by Gini Koch
“Right. So, where to next?”
“Next door, so to speak, seems the most prudent.”
We were about to head for the building that was east of this one when Lizzie jerked. “Hey, has anyone checked to see if the car that brought us is still here?”
CHAPTER 58
WHITE AND I looked at each other. “I doubt it,” White said.
“Adriana’s team is doing the same thing we are, searching, so probably not.”
“With all haste, then,” White said, as we headed down what claimed to be 2nd Street, at least per a very old, very bent street sign. This street was as badly maintained as the one we’d driven on when we’d arrived.
Reached the curved driveway to discover that, yes, the car was still here. Lizzie took the opportunity to retrieve her cell phone and turn it on. Like me, she had no bars, no service, and an attempted text to me was not received.
“We need to find the Kendroid, don’t we? I mean in addition to all our missing people, Poofs, and Peregrines.”
With the main building to our left, there were three buildings on this street, and we were in front of two of them. The one that was farther away down the street to our left was quite large, and there were two matching buildings that were, for this complex, smaller. We headed for the rightmost of these, since we were practically in front of it.
White nodded. “We have no idea how to get into the helicarrier, let alone fly it. He could be inside it for all we know.”
“It’s not firing at us, and I’m sure we’d know if it had or was taking off, so my money’s on no. However, I don’t see any scorching on the ground, so who knows?”
“Perhaps it’s a Vatusus specialty.”
“We can but hope.” We reached the rightmost building. Another three-story brick monstrosity. Could not wait to see how many pairs of shoes were on display here.
As with the other building, we ignored the No Trespassing sign and zipped through. Unlike the other one, there was no basement here. There was also nothing that indicated that anyone was hanging out here for any length of time. Severely lacking in anything resembling our hostages, Peregrines, the Kendroid, or Stephanie’s actual Evil Villain Lair.
Still, we checked every room on all three floors. Other than feeling like I’d never want to go out in the dark by myself ever again, there was nothing of note unless you counted the many shoes that were in rather neat piles here, all things considered. Decided I didn’t want to note them and moved on.
Out of this one and onto its twin, as “Slaughter House” by Front Line Assembly appropriately provided my soundtrack. This building was the same—debris, shoes, dirt, graffiti, broken windows, creep factor up to eleven—only it was clear that people had been living here.
Well, “people” was too strong a term. There were several rooms on the top floor that appeared to be lived in, to use the term loosely. But they were slightly less filthy, dusty, and decrepit. “I think we’ve found the Finished Androids Bunkhouse.”
“There’s only eleven rooms that look sort of lived in,” Lizzie pointed out. “Where was TK sleeping?”
Had some suspicions, but kept them to myself for right now. “No idea. Presume we’ll find out.” My music changed to “Bright Lights” by Matchbox Twenty. Checked the BT. It was the same yellow-green as when we’d gotten here. Dropped it back into my purse.
Out again and down a wide path at the other side of these buildings that led us to the bigger building off this street. This brick building was shaped like a cross, with four wings of equal length spreading out from the center. It also had three arches and kind of looked interesting, at least as compared to the other buildings we’d seen so far.
We discovered this was the cafeteria. Considering how gigantic this place was, that the cafeteria building was huge wasn’t all that shocking.
As with the others, it was murky, creepy, and had shoes scattered all over. Unlike the others, this place looked like there had been a riot inside before it had been abandoned. However, by comparison to everything else we’d seen, it was kind of innocuous. It also didn’t look like it possessed a lot of hiding places.
My music changed to “Look Around” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Clearly Algar felt that I was being too quick to judge.
There was nothing of interest on the main floor, but there were stairs going up and down. We went up first this time, because the building didn’t look like it had two stories from outside.
Turned out that it had a weird attic where they stored nonperishables. And naturally it was someplace where not even Lizzie could stand upright.
“Do we need to go in there?” Lizzie asked.
Realized that “Look Around” was on repeat. “Yeah, unfortunately, I think we do.”
There was a clear path between all the expired foodstuffs and, go figure, we could easily walk side-by-side, but we had to walk like we were pretending to be furry apes. So we had both uncomfortable and unsafe going for us.
“Do you hear something?” Lizzie whispered as we crept in at human regular, because White wasn’t confident that the floor was going to hold and we didn’t want to slam our heads onto something.
“Sort of a . . . scrabbling?” Made sure to keep the flashlight aimed firmly in the middle of the path.
“Yeah.” She sounded as nervous as I felt.
White cleared his throat. “If anyone’s here, please speak out or make some noise,” he called, definitely projecting his voice. “Other than scrabbling.”
There were some thumps. And also some scrabbling. Thought about where we were and how long this place had been abandoned.
“There are rats or woodland creatures or both nesting here, aren’t there, Mister White?”
“Oh, possibly.”
“You saw some, I know it, don’t even try to lie.”
“Fine, yes. However, the thumping is continuing, and I don’t believe that rats or woodland creatures are quite advanced enough to be making that noise in response to my request.”
“Ghosts would be,” Lizzie pointed out.
“But we don’t believe in ghosts,” White said, as we walked very carefully toward the thumping, which was coming from the farthest end of the attic from where the stairs were because the cosmos just wouldn’t have it any other way in my experience.
We reached an intersection where we could go right, left, or straight when the thumping stopped, because naturally. It was a shorter walk to the end going straight, so that’s what we did. We went as far as we could to find another door.
“Oh, goody. Who gets to do the honors?”
“I will again, Missus Martini. Please try to only scream if flight is necessary.”
“Oh, roger that and I’ll do my best and all that jazz.” Considered our situation and that I wasn’t the only one ready to scream. “Quick Girl, that goes for you, too.”
“Check.” Lizzie sounded a little better, so congratulated myself as I ensured that I had a firm grip on the flashlight and Lizzie both.
“Go for it, Mister White.”
He pulled at the door—it appeared to be locked, but after some serious straining the door sort of burst open. And I managed not to scream. But only just.
CHAPTER 59
“JERRY!”
Jerry was tied up and gagged and lying on the floor. But the room was so small that even though he, like the rest of the flyboys, wasn’t tall, his shoulders and head were against the wall. He was positioned in such a way within this room that moving would be close to impossible. He’d done the only thing he could—lifted his legs and banged his heels on the floor—to make the noise we’d heard.
Dropped Lizzie’s hand, shoved the flashlight at White, and ran into the room as fast as someone walking hunched over could. I pulled the gag out of his mouth and helped him move into a normal sitting position.
Jerry worked to talk
and I realized his mouth was too dry to speak. Looked into my purse. The BT was flashing green. Nice to know it worked. “Hang on, let me see if I have any water in here.” My hand hit something that sure felt like a water bottle. Pulled out a bottle of Dasani, got it opened, and got some into Jerry’s mouth.
He swallowed, nodded, I gave him another drink, he swallowed that, then he heaved a sigh. “It’s really good to see you, Commander.”
The flyboys still called me Commander in part because they knew I missed that job so much and also in part because they still considered themselves my team, even though they were loyal to and loved Tim just like I did. They also called me Commander when we were in active or danger situations, and this was both.
“Let’s get you untied.”
Lizzie was on the walkie-talkie while White and I got Jerry untied, which only happened because I audibly searched for my Swiss Army knife in my purse and Algar again delivered. “We’ve found someone Kitty called Jerry, over.”
The walkie crackled. “Excellent,” Adriana replied. “We have six P.T.C.U. here, over.”
“We still have totes more places to look, over.”
“Us too. All prisoners are suffering from exposure and dehydration, over.”
“Totes same here, over.”
“Still no phone coverage, over.”
Looked at my phone and shook my head. “We don’t have any either, over,” Lizzie shared.
“Continue looking, we’ll determine what to do once we have everyone found. Out.”
“How long since anyone gave you water or fed you?” I asked.
“Days,” Jerry said. “When Drax had us we were fine. I mean we were prisoners and pissed as hell, but we weren’t mistreated. In fact, we were treated really well. But he kept us captive in the helicarrier, and when that got taken we were turned into real prisoners.” His eyes flashed. “Thomas Kendrick—”
“Isn’t the guy who took you guys. It’s an android version. There were a dozen of him, and twenty more, but we’ve destroyed all of them. Well, other than the one that took you guys.”
“Let’s get you out of here,” White said, helping Jerry up as much as we could under the low roof circumstances. “We can discuss things outside.”
Realized that the Chili Peppers were still on repeat. “I think we need to check down the other paths here.”
Jerry nodded. “They split us up so no one could work together.”
“Listen,” Lizzie said. “Do you hear more thumping? It’s really faint, but I think I hear it.”
“Yeah, I do.” We were back at the intersection. Pulled the BT out of my purse. It was still bright green. Of course, Jerry was with us. Realized that Kendrick wasn’t wrong—this thing still needed refinements. Dropped it back into my purse. “Let’s go right first. Jerry you want to wait here or come with us?”
“I’m sticking with you, Commander.”
“Can’t blame you.” We hunched our way down this way and came to another door. White had Lizzie help keep Jerry upright, then he pulled the door open.
“Chip!” Walker was in there, in the same trapped position that Jerry had been in. Whoever had put them in here had been both methodical and very clear about what to do to keep them basically immobile without actually harming them.
We raced in and did the same thing—I got the gag out of his mouth, gave him a couple sips of water, then White and I got him untied.
“Commander, it was Thomas—”
“No, it was his android. Long story, will catch you up when we’ve found everyone.”
Walker managed a weak grin. “Gotcha.”
Lizzie kept Jerry and White took Walker. The flashlight and I led the Hunchback Way and headed for the other side of this path. Did my best to ignore the scrabbling—getting the flyboys and the others was worth wading through God alone knew what and being watched by rats and/or worse.
Last door, and this time I held Walker while White pulled the door open. “Matt!” Hughes was in the same position the other two had been, not that this was a surprise by now.
White took Walker so I could go in first and get Hughes ungagged and give him water. Had to untie Hughes on my own, but was getting good at it by now.
“Commander, Kendrick is—”
“At the White House with Jeff. He’s not who took you, his android did and he wasn’t aware that he had one.”
“Why isn’t Jeff with you?” Hughes asked, sounding worried.
“Long story. Which we’ll go over once we’re out of here. Are the three of you injured in any way?”
They all shook their heads. “Just our pride,” Jerry said.
“Yeah, we all feel that, trust me. Okay, let’s get going.”
Helped Hughes up and we made what now felt like a long, hunched trek to the stairs. Getting the flyboys down was a little dicey, but they hadn’t really been roughed up, just tied up, so while they were having some difficulties, they didn’t seem injured.
Standing upright felt awesome, but we needed to get them out of here and into fresh air. Which we did, and at a faster speed since we could walk like humans now.
Once outside, we got them to a reasonably uncluttered spot and got them sitting down normally. Well, after White and I both hugged each of them tightly. The flyboys were wincing against the sunlight. My rage was building again, which was good, since we still had a long way to go to find everyone else.
“Guys, did you happen to see Camilla, Rahmi, or Rhee at all since you’ve been captured?”
They nodded. “Camilla found us at Drax’s,” Jerry said. “She didn’t think we were in danger and she was gathering intel, so she and the princesses were staying on the helicarrier with us, only they were hidden. She was working for Drax already, apparently, but she didn’t let him know she was there.”
“Yeah, she’s our Cinderella Undercover.” Sadly, Algar didn’t give me a tune change.
“Everyone was okay with that,” Walker said. “At that point, we just figured that we’d all get whatever information we could and report back if we were traded for other prisoners.”
“Or we’d just take the helicarrier when Camilla gave the okay,” Hughes added. “But when the android of Kendrick took us, he found them. I don’t know what happened to them after that, but I know they were captured, too.”
My stomach clenched. “Do you know if they’re hurt or . . . worse?”
“I think they’re still alive,” Walker said. “No idea if they’re in bad shape or not, though. But I don’t think they were able to put up a fight.”
“There was some sort of stasis thing I guess Drax had created,” Hughes said. “I think it was like what was used on us when we were captured by the Rapacians, only more sophisticated.”
“I’m officially sick and tired of being captured, by the way,” Jerry added.
“I’m sure the others agree.” Wanted to ask Lizzie to contact Adriana but “Look Around” was still on repeat. “Mister White, we need to go back in there and search the lower floor.”
“We can’t leave these guys here alone,” Lizzie said.
“Good point. Guys this is Lizzie, aka Quick Girl. She’s Siler’s adopted daughter. Lizzie, Jerry Tucker, Matt Hughes, and Chip Walker. They’re Navy pilots assigned to Airborne for Centaurion Division, so they report to Tim, who I’d love to be able to reach, but we still have no cellular service around here.”
“I think the helicarrier does,” Jerry said.
“And if we could figure out how to get into it, that might be viable. I can see the suggestions and questions forming, please save them. I think everyone who was taken will have the same questions, and I’d just love to tell you all the answers at one time, versus over and over again. Plus, I want to find everyone or confirm that we can’t find them before we worry about the helicarrier. Just know that Lizzie’s fourteen, on our side, quit
e the little butt-kicker, and is on the other side of the walkie from Adriana, Abigail, and Mahin.”
“I could totes catch them up while you two go do your thing.”
“Or there’s also that option. But, Lizzie, remember that they and the others don’t know about anything that’s happened since before we got on the Murder Train, so save the big reveals for me and when we’re all together.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
She shot me a dirty look. “You’re not my mom.”
“Yeah? Just think of your other code name as Robin and take any issues up with Vance.”
With that White and I headed back into the cafeteria.
CHAPTER 60
WE DID ANOTHER fast but more intensive search of the main floor and still found nothing and nowhere someone could be stashed. Then we headed downstairs, with me hoping that the Romanians used the extra-long-lasting batteries in their flashlights.
The lower level didn’t match the upper ones, so there was only one long corridor. Naturally the stairs going down were in the exact middle of this corridor and also of course it was pitch-black, smelled of death and decay and other horrible things, and was the creepiest place we’d visited yet. On the plus side, it was a normal-sized floor, so we could walk upright like we were all evolved and everything. On the not plus side, the BT was back to its yellow-green, meaning it was unlikely the other flyboys were in the building.
“I feel so lucky,” I muttered to White as I played the flashlight around to make sure we weren’t about to walk into the Creepy Bat Cave or the Viper’s Nest. Thankfully, saw no slitheries of any kind, for which I was profoundly grateful.
“Truly.” White had a firm hold on my hand, which was nicer than the death grip I had on his. “I believe I’ll hold off on shouting down here, unless you think it prudent.”
“No, let’s just go to each end and see if there are small rooms or whatever.”
We went at human normal speeds. Slow human normal. Not to extend our stay in the lovely Basement of Doom, but because it was so dark that the light from the flashlight just seemed to be swallowed up, and tripping around here was not something either one of us was looking forward to.