Page 7 of Dark OZ

I screamed, jumping high enough I was certain my soul left my body. On nervous impulse, I flung the letter opener into the air. It cut across the room embedding itself in the painting of Eastin, silver handle wobbling from the center of her boob.

A woman stood in the doorway. She was clad entirely in black leather, a bit of a pink blouse poking out of the top, and long blonde hair hanging over one shoulder.

With a girly laugh, she said, “It wasn’t enough to kill her once, you had to murder the bitch for a second time?”

I scanned the room for a weapon, seeing nothing of use in the minimalistic office.

“Come here and I’ll cut the zipties for you.” A streak of silver flashed in the darkness, followed by the snick of a knife opening.

“Why should I trust you?” Not that I ever trusted anyone, especially a stranger who materialized out of nothing and was brandishing a knife like it was some kind of magic wand.

“Because, girl, you’re standing in your underwear and have no other option than to wait here to die. And nobody wants to die in day old, dirty underwear. Now get over here. You have approximately thirty seconds to leave this office and you’re wasting all of them.”

Fair enough. Carefully avoiding the growing pool of blood, I walked over to her. On my way, I detoured to give the red whip a kick across the room.

The cold blade slid against my wrist, before effortlessly cutting through the plastic ropes.

“That must be very sharp.” I sounded dumb. It had to be the adrenaline making me dumb. Flexing my wrists, I tried to ignore the tingling sensation winding its way across the palm of my hands and down into my fingertips.

“Mmm. They usually are.” She tucked the knife between her breasts. “Next you’re going to need to take the emerald hanging from Eastin’s neck. It’s not just a pretty necklace, the stone is coded. That emerald will get you through any door and gate in the building. You have about three minutes before this whole place turns into a veritable fortress. When that happens, the only thing getting you out of the building is that stone.”

I nodded, running over and yanking it from the vile woman’s corpse.

“Go to the end of the hallway, put the emerald to the panel on the right. It’s Eastin’s private elevator. Take it all the way down to Sub Level B. I have a man down there doing a pick up for me. He’s in a Yellow Brick Road Taxicab. Tell himyou’re the package.”

I blinked at her. Trying to take everything she said in.

She gave me a hard tug, pulling me down the hallway. “Say it, Dorothea.”

Dorothea? I hadn’t heard that name in averylong time. “I’m the package. Why do you know my name? My real name.”

She pressed my hand with the stone to the call button.

“Wait, what about my pants?”

“There’s no time.” The doors swung immediately open. “Now this is very important. Dorothea Rosen doesn’t exist anymore.” I pressed the SB2 button.

“Ok.”

“When Westin hears of what you’ve done, Dorothea will be as good as dead. You need to disappear. You need the Wizard. He can give you everything you need. Tell the cab driver to take you to the Wizard. Say it.”

“The Wizard, he needs to take me to The Wizard.”

“Good luck.”

I held my hand over the door so it couldn’t close.

“You aren’t coming with me.”

“I have to sort things here, seems someone killed Eastin Witcher tonight.”

“I don’t even know your name?”

“It’s Gigi. Find The Wizard.”

She pushed my hand back, and the doors closed with a tiny swoosh.

Chapter 5

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