by Jade Powers
Hugging Gail from the side while she was holding Jana, her mom said, “Thanks, Honey. I’ll only be an hour.”
“Take your time. Us princesses have a castle to build,” Gail said. She lowered Jana to the floor, holding Jana’s hand once her feet were steady. Last year she would have carried Jana to the play room. Gail still thought of it as her room, but she discovered that any projects she and Jana built in Jana’s room got cleared away during the week. Jana needed everything in an exact place when she was climbing in and out of bed and getting clothes for school. It was a three bedroom house, so Gail sacrificed her room to Jana’s lock-blocks and dolls.
The blocks already hooked together were in a hodge podge of mismatched colors and styles. The blocks they hadn’t already used were in a tub. They were lucky to have so many. Last year the neighbors had a huge yard sale. Gail happened to be driving by when she glanced over and saw the box of blocks at the edge of the grass. She got a box worth hundreds for fifty dollars.
When Jana reached the blanket Gail had set down for the block area, she carefully knelt, feeling for pieces. Gail remembered Jana’s howl two months ago when she knelt on a block. That was enough. Now Jana carefully felt the blanket before lowering herself. She chirped, “Is it big?”
“The biggest it’s ever been,” Gail said. She really needed to come up with a new line. She always said the same thing. Jana didn’t seem to mind.
“And we’re going to build EVEN MORE?” Jana reached out, carefully touching the edges, running her hands all around the plastic towers. They were creating a masterpiece. Pinks, yellows, blues, and greens all fought for attention in a gaudy mismatch.
“Until we run out of blocks,” Gail replied. She couldn’t afford to buy more. Not now. Every penny went to school. Sometimes she felt overwhelmed by the cost of everything. Her on-campus job at the microbiology lab helped fill the gas tank, and student loans, grants, and scholarships barely covered the rest.
“Will we run out today?” Jana asked, her small body wiggling with excitement.
Gail grinned and tousled Jana’s hair. “We won’t run out for at least a month.”
“When it’s done, knights will destroy our castle and then we’ll need to rebuild,” Jana said. Gail was surprised that Jana remembered the story. That was when Gail first told her the plan to build a castle using every single block. She made a story out of it, finishing with the evil knights who pulled the tower down stone by stone until not a single one stood on top of another. It was a way to start over when they were done. They didn’t play with blocks every week, but it was a favorite for her sister.
Sometimes Gail would hand the blocks to Jana. Even blind, she had learned how to make a strong foundation for the castle, building it up and up and up. Sometimes Jana would tire of building and hand the blocks to Gail. They played a long time.
Her mom returned in a little over an hour. She stopped in the room, “Wow, that’s coming along nicely.”
“Would you like to be a princess with us?” Jana asked, a bright smile wide on her cheeks, her face turned in the direction of her mom.
“Maybe for a few minutes,” Stepping around the blocks, she sat on the edge of Gail’s bed. She said, “Have you given any thought to coming home?”
“Mom...” Gail didn’t want to have this conversation. Not in front of Jana.
Her sister’s smile widened, “Then we can build a castle every day.”
“I’m sorry, Sweetie, I found a roommate,” Gail said.
Jana turned back to the castle.
Gail had to admit that Bryce had come at the perfect time. She had been four days from giving up and coming home. She needed space. At times like this it seemed selfish, but Jana was in school from eight to three and had a babysitter from three to six, so it really wouldn’t have helped the family that much to have Gail around. It just would have added noise and mayhem to her study schedule.
Her mom didn’t ask about the roommate, and Gail didn’t explain. The topic of conversation moved on, while Gail handed Jana blocks.
Chapter 3
ON MONDAY MORNING, Bryce cooked bacon for breakfast while Gail slept. With coffee in the pot, the apartment smelled divine. He liked the kitchenette and Gail’s sense of order. He was nearly ready for the eggs when Gail stepped out of her room in her pajamas.
“How do you like your eggs?” Bryce held a spatula in one hand and the end of the pan in the other, looking over his shoulder toward Gail.
His new room mate looked adorable in those deep blue pajamas and mussed hair. Her eyes caught the blue in the pajamas. Seeing her at her most vulnerable activated Bryce’s protective urges.
Gail said, “Over-easy. Is this some hidden camera show? Did I die and go to heaven? What is this?”
“Look, I know I’ve been thrust on you in the worst way imaginable, just some random stranger showing up on your doorstep. You didn’t want me to take you out for breakfast yesterday, so I thought I’d bring breakfast to you,” Bryce said. After carefully placing the bacon in strips onto a plate covered with paper towels, he grabbed the carton of eggs and started cracking them into the second pan, already coated with melted margarine.
“Any word on your dad?” Gail asked. She grabbed a pair of mugs out of the cupboard and handed one to Bryce, pouring coffee first for him and then for her.
“Nothing yet. They’re keeping me out of the loop.” Once the eggs had cooked to perfection, Bryce expertly slid the spatula under the egg and onto a plate. There were a few things he excelled at. Cooking was one of them.
“Why?”
“It’s normal for them. Everything is hush-hush, top-secret.” Bryce didn’t say that his deal with the devil probably contributed to Drake and Sven’s notion that Bryce didn’t need to know what was going on.
“Maybe they don’t want to give you false hope.”
“I’m going to see Vice President Kendall at SpaceTech today. If I don’t come back by dinnertime, there’s something wrong. I’ll leave numbers for you to call if that happens,” Bryce said. As if he were talking about classes or the weather, he handed Gail her plate.
“Wait, what? You’re going to see the guy who set you up? Are you afraid he’ll kidnap you again?” Gail stood with a fisted hand on her side. Her glare was positively parental.
“Yeah, I am. I have to find my dad. Why not go to the guy who most likely has him?” Bryce slid Gail’s eggs on the plate, picking up three slices of bacon with tongs. He handed her the plate.
“That’s crazy. He’ll just have you again, too. When does it end?”
“When my dad is safe. Until then I won’t rest.”
They joined one another at the table. Gail was clearly not on board with his plans. Her brow was deeply furrowed when she said, “That just doesn’t make any sense. If you know the person who has your dad, go to the police.”
Bryce laughed. It was short and bitter, “Yeah, and tell them what? That the Vice President of SpaceTech is really a criminal mercenary who kidnapped my dad. Once they got through with Kendall, I would be arrested.”
“But this is the United States. We don’t live like that. Justice, truth. You know? You’re not giving the system a chance.” Gail waved her fork around. Bryce remembered feeling that way only a few years back, before he found out that all of the tech companies were running over each other to make bio-tech weapons that could enslave the population.
Bryce shrugged, “Okay. I’m not giving the system a chance. Because this is WAY too important. Look, you have a test today. You don’t need to worry about me. Besides, if he thought I was a threat, he wouldn’t have put money into my account. These guys play a long game. They won’t kill me if I might be an asset later.”
“Okay. My last class ends at three. Hopefully I’ll see you then. Good luck,” Gail’s words carried a touch of anger. Bryce didn’t exactly understand it.
He said, “Thanks.”
After that, they ate in silence.
GAIL FINISHED HER BREAKFAST without s
peaking, her anger simmering in the depths of her heart. Just when she started to like a guy, he did something half-assed or insane or utterly stupid, and she was forced to break up with him. With Bryce, she didn’t even get to the point of a date. Not that she would.
He was cute. He had brown hair that stuck up in the morning and hazel eyes. When he did something that he thought Gail would enjoy, his lips quirked into a shy half-smile. When she reciprocated, he brought on that beautiful full smile that could brighten the sun.
She didn’t get it.
How come the cute guys were missing brains? She’d dated enough. It had to be a male thing. Maybe guys just had to do the argh-bruuugh-scary-me-hurt-you animal routine when there was danger. Gail wouldn’t visit an enemy like that. She might hunt him down, but she wouldn’t go in for tea and biscuits.
It was a relief to finish eating. Gail hated the tension in the room, more so because Bryce acted like it was her fault, even though she was clearly right. She grabbed her book bags. Gail never left the house without saying a kind word to her parents and sister, no matter what the fight or the problem. It was no different here.
She said, “I only disagree because I care what happens to you. Be safe, and I’ll see you in a few hours, okay?”
Bryce forced a smile, but it didn’t touch his eyes. Those hazel eyes pouted with sadness. Gail regretted putting that hurt there. He had needed her to believe in him. That was a gift she didn’t have to give right then.
He said, “Yeah. I’ll be fine. Go ace that test.”
With a nod, Gail left.
She walked to class and thought about all of his good points. He cooked her breakfast. That was the first time a guy ever cooked her anything. And he was good company. He helped her study. Of course he had his not so great points. She barely knew him. He could be anyone, and he seemed ready to jump into danger with little forethought at all.
Gail sighed. Her intuition had always been perfect. She had a sense about people and trusted that sense, even when it went counter to advice or popular opinion. Bryce was a good man. She knew she could trust him with her life.
With book bag over her shoulder, she climbed onto the campus shuttle and took a seat. Her focus was off. Gail pulled out the small purse-sized notebook that she used to study while in transit. Most students kept notes on spiral or notebook sized paper. Gail found that if she made smaller study guides out of her full-sized notes, she could carry them and study while waiting on the shuttle or in line at the cafeteria without the bulk of a large notebook that would make such quick studies unwieldy.
She couldn’t get Bryce out of her mind. She really liked him. She liked him a lot.
BRYCE HAD FOLLOWED Gail out, plans for the day in place. He went into the bank and ordered checks for his account, then pulled out another three hundred dollars. His money was going fast. By the end of the week, he’d be down a thousand. Rent paid for the month, but Bryce wasn’t used to having to cover his own room and board. That stuff got expensive.
The Metrorail only took a person so far. The walk to Spacetech was endless. Twice Bryce had to stop and get his bearings, afraid that he had missed a turn in the directions he had scribbled down. Finally, he found the building.
Bryce paused in front of the huge double doors. A strange combination of bravado and exhilaration egged him on, but the deeper part said that Gail was right. A face to face showdown with one of the most powerful men in the United States would not go well. Not at all.
It was too late for Bryce. Because that powerful man had involved his father. And no one messes with the Langdens. With his jaw set, Bryce pushed his way into the building.
A bubbly woman at the receptionist’s desk chatted on the phone. Bryce ignored her desk and walked right by. She held up a finger which he ignored. He pulled on the silver door handle. It was locked. That was when he noticed that the door had a key card reader.
The receptionist had ended her conversation, so Bryce returned to the desk. It was modernist and spare with one of those all-in-one desktop-monitor combos and the wireless keyboard and mouse that made it look very elegant. No papers or pens to shadow the perfection. The surface of the counters and desks were polished to a shine.
“Excuse me, I need to talk to Vice President Kendall,” Bryce didn’t know where to put his hands. It seemed like a travesty to lean on that pristine counter. That would have been his go-to position.
The receptionist looked him up and down with a no-way-in-hell grimace. Ever polite, she asked, “Do you have an appointment?”
“Not exactly, but he should be expecting me,” Bryce said, thinking to himself if he doesn’t, then he’s a bigger fool than I am. Bryce considered himself an exceptionally large fool at that point. He said, “Tell him Bryce is here to discuss his father’s situation.”
That should get some movement, maybe a pair of goons to take him out back and kick the crap out of him. She picked up the phone and hit a button, “I have a kid here who says that Mr. Kendall is expecting him. His name is Bryce and it is in regards to his father.”
Bryce wished for a suit and tie at that moment. The receptionist squinted at him with just the right amount of dismissal. No way was he going to spend hundreds of dollars on a suit out of respect for the guy who kidnapped his father. No way. This lady could give him all the dirty looks she wanted.
The receptionist held her hand over the receiver and said, “Are you available for a one o’clock?”
“What time is it now?” Bryce asked. He needed a watch. Damn. Everything cost money. He wanted his windfall to last, especially since it hurt him so much personally. To waste it on frivolous expenditures seemed wrong.
“Ten-thirty.”
“That would be perfect,” Bryce said, which was something of a lie. He didn’t really want to hang around SpaceTech all day, but if it gave him answers, he was all for waiting.
The receptionist spoke into the phone, “Yes. One o’clock would be fine.”
She hung up, “You’ll have ten minutes to speak with Kendall. Don’t be late.”
Bryce wanted to ask if there was a bookshop close by, but she was one of those women with the three centimeter nails and perfect makeup who dismissed guys like him. And he was a little too angry at the moment to be dismissed.
It wasn’t the sharp anger of a small slight that rises and then fades. It was a slow burn. A humiliated anger. A vengeful anger. The kind that slowly cooks until plans are formed and decisions are made. That anger would save his dad. Bryce wouldn’t rest until it did.
He stepped into the bright sunshine. With hours to kill, he started walking. He didn’t dare go too far. He never found a book store, but there was a mini grocery, and they carried a handful of mysteries and thrillers. Bryce found the latest Robin Cook medical thriller and a bottle of orange juice. After checkout, he walked back to SpaceTech.
Camping out in their reception area for the afternoon, Bryce opened his orange juice and his book and started reading. He waved once to the receptionist who gave him her vague, obligatory smile and returned to her computer. He figured an hour for the walk. When he got to page sixty, he would ask for the time.
Bryce was on page fifty-five when the receptionist said, “Mr. Kendall is ready for you.”
Bryce put his finger in the book. His mom never let him bend book pages to mark places or place books upside-down on the table. Books were like precious artifacts in the Langden household. He said, “Wow. I thought it would be closer to noon.”
“Twelve-thirty actually. He’s ready for you, now.” The receptionist was polite but that sense of dismissal never left her demeanor. Bryce figured she was a good watch dog that kept sales people away. That cool smirk, bordering so close to a real smile that it left you wondering if you were imagining things. She added, “Take the elevator to floor 7. Kendall’s office is on the right. 735.”
As if on cue, the elevator door opened. No one stepped out. It was just an empty maw, waiting for Bryce. He felt a little creeped out stepping in
side. The keycard was flashing green and must have been overridden for him. He could just see some giant three-headed dog waiting for him at the end of a long hallway. Finally, the elevator door closed. An active imagination was a terrible thing to waste.
Bryce hit the button for floor seven.
The first thing he noticed when he stepped out of the elevator was the terrible smell. It was the heavy perfume of a woman who didn’t know when enough was enough. He turned right as instructed and found Kendall’s office in short order. Fortunately, the perfumed smell didn’t lead to the office.
A woman guarded Kendall’s inner sanctuary. Bryce said, “I’m here to speak with Vice President Kendall?”
“He’s expecting you. Go on in.” The woman’s smile was genuine.
Bryce hesitated for a split second. He said, “Thank you,” and straightened up. Suddenly his grand idea felt stupid. Before he could change his mind, he forced himself those last five feet into Kendall’s office, feeling like he was back with the principal in high school.
“Bryce, how are you doing? You wanted to talk about your father. Is he ready to come to work for SpaceTech?” Vice President held out his hand, and Bryce found himself shaking it and wondering exactly what Kendall was driving at.
He said, “You paid me to betray my dad, kidnapped him, and now you’re acting like you don’t know anything about it?” Bryce put just the right amount of pressure into the handshake. He didn’t crunch Kendall’s hand like a brute, even if secretly that was exactly what he wanted.
Kendall waved Bryce to a chair, “I paid you to come here. True. But someone tapped my phone and got to you first. I respect your father. He’s done good work for AIT, and I’d love to hire him away.”
“So you didn’t kidnap me?”
“Why the hell would I pay you to work for me and then kidnap you?” Kendall’s arms spread wide, but the action seemed just a little forced. Bryce’s intuition was that something here was off, but he had no proof.