by Moore, TJ
Max retrieved a pocketknife from his jeans and opened the blade. He stuck it in the center of the white curtain. The sharp blade easily pierced through the taught fabric.
“Stop right there.”The Leader cocked the gun.
“You wouldn’t shoot me.” Max said. “No, it’d be like a master shooting his own slave.”
“I have many more slaves.”
“But they aren’t as smart as I am. You knew...”
The Leader suddenly unloaded four bullets through the curtain just to the right of where Max was standing.
Cameron felt each bullet wiz by his head.
Max stood his ground. “You missed.”
“No, I’m simply getting warmed up.”
Max pulled down on the pocketknife, slowly tearing a straight line down the curtain. “You don’t have the guts to shoot me. You need me. I’m part of your livelihood.” The knife reached the bottom of the curtain, creating a small entrance to the other side. “Two years of my life, man. You owe me for two years. And you’re going to pay.” He slid his right foot through the slit in the curtain.
Cameron stood directly behind Max.
Another six bullets penetrated the curtain on Max’s left side, hitting the back wall with deafening force.
Max pushed his entire right leg through the slit, and tried to speak calmly. “You won’t kill me. I don’t think you know how.”
“Stop! Don’t come any closer!”The Leader yelled. A hint of fear hung on his threat.
Max slowly spread the open curtain with his hands.
The Leader unloaded two more bullets into the floor, just missing Max’s right foot.
Max pressed on. “Sure, we fear you because we think you’re violent. I don’t believe you are. I don’t even think you’ve killed anyone before. Not directly. You’re in this for the thrill of it. But you can’t actually handle it. Now, I want my money!” Max lunged through the curtain.
The tall construction lights that now cast his shadow against the torn curtain initially blinded him. A different, bright red curtain next to the light at the back of the room swayed. Max motioned for Cameron to come through the white curtain, suspecting The Leader must have retreated behind the red cloth.
“Why must you keep hiding?” Max said. “How ugly can you be?”
Silence.
The flooring between the white and red curtains was painted a deep burgundy and piles of various documents cluttered a large glass desk in the center of the room. A battered microwave sat on the floor, and a detailed blueprint of the Empire Bank was plastered to the wall, covered in markings and notes. Overall, the space looked like a high-end corporate office. Even the paperweights were molded in glass.
Max walked to the bank’s blueprint and examined it closely. “I was right here...” He pointed to the vault. “...when I got your money.”
Cameron noticed something. Orange peels were carefully stacked like chips inside a tall drinking glass.
Max stepped towards the red curtain in the back.
Two thin hands came out from the curtain, holding the gun.“Get on your knees. Now.”
Max turned back to Cameron. “What do you think, buddy? Should we follow along with…”
Three more bullets shattered the glass desk.
Four knees hit the ground.
“Hands behind your heads!”
“Did you lose some weight?” Max taunted.
“Shut up!” The electronic voice screamed.
“Enough hiding. Show yourself!” Max breathed heavily.
Silence.
“Do it, you coward! Show yourself!”
The Leader slowly moved into view. Thin arms, a huge torso, then, another thin leg stretched forward wearing work boots as the Leader emerged.
But a paper bag didn’t cover the face.
It wore a headset.
And a voice changer.
It was the face of Jennifer Frost.
“Jen?” Cameron lowered his hands.
“Hi, honey.” Her voice still filtered through the electronic voice changer.
“Wait,” Max said. “You two know each other?”
Cameron talked through gritted teeth. “You could say that.”
Jen wore a fat suit around her torso, and she still held the gun, aimed at Max.“I’m glad you’re making friends,” she said to Cameron.
He stood up. “So, you planned all of this? The tunnels, the heist?”
“All of it, babe,”she said without blinking.“I’m surprised it took you this long to figure it out.” She removed the voice-changing headset, letting it hang around her neck.
“You were always a bit of a control freak.”
Jen pointed the gun at Cameron.“Watch it, honey.”
“How could you lie to me like this?”
“Look,” she said in her own voice, “Out here, I’m not your wife. I’m a faceless Leader.”
Max started to laugh. “Just wait ‘til I tell the guys downstairs they’ve been taking orders this whole time from a woman!” he snorted. “Dallas is gonna be pissed! If they knew...”
Jen stepped closer to Max, holding the gun to his forehead. “They’re never going to find out.”
Max stopped smiling. “You two need counseling.”
Jen addressed Cameron; “You really had to become friends with him, didn’t you. Just to spite me?”
“No, I came here to save you.”
“But I was never in real danger. And I can’t let you leave now. You know too much.”
“Where’s Sarah?”
“Sarah?” Jen said. “Mommy has taken care of her.”
“What did you do to her?!”
“Relax, Cam. Mother knows best.”
Cameron took a strong stride towards Jen. “If you touched a hair on her head, I’ll…”
“You think I would hurt my own daughter?”
Cameron gestured towards the gun. “I don’t know what to think any more. What happened to you?”
“Happened? Nothing happened to me. I just woke up, that’s all. Don’t you see, Cameron? We don’t have to work anymore. This money. This success. You’ve always been obsessed with solving crimes, and now we have the tools to do that. Soon, we will have full access surveillance into the homes of criminals all across the city.”
“But it’s illegal.”
“What’s is?”
“All of this. Look at what you’re doing. It’s wrong, Jen.”
She waved the gun back and forth. “Right. Wrong. I stopped caring so much about that. It’s much more fun to live in the grey area. Much more interesting.”
Cameron shook his head. “Where’s Sarah?”
“Oh that again…”
“You used our daughter.”
“So what. She’s a big girl.”
“Where is she?”
“You want to see her?”
Jen kept the gun in her right hand and grabbed a remote control with her left. She pulled a cord and the red curtain opened behind her, revealing a console of monitors displaying video feeds including the dining room, living room, and a wide angle from the metal tree contraption on Highway 17. One of the black and white monitors displayed a small playroom with a beanbag chair and several chapter books.
Sarah sat sitting on the floor reading.
“See, safe and sound. You shouldn’t worry so much.” Jen said.
“Why are you doing this?” Cameron asked.
“Someone had to,” she said.
“Listen,” Max said. “Why don’t you drop this whole thing and let me go back to my real life. Forget the money. Just let me hang out with my dad again.”
“Maybe he can join us here,” she said coldly. “Would you like that?”
Max stood up and stretched. “I’ve had enough of this shit. Cameron, let’s go back downstairs. She’s obviously not going to pay us.”
“Not so fast.” Jen picked up a walkie-talkie. “Dallas.”
A pause.
Then Dallas’s voice crackled fro
m the other end. “Yes?”
Jen put on her mask and cowboy hat again to conceal her face. “Get up here. Now.”
Max’s face went white.
“Don’t worry,” Jen lowered the walkie-talkie. “We’re just putting you in the vault for a few days. Now that we have the money, I have no need for the replica. But, I think I’ll keep the vault as a time out zone. Looks like we’ll always need that with you two around.”
“Jen, snap out of this! I’m your husband!” Cameron yelled. “You’re going to starve us down there?”
“No, sweetie. I’ll have Sheri bring food. I don’t want to kill you.”
“Then why were you shooting at us?” Max asked.
She tore down the white curtain trashed with bullet holes and folded it up.“To put you in your place. You’re still just my workers. You won’t get bored in the vault. I’ll put a monitor in there and you can help us chose criminal targets.” Jen hung up a new white curtain as she spoke. “Really, I’m being more than generous with you two. Our program is for the greater good. Just wait Cameron, in a few months, some of your police buddies will be writing me thank you letters. Too bad they’ll never find the address.”
The two bookshelves cranked opened at the other end of the room. Dallas entered carrying some rope. “Cameron. Max. Let’s go.”
He tied their hands and pushed them out of the room.
Down inside the vault replica, Stan rolled in a large, flat screen TV connected to an extension cord.
“You guys shouldn’t get bored down here with this giant screen.” He scratched the back of his comb-over. “Now, I’ll send live video feeds from twenty different properties into this monitor. He handed Cameron a walkie-talkie. From there, you’ll need to call me up and tell me which of our guinea pigs needs a little zap. Just let me know if you see any suspicious behavior. When you do, I’ll pull that one from your feed and send you another property to watch. We want to nail as many of these crooks as we can. Think of it like that board game…Battleship. Here’s the main difference. We can see the enemy. They can’t see us.” Stan walked out of the vault and turned back to them. “Choose wisely.”
His laugher was cut off as he sealed the door to the vault.
“Ok, I have to ask,” Max said. “What’s the deal with your wife? Did she just get off the crazy train or what?”
“I have no idea.”
“She’s got a nice look though. You did well, Frosty. She’s a stone cold fox...even in a fat suit.”
“Don’t ever say that again.” Cameron said. He nervously paced in the vault. “We have to find Sarah.”
“I bet she’s still in the cottage somewhere.”
“Where?”
“Dude, the cottage has more rooms in it than even I know about.” Max walked to the TV and tapped on the screen. “Hey, check out this guy. He ordered two large pizzas. For himself. I thought they were going to send us down some food.”
Cameron looked at his own muddled reflection in the stainless steel walls inside the vault.
“I’m starving, man.” Max picked up the walkie-talkie. “Stan, what time is it?”
“Late,” Stan’s voice crackled.
Max turned to Cameron. “You think we should call in some pizza?”
“Yeah I wish.”
The vault door slowly opened. Dallas entered and slid two plates of food across the floor.
Max picked up a plate and stuck his finger in some mashed potatoes. “Dallas, this food is cold! Have Sheri heat this up.”
“It’s the middle of the night,” Dallas said.
“Then send The Leader down here.”
Dallas brought his walkie-talkie to his mouth, still glaring at Max and Cameron. “Mr. Leader, we’ve got a few girl scouts down here complaining about cold food.”
“Dallas, we’ve been over this. Don’t call me unless there’s a real problem,” Jen’s electronically altered voice answered.
“You heard the man, eat up!” Dallas locked the vault door and left the two alone again.
Max slapped his knee. “We should have told him his beloved Leader is a she.” He wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. “Maybe next time.”
“No, next time we get out of here.” Cameron shoveled in a mouthful of cold green beans.
Max started eating his cold mashed potatoes and turned to Cameron. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“Dallas isn’t as strong as he looks,” Cameron said.
Max laughed. “Keep going…”
“When he comes in to bring the food next time, we hide behind the vault door and jump him from the side.”
“I think you’re forgetting something, Frosty. Dallas escaped prison.” Max folded his arms. “Even if we get out of here, Stan will see our tracker marks on the move and probably send someone else.”
“We have to find a way to deactivate the trackers, permanently.”
“One problem, Frosty. Stan hardly ever leaves the security room. He even sleeps in there.”
“Give me your pocket knife,” Cameron said. “We don’t have to break in. We’ll have him come to us.”
Max tossed it over, and Cameron cut the power cord to their large TV display. The twenty live video feeds blinked off the screen.
“Forget about taking Dallas out.” Cameron said. “Stan will do just fine. Then we’ll take care of Dallas.” He grabbed the walkie-talkie. “Stan, we’ve got a problem in here. Something happened to the TV.”
It wasn’t that difficult to beat up Stan.
He wasn’t much of a fighter.
Max and Cameron waited on opposite sides of the vault door. Then, when Stan opened it, they both pushed off from the walls and kicked him in the chest.
And it worked. Stan was out cold.
Cameron lifted Stan to the freight elevator and they moved up one floor to the security room.
Once inside, they tied up Stan. Max jumped into Stan’s computer seat. It took him a moment, but he found the program that tracked the workers. He turned the trackers from active to standby.
Now, they were officially off the grid.
Cameron taped Stan’s mouth shut and told Max to stay behind while he took care of Dallas. Before he left, he opened Stan’s security cabinet. He took a tranquilizer gun and two darts. Then he loaded one of the darts into the gun and placed the spare in his mouth.
Cameron took the elevator down to the tunnels.
After a few wrong turns, and some strange glances from other workers, Cameron found Dallas pushing another digger against a tunnel wall. Sure enough, he was yelling at him, holding the digger in the air by the throat. Cameron leaned around the corner, sighting Dallas in his scope, but the digger saw him and grinned a bit.
The worker’s cheeky facial tick made Dallas even angrier, but he stopped yelling and turned around. Dallas stared at Cameron through the scope of the dart gun.
“What the hell are you doing over there?!” Dallas dropped the digger and stomped towards Cameron. Then he ran towards him. “Hey, stop!”
Too late.
Cameron fired the first dart into the femoral artery in Dallas’s left leg.
But Dallas kept running, gaining momentum. He pulled the dart out of his leg.
Cameron rapidly pulled the second dart from his mouth and reloaded the gun. Looking down the scope, it was hard to track Dallas as he ran, but Cameron aimed and fired.
The dart whizzed, sliced the air, and pierced Dallas’s jugular vein.
Dallas pushed into a sprint and pulled the second dart from his neck, yelling,“You son of a bitch! I’m gonna to kill you!”
Cameron slipped in the dirt as he pushed himself up and ran around the corner down the tunnel into the main digging site, but Dallas was gaining on him. The chase extended into the main tunnel, and the other night diggers watched as Dallas spat obscenities. He tried to grasp at Cameron’s shirt to pull him down, but Cameron was more agile. Cameron zigged and zagged, leading Dallas in a wide ellipsis around the dig site. Some of the worker
s cheered and others laughed.
Cameron evaded Dallas another fifteen seconds, and he could already tell the red-haired supervisor was getting worn out. The tranquilizing serum pumped through him like a thick sludge, slowing him down.
They ran through another group of workers and Cameron looked back as Dallas’s sprint became a walk, then a trundle, then a dizzied stumble. His ankles gave way, then his knees; and he stretched his arms out towards Cameron in a final attempt to swipe at him. Dallas continued to holler and caw, but his taunts slurred as his tongue became enlarged in his mouth. Then his arms went limp, his eyelids drooped, and he fell face-first into the dirt.
Dust billowed up from his body, and the digging site went silent.
Then, when they saw Dallas wasn’t getting back up, most of the workers cheered, but Cameron quickly hushed them. He was afraid he’d brought too much attention to Dallas’s take down. Jennifer had probably seen him.
Cameron whispered a warning to some of the workers, and everyone went back to digging.
He loaded Dallas’s limp body into the freight elevator and tied him up next to Stan in the security room. Cameron let Max have the honor of putting Stan under with the serum, and they locked the security room.
On their way back to the elevator, Max said, “Sarah’s still here somewhere. Where do you want to start looking? The cellar?” Max reached for the button to the main floor, but Cameron stopped him and pressed the button going down a level to the bank replica.
“No. I went down there with Sheri. I didn’t see a secret room.”
“Have you checked under the stairs?”
“No,” Cameron said. “I was thinking we try the attic.”
“Then why are we going down?”
“You’ll see.”
Cameron already attracted enough attention tranquilizing Dallas. He didn’t want the other workers to know Sarah was his daughter. He wanted to see her and hold her again. He wanted to reunite in private to speak with her and comfort her not as a captive, but as her father. And he especially didn’t want Sheri nosing her way into the situation. Cameron believed his plan would allow him to find Sarah discretely, but he still needed Max’s help.
Cameron explained to Max how he wanted to move up to the cottage through the ductwork in the vault replica. He wanted to try this method while they’d been locked in the vault, but he knew Stan would have seen them on the move and sent Dallas to stop them. Now, with the supervisors under liquid sleep and the trackers deactivated, they had a chance.