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Viper slipped through a small window and dropped silently into the shed. She found herself in the center of a large loft packed with plastic boxes and tubs, electric cabling, and spare outdoor light fixtures. A narrow aisle wound its way through the storage area to the edge of the loft, where the top of a fixed ladder peeked a few inches above the loft floor. She crouched, silent and still, her eyes narrowing at the muffled sobbing coming from below.
She had found Marcus Nuñez.
Viper crept forward silently until she reached a large wooden crate near the edge of the loft. Concealed behind its solidness, she peered over the edge. Murky shadows cloaked the ground floor of the shed, with the only light being that which filtered down from the two windows above. Marcus huddled in the corner to the left of the door, his head on his knees. His black running pants were covered with dust and dirt, and a grime-streaked white teeshirt hung from his bony shoulders. Next to him on the floor lay an empty McDonald's bag with some crumpled hamburger wrappers and an old pillow with a thread-bare blanket. It was clear that the boy attempted to muffle his sobs as he buried his face in his knees, his arms over his head.
Alina scanned the rest of the floor slowly. The storage boxes had been pushed to the other side of the shed, leaving no room for anyone to move on the right side of the shed. There was no sign of anyone else in the front of the lower level, but Viper knew they were there. They would never leave the boy alone, even locked in. They had to be toward the back of the shed, below her.
Even as she thought it, Alina heard movement directly below her. The top of Karl's head came into view as he moved out from under the loft, cursing.
“Shut up!” he yelled as he moved towards Marcus. “I'm tired of listening to you!”
Marcus didn't raise his head, but Alina heard him take a gasping breath as he tried to control his sobs.
“Stop it, I said!”
Karl kicked Marcus's feet, causing his legs to fly out in front of him.
“Leave him alone!” a female voice cried from underneath Alina. “He can't help it.”
“He can, and he will,” Karl snarled. “What a useless piece of shit. All he does is cry and eat.”
“He's a little boy, not a piece of shit,” the woman retorted, coming into view from the back of the shed. “He misses his family and he's scared. What do you expect from him?”
Her brown hair was pulled into a ponytail and she still wore the white nurse's scrubs smeared with fake blood that she had been wearing in the haunted walk the night she disappeared. She hurried across the floor as Marcus scooted as far back into the corner as possible, pulling his legs back up to his chest. He looked up and Viper saw huge, frightened eyes in a thin face before the woman hid him from view. She turned to face Karl defiantly and Viper's lips tightened grimly as she got a good look at the missing guide and Jessica's friend, Rachel. One black eye was completely swollen shut, while the other side of her face displayed a variety of multi-colored bruises and welts, making her skin tone indeterminable. Her bottom lip was split open in three different places and blood caked the side of her mouth. It looked like she had tried to clean it the best she could, but whether or not it had been split open again or had never stopped bleeding was up for debate.
Viper cut her gaze to Karl, the flirtatious night guard Stephanie thought so charming, and her eyes dropped straight to his hands. Red, angry wounds stretched across his right knuckles.
Anger burned inside Viper, hot and intense, and she watched through narrowed eyes while Rachel stood between Karl and the boy. She couldn't see out of one eye, but her chin pointed upwards and Viper had to admire her obvious commitment to preventing him from laying a hand on the boy.
“I expect him to shut up when I tell him to,” Karl retorted. “Get out of the way. Or do you want me to close your other eye?”
“Will that make you feel more like a man?” Rachel shot back, scorn dripping from her lips.
Viper kept her eyes on the trio in the corner as she swung her legs over the edge of the loft. Reaching down, she undid the holster holding her military knife strapped to her ankle. Marcus caught sight of her then, his eyes getting even wider in his face as he stared at her. Viper raised a finger to her lips before dropping out of the loft and landing softly on the floor below. Neither Karl nor Rachel heard, so intent as they were on each other, and she moved across the floor silently.
“You can't protect the kid for much longer,” Karl hissed. “Jenaro is taking him with him tomorrow. Then you'll have no purpose here and nothing to bargain with, bitch.”
Karl raised his fist and Rachel braced herself for the hit.
It never came.
Viper clamped two fingers on Karl's shoulder near the base of his neck and swung him around effortlessly, using his own pressure point to propel him around.
“Why don't you try that with me?” Viper purred, her cold eyes meeting his.
“What the...who the hell do you think you are?!” Karl demanded.
“Your worst nightmare.”
Stephanie pulled into the parking lot behind the Warden's House and slammed on her brakes. Jumping out of the car, she hurried around to the open door of the house and climbed the steps. A policewoman stationed just inside saw her and came forward, holding out her hand.
“Agent Walker?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“They're right through here,” she told Stephanie with a smile. “They're going to be fine, but the guide is pretty beat up. She wouldn't go to the hospital until you got here.”
“And the boy?” Stephanie asked, following the policewoman through the front room of the Warden's House.
“He's frightened and wants his mother, but he's fine,” she said, motioning Stephanie into a small make-shift office.
Stephanie stepped into the small room and her eyes went straight to the two figures huddled under police blankets, sitting close together on the window seat. The guide had her arm around the boy and their heads were close together. When she entered, Rachel looked up and Stephanie gasped. The pretty young woman whom she had interviewed four days before had disappeared completely. The damage to her face was extensive, leaving her unrecognizable, and if it weren't for her unique, aqua-colored eyes, Stephanie would have questioned if it was even the same woman.
“Oh my God,” she breathed involuntarily.
“They won't give me a mirror,” Rachel said ruefully, speaking slowly around her swollen lips. “I guess I don't need one now. Your face says it all.”
“Who did this?” Stephanie asked, fury making her voice shake as she crossed the small space.
“Karl,” Rachel answered, squeezing Marcus's shoulders as Stephanie approached. “It's ok, mi cielo, she's a good woman. She is here to help.”
Stephanie crouched down before Marcus and glanced at Rachel. At her nod, she reached out and took his small, thin hands into hers.
“Hi Marcus,” she said softly. “We've had a lot of people looking for you. I'm glad you're safe. I'll make sure we get hold of your mom, ok?”
Marcus raised huge, brown eyes to hers.
“You'll call my mom?” he asked hopefully.
“Absolutely,” Stephanie promised. Just as soon as I can get hold of the woman holding her, she added silently.
“See? I told you she could help,” Rachel told him. She looked at Stephanie through her one good eye. “He's been worried they would hurt her.”
Stephanie paused, then sighed.
“They tried,” she admitted softly. Marcus looked at her in alarm and Rachel squeezed his shoulders again. “A very strong woman saved her,” Stephanie told him, squeezing his hands gently. “She put her somewhere safe.”
“Was it the lady in black?” Marcus asked, his eyes brightening. Stephanie glanced at Rachel uncertainly, but before she could speak, Marcus continued, “She said she knew my mama. She said my mom was brave, almost as brave as me. And she said she would make sure I saw my mama soon.”
“Lady in black?” Stephanie repeated, looking to Rachel for clarification.
“She never gave her name,” Rachel told her. “She appeared out of nowhere, in the shed where he kept us. She...well, she stopped Karl from hurting us.”
“Sounds like the same woman,” Stephanie said dryly, her lips curving. “Scary, intimidating, and not someone you would mess with?”
“Yes.”
Gathering from this exchange that Stephanie did, indeed, know the lady in black, Marcus leaned forward, his little body wriggling with excitement.
“She made Karl stop hurting Aunt Rachel,” he announced confidentially, “and then she went like this,” he chopped his hands in the air dramatically, narrowly missing Stephanie's head, “and he went like this!”
Marcus jumped up and pushed past Stephanie to stand with his fist raised as he remembered seeing Karl raise his, then he dropped straight back to land flat on his back and lay completely still. Stephanie gasped and moved toward him, but a surprisingly firm hand came down on her shoulder to stop her.
“He's acting,” Rachel whispered. “He's very good, actually.”
Stephanie nodded and stopped, watching as Marcus opened one eye to peek at her. When he found her still watching, he grinned a big grin, showing off a wide gap where he was missing a baby tooth, and jumped up.
“She was awesome!” he cried, his dark eyes shining. “When Karl went down, she turned to Aunt Rachel and made her sit down! Then she came over to me and picked me up and took me outside. The door was locked, but she went right through it. It was magic!”
“It was?!” Stephanie exclaimed. “How do you think she did it?”
“I asked her, but she said it was a secret,” he informed her solemnly. “She said it was an ancient secret and if she told anyone, she could die.”
“I bet it was,” Stephanie murmured, smiling despite herself. “What happened then?”
“Well,” Marcus said, going back to the window seat and settling himself next to Rachel, “then she tried to carry me away, but I said we couldn't leave Aunt Rachel with Karl. He would hurt her again.”
“I was perfectly fine,” Rachel interjected, smoothing his hair back from his forehead.
“Well, you don't look fine,” Marcus informed her with the kind of bluntness characteristic of children. “And I was afraid he would wake up and really hurt you then. But the lady in black, she said he wouldn't wake up for a long time. I asked her if she was a doctor and that's how she knew, but she just smiled at me and said in her business, she knew more than doctors. What does that mean, Aunt Rachel?”
“I don't know, mi cielo,” Rachel said with a sigh. “There's a lot I don't know right now.”
“Well, then she asked me if I thought the haunted maze was scary,” Marcus moved on, losing interest once he couldn't get a satisfactory answer, “and I said, no. It was all acting and sets and one day, I would be acting on sets too!”
“Really!” Stephanie sat back on her heels and smiled at the little boy. “Can I come see you?”
“Sure!” he said with another toothless grin. “She asked the same thing! I told her yes, but she would have to leave the knife at home.”
“Knife? What knife?” Stephanie asked, her ears perking up.
“The one she threatened Karl with,” Marcus said cheerfully. “It was awesome!”
“But...I thought you said she hit him and knocked him out,” Stephanie reminded him.
“That was after she pulled out her knife,” Marcus told her. He looked up at Rachel. “Wasn't her knife cool? I've never seen a knife like that!”
“Neither have I,” Rachel agreed, resigned. “It was very cool.”
“It was awesome!”
“I'm sure it was,” Stephanie murmured, turning to look at Rachel. “Did she come back?”
“Yes.” Rachel nodded. “Once she had Marcus away and safe, she came back for me.”
“Did she...say anything?”
“She told me that she had called you,” Rachel said slowly, “and I could trust you.”
“You can,” Stephanie said quietly.
Rachel nodded, studying her thoughtfully through her one eye.
“I know,” she said simply. “When she came back for me, she told me where to find Marcus and told me not to release him to anyone except you. She said you would keep him safe until she could get his mother to him.”
“I will,” Stephanie promised. “What happened to the bastard who did this to you?”
“The lady in black took him!” Marcus answered brightly, anxious to be part of the conversation again.
Stephanie looked at him and raised her eyebrows.
“She did?” she exclaimed. “Where did she take him?”
“She didn't say.” For a moment Marcus looked crestfallen with that realization, then he perked up again. “But she did say he would never be able to touch me or Aunt Rachel ever again.”
“I bet that made you very happy,” Stephanie said.
Marcus nodded and suddenly buried his head into Rachel's side and wrapped his arms around her.
“He hurt Rachel,” he told Stephanie plaintively, and she nodded gravely.
“Yes, he did,” she agreed.
“She let him so he wouldn't hurt me.”
“Yes, I know,” Stephanie said, her heart breaking at the look in his eyes.
“The lady in black said he won't hurt anyone ever again,” Marcus said, squeezing Rachel tightly. “I'm glad.”
Stephanie glanced up at Rachel.
“Did she tell you anything else?” she asked her quietly.
Rachel met her gaze steadily.
“She told me to tell you everything I know,” she said calmly, “and no one else.”
Stephanie nodded slowly and glanced at Marcus.
“Let's start with him,” she said softly. “What did they do with him?”
“They used him to move around the museum,” Rachel told her, smoothing the boy’s hair. “He could fit through the prison windows, you see. He's very athletic and they exploited that fact.”
“What did they make him do?” Stephanie asked.
“They made him go through the dungeon window on the night before you found the arm,” Rachel told her as Marcus buried his head in her side again. “He went in and moved the arm out from behind the dummy. They used some kind of cross-bow to shoot a zip-line in the window from the top of the wall. Then, they lowered him down from the roof and he slid in through the window. When he got inside, he took the end of the line from where it had latched onto the gate and moved it to the hook in the floor. He used it to climb out the window when he finished, sliding down the zip-line to the wall where Turi was waiting for him.”
“The alarms!” Stephanie breathed and Rachel nodded.
“The grappling hook shot out of the gate, setting off the motion detector before it came back in and clamped onto the bars,” she explained. “When Marcus got in and moved it to the hook in the floor, he set it off again.”
Stephanie glanced at Marcus.
“It took him an hour and a half to get into the cell?” she whispered.
“He was terrified,” Rachel replied. “He doesn't like heights. They told him if he didn't do it, or if he fell, they would kill Jessica.”
“Karl said I'm going to jail,” Marcus whispered. “He said I'm a cri...cri...a bad person now.”
“No baby, you're not a bad person,” Stephanie assured him, reaching out and taking one of his hands again. “You're very brave.” She looked at Rachel. “Was that all he did?”
“No.” Rachel shook her head. “They also made him put the blue box on the front steps.”
“How did you do that?” Stephanie asked him.
Marcus peeked at her.
“I went in through the basement window in the back,” he whispered. “If you go across the basement, there's another window. I went through it, put the box on the steps, and came back.”
“And did Karl open those windows for you?” Stephanie asked.
Marcus nodded.
“What about...” her voice trailed off, not knowing how to ask if the boy had seen Rodrigo's remains or Philip hung up outside.
“He didn't see anything else,” Rachel told her softly, seeming to know what Stephanie hesitated to say. “I made sure of that.”
Stephanie glanced at her mutilated face and had no doubt as to how she had ensured the boy didn't witness a mutilated, headless corpse or a full dead body.
“Do you know why they chose this museum?” Stephanie asked Rachel. “Why all the elaborate displays?”
“Karl's been bringing drugs into Mt. Holly for them for about a year now,” Rachel told her. “When Jenaro showed up and saw where he worked, he wanted to use it for the shock and fear value. Karl said the Cartel was intent on instilling fear in the area because they wanted to expand their reach to this state.”
“What do you mean?” Stephanie asked.
“The Casa Reino Cartel is responsible for about thirty percent of the drugs on the streets from Florida up to Maryland,” Rachel explained.
Stephanie blinked, shocked.
“What?!” she exclaimed.
Rachel nodded.
“Why do you think Jenaro came here himself?” she asked. “He wanted to set up operations in New Jersey, using Karl to run them. Karl said someone here owed the Cartel a lot of money and Jenaro was going to take care of that as well, but he was more focused on getting their operation started.”
“This was all a tactic to bring fear into the area?” Stephanie repeated, shaking her head. “How?”
Rachel gazed at her steadily.
“After all the displays at the prison, they were going to start kidnapping children and threatening the parents,” she said, “starting with the Nuñezes.”
“And Marcus?”
“They were going to sell him in Mexico.”
Stephanie closed her eyes briefly.
“All to bring the fear of the cartels to Jersey,” she murmured. “What evil mind thinks this stuff up?”
“Jenaro Gomez.”
“Don't let them take me!” Marcus suddenly cried, lifting his head.
“No one's taking you anywhere,” Stephanie promised him.
“That's what the lady in black said, too,” he said, settling back against Rachel. “Do you know her? Will she keep Karl away from me?”
“I know her well,” Stephanie murmured grimly. “You won't have to worry about Karl ever again.”
Viper straddled the rickety, old ladder-back chair and rested her chin on the back, watching as Karl started to come around. He lay on a drift of dead leaves, his wrists bound with wire behind his back, in front of a rotted out log in the woods. Her Jeep was parked in the trees behind him a few feet away, and she sat in the back-door of an infrequently-used hunting blind buried in the depths of the Pine Barrens. The hut sat on the edge of a large clearing, and the afternoon sun glared high in the sky, casting her in shadows. She sat perfectly still, watching as Karl groaned and turned his head, his eyes flickering open.
“What the...” he mumbled thickly, squeezing his eyes shut again for a moment against the bright sunlight. He winced as he tried to struggle into a sitting position. “Where the hell am I?”
“Somewhere no one will hear you scream.”
Karl started and looked toward her voice, squinting against the sun and trying to see her in the shadows.
“I remember now,” he said slowly.
“Good. That will save time,” Viper replied, lifting her head from the back of the chair. “Tell me about the boy.”
“Bite me,” Karl spat, leaning back against the log.
Viper shook her head and clucked her tongue, calmly reaching down to pull her military knife out of her ankle holster. She flipped it in the air and the sun glinted off the serrated blade brightly before the handle landed comfortably in her hand. Karl stared at it uncomfortably.
“Now, that's no way to talk to a lady,” she purred softly. Getting up, she moved the chair out of the way. “I heard you were quite the flirt. I should have known something was off when you impressed Agent Walker. She's always been a sucker for creeps.”
“You're the one she brought into the prison that day!” Karl exclaimed, recognition dawning as Viper moved out of the shadows. His eyes went to her black boots. “You're the one with the boots.”
“Congratulations,” Viper murmured. “You remembered the shoes.”
“Who the hell are you?” Karl asked, tilting his head back. “Why do you care about the boy?”
“I don't,” Viper answered, her voice still soft and cold. “I care about you and the man who's paying you.”
“I'm flattered.”
“Don't be.” Viper moved around behind the log and Karl twisted his head to watch her. “Where's Jenaro?”
“I don't know what you're talking about,” Karl said, turning his head back around and testing the wire holding his wrists together. He grimaced when the wire cut into his skin.
“Yes, you do.” Viper sighed, crouching down behind him. She draped one arm over his left shoulder and pressed the tip of her blade into the right side of his neck. He flinched and blood appeared, pooling around the blade tip before trickling down his neck. Her voice continued, an icy wave that made Karl freeze, “You're going to tell me everything you know about Jenaro Gomez.”
Alina watched as beads of sweat broke out along Karl's temple and his breathing became shallow. He would break sooner than she expected.
“You can suck my...”
Viper pressed the knife further into his neck, stopping him mid-sentence. She twisted her blade and he whimpered in response.
“No, thank you,” she murmured. “Where is he?”
“I don't know,” Karl said, swallowing.
“I don't believe you.”
Viper pulled the knife out of his neck. He sighed a deep breath of relief, but it cut off when she wrenched his head back at an extreme angle and pressed the blade against his esophagus.
“Let me put it this way,” Viper hissed, “you can tell me now, or I can leave your head on a pole outside the shed where you mutilated the face of a young woman and terrorized a small boy. You have three seconds to decide. One...”
“You left Rodrigo's head there?” Karl gasped.
“Two...”
“Gomez thought it was someone called The Hawk.”
Viper paused and her hand stilled on the knife at his throat.
“Is that so?” she asked softly.
“He said the Hawk was becoming a nuisance,” Karl said, taking a quick breath as she paused. “I thought he was being paranoid, until I heard Lorenzo turned up dead.”
Viper kept her knife against his throat, but pursed her lips thoughtfully.
“Paranoid how?” she asked, diverted.
“He said the Hawk would come after him. He said the head outside the prison was a warning.” Karl stared up at her, sweat pouring down his face. “I thought anyone would be suicidal to go after Jenaro Gomez, but then Lorenzo turned up dead and now here you are.”
“How did you find out about Lorenzo?” Alina asked.
“Turi brought me food and beer every day, along with instructions,” Karl said. “He told me this morning Lorenzo was found with a bullet in his head, and now Ramiero's missing. Jenaro is nervous, and that makes Turi nervous. He said he's never seen Jenaro afraid before now.”
“And where is he?”
“I don't know, I swear!” Karl gasped as the knife pressed against his esophagus and broke the skin. “He always came to me. I never went to him.”
Viper's eyes narrowed as she stared down at him coldly.
“I thought you might be useful, but it turns out you're just a rent-a-cop who likes to beat up people weaker than yourself,” she said, her eyes black pools of darkness that made him shiver involuntarily. “You're no use to me at all.”
“Wait!” Karl cried out. His eyes flared in terror as her hand shifted on the knife. “He knows you're coming! He's waiting for you. I don't know where he is exactly, but I know he's close to Riverside. He's close to the river. And he's waiting for you. He's waiting to kill the Hawk.”
“Oh, I'm not the Hawk,” she told him, smiling a smile that made Karl's blood run cold.
“But...then...who are you?” Karl stammered.
“I already told you,” Viper purred, raising the blade above his neck. “I'm your worst nightmare.”