Hotwire

by Cindy M. Hogan

  Viktor was waiting for me right outside the door, and relief settled over me that Jericho was nowhere to be seen.

  “I’m so embarrassed, Viktor—”

  We rounded the corner into the living room, and Jericho stood there, in the middle of the room, as if on watch. “Everything okay now, Amber?” He drew out my name as if he wanted to make me feel bad or even like he didn’t quite believe that was my name. All I knew is that it made my insides feel fuzzy. I pulled my muscles in to try to make it stop. Did he know about me?

  “I still feel a little sick,” I said, which was totally true, “but you came to the rescue with those meds. I hope they’ll solve that problem quick.” I put my hand on my stomach.

  He swished his hand through the opening to the dining room, and we walked through.

  “Ah, Amber,” Alexander said as I made my way to my seat. “I’m afraid you missed the end of the meal. Of course, there is still dessert.”

  I leaned back and said, “I’m sure it will be lovely, but I’m not sure it would be a good idea to eat anything for the next little while.” I lowered my voice so that only he could hear, “I’m so sorry for disrupting your dinner. I’m terribly embarrassed.”

  “Don’t be. Sometimes trying new things causes upset stomachs.” He smiled at me, genuinely, it seemed. Then a flicker of something like suspicion flooded his eyes.

  Dessert came and went with me sipping only a glass of water. The creamy cake was definitely something I would normally have devoured. I waited patiently for my chance to escape. I couldn’t wait to examine the drive, sure that it would contain the last bit of information we needed to complete the mission. It would be too soon if I never saw Jericho again. And I wouldn’t mind saying my last goodbye to Viktor, either.

  “Will you be needing us any longer, Uncle?” One of the two cousins said.

  Alexander glanced at me and then said, “Actually, I do have a little matter I could use your assistance with.”

  I got a very bad feeling, and I scraped off my tracker mole, flicking it onto the pants of the guy sitting next to me, just in case they were about to search me or something. I covertly lifted my boot to relieve it of the drive I’d put in there, placing it in a lip of wood beneath the table where I sat. Blood pounded in my ears as the cousin who had spoken leaned down for the brigadier to whisper in his ear. In my peripheral vision, I saw the cousin’s eyes flick to me and then to Viktor. This was not good.

  The guy moved toward Viktor as Alexander spoke. “Amber, my dear,” his voice was syrupy. “I have something downstairs I think you might find interesting.”

  Viktor’s eyes flew wide, and he pressed his hands on the table to stand, but his cousin put his hands on his shoulders, holding him down. “But Uncle,” he said, his voice moving from loud to quiet as he spoke. “I thought you had business to attend to.”

  He knew I’d been in his office. He was going to do something terrible to me.

  I forced myself to keep fear from my voice. “I should really get going. I know you’re a busy man, and I’d hate to take up any more of your time.”

  “I’ve got a couple minutes to spare for my newest star.”

  Alexander stood and nodded at me.

  I stood, too. I looked at Viktor, whose face had turned a pasty white color. “Are you coming?” I asked him.

  He stroked his chin. “Nah, it’s nothing I haven’t already seen.” He licked his lips and held tight shoulders. He was totally freaked.

  My stomach felt rock hard, and every nerve in my body was on high alert. I had to be ready for anything. We walked through a different wide hallway off to the left of the dining area. After going through the kitchen, Alexander turned and took some stairs down to the basement. Someone was following us. My heart thudded in anticipation.

  At the bottom step, he punched in a code on the keypad on the wall, and the door slid open to a dark space. “Please excuse the smell, Amber,” he said, as he stepped to the side to let me pass. “It’s something we haven’t been able to get rid of.” The room was small and dank. It smelled of mold and something metallic.

  I nodded and walked through the door, every sense I had telling me this was a place touched by evil. A prayer welled up in my heart asking God to keep me safe and help me find a way out of whatever was going to happen without me blowing my cover.

  Warm hands urged me forward. I turned around, “You wanted to show me this room made of cement?” It was easy for a trained eye to recognize a wall that moved; slight scrapes rushed along its almost smooth surface. The metal door we’d entered shut with a slight clang. I could see no way out. I could take them both out, but then I’d be compromised, and I had no idea what the code was to open the exit door back up. I couldn’t act now. I could only hope he wasn’t planning on executing me.

  “Okay, Alexander, you’re making me scared, now. Are you kidnapping me?”

  He smiled a wicked smile. “No, my dear. No. There is something beyond this wall I want you to see…But first, Nikolai needs to search you. I’m sure you won’t object.”

  The cousin, Nikolai, then searched me soundly, even removing my boots and checking for movable heels and all. I said a silent prayer of gratitude for the warning I’d felt earlier.

  Nikolai shook his head, and Alexander tilted his to the side and narrowed his eyes at me, like he was thinking. Then he straightened up and pushed a code into the keypad on the opposite wall.

  It slid open slowly, revealing another cement room. This room was large, and my eyes immediately fell upon a young boy tied to a chair in the middle of the room. The chair sat over a drain in the floor, and the boy’s head lolled forward but then popped up at the sound of us entering the room. I gasped and covered my mouth with my hand. Hank.

  Chapter 24

  He had obviously been crying, and seeing us caused him to yell out around the gag in his mouth and try to get to us, pleading for us to listen to him.

  “Oh, my gosh!” I squealed. “What happened to him?” I moved forward as if they’d let me free him even though I knew they wouldn’t. What was he doing here? His smiling, friendly face from lunch flashed before my eyes.

  Arms held me back.

  “This boy,” Alexander said, “is a snitch.”

  I shook my head. “No!”

  “It’s true. He was caught tonight trying to send information to the FBI.”

  “I know him,” I said. “He goes to my school. He’s a good person. A great person.”

  “Yes. It is a shame to waste the life of a boy who had so much potential. The police and the FBI don’t seem to value the lives of the youth today. It’s quite a shame that they would force this boy to die.”

  “No! Please! He doesn’t have to die,” I cried. “I mean, can’t you use him to get information on the FBI or something?”

  “You watch too much TV. This boy couldn’t help me. It’s time for him to be punished.” He turned to me, faking a sad, forlorn look. “Normally, unless we think we can get information out of someone, we shoot them on sight, but after Jericho informed me of your little snoop fest tonight, I thought it might be good to make sure you and I were on the same page.” I guess he thought that since he hadn’t been able to find anything of his on me, that I hadn’t seen anything I shouldn’t have, that I just needed a scare. Nikolai moved toward Hank and pulled out a gun, pressing it to his temple.

  I screamed out, my whole body shaking in terror as I threw my hands out in front of me and attempted to run to him. “Please. Please don’t kill him!” Tears streamed down my face. “Give him another chance.”

  Alexander threw up a hand. Nikolai took a step back.

  “Maybe there is something we can do for this good, I mean great young man.”

  I turned to him. I clung to a desperate scrap of hope.

  “I do have a special place I send some of those I find dealing in treachery. It’s not a nice place, but he would at least be alive.”

  I nodded, not sure why.

  “You see th
ese others?” He swept his hand out to the room and, for the first time, I noticed four other people in cells around the room. “They’re all going to this nice place.” There were three boys and one girl. “Those two large boys will be going to the mines to help out and the others will be sold to the highest bidder. I save the best for auction. All have betrayed me in one way or the other.”

  “Sold?”

  “There is always a need for personal or professional slaves to satisfy those pesky physical needs we all have.”

  I stared at Hank and then the others. Death or a life of slavery? Both terrible. Both unacceptable. But if I could convince Alexander to keep him alive, we could save Hank before he was sold.

  “Should I spare him?”

  “Please,” I whispered.

  “Interesting,” he said, stroking his chin. “I’m sorry to say that I disagree.” He nodded. Nikolai lifted the gun and shot Hank in the head.

  I stiffened, and my ears seemed full of cotton.

  Alexander clamped his meaty hand on my shoulders, preventing my advance and whispered in my ear, “No,” Alexander continued. “He would not have fetched a nice price at auction. I know when you think it over you will understand. We cannot tolerate rats. They spread disease and discontent.”

  I couldn’t take my eyes off Hank’s slumped body, blood dripping from the kill shot. My breaths came in rapid, erratic pulls and pushes. The guy who shot Hank took me by the arm and led me out, following Alexander.

  Tears coursed down my cheeks. It wasn’t that I’d never seen someone killed. I had, many times. It was the sheer brutality, complete disregard for human life. He was only a boy, and on top of it all, he was my friend. The look on his face of panic and pleading was forever imprinted on my mind. Somewhere in my mind I heard echoes that Hank died because of me. I knew that wasn’t true. Alexander had told me as much. He would have died had I been there to witness it or not. But I couldn’t shake the thought that I caused it. I sucked in for air but seemed unable to get any and clutched my neck as I tried to croak out, “I’m so sorry, Hank. I’m so sorry!” It came out as a broken, raspy whisper, and I couldn’t avert my eyes from his still body.

  Alexander spoke to Nikolai while looking at me. “Get her cleaned up. I want her back in the living room within five minutes. The transport for those going to auction will be here in ten.”

  Nikolai punched some buttons on the keypad, and a second door opened and the one leading to Hank’s dead body slid shut. He shoved me toward the open door. “Get cleaned up. You have three minutes.”

  I was in a small washroom with a shower, toilet, and sink, with a shelf full of towels and washrags. Empty of adornment, it was cold and completely still. I grabbed hold of the sink and bent my head forward, renewed tears springing from my eyes.

  “Two minutes.”

  I had to pull it together. I was a spy. I’d seen much worse than this. But I couldn’t. Not yet. I screamed out and hit my hand on the mirror, sending shards crashing to the ground. I shook my head. “No! No! No!” I grabbed at my hair. The door slid open, and the guard pulled me out, pushing me into a corner of the room.

  “What did you do? You’re going to get me into a lot of trouble.” He rounded on me as I crouched in the corner and hit me hard on the head, throwing me into the wall beside me. I gasped in pain. When I had the sense to look up again, he was dumping the shards of glass into a waste container. He pulled out a radio and said, “Let Viktor know I need a few more minutes.”

  He hauled me off the floor and pushed me into the bathroom. “If you don’t get cleaned up in the next three minutes, I’m going to go back into that room and shoot the first person I see.” He pointed to the room with the prisoners.

  “No!” I screamed back at him.

  “You have three minutes.” He pulled out his radio again, turned around and spoke into it.

  I had to pull it together or more people would be killed because of me. My eyes were puffy and red, tear tracks staining my cheeks. My nose was running profusely. I grabbed some tissues and blew my nose, then used a wet rag to scrub my face. There was no way in less than two minutes to hide the fact that I’d been crying. I think that was exactly what Alexander wanted. I felt my head where it had hit the wall, and a goose egg had already formed. Where Nikolai’s fist hit my head, it was tender and sore to the touch, and a headache was coming to meet me full bore.

  What would the consequences of this be? As I thought about it, I realized my breakdown made it appear that I was who I’d told them I was, and not an agent for Division. After all, what spy would lose it like I had, anyway? Viktor’s cousin took me back upstairs and had me in the living room before the second three minutes were up.

  Upon my entry, Viktor stood up, eyes wide, apprehension written all over his face. All eyes were on me as I walked to the chair next to Viktor and took a seat.

  The look Viktor had had on his face as Alexander had led me away told me Viktor either knew exactly what was going to happen or just knew it would be bad. But of course, he wouldn’t save me from whatever it was either. I wasn’t sure what I should say to him when the time came. I said a prayer that I’d come up with the right thing to further the mission. In the meantime, I kept my head down and didn’t speak.

  “It’s been such a wonderful evening, everyone,” Alexander said, in a sickly sweet voice.

  My insides clenched, and I knew at that moment that I couldn’t let this evil man get away with what he’d done. I refused the urge I had to stare him down. We would save those kids. We would. And there would never be another Hank. Never.

  “However,” he continued, “I have many things to get done and must end this party early tonight.” He stood up and walked out of the room.

  There was no way I was going to let this awful man get one more cent from his car thieving gang. He would pay for what he did to Hank and those people in his dungeon; they would never get to their destination. We would save them before that happened.

  Only then did Viktor reach for my hand. I jerked it away.

  “Let’s go,” he said in a whisper.

  I acted like a scared cat as we walked out of the house and to the car. This is how Amber would have reacted after what she had experienced. I sat as close to the door as I could, keeping my head angled so I was looking out the passenger side window.

  When he touched my leg, I jumped.

  “Amber,” he said, speaking in a quiet, stern voice. “Tell me what happened!”

  When I didn’t respond, he huffed and backed out of the driveway. I watched a black van pull into the drive after we left. That van was transporting those kids somewhere. I wished I knew where. After about ten minutes, he stopped at Prospect Park.

  I heard him turn to me. “Amber. What happened? What did you do?” He scowled at me.

  I shook my head in tiny little movements against the window.

  “Whatever you did, you’re going to have to make it right. You hear me?”

  In a flash, I turned to him. “Make it right?” I spat. “That would be impossible! He killed Hank. A boy from our school!” I moaned, letting my head fall in a defeated roll. I kept a moan in my throat, and it sounded like a cat crying out.

  “What did you do to make him do that?”

  “Nothing!”

  “It couldn’t have been nothing.” He brushed his fingers through his hair. “I hope you haven’t ruined everything I had planned for us.”

  “He’s the one who ruined it. He’s a monster and you…you took me to his house. You lied to me. You told me he was nice. A great uncle.”

  “He is. I mean, he can be. I just never thought. Why? Did he tell you why he took you down there?”

  “Something about me being a snoop and him having to show me what happens to snitches.”

  He gasped. “I guess he found out you’d been in his office. I told you—”

  “You told me nothing. You told me I’d like him, and I’d feel at home if you took me to that dinner. Well, I didn’t, and
I hate him. I hate him.” My voice evened out, and I set a strong, stony stare at Viktor as I said the last, I hate him.

  He leaned back and put his hands on the back of his neck. “I get it. But I told you, you needed to be careful…”

  I scowled at him, and he shrank back just a bit and, even though it was way out of character for him, his face softened and he said, “I should have gone with you.”

  I wrapped my arms around him in one swift motion. I’d been waiting for one little show of weakness or maybe kindness in him. “I was so scared. Hank. Oh, my gosh! Hank!” I wept on his shoulder for quite some time.

  At one point, he pulled me off him and said, “Do you forgive me?”

  “I’m trying. I just—” Was he for real? Did he really have true feelings for me in some small way?

  “I get it.” His phone chimed. “You feeling up to lifting tonight?” His eyes searched mine.

  “I don’t know.” My mind went to the drive, still trapped under Alexander’s table. We had to find some way to get it back.

  He looked back at his phone and sighed. “I wasn’t really asking. I mean, I was, but you really don’t have a choice. You’ve got to go out.” The real Viktor was back.

  I huffed. “Figures.”

  “Looks like your first lift is close to here. I’ll drop you off.”

  I looked down at my clothes. “You want me to go like this?” I really didn’t like the idea of being with any of the other lifters without any weapons and in the emotional state I was in.

  “I’m sorry, but you’ve only got twenty minutes to get there, and that’s how long it would take to get you home.”

  “Fine,” I growled. “This night couldn’t get any worse.”

  We drove a few blocks when he pulled up to the curb. He climbed out as I did. He didn’t make any move to kiss me, but he put his hand on my stomach to stop me when I started to walk away.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow. Please don’t make any mistakes.” There was exasperation in his tone, as if all the bad that had happened tonight was my fault, and my strict attention to my duties could clear everything up.