The Wolf's Bite Page 13

  “Sharon?” Sarah called softly. “Sharon, try to hold it together. I know what this is, they’re trying to break our spirits. This is kind of a good thing, because it means they won’t be doing anything else to us for a while.” She stopped and listened, but Sharon didn’t respond. “Sharon, hang on. Trust me, Noah is working on getting us out of here already. We might be a little uncomfortable for a while, but at least we’re not being raped at the moment.”

  There was silence for a moment, that she heard Sharon clear her throat. “I guess now is a bad time to mention that I’m a little claustrophobic,” she said, and Sarah heard a soft chuckle. “How long do you think they’ll leave us in here? I’m gonna need a bathroom sometime soon.”

  Sarah grimaced, then looked around the inside of her own box the best she could. A little light came through the gaps, but as far as she could tell there were no holes in the bottom of the box. In fact, there were some awfully nasty-looking stains down there, and the box smelled pretty rank.

  “I doubt they’re going to offer us a potty break,” she said. “Psychologically, it helps to break a person’s spirit if they’re forced to live in their own excrement. They’ll probably offer to let us out at some point, but only if we agree to whatever demands they want to put on us, but that won’t happen soon. With any luck, Noah and the guys will track us down before we get to that point.”

  “You really seem to have a lot of faith in this Noah,” Sharon said. “Did you see all the men with guns out there?”

  “Yeah, I saw them. Most of them are carrying AK-74s, or some sort of copy of them, and the way they handle them makes me think they had military training. Noah will do a careful recon of the situation before he comes in, but I doubt these guys will give him much of a problem. It may sound hard to believe, but I’ve seen him walk into much deadlier situations and come out of them alive.”

  “Yeah? And what about everybody else in that situation? Did they come out alive, too?”

  Sarah thought back to a couple of the incidents she was referring to. “Sharon, twice I’ve seen him walk into traps that were supposed to kill him, just to get me out. Noah is probably one of the most dangerous men alive, especially to anyone he considers an enemy. By taking us, these people have interfered with his mission. That makes them the enemy of the moment, and I doubt any of them will survive what’s coming.”

  EIGHTEEN

  Dave and Neil drove away in the rented Toyota at just after eight the following morning, with Marco and Marino following on the Hondas. Noah and Randy Mitchell got on their own bikes and watched as Jenny climbed into one of the waiting taxis. When the car started moving, they pulled out to follow but kept a few other cars between them.

  There were no incidents on the way to the prison, so the men made rendezvous at the same restaurant they had used the day before. They sat where they could watch as Jenny got out of the taxi and headed into the visitors registration office. A moment later, Mitchell’s phone rang and he held it out to Noah.

  Noah answered the phone. “Hello? Lisa?”

  “Yes, Daddy, it’s me,” Jenny said. “I’m back at the prison and waiting to meet this supervisor. Hopefully he can tell me something about what happened to Kayla. I just wanted to let you know what was going on, and I’ll call you as soon as I know anything more.”

  “Okay, honey,” Noah said. “I’ll be right here by the phone.”

  The call ended and Noah handed the phone back to Mitchell. “Waiting for the supervisor,” he said. “We might as well have some breakfast.”

  Like the day before, Neil had his computer open on the table. Anyone walking casually past would have thought he was playing some sort of video game, but the display on the screen actually showed him an accurate map of the city of Bangkok, with a blinking purple dot that told him precisely where Jenny was at any given moment. Neil had simply added some graphics and lettering so that it wouldn’t be a recognizable map even to a native.

  They ordered breakfast, keeping it simple and easy, and chitchatted about mundane things as they ate. Marco and Mitchell were talking about the latest MLB game, while Neil and Marino were going on and on about various online games they liked to play in their free time. Noah and Lange were discussing trends in automobile design.

  An hour passed with no word from Jenny, but Neil assured them she was still in the visitors registration office. The little blip moved around enough to indicate that she was either inpatient or angry, and Noah decided that they had better prepare for something to happen soon. He paid their tabs and sent everyone back to their vehicles. “It’s just a hunch,” he said, “but I’d rather be ready if something happens. Unless she leaves alone, we have to assume that someone is making a play to grab her. As soon as we can stop them and take them down, we do so.”

  The four motorcycles were parked close together, so the men sat on them and talked while they waited for the next development. Neil and Dave were in the car, about fifty yards away, and Noah had positioned himself so that he could see Neil clearly. If anything happened on the computer screen, Neil would tell them immediately through the radio headsets they were all wearing.

  Suddenly, Neil cocked his head to one side, and Noah waved a finger to tell the others to be quiet. A second later, Neil’s voice came through the headsets. “She just went into a back room, and if I’m reading it right, it might be the storeroom we were going to use to go in. The only way she could go there is if they took her, that’s not a place she could’ve wandered into on her own.”

  “Agreed,” Noah said. “Keep watching. They may be trying to rough her up a bit.”

  “They’ll regret it,” Mitchell said. “She may be little, but she can kick ass like a professional wrestler.”

  “In her own persona, yes,” Noah said, “but in this case she’s just a worried big sister of a missing girl. I doubt she’s going to show off her combat skills, not unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

  “I’m not seeing any sign of frantic activity,” Neil said, “but that thing’s only able to give me a position within three feet. If she’s sitting down and getting smacked around, it might not register.”

  “Just watch,” Noah said. “Let us know if anything changes.”

  A few more minutes passed as they waited, and then Neil called out again. “Okay, she’s moving,” he said. “Coming toward the front door, she should be stepping out about—now.”

  The door of the prison visitors office opened and Jenny stepped out, but she was not alone. Two men in uniforms were walking alongside her, and one of them was holding onto her arm. Noah turned on the video camera function of his cell phone and aimed it at her, zooming in as far as he could. She was smiling and talking to the man who was holding her arm, and her other hand held her purse. She appeared to be completely unconcerned about being taken somewhere.

  The three of them turned into a parking area and the second man opened the back door of a car. Jenny slid inside and the man who had been holding her arm got in beside her. The other man closed the door, then got behind the wheel and started the car.

  “This is it,” Noah said. “Neil, I want you guys to hang back. You just make sure you let us know if they make any sudden changes in direction. Let’s do this. We need to take them as soon as they reach any kind of secluded area.”

  “Roger that,” Marco said, and he was echoed by all of the others.

  The four motorcycles followed the car that was holding Jenny, weaving from lane to lane so that it was never obvious. There were so many motorcycles on the road that it would’ve been nearly impossible to identify a tail that involved more than one. Neil and Dave, in the rental car, were a couple of blocks further back. They didn’t need to keep the car in sight.

  The car turned onto the main road, 3110, and went south, just as the van that had taken Sarah had done. Once again, there were enough motorcycles on the road that the presence of four more of them was not suspicious, so the driver paid no attention as Noah and the men with him kept the car in v
iew.

  Half an hour later, the car turned onto Highway 3 and accelerated, moving into the fast lane and proceeding south. Neil’s voice came through the headsets. “Boss, I think they’re taking her to the same place,” he said. “They’re going the same way the van did, anyway.”

  “I know,” Noah said, “but don’t make assumptions. Whoever those men are, they know something about what happened to Sarah. I want to stop them and question them, without letting them notify anybody else that something is happening.”

  “Okay, then,” Neil said. “We’re coming up on an exit, and it’s the road that leads to that old clothing factory we were planning to use for questioning. Can you think of any way to make them get off?”

  “I think so,” Noah said. He twisted the throttle on the motorcycle and roared up beside the driver’s window, then reached into his jacket and produced the Glock. The driver had glanced over at him when he suddenly appeared, and now his eyes went wide at the sight of the pistol. Noah used it to indicate that he should take the next exit, but the man shook his head stubbornly.

  Jenny, in the backseat, suddenly used her elbow on the jaw of the man beside her, then reached up and put a hand on the driver’s throat. Noah couldn’t hear what she said, but the driver’s eyes went wide and he began nodding furiously. His turn signal came on, and Noah fell back to follow the car off the exit ramp with the others.

  Five minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot of the old factory and circled around behind it. There was a section of wall missing, and they were able to drive the vehicles right inside. When they stopped, the driver found himself surrounded by armed men riding motorcycles, so he didn’t offer any resistance. Another car pulled into the building and parked, and two men got out, both of them holding Uzis, which only strengthened his determination not to antagonize his captors. Noah and Randy Mitchell kept their guns trained on the driver as Marco pulled him out of the car, and then Jenny opened the back door and stepped out.

  “Took you guys long enough,” she said. “I thought you were going to wait till we got to wherever they were taking me.”

  “I thought about it,” Noah said, “but that might have been a mistake. We have no idea how many men they may have there, or how much security. We can’t afford to walk into a trap, we still have a mission to complete.”

  Marco and Mitchell grabbed the man in the back seat and dragged him out of the car; he seemed to be regaining consciousness as they propped him on its hood. He looked around at the faces of the men, then his gaze focused on Jenny again.

  “What is this?” he asked. “Were we not taking you to your sister? Why do your friends attack us?”

  “Well, you see,” Jenny said, “it’s like this. She’s not really my sister, and I’m not really a sweet young thing from Omaha. I do, however, want to get her back, and I’m prepared to do absolutely anything necessary to make you tell me where she is.” She looked from one of the men to the other. “So, who wants to answer my questions without getting hurt?”

  The two men looked at each other, glanced at the other men standing around them and then looked at Jenny. “You do not know what you are doing,” the man from the backseat said. “We will not help you.”

  Jenny smiled brightly. “Oh, I was hoping you would say that,” she said. She reached into her purse and took out a small folding knife, then set her purse on the ground and opened it. The blade was only a couple of inches long, but it was obviously razor-sharp. “Now, something you should know about me is that I absolutely love torturing people. The longer you hold out without telling me what I want to know, the happier I’m going to be. The thing is, though, sooner or later you are going to tell me. Now, you can make me happy and drag this on until you’re barely even alive, or you can save yourself a lot of pain and suffering by answering my questions right away. It’s entirely up to you, it doesn’t matter to me either way.”

  The man who had done all the talking shook his head. “As I tell you, we will not help you.”

  Jenny jumped up and down and clapped her hands. “Oh, goody,” she said. “Oh, this is going to be so much fun!” She wiggled a couple of fingers, and Randy Mitchell and Dave Lange stepped forward. “Eenie, meenie, minie, mo…Which one of you should I start with?” She pointed to the man who had not yet spoken. “You? Yeah, let’s start with you!” Lange and Mitchell each took hold of one of his arms, while Marco and Jim Marino held onto the other man.

  Lange had hold of the man by the back of his neck and his left arm, while Mitchell held onto his right. They lifted him off the hood of the car to make him stand. The man looked at Jenny nervously, but did not speak. Jenny was looking him over from head to toe, and the expression on her face was one of utter, childish delight.

  “Where to start, where to start,” she muttered. “Maybe your ears? Ears are pretty sensitive, they might do. Or I could go for your eyes, nobody likes to lose an eye, right? Hmmm, so many choices.” Her right hand, holding the knife, suddenly flashed forward so quickly that it was nearly invisible. The tip of the blade caught in the cup of the man’s left ear and sliced through. Blood splattered, but it was a couple of seconds before the man actually realized what happened.

  NINETEEN

  He managed to reach up and put a hand to his ear, and it came away bloodied. He looked at the blood on his hand, then at Jenny, and the expression on his face became one of horror. “You crazy lady,” he said.

  “Oh, yes, I am,” Jenny said brightly. “This is how I get my jollies. Now, that was just one cut and I figure you’re good for about thirty-five more of them before you lose enough blood to pass out. Of course, there are a few places I could cut that would make you bleed out faster, but I’m gonna make this last a while. So here’s how the game is played, okay? I’m going to ask you a question, and if you answer me truthfully, I stop cutting. If you don’t, then I’m going to cut you again, and we are going to keep this up until you answer my question. Ready? Here comes the question. Where did they take Kayla Maguire?”

  The man with the bleeding ear looked at his compatriot for a second, but then looked at the ground. Neither of them spoke, and Jenny suddenly reached out and grabbed the man’s right hand. It happened so quickly that even Noah was caught by surprise, as she raked the blade down his index finger, shaving off the flesh and the nail and leaving the bone exposed.

  This time, the man reacted instantly, screaming loudly, but the screams only echoed off the concrete walls. Jenny let him shriek for a moment, while he tried to hold his finger and make the pain and bleeding stop.

  She glanced at the other man. “Are you ready to play yet?” He simply looked at the floor, refusing to even acknowledge her question. She turned back to the man who was crying so loudly.

  “Where did they take Kayla Maguire?” Jenny asked again, and the man stared into her face. He opened his mouth once, but then closed it again. Jenny cocked her head to one side and looked at him with a curious expression. “Honey, are you sure you want to go through more of this? Believe me, I enjoy it, so I don’t mind—I just thought you might want to think it over.”

  The man pulled himself together the best he could, still holding his injured finger while his ear continued to bleed profusely. He pointed his eyes straight ahead, and his expression told her that he was refusing to answer.

  Jenny stepped up close to him; the man was short enough that she was almost nose-to-nose with him. “At this point,” she said softly, “there is a chance you can survive. If I carry this much further, though, that chance will get smaller and smaller and smaller. Are you really willing to die for the people who steal young girls and turn them into slaves? Are you really willing to die for the Nay Thas?”

  Though he swallowed hard, the man’s expression did not change. He continued to stare straight ahead, and Jenny stepped back a few inches just before her hand flashed again, and the blade of the knife sliced across his left eye.

  This time, it was all they could do to hold onto him, and the shrieks of pain and
rage that came from him seemed loud enough to break the walls of the building, but they stood. His free hand, the one with the fingernail cut off, came up to cover his ruined eyeball, and Jenny stepped up to him again. She looked into his one remaining eye, which was wide and staring at her. “Can you see it in my face? Can you tell how much I enjoy this? Can you tell I’m getting off on it every time I hurt you? All you got to do to stop this is tell me what I want to know. Where did they take Kayla Maguire?”

  His good eye was blinking rapidly, but he did his best to glare at her with it. Jenny stared into it for a moment, then turned to look at the other man. “Are you going to let him continue to suffer? If we turn you guys loose right now, there’s a chance he’s going to survive. You tell me what I want to know, and I’ll let you go. You can take him to a hospital, because he’s going to need antibiotics in a hurry. His finger bone is exposed to the air, infections are already setting in. Are you willing to help him?”

  The man looked at his friend, who was still doing his best to stare straight ahead. “If we tell you what you want to know,” he said, “those you seek will punish us. We are already dead men. What you have done to him will ensure that we will die.”

  “Is that so?” Jenny asked. “And do you believe that’s fair? Is that right? No one can endure the kind of pain I’m inflicting on him for long without giving me what I want, you know that. Is it right that the two of you should be punished because I forced him to talk?”

  “I do not speak of right or wrong. I speak only of what will be.”

  Jenny nodded. “Then why not get your revenge on them? If you tell me what I want to know, the people you’re afraid of are going to die. They won’t be able to come after you, or your friend. Where did they take Kayla Maguire?”

  The man who had spoken looked at her, and then he sighed. “If you kill them, there will only be more. Perhaps they will still punish us, but perhaps not. You know of the Nay Thas, so you must know what they are capable of. If you plan to kill them, then you will need more men than these.” He squinted at her. “You are American? American agents?”