Taken By Force (Taken Trilogy Book 2)

by Jessica Frances

  Rose remembers the floor plans to the building really well. Blake has the idea that if we want to bring the building down, setting a fire might not be as permanent as we hope. As soon as we set anything alight, the fire alarms will go off. Sure, they’ll get any innocent people out of the building, but it’ll also bring the fire department. What if they’re able to put it out? What if the building is salvageable? What if we don’t completely destroy it? We only get one chance to do this, so we have to do it right. That is when the word I think scares me as much as guns turns up.

  Bombs.

  Blake thinks we should set bombs throughout the building. Set them all for the same time to go off and then, after we escape, the whole building will be destroyed.

  I think the idea sounds great for a movie, but not in real life. Add in that we’ll be making those bombs ourselves and that I’ll be carrying half of them in a backpack, and oh, hell no. If we don’t blow ourselves up making them, then I just know they’ll go off while I’m carrying them around. It’s one thing to think I’ll be shot to death, but blown into pieces? It gives me uncontrollable shivers.

  Rose doesn’t seem too keen on the idea, either, but once Blake hooks Dean in, which did take several days of Blake hounding him, there really isn’t any stopping the idea from growing from there.

  It’s scary how easy it is to find out how to make a bomb online, and that the ingredients aren’t all that hard to get. Add in the dodgy people Blake and Dean speak to on the streets to buy weapons and even some explosives, and suddenly this mission is sounding crazier than ever.

  Every time I try to voice my reluctance to go through with this, to tell them that they’re going too far and that we need to rethink this, I stop myself. I see Charlie and Will and feel the fear that I have no idea what is happening to them. We need to get to them. Unfortunately, this is our only way to do that.

  “You seem far away. What are you thinking about?” Rose sits down on the curb next to me and brings her legs to her chest, hugging her knees as a strong, cool breeze hits us. People rush past us, not sparing us a second glance. I look around for any sign of Blake and Dean. They left over two hours ago to get us supplies. I couldn’t sit in that car any longer, so I’m on the curb just behind it, waiting.

  “The weather.” I shrug at her.

  “I know you’re keeping something from me. I almost wish I had Blake’s ability right now except I think it’s pretty creepy.”

  “I sort of keep forgetting he can do it.” I wonder if Blake has caught any of my dark thoughts, if he has any idea about the dream where I’m being shot at.

  “I can’t forget. I sometimes even find myself lost in a moment with Dean and then he pops up into my thoughts. Is he listening to my thoughts right now? Can he see the mental images I’m picturing right now? I mean, a lot of my thoughts revolve around Dean, and they’re private.”

  “Well, firstly, I don’t think he see’s images from your head, just hears things. And secondly, I doubt he wants to hear about you and Dean any more than you want him to hear about it.”

  “Do you think he can just shut it off?”

  “I don’t know. I guess he can. I’d think he would’ve been driven mad with hearing so much otherwise.”

  “I just find it creepy.” Rose pouts as she watches the busy street in front of us.

  “Chances are he knows you find it creepy.” I laugh at her, but it sounds hollow.

  “Do you think he likes us? I mean, he goes from thinking we helped kill his family to suddenly helping us destroy an organization he has worked with for the past however many months.”

  I consider her words, but my instincts don’t give me any warning about him. “I think he simply needed to hear the truth. It’s easy to get wrapped up in revenge and forget about what’s important. Blake isn’t a bad person. He was blinded for a while from grief. He didn’t have Drew or likeminded people to help him lead the way.”

  We sit in silence for a while and I stare at the hotdog vender across the street, wondering when the last time I ate was. Rose has been strict on my eating habits, but we don’t have enough money to spare for her to force food down me at every meal.

  “Are you scared about breaking into The Core?” she asks me out of the blue.

  “I guess I am. I don’t know. I just want to hurry up and get it over with. I want to know where Charlie and Will are, if they’re okay.”

  “Me, too.”

  “You’re not worried about going in there and about the possibility of losing Dean?” I regret asking her instantly. If she wasn’t worried before, she’s definitely going to be now. Nice going idiot.

  Rose blanches at the thought. “I constantly worry about that. I love him so much.”

  “So why did you agree to do this?”

  “Because I love Will, too; he’s like my baby brother or something. He’s so big and strong, but he’s still just a kid. He doesn’t deserve this life.”

  “No one deserves this life, but I know what you mean.”

  “And I like Charlie, even though I find him super annoying most of the time. He’s like the brother whose sole mission in life is to annoy me.”

  I smile at her description of Charlie. “I miss him.”

  “I know you do. I sometimes hear you crying when you think we’re asleep.”

  I’m surprised to hear that. I thought I’d been hiding it well. I didn’t want them to see me crying because I want them to think I can do this. That I’m strong enough to do this.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be, I just wish I could take your pain away. I couldn’t imagine how I would feel to lose Dean. You love Charlie so of course you’re upset he’s been taken. I’m sure wherever he is right now, he’s causing them hell.” She smiles at the thought. I get the feeling that if Rose were to be taken now, she would cause as much trouble as she could.

  “I hope he isn’t. I hope that he’s lying low and not causing problems. They both need to sit tight and wait for us. They’ll know we’re coming for them.”

  “Have you had any dreams about them? Any clue as to what is going on?”

  “No, I’ve had nothing.” I leave out the fact that I can barely sleep for more than an hour at a time.

  “Try not to worry about them, Will and Charlie are fine. And hopefully, very soon, we’ll all be reunited and able to go home. I can’t wait to see my parents again, to talk to my brothers and sleep in my own bed. I can’t wait to stop looking over my shoulder every second of the day.” Rose sounds wistful.

  “I’m not sure there is anything back home for me. All I have are memories of a best friend I tragically lost.”

  “What about your mom?”

  “I do miss her, but she thinks I’ve run away. She probably imagines I’ve found a new place to live and started a happy life or something. Why spoil her fantasy with her actual messed up, depressed daughter?”

  “Don’t be like that. Of course she misses you and she would want nothing more than to see you. Besides, apart from this situation here, you’ve had happy moments. You and Charlie for one. You could introduce him to her, maybe even try to make this work once it’s all over. Live together or do the long distance thing.”

  I smile through my tears that have yet again started up.

  “I would like that.” I’m reminded of the Charlie in my dream and I wonder if that is something that Charlie would want, too.

  Rose smiles back at me. Seeing it brings an image into my mind of her in a wedding dress. I’m unsure where it came from, but I feel a sense that I’ve seen her wearing it before. I close my eyes and focus on the image. I see Rose clearly in a strapless white gown and she looks beautiful. It’s fitted perfectly to her until it comes to her hips and then layers upon layers float downwards; the look is stunning. Her hair is up and a veil sits in her hair. Not a thing out of place. She is on the arm of an older man, who I imagine is her father, and I catch the sight of Dean in a tux, standing at the end of the aisle, tears in his eyes as he g
azes lovingly at Rose. Everyone else is blurred.

  As soon as my gaze tries to focus on the blurred people around them, I lose the vision altogether. I wonder where it came from. Was that real? Did I have a dream of their wedding and I’m just remembering it? Was it a real future dream or one that is fake? One that I simply wish could be true?

  “Earth to Zoe. Are you still with me?” Rose waves her hand in front of my face.

  “Sorry, I zoned out. What did you say?” I sound breathless, and get a strange look from Rose before she points down the street.

  “They’re here, finally.” She quickly stands up and I never get to hear what she’d asked me when I zoned out.

  Dean and Blake walk down the pathway towards us, holding what looks to be heavy grocery bags. I shudder, knowing what is actually in there, feeling paranoid that everyone around us must know, too. I glance around, but no one pays us any special attention.

  The boys quickly get into our car while Rose and I follow suit.

  “It all went all right?”

  “Yeah, let’s go.” Dean takes the keys off Rose and starts up the car, driving out into the traffic. I eye Blake’s bag carefully as he places it between us on the backseat.

  “You got what we needed?” Rose asks him, eyeing the bags in the backseat curiously.

  “Yes, and as soon as this is over I am going to make some anonymous calls to the NYPD.”

  Rose rolls her eyes at Dean’s comment, but I see her hand reach across the seat as she takes ahold of his hand.

  ***

  We find a town between New York and Philadelphia to stop for the night. We get a room in a shady looking motel where the boys attempt to make the bombs. I cringe every time I hear any noises from them, which is a lot.

  They appear to know what they’re doing, but I don’t feel comfortable at all about being around the bombs. In the end, Rose and I take a walk in the dark. We talk about the mission, about Charlie and Will and then we talk about home. I hear all about Rose’s brothers, her parents and then her job at the bank. I don’t think she even realizes how much talking she’s doing, but listening to her words takes my mind off tomorrow, so I listen carefully.

  She asks me about Dana and Drew, and I tell her an endless amount of stories of us at school. I tell her about when Drew had his clothes stolen out of his gym locker and he had to wear some leftover short-shorts and a pink glitter shirt. I explain how smart Dana had been and how she once had gotten into a heated argument with her English teacher about the early childhood of a famous author, which had led to how he wrote his books. Dana had been right, of course. It didn’t stop her from getting her one and only detention for the year, though. I even spoke about my embarrassing moments in gym, explaining how much I hate sports.

  In the end, we’re both more relaxed. I feel some of the weight moving off my shoulders. It only lasts until we make it back to the crappy room, but it did give me a break. Something I needed.

  In the morning, after I’m pretty sure none of us got any sleep, the boys drive us to the middle of nowhere and we test out a bomb. It’s terrifying as it explodes, but it goes off as planned. My ears ring from the blast. I have the same sense of fear that I get near a gun. A bomb is easy to make and detonate. Something so deadly shouldn’t be that simple and detached.

  The boys put egg timers on all the bombs, deciding that we will have forty minutes to get in and out. I’m not sure if that’s too much time or not. I fear it’ll be the latter.

  The drive into D.C. is in complete silence. I can’t help glancing at each person in the car and thinking about what I know about them. They’re good people, stuck in this very real and very dangerous situation, and they might be about to die for this mission. We might all be killed doing this. There is a real chance that death will continue to follow me. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it.

  I’m too selfish to voice that maybe we shouldn’t do this. It’s not because I’m scared or afraid to actually break into The Core. It’s because I need to see Charlie again. I want him so badly. The thought of never being able to find him physically hurts me. So I stay quiet, knowing I’ll never be able to forgive myself if any of them don’t make it out alive.

  Blake might know that destroying The Core gets him one step closer to going home, but we could do that without breaking into the building. He’s going in because we are. Rose is going in because she wants Will and Charlie as much as I do, but she’s rushing it because of me. She can see my pain and I know she’s desperate to do something about it.

  We should take a step back, see if there are any other ways to find out their location. Maybe she could hack into their system from somewhere else? Maybe this could be done safer? It’ll take time though, and she doesn’t want to wait.

  Dean is merely going along with this because Rose is too stubborn to give in. He loves her as much as I love Charlie. There isn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her. The proof of that fact is in what he’s given up for her; his life back home in L.A., his job being a cop and all the laws he’s breaking along the way. Now he’s going to risk his life, and commit the worst felony of all.

  I silently cry in the backseat, feeling like I’m mourning all these people.

  We drive late through the night into D.C.; I dread entering it again. Last time we left under bad circumstances, which led to us losing Will and Charlie. What will happen this time?

  ***

  It’s three in the morning. Dean and Rose are around the other side of the building and I’m with Blake as he cuts his way through the fence. Rain pounds heavily down over us and I am wearing every piece of clothing I have to keep warm. The wind is playing havoc with the rain and making it impossible to see. It gives us an advantage, since the noise will help keep us hidden as we attempt to break in.

  A quick hug from Rose and Dean is all we do before we each head our own way. No words of luck or goodbyes. It’s known already that we have no choice except to succeed. We’ve already arranged a meeting place and time, which will happen back in New York. If they’re able to get Spencer out here, then we have to give ourselves the best chance to stay hidden. New York is a place we have already been, yes, but it’s so highly populated that it’ll be very hard to track us. From there we have many places to escape and move to if we need.

  The camera with the surveillance photos proves its worth. It shows that overnight is when the smallest amount of guards patrols the outside. Our job is to disarm the cameras so we’ll be free to move inside. With the weather playing up like it is, I don’t think that’ll appear all that suspicious. If Charlie was here he could simply do this at will, but unfortunately, we’re back to doing it the old fashion way, cutting some wires.

  Blake finishes cutting a hole in the wire fence and then I climb through the small entrance he made. He bends the cut fence back after we get through so it doesn’t look obvious there’s a hole in it. We rush for cover by some nearby bushes, just missing a roaming spotlight that looks more like it’s lazily strolling at random. This side of the building has scattered trees, bushes and some patches of flowers and garden with several benches around. If I were to guess, I’d say this was a place where employees could sit and eat their lunch when the weather permits it without leaving the complex.

  We slowly make it to the power box placed on the side of the building. There is one guard standing there watching. He looks alert and fit. Not a good combination for us. Fortunately, we can get close to him while remaining hidden from the surrounding bushes. Blake’s training at P.A.G.E. comes in handy. Watching their quick exchange is like watching a fight sequence on TV. Eloquent and advanced and this one is over quickly. This isn’t some drawn out fight made to look good. We need to be as quick as we can.

  I look down at my newly bought, cheap watch to see it’s nearing five past three. Rose and Dean are going to wait until five past before going inside the building. It’s our job to have cut the wire by then.

  “Quick, we’ve got less than a minute,” I his
s at Blake.

  He moves his shoulder around a few times, obviously feeling sore from a direct hit he has taken there. He hits the lock that is on the power box with the butt of his gun. It takes three more hits before it breaks and when Blake opens it up, there has to be nearing a hundred wires in there. Blake crouches down to search over them and I nervously glance around us.

  No one has come this way, but from Allan the bloggers photos, I know they have foot patrols. From this spot he has taken several photos over one night where he snapped them patrolling here every ten minutes. Not knowing how long ago the last one came by means we most definitely have less than ten minutes until the next one, and being here for nearing five minutes also means the likelihood of one coming up soon is very good. We have to hurry.

  “It’s done, help me move him.” Blake closes the door on the power box and grabs up the broken lock. Hopefully, if someone looks at it they won’t notice the lock missing.

  I grab the unconscious guard’s legs while Blake takes his arms and we carry him into the bushes. If it had been daylight, this hiding place wouldn’t have sufficed, but in the dark and in the middle of a storm, it’s perfect.

  I’m completely soaked by the rain and a cold shiver is shaking my body. If the wind hadn’t been so loud, my heartbeat and chattering teeth would have been enough to send out a giant flashing alert to P.A.G.E. that we’re here.

  As we wait for the guards to pass this area, I look back down at my watch and move the heavy backpack around my shoulders. If I don’t think about how much explosives are hugging my back right now, then I won’t freak out. I hope at least.

  My watch now reads eight minutes past three. I hope Blake has cut the right wire. If he cut the wrong one, then Rose and Dean will be on camera right now, most likely getting caught within minutes. If he cut too many wires, then they’ll suspect something is amiss and we’ll probably be caught in minutes. If he cut the power, then Rose will have no hope accessing their computers to find out where Charlie and Will are. In fact, maybe Charlie wouldn’t have been able to knock out the cameras with his ability because he probably would have taken everything out at once then again, we wouldn’t need the power if he were here because we wouldn’t be searching for him.