Brett Battles - Shadow of Betrayal

“Hey,” he said as he moved Furuta’s chin back and forth. “I think maybe you should try to stay awake.”

The man’s eyes remained closed.

Quinn slapped him, not too hard, but enough to sting. “Wake up.”

This time Furuta’s eyelids peeled open.

“Stay awake, okay?” Quinn said.

“Losing… it,” Furuta said. His eyes closed, but then opened again. “Other one.”

“What?”

“Other one… tapped.” His hand twitched on the floor. “Tapped … other one.”

He tried to move his head, his eyes turning upward like he was looking at something beyond him.

“Other one,” he repeated.

This time when his eyes closed, they didn’t reopen. Quinn felt for a pulse, but there was none. Too much blood on the floor, and not enough still in the veins. Kevin Furuta was dead.

“Goddammit,” Quinn said.

He’d known this was going to happen. He’d known the moment he’d seen Furuta’s shattered body. But that didn’t make it any easier.

He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. Maybe it would be best to get the hell out of there. The main reason they’d entered the facility was lying dead at Quinn’s feet. They’d learned enough already for Peter to mobilize a full-on assault. There was little more Quinn could do without increasing the chance of discovery. Maybe it was time to—

The latch to the main corridor door groaned. Quinn ducked into the corner of cell number one. He could hear someone step into the hallway, then close the door behind them.

“Quinn?” The voice was a whisper.

Quinn stepped around the opening to the cell and found Nate standing a few feet away.

Nate gave him a nod, but showed no other reaction.

“Any problems?” Quinn asked.

“No one. Very quiet.”

Quinn was beginning to think all of Tucker’s people were helping this Mr. Rose he’d heard the Australian talk about and were somewhere else in the facility.

Nate looked past Quinn into the cell. “That him?”

Quinn nodded.

“They really messed him up, didn’t they?”

“He’s dead.”

“He’s … son of bitch. Do we still take him with us?”

Quinn looked back through the door at the body. “No. We can’t ri—”

He stopped himself.

The other.

Glancing to his right, he could see the two other cell doors. Numbers two and three.

The other.

He approached the door to cell number two.

“What are you doing?” Nate asked.

Quinn held up a hand to silence him, then pulled out his gun again. Carefully he released the door’s latch and pushed it open. The only light inside was that which spilled in from the hallway, but it was enough for him to see the room was empty.

He moved over to cell three.

“Pull out your flashlight,” he said to Nate.

He waited until his apprentice had the light on, then he repeated what he had done with the previous door.

Only, unlike cell number two, there was someone there.

CHAPTER

32

MARION BARELY REGISTERED THE HALLWAY DOORopening for the third time. She’d moved into the corner farthest from the door, and had curled against herself. If anyone was talking, she didn’t hear. She just rocked back and forth, her mind searching for someplace happy, something to help her forget.

Ice skating with her family as a girl. The school trip she’d taken to New York when she was in high school. Kissing Reynard Moreau in an empty math classroom. He had been more nervous than she. She could remember feeling him shake even as his lips touched hers.

But she couldn’t hold on to any of the memories for long before they slipped into an image of Iris, eyes filling with water, lower lip quavering, her whole body emanating fear and confusion.

Marion rocked harder, trying to force her mind away from any thoughts of the child. But when they did, what replaced them were the faces of her mother and father and her sister, all staring at her with lifeless eyes.

She was jerked into the present by the sound of the latch to her door moving.

They’d come for her. Finally, they’d come.

It was her turn now.

Let the first bullet kill me , she prayed. Dear God, please.

She stared at the door as it swung open. She saw the shadow of a man, a gun at his side.

When the beam of a flashlight moved across her face, she started to scream.

“Hey, hey,” a male voice said. “It’s all right. Don’t yell. It’s okay.”

But she knew it wasn’t okay. She’d seen the gun in his hand. And though her eyes were now shut tight, she could feel him approach her.

Her scream turned into a sob, and tears began pouring down her cheeks.

“It’s all right,” he repeated, much closer now.

Why did he keep saying that?

“Nate, move the light out of her eyes.”

The glow on her lids lessened, but didn’t go completely away.

“It’s okay,” the man said. “We’re here to help you. Take a breath. Relax.”

Despite herself, she did what he said. After a moment, she allowed her eyelids to part.

The man was in front of her, a warm smile on his face. She almost smiled, too, then she realized who he was.

It was the man who chased her in Montreal.

The man who had tried to stop her in front of her parents’ house.

He wasn’t here to help her.

He was here to kill her.

She started screaming again.

“It’s okay. It’s okay,” he said.

“You tried to catch me,” she said. “At my parents’. You killed my parents!”

“I never even met your parents,” the man said. “I’m sorry they’re dead, but I had nothing to do with it. I was there to help you. Like I’m here now.”

Easy words. “You killed them. You killed my sister. Now you’re going to kill me, too!”

“Listen to me. I am not here to hurt you. I’m here to get you out.”

She stared at him, unable to believe it.

“Your name is Marion Dupuis. You smuggled a child into the States. A little girl from Africa. You were trying to save her.”

“You killed that man in New York,” she said. “I saw your picture on TV.”

The man almost laughed. “The same people who brought you here set things up to look like I murdered someone. We’re the same, in a way. These people aren’t friends to either of us.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I get that. And that’s fine. But think of it this way: If you think you’re going to be killed anyway, what’s it going to hurt coming with us?”

“I think I hear something.” The voice came from the man holding the flashlight. Nate, he’d been called.

“Check,” the other man said.

Nate disappeared into the hall, plunging the room back into semi-darkness.

“Keep quiet,” the man with the gun whispered.

She did as she was told, a part of her wanting to believe the man’s words.

Several seconds passed before Nate returned.

“Two people,” he said. “Passed right by, though.”

“Good,” his partner said. “Now what’s it going to be? You come with us and see if we can get you out of here? Or stay and die for sure?”

“Who are you?” she asked.

The man hesitated, then said, “I’m Quinn. My friend’s Nate. So, what’s it going to be?”

She wanted to go, but…

“Iris,” she said.

“What?”

“The child,” she said.

“Iris,” Quinn repeated.

“I won’t leave without her.”

Quinn went silent as he turned to the side and stared at the empty corner of the room for several seconds before looking back at her. “What if we get you someplace safe, and then I go look for her?”

“I’m not leaving her.”