by Amy Cross
Cassie stands and waits, listening to the faint bumps that emerge as Anders disappears into the darkness. She trusts him, of course; she's always trusted him, through the bad times as well as the good. The thought of climbing down into the darkness of the building, however, is far from appealing. Looking up, she stares once again at the rich red sky, and she reaches out to touch some of the pinkish-white wisps that are drifting all around. For a moment she's lost in thought, imagining her daughter out there across the city, hoping that she's looking up at the same sky.
Then, realizing that she's waited long enough, she starts climbing into the vent, and the red haze is quickly replaced by the sheer darkness of the building's interior. And as she starts slithering down after Anders, Cassie knows that there's no way back, that she's soon going to come face to face once again with Michael Essien. And then she's going to kill him.
She can already feel the old fury stirring in the depths of her soul.
Chapter ThirtyThree
12:30am
“Here?”
“Here.”
“What if he can hear us?”
“I doubt that.”
“But what if he can?”
“Then be ready to fight, the second your feet touch the floor.”
“Can you see anything?”
“Almost nothing.”
“Then -”
“We're wasting time, Cassie. It's now or never.”
“Do you now the layout of the apartment?”
“Pretty much. And there'll be some light from the windows.”
“But is -”
“We're doing this. Are you ready, Cassie?”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
Chapter ThirtyFour
12:35am
A pair of legs slowly, silently drops down from the open vent on the ceiling. Silhouetted against the window, the legs are followed by the torso of a man, and finally Anders Holl hangs for a moment and looks around to check that nobody is nearby in the darkness.
He waits.
Silence.
Finally he drops down, landing cleanly. His feet make a slight bumping sound on the floor, and he immediately freezes and looks around, again checking in case something moves in the shadows. Then, hearing a scuffing sound above, he steps aside and looks up, and he watches as Cassie follows him out of the vents.
She drops down, and Anders grabs her shoulder to steady her.
At first, they don't dare move. They don't even dare breathe.
Outside, the red night sky is still churning. Inside, the apartment is dark and silent, with no hint that anybody else is around.
Cassie looks at Anders.
He's still watching the shadows, still alert for the slightest bump or flicker of movement.
Cassie turns and looks along the corridor. She can just about make out several doorways leading off into other rooms, but the red haze from the window provides very little light.
Suddenly Anders taps her arm.
She turns and finds that he's pointing toward something on the floor. They exchange a brief glance, and then they quietly step over and crouch down.
Anders reaches out with a gloved hand and touches the patch of darkness, and then he lifts his hand and sniffs the liquid that's smeared on several fingertips. Once he's identified the smell, he lets Cassie try too. She immediately understands what they've found.
Blood.
Not just here, either.
There's more blood smeared on the floor nearby, and then Anders and Cassie both notice – at the same time – several items that have been left close to the sofa.
They crawl over and find a pile of blood-stained clothes.
Anders looks at Cassie.
She looks at him.
They both turn and look around, but there's still no sign of anyone.
Cassie turns back to Anders.
He turns to her, and after a moment he nods.
Cassie nods too.
They both understand now.
Essien is definitely somewhere in the apartment.
Spotting something else, Anders stays low and crawls around Cassie, making his way past the sofa and over toward a dark shape in front of a nearby door. As he gets closer, he sees a pair of shoes attached to a pair of legs, and then he stops as he realizes that he's found a body. He waits, watching for any sign of life, but somehow deep down he already knows that this man is dead.
He hears Cassie crawling over to join him.
Taking care to not make a sound, Anders slips a gun from his belt before crawling around the body. He soon finds himself kneeling in a pool of blood, and he can tell that something seems wrong with the body's shape. There's blood on the bottom of the door, as well, but still Anders doesn't quite know what he's found. Then, as the red lights briefly brighten in the sky, Anders spots the top of the man's neck and sees that the head is missing.
The lights darken again, but Anders continues to stare at the spot where there should be a head.
Thinking that perhaps he's wrong, he reaches out and touches the side of the neck, and then he moves his fingertips up until they reach the edge where the head was severed. He forces himself to feel the stump, and finally his fingers brush against something hard that he assumes must be the top of the exposed spine. His fingertips press briefly into the still-bloody meat, and then he looks through the gap in the doorway.
The next room is completely dark.
Somebody could be standing ten feet away, and Anders wouldn't be able to see them.
He briefly considers pushing the door all the way open and hoping for some light, but at the last moment he decides to be more cautious. He can't risk a sudden attack, so he pulls back. His mind is racing, and he knows that he can't risk lighting a match. Then again, would that really give away his location? He's fairly sure that a nearby observer would already be aware of him, in which case the light from a match would make precious little difference. What it could do, however, is spur an observer to make a move, which he figures could be good. All these thoughts and more rush through his head as he tries to decide what to do next, and finally he comes to one important understanding:
He has to do something.
Taking a deep breath, he reaches into his pocket and takes out the first box of matches. Before he can open the box, he feels a tap on his leg, and he turns to see Cassie staring at him. She looks at the box, then she meets his gaze again, as if she's worried about what he's going to do next.
He nods, to give her some reassurance, and then he carefully opens the box and takes out a match. He hesitates, still worried that this might be a mistake, then he strikes the match against the side of the box.
In the silence of the apartment, the match makes a loud noise as it bursts to life, and the light seems so much brighter than Anders had expected.
He looks around, but there's no sign of anyone, and then he turns and holds the match up.
A flickering light is cast through into the apartment's kitchen. There's more blood on the floor, but Anders tilts the match and quickly determines that there's no-one in the immediate vicinity, although he can't be sure that a figure isn't lurking behind the door.
He takes a moment to consider his next move, and then he reaches out and starts pushing the door all the way open.
The hinges creak and he immediately stops.
He considers his options, and then he pushes the door fully open, while remaining ready to fight if somebody jumps out from the shadows.
The door's handle bumps against the wall.
Anders moves the match around to light the whole kitchen, briefly getting a good look before he has to blow the match out. He immediately strikes another, and then he slowly gets to his feet and steps over to the middle of the kitchen.
Turning, he sees Cassie getting up and following him through.
As the match continues to burn, they both look around and try to spot anywhere that could be used as a hiding place. There are various cupboards, but they
both feel certain that Michael Essien isn't the type of man who'd cower away like a frightened animal.
Michael Essien would fight.
Anders taps Cassie's shoulder and gestures for her to join him in the far corner.
“We have to assume,” he whispers directly into her ear, “that he knows we're here.”
She nods.
“I don't know for sure who that body is,” he continues, “but I'm starting to think that it might be Essien's guard.”
“Who do you think killed him?” Cassie asks.
“Maybe Essien himself.”
“Why would he do that?”
“The man's insane,” he points out. “He hasn't been seen in public for a while now. I've heard stories. Rumors.”
“It couldn't be Essien himself, could it?” she asks. “The body, I mean.”
“The physique isn't right.”
“But -”
Suddenly Anders blows the match out, as it begins to burn his fingertips.
“We're going back out there,” he whispers. “No matches this time. Just darkness. We stick together, we cover each other. Be prepared for him to come from any direction at any time. We might only get one shot.”
She nods.
“And remember,” he continues, “Essien is the only objective here. If something happens and you have to make a choice, you go for the kill. Don't try to save me. Kill Essien. Because I promise you, Cassie, that's my plan. We have to kill this bastard. No matter what happens to either of us.”
“For Tom,” she replies.
“Now let's go,” he says. “We've been in tougher spots before, and we've always come through.”
With that, he turns and starts making his way back across the kitchen, with Cassie right behind. And then, as he reaches the counter, he suddenly stops and looks over at the corner of the room. For a moment, he tilts his head slightly as he tries to make out the shadows, and he begins to wonder whether perhaps there could be somebody hiding in the darkness.
Still gripping his gun, he takes a step forward, and then he relaxes as he sees that the 'shape' is nothing more than a couple of boxes.
A moment later Cassie taps his arm, and he turns to her.
Her eyes are filled with fear, and she quickly points across the room.
It takes a moment, but finally Anders realizes what she's pointing at.
A head.
There's a severed human head resting close to the decapitated body, but a shiver runs through Anders' chest as he realizes that the head was definitely not there a few minutes ago, which can only mean one thing.
Somebody silently placed the head in position while Anders and Cassie were talking.
He turns to Cassie, but all he can make out now is her silhouette.
Out in the apartment's main room, the faint red glow shifts and lightens as the sky continues to churn. The light soon fades again, but in that brief moment there's just enough of a glow for the side of the severed head to become visible. Anders and Cassie both stare at the bloated, swollen eyes and the blood-stained features, before the light fades once more.
For almost a minute, Anders and Cassie remain completely still, as if neither of them knows what to do next. They both understand that the head has been placed in this position deliberately, that it's a message of some sort. Finally, slowly, Anders starts walking across the kitchen until he's right in front of the decapitated head, and then he looks through into the apartment's main room.
He waits, but there's no sign of anyone so he steps over the head and takes another look around.
The red glow from the window is still churning, still flickering from light to dark with each passing second. This at least allows Anders to get an idea of the room's layout, although he can't quite pick out the shadows. He hears Cassie stepping up behind him, but still he waits until finally he makes his way back over to the pile of clothes and looks around once more.
As the glow changes, the shadows seem to shift and dance.
Anders grips the handle of his gun.
Cassie makes her way over to join him. She's holding a gun too, poised in case Essien makes his move.
Tapping Cassie's arm, Anders forces her to step back with him so that they're not quite so exposed. He's worried that Essien might be lurking nearby with a gun of his own, ready to take them both out. He knows that in that situation he'd only get a fraction of a second in which to fire back, and that at the very least he or Cassie would likely take a hit. Then again, he remembers from the old days that Essien was known to have a poor aim, so he figures that this is one of the few factors that might give them hope.
He turns and looks toward the -
Suddenly he hears a clicking sound, and at that same moment he spots a human figure on the far side of the room. Spinning around, he raises his gun and fires straight at the figure, hitting it not only with his first shot but also with his second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth. He only stops firing when the old gun – specifically chosen because of its reliability – is out of ammunition, and then he stares for a moment as the figure remains standing.
Panicking, he starts reloading the gun, but then Cassie taps his shoulder.
“Shoot him!” he hisses.
“Anders, it's not -”
“Shoot the bastard!”
“Anders -”
“Do it!”
“It's a painting!”
He opens his mouth to reply to her, but then he freezes as he looks back toward the figure. The reddish glow swells for a moment, allowing him to make out a frame around the figure's edges, and he realizes that Cassie's right.
The 'figure' is actually a life-size portrait of a man. Probably of Essien himself, Anders figures.
Sighing, he looks back down and continues to reload his gun, although his hands are trembling slightly. He knows that the gunshots will not only have drawn attention to his position, but that they'll also have given Essien some encouragement.
Grabbing Cassie's arm, he forces her to follow him across the room, changing their position in the hope that he can at least keep Essien on the wrong foot.
They stop at the entrance to the corridor. Looking toward the end, they can see that all the doors remain shut, which at least will make it more difficult for Essien to catch them by surprise. As he looks at each of the doors in turn, Anders can't help but wonder whether Essien might have retreated into one of the other rooms, in which case they're going to have to check each of them one by one.
In ordinary circumstances, he'd never consider searching the rooms like that. There'd be far too many dangers, it'd be like walking straight into a trap. Tonight, however, he knows that waiting things out isn't an option. If anything, waiting is probably Essien's preferred strategy, so Anders knows that he and Cassie are going to have to be bold.
“Fuck,” he mouths silently, but he's already trying to figure out how they're going to get this done.
He turns to Cassie, and he gives her the hand signal that they used to use in the old days, when they were going to clear multiple locations in a quick, coordinated sequence.
She immediately nods.
She understands.
As Anders turns and looks at the nearest door, he feels the old rush returning, the feeling that he used to get when he was out on operations. He knows that he doesn't have to stop and explain everything to Cassie, and that she already anticipates everything he's about to do, so he simply steps forward and reaches out for the handle, and then he pushes the door open before stepping aside and listening for any sign that somebody might be in the pitch-black room.
He waits, but he hears nothing.
He can feel his heart pounding, and he's still not quite sure how to clear the room when there's no light. Using a match would just be a way of making himself an easier target, but after a moment he takes the box of matches from his pocket and then crouches down.
He lights a match, and then he quickly puts it on the floor just inside the room, and then he pulls back.
After a few seconds, he begins to peer through the doorway. At first he sees a desk and some shelves, and then he spots what looks like a bed over by a window. There isn't really anywhere for a person to hide, so after a moment Anders gets to his feet and steps into the room, looking around as the match continues to burn. Finally he turns to Cassie and sees that she's focused on the other doors, watching to make sure that Essien can't launch a surprise counter-attack.
So far, so good, but Essien is still around somewhere.
Anders crushes the match with his boot as he steps out of the room. He slips past Cassie and looks at the opposite door, which he figures might as well be the next one that he tries. He steps forward, already planning to enter this room in the same manner he used for the first, while remembering that at any moment Essien might suddenly make his move.
He pauses for a moment, before pushing the door open and stepping aside.
Looking over his shoulder, he sees that Cassie is still covering him, so he turns back to the door and then he lights another match. All he sees ahead is darkness, so after a moment he crouches down and places the match on the floor before taking a step back. His gun is still raised, ready to fire if he spots any movement, but now he can see that the room is empty.
He steps forward and peers inside, but there's nothing to see except four bare walls.
After putting the match out, he moves along to the next room and follows the same procedure. This time he finds himself in a small gym, with various bikes and rowing machines arranged in front of a mirror. There are weights on racks by the wall, and various mats and ropes are hanging from hooks.
He crushes the match with his heel and then steps out, heading to the next door. As he reaches for the handle, he glances over his shoulder to check that Cassie is still close.
She's gone.
He looks around, but there's no sign of her at all.
For a couple of seconds he tells himself that he's wrong, that she's just standing in the shadows, but then he realizes that he was right after all. There's no sign of Cassie in the corridor at all and – although he immediately opens his mouth to call out to her – he manages at the last second to keep quiet.