“Good,” she cut him off. “We all need to go back to the prison and search the area, and if we have to, we’ll go to the city and stay until we figure out what happened and find them. No matter how long it takes.”
She was being brave, and Jim recognized her need to take charge. Rising to his feet, he leaned over and kissed her. “We’ll find them, don’t worry,” he whispered.
Her eyes welled up, and as she looked away, a large tear rolled down her cheek. It fell and hit Katie’s bottle. “What if he has them? What if he…”
“If Sean has them, he won’t kill them. He’ll play with them and torment them, but he won’t kill them.”
Morgan looked into Jim’s eyes. “I’m not sure if that’s better. We better work fast.”
***
Her surroundings were pitch-black and the floor she lay upon was cold. Dazed at first, Andy suddenly remembered everything and she began to weep.
All she wanted was to help others. She couldn’t believe that she was a captive once again, all because she had tried to prevent Sean from having control over the virus.
She wept for Ben, the only man she had ever loved, who was now dead because of her.
I shouldn’t have pushed him to do this. He didn’t need to come back
. She choked when she said his name aloud, and a great pain struck her like a knife stabbing her through the heart.
One night…that’s all I got with him was one night. Why did I wait so long?
She thought over and over again.
She didn’t care where she was or how long she was going to be there. All she wanted was to die. Death was the only sure way to erase all the pain and memories that would only haunt her forever. She cried until anguish fatigued her to the point of unconsciousness, and she remained motionless on the cold, hard floor for several hours. The only mercy granted to her was a dreamless sleep, one without nightmares or images of Ben.
***
On the eightieth floor of the Empire State Building, Sean opened the door to a closet guarded by two Infantry officers. Light from the hallway illuminated the dark space. It was small, identical to the closet he had placed Andy in. The space was empty, only measuring six square feet and had once been used as a supply room to store cleaning materials. It was too small for his six-foot-two captive to lie down completely. Sean hadn’t planned for that to be the case, but the discomfort the size made was a welcome revelation.
Conscious once again but now encumbered with a terrible headache on top of his gunshot wound, Ben sat with his back against the corner farthest from the door. Sean had earlier instructed a Fixer to check the wound and remove any fragments of the bullet. It had been a clean shot, tearing mostly through muscle and the outer surface of the humerus bone, causing excruciating pain as blood seeped through his bandage. No sedative or painkiller had been given to him all day, and the unrelenting suffering was wearing him down.
Sean stepped inside and closed the door behind him. The darkness returned momentarily until he illuminated a hand-held electric lamp. Though the overhead light worked in the room, he wanted to maintain the illusion of darkness.
Ben’s eyes blinked at the sudden sensation of light as he recognized Sean’s face.
“Where is she?” was the first thing he said in almost a growl through gritted teeth. Though the room was cold, his forehead glistened with sweat and his right leg shook from pain.
“Oh, she’s a lot closer than you think.” The smile on Sean’s face was sickening. “She’s just upstairs. In fact…” Sean looked up and pointed his index finger to the ceiling. “…she’s right above you. Just a few feet of rebar and concrete between you and her.” He looked back at Ben writhing in agony on the floor. “Unfortunately for you, she thinks you’re dead.”
Ben’s eyes grew wide. “No…she won’t believe that!” he gasped, every word a struggle.
“Well, she seemed pretty convinced when I told her. She yelled at first but then turned into a weepy mess. And I’m sure you painted such a nice picture about me to her. You know, how evil I am and how many people I’ve killed. It would’ve been harder to convince her that I
hadn’t
killed you.”
“You
are
evil, you miserable piece of shit!” Ben spat out this last word with what remained of his strength. He let out a grunt in response to the pain and nearly passed out while Sean looked on with satisfaction. “Why don’t you just kill me then?” he asked when his breath returned.
“Because that would be too easy for you and less fun for me. See, you destroyed my plans with your little stunt at the prison yesterday, so now I’m going to destroy your life. I think it’s a fair exchange.”
Ben could only listen now. His will to argue was gone. All he wanted was to black out.
“But before anything else happens,” Sean went on, “I’ll give you something for the pain because you really look like you need it.”
He opened the door and the same Fixer who had cleaned Ben’s shoulder entered. Without any instruction, he walked directly to Ben with a syringe in one hand and a flashlight in the other. Sean watched with delight as the Fixer leaned over and grabbed Ben’s injured arm. Ben let out a howl, but the Fixer ignored him and injected the needle into the first vein he could find. After releasing the contents of the syringe, he departed the room, leaving Sean and Ben alone once again.
“Did you know that heroin is synthesized from morphine?” Sean remarked flatly. “I understand that the two have similar psychological effects on users. Lots of soldiers became addicted to morphine after they came home from all the wars during the last century.” He spoke like a professor giving a lecture. “But several of the Helens tell me heroin is the best high they’ve ever had. Of course, I can’t afford to risk using it personally. Addiction doesn’t really suit someone in my position, so you’ll have to confirm that for me.”
But Ben had barely heard anything. The drug was already numbing the pain in his shoulder, and his mind began to feel a strange sense of calm.
“It’s the most difficult drug for me to get my hands on,” Sean rambled on. “You should consider yourself lucky that I’m about to invest my limited supply on you.” He then took a few steps toward his captive. “But this time, I’ll be more careful. You won’t overdose like…Kar—like your sister.”
Even in his deteriorated state, Ben heard Sean’s voice waver, and his anger briefly returned. “You killed her…” he murmured.
“It was an accident. I never meant for…” Sean stopped and cleared his throat. “I loved her.”
“You’ve never loved anybody. You’re not capable of it!”
In a surge of rage, Sean took another step forward and delivered a sharp kick to Ben’s stomach. Ben let out a sharp cough and rolled over to his side.
Sean knelt down and leaned over until his face was within inches of Ben’s ear. “I loved Karen. Just like you love Andy. So I’m going to take her away from you. Slowly, one day at a time. One injection at a time. Soon, you’ll love the drug more than you love her. And then one day, you’ll forget about her completely. You won’t even remember her name.” The sound of vengeance in Sean’s voice had a deafening effect. He stood up and left the room.
***
After enjoying his dinner, Sean decided it was time to pay Andy a visit. He had lied to Ben about already speaking with her, for they had yet to exchange a single word. He had checked on her once while she slept in her own tiny room hours earlier, and for some reason, he didn’t want to wake her.
The guards opened the door to the closet, and Sean stepped inside. Unlike with Ben, he turned on the light. Andy was still asleep, but the flicker from the bulb disturbed her senses enough to wake her. She looked about until she spotted Sean. Then her face fell and she looked away.
“Oh come on…is that any way to treat your host? And here I was so anxious to meet the person who started all this mess.”
But she didn’t move. Sean closed the door and stepped around her to face her. He sat down on the floor to meet her eyes, but she recoiled and turned away.
“So that’s how it’s going to be then, huh? I won’t hurt you. I just want to know who you are and how you got mixed up with someone like Ben Kelly.”
At the mention of Ben’s name, her shoulders trembled. Sean crawled around her crumpled body and faced her once again. This time, she didn’t move away.
“Man, he really did a number on you, didn’t he?” He leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. “I have to admit, I don’t get the attraction. I mean, I guess he’s good-looking…or
was
, I should say, but I never really saw him with a lot of girls before he took off last year.”
He scratched his head as though he were trying to recall something. Andy kept her head down, her hair covering her face.
“There was one girl…I think her name was Jenny…I saw her with him quite a bit, but she was just a Dreg. She was pretty, but nothing compared to one of my Helens. I never understood why Ben wasted his time with her, and I doubt the two of them ever had as much fun as you two did last night.”
He waited for a reaction but he would not be satisfied. He reached out and curled a thick strand of Andy’s hair around his finger and brushed it aside to see her face. She jerked away.
“Calm down, princess…I’m just trying to see what Ben found so alluring. And Luke, too. That little act you performed back at the club was quite entertaining. I might’ve fallen for it too.” He leaned forward and tried to force eye contact. “Come on, Andy. Say something…I’m asking you nicely.”
“There’s nothing to say,” she mumbled hoarsely.
“Oh, she speaks!”
“Just leave me alone.”
But Sean was blithe in his response. “Perhaps you’re not aware that torture is not off the table when it comes to getting what I want.”
Andy finally looked up at him with hollow eyes. “You said you wouldn’t hurt me, but go ahead…torture me all you want. There’s nothing more you can do to me. But I’ll take my life and what I’ve done with it to the grave.” Then she turned away.
“That’s fine. You can remain silent for as long as you want, but until you tell me something about yourself, you’ll stay in this room in the dark without food, water, or a bathroom.”
At the mention of the bathroom, Andy became painfully aware of the pressure on her bladder. She had managed to ignore the sensation for hours, but now that it had been brought to her attention, she could no longer deny the urge. Lying on her side, she crossed her top leg over her bottom one in an effort to stifle the discomfort.
The gesture made Sean laugh. “See, you won’t last another hour, so why don’t you stop being so stubborn and answer my question.”
Accepting defeat, she pushed with her arms to sit upright. She brushed her hair away from her face and stared defiantly at him. “If I answer a question, you have to answer one of mine.”
Sean pondered the proposition for a moment before casually shrugging. “Sure, why not. I’ll start. When and where did you meet Ben?”
“That’s two questions, not one.”
“I’m changing the rules.”
She narrowed her eyes but didn’t argue. “Over a year ago on a highway in southern Virginia. Now my question: who the hell do you think you are trying to control the virus? Who made you God over all of us?”
Sean held up his hands and snickered. “Whoa, slow down. That wasn’t a question…that was an accusation.”
She remained stone-faced. “Answer it however you want, but that’s my question.”
He leaned back against the wall and kept an intent gaze on his beautiful captive.
Looking back at him, Andy suddenly recalled Ben’s initial description of Sean.
What I remember most about him are his eyes. They’re piercing blue…
The description was dead-on. His eyes were a beautiful, crystalline blue, but there was not even the slightest degree of warmth in them. Instead, they penetrated whatever they looked at. With his stare unwavering, Andy ultimately flinched and looked away.
He didn’t seem to notice, for her question had fully occupied him. He took a deep breath and released it before finally speaking. “I don’t think I’m God, if that’s what you’re implying. I’m simply trying to save people from themselves.”
Andy let out an audible gasp. “How? By killing anyone who gets in your way?”
“No, that’s not it at all. I don’t care what anyone does with their lives. They can eat and drink what they want and screw whomever they want and stay out late and go to the clubs as much as they want and do whatever drugs they want. People in this city have the freedom to do all the things that they couldn’t do six years ago.”
“You actually believe that? You distribute drugs in this city like it’s candy…young girls of twelve and thirteen are out there prostituting themselves and are choosing cocaine over food…!”
“Twelve and thirteen is not young anymore, not when you and I are two of the oldest people on the planet. And why not let people do what they want? The world is a mess. At least I’m giving everyone some order and opportunity.” He leaned in even closer as his voice raised in volume. He wanted Andy to understand. “You’re not from around here, are you?”