“None,” I replied. “But let me make a proposal. How about you let us go so we can find out what he wants. We promise to report it all back to you. It’s possible he’ll share details about our roles that will convince you we don’t present a threat to your plans. I’m asking you to wait just a little while to give us that chance.”
Michelle shook her head. “As tempting as your offer is, I can’t let you go. So I’m afraid we’re done here. For what it’s worth, it has truly been an honor to meet you.”
Before we could respond she directed her voice to the back of the trailer, lifting whatever barrier had prevented our guards from hearing us. “I’m leaving now, gentlemen,” she said. “Please proceed as ordered. A computer will be watching. Once it confirms that you’ve carried out your . . . duties, additional monies will be wired into all accounts, as promised.”
With that, the extraterrestrial vanished, not waiting for a response. Her meaning wasn’t explicit, but it was very clear.
Her AI would confirm that we’d been killed, and then report back to her in the sanitized, watered-down way that Nari had spoken about. Not having to witness our murders, she could almost pretend she had simply erased two pesky line items from a ledger. Good for her.
I looked into Tessa’s beautiful eyes as several tears rolled down my cheeks. “I love you, Tessa.”
“I love you too,” she replied, tearing up herself.
She turned and fixed her gaze on Nicola and his three subordinates, who had now moved to within ten feet of us. “Don’t do this, Captain,” she pleaded. “You’re making a big mistake. Like Jason said, we can make you and your men rich beyond your wildest dreams. And we have tech that makes what you’ve seen here seem primitive. You can have that too.
“Give me five minutes,” she continued frantically. “Five minutes! And I can prove it to you. More than prove it. I can convince you that Jason Ramsey is important to your own survival. Show you why Michelle wants him dead so badly. You can always kill us. We’re at your mercy. So what do you have to lose? If I fail to convince you, shoot us.”
Nicola lifted a tranquilizer gun to chest height and pointed it at Tessa. “Don’t you ever shut up?” he said in contempt, pulling the trigger and driving a dart deep into her neck. The drug took immediate effect, and her head lolled to the side.
The captain turned to his three comrades. “Now that’s better,” he said with a wink. “She was getting on my last nerve.”
Nicola took several quick strides until he was just a few feet away from where I was bound. “Just so you know,” he said. “I did her a favor. This way, she won’t see the end coming.”
He turned back to his subordinates and flashed them a cruel smile. “I’ve got this,” he said. “You can stand down. Only the girl posed any kind of threat.”
“Why?” I implored him. “What’s the rush? Why won’t you let us prove what we’re saying? Why turn your back on a fortune?”
“You sicken me,” he replied with a sneer. “Why won’t I take a bribe? Because when I agree to do a job, my word is my bond.” He raised his gun and pointed it at my head at point-blank range.
Tessa and I had tried everything we could to cheat death, but it was all for naught. Now, she was unconscious and I was all out of ideas. This was really it, the end of the road.
I closed my eyes and braced myself for the inevitable.
A moment later the thunder of gunfire rang out, and a bullet exploded through my brain, killing me instantly.
27
My eyes shot open as gunfire continued to erupt, and I realized my senses and mind were working quite well.
Perhaps I was less dead than I thought.
The captain was facing away from me, and his three comrades were all down, riddled with bullets and as dead as I thought I had been.
My eyes widened as I realized what had happened. I hadn’t been shot, after all. The captain was taking my offer. He had decided to betray Michelle, but didn’t trust his men to go along. So he had put on a performance, making sure they wouldn’t suspect he was about to gun them down in cold blood.
I sucked in a deep breath of air. He sure had me fooled.
“Thank you,” I managed to whisper inside a trailer that had suddenly become as quiet as a tomb. “You won’t regret it. You’ll have every bit of money that I promised.”
Nicola shook his head. “I don’t want your bloody money,” he said. “I was never going to let you die—no matter what.”
“What?” I said, blinking in confusion.
“I only pretended to work for Michelle. Same with the man who’s driving this truck, and the one following in a car.”
“Then who do you really work for?” I asked.
“Hold that thought, mate,” he said. “Let’s not talk further until we’re out of this truck. What we say here will get back to Michelle. I had no choice but to come out of the closet, but no need to give away any more information than necessary.”
“Why tranquilize Tessa?” I demanded. “Was that just part of your performance?”
Nicola shot me a withering glare. “What part of let’s not talk until we’re out of this truck did you not understand?”
“Right,” I said sheepishly. I owed this man my life, the least I could do was honor his wishes.
He issued orders to the man driving the truck and we came to a gentle stop. Within minutes he freed me and Tessa from our restraints. The road continued to cut through jungle, and there were woods on either side of it. The driver helped carry Tessa to flat ground just inside the tree line to the east that was illuminated by the truck’s lights, and deposited her gently on the ground.
Nicola powered on a bright tactical flashlight and handed me another as the driver closed the trailer doors and continued on his way. We could see a smattering of other cars and trucks pass by through the trees, but few were on the road at this pre-dawn hour.
“My other ally is waiting in a car nearby,” explained Nicola. “He’ll pick us up when we’re done talking.”
“Understood,” I said. “But back to my question. Why did you knock Tessa out?”
“I’ll tell you, but not right now. Just know that she’ll be fine. The tranq should put her out for hours, but my guess is that she’ll be awake a lot sooner than that.”