.” He took a right, and she said, “Okay, stop.”

  He pulled up to a crossroad; early in the morning, just enough light outside to see an intersection. Almost two wooded roads in the middle of nowhere. “Where are we?” he asked.

  “Somewhere important,” she said. “I escaped right here.” She hopped out and wandered around, looking at the area around her. “It’s hard to even believe.”

  “You mean, that you made it?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, and that I still am free after all this time. Always impossible, something the boss had said over and over again.”

  “So that should be a good-enough reason for you to fight a little longer, a little harder than ever,” he said, “because that was a lie, and you proved it.”

  She looked at him and then said, “You know what? You’re right, and if he lied about that …”

  At that, Hunter nodded with a smile and said, “You’re getting it.”

  “We can’t bring him down on our own,” she said. “We’re not enough. You don’t understand how powerful he is.”

  “So, is it him that’s powerful, or is he powerful because of Lizzy?”

  She frowned and said, “Lizzy is incredible. She’s a combination of a lot of other abilities but energized.”

  “And I presume she didn’t come by that naturally.”

  She shook her head. “No, not at all. It was his doing, and he wanted all the abilities for himself, but, when he couldn’t do that, he ended up coddling Lizzy, making sure that she was his secret weapon.”

  “And it sounds like it worked,” he murmured.

  “Oh, it worked,” she said. “You have no idea.”

  “So, this is where you escaped. Where were you headed from here?” She stopped, looked around, and said, “The vehicle was pointed this way,” she said, pointing back toward where their vehicle was, “which means it was still going this way.”

  “Do you know how you got out?”

  She nodded. “The driver had to stop to go to the bathroom. I was supposed to be tied up, but I’d undone my bonds, and, as soon as he got out, I slipped out the other side and disappeared into the bush.”

  “And did he not look for you?”

  “Well, he did in a panic, yes,” she said. “And then, once he contacted the boss to tell him that I had escaped, it got scary.”

  “But you escaped anyway.”

  “Yes,” she said quietly. “But he didn’t. He was killed somewhere around here.”

  At that, Hunter sucked in his breath and said, “Where?”

  She stared at him. “What do you mean, where?”

  “Is he buried here?”

  She slowly shook her head and said, “I have no idea.”

  “Was he killed right away?”

  “I think so,” she said. “I remember hearing a shot. But my memories can’t be trusted.”

  “It would make sense. Failure is not an option, right?”

  “No, failure is not an option, not in his world especially.”

  “So, the question is whether he’s buried close by or if they did something with him elsewhere.”

  “I don’t think the boss would have buried him,” she murmured. “I don’t think the guard would have been shown even that much respect.”

  “Ouch, so the boss is a nice guy, isn’t he?”

  She shook her head. “I’m pretty sure I told you repeatedly,” she said cautiously, “that nothing’s nice about him.”

  Hunter gave her a wicked grin. “That was sarcasm.”

  “Sorry,” she said immediately. “I’m still struggling to adjust to some of that.”

  “You’re doing just fine,” he said casually, “but this might be something I can do. Let me see.”

  And he walked over to the side of the road to a large tree, where he closed his eyes and leaned up against it, crossing his arms over his chest.

  Chapter 12

  Beth looked at Hunter in amazement, not sure what he was doing, but she felt energy stirring deep within. But not strange, like Lizzy’s energy, just not energy that she recognized at all. The fact that she didn’t recognize it made it scary too. Calming down, she took a long slow deep breath. They shouldn’t be here; for all she knew, the boss had some safeguard set up, in case anybody came by.

  She wanted to tell Hunter that, to warn him that they needed to leave, but he was so busy doing whatever he was doing, she didn’t know how to tell him, without this interruption coming across as a complete shock. Finally she called out, “Hunter.”

  He held up a hand. “Just a minute.”

  She took another look around. “It’s not safe to stay here.”

  “Nope, it isn’t,” he said, and then he moved forward.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Well,” he said, “you were right about the driver. He didn’t survive.” And he walked purposely forward, to a large thicket of trees up ahead. She watched as he stepped into them and then disappeared from sight, but she heard him thrashing around, looking for something. She didn’t want to think about what he was looking for, but it was pretty obvious. Finally he stepped out, his face grim, and he nodded. “He’s here.”

  “What?”

  “His body is here.”

  “Seriously?” She raced over to his side, and he held back the thicket, and, sure enough, a jawbone stared straight skyward—bones barely
bleached from no sunlight but still had no flesh, since the bugs had done their work.

  “Good God,” she said, feeling herself getting a little faint.

  He immediately walked her back to the car, leaned her up against it, and said, “Don’t pass out on me.”

  She shook her head. “No, I won’t.” She looked up at him. “No way to know for sure if it’s him.”

  “Nope, not a sure way, but you and I both know that it is.”

  She winced and nodded. “You’re right,” she said, “and how awful is that. He died because of me.”

  “Don’t go there,” he bit off, giving her a shake. “You don’t know anything about what brought him to that point in his life. You don’t know why he was there, working for the boss. You don’t know anything, and don’t you dare take that on.”

  “Says you,” she said, “but a man died here because I escaped.”

  “You don’t know the why of it,” he snapped, “and you can’t blame yourself. You were a prisoner, and you took the opportunity to run. The guard knew what the chances were, working for the boss, including the odds of failure. The guard also knew what would happen if he failed, and that’s not your fault.”

  She took a long slow deep breath, realizing the truth of his words, yet still hating to even think that she felt guilt for his death on her soul. “Now what?” she whispered.

  “Now what is easy,” he said. “Now we carry on to the spot where you came from,” he said, “and I’ll bring in the authorities to look at this body.” He marked it on his GPS and sent off several messages, as she watched.

  “What good would that do?” she asked.

  “Well, it’ll give the body and the soul of this man some rest, once he gets a proper burial,” he murmured. He asked her, “You don’t have a problem with that, do you?”

  She shook her head immediately. “No, of course not, but—” Then stopped, shook her head, and said, “I guess it needs to happen.”

  “And it would have happened eventually,” he said. “So, if the boss cared about it being found, then he wouldn’t have left the body here out in the open.”

  “It would hardly be found out here,” she said. “Look at this place. It’s completely deserted.”

  “Except we’re here now,” he said, with a fat smile. “And that’ll change everything.”

  She sighed. “I hope so. I’m not sure you’re right about it though.”

  “That’s fine,” he said. “Let’s not get overwrought yet. Let’s get back in the car and carry on.”

  As soon as he started up the engine, she said, “I’m not sure I can do this.”

  “Of course you’re not,” he said, “but you weren’t sure that you could escape either, and you did that. I’m counting on you to stand strong and to do this thing.”

  “Nothing like a little coercion, huh?” she murmured.

  He grinned at her. “Hardly coercion,” he said. “Think about it being justice for the people who were hurt, like Mitch, like the other people who were lost forever into whatever nightmare the boss dropped them into,” he murmured. “Think about the people who died and how nobody ever knew. Think about all those victims, yourself included. Think about justice and about stopping the boss once and for all. Now,” he said, “which direction and how far are we going?”

  She pointed the same way she had pointed earlier. “It’s down there,” she said quietly. “And I don’t think it’s very far at all.”

  “Any idea how far?”

  “No,” she whispered, feeling her throat freezing up, as the fear threatened to close it completely. “I’m not sure at all.”

  “Good enough,” he said, pulling the car forward. “At least we have some idea that we’re in the right location.”

  “And is that good enough?” she asked. “Is that enough to justify all this?”

  “Not yet,” he said, his voice turning hard, “not yet at all. But we stick to what we’re doing and why we’re doing this, and, if that’s what you need to hang on to, then do that to get through it. This man is an animal, and we must stop him, before he hurts anybody else.”

  “And if I don’t want to?”

  He smiled at her and said, “Fear is understandable. Letting the fear stop you, not so much.”

  She glared at him. “That’s a low blow,” she murmured.

  “Whatever it takes,” he said, with a bright smile and an easy laugh.

  “It’s not that easy,” she said. “I’ve been on the run for a long time.”

  “And you’ve been a victim for a long time,” he said. “I thought we decided it was time to stop running and to take charge. Look at what we’ve already accomplished. A whole investigation will be opened up into this.”

  “So?” she said. “It’s just one of many more dead bodies. I don’t think this will change anything.”

  “If it won’t on its own,” he said, “then it’s up to us to make sure it does.”

  She stared at him for a long time. “Does that attitude always work for you?”

  “Of course not,” he said cheerfully. “Does sticking your head in the sand always work for you?”

  *

  Hunter hadn’t meant to push it quite so hard, so fast, but he couldn’t have her back out and get cold feet on him. This was too important, and they were too damn close. Stefan’s voice whispered in the back of Hunter’s mind.

  Take it easy on her. She’s been through a lot.

  I know, he muttered to Stefan. I get it. He also knew that Stefan was emotionally attached, and that, in itself, would be crippling.

  It won’t stop me, Stefan said, his voice a little snippier than Hunter had ever heard him.

  Of course not, but you care, he said.

  Stefan laughed. You think you can do this and not care yourself?

  I always have before.

  That’s not true, he said. Every time that you’ve cared, you’ve made friends.

  Nothing wrong with making friends.

  Yes, but you weren’t involved directly. You were always helping somebody else’s partner, somebody else’s friend, somebody else’s special someone, he murmured. This time nobody out there but the two of you.

  It’s not that kind of a relationship, he said, and, at the moment, I want to wring her neck.

  At that, Stefan laughed. Of course you do, he said, and more power to you. But a note of warning, she’s way stronger than you think. And, if you think you’ll wring her neck, don’t be surprised if you find your own neck being wrung when you least expect it. And, with that, Stefan slipped out of his mind.

  “What was that?” she asked, looking at him.

  He frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “What did I just hear?”

  He stared at her and said, “I was talking to Stefan.”

  She frowned. “What do you mean, you were talking to Stefan?”

  “I was talking to Stefan,” he said.

  She looked around, as if for his phone.

  He nodded. “That’s the thing. I was talking to Stefan,” he said, “but I was using my mind to do it.”

  Her mouth formed a rosebud. “Oh,” she said and sank back.

  “Not just you have developed while you were in that place. Also everybody else in the world,” he said. “Stefan is stronger and more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”

  She looked at him and said, “I hope so. He’ll need to be, and he’ll need to help us because I guarantee we’re up against something you’ve never seen before.”

  Chapter 13

  Beth stared into the growing darkness around them. In a way the blackness helped, but it also gave her the heebie-jeebies. She’d spent years, almost two decades, in this horrible place. No good memories were here, and the thought that she was actively looking for that place of torture, the soul-sucking concrete building that had taken the life from her for all those years, was something she couldn’t even believe she was doing. “Why?” she murmured.

  “Why what?”
Hunter asked beside her.

  She glared at him and snapped back more because it was expected, not that she felt she needed to respond. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

  “Well, that’s too bad,” he said, “because nobody else is around here to talk to.”

  “You were talking to Stefan. Maybe I am too.”

  He raised an eyebrow, looked at her, and she shrugged, then said, “No, I was asking myself why the hell I’m even here.”

  “Because you want to put an end to this.”

  She frowned and studied the windshield. “It can’t be much farther,” she murmured.

  “And what are you basing that on?”

  She thought about it and said, “Because it wasn’t all that long after we left that I managed to get free. We were the last group leaving.”

  “Why?”

  “Because my guard was one of the ones who locked up at the end of the day. So he was locking up as we left.”

  “That’s fine,” he said, “and it’s interesting that you were the last one because it gave you a position to escape. If somebody had been behind you, it would have been much harder to successfully escape. Somebody would have seen you and gone into the woods after you.”

  She nodded. “I did wonder about that at the time.”

  “Wonder what?”

  “If there was a reason I was last.”

  He took his eyes off the road. “What are you thinking?”

  “I’m not,” she said abruptly. Then she stopped and said, “Look. I won’t be myself over all this, so maybe I should apologize in advance or something.”

  “I get that,” he murmured. “But the more you can tell me, the more we can prepare for whatever we’ll see.”

  She snorted. “I’m hoping it’s a run-down old building that’s dilapidated and collapsed,” she murmured.

  “That’s possible,” he said, “but these things tend to take on a life of their own.”

  At that, she turned to look at him. “What do you mean?”

  “All that energy,” he said, “it doesn’t just disappear because it’s not being fed. It’ll drain slightly, but the energy of a building, it will still be there.”

  She shook her head. “That’s not a thought I want to keep in my mind.”