The Cure

by Freddie Villacci Jr

  “It’s a no-win situation, isn’t it?” Gracie said, sadness washing over her face.

  Quinn smiled big, his eyes delving all over every part of her.

  “What?”

  “Look at it this way, if we go down, red is definitely your color.”

  Gracie looked to Quinn. His glossy blue eyes were still enough to escape from their harsh reality.

  “I almost lost you three times today.” She reached out for his hand.

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Quinn’s eyes told her he wanted more, he wanted every part of her as he slowly leaned in.

  The kiss was deep instantly, with the kind of passion that came from not knowing if you were going to be alive in an hour.

  A hard knock on their cabin door.

  The two untangled.

  Quinn still with his hands gently touching Gracie’s face, “we’re going to make it through this, I promise.”

  88

  Mr. Zhou sat at the circular 12-chair dining room table in a flawless black tuxedo with a very formal shawl collar, a white shirt with a wing collar, and a vest. On the level directly below the main great room, the bottom of the fish tank from the floor above dropped three feet down from the ceiling. With hundreds of crystals at the bed of the tank, light refracted tens of thousands of ways into the dining room, serving as the table’s chandelier. From the ceiling hung a half-dome made of nickel with sculpted patterns, the detail so fine it looked as if Michelangelo had been commissioned for the piece.

  To Zhou’s right, Jaco sat in an oversized sofa chair set against the wall next to a bank of windows. The view was of Navy Pier.

  “You should have your money within the hour,” Zhou said.

  “This is a comfy chair,” said Jaco. “How much is it?”

  “Please do not ruin my dinner with Miss Green,” Zhou said.

  “I’ll do my best, but I’m telling you, I’ll be much nicer as a billionaire.”

  “Ahh, Mr. Ivanov, lots of money doesn’t change anything. It merely magnifies who you already are.”

  Zhou’s deadpan expression turned into a smile as Gracie walked down one of the two double staircases coming down into the room. Her radiant espresso black skin and red dress popped against the room’s neutral colors.

  Mr. Zhou stood. “China is going to fall in love with you.”

  Gracie got to the bottom step, and she allowed a small curve of a smile.

  Mr. Zhou welcomed her as he pulled back the chair next to his. Gracie walked over and sat.

  Quinn was then escorted down the stairs by two men and seated on the opposite side of the table, closest to where the servers were entering into the room.

  Gracie gave Zhou an awkward look as they sat Quinn on the other side of this massive table.

  “It’s best for our dinner conversation,” said Zhou. “We have many things to discuss. Our scientists have reviewed your formulas. They are brilliant.” Zhou paused, and the politeness in his eyes changed to a dark, hardened glare. “But the most important compound is missing.”

  Gracie’s heartbeat quickened as she took a sip of tea. “I know.”

  Zhou pushed a notepad with a pen in front of her. “Would you be so kind?”

  She looked at Quinn and the two men behind him, flanked on each side. She realized what was about to happen.

  She picked up the pen, feeling Zhou’s glare burning into her like sunlight beaming through a powerful magnifying glass. Finally, she wrote.

  Zhou grabbed the notepad and read, “RELEASE QUINN”.

  “I was hoping for a wonderful meal,” Zhou said, pushing the pad back in front of Gracie.

  “Me too.” She pushed the pad back.

  “Let’s not make any decisions on an empty stomach,” Zhou said.

  Gracie nodded. “Thank you for considering.”

  “My pleasure. Let’s eat.”

  The wait staff quickly filled the table with more food than 20 people could have eaten. Gracie recognized some things, but most she wasn’t sure of. But what caught her eye was the man wearing a chef’s hat pushing a stainless-steel table with what she could recognize as some type of bird on a wooden butcher’s block.

  The man stopped to Gracie’s right and stood.

  “Miss Green, our master chef has prepared Běijīng kǎoyā, or Peking duck as Westerners call it. It has been prepared using the guà lú method. In our culture there are recipes dating back to 1330. It is tradition for the chef to carve it in front of the diners.”

  “It looks delicious.” She wasn’t hungry, but still, she was trying to adjust to the new normal for about the tenth time in the last week.

  The chef picked up the knife and, with skill and precision, quickly cut the duck. The duck was served with a sweet and garlicky dipping sauce.

  As they ate, Zhou explained, “There are stages to this meal. While the duck is still warm, the skin’s taste is at its best, but once it cools down, we switch from dipping sauce to making duck rolls.”

  Zhou moved one of the steamed pancakes to his empty plate. He placed a slice of duck and spring onions onto the fluffy cake. With his fork he stabbed a cucumber stick and held it for Gracie to see.

  “The cucumber is usually eaten as a refreshment between duck rolls, but at times I can be a little impatient.” He put the cucumber stick on top of the meat and rolled the pancake. “I like the instantaneous refreshment.”

  The chef cleared the scraps off his butcher block and placed a leather case onto the surface. He opened the case to reveal a vial and a syringe.

  As the chef inserted the needle into the vial, Zhou said, “Have you ever heard of gǔ?”

  Gracie shook her head.

  “It’s an ancient Chinese poison created by enclosing multiple venomous creatures into a box.” The chef loaded the syringe as Zhou continued. “After these creatures devour one another, the one that is left after digesting all the toxins of the other creatures creates a super venom.”

  Mr. Zhou took a bite of duck, chewed his food, wiped his mouth with his napkin before putting it back on his lap. “Of course, this is an old Chinese wives tale. I’m sure Mr. Quinn won’t be affected by the poison, unless the legends are true. Then I’m afraid his internal organs will liquefy while he vomits blood.”

  Gracie snatched the notepad and scribbled something onto it. It wasn’t the real compound, but it was one of the ones she had tried and didn’t work.

  She pushed it back to Zhou.

  He looked at the notepad, “You know what happens if I find out you’re lying.”

  Gracie stared at Zhou.

  Looking into his dark eyes, a thousand scenarios played out, all of them leading to her suddenly jumping out of her chair to stab him in the throat with her knife.

  Which was exactly what she did.

  At a speed faster than she could have imagined, Zhou deflected the knife and had her in his grasp.

  “Your disobedience is unfortunate, Miss Green. How many times must we play out this petty defiance? I offer you the world, and you spit in my face.”

  Gracie turned away. Looking out the row of windows, what she saw on Navy Pier made her eyes widen.

  Bic, walking with Mack on the pier, turned and looked directly into the main deck windows.

  “I want Mr. Quinn alive,” Mr. Zhou said looking out at the armed men approaching his yacht.

  “Allow me,” said Jaco, who walked over and delivered a right cross on the button of Quinn’s chin, knocking him out cold.

  “Back up to the main room,” Zhou instructed, dragging Gracie with him.

  One of the men grabbed Quinn by his foot and dragged him away.

  Gracie was led by force into the main saloon, watching over her shoulder as Quinn’s head bounced as he was dragged. As they entered, the young man with his laptop joined them. From his laptop he hit a button and the chandelier over the round fish tank lowered. The light dropped until it touched the bottom o
f the fish tank. The hacker typed in another command and the beautiful fixture detached itself from the two-by-two-foot square flat piece of shiny metal attached to a single steel cable that came from the ceiling.

  Using a long hook, one of the men fished the cable over to the edge.

  “Get on the platform,” Zhou instructed Gracie.

  Gracie hesitated, looking at the pool of jellyfish she’d be pulled above.

  “Don’t make me ask twice, Miss Green,” Zhou said firmly.

  89

  Bic and Mack had entered through the lower deck of the yacht in the rear. Bic had been surprised that there was no resistance thus far. He knew that meant they were patiently waiting with a plan.

  In the dining room they saw signs of a struggle. Eerily silent, standing under the glass ceiling of a fish tank, shadows that didn’t seem to belong cast down from within the tank.

  “Whatever’s waiting for us is up there,” Mack said, pointing to the double staircase.

  They both were at the bottom of the steps, guns pointed up, ready to fire.

  Mack tracked to the other set of the double staircase. Both men cautiously made their way up the stairs. Sweat clung to their foreheads, knowing at any moment all hell was going to break loose.

  At the upper deck, still with all of his body concealed in the stairwell, Bic peered into the large room from between the glass panel of the railing and the floor. Gracie was suspended 10 feet in midair, standing on a small platform over the fish tank.

  Jaco and another man were sitting on the circular couch. Two other men flanked on each side of the room were on one knee, their semi-automatic rifles pointed directly at Gracie.

  “I am Mr. Zhou,” the man said, staring directly at Bic. “Come join us.”

  After a moment, Bic came out of the stairwell, subtly motioning for Mack to stay put. Mack, gun pointed and concealed in the other stairwell, nodded.

  “Unc, there are box jellyfish in the tank!” Gracie said, holding on as tight as she could to the cable while trying to keep her feet balanced as the small platform shook from side to side under her feet.

  “Everything’s going to be okay, Gracie.”

  “Listen to your uncle,” Zhou said. “We all want the same thing.”

  Bic sat across from Zhou and Jaco.

  “I know your friend with the dying wife is nearby too, so I’ll speak loudly so he can hear.” Zhou adjusted his jacket. “We are on the same side. Within 24 hours, you all can be in the full protection of the Chinese government. Mack, we would have Gracie in a lab, with everything on this earth she needs to save your wife. Bic, you are a wanted man, you can never live in the US without the chance of them hunting you down like a wild animal. Perhaps a rabid animal is the better metaphor, for they will extinguish you as fast as they would something with rabies. Come with me and all this goes away in the blink of an eye. For what Gracie is going to do for China, all of you will carry a high rank and will be treated like royalty, I give you my word.”

  “It’s too good of a deal for a dog like him,” Jaco spat.

  “Mr. Ivanov, show some manners,” Mr. Zhou said.

  Bic dwelled on the offer. A lot of what he was saying made sense.

  “Making a deal with the devil is never a good idea,” Gracie said.

  Bic was about to speak when his heart leapt as Gracie almost fell.

  A sudden quick vision of Gracie underwater with jellyfish tentacles wrapped all over her dead body filled Bic’s mind, he knew it wasn’t real but he could feel something very wrong going on inside his body.

  Then, out of the dark depths of the water, his father appeared. He grabbed Gracie and took her into the dark.

  Bic tried to calm himself to speak, but it was too late to stop the attack.

  He dropped to his knees, as his insides burned as if molten lava was flowing through him.

  “Unc!” Gracie called out.

  Struggling to breathe, Bic pulled out an EpiPen and plunged it into his leg.

  Lost in a moment of distorted time perception, he wasn’t sure if five or thirty seconds had passed.

  Suddenly a burst of blood erupted from Bic’s mouth, spraying red onto the fish tank glass and the off-white carpet.

  “It’s time to kill this freak of nature for good,” Jaco stood and pulled out his weapon.

  Mack opened fire, hitting Jaco in the arm before he could get off a shot.

  Mack’s second shot hit one of the two men aiming at Gracie.

  His third shot, at Mr. Zhou, missed. Zhou dove for cover behind the fish tank wall.

  The other man opened fire in Mack’s direction. Bullets pulverized the wood paneling and shattered the glass rail.

  Mack dove down the stairwell.

  Bic, using everything he had, got to his feet and charged Jaco.

  Like a middle linebacker, Bic left his feet tackling Jaco. His torpedo-like momentum took both men up and over the back of the couch.

  Bic, on top of Jaco, blasted him in the face with a haymaker. Bic pulled back for another, but his nausea and swimming vision intensified; he grabbed his side.

  Jaco threw a hard jab into Bic’s midsection. On impact, his organs felt like a nuke had just detonated inside him.

  He tried to suck in air, but his lungs had shut down and he collapsed to the side.

  Jaco crawled on top of Bic.

  “It’s time to finish this.” Jaco wrapped his fingers around Bic’s neck and began to squeeze. “Just like death and taxes, this was inevitable.” Jaco smirked as he squeezed harder.

  “Remember me? You sucker-punching scumbag!” Quinn barreled through the double doors from the adjoining service area, charging at Jaco with a knife in his hand. He lunged at Jaco, cutting Jaco’s forearm, as the latter redirected the blade, using Quinn’s forward momentum to take him to the ground.

  With Jaco and Quinn grappling on the floor, Bic grabbed the back of the couch and pulled himself up.

  Mack exchanged fire with the man in the corner and also had Zhou pinned down on the other side of the fish tank.

  Too weak to hop over the couch, Bic leaned forward and let gravity do the work. His massive body picked up speed, sending him over the couch and onto the floor.

  Bic grabbed his gun, ignoring the searing pain inside him, and took dead aim at the man exchanging fire with Mack. Staring through the sight, he saw double. He covered one eye, and the two targets became one. He took the shot.

  The bullet snapped into the man’s chest, jolting his body hard to the left. Along with his body, his weapon spun up, firing a cluster of bullets in Gracie’s direction.

  One of the bullets grazed Gracie’s leg and she lost her footing, sending her feet dangling in the air.

  Holding all her weight with the grip of her fingers on a thin cable, she frantically tried to get her feet back on the platform. Her first hand came loose. And she fell.

  A roar as loud as a thousand cannons erupted from Bic’s chest as he leapt into the fish tank with a massive splash, catching Gracie in his arms.

  Water waist high, Bic trudged through the tank.

  He lost consciousness as he fell into the edge of the tank, dropping Gracie to the ground.

  Gracie hopped up. With Bic’s lower half submerged in the water and jellyfish everywhere, she tried with all of her might to pull him out, but she could not budge his massive body.

  90

  Mr. Zhou had retrieved Jaco’s gun, protected by everyone else’s attention being divided. On the other side of the couch, Quinn and Jaco were scrapping on the floor like pit bulls.

  Closing the gap, Zhou aimed in Gracie’s direction. But his eyes looked past her.

  Gracie turned in Mack’s direction—her last chance to get out of this mess. What she saw crushed her.

  Mack walked out of the stairwell with his hands up, one of Zhou’s men behind him with a gun pointed at his back.

  Zhou pulled Gracie from Bic.

  He locke
d eyes with hers. “All this death, it will never end unless you let me help you.”

  Gracie looked at Bic. He still wasn’t moving, and she saw no sign of breath.

  She looked back at Zhou and nodded. Zhou reached out for her hand, and she accepted. He walked her towards Quinn and Jaco.

  Jaco had Quinn in a rear naked choke hold. Quinn was about to lose consciousness.

  Zhou aimed at the men locked together on the floor as Gracie gasped. “You have violated the terms of our agreement.” The shot rang out. Jaco’s head snapped to the right as it caught the bullet.

  “To your feet, Mr. Quinn,” Zhou instructed. “That was long overdue. My apologies you have had to suffer the attention of that repellant man.”

  Quinn rolled off Jaco’s dead body.

  Two more of Zhou’s men appeared. He barked instructions, “Yóutǐng qǐháng. Xiànzài.”

  They listened then promptly left.

  Outside, the men unhooked ropes from the docks.

  “The deal stands,” Mr. Zhou said as he and Gracie walked toward Mack.

  “All of it?” Mack asked.

  “Yes,” Zhou replied.

  A soft beeping noise suddenly persisted behind them. Gracie looked to Quinn, then she zeroed in on where the noise was coming from. Jaco’s wrist.

  “His heart rate monitor,” she yelled as, visible through the glass, a bright white light with a trail of smoke jetted over Lake Michigan, climbing with a rainbow arc before taking a sharp turn down toward the yacht.

  The missile smacked into the cabin with a thunderous explosion, one room away from where they stood.

  A fiery ball of yellow fire tore the double doors off their hinges, along with part of the wall. The blinding flash shattered the windows as the supersonic shockwave blew everyone onto the floor.

  With her ears ringing, barely able to balance herself on her hands and knees, Gracie’s eyes were glued to the gun Zhou had dropped to the floor.

  Zhou, lying face down on the floor, started to recover, and his hand instinctively reached for his weapon.