The Gates of Byzantium (Purge of Babylon, Book 2) (52 page)

The hallway lights stung his eyes, but he couldn’t turn his head to look away. At least he had control over his eyelids, so he blinked and allowed himself to slowly become accustomed to the brightness. He didn’t know how long they had been moving down the hallway, but it seemed like minutes had flown by. Or maybe it was seconds?

The man turned left, and as he did, Josh’s head tilted over onto his right cheek and he saw he wasn’t alone. The man was dragging not just him, but Gaby, too. Her long blonde hair streamed behind her like a dirty mop, scooping up dirt and dust from the floor. He was relieved to see Gaby wearing a T-shirt. It looked like his. It was a size too big for her, and it flapped around and sometimes got stuck behind her body as she was dragged, and he caught glimpses of her breasts and lacy panties. Josh flushed with embarrassment for her.

Gaby’s eyes were closed, but she didn’t look hurt. She actually looked asleep.
Peaceful.
He didn’t understand how that was possible, unless she was drugged. But then wouldn’t he have been drugged, too? Why had he woken up—well, mostly, anyway—when she hadn’t?

There was a soft clicking sound, and Josh heard a female voice, muffled and slightly distorted: “Where are you?”

The man stopped, causing Josh’s head to involuntarily flop back onto his left cheek, and he lost sight of Gaby. He felt his leg falling, dropped from the man’s grip, then thudding against the floor.

Another clicking sound, and the man’s voice: “I’d be there already if you didn’t keep calling me.”

Tom.

Josh shivered. Or at least, he shivered in his mind. He wasn’t sure what his body did, if anything at all.

“Hurry up,” the muffled female voice said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Tom said, and there was a brief two-second pause before Josh felt Tom’s big fingers grip his calf again and lift his leg off the floor, and he was being dragged through the hallway once more.

They turned another corner, and Josh’s head returned to his right cheek, and he could see Gaby again. Her hair was now a dirty shade of brown, with dirt and dust and God knew what else from the floor entangled in it.

Finally, Tom stopped again, and Josh heard a door creak open; then they were dragged through. His head was knocked ruthlessly against the side of the door, and pain lanced through his body. He couldn’t have let out a scream even if he had wanted to.

The ground under him became gritty and hard, and Josh felt like someone was raking his skull over coarse sandpaper. He glimpsed a concrete floor and knew he was in another unfinished part of the hotel. Josh was suddenly very grateful he had limited control over his body; otherwise he might have kicked out at Tom’s grip in an instinctive attempt to escape. That would have gotten Tom’s attention, and then what?

When Tom came to a stop again, Josh saw what looked like some kind of ballroom. A big chandelier dangled from the ceiling above him, though it had no lightbulbs. Patches of shadows moved along the ceiling, and it was hard to make out details in the semidarkness. The wall in front of him was unfinished, and whenever he heard a sound, it echoed back and forth inside the large room.

“About damn time,” a male voice said from somewhere across the room. This voice sounded familiar, too, but Josh couldn’t quite place it yet.

“Hey, I’m carrying two. You idiots had one apiece,” Tom said.

“Excuses, excuses,” the other man said.

Tom dropped Josh’s leg to the floor again, and Josh quickly closed his eyes. Somehow he was still awake—if not entirely in control of his body—while Gaby wasn’t, despite the discomfort of being dragged through the hotel. They were drugged. He was sure of that now. And right now, he needed the islanders to think he was out, too.

“Is that everyone?” a woman asked. It was the same voice he had heard back in the hallway, talking to Tom, only now without the distortion.

“One, two, three…” the second man (who wasn’t Tom) counted. “Yeah, except for the two girls. Berg’s bringing them now.”

“Zip them up,” the woman said. “All of them. And make sure they’re on tight, I don’t want a repeat of what happened with the wrestler. Especially with the two soldiers. They’re too dangerous.”

“That’s why we should just kill them,” Tom said. “Put a bullet in their heads and be done with it.”

“No,” the woman said. There was finality in her voice. “It wants them.”

“We can just say we had to, that they fought back,” Tom insisted.

“You don’t understand.
It wants them.
That means it gets them. It’s not up for discussion.”

“Whatever,” Tom said.

Tom turned, his sneakers squeaking loudly against the concrete floor, and he began walking away. The same door they had come through earlier slammed shut in the background.

Cold fingers (probably the other man’s) turned him over onto his side, and what felt like thin, plastic rope tightened around his ankles. Then the rope (no, more like a strip) was pulled tight until his ankles were squeezed against each other. The man grabbed Josh’s arms with the same cold fingers and pulled them behind his back, and the same plastic sensation wrapped around his wrists and pulled them tight against one another.

“Karen,” the other man said, “maybe Tom’s right.”

Karen.

The woman was Karen. That’s why the voice was so familiar.

Tom and Karen. Then who was the other man?

Marcus.

“Yeah, I know he’s right,” Karen said. “That still doesn’t change the fact that it wants them.”

“You mean it’s coming here? Personally?” Marcus said. Josh detected more than just a little bit of dread in his voice.

“Yeah.”

“That’s a first.”

“Like I told Tom, it made it very clear it wants the two soldiers intact.”

“How long before they show up?”

“I don’t know, it didn’t say.”

“This is stupid.”

“Everything about this is stupid, but you should have gotten used to it by now. Go find out what the hell is taking Berg so long with the girls. I don’t want that idiot doing something he’s not supposed to.”

Josh listened to the sounds of Marcus’s footsteps fading, then another door—a different one this time—on the other side of the ballroom opening and closing. There was a brief moment of silence while Josh waited to see (hear) what Karen would do next.

Warm fingers touched both his cheeks and turned his head, and he knew it was Karen. What was she doing now? It could have been his imagination, but he thought she might have lingered on his face a bit.

Oh God, does she know?

After a while, she let his head drop, and this time he landed on his right cheek.

He heard footsteps as Karen walked away. Moments later, a door opening and closing.

Josh opened his eyes.

He wasn’t alone. Almost all of them, except for Elise and Vera, were here. Will and Lara, lying on their sides next to each other, not too far from him. Will was in his boxers, Lara in a T-shirt that was too big for her. Will’s, probably, the same way they had dressed Gaby up in the first shirt they had found, which turned out to be his.

And there, not far from Will and Lara, were Danny and Carly, in the same posture and clothing. Boxers for Danny, T-shirt for Carly. Their eyes were closed, and like Gaby, they looked asleep, blissfully unaware of their surroundings and what was happening to them.

Why am I the only one still awake?

He became frantic, and it only got worse because the only part of his body he could move at all were his eyelids. He still couldn’t turn his head, couldn’t feel his fingers or toes. But he could feel the coldness of the concrete floor pressing up against his body.

Why am I the only one awake?

Oh God, we’re so screwed.

‡

SHUDDER ISLAND

JOSH

Pros and cons:
What were they?

Pros: He was wide awake. He could hear, smell, see, and feel. He had recovered almost complete control over his arms and legs. He could also turn his head and see the rest of the incomplete ballroom.

Cons: Everything else. He was the only one awake and alert and able to do anything about their captivity. He was also bound with zip ties. The kind cops used instead of handcuffs. Strong stuff. His arms were basically glued together behind his back, his legs squeezed tight under him. He wasn’t going to break the zip ties. Cops around the world weren’t using them because they were easy to break. Besides, he was never the strongest person in the world before The Purge, and that hadn’t changed since.

Conclusion:
We’re screwed.

It took an hour before he got all the feeling back in his hands and feet, which allowed him to really feel the tightness of the zip ties, and they hurt. Josh continued lying on his side, opening his eyes only when he was sure there were no islanders in the room. Thank God no one had come back in to check on them in the last hour.

The last person he had seen was Berg, still wearing the same LSU jersey, bringing Elise and Vera in, the girls in their nightgowns. He laid them down on the floor and zip-tied their hands and feet before leaving. After that, Josh only heard voices and footsteps in the hallway, coming and going periodically.

He remembered what Karen had said an hour ago:
“Everything about this is stupid, but you should have gotten used to it by now.”

“Gotten used to it by now,”
Karen had said.

They had done this before. Lured people to the island. Given them rooms, showers, indoor plumbing, food, air conditioning, and wine.

The wine!

He remembered how they were served during dinner. The trays of glasses already filled with red wine. Sarah and Sienna placing the wineglasses in front of each of them. They knew exactly who was getting which glass. Everyone drinking their wine throughout the night. But Josh only taking a sip or two. Was that why he was awake and everyone else wasn’t? Probably. Two and two got you four.

How did that conversation between Karen and Marcus go earlier?

“Karen,”
Marcus had said,
“maybe Tom’s right.”

“Yeah, I know he’s right,”
Karen had answered.
“That still doesn’t change the fact that it wants them.”

Then Marcus had sighed and said,
“How long before they show up?”

“I don’t know, it didn’t say,”
Karen had answered.

“It.” What was “it”?

Then Marcus had said “they.” How long before
“they”
showed up? Who was he referring to?

Whoever they were, Josh had a feeling he wasn’t going to like it when
it
and
they
finally showed up on the island.

There were two small windows near the ceiling, but it was too dark outside for him to see much of anything. It had to be midnight now, or just shortly after midnight. Running from darkness for the last eight months had given Josh an intuitive sense of time.

So how long before
it
and
they
arrived?

Josh managed to rock himself into a sitting position. His arms were stiff and tight against his sides and back, making moving difficult. In movies, he had seen people slide their arms under their butts and bring them forward, and it didn’t look particularly hard, or as if it required a whole lot of athleticism. Which was a good thing, because he didn’t have much athleticism to spare.

He looked down at his legs, at the zip ties wrapped tight against his ankles. So now what? He looked around him. The ballroom was big, and the lack of chairs and tables made it seem even more vast. No wonder every sound echoed in here. He had to be careful about any noises he made.

Sound travels these days.

Josh looked over at Gaby, lying on her side, unconscious, dirty blonde hair splayed behind her like a fan. Behind him, Will and Danny, Carly and Lara, and the girls all still asleep. All zip-tied like him, trussed up like animals waiting for slaughter. The imagery made him shiver, and he instantly regretted it.

Maybe he could wake Will up. Or Danny. They were a hell of a lot stronger than him, and they might have experience with this. Didn’t they teach Special Forces guys how to escape in the Army?

“Will,” Josh whispered. When that got him nothing, he said again, slightly louder this time, “Will, wake up, for God’s sake.”

Will remained on his side, eyes closed.

“Danny,” Josh said. When he got no reaction, he said again, slightly louder, “Danny, wake up.
Wake up.
”

The last two words echoed slightly in the room.

Shit. Too loud…

On cue, he heard footsteps coming from the door to his left, and quickly threw himself back down to the floor. He grunted as his cheek smacked into the cold concrete and pain shot through his temple.

Josh ignored the pain—or tried to, anyway—and closed his eyes. He willed his heartbeat to slow into a steady rhythm, but it was still chugging along a few seconds later when the door opened.

He braced himself at the sound of soft footsteps approaching. As the figure got closer, Josh realized his heart was still going too fast. He was sure he would be discovered, but the figure walked right past him. As it did, Josh opened his right eye a crack and saw pink tennis shoes flashing by.