GLASS: A Standalone Novel

by Arianne Richmonde

  “Thank fuck,” she replied, moving towards us. Elodie looked like a cat burglar. Not that I’d ever met one in the flesh. Even though I recognized her voice, I was spooked by her. Dressed all in black, her face covered by a mask.

  “Who the hell—” Remy began.

  “It’s okay,” I broke in, gripping his arm with my clawed hand. I hadn’t realized how tense I’d been. “She’s a friend.”

  “With a fucking gun? I’m outta here!”

  But Elodie was right before us now. “You’re not going anywhere, Remy Foxton.” She pointed a pistol at his chest.

  “How the fuck d’you know my name?” he gasped, his hands in the air. I wanted to know the exact same thing. How did she even know where we were? With my cell phone battery dead?

  She grabbed me by the wrist. “Turn around, Remy. Hurry up, you guys, we need to set these poor, suffering animals free.”

  That was all very well and good, but right now Daniel was my number one priority.

  As if reading my mind, Elodie said, “Daniel’s fine, by the way. We can deal with him next. And sorry about the fuck up with my bodyguard Paul not getting to you soon—.”

  I cut her short. “You know where Daniel is?”

  Out of the shadows four figures dressed in black—also in ski masks, and holding powerful flashlights and huge bolt cutters—shot into my vision. I jumped back. One of them muttered something to Elodie in French. Three of them looked like men: chunky, muscular. Another was slight, could have been a woman. More hushed words were spoken in French. I only understood the odd phrase.

  “Dépêchez-vous.” ‘Hurry up,’ the thin figure said. I was right, the voice told me she was a woman.

  Elodie pushed Remy in front of her, the pistol wedged in the small of his back. I couldn’t believe she was doing this. The niece of the respected Alexandre Chevalier behaving this way? Was she covert? Was she working for the FBI or something? I doubted it. Vivisection wasn’t illegal. Setting lab animals free was.

  “Move,” she instructed Remy. “And don’t try anything crazy.”

  “It’s okay,” I said, coming to his defense, “he’s cool.”

  “Nobody who works for that bitch is cool,” she snapped. “There’s an alarm, which we need to disable. Just . . . let’s keep in a tight group while the team work their magic.”

  “Who are these guys?” I said, under my breath. I was terrified of the real Vegas police busting in on us. Any second now. I wouldn’t be much use to Daniel if I was arrested and locked up in jail.

  “French Foreign Legion. Friends of my uncle’s. Don’t worry, we’ll be out of here soon.”

  I had visions of wild primates roaming the streets of Las Vegas. Setting lab animals free, willy-nilly, when many of them had never known freedom, was not the brightest idea. They’d get run over by cars and could be a danger to the general public. Chimpanzees could be extremely aggressive and dangerous when frightened.

  “Take your gun out of my back,” Remy said between gritted teeth. “I’m on your fucking side! I’m working for Janie now. Tell her, Janie. Tell her that you’re my new, temporary boss.”

  “It’s true, Elodie. I’m giving him twenty thousand dollars because he let me go.”

  “Well that was a waste,” she said with a snicker. “I was seconds away from picking that lock to free you, myself.”

  “Don’t worry,” I assured Remy, “I’ll still pay you what we agreed. I’m good for the money.”

  We waited while the team in black set to work on disabling the alarm system and slipped an electronic card into the lock of a huge metal door. The animals were now hysterical. I was afraid the whole world could hear.

  “Ere, take zeez,” one of the men said to me above the deafening noise. He hurled a pair of thick leather gloves at me, and a couple of black, nylon masks. “And you, too” he instructed Remy, throwing another pair his way. “You need to protect your ’ands. Zey’ll bite and scratch, zeez chimps are fucking strong.”

  “A shipment of them came in a few days ago,” Elodie said. “There should be twenty-six in all.”

  “Came in from where?” Remy asked, putting on his mask, and then gloves, which reached half way up to his elbows.

  “From the animal sanctuary, the one Natasha Jürgen’s foundation was funding. Dr. Jürgen’s been using them for experiments and breeding. Trying to find a cure for Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases. Can you believe she actually gets a government grant for this shit?”

  I could feel the pulse pounding in my temples.

  “Every year in the U.S., and in France, and fucking everywhere,” Elodie continued, looking at Remy, “millions of animals are used in biomedical experimentation and product testing. Experimental drugs are pumped into the poor creature’s stomachs—even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports that animal tests have a 92 percent failure rate in predicting the safety and effectiveness of pharmaceuticals. It’s sick! Especially nowadays when you’ve got stem cell research and there’s so much advanced technology. Toxicity tests using human cell cultures are two to three times more accurate than tests on animals.”

  “I hear ya, you’re preaching to the converted,” Remy agreed.

  Elodie lowered her gun. “So you are on our side?”

  “Paul McCartney is my grandmother’s hero.”

  Elodie gave him a high five. She turned to me. “Get your mask on Janie, and your gloves. You’ll need them.”

  I was horrified at what was before my eyes: several chimpanzees had shaven heads, with metal electrodes attached to them like helmets. It looked like they’d had holes drilled into their skulls, with these metal restraint devices screwed in, and electrodes actually inserted into their brains.

  I couldn’t bear to look so I closed my eyes, but the image was imprinted in my brain. It was the most horrendous thing I’d ever seen.

  “Don’t worry, the electricity’s been cut—reason why we got flashlights. We can snip the wires connected to their heads without harming them,” the woman said in a thick French accent, amidst the noise. “The vets will take this shit off them later, after they’ve been sedated. The papers will call what we’re doing ‘an act of terrorism,’—but this is fucking terrorism.”

  My gaze roamed the room; there was what looked like a monkey fetus in a jar labeled “liquid nitrogen.” I glanced at a set of study notes pinned to a corkboard. My eyes scanned quickly:

  Cerebral Concussion and Traumatic Unconsciousness Correlation of Experimental and Clinical Observations on Blunt Head Injuries:

  Single unit activity in the frontal eye field was investigated in unanesthetized chimps during eye and head movement. Two types of cells (I and II) were found.

  I could feel bile creeping up my throat, and I swallowed it back down. My knees felt like water. What kind of monsters test on unanesthetized animals? Monsters like Kristin Jürgen, all in the name of science. Sadly, she wasn’t the only one who thought this ethical, obviously. These notes, all typed up officially, were proof that others found this perfectly acceptable.

  The next half hour was a fever of activity, flashing past me in a surreal dream. Or better said, “nightmare.” At the same time as all this horror, I prayed that Daniel was okay. If this woman was capable of this, she’d be capable of anything.

  I followed orders as we made a human chain from the lab to an open back door, where a truck was waiting. The team freed the cages from their positions in the lab, the screaming chimps inside, rattling on the bars, thumping their chests, terrified. Or maybe they were excited and knew we were here to help them. It broke my heart to see the condition they were in. It was pandemonium. The sound was unimaginable, screeching ringing in our ears. As well as the chimps, there were five Beagles. I wondered why I hadn’t heard them barking. And three cats, also with electrodes screwed into their heads.

  “They’ve had their voice boxes removed,” Elodie explained, “so nobody can hear them howl and scream in pain.”

  Looking out the back
door, I saw that the lab building was isolated, far from the city. It was pitch dark, no lights, and I couldn’t see any other buildings nearby. No wonder they chose a place far away—people would be horrified if they knew what was going on here.

  “Where are they all being taken?” I asked.

  “To a private sanctuary in Utah. My mom’s, actually,” Elodie said, nodding at the other woman. “Well, she set it up.”

  “Your mom?”

  “That’s her,” she told me, pointing to the slim figure, who was shouting orders at everyone in French.

  I’d heard about Sophie Dumas. Alexandre Chevalier’s sister, co-CEO of Hooked Up, the multi-billion dollar social media company, bigger than Twitter and Facebook combined. I couldn’t believe she was involved in this. She was risking her career, risking her reputation. Any moment now a SWAT team could come crashing in on us with high precision rifles. My heart was pounding so hard I thought I’d end up suffering a coronary attack. All I wanted was for this to be over with so we could get to Daniel. The idea of us all being arrested before we had a chance to find him was terrifying, consuming my every thought.

  But in no time all the animals were loaded, cages and all, and the truck was on its way with the team inside, minus Elodie, Remy, Sophie, and me.

  “Let’s get the fuck out of this hell hole,” Sophie hissed. “Follow me.”

  We bundled into a waiting SUV. I was glad to see, even in the dark, it had tinted windows. I heaved a sigh of relief as we screeched away, leaving the lab behind, hopefully never to return.

  “How did you find me?” I asked Elodie, when we were at a safe distance from the lab. I looked at my hands, still in their gloves. I was trembling like crazy. The screaming chimps’ faces were engraved on my mind.

  “My hacker.”

  Sophie chuckled. She was in the front seat, next to the driver. She took off her mask, shook out her mane of thick dark hair. She was a very beautiful woman. Fine featured, with feline-shaped eyes. “Why don’t you just come clean, Elodie, chérie? You should be proud of your skills.” She turned to me, “Takes after my brother (‘bruzzer’ her French accent said)—very smart with computers.” (Smart wiz computers.)

  Elodie shrugged her shoulders. “Okay, I admit, I hack too. I have a small team—we work together. We don’t do bad stuff, you know, we only use it for the general good.”

  Sophie laughed again. “Especially when the general good is to our advantage.”

  “But my cell phone battery died,” I said, confused. “How did you know where I was?”

  Elodie pulled off her mask and ruffled out her long brown hair. She didn’t look like her mother at all, but she was equally lovely. Her oval shaped face delicate. She didn’t appear like a typical “bad” girl, but quite the sweet ingénue. Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. The last person in the world you’d imagine a hacker to be.

  “I picked up the place where your cell’s last signal was sent out and located you. Luckily, there are CCT cameras all over Vegas. Found the car on camera and tracked you down. Meanwhile, discovered all sorts of shit out about Kristin Jürgen and her evil practices. Good thing I picked up Pearl’s phone the other day, eh? Thanks to you, Janie, we freed these animals.”

  My mind was still reeling. “What about Daniel?”

  “He’s stable. That’s where we’re going now.”

  Stable. I closed my eyes, silently thanking God that he was still alive.

  Sophie chimed in, “Kristin Jürgen will be meeting us there.”

  “What?” I said, alarmed.

  “If what you told Elodie was true, that she’s the one who induced his coma—then she’ll need to reverse it. She has his medical details on file, too—can’t be too careful. If this isn’t handled with care, he could wind up dead. Plus, I want to see that bitch, face to face.”

  Adrenalin cursed through my veins. It was true, Daniel’s life was at stake. Freeing him would be no joke. We’d need specialists there, and nurses. There was no way I’d trust Kristin Jürgen. “But she’ll never agree to helping us,” I protested.

  “Yes, she will,” Sophie assured me. “You watch. She’ll be taken by surprise.”

  What lay ahead terrified me. Elodie and her mother were outlaws! I admired them for their convictions, their courage, but now I was involved in . . . in . . . I couldn’t even find the right word for it . . . the whole thing was madness. But I didn’t have a better alternative. No Plan B.

  I was completely out of my league.

  “We need the law on our side,” I suggested, “if we have any chance of rescuing Daniel. Neurology specialists, too.”

  Sophie glanced over her shoulder at me and shot me an irritated look. “You think I hadn’t thought of that? Relax, Janie,” she said, her voice calm. “I have means. I have a fuck-off team of professionals, don’t you worry.”

  I’d heard that expression, “fuck-off” as an adjective. A British-ism. It meant incredible, unparalleled.

  “By the way, Kristin’s ‘marriage’ is total bullshit,” Elodie chipped in. “No record whatsoever of a union with Daniel. She has no legal right to call the shots as to what happens to him. Wishful thinking on her part, I guess, so she’d have control of him and his fortune. Maybe that had been her plan: to fake a marriage. Anyway, we didn’t find anything.”

  “But Ethan, the concierge at Daniel’s hotel, told me he’d been a witness,” I told her, remembering what Ethan said about Daniel being drunk, and how they’d all come back to his hotel to celebrate.

  “Yeah, he’s on her payroll, Janie, bet he told you all sorts of bullshit just to scare you off, get you out of her hair.”

  I felt flooded with relief, but seconds later, anguish settled in my gut again. How would we pull this rescue off? Anything could go wrong. Everything could go wrong. I was with a team of irreverent, law-breaking French people, who did things their own way. I wondered if Pearl had any idea what her sister-in-law and niece were up to. Or Alexandre, for that matter.

  “What’s the plan?” I ventured. I didn’t want to sound ungrateful, but my confidence was waning.

  “Maman has an attorney friend who owes her a big favor,” Elodie said. “US government level. Also a neurosurgeon and a neurologist whose credentials make Kristin Jürgen look like an amateur. They’re part of our plan, don’t stress it.” She whispered in my ear, “I don’t think you understand quite how powerful my mother is. The contacts she has.”

  My fears were alleviated. Somewhat. “Why are you helping me like this?” I asked under my breath. “And Daniel? You don’t even know us.”

  “Maman wants that bitch to go under, for personal reasons, not just on behalf of the animals.”

  The car raced along, swerving around potholes. We were getting nearer to the city.

  Sophie turned around and glared at us. “My ears are burning, are you talking about me?” I could feel myself flush. Then she smiled. “Talk away, I’m going to put some music on.” She chose a classical piece . . .very strident and dramatic, which fit the occasion perfectly. I recognized it as one of Wagner’s symphonies, but not sure which. It reverberated through the car as we shot through the dark night.

  I finally took off my protective gloves. My hands were no longer shaking like they were about to fall off. I held Elodie by the forearm to catch her attention. “What ‘personal reasons?’ ” I murmured.

  “Sophie’s wife—you may have heard of her—the actress Alessandra Demarr?”

  I nodded. She was a major movie star and had been in the Stone Trooper films that Hooked Up Enterprises had produced, with that grease-ball Samuel Myers. A huge commercial success that had earned them millions. I knew that Alessandra Demarr was gay and was dating Sophie Dumas, but I had no idea that they were actually married.

  “Anyway,” Elodie continued, “Alessandra used to be great friends with Natasha Jürgen. They did a couple of movies together. She adored Natasha. Alessandra knows for a fact that the sisters never got on. Natasha hated her sibling, yet P.S.,
Kristin inherited Natasha’s fortune. Alessandra thinks something fishy went down. Definitely. But she hasn’t been able to prove it. You calling Pearl’s cell phone was lucky . . . really lucky I picked up. It led us to her. Alessandra and Sophie knew about the chimpanzee sanctuary—that it had supposedly been left to Kristin—and Alessandra was convinced she was up to no good.”

  “How did you get the rescue organized so quickly? The French Foreign Legion team?”

  Elodie whispered in my ear again. “When you’re as loaded as my mother, and as crazy as she is, mountains get moved, believe me. She could move Everest if she put her mind to it. Plus, my uncle got on the case; he organized the men.”

  So this was considered an emergency and worthy of interrupting his vacation. I only hoped that Daniel’s wellbeing would also be deemed as important. I lowered my voice so only Elodie could hear. “But your mom didn’t have to be personally involved tonight. She could have just paid others to do the dirty work for her.”

  “Saving these animals is not dirty work, Janie. This is a cause my family strongly believes in.”

  I felt ashamed of what I’d just said. “No, of course not. I get it. She wanted to be hands on.”

  The Wagner was drowning out our hushed conversation. “My mom,” Elodie went on, “has lived on the edge her whole life. She doesn’t do ‘safe.’ She likes breaking the law and playing hardball with criminals, politicians, and God knows who else. That’s who she is. My uncle isn’t much better. If Pearl knew half the shit he gets up to . . . well, let’s just say he and my mom are crazy mavericks . . . birds of a feather.” She bit her lip as if she’d already said too much. Perhaps what had happened tonight was making her more open with me than she would have normally been. After all, I was a stranger to her. How could she know to trust me?

  I mulled over what Elodie said before. “You think Kristin forged Natasha’s will, or something?”

  “Believe me, Maman’s got a bunch of heavy attorneys on the case. Handwriting forgery experts too. In the past, Kristin Jürgen was Alessandra’s bone of contention, but because of the vivisection thing, my mom is now out for her blood too. Whatever Kristin did wrong, Maman will make it her business to find out.”