The Madison Jennings Series Box Set

by Kiara Ashanti

  “And why would you have kidnapped her?”

  The words stuck in Ihtisham’s throat. He knew what would happen if he spoke them, but he also knew what would happen if he did not speak them. “I . . . because . . . she is really the girl that got away. She has been hiding all these years and has been in my school the entire time. I kidnapped her to tape her death.”

  The blow to his face landed so hard it knocked him off the table. Twin pains from his face and the jarring impact of the floor on his shoulder merged into one rolling wave of agony. Kicks to his side followed in quick succession. “Did she follow you? Answer me!”

  “No, no. Uncle, no she could not. I fled where I had her restrained. She could not have followed me.”

  “If she was restrained, then where did you get this?” Maleek emphasized the question by leaning his knee into the wound he had just cleaned and bound.

  “She . . . she broke free and managed to shoot me with some sort of arrow gun,” Ihtisham managed to bite out. “But she could not follow me, of that I am sure. She may call the police; however, I am the only one she knows of.”

  Maleek stared down at Ihtisham with disgust. He stood up, then waved his hand toward Ihtisham, signaling the two men to pick him up. “We must prepare. Arm the explosives. Prepare the cages, and get the video camera and stand. You two, arm yourselves and go upstairs. Keep an eye on the camera, just in case. Ihtisham’s selfish need to prove himself may cut our time frame down to today. It matters not. We are part of Allah’s army. If martyrdom is upon us, Allah’s will it is.”

  Chapter Eighty

  Empty was not the precise word. After the shock of seeing no one, the teens had scuttled inside and closed the door. The open space of the building was lined with yard tools attached neatly around the walls. A small workbench, a lawnmower, bags of what looked like yard fertilizer, and some boxes dominated one corner.

  It was a normal shed in a normal neighborhood—no bleeding terrorists, no kidnapped people, no large freezer with bodies inside, just tools, lawn crap, and a few boxes. Worse, the blood trail they had been following stopped just inside the door.

  Maddie stepped toward the boxes but stopped when Dorete’s outstretched arm slammed into her stomach. Her other arm was held straight out, fingers pointing toward a corner of the shed. Maddie cut a muffled curse short as her eyes followed Dorete’s finger. In the corner, a security camera looked down with a red light blinking, a sure sign it was on.

  Maddie shoved Dorete to her right to get out of the view of the camera.

  “Shit,” hissed Aden. “We’re so caught. So caught!”

  Maddie ignored Aden’s hyperventilating and rushed to the corner of the shed and under the camera. She made sure to keep her flashlight on the blue setting and aimed it toward the camera. She could not see any exposed wires, so she made do by yanking the baton from Dorete’s hands, extending it, and bashing the camera until it fell to the ground.

  No one moved. Each imagined different scenarios that all ended in disaster.

  “Do you see any more?” asked Maddie.

  “Does it matter?” responded Aden, his voice an octave higher. “They had to have seen us. We need to leave and call my dad or 9-1-1.”

  Maddie kept scanning the shed, unsure what to do. She had no decent argument against Aden’s conclusion.

  “Maddie, we need to go. Now! While we can.”

  “Aden’s right, Madison. If someone comes—when they come—we’ll be trapped inside here.”

  “Trapped,” murmured Maddie. Sensing another admonishment from her friends, she waved her hand frantically to shush them into silence. “Quiet. I need to think . . . trapped here inside a box.”

  “Yes, I just said that,” Dorete shot back.

  “So, where is he, or she, whatever? He could not have been that far ahead of us. The blood leads here. But there’s no one here but us.”

  Dorete sighed, not bothering to argue. She moved toward the boxes in the shed instead while Maddie knelt and cast the flashlight along the floor. Aden looked at both girls, powerless to make them see the situation for what it was. He moved to the door, kneeled, and looked out the edge of the window to see if anyone was headed toward the shed. It did not take Maddie long to determine the trail had indeed ended.

  “No blood, which means he must have grabbed a rag in here to cover it. We’ll need to go inside the house.”

  “Excuse me,” Aden blurted.

  “It’s—”

  “Oh fuck!”

  Maddie and Aden turned to Dorete, each ready to admonish her for yelling, when the blood-drained look on her face halted their words. “What’s wrong?” asked Maddie.

  Speechless, Dorete handed a wrinkled piece of paper to Maddie. She placed the paper under the flashlight. It was a shipping slip addressed, she assumed, with the name of the owner of the property on it.

  Mr. Adorno Y Leiro

  8232 Crestwood Dr.

  Eastwood, CO

  The zip code was illegible.

  “You have got to be freakin’ kidding me. Seriously? What the hell is wrong with this place? No one is who they say they are,” snapped Maddie before tossing the paper at Aden, who had moved over to them.

  He looked at the paper, eyes turning wide as a full moon. “Our history teacher? I don’t understand.”

  “I think the term is ‘sleeper agent,’ ” said Maddie.

  “Or self-radicalized,” said Dorete. Maddie raised a brow. “What? I read current events,” responded Dorete.

  Maddie shook the revelation away. “Doesn’t change a thing. Does explain why Tiffani was around him so often though. Hey, what’s that?”

  Dorete turned her head to look at the large square unit next to the boxes. “I thought that was another box, but it’s just an AC unit.”

  Maddie looked at Aden, his face a mirror of her own incredulity. “An air conditioner for a shed? Indoors rather than outside where it belongs? I don’t think so.” Maddie moved over to the unit and let her flashlight shine undimmed by her hands. Sure enough, she saw faint scruff marks on the floor to the left side of it. “Hold this,” she said, handing the crossbow and flashlight to Dorete.

  She pushed the unit, and just like that, it moved noiselessly sideways to reveal a hole in the floor beneath it. Maddie took the flashlight back. She shook her head in disbelief.

  Aden groaned. “This just gets better and better.”

  “Does explain the camera.”

  “Which they had to see us on. So,” Aden said, pointing toward the dark opening in the shed floor, “that means going down there, as I’m sure you’re thinking about doing, is suicide. Literally, Madison, we could die.”

  Maddie regarded Aden with compressed lips. “We could. Lilly definitely will if we walk away. If we were seen, she is dead. If we leave, she is dead. If we call the cops and manage to get them here, you think they are showing up without sirens blazing? No! I’m going in. Forward is the only option now.”

  Maddie did not give her two accomplices a chance to voice any more concerns. She descended the hole via a ladder. There would be no retreat.

  The descent was short. Maddie figured she had gone down six feet when she hit the bottom. She looked up at Aden and Dorete, who were looking down at her. “I’m not dead. It’s safe to come down—relatively.”

  Her partners in this cloak and dagger activity followed her, handing the flashlight and crossbow back to Maddie.

  “See if there are any more cameras,” said Dorete.

  Maddie turned and looked down the long tunnel. She could see faint lights strung along one side. They gave enough light to help one not trip over their feet, but she could not see how long the tunnel ran.

  “I don’t see any, but keep looking as we go forward.”

  She placed her flashlight in a pocket and started walking with her crossbow pointed in front of her. Soft as they could manage, the trio advanced down the tunnel. They traveled a hundred feet before approaching a slight turn to the right. The chan
ge in direction was sharp enough to present a corner that obscured what was on the other side. Maddie held her hand up to slow her companions down, then inched up to the corner.

  Squatting down, she creeped her head around the corner. She saw more of the same: a long tunnel, low lights, and no end in sight. More important, no people. Even though she had told Dorete to look, Maddie scanned the top of the ceiling for cameras. She did not see any, which puzzled her. Something was off. She crept back, then motioned with her finger for Aden and Dorete to draw in close to her.

  “This tunnel goes on quite a ways,” she whispered. “I think it travels from the house and under that brick wall separating that neighborhood from another subdivision.”

  “Yeah, OK, but how did they build this thing?” asked Aden.

  Maddie shrugged. “Mr. Y Leiro used to be a structural engineer. Maybe he worked for the builders and dug it under their noses. I don’t know. I also don’t see any more cameras, but keep looking in case I missed one.”

  Aden grabbed Maddie’s shoulder before she headed around the corner. “Isn’t no cameras a good thing?”

  Maddie chewed the side of her lip. “I really don’t think so, but I’m not turning back, so it doesn’t matter.” Nothing else to say, she slipped around the corner.

  It took them another hundred feet before they approached another ladder. Maddie looked up the ladder, considering. They had no idea what was on the other side of the exit. Someone could be there guarding the entrance, or they could be climbing up into a den full of bad guys. Either way, she would not be in a good position to defend herself.

  As she considered their next move, a revelation came to her. The smart move—the only move—was simple. And it informed her of exactly what Zavier Hunter had felt when he told her, “When I say run, you run and don’t look back. I’ll be behind you.” At the time, she thought behind meant running behind her, with her. It had not.

  She motioned to her friends for another whispered confab. “We don’t know what’s up there. I’m going to climb up, but you stay here. If I climb out into a hornet’s nest, you both book it back down the tunnel. Don’t argue,” she said, sensing Aden’s impending objection. “If you’re right behind me, they’ll get you. If you’re down here, you’ve got a head start and can probably outrun them.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” hissed Dorete. She pointed toward one of the lights near the ladder.

  Maddie followed her finger. She expected to see an active camera; instead, she saw a cell phone nestled against the light fixture in the wall. The phone was attached to a gray block of material, and black electrical tape was wrapped around it. Maddie’s stomach dropped to the ground. “That’s not good. Not good.”

  “Is that a—,” Aden began.

  “Yes, it is.” Maddie turned to the opposite wall, where she spied the outline of another rectangular block. “Dorete, go back and see if there are any more.”

  Dorete turned and walked back down the tunnel, head swiveling from one side to the other. After twenty feet, she stopped and ran back. “Seven or eight, then no more.”

  Maddie nodded. “It’s their escape plan. Blow and block the passage—which means, if you need to book it, you better move like Usain Bolt.”

  “Comforting,” answered Dorete, though her tone indicated it was anything but.

  “It also means Lilly is here.”

  Chapter Eighty-One

  Maddie let the meaning and import of the statement roll around in their minds as she held out her crossbow for Aden to take. She could probably climb the ladder with it in one hand but would not be able to open the exit door. The underside of the exit had a simple metal handle attached to it. She closed her eyes to prepare for what may lie on the other side. She looked at Aden and Dorete to make sure they were ready, then she pulled the handle away from her. Like the entrance in the shed, this side also slid open.

  The panel exit opened with a modicum of scraping, but the noise sounded like blaring horns to Maddie. She moved out as fast as possible and exited into a two-car garage. If the secret tunnel had not killed any doubt in her mind, the smears of blood on the garage floor did.

  Muffled voices floating from inside the house filled Maddie with urgency as the import of what she was doing hit her in a way it had not earlier. She waved in rapid-fire motions, urging Aden and Dorete to climb out quickly. As soon as Aden reached the top of the ladder, Maddie snatched her crossbow then moved a few feet in front of the door that led into the house.

  She could feel herself beginning to hyperventilate as the stress of the moment bore down on her. The stubborn bravado she had shown in the car had evaporated. Beads of sweat broke out on her forehead. The “fight or flight” response was kicking in full force. A mental fog of doubt rose in her mind. Aden was right. They were only high school kids.

  Kidnappers, terrorists, bombs, and most probably guns were somewhere on the other side of the closed door in front of her. They were in over their heads. Once she went through that door, everything would change for all of them—perhaps fatally so. They were neck deep in it now, but still, Maddie hesitated.

  Then the decision was made for her.

  The sound of footsteps grew louder as they closed in on the garage door. The steps stopped in front of it, then the doorknob began to turn. Doubt and hesitation had expired. As the door began opening, Maddie exploded forward.

  She delivered a solid kick to the center of the door, slamming it into the face of a male and knocking him backward. Maddie advanced into the house and turned to her right. A short hallway led into the kitchen. A surprised, well-muscled male was sitting at a table. He started to rise from his seat when Maddie aimed the crossbow and fired. The crossbow bolt took off at one hundred fifty feet per second and pounded into him midway between his chest and shoulder.

  If no one was aware of their presence before, Maddie felt sure they were now as the injured man cried out in pain. Maddie returned her attention to the man who had opened the door. He had recovered from getting hit by it. He was taller than Maddie and lean. She had no doubt that his slim build was all wiry muscle, not weakness.

  He, on the other hand, saw a young girl shorter than him. He did not perceive a threat in the least. He reached for her, rather than attacked. It was a mistake. The moment he stretched his arms toward Maddie, she slid inside his reach and struck with a hammer punch to his neck. She hit the hypoglossal nerve just as Vaska had taught her.

  The man dropped to the ground like a wet sack. There was no time to revel in the accomplishment.

  “Look out!” yelled Aden a moment before tackling the man she had shot moments before.

  The two went down in a wrestling heap. Maddie uttered a silent curse. Aden had dropped the machete she had given him. Turning to Dorete, who was still standing in the garage doorway, wide-eyed, she yanked the Taser out of Dorete’s hand. “Aden, push him away,” Maddie screamed.

  However, it was Aden who flew across the room as the large man managed to get a foot into his chest and kick him away. Maddie immediately jumped in and jammed the Taser against his side. In an instant, his body locked up. Maddie let the electric current pour into him for a few seconds, then released him. He dropped to the floor, where she leaned over and punched him in the same place she had the first male. Satisfied that he was out of the fight for the moment, Maddie pulled the pink baton from her belt, flicked it open, and swung it like it was a club. She struck the first male on the side of the head, rendering him unconscious. She turned and repeated the process on the second male.

  “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,” wailed Dorete, her hands on her face.

  “HEY!” shouted Maddie. “If you’re going to fall apart, get your ass in that tunnel and go back to the car. Aden, tie him up with this.”

  Maddie pulled a long, white plastic zip tie from her pants pocket.

  “Are you freakin’ kidding me!” he hissed. “You think this is some lame COPS episode? Where did you even get this?”

  “A
merica’s serial killer pantry: the hardware store. Now do it. We’re wasting time while there are people probably with guns here ready to kill us.”

  Maddie reloaded her crossbow with her remaining bolt, then left Aden to the task while she moved into the rest of the house. No one else had come running toward the fight, and that concerned her. Swift and silent, Maddie stalked through the house. The living room contained the only furniture. Near the back of the room, a short hallway led to three bedrooms, all of which were empty. Maddie returned to the living room and considered the staircase leading to a second floor. Checking out the second floor was the prudent thing to do, but Maddie skipped going up. She felt certain that if anyone was on the second floor, they would have come downstairs. She moved on, walking into what she assumed was a family room. In front of a long couch sat an equally long table with several cell phones scattered across it.

  With the image of the explosives from the tunnel clear in her mind, Maddie started pulling the batteries out of each one. When she was finished, she gathered them in her arms and ran back toward the garage.

  Aden had secured the two men with the zip ties and found a thick roll of duct tape, which he used to cover their mouths. In the short time it had taken Maddie to scope out the house, he had wrapped several layers of tape around the ankles, mouths, and wrists of the two men they had fought.

  “What are those?” asked Aden, indicating her hands.

  “Batteries from cell phones, probably for the bombs.” Without another word, she walked into the garage and threw the batteries into the tunnel. She was not sure if the cell phones were triggers, but she knew that, separated from their power source, they could not call anyone or anything.

  “I don’t mean to sound movie cheesy,” Aden began as she reentered the room, “but shouldn’t we be knee deep in bad guys right now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then why aren’t we?”

  “Not any good reason, I can tell you that.”

  “Anyone else here?” Dorete said finally.