The HiT Series

by Margaret McHeyzer

  Breathe Anna.

  I close my eyes and calm my body. I filter out the noises of the worried, panic-stricken people who are yelling, and I listen to what’s actually happening.

  Explosion.

  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6…

  Another explosion.

  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

  Quiet.

  “Get her out of here,” Katsu screams at Tyler.

  Tyler lifts me by the back of my jacket and is pushing me toward the boom gates, now unmanned.

  “There’s been a bomb, Miss Moore. I need to get you to safety,” Tyler says as he pushes me toward the street corner.

  “Stop, Tyler.” I cement my feet to the sidewalk and there’s sheer chaos all around me. I look up at Katsu’s penthouse and the top three floors look like they’ve been erased.

  People are yelling and crying, women are clinging to their partners and children. I watch as the devastation unfolds around me. Some are stumbling around and some are not even coherent. The shock is evident on tear-streaked faces. I see the same expression plastered on the faces of the people who are sluggishly moving away from the building.

  Fear.

  People are lining the sidewalks with looks of complete horror. People not involved have the same look of anguish on their faces, too. Fear of the unknown.

  I look up again and see incandescent red and orange flames, spouting from the sides of Katsu’s floors, just waiting to convert the entire building into an uncontrollable fireball.

  I hear the sounds of sirens from every direction coming toward us. Police, fire and ambulance.

  Tyler grabs me by the waist and pulls me along to a waiting black SUV.

  “We have to go help, Tyler.” I try to break his grip from my waist but his arms trap me to his body and he doesn’t let me go.

  “Mr. Vang’s fine,” he yells in my direction.

  I don’t give a fuck about Katsu, I want to help the innocent. The people who are scrambling to put distance between their families and the sheer chaos that’s unfolding.

  Before the door’s even closed to the SUV, Tyler has me in the seat and the driver takes off down the street.

  I throw a look at Tyler that he can’t possibly interpret for anything than what it is, anger.

  “Tyler, where’s Katsu?” I ask him. I’m not looking at him but keeping a watchful eye on what’s happening outside the bullet-proof glass of the SUV.

  “Mr. Vang will meet us at the destination, Miss Moore.”

  “What happened back there?”

  “There was a bomb.”

  “I gathered that. Where was it? Because to me it looks like it was in the penthouse.”

  “Mr. Vang has gone to investigate.” Tyler’s answers are telling me no more than he’s permitted.

  “Where are we meeting Katsu?”

  “Mr. Vang instructed me to take you to the estate if there was ever a situation.”

  “The estate? As in the castle?”

  “The same. Please don’t try to leave, Miss Moore. I really don’t want to have to explain to Mr. Vang where you went and why I couldn’t track you…again.” His voice is harsh but his eyes soft and pleading.

  “You seem to throw yourself on me every time you believe there’s danger around. So I’ll do you a favor and stay put.” I need to perform surveillance at the castle anyway, to see how I can gain access into it for when the time comes.

  “Thank you, that makes my job so much easier. Mr. Vang said for you to make yourself at home. You aren’t allowed in the meeting room though.”

  The rest of the drive to the castle is quiet.

  Once inside, Tyler shows me up the staircase to the right and down a long corridor. He takes another long corridor to the left and stops outside an ordinary looking door. It’s not reinforced and it’s not as intimidating as the steel door to the meeting room.

  Tyler opens it and I step inside. It’s decorated in a soft palette of neutral colors, with occasional splashes of a bold teal scattered around the room. There’s a small throw pillow, an intricate teal vase with beautiful white roses and an abstract painting with the same color stroked across it.

  The bed in the center of the room is huge, even bigger than a king bed. There’s a double glass door leading outside; which opens inward and lets the subtle smell of the pine waft through the bedroom. This room’s opulent by any standards. The fireplace has a fire roaring in it and even though the doors to the balcony are open, the room is still warm.

  “Thank you, Tyler. I think I’ll look around and then take a bath. Unless you need me, please don’t interrupt my bath.” I smile at him and raise my eyebrows.

  “I wouldn’t dare come between a lady and her bath.” Tyler smiles as he closes the door behind him.

  I give him twenty minutes to leave and go to do what he has to do, before I head out of the room and toward the downstairs area of the castle.

  Toward the basement.

  It’s well-lit here and not as cold as I expected it to be. I was only told I wasn’t allowed in the Meeting Room, so I’ll keep out of there. For now.

  As I make my was down the corridor, I can see it looks identical to the corridor Tyler led me down half an hour ago, with one exception. All the rooms have security code pads to enter them.

  They want to keep people out of there, which means there must be something to hide inside. That piques my curiosity. I need to get in there, but I don’t have the necessary tools to break the codes. I come to one door that has no lock on it and looks uninviting. I turn the knob slowly, so as not alert anyone who may be inside. When I walk in, I see a table with two chairs and a large mirror on the far side.

  I know what this room is.

  It’s an interrogation room. Like the room Lukas trained me in.

  The mirror is two-way. That means there’s a way to get behind it, to watch what’s happening.

  “Ah-hmmm.” A clearing of a throat behind me makes me whip around to come face-to-face with the one person I didn’t want to see.

  Oh fuck.

  Anna

  “Is it Miss Moore you go by?” Takumi – Scar Man. He steps toward me, essentially forcing me further into the room.

  “I don’t go by Miss Moore, Mr. Takumi, I am Miss Moore. Now if you’ll excuse me.” I try to push past Scar Man, but he roughly grabs my upper arm, squeezing it tightly. For a reedy man, he sure holds a lot of force in his strength.

  He brings his face close to mine and while he’s panting in my ear he whispers, “I can see why Katsu keeps you around. I’m sure he won’t mind if I have a taste.” He sucks my right ear lobe into his mouth and presses his hard-on into my side.

  “You’ll remain at a distance, Mr. Takumi. I’d hate to have Katsu kill you over me.” I go to shove him away, but again his grip’s unbreakable, binding me to him.

  I can’t give away too much of myself in this encounter, I still have information to collect. I can’t kill him, yet.

  “I can do what I like with you. No one’s near to hear you and if you haven’t figured it out, these rooms are sound-proofed.” He pushes me further inside the room and lets my arm go. “Now sit down, you whore,” his glacial voice spits from his rotten-toothed mouth.

  I sit in the chair with my back facing the mirror and Scar Man takes the other seat.

  The door’s closed. Takumi has me where he wants me, alone in a sound proofed room. But I don’t know if this is a set-up. Death could be waiting for me on the other side of the mirror. I won’t be admitting to or giving anything away in this interrogation. Let’s face it–I’ve been in worse predicaments before. Scar Man isn’t as intimidating as he thinks he is, at least not to me.

  Façade on.

  Let’s play.

  “So, Miss Moore, as I said in the meeting, I know you from somewhere. I couldn’t place where I knew you from, but now I’ve remembered.”

  I sit back in my seat and show an indifference to Takumi. If Katsu’s watching because this is a set-up, then I’ll be the
way I am with Katsu, careful and smart about my choice of answers and my body language.

  “Well, please enlighten me so we both know where that miniscule, delusional brain of yours believes it knows me from. Then we can both continue on our day.”

  Scar Man laughs and slaps his hand down on the wooden table.

  “Your mouth’s very smart. But it appears you aren’t.”

  I say nothing and let him give me what he knows.

  “You and Ben Pearson are in a relationship.”

  What the fuck…

  “Sorry, who?” I try to remain indifferent.

  “You know who he is. I don’t think I need to repeat my last sentence.” His one good eye lid squints as a devious smile flickers on his thin discolored lips.

  I don’t break my stare and I don’t change position. “I’m sorry but I don’t know a Ben Pearson. Where’s he from?” I shake my head and shrug my shoulders indicating I’ve already lost interest.

  “If you don’t know him then it doesn’t matter.” He’s waiting to gauge my reaction.

  “You’re right, it doesn’t matter.” I push up and go to leave.

  “Who the fuck told you you can leave?” he grabs my arm and growls at me. “Now sit down before I fuck you into submission, you dirty fucking bitch”. He shoves me toward the chair again.

  It appears he has anger issues.

  I take my seat again and regain the same indifferent and uninterested posture I held moments earlier.

  “How did you know I was going to be here, Takumi?”

  “I heard Katsu talking to that idiot guard of yours, telling him if you ever disappear again he’s to bring you here, and this is a safe spot for you.”

  “What do you mean you heard Katsu talking to Tyler? When did this conversation happen?”

  “This morning after you took off and that stupid Tyler was frantically trying to find you. Gave me time to set the bombs. So I need to thank you for that, it couldn’t have worked better. When I heard them say they found you, I set them to detonate when I knew you and Katsu would be back at the penthouse. Only it must’ve taken them longer to locate you than I expected, so I came here on the off chance the bombs didn’t kill you both.”

  “You want me and Katsu dead? Why?”

  “You, because I know you’re a traitor and most likely a government agent working to take our operation down, and Katsu because I want…” he stops talking for a few seconds. “No, I deserve his position.”

  “So all this is for power?” I question him.

  “Yes, Miss Moore. All this is for power. Once you kill yourself, I’ll kill Katsu.

  The guy’s delusional.

  “And how exactly do you plan on doing that?”

  “Actually you plan on doing it. Well that’s how it’ll look to everyone.”

  “That’s amusing, because I plan no such thing.” Yet.

  “Well you and I will be taking a walk to your room and when Katsu comes to find you, I’ll shoot him, hand you the gun and then you’ll ‘fall’ off the balcony. You may be encouraged to fall though.” He air quotes the word fall. He’s thought it through well enough to make it look like a murder-suicide, but he doesn’t know me and what I’m capable of.

  “If you believe that’ll work, Takumi, then I encourage you to try.” I stand and make my way over to him. I bend down from the waist and sidle up as close to his ear as I possibly can without throwing up, “Let’s get this show on the road, Scar Man,” I whisper.

  His eyes widen in fear and I straighten myself up. He stands roughly and his chair catapults backwards. He grabs me by the hips and throws me to the ground. I fall back and head my hits the cold slate floor, knocking my orientation off.

  Takumi lands a swift kick to my ribs and I’m trying to regain my equilibrium, when another kick makes contact with my upper torso. I curl into a fetal position and protect my head. I start choking from lack of air to my lungs and there’s another kick, this time to my back knocking all the wind out of me. I feel one more angry leg to my back when I hear a gun shot.

  I straighten up, but I think he’s cracked a rib and I wince and protest in pain. I look over my shoulder to see an enraged Katsu with his gun aimed at a now-deceased Takumi.

  Tyler’s just emerging and stops two feet behind Katsu with his weapon drawn, looking and assessing the environment. He quickly holsters his P90 and is by my side within a second.

  Katsu is still looming over the body.

  Takumi’s lifeless, discarded like a pile of rubbish on the floor.

  Anna

  “What the hell happened here, Anna?” Katsu’s stance is still rigid, but at least he’s put his gun away.

  Tyler’s helping me up and my ribs protest the movement, causing me to flinch in discomfort. I can hide the pain in my body, but my face is betraying me with its own natural reflexes.

  “Get her upstairs, Tyler. I’ll call the doctor and get her to come out and attend to you, Anna.” Katsu doesn’t wait for me to talk; he has his phone to his ear as he leaves the room.

  Tyler has me up and his arm is around my waist. “Use me as support, Anna.” He’s dropped the ‘Miss Moore’ and ‘Ma’am’ crap and is now addressing me informally.

  “I’m okay, Tyler. Thank you though.” I give him a gentle nod, as I lean up against his body.

  I’m intruding in his personal space, and it feels way too intimate to me. I try putting a little distance between us as he slowly walks me back to my room, but he pulls me closer to take the pressure off of me.

  “Really, I’m okay.” I look over my left shoulder into his eyes and his expression softens.

  “Please, let me help you.” He stops walking and his eyes are looking into mine, searching for something. He gazes down at my mouth and then back at my eyes, his breathing’s increased and he flexes his arm on my hip, pulling me impossibly close into his warm body.

  “Tyler I like you, I don’t want to see you killed.” I pull away from him to give us some space and slowly continue up to my room. He’s a few steps behind me and he doesn’t say another word, but I can feel his eyes travelling the length of my body. I get to my room, open the door and manage to get over to the bed to lie down until Dr. Hall arrives.

  Tyler stays outside the room and within minutes Katsu’s sitting down on the bed next to me.

  “What happened, treasure? I get here and Tyler says you went off to look around. When we couldn’t find you upstairs, we went to the basement. I didn’t think to tell you that it’s off limits, too. When I saw Takumi laying into you, I just panicked. I thought he was going to kill you.” Katsu’s running his hand gently over my hair. “Dr. Hall’s on her way out; she’ll give you an examination to make sure you’re okay. But why on earth was Takumi attacking you?”

  “He told me it was him who set the bombs off and he planned to kill us both. You, because he wanted your position at the head of the table. And me, because he was so sure I was someone else. He planned on making it look like I killed you, then killed myself.”

  “It’s a good thing I took care of him then.” Indeed.

  Katsu leans down and kisses me. As his tongue slips into my mouth, the bedroom door opens and Tyler clears his throat. He avoids our collective stare at him and announces Dr. Hall has called to say she was leaving the hospital and would be here to examine me within twenty minutes.

  Tyler flashes a quick look at me before he closes the door; Katsu’s too busy comforting me and doesn’t notice the small exchange that happens with Tyler. I think I’ll need to talk to Tyler about that, for his own safety.

  “Honey, I’m a bit tired. Do you mind if I rest a while before Dr. Hall gets here?”

  “Sure, I’ll go down and review the footage anyway. Tyler will be right outside your door.”

  Footage?

  As in audio as well?

  Shit.

  Katsu leaves and within minutes there’s a knock on the door.

  Tyler doesn’t wait for me to give him permission to enter;
he opens the door and stands at the opening.

  I wait for him to tell me the reason for his intrusion.

  “I’m um, well I um, it’s just you’re um….” Tyler’s struggling to put a sentence together.

  “Spit it out or get out.” My tone conveys my irritation with him.

  “It’s just I um, ahhmm.” He clears his throat and averts his attention from me to anywhere but my eyes.

  “What the hell do you want, Tyler? Tell me or get the fuck out.” Now I’m truly angry at him.

  Tyler takes a step closer to me and drops his eyes, finding the floor a great deal more interesting than me. I can see Tyler’s struggling with whatever is going on in his head.

  “Anna, it’s just that I like you and I don’t want to see you involved in all this shit,” he says as he waves his hand around the room.

  “What do you mean?” I tilt my head slightly and narrow my eyes at his words.

  “I mean…” He takes a deep breath and takes another step inside the room, bringing his body one step closer to me, the gap between us closing at a gradual tempo. I don’t go to move off the bed or invite Tyler closer to me, but he takes yet another step.

  “I mean, Anna, you really shouldn’t be involved with a man like that. He beats you and almost gets you killed. You need to get away from him before…” He stops himself in mid-sentence, like he wants to tell me something more, but is fighting with himself and doesn’t know if he can.

  “I want you to leave him,” he says as he takes another slow step toward me. Three more and he’ll be right next to me.

  “I don’t want you caught up in his business because there’s no future with him.” Tyler’s begging me with the delivery of this message. “Please, just leave.” Again he takes another step closer. There’s passion in his words.

  My heart’s racing now. I don’t feel like Tyler is a threat. I feel like he’s trying to protect me, and he’s genuinely worried about my well-being.

  “Why are you telling me this, Tyler?” Another step closer. My eyes don’t leave his tall frame.