J. Gonzalez - They

WHEN MIKE PETERSON woke up he did so slowly. It felt like he was trying to swim to the surface of a lake that was heavy with sludge. He heard Frank’s voice, caught a glimpse of light in the room and opened his eyes, blinking. Vince’s voice cut through the din. “He’s waking up.” He opened his mouth, tasting sour spit in the back of his throat. He raised himself up on his elbows, trying to shake the drowsiness from his system. Frank and Vince were hazy silhouettes, and as they became more refined he made out a third shape as well.

“How do you feel?” Frank came into focus. “You okay?”

Mike shook his head and cast his gaze around the room. Vince was standing at the foot of his bed with a woman dressed in blue jeans and a wrinkled white blouse; she gave him an encouraging smile. He focused on the woman, confused. “Who are you?”

“This is Tracy Harris,” Vince said, stepping forward.

“It’s a long story,” Frank said, waving his hand in front of Mike’s face. “How you feeling? Woozy? Sick to your stomach?”

Mike turned to Frank, confused for a moment. “No.” Last night’s events swam back into focus and he felt a sudden emptiness in his stomach. Then it hit him suddenly, like a Mack Truck hurtling at eighty miles per hour. “Carol…”

He sat up, the room coming into focus now. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. “Where are we, what’s going on?”

“Easy there, fella,” Frank said. He took Mike’s shoulders and eased him back on the bed. “We’re in my motel room.”

“Frank called me last night and told me what happened,” Vince said hastily, looking nervous. “This is Tracy Harris… my girlfriend…”

The implications of what happened became implicitly clear to Mike; he’d flipped out over Carol’s disappearance, Frank had acted quickly and gotten him the hell out of there and slipped something in the glass of water he’d offered last night to knock him out. In the meantime, Frank had called Vince at home and—

“Hi, Mike, sorry to barge in like this,” the woman said, positioning herself in front of Vince as if shielding him from a potential verbal assault. “I know you guys had this agreement to keep all that was going on between yourselves, but I kinda got tired of being left out of everything, especially since the people you’re dealing with tried to kill me too. I think I have every right to know what the hell is happening, so I kind of invited myself along for the ride. Sorry to shock you like this, but that’s the short version. Want to hear the long version?”

Mike regarded her for a moment. She was standing in front of him, arms folded across her chest, waiting for his response. Her posture, her facial expression, the way she carried herself told him that she was strong-willed and wasn’t going to take no for an answer. On the other hand, Vince looked like somebody was going to hit him at any moment; he refused to meet his or Frank’s gaze. Mike sighed. “Christ.”

“Thanks for bringing Mike up to speed,” Frank said, his tone of voice suggesting to Mike that sometime last night the two of them had sparred verbally. Frank didn’t look too happy and he looked bone tired, too. “That’s it in a nutshell, man. She’s in.”

“Great, just great,” Mike muttered.

“I’m sorry,” Vince said, still looking sheepish.

Tracy ignored Vince’s meek demeanor. “This affects me as much as it affects Vince. I’m not trying to jeopardize anything. All I want is the truth.”

The truth. And what was that? Mike looked up at Frank, not even caring that Tracy Harris was in the fold now. Only wanting to know what had happened to Carol. And his family—hell, his son and daughter-in-law and granddaughter lived a mile away. What if the cult got them, too? “I don’t care,” he said. “I just want to know where Carol is. I’ve got to find her.”

“We will,” Frank said, clapping him on the shoulder. “We’re gonna get started on that this morning.”

“What time is it?’

“Almost eight-thirty,” Frank said.

Mike nodded. He felt tired, drained, but that was most likely the effects of whatever Frank had given him to help him sleep last night. Strangely, he didn’t feel that over-powering sense of panic when he discovered Carol had been kidnapped. He felt a strange sense of calmness. Thank God Frank had been thinking quickly last night when he came to the house to get him; he’d been acting on pure emotion and there was no telling what might have happened if Frank hadn’t been there to restrain him from doing something stupid.

“Okay,” he said, closing his eyes to stave off the tension headache he could sense was coming. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “You didn’t call the police, right?”

“Nope,” Frank said.

“Tracy knows everything?”

“I know everything,” Tracy said.

“Welcome to the club, Tracy,” Mike said. Despite his words, he felt bothered by Tracy being in the circle. Nothing suspicious had come up in her background when he had run a check on her a month or so back, but he always had the belief that the fewer people who knew what was going on, the better. Obviously that theory was shot to hell now that Tracy was in the fold. It looked like they were going to have to do the best they could with what they had.

“I’m trying to be as calm about this as I can,” Mike said, still closing his eyes. “I’m trying very hard not to completely lose it, so I am going to need all the help I can get. Okay?”

Tracy, Vince, and Frank nodded. Frank said, “Yeah, man, I hear you.”

Mike opened his eyes and looked up at them. His eyes burned; he supposed they were red with irritation. “I know this is going to sound shitty, but I have to go to the bank and check on that safe deposit box. That’s the only way I’m going to know if… if what I’m afraid has happened…”

“I understand, man,” Frank said. “We’ll get you there, pronto. And just to put your mind at ease, I think it’s safe. Bank regulations would not have allowed Carol or anybody else to access it if you’re the only signatory.”

“I know that,” Mike said. “But I panicked last night.” Mike looked around the room, still feeling a little disoriented. “Where’s my wallet?”

“In your pocket,” Frank said.

Mike felt his hip pocket, the reassuring bulge creating a calm feeling. He turned to Vince and Tracy. Vince still looked nervous but it appeared he was trying to live with the situation. Mike guessed he hadn’t been too happy about bringing Tracy into this, either.

“I think we should call William Grecko today,” Frank said. “Put the last part of our plan into action now.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Mike said. “But first, I want to go to the bank. Humor me on this, okay?”

Frank nodded as Mike swung his legs over the bed.

“I think we need to get out of this room and find another location,” Mike said. “Preferably somewhere busy, with lots of people around and a lot of cops.”

“Venice beach?” Frank suggested. The slight inflection of jovialness in Frank’s tone suggested he was joking, but the location was exactly what Mike was looking for.

“Perfect. Does everybody have their cell phones?”

Vince nodded. “Yeah, I got mine.”

“Turn it on,” Mike said. “Take Tracy and get a room in Venice. Then sit on the boardwalk and wait for us. Frank and I are going to my bank to check on my safe deposit box. Then I’m going to call—”

“Do you really think we should separate again?” Frank asked, concerned. “I mean—”

“We’ll be fine,” Mike turned to Frank. “We don’t even know if they’re responsible for what happened at my house. If they are, that means they’re going after our families, not us. Tracy, your family is from Huntington Beach, is that correct?” He dredged that information up instantly. He turned to Tracy.