Flight Path: A Wright & Tran Novel

by Ian Andrew

  The last man, almost opposite her, seemingly guarding the door through which she had come, was much younger and taller than either of his companions. Kara wondered if he was even out of his teens. He had dark brown hair, skin like milky-coffee and was at least six-foot-four, but thin. Very thin. He was shifting his weight from one foot to the other, unable to remain at peace. He wore trainers, jeans and a T-shirt with a faded picture of Einstein on it. Kara registered it and decided that Albert was a good enough name for now. She realised none of the men had jackets on and that the room was being maintained at a comfortable temperature. She wore a jumper with a T-shirt under it, her jacket still bunched at her wrists, and she was beginning to feel warm despite no visible radiators in the room. Her gaze returned to the floor.

  It was covered in old, cracked, dark-brown linoleum. She looked again at the bare plaster lines on the walls and realised she was in what had been a kitchen. All of the fixtures and fittings had been ripped out but it was unmistakable. Her gaze returned to the middle of the floor, where the only discernible anomaly was located. As she half-tilted her head, trying to figure out what she was looking at, there was a knock at the door opposite. Albert jumped a little then stood aside, swinging the door open. Tien was frogmarched in by the man who had punched Kara at the harbour. He was aged somewhere between Albert and Buddy, not as tall as Albert and much leaner than Tubbs. His short hair and goatee beard made his face seem longer than it should be and reminded Kara of Van Gogh. Van would do for his name. He almost carried Tien into the room, before turning her and forcing her to sit against the wall, directly opposite Kara. He removed her hood but kept a hold on her right arm.

  The two women made eye-contact and the resolve of both was immediately reinforced, strengthened a hundredfold.

  ‘Well haven’t you made a mistake,’ Kara thought. She blinked and had the same returned from Tien. Their defence would rely on saying nothing of value to these men. Not one word of truthful information that could reveal anything of use. Not one syllable that would give their identities away. It was all they could do. The force of the women’s shared bond, the strength they were enjoying, was practically visible and Kara wondered how the men in the room hadn’t realised they had handed the balance of power to their captives. She moved her eyes to the weight hanging in her friend’s sleeve and looked again at Tien’s face with concern. Tien half closed her eyes and gave a micro movement of her eyebrows. ‘No biggie. I’m fine.’

  Kara’s temper flared and she swore to herself that as soon as she got out of this she would tear these men apart. Clenching her teeth and tensing the muscles in her jaw, she looked around the room, committing the men’s faces to memory, but then she refocussed on the middle of the floor. There were four small hollows cut into the linoleum that revealed bare concrete. The indents were spaced in a loose square about three feet apart. In each, offset to the side, was a metal ring half submerged into the concrete. Set in the middle of the square was a narrow-grated drain cover. She was still trying to figure out what it was for when a fifth man walked in.

  He wore black shoes, jeans and a red polo shirt. He was trim, Kara estimated just short of six foot, dark hair, neatly cut about a face that was typical of someone who was probably in their mid-forties, except for the dark black of a web-shaped tattoo that covered his throat. Inked exactly on his Adam’s apple was the engorged body of a black widow spider.

  “Hello, Liz. My name is Rik. I believe we have some mutual acquaintances?”

  Chapter 13

  Rik walked through the middle of the room, his hands tucked into his jeans pockets. When he got to the couch he surveyed the space like some old-world monarch before sitting down. Tubbs stood beside him, as if he was Rik’s bodyguard. Kara thought, ‘My dear, dear Tubbs, you wouldn’t last two minutes with some of the people I know who really do that as a job.’

  “So Liz,” Rik said in his lisp of a Dutch accent, “I want to know who are you and why you want to do the renting of my boat in the cold weather.”

  Kara looked down at the floor and mumbled, “We’re just tourists, honestly, we just wa-” She was cut off by another kick from Buddy.

  “Now that’s not true Liz,” Rik continued. “I want to know where you live in Eng-a-land. I want to know why a friend of mine has not contacted me, as he should have. I would like you to tell me these things.”

  Kara maintained her downward stare, “I don’t understand who yo-” Another kick stopped her again.

  Rik leant forward, his elbows on his knees, “Be quiet now Liz. For you see, I was just going to ask you, but then I saw you and your friends in your apartment and I decide it would be more fun to have you visit my house. I want to be polite and have a small… talk? This is not the right word. A small… chit? No matter.”

  Kara looked up from under her brows and saw Tien had adopted a similar, head-down stare. She thought that these men had no idea who they were dealing with.

  “But then I think, the first time my friends in this town see you, you had two men with you. Now these men are not with you. They have gone. So I wondered what they are doing. I wondered if maybe you were watching me. So I set a trap. It seems I am right.”

  Kara silently swore again for being so sloppy.

  “You were caught and I decide to have my friends bring you here. I think we will be able to sort this out with a talk but then I leave you in separate rooms for nearly one hour and a half. One hour and a half and do you know what I find out?”

  Kara frowned but this time said nothing. She wasn’t sure where Rik was taking the one-sided conversation.

  “No? No you do not know and this time you choose not to lie. Yes, that will be it. You choose this time to be quiet and that is the funniest thing. These two women, who I leave alone in big rooms and neither one of them screams or cries or shouts out. Not one word or, how do you say… peep? Not one peep. Like they have been trained not to react. Like they are professionals. Like they are not tourists. Your silence and your discipline show me that you are not usual. Your silence is what has given you away.”

  Kara couldn’t help her eyes half-shutting as she processed Rik’s words. She and Tien had stuck to what they knew. They had not veered from how they had been trained. But Rik was right, that wasn’t what a normal tourist would have done. She felt sick. Her professionalism had betrayed her. She knew that whatever she and Tien might appear as, normal tourist wasn’t it.

  Rik continued, “You just sit in the rooms calmly. Then we bring you in here and you sit calmly. Then we reunite you and you do not call out with joy. You do not call each other’s names, you do not make effort to hug, you do not cry with relief. Oh no Liz, tourists you are not. I will tell you what you are. You are professionals. That tells me you know what we do. That tells me you are dangerous to me and my friends.”

  Kara raised her head and looked across the room. Tien too had lifted her gaze. The two women communicated silently and each knew they had made a mistake. A major mistake.

  “So then I think, what type of professionals are these women? But you do not have any identification. Even your phones are blank.” Rik stood and reached into his pockets, withdrawing both Tien and Kara’s phones. He retook his seat and looked down at the slim black devices. “No names, no, how you say? Contacts? None of these. Just other numbers. This is not usual I think. This is not two tourist women, but also not two police women, I think.” He took each phone and flicked them the length of the room. Both smashed against the wall just under the mirror. The cases distorting, bending, the glass screens shattering into a haze of splinters. Despite their training and resolve, Kara and Tien both flinched.

  Rik waited for the echo of the impacts to dissipate. “Now you see don’t you?” he asked. “Now you see why I think you are unusual. So now you will see that I must find out some things. I must know where Francis Amberley is. He has not sent me another text, like he is meant to after his first.”

  Kara shut her eyes fully. Nobody had contacted Amberley becau
se Rik and Amberley had a protocol that needed a second text from the originator. Kara felt a tightness in her stomach. Whatever she and Tien had wandered into was a lot more organised than they had thought. She realised her earlier assessment, that the men had no clue who they were dealing with, was truer for her. She had no idea who these guys were.

  “I want to know if you are the woman he spoke about. I want to know if you are the one who talks about insurance money. I want to know why you want to hire my boat. Last, I want to know why you are asking about Derek Swift.”

  Kara went to answer with more of the tourist cover story but stopped. She needed a new tactic and for now she was a blank. She dropped her gaze again and although still furious at herself, she managed to consider that, through his questions, Rik was also giving a lot away. But on balance, the fact none of the men had bothered to cover their faces and the fact he had just mentioned Swift by name, were not encouraging signs.

  “So, I shall ask you Liz,” he paused and Kara’s hair was grabbed by Buddy. Her head was wrenched up to look at Rik. “I want to know, is this your real name? Are you called Liz?”

  Kara clenched her teeth against the pain of her hair and through them managed, “My name is Liz. Elizabeth, please that’s the truth. Please.”

  Rik held her gaze and then with a dismissive shake of his head said, “Let her go.”

  Buddy released her and Kara dropped her head back down, but not as fully as before. She kept her eyes on the couch. The room was quiet. Rik laughed, “Even now your training wins out. I ask you a simple question and everyone I know would have said, yes. Or no. But you picked your words so carefully. You think too quickly for your own good. You think you are tough. We shall see soon enough.”

  Rik gave a small wave of his hand and Tubbs and Albert went out through the door diagonally opposite Kara. They returned a few seconds later, wheeling a wooden framed contraption. It had two end pieces, shaped like upside down Ys, joined in the middle by what looked like the top of a vaulting horse. Its leather surface faded and scratched to a greying brown. Near the base of each leg was a small metal half-ring set into the wood. At the top of each single upright was a strong chain ending in a metal handcuff that rested on the aged leather.

  The wooden frame’s legs fitted into the floor hollows perfectly. Albert and Tubbs flicked the wheels up and used four metal clips to join the semi-circle of metal in each leg to the semi-circles set into the floor. As they secured the clips the frame took on a rigidity that was testament to precise carpentry skills.

  Rik rose from the couch and walked to the box that Kara had thought looked like a canteen of cutlery. He stepped to his right and glanced over his shoulder to check she was watching him. Opening the lid he lifted out a Glock-17 handgun. Buddy stepped across the width of the room and took a second Glock from the box. Both men screwed round-tube suppressors onto the threaded barrels of the pistols. Kara tried to mask her surprise but knew she hadn’t come close. She was familiar with both the gun and its silencer. It was military grade and although the attachment awkwardly doubled the overall length of the pistol, its sound suppression capabilities were astonishing. It reduced the normal noisy report of the Glock to little more than the soft metallic clicks of the working parts as they cycled the next round into the chamber.

  “Now I see you have the startled look on your face. This is the first I have seen you react,” Rik said as he and Buddy cocked the pistols.

  Kara thought it was like a stage being set. These men had done this before. Many times. They moved without the need for commands and each was taking up a designated place. Van stood to the right of the strange wooden frame and Rik handed him the loaded pistol he had prepared. Buddy moved back across the room to stand over Kara, his pistol held by his side. Albert returned to stand in front of the door that led to the hallway while Tubbs moved to stand over Tien. Rik moved back into the middle of the room.

  “I see your eyes now never leave me. You are like a scared pussy cat,” he said. “That is good for I want you to watch. In fact I shall tell you what is going to happen. You will watch everything I do. If you do not keep your eyes open, if you look away, if you look anywhere other than at me, my companion next to you, will shoot you in the foot. After that, if you look away, he will shoot you in the other foot. Then the ankles, then the knees. Then the elbows and the hands. No one will hear for these pistols will be shooting very quiet. Do you understand?”

  Kara stared at him. She didn’t look away. Her mind was racing and she heard the voice of instructors from the many courses she had been on, telling her not to cooperate, not to acquiesce to any requests. But she held his gaze.

  “Still with the no talking. That is fine. Very fine,” Rik said and nodded to Tubbs. The fat man reached with his good hand and grabbed Tien’s hair, lifting her straight up. Kara watched Tien grit her teeth to prevent crying out. Her right hand reached out behind her, finding the wall and steadying herself as she stood. Tubbs unzipped her jacket and Albert wrenched it off her shoulders. The weight of the prosthesis took him by surprise and he reached into the left sleeve, retrieving the high tech arm. He held it up and whistled in appreciation of the construction.

  Kara saw Tien tensing, almost willing the young man to be careful with her arm. But again, no words were spoken. Both women kept silent and watched Albert place the arm delicately on the small shelving unit.

  Tubbs reached into the pocket of his Chinos and withdrew a thin black case. The long stiletto blade of the flick knife sprung out and he reached forward grabbing Tien’s jumper. In a single swipe upwards the woollen garment was sliced into two halves. Tien tried to recoil away from the blade but Albert stepped up and held her tightly.

  “Get the fuck away from her,” Kara yelled and the volume of the outburst surprised all the men in the room, except one.

  Rik laughed, “Ha! Now we have a reaction. Now we have emotion. How sad it is too late. You will tell me everything, but not now. Now you are too late. Now you will watch and after you will tell me. You will tell me all you know just to stop me doing other things. Yes?” He nodded at Tubbs. “Continue.”

  “Don’t you dare fucking touch her you fat bastard. For everything you do to her I’ll carve the soul out of you.” Kara yelled as Tubbs reached for Tien’s T-shirt, reducing it to shreds in a single slash of the knife and leaving only her bra in place.

  Rik said something in Dutch. Buddy placed his pistol on the sideboard behind him and walked forward. He lifted the rag that had been Tien’s T-shirt and held it for Tubbs to slice it into a few pieces. Then he walked back across the room. He knelt beside Kara and grabbed her head, forcing a balled piece of fabric into her mouth before securing it with a gag he made from a longer piece of the materiel. Kara resisted as much as her tied hands and feet would allow but Buddy, despite his modest size, was strong. She continued to swear and yell but her voice was suppressed as effectively as the pistols.

  “You see, now I do not want to hear you. But you will watch,” Rik said.

  Kara looked to Tien, who responded with a weak smile.

  Rik swatted his hand in a gesture to Albert and Tubbs. The fat man reached up and cut the shoulder straps of Tien’s bra, then folded the switchblade away against his thigh and returned it to his pocket. He and Albert moved Tien across to the wooden frame and bent her forward over the aged leather. Tubbs kept hold of the residuum of Tien’s left arm while Albert secured her right into the handcuff on that side. He hauled on the securing chain and Tien’s hand was dragged sideways until tight against the wooden stay. Then he knelt and secured her right leg to the bottom metal clip on that side by a long plastic tie. Reaching over he made to take hold of her left foot but Tien anticipated his movement and kicked backwards. She caught the young man square on the nose. A loud pop, as her heel fractured the cartilage in his nose, was followed by Albert’s high-pitched squeal. He toppled over backwards, blood spurting out from between his fingers. Kara felt a surge of victory at her friend’s defiance, but it w
as short-lived. Rik nodded to Van who thrust the muzzle of the suppressed pistol into the nape of Tien’s neck, forcing her head down against the leather.

  “You do that again and it will be your last act,” Rik growled into Tien’s ear before looking down at Albert and barking something at him in Dutch. The young man picked himself up and moved to the back of the room, grabbing a few of the last shreds of Tien’s T-shirt to hold against his bloodied nose.

  Rik bent and removed Tien’s left boot before straightening up and leaning into her with his body. He waved Van away and ushered Tubbs back far enough so Kara’s view was uninterrupted, then he reached out and unhooked Tien’s bra.

  Kara’s vision was blurred through tears, her screams muffled and choked on the fabric in her mouth. Tien turned her head to the left and looked towards her. The women locked eyes and Kara saw the saddest, most resigned expression on her friend’s face. Tien gave the slightest of shakes of her head.

  Rik reached around and unfastened Tien’s jeans. He pulled them and her underwear down and off her left foot before using another long plastic tie to secure her ankle. Kara saw the plastic cut into her friend’s flesh.

  When he was sure Tien was completely secured, Rik stepped over to Kara. Grabbing her chin he forced her to look up. “I will so enjoy this little gift you have given me. She looks so young, so pretty and yet she is all woman. A perfect present. You will watch what my friends and I do to her. But I have changed my mind. If you look away I will shoot your friend first.” He let her chin go and walked back to the wooden frame. Reaching to his own jeans he unfastened them and positioned the head of his erection against Tien, then looked to the rest of the men in the room.