Force: Book Two of the Zoya Chronicles

by Kate Sander

  How do you explain Zoya to a teenager? How do you explain more than one world to a kid who has been kidnapped, who was lost and alone and who would probably share the same fate as his friend?

  The answer was easy for Charlie. You didn’t explain any of it. “Yes,” she answered softly, “she’s dead.”

  The kid sobbed quietly. Guards walked by and they kept silent. The kid waited until the guards left and said quietly, “How?”

  “Don’t do that to yourself,” Charlie breathed. “It only makes it worse. What’s your name, kid?”

  “Isaac.”

  “Who’s your father?”

  This time a long pause. Charlie knew she had overstepped but she doubted she would ever see the outside of the compound. She needed to know. Those copper-flecked eyes. She knew them so well.

  “Why do you care?” Isaac asked harshly. Charlie smiled. She had hit a nerve.

  “Just wondering a little bit about you.”

  “You shouldn’t care. You were working for these assholes,” he muttered angrily. He was barely holding on to control. “What, you think I didn’t notice?” soon he would be shouting. Charlie didn’t need that. All was lost for her but if they played their cards right Isaac might have a shot of getting out of here.

  “Keep your voice down. These people will kill you if you give them a reason to.”

  Guards walked by again and Isaac quieted. She welcomed it. She began to have a new goal in mind. Charlie only functioned well with goals. The question was always what drove her. She was a doctor in both Biology and Chemistry. She became obsessive over questions, often killing relationships in the process. That quality was one that she hated about herself. It meant that, even being held against her will, she was the type of person who would help the bad guys.

  Not that she was scared of death. She would have rather been killed. But they had taken her and had posed a question. And instead of telling them to go fuck themselves, as her young and steadfast partner Senka would have, she had done exactly as they asked. Purely to answer a question that she thought was unanswerable. Where Senka was fast, Charlie was smart. She was smart before she had a skiing accident that left her in a coma damn near a decade. But once over there, she was called Tomo because she was a genius. You know that’s not your only name, she chided herself silently.

  She had always told Senka that the names from The Other Place were their true names and that, as Zoya, they earned them. Charlie had stopped thinking of herself as Tomo as soon as she accepted the challenge laid before her from her captors. Tomo was noble. Tomo was the most successful general in the history of Anzen, the country where she had awoken in The Other Place. Tomo had risen to the title of Empress, had led with an iron fist. Charlie was weak. Tomo would have killed these men long ago. Charlie had helped them.

  She was disgusted with herself. She was the worst type of person.

  But she would try to help this kid. Because she needed to. She hoped she would take a bullet in the process. Or that she pissed Alejandra off enough that she beat her to death. She deserved a long, painful death.

  The guards finished their rounds. They opened her cell gate and silently took her last uneaten meal and dropped off a new one. She could hear Isaac sniffling next to her.

  “You’re right, I was working for them,” Charlie said once the guards left.

  “You should burn in hell,” Isaac snapped.

  Charlie smiled. He was right. It felt almost good to have someone hate her as much as she hated herself.

  “You’re right, I should. Is your father your real dad?”

  Isaac neither answered, nor did he sniffle. Charlie had guessed it right, after all.

  “How did you know?” Isaac asked softly.

  “I know your real dad. Or I knew him. A long time ago.”

  Isaac didn’t say anything for a long time. Charlie, sitting cold and stiff on the floor, didn’t rush him. It was a lot for a teenager to take. And as of right now they weren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

  “My mom never told me who my dad was. My dad’s my dad, you know? But my parents are white and I’m black. I always knew he wasn’t the guy who got my mom pregnant. I’ve never met you. How do you know who my dad is?”

  “You have his eyes,” she said simply. “Do you want to know who he is?”

  A long pause.

  “No,” Isaac said, voice firm. “My dad is the guy who raised me. He loves me. We go to football games and he picks me up from practice. Not that other guy.”

  Charlie nodded to herself. She needed to save Carter’s son. Just for her own soul. She didn’t know how but she had to get him out of here.

  “You’re only going to get one chance to get out of here,” Charlie said. “You’re going to have to do something bad though. Can you do it?”

  “Like kill someone?” Isaac asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Yeah. I could kill someone. They killed Kelly because she was a prostitute. That’s not right. That wasn’t her fault.”

  “You’re going to have to live with it forever kid.”

  Isaac’s voice was firm, “I know. But I’ll do it for her.”

  They grew silent, both lost in their own thoughts. Her hand went to the dragon pendent under her shirt. The one with the ruby. The only thing she had from The Other Place.

  She would get him out of here, then she would die. It was the only way.

  26

  Senka

  October 30, 2023, 09:30

  Location: Toronto, Canada.

  Senka was sitting in Amanda’s office. Her gun was tucked safely in her holster. Amanda had met them at the station. She had smoothed everything over with the Police Chief. Carter had hacked into civilian cell phones and deleted footage. Media outlets had been contacted, threats had been made, and the whole morning ordeal had been effectively silenced by 08:45 AM.

  She had locked the embarrassment away. Her boots were kicked up on the table. Her leather jacket was clean and she had on new jeans. Leo was tucked beside the legs of her chair, sleeping in a ball.

  Amanda strode in past Senka to her desk. The morning wasn’t mentioned. Nor would it ever be. Senka’s psychiatrist would try to bring it up but she would, inevitably, shut him out like she always did. Jack Daniels would help her through.

  Senka kept her eyes on the news broadcast that was playing on the TV. The President of the United States of America was delivering another hate-filled speech. This time it targeted Muslims.

  “When are we taking this guy out?” Senka asked, eyes never leaving the screen.

  Amanda didn’t have to look to know who she was talking about. President MacDonald had been growing consistently more brazen in the international political spectrum over the last seven years.

  “Orders are coming down shortly. The Queen is just reviewing.” Amanda placed a thick file on her desk, and silently put something in the safe behind her. “It will most likely be yours after you’re done with this human trafficking ring.”

  Senka nodded. “Gonna be hard not to cause a war though,” she said, watching the crowd start to cheer on the man. “If it’s obvious it’s a hit they will go to war with anyone they want and use it as an excuse. They love him down there.”

  Amanda went around her desk and joined Senka at the table, sitting heavily in one of the chairs. “I know. The brass was thinking a crazed white supremacist.”

  Senka shook her head, “No, won’t work. They will still twist it. Blame atheism or refugees. The NRA will go ape-shit over gun rights and it still won’t be good. Civil war would probably happen.”

  Amanda nodded again, “I agree but it’s all we have. Any sign of a cover up, even a suicide, and the United States will declare war on someone.”

  “Civil war is still war, even if it’s contained.”

  Amanda knew her job and stayed silent. They watched the President rant and rave to a crowd of fans.

  “What’s Simone up to?” Senka finally asked.

  Amanda’s brow
furrowed, she was confused on where Senka was going with this. “Currently she’s on the red carpet. Her new movie comes out soon and she’s advertising.”

  “What is she working on?”

  “Classified.”

  Senka sighed. Zoya knew about each other but their missions were strictly need to know. Simone was one of the original members of the ZTF. She had been in a coma for a year or so back in the beginning of the new millennium. She had been a movie star before becoming a Zoya and the ZTF had snatched her right up after she had awoken. Simone didn’t feel pain. At all. She was drop dead gorgeous and was still an A-list celebrity. She was invaluable to the ZTF. She ran with the elite and gave them access to people they would never dream of meeting otherwise.

  “Why do you want Simone?” Amanda asked her.

  “Domestic dispute,” Senka said slowly.

  Amanda shook her head but Senka cut her off, “No, listen to me. Anyone else kills him or he kills himself there’s going to be war with someone. We don’t want that.”

  “Clearly, but there’s no other way.”

  “No, there is. Make America hate him. Then they won’t care. Look, we put Simone in there, in one of his condos he owns. Carter fudges a clear history of a two year affair with her.”

  Amanda started to understand where Senka was heading.

  “We leak something about the affair. Get paparazzi all over there and lure him in. Then we beat the living shit out of Simone. She won’t feel it. We make sure cameras catch the shadow of a guy beating her up. She stabs him with a kitchen knife and she runs out bloody and screaming. The paparazzi will help her for sure.”

  “She claims battered-wife syndrome,” Amanda said.

  “Yah, that’s the gist anyway. Have it recorded. The President beating the shit out of his mistress, and it’s Simone Dubois nonetheless. People fucking love her. They will hate him. Shit, they would lynch him if he wasn’t already dead. Carter fudges the medical records, have a history of abuse established.”

  “The cops will take it to trial,” Amanda said. “And it will put her at risk. CIA and FBI will want to eliminate her.”

  “We can rig the jury. We honestly wouldn’t even need to. Carter’s good. His evidence would be airtight and on the right computers. Or, if she wants retirement like she’s been saying for the last two years, she hangs herself due to the stress. Make that public, Simone gets to go retire in Bora Bora. Not the first staged suicide we’ve ever pulled off. And the CIA? Please. We can run circles around them.”

  Amanda nodded, convinced, “I like it,” she said. “Simple enough to pull off. Simone won’t stab him, though. She doesn’t like to kill people.”

  “Well, I’ll beat the shit out of her and stab him. Easy enough for me to do. Simone doesn’t have to do much. Just take a beating she won’t feel. She’s won three Oscars, this is easy for her.”

  Amanda nodded again, “Once we get the green light from up top we will set it up. Simone can clean up her current assignment within the next few weeks. I expect the same from you.” She looked at her watch. “Carter should be here shortly and we can debrief what he’s found out. He’s had a week, it better be good.”

  Senka didn’t say anything. That nagging feeling was bothering her. She didn’t have time to think about it, however, because Carter burst through the door. He was holding a bundle of papers and he looked crazy and triumphant.

  “I got in!” he exclaimed as he dropped the papers and files onto the table.

  “All of it?” Amanda asked incredulously. She looked shocked and a little confused.

  “Not all of it. That Ampulex folder is going to take months. As far as I can tell only one account and one computer has access to read anything in that folder and it’s locked tighter than the Pentagon. The fact that I even found the folder to begin with is a feat. But I got in to the rest of it.”

  “What did you find out?” Amanda asked.

  “Sen was right. It’s a human trafficking ring. And it’s huge,” Carter excitedly plugged a USB drive into his tablet. The image of the folders appeared on the screen.

  “But you were right too, Amanda. It’s drugs. These guys have been designing and distributing shit for years.”

  “Designing?” Amanda asked.

  “Yes!” Carter brought up a file, it had a list of designer drugs on it. “All that fake shit that’s been going around. Sure, MDMA was bad, but these guys designed that super version that killed all those kids in Amsterdam a few years ago.” He brought up the file.

  Senka stood and looked at the file Carter opened, “Fuckers were even keeping track of how many fatal overdoses there were.”

  “Not only of that stuff. The fake marijuana, the super mushrooms, all of that has been designed by these guys.”

  “Holy shit,” Senka muttered.

  “That’s just the start,” Carter said, bringing up another screen. “It looks like they have labs all over the world. Germany, Russia, Columbia, the States. Those are just the big ones. They have a bunch more.”

  “How are we supposed to shut all this down?” Senka asked.

  “Sen that’s not the worst part. The human trafficking is the worst part.”

  Carter brought up a different folder. In it he pulled up a spreadsheet. There were thousands of first names. It had ages and characteristics, along with the country the person was from and where they were headed.

  “This is only one of the spreadsheets. There are more.”

  “Holy shit,” Amanda muttered.

  Senka’s mouth was wide open.

  “These guys are keeping track. They kidnap people. I saw an age as young as four. Then they sell them to the highest bidder. There are auctions. Some of the names are in red. I’m assuming they died. Others are just sent to the drug houses.”

  The room was silent with shock and disgust.

  “Let me kill them all,” Senka whispered. Her fists were shaking at her sides.

  “Chop off the head of the snake,” Amanda said under her breath. “Carter please tell me you found out who is in charge.”

  “It’s that Freudman. He’s in charge of it all. He is doing all this for profit. He’s got to be the richest man in the world. But he hemorrhages money. Into what I don’t know.”

  “What’s this have to do with Zoya?” Senka asked. “Isn’t that what this guy was in to?”

  “I’m not sure,” Carter said. “It must have something to do with that Ampulex folder. There’s no mention of Zoya anywhere. Only the stuff we found before and I honestly think that stuff was just put into the wrong folder.”

  Distracted, Carter scrolled to the bottom of the spreadsheet. There were two names, Kelly and Isaac. Kelly’s name was highlighted in blue. It was the only one on the spreadsheet like that. They both had country of origin as Canada. Senka instantly understood why he was so excited. He’d found his son.

  “These two were the most recent entry. They’re Canadian and they’ve been shipped to a lab in Germany. Amanda we need to get them out of there.”

  Amanda sighed and walked to her desk.“Senka, you’re going in alone. You go in, look around, get out.”

  Senka and Carter exchanged sidelong glances.

  “Amanda there are civilians. Probably more than just the two kids. I need evac. I need a team. I’m not putting kids in the line of fire,” Senka said. She was confused. She didn’t always agree with Amanda but Senka could usually see her side of it.

  “Then don’t fire,” Amanda snapped. “You go in, look around, get out. That’s the end of it. Wheels up in an hour.”

  Senka started to argue, anger burned. Leo had even hopped to his feet, feeling the distress of his master.

  “I don’t have time to explain the international political spectrum to you right now,” Amanda said crisply from behind her desk. “You go in and look around. I will take this to my meeting this afternoon and try to get approval for an international team. You’re dismissed.” She looked pointedly at Carter, who was staring at her wide-eyed, �
�Both of you.”

  They turned and strode out without a word, stopping at Carter’s desk. Senka was so angry she couldn’t think straight. Carter had finally found his son and Amanda wouldn’t give them the tools to get him out safely.

  More to the point, if Senka fucked this up, Isaac would die.

  “I’ll get him out,” Senka muttered to Carter. He was stone-faced, but Senka saw tears in his eyes.

  “I know,” Carter said quietly. He looked at her for a long time.

  “It doesn’t make sense,” Senka said quietly. “Watch your back, buddy. Something doesn’t feel right.”

  Carter just shook his head in dismissal. He started busying himself at his desk.

  Senka and Leo strode away to get their things together. There was more to this than they knew right now. She could feel it.

  The tingling in her spine was back and worse than ever.

  27

  Senka

  October 30, 2023, 23:24

  Location: Munich, Germany.

  The plane landed. It lurched slightly and Senka’s stomach rolled. But it settled again and pulled away from the main terminal, just as it had in Winnipeg.

  She and Leo debarked the plane. She shouldered her hockey bag and made her way to the car that was left for her on the tarmac. This time it was a new, black SUV. Amanda wasn’t joking around anymore. This wasn’t a laughing matter.

  She tossed her bag into the back of the SUV and opened the driver’s side door. Leo jumped in without a command and made his way to the passenger seat. Senka followed. She adjusted the seat and the mirror and they made their way silently out of the airport. They went east on the A94 and ventured the hour towards Dorfen. It was midnight and traffic was quiet.

  Carter had discovered the exact GPS location of the Germany lab without much trouble after they had received orders from Amanda.

  Senka was still angry. It hadn’t dissipated with her time on the plane. She still didn’t understand why Amanda wouldn’t send backup. She slammed her palm against the steering wheel. Leo growled.