So much for keeping that little secret locked tight.
As she scrambled into her clothes, hoping someone would know how to find Emery, the empty hole in her gut screamed disaster. Something awful was going to happen.
Chapter 15
THE BOY WAS QUICKLY IDENTIFIED ASEMERYLOCKWOOD.THE OFFICER WRAPPED A BLANKET AROUND THE BOY’S TINY SHOULDERS AND PUT HIM IN THE BACK OF THE SQUAD CAR, SECURING HIM SAFELY INSIDE BEFORE SEARCHING THE SURROUNDING WOODS FOR SUSPECTS AND THE OTHER MISSING CHILD.
—New York Times, September 30, 1990
I’m impressed, Cody. You’ve lasted much longer than I expected. A lesser man couldn’t talk with a leg, a few ribs and a hand broken.” Antonio’s accent had thickened after the heat of torture. “Perhaps I should have started slicing rather than smashing.” He lifted up a bowie knife. The yellow light from the overhead lamp flashed over the gleaming silver blade.
Cody didn’t like that he’d impressed the bastard. Pain fogged his brain, making him wish he’d died an hour ago. But damn it, he kept finding strength somewhere. Between every crushing blow, he’d somehow rallied and stayed coherent. Of course, he was more aware of the pain he was in.
If Hans had been here, he’d have told Cody to find his Zen place.Bullshit. Hans was a dead man if Cody ever survived this.
Tears leaked down his cheeks, joining the cold sweat that had broken out over his body in the last ten minutes.
Was he going into shock? He hoped so; anything would be better than how he felt right now.
“Half an hour to midnight.” Antonio checked his watch and rose from his chair. “Well, I have something to see to before the grand finale.” He gaze dropped to Cody’s restraints and lingered. He flashed a malevolent smile. “Don’t go anywhere.” The look was so cruel, so full of evil, that Cody’s frantic pulse shot straight into hyperdrive. He had to remain calm.
“Ha-ha,” he croaked. He’d lost his voice screaming a long time ago.
Antonio pushed away from the table he’d been leaning against.
“I would say it’s been a pleasure to know you, Cody, but I’m afraid you were always a means to an end. Emery will come for you. No doubt he’s tracking the bug you left behind. And when he gets here, my trap will snap shut.” He snapped his fingers, the sound echoing loudly off the empty white walls.
“What?”
“Oh, didn’t I tell you?” His captor’s face composed itself into one of mock innocence. “This warehouse is rigged to blow ten minutes after midnight. Emery will arrive just in time to find you and you won’t be able to warn him. He’ll think he has a chance to save you and get you out, but he won’t. It will be my greatest pleasure, killing him with hope.”
Cody couldn’t breathe. His lungs burned when he dragged in a gasp. “What happened to the slit-my-throat plan?”
“This is better. That little bastard has kept me busy for the last twenty-five years. Finally I can make my move. I know where Fenn is now and after Emery dies, I can leave this island and get on with the original plan.”
Fenn? Cody dared not believe what he was hearing.
“Since I’m going to die, just answer me one question. Where is Fenn?”
Antonio studied him a long moment. Cody felt like a cow heading to the slaughterhouse.
“Colorado.”
“Holy shit,” Cody muttered. Emery’s twin was alive. Fenn was alive! Hope welled up in him like a clear spring filling with cold, crisp water. He had to survive, had to tell Emery.
“You will die, Cody Larson. Do not be foolish enough to think you’ll come out of this alive. I would stick around to watch the fireworks, but I’ve got a flight to Colorado first thing tomorrow morning.”
Cody sucked in a breath. After all the pain, the agony, the excruciating torture, he was getting somewhere, yet he was going to die before he could warn Emery.
Fate was a cruel, two-faced bitch.
Antonio gave him one last look of malicious glee before he left the room. Cody counted five minutes before he tried to move. During the torture, Antonio had retied his hands behind his back with the rope that bound his waist, and left his feet free. With a broken leg, it was probably smart to do at the time; Antonio probably figured Cody couldn’t kick out or run. Cody focused on wriggling until his left hand slid into the back pocket of his jeans. His fingers closed around his small Swiss Army pocket knife. He flicked open the largest blade and shifted his hold to start cutting the ropes binding his wrists. He cursed as the blade nicked the heel of his broken hand. Finally the rope loosened and dropped around his waist.
He was free. He stifled a moan as blood rushed back to his injured hand. Using all the strength he had left he dragged himself to his feet, trying not to look down at the crooked angle of his shattered leg. Cody collapsed in the chair by the table and tapped the power button on the computer, bringing the screen to life. There was no time to look through whatever Antonio kept on here. Taking his pocketknife he tucked the blade back in and flicked out the USB memory stick. It clicked into place and he opened the drive. There was only one file on the memory stick. A program he’d designed called “Echo.” It would copy the entire hard drive at a rapid pace and back it up to a cloud. He’d be able to see everything Antonio had been up to.
“Come on,” he growled as the program started to run. He checked his watch and grimaced. Ten minutes to midnight.
The second the program was done he jerked the USB out. It was only then that he noticed the small icon at the bottom of the screen. Another program was running. He clicked on it and his breath whooshed out of his lungs. A countdown clock was ticking away. Only it wasn’t counting to midnight, but to detonation.
