The Life We Lead: Ascending (33 page)

“You frowned when I said it and you had a
dismissive voice when you answered.”

“I am sorry if my voice was offensive, sir,”
Xavier said.

James adopted a gentle voice before saying,
“Tell me why they call you that, and if you do not like it, I will
be sure to call you Xavier.”

Xavier said nothing, just stared at him for a
minute.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me.”
James placed a reassuring hand on Xavier’s left shoulder. “I was
just curious. But if you would like to tell me, I will listen.”

The boy lowered his head until his chin
touched his chest before taking two audible breaths.

James slowly lifted the boy’s chin. The boy
was silently crying.

“Look, kid, I mean Xavier, I didn’t mean to
make you cry. I was just asking. You do not have to tell me. Your
life is going to be a lot different after today, I promise.” James
gave him a warm smile and wiped away his tears.

Xavier regained his composure quickly and
gave a small smile back.

“Let me get you some water,” James said. He
picked up a glass from the table in the corner and started to fill
it from a water jug. He heard a small sound, like fabric hitting
the floor. James turned back around and was about to ask Xavier if
he enjoyed sports. He saw the boy was shirtless and had undone his
pants and was pushing them and his underwear to the floor.

James dropped the glass. It smashed as he
shouted, “Hey! What are …?”

The door opened, and Lien and Bik quickly
entered. Lien made his way over to James while Bik grabbed Xavier
and shook him harshly.

“So sorry, sir, if he is not doing as you
prease. We thought we fix him for you,” said Lien.

James closed his eyes for half a heartbeat
and then took control of the situation. “Take your hands off my
property,” he said in a stern voice.

Lien turned to look at his sister. He said
something, and she released Xavier.

“He didn’t do anything wrong; he’s fine. What
were you doing outside the door listening?” James asked in an
incredulous voice.

“We listen, make sure all is okay. Help with
boy, if need,” Bik answered, looking angry at being yelled at.

“Do you think I can’t handle a boy? This is
how you treat a customer? I’m not sure I’ll be returning after
today. Where are your sister-in-law and nephew? Let’s talk to
them.” James was disgusted and wanted to move things along. The
cavalry would be arriving in five to ten minutes.

He walked out past the others, but stopped at
Xavier for a moment and tousled his hair. “I will see you in a
short time, okay?”

Lien followed him and said, “Stay here.”

James wasn’t sure if Lien had addressed
Xavier or Bik or both, so he said, “I would like Xavier to join the
other children, and when he has done so, for Bik to join us.” As he
walked off down the hall, he heard sounds coming from the first
suite that made him even angrier. Lien gave instructions to Bik
before running to catch up to him.

“Very sorry for the mistakes, sir. We can
make things better.” Lien was groveling.

“Mr. Tan, I have a headache. Can you please
stop talking so much? The echo is making my head hurt more.” They
walked in silence, back through the open area with the bar and to
the hallway that led to the office.

James noticed a camera just out of view as
they turned a corner toward the office. This would work to hook
into the video. Now he needed an excuse to get back to this spot
plus something to stand on.

Just then, Yan Tan met them in the hallway.
“Hello, Mr. Mathers. I am sorry to hear of your headache and that
your visit isn’t going well so far.”

James was right to believe there was a camera
or perhaps two in the bedroom. Otherwise, how would Yan have known
what had happened?

“Perhaps we could move things along?” James
said in a bored, arrogant tone.

They entered the office to find the same cast
as before, plus Bik, who joined them about a minute later. Yan’s
mother seemed not to have moved, and James was fairly certain she
was wearing the same outfit as before. She was staring at him
oddly.

“We had begun to think you would not be
coming back, Mr. Mathers,” said Yan in a sly voice. His uncle
laughed lightly.

“I needed to make sure everything was in
order for myself, as well as my cousin.”

“Mr. Ferguson, yes, we hear he was a little
sick on the return trip,” Yan said with a slight bow of his head
before speaking to his mother in a different language.

“Too much fruit. He does love pineapple.
Anyhow, that isn’t what we’re here to discuss, is it?” He again
spoke in a bored, arrogant voice.

Jie spoke harshly to her son, still staring
at James.

“So sorry, my mother wishes to know why you
disrespect her house by wearing that hat?” Yan translated.

James deliberately glanced up as though he’d
forgotten he was wearing a hat. Slowly, he removed it, giving a
small bow to the elderly lady. “My apologies. When I have a
headache, wearing a hat sometimes helps. I mean no disrespect.”

She nodded slowly.

“I trust all is in order for today?” James
asked.

“Yes, we have done as you have requested.
They are both healthy and have been diligent in their education.”
Lien answered proudly.

James nodded. “So I believe that leaves us
with an update on the Spara family.”

The energy in the room intensified. Even the
old lady seemed excited as Yan translated James’s words.

“You will be pleased to know we have isolated
an area where we plan to bring him down. It will take some time,
but his underboss, or regional boss, or whatever he’s called, is a
little greedy. We’ve started to gather some leverage on him. Turns
out he himself uses cocaine and likes to talk loudly at strip
clubs. His entire crew has been recorded with him, bringing him
drugs. Hell, he travels with a kilo of blow in his trunk hidden in
a spare tire.” James paused a moment to rub his temples, and Fang
brought him some water. Without drinking it, James set it on the
table beside him just as a loud siren went off.

“What is that noise?” James demanded, holding
his ears. He assumed it was a warning system, but knew perfectly
well what had caused it. The cavalry had arrived.

“Please, Mr. Mathers, do not worry. Nomads
sometimes attack our walls. They have never been successful, and
our people will subdue this quickly. They have been more aggressive
lately, so we have had to increase security with new cameras and
warning systems.” Yan spoke in a reassuring way. He clicked his
fingers and the men in the room, except for Lien and Hansel,
left.

As the door shut, a second blast of the siren
went off. This did not sit well with the Tan family.

“Nothing to worry about,” said Yan, helping
his mother to her feet. “My mother, like you, does not like this
loud noise. She will be going to, ah, a private bedroom until this
passes.”

What Yan was really saying was that she was
going to the vault that must serve as a panic room as a third blast
of the siren was heard, along with the faint sound of gunfire.

“What is going on? I thought this operation
of yours was safe!” James, still holding his ears, pretended to be
angry.

“Nothing to worry about. I will personally
tend to the situation.” Yan gave his uncle a look and they also
left.

Now it was just James, Bik, and Hansel, who
shut the door to the panic room Jie had just entered.

A fourth long blast sounded, and Bik started
nervously.

“You wait here, understand? You be safe here.
Come,” she said, motioning to Hansel, and they too were gone.

That had worked out better than James could
have hoped. Never had he imagined that he’d be left alone in the
office with just Jie behind a panic room door. He sprang into
action to take down the power grid.

The major, the twins, and Paul had reviewed
which main boxes they believed to give power to the EMP force
field. They’d decided not to take out all the breakers because
James wouldn’t be able to retrieve any data and the camera system
wouldn’t work, so he started at the ones furthest from the
computers and began switching them off. The twins believed that
even a partial reduction in power would do the trick, but James
wanted to be certain. He tripped the furthest six of the eight and
didn’t lose the cameras or the computers. He wanted to trip
another, but decided not to press his luck.

He quickly accessed a cable that led to the
monitors, and was about to snap on the video cable from his hat
when he heard a loud La Cucaracha horn blast.

Yes!

That meant the guys had made it past the EMP
force field with their equipment.

James snapped the transmitter into place. Now
the twins and Matt would have visibility into the fortress
cameras.

He quickly tried to get into the computer
system. He removed the hard drive from his hat, took the disc from
on top, and placed it in the drive. Hopefully it would be able to
bypass any security and allow him to make a copy of the hard
drive.

He pulled the side panel off the tower at the
desk and plugged in the hard drive as the CD worked to break the
security. It was hard to focus on aligning the pins to the hard
drive, as he naturally wanted to see what was happening on the
monitors. Finally, they snapped in place, and James looked at the
system screen and found he was in.

He wanted to copy the main information, but
he found incredible amounts of data, most of which wasn’t actually
stored on the computer’s main hard drive.

The files were all in Chinese and he couldn’t
read the names; he’d need Tim for that. He decided to sort the
files by size and grabbed those that would fit on the drive. A ton
of video must be stored on the drives, and those would be massive
files he didn’t need. This process, even with high-end technology,
would take a good fifteen minutes to transfer. He couldn’t wait for
the entire data dump onto the new drive, so he turned off the
screen, placed the cover back on the tower, and searched the
monitors for the kids.

He found them amassed and huddled in the
largest dormitory. It looked like there were at least fifty of
them. He had to secure them until the removal squad was ready,
which meant he’d have to come back for the hard drive.

Running out of the office was like turning up
the volume on a TV or radio. There was a lot of screaming and
shouting, but it wasn’t very audible over the gunfire outside. As
James scrambled down the stairs toward the main entrance, he heard
a crashing of glass from the tower as some explosives hit their
mark. He paused a moment to avoid the rain of shards. He could hear
people shouting and fighting outside.

James dashed down the middle corridor to the
biggest dorm room. When he got there, he found a lot of frightened
children and two young women standing over them. Either they were
going to help him or he was going to knock them out. He didn’t have
time to be a gentleman.

He was waiting for the second blast of the
horn to tell him the explosives were in place to create the main
exit to get the kids out. When it sounded, they had to be ready to
go, which meant he had about five minutes to move the kids.

“We need to move, right now. Everyone to the
bath area hallway.”

The kids just stared at him.

“We have to go
now!
” James
shouted.

Little Jasmine stood up and screamed
something, and the two young adults started moving the kids. Just
as they began filing into the main corridor, he heard the La
Cucaracha horn. He’d been underestimated the time needed to move
the kids.

“Everyone down and cover your heads!” James
dropped to the floor, hoping they’d mimic his actions, and they
did. A huge blast went off and shook the fortress. Parts of the
walls and ceiling fell near them, but no major chunks hit
anyone.

James stood and told Jasmine to get everyone
to the bathing room fast, and that they’d find men there to get
them to safety. She followed his instructions.

The kids moved too slowly. James knew they
were scared, but they didn’t have time to waste. He tried to push
them along. Some seemed to want to stay in the room and clutched
the bed frames, but with help from some of the older kids, he and
Jasmine got them all moving.

James stayed with them until he caught sight
of Ben and Paul.

“You’ve got ten minutes!” Paul yelled, and
James gave him a thumbs up.

Earlier, they’d worked out that they’d
detonate the exit they created so that those who fought for the Tan
family would be trapped inside, but first James would sweep the
rooms to make sure no kids were left. He wouldn’t have time to do
that and grab the hard drive, which meant he’d have to leave
it.

He didn’t give the hard drive a second
thought but began sweeping the rooms visually, quickly sticking his
head in and checking each, his instincts guiding him as much as
anything.

He made it to the furthest distance from the
opening in less than three minutes. He didn’t expect to find
anyone, as he hadn’t seen any kids outside the main dorm on the
monitors previously, but he wanted to check anyhow. Sure enough, on
the return path, he found a girl and boy about five or six who
could have been siblings.

He got them up and moving. He still checked
rooms as he went, but the going was slower now, as the kids were
practically fighting him to go back. Luckily, there weren’t as many
spots to check going back. He did find a pitch-black hallway with a
few thick pipes emerging from it that he figured was near the back
end of the bathing room, but it hadn’t been on the map, so he
couldn’t be sure. There was a faint sound coming from hall, but not
a sound kids would make. He decided to move on.