London Escape (17 page)

Finally, when I feel it’s safe to move and talk, I remove my hand from Jason’s mouth and take a step back. He doesn’t protest as I take the necklace from him and tuck it safely in my jeans’ pocket. The apartment is pitch black so I pick a lamp up off the floor, set it on the counter, and switch it on. The dim light only makes the shadows in the room look longer. Jason hops up on the counter and watches me as I move to close the blinds. We wouldn’t be safe here for long and I know it. But we’ve been running for hours, not counting stopping for dinner. I know I should be exhausted, ready to collapse, but every nerve in my body is tingling. I pace the small apartment anxiously while trying to formulate the next possible step we should take.

“What do you think we should do next?” Jason asks, voicing my thoughts exactly.

I turn back to him. He looks terrible, as if he could keel over at any moment.

“I’m not sure, but we need to get somewhere safe, where they can’t find us.” I check my phone one more time, Alexa still hasn’t called me back.

“Maybe we should go to a hotel,” he suggests. “I don’t think I want to stay here much longer.”

“Me either.” I bite my lip, we should already be gone. My mind is fuzzy now as the adrenaline rush finally wears off and fear and exhaustion take over. I lift my backpack, which feels like weighs a hundred pounds, and slip it onto my shoulders.

The rattle of the doorknob breaks the heavy silence.

Jason doesn’t hear it, he’s leaning his head back against the cabinets, half asleep. I cross the room swiftly and grasp his arm. He looks at me in confusion but slips of the counter when I tug him along. Wordlessly I pull him into the bedroom. My straining ears can just pick up the sound of someone messing with the lock on the door. I don’t have to guess who it is.

“What’s wrong?” Jason hisses behind me.

“Everything,” I answer as I peer out the bedroom window and onto the alley below. My nerves are tingling again and I know now to trust my instincts absolutely. Outside it’s pouring down rain and the alley appears empty.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” I say, feeling desperate. I’m not sure how long it will take the Things to pick the lock, but last time I’d barely had thirty seconds.

Jason is still standing there speechless as I throw open the window and slide out onto the ladder. This time, hopefully the last time, I’m not afraid. I’m more scared of running into V again than anything else. Especially after the stunt I just pulled with the jewels. I’m pretty sure he’d make us pay for tricking him in the same way he’d paid Jason for keeping his silence. The thought makes me tremble involuntarily as I scramble down the slippery ladder.

  The ladder creaks slightly as Jason begins to descend after me. When my feet touch the pavement I’ve already made my decision where to go next.

“Follow me,” I call over my shoulder, pulling up my hood as I head to the street. It looks clear, but I move quickly anyway. Overhead the early morning sun is shining weakly through the dark clouds and the rain continues to fall steadily. Jason is hovering by my shoulder, looking confused but not questioning my lead. Moments later we’re at the side street where I had parked the Mini. I’ve never been happier to see the little red car. Except maybe the first time I had escaped in it.

“Excellent,” he says and starts to get in the driver’s seat.

He still doesn’t look so great to me, so I protest, “No way, you look like a walking corpse. You’d better let me.”

He shakes his head. “You can’t drive a stick.”

I slide into the driver’s side and say, “Watch me.”

I start the car as he gets in and we both fasten our seatbelts. Finally I ease out into the empty street, glancing over my shoulder to see if I see a familiar black car on our tail. The street is empty. After several blocks, just when I’ve assumed we’re safe, I see it pull out from a side road. They’re on our tail in an instant, rubbing our bumper.

Jason swears. “What now?”

“Not sure,” I say through clenched teeth, shifting gears as I run the next light. That doesn’t even slow them down; they speed right through it too. Again they’re right behind us giving our little car a warning bump. The jolt from the impact throws us both forward.

I pull out onto a more heavily trafficked road now, weaving the little car in and out between the cars of early morning commuters. The rain is still pounding on our windshield, the wipers barely able to keep it clear. Behind us I can hear honking as the black car tries to mimic my erratic driving. Their car is much larger and it can’t change lanes as effortlessly as the little Mini. The sounds of crashing and honking follow us down the street as the black car tries to keep up. Just when I think we’ve made some headway I spot them in my rearview mirror. Clearly driving fast and trying to lose them in the traffic isn’t going to work. They are on mission to get the necklace back at all costs.

With a jerk of the steering wheel I pull into a narrow alleyway between two buildings. The aptly-named Mini barely fits in the tight space and I give a little shout of victory. Jason twists in the seat and then shouts another bad word.

“What?” I crane my neck to look in the rearview mirror. Behind us the black sedan is roaring its way through the alley. It loses both its side mirrors right away and the sound of metal screeching against brick fills my ears. The driver, obviously one of the Things, guns the engine, forcing the car through a space far too narrow for it.

Shaking my head and biting my lip I finally shift into fourth gear, the fastest this little car will ever go. We’ve now reached the end of the alley and I make another instant decision. I make a sharp right turn, realizing a moment too late I’ve pulled out going the wrong way down a one way street.

Jason is grasping the dashboard, his knuckles white. “Watch out!” he shouts.

I swerve just in time to avoid crashing head first into a delivery van. In the process I’ve managed to pop the curb and drive with two tires on the sidewalk.

“There, left turn, now!” Jason calls out.

I follow his directions, hardly able to see because I’m involuntary squinting, blurring everything around me. But my hands grip the steering wheel tight and I jam my foot against the gas pedal. Again my eyes dart to the mirror and again the black sedan flies into sight. Jason slams a fist on the dashboard.

We fly past an entrance to a tunnel, blocked off with orange road cones. Making yet another split-second decision I hit the brakes and pull a tight u-turn that only a car of this size can pull off. We take out the cones and rocket through the tunnel as the black sedan flies by. It doesn’t take long before they’re back behind us and gaining quick. Our car may be more maneuverable, but theirs is obviously much faster. For the first time I face the reality that we might not get away. I can see Jason out of the corner of my eye; he has his eyes focused on the road ahead, searching for another escape route.

 My eyes flicker to the rear-view mirror, they’re now so close I can practically see one of the Things leering at me from the driver’s seat. This time they don’t even bother tapping our bumper, but pull up beside us. I try pressing the accelerator but it’s already on the floor. I look out the window just in time to see Thing One lean out the passenger side window. He grins evilly and points his gun in my face. I’m about to scream when he lowers his weapon and shoots the tire.

I don’t even have a chance to warn Jason before the car spins wildly out of control and slams into the wall of the tunnel. Time seems to slow as my head jerks forward and connects with something hard. I feel like it’s raining, then realize it’s just shattered glass tinkling down from what’s left of the windshield. Lights pop behind my eyes and my vision begins to blur. I’m conscious just long enough to see Jason’s hand reach out and touch mine.

Everything goes black.

12. FOUND

I
wake up slowly, painfully, my senses awakening one by one as though I’m coming back to life. The first thing I notice is how cold I am, the second is that every part of my body hurts. My head seems to throb with every beat of my heart. When I take a deep breath my ribs ache as though they might be bruised or even broken. Worse of all is my shoulder, which feels like it’s being pulled out of the socket.

After a moment I attempt to open my eyes, but I’m rewarded with nothing but darkness. My clothes feel damp and I wonder how they got that way. With a jolt I remember the frantic car chase in the pouring rain. That would account for my injuries, slamming in the wall of the tunnel like we did.

My other four senses are now working overtime, since my sight is doing me no good. I can smell the musty scent of mold and mildew. The floor I’m lying on seems to be damp and made of concrete. A basement, I decide. But where I am exactly? I’m fully awake now and have finally determined the reason why my shoulder hurts so badly. My right wrist is handcuffed tightly to a pipe over my head, my arm twisted at an uncomfortable angle. Gingerly I pull myself up into a sitting position, trying to ease the strain on my shoulder. Even sitting up it’s still painful. But my own pain quickly vanishes from my awareness when I realize I’m not alone.

My eyes have now adjusted to the darkness and in front of me I see the dark outline of a door. To my left I can just make out another figure sprawled on the floor. My mouth is dry, but I manage a hoarse whisper. “Jase!” I don’t even consider the possibility he might be unable to answer me, because I just can’t think about that right now. After all we’ve just gone through, he had to be okay.

He doesn’t respond, so I inch over in his direction as much as I can. My shoulder protests as I stretch it again, but I ignore the pain. When I’m as close as I can manage my free hand still can’t reach him. I nudge him with my toe instead. After a few breathless moments he stirs with a groan. I wait for him to regain consciousness fully. Eventually I see his outline move into a sitting position and I can hear his handcuff clanking on a pipe as well. We won’t be getting out of this one with a pocketknife.

“Kit?” Jason mumbles finally. I hear a rustle of movement, as though he’s reaching for me. Since we’re so far apart his hand only reaches my foot, but he moves his hand up and gives my ankle a reassuring squeeze.

“You’re okay,” he says quietly, and it sounds more like an affirmation than a question.

“I’m fine.” By fine, I mean alive. For now that is enough, especially after the crash. “Are you okay?”

“Never better.” Even though his voice is hoarse I can hear his smile; ever the optimist.

“Great, then tell me your plan for getting us out of this one.”

He says nothing, but instead sighs heavily. “Kit, I’m so sorry.”

“For what?” I scoff.

“For getting you involved in all of this.”

“You didn’t make me get on that plane, Jase. It was my choice,” I defend. Besides it’s true, as much as I might want to point an accusing finger in his direction for getting us into this mess, he isn’t entirely to blame. We’re both silent for a while, and I know we’re both thinking the same thing. How this could end very badly for us.

“I can’t believe you flew out here for me,” he says with a quiet laugh. “I can’t believe you flew, really.”

Now it’s my turn to laugh and despite the seriousness of the situation, it feels good. “I can’t believe it either.”

“What made you do it?”

I think of all the many reasons why I came, but only one stands out to me right now. “Because I wanted to.”

“Not because you wanted to save me?”

“Well, that was part of it.” I shift around, trying to get more comfortable. “But mainly I think I wanted to prove to myself I could do something reckless.”

“And disobeying your dad for once didn’t sound like such a bad idea, did it?”

I wish he hadn’t said it, the one thing I have been trying hard to not think about. My dad, and what he will do when he finds out I have run away. Or worse, what he will feel like if I don’t make it out of this, if I were to leave him alone forever. It would break him, of that I have no doubt.

 The urge to lay down on the floor, to curl up into a tight ball until this all disappears, is suddenly overwhelming. And I would have, if not for the fact that my handcuff keeps me sitting upright. My chest is growing uncomfortably tight and despite myself I let out a choked sob.

“Hey,” Jason says suddenly, giving my ankle another squeeze. “It’s going to be okay.”

“How do you know?” I ask, fighting back tears. All this time I have managed to stay strong, always thinking about the next step and moving forward. But now we have come to the end of things, with no way out and no answers. I twist my wrist, but the steel is icy and unyielding.

“We’ve made it this far together. We can make it out of this too,” he says encouragingly.

I wonder if he’s just telling me this to keep me from becoming hysterical, but my gut says he’s telling the truth. I know deep inside nothing would stop us from doing everything we can to get free. My mind seems to be working frantically, as though straining to find a way of escape. I find myself thinking crazy things, like how if I only a bobby pin in my hair then I might be able to pick the lock on the handcuff and free myself. But that’s insane, I don’t have a bobby pin and I have no idea how to pick a lock even if I had one.

We’re both silent for a long time and I wonder briefly if Jason has fallen asleep.

“Hey Kit.” His whisper breaks the silence.

“Yeah?” I whisper back, my voice echoing in the empty room.

“That was great, back there, what you did with the jewels.”

“Thanks,” I say.

 Just then the door slams open and we are blinded as the bright fluorescent lights flicker on overheard. When my vision clears I see who it is; V and the brothers, just like before. Only this time they are no longer merely menacing, they are deadly.

“That was a very nice trick you pulled little girl,” Mr. V says as he saunters over to me. He holds up the black velvet bag, the one he had pulled from my backpack in the hotel. Turning the bag over, he dumps the contents onto the concrete floor. The fake pearl necklace I had worn to the bank clatters as it hits the concrete. He steps closer, his shoes crunching the necklace to bits.