All too obvious.
If she could duck into another room, maybe she could fit under the sink in the bathroom, maybe—
Heavy steps on the staircase told her that the second guy was on his way up.
No, please, no!
“She’s up here somewhere!” one of the men cried. “We got her.”
Jump. You have to jump.
She went back to the window and threw it open.
The cool air swirled in around her.
No, the pool’s too far; you’ll never make it.
The door behind her crashed open. “Do not move! I will shoot you!”
She gripped the windowsill. Didn’t turn around to look at him.
You have to get out of here. They’ll kill you!
“Step away from the window.”
She eyed the pool, calculated if it was possible to—
“I said, get back from the window.”
But she didn’t step back.
Instead, she leapt into the night.
The Fear of Dying
Charlene smacked onto the plastic tarp but wrenched her ankle against the side of the pool as she did.
The tarp swallowed her up, wrapping tightly around her, sucking her under.
From the water escapes she’d done over the years, she knew she just needed to relax, focus, move slowly. But as she tried to free her arms, her legs, kick to the surface, the plastic held her fast.
Easy, Charlene. Don’t panic!
For certain effects, she needed to be able to hold her breath for two and a half minutes, but tonight the issue was getting untangled from the plastic that was keeping her from the surface. And she hadn’t gotten much air before plunging under the water.
She tried to be still to let the plastic float away from her, but that did nothing to free her.
Easy.
Take it easy.
You need to get out of here.
Calming herself and shutting out the panic, she extended her arms slowly and rotated to the left, toward the top of the pool.
She sensed that the plastic was parting. By gently spinning a little more, she was finally able to ease the plastic aside and make it to the water’s surface.
She grabbed a breath and headed for the side of the pool. Heaving herself out, she stood and almost toppled backward as she put pressure on her injured ankle.
No! You have to run!
A police car was sitting next to the curb.
Awkwardly, painfully, she hobbled toward it but found it empty.
“Ma’am?” a voice behind her called. “Are you alright?”
Heart hammering in her chest, she turned and saw a police officer walking her way.
“There are two men,” she gasped, “they’re trying to—”
And then she saw the second officer leave the house.
No, they were the—
The officer who was closest to her spoke softly. “I’m going to need you to climb inside the car now, Miss Antioch. I know it’s no Aston Martin, but it’s gonna have to do for tonight.”
The two men converged on her, and though she desperately tried to fight them off, it was only a matter of seconds before they had her cuffed and locked in the back of their patrol car.
Officers Gordon Shepard and Ron Ledger climbed into the squad, and Gordon made the call. “We’ve got her. We’re bringing her in.”
“Good.”
“What about Schatzing? Do you want us to take care of him too?”
“Is he dead?”
“Naw. But he was bleeding pretty bad there on the floor.”
“Leave him. All we really need right now is the woman.”
Calista thought only of death.
Derek had left her tied up on the floor with Dr. Malhotra watching over her and the unconscious engineer, who was lying on the bed on the other end of the honeymoon suite.
Thoughts of growing old, something she would never do now, filled her head. Images of sunsets and oceans, of mountains and beaches, of children laughing, of herself in the mirror, wrinkled and spent with the years, but smiling. She would never experience any of that.
Never experience anything except this room.
Maybe she didn’t fear growing old more than dying.
Maybe she did fear dying most of all.
Hearing footsteps, she turned and saw the doctor on his way toward her.
He leaned close enough for her to smell his stale breath. “Don’t worry. If you survive I’ll make sure what’s left of you goes to good use. I’ve been looking for a new volunteer to take Thad’s place. You’re already familiar with the program, you’ll be perfect.”
She prayed she would die quickly, before Malhotra could sever her spinal column and paralyze her from the neck down.
But she was not confident that this prayer was one that was going to be answered.
The Offer
My phone rings. Charlene’s photo comes up on the screen. “Charlene, hey, what’s—”
“Mr. Banks?” It’s a man’s voice. “Jevin Banks?”
“Who is this?”
“Akinsanya.”
It feels like a clamp is squeezing around my heart.
He’s calling on Charlene’s phone!
He—
“We have Miss Antioch. She’s right here with me now. Would you like to speak with her?”
I feel my left hand form a white-knuckled grip around the steering wheel. “Yes.”
A moment, and then, “Jevin! I’m at the Arête. Call the—”
Her voice becomes faint as she cries out “police!” and Akinsanya’s voice comes back on the line again. “You have something I want.”
“What?”
“The launch codes.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I know you were at the base.”
“I don’t know anything about any launch codes.”
“You have the USB drive.”
“Yes, but it didn’t have any launch codes.”
“I hope, for Miss Antioch’s sake, that it did.”
Play this right, Jevin. Buy some time!
“Okay. Alright. I’ll give them to you. But not over the phone. I need to see her, we do it in person.”
Silence. “I’ll call you back and give you a location. Until then, do not contact the authorities. I’ll know if you do. And I will not hesitate to hurt Miss Antioch in even worse ways than you can imagine.”
The line goes dead.
Xavier only heard my side of the conversation, but that’s enough for him to piece things together. “They got Charlene and they want the launch codes?”
“It was Akinsanya.”
“What?”
“With Turnisen’s involvement and the test schedule, I can only guess the codes are for those drones, for tonight.”
“They’re armed.”
“Yes, they are.”
“Jev, even if you had the codes you can’t give them to him. You know that, right?”
I’m quiet.
“Buddy, there’s no telling what he might use that drone for. If there’s even a chance that he could fire one of the—”
“This is Charlene we’re talking about.”
“I know. But you could also be talking about the lives of hundreds or even thousands of people.”
I don’t know what to say. I have nothing to say. “What if it was Fionna and her kids who were in danger?”
“It might be. We don’t know.”
He’s right. We don’t know. Before you make any decision, you need to find out where that drone is heading, what they’re planning to do with it.