by Simon Archer
“Kennedi, get Leah on the phone,” I barked. Kennedi turned and went to fetch her phone. “Cora, where was Krysta the last time you heard from her?”
“She told me she was at the store and that Macy had left to go get you from the airport,” Cora reported. She burst into tears. I wanted to shake her to get her to calm down but knew my rage was misdirected.
“Theo,” I said. He looked over at me, still holding a sobbing Bev. “When was the last time you saw Krysta?”
“The morning before you flew home,” he answered. “She went to work at the store as usual. She stopped in to say hello before she left.” So far, nobody in the house had seen or actually heard from Krysta in almost two days. Kennedi came running back to the kitchen and held a phone out to me. I grabbed it out of her hands and put it to my ear.
“Leah?” I snapped.
“Yes. Clark? What’s going on? Kennedi sounded strange just now,” Leah asked.
“Krysta is missing,” I told her, lowering my voice so as not to scare her.
“How can that be?” Leah said. “She said she was with Cora.”
“Cora is sitting right here in Bev’s kitchen. She hasn’t seen, nor talked to Krysta since the day before yesterday,” I spat out. “You got messages from someone, but it wasn’t Krysta.”
“Holy shit,” Leah let slip. I was sure it was the first time I’d heard her swear. “Let me get Macy on the phone. Hold on.” I heard the phone click while Leah switched lines to patch in a third party call. It seemed to take forever. Kennedi was standing in front of me, wide-eyed, and fidgeting. I suddenly needed a quieter place. Between Cora sobbing, and Bev crying, I was getting irritated. I moved into the living room while I waited for Leah. Just as I walked in, Leah got back on the line.
“Clark, it’s Macy.” Her voice was quiet but urgent. She was at the store. “Leah said Krysta’s is missing. How can that be?”
“Macy, when was the last time you physically saw Krysta?” I didn’t have time to explain things again. Leah could fill her in.
“I left here to get you from the airport the other day. Krysta stayed for one last appointment and was going to lock up,” Macy said.
“So we have no record of anyone seeing her or talking to her since you left the store,” I said.
“Then where the hell is she?” Leah yelled.
“Leah, call Charlie and let him know,” I instructed her. “Macy, I’ll be right in. Get everyone out of the store.” I hung up the phone and tossed it back to Kennedi as I walked back to the kitchen. I took another deep breath and composed myself.
“Here’s what we know,” I started. “Macy was the last one of us to see Krysta. She left her at the store to come to get me and the girls from the airport. Macy said Krysta had one last appointment before she was going to leave. I’m going to the store to track down who that appointment was with.”
“What can we do to help,” Theo asked, still holding his sobbing wife.
“You can stay here in case she ends up back here,” I told him. I saw the helplessness in his eyes. “Get on the phone with Leah and get a list of everyone Krysta was working with at the event last week. Call and see if anyone has seen her.”
Theo nodded and had Bev stand up with him. He led her into the living room, and I could hear him on the phone before I turned to Cora.
“Cora, go back to your place in case she shows up there,” I told her. “Krysta is a strategist. We need people to be where she might go.” Cora nodded and stood up. She grabbed the purse she’d brought with her and ran out the front door.
“Ellie,” I said, my tone softening. The look she gave me sent a chill running down my spine. Ellie and Krysta didn’t spend a ton of time together, but they had a special bond because they were so opposite each other. I knew Ellie was protective of her, but I was just now seeing how much. “You and Kennedi will come with me to the store.”
“Clark,” Ellie said, her voice low and terrifying. “If something has happ--”
I cut her off. “Not out loud, Ellie. You can think it, but not say it out loud. Not yet.” She stared at me for a split second before standing up. Then she bolted for the front door, and Kennedi and I followed. Moments later, the three of us were in my 4Runner, speeding to VGS.
We came to a screeching halt behind the door to my office, darted out of the car and into the store. My office was empty, so we walked out to the showroom floor. Macy was frantically flipping through appointment books and clicking on her computer screen. She looked up when we burst through my office door.
“Krysta loved her appointment books.” Macy’s ears turned back as she held a planner up for us to see. “Of course, we have our schedule digitized, but I thought maybe I’d find something in here. So far, nothing unusual.” I snatched the book out of Macy’s hand and gave it to Ellie.
“Let’s get a new set of eyes on that,” I told her.
“Who was her last appointment?” Kennedi demanded to know.
“It was a man named Jag, and his CG, Leila,” Macy said. “They came in the week before for their consult and wanted to schedule the mod with Krysta specifically. I didn’t think anything of it since she is the one who did their consultation.”
“Did you see this Jag person?” I started looking around the showroom.
“No, I didn’t,” Macy answered. “I only remember her talking about him because he’d booked the last appointment for the night and paid for a VIP mod room.” A spark lit up in my mind.
“Which room did they use?” I started heading towards the back of the showroom where the VIP rooms were located.
“They were in number two,” Macy called after me. When I reached the door to VIP room number two, I threw it open so hard that it hit the wall and bounced back at me. I slowed down and walked in.
“Kennedi, get in here,” I called back to her. She was at my side before I finished my sentence.
“What do you see?” I moved aside to let her in the room. I looked around, trying to find anything out of place. The only thing I noticed was that the cupboard door was slightly ajar. I walked over and opened it up. Nothing was out of place that I could see.
“Clark,” Kennedi said. “There’s diamond dust on the floor.” She knelt down in front of the lounger and put her face down to the floor briefly. She slowly straightened back up, her eyes on the lounger. “The dust is on the front of the lounger as well.”
“What does that mean?” For all I knew, it could’ve simply not been cleaned properly.
“There is no reason for diamond dust to be there,” Kennedi said, her voice almost a whisper. She walked behind the lounger. “The nano-glass cracking takes place with the CG sitting in the lounger. The only diamond dust to fall would fall down the back of the chair, not in front of it.” I took a moment to process what she was telling me. Why would Krysta do a mod in the wrong place? It didn’t make sense.
“Other than the dust, do you see anything else?” I looked around again. “The only thing I’ve found was that the cabinet door was open.” Krysta walked to the cabinet and opened it the rest of the way. She glanced in and immediately stood back up. “Clark, the hard wire is gone. There is supposed to be one stocked in that cupboard, and it’s not there.”
“What the fuck, Kennedi,” I said. “Diamond dust in the wrong place, missing wires. What the hell happened?” My frustration level was reaching new heights. We had rescued Krysta from a hellish situation. It pained me to think she may be in another.
“Look, Clark,” Kennedi darted to the back of the room. She waited until I was watching her before she reached out, grabbed the doorknob that led to the parking garage, and slowly turned it. The door opened. “It’s supposed to be locked.”
“Shit!” I yelled. I stormed out of the room and back to where Ellie and Macy were standing. I told them what Kennedi and I had found.
“She was taken,” Kennedi said sadly as she walked up. “There’s no other explanation for what that room showed us.” The four of us stood there, looki
ng at each other. Kennedi had just voiced what we all had hoped wouldn’t be the case.
I closed my eyes and took yet another deep breath. A calm anger took over for the fear, rage, and guilt I was feeling. Losing control of my own emotions wouldn’t do Krysta any good. We needed to make a plan. No sooner had the thought crossed my mind, my phone rang. It was Charlie.
“What do you have,” he asked without a greeting.
“We believe she’s been taken. There’s suspicious diamond dust in one of the VIP rooms, a hardwire is missing, and the door to the garage was unlocked,” I ran it down for him.
“The last person she saw?” Charlie demanded.
“Some guy named Jag, and his CG, Leila. They requested her specifically,” I told him. There was a long pause before Charlie spoke again.
“I’ll call you back, Clark. I need to check something,” Charlie said, and there was a sudden click on the other end of the phone. I turned to the girls.
“I think Charlie might have something. He’s going to call me back,” I told them. “Until then, find the day that guy came in for his consult and get everyone on the phone who came into the store. Someone had to have seen him. Focus on the people who were here around the same time. I’m going to get ahold of the security company and have them pull the videotapes.” All three girls scurried behind the desk and started pulling up contact information for the people who were in the store. I walked back to the VIP room and stood in the doorway, looking for something we may have missed. I walked through and opened the door to the garage. I looked around the doorway and out into the dim lot. There was no monitor in place for the garage. Anyone could come and go without there ever being a record of it. I turned, went back into the VIP room, and locked the door behind me. I walked out into the showroom and to my office. I was just picking up my office phone to call the security company when my cell rang.
“Charlie,” I answered.
“You’re not going to like this,” Charlie started. “I thought I recognized that name you gave me, Jag.”
“Yeah?”
“I went back through the report I’d read about Alan Graves’ case. The one with all the strange criminal charges,” Charlie said. “In one of the interviews Graves did, he talked about Omnicorp sending one of their reps, a man he only knew by the name of Jag, who planted evidence against him and Henry Blackwell.”
“Omnicorp?” I yelled. “Why the hell would Omnicorp want Krysta?” My blood was boiling. Everything that company touched turned toxic.
“From the sounds of it, this Jag guy is one cold son of a bitch,” Charlie added.
“Well, he is about to feel some heat,” I snarled. “The girls are here trying to get anyone who may have seen him on the phone. I’m getting the security tapes sent over. The only thing left is to go out and canvas for her.”
“Get those tapes on their way, and I’ll help you look,” Charlie told me. “I’ll take the west side. You head east.”
I hung up the phone and immediately dialed the security company to order copies of the video footage from the store. It would be a minimum of twenty-four hours before they could deliver them. The only way to get them faster was to have a judge issue a warrant. That process would take longer than the twenty-four hours I’d already have to wait. My time would be better spent out looking for Krysta. I went back to the desk in the showroom and waited until the girls were off their phones for a moment.
“Kennedi, you’re going to come with me,” I told her. “We are going to go out and look for her. Ellie, Macy, keep doing what you’re doing. Call me if you get anything useful.” Kennedi and I left the store and started our search.
We drove for hours. We went up and down every street, side street, main drag, cul-de-sac, and alley. We’d started from the store and slowly worked our way east. We covered two miles in each direction from the store. We stopped and asked people if they’d seen her.
Nobody had.
Charlie wasn’t having any better luck on the west side, and Ellie reported that neither she nor Macy had called anyone who had information. We searched into the night. The streets had all started looking the same. I pulled into yet another alley and crept forward, looking from left to right. Part of me was hoping that we wouldn’t find her in a place like that because if we did, there was a good chance she would be destroyed. I was focusing on the grassy area that butted up next to a fence on the left side of the alley, while Kennedi looked out to the right side. Just before the alley opened up back onto a small, residential street, Kennedi grabbed my arm.
“Look!” she yelled in a whisper. I looked out her window and saw a tiny opening between two apartment buildings. It was barely wide enough for a car to pass through the dumpsters lining it. I slowly turned my 4Runner into the space and inched forward. Kennedi stared through the darkness, searching for her friend. About thirty yards in, I saw something and slammed on my brakes.
“Look over there,” I said, pointing to two dumpsters on the left side of the opening.
“There’s a tail!” Kennedi gasped. I think, at that moment, both of us were terrified that it was Krysta’s tail. We got out of the car and started walking toward the dumpsters, the headlights behind us were the only light.
“Krysta?” I said softly. “Is that you?” I didn’t get an answer. Then suddenly, Kennedi started to purr. I looked over at her, and she shrugged. She was purring to let Krysta know she was there too. I turned back to the end of a tail that I could see lying on the pavement. Then, in the blink of an eye, the tail disappeared between the dumpsters.
“Krysta?” Kennedi stopped purring long enough to call out softly.
“We want to take you home,” I said, not knowing if she could even hear us, or if we were even talking to her.
When I was about five feet away from the dumpsters, I saw movement. I held my arm out to stop Kennedi, and we both stood perfectly still. We watched as a hand slid around the side of the dumpster closest to us, and two cat girl ears started to show behind it. Ever so slowly, a cat girl emerged from the shadows, but it was not Krysta.
“My name is Kennedi,” she said to the CG standing next to the dumpster. “What’s yours?” The cat girl was terrified. She had matted, light brown hair, tattered clothes, no shoes, and was filthy from her ears to black tail. She stood hunched over and would only glance up at us occasionally. She wouldn’t make eye contact.
“This is Kennedi, and I’m Clark,” I whispered. This was my first experience with an abandoned CG. I wasn’t sure how to go about it. “We are looking for our friend. She is a cat girl like you.”
The cat girl stood there, shaking, but then I saw her mouth move.
“Don’t hurt me,” she said so softly it was almost inaudible.
“We aren’t going to hurt you,” Kennedi tried to assure her.
I took a slow step forward, and the CG flinched and stepped backward.
“Okay, okay,” I said. “I will stay right here.” She started to look back and forth from Kennedi and me to the space between the dumpsters.
“Don’t hurt me,” she whispered again. She stepped towards the space, and I was sure she was going to curl up in it again. Instead, she bent over and picked something up. When she stood back up, she turned toward Kennedi and me, slower than I’d ever seen anyone move. She was shaking under the weight of what she was holding.
Then I saw it. Or her, rather. The tattered cat girl had Krysta’s limp body in her arms.
28
“Krysta!” Kennedi said, louder than she meant to. The CG stumbled backward a few steps.
“I didn’t hurt her,” she said. I saw tears running down her face when she moved into the light from the car.
“We don’t think you hurt her,” Kennedi said softly. “We need to get her help. And we can help you too.”
“Why?” The CG was starting to shake even harder.
“Because that is what we do,” I whispered. “You’ll have to come with us if you want us to help you, though.” The CG’s eyes d
arted back and forth from me to Kennedi.
“Here, this is what I’ll do,” Kennedi started. “I’m going to open the back of the car, and then Clark and I are going to get in the front. You can put Krysta in the back and stay with her while we take you somewhere safe. Can you do that?” A long moment went by without a response. I wanted nothing more than to dart forward, grab Krysta, and get her in the car where I knew she was safe. I saw the CG start to nod her head slowly while she looked at Kennedi.
“I can do that,” she whispered.
“Clark and I will get in the car now,” Kennedi told her and then shot me a look. We both slowly walked back to the car, opened our doors, and climbed in. Once the doors were shut, I pushed the button that automatically opened the back end of the 4Runner. It felt like an eternity passed as we watched the painfully downtrodden CG carry Krysta to the back of the car. She laid her down as gently as possible and then climbed in. When she was all the way in, she gingerly lifted Krysta’s head, put it on her lap, and started softly stroking her hair.
“I’m going to close the car now,” I let the CG know. I didn’t want her to spook. She didn’t say anything, so I pushed the button and the hatch closed. I put the car in reverse and slowly backed out of the space and turned into the alley. I switched gears and pulled forward to the nearby street. Before I turned onto the street, I looked at Kennedi.
“We should take her to Charlie’s,” I said. “He’s closer, and Leah will be there.” While we could have taken Krysta a number of places, this new CG would require Leah’s expertise with abandoned units.
“I’ll call Leah and Charlie and let them know we are coming.” Kennedi picked up her phone and dialed.
Fifteen minutes later, we were walking up to a private elevator entrance at the back of the Red Lion casino and hotel. Kennedi was carrying Krysta now, but the new CG wouldn’t let go of Krysta’s hand. I followed behind until we reached the elevator. I slowly stepped around the three cat girls and pushed the call button. When I turned around, the new CG flinched away from me. Whatever had happened to her, it must have been horrible for her to have ended up so scared.