AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Gaz noticed me looking past him. He spun around just as Hannah grabbed his wrist. With a deft twist, she pointed the weapon away from us. Before Gaz could react, she struck his thumb with a sharp elbow blow. His hand spasmed open, and she snatched the gun, flipping it to aim at his chest in one smooth motion. “Don’t move.”
Gaz froze, eyes bulging. “Who the hell are you?”
I sagged against my bonds, dizzy with delayed panic and relief. Hannah had seized back control of the situation. But we still had to get out of this alive.
As the roller door descended, Jono spun around by the wall, confusion twisting his features. “What the?”
As understanding dawned on his face, his hand flew to his hip. But Hannah was faster. She swung her aim towards him, blocking his draw. “Don’t,” she warned.
My peripheral vision picked up a movement from Gaz. “Watch out!” I yelled, just as he lunged at Hannah.
She side-stepped him in the nick of time, and his own momentum sent him stumbling past. A backhanded blow from Hannah was all it took to make him fall over. He smacked his head against the concrete and lay still. Hannah pinned him down with her boot on his neck, all the while keeping the gun trained on Jono.
“Okay, okay! Don’t shoot me!” Jono said, hands in the air.
With that, Hannah slipped the remote control out of her pocket and pressed the button with her spare hand. The door ascended again. This time, a bar of light shone through. Tyres crunched outside on the cracked concrete. Car doors slammed, and voices called back and forth. The widening gap revealed several police cars and other vehicles surrounding the building. Then the warehouse flooded with uniformed officers.
Bone-deep exhaustion weighed on me as Dixon drove Hannah and me away from the police station. Over twenty-four hours had passed since our rescue, and I was running on fumes. The previous night at the private hospital being treated for shock and mild hypothermia had afforded little rest. Today was consumed by police statements as I recounted my capture and everything leading up to it, forced to relive the experience over and over. My mind was ready to shut down. Questions could wait. All I wanted was the oblivion of sleep.
Dixon navigated the evening traffic while Hannah typed away on her phone in the seat beside him. I yawned. The passing city lights became blurs across my vision, and I let my temple rest against the chilled glass of the car window. I began to drift off.
Dixon turned down a ramp into an underground parking garage, jolting me alert.
“Where are we?” I asked, looking around at the cars and concrete pillars. I thought we had been heading back to the safe house, but this was somewhere totally different.
“We’re on our way to operations headquarters. You won’t be staying at the safe house anymore,” Dixon replied over his shoulder.
I straightened. “Operations…? What’s that?”
“You’ll see soon enough.”
“What about all my stuff? It’s still?—”
“Don’t worry. All your belongings have already been moved to the new location.”
We pulled into a space and stepped out into the concrete stillness. Dixon led the way through a door into a brightly lit stairwell. At the top of the stairs, we entered the main lobby, and I realised we were back in the Canary Wharf office building where Avenex was located, only now, it was a little after hours, the former buzz of energy now a subdued hum.
A security guard took one look at Dixon and opened a gate for us. In the lift, Dixon pressed the button for the tenth floor. I leaned against the handrail, confused. Was the Avenex office the operations headquarters?
When the doors slid open, we bypassed the dark, empty reception area and entered a room which looked like a supply closet. Metal shelves laden with boxes of copier paper and various office supplies filled the space. Dust tickled my nose. Dixon walked past the clutter to a section of wall that appeared seamless. He opened an electrical circuit breaker box, inside of which was a hidden keypad behind a false back. He typed a code. The wall emitted a gentle clunk. It swung inwards with a firm push. A secret door.
“This way,” Dixon said, motioning for us to follow him into the room beyond.
I shot a questioning glance at Hannah, but she just nodded, smiling calmly. We stepped across the threshold together, into a dark and dank passage. Through a second locked door, we emerged in a room that looked like some kind of control centre. Along the left wall, a mosaic of screens displayed surveillance footage of various locations. Along the right wall stood whiteboards scrawled with notes and complex flow charts, alongside pinboards cluttered with newspaper clippings, printed articles, and glossy photographs. Red string connected items in elaborate spiderwebs.
I turned to Dixon. “What is this place?”
“Welcome to headquarters. This is the nerve centre of our operation to bring down Daniel Ling and seize control of Zelthia Group.”
Dixon wasted no time, steering me through a nondescript door on the back wall into a small attached suite. The windowless bedroom contained a neatly made single bed, a wooden desk and chair, and a navy armchair. My suitcase and backpack waited next to the bed.
“This will be your room now,” Dixon said.
I stood there awkwardly, taking it all in. This was meant to be the place I disappeared to, I realised. The alternative to the bait plan. Despite everything, I had still ended up here.
Dixon gave me a sympathetic look. “I know it’s not much, but try to make yourself comfortable.”
“How long will I have to stay here?”
