The Girl in the Box Series, Books 1-3: Alone, Untouched and Soulless

by Robert J. Crane

  Chapter 23

  Less than an hour later I was cruising west along a highway with Zack and Kurt. In front and behind us were vans, one filled with agents and the other carrying M-Squad. It was early evening, the sun was already down and a bitter cold had followed with the darkness. The thermometer on the rearview mirror said that it was already -4 degrees and I had to guess it was falling. We had streaked through a small town already and now there were snowy fields to either side as we chugged along the highway. I could see the lights of another town in the distance, and as we drew closer the car slowed.

  “He said he’s waiting there for us?” Kurt looked back at me, nerves plain on the older man’s pudgy face.

  “Yeah. You scared?” I didn’t put much venom into it, but I didn’t need to. His gave me a nasty look anyway.

  “If you’re not, you’re stupid.” He turned forward again. “In case you missed it, he burned your damned hand off.”

  “I can see why you’re worried; that’d be a fatal blow to your sex life.”

  I heard the seething noise he made in the front seat, but he didn’t turn back around. Zack let out a soft chuckle and when Kurt turned on him, he said, “What? It was funny.”

  We turned off the main highway at an intersection. After passing a few cross streets, we turned left onto the main street of the town. There was a bank across from a flower shop and a jewelry store. It looked idyllic as we pulled into the empty parallel parking spaces. I stepped out onto the curb, over the small mountain of accumulated snow, onto the sidewalk.

  I felt my breath catch in my throat. My coat was buttoned, my hands were covered with gloves, but I could still feel the frigid air creeping in. I felt like I was going to turn to ice. I looked down the sidewalk, but it was empty, the streetlights shedding the only illumination. There was not another running car in sight. Agents exited the van behind us, their weapons concealed under heavy coats. Clary stretched as he got out of the vehicle in front of us, Parks and Kappler joining him as Bastian walked around from the driver’s side.

  The agents huddled around Bastian, who didn’t order anyone to come over to him; they just did it automatically. I watched and nudged my way into the circle next to Zack as Roberto started to speak. “We’re gonna sweep Main Street. If you find him, do not engage. Keep eyes on target and maintain a healthy distance.” I watched him touch his ear and realized he had some kind of miniature microphone in it. I looked around the circle and saw the others with the same and felt a little irritation that I hadn’t been offered one. “We’re sticking with the same strategy. This guy can kill any of you faster than you can pull a trigger, so Clary is our point man when we find the target.”

  They were all so focused, they didn’t notice a familiar (to me, anyway) figure step out of an alley across the street. “Uh, guys?” I felt the pressure of so many sets of eyeballs lock onto me, but I kept watching Gavrikov as he stepped onto the road, heading toward us. “I have eyes on target,” I said, prompting them all to swivel.

  “Scatter!” Bastian’s words echoed through the night as Gavrikov burst into flames in the middle of the street and shot twenty feet into the air. Three fireballs lanced out from his hand and destroyed the front van in an explosion that sent me to my knees. He sent another blast at the jewelry store behind us, a bigger one that caused the storefront to burst into flames.

  Zack was huddled behind the car, along with Kurt. One agent was down after the explosion of the van and I couldn’t tell from where I was whether he was hurt badly or not. Disregarding most of my good sense, I stuck my head up over the top of the car and yelled to Aleksandr. “Is this the message you wanted to send?”

  “Hardly,” came back his reply. “That was to get your attention. You have two minutes to get back in your cars and leave this town. After that, you have until tomorrow morning at six A.M. to bring Klementina to me at the top of the IDS tower in Minneapolis. After that...” He let his voice trail off and even from where I was behind the car, I could see a smile. “Well...you’ll see in two minutes. Let us call this town...a warning. For what will happen if you don’t deliver.”

  I heard Bastian scream behind me. “Back in the cars! Move out!”

  I ignored the frenzied action around me and focused on Gavrikov. “Aleksandr...this isn’t the way.”

  He drifted to the ground as the first van shot out of its parking place. Agents were hanging from the side and I looked back to see the one still left on the sidewalk. He was not moving. I heard Zack shout my name from the car. His hand extended toward me, fingers dangling in the air between us. Kurt was struggling with him, trying to pull him into the vehicle. One of the agents in the back punched Zack in the back of the head and he crumpled forward, slumping against the dashboard as the car pulled away, slinging snow and mud.

  “They left you behind.” His words were calm, icy even, as his burning eyes continued to stare at me.

  “Yeah,” I said. “They didn’t try to shoot you, either. I’m guessing they took your threat seriously.”

  “They should.” The flames around his hand died, revealing his fingers, then his arm. He took hold of my hand, and I let him. “These are men who understand nothing but force. They are weapons, turned loose when necessary, meant only for destruction.” He sounded weary, bitter even. “I know these men. I was one of them, but on a grander scale.”

  “Should I be afraid?” I said it without fear, but I had the beginnings deep inside, the smallest well of concern.

  “You have nothing to fear from me; you are not one of them.” He pulled the glove from my hand as he said it, twisting the leather in his grasp. The cold in my hand didn’t bother me. “There is only one thing that matters to me now. I want her; she is my penance. Freeing her is all I have left. Everything else...” He grasped the glove and it burned in his hand, turning to cinders and slipping from his fingers into the wind. “...is ashes. Those who stand between us have everything to fear.”

  He stepped closer and I blanched. “Not to worry, little matryushka. You could not run fast enough to escape what is coming to this town if you had to.” His hands, now flesh, reached out and enfolded me and I felt the ground lift away under my feet. “I will help you.” I was flying, the wind whipping my hair, the freezing cold streaking in my eyes, drawing tears and an exclamation of joy from me. The fresh, cold air hurt my nose and lungs as I breathed it in. He held me tight, carrying me through the night, his flames gone and his body pressed against me.

  I felt us slow as the ground approached, and my feet touched solid pavement. I felt his arms let loose of me and his face drifted away. My teeth chattered involuntarily, and I looked behind him to see the town of Glencoe, the faint city lights glowing against the clouds above. “Remember my words,” he said, hovering in front of me. “Six in the morning—less than twelve hours, on top of the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis. Otherwise...” He burst into flames again and streaked into the sky, headed back toward the town.

  Headlights on the highway raced at me, slowing at the last possible second. A van rolled up and the passenger window came down. “Girl!” Clary opened the door before the car even came to a stop. “Get in here! Old Man Winter will have all our asses if you get left behind.”

  My eyes were transfixed on the distance. Glencoe sat, still shining into the winter sky, a little beacon of light in the middle of the nothingness of snowy fields. “Hey!” Clary reached out and started to grab my arm, then must have thought better of it, because he waved his hand in front of my face. “We gotta go!”

  “We’re fine,” I said. “Just wait.” The second car full of agents came to a skidding stop behind the van and Kurt popped his head out, eyes bulging in shock at the sight of me.

  I couldn’t take my eyes off the town. I knew there were people there; there had to be. It wasn’t just some ghost town, some empty place...

  A light glowed in the middle of town like a cigarette lighter sparking, then there was a flash that blotted out my vision. A wave
of force came rushing toward us and the only thing that kept me on my feet was that I reached out and grabbed Clary’s arm as he turned to steel, anchoring me in place as the shockwave hit. I turned my eyes back to Glencoe as a mushroom cloud of fire and smoke blossomed into the sky.

  The smell was what hit me first, the awful smell of something burning. I could hear the rumble still in the distance as the cloud drifted up into the sky, mingling with those already hanging above Glencoe. Little pieces of ash began to rain down around me like a falling snow and my hands were numb, along with my nose, followed by the rest of me.

  Zack opened the door to his car and staggered out, his hand clutching the back of his head, stumbling over to me. “You okay?” He asked the question while I still stood transfixed, staring at the remains of the small town where I had been only minutes before—and which was now wreathed in flame and smoke, the last resting place of its occupants. “Are you all right?”

  His glove brushed my cheek, stirring me back to reality. The explosion had died down, but the light of the fires still burning in Glencoe reflected off the clouds, casting the night in the most surreal light. “I’m fine,” I said, barely managing to get the words out. “How many people lived in that town?”

  Zack’s hand was still on the back of his head, but his gaze fell. “I don’t know. Several thousand.”

  I spoke in a voice of awe. “He killed them all. He’ll do it again, Zack, he’s going to do it again in less than twelve hours if he doesn’t get what he wants. He said this was his warning—his only warning.”

  “Even Gavrikov wouldn’t be so insane as to...” He didn’t finish his sentence. His eyes stared back into the distance, to the fires that still burned. “He wouldn’t. He just wouldn’t.”

  “He would,” I whispered. “He will,” I said, this time with firmness. “Unless we bring Kat to the tower tomorrow morning, he absolutely will.

  “And you can kiss the city of Minneapolis goodbye.”