“How did you know we were captured?” Taylor asked.
“You left everything in your hotel room.” He looked around. “Is everyone here?”
“Yes.”
There was one last storm of lightning bolts striking the camp, followed by a massive explosion. The display reminded me of the finale of a fireworks show.
“What was that?” I asked.
“We brought bombs to blow up the road in case they tried to follow us,” Ben said. “We must go now. Come.”
“I see the car,” Ian said.
It was another five minutes before the rest of us saw it. Concealed in dense forest was an all-black Range Rover. “It will be crowded,” Ben said. “But we will fit.”
Everyone had gotten in except for me when Zeus and Tessa came running up. They were both out of breath.
“Hurry!” Ben shouted.
“Good to see you two,” I said, holding the door for them.
“Looks like you’ve had some fun,” Zeus said, helping Tessa in.
He got in and I jumped in after him, holding my arm. Ben hit the gas and the car lurched forward, its wheels spinning in the dirt before intersecting with an asphalt road.
“Hey, guys,” Zeus said, still panting, “I thought we weren’t going to try to break in.”
“Wasn’t our plan,” I said. “We were captured.”
“Where’s Jade Dragon?” Tessa asked.
“She’s still inside,” Taylor said, hurt evident in her voice. She looked at me. “Michael, you’re really bleeding.”
“I cut myself on some wire.”
“Here,” Jack said. He ripped another piece from his undershirt.
“I’ll do it,” Taylor said. She leaned over the back of my seat and wrapped the cloth around my throbbing arm. The cloth slowly turned red with blood. “I hope you don’t need stitches,” Taylor said.
We drove past three police cars with flashing lights, followed by a fire truck and some military vehicles. Within five minutes we were back on a major thoroughfare with traffic. Ben drove past the Kaohsiung off-ramp.
“I think you missed the exit,” Jack said. “The hotel’s back there.”
“We are going someplace else,” Ben said. About ten minutes past Kaohsiung, Ben exited the highway into the shipping district. We drove past a long harbor filled with cargo ships, freighters, and barges.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“To a safe house,” Ben said.
The safe house wasn’t really a house—it was a large, abandoned-looking warehouse just two blocks from the waterfront. The building was surrounded by a tall chain-link fence with razor wire and security cameras.
Ben unlocked the gate, then drove the SUV inside and got back out to lock the gate behind us. Then he pushed a remote and a large overhead door in the warehouse opened. He drove inside, then shut the overhead door after us. A light went on, exposing a large open garage with several different vehicles and stacks of crates on wooden pallets. Ben shut off the engine and turned around.
“This is where we will stay until the Volta arrives.”
“How many days is that?” I asked.
“The boat is still two thousand kilometers out,” he said. “Maybe three days.” He looked us over. “Do you know you escaped from an inescapable prison?”
“What do you mean?” Taylor asked.
“The Zuoying prison is famous like your Alcatraz prison in America. No one has ever escaped. And the Elgen made it even more strong.”
“Not to mention the Taiwanese army camped around it,” Jack said.
“Yes, with an army around it, you still escaped. You should be very proud of what you have done.”
“We owe our escape to Nichelle,” I said. “If it wasn’t for her we wouldn’t have gotten out. And if she hadn’t gotten us in there, we never would have gotten Taylor out.” I looked Nichelle in the eyes. “I’m sorry I doubted you.”
“Me too,” Ian said.
“Yeah,” Jack said. “We owe you.”
Nichelle looked at the wall, then shrugged. “It’s okay. I wouldn’t have trusted me either.”
“We need to get you bandaged up,” Jack said to her.
“And Michael,” Taylor said.
“Upstairs we have medicine and a wrap.”
We got out of the car. As we walked over to the stairwell Jack asked Ben, “Do you have anything for pain?” He must have been in a lot of pain because I’d never heard him ask for as much as an aspirin.
“Yes,” he said, opening the stairwell door. “Also upstairs.”
“I hope it’s good,” Jack said.
“I am,” Abigail said. She stood at the foot of the steps.
Jack looked as if he’d seen a ghost. “What are you doing here?”
“I missed you, so they let me come.”
They hugged and the pain left Jack’s face. He sighed with relief.
“Let’s get you wrapped up,” she said.
As we climbed the stairs Ben said, “I know you must be very tired and hungry. We have food and beds.”
“Thank goodness,” Ostin said. “I’m starving.”
“We’ll make something to eat,” Tessa said to Ben. “You take care of the wounded.”
The stairwell opened into a kitchen, and Nichelle, Jack, and I sat around the kitchen table. Ben walked out of the room, then returned with a plastic case with a large red cross on it.
“Nichelle first,” I said.
Nichelle pulled her sleeve up over her shoulder and unwound the makeshift bandage Jack had made for her. The bullet had grazed her, leaving a four-inch red trough across her shoulder. The wound was deep but wasn’t bleeding anymore. The biggest casualty was her full-shoulder tattoo of the grim reaper.
“I didn’t like that tattoo much anyway,” she said.
“This will hurt,” Ben said, lifting a brown bottle with Chinese markings.
“Hold on,” Jack said. “Abi, help Nichelle.”
Abi stepped back. “I’m not taking her pain away.”
For a moment there was silent tension, then Nichelle said, “It’s okay. After all the pain I caused her, I deserve it.”
“No,” Jack said. “It’s not right.” He looked Abigail in the eyes. “She’s changed. You need to help her.”
Abigail looked at Jack incredulously. “No, I don’t.”
“It’s okay,” Nichelle said.
The tension in the room was palpable. Abigail looked at us, then angrily shook her head. “Fine.” She reached over and touched Nichelle. “Do it.”
Ben poured the liquid over Nichelle’s shoulder and it foamed up around the wound. He patted it dry, then taped a large piece of gauze over it.
“Thank you,” Nichelle said. She turned to Abigail, who had already stepped back from her. “You’re right. I didn’t deserve it, but thank you anyway.”
Abigail didn’t reply.
“Your turn, Michael,” Ben said. “Let me see your arm now.”
I took off my shirt, which was more painful than I expected because the fabric had stuck to the wound. It started bleeding again. The cut was about three inches long and deep enough to reveal yellow tissue and muscle. The entire area was covered with dirt. “We must clean it first,” Ben said. He led me over to the kitchen counter, and I held my arm over the sink. He turned the water on and waited until it was warm, then lifted the sink sprayer and rinsed my wound until the dirt had all run off into the sink. I grimaced with pain.
“Sorry,” Ben said.
Taylor was drying my wound off with a terry cloth towel when she suddenly exclaimed, “You got your watch back.”
“I thought Hatch took it,” Ostin said.
I looked around the room. Everyone was looking at me. “He did,” I said. “They gave it back.”
Ostin stared at me incredulously. “Hatch gave you your watch back?”
“I didn’t say Hatch,” I said.
“Then who?” he asked.
I wasn’t ready to tell them ab
out my father. “Just one of the Elgen,” I said. I noticed that Ian was looking at me with a curious expression. “Can we get back to my arm?”
“Sorry,” Taylor said. “I was just glad to see it again.”
“Let me look at your arm,” Ben said. His forehead furrowed. “We have a needle and thread for stitches, but we do not have a doctor.”
“Maybe we could just bandage it tight,” Taylor said.
“It’s a laceration,” Ostin said. “It needs to be stitched.”
“I can stitch it,” Nichelle said.
“You can stitch?” I asked.
“I like to sew. After I got out on the street I sewed up a few guys after fights.” She frowned. “It’s going to hurt.”
“I’ll be your anesthetic,” Abigail said. She took my arm. Even though I could still feel it throbbing, the pain immediately went away.
Nichelle took a needle and thread from the first aid kit while Ben poured liquid from the brown bottle over my wound.
Nichelle walked up next to me with the needle. “Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t think you should watch,” she said.
I turned away. I could feel the needle tug at my skin, but, thanks to Abigail, the pain was as minor as someone pinching my cheek. It took Nichelle about five minutes to finish stitching up my arm. Finally she said, “That should do.”
I looked over. The stitching looked professional.
“You’re good.”
“It’s just like stitching a pillow,” Nichelle said. “Except there’s a lot of blood and tissue and puss.”
“That’s graphic,” Ostin said.
“I’m going to put a bandage over it,” Taylor said. She wrapped a piece of gauze around my arm and taped it.
“You can let go,” I said to Abigail.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
As she let go of me, pain shot through my arm as if the needle was just going in. Abigail saw me blanch and grabbed my arm. “Sometimes it hurts more than you think it will.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “I’ve got to get used to it.”
She slowly released my arm again. The pain came back but at least this time I was expecting it.
“Not to interrupt all the fun you’re having over there, but the food is ready,” Tessa said.
Zeus and Tessa had made a large pot of ramen noodles with shrimp and eggs, along with a dozen peanut butter sandwiches. Taylor got bowls for both of us. I was hungrier than I realized, and I gulped down a bowl of noodles and two sandwiches.
After eating, everyone went to the sleeping quarters to rest, leaving Taylor, Ben, and me sitting alone at the table.
“What time do you think it is?” I asked.
“You are wearing a watch,” Ben said.
“I forgot.” I looked at it. “I think it’s still on Peru time.”
“I think maybe nine o’clock,” Ben said. “It was a long night.”
I looked over at Taylor, who was staring off into space. It was one of those times that I wished I could read her mind. “Are you okay?”
“I was just thinking,” she said softly.
“About what?”
She looked at me. “When we decided to come here it was to stop the Elgen from getting information that could threaten the world. I never thought about Jade Dragon being a real person. But now I know her, and she’s really scared.” Her eyes welled up. “We have to save her. Not just to save the world, but to save her.”
“We’ll save her,” I said. “Our plan will work. It’s just a few days more.” I looked at Ben. “Are we safe here?”
“We have alarms and sentries that can fire six guns.” He looked at us, then breathed out slowly. “But the Elgen are powerful. I do not know if we are ever safe.”
We fell silent. After a few minutes Taylor said, “I think I’ll go to sleep.”
“Me too,” I said, rising.
* * *
The upstairs of the warehouse was divided into a kitchen, two bathrooms (connected to the sleeping quarters), a television area, a radio room, and two long, rectangular rooms for sleeping, each with six cots. After Taylor had gone to bed I walked over to the men’s side.
The sleeping quarters reminded me of pictures I had seen in a history textbook of a World War II army hospital. It wasn’t the Grand Hi-Lai Hotel, but I wasn’t complaining either. I’d sleep on dirt as long as it didn’t belong to the Elgen. Still, less than an hour later I woke thinking about my father. Even after all we had done to escape, a part of me wanted to go back to see him.
After a half hour I walked out to the kitchen. I found some tea bags and put a kettle on the stove. As the kettle started to whistle, Ian walked into the kitchen.
“Did I wake you?” I asked.
“No. I couldn’t sleep. Too much on my mind.”
I turned off the flame, then lifted the kettle from the stove. “Want some tea?”
“Sure.”
I poured two cups to the brim, then carried them both to the table. For a moment we both just sipped our drinks in silence. Then Ian said, “Something’s bothering you.”
“You can see my thoughts now too?”
He smiled. “No. That’s Taylor’s gig. Am I right?”
I paused a moment, then said, “Yeah.”
“What’s up?”
“I don’t know if I should tell you.”
“Does it have to do with your watch?”
I wondered how he knew that. “Yes.” I looked down at my cup, then back at him. “You need to keep this a secret. I don’t know how the others will take this.”
“I’m always keeping secrets,” he said. “That’s what happens when you see everything.”
I hesitated a moment then said, “I saw my father back at the Starxource plant.”
Ian looked as if he wasn’t sure how to respond. “I thought your father was dead.”
“I thought he was, but he’s not. He’s part of the Elgen.”
“When did you see him?”
“Right after we were brought into the plant. One of the Lung Li was torturing me and my father came in and stopped them. He took care of me. That’s when he gave me back my watch.”
Ian was quiet a moment, then said, “No, he didn’t.”
His response annoyed me. “What do you mean, ‘No, he didn’t’? I was there.”
“That wasn’t your father who gave you back your watch.”
For a moment I was speechless. “Then who was it?”
“Hatch. And Tara.”
“What?”
“Hatch was sitting right next to you and Tara was standing near the door. She must have a new trick.”
My head spun with confusion. I began to tick.
Ian leaned toward me. “Think about it. Hatch tortured you. He’s caged and tortured your mother. Would your father have allowed that?”
After a moment I shook my head. “No.”
“I was waiting until everyone was asleep to talk to you about this. I saw Hatch give you the watch. I also saw you put your arms around him. I knew there had to be something strange going on.”
My mind boiled with emotion. The anger and hurt I understood, but there was disappointment too.
After a few minutes Ian said, “Aren’t you relieved that your father’s not part of the Elgen?”
“I should be.”
Ian frowned. “But you aren’t?”
“I feel like I just lost my father again.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Suddenly I remembered all I had told Hatch. I lowered my head into my hands. “Oh no.”
“What?”
“I told him about the voice.”
“You what?”
I looked up. “I didn’t mean to. It just came out.”
Ian looked at me anxiously. “Did you tell him anything else?”
“He asked me where my mother was. I told him about the ranch. I told him where it was.”
“You
couldn’t have told him where the ranch was. We didn’t even know where it was.”
I hung my head, covering my eyes with my hands. “He asked me how long the flight was from the ranch to Pasadena. Then he asked me about the weather. I told him the temperature.” I felt sick to my stomach. “I thought it was my father.” I looked up at him. “He couldn’t find them from that, could he?”
Ian shook his head. “I don’t know. Let’s hope not.” He breathed out slowly. “We need to tell Ben.”
I buried my head in my hands again. “What have I done?”
When I woke up the next morning, Ostin was standing next to my cot.
“What’s up?” I said groggily.
“Not you.”
“What time is it?”
“It’s like noon,” he said. “Can you smell that?”
I breathed in. “Yeah. It smells good.”
“Good? Dude, Ben’s making waffles.”
I sat up. “There aren’t waffles in Taiwan.”
“Do not be too sure of it,” Ben said. I looked up to see Ben standing in the doorway. “Get up. I have made American-style breakfast.”
“Give me a minute,” I said.
After Ostin and Ben had left the room I pulled on my pants and shirt, then walked barefoot out to the kitchen. There was a plate stacked tall with waffles. Taylor was standing at the stove making omelets with ham and peppers. “Good morning, sleepyhead,” she said.
I walked over to her side. “Omelets?”
She pecked me on the cheek. “Yes, but without cheese. Apparently the Chinese aren’t into cheese.”
“Nearly ninety percent of people of Asian descent are lactose intolerant,” Ostin said. “That means they can’t digest milk.”
“I’m not,” McKenna said.
“That’s because you’re special.”
“I know,” she said, smiling.
“Would you like an omelet?” Taylor asked.
“Yes. Thank you.”
She scooped up an omelet and put it on a plate. “There you go. Waffles are on the table.”
Nichelle was sitting at the end of the table next to Ian and McKenna. Jack was sitting on the opposite end next to Abigail. She was rubbing his back.
“How are you feeling?” I asked Jack.
“Better. Now it only hurts when I breathe,” he said wryly.
“I think they broke every rib he has,” Abigail said.