by Nessa Connor
He was glad they’d called the police, just in case Innes eluded them, but the idea of a standoff, of it developing into a full-blown hostage situation scared him. Innes might start killing hostages. Melanie didn’t think he’d hurt the kids. He trusted her judgment on that, but even if she was right he might flip out completely. And short of that, Melanie was at risk. She wasn’t an innocent. In Innes’s twisted mind she was a willing part of the conspiracy to control his son’s mind—to turn his son against him or to have him spy on him.
As he got on his bike, his stomach churned. The idea of losing Melanie, or Carly, and having to face Willow and Jake, made him ill.
I won’t let anything happen to Melanie or Carly. Man up and kick ass.
He looked over at Tiny. “We need to be there way ahead of the cops.”
Tiny nodded at him grimly. “Then let’s do this bad-ass thing,” he said. They kicked their bikes to life and pulled out onto the highway, headed east, going far too fast for it to be safe and far too slow to suit him.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Without any idea if Greg had gotten her call, or if he had any way to use the signal from the phone to track them, Melanie knew she couldn’t just sit around and wait for a rescue. Eventually the police would put up roadblocks, but she had no idea if the bus would even be missed until school was out. By then they might already be beyond a perimeter the police could manage.
She had to hope that her call to Greg did something. As they rolled on she tried to think of a way to signal cars they passed, make a cry for help. With Innes busy giving the terrified driver directions, she looked around for something she could use to make a sign. But then they turned onto an off ramp—he was taking them off the freeway. She’d never been on this road before and had only a vague idea of the geography, but it was a fairly empty road and suddenly there were fewer opportunities to contact anyone, even if she had made a sign.
That the driver was in a panic didn’t help. The small man was shaking violently and steering seemed to be about all he could manage. Innes waving his gun at the driver didn’t do a thing to calm him, and Melanie found herself worrying that he might crash the bus. As Innes was the only one not belted in, that could give them a chance, but at what cost?
With the bus on its new course, Innes paced the aisle, making sure that everyone stayed seated and ignoring Brian’s plaintive cries. “Dad,please don’t do this. Take us back to school.”
“Brian, you are a disappointment,” he said. After that, the boy sulked in silence.
A few miles out of Lucerne, Innes ordered the driver to turn left on a secondary road that seemed to lead into the Mojave Desert. The bus wasn’t air conditioned and it was hot. The students were frightened and several of them were about to get sick.
“Where are you taking us?” she finally demanded. “These children are getting sick. Surely you don’t have an argument with them.”
Turning on her, he pointed the gun in her face. Looking down the barrel of a weapon was a new and terrifying experience. “If everyone behaves, we’ll stop soon enough.”
“We’re in the desert without water,” she huffed.
He laughed. “You don’t think I’d carry out an operation without a plan, do you? I have water and food arranged. If the authorities play it smart, no one needs to get hurt at all.”
To save her strength and so that he’d take his gun out of her face, she sat back in her seat and looked out the window, looking out over the scrub land. Out here, Innes had the advantage that he could see someone coming for miles. There was little traffic beyond the occasional semi or pickup truck.
She sensed they were nearing the destination he’d chosen. Innes began paying less attention to the passengers and started staring out the window. After a bit he went to the front of the bus, gesturing with his gun. “You see that old gas station up there on the left?”
The driver peered through the windshield. “That old thing falling down?”
Melanie saw two buildings. One was an ancient Mexican restaurant with a sign advertising burritos. The other was an old-fashioned gas station. Both buildings were run down—they’d been abandoned years ago.
Malcolm put his hand on the driver’s shoulder. “That’s the place. Pull in there, and drive straight into the garage bay.”
As they slowed and Malcolm Innes focused on getting the driver to put the bus where he wanted it, Melanie used her foot to drag her phone out from under the seat. She looked at it and sighed. The screen was blank. The phone was dead and she had no idea how long it had been off. Of course, they were in the middle of nowhere, and it was entirely possible they’d had no phone service for some time anyway. Reception had to be spotty out here. She had to hope that Greg had managed to use it to get close to where they were. There was no other way anyone would find them easily.
As the bus came to a stop, Malcolm got off and had the driver close the door.
Melanie gave a quick thought to the emergency exit on the back of the bus. But how could you get a herd of kids out the door quickly? Even if she miraculously led an escape, where would they go?
Innes circled the bus, then poked his head in what had been the station’s office, before coming back to the door of the bus. He hammered on the door with his gun and the driver opened it.
“Children first,” he said. “Get out here, all of you. Bring your things with you. You teachers, driver, if you don’t want anyone hurt, stay in your seats until you are told what to do.
As the students filed off the bus, he sent them to stand by the far wall. Several of them, including Brian, slumped to the floor, leaning against the wall and sobbing. Melanie’s heart went out to them as she watched Carly put her hand on Brian’s shoulder and whisper something to him that made him nod and wipe his eyes.
The girl looked at Melanie, winked. The gesture gave Melanie a flash of hope. Did the girl have something up her sleeve? Then she sat down next to Brian and fumbled with something in her bag. After a moment she brought out a bag of candy, gave some to Brian, then passed it around to the other children. Melanie sighed. At least the candy seemed to have a calming effect on the kids, gave them a touch of normalcy.
“Driver, you get down here,” Innes said gruffly. The man whimpered as he went down the stairs to stand in front of him. “Turn around.” As the man did as he was told, Innes slapped on handcuffs. “Get your ass over with the kids,” he said.
“Now you,” he said, looking up through the open window at Mr. Affir. The man got unsteadily to his feet and, looking like he might pass out, made his way to the front and down the steps. When he was handcuffed and standing with the students he looked at them and pulled himself erect. “Don’t worry. The authorities will rescue us,” he said weakly.
Innes laughed. “Right, you fucking toady. They’ll rescue you right after they figure out where you are, which won’t be until I’m ready for them.” Then he motioned to Melanie. “Your turn, sister.”
Pushing the phone back into hiding under the seat, she stood and came down to face him, putting her hands behind her back before he could tell her to.
“Not you,” he said brusquely, pushing her toward the open garage door. “I need your help.”
“My help? Why would I help you?”
“Because unlike that shit of a civics teacher, I think you care about the kids and don’t want them hurt. You poison their minds with the same crap, but you don’t know it’s crap.” He gestured toward Mr. Affir. “Unlike that asshole. Now close the door. A big yellow bus parked here is too obvious.”
She looked at the door. “You think it still works?”
He grinned. “I know it does.” He pointed to a pulley. “Pull the rope and the door will come down. I serviced it last week.”
She pulled the rope and her heart sank. The door moved effortlessly. The man had done his research and made preparations. The door closed with a final click, darkening the room. “Go to the office,” he said. Then he turned back to the children. “Brian, there is
a cooler in the corner. There are bottles of water in it, plenty for everyone. Pass them out.” He smiled at Melanie. “See. No one has to suffer.”
“What now?” she asked.
“We need to make our demands known.”
* * *
Greg and Tiny pulled off at a rest stop for water and to check in with Luc. “We lost the signal,” he said. “Where are you?” When they told him, they heard some clicks. “The last position I logged isn’t that far from where you are now. You guys were flying and the bus was doing under the speed limit.”
“Do you think they lost reception?”
“Maybe. Or the battery is gone.”
“Or he found the phone.”
“What do you want to do now?”
“Pass along to Cutter than we are in the area and starting a house to house search. Or actually going yard by yard, garage by garage.”
“The old-fashioned way. Got it.”
They mounted up and headed out again.
* * *
As Melanie walked into the dusty gas station office in front of Innes, she saw a small box sitting under a metal desk. “The office wasn’t well equipped, so I made provisions,” he said as he closed the glass door behind them. She gave him a puzzled look. “With the garage bay door closed, this is the only way out of the garage. I welded the back doors shut. Now it’s time to get to work. Get that box out and open it.”
The box contained a laptop. She looked at him. “What do we do with this?”
“We check my Facebook page,” he said.
“Right.”
“Do it.”
Seeing he was serious, she sat in front of the computer and, following his instructions, logged onto his Facebook page. The page was filled with links to anti government sites.
“Okay, I’m there. Now what?”
“Now you post my demands.”
“Demands?” She’d figured this was coming. When he handed her a piece of paper she stared at the list. “Where would they land an airplane?”
He scowled. “It’s a fucking desert. Anywhere.”
She sighed. The demands were lengthy and it was unlikely anyone would meet them, even if they could. But at least he was giving the authorities until morning to comply. That bought them all some time—about sixteen hours. A lot could happen in sixteen hours.
“So you think the authorities will read these?”
He laughed. “They have supercomputers scanning the Internet twenty-four hours a day, collecting every scrap of information. How could they miss my demands?! Once they know the kids are missing it’s the first place they’ll look. And since you’ve told them about me, it should be easy, even for the FBI.”
“I suppose so.” She wasn’t at all sure that was the case.
* * *
Greg stared out over the desert feeling hopeless. “There are enough buildings out here we could spend a week searching.”
“We don’t have a week,” Tiny said. “It’s pitch dark, and even a bus is practically invisible. If we manage to find them, it’ll just be luck. I don’t care so much, but if we pass by the damn thing, we might never find it.”
“It’ll be light again soon.”
Greg’s phone rang and he grabbed it. “It’s Luc. What have you got, man? Please tell me it’s good news.”
“Another caller,” he said, chuckling. “Your clever niece just texted you to say hello and to tell you that the hide and seek game was getting boring. Besides, she’s cold.”
“She’s okay?”
“Seems so. She said to tell you to bring a pizza. I had her make a call and to leave the phone on.”
“You can find her?”
“I’m tracing it now, my friend, as we speak. And let’s see, yes, there it is, and triangulating on the signal, I’ve got her coordinates… I’ll just load that into the map app, and oh yes, there they are. You’re where?”
“We are coming back down the road from I-40 where it connects west of Ludlow. I don’t know the name of the road, but we are halfway to 247.”
“I see it. Damn, you must be almost on top of them.”
“Tell me!”
“Wait until the computer does its zoom thing. Yes, there’s an abandoned gas station and restaurant about two miles down the road, north of you. I think you’ll find the bus there.”
“I didn’t see any bus. It would be hard to hide one out here.”
“No, Luc’s right,” Tiny said. “I remember that place. The garage bay was closed. I should’ve suspected something.”
“Luc, call Cutter and tell him to meet us there as fast as he can get there.”
“Let’s kick ass,” Tiny shouted.
Greg’s heart pounded as he kicked his bike to life and blew out onto the road. Tiny glided into place right alongside him, like a practiced air show act.
Relief and worry tumbled together inside his head. At least Carly was all right. Jake and Willow were dealing with enough without something happening to her. And Melanie? He was just getting used to the idea that she might want to be part of his life and feeling dread wouldn’t help a damn thing.
He pushed the doubt and worry out of his mind. She was either still okay, or not, and he had to be focused on the job, on the here and now. If she was still alive and well, he had to be at the top of his game if she was going to stand a chance to stay that way.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
They had spent a cold night in the garage, the children huddling together in the corner, sharing some blankets that Innes had brought for them. The adults, including Melanie, shivered. Malcolm had stored a padded hunting jacket that he put on. None of the adults slept and Innes paced the floor as he kept watch until the first rays of light.
At dawn, he had Brian pass energy bars out to the children. As they devoured them greedily he untied Melanie and gave her three of the bars. “You feed the adults.” She unwrapped the bars and fed the handcuffed men each a bar, then ate the last one, happy to have something in her stomach.
As the sun rose, Malcolm Innes paced the garage in a figure eight, so that on every circuit he could glance at a cell phone he put on the workbench, ensuring it was still on, and had signal. “I don’t get these damn cops,” he said. “I told them eight in the morning. You’d think they would make the call.”
“You’ve given them your demands. Maybe they are still trying to see what they can do to meet them.”
“But they always use negotiation as a ploy. If they call they think they can trace the signal. They should want to know where we are. This makes no fucking sense.”
Melanie sighed. The reason seemed obvious enough. “What if they didn’t see your message, your demands?”
He stopped and gave her an astonished look. “I posted them on Facebook. You did, anyway.”
“Do you really think they look at every message posted on Facebook? They don’t bother.” His glare told her he thought that was a lie. “They couldn’t monitor it all in real time anyway. Even if they did that would be the federal agents and they wouldn’t know about the missing class yet.”
Malcolm rubbed his face. “Damned inefficient. Typical of government.”
“Why would they be so bad at everything else and good at doing what you want them to do?”
He looked at the bus driver. “Maybe I should video myself shooting him. That might go viral.”
“And you’d be a murderer, not a man representing a cause he believes in.”
“Okay, fair point.” He looked at Brian, who was still whimpering. “What the hell is the matter with you, Brian?”
“I’m scared.”
“I won’t let them hurt you.”
Brian gave him a teary stare. “I’m scared of you, what you are doing. You are hurting everyone. All the parents are worried and the teachers, and now you are talking about shooting people just to get people to listen to you. Of course my friends and teachers and the driver are all scared of you—you’re being crazy.”
“I’ve explained this to you
. I know it isn’t fair, but freedom comes at a price, Brian. Someone has to stand up to them, and let the world know. The government needs to be shown that some people know what they are up to and in a way they can’t hide it.”
“But you are doing worse than what you say the government is doing. You have us all prisoner.”
“You’re my son, not a prisoner.”
“Then I can leave? I can walk out of here?”
“No, but only because we are miles from anywhere. You’d get lost or die of thirst or hunger.”
“So you will force me to stay for my own good?”
“Exactly.”
“And you say that’s the excuse the government gives for what it does. You are doing the same thing.”
Suddenly Innes hand lashed out and his palm caught Brian across the face. He fell to the ground. “Don’t you talk to me that way!”
“You bully!” Melanie screamed at him. “I thought the one thing that might be good about you is that you wouldn’t hurt children.”
Innes looked stunned. “You brainwashed him. You wanted him to provoke me, you bitch.” He waved his gun frantically. “I ought to blow your head off and take a picture of that. I bet that would get attention on Facebook.”
“They’d take it down, Mr. Innes.” This came from Carly. She sounded calm. “Ever since the terrorists posted videos of beheadings, they’ve cracked down on images of violence.”
“You brat.” He spun to face her. “You’re just trying to stop me.”
“Of course I am. You’re being creepy.”
He moved toward her and Melanie shot over to grab his shoulder. He spun, bringing his gun around so that the flat side caught her on the side of the head. The room spun and she crumpled to the ground. Innes pointed his gun at her, her face bright red. “You’ve interfered with me and my family for the last time. She looked up at the blurry figure standing over her and heard a familiar throaty roar.
“I think you’ve got company, Mr. Innes,” Carly said, coming over to where Melanie lay.
As a startled Innes ran to grab a rifle from the bus, Melanie felt an uncontrollable urge to laugh.