The Hazing Tower (21 page)

“Thank you, but that’s not him. You were right. It’s a stalker boyfriend. This guy isn’t him. I promise I will call the police, OK?”

The girl was crying now. “Are you sure?”

“You are so brave. Thank you for trying to protect me. Not many people would do that, you know.”

“We girls need to stick together.” She was still crying.

Nikki kissed her on the cheek. “Please go now, I will be fine. These are my friends.” They both looked back at the three of them, all their faces white as ghosts.

Jinny was the first to talk. “What the hell, Nikki?”

“I am so sorry, Alex. I was trying my French. I thought I had learned some words. I think she got the wrong idea; she thought you were stalking me or something.”

She could tell no one believed her.

“And I feel sick, I think maybe something I ate.”

Damn! Nikki thought to herself. People with her special gene don’t get sick from bad food. Alex must know something is off. She was losing control of the situation. She didn’t have much time; she had to act fast.

“Are you crying? Nikki, why are you crying?” Jinny was staring at her.

Alex was just standing there, stunned.

“Jinny, I have been holding a lot in, I guess. It just sorta came out all at once, all the emotions. Can we just go home now. Sorry I ruined such a fun day, I mean, what could have been a fun day.”

• • •

She started to count down — 5… 4… 3… 2…

Nikki ran fast and plowed into the door half a second before it closed. The horn sounded, warning the doors were closing and the train was going to move.

“Nikki! No!” She saw Alex pound on the door. She stood against the window, tears streaking down her face. The train started to move. She could see Alex running after her; she closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see; she dropped down to the floor of the train.

Wait,
she thought to herself,
where was Jinny?

She turned and saw her. She was on the train! She jumped back up and ran in the other direction. “Get out of my way!” Oh, damn. They don’t know English! People were screaming as she ran through the train, some laughing it seemed. She slammed into a closed door; Jinny must be close behind. She hit the button and it hissed open, she jumped across the open gap and took off running again.

This car was more crowded; she tried to run, but it was full of standing passengers. Just as she turned to reverse direction, something hit her hard, she felt herself pinned to the ground.

“I knew it!” Jinny was on top of her.

“Jinny, please. You have to go.” She started to cry. She didn’t even try to fight back, she didn’t have it in her anymore.

“You are going to take him on alone? Are you crazy?”

“Let me get up; I will explain.”

“No.” She was sitting on her and had her hands pinned down. Everyone was dead quiet in the train car; if not for the rails you could have heard a pin drop.

“Americans? Are you American? Everything all right? I speak English.” She heard a man ask.

“We are fine, just a girl thing. Give us a moment.” Jinny sounded so strong.

“Jinny, I won’t try to run, just let me explain —”

“I don’t trust you.”

“Jinny, he knows where we are. He already knows.” She stared up at the flickering subway lights.

“What?”

“Look in my right pocket. The note. They know everything.” She slowly pulled the note out of her pocket.

Jinny let up the pressure and pulled Nikki up off the floor.

Two men immediately jumped up. “Please! Take our seats.” Everyone was staring.

They sat there for some time, not saying anything. People started to go back to their own worlds.
Funny how fast people forget things,
she thought; as a cop, she remembered that. Attention span was so short — the reason eyewitness accounts were usually so inaccurate.

“You were trying to protect us then. It’s still crazy. Why didn’t you tell us?”

Nikki got close to her. “Don’t look down, OK? When I tell you this, don’t look down.”

Jinny nodded.

“Rebecca gave me these shoes, the ones you noticed. They are bombs, Jinny.”

“What?”

“It has a remote detonator in the left shoe tip . . . ,” she said under her breath.

“Oh!”

“Yes. That’s exactly what I said. Rebecca understood. It had to be me. Don’t you see, Jinny. As long as my DNA is out there, everyone is at risk. Who knows how many Logans there are. Five? Ten? As long as I’m alive — well, you get it.”

“There’s more?” Jinny asked.

“I almost told you all. I didn’t want to do this, of course. I don’t want to die, Jinny. But the note — He knows the clothes Josh is wearing; he has been watching us this whole time. He will always be one step ahead. My shoes,” she whispered. “Rebecca was right; they might be the only thing he doesn’t see coming, the one thing he won’t be a step ahead about.”

Jinny looked down at the floor.

“Will you please go back now. Take the next train back, it’s not far.”

Jinny shook her head. She couldn’t seem to speak.

“Jinny! You have to go back.”

“Nikki, if I go back, I will tell them. How could I not? You would torture me by having me go back to Josh, to Alex, and keep this secret?”

She was right. Nikki hadn’t thought about that. She wouldn’t be able to do it herself. That would be pure torture.

Jinny held her hand. “We go together!”

“Jinny, you just started to live. You are in love.” She couldn’t finish.

Tears were rolling down Jinny’s face now. “Joshua was ready to die protecting me. Why shouldn’t I do the same for him? I want to do the same.”

Nikki held her hand tightly. “I am sorry, Jinny.”

“What now?”

“He gave me a number to call.”

“Excuse me, sir,” Nikki asked the man who knew English. “I apologize. Can I ask one more favor and borrow your phone?”

She memorized the instructions and handed the phone back. They changed trains two more times, as the directions stated. They got out at the station she memorized. They sat down and waited. It wasn’t a long wait. Two men walked up and sat down on the chairs to the left and right of them.

“We both have guns, so don’t do anything stupid. You can’t stop two bullets, not even you, Nikki.”

They walked with them to the street level. The sky was grey and it seemed even colder than before. They got into a white van and immediately she felt a hood being pulled over her head and her hands tied.

Had she fallen asleep? They must have drugged her. She felt dazed as the van seemed to come to a stop. She felt herself being pulled forward. She could sense they had entered some type of building. It was warm and the wind had stopped.

“Let go of her, you idiots! And take that hood off her! She could snap your necks before you even blinked.” A man with a black mask waved the men out of the room as he glared at them.

“Nikki, please forgive me, it is so hard to find good help these days. I have been waiting lifetimes to meet you. I can see it was worth the wait. Please, sit down. I really apologize for how you got here. Those guys are worthless; I know you could have killed them both with a flick of your wrist,” he said with an accent. “Do you drink tea?”

Nikki nodded. She stared at his mask. It looked like the material was some type of metal. She could see what looked like dead skin underneath. He looked like a monster.

“Where is my friend? The other girl.”

“She is fine. The drugs lasted longer on her. She is sleeping calmly. You are strong, Nikki; the drugs didn’t even slow you down.” He smiled slightly. It was hard to tell through the mask.

She sat down in a leather chair and scanned the room. Antiques everywhere. Paintings, some she recognized; must be millions, probably billions of dollars worth. The word was priceless, she remembered. Something caught her eye. A whole wall of clocks; there must be thousands of them. Intricate, beautiful. Clocks of every type.

“Ah, I see you found my weakness. I collect them. Yes, clocks, of course. But then you know all about the little time trick we can play.”

He walked over and picked up one of them from a glass display.

“This is my favorite. They say it was the first pocket watch. Made in 1510 by an inventor named Peter Henlein. It still works, you know; it works perfectly after all this time. Hold it. This is when they really made things to last, not like the cheap stuff today. Such a sad state of affairs; we have gone from craftsmanship to mass production, the opposite of advancement. I would trade a smart phone for this art any day.” He handed it to her and walked back to a chair and sat down.

“Why haven’t you killed me?” Nikki asked.

He closed his eyes. “Killing. Why does everyone always talk about death first? Why not start with life! You are alive now, am I right? You have never felt more alive; I know you feel it.”

“You said you will let them go, my friends, if I what? If I stay here?”

“Your friends are of no consequence to me. Why should I hurt them? They are like flies to you and me. The girl that came with you; she is out cold from a simple sleeping pill! Do you think she is a threat to me?” He laughed again. “Nikki, I know you understand. You are not a fool. You sense the power you possess. You must realize what you could do, what we could do together.”

“Alex didn’t have time to teach me much.”

The masked man laughed. “Oh, Nikki, my sweet girl, you are not a very good liar. We can work on that; Rebecca, now, she was good at it — she fooled me, you know.” He seemed to pause for a moment as he thought about Rebecca. She must have meant something to him, somewhere deep down.

“Don’t feel bad. The best liars are such because they have turned off their emotions. What is life without emotions? Without love, hope, happiness? If you give me time, I can teach you to lie without that trade-off. It’s not easy, as you can see. I can read you like a book; you might as well give up on trying to fool me. It took me almost 20 years to learn to lie without detection.”

“Why would you believe I would work with you?” Nikki asked.

“Nikki, you grew up on the streets, in a foster home. I know you better than you know yourself. True, you are emotional, but you also think with logic. What I am offering you is a life beyond anything you can imagine. Do you see it? Worlds await for us. How long do you think it will be before space travel is perfected? We have time to wait. Nikki, we could be the first to discover a new planet, new life. The possibilities are endless.”

“And the cost?”

He sighed. “Do you think it is easy to live this long? Even with the advantages we have? There will always be people who want us dead. I have lived this long because up until now I have thought decades ahead of everyone else. I need you, Nikki. I need someone with your power, your intelligence.

“How many died in your wars? The Civil War? World War II? Were those wars any different from now? Do you think I find enjoyment in killing? I do not. It is a necessary evil.”

“My parents?” Nikki dared asking.

His eyes were so sharp, almost like knives.

“They would have died in any case. I wanted them alive. Rebecca, well, she thought she was helping them. If she wouldn’t have tried to escape with them, maybe, just maybe they could have lived.”

She noticed it was dead quiet in the room. “You don’t wind them? The clocks?”

“Very perceptive. As you know, our hearing tends to be above average. It would sound like a thunderstorm if I wound them all. Very distracting.”

Distractions. Right. She had to remember her plan. She had to focus. Maybe she had a chance. After meeting him she doubted it, but she still had to try.

“I know you think I’m lying, but I really don’t think I’m all that powerful.”

His eyes seemed to darken. She had a bad feeling; as soon as she spoke, she regretted it.”

“Well, then! Why don’t we play a little game? Let’s make this interesting.”

He clapped his hands and one of his men walked over to him. He whispered something in his ear. Nikki felt a sick feeling slipping over her, she had pushed him; he was going to call her bluff.

She started to say something when she heard crying. She turned herself around quickly. Jinny was crying. Two men were holding her arms; both had guns.

“Logan, no, please. Just let her go. I will do whatever you want. You said it before; she doesn’t pose any threat to you.”

“You know what, I would like you to shut up! You just can’t seem to stop talking. You really must think I am an idiot. Do you think Logan could come even close to what I have done! He is a mindless fool!”

“What? You are not Logan?” Nothing was making sense again.

“If you call me that name again I will kill you right now!”

She could see the real monster now. He was sadistic, evil — pure evil. And now she didn’t even know who he was.

“Cuff her to the bookshelf!” the masked man ordered, pointing to Jinny.

Jinny stopped crying and opened her eyes wide.

The masked man took a pistol from the man next to him and stood up.

“No! I can’t control it. I did lie, I know I am powerful, but I don’t know how to start and stop it. Please, I beg you, don’t do this.”

“I guess we will find out then. Stand still, girl, I don’t want to waste a bullet.”