Page 57 of One Cry Too Loud
I looked back down at the girl. “Then we’ll find another way.”
I walked back toward the door of the shed. As I did, Duncan’s voice blared through the room. It was no longer distorted. It no longer sounded like Nefarious. Now, it was just him, just an old Englishman who had us by our throats.
“This is where it ends,” Duncan said.
“It doesn’t have to be,” I answered. “You said you did all of this because you wanted a second chance with Cindy. How is this-this game going to do that?” I was careful not to say anything that might scare the little girl. Since Cindy thought this was a game, I was going to speak about things as if they were.
“We did this so my wife could have a second chance with herfamily, not just Cindy. This game is the only way we can do this, now that you’ve done what you’ve done.”
“We’re not the ones who took a child from her home,” I said.
“You found us,” Duncan said. “Even since that little cyber amateur broke through my systems and found a point of origin, I knew you would show up here. It was only a matter of time. Now that you have, we can put an end to all of this once and for all.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. “How do we do that?”
“Wedon’t do anything. That was for Holly. She’s the one who decides how all of this ends.”
“Me?” Holly asked.
“This has always been about you,” Caroline added, also coming through whatever speaker system had been set up inthis shed. “You’re the one who started it-all those years ago, and you’re the one who is going to decide how it ends.”
“Mother, I-”
“Do you remember The King’s Rhapsody, your sister’s final painting?” Caroline cut her daughter off. “It’s sitting on the Western wall.”
I looked and found an absolutely stunning painting on the wall. It depicted a grand party outside of a castle. The namesake king was featured prominently in the center. He was dancing with a beautiful woman, but there was no smile on his face. It spoke volumes in a single image, and even though we were here, trapped in this cell with a bomb beside us, I had to take a moment to appreciate the sophistication of it.
“There’s a box sitting on a table under it. It’s locked with a code. The contents of the box are for you,” Caroline said.
“I don’t want whatever is in that box, Mother,” Holly said.
“Oh yes you do, Holiday,” Caroline said. “You want it more than anything in the world, because what is in that box is the only thing that can save your daughter.”
“What are you talking about?” Holly asked, her jaw tight. “You’re lying to me. You’re lying to us all. I looked all around this stupid necklace. It’s too thin. There’s no explosive device in it.”
“You’re right,” Duncan said. “Call that another little fib of mine. I thought if you knew what it actually was, you’d find it a bit too distressing. You see, bombs are loud and messy, but you can strangle someone to death as quietly as you’d like.”
As he spoke, a countdown appeared on the small screen at the front of the necklace. It started at five minutes and continued counting backwards.
“What is this? What are you doing?” Holly asks.
“It tightens,” Duncan replied. “Slowly, but it does. Once that clock reaches zero, it’ll cut her off her airway. That sweet littlegirl, blood of your blood, will gasp for air until she dies in front of you. That is, unless you stop it.”
Holly threw herself in the other direction, scrambling across the floor on her hands and knees until she reached the box. She pulled it off the table. “It’s locked. There’s a combination!”
“Your favorite of Beethoven’s symphonies and then your sister’s favorite sonata,” Caroline replied.
“14,” Holly breathed out, fumbling at the combination lock. “14 and 6.”
She pulled the lock off and opened the case. As she looked down at it, her face went white. She reached in and pulled out a gun. “What is this about?” She asked.
“I know,” I said, remembering what happened back inside the vault, what Nefarious wanted Charlie and I to do.
“It’s fairly simple, Holiday,” Caroline started. “If you want to save your daughter, you have to kill the others.”
CHAPTER 38
“No,” Holly said, looking down at the gun in her hand. “No. I’m not going to do that. Why would you even want me to do that?”
