Boris saw Dean staring at the roof. There was nothing unusual, but there was no harm in checking it out either.
“I say we should check it out, although it might take a toll on our oxygen levels,” Boris suggested. “You can get on my shoulders for a closer look.”
Dean eyed Boris warily; he doubted if he could bear his weight without stumbling.
“Trust me on this. I got your back,” Boris assured him.
Boris squatted, and Dean got on his back. He could barely see any closer, even with the flashlight. Boris wrapped his hands around Dean’s legs and slowly stretched himself to his full height, much to Dean’s surprise. He looked up at Dean, who gave him a thumbs-up, and Boris replied with a wide grin. They moved slowly as Dean carefully examined the roof. There were no irregularities on the surface either. As they got closer to one of the wall edges, Dean leaned a little too further, and Boris staggered. He lost his balance and fell to the floor, with Dean landing on top of him.
“Boris? Boris, are you okay?” Dean asked in a worried tone.
“I’m good if you want to try again.”
“No, I think we’ve had enough acrobatics for now. We’re running out of time. I’m sure there has to be some way out of here.”
Dean got on all fours and ran his hands all over the floor.
“Dean, you can stop now. Please. You’re burning more oxygen and faster, too,” Nima reminded him.
“I think it helps to get his mind off the stark reality that’s facing him.”
“It’s not helping him or anyone,” Nima maintained.
Boris and Nima watched Dean as he feverishly felt around the floor. He paused in front of the opposite wall; with his body flat on the floor, he pinned his ear to the ground. His eyes lit up at the discovery, and he fished a chisel out of his backpack and eagerly dug away at the concrete.
"Dean, are you trying to dig a tunnel out of here? I don't think you can get too far with that chisel," Nima said.
"I think he found an air source, and he's digging through to it," Boris replied.
Dean painstakingly scraped through the thick concrete. He was getting weaker by Kash's coughing, Avi's weak but hopeful eyes, and Boris's quiet solidarity urged him on.
The chisel made contact with a surface that was different from the dull concrete. Dean pushed the rubble aside and found a small device buried in the floor.
He gave the first pump. "Yes! I knew it was somewhere all along. I just knew it!"
"What did you find?" Avi asked.
"Come and take a look."
"It's a high-tech cipher lock. Breaking it could lead to a lot of trouble."
"Are these troubles worse than suffocation?" Nima asked.
" It could mean also letting out a horde of prey and predators they want to keep in."
"Avi, please just do it," Kash gasped.
Avi took out a small bar magnet from her pocket. She placed it beside the lock and waited, but there was no response.
Then she took out her computer from her backpack. Avi worked feverishly, hacking her way into the security system. Someone had recently changed the code and failed to back up the password. Or so she thought.
It was carefully encrypted in a Caeser shift. This was done deliberately to stall any attacker, thereby buying the security team more time to detect an intrusion. Avi had gone far enough, and any more step could prove fatal.
"I'm sorry, guys, there isn't much I can do," Avi said with tears in her eyes.
"Why?"
"It's not like I can't decrypt this, but it has something to do with inverse alphabet shift, and it will take a very long time. And we don't have that luxury."
"Just do it. Whatever it takes, don't stop. Keep going," Boris urged.
Avi got back to work. She was getting lightheaded and unable to focus with the oxygen supply getting lower. She mixed up the code and had to start all over again.
Kash was the first to give in. He passed out suddenly. Nima started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation immediately. She barely had enough oxygen to share.
"Kash," she whispered. "Kash, you have to hang on. You have to stick it out to the end." She shook him gently.
"There's no point trying, Nima," Boris murmured. "It'll help us save more oxygen."
Nima shot him a deadly look. She had so much to say to him, but it would only leave her exhausted. Instead, she said, “While we wait, we can conserve more oxygen. Here’s what we do; everyone breathes slowly and deeply. Like this.” Nima filled in her lungs slowly to demonstrate what she meant. “Then you let it out fully, almost like you are emptying your lungs. This will reduce the carbon dioxide volume in the air, thus reducing your urge to take another breath so quickly.”
"Nobody talk unless it's absolutely necessary."
Avi's vision became blurred, and she could barely see the screen. Her chest began to hurt, forcing her to stop. Avi made one last attempt to break the code. If she failed this time, she would die knowing she gave her best.
Avi decrypted the last character with much difficulty. Blood trickled down her nose onto her computer as she struggled to key in the text code. With one final effort, she tapped on the keyboard and passed out.
There was a rumble behind the wall, like the sound of a thousand hooves running through the caves. Avi must have deactivated the wrong lock and sent the cave crashing down on their heads.
Rushing water tore down the walls of the basement and swept everybody down a long twisting tunnel.
22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Boston, MA
June 2019
"Do you think Howard would like to watch us?" Eva said in her usual spaced-out tone. She was lying naked in bed next to Modric, Howard's driver, who fell into the same situation that Miles fell into before. He walked into the house one day and saw his boss's wife walking around stark naked in the living room. She had a bowl of fruit in her hand and looked incredibly confused.
When he asked her where Dr. Lydia was, she just stared blankly at him and started calling him Gregory. He tried telling her that he was not Gregory, but she was not having any of that. She threw herself at him and started rubbing her hands all over him, asking him to “make love to me again.” Not one to pass up such an opportunity, Modric proceeded to sleep with his boss's wife right on the living room floor. Since then, she became aware that he was not Gregory, whoever that was, but he did not stop sleeping with her, taking advantage of her mental state most times.
"What?" He turned his head to look at her. She had a glazed-over look in her eyes and was trailing her fingers up her thigh as she laid on her side.
"I think he's a watcher. He would probably like to watch us, you know?"
He sighed. When she started talking like that, it was mostly an indication that she was well aware of the situation around her, and she was bored of it.
"Maybe participate. He really gets up to a lot of shady things, you know?"
Her eyes lit up, and she smiled.
"Really? I knew it! Shady things like what?"
Her excitement put a smile on his own face. He looked at her neck, and images of him strangling her flashed across his mind. The previous night, he had added another woman to the list of his victims. The police and media called him the Strangler, which was appropriate, he supposed. The woman was a stripper, and he had scouted her out a couple of times before. No one cared about her, but he did, so he gave her a purpose and took her soul for himself. That was the thing people got wrong. They made it seem like he was doing it to be wicked, but he just wanted to give those women a purpose. His only victims, if they should be called that, were women that were treated badly by people around them. He was attracted to such women; he couldn't help it. That was one of the reasons he was in bed with Eva. Howard neglected her, and the woman assigned to take care of her loved her wages more than the job.
"My baby!" she screamed and jumped off the bed.
He widened his eyes at her like she was deranged, which she kind of was.
"Eva, this isn't—"
"Why do you have my baby? Where is she!"
"Calm down. You don't—"
"Don't tell me to calm down!"
Modric felt frustrated again, but he was getting aroused watching her walk around without any clothes on her body. She had no children, but somehow, she was convinced that the little girl was hers.
"Take me to her."
"What?"
"Right now!"
"I can't do that."
"You have to, Modric."
He recoiled because she had never said his name before. Suddenly, she did not seem insane. Suddenly, he was reminded that she was his boss, and he could get in a lot of trouble.
"I can't..."
"You have to. Or you'll have to explain to Howard why you've been taking advantage of my illness. I believe it’s the same as rape."
The driver swallowed and shuffled off the bed to stand in front of her. He placed his hands on her shoulders.
"You can't do that, Eva."
"I can, and I will if you don't take me to her." Her eyes peeked into his soul, if there was any still left in him.
He knew she meant every word. He let go of her and stepped back to pick up his clothes.
"Alright. I'll take you to her, but you can only see her for a second."
"I'm bringing my child home!"
He looked at her again. The thought that she might be sane disappeared. How could she think a completely random child was hers? He wondered if it would make any difference. If Eva really thought the girl was hers, she would not let her out of her sight, and the little girl would still be safe.
"Fine. You have to bring her home immediately after, okay?"
"Okay." She started walking toward the door, but he quickly pulled her back.
"Put some clothes on first."
_____
Modric sat in the car waiting for Eva. He was angry, so angry that he thought about running her over as he watched her walk toward the car in a pencil skirt suit and an over-the-top hat. She was wearing gloves as well and looked like she came from the seventies. He could not wrap his head around why she believed that little girl was her daughter. It made no logical sense whatsoever.
"Sorry I kept you waiting. I couldn't find my gloves on time," Eva said in a chirpy voice as she stepped into the car.
"That's alright," he responded and started driving.
As he drove, she became extra chatty and animated. He knew that Lydia had been given a dose of her meds that morning before she left, but still, she continued to behave abnormally.
"Why would Howard keep my child there?" she muttered to herself, and Modric rolled his eyes.
"We're almost there. I'll go in and bring her, and I hope you’ll be back home by then."
"No," Eva objected.
He looked up at the rearview mirror and made eye contact with her. She was glaring hard at him, and he could feel himself getting aroused again as he thought about strangling her.
"What do you mean, no?"
"You're not taking us with you. I’ll take her out for a treat and bring her home myself."
The driver knew his action would go down as one of the Himalayan blunders on his resume. "I can't do that."
"You don't have a choice. Also, I'm taking the car with me. You can walk home if you like." Her voice had such finality in it, and he did not even know how to argue with her, so he just kept driving.
The neighborhood was not exactly the best place to be, especially not with a luxury car, but that was where Howard liked to keep his not-so-clean business. Eva stared out the window, the image of her "daughter" etched in her mind.
They finally arrived at the warehouse. Modric parked the car outside and told Eva to wait while he went in to fetch the girl. He got to the entrance and saw one of the bodyguards smoking.
"Ron, what's up? Where's Doug?" he asked in the most casual tone he could muster. Ron gave him a sideways look, blew out a cloud of smoke, and threw the rest of the cigarette on the floor, stepping on it.
"He's in with the kid. Whatchu want?"
"Boss asked me to get the girl, to keep her at home with us," Modric said as convincingly as he could.
Ron eyed him, then glanced at the car.
"I didn't hear nothing about that. Who's that in the car?"
"You didn't hear about it because the boss told me to come and tell you. The person in the car is Mrs. Eva Grant, the boss's wife. Now you can let me go get the kid, or you'll explain to the boss how you kept his wife waiting."
"Alright, alright. Wait a minute," Ron grumbled and went into the building. A few seconds later, he brought out a tiny girl holding on to a teddy bear. She had bright blue eyes and pigtails.
"Where's my mommy?" she asked Modric, who crouched down and smiled at her.
"We're going to meet her, sweetie, okay?"
She nodded, so he stood up and held her hand, pulling her along with him to the car. Eva stepped out of the car when she saw them approaching, beaming with a smile suited to a deranged woman.
"Who's that?" Robyn asked.
"That's your mommy," Modric told her and tightened his grip on her hand when she tried to pull away.
"That's not my mommy," she protested and started making whispery sounds. Eva crouched and held out her arms in an attempt to hug the little girl. Reluctantly, Robyn hugged her.
"Oh, my sweet baby!" Eva exclaimed and pressed her tightly to her body. "Are you okay? Did those men hurt you? Tell me if they did."
She pulled her back and looked into the girl's frightened eyes. Robyn looked up at Modric, who just raised a brow at her.
"They didn't hurt me..."
"Okay, good. Come on, get in the car. I'll take you home." Eva helped her into the back seat and took the car key from Modric, who was incredibly hesitant to give it to her.
"Please go straight home, and I'll meet you there," he pleaded as she got into the driver's seat and started the engine. He was not even sure if she was allowed to drive or if she could even remember how to.
Eva did not respond and drove away, leaving him there. She did not care about him or Howard or the house or anything else. She was just happy to see her daughter. She raised her head up and adjusted the rearview mirror so that she could look at the girl who was staring out the window.
"So, Robyn?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you want some ice cream?"
"Yeah!"
"Okay!" Eva giggled with excitement. "Let's go to the mall and get some ice cream. How does that sound?"
"Sounds good!"
"Okay!" Eva giggled again and did a little dance in her seat, and she stepped on the gas.
_____
When they got to the mall, Eva had a bit of a problem finding a spot to park and was almost getting frustrated, so she screamed at a random man who wanted to park somewhere, and he let her have the spot.
Eva got down and helped Robyn out of the car, and walked into the mall. Robyn clutched her bear to her chest as they walked, looking around her, wondering what was going on.
Many thoughts raced in Eva's mind as they moved. She really could not remember having given birth, but she could remember Robyn clearly and knew that she was her daughter. Maybe she adopted her, or maybe she could not remember her because of her mental health. There was a lot that was not adding up and some things that she could not wrap her head around.
She suddenly wished Dr. Lydia was around so she could give her some of the angel dust and she could think straight. The mall was filled with people who were on dates, mothers searching for deals, and teenagers loitering.
"Let's get you some clothes," Eva said to her, wondering why she allowed her daughter to be dressed like a dirty street urchin, wearing faded jeans and a ratty long-sleeved shirt.
"You said we were getting ice cream," Robyn protested.
"We'll get ice cream after, sweetheart." Eva's voice was soothing, so Robyn did not say anything in response and simply followed her into one of the
clothing stores, where they headed to the kid's section immediately. Eva picked out a good number of gowns, which she made Robyn try on.
"I'm hungry," Robyn complained when she came out wearing the fifth dress she had tried. "I like all of them. Can we go get ice cream now?"
"Oh darling, just try one more, please? This one? You can wear it out of the store." Eva held up a frilly blue dress, smiling widely. Robyn groaned but turned around and went back into the changing room and let Eva put the dress on her.
"Oh," she sighed, "it looks beautiful on you, darling."
"Thank you...I like it," Robyn admitted with a grudging smile.
Eva suddenly thought that it was like Howard to be like that. She wondered if Robyn was Howard's child as well or if she had her with another man. She shook her head free of the thought and pulled Robyn along with her to the checkout, placing about a dozen dresses on the counter.
"We'll buy these as well as the one she's wearing."
"Okay, ma'am," the attendant replied and did a quick assessment. "That will be a total of six hundred and thirty-two dollars. Will you be paying in cash or credit card?"
"Cash?" Eva scoffed and pulled out her platinum credit card. "Honey, do I look like I carry so much money around? I'm not a stripper." She laughed obnoxiously and looked at Robyn, who was getting extra fidgety.
"Oh, Robyn! We didn't get you any shoes. We need to get you some new shoes."
"Can we please get ice cream first?" Robyn groaned, and Eva sighed, irritated that her daughter would rather stuff her face with fattening food than shop with her mother.
"Fine. But we have to get your hair done as well, okay?"
"Okay."
Eva looked at the girl again. Why did she not call her mom or mommy? She only ever said okay or yes. It was upsetting, and it made her feel a certain way that she did not want to admit yet.
"Here you go, ma'am," the attendant handed her the bags filled with the dresses. "Enjoy your clothes, sweetie," she said to Robyn, who did not even respond.
Hunt for the Lost Sanctum Page 16