Page 21 of All The Way Under
“You can fix my bike?” Mako asks when we’ve rounded the corner and we’re out of earshot of our cage.
There are a few other cages like ours, but smaller and empty. There are a couple house-looking buildings on stilts that are on the back side of our cage that we can’t see. That’s where they’re watching us from.
“I think someone stole parts, and I’m not sure what it needs. I don’t know how to fix it.”
“Yes, I can fix it if we can find the parts it needs. I’m great with machines.”
His face lights up when I start pointing at the engine and explaining what it needs and the process of installing them. I keep him busy with my explanations as I get the lay of the land. It’s hard to tell how far the ocean is without daylight.
“Can I have something to eat?”
“Yes,” he says, bringing me to one of the houses.
We climb rickety stairs that creak under my weight, and each step is followed by a slight sway in the breeze. This isn’t sturdy by any means. When we get to the house, he opens a door madeof bamboo that’s been tied together. Mako leads me to a table where there are half-empty plates of food. My stomach growls the second I see it.
“You can eat anything here,” he says, eyeing me warily. He took a risk letting me out, and I can tell he’s weighing what would happen if I went rogue.
Raza appears from one of the couple of makeshift doors, and Nery and Ravelo are behind him. They don’t look surprised to see me. It may mean my plan to get out of that cage didn’t even need to be a plan.
I apologize to Raza for the black eye he’s sporting and thank him for the food. He’s in charge. When the others are in the room, it’s obvious by the way they watch him and their submissive stances. I’ve taken so many classes on this that there’s no question except who is above Raza, and is this all a ploy to confuse the captors?
“He’s going to help with my bike,” Mako explains. “He is good with machines and building things back up.”
“Is he?” Nery says, twisting his dart gun between two dirty fingers. “Or did asset twelve force him to say anything to get out of that cage?”
I could play it up right now. I could make her seem crazy and solidify their assumptions, but she’d stay locked up, and it would be easier for me if she had some freedoms when it’s time to extract.
“You are fetching a handsome ransom,” Raza says. “And it was agreed upon quickly. Almost too quickly.” He raises one bushy, black brow.
“The government doesn’t play around with American hostages, right?” I ask. “I know that from the news.”
I try to play it calm while also establishing respect. Give to get.
“How long until I’ll go home if it’s already been agreed upon?” It’s the only rational question.
I shove bread into my mouth and barely chew before swallowing.
“These things take time. Sometimes the ransom goes up if we play hard to get. Or if we get new information about an asset,” Ravelo answers, winking when he says the last part. “A month or two, maybe more.”
My stomach sinks. I’ve never been a particularly good liar. There’s no possible way for them to find out about my background unless I tell them. There wasn’t anything tracing me to the military on my sailboat. There’s nothing outwardly damning. No telltale tattoos, nothing. My language skills and clean body were part of the reason I was chosen for this task. We were thorough in our planning, but doubt creeps in.
“And the woman?” I ask, even though I have no right to know anything about her.
Nery answers, “Asset twelve is worth more. That one will be here for a while, I think. Even as bothersome as she is, her ransom is going to fund many things. Probably double your hold length. Maybe six months.”
Fuck. If that’s right, I won’t be leaving here without her.
“The other two hostages on the other side of the base are leaving in a fortnight. They have a lower ransom, but we’re holding out for more.”
I try not to look interested. How big is this base? Who else are they holding? How long have they had them? All questions that weren’t answered in the files.
People go missing all the time in these waters, but I’m surprised the Teams didn’t know about the other hostages.Go with the flow,I remind myself. I eat more scraps and find a piece of untouched bread. I secretly slide it up my sleeve. A bargaining chip, depending on Saylor’s mood.
The men are talking among themselves, worried about me being loose, no doubt, but also weighing how much I can help them.
“I can help stabilize those stairs too. So you don’t sway in the fucking wind every time there’s a storm. I saw everything I needed to fix that on the walk here.”
Ah, was that too observant?
