From where she was being held, she could see straight out to the balcony as the beefy man, Palmer, pulled the doors open. Horrified, Saya saw Trevor standing there with his back to the building, looking out over the city. She screamed out his name. But Palmer was on top of him before Trevor had a chance to do more than turn around. Palmer punched him hard, right in the stomach, and Trevor doubled up, having been caught completely by surprise.
The WelCo man dragged her out onto the balcony where she had to watch Palmer smash Trevor to the ground with one gigantic fist, giving him a vicious kick once he was down. Trevor was tall but thin, and Palmer was able to quickly subdue him and tie his arms behind him with some sort of plastic handcuff. Then Palmer took a step back as if to admire his work. Trevor lay struggling on the ground until Palmer grabbed him and pulled him into a kneeling position.
Trevor glared at him defiantly and said, “What do you want with us? Money? I promise you, we don’t have any.”
Palmer leaned over and viciously slapped Trevor’s face, yelling above the fierce wind, “Shut your mouth. We ask the questions. And your girlfriend knows exactly what we want.”
The tall man holding Sarah pulled her arms back into a more painful position and said, “So, Sarah Kuttner, where’s the drive?”
“That’s not my name,” she forced out. “You’ve got the wrong person.”
He chuckled, and the man Palmer said, “We know exactly who you are. You are Caroline Kuttner’s daughter, you work at WelCo, and you had your friend steal valuable information from your employer. Just tell us where the drive is and who else knows about it … and we will be on our way.”
Saya’s mind was racing. My mother is ruthless, but would she really send these thugs? But who else knows that Trevor and I have the drive and where we would be?
While she tried to think of something to say, her heart beat faster and faster, as if it might burst right through her chest and run away. She needed to convince these men that they no longer had the drive. But all she could think about was Bobby, hanging in the air, lifeless.
“Stop stalling.” The man behind her placed his arm around her throat again and began to squeeze.
Saya whimpered as the pressure on her neck increased.
“Watch it, Sam. The boss said not to kill her,” barked Palmer.
“Accidents happen,” the man Sam growled, but he did release the pressure on her throat.
“Check her to see if she has the drive on her,” ordered Palmer. “I’ll look in the computer bag. Sooner or later security is going to notice the cameras are malfunctioning.”
Palmer stepped into the building to get Saya’s bag then started to go through its numerous pockets.
“It will be my pleasure to search the little darling.” The WelCom man, Sam, kept hold of her arms with one hand while he used the other hand to search first her jacket and then her jean pockets. Saya had been groped by men before, what woman hadn’t, but there was something particularly sadistic about the way this man ran his hand down one of her legs and then up the other. When she twisted to get away from the long fingers that began to feel along her waistband and up under her shirt, he just laughed and wrenched her arms back further, sending a sharp pain up through her shoulders and causing her to cry out.
“Let her go; she doesn’t know anything; she isn’t a part of this,” Trevor shouted as he staggered to a standing position and moved towards her.
Palmer made a high-pitched cackle that was caught and immediately swept away by the wind as he easily pushed Trevor back down on his knees. “Not a part of this? Please, she and her family are all over this.”
“No.” Trevor shook his head violently. “Bobby gave the drive to me. It’s in the right front pocket of my pants. She doesn’t know what is on it. Let her go.”
Saya shouted, “No, Trevor, don’t!”
Palmer put the computer bag down and leaned over to rifle Trevor’s pockets. In a moment he stood back up, holding up the small dark grey drive in triumph.
“You have what you want. Now let her go.” Trevor again struggled to his feet.
“Is this the only copy? Did you tell anyone else about it?” Palmer took Trevor by his shoulders and shook him.
“Yes, that’s the only copy. But it’s password protected, and I’ll only tell you how to access it if you let her go.”
Palmer laughed again and dropped the drive onto the concrete, stomping on it and grinding it to pieces under his heel.
Saya gasped. With the drive destroyed, we don’t have any leverage––with these men––or my mother.
The man Sam snarled in her ear, “We don’t need the drive or the information on it; we just need to know who knows about it.” Then he shouted louder to be heard over the wind, “Palmer, take the boy’s mobile, in case he has a copy on it. We need to go. We can check the computer and the girl’s mobile later and get what we need from her when we have more time. Drop the boy over the edge.”
Palmer gave Trevor a quick chop to his neck. As he began to crumble, unconscious, Palmer caught him and threw him over his shoulder like he was just a sack of potatoes. Taking out the device he’d held earlier, he pointed it, and the shimmer of the invisible fence disappeared and the signs on the columns started blinking red.
He’s going to kill Trevor––just like Bobby! Saya frantically tried to break away, kicking the man holding her in the shins and shouting Trevor’s name. But her tormentor again immobilized her against his chest, with his arm over her neck and her feet dangling off the ground.
She watched helplessly as Palmer, a chilling grin on his face, started to lift her friend up over his head to toss him to his death. Without warning, she heard a muffled pop and saw Palmer jerk, dropping Trevor to the ground and clutching at his chest.
“What?” was all he said, looking at his hands. Then he slumped down beside Trevor, who lay motionless on the concrete.
The man Sam swore and pivoted, still holding her, so that she could now see Frank was standing a few feet away, pointing a gun in their direction.
Sam yelled at Frank, “Drop that gun or the girl dies.”
Frank just stared, his eyes glittering, the gun not wavering. Saya couldn’t believe she’d never really seen him for what he was before. A trained killer. How had she missed it? His massive, muscled physique, the paranoia, the cold cynicism.
The menacing voice from Sam interrupted this thought. “I mean it. Drop the gun. You know perfectly well I can break her neck before the bullet exits the barrel.” He squeezed her neck, and she bit back a cry.
Frank shrugged then pointed the end of the gun away. He was beginning to kneel down to place the gun at his feet when Saya heard a raw cry to her right and felt, rather than saw, Trevor slam into Sam, who pulled her down with him as he fell.
Feeling Sam release his hold on her, she scrambled backwards on her hands and knees as Frank loomed into view. Then she heard another soft pop, pop. And Sam, whose face she now saw for the first time since this morning at WelCo, shuddered twice––then lay still.
Chapter Seven
Saya stood up but couldn’t take her eyes off of the man lying on the ground. He looked so insignificant and small…not the giant who’d effortlessly controlled her every move for what had seemed like hours. Frank did something to release her hands, and Saya began to rub her wrists, which were already purple with bruises. He then cut Trevor free from the plastic handcuffs and bent over to pick up her computer.
“Are you okay?” Trevor came over and gently touched her bruises.
“We have to go, now!” Frank pushed him away and grabbed Saya by a wrist. Ignoring her yelp of pain, he began to pull her towards the door to the building. He didn’t seem to care if Trevor followed them or not. In fact, Trevor disappeared for a few moments around the curve of the balcony. What was he doing?
As Frank stood holding the door open, she stopped until Trevor reappeared. “Come on,” she yelled, waving at Trevor to catch up. She wasn’t going anywhere without hi
m. Not after what he’d done to save her.
Frank pulled her through the door into the lobby and then hustled her around to the stairway exit. He was moving surprisingly fast for such a large man.
Saya was suddenly furious. She wasn’t going to let one more man push her around. She shouted, “Stop,” and ripped her hand out of Frank’s grip and backed away. “I’m not going anywhere with you until you tell me what is going on. Who are you, really? Who do you work for? How did you…?”
She looked at Frank’s stony expression, and all hope that Trevor had been wrong about him evaporated. She whispered, “I know all the answers to those questions, don’t I?”
He just looked at her. No attempt to explain or apologize for the three years of lies. No sign of remorse … not even a shrug. And she knew that was her answer, but she still had to put it in words. “You are working for her, aren’t you? You have been all along.”
“Unless you want to spend the night in jail explaining those dead bodies to the cops, we have to leave, right now.” His face remained emotionless.
“Come on, Saya.” Trevor was at her side, putting his arm around her shoulders. “We can talk about this once we get away from here.”
She nodded mutely and let him guide her into the stairwell, and they began going down, Frank coming right behind them.
The Space Needle seemed much taller than it had been when they flew up in the glass elevator, and she became dizzy as they spiraled down floor after floor. Once they hit the ground floor, Frank motioned for them to be quiet as he moved over to a large metal door with an exit sign.
Saya glared at him.
Frank pushed the door open slowly, his gun again in his hand. After a few seconds, he motioned for them to follow him. Once they were outside, he said, “My car is in the parking garage across the street. If we pass anybody, just keep your heads down and don’t say a word.”
Trevor nodded and took Saya’s hand, giving her an encouraging smile, but she couldn’t smile back. All she could think about was what a fool she’d been. As they walked across the nearly deserted plaza towards the street, she remembered how proud she’d been about escaping her mother, making a life for herself here in Seattle on her own terms. Getting the job at Welco. Then Frank calling her and saying that human resources at WelCo had recommended her for a part-time evening job at his shop … which gave her enough income to move into a small studio apartment in one of the better districts. Just down the street from Frank’s shop. Right on a commuter line to Welco.
It was all a lie. She had me in her clutches the entire time. My job at the shop. Probably even the job at Welco. The money I made. All of it was because of her––pulling the strings. How stupid could I be not to see it before? How did I not know all along?
They entered the parking garage, following Frank through row after row of personal electric cars hooked up to chargers. Finally, Frank went and stood next to one of the most expensive ones, a Chandler. A car that a man like Frank shouldn’t have been able to afford. Saya’s head swam, and she thought she was going to throw-up. She stopped and leaned over, putting her head in her hands.
Trevor said, “What’s wrong?”
“It was all an illusion,” she muttered, choking on the words.
“An illusion?” Trevor sounded confused.
It was all too much. She had to get away, not let the bastard see her cry, so she straightened up and began to run back the way they’d come, ignoring Trevor’s cry for her to stop. She heard footsteps chasing after her, but she just ran faster until she reached the street. She felt the chill night air touch her face, cooling her hot tears. She closed her eyes and tilted her face up, up to the city lights of a thousand buildings, holding millions of people. People living their own lives, dealing with their own problems, feeling their own heartaches.
“Saya?” Trevor’s kind voice and the light touch of his hand on her shoulder broke her trance.
She turned and looked at his warm green eyes, and she threw herself onto his chest, sobbing. He wrapped his arms around her and rocked her gently, murmuring soft reassurances. She finally began to get control, and she spoke into the soft material of his hoodie, “He was working for her the whole time. I am such an idiot.”
“No. No you are not.” He pushed her away from the safety of his chest so he could look her in the eye. “No you are not,” he repeated, taking the end of his sleeve to gently wipe away the tears from her face.
“But I am. Three years I worked for Frank. Three years! I told him everything. My worries about money, my triumphs at work, the guys I dated. And now I know I was talking to her the whole time. Or might as well have been.”
“Hey, you don’t know if he told her all that stuff. I don’t see Frank as the type to go into that kind of detail.”
“Bullshit. My mother wouldn’t assign someone to watch me this close and not get every scrap of information she could. I am such a fool! I thought I got the job with him based on my abilities! I thought he actually cared about me … that his lack of emotion was just the way he was. Now I know it was all a job for him. I was an assignment.”
Now she was getting angry again as she thought of all the times she had confided in the big man. “How did I not see this? He acted like he didn’t know shit about computers, but then why would he have a tech repair shop? He looks like a freaking special ops fighter. How did I not see it?!?”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. How could you have known?”
Saya scoffed. “You knew something was off about him as soon as you met him. You knew he was bad news. And I didn’t listen.”
“Well, why would you believe me? You barely know me, and he’s been your boss for three years. I mean, who goes around thinking their employer is some sort of paid informant.”
“You don’t know my mother. I should have known. There was no way she would have just given up looking for me. I should have at least left the country. I didn’t even change my name that much when I bought the forged papers.” She groaned. “From some guy in Chicago who was probably also in her employ! I hate her so much!”
“I must say, she takes stalking your kid to a whole new level. A level I didn’t even know existed. But other than that, what was her crime? Did she, or Frank for that matter, force you do anything during those three years?”
Saya thought about it but couldn’t come up with anything … except maybe a couple of guys she broke things off with sooner than she might have without Frank’s encouragement. But she wasn’t going to bring that up with Trevor, so she said, reluctantly, “Well, I guess not.”
“She had surveillance on you and that is creepy, but she didn’t harm you during that time. She just observed, right?”
Saya sighed. He was being so reasonable. She didn’t want to be reasonable.
“So why don’t you let Frank take us to her? Let her explain.”
“What! I will never take another thing from that woman. What I need is a restraining order. I don’t want anything from her ever again.”
“Have you forgotten what is going on? What would have happened if Frank hadn’t come after us?”
Saya’s heart constricted as she pictured Palmer about to throw Trevor to his death, and she took a deep breath and said, “Trevor, you’re right. I’m sorry. I expect you think I’m a child, complaining about my mother. But you can see that we can’t trust her. There has to be another way.”
“There isn’t. You know that. We have tried all night to think of another way. And maybe Frank wasn’t about her trying to control you. Maybe it was all based on her fears. I mean she did lose your father, your brother … you are the only family she has left.”
Saya remembered those bad months, before her mother sent her away to boarding school. Living in house that was unbearably silent and empty. She flashed on coming up on her mother holding her brother’s stuffed mouse … staring at it with reddened eyes. How thin her mother had looked. She had smiled … hadn’t she … once upon a time?
Trevo
r continued, “What if she simply couldn’t stand not knowing how you were? What if she sent Frank, not to influence you, but to protect you while you lived your own life away from her?”
Saya shook her head. Could I be wrong about her? About Frank? She thought about Frank sitting and patiently listening to her. He never told her what she should do or fixed any problem she was having. He just listened. Could Trevor be right?
He then took her hands gently and said, “But either way, we have to get off this street and out of this city. And that means we need to go with Frank. He can protect you…I can’t.”
All of a sudden, Saya remembered the destroyed drive, and she said, “Oh Trevor, we don’t have drive anymore. That was going to be our leverage with my mom. Without it, how can we trust her?”
Trevor gave her an odd smile and pulled something out of his pocket.
She gasped. “Is that the drive? How…”
“I made a copy while we were at Frank’s shop and hid it temporarily in a bench at the Space Needle.”
“That’s awesome.”
Saya then noticed that Trevor was looking over her shoulder, and when she turned, she saw that Frank was standing in the shadows. Just waiting.
“All right, let’s get this over with,” she said.
Chapter Eight
They rode together in complete silence. Trevor was in the back seat with Saya. Frank was up front watching the road, monitoring the Chandler. Chandlers were top of the line, all-terrain vehicles and were solar-powered, completely automated, and could hover on every surface, including water up to four feet. They could reach speeds of a hundred miles an hour and had fully integrated sound, game consoles, and video players. And if Trevor was interpreting the icons on the touch screen in front of him correctly, it also brewed coffee or tea. And probably cost a million dollars.
The closest that he had ever gotten to riding in something technologically this cool was when his roommate, Matt, gave him a ticket to see an exclusive premier showing of the most recent VR version of Grand Theft Auto for his birthday. That was before Matt’s accident and his slide into drug-addled poverty.
The Stars are Red Tonight: The Paradisi Chronicles Page 7