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“That’s a taste, Kat,” Nicole said. “Just the tiniest taste of what would follow if you disobeyed me. I’m sure you can imagine how bad things can get, having watched your sisters die. Am I right?” She waited. “Answer me, bitch! I need to know if the audio is working!”
I swallowed, but my mouth was dry. “Yes,” I croaked.
“Yes, what?” Nicole shrilled. “Speak up!”
“Yes, I understand. Yes, you are correct. Yes, I can imagine how bad things can get. Yes, you are in control, I promise. Just stop hurting her.”
Nicole let out a sharp laugh and kept walking, dragging Holly along.
I tried not to look at the screen. Tried to keep my eyes on the road. Nicole’s instructions were constant and detailed. Turn here, change lanes there, pull over here and wait twenty seconds, and on and on. I realized after about fifteen minutes that I was retracing my steps for the third time, going in a big loop through the neighborhood.
“Where am I going?” I asked. “Anywhere in particular?”
“At the moment, you’re just being registered by all the security cameras in the area,” Nicole said. “You are demonstrating a final agonizing convulsion of doubt about what you’re about to do, which you will be overcoming in just a few minutes. Now pick up some speed here on the straight stretch, and—”
The connection flickered, and broke.
Shit!Pure panic exploded inside me. Nicole was going to think that was me, fighting back. She would think that I’d been the one to break the connection.
I was so horrified at what she might do to Holly, what she might already be doing, I barely braked in time to avoid rear-ending a van that had slewed right into the lane ahead of me and jerked to a stop, forcing me to stop in turn. Fortunately, we were at a red light. Maybe Nicole would assume that I was still being compliant despite the connection failing. I could make a case for having stopped for the light, I hoped.
Huh? The van blocking me was white…and identical to mine. Same logo on the side. I didn’t know what it meant. But the way my day was going, it could not be good.
I gasped as Mick and Jed jumped out, running to my van. Mick was holding up some kind of electronic device, like a handheld radio.
I buzzed down the window. “Get that fucking traitor away from me!” I yelled. “That lying son of a bitch sold us out!”
“We know,” Jed said. “He confessed. He offered his help, and we needed all the help we could get with these assholes. But we don’t have time for that now. What’s the status of your surveillance? Is Nicole’s team watching you right now? And how?”
“We had a video call going on the tablet, so she can hurt Holly and make me watch in real time,” I babbled. “She’s following the trace on the dash, but the connection broke, and I know she’ll think I did it. I have to do what she says, Jed! She has Holly, and she will hurt her. She’s not bluffing. They have Ethan, too.”
“He went in of his own accord,” Jed said. “The Drakes and Frey are at the facility, doing what they can. Cross your fingers for them. Go on, get the hell out of that van. We’ll take it. Mick is using a signal jammer, but she won’t buy it for long.”
“But…but I—”
“Now, Kat!” Jed jerked open the door, grabbing my arm, and pulling me out. He reached inside, prying the tablet and router and the trace off the dash. The light turned green and cars began to honk and blare behind us.
Mick followed, continuing to hold the jammer near the router as Jed swiftly situated it onto the dashboard of the van they had been driving, and an understanding of the switcheroo they had planned finally sank into my mind. Along with a thousand horrible images of what would happen to Holly and Ethan if the Drakes and Freya failed. If I proved to have failed them, too.
I stared into Mick’s eyes. “You are a piece-of-shit traitor,” I told him.
“I know,” he said. “I’m sorry. I’m trying to fix it. That’s all I can do now.”
“The gum on the bottom of the trace won’t stick to the dash, but it was next to the screen, so Nicole shouldn’t notice,” Jed said. “It’s lying on the seat next to you. There’s also a security badge that we found in the van when we took it. I hope it’ll get you inside the conference center garage without any trouble.”
“But…but what do I—”
“Buy us time,” Jed said urgently. “Drive this to the conference center, park where she tells you, look beaten, look scared, make her feel like she’s in control. Buy us all the time you can. We need every fucking second. Go!” He shoved me toward the van.
I got in, and took off. The cars had continued to beep and blare angrily, and by now they were veering around us, giving us glares and middle fingers.
I gave the car gas and lurched forward. In the rearview, I saw the other van pull a fast, illegal, extremely hazardous U-turn, causing still more braking, still more beeping and general consternation.
I speeded up. The phone flickered on just as I saw the dangling rabbit’s foot and religious medals dangling from the mirror. I snatched them up just in time, looped them over the mirror so that they wouldn’t bounce and sway in front of the video camera.
Nicole looked furious. “What the fuck happened to you? Your connection broke! You’re fucking late now, you lying bitch! What are you trying to pull?”
“Nothing!” I wailed “I didn’t do a fucking thing to it myself, I swear!” That assertion had the advantage of being literally true, so I hoped she felt my sincerity.
