Dangerous Games - Gold

by Adele Huxley

  “Before this point, we believed this was a small, struggling group of people using the Unity Games as an opportunity to gain global recognition. But the things I’ve seen, the pieces I’ve been putting together, it points to a larger organization.”

  “When we were working on the code, you kept saying that your boss needed proof before you could break the story,” Claire stated, pinning her to the spot. “Is that true?”

  Penny swallowed. The girl was smart. She’d seen through to the truth faster than Phoenix. “Yeah, that’s right. A lot of the evidence I… we… found was considered weak, my direct boss was unwilling to act. I insisted that when put all together in a bigger picture, it painted a vast network, but yeah. I didn’t have proof.”

  “Kidnapping a hundred people might be enough proof, huh?” Phoenix commented darkly.

  “You do have to wonder why so many have gone missing yet no one has come looking for us,” Claire muttered.

  Penny checked the green and black display on the satellite phone. The clunky device always reminded her of her dad’s first cell phone, but with a thicker antenna. That wasn’t a particularly happy memory.

  She dragged her eyes up to meet Phoenix’s. “I’ve got signal.”

  Chapter 19

  “Fuck yes!”

  Phoenix dove for her beautiful face with both hands, kissing her full on the lips with a celebratory smack. Penny let out a nervous, surprised chuckle and turned bright red.

  It was an uncomfortable realization to admit he hadn’t completely believed her story until that very moment. She was such a good liar, it wasn’t until that satellite phone came on he accepted she actually worked for the CIA.

  As she punched in the number for the Pentagon or wherever she was calling, he checked with the others.

  “We should comb through stuff to see if there’s anything useful.”

  Claire nodded but was still deep in thought. She moved as if in a trance, slow and deliberate steps back to where she’d left her bag.

  Charlie shifted out of her way without a word. The color had largely returned to his cheeks, but he looked shaken. Phoenix constantly forgot how young the poor guy was. It was a lot for him to handle. He couldn’t imagine how hard this was for him.

  “Why don’t you keep an eye out for us while we search?” he suggested as he clapped a hand on Charlie’s shoulder.

  “Yeah?”

  Phoenix nodded as Penny cursed under her breath.

  “Everything okay?” he checked with more enthusiasm than he originally intended.

  She glanced up with a scowl, her wordless response enough to get him to drop it.

  “She’ll figure it out,” he said to Charlie. “Make sure you watch all four corners, yeah?” He pointed as he pushed past, just to make sure the kid understood what he meant.

  As he poked through the abandoned bags, he tried not to think about how each one was connected to a person trapped back in the barn below.

  They were making progress. They were getting somewhere. Even if this plan didn’t work out they way they worked out, at least they weren’t sitting around waiting to be rescued.

  He rifled through a large red duffel bag and found nothing but clothes, a Kindle, and a wet pair of running shoes. With a grimace, he tossed it to the side and dug through a purse next to it.

  Phoenix tested the phone he found inside but got no signal. He left the money in the wallet but pocketed two energy bars. It was so strange to go through people’s stuff. It felt thrilling and wrong. He had to practice a deliberate detachment or else he risked losing the growing sense of direction.

  Penny’s voice echoed through the bus. “Dispatch, this is Frost. Repeat, this is Agent Frost. Security code Echo-Tango-Alpha-Zulu-five-seven-two-two.”

  He stared at the back of her head as she spoke, utter disbelief that this was all happening. She was genuinely a secret agent. All the doubts and worries he’d had could be linked back to that. The connection that they’d felt beyond it… well, when they got out of this situation, he couldn’t wait to explore it to the fullest.

  Penny repeated the same message as Claire straightened.

  “We don’t know everyone on our team.” It was as though she were simply speaking her thought aloud, yet Phoenix understood what she was getting at.

  “No, that’s true. But a lot of the suspicious things have happened to the people we do know.”

  “That’s a good point.”

  Charlie rocked the bus slightly as he shifted to the right to scan the mountain passage above.

  “Anything cooking away in that big brain of yours?” Phoenix ventured. He tried to make it sound casual, but he was really hoping she’d be able to put the pieces together sooner rather than later.

  She shook her head, but wasn’t convincing.

  “Again, this is Agent Frost. There’s been an incident in the mountains somewhere between the Lodge and the Village. Multiple organized and armed assailants stopped two buses en route to the Village and kidnapped all on board. Several fatalities.”

  Phoenix’s heart lurched for her. The emotion wavering in her voice was difficult to hear, but she was doing so well.

  “I and three others were able to escape and reach this satellite phone. Athletes are being held at a location two miles—”

  “One mile,” Claire corrected loudly.

  Penny spun with the phone pressed to her ear and glowered. “One to two miles down the mountain from the abandoned buses.”

  “South, south-east,” Claire interrupted again.

  Penny growled and slammed the phone to her other ear.

  “For fuck’s sake! A bunch of guys in white camo ambushed our buses, kidnapped us with assault rifles, and are now holding dozens of people in barns in the middle of nowhere. You must be able to detect where I’m calling from, so please, please, send help.”

  Phoenix took a few steps forward as she ended the call. With a shaky hand, she stopped him. “I’m okay. Really.”

  “No one was there?”

  She let out a nervous laugh and stood. “They don’t exactly have a switchboard center in Bangalore. I leave a message, someone picks it up, help comes. That’s how it works. They’ll call back in ten minutes or so.”

  “Did you have any hint or clue as to who you were looking for? Who this group was?” Claire asked, her eyes unfocused.

  “No. Nothing. They said they'd picked up unspecified chatter.”

  She lifted her gaze to Penny, drilling her. Phoenix watched as the two women communicated using only their eyes.

  “I swear. You know everything I know now.”

  Claire blew air from her nose, either in satisfaction or doubt. He couldn’t tell which. She was difficult to read at the best of times, but in any case, she didn’t seem too bothered. She went through the cautious and deliberate process of checking over her rifle.

  “I remember someone saying something about anarchists, right?” Charlie muttered as he paced to the front of the bus.

  “That’s true. Those texts were a bit disturbing,” Claire nodded.

  “But isn’t that like saying a church of atheists? An organized group of people who don’t believe in organization?” Phoenix frowned.

  “It’s not that they don’t believe in organization, it’s that they don’t believe in government,” she replied. Her distant gaze told him, even without knowing her all that well, she was connecting a few dots.

  Penny came closer, the scent of her carrying along on the cold air. He resisted the urge to wrap his arm around her as she drew up to his side. For a moment, Phoenix marveled at how natural the idea of it felt.

  “I swear ten ways to Sunday, I was so close to figuring it all out,” Penny groaned. “The second I caught those people flipping the painting, especially the one who crashed the van? I mean, come on,” she gestured.

  Claire slipped extra ammo into her pocket, made sure the safety was on, and leaned the rifle against the seat back. “You and Rhett did spend a lot of time on all of
it. Even when I thought you were a conniving bitch, I was still impressed.”

  Penny pressed her lips together and looked up to Phoenix with a smirk. “Uh, thanks?”

  The phone in her hand issued a rapid burst of beeps.

  “What does that mean?”

  “Screw me sideways,” she hissed, glancing up at him. The look in her eye stopped him from making a dirty comment.

  “I take it those aren’t happy, we-received-your-message beeps then.”

  “Not exactly. I think I need to go outside. There’s something on the bus that’s blocking my signal. Which makes sense if those fuckers messed with the communications on here in the first place.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yeah. Plus, there’s stuff I want to get out of my bag,” Penny ventured reluctantly. “It’s down below.”

  “I’ll keep an eye out for you,” Charlie offered.

  Phoenix’s throat tightened. “It’s not safe to go out there.”

  “You two are on to something. I’ll make sure she’s safe,” he replied. “I can take the gun if you want.”

  “You know how to shoot?” Claire asked a little dubiously, looking through Phoenix and Penny to Charlie beyond.

  He nodded. “Grew up in Wisconsin. Had a hunting license when I was fourteen.”

  That seemed to be proof enough for her. She shifted the straps out of the way and handed him the rifle butt-first between Penny and Phoenix, her fingers curled around the barrel. “Sights are probably all off, so shoot to scare or wait until they’re close enough you can’t miss.” Her eyebrows shot up as he took it and headed away. “Oh! And if you see another bag like this one, grab it, will ya?”

  Penny squeezed his arm for a split-second before walking to the front. He watched her head drop out of sight down the steep steps, stopping only to glance around to make sure the coast was clear. Letting her out of his sight spiked his heart rate. As much as he wanted to shift to that side of the bus to keep and eye on her, he knew Charlie would have it covered. The best thing he could do was keep an eye on the surrounding landscape.

  Despite the danger, Claire seemed oblivious. “You know what I did notice. Elle and Ethan’s teammates were with you, weren’t they? I recognized the girl from the skating competitions and put it together who the guy was.”

  Phoenix couldn’t stop the pull at the corner of his mouth. He never got tired of being proven right. Claire would be the person who cracked the whole thing wide open, he could feel it. Telling her and Charlie had been a great decision.

  “They were. I didn’t recognize them at first in the dark, but when she started screaming for help, Penny put it together.”

  “And she’s vaguely Russian if I remember correctly, right?”

  Phoenix shook his head. “Could be.”

  He could hear Penny’s muffled voice and the faint beeps of her phone. A light snow had begun to fall outside and he tried to work out how many hours of daylight they had left.

  “Thing is, I don’t remember seeing them at the Lodge. I know it’s a big place, but not once did I—” Claire’s comment was drowned out by a scuffle outside.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Penny shouted. The panic and anger in her voice carried on through the metal and glass of the bus.

  Both Phoenix and Claire shifted to the windows in time to see Penny lunge for Charlie’s back. He was hunched over at the waist. It was nearly impossible to read the situation. At first, Phoenix thought someone had been shot or attacked. It was only when Charlie roughly threw her off into the snow bank did he catch on.

  Penny’s heel slipped out from under her, sending her careening back. Before she scrambled to her feet, Charlie lifted the gun. The pair on the bus watched in horror as he slammed the butt of it down to the ground.

  He’s destroying the phone!

  “Stop it!” Penny yelled, her clawing hand outstretched and desperate.

  Without a word, he and Claire split apart to cover both doors. The front one was open, but the rear was still shut. He knew she’d draw his attention, giving him a second to jump Charlie.

  As Phoenix crept down the stairs, he still thought the poor guy had snapped somehow. Clearly, he didn’t understand what was going on. The stress of the situation finally made him crack. Maybe Penny said something to piss him off. A niggle of doubt zapped through his mind.

  Oh God. What if he heard her make a call to someone she shouldn’t be speaking with…

  With a foot hovering over the void of the ground, he saw Penny had gotten to her feet. She faced him and held both hands up in the air, defensively, terrified.

  Phoenix still couldn’t wrap his head around the situation until Charlie lifted the rifle and pointed it straight at her. His blood went cold. Even if the guy had suffered some kind of mental break, he posed more of a threat than simply smashing their only means of communication.

  “We can talk this out,” Penny pleaded. She didn’t dare take her eyes off him, not even to glance at Phoenix who she most definitely saw looming behind.

  He was ready to jump into action the moment Claire opened the door. The seconds ticked by with agonizing speed. She’d clearly caught the scene as well and had frozen. Just as he thought to inch back onto the bus to check, the back doors slid apart.

  Charlie shifted his feet to the left without moving the rifle. He had eyes on Claire but wasn’t about to let his target slip away.

  “Get back on the bus,” he demanded.

  The moment Claire replied, Phoenix jumped from his position and charged forward. He was only eight or ten feet away, but it felt like forever before he reached him. The sound of his feet crunching along on the snow pulled Charlie’s awareness away. Instinctively, he turned to look back.

  Phoenix approached from his left, hoping that he could draw the rifle to that side and avoid an accidental discharge. Luckily, it worked. He slammed into Charlie’s back with a rugby tackle. His left hand closed on Charlie’s left arm and gave it a hard yank as they fell.

  A combination of the twisting and impact with the ground loosened the guy’s grip on the rifle. It was a mad scramble in the snow, but Phoenix wrenched it from his hand. With a grunt, he chucked it toward the front of the bus as far as he could and Claire jogged over to collect it.

  Despite being soundly overpowered, Charlie continued to struggle and fight as if his life depended on it.

  “Calm the fuck down!” Phoenix growled. He pinned his arms down to the ground above his head. As he shifted his weight to press a knee into the kid’s spine, he was suddenly bucked off. Charlie got his knees under him and pushed up hard. It took all Phoenix’s core strength to keep from toppling over completely.

  All it ultimately accomplished was that the guy was now on his back and Phoenix was beyond pissed off.

  “Stop. Fighting. Me.”

  Charlie cleared his throat and spat right in Phoenix’s face. He’d landed two hard punches in quick succession to either side of his head before he even realized he was hitting him. He half-expected to hear Claire shout for him to stop, but even as a spray of blood splashed across the snow, she remained silent.

  “Jesus Christ. It’s fucked. It’s completely fucked,” Penny shouted.

  He stared down at Charlie beneath him. The guy, kid really, turned his head to the side and spat out one of his teeth. He rocked his head back to center and grinned up, face smeared with blood.

  “He destroyed the phone.”

  “What happened exactly?” Claire asked calmly.

  Phoenix didn’t have to look to know Penny was pacing wildly behind him. “I went to make the call again and as I lifted the damn thing to my ear, he smacked it out of my hand. At first I thought something was wrong, but then he started stomping on it with his heel.”

  “And then the gun,” Claire finished.

  He watched Charlie’s expressions shift. Claire walked behind him to Penny.

  “It’s fucked,” she repeated, this time the anger morphing into sadness. “There’s
no way we can fix this.”

  “Could the message have gotten through?”

  “Maybe. I don’t know,” she huffed. “There’s no way of knowing now.”

  As Penny’s despair grew, so too did Charlie’s smile.

  “Keep smiling, son. They’re gonna wire your jaw shut when I’m through with you,” Phoenix snarled.

  “I don’t care if I die,” he grinned back.

  It was bizarre. It was like looking at a completely different human being. The gangly, awkward guy he’d felt guilty serving beer to at all their parties had abruptly shifted into a vicious lunatic.

  Claire approached from the left and crouched beside them. She balanced the rifle on her knees and cocked her head. “Were you turned here or back home?”

  “Turned into what?” he asked with an innocent blink.

  Penny appeared at their right. “How do you communicate with the others? What’s the code? I already have enough information on my computer to figure it out, but it’d be easier if you just told us now.”

  He rocked his head to the side and met her gaze. “Code? What are you talking about?” The mock-innocence was almost as infuriating as being spat on. “Boy, you all look so pissed off. Is it because you’re finally realizing you’re not going to win the ten million bucks? Is that it?”

  “Listen, you little piece of shit. I haven’t even started to show you the meaning of pissed off,” Phoenix grumbled through clenched teeth. He gathered the coat in one fist at his throat and primed the other to slam down on his nose. Much to his surprise, Claire steadied his hand.

  “It won’t do any good to beat his face in before he talks. And I’m guessing you can let him up now. It’s not like he’s getting away,” she said as she adjusted the rifle at her hip.

  Phoenix hesitated for a moment but gave in. He couldn't have kept him pinned to the ground forever, after all. Carefully, he shifted his weight to his feet and stood, making sure to step clear from Charlie’s legs.

  “Let’s get back inside and figure out what to do next.”