“I’m
so
glad I’m not her,” declared one of the other girls. “It’s gotta suck being Sean’s personal slave.”
The others seemed to agree and continued to gossip about Lily and Sean. Looking sullen, Luke remained silent. His desire for Andy was obviously gone, and she began to panic. Turning to the table, she grabbed her drink and took a sip before handing it to him. He stared at her and then at the drink before finally grasping it. He took a long, slow sip.
“Forget about what she said,” Andy said in as seductive a voice as she could muster and leaned in closer. She lightly grazed her fingertips down his chest until she could feel his stomach muscles tighten. “She’s probably just jealous cuz she can’t have you…and I can.” Sensing a reversal in his mood, she took the glass out of his hand, took another sip, and placed it back on the table. She leaned in even further until her lips brushed his ear and whispered, “Let’s go somewhere private.” Then, surprising even herself, she kissed his ear and his neck.
***
“Luke prefers blonds, at least he does tonight.” Maria reported the news after rounding the corner into the alley where Ben and Jim were waiting.
“What happened?” Ben demanded.
“Exactly what we wanted. She got him alone.”
“Great, so you just left her there?”
“That was the plan, Ben,” Jim gently reminded his cousin.
Pushing his hands through his hair, Ben let out a heavy sigh. “I know, I’m sorry. I just really hate this whole thing. I hate not being able to do anything.”
“She looked like she had the situation under control,” Maria firmly assured him. She slipped off her heels and stepped into a pair of sneakers that she had retrieved from her backpack.
“I saw her carrying their drinks,” she added as she began to tie her sneakers. “He should be talking soon.”
***
Standing behind Luke as he unlocked the door to his private room, Andy adroitly retrieved a tiny plastic bag from underneath the lacey top of her sheer thigh-high stocking with one hand while carefully balancing their drinks in the other. Inside was a small, white pill. As Luke opened the door, she quickly shifted his drink back into her right hand and hid the bag between the bottom of his glass and her palm.
“Here we are,” he said proudly as they entered the room. As he closed the door behind them, Andy quickly assessed the room.
The space was modest, about the size of a bedroom, which was what it had been converted to at present. There was a bed in one corner and a plush sofa in the other. Several half-empty bottles of various liquors sat on a small table in the corner adjacent to the door. She made her way over to the table and placed the two glasses down as Luke moved behind her and placed his hands on her waist. She could smell his aftershave, which instantly reminded her of Ben.
“You still thirsty?” he said in a low voice into the back of her head before he kissed it.
Her heart pounding, she clenched her hand around the tiny plastic bag. “Yeah,” she breathed and Luke began to kiss her neck. “You have any Coke?”
“Uh-huh,” he mumbled and worked his way down her neck.
She wondered if she was going to have to do more than she wanted to get the information about the virus. Or if she was going to have to fight him.
But suddenly, Luke realized something and stood up straight. “Dammit, I left my stash out there with those guys. I’ll be right back,” he said before leaving her alone in the room.
Releasing a heavy breath, she realized that Luke thought she was asking for cocaine, not Coca-Cola. The Rohypnol that she was holding in her hand dissolve much quicker in a carbonated beverage, as she and Charlie had discovered the day before. They considered grinding the pill first and then placing the powder in the bag, but the powder clung to the sides of everything, making it nearly impossible to slip into a drink with speed. The only solution was to grind the pill right before putting it into the drink and then let it dissolve.
Now that she had a few moments alone, she quickly searched the room for an appropriate tool. Unfortunately, nothing like a pen or a stick could be found. Panicking yet again, an idea struck just when she needed it.
Removing her shoe and quickly wiping off any dirt and dust from the base of the pencil-thin heel, she took the pill out of the plastic bag, dropping the bag to the floor, and pressed down several times on the pill to break it into tiny pieces. “That’ll have to do,” she said to herself as she quickly transported the powder from the table to Luke’s glass. Then she wiped the heel clean with the hem of her dress and threw her shoe back on just as the door reopened.
“Here we go.” Luke smiled at Andy and held up a small bag of white powder that he’d left on the table.
Thinking fast, she covered her mouth with her fingertips and started to giggle. “I’m such an idiot! When I said
coke
, I meant soda. But at least your stash is safe.” Before Luke could say anything, she grabbed the drinks and handed his to him. “Cheers!” she squealed with delight and took a sip.
He frowned, apparently disappointed that “Katrina” wasn’t interested in the cocaine. “Uh, okay,” he finally muttered and threw the drugs on the table. “You know it’s my birthday?” he added suddenly.
“Oh, really? Well, Happy Birthday!” Andy held up her glass then eyed Luke impatiently as she took another tiny sip.
C’mon, drink…drink!
“This is good,” she lied. “What kind of whiskey is it?”
“Jack Daniels,” he replied before finally taking a large sip, which he quickly followed with another.
Andy smiled wryly back at him.
***
“Maria, you should head back. There’s no point in you waiting around here…if things go bad…” Jim didn’t see a need to finish his thought.
Gone were her dress and high heels. Maria had deftly changed into jeans and a T-shirt while the two young men respectfully looked the other way.
“I left thirty minutes ago. Hopefully she’s slipped him the pill by now.”
“And it takes, what, twenty minutes before the effects begin?” Ben called out from a few yards away as he kept watch on the people rushing back and forth along Greenwich Street.
“At least twenty minutes, according to what Charlie found during his research.”
“That’s too long,” he mumbled out of earshot of the others.
“You sure you two don’t need me to stay?” Maria asked Jim.
“No, seriously, we’re fine,” he insisted. “You’ve done more than enough already.”
“All right, I’m off then.”
“Be safe,” he called out as Maria walked her bike toward the end of the alley.
Ben stopped her as she passed him. “Thanks, Maria,” he said solemnly. “It took guts going in there.”
She merely nodded, and after mounting her bike, she said, “She’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”
He managed a smile. “See you soon.”
Maria pedaled onto the Street and turned south. The entrance to the Holland Tunnel was a mile away.
***
After intermittingly sipping his drink and kissing Andy, Luke finally finished off the last of his whiskey without any suspicion of what was in his glass.
Meanwhile, Andy took any opportunity she could when he wasn’t looking to spill her own drink on the dark-colored carpet. The last thing she needed was several ounces of Jack Daniels coursing through her veins. Suddenly, she spotted the tiny plastic bag that used to hold the pill lying on the floor. She started to panic. Everything could be ruined by this small mistake. She watched Luke fumble with his empty glass as he tried to place it on the table, and quickly she grabbed his drink to help him while kicking the bag under the table.
It was time to switch gears. She placed her nearly empty glass beside his and drew close to him. She ran the back of her hands against his bare, and rather muscular, arms and began to lightly feather his skin with her fingernails.
“So, you’re the leader of the Infantry?” she murmured softly.
“That’s right.” His eyelids were growing heavy.
“So you must be good friends with Sean then, huh?”
“Uh-huh.”
Luke impatiently grabbed Andy’s shoulders to pull her in even closer, and his fingers ran over her scar, her souvenir from Los Angeles. He peered awkwardly over her shoulder to get a better look.
“Hey, what’s that?” he said with labored speech.
Andy glanced behind her shoulder and smiled proudly. “Oh, that? I dodged a bullet in Los Angeles.”
His eyes widened, and he stumbled back half a step. “You…you’ve been to L.A.?” he stammered in disbelief.
“Yep. It was pretty chaotic. Not like here. Of course, L.A. doesn’t have a great leader like Sean.”
“Yeah…Sean…he’s the best!” he blurted in a manner that only an intoxicated person would.
“He is,” she pretended to agree. “But I’m sure it helps to have the virus on hand to keep people in line, huh?”
Luke frowned and his eyes narrowed as a window of lucidity emerged. “How…how the hell do you know about that?”
***
Sitting in near darkness in his office, Danny ran his fingers over the width of the three parallel scars on his neck, an unconscious tick often performed during the hours in front of his screen.
A sharp knock on his door startled him, and he quickly removed his earbuds.
“You Danny?” a shadowy silhouette of a person standing at the doorway inquired.
“Uh, yeah?”
“You like working in the dark?”
“It’s easier on the eyes,” he replied nervously.
The person flicked on the light switch, allowing Danny to see his visitor clearly.
“Oh, sorry, Sean, I didn’t…”
“Never mind,” Sean interrupted by holding up a hand. He entered the office and took a seat on the edge of Danny’s desk. “So, I’ve been told that you’re updating the database to include fingerprints of everyone registered in the city.”
“That’s right,” he replied carefully.
“How’s that coming along?”
“Uh, okay, I guess. More than half of everyone registered has already added their prints to the database.”
Sean eyed Danny with his icy blue eyes. “Excellent. Good work. It’s people like you that keep this city running smoothly. I’ll be sure to mention that to Doug the next time I see him.”
Danny smiled uneasily. “Uh, thanks.”
Sean got off the desk and headed toward the door. “You should go to
Papillon
tonight,” he advised. “You know, relax a bit. Maybe get yourself laid.”
“Uh, okay, maybe.”
“Yeah, I know…the Dregs are there tonight, but it’s better than sitting here alone in the dark, right?”
Without another word, Sean departed down the hall, leaving Danny alone again. He looked up at the florescent lights and groaned as he stood up to turn off the lights himself. “Asshole,” he muttered and returned to his desk in the dark.
***
“It doesn’t matter how I know. Just tell me where Sean is hiding it.”
By now, Andy had backed a few feet away from Luke and was standing in front of the door. As he blinked back in disbelief at the sudden change of events, she reached underneath her dress in between her legs and retrieved the tiny Ruger LCP that she’d carefully holstered to her inner left thigh, a temporary gift from Ben. She pointed the barrel at Luke’s chest. He instinctively took a step back and lifted his arms.
“Who…who are you?” he sputtered.
“Where’s the virus?” she demanded. “Tell me or I’ll shoot.”
Luke gasped out a laugh. “You won’ shoot me. You’re jus’a H-Helen!”
“Hey, I’ve shot people dead before, including the person who gave me that scar.” She nodded toward her shoulder but kept her aim steady.
He stumbled backward again. The Rohypnol was starting to take full effect. “You…can’ sh-shoo’ me. They…they’ll ’ear it.”
“Not with all that music. It’s nice and loud out there. Now tell me where the virus is!”
Luke took one more step backward. His foot hit the base of the sofa, and he fell onto it.
“Tell me!” Andy let off a round. The bullet landed expertly in the sofa cushion, an inch from his groin.
The sight of the bullet hole so close to his manhood nearly stunned him into sobriety. “You almost shot me!” he shouted with remarkable clarity.
“Tell me, or the next time I’ll hit you so that you never have children.” Andy stepped forward and aimed the barrel once again at Luke’s groin.
Looking dazed, his eyes slowly refocused on the gun. “Did he send you?” he asked like a scared child.
She frowned. “Who?”
“Ben. Kelly.” Luke uttered the name in two separate breaths.
Andy’s stomach fell to her knees. Somehow, though, she managed to keep her voice steady. “Who’s Ben? Who are you talking about? Tell me where the virus is!”