by Lumen Reese
He huffed a laugh, turning away.
I backed up to the edge, and I was smiling, too. “Joey gets paid if I die. They’ll think you pushed me, but that’s not my problem.”
“Get away from there.”
“Say it.”
He pressed his lips into a tight line, trying not to smile. “I’ll come back with you.”
“Give me your word.”
“You’ve got it, Honey.” He offered his hand.
“Say that I caught you.”
“You caught me. Come on.”
I took his hand. We shook on it. He gave a tug on my arm, and I took a step but then I stumbled and bumped into him, almost falling at his feet. He still held my hand as I moved back an inch.
“Say it one more time,” I prompted.
“Stella. You can take me home.”
His hand was warm on mine, I felt dizzy and eased back, popped open the capsule and pressed the button inside, turning the thing red.
“You’ve got a butterfly-,” Corso said, and reached up, touching the side of my head. He sifted his fingers through my hair and came away with an orange and black and glowing blue butterfly caged gently in his hand. It fluttered away. “I suppose you’ll want to cuff me.”
My head spun with relief as it hit me all at once. “You’ll let me?”
“I suppose.”
I went and sifted in my bag for the plastic cuffs the company had provided. I brought them back but then said, “I guess we’d better wait until we get down…”
“Hang on. Let me show you something. If you ever get put in a pair of these things,” -he took them from me, and held them in both hands, “-tighten them with your teeth. As tight as you can. This is the weakest part, in the center, where it holds. You bring them down, hard, on your hip, and you can snap them.” Turning them over in his hands, he offered them back. “It’s funny. I always thought I’d be the one to tie you up.”
I felt my cheeks heat. “I always thought you couldn’t get any worse.”
“Turns out, I was holding back.”
*
A fleet of choppers came after that. They landed in the clearing and picked us up. Corso and I were approached by Jericho and one man dressed in black with a gun on his hip.
Jericho nodded to me. “Stella.” His eyes swept over Corso, standing in the plastic zip-tie cuffs. Then on to Alex. “Miss Corso?”
“Alex.” She shook his hand.
“And you, Miss?” He offered his hand to the blonde girl.
“Rachel Dunkirk.”
“I’m so sorry this happened to you both. I’m going to do everything I can to make it right. We’ll take you to the hospital with the others.”
“We’re staying with them,” I said.
“We have things to discuss, everyone is waiting at Headquarters.”
“Corso needs a doctor, too.”
“Alright.”
“Let me use your phone, and we’ll call in some backup. We’re not leaving these two alone until this is over.”
“Alright, you can call from the plane. Come with me, please.”
We boarded a helicopter, with Alex and the blonde girl she had been staying close to.
I told the story of the aqueducts, but it went quickly and then there were silent hours to pass by. The skies grew darker toward the end and we were moving over cities again that started to light up. We finally lowered onto one square section of a building that wrapped itself around a rectangular courtyard. As we landed, I made out a few figures gathered at the door leading to the stairs. My heart was skipping but I made myself wait until Corso, Alex and Rachel all were off of the chopper and meeting up with them before I jumped down. Joey was looking Corso over, clapping a hand on his arm, giving Alex a hug. Then the girls were moving for the door with officers I knew well, Tom Bowman, and Frank Halderez himself. And Joey was free for me to throw myself on.
He squeezed me tight. I felt like myself again. “I’m so proud of you,” he said.
“Thanks, but we’re not done yet. There’s a lot to go over, and then there’s more… more men, holding more girls captive.”
“You don’t think they’d actually send you back in there?”
I felt like I had a pit of steel, suddenly. “If they don’t I’m going in Corso-style.”
Joey chuckled but his eyes turned down at the sides, he was frightened. Corso was watching us, a few feet away, and he smiled. I reached out and gave him a shove toward the door. “Alright, let’s go, you’re bleeding.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
We headed down the stairwell, and Jericho and his armed guard took the lead when we came out on the top floor. He was met by a woman in a suit and a male doctor in a white coat.
“Hello, Mr. Sullivan, I’m Jeanette Rossi, we spoke on the phone.”
“Hello, Ms. Rossi, the other ladies will begin arriving in a few minutes, for now this man needs medical attention.”
“Of course, come right this way, Sir.” The doctor gestured for Corso to take a left down the nearest hall. He tapped my shoulder and subtly gestured for me to stay. Joey went immediately with him and so did Jericho’s armed man.
Jericho said, “I’m sorry about the guards, these are dire circumstances, I need my men to be around. My chief of security has been in touch?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go over the new additions to your security. -Stella? Stay with Mr. Corso, please.”
I nodded and went the way that they had gone, finding them a minute later in a large ward, several beds in a row divided by sliding, white curtains, and Corso in the middle with the doctor inspecting his gash under a bright light.
“Doc says I’m lucky,” Corso said.
Joey was nearby, leaning on the windowsill. “You and me have been getting shot at for years, I’d say your luck is running out.”
“Stella? Can you go find Alex? I don’t want her to be alone.”
“-‘Nother chopper’s coming in for a landing,” Joey mumbled.
I went and walked the hall until I saw Tom Bowman sitting outside an exam room with the blinds closed. He was a man in his fifties with a creased face and brown hair graying at the edges.
“Everything is alright,” he said, when he saw me coming.
“Good. She’s not alone, in there, is she?”
“No, her blonde friend is with her, and the captain is inside, too.”
“Oh, good.”
“And we called her and Corso’s mother, she should be here, soon.”
They had a mother. Of course they did; most people did. But I could not imagine it.
When I got back to the ward where Corso was sitting on a hospital bed, the doctor was wrapping his arm with white gauze.
“Alex is fine, she’s with her friend and the captain. And your mother is on her way.”
He nodded. “What did Jericho say, earlier, to the woman who runs this place?”
“He was giving them additional security.”
“More men around with guns, who are in his pocket. Probably outnumber the victims two-to-one. We need more of our people in here. I know we can’t spare them from the precinct, but I don’t want to call Federals.” He was looking at Joey when he said it, and the older man looked like he had a bad taste in his mouth.
“Dangerous,” he agreed.
“Jurisdiction will be a nightmare, but for now, most of these girls have to be U.S. citizens, and they’re on U.S. soil, I’d say that makes them our problem.”
They were ignoring the armed guard standing to one side and the doctor diligently pinning up Corso’s bandages.
Corso finished, “Get guys from the station to volunteer on their time off? I know it’s a shit detail, but these girls are gonna need continued care. We can’t be sure until this is over if they’ll be safe in the charge of the folks running things.”
“I guess I’d take a handful of cranky, tired, Brooklyn cops over a bunch of Federals. I’ll make some calls and set up a rotation.”
“Wish I could stay,” Corso said. “But I don’t think that’ll be an option.”
Joey’s voice lowered. “Do you know what’s gonna happen, now? With all this?”
“I have no idea. Stella seems to think everything will be alright in the end.”
“They’re not monsters,” I said. “They’ll appreciate what you did.”
“Yeah?” Joey said. “And what about you? You caught him, right, you had a contract, right, so that’s it? You’ll get paid, right? Even if they turn out to be sneaky assholes.”
“I think so. But I also broke their laws, so I can’t be sure.”
“God, this is so messed up.”
“I know.”
“You did all this, both of you, and we might end up with nothing and both of you up shit creek…”
“Go make those calls,” I said softly. “At least we can make sure the girls are kept safe.”
“Alright. I’ll be just down the hall. Nobody goes anywhere without telling me anything.”
He padded off down the hall and we were left with just the two of us and the guard. The doctor excused himself after a minute, too.
My entire body felt heavy, and sore. I crossed my arms and sighed big. Corso looked at me, scooted to one edge of the bed where he sat, reclining, and shrugged. I was considering it and even took a step but then someone said his name behind me and I turned.
“Miles! Miles!” A short, brown haired woman in her fifties rushed toward him, and he sat up with a little smile, reaching out to wrap his arms around her as she melted into him. She had the same blue eyes as the two of them, but had an upturned nose, not the long and narrow one which Corso buried in the curls of his mom’s hair.
“I’m alright,” he said, and his voice sounded tense. “Have you seen Alex yet? You should be with her.”
“She’s okay for now. She says they have you under arrest? They can’t take you away for saving her!”
They had withdrawn from each other, and his mother kept her hands on his arms. His mouth was a straight line, his eyes went down. “I did some things that were wrong, to get her, though. I had to do them but they were wrong.”
She only hugged him again, until he pulled away and then turned her toward me, and gave her a little push, saying, “This is Stella. Stella, my mother, Shea Corso.”
She pulled me into her, and I stiffened. “Thank you. It’s so good to finally meet you.”
“It’s nice to meet you, too…”
“And welcome to the family.”
I felt overwhelmed for a moment with what she had said, sort of uncomfortably full in my chest. She finally let me go, and I blinked to keep the tears down.
She turned back to Corso. “I should go back to Alex.”
“-‘S okay,” he said.
She gave him another hug. “You are the best son I could ever have asked for. And I’ll see you, soon.”
“You will,” he agreed.
She left us alone again, and I moved without invitation this time, and sat on the opposite edge of the bed.
We waited in silence for whatever would come next.
Chapter Twenty-Six
When Jericho had finished with the hospital’s director, he found Corso and I, and Joey was back, too, with a report that in addition to Tom and the Captain, four other Brooklyn cops were on their way. Jericho raised his brow at seeing us sitting side by side, but I was too tired to bother with worrying about it.
He said, “Everything is settled, here. We’re due back at Headquarters to meet the others.”
Joey stood. “I’d like to come with you, if you don’t mind.”
“Why not? We’ll be going by car. Follow me, please.”
And we crowded into a black town car. Jericho, his guard, Corso, Joey, and I. It wasn’t long to the Four Quarters building. The streets were mostly empty, night had fallen in its entirety while we had been in the hospital.
We took the elevator up. Went into Jericho’s section of the office, where Kayla was waiting -but no Isaac, and no Dr. Foster. The head designer had a smile for me where she leaned on Jericho’s desk, and opened her mouth to speak just as the other three jumped off the couch and crowded in and did the same.
Henry, Hatley and Clark rushed to hug me. Joey saw that and chuckled .
“Good job, Stella,” that was Kayla.
“I’m glad you’re okay, I knew you could do it,” said Clark.
“Our hero,” Hatley said.
Henry had hugged me but said nothing, until he pulled away. “Way to go…”
“I’m sorry,” I murmured.
Joey introduced himself to Kayla, and shook her hand.
The room had fallen silent. The red-headed woman was looking Corso over. He was no longer armed, no longer cuffed, and he was shorter than she was. But he had caused so much trouble.
Henry was watching him, too, and finally replied to my apology, “I forgive you, but I don’t understand you. We work so good together. I thought you finally trusted me, but you ran off to finish this with him?”
“She was safer with me than she ever was with you,” Corso chimed in, and I found myself lashing out at him.
“Don’t! -Henry, I had to. I couldn’t stop him from going in there, but I could stop you. If I had tried to bring you, he wouldn’t have gone for it, he would have gone alone, things might have gone differently.”
The room was quiet. Jericho stood behind his desk, watching. Henry took my hand and I let him keep it, perching on the arm of the sofa as he sat back down on it. Joey sat in a chair by the door. Corso stood. He was the one who spoke.
“So you guys know the whole story. I got her to come with me, used the victims as leverage to get her to lie to you, because I don’t trust you. I practically held her hostage, the whole way-.”
“- Shut… up! ” I hissed. He smiled, low.
Joey asked, “So what happens, now?”
“The Four Quarters are evacuated,” Jericho said, slowly, “Nothing is moving inside, but I don’t know if we can trust our cameras, or our people, or our borders. We have to go back in, immediately. Tomorrow morning, first thing. We’ll take a few hundred men. Mr. Nathanson-,” he gestured to the man who had been guarding Corso, “-will select his best people, and we’ll begin to search every inch of the Four Quarters. We will find the remaining traffickers and their victims. I wonder whether anyone has information, or even an idea, to suggest where we might begin looking?”
I looked at Corso. He had nothing, it seemed, so I asked, “Matthias Lundgreen, the buyer from the First Quarter, who Anna Goodspeed identified ? ”
“He was picked up by Chicago police. He hung himself in a holding cell last night.”
“Of course he did,” Corso muttered.
I said, “He was visiting Anna in the months leading up to her being left in the catacombs below the cathedral… Wasn’t he in the First Quarter during that time?”
Jericho’s mouth dropped open. “Some of it, yes…”
I added, “It has the least cameras, there are miles of woods, and when I was there, I was only looking for one fugitive, not multiple men with hostages. If the traffickers were relocating ahead of us, they could have settled somewhere after we had already gone through. They moved Anna to the Fourth Quarter, then, a few days after we left the First, and a few days after Lundgreen’s scenario ended.”
Corso nodded his approval.
Kayla said, “So we’ll start with the First Quarter.”
“That’s a good plan,” Joey said, and he sounded anxious. “But what happens now with my people?”
Jericho and Kayla exchanged a glance. He spoke softly. “As fa r as we are concerned, Stella fulfilled the terms of her contract, and aside from that did us a great service. As far as Mr. Corso, the justice system inside the Four Quarters is modeled after that of the United States and United Kingdom. He violated mens rights to Habeus Corpus, and it would set a dangerous precedent -would make a mockery of our laws-if we just let him off.”
�
�Bull shit!” I was on my feet, my anger boiling up from some place I hadn’t known it was heating. I threw my finger at Corso. “He saved them! He saved them, and he saved me! He’s not a guinea pig, he’s not an example, he’s a person!” I was screaming, and Jericho was looking down. “He’s a good person,” my voice broke, almost went out, going quavery, “and it’s wrong and you know it.”
The room was silent for a long moment. I had been watching Jericho, but when Corso moved I was drawn to look at him. His head was turned down. He brushed a finger under his eye, and though his face was blank I thought I could see his eyes shining.
Jericho looked up at me. “I wish I did, Stella. I wish the right thing to do was staring me in the face.”
“She’s right, Jer-,” Hatley sighed. “Your justice system didn’t save those girls, he did. And we all did, too-,” she added, “-but we might never have gotten there if not for the things he did that no one else would. The girls they got out might still be getting raped, and that would be on you, and on your justice system. If you put him on trial, where does it end? You’d be putting me and Stella on trial, too, because we were both accomplices at some point.”
“And me,” Kayla said.
Jericho glanced at her. He looked sad and sick and lost.
Hatley went on, “I love you, Jer, but get your head out of your ass, and rewrite your laws.”
He looked to Kayla. She nodded. He said, “…We can issue a pardon. Assuming Mr. Corso’s continued cooperation, and no new crimes come to light?”
He was watching Corso, and Corso muttered , “You know it all, already… You’ll let me go back in, then?”
“And me,” I said. My throat was raw. “Please?”
“And me,” Henry said.
“And me.” Hatley.
“And me.” Clark.
“You can come. You can all help with the search. We’ll take it step by step after that.”
*
I don’t think anyone slept that night, in an on-call room on the second highest floor of the Four Quarters building. A dozen beds cleared out just for the four of us. I could have gone home with Joey, but i f Corso had to stay in the company’s care, I was not going to leave him alone. He caught me for a moment when the others were not around, and he looked embarrassed as he struggled to find the words. “What you said… I’ve been-. People don’t usually say that sort of thing about me.”