Even if there was no way of getting my wife back, I could still find Anna. Then, we would run from this city and go back to that old cabin. The two of us would spend the rest of our days there and forget the world. I was done with this city and its bullshit. I'd thought about going to that cabin and spending my dying days there alone, but I always came back to this shithole of a city. I didn't know why I always came back, but I did.
“Is something the matter?” Mona asked from behind me.
I swung around and grunted bitter words beneath my breath. “I'm fine,” I said. “Shouldn't you be going?”
“Yes, yes,” it said, bowing its head.
It turned around and walked off. I didn't want her to stay, but I didn’t want her to go. It was a complex of emotions that I didn’t care enough to understand. I stepped out into the hallway and watched as it escaped through my front door, shutting it softly. I waited and groaned. I was alone again.
I stepped back onto my balcony and lit a cigarette. It wouldn't be long now. I wondered what Anna would say when we reunited. I had so much to tell her that I didn't know where to start. God, I swore that I could hear her giggle again. I just kept telling myself how close I was to finding her. She was in this city, and she was in danger.
After I finished my cigarette, I stepped into the kitchen, brewed a pot of coffee and made some toast slathered in honey butter, my favorite breakfast. I sat down on my gray couch, stained with splotches of coffee, and watched the television.
A couple news broadcasts showed a two-day-long riot a couple blocks from my apartment. I was so sick of hearing about these riots. These people just needed to shut up and accept that society was an unfair bitch.
Andy appeared on the screen with a reporter standing next to him. I cocked my brows, wondering what kind of idealistic bullshit that Andy was going to spew.
“People have to understand,” said Andy. “These riots are separate from our peaceful protests. We are not violent people. I know that we have a bad reputation. I know that people don't trust us, but they are wrong. They need to understand that-”
He was cut off, and the news broadcast switched to a different reporter who was interviewing the red-haired protester, Max.
“Our people are sick of being beaten down, lied to, and abused!” Max said. “It is time for justice in this damn city!”
Several protesters roared behind him as they waved around signs and torches.
“We are the resistance, and we will destroy all of those Elites,” he said. “We will kill all of them. Their rule is over. Mattis' rule is over. The resistance has just begun!” The protesters roared louder, and then, shots rang out in the back.
I watched as policemen swarmed the area, gunning down the rioters. Max continued to scream his rhetoric into the camera. Then, the footage went dark. After a few seconds, the news switched to a different, lighter story.
I bit into my toast and watched Governor Mattis discuss a new museum he was opening for Elite children. He talked so elegantly and grinned at the end of every sentence. I didn't particularly like the man, but most Commoners hated him. He may be a smug and arrogant but at least he paid well.
I sipped my coffee and finished my toast. Then I glanced down at my watch. It was 11:47. I still had plenty of time before I had to go to the school. Still, I figured I could go to my office. Maybe I'd get a chance to look at Anna's file again and see things from a new perspective.
Either way, I knew I was close to being with my daughter again. I would find Anna, and I would kill the people who took her away from me. Whoever they were, they deserved no sympathy.
Chapter 9
Iwalked onto the streets and jumped into my sedan. I lit another cigarette. As I lay my head back, I thought about Anna. I could see her, almost as if she was standing before me. I wanted to tell her that I was coming for her. We were going to be a family again.
I reached over into the glove box and went to take a swig of whiskey, but my flask was empty. I cursed. The flask fell onto the passenger seat. I sighed and thought about Anna. If she was really still out there, maybe I should stop drinking so much. I couldn't be a bad influence on her. She needed to be raised properly.
I drove back to my office and plopped my ass down on that comfortable chair of mine.
I glanced through some of the documents and saw an old file I had on the former school principal, Principal Jefferson. Just looking back at this old file reminded me of Principal Vernon. Both of them were weasels. Those men churned my goddamn stomach. I regretted not having killed Principal Vernon last night, but I couldn't get locked away in prison, not when Anna was still out there.
I recalled a year ago when I interviewed the former principal of the school, Principal Jefferson. According to him, he knew nothing about my daughter's disappearance. I did whatever I could to get information out of him, but alas, I was a failure. I still remember interrogating him and bashing his head into the side of the school, leaving the man permanently scarred. The police visited that school, arrested me, and sent me down to the rodent-infested jail cell. I was there, for about a week, until Mattis arrived and released me.
By then, it was too late. That's when I really started thinking irrationally, losing my mind, bit by bit. I needed something to take my mind off the pain. That's when I started drinking so much. That was when I started taking pills. Knowing that I had failed in the case that meant the most to me totally destroyed me. I needed something to take the pain away, and the alcohol didn't cut it.
I looked at another folder and saw some data detailing potential suspects who all worked at that school. It was a bunch of teachers, all interconnected with a dozen notes that I wrote. According to my notes, nobody knew anything.
I looked at another file of pictures that I took. The faded pictures were of the school. My observations never turned up anything. They were all just boring pictures of that rundown school.
There were pictures of children playing on the playground, pictures of the school's exterior, and pictures of the school parking lot. There was nothing of note here. Still, I tried looking for a clue or something to help me find her. The trail couldn't run cold. Not again. I continued flipping through the pictures while thinking so hard that my brain ached.
Then, my door flung open.
To my surprise, Marie Harper, President of the Genesis Corporations, stepped in. I cocked my brows, not expecting an Elite like her to come around here. She was cloaked in a long trench coat and wore a black scarf that concealed half her face. A dark cap cast a shade over her dark eyes. She stepped forth with two armed men behind her.
“Mr. Abrams,” she said as she offered her hand. I shook it reluctantly. “I really need your help.”
I stood and groaned. I didn't have time for this, and I had to appear as disinterested as humanly possible.
“I don't have the time for this,” I said. “I was just about to leave, actually.”
“You don't understand,” she said. The Elite cleared her throat. “One of my employees has been stealing corporate information and selling it. I need you to figure out who's behind this. Name your price, and I'll match it.”
“I told you,” I said. “I don't have the time. I'm in the middle of a job right now.”
“Drop the job,” she said. “I'll pay you double what they're paying you. No, triple!”
She sure was insistent, but I couldn't take her case. I had much more important things to do. Whatever she was paying me, it wouldn't be enough. Anna could still be out there, and I couldn't put a price on my daughter.
“It's more complicated than that,” I said as I walked past her and the two men. I stepped into the doorway and turned around. She swung around and grabbed my arm. “Let me go.”
“I thought you worked for the highest bidder,” she said. “I need someone to catch this traitor, and you said it yourself, Quincy, you're the best.”
I wasn't the best. At the end of the day, I was still just a Commoner. Many Elites were smarter than me,
but they just didn't want to get their hands dirty like me. I was sure she could find someone decently suited for the job, willing to take an industrial espionage case. Not to mention, she was wasting her time with someone like me. I wasn't going to take the case. I didn't care about the money, not this time.
“This is different,” I said.
“How? How is this different?” she said. “You don't even know what the job is. There's a traitor in my company. Somebody has been selling corporate information, and I need him eliminated. I don't care how you do it. Please, I need your help, Quincy. I'm desperate. Someone is trying to undermine me. Again, I'll match whatever your price is.”
“You're wasting your time,” I said. “Get out of here. I have to get going.” She frowned. “The answer is still ‘no’. I don't care about the money this time, okay?” She frowned, and I rolled my eyes.
I led her out of my office and hopped into my sedan, ready to drive to the school. I was one step closer to getting Anna back, and would kill anyone to have my daughter back.
Later that day, I drove onto the cracked pavement behind the school and waited. There, I watched some kids play outside on the grass while laughing merrily. A few of their teachers leaned against the concrete building smoking a cigarette.
I glanced at my watch and saw that I was an hour ahead of schedule. I waited, leaning back. My stomach begged for a drop of alcohol, but alas, my flask was still empty.
I stared out the windows of my sedan and watched the children play some more. Back when I was a kid, I just kept to myself. I didn't have time to deal with the other children. They didn't understand me, and I didn't care to understand them. To me, I was better off being alone. They always talked about me behind my back, but I just let them talk. I didn’t care what they said about me. I enjoyed being by myself, anyway. After all, being alone was so much better.
Of course, there were always people like Andy, who always wanted to be your friend. God, he was so annoying. He always tried to talk to me. He was constantly trying to start up conversations about anything. Nothing was more annoying than incessant small talk.
It was nearing 3:00. The kids would be leaving soon. I watched some more of the children play in this rusty playground. The teachers continued to smoke what must've been their third cigarettes by this point. A black unmarked car pulled into the parking lot ahead, and three men stepped out of the vehicle. They rushed inside, and I waited. I sat leaning behind the dashboard, peering out ahead.
Dozens of children continued to play on the playground, laughing and toying with one another. I glanced around and noticed that one boy with curly brown hair and a face dotted with freckles sat in the corner. He pouted as the other children played.
Shortly after, the kids funneled out into the streets. I eyed the kids, looking for Jack. Then I saw him as he walked among the other children. His curly hair bounced with every step. I watched the suited men step out of the building. They hopped back into the sedan and sped toward the kids. The children parted in the street to make way for the sedan. The vehicle parked near the kid. A man stepped out of the vehicle. He walked in front of Jack, and grabbed the kid by his collar. The man gestured toward the vehicle. The kid nodded, and the two of them stepped into the sedan. The vehicle drove off.
I waited until the car was exiting my view before choosing to follow them. I couldn't make it obvious that I was trailing them. These people were bastards who abducted children. I could only imagine what they would do to me.
I drove through block after block, following them fairly close, but never too close. Their vehicle was a standard Commoner vehicle, similar to my own car. The man who had talked to Jack looked like a Commoner.
They took a sharp right turn toward the docks. It had been years since I'd been down there. On the docks, people sold any drug you could imagine. The cops rarely came down here. They didn't have the time or resources. Not to mention, most of the people who resided around these docks were Commoners. As long as the Commoners weren't harming Elites, the police didn't care what the Commoners did.
I drove through the sunbaked streets. The freshly paved roads soon became cracked, dilapidated concrete. The car took another right and drove to a tall iron shack. I parked from afar and stepped out of the car.
The salty sea air stung my nostrils. Large wooden crates, snuggled by entangled weeds, lay strewn about the steel docks. A few tall shacks, speckled with copper rust, stood beside the ocean. Their wide windows were half shattered and stained with a sickly yellow.
Several rusted carrier ships bobbed in the ocean. Each ship was loaded with stacked boxes. A few men, each covered in tribal tattoos, stood around the ships huffing on a cigarette. Each of them had a gun in a hip-mounted holster.
A few homeless men with wiry salt-and-pepper beards sat around nearby, shirtless. Scars and wounds lined their torsos. One of them stared up at me with a lazy eye. His right eyelid drooped as he laughed at me. His chipped teeth were stained an ugly yellow.
I walked closer to the kidnappers’ sedan, using the crates as cover. I stopped and listened to them, peeking over the edge of a crate.
A ragged man stood talking to some old fair-skinned man who had cotton-white hair curled behind his ears. The old man wore an elegant black suit lined with streaks of gold. His skin was ghostly pale as if he was a corpse. He stepped toward the old man in pointy black shoes that shimmered in the afternoon sun.
The old man was an Elite, no doubt about it. He was too perfect-looking to ever pass as a Commoner. I could tell from his white hair and slight wrinkles that he was a man well into his sixties, but he'd aged too gracefully. His genetics and potential cosmetic surgery allowed for such a graceful transformation. When he smiled with his pearly white teeth, I winced. He was disgusting. I didn't care who he was, but he was a child abductor, and he'd probably kidnapped my Anna. It took hefty restraint to keep me from running over and bashing his face in.
A woman stepped out of a wooden shack and approached them. Her wrinkled body hunched over her wobbling, wooden cane. Aside from a few strands of shriveled white hair, her head was completely bald. Wrinkles had etched their way into her sagging skin. An old black gown loosely draped off her frail body.
“I have the kid,” the Elite said in a smooth, deep voice that made him sound like a news broadcaster. “He's to go onto the ship Leviathan. We've fulfilled our end of the bargain.”
“Indeed,” the woman said in a creaky voice. She tapped her stick down onto the steel ground. “Now, let me see the lad.”
“Of course,” said the Elite. He stepped toward a car door and opened it. The man dragged out the boy who now lay asleep. He set the child on the floor. Those bastards must have drugged the boy. “He's a good-looking kid. I'm sure he'll fetch a high price.”
“Oh, for sure!” she said.
“Get the kid on the boat after he’s prepped,” the man said. “He's to be out of the city by midnight.” He stuck his nose up as if he'd smelled something rotten. The man glanced around and gagged. “I’m done here.” He turned toward the car and stepped toward the driver's door. “Bring us the money when the transaction is complete.” He stepped in the car and drove off.
Fetch a high price? The thought sickened me. They were selling these children off, but why? I couldn't imagine why someone would want to buy a kid who wasn't genetically modified. It seemed like a ridiculous concept, one that I couldn't wrap my brain around, no matter how hard I tried. I knew one thing, I had to get this child back. He might know something about his abduction that could be a key to finding Anna.
A thought soured my mind. If they were shipping this child away, Anna could've been shipped away as well. My daughter could be anywhere in the world right now. She could be in some dangerous third-world nation without my help. My hands clenched into sweaty fists just as I thought of how disgusting these people were.
I gazed over at the elderly woman. From the looks of it, that woman was just being forced to do their bidding. I saw that ragged, old
smile she kept smeared across her face. She wasn't innocent. It was like she enjoyed what she was doing, and she could've had a part in Anna's kidnapping. I wanted to attack her, make her talk, and force her into answering any questions I had.
I took a breath and stepped back. I couldn't let my fury cloud my judgment, not like last time. If I let my emotions dictate my actions too much, then I would never see Anna again.
The old woman snapped a hand, and the men on the ships rushed over to her. They grabbed the child and carried him into the steel building.
I stared up at the building and knew I was getting that child back.
Chapter 10
Iwaited until nightfall. The crewmen tirelessly lugged crates onto the ships. If I had to guess, they were loading drugs onto the boats. That wasn’t any of my concern.
I watched from behind a crate. A crewman stepped out of the steel warehouse. He fished a cigarette from his pocket and flicked a match. After lighting the cigarette, he took a huff and leaned into a crate. Shadows concealed his frail milky-white physique. He took another huff on the cigarette and scrubbed his knuckles against his mangy beard.
“So, how many do we have going off to Mexico?” asked a voice. A man stepped out from the warehouse. Tattoos of anchors and skulls covered his furry arms.
“We have five kids being shipped out tonight,” the cigarette smoker said, snarling his crooked nose as he spat on the ground. “They’re being prepped in the storage room.”
“Just five?” the voice asked.
“Yeah, work has been fucking slow lately.” The smoker flicked away his cigarette and hacked twice. “I hope it picks up.”
“Yeah, Sherry's real worried 'bout that. This whole business is her goddamn livelihood.”
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