Wrong Place (The Wrong Series) (25 page)

“Look
, I
am
going. The truth is that you’re still hurt pretty badly, Sam. If anyone shouldn’t be participating in this, it’s you.”

“I meant
to ask what happened to you,” Zane said.

Sam then explained everything that had taken place back in Atlanta.

“Look, I’m trained to operate through pain. You’re not trained, period. You’re sitting this one out,” Sam said.

Nathan loved Sam
, but he was just about tired of her ordering him around like she was his mother, and a mountain full of rage was brewing between the two of them in this moment. Seeing the expression on both of their faces, Dan quickly interjected.

“Why don’t you both just come a
long and stay near the back?” Dan asked.

“I don’t
. . . ” Sam said before being interrupted.

“I think that’s
a great idea,” Zane said as he shot Dan a quick glance as if to say
Thank you for shutting up these loud children
.

Nathan and Sam finally
agreed, and they were all off. A hotel, some sleep, and then the biggest operation I’ve been a part of since I was in my early forties, Zane thought to himself as they drove away from the gas station.

C
hapter 25

At the underground facility, two men rushed toward Jeffery’s office. As soon as they came inside
, Jeffery knew that either something had gone terribly wrong or that some new and horrifying dress code had been put into place without his consent. The two men were standing in front of him in their underwear and undershirts.

“
What is the meaning of this?” Jeffery asked in a shocked voice.

“Sir
, two of the prisoners have escaped,” one of the men said.

“And you thought it would be a good idea to pursue the
m in your underwear?”

“No sir
, they knocked us out and took our clothes. When we woke up, the prisoners, Nathan Grey and Samantha Fisher, were gone from their cells.”

“Okay
. First of all, go put on some clothes and then report this incident around the facility. We have to pursue them quickly. They couldn’t have gotten very far.”

“Sir
, we’ve been out cold for over an hour,” the guard said shamefully.

“Of cours
e you have,” Jeffery said and sighed.

* * * * *

In the hotel room that Zane had gotten for Nathan and Sam, they were still talking, or more accurately, still arguing.

“Look
, you and I screaming at each other isn’t going to do either one of us any good. You say something, and then I’ll respond. Afterward, I’ll say something, and then you can then respond. No interruptions by either of us,” Nathan said.

“Fine. W
hy do you want to go so bad? You’re just going to end up getting hurt,” Sam said.

“For starters
, I don’t want you to go while I just sit here like an idiot. Also, I can’t just sit here when my friends are trapped in there. Why are you so insistent on me not going?”

“
I got you involved in all of this, so it’s my job to protect you.”

There was nothing but silence in the room for a moment. Finally
, Nathan broke the silence.

“I appreciate that you want to keep me safe
, but you have to realize that I’m not looking for a protector in life any more than you are. What I would really rather have is a partner. Can you give me that instead?” Nathan asked in a much calmer tone than he had previously been speaking in.

Sam still didn’t want
him to come along because there was a good chance that he may be hurt, but seeing the look in his eyes made her give in. His eyes showed kindness, determination, and maybe, most of all, love.

“Yes,
I can give you that, but if they think we’re going to hang back, they have another thing coming.”

“I agree. I’m glad we could work t
hrough all this. Let’s get some sleep before tonight.”

“
All right,” Sam said as she took off the locket that was hanging around her neck.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you
about something. Where did you get that locket, and does it have some kind of significance to you?” Nathan asked.

“Why do you think that it has s
ome type of significance to me?”

“Well
, you take it with you everywhere you go, and sometimes you even sleep with it on. It almost seems as if it’s a part of you.”

“It was my mothers. A miniature weddin
g photo of her and my father is inside of it,” Sam said while opening the locket to show him.

Nathan had known that the locket seemed significant to Sam
, but he didn’t anticipate that this truly would be a part of her. It was a sort of link to her own past. Maybe it was her only link. Nathan wished that he hadn’t brought it up because of the sad expression it brought to Sam’s face.

“I’m sorry that I asked. I
didn’t mean to make you sad,” Nathan said.

“It’s
all right, but if you get to dig into my past then I think I’m going to start digging into yours a little bit.”

“Okay
, how bad could your questions be?”

“Well first
, why do you still live with your mother?”

“Well I
. . . ” Nathan said before being interrupted.

“How many g
irls did you date before me?” 

“Umm
.”

“Oh
, and what do you do? I mean how much money do you make?” Sam asked.

Nathan was now panicke
d. Close your eyes, Nathan. Pretend that you’re asleep, he said to himself.

“Nathan? Nathan
, I know that you aren’t asleep,” Sam said in a frustrated voice.

Just don’t move. Maybe she will give up
and go away if you just don’t move, he told himself.

“Fi
ne, be that way,” Sam said as she rolled over.

“I don’t know, seven
, I think, and I’m nearly broke after the trip to Atlanta,” Nathan said as he put his arm around her.

“Well
, I didn’t know that I had been letting a hobo sleep with me,” Sam said and then laughed.

“
Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh
, nothing.”

*
* * * *

Zane found that he was
on a large boat in the middle of a vast and deep ocean. The wind and rain whipped the boat all about. A wave crashed over the edge of the ship sending him to the floor of the deck.

“Full speed ahead!” he heard a voice call out.

They were headed straight into the largest wave that he had ever seen before. It looked as if the wave would most certainly swallow their ship and send them straight down to the bottom of the ocean in one crushing blow. Zane felt fear at the sight of the wave, but also a sense of excitement. He braced himself as the waved crashed into their ship. The blow sent Zane flying to the edge of the deck before he managed to stop sliding. All the others who had been standing around him were thrown from the boat and swallowed by the unforgiving ocean, but Zane had survived somehow. He felt a sense of accomplishment. He stood up and stepped back to the middle of the boat. Here he stood where so many others had perished. He, and he alone, had survived. He saw a port ahead and heard a voice.

“Shall we dock or continue
, sir?” the voice said.

“I think
we should continue on,” Zane said.

“But sir
, the waters will only worsen the further we go. I don’t know if the boat can survive another wave like that.”

“What good i
s a boat that can’t sail on? We’re pressing on.”

“Okay
, sir, but it will be your funeral,” the voice said.

Zane heard a strange childlike voice. It sounded
odd. It was almost like a cartoon. He opened his eyes, and there on the television, was a cartoon of some turtle-like characters that were making a voyage on a boat. He turned to his left and there sat Dan on the bed next to his. He looked completely captivated by what was on the television. What did I recruit, Zane wondered.

“I’m surrounded by children,” Zane
said while looking at Dan.

“Hey
, everyone has their way of relaxing. I like to watch something like this that has absolutely no significance. It’s just good clean fun television,” Dan said.

Seeing a grown man watch cartoons was weird to Zane
, but he definitely understood the good clean part of what he said. There would be nothing good or clean about what they were about to do. What was that dream all about, Zane thought to himself. The images of his dream haunted him. Was he metaphorically sailing into something that would be the death of him? He shook off the paranoia that his dream had made him feel and concluded that his dream was only a result of the cartoon that Dan had been watching.

“What time is it?” Zane asked.

“It’s a little past eight.”

“
All right. I’m going to go next door and talk to the others and make sure that everything is all set with them,” Zane said and began to walk to the door.

One more storm
, huh? Here’s to hoping that this one isn’t one too many for me, Zane thought as he exited the room.

* * * * *

Back in Lee’s cell, he was freezing, in pain, and absolutely exhausted. His fingers and toes were bleeding. He was pretty sure that he had a lot of broken ribs, and although he didn’t have a mirror, he was also sure that his face couldn’t look too good. Then the music started. It was blaring at such a deafening level that it not only kept him awake, but it also made him question how much hearing he was going to have left at the end of it all. He had been water boarded and still had kept the location of the flash drive a secret. If I get out of this, the CIA better make me a rich man for all of this shit, he thought while hanging by his chains. He thought he was going to die, so he began thinking back over his whole life. He had never really done much. He never had a wife or kids. What legacy have I left, he thought. The truth was that Lee had tried to find a nice girl at one time. In high school, he played many different sports and made himself appear to be athletic, a partier, and a lovable bad boy. The truth was, however, that Lee was a nerd. He would rather be working with computers than playing sports, and he would rather be hanging out with a couple of friends playing video games than going to a party. Lee’s personality just didn’t mix with women, but he had always wondered if there was any woman out there whose personality was compatible with his own. Now, as an adult, he was always too busy to search for her.

“
If I get out of here, I’ll find someone and leave something of worth behind,” he told himself. In that moment, Lee prayed.

“Dear L
ord, please bring me a miracle . . . or let Michael switch places with me because this is pretty much all his fault anyway.” 

* * * * *

Zane knocked on the door of Nathan and Sam’s room. Sam answered it.

“I didn’t wake you
, did I?” Zane asked.

“No
. We’ve been awake for the last hour,” Sam said.

“I just wanted to make sure that you two are a
ll ready for tonight.”

“Yeah
, we are. Everything’s good now.” 

“
So there’s no more arguing?”

“No
, but we’ve both come to an agreement. Neither one of us are willing to just hang back, so don’t count on that happening.”

“That’s
fine. I only agreed to that because it seemed like a good temporary solution at the time.”

“
So what’s the plan for tonight? Do we have any idea how much help we’re getting because there were tons of people in that facility,” Nathan said.

“I’m not real sure about the
exact number of people we’re getting, but I wanted to ask you two about the layout of the facility.”

Sam and Nathan
told Zane everything that they could think of about the facility.

“So the prison is in the basement just like at the other facility. I was worried about that. This will make it
pretty difficult for us to get down there with very many people at one time,” Zane said while stroking the fuzz on his chin.

After a few moments of thinking
, Zane had an idea.