Sergei stood above her and swung his open hand down at her, striking the side of her face. Her ear rang and colored lights flashed before her. A few instances after the shock of the impact she felt the stinging pain on her cheek. Sergei sat down again.
“It’s tradition,” he said, taking a deep breath. “If you say anyone’s real name, everyone in earshot has to slap you as hard as they can. It’s tradition.” He shrugged, like there was nothing he could do about it, and then waited patiently for her to continue.
It was a few more moments before she could continue again, although more deflated this time. “I’ll confess,” she said simply. “I’ll confess and your . . . she will go free.”
He grimaced, as if in pain. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Who knows what you’ll say once you’re in custody.” He sighed. “Vagrants, fugitives—people hiding out in an old hotel trying to get the power working. That’s the plan.” He looked toward the door of the room. “Rock! Goose! It’s time!”
The door opened and two burly shapes moved into the room. Sergei stood and got out of their way.
“No!” Terri cried. “No! I’ll confess! I’ll confess!”
They undid the bindings at her feet and she tried to kick at them, but her legs felt like lead, like she was in some nightmare. Each undid the bindings at her wrists and then rolled her on her stomach, bringing her hands behind her back and putting on handcuffs. They pulled her onto her feet and with one hand on each arm they led her from the room. She tried wriggling and kicking but it had no effect on their progress.
“I’ll confess! I’ll confess!” she yelled to Sergei as she was dragged out the door.
Chapter 55
Conrad and Two-Guns stood at the front door of Nose’s house. Two-Guns was wearing a blue windbreaker with MRPD on the back in big yellow letters. The same letters were on her baseball cap. The windbreaker was unzipped revealing a bullet proof vest. Her shotgun was suspended by an elastic strap under her arm, hidden by the windbreaker. Conrad knocked. Almost instantly the door opened.
“Hi Bob!” Nose said brightly. He looked at Two-Guns. “You’re not Bobbi,” he said, a puzzled look on his face. It brightened almost immediately. “I’ll call you Bobbi 2, to avoid confusion.” They shook hands. “Nice grip Bobbi 2!”
Before their arrival Conrad had explained to her Nose’s need to call people by nicknames.
“Not a bad grip yourself,” Two-Guns said as Nose motioned them inside.
“You guys up for some Risk?” He looked questioningly at Conrad. “Does Bobbi 2 know how to play Risk?”
As they walked in Conrad said, “Hey Nose, we actually have some important business. We don’t know where Bobbi is. We were wondering if she came here.”
“Oh no,” Nose said, now concerned. “I haven’t seen her. Hey, Bob, I’m real sorry about the guards coming and taking you away. I was real surprised when they did that. I’ve seen guards take people away before, but not so close to the Hotel Vienna. They usually ignore people going to the hotel. I’m real sorry about that.”
“No problem Nose. But right now we really want to find Bobbi. Do you know anywhere else she might have gone to under the Bergs?”
“No place in particular, other than the Hotel Vienna. She could have gotten herself a house, but I don’t know why she wouldn’t visit. We have some more Harry Potters to watch. And she said she liked the Spam sandwiches.”
“So do you think she might have gone to the Hotel Vienna?” Conrad asked.
“Yeah, sure, that’s where she wanted to go before. You want to go again? The guards might come again. We can go in through the back. It will take longer, but the guards might not see us. How ‘bout that?”
Conrad looked at Two-Guns. Two-Guns looked back at him and shrugged. “It’s worth a try,” she said. She looked at Nose. “Are you willing to lead us?”
Nose smiled his nearly toothless grin. “Absolutely! Let’s go find Bobbi! Then we can come back and finish up Harry Potter!”
Chapter 56
After going down several flights of stairs the two men, Rock and Goose, led Terri to a dim hallway. They both wore tight black t-shirts and were both bald with goatees. One was short, about the same height as Terri, but bulging with dense muscles. The other was over two meters tall with a longer, leaner muscle tone. She could guess which was Rock and which was Goose.
It was an interior hallway with no windows. Doors were along one wall, they were painted white and spaced evenly at three meters apart. They stood in front of a door and one of the men held her while the other pulled out a key ring from his pocket, flipping through the several keys until he found the one he wanted. He unlocked the door and opened it. The other man pushed Terri forward until she was just inside the room. Her handcuffs were unlocked and removed and she was pushed further inside.
“Here’s your new home,” one of the men said and closed the door behind her.
She stumbled forward before precariously gaining her balance on weak legs. The room was about four meters wide and six long. A narrow bed was against the wall to the left—no blankets or pillows—just a sheet. The only other thing in the room was a large plastic bucket. The floor was bare white tile. There must have been a drop ceiling at one point, but it had been replaced by a metal screen that was bolted to the white plaster walls. A string of small white LED lights was on the other side of the screen and provided washed-out illumination.
Terri tottered over to the bed and lowered herself down. Her body renewed its shaking.
After a few minutes she heard a voice above her that gave her a start and made her jump off the bed.
“Hello! Who are you? Who’s there?”
The voice was coming from the next room, the man calling from over the ceiling.
“I’m Terri,” she croaked uncertainly. “Who are you?”
“My God, are you Terri Vieira?”
Then Terri recognized the voice.
“Mr. Hicks? Mr. Hicks! Is that you?”
“Yes, it’s me Terri. My God, what are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here.”
At the sound of the concern in his voice the floodgates opened and Terri began to sob. Her emotions became raw at the idea of someone actually caring about her well-being—and his concern made horrifyingly real the danger she was in.
“What are you doing here?” David Hicks asked urgently.
It was several moments before she could collect herself sufficiently to speak. “Natalya . . . she framed me for murder. I ran away. It was stupid, I know. We found out about the hatch to get under the Bergs. I came down here to hide . . . but . . . ‘The Earl’ found me.”
“What? Natalya framed you for murder?”
“Yes. We were in a Blank Room. She shot Marjaana Kekkonen.”
“Holy shit. Holy holy shit. Marjaana? Ragnar’s little niece?” There was a long pause. “These fuckers . . .” There was anger in his voice. “These fuckers. These fuckers are out of control. These rich fuckers. Where’s Conrad? He’s not here, is he?”
“No, he’s home. He’s safe.”
“Good, that’s good.”
“Why are you here?” Terri asked.
There was another long pause. “I hate to admit it, but I helped make this place. Years ago some people came to me, saying they wanted to make a private safe house. They said they were part of a group of like-minded people who felt the surveillance society had gone too far. They wanted me to provide the information infrastructure . . . provide a way for members of this place to communicate and coordinate activities anonymously. I jumped at the chance. Although, at first it was basically a place where people could cheat on their significant others. But it wasn’t long before it became something worse . . . something dirty. The orgies . . . heck, I was okay with the orgies. But certain unsavory elements used it for unethical business dealings . . . insider trading, money laundering. Here was a locked-tight infrastructure for private meetings and communications. The server here is connected to the Hardline, but it’s nearly
impossible to trace. It’s some of my best work. And it became the biggest hub of corruption—of every type of corruption—in the city. I left once they started the cage fighting. I haven’t been back in years.” He gave a deep sigh. “And then there was that argument I had with Conrad. I saw in his eyes that everything I had worked toward, any hope for living my way in the outer world, was hopeless. The disdain he has for my beliefs . . . I knew that I was a relic, a yesterday man.” Another long pause. “So I came back here. Yes, it’s corrupt, I thought. Yes, it’s full of rich fucks, but at least it valued privacy. So I came back. And I was horrified by what I found. If I thought it had been depraved before . . . I thought I knew how low humans could become. I thought I was jaded. But humans still surprise me by the evil they can do.”
There were several minutes of silence. Terri, deep in her pool of despair, said nothing. Finally, David Hicks said, “It was the girl. There was a girl, a little girl. A little slip of a thing. From the first moment I laid eyes on her I knew what they were doing to her. ‘The Duke.’ He had been in the original group that recruited me. He welcomed me back, said that I could work on the server, upgrade it, expand its capability. But then I saw the girl. The Duke’s bodyguard could see my disgust—and later he came to me to find a way to get her out of here. I was shocked, I thought it might be a test, a trap to see if I could be trusted. But the girl . . . looking at the despair in her eyes. I had to do it. And I could see that the guard really cared about the girl, not the way these sick fucks ‘cared’ about her. He had some measure of a soul. I had access to all of the surveillance equipment—I made a plan. They have cameras all throughout the Bergs—and they have people in Felicity Black—a small group in Felicity Black are on their payroll. I charted a path out for them where they could get to the outside unseen. And later I was supposed to follow and meet them on the outside. I was going to help them create new identities—I can still make new identities. After they escaped, The Duke, he confronted me, put me in this prison. At first I thought it had been a test. But then they started questioning me, demanding I tell them where the two were hiding. The guards here . . . they pick men who enjoy inflicting pain. People who can’t do what they want to do in the outside world. They unleash them on people who disobey the rules. And they . . . they questioned me.” David Hicks’ voice quavered at the last sentence, and Terri did not want to imagine what the ‘questioning’ entailed.
“Eventually they stopped,” David Hicks said. “Eventually they stopped. I don’t know if that is good or bad. I hope the girl got away. That would at least be something. They just left me alone for the last few . . . I don’t even know; they never turn off the lights. I don’t even know.”
Several minutes passed. Finally, Terri said, “They’re going to kill us.”
Chapter 57
The lobby of the Hotel Vienna was reminiscent of 19th century Europe with a red carpet, gold trim marble on the walls and front desk, and two wide staircases leading to a circling mezzanine. It was dimly lit by a single electric camping lamp resting on a chair by the front desk. Natalya pushed through the revolving front door.
“Hello, anybody home?” she called out.
Sergei rushed out from the back office behind the front desk. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Nice hairnet. What the hell are you doing here?”
“I’m closing this building down. And when I say closing it down I mean blowing it up. You can’t be here.”
Natalya looked around with distaste. Sergei had brought her here for her eighteenth birthday to watch a fight—and so he could show off his prominence in this secret hub of wealthy decadence. She hadn’t been back since; it wasn’t really her scene—it was basically a playground for leering old men—she knew she didn’t have the upper hand in this secret society.
“Is she here?”
“Yes, she is, you don’t have to worry about it. And I might as well tell you that Craynium is here too, so you don’t have to worry about him showing up and messing with your 3CV plans. Okay, so now that you know everything is taken care of you can turn your butt around and get back home.”
“You’re going to kill her? Right? I want to see her first.”
Sergei sighed. “We are in the middle of setting up the demolition of this building. Craynium and Bobbi—she goes by Bobbi—will be good and blowed up. Everyone has entrusted me with clearing out or eliminating any evidence. I need to erase all of the software on the server. Then I need to place Bobbi and Craynium in the basement next to the propane tank. Then I need to set the timer for the detonator. Then I need to get the hell out of here. So I have a lot on my plate right now. There’s no time for you to make a visit.”
“Are you doing all this by yourself?”
“I have a couple of guys. They’re doing all the dirty work.”
Natalya crossed her arms stubbornly. “It will only take a minute. Ter—Bobbi was my best friend for years. The least you can do is let me say goodbye.”
“I told the guys they could have some fun with her before they knock her out and place her downstairs. They’ve probably started on her already. I’m not going to interrupt their fun so you can say goodbye.”
“Jeez, that’s pretty fucked up.”
In the gloom of the room neither of them noticed the small, four legged figure keeping to the shadows of the lobby, moving stealthily up the stairs to the mezzanine.
Chapter 58
Terri heard the two men approach her room in the hall.
“You didn’t bring the handcuffs?”
“The Earl said no handcuffs!”
“He said not to leave handcuffs on her in the basement. We can use handcuffs before then. We just have to remember to take them off.”
“He said it was really important that we didn’t leave the cuffs on. I thought it would be safer if we didn’t bring them at all.”
“I think she still has some fight in her. It would be easier with handcuffs.”
“Oh come on. You’re not afraid of a little girl. Sucks it’s the last hurrah here. I wonder how long before they set up the next hotel. Maybe it’ll be outside of commuting distance. It’d suck if we had to move.”
Terri heard David Hicks yell out from his room. “Don’t you touch her! You assholes! Don’t you dare go near her! I swear I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!”
Terri heard the door to David Hick’s cell open. “Shut the fuck up old man, you’re ruining the moment.”
She heard grunts and the movements of bodies in the next room. Meaty impacts. A breathless “Fuck you,” from David Hicks.
“Stop it,” Terri tried to say from a throat that constricted in on itself through her tears. “Stop it!”
Finally, the sounds stopped. The door to David Hicks’ cell opened and closed. Terri heard a low moan from the room. From the hall she heard, “God damn, what an asshole.”
“He tried to bite me. Did you see that?”
“The dick doesn’t know what’s good for him. So, sloppy seconds?”
“You know me, I love me my sloppy seconds!”
She heard the jingle of the key ring. She backed up into the far corner. Yes, she still had fight in her. She wasn’t going to make this easy for them.
The short one entered the room and said, “Okay girly, there’s the hard way and the easy way, yadda yadda yadda. I’ve had a lot more experience in these sort of things than you, so trust me when I say it’ll be a lot easier on you if you try to enjoy it.”
“I’m going to kill you! Don’t go near her!” David Hicks rasped from the other room.
“Holy fuck,” Rock said with exasperation. “Fucking social justice warriors, they hate it when someone’s having more fun than them.” He turned back around and said, “Goose, what say we sedate him now?” as he walked out the door into the hall again.
“No bro, let’s take her upstairs to the master suite. This is our last hurrah here. They have all sorts of toys up there. And they have handcuffs, all kinds. I know, I know,
we have to remember to remove them. And we don’t have to listen to the old dude if he starts yelling again. Come on.”
“Alright, sure. How we going to do this?”
“You take the left arm, I take the right arm, we drag her upstairs.”
“Alright, let’s do this.”
Both men came toward her with determined strides. She tried to kick at them but they easily deflected any blows as they got on each side of her, grabbing her upper arms.
“Let go of me! Let go of me!” she screamed.
They pulled her out of the corner and through the room, dragging her out of the doorway into the hall. Whenever she tried to struggle they would shake her violently until she stopped, all without breaking their stride.
“No, no, no” Terri said, making her body go limp. They shook her violently again and one of them ordered, “Walk!” Her feet seemed to obey on their own accord. David Hicks continued to howl his vain protests. They walked into the stairwell. It was too narrow for them to walk three abreast. Rock said to Goose, “You take point, I’ll keep her between us.”
Goose didn’t reply. Rock’s massive shoulders sagged. “What is it?”
“Well, you always have me take point. Every time we do anything it’s, ‘Goose, you take point.’ It’s like, I don’t know . . .”
“What? It’s what?”
“Sometimes I feel like you don’t trust me to have your back. Like you don’t think I’m good enough. I mean, shit, I trust my life with you. You know that. I would trust you with anything. Sometimes I don’t think you feel the same about me.”
“Of course I trust you bro! It has nothing to do with that. I just figured we had a system. We have like, roles we’re good at. You know, like we’re a well-oiled machine.”
“Yeah, maybe . . . but think about it. I’m a tall guy, it makes more sense for me to take the rear because I can see over everything. You know, tactically, I think it’s sound.”
Girl in a Fishbowl (Crowbar Book 1) Page 26