Justice(111)

The door shuts. She pushes me away and I spin around, hands still up. With her free hand, she presses the button for the top floor. “Well, that got complicated,” she says with annoyance. She holds up her ring. “Honey, I’m in the elevator. Hope you’re in position.” She looks back at me. “You. You have five seconds to lose any weapons or bugs on you. If I search and find one, I’ll replace it with a bullet, get me? So where are they?”

I glare at her. “Gun, right thigh. Necklace, panic button and tracking device.”

“Good girl.” She rips the cameo right off my neck, then stomps on it before lifting up my dress and pulling off my .38. She tosses it on the floor too. “Knew we were coming?”

“Knew if he was, it’d be tonight.”

“Didn’t see me coming, though,” she says with pride. “Or this.” She pulls the emergency button on the panel and we jerk to a stop between the twenty-second and twenty-third floors. Before I can even register this, there’s a thump on the roof. Grace stays as calm as ever, gun never leaving me. The hatch on top opens, and one of the guards from Grace’s apartment peers down. “Up you go, Jo.” Having no choice, I take the man’s outstretched hand. He pulls me up into the elevator shaft with little effort, then Grace. She points the gun again. “Up the ladder. Now.”

I climb with Grace right behind me. I’d kick her, but I can’t risk the gun going off. About three floors up, I’m greeted by another guard, the former Independence linebacker, half in and out of the open door on the floor above us. He yanks me up the rest of the way. The twenty-sixth floor is the future site of the recovery wing. It’s deserted, just a storage area that used to be a research lab. A familiar face greets me. Alkaline, without a scratch on him, is dressed in his old dark green costume and trench coat. He holds out his hand to help me up. “Nice to see you again, Joanna.”

I bat his hand away and stand on my own. “Fuck you. How the hell did you survive?”

“Ran like the wind and was fortunate enough to find a sewer hole. Disgusting, but it saved my life. I was so happy to hear you made it as well. Touch and go there for a moment.”

Grace is hoisted up by the linebacker, who then pulls out his gun and points it at me. Grace brushes the dust off her dress. “Did you hear what I told them? About the bombs?”

Alkaline takes her in his arms and kisses her deeply. “Convincing as always, darling.”

“There are no bombs?” I ask.

“Of course not,” Grace says as if I’m a dunce.

“We’re not monsters, Joanna,” Alkaline says.

“Matter of opinion,” I say with my best shit-eating grin.

Alkaline shakes his head at my insolence. He and Grace spin around when the second guard pushes himself out of the shaft. He pulls out a little black box with a switch on it. “All breaks disabled, sir, and the charges are set.”

“Good. Everyone step back,” Alkaline orders. The bomber pulls out the door jam and the elevator door closes. I’m yanked by the linebacker a few feet as the other guard presses the button.

“Kaboom,” Grace says with a smile as the explosion rings out.

The metal door crumples from the blast and smoke spews from the cracks. I can hear the elevator fall, the screeching of twisted metal like nails on a chalkboard making me cringe. A second later there’s another boom as the elevator crashes to the ground.

“That should keep them busy,” Alkaline says with a satisfied smile. “Let’s go. Rio awaits.”

The linebacker and bomber exchange guns, so now the linebacker has the pistol and bomber the shotgun he then roughly pulls me along with the small crowd. The bomber leads the way, gun at the ready. Alkaline and Grace walk hand in hand behind him like they’re strolling in the park, with me at the back. “So, that’s your plan? Take me on vacation?” I ask.

The bomber opens the stairwell door, going in first while we wait. “Oh, you’re coming with us,” Alkaline says. “Though I doubt you’ll enjoy yourself that much.” The guard waves us in. We run up the stairs, all the bad guys looking up, down, and sideways for bogies. “You see,” he says as we go, “I don’t plan to kill you.”

“Not unless you make him,” Grace adds.

“But I am going to melt off as many of your appendages as I can and mail them to your friend. You should be able to survive to return to him, so for the rest of his life he can look at you and know he’s failed.”

“Don’t worry, though. We’ll keep you so doped up you won’t know what’s going on,” Grace says.