Tansy Taylor (28 page)

“Here, grab a hold where the missing screw would be and wiggle it. I’ll try and pry this other screw out with my fingernail.” It took some effort, some teamwork, and two broken nails, but we finally got the vent to loosen. All of a sudden there was a loud noise and the building began to shake.

“What in the heck is that?” Callie screeched.

“I think it must be the delivery Sam was talking about. I bet they are opening the giant bay doors in the front. Come on! Now is the perfect time! If we make any weird noises they won’t hear us!” I cringed at the thought of what could be in the vent but went in anyway. At least it might be a way out. Besides, I thought, I’m much bigger than any spider. Nonetheless I tried the use my hands as little as possible, lest I accidentally squash a little nasty creature.

The metal groaned under our weight, but seemed to be holding.

“Are you sure this is safe? I don’t know that these shafts were meant to hold people.” Callie sounded a bit on the worried side, and I couldn’t blame her. The groaning and creaking coming from the metal were anything but encouraging.

“Nah, we’ll be fine. Don’t worry.” I said, trying to reinforce my own faith in what we were doing; I put my hand out to crawl forward. All I got was air. Suddenly I was sliding down and couldn’t stop! “Callie be careful!” I called back to her, but heard a little squeal as she started down the decline as well. So much for a fair warning I thought. Suddenly I hit the bottom with a thud. A second later Callie slammed into my backside.

“Umph,” she grunted.

“Sorry, didn’t have time to warn you.” I replied, trying to untangle her legs from my neck.

“Well, at least if we fall through we’re closer to the ground now.” She was always so upbeat. I rolled my eyes to myself. If we didn’t find an exit soon I was going to start worrying we would be trapped in here. We must have slid over twenty feet; there was no way we could get back up that shaft.

“Wait, I hear something.” We both sat still and listened. It was the sound of car engines and lots of voices, all speaking Russian.

“What’re they saying?” Callie whispered.

“I have no idea.” I whispered back. I felt something crawling on my leg and calmly reached down and slapped at it as hard as I could.

“Ow!” Callie said.

“Sorry! Was that your hair? I totally thought it was a bug!” I rubbed my leg to relieve the burn of my slap.

“Don’t worry. It didn’t really hurt, just startled me. But now I’m thinking about spiders, can we get moving?” Callie asked.

“I guess we’ll just keep following the vent and see where it leads us.” We crawled for what seemed like forever. My hands and knees were aching, and I was sure I’d acquired at least a couple of cuts. The joints of the metal were not sanded down so every now and then I snagged either my hand or my leg on ragged metal.

“Ouch!” Callie said from behind. I stopped suddenly and she ran into my rear again.

“Sorry, my bad, I forgot to tell you I was stopping. Does that look like light up there to you?” I squinted into the darkness and saw what appeared to be a ninety degree angle in the vent. There was a faint sliver of light; just enough for me to make out that the vent did indeed turn. This was helpful, since the last four times we had turned a corner I had found it with my head.

“I think so. Geez, my hands are killing me, I must have a hundred little cuts.” Callie rubbed her hands together. “Uck, they’re sticky, I must be bleeding everywhere.” I felt mine, they were sticky too, but I didn’t want to think about it.

“C’mon, let’s get out of here.” We gingerly picked our way down the vent, trying not to add to our scratches and cuts. I peeked my head around the corner and saw daylight. There was a screen opening and I could see blue sky on the other side.

“Callie! It’s the outside!” I crawled as fast as I could toward the opening.

“Hmm. We may have a little problem here. The opening is covered with a metal grate.” Callie squeezed her head up next to me so she could make her own assessment. We both stared at it for a moment, trying to figure out what we could do. We were so close, but without a screwdriver, still trapped. I reached out and shook the grate, trying not to make too much noise.

“Is it loose at all?” Callie asked from behind.

“A bit. Nothing like the last one though, and the screws are on the outside. Any ideas?” We both paused to think.

“What if I trade you places and kick it out? Do think it’s loose enough to work?”

“I think it might! It’s worth a try anyway.” It took us a minute to trade places. It was a good thing we both were on the short and thin side.

“Okay, I think you should try as hard as you can the first time though. It’s going to be loud and I don’t think we should draw attention if we can help it.” The sound of an engine started up a little ways off; an answer to our dilemma.

“Go now!” I urged.

Callie leaned against me and drew her legs up as far as she could. At least she was wearing tennis shoes and not bunny slippers. She thrust her feet out as hard as she could and kicked the grate, knocking it loose. It hung precariously by one of the screws. Callie reached out and grabbed it, just as it started to fall.

“Got it!” she said. “Now, what am I going to do with it?” She held it out over the edge. It was too big to get into the vent, even at an angle. I scooted up to the edge and looked down. We were directly above a dumpster which looked to be about a twenty foot drop. The area went quiet as the revving engine cut.

“We need to wait for something loud to cover the noise, then toss it and jump to the dumpster.” It would probably hurt, but I didn’t think we had much other choice.

Callie grimaced. “I suppose you’re right.” She adjusted her grip on the metal grate. “I just hope they hurry up and make some noise. This thing isn’t exactly light. Finally, after a very uncomfortable wait, a car engine turned over and revved up.

I looked at Callie and she dropped the grate. It landed on the dumpster, bounced and hit the metal building before landing on the ground. We both cringed and then sat frozen, waiting to see if anyone noticed the enormous crash.

I lowered Callie out of the opening, trying to soften the landing by getting her as close to the dumpster as possible. I let go and she landed on the plastic lid, no apparent injuries. I let out the breath I’d been holding; my turn.

“Tansy-wait!” Callie whispered loudly. She was pointing to the side of the dumpster. “There’s a small mattress over here, like one for a crib or something. Let me put it up on the dumpster so that you at least have something soft to land on.” She wrestled the mattress up onto the dumpster. It’d be a miracle if I actually landed on it from this height. I wiggled around, turning onto my stomach. I got my legs out, and was about ready to drop over the side when I realized I wasn’t moving. Somehow, I was stuck. I tried crawling back in, but no luck there either. It felt like the button on my jeans was caught in or on something. I couldn’t even turn around to talk to Callie. I was left, unable to communicate, dangling halfway out of a ventilation shaft twenty feet off of the ground. Worse yet, I felt helpless as one of my bunny slippers fell of my foot and landed somewhere below.

The engine cut out and once again there was silence. I could hear voices, but couldn’t tell if they were coming from outside or somehow carrying through the ventilation system. It didn’t matter, because they were still speaking in Russian. I tried to reach the button to unhook myself, but cut my finger on something sharp instead. This was going to be tricky. I really didn’t want to slice off one of my fingers.

I heard Callie down below me, whispering, but couldn’t make out what she was saying. Seconds later I heard loud male voices, and they were definitely coming from outside. I needed to figure this out fast. I mentally crossed my fingers that Callie had either hidden somewhere or ran off. I held still and heard someone lift up the dumpster lid and toss something heavy inside. It landed with a dull thud. I cringed. It sounded like a body being dumped. I decided to give one last effort at getting back into the vent. I got my hands into ‘push-up’ position and then pulled myself forward with every bit of strength I had. I felt the button give up the fight and I flew forward into the vent, hitting my head along the way.

“Umph!” The wind went out of my lungs and I tried not to gasp or cough. The thud I made was loud enough as it was, I didn’t want to alert whoever was on the ground. I sat, trying to catch my breath. I could hear the men below me, still hanging out near the dumpster. Callie must have run off. There was no way that she would be able to stay in a dumpster with a pile of garbage, let alone a corpse. I shuddered at the thought.

I started to relax; obviously I hadn’t made enough noise to alert the guys down below. I sat back and waited for them to leave. I closed my eyes, and tried to get a few minutes of rest. I hadn’t slept since the night before and all of a sudden my adrenaline rush of the last few hours seemed to disappear. My stomach growled; the nasty old crackers from earlier hadn’t helped that much.

The voices down below grew faint.

Shoes crunched on gravel, and I breathed a sigh of relief. The footsteps stopped and I heard excited Russian talk and “bunny?”

Crap. They found my slipper. More Russian, and they got louder again. I heard metal scraping on the ground. They must’ve found the metal grate. Double crap.

I didn’t move an inch. I held my breath and said a little prayer. The dumpster creaked as someone climbed up. I scooted back around the corner of the vent and heard a scratching noise. I turned quickly-catching a glimpse of at least one set of red eyes behind me. Rats. I closed my eyes and tried to suppress the urge to scream.

Suddenly an explosion rocked the building and I braced my arms as the vent shifted precariously. Little toenails scratched the metal as the rats made a hasty retreat back from wherever they’d come. I held my hands out on either side of me, pressing into the metal as if I could prevent it from falling. I was at least twenty feet up and had no idea whether there was anything between me and the concrete floor of the warehouse. I inched my way back around the corner toward the outside. The two heavies below must have run back to find out what was going on. An explosion was definitely more exciting than a bunny slipper.

I was safe, back at the opening. I peeked out below and found I was indeed alone, and the mattress was still on the dumpster. I lowered myself over the edge, taking care to avoid the offensive metal this time around. I closed my eyes and let go, falling in a tangle of arms and legs, but landing safely on the mattress. Anxious to get off of the nasty old mattress, I rolled off as quickly as possible.

I grabbed my slipper and headed for the bushes on the other side of the service road. I raced into them and found they were not non-threatening bushes but actually a haven for prickly blackberry vines and hazardous materials. Glass sparkled along the underside of the brush and I saw a hypodermic needle sticking out of the ground. This might be more treacherous than walking right up to the mob.

I picked my way back out of the bushes and ran back across to the shelter of the building. I hugged it with my back as I slunk toward the front to see what was going on. Another explosion rocked the building as I got to the corner. Black smoke poured over the scene. Men in suits were running around haphazardly. I saw Big streak across to a parked car and take off. What in the world was going on?

There was a tap on my shoulder. I jumped three feet and spun around, hands in Karate Kid position and came face to face with Detective Smith.

He reached out, took my face and cradled it in both of his hands. I questioned him with my eyes-trying to read his face-his eyes flashing, the straight hard line of his mouth, his brow furrowed. He moved quickly, his lips crushing into my own surprised lips. He swept me in and I felt a shockwave of adrenaline and passion rip through my body. I let go, in spite of everything, and grabbed hold of his head, bringing him even closer. A moment later he tore himself off and I had to catch my balance.

“You scared me to death.” He kept his eyes locked on mine and for a brief instant I saw how Alex Smith really felt about me. I was stunned, but mostly about how I’d responded to his kiss.

“Oh,” was all I was able to articulate as a response.

He shifted gears, grabbing my arm and tugging me along behind him as we headed for the cover of a nearby graffiti wrapped shipping container.

“Come on!” He whispered harshly. I stumbled along behind him, feeling clownish in my oversized slippers and gawky limbs. I flew in behind him, pressing myself low and tight to the rusty container.

“What’s going on?” I whispered.

Smith turned and talked from his side as he surveilled the area. “Long story short-your roommate contacted me after she found the backdoor ajar and you missing. She also found your purse, phone, and the file you downloaded to your laptop. We looked them over, figured out where you most likely were, and here I am.”

“Oh, well, I kinda figured that part out on my own. I meant the explosions? What’s going on?” Did he really think I was that dense?

“Ah, well, that I have no idea about. I got here and saw you run across the street. You want to fill me in on what you’re doing?” He kept his gaze trained on the scenario unfolding out in front of us near the entrance to the warehouse. The explosions had stopped for the moment, and there were less men running around. I saw Boris dash past as fast as his fancy shoes could carry him. I didn’t see any sign of Sam or the big boss.