Taken By Surprise (Taken Trilogy Book 1)

by Jessica Frances

  Once there, we make it back to the hallway where the guard was at before, sleeping. Rose glances around the corner and her body freezes in shock. We don’t have to wonder what she saw for long. Voices echo down the corridor and we all recognize it at once. Martha.

  “Sleeping on the job is a fire-able offense.”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am.”

  “What if the prisoner had tried to escape? Would you have slept through that, too?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “If I ever catch you asleep on duty again, I will transfer you to a remote part of the world where you’ll be lucky to survive a single day.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Sorry, ma’am.”

  “After two more days this station will no longer need to be guarded. Until then, you will treat it like the president himself is behind that door and you will make sure no one is able to get in to see him.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  I look back at the others and we all shrug, not knowing what do to.

  “I have been notified of a breach in this facility, if I find out you could have prevented it, I will personally make your life hell.”

  The light down the hallway feels like a spotlight waiting to catch us, so when it suddenly goes out, none of us hesitates rushing past the open hallway and back to the door that will lead to the lounge.

  We all run through it, having left it unlocked, while remaining fearful that we could have been heard and followed. Rose carefully closes the door and using her hair clip, locks it. Thankfully she is a lot quicker at it this time, considering it’s dark and our eyes haven’t had time to adjust to the darkness, it locks in place seconds before we hear footsteps approaching.

  Even though it’s too dark to tell, I know we all look at each other for a split second before we make a mad run to our rooms. Charlie and I leap into bed, not bothering to even take our shoes off.

  Footsteps approach from down the hallway and we know Charlie’s room will be her first stop. I bury my face into Charlie’s chest, afraid I’ll give away the panic I’m feeling. He wraps his arms protectively around me as we both lie still. His grip around me tightens when his door opens and I assume Martha looks in. There is no sound for a while and I’m unsure if she has closed the door and left or if she is still standing there, watching us. I continue holding my breath for what seems like hours and then I finally hear the door click shut. More footsteps echo as Martha goes and checks on Will as well as Rose. Once she has walked back out into the hallway and what I hope is out of our area completely, I allow myself to breathe properly.

  “That was close,” I gasp at Charlie, feeling the panic settling down now.

  “I know.” Charlie keeps his arms around me and we remain like that for the rest of the night.

  ***

  In the next training session, Rose is dismissed early to speak to Martha. I fear they know the lock had been picked and Rose is being questioned right now, but I bite down on my fear to stop myself openly freaking out. We don’t get the chance to see Rose before dinner and my body relaxes when she makes an appearance unscathed. Martha sits with us and annoyingly hangs around for most of the night. She watches another two movies with us and brings out popcorn and chocolate for us to eat. I suppose this is another one of her bonding ideas. Again, she is annoyed when we don’t show a lot of enthusiasm.

  Rose excuses herself early and Will leaves soon after. I’m itching to join them so we can talk, however under Martha’s watchful eye, I just snuggle further into Charlie’s arms and pretend not to notice her watchful gaze.

  What did those words I read mean? Do I have it wrong? Does she really want Charlie and me to be together? Why?

  Halfway through the next movie, Stan interrupts us and steals Martha away. We turn off the TV and head straight into my room. Rose and Will are there already. Charlie turns the power off and Rose complains that we took too long.

  “Who cares? What do we think about last night?” Charlie interrupts her protests.

  “I think we definitely need to get the hell out of here,” Rose snaps. “Martha just told me I have to behave myself when all the experts get here and begin testing us. I think all that stuff from last night must have been their machines and stuff to work on us.”

  I shiver.

  “So do we go tonight?”

  “As much as I want out of here, I do think Martha was suspicious of me. I think she suspects something was up with us last night. Maybe we should have a night off, go tomorrow night,” Rose concedes.

  “Did you finish reading what Martha said about us before the laptop died?” I ask Charlie.

  “No, but I get the feeling she is actually pleased about us, not at all like she is acting.”

  “Yeah, why is that? What does it mean?”

  “The bitch is ruthless, you heard the way she spoke to that guard,” Rose points out.

  “The guard…” I think back to the sleeping guard and something clicks. “That guard is the same one who was guarding the door when Will and I escaped.”

  “So?”

  “So that must be his job; guard the room.”

  “You think something important is in that room?” Rose asks.

  “I saw him in that video, the one of Joel. When that man knocked on the door, the guard opened it. Martha said something about a prisoner being in there. Do you think it might be Joel? That he’s still alive and being held in there?” I ask.

  “It’s a long shot,” Charlie says. I can tell he’s considering my words carefully.

  “What do we do?” I look at Rose.

  “I guess when we’re escaping, we don’t exactly have to sneak around. I can probably get us to that door and disable the guard. There is no harm in having a quick look inside.” She shrugs at me causally.

  “And what if he is in there? He could be in any condition. How are we supposed to escape and also carry dead weight around?” Charlie questions us.

  “I can carry him no problem,” Will offers.

  “Seriously? We’re talking about staging a rescue for the guy that tried to kill Zoe?” Charlie looks at us all like we’re crazy.

  “He’s still a human being. You heard what Martha said, they’re obviously getting ready to kill him. We can’t knowingly leave him to die. I won’t do that.” Rose crosses her arms.

  “Well, I think that decision should be Zoe’s to make, not yours.” Charlie glares at her.

  I think about what I want. If that is Joel in there, then Martha pretty much assured me he would be killed. He deserves to die for what he did to Dana. He still breathes air while he caused so much destruction. I can only imagine the hole he has left back home. Dana is important to a lot of people. He doesn’t deserve free air. Although I find I can’t sentence him to death, either. If Dana were here, she would help him. It wouldn’t matter to her what he had done, she would see someone needing help and she would give it.

  “We have to try to help him,” I whisper. Even though it’s the right thing to do, I still find the words hard to say.

  “Are you sure?” Charlie moves his hair back and forward while looking at me intently.

  “Yes.”

  “Why do they have him? They obviously went to the trouble of faking his death to get him, why? What does he know?” Rose asks me.

  “They must think he was hired to kill me by the mole. They’re probably hoping he can identify who it is.” I think back at all the wounds Joel had. They must have tortured him for an answer he didn’t have.

  “Okay, so say we find him and we get out of here, where do we go?” Charlie asks us.

  “We need to go somewhere not connected to any of us. Getting out the front door will get us noticed. I think we should split up and divide their attention. We won’t have a lot of time, but I think we can manage to get two cars. We split up in different directions and meet at our new destination.” Rose has obviously already thought a lot about this.

  “Should we leave the country? Canada isn’t far?” Charlie questions her.
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  “I think that’s too obvious, plus the border is likely to be guarded. We need to slip away.”

  “To where?” I ask.

  “I don’t know. Name a place you’ve never been and let’s see if any of us can agree,” Rose offers.

  “Oregon?”

  “My parents took me there when I was eight for a holiday.” Rose shoots that idea down.

  “What about Montana?” I ask, hoping for a place that isn’t too warm.

  “Nope, holiday when I was twelve.”

  “Maybe you should suggest a place.” I roll my eyes at Rose.

  “Fine.” Rose almost speaks several times, but suddenly stops before she can mention something each time. It’s at least a full two minutes before she thinks of a place she’s never been to. “How about Nebraska?”

  I shrug, signaling I have never been there. The furthest I’ve traveled before this happened was New York. Everyone else shrugs, too.

  “Okay, where in Nebraska?” Rose asks.

  “I think we should meet somewhere big, a place we can’t confuse and a place with lots of exits,” Charlie suggests.

  “What about a University? It’ll be big enough for us to hide if we need to and people our age are everywhere, we won’t look suspicious,” Rose offers.

  “Good idea. What about the University of Nebraska in Lincoln? That’s meant to be pretty big.” It’s also the only college that I’ve heard of there.

  “Perfect. Okay, so every College has a bookshop, we meet there.” Rose smiles.

  “It goes without saying we can’t contact home, no matter how badly we want to.” Charlie looks at Rose. Apart from him, she has been the most vocal about wanting to contact her family.

  “I know,” Rose sighs sadly.

  “What do we do once we’re in Nebraska? We’ll have no money, no IDs, no nothing.”

  “I might know someone who can fix that. Just get me to a computer and I’ll figure something out.” Rose shrugs at our stunned faces. There is no doubt in my mind that we would all be screwed if Rose wasn’t here. She knows how to pick locks, hack computers, break into cars and she’s brave and calm enough to keep us all in check. I’m in awe of how amazing she is.

  “Same time tomorrow?” Will asks.

  “I think we should aim for later. Maybe four, Stan and Martha will have to be asleep by then,” Rose states hopefully.

  “Four it is. Come on, let’s get some sleep, big day tomorrow.” Charlie stands from where we’re all sitting and he holds out his hand to help me up.

  “Since we know we’re leaving this time, take some clothes or something. It’ll help us when we’re on the road,” Rose whispers.

  I nod that it’s a good idea and we all leave my room; Charlie and I heading into his room. After everything that’s happened the last few days, I’m so exhausted that as soon as my head hits the pillow, it takes me only moments to fall asleep.

  Tomorrow will be a big day. Tomorrow is when we’ll escape from The Windmill. I know Charlie and I will make it, but what about Rose and Will? Is Joel still here and alive? Is he one of the shadows from my dream? Or is he dead and the prisoner is someone else entirely? I have a feeling I won’t like the answer we’ll get from opening that door tomorrow.

  Chapter Thirty-One – The Break-up

  Wednesday, April 18th

  During our warm up, Charlie gets a lecture about his blackouts. I assume with all the expensive equipment being installed, constant power cuts aren’t appreciated. Stan basically threatens to move Charlie elsewhere if he doesn’t give it a rest. He speaks in front of us all, so we all know we won’t be able to discuss tonight again with each other. We know we’re leaving at four and hopefully it’ll be exactly like our practice run.

  We stay in the gym all morning before I’m taken away by Martha. We go into my room and I’m too distracted to have to deal with her today.

  “So how are you, Zoe?”

  “Fine.”

  “Anything you wish to talk to me about?”

  “Nope,” I speak offhandedly and glance down at my nails to show her just how uninterested I am in having this conversation with her.

  “How are things with you and Charlie?”

  I want to say none of her business, but an idea creeps into my mind. I remember the words she wrote in her personal notes that Rose had been able to access. It sounded like she really had wanted Charlie and me together, like she was using reverse psychology on us by trying to split us up. What does that mean? Why is she eager to have us together? What does that get her?

  “I’m not sure,” I speak honestly, devising an experiment.

  “Is something wrong?” she asks curiously.

  “I think you might have been right. I don’t really want Charlie and since I don’t want to hurt him, I think I’m going to break things off.”

  “Really?” Martha sounds surprised.

  “Yeah, I mean that’s what you want, right?”

  “I want you both to be happy here. I simply don’t know that getting into a relationship right now is wise, especially with Charlie.” I feel her leading me with her words.

  “What do you mean by, especially with Charlie?”

  “Well, he is a great guy, don’t get me wrong, but I have noticed some things about him. He seems rather arrogant and self-centered.”

  “You think?” I bite down on my remark that Charlie is the kindest and most caring person here. I know what she’s trying to do. She wants me to argue, to realize what a catch he is. She really is using reverse psychology on me.

  “Yes, definitely not good enough for you. You’ve been through so much lately, Zoe, growing attachments isn’t wise in your state. You’re clearly still at the beginning stages of dealing with Dana’s death and that process is only going to get harder. Having a relationship with Charlie is a distraction you don’t need.” Martha speaks softly and I notice her watching me carefully.

  I see through her words again. Reminding me how upset and alone I am is probably supposed to make me run back to him.

  “You’re right. He is rather clingy, too. Not a very attractive thing in a man.” I smile at her and watch as her body tenses for just a split second before she smiles back at me.

  “I’m glad we’re seeing eye-to-eye on this.”

  “Me, too.” I try to make myself seem completely at ease. I lean back in my chair and let my arms dangle on either side of me.

  “Right, well, if you wish to speak again, you know where to find me.” Martha stands up quickly and doesn’t wait for me to reply before she leaves my room. I quickly rush to the door to peek out and watch her storming towards the gym entrance. Interesting.

  Noises from the lounge area distract me from following her back and instead, I head towards the sounds. It’s not lunch time yet so everyone should still be in the gym.

  When I round the corner, I see two men over by the TV.

  “Who are you?” I ask. They don’t have weapons on them and while one looks fit the other looks short and scrawny.

  “No one important.”

  “Shh, we’re not supposed to talk to anyone.” The fit guy glares at the scrawny one.

  “What are you doing?” I demand, feeling nervous.

  “We’re installing cam—”

  “Shut up.” The fit one smacks the scrawny one hard at the back of his head and I wince for him.

  “Thanks.” I walk away before I get him into any more trouble.

  I begin to panic as I walk away. They’re installing video cameras, which means when we leave tonight, they’ll be watching us.

  I enter the gym and my eyes go straight to Martha who is talking to Stan heatedly and I have a feeling it might have something to do with our talk. I walk over to the others who are having a drink break and I make a point of putting myself between Will and Rose for Martha’s sake.

  “You guys are not going to believe this. They’re installing cameras in the lounge area so they can keep an eye on us. They’ll be watching our every move.�
� I look at each of them in the eye. We all know what that means.

  Rose narrows her eyes and then pushes past Charlie and Will. She storms over to Martha and Stan.

  “This is outrageous! First you put listening devices in our rooms, which is creepy, now you’re installing cameras in the living areas? What is next? Cameras in our bedrooms so you sickos can get off on us? I demand you get rid of them at once!” Rose waves her arms around angrily.

  “We’re just trying to protect you all. Keeping an eye on you will help us to do that,” Martha speaks calmly.

  “You seem convinced we’re safe here so why the hell do we need them? I don’t want them.”

  “How about you mind your tone with my wife. We are here to protect your lives and all we’ve received in return is lip. You seem to think you’re being so mistreated here, I can show you mistreated if you’d like,” Stan snaps at Rose. Martha quickly puts her hand over his arm and Will and Charlie move over to Rose instantly. It’s like within a few seconds the temperature in the room drops about twenty degrees.

  “Yes, we have cameras going up. Yes, there will be one single one placed in your rooms. And yes, you will suck it up and get over it. You are here to do a job and I’m sick of you whining. If you don’t shut up about it, I’ll shut you up.” Stan speaks carefully as though trying to control his voice. The effect it has is chilling.

  “Okay, everyone just take a step back. How about you guys go and have some lunch.” Martha pulls on Stan’s arm and he quickly turns away from us, leaving through the side door with Martha trails behind.

  “What the hell.” Rose looks shaken. I would be, too, if I had a front seat to Stan’s lecture.

  “Come on, let’s go eat.” Charlie leads the way back out the door and down the corridor to our rooms. The guys are finishing setting up the cameras out in the lounge and I’m scared to say I can’t even notice where they’ve put them. I pull on Rose’s arm to stop her moving.

  “If they’re setting up cameras in our rooms, we won’t be able to pack anything tonight. We have to do it now before the cameras are up and running, so tonight we can just grab our things and go.”