by Saul Black
“I know,” Nick slurred through his swollen lips. “I know. It’s okay.”
Eugene leered back into shot. “Nicholas Blaskovitch, back online,” he said, beaming. “Now let’s get on with business.”
“Wait,” Nick said.
“What?” Eugene said. The laptop wobbled. He righted it. Nick looked into the camera. “It was the squash,” he said. “Turns out this guy can’t stand losing.”
It hurt Valerie’s heart. She felt it as a fracture in her chest. What it cost Nick to joke. Through the fear, through the isolation, through death in the room with him. It was a small victory for him, she understood, for both of them, a communiqué that made Eugene an object of discussion. An utterance that left the intimacy between them untouched. Love.
No matter what, Valerie’s inner voice was saying. Please, God, no matter what …
Eugene replaced the duct tape over Nick’s mouth. Moved the laptop to a new position. Set it down on—presumably—a stool or another table. The angle kept Nick in the center of the frame, perhaps ten feet from the Web cam.
McLuhan moved away from her.
“Whoa there, FBI,” Eugene said, coming close, his face filling the screen. “You. Yes, you, with the headmasterly nostrils and lycanthropic eyebrows—stand still.”
McLuhan stopped.
“Let’s not have any nonsense, please. This is a live feed, so, you know, er, don’t.”
“You’re not rerouting?” McLuhan said.
“This isn’t a conversation,” Eugene said. “Just stay put, dude. Jesus, you look like Christopher Lee. You ever considered acting?”
McLuhan didn’t respond.
Eugene reached up under the mask and scratched his forehead. “Okay,” he said. “Call the other guys into the kitchen.”
“Why would I do that?” McLuhan said.
“Well, for one thing,” Eugene said, “I’m miles away and there are no hired goons waiting in the evergreens to launch an assault. For another, this.” He stepped back and slashed the knife lightly across Nick’s abdomen.
As the blood bloomed Nick convulsed and roared behind the duct tape. Valerie’s arm involuntarily covered her own midriff. She felt sickness rising. “Just fucking do it,” she spat at McLuhan. “Fucking do it now.”
“That’s the ticket, Valerie,” Eugene said. “I hope the only demonstration I need to make?”
McLuhan signaled to Hooper, and Hooper called his men into the kitchen. Valerie observed Eugene checking the monitors. “One, two, three … four, five … six. Plus Val and Chris Lee. Good. Excellent. Now, please bring Katherine out from backstage. Don’t make me prove I know she’s there.”
Valerie looked at McLuhan. His eyes said No.
“Répondez s’il vous plaît,” Eugene said. “Come on. Don’t fuck around.” He held the knife up against Nick’s abdomen a second time.
“Don’t!” Valerie said. “Stop. Stop. Yes, she’s here. Just wait. Wait.” She spoke into her mic. “Arden? You reading?”
“Here.”
“Bring her up to the house.” Valerie glanced at McLuhan. If he tried to stop her, she thought, there was every possibility she would shoot him. Right now there was every possibility, full stop.
“And all other personnel, please,” Eugene said. “I want to see the entire cast and crew. Don’t bother leaving anyone, because I’ll ask her when she gets here. And if it isn’t the full complement, Nick’s next cut won’t be foreplay. Please understand me. Do you understand me?”
“Yes,” Valerie said. “We understand you.”
McLuhan turned to her. “Stop this,” he said. “Valerie…”
Eugene raised the knife to Nick’s throat.
“It’s okay,” Valerie said into the camera. “Don’t hurt him. She’s coming.”
“You’re not in charge, Val, I know,” Eugene said. “But you’ve got to make sure the Count doesn’t fuck this up. All I need—just like you with Nicholas here, is to see with my own eyes that she’s alive and kicking. Can you imagine how difficult this would have been before decent technology? What would I have sent you? Morse?”
“Are you en route?” Valerie said into her mic.
“We’re coming.”
“Bring the officers.”
“Say again?”
“Bring the officers.”
“Roger that.”
“Cool your heels, Count,” Eugene said. “We’re just talking. We’re just leveling the field here. It’s all civilized. It’s all good. Don’t do something stupid or Valerie will shoot you in your monolithic head.”
McLuhan couldn’t help looking at Valerie. She looked away. Which was all the confirmation necessary. He was sweating. Valerie could feel him making calculations. The SWAT guys were wondering when the cutoff word would come. Her hands were ready. She was ready—for whatever she would have to do.
* * *
“Good grief,” Katherine said, when she entered the kitchen between Arden and the two uniforms. “This is like something from the Brothers Grimm.”
“Hey, hot lips,” Eugene said, on-screen. “Long time no see.”
“Hello, you,” Katherine said. “I can’t say I wholly approve of the new chin.”
“It’ll grow on you. And needs must, right?”
“I suppose so. I doubt you’d be as understanding if I’d had my ass changed.”
“That’s different,” Eugene said. “That would be a crime against humanity. Now, what do you say we get this show on the road?”
“Fine with me,” Katherine said.
What Valerie did next she did without thinking. She stepped up to Katherine and kicked her as hard as she could between her legs. Katherine went down onto her knees, gagging. Valerie grabbed her by her hair and yanked her head back. She took out her Glock and held it to Katherine’s temple.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Eugene screamed.
The whole room was in shock. McLuhan’s mouth was open. His hand had gone instinctively to his holster.
“Just leveling the field,” Valerie said. “You touch that man again and I’ll do damage she won’t walk away from. You think I care? You don’t know anything about me, you dumb fuck.” She looked past Eugene to Nick. He was nodding his head. Yes. Get your bargaining chips on the table. He’s going to kill me anyway.
His courage deepened the fracture in her heart. Forgive me, Nick. Forgive me.
“I’ll fucking kill you!” Eugene shouted.
“Maybe,” Valerie said. “But not until you’ve gotten what you want, I assume. Now, shall we discuss?”
Eugene’s visible rage made him look more ridiculous in the mask. Perhaps he sensed as much. Perhaps, as Katherine had foretold, his pride got the better of him. Either way, he ripped it off his head. The knife’s blade flashed as he did it. The gesture seemed to push him past fury and back into calm. It looked like a relief to him to be undisguised, to be confronting the world in glorious unprotected liberty. His forehead was damp with sweat.
“Jesus,” Katherine gasped. “Valerie, you’re fucking insane. You have no idea—”
“Shut the fuck up,” Valerie snapped.
“Everyone calm down,” Eugene said. “Everyone calm down and listen. We’re going to trade. Nick for Katherine. Simple as that. A nice, calm, balanced, and most important civilized exchange.”
“That’s not happening,” McLuhan said.
“Yes, it is,” Valerie said. She gave him a look: Trust me. I’ve got this covered. I can make this work. He shook his head. But he didn’t make a move. He looked exhausted, suddenly.
“Now, here’s what needs to happen,” Eugene said. “Count, you listening? There’s a way of doing this, and it’s the only way. Just listen very carefully. First of all, whoever’s got the keys for the restraints, give them to Valerie. I know you’re not going to unlock them yet. They just need to be in her possession.”
“Arden?” Valerie said.
Arden, not surprisingly, looked to McLuhan.
“G
ive them to me,” Valerie said.
McLuhan nodded assent. Arden handed the keys to Valerie.
“Splendid,” Eugene said. “Couldn’t have done it more beautifully myself. Everyone’s still calm. No one’s hurt. God’s in his heaven—all’s well with the world.”
“All’s right with the world,” Katherine corrected, still struggling for breath.
“That’s my girl,” Eugene said. “Precision in all matters, especially literary. I stand corrected. Now, in the cupboard under the sink there’s an empty plastic box. Get it and put it on the table where I can see it. The cupboard under the sink. Do it now, please.”
McLuhan hesitated.
Eugene sighed. “Look,” he said. “We can do the movie exchange if you like. We can haggle and hedge. You can try negotiating conditions of your own, you can try stalling. But I’d really rather not waste the time. Every gamble you take is based on the assumption that I won’t kill Nick. And we all know that’s not a gamble you can afford to take.”
“Fine,” McLuhan said. “As long as you can afford the assumption that we won’t kill your girlfriend here.”
“Okay,” Eugene said. “Let’s play that out. I do some more damage to Nick. I’m quite keen on the idea of gouging out his eye, actually. Not least because I think he’d suit an eye patch. So let’s say I do that. Crazy Valerie gouges out Katherine’s eye, tit for tat. Then I break Nick’s leg. Valerie retaliates in kind. And so on. War of attrition. You’re the good guys—or at least Valerie is. Sooner or later she won’t be able to stand it. Sooner or later she’ll shoot you. I know what she’s like. The woman has passion. I have passion, too, but I’m willing to gamble Valerie’ll crack first. Do you really want to play that game? I’m pretty sure Nick doesn’t.”
“Just get the fucking box, Vic,” Valerie said. Her Glock had drifted away from Katherine’s temple. She could tell McLuhan was starting to think she might turn it on him. Would she?
Yes, if it came to that, she would. Her look told him as much. I’m quite keen on the idea of gouging out his eye, actually. There was nothing she wouldn’t do to stop that from happening. In the moments since seeing Nick on-screen she had left a great deal of herself behind. She was in new terrain. It was as if an entire cumbersome apparatus had rotted and fallen away from her, freeing her limbs. She felt curiously light and free. There was literally nothing she wanted, now, except to hold Nick in her arms, alive, safe. All other considerations were rescinded.
McLuhan retrieved the box from under the sink and set it on the table.
“Good,” Eugene said. “Now everyone, one at a time: cell phones in the box. Don’t make me trawl through the logic again. No one has to die. Just follow the instructions. You can keep your weapons if it makes you feel happier. Count, you first. And don’t do it painfully slowly, as if some alternative strategy might pop into your colossal head at any moment, because it won’t. Valerie, vigilance, please. Every cell phone. Headsets, too. Do it now.”
McLuhan, looking like he might vomit, deposited his phone in the box.
“Empty your pockets,” Eugene said. “All of it, into the box.”
McLuhan nodded to the team, and one by one they complied. Including Valerie.
“You’re not going to come out of this,” McLuhan said. Valerie wasn’t sure to whom the remark was addressed. Eugene or her. Both of them, she thought. She didn’t care. It was wonderful to have all your cares reduced to a single necessity.
“Okay, good,” Eugene said. “Now, Valerie, take the box—and Katherine—and the two of you step outside the kitchen door. Leave the door open and set the box down on the floor. Stay there. We’re all good. We’re all happy. No one’s lost an eye. See how this works?”
The compressed energy in the room went up a notch as Valerie followed the instructions. But no one moved. She was terrified that one of the SWATs or uniforms was going to do something stupid.
“All right,” Eugene said. “You and Katherine just stay there for a moment. Count? You with me?”
McLuhan moved back into view of the screen.
“What now?” he said.
“You noticed the car on blocks down there, right? Please observe. Just give me a few…” Eugene hit some keys on the laptop. “And, three, two, one—”
The wrecked car exploded.
Not a huge explosion, but big enough to take the Ford’s roof off. The sound seemed profanely loud in the quiet landscape. Valerie watched the light from the subsequent burning tinting McLuhan’s face. Everyone in the room had flinched, involuntarily, backed to the corners. One of the officers was down on the floor.
“Be still, my ducklings!” Eugene sang. “Be still, be still. That was just a demonstration. Everyone be still. I can’t stress how important that is. Now, listen up. Listen very carefully, Count. Look at the kitchen doorframe, please. See the four little red lights?”
Valerie saw them herself: red, winking indicators on four tiny units fixed flush into the frame. Without the lights you wouldn’t notice them, and the lights hadn’t been on when they entered the house.
“Valerie, Katherine, be very still, please,” Eugene said. “Count, those are motion sensors, just switched on by my own fair hand. If you glance over at the window to your left you’ll see four more there. You with me? There’s a second explosive device in the cupboard above the sink. Considerably more powerful than its younger brother. Feel free to check. It won’t go off unless you go near the door or the window. Those sensors are, well, awfully sensitive.”
“Open it,” McLuhan said to Hooper.
“Are you fucking kidding?”
“I repeat: It won’t go off,” Eugene said. “Not with my beloved still so close, I promise you.”
Hooper, with visibly trembling hands, reached up and eased open the cupboard above the sink.
Eugene wasn’t lying. No one had thought he was. As well as the explosives, a second laptop, displaying a digital countdown. Just less than twelve hours.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” the officer on the floor said.
“Now, we’re fully wired up here,” Eugene said. “You’ve got a few hours to sit tight—but the sensors will disarm when the counter reads zero, and you’ll all be free to stroll out without a care in the world. All you have to do is stay put. What do you see on the shelf below, SWAT boy? You can remove it. It’s perfectly safe.”
Hooper pulled out—delicately—a hefty paperback. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.
Eugene smiled. “You’ll have to share, I know, but I didn’t want anyone to get bored.”
Katherine laughed, arms still wrapped around her middle.
“At the risk of truly giant redundancy,” Eugene said, “any attempt to interfere with the explosives will be fatal. The counter will skip to three seconds. Just long enough for each of you to make his peace with Le Grand Peut-être, before you’re on your way to meet him—or not, as the case may be. Breaching the sensors will, on the other hand, cause immediate detonation. I’m well aware you might have a bomb-disposal guru among the SWATs, in which case I can do nothing but wish you the very best of luck. Oh, and don’t think of shooting out the floor or the ceiling. In fact, don’t think of doing anything in the hope that I haven’t already thought of it. Everyone clear? Find a comfy position and settle in. Valerie? I’m not going to tell you to leave your weapon, because I know you won’t, and we’ll be back into the war of attrition. Bring it along, with my blessing. You won’t need it. You and Katherine can now make your way to the Cherokee parked out front. The keys are behind the left front wheel. The tank is full and there’s a cell phone in the glove box. I’ll call you in two minutes to let you know where you’re going. The phone, naturally, will take my incoming calls only. Katherine, I’ll see you shortly. You look fabulous, by the way.”
46
The cell phone in the glove box was ringing by the time Valerie and Katherine got in.
“Put it on speaker,” Eugene instructed. “Take a left out of the gate at the bot
tom of the drive. Two miles and you’ll come to a T-junction. Go left again. Four hundred yards, you’ll find a pull-off with a black Chevrolet parked in it. The keys for it are in the driver’s doorwell of the Cherokee you’re in right now. Switch vehicles. Keep the phone.”
Fuck. McLuhan’s and Arden’s training would’ve forced them to note the Cherokee’s plates. Eugene wasn’t taking any chances, confiscated cell phones notwithstanding. Valerie was thinking: Six years he’s had to plan this. Of course he’s not taking any chances. To plan this. The murders, the packages, the goddamned ciphers. Cassie’s abduction had been nothing more than a device to raise Katherine’s code-breaking stock. The abandoned car tip-off, Eugene’s absence from the cabin, all architected. It had never been about the killings. It had been about getting Katherine Glass out.
“So who’s been feeding you?” Valerie said to Katherine.
“I’m not talking to you,” Katherine said. “My cunt is killing me. I think you might have broken it.”
“Don’t even joke about that,” Eugene said.
“Come on,” Valerie said. “You might as well tell me. Was it Clayton?”
“What makes you think anyone was feeding me? I’m a genius.”
“Yeah, you’re a genius. But you had the information all along. Who gave it to you?”
“No one important,” Eugene said. “No one who’ll be missed, that’s for sure.”
“Nick’s got a nice cock,” Katherine said, holding her midriff, bending forward to ease the pain. “I can see how good it must be for you.”
“Hey!” Eugene said. “I’m right here, for Christ’s sake. Jesus.”
“No dice,” Valerie said. “It was a nice try, but since your boyfriend’s seen him in the Bay Club locker rooms we both know where that information came from. Why on earth did you try that? It couldn’t possibly have helped you.”
“What can I tell you?” Katherine said. “I’m prone to mischief.”
“I told you,” Eugene said, laughing. “I told you she wouldn’t buy it.”
“She bought it for a while,” Katherine said. “You should have seen her face. It was priceless. All that love. Valerie, you looked like someone had eviscerated you. Christ, I feel sick.”