Schism (16 page)

Ben lifted his rifle and aimed it directly at Nataliya. “The safety’s off. Now tell us where Andy is.”

Mikhail flew down the rest of the steps, but Brian held him back at gunpoint with his own rifle.

Seeing the object of her desire aim the barrel of a gun at her face rattled Nataliya, but she remained defiant. “I am not telling you anything. There is nothing to tell.”

Ben moved the barrel a few inches to the right and pulled the trigger. The deafening shot landed squarely in the headrest of the sofa mere inches from Nataliya’s head. She let out a piercing scream and retreated to the furthest corner of the sofa.

“I’ve got twenty-nine more,” he said in a remarkably calm voice as he followed her movements. “And unless you tell me where Andy is, I swear the next one will draw blood.”

Then, lowering his head, he lunged forward and shoved the end of the gun barrel into her chest.

“Are you crazy?” she cried out, her eyes wide with a mixture of fear and anger as she pressed her back hard into the sofa.

His eyes narrowed. He moved the pressure of the barrel from her chest to underneath her chin, pinning her in place. “At this moment…yeah, I probably am a little crazy, and I don’t want to have to put a hole in that pretty face of yours, but I will.
Now answer me!
”

But Nataliya could say nothing. Any anger she’d felt had disappeared, and now her face reflected only fear. As tears pooled in her eyes, she slowly shook her head as if pleading with Ben to believe her. But he wanted answers, and someone in that room had them. His hand began to tremble on the trigger, until Mikhail suddenly burst out in a panic, “She doesn’t know where Andy is!”

All eyes turned to him as Brian edged closer, nudging him with his own rifle. “But
you
do, don’t you?”

Mikhail’s cockiness had entirely vanished, and all that remained was a scared boy whose shoulders began to quiver.

“Tell us, Mikhail,” Jim demanded evenly. “Tell us, and no one will get hurt.”

***

“Traded?” Morgan shrieked. “She’s been traded? What does that mean? Traded for what?”

“A kilo of cocaine,” Ben replied bitterly.

“Cocaine!” she cried. “My best friend was taken for some…white powder? Petrol, maybe, or food. I could wrap my head around that, but bloody drugs? Are you kidding me?”

“She was taken west to Grand Junction,” Ben continued wearily. “From there, she was sent somewhere else. She could be anywhere by now.”

“Sent by whom?”

“People who trade and bargain for things,” Jim answered. “This particular group operates out of Grand Junction, but they’re just one link in a whole chain of people who do this. Apparently, Andy’s medical skills were considered valuable enough to be worth a kilo of cocaine.”

“So they don’t just trade
stuff
, they trade people too? Who
does
that?” Morgan demanded from no one in particular.

“Can we find the people who took Andy?” Susan asked. “Did Mikhail tell you who they were?”

“We just know their names, but I’m going to Grand Junction tonight to find them,” Ben declared. I’ll need gas, as much as you can give me,” he asked Brian.

Brian hesitated, but eventually nodded.

Morgan, meanwhile, began to shake her head. “I can’t stay here,” she announced plainly. “I can’t live down the street from people who traded Andy’s life for some bloody drugs!”

“None of us should stay here. We made serious enemies today,” said Ben. “If we don’t leave soon, someone’s going to get killed.”

Jim looked up at his cousin. “You want me go with you to Grand Junction?”

“No, I’ll go alone,” Ben replied firmly.

A mixture of relief and doubt appeared on Jim’s face, and before he could change his mind, Ben offered him and Morgan a suggestion. “You two should head back to New Mexico and meet up with Maria. She should still be there.”

“Yeah, okay,” she uttered faintly while straining to hold back tears.

Jim squeezed Morgan’s hand. “What about you two?”

Brian and his sister exchanged glances. It was a question that they never thought they would have to answer, but the consequences of the day’s events had changed everything. The fragile stability of their lives had been shattered.

“We’ll stay here through the winter,” Brian replied as he improvised a plan. “When spring arrives, we’ll meet you. We can give our livestock to Scott.”

“What about you?” Susan asked Charlie apprehensively.

Charlie eyed his sister’s belly. Had Morgan not been pregnant, he may have answered differently, but instead he said, “I’ll go with Morgan and Jim.”

She smiled weakly. She understood. The situation had placed obligation over desire.

***

Andy stared out through the window. Beyond the palm tree was the ocean. Which ocean, however, she couldn’t guess. The sound of the waves crashing below was faint but distinct. The salty air was a reminder of Bermuda.

The light from the window revealed that she was in a room with only the chair and a small table. Part of the room was a small bathroom, which she made use of. When she tried to flush the toilet, nothing happened so she put the lid down. She moved to the door and tried the handle, but it was locked from the outside. She then shook the handle in desperation and pounded on the door with her fist. She even tried kicking, but it refused to budge.

“Hey! Hey, open the door!” she cried out and pounded again.

A moment later, the door opened suddenly. With her arm in mid-swing, Andy stepped back, startled. A young man her own age stood before her. In his hands he carried a tray with food. She eyed the tray. She was starving.

“Where am I? Who are you?”

“Jeremy,” the young man answered as he walked past her and into the room. He placed the tray on the table, then looked back. “You need to eat.”

She hesitated. She wanted every bite of the food on the tray, but she wanted answers more. “Where am I?”

“Malibu,” Jeremy answered. “Now eat.”

“California?”

“Where else?”

She thought about bolting out the door but saw that Jeremy had a gun tucked into the waist of his jeans. So she obeyed his instructions and sat in the chair. As she began devouring a plate of fruit, Jeremy leaned against the wall and watched. When she finished, she gulped down an entire glass of water. After catching her breath, she asked, “Why am I here?”

He blinked, then said calmly, “You’ll see.”

She scoffed and glanced at the open door.

“Don’t even think about it,” he warned.

“Don’t even think about what?”

But he said nothing. He was watching her intently.

Andy started to speak but stopped. Her eyelids were becoming very heavy. She looked at the empty glass, then back at Jeremy. “What did you give—?”

Before she could finish, she blacked out, her head landing on the tray.

***

Driving west on Interstate 70, Ben hoped to reach Grand Junction before nightfall. As the miles passed and the windshield wipers shoved wind-driven snow away, he forced his eyes to blink and regain focus on the road. The conditions were unforgiving. Ice coated the Interstate like a skating rink, and with no one to salt or plow the roads, the only hope was that the weather would give him a break, but his speedometer never went above 40 mph. He banged his hand against the steering wheel in frustration, and then scolded himself for getting so upset. Andy could be anywhere by now. Or she could be dead. “No,” he said aloud. “She’s not dead. No way.” He turned up the volume on the CD player to drown out his thoughts and pressed down harder on the gas.

The snow eventually stopped, but nightfall had come. Grand Junction was dark and cold, and he had no idea where to begin. Mikhail had confessed a couple of names but nothing else. And without a soul in sight to ask, there was nothing to do but wait until morning. Even if he wanted to start knocking on people’s doors, his body was too exhausted to try. He parked in a vacant strip mall and leaned his seat all the way back. After zipping up his coat, he closed his eyes. Within minutes, he was asleep.

***

Waking up at dawn, Ben immediately began his search for Jake Andrews and Kyle Hartzell. At the cashier’s station of an abandoned Chinese restaurant in the strip mall, he found a phonebook for Grand Junction, as well as a detailed road map of the city and flipped through it, searching first under “Andrews.” He found almost one hundred people listed with that last name. There was no way to know which home was Jake’s since his name would not be in the phonebook–only his parents’ names would be listed. So he then tried “Hartzell” and saw only three names. With any luck, Kyle might still be living at home.

After eating some food he’d brought from Aspen, Ben used the map to maneuver his way to the neighborhood where the first “Hartzell” in the phone book lived. This first address was empty, as was the second. Discouraged, he went to the third address and knocked on the door. This time, someone answered.

“Who are you?”

Ben looked down at the young girl. “Uh, does someone named Kyle live here?” he asked.

“Kyle’s my brother.”

“Can I talk to him?”

The girl turned back and called out her brother’s name. Soon after, a young man appeared at the door. He looked to be a couple years younger than Ben and had a disheveled appearance. Under different circumstances, he was someone Ben probably would’ve avoided.

“What do you want?” he demanded in a hostile tone.

“Kyle? I need to talk to you,” Ben said equally as aggressive. “You have a friend named Mikhail in Aspen, I think.”

“So what do you want?”

“I want to know where you took a girl named Andy three days ago.”

Kyle glanced at the rifle Ben was carrying and then wearily eyed his size and stature. “Come in,” he said, backing away from the door. “You’re letting in all the cold air.”

Ben obeyed and entered the modest home. He followed Kyle into the kitchen. The sister remained in a small living room by the front door but was still in view of the kitchen. She picked up a doll and began playing with it but she kept her eyes on them.

“So how do you know Mikhail?” Ben began.

“Through my business,” Kyle responded curtly.

“And what business is that?”

“I buy and trade things. That’s how I keep my sister and I fed.”

“By
things
do you also mean
people
?”

“Maybe.”

“Well maybe you can tell me where you took Andy. Or where you sent her,” Ben retorted with growing impatience.

“If I start telling the friends of the people that I trade where they are, that wouldn’t be good for business, would it?” He spoke without remorse, leading Ben to believe that he’d done this before.

“So you won’t tell me?”

Kyle stared at him with glassy eyes. “No,” he grunted and walked into the living room. He took a seat across from his sister and lit up a joint. After exhaling a lengthy drag, he said to Ben, “I’ll give you some pot if you get outta here.”

Ben didn’t respond. Instead he walked into the living room and briefly considered grabbing the sister and using her as leverage. But doing such a thing would make him no different than Kyle—or Mikhail. So he did the only thing left to do—he bargained.

“I’ll tell you where you can find a ton of gas if you tell me where Andy is.”

“How much gas?” Kyle replied, his interest piqued.

“More than you’ll need for years.”

There were boxes and brown paper bags everywhere in the living room, all taped and sealed to keep the contents inside well hidden. Things Kyle was probably trading, Ben assumed. He pointed to a particular stack of boxes. “There are some maps on top of that stack. Show me where this gas is, and I’ll tell you where the girl is.”

Ben retrieved a map of Colorado and spread it out on the cluttered coffee table in the center of the room. “If I show you,” he began, “how will I know that you’re telling me the truth about where she is?”

Kyle shrugged nonchalantly and exhaled more smoke. “You’ll just have to trust me.”

“I don’t trust most people, especially…human traffickers.”

“Take it or leave it, man.”

Again, they seemed to be at an impasse. Kyle leaned back into the sofa, took another drag from his joint, and blew the smoke upwards. Ben looked over at the young girl with sympathy.

“Salt Lake City,” he said, relenting.

“Where exactly?”

Kyle flipped over the map, which displayed neighboring Utah. Within the small inset at the bottom was a detailed map of Salt Lake City. He pointed to an intersection of two major roads south of the airport.

“I took her there, but she probably won’t be there now. Merchandise moves fast.”