image
image
image

25.

image

IT WAS DARK INSIDE, and it smelled like an empty church.

It felt a lot like an empty church.

Maybe people who aren’t preacher’s kids don’t know what an empty church feels like. It’s quiet, but in a way that’s constantly distracting. All those rooms and hallways built for hundreds of people are suddenly so empty that it seems like somebody must be hiding around every corner.

The stillness screams.

The door screamed a little, too, as rusty hinges complained behind me. I tried to act cool and pressed on into the dark, empty hall.

Three doors on the right, five doors on the left. Cass had gotten that right. She’d told me the layout of this hallway down to which of the lights were out in the hall. The only thing she didn’t know was the most important detail.

Which room?

The ones on the far ends were right out. Cass said they never used those rooms for anything but storage. And the three doors on the right side of the hall both shared walls with tenant apartments, so they would never put prisoners in there.

That left three rooms to choose from, all in front of me. Left, right, or center. Two would be used for short-term housing of unexpected prisoners. The third would be used like a lounge by any off-duty henchmen.

I’d asked Cass, “How do I know which one to check?”

She made a shrugging sound and said, “Whichever one they’re not in.”

“That’s not helpful! How do I know?”

“You’ve got the gun, right?”

“I’ll figure it out.”

I didn’t have the gun. I wasn’t ready to kill a man. But I’d try my best to win the day regardless.

I won’t tell you how scared I was trying the first door, because the room was totally empty. I tried the second door still holding my breath, and it was empty, too. Feeling a little stupid, I pushed the third door open and found two huge dudes looking back in surprise.

I threw up a hand and called “Lo siento!” like an idiot. The big guy on the left started up before I could close the door, and someone I hadn’t even seen jumped through the gap to confront me face-to-face.

“Hey! This is all off-limits!”

“I know! I know!”

He pulled a gun from his pants like we were in some cheesy movie, and I shrank away exactly like the coward in that movie would.

“Sorry!” I said, throwing both hands up and backing away. “I’m a little lost. No harm meant. I’ll go. I’ll go.”

Cowering, almost crawling, I scurried away from him and out the door. I slammed it behind me and ran for my car.

Shoot! Shoot, shoot, shoot!

I dove into the driver’s seat and slammed that door, too. Then I sat in the dark staring at the closed door, panting and praying Heaven the service door wouldn’t open.

The service door opened.

He saw me, too. He brandished the gun again and yelled, “Go on! Get!”

I did it. Heart pounding, chest tight as a block of concrete, I threw the car into reverse and scattered gravel backing out of the parking spot. He stalked after me and marched me right around the corner and onto the back lot. Then he made one more threatening gesture with his gun and stormed back inside.

I kept rolling down the line in case any of his crew were watching. This was the outer wall of their room.

Idling by, I could count the windows and pinpoint theirs. The blinds twitched while I was watching, spilling hot yellow light through the tiny gap. They saw me leaving and went back to whatever they’d been doing.

I rolled on down past the end of the building, but I was counting the other windows, too. There was the one on the end we’d ruled out. Then the guards’ room, then two more I’d crept in on no one, and just before the main lobby, another room I hadn’t tried.

She had to be in there.

I rounded the corner and sat for a moment in the darkness, thinking. It felt more than a little like a video game—like I’d drawn aggro from some overpowered enemies and run from them. Now I was only waiting for them to forget about me, and I could go back to try again.

This was not the original plan. This parking lot was way more exposed than the back alley, but that could work to my advantage. Hauser’s thugs wouldn’t be quite so free to brandish their weapons on a public lane like this. If I could get her outside, they might just let us leave.

Although, looking around, it wasn’t that public. There was nobody watching now.

I slipped the door and tip-toed to the corner. Peeking around, I couldn’t see anyone out on the back end of the lot. No light leaking through open blinds, either. Everything seemed quiet.

I considered going right through the back door and into the lobby. Now that I knew where the “Employees Only” doors led, I might be able to go right to her. Then again, Hauser might well have a doorbell trigger on the back door, and chances were good that the Employees Only door was locked.

Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself and tried a casual stroll around the corner.

No one cried out. So far, so good.

I strolled on. Past the lobby door. Past the old, dead bushes. Right to the window into my prisoner’s room. I threw a quick glance over my shoulder, but no one was following me. Nobody in sight at all.

I rapped on the window, one knuckle, and it was the loudest sound in the universe. I froze, heart hammering. I waited for some reaction. I waited forever.

Nothing happened. I knocked again, and maybe someone inside said, “Huh?” Maybe.

I looked around again, but there was still no one. I knocked again.

The blinds burst open, amber light dazzling in the dark, and even when my vision cleared, I could see only a pair of fingertips and two scared blue eyes.

I remembered those eyes.

It was her!

“It’s me,” I hissed through the glass. “I came back to rescue you.”

Those eyes narrowed, and I started to worry I had the wrong person. Then I remembered my disguise. I shoved my ski mask back so she could see my face, flashing the same stupid smile I’d do if someone pointed a camera at me, and whispered, “It’s Dave.”

Her eyes narrowed more at that! They cut left and right—even more afraid now—and she whispered anxiously, “You’re nuts! Go away.”

It was her!

“I can’t,” I said. “I promised Cass—”

“Cass?” She sounded furious at the name. She sounded mad enough to get us caught.

“Shh!” I hissed back. “Can you open the window?”

She shook her head. “Locked.”

“Can you leave your room?”

She shook her head again. “Also locked. And there are guards.”

I knew all about the guards. But I couldn’t leave her. I hung my head. I wasn’t very good at heroing, was I?

My damsel in distress tapped the glass with a fingernail to get my attention. She held my gaze a moment, then whispered, “Go. It’s okay. You can go.”

“I can’t,” I said. “I just... what would Cass do?”

I was asking myself, but the girl snorted and answered me. “She’d break something.”

She said it with her fingertips still resting on the glass. I looked her in the eye and said, “I’ll break the glass.”

“What?”

“The window.” I stooped down and grabbed half a brick from the litter that covered the ground. “Back up.”

“It’ll be loud!”

That stopped me. I looked all around, but we were still alone. I said, “I’ll get the car.”

She frowned. I gestured in that direction. “I’ll get the car. You get ready. Soon as I break the glass, you come out, and we’ll run!”

“Really?” It was a small word, but her eyes held me like a tractor beam. She was asking everything, and all I could say was...

“Yeah. I guess so.”

Her eyes widened. She nodded.

I said, “Be careful. There’s gonna be a lot of glass.” She nodded.

Hefting the brick in my hand, I turned away. I felt good. This was what Cass would’ve done. I remembered the mess she’d left in my bathroom. This was heroism.

It took some effort to maintain a normal pace back to my car. It was still just where I’d left it. Still nobody in sight.

I jumped in the driver’s seat and turned the engine over. I didn’t rev the engine or anything, but just starting it up sounded really loud in the stillness. I tried to ignore it.

I backed around the corner, rolling slowly into position just opposite her window. Excited, I didn’t hesitate. I jumped out, checked that I couldn’t see her watching through the blinds, and threw the brick.

It wasn’t as exciting as I expected. There was a crish, but not the kind of noisy explosion you get in movies. The glass didn’t pour out of the frame, either. A fist-sized hole marked the passage of the brick, and one huge shard of glass swung out to hang precariously over the shrubs.

Then the blinds convulsed, swept into a bundle, and smashed into the remaining glass like a baseball bat. Three or four wild, smashing swings made more than enough noise, spraying glass out to tinkle across the parking lot.

I ran forward to meet her. She was a smart girl. No way she could’ve known I was coming, but she had the frame smashed clear in seconds. She was out of sight when I got to the window, but she came rushing back with a cheap plastic bath curtain in her arms. She threw it over the window frame, the shrubs, and all the shards of glass, then leaped up into the window.

I barely caught her short of falling, and the glass sang and snagged against the layers of vinyl beneath her.

I don’t think it cut her, I never saw any blood, but she spooked at the sound and threw herself into my arms.

I wrapped her up on pure instinct and pulled her to safety. Over her shoulder, I saw the door of her room snap open, and my heart dropped.

There wasn’t any yelling. There wasn’t a siren like you’d get in movies. I didn’t even see who it was, but one of Hauser’s guys peeked in, saw the shattered window and empty room, and then withdrew.

The girl was sobbing on my shoulder, waves of panic and fear, and all I could think was getting her away. She was barefoot, and she limped hard even with me supporting her, but the car was right there waiting.

I ripped her door open for her and she fell out of my arms in her haste to get in. I heard a door slam around the corner, and fear flung me around the car to the driver’s side. The engine was running. I dove in and slammed the door behind me.

Too late. Derrick stood squared off ten feet in front of my bumper. A glance in the rearview showed me more of Hauser’s thugs pouring around the back corner.

I dropped into gear, ready to bowl Derrick over and get out of here. I glanced at the girl—

She was frozen in place. She hadn’t budged since I put her down, so her door was wide open, her right leg hanging in the parking lot.

Move!” I screamed. “Come on! We can—”

She shook her head without looking at me. Her eyes were on the shadows by the office door I’d passed earlier. That had to be where Derrick had come from, but the girl was focused on another figure farther back. Hauser, by the bulk of him.

Streetlights glinted off the barrel of his shotgun. I dropped my voice but said no less urgently. “Get in the car. I can beat these guys.”

She looked back. She met my eyes, and hers shone with tears.

“I’ll save you,” I said, with all the confidence I could muster.

She flinched. She caught a shuddering breath, and then she grabbed the car frame with both hands and heaved herself back out.

“Stop!” she yelled, stumbling toward Hauser. “Stop! Don’t hurt him. He has nothing to do with this.”

I couldn’t catch her. “Come back!” I called, but she was already closer to Hauser than my car.

She didn’t answer me. Hauser sneered my way though. “He seems awfully determined.”

“It’s not his fault,” she said. “Cass roped him into it. Just let him—”

But Hauser didn’t hear anything after “Cass.” His face twisted in fear and rage, and he shouted. “Cass? Cass?! Get him!”

Derrick took a step toward my car, understanding his boss’s intentions. Some of the dumber guys in the back had itchy trigger fingers, though. My driver-side mirror exploded. The windshield spiderwebbed on the passenger side, and the bam-bam of two big handguns that close by left my ears ringing.

Derrick reacted first, since he was in the line of fire. He dove aside, skidding over asphalt as the goons behind me opened up on me. Bang bang bang bang and the tff of upholstery and the ting! of metal getting perforated.

I saw Hauser drag the girl backward into the building, his shotgun still trained on me. He looked furious at his goons, but they were dead set on doing their job and doing it well.

I hit the gas, blasted through the side exit gate, and raced away down the alley behind the ghetto grocery store.

I’d failed.

Big time.