the time came, she would and she’d enjoy it immensely.
She fell into a light sleep, snapping awake as the jet began its descent.
“You going to tell me where we are yet?”
“You’ll see. Relax and enjoy the ride.”
In the darkness outside her window, nothing was recognizable. Based on the lights, they were landing just outside a small city.
The plane touched down and taxied to a stop. As they left the plane and walked toward a lighted stairwell a hundred meters away, Sarah talked to Vivian in her head. She told her that, more than ever she would need her to perform as if they were at a circus. She’d had too many years of violence and too many years of running to have the men surrounding her win. It was Sarah’s time. Vivian had put her there and now Vivian had to get her out.
Vivian, you have to bring an end to this chapter in my life. Help me get these men off my back forever.
The stairwell led down into a tunnel which went on as far as she could see. Intermittent lights were wired along both sides of the tunnel. Hank led the way and six armed men fell in behind them as they started down the tunnel.
“Where is this?” Sarah asked.
“You’re in a city called North Bay,” Hank said. “We’re in Northern Ontario.”
“We didn’t fly to the states? I’m surprised.”
“You won’t be when you see this facility.”
“Why? What’s so special about this facility?”
Hank turned around and walked backward. “Have you ever heard of NORAD?”
“I’ve heard the name but I’m not sure what it stands for.”
“North American Aerospace Defense Command. They built this place in the early sixties. It’s sixty stories beneath the surface, about six hundred feet.”
“Why are we here?”
“Because it’s empty,” Hank said and turned back around.
“I’m not following you.” The tunnel didn’t seem to be ending anytime soon.
“This tunnel is the north entrance which is about 6500 meters long. The south, or city entrance, is shorter. Then we go down to the main complex. This place was built to take a direct hit from a bomb 267 times more powerful than the one that hit Hiroshima.”
“If it’s that deep, what about earthquakes?”
“The three-story main building inside was built off the ground on specially designed pillars. North Bay was hit with a 5.2 on the Richter Scale over ten years ago and no one in the building felt a thing. You have nothing to worry about.”
“Why is it empty?” Sarah asked.
“They moved the headquarters to Winnipeg. Since late 2006, the complex has remained empty. The power cavern heats and ventilates the complex to avoid decay. My organization borrows it from time to time. You know, the Americans paid over half to have this thing built, and many Americans were brought up to work and train here for dozens of years. It’s almost our property, so I use it as often as I need.”
“Lucky you.”
They made it to an elevator. Hank swiped a card. The men following them created a semicircle around Sarah and maintained a five-foot distance.
“No, lucky you.”
“Why me?” she asked. “What’s this big rock got to do with me?”
“I want to see if Vivian will come to you sixty stories down. I want to see how psychic you are. And what better place to do it but where you have no hope of escape.”
She watched his chiseled face and his built body under the suit jacket, and wondered how often he worked out to create such a look.
“What makes you think I can’t just walk away right now?”
“These friends of mine wouldn’t allow that.”
The elevator door opened. Sarah looked inside and for the first time realized that she may not be coming back up.
She stepped on and considered trying to get away, but then dismissed the idea as soon as it developed. She had come here for a reason. Witnesses saw Hank come for her. Drake and Parkman would be relentless if she didn’t show up in a few days. Somehow, someway, Sarah would be coming up the elevator again.
The doors closed. She couldn’t help but feel trapped.
“Oh, and, the other reason there will be no escape is we have special doors on the facility downstairs.”
“Special doors?”
“As an added measure of security and the possibility of a nuclear strike, the builders added three nineteen- ton steel vault-type doors to the entrance downstairs. Nothing gets through them. Not even you, Sarah, not even you.”
“You know what you remind me of?”
Hank turned to face her. He smiled. “Okay, I’ll bite. What?”
“A priest writing a sermon on humility and then filing it away to be pulled out at a special event where you could impress a lot of people.”
He frowned and looked at the men standing at his sides. “What? A priest?”
“Never mind.”
The elevator stopped and the doors opened to a huge corridor.
They stepped out as a group. The men guided Sarah to a room. She entered it and they closed the door behind her.
Without another word, Hank and his men left her there, alone, to wait until they decided the waiting would end.
I am so sick and tired of being held against my will. This is going be the last time.
She looked in every corner of the empty room. On the floor in the middle of the room sat a thick pad of lined of paper and three pens. Other than that, the square room was empty.
Sarah walked over to the pad, grabbed a pen and lay down on the floor. A moment later she was unconscious.
When she woke up, the pad was littered with words scrawled out in her handwriting.
Sarah got up and crawled to the wall where she leaned her back against it. After all the years together, her sister had never abandoned her. She had come through for her.
The first page read:
Sarah. Our connection runs deep. I’m committed to getting you out of there. Hank’s wife. In six days she’s going to be killed by a random mugging in the Eaton Center, downtown Toronto. But you can’t tell Hank yet.
Sarah flipped the page and continued reading.
I will send you five days of accidents and together we’ll save a couple lives. You will be able to prove to Hank that you only do good things. When he wants a message of anything specific, you will come up empty. He will be frustrated, but he’ll believe in you by then. He will have too much proof. Then you tell him about his wife and explain that only you can attend to the mugging. That will be the deal.
Sarah flipped to the next page.
Rod Howley will learn of your incarceration in two days. He will be the one who devises the plan against Hank’s wife to get you out. He won’t kill her, he is only threatening her. The morning of the mugging, Rod Howley will call Hank and order your release. Hank will already know about the mugging because of you. He will put it all together. If he doesn’t bring you, he loses his wife. He will also learn that you weren’t bluffing and understand the gravity of the situation. He will feel you’re more an ally than Rod. His downfall will be putting his trust in you.
Sarah flipped to the last page.
Hank has already killed seven others down here that didn’t prove to be psychic. At least not in the way he needed them to be. Hank is preparing the cyanide that will kill you as we speak. There’s nothing that can stop him. If you and Rod don’t successfully get you out of this underground complex, you will be murdered in seven days by Hank Frommer and he will file you as a missing persons.
I’m sorry, Sarah.
