by Karin, Anya
Heart pounding in her chest, Alyssa made for the back of the stairs, and the office she was to find there. In the darkness it was hard to make much out, but with the help of her tiny light, she was able to work her way to and around the room, but found absolutely nothing but a pile of papers on an old oak desk.
"Maybe a button somewhere?" Alyssa slid her hand under the desk's surface, feeling for anything at all that seemed out of place.
Nothing.
The walls were spotless, white plaster. No lines to indicate a hidden panel, or much of anything else. Giving it one last glance, she turned back into the foyer.
From the left, a bright beam shot from one end of the greeting area to the other. Alyssa ducked back, rolling herself into a ball against the stairwell. Peeking between wooden beams, she saw someone who looked to be just going about his day. As soon as the man was out of the picture, off to the left of the kitchen, messing around with something in the dining area, she slipped past and stayed low until she got to the back.
"Okay, Preston said there was some kind of room here. But, all I'm seeing is...huh. What's this?" Lys stuck the flashlight between her teeth and fingered the outline of a panel obviously large enough for a person to fit through.
"No handle," she mumbled around the light. "No buttons and no pull chains."
She pressed, and then tried to slide it like it was a van door. Taking the light out of her mouth, she tapped.
The hollow metal clanging told her there was something, at least a little space, behind the panel, but without any idea how to access it, she was still stuck.
Hand through the hair and fingers pushed into her temples, Alyssa leaned forward and let her head come to rest on the curious wall.
"Whoa!"
It moved in, then out, swinging wide open to reveal another room almost exactly like the under-stairs office, but quite a bit cooler. The darkness back here, away from any windows, away from any light, was pitch. Her tiny flashlight did very little to break through it, but she had no choice.
Not now anyway. Not here, and not with time ticking away.
Carefully, from left to right, she swept the room.
"God," she mumbled. "Where is this place? What am I looking for? Think Alyssa, think. Where would you hide a room full of clandestine surveillance equipment?"
Alyssa's teeth chattered. She heard someone knocking around in the kitchen, and silverware clanged, like it was either being tossed into, or taken out of, a sink.
The noise sent her running to a corner, even in the dark. She huddled down behind the desk against the wall opposite the closed panel, hugging her knees to her chest.
"Think, think, think," he said. "Where is that room?"
As soon as the sound in the kitchen faded and Alyssa heard footsteps go the other way, she crept to the panel and popped it open, then slid back into the shadows fringing the foyer. Wracking her brain, Alyssa had a million ideas, none of which made much sense at all.
"Where do you keep a secret room? Second floor maybe? Roof?"
Chancing a glance at her watch, Alyssa saw fifteen minutes had passed since she crept out on that ledge and started her fool's adventure. How long she had until everything was back on line was anyone's guess.
Her bare feet made light thumping sounds as she ascended the stairs.
"And that's why you have to hurry!"
She looked around, trying to place the voice, or the one that responded that he was doing things as fast as possible.
Where are they coming from? That's gotta be it. It has to be.
Around the perimeter of the stairs, she crept soundlessly, listening everywhere – to the walls, to the floor, but without the men talking to guide her, Alyssa just couldn't find a track. Walls, floors, she even climbed the stairs and put her ear to the overhanging ceiling.
Heavily, she took in a breath and sighed.
"Quickly!" One of them said. "Hurry! If this thing stays out for much longer, things will take too long to come back up."
Gadsen. Alyssa's stomach roiled. Why does it have to be him? But where...?
"Now!" He shouted, so loud the stairs seemed to shake.
She hunched down on the wall opposite the stairwell and stared at it, wondering just how to manage getting inside a set of stairs.
"Where are the routers?" The second voice said. "I've got to go reset them. That should only take a couple of minutes, but it has to be done before I can reboot the system."
"Routers?" Gadsen said with a voice just dripping irritation. "I don't..."
"Usually in the middle of a place to give the best signal, it'll be a box, maybe a few of them, with a bunch of blinking lights."
"I know what a router is, you moron, I'm trying to think where they are. Damn it!" A fist thumped against the wall – against the stairs, very near where Alyssa sat and watched. "You work for the company, don't you? Why don't you know this?"
"Actually sir, I just work for the cable compa-"
"Second floor! They're on the second floor. Middle room." He then proceeded to grumble a series of incomprehensible swears. "Follow me, this way."
As suddenly as she'd heard the voices in the first place, the center of the stairs simply opened up and out with a whooshing, pneumatic sound and a heavy click. Alyssa took as deep a breath as she possibly could and held it in, refusing to make the smallest sound, to shift her weight at all, or do anything that might alert the butler to her presence. Hugging her knees tightly against her body, she waited and watched as he tapped a few times on a particular section of the handrail and the whole improbable thing slid back into place.
As soon as they were gone, Alyssa darted to where he'd touched and shined her flashlight. Whereas light bounced off of most of the handrail, that particular place took it in and shone with a matte finish.
"Must be a touchpad of some sort." She tried prodding it, but to no avail. "There's obviously some sort of password, but I've got no idea..."
A few things came to mind immediately – Gadsen's name, a dollar sign, which she laughed at a little as she tried it, Preston's name, the oil company's name – but there was no response to any of the passwords.
Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind, but she wasn't sure why.
"Marissa," she rubbed into the touch pad using big block letters.
It clicked.
The stairwell rose.
"You old goat," she said, walking in to a room absolutely full of television monitors, and a pile of wires that seemed like some snake mating ritual. "How in the world did you get this thing built?"
It didn't matter much, not right then anyway.
In a flurry of action, she found the three monitors that Preston told her to switch, the outside building, the entry way, and the camera observing the kitchen-back office, and disconnected them. Just like he said, the image froze. Unless she was staring directly at the monitor and watching, she'd never be able to tell that it wasn't just an empty room with nothing happening. Slightly impressed with herself, Alyssa turned to make her way out and back to her room.
She did it.
She'd done exactly what Preston needed. The cameras were switched, it was done while the network was down, and best of all the whole crazy plan went off without a hitch. Not a single problem.
Until the stairs opened right before she pushed the button.
And Gadsen walked straight in, without looking, and right into Alyssa.
Chapter Twenty-One
"Miss Barton? What are you doing?"
Alyssa bounced off his chest and backwards, so surprised that she stumbled into a crate and then her foot caught in the mess of wires spread around the floor.
A crack of pain shot up her back, her legs splayed out in front of her, and when she hit the concrete, a panicked yelp shot out of Lys's lips with a sputter at the end. "I, uh, I just was looking around."
Gadsen's eyes were different than she'd ever seen. They weren't watery and soft and half-awake like they'd been before. Instead, they were sharp, half-closed and sharp.
"And I'm supposed to believe that? At any rate, weren't you told not to leave the second floor? And not to go east into the old family quarters? You've broken both of my rules, haven't you?" He shook his head, slowly, back and forth as he crept forward. "Don't look for any help. I'm alone. That rube from the cable company isn't going to come up behind me and dramatically hit me with anything. Preston isn't going to swoop out of the rafters and throw me to the ground. You've wandered straight into my nest, and I'm not sure how you think you're going to get out of it. Luck has saved you so far, but that's all you've got going for you. Luck."
He narrowed his gaze, continuing his slow forward progress.
"Luck runs out, Miss Barton. Luck always runs out."
"W-why?" She squeaked. "What did I do?"
"Wrong place at the wrong time," he said. "Unfortunately, there's not much that can be done about it now, because if you and Preston end up together, not only would you be foolish children acting out of emotion instead of reason, you'd ruin plans that I've had cooking for a decade. More, actually. Since Preston was born. But that doesn't matter now, not to you anyway."
"But I don't see how this has anything to do with me. Just throw me out of the house and keep right on holding Preston in his giant prison. Wouldn't that keep us from being together? Then the trust defaults to the board and... You what? Have some trap in place for them, too?"
The longer he was talking, Alyssa thought, the more time there was that someone would happen upon them.
"Ah, it goes much deeper than some half-cocked plan to take over a company. I don't care about the oil or the money or the power."
"Then what?" She scooted backwards until her back touched the monitor display on the back wall. Alyssa reached back to try and pull herself up, but Gadsen kicked her hand and sent her back to the floor.
"Clever, but not enough. It's really unfortunate that you're caught up in all this."
"Caught up in what?" She said, her voice rising, almost tinged with panic. "I don't understand anything that's happening!"
"It's better that way. I don't want to hurt you. Really, I don't, but this is the only way I'm afraid. This is how it has to be." He reached down, white cotton rasping along Alyssa's wrist as he grabbed her, tight, in his fist. "This is a battle that started before you were born, before Preston Webb was born, but it involves both of you."
"Wait a minute," Alyssa said. She twisted back and forth, trying Gadsen's grip, but it was iron. "Why was the password to your little hive here, why was it Marissa?"
A grin crawled across Gadsen's face.
"Why, Miss Barton, you seem to have solved the mystery all on your own, don't you think?"
"But I don't know why it has anything at all to do with me! I'm just some girl from the country that wandered into all this thinking she was meeting an interesting guy, and then picking some mushrooms!" Tears streaked Alyssa's face. Her strength melted, and as the butler's grip tightened even more on her wrist, that started to hurt too. Uselessly, she flailed her arm at Gadsen's face, but he just swatted her away.
"Why do you keep doing that? Do you think one of these times you're going to knock me out? You're going to run off to Preston and into the sunset?"
"I – I don't know, I don't know, I'm sorry!"
"Too late for that," he growled. "Much too late."
Tears streaming down her face, Alyssa gave one last try to twisting away. Then she kicked, but her foot just bounced off Gadsen's knee. He didn't react at all.
"What do you want from me?"
"I want you never to have been here. I want for Preston to never have seen you years ago, and for him to never have decided he fell in love with you like a foolish puppy. I want all of those things to happen, but they can't. You understand? Time doesn't go backwards, Miss Barton. Only forward. Change can't be stopped."
Swallowing hard, to keep herself from screaming, Alyssa clenched her jaw until her teeth hurt.
Gadsen's eyes seemed to soften a bit as he dragged her to her feet. "I think I've solved my problem."
Metal clinked around Alyssa's hand, and the scream she'd been burying for so long escaped. When the other handcuff closed around an exposed bit of metal jutting out of the wall, she sank to her knees, weeping.
"Mhm," Gadsen said. "That's an appropriate response. But, since I can't have you carrying on down here and alerting someone, I'll have to quiet you down."
The butler wrapped soft, slick, black silk around Alyssa's head, inside her mouth. She tried to scream, but all that came out was a muffled grunt.
"You probably shouldn't bother," he said. "It won't do much more than make your throat hurt."
He turned out of the room, and as the stairs closed, the power – or at least the lights – in the rest of the house flickered. Inside the room was nothing but the black and white glow of countless monitors.
Alyssa let out a sob, and then sucked a deep breath through her nose, trying to calm herself.
Oh God, Preston. I don't know what you're looking for but I hope you find it. Please, please, please find it.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Preston turned again, right in the same spot, and his heel made a slick tugging sound on the carpet.
In front of him, the giant clock taunted him with each passing moment. Every single tick of the second hand made him more anxious, more irritated, and more concerned for both his plan, and for Alyssa's safety.
"I can't just sit around and wait. I have to move; have to make sure there's enough time to check everywhere. Hopefully I can find whatever it is I'm looking for fast, but I have to be ready for anything.
He stood and stared out the window for a moment longer, squeezing his fingers together and gnawing his lip.
"When it all comes down, I guess the thing I've got to remember is that she said she'd find the place and get the job done. I've got to believe she did. If he sees, then we have to deal with that then, but I can't keep worrying. There's something. There's got to be something that'll unravel Gadsen's plans."
Thunder rolled outside, miles away, somewhere west of Newtown.
Preston Webb opened his door, squinting through the browned-out estate lights and trying to keep his head down as he went. He hated the silk across his face. But, most of all, he hated Gadsen for convincing him, and driving straight into his head that no one would ever want to look at him without his wearing the damn thing.
"Alright," he said under his breath. "Three places. Hopefully only one needs a visit, but we'll see. Take things as they come, right?"
The front door swung open and inside stepped a big, disheveled looking Peter. He had mud on his feet, a blank stare on his face and a broken-down shotgun in his hand.
"Mr. Webb?"
"What's wrong, Peter?" Preston's voice was strained with urgency. "I don't have much time."
"I know, it's just that, well, it's Alyssa, sir."
"Alyssa? Is something wrong?"
"No, well, I don't know. What I'm trying to say is that everything went to plan earlier, but then I lost track of her when she went downstairs and then she's just vanished."
"Oh God no," Preston said, his teeth clenched. "What has that bastard done?"
"I'm not sure he did anything, is the thing. I've seen him wandering around, but when I went to check her room when the power came back on, she was nowhere to be found."
"Did she leave?"
"No, I don't think so. She really went out on a ledge for you this time, Mr. Webb." Peter chuckled to himself. "Sorry, it's just...Anyway, I don't think she left. I'm sure she's gotten lost somewhere, or ended up hiding in someplace and then getting stuck when the lights came back on."
"This is horrible." Preston swept his hand backwards through his hair. "If she's been hurt, or worse, I'll never forgive myself. None of this was her fault, it was all mine. Everything that's going on is my fault. I should never have been so greedy. I shouldn't have gotten that poor girl involved in a fight she wasn't part of."
"Sir?"
"I think maybe she's happy to help you. At least that's the impression I got. I don't think you need to blame yourself for things people do when they feel drawn to one another."
Preston stared, with his lips slightly open, a word stuck between them but not escaping.
"A-at first, maybe," red-faced Peter stammered, "I think maybe she was scared and wanted to run. I mean, she did fall off that ledge trying to get out."
"All my fault."
"No, no, listen. She wouldn't have climbed out her window and scaled half a story of this building to help you rewire some cameras if she was being forced to do it. This girl wants to help you, Preston. She's something special."
"You're right." He balled his fist. "You're right, of course. But if she's in trouble I've got to do something to help her now, especially if Gadsen has her. What easier way to ensure we don't end up together than packing her off to jail on some bullshit trespassing charge, or making sure he has an accident?"
"Right, sir. It had crossed my mind."
"I'm," Preston swallowed hard, "I'm terrified, Peter. I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to do a damn thing to help this woman that I'm terrified that I've fallen in love with. Tell me I'm not a lunatic. Tell me there's some hope somewhere and all I have to do is put one foot in front of the other."
"That's the short of it sir. As far as being crazy, I'd say you'd be crazier if you hadn't fallen for her. She's a third my age, and I'm still a little smitten."
Preston grinned. "What's the plan? I have three places to check for Gadsen's leavings, and we've got to find Alyssa."
"We? I thought you'd best be the one to find her. I'm a little less than stealthy." He chuckled softly and patted his belly. "I tire out real easy and all."
"I can't do it alone. I've got to have help. Look, there are three places – the shed in the guest house, the office in the back of the kitchen, and then this place on the second floor – that I had Alyssa rewire the cameras for so I could check without any fear of being recorded or of having that old weasel catch me in the middle of."
"I have a hunch, sir."