Page 29 of No Time Off (Lexi Carmichael Mystery #15)

TWENTY-NINE

Slash

I felt every muscle in my body as I sat on the floor of the dark, empty room.

Calling it a room was generous. It was more like a narrow closet that was positioned across from the conference room and adjacent to the office with the parrot where I’d been caught. Manny’s schematics of the compound had listed it as a storage room, but it was a closet. No windows, no ventilation system, and no light. I could stand in the middle and touch the side walls with both hands. I’d noted the cypher lock on the door when they brought me down and threw me inside after they had spent some time roughing me up a bit. They likely secured valuables of some kind in here.

It was barely big enough to fit a man, but here I was.

Not surprisingly, my captors hadn’t bought my story about getting lost and wandering into the compound by accident. I didn’t have anything on me other than the small lockpick kit and the small knife I always carried in my boot. The lockpicks hadn’t helped my story. They had immediately divested me of those and pulled off my shirt, which was a bit odd, but it was what it was. Probably they wanted to scare me or to make me think torture was imminent.

It had been an extremely fortunate stroke of luck they decided to question me right in the office where they’d captured me—where I’d planted both my phone and one of the recording devices. If Manny had escaped and Lexi was still listening, they would at least have an idea of what was happening with me inside the compound. Once Lexi got the recording off to Frankie to translate, of course. The language barrier slowed everyone down. Eventually, I hoped they’d be able to get the information we needed to tie the coup to the Chinese.

For my initial interrogation, I’d been tossed in a chair with my hands tied behind my back. For at least an hour, they asked me questions in heavily accented English. I consistently stuck to my story of being lost and not knowing where I was. It cost me several blows to the face, jaw, and abdomen, but all in all, I’d had worse. These guys were mostly muscle, not particularly inventive or trained in how to really cause pain. As they weren’t sure who I was or what I was doing here, they seemed conflicted on how much harm they could actually cause me. I used that to my advantage.

My captors hadn’t called the Cook Islands police when they found me—no surprise or need, I presumed—and instead had thrown me into the storage closet and left. They hadn’t figured out who I was yet, but it wouldn’t be long until that changed. A lot of people had seen me save the prime minister from the assassination attempt, so I had to assume it was only a matter of time.

I rolled my neck and shoulders, trying to prevent them from knotting up. My muscles ached from the interrogation and the way my arms had been twisted and tied behind the chair. My jaw throbbed where a guard’s fist had made contact a time or two. Thankfully and unexpectedly, they had untied me when they placed me here, so that gave my arms and shoulders a slight physical break. I had a hunch it was to see what I might do. I was confident that there was a guard stationed right outside my door. Even so, he was being very quiet. I repeatedly listened but heard nothing. My mouth was swollen, but nothing was broken, and the pain would lessen with time. I’d just have to ask Lexi to be careful the next time she kissed me.

I had tried the door, but it was locked, of course, and explored every inch of the tiny closet. I’d found exactly nothing. So, I sat on the floor, meditated, and rested my body for whatever was to come next.

* * *

Lexi

I hunched over my laptop at the round dining room table in the yacht’s main area off the galley. I’d exchanged numerous emails with Candace, Elvis, Xavier, and Angel, updating everyone on what had happened, or at least what little I knew regarding Slash.

The prime minister’s kids had disappeared into one of the yacht’s two bedrooms to watch television—I could hear the laugh track of the cartoons—and the prime minister and her husband were talking in a nearby room. One of her security personnel sat in a chair near the stairs that led up to the deck, keeping a discreet eye on us. I wasn’t too worried about our immediate safety, as I could hear the footsteps of the other guard above and the soft murmur of their voices.

But time was stealing away, and I knew it.

I heard the motor of the skiff as it came alongside and then the security guys helping someone aboard. We all turned to look at the cabin entryway. A moment later, Manny appeared and clambered down the stairs.

“Manny,” I exclaimed, jumping up from the table. “Are you okay?” His cotton shirt was wet from the passing storm. His hair was tousled, and he wore a grim look on his face.

“I’m fine,” he said, pushing his dark hair back from his face. “I’m just wet and concerned. Here’s Slash’s laptop. I tried to keep it as dry as possible. I hope it still works.”

“Thanks, Manny,” I said, ushering him toward the table, where he sat down. “What happened? I couldn’t hear clearly. There was yelling and screeching, and something about a parrot before the network suddenly went down. You said Slash was captured.” I hoped with all my heart he’d say it had all been a mistake.

But Manny nodded. “I’m sorry, Lexi. Apparently, he stumbled across a parrot in the chief of staff’s office. He startled it, and it gave him away. He managed to say he was hiding his phone in the room and to keep the line open. Then he told me to take his laptop and run. Is your phone line still open?”

“Yes.” I walked over and held up my phone. “And I’m still on mute, but I haven’t heard anything. But there was a stretch when we were on the run that I wouldn’t have heard anything even if they’d been shouting.”

“Mine is still open, too. I did hear voices while I was running, probably him being captured, but didn’t have time to listen carefully. But I did think to record it.”

I looked at him in surprise. “You recorded it?” When he nodded, I gave him a hug. “Manny, that’s brilliant. I need that recording now.”

He pulled his phone from his pocket. “Take it. I have no idea how to give it to you. I did stop recording when it had been silent for a while. But you’d better hurry. My phone’s running out of juice.”

“No worries. I’ll take it from here.” I took his phone to my computer and plugged it in.

Manny grabbed a towel from the bathroom to dry his hair and face. He then got a bottle of water from the fridge and sat down across from me.

I started the download of the audio file and worried because it was big, it would take a long time to complete. I decided the best way was to break the file up during compression. That way I could send the initial part to Elvis and Frankie so that they could start translating.

“If the voices are in Chinese, how will the recording help if we don’t know what they’re saying?” Manny asked me and took a big swig of water.

“I’ve got people who can translate,” I said. “All I need is to get the audio file to them to start working on whatever is being said inside that compound.”

Manny perked up. “It’s that easy?”

“I didn’t say it was easy, but it can be done. You didn’t hear Slash speaking at all?”

“I heard something while I was running. I just can’t confirm it was him. We’ll have to listen to it to find out for sure.”

I blew out a breath. It wasn’t the confirmation I wanted that Slash was still alive, but I had to be patient. He could take care of himself, and I needed to keep my focus to help him.

Just then Petra and Henry came into the room and saw Manny. Petra rushed to hug him, and he quickly filled her and Henry in on what had happened at the compound. I kept focused on uploading the audio file.

The prime minister looked horrified when he finished his story. “I’ll turn myself in if they release Slash.”

“That’s not a viable solution, Petra,” I said without removing my gaze from my screen. “We can’t take the Chinese by their word. I don’t think they’ll hurt Slash…yet…because they want to use him as leverage. But if you turn yourself in, they’d have no use for him. And my guess is they’d force you to resign and then you might just…disappear.”

She paled, but she sat, her chin steady. “What do you mean, disappear?”

I sighed, finally lifting my gaze to hers. “Clearly, you’ll not be resigning of your own free will. Keeping you around afterward would leave a dangerous loose end for them.”

“You’re saying they’d kill me? My family?”

“They’ve already tried to assassinate you, Petra,” Manny said gently. “The bottom line is, there is a good chance none of us will survive if they capture you now.”

She closed her eyes, pressing the back of her hand against her mouth. “My children? Henry?” She looked up at her husband, a stricken expression on her face.

“I don’t know.” I put a gentle hand on her arm. “I don’t want to alarm you. This is all just speculation at this point. But we do need to come up with a way to get Slash out of there as soon as possible.”

“Will the recording devices he planted there help us?” she asked.

“Not unless we can retrieve them. Unfortunately, the Chinese will likely be on high alert now. We do have Slash’s phone transmitting what is happening near him. Manny was able to use the open line to record what happened during his capture. Right now, I’m downloading that audio file to send to my translator. It’s a big file, so it’s taking some time.”

“Are you going to tell your government the Chinese have kidnapped him?” she asked me.

“I already have,” I said. “But there’s nothing they can do at this point. The Chinese could simply insist they don’t know who we’re talking about. They’ve never seen him, heard of him, etc. We can’t prove they have him…yet. So that’s not a good option, either. On a more positive note, they are reaching out to contacts in New Zealand and the UK to let them know what’s going on and solicit their assistance. But beyond that, we’re basically on our own.”

Petra got up and walked over to the coffee maker, pouring a cup and handing it to me. “I’m so sorry, Lexi. I never meant to put you two in such danger. You’re exhausted. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“I wish there were, Prime Minister,” I said. “As soon as this file uploads and sends, I’ll breathe easier knowing it’s being worked on. And then hopefully we can listen to it ourselves.”

I took the mug and added some milk from a small carton that was sitting on the table. I’d just taken a sip of the coffee when we heard a noise on my and Manny’s phones. We all froze.

There was some shuffling, muttering, and then, as clear as day, I heard some loud squawking noises.

“I told you there was a parrot,” Manny whispered.

“Shh,” the prime minister and I said at the same time as we all huddled around the table. I held out my hand for Manny to give me my phone, and he quickly turned it over. I pressed the record button just as we heard people start speaking Chinese. I could make out at least three different voices, but it was frustrating that we had no idea what they were saying.

Then suddenly that changed when we heard the bang of a door and voice speaking in English. “What’s going on here? What happened?”

“That’s Maivia,” Henry hissed. “I recognize his voice. That son of a gun is in the compound.”

“We had an intruder at the compound,” someone responded in accented English. “But it’s under control.”

“What kind of intruder?” Maivia asked. “What was he doing here?”

“We’re not sure. He was caught in here, looking around the office. We ran a sweep for bugs in this room and on the entire first floor but found nothing. Nothing appears to be missing, either. We don’t know what he was after, and he’s not talking.”

“Who is he?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out. He didn’t have any identification on him. He speaks English and says he wandered into the compound by accident, but he’s lying, and he won’t give us a name. It’s hard to tell if English is his native language. We’re not sure what’s he’s doing here, whether he’s working for the prime minister or someone else. He’s locked up for now until we determine our next steps.”

“This is intolerable,” Maivia fumed. “I don’t like this. Not one bloody bit.” We could hear the clomp of his footsteps as he presumably paced the office. “I’m worried. We need to get the boss here immediately. Where is he? I was assured he’d be here today in case there were any problems. And we have problems. What do I do now? The prime minister is still missing and now this. What if we can’t find her? She shouldn’t even be alive, and now we have this incident.”

“Please calm down, my friend,” a voice said soothingly. “He’s already on the way, and he’s been briefed on the situation. He should be here within the hour. His personal plane lands from Kiribati in about half an hour. Trust me, things are going as planned. In China we say, ‘All things are difficult before they are easy.’ So, just be patient and keep your activity focused on finding the prime minister. She hasn’t left and the island is small. It is just a matter of time before you capture her.”

We could hear Maivia’s heavy sigh. “I’m just worried things are not going as planned.”

“Of course, we understand your concern. We’ll let you know when the boss has arrived.”

“What about the intruder?”

“We’ll take care of him. You have enough to deal with, so go find the prime minister and any who still support her.”

There was a pause before a door slammed, followed by a murmur of voices in Chinese. After another minute, the door squeaked open and then shut.

The room went silent.