The Unexpected Hero

by Michael C. Grumley

“Jesus,” Dennis mumbled. He turned to Evan. “Okay, listen. You stay behind me. Right behind me! The whole time.”

  “Okay.”

  “If you can’t reach out and touch me then you’re too far away. Got it?”

  “Got it.”

  Dennis felt for his gun again, this time subconsciously. He shined his light down the tunnel and took a deep breath. Stepping over the small trickle of blackish water, he entered the tunnel with Evan close behind.

  They were less than twenty feet in before, outside, large raindrops began dotting the ground.

  27

  Seng watched the drops continue to cover his windshield after each pass of the wipers. He listened carefully to a radio newscast about the incoming storm. It was perfect timing. He’d been gambling against the weather for a couple weeks and won. He would have the girls out in plenty of time.

  They just needed to hurry.

  He slowed the Mercedes in front of a downtown parking garage, stopping just long enough for the passenger door to be pulled open. One of his partners, named Kou, slid in next to him. Before the door was even closed, Seng accelerated again and pulled back out into traffic.

  Just south of the main “Strip,” the Las Vegas Outlet Center was one of the larger shopping malls in the city. Housing over one hundred thirty stores, the Outlet Center covered an area greater than most Vegas casinos. More importantly, it had a much larger parking lot.

  They needed a car and the mall was an ideal place to steal one. At maximum capacity, the parking lot could accommodate tens of thousands of vehicles, without the hundreds of video cameras to go with it. And during the holidays, most vehicle owners would be inside for hours.

  Seng and Kou were situated on the edge of the busiest entrance to the lot, waiting. Watching for the right model. A Honda or Toyota preferably. Ideally, a late 1990’s model. There was a reason they were the most common car stolen. The ignition systems were still easy to bypass, before the new era of modern deterrents like smart keys and tracking systems. On top of that, Hondas and Toyotas were some of the most affordable and desirable cars on the roads, which made them easy to find. More importantly, it made them less likely to stand out in the eyes of local law enforcement.

  They needed a fresh vehicle for the extraction. One with a decent-sized trunk. Fortunately, young girls were still relatively small.

  Once the extraction was over, they could be out of Vegas within fifteen minutes and over the Arizona border within an hour. After that, Kou would find another dark parking lot and remove a set of Arizona plates. The car would eventually be abandoned somewhere in New Mexico after delivery was made.

  They noticed a green Toyota Camry drive past, headed toward the center lot. Seng shifted into drive and eased forward. They followed slowly, until the Camry turned, and then continued on to the next parking aisle. They watched the Toyota park while Seng did the same, keeping the car in view. A few moments later, the Camry’s driver side door opened and a woman got out.

  Seng and Kou waited for several minutes until the woman reached the double glass doors of the department store and disappeared inside. Without a word, Kou withdrew a long thin piece of metal from his jacket and pushed his door open. He stepped out into the now drizzling rain and gave Seng a brief nod.

  He knew where to meet next.

  28

  Evan stumbled through the stream of water running down the middle of the tunnel and bumped into Dennis.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah. Sorry.” He was still weak and struggling in the darkness. The water was getting deeper, now above his ankles, making his footing slippery. He was trying hard to endure the smell of rotting garbage.

  Another tattered mattress came into view, this time with two people sitting on it. It was covered by what appeared to be a few layers of dingy blankets with a man and woman sitting atop and leaning against the wall. They seemed almost unaware of the deepening water running along one of the edges of the mattress, soaking the bottom and half of the blankets.

  Next to them were several blue plastic crates, layered with old planks of boards forming makeshift shelves. Several books were stacked on top, along with what looked to be an old camping lantern. Evan peered at them curiously as they sloshed past, wondering why the lantern was not lit.

  Like many of the others, neither the woman nor the man bothered to look up at them.

  A few minutes later, they reached another intersection in the tunnel. Further ahead was a faint glow of light emanating from above. A storm drain. It provided just enough light to see the widening stream of water and more graffiti on each of the walls.

  Dennis turned to find Evan studying the cross section of the tunnel. He pulled a piece of paper and a pen out of his pocket and scribbled a couple lines to mark the section they had just traveled. He tried to remember how far each section was.

  “I think this is it.”

  Dennis frowned. They were doing a lot of guessing. And now they were deep inside one of these tunnels. There was no way out quickly, which was never a good position to be in. Dennis suddenly whirled around when something clanged behind him. He instinctively drew his gun and laid it over his left wrist, flipping the flashlight around in his left hand.

  The person caught in the beam of his flashlight abruptly stopped. It was a man dressed in dark clothes, dragging something behind him. His dark hair was long and matted and his wet beard glistened in the light.

  Dennis stepped to his left, allowing him to peer past the man enough to see what he was dragging. It looked like a hockey stick. After a long pause, the man dropped his head from the glare and continued walking. He shuffled forward, passing between Dennis and Evan without a word.

  After watching the man as he passed, Dennis then quietly slid his gun back into its holster.

  Evan studied the paper again and looked up at him. He nodded his head, hesitantly in the direction the strange man had just come from.

  “That way.”

  29

  The Las Vegas flood tunnel project was originally planned for a staggering one thousand miles of underground channels. However, due to local budget cuts and competing projects, barely one-fifth of the project was ever completed and the abrupt ending left dozens of underground sections isolated and unfinished.

  The finished tunnels worked well enough at redirecting water from most streets, so the remainder of the project was indefinitely postponed. And with the new problem for the Health and Human Services Department inside the tunnels, it only added to the mounting political and fiscal gridlock required to finish any more of the underground system. As a result, they were destined to remain in their current state for decades.

  Seng turned into a small alley and killed his headlights. He slowed and rolled forward down the narrow, abandoned street. It was lined with trash and extended two blocks past a small group of old buildings, eventually terminating at a disintegrating concrete wall. At the base of the wall, more garbage stretched wide in both directions. It went beyond the asphalt and was piled shoulder-high. The area looked to be used as a dumping ground for the locally impoverished or, in some cases, those simply not interested in driving all the way to the dump.

  Seng eased the Mercedes to a stop well away from the largest heap. Keeping his lights off, he stepped out of the car and stood up. He raised his hand over his eyes to block the rain and scanned the area. A moment later, a dark figure emerged from behind one of the piles. He approached Seng in the increasing downpour and stopped at the hood of the car just as a second set of headlights turned into the alley, where it too turned off its lights.

  The stolen Camry approached and quietly parked next to Seng’s Mercedes. Inside, Kou turned off the engine and pushed the driver’s door open, stepping carelessly into a puddle.

  All three were Cambodian, and all three had grown up under the same brutal conditions. In Cambodia, they had seen people killed for petty reasons; in some cases, for no reason at all. As a result, life to them had a finite value. And it was an econo
mic value much lower than most others could imagine.

  The dark, expressionless faces of Seng and Kou nodded and followed their cohort, Bory. They approached the trash heap and circled around behind it nearer the wall. Bory reached down, pulling up an old mattress and then pushing it forward, to reveal a large circle in the middle of the unfinished street.

  It was a manhole.

  Katie jumped when she heard the familiar “clunk” above them. It was followed by the scraping of metal as the manhole cover was dragged open. Even with the darkness outside, some ambient light managed to fill the small section of tunnel below, allowing the three girls to see each other’s outlines.

  Katie looked up at the opening anxiously but froze when she saw the familiar shape of Bory descend the metal rungs first. The second shape of Kou flooded her with fear, and she backed away from the others. No!

  Yet it was when a small lamp was turned on that a surge of panic overtook her. They could clearly see the face of Seng climbing down behind the first two. It was the boss.

  No! This wasn’t right! It wasn’t what she was expecting. Someone was coming to save them. She was sure. Her dream was real. It had to be. She stared in horror as Seng reached the bottom and peered around the dimly lit room.

  He didn’t come very often, but Katie could tell the look on his face was different this time. She didn’t know what, but something was happening. She looked at Kou and Bory. They weren’t carrying food or fresh supplies. Instead, Kou had something else in his hands: a knife and a giant roll of tape.

  Deena looked up at the men with little more than curiosity, but Brooke turned to Katie with nervous eyes. This isn’t what Katie had told her. She said help was coming!

  Seng’s voice was short and abrupt. “Come, we go up.”

  Deena stood quickly, and Brooke, already on her knees, rose slowly beside her. Brooke was still looking to Katie, who stared in stunned disbelief and shook her head. No! No more!

  Seng watched the older girl back up. She knew something was coming. She continued backing up until she reached the makeshift barricade that cut them off from the rest of the tunnel. She wasn’t going anywhere. Seng turned his attention back to the others and nodded at Kou, who then tore a piece of tape from the roll. It was just large enough to cover one of their mouths.

  Bory took it and stepped forward, pressing the tape easily over Deena’s mouth. He then grabbed Brooke’s arm, yanking her toward him, and reached for another piece. Brooke turned and looked fearfully at Bory. Katie had promised her.

  The tape went over Brooke’s trembling lips and Bory’s dirty, rough hand pressed it hard into place. The rest of the tape would be used when the girls were up the ladder and in the trunk of the Camry. Kou looked to Seng who nodded and gave them the “go ahead.”

  Katie watched as Deena and Brooke were pushed forward toward the ladder. She turned back to Seng, who was no longer watching the other girls. Instead, his eyes were fixed intently on her. It was at that moment that Katie made her decision. Much like her father, she wouldn’t give up. What Seng didn’t know was that during her time trapped in the darkness, Katie had probed the barricade behind her, which was nailed together with wood and pieces of old furniture. She had poked around and found a way around it. Until now, the moans and screams echoing down the damp tunnels were enough to keep her there, hoping that it would all end soon. But now she realized that being rescued was simply wishful thinking.

  All at once she whirled around and fell onto the floor. She felt for the small opening and immediately pressed her head down against the cold concrete, forcing her head through.

  “No!” yelled Seng, with wide eyes. He ran for her as Katie managed to wriggle her shoulders through followed by her tiny waist. Seng reached her just in time to see the last of her legs and feet disappear.

  Seng fell onto the floor. His thin, muscular body slid and smashed headlong into the barricade. His arm jutted through the small opening and managed to grasp one of her ankles.

  From the darkness on the other side, Katie felt the vice around her foot and screamed, kicking hard against Seng’s wrist with her opposite foot. “NO! NO!” She felt around behind her and found something long and hard. It felt like a piece of wood. She pulled it to her and jammed it into Seng’s wrist, which was now pulling her back toward the small opening. “NO! LET GO!” She pulled the piece of wood back and jammed it into him harder. Then again.

  Katie couldn’t see him let go, but she felt the sudden release and fell backward into several inches of water. She turned over, splashing, and scrambled to her feet.

  An enraged Seng began smashing his body against the other side of the barricade, trying to break his way through.

  Without the slightest hesitation, Katie turned and ran full speed into the pitch blackness.

  30

  A wave of dread washed over Evan the moment the beam from his flashlight hit the concrete. Just a moment before, a change in the sounds echoing through the tunnel told him something was wrong. The realization of seeing the dull gray wall in front of them was heart stopping. It was a dead end.

  They were lost.

  He blinked his eyes and stared at the wall a long time. He could almost feel the disappointment from Mr. Mayer standing behind him. Evan desperately reexamined the paper in his pocket. But it looked right.

  He made a three hundred and sixty-degree scan with his flashlight, seeing only the path backward. He looked back at the dead end. The concrete in front of him was as old as the walls. There was no way forward.

  Evan finally looked back at Mayer, helplessly. “I…I thought it was…” His voice trailed off as his mind now raced in an effort to figure out where he went wrong.

  Dennis remained silent, but the look on his face was clear. It had been almost two hours, slogging through water and trash and people, fighting against a growing case of claustrophobia, only to find themselves lost now. Ironically, the only thing distracting him from the claustrophobia was the horrific stench.

  He fought to stay calm and looked at Evan. “Christ. Are we even close?”

  Evan swallowed hard. He didn’t want to say what he was thinking. I don’t know. He could only watch as Mr. Mayer shook his head in frustration and turned around.

  That was when they heard it.

  They both stopped and peered into the darkness, listening. Dennis held out a hand to be quiet and closed his eyes, waiting. The next sound was louder.

  He spun around only long enough to signal Evan to follow. In an instant, Dennis was running through the ankle-high water at full speed with his light bouncing up and down in front of him. The sound they had heard was a girl’s screams.

  And they were close.

  31

  Even through the splashing water, Katie could hear the barricade breaking apart in the darkness behind her. She screamed for help and kept running. Being unable to see anything in front of her was terrifying, so she kept one arm out in front as she ran, fearful of impacting something. But the terror behind her was a hundred times worse.

  She knew Seng was now in the same tunnel and coming after her. How far away was he? The fear of having him grab her at any moment made Katie run even faster.

  “HELP!”

  Where were the people she’d heard before? They couldn’t be that far away. Then she had a terrible thought. What if she hadn’t really heard screams after all? What if they were just strange noises that she mistook as human? What if there was no one else down here? The sick realization hit her just before something large stopped her feet, sending her crashing forward into the water. She quickly raised her head and coughed.

  Katie had no idea what she had tripped over and she didn’t care. She struggled to get back on her feet, but it was too late. Seng had slowed when he heard the splash in front of him and managed only a partial trip in the darkness. He fell into Katie, knocking her small frame down again. But Seng managed to keep hold of her until he found her shoulders and wrapped a powerful right hand around her neck.
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br />   With his left, he reached up and wiped the water from his face. He adjusted his feet and brought both legs in tighter to keep her from thrashing. Raising his head to catch his breath, Seng then saw something further down the tunnel. He blinked and stared into the darkness.

  Two small bright lights were dancing in the distance. Seng glanced down and grabbed the girl firmly with his second hand, looking back up. The lights were still there, bouncing back and forth. He stared at them for several seconds before noticing they were getting larger. His eyes suddenly grew wide.

  Flashlights!

  The lights that Seng saw were bouncing wildly now because Dennis Mayer was sprinting. He was running full speed and splashing heavily through the stream of water. A weakened Evan, struggling to keep up, had fallen back. He and Dennis could both see something now, farther down the tunnel. Two figures, one screaming for help. They were too far away to see their faces, but Evan knew who it was. It was Katie Keyes.

  One of the lights was approaching faster than the other. Someone was coming quickly. Seng didn’t know who it was, but he did know that trying to get the girl out of the tunnel in time was now impossible.

  Yet he couldn’t let her go. She was a witness and could identify him. She could identify all three of them.

  He made a split second decision. Whoever was coming could have her. But she wouldn’t be alive when they got there. With both hands, Seng forced the girl’s face down into the water and kept it there.

  Dennis’ flashlight was now all but useless as he pumped his arms hard. The light was jumping uncontrollably and shining everywhere, except where he needed it. All he could see now was his own shadow, cast by Evan’s flashlight behind him.