The Hazing Tower

by Leland Roys

  “That was fast! So much for your backup plan!” He laughed again. “You didn’t think I would find your man? I have guards watching this place for miles in every direction.”

  Nikki saw the life drain out of Rebecca’s eyes. It must have been Hunter who was just killed. She could see Rebecca’s pain. A tear rolled down Rebecca’s face.

  “I’m bored!” Richter pulled out his pistol and shot Alex directly in the chest. It happened so fast that Nikki didn’t even realize what had happened. She stared, completely stunned. Nikki tried to scream out. Tears filled her eyes. She tried as hard as she could to move. Nikki thought she saw him say— I am sorry.

  “No!” She heard Jinny scream. From the corner of her eye she could see Jinny and Josh, guns to their heads.

  “He’s dead, Nikki. Do you understand now? Are you ready to join me? There is no one left. Just you and me now. All the power in the world is ours. Everything! It’s your choice. My men will kill your other friends next. You have no one now — no one left, Nikki. I think I know what your answer will be. It took me time to realize. As long as Alex was alive, you would never join me. I understand the power of love, Nikki. You will feel love again; it will just take time. It’s still your choice. I can use your DNA; I don’t need you alive for long. I really want you to join me; we could be a magical couple together.”

  Nikki felt something building inside her; she was shaking more and more. It was uncontrollable.

  “While you’re thinking about it.” Richter turned the gun on Rebecca. “Time to say goodbye. You have betrayed me for the last time.”

  He pulled the trigger. Nikki saw her say something. She said . . . “Now —”

  Thud! She felt the electric pulses stop. She saw a look of confusion on Richter’s face as the man holding the taser fell to the ground. Nikki felt something spray against her. It was the man’s blood. His head was gone. Rebecca fell to the ground behind her. Nikki could move again. She was free!

  Nikki closed her eyes and let go completely. She released the rage, the unimaginable sorrow. She could actually see it. “No!!!!” She heard herself scream out. Then complete silence.

  She opened her eyes. It looked like a soft snow. Flakes of white and grey filled the air. She stood up and pulled the electrical barbs out of her one by one. She ran over to Alex and knelt down next to him. She looked at the blood on his shirt and focused every thought on him. Her love, the life they were going to have together. The world they were going to see together.

  She heard thunder as a tear rolled down her cheek. Slowly at first, very slowly, she saw the blood stain on his shirt shrinking in size. His shirt flickered with the colors of the rainbow. The thunder was louder now. She stared in complete shock. The single bullet slowly reversed itself from his body.

  Nikki jumped up and realized the snow was much thicker now. She could barely see 10 feet in front of her. She grabbed out and touched it. It wasn’t snow. It was ash. It — Oh, my God. It must be a bomb, she realized. A bomb had gone off. It was ash, debris; the air was thick with it.

  The bullet! Where was it.? She lost track of it as her mind felt so heavy and tired. Nikki, please. Please don’t give up, she told herself. The pain felt like a knife sticking into her head now. She remembered pain like that. She had been through that pain. She had lost the bullet. It didn’t matter. Focus!

  The storm, or explosion, she guessed, was growing in intensity. A strong wind picked up and blew the ash everywhere, like a blinding blizzard. She ran toward the focus of the wind and her legs gave way. She tried to stand up again and couldn’t do it. She crawled across the ground, seeing only inches in front of her now. The thunder became so loud it was all she could hear.

  Her hand felt it first — a metal box. She pulled her whole body over it and put her face right on it. Wires everywhere. It was a bomb. It was glowing red and blue. She grabbed every wire she could find and ripped them out of the box. The white heat burned the skin off her fingers. She tried to scream from the pain but nothing came out.

  All the wires were out now; it was all she could do. The storm seemed to be getting worse, not better. SNAP! She felt her mind let go for a second and she saw blue sky. She felt blood. She reached up to her nose and her entire hand was filled with blood.

  Nikki, you don’t have much time. Nikki, now! She had to do this.

  She crawled forward. She crawled back to Rebecca. She found a large piece of metal that must have blown off the wall. She placed it over Rebecca’s chest, where the bullet had gone in.

  She closed her eyes. SNAP!

  Wake up, Nikki! She screamed to herself.

  She opened her eyes and saw blue sky.

  “Nikki!” She could hear Jinny’s beautiful voice.

  There was more gunfire in the distance. She turned her head and looked up. She felt herself choking on blood.

  “Nikki! My sweetheart. God, no, please!” Alex knelt by her side.

  “Alex, you’re alive.” Her eyes were closing now. She wanted so desperately to keep them open.

  “Nikki, we’re all here, it’s Jinny and Josh. You did it, Nikki! Please, please stay with us!”

  “Where’s Rebecca?”

  Josh spoke up.

  “We’re looking for her, we lost her in the chaos. Nikki, you somehow shifted distance; we’re not all in the same location anymore.” Even in her condition she could tell Josh was excited about the science behind all this. She had grown to really like Joshua.

  “Rebecca saved us, Alex. She —”

  Alex moved close to her so she could hear.

  She felt Alex’s warm hand on hers. It felt so nice; the memories flashed through her whole body. She couldn’t keep her eyes open any more. It was time for her to go now; this must have been her fate she felt.

  Hunter watched through the scope of the sniper rifle. Blood soaked his hand. He swore to himself. “Fuck!” He had been too late. One of Richter’s men had found his location. Hunter had killed him in the fight, but he lost precious time. Now Rebecca was probably dead. He had failed.

  He scanned quickly for Rebecca. “Where are you?” After the explosion the entire scene had shifted. Everyone had spread out. It was almost like the ground had moved in multiple directions. Hunter had seen so many impossible things lately that nothing seemed to shock him anymore.

  The wind had picked up. Hunter saw her, she was lying flat on her back; two men were slowly walking up to her with guns in hand. He adjusted the windage and slowly pulled back on the trigger. The first man dropped and fell on top of her. Again, CRACK! The .50 caliber sounded like a bomb exploding it was so loud.

  He saw two more targets. Men ready to fire at Jinny and Josh. He took them both out in seconds. He looked through the scope again. Richter was on the ground alone, far from the others. Richter slowly stood up and pulled the mask off his face. Hunter pulled back on the trigger. Almost as if he knew, Richter turned and looked directly at Hunter, his hideous, deformed face magnified in the scope. Hunter watched as the bullet ripped through him. Richter fell to the ground. Hunter fired two more times. Hunter scanned the whole area with the scope, Rebecca was gone.

  • • •

  Reunion

  The rain picked up; the storm wouldn’t be far behind. Josh pulled Jinny close and tried to keep the rain off her face.

  “I’m not so fragile, you know.” She smiled. She loved it when he tried to protect her. They saw the opening in the thick jungle and the boat ran up onto the sandy shore.

  “Jinny! Josh!” Nikki came running down and almost fell into the boat. She grabbed Jinny and hugged her so tight she couldn’t breath.

  “You made it!”

  “Wow — you weren’t joking about remote. This place is not even on the map.”

  “Come with me,” Nikki said. “Let me show you everything; let’s get out of the rain.” They ran up through a small opening in the jungle and saw the huts. It was warm and dry inside.

  “Alex!” They all laughed. “And who is this sweet one
?”

  “This is Nora. She’s my patient today. She’s going to be fine, right, Nora?” Alex said. Nora blushed and smiled.

  “It’s OK; these are my dear friends. You know that story I told you about how they saved my life?”

  She nodded and smiled.

  “These are the heroes!” he continued. “OK, your favorite nurse is going to sing you to sleep now. I will see you in the morning, sweetheart.”

  They all walked into a huge hut. Pictures of children covered the walls.

  “Should we call you Dr. Edmanton now, I suppose?” Jinny giggled.

  Everyone suddenly got quiet. They all sat down near a fire and looked at each other. They could always do that. Just look without needing to talk. The bond was so strong among all of them. It was almost as if they could read each other’s thoughts.

  Nikki spoke up. “Two years was way too long, guys. We really need to set a schedule, I refuse to go that long again without seeing you two in person.”

  Jinny hugged Nikki. “I agree!”

  “So you have been busy as well, I hear? Saving the world with science?” Nikki asked Josh.

  “Nah,” Josh said. “We are doing what we can, and remember we still have that little side job of learning about ourselves.” He smiled. “Hey, is it true you two took a shower together in Richter’s mansion?”

  “Josh!” Jinny punched his stomach. “That was a secret!” They all burst out laughing.

  “I already spilled the beans about that to Alex,” Nikki acknowledged. “I figured he would get a kick out of that.”

  Jinny shook her head. “Boys, always boys. Will they ever leave high school?”

  “Nope, trust me on that one,” Nikki smiled at Jinny.

  They huddled around the fire. It suddenly felt a bit colder.

  “On that note — I figured you came all the way out here for more than the rain. Is it news about Logan? Rebecca?”

  Josh shook his head. “We never found any trace of Rebecca’s body. Logan must have taken her — well you know, her body. We have no idea where he is, or if he is still alive. There is something else. The reason we had to talk —”

  Josh got serious. “Well, we have you on suicide watch, remember. I promised I would come up with a way to neutralize your DNA, so it can’t be used again.”

  Jinny took her hand. “Nikki, please never do anything like that again. Alex isn’t the only one who loves you, do you understand that?”

  She nodded as Jinny wiped the tears from her cheeks.

  Jinny laughed, “Ready to have your mind blown?”

  “Again?” Nikki smiled.

  They both nodded as Alex pulled the doors shut —

  • • •

  Sunset

  Rebecca smiled at Hunter and winked; she glowed bright green through his rifle scope. Hunter shook his head and mumbled to himself. He focused back on the scene. “Come on, move out of the way.” She was playing again —

  He pulled the trigger and watched Kurt drop to the cement. Blood sprayed Rebecca’s dress.

  “That was for you, Leonard and Jeremy,” he said out loud.

  He looked through the scope as Rebecca pointed to her dress and rolled her eyes. Then she was gone. He went to the meeting point at the parking garage, left the stolen truck and jumped in Rebecca’s car.

  “You ruined my new dress,” Rebecca pouted.

  He smiled. “I can buy you a new one — again. You’re going to give me a heart attack one of these days.” It was hard staying mad at her.

  “Just having a bit of fun; lucky I have someone so serious to keep me in check.” Her eyes sparkled as she gave him a quick smile. “You promised me. I know this one was personal, and now I get my reward.” She kissed him on his cheek.

  A week later, Hunter looked up at the stars as the sailboat picked up speed. The air was warm and felt perfect as it blew across his face. He felt her hand softly push through his hair. “Where are we going, captain?”

  “Anywhere you desire. I promised you a long vacation before we continue to hunt.”

  Rebecca smiled and said, “Just one request. No earthquakes, please.”

  Hunter picked her up and she laughed like she hadn’t laughed in decades. “You and your earthquakes.” He looked into her eyes.

  “If you were not such a good shot, I wouldn’t be in your arms you know. You saved us all, my dear. I still didn’t thank you for that properly.” She gave him a big kiss. Oh, how he loved her smile.

  “Will you ever tell them?”

  Rebecca looked up at the stars; they seemed even brighter now. “I think it’s best to stay dead for now. It’s safer for them. Maybe someday. We have a long time now, you know. I hope you don’t plan on getting bored with me, because that would mean I wasted that last syringe.”

  “Never. Not in a million years.”

  • • •

  The Hazing Tower. First Kindle Edition, February 2013. Copyright © 2013 by Leland Roys. All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without written permission from the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  A special thank you to

  “Janus the Awesome”, who helped me in countless ways through the mind-boggling process of writing my first book. To William and Arlys Eddy for their detailed proofing and editing. To my lovely mom, who was always there for the late night calls when I had emergency writer’s block. To Teresa Rivera a.k.a “Grammar Girl”—my Twitter friend who always reminded me when I made any grammatical errors.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  New York City

  Café de Flore

  Records

  Tattoo

  Flashback

  Goodbye

  Hopeless

  The Hazing Tower

  Almost Dead

  Spiffed

  Time Lapse

  Strangers

  Home Alone

  Married

  Lifetimes

  Island

  The One Hour Girl

  Music for Your Life

  Revelations

  On the Run

  Grand Theft

  Daydreams

  Questions

  Mistaken Identities

  Crash

  Reborn

  Sleepless

  The Key

  Teacher

  Laid Bare

  Paris

  Double Double

  War

  Reunion

  Sunset

  Copyright

  Acknowledgement