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SEPTEMBER 21, 2022

Nemo

“Well, this is another fine mess I’ve gotten myself into.”

“Shut up, blondie,” the dark-haired Pilis Kader grumbled.

“Or what? You’ll kill me?” Nemo looked at his current situation—lashed to a timber in the passage and a bomb vest attached to him. “I think that’s a given already.”

“You have an awful smart mouth for a dead man,” Hemeda Kader observed.

“Better smart and dead than dumb and alive.”

He knew he was pushing buttons he really shouldn’t push, but it’d been way too many days of him missing to think that Tribe wasn’t going to need some help finding him. By goading them this way, he hoped he’d distract them so that they didn’t tie the knots so tight. Then he’d have a little bit of hope of getting himself free of this nonsense. So far, it didn’t seem to be working. He already couldn’t feel his fingers from how tightly his wrists were lashed.

There had been a Plan B, but Heckle and Jeckle destroyed that when they dislocated both of his shoulders and then tied his hands behind him.

You’d think they’d get it by now that I can do that to myself. How many times have I put them back in after they’ve popped them out?

Plan C was dangerous, but it might be his only opportunity to get out of there on his own.

Five minutes later, he was by himself in the barely lit tunnel. He’d been stuck in some weird places over his years as a thief, but this one was probably the scariest. Nemo didn’t feel fear often, but he had to admit this was certainly a situation where it was warranted.

He was just about to put Plan C into action and run the risk of bleeding out by slicing open his wrists on the zip ties in order to get out of them when debris started showering down on him. It was just fine grit, but it was annoying, and it burned when it hit his open wounds. “Sonofabitch, that stings!”

“Quit complaining, burglar boy,” came a voice from above.

Gem popped out of a fissure about ten feet above him. Right behind her came Steel.

“ Jesucristo , you’re always such a crybaby.”

“Gem, what the fuck are you doing down here?”

“Saving your ass, apparently.”

“How did you get out of Zimbabwe?”

Sounds of gunfire began in the distance, with muted yells echoing down the passage toward them. Steel suggested, “Perhaps we could save story time for when we get the hell out of here and somewhere safe. I’ll work on the right-side ropes, ojona . ”

He cut off to the side and began working on cutting through the restraints.

“What the hell did you just call her?”

“Something I knew would piss you off so that you’re too angry to feel the pain when your limbs come free,” Steel admitted.

“Cerberus,” Gem called over the communications. “We’ve got a problem. He’s got explosives strapped to him.”

“Copy that. On my way.”

“Great. Now I’m really going to get blown sky-high,” Nemo grumbled. Then blood began rushing to his fingers because Steel had cut through the zip ties. “Fuck!”

“Told you,” his friend commiserated.

Another body moved itself out from the fissure. “Well, well, well. The fish has truly been fried,” Cerberus snarked.

“Shut up, bird brain, or we’ll all go up in your pile of ash. Get this thing off me.”

Cerberus handed Gem his gun with the silencer on the end. “Fire at anything that comes down that tunnel, love. The rest of Tribe and Mythos are a little busy, so it won’t be them.”

Steel moved to Nemo’s left, cutting away the rest of the restraints. “ Jesucristo, hermano ,” Steel uttered under his breath. “Gem, hold the light.”

Nemo realized that Steel had seen his back. “Don’t, Steel. It’s fine. There’s nothing we can do about it right now.”

“You can’t go back the way we came when you’re in this condition.”

“What’s wrong?” Gem asked. Then she caught glimpses of torn flesh. When she passed the flashlight farther back, she gasped. “Oh my god. What the hell did they do to you?”

“Just some lashes with a belt, kitty cat. I’ve had worse.”

“Nemo, this is more than some lashes with a belt,” she hissed. “When we get this vest off, will I be able to see any of your actual back? All of your lovely tattoos…”

“Demon will clean it out and put it all back the way it should be. We have bigger issues right now.” Nemo looked at Steel. “You got an extra earbud for me?”

Steel dug into his pocket and pulled a case out, handing it over to Nemo. As Cerberus continued to work on the vest, Nemo proceeded to put his shoulders back into place against the cave wall. Gem winced with both grunts he let out, but he didn’t have time to feel bad about it. Then he pushed the earbuds into place and spoke over the channel.

“Nemo online.”

“Thank Christ,” came TB’s voice over the channel, as well as rapid gunfire. “Hurry your asses up down there.”

“Waters,” Steel started, “we can’t come back through the fissure. Nemo’s back is torn to shreds. It’s already going to be hard enough on him to move through this, let alone scraping his back on the ragged edges of that tunnel. On top of that, the explosives they strapped to him… they did it all with adhesive tape. We’re not going to be able to remove it here.”

Cerberus explained, “I can dismantle the wiring, but I can’t pull it off without taking inches of flesh off him.”

“Got it. TB and Demon will make the path.”

“Wait. We’ve got another problem.” Nemo looked at Gem. “Remember the tunnel in Zimbabwe?”

She nodded. “Yeah. The kids. They’re using them here, too.”

“I didn’t think it could get worse, but it did. Waters, they’ve gone all Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom . There’s another tunnel here. When you get to the end of it, it’s like a frickin’ ancient burial ground, with all those slots for bodies. Only problem is, they’re not dead bodies in them. They’ve got kids crawling in there. They’re sending them into these narrow human wormholes like we used to get inside Zimbabwe’s cavern. But they’re all girls. I don’t know why only girls, but that’s all I saw. Little ones. They’re even littler than the kids we saw in Zimbabwe.”

“Fuckin’ Salieri again.”

“Gem?” Nemo asked.

“No time to explain. Waters, I’m not leaving another group of kids behind.”

“Loki and Gilgamesh have got it, Gem.”

“But—”

“I said, they’ve got it. We’re not leaving them behind, I promise. Nemo, make sure her ass is with all of you coming out of that tunnel.”

“You got it, boss man.”

At that same moment, Cerberus pulled a wire delicately from the explosive device strapped to Nemo. “Okay, we’re clear. Let’s get him out of here.”

Nemo could barely move. The beating had been restricted to his back, but he was still struggling to move due to poor circulation over the last thirty to forty-five minutes. He hobbled as best he could, one arm over Gem’s shoulders, the other over Steel’s. The pull in his back from the open and reopened wounds was excruciating, but it was better than being blown up. You couldn’t put that back together.

“TB and Demon, have you got them?”

“Elevator doors are opening now.”

When they got to the mouth of the tunnel, Nemo had never seen a better or worse sight at the same time. Two elevator doors on the far side of the cavern opened to reveal the team’s interrogator in one and the medic in the other. From a far tunnel, Waters emerged with a group of children who seemed to be in distress. Steel, Cerberus, Gem, and Nemo made their way to him, each sweeping up a child or two in their arms and racing for the elevators. TB and Steel kept them covered in case of last-minute appearances from additional guards, but no one arrived.

As the elevator doors closed, Waters updated everyone.

“Okay. Loki and Gilgamesh have the kids in the trucks and are standing guard topside so that when Medusa comes swooping in, you’ve got cover. These children were the last of them and are in need of medical care. Once you get the last of those kids loaded onto the truck, get the hell out of there.”

“Roger that,” TB called out.

“Medusa just came up over the horizon,” Loki called out over the airwaves.

Nemo couldn’t believe what he’d seen over the last few minutes. “I thought this place was barely up and running?”

Waters nodded. “Apparently, that was false. Trucks are going to be a tight fit. Loki, Gilgamesh, and Janus, Mythos’ pilot, are full up, but they say they have a place to take them. Hope they’ve got good resources because there’s still enough of a body count to give these kids nightmares for years, let alone their experiences for however long they’d been in captivity. Some of the children looked in much worse shape than others.”

When they reached the top of the elevator shaft, Medusa provided air coverage with her helicopter while the team handed the last of the children into the trucks to waiting adults, a couple of whom didn’t look to be in much better shape than the kids themselves. With the last child secured, Cerberus, Steel, and Demon each hopped up into a truck, and they took off through the gates of the mine to freedom.

Medusa quickly set the helicopter down, everyone loaded into the bird, TB slammed the door shut, and they were off.

“Scheherazade?” Nemo shouted over the rotors.

“Damn dog wanted to ride with Janus of all people, so Steel’s in his truck to watch over her,” TB informed him. “Weirdest fuckin’ thing. Jumped in that cab with no hesitation, and her damn head was hanging out the window, tongue flapping in the breeze. I swear to Christ, she was smiling.”

He grinned. “Her sense of self-preservation disappeared with her puppies.” He looked at Gem, huddled on the opposite side of the helicopter. “Come here, kitty cat.” He motioned for her to come to him.

“Your back…” she started.

“Don’t care. Need to hold you.”

Nemo dragged her onto his lap, wrapping his arm around her waist and burying his face in the space between her hair and her neck.

She was shaking so hard her teeth were chattering. She clutched his biceps in her hands. It was too loud to talk, so all he could do to reassure himself that she was fine was to hold her tight and not let go.

He looked up from her shoulders to see Midas in the copilot seat of the helicopter. The relief on his brother’s face was crystal clear. Nemo smiled and gave him a thumbs-up. Midas returned the gesture, himself now reassured that his twin was truly back, and returned his focus to what Medusa needed him to be doing.

His sugar cat. His twin. His team. Life was good.