Page 97 of The Big Fix

“So I went out, they had me bend over, turn around, and then everyone started shouting. It didn’t take long, and then I was led back to the curtain I went through. I passed my friend Mei, who was crying, and then they took me to a bedroom.” He was quiet a moment, and breathed in through his nose. “I was in the room alone for a bit, and I remember hearing Mei outside, sobbing as she walked by the door, and then a second later, a man came in. He was dressed in a tuxedo and had a walking cane. He shoved me down on the bed, and I remember thinking he was going to hit me just like everyone else had.”

“I think I’m gonna throw up,” Arden said, standing abruptly.

“No, no,” Dante soothed her. “We’re about to get to the good part.”

She nodded quickly, staring at Owen, then sat down again.

“I started screaming, loudly, like I was dying, just shrieking, and then the door, which I was sure had been locked, was kicked open, and there he was.” The awe in his voice as he looked at me was unmistakable. “I mean, I know, logically, there wasn’t a spotlight on him, but to this day, I tell you, I could’ve sworn there was.”

Arden exhaled sharply.

“The man yelled, and Jared ordered me to close my eyes, and the guy…he made a noise, but then, that was it.” Owen’s gaze was on me. “Did you shoot him? I’ve never asked.”

“It was a knife,” Dante answered.

Owen turned to Dante. “Were you there?”

He shook his head. “No. I was detained at that time, but I heard this part firsthand from Jared and Darius.”

Owen was back to looking at me. “Darius was with you? I didn’t see him.”

“Yeah. I got you and your friend Mei and all the other kids, and Darius took care of the crowd.”

“Took care of?” Jing asked me.

“Yep.”

“Okay.” She shrugged. “If you’re there to bid on children that you’re going to place into sexual servitude…I mean, you reap what you sow.”

“You do,” I agreed darkly. Darius had scanned the crowd earlier, made sure there were no other children there, and then locked all the doors before releasing VX gas. Everyone in the casino was unaffected. Everyone in the theater died. What was interesting was that there was no mention of it on the news. Not a word. It had all been swept under the rug.

Owen continued, “I remember opening my eyes when Jared said I could, and I wanted to see where the man was, but Jared said to just look at him, and I did. He cut the rope tying my hands, had me put on clothes, and then had me stand, face to the wall in the hallway, as he went from room to room and got all the other kids I knew, starting with Mei.”

We were all silent.

“Like me, Mei wasn’t raped. It turned out, her uncle had found her, and he was in with her, getting her dressed and trying to figure out how to get her out of there without the people he bought her from wanting their money, which he didn’t have.”

“Holy shit,” Jing gasped. “That was ballsy.”

“Yeah. He’d been looking for her since her parents were murdered by the Yakuza. Her father was a developer who was resisting them trying to take over his business, and he and her mother were assassinated. Her uncle was a policeman in Tokyo and was sure that Mei wasn’t killed when they were, and he was right.”

“He was trying to find her just like Jared was trying to find you,” Arden summed up.

“Yeah.”

“So Mei was okay, then?” Jing asked.

“Yeah. Her uncle helped Jared clear the rooms.”

“He did,” I stated dryly. “Good man. Good shot too.”

“I still talk to Mei,” Owen told them. “She lives in Barcelona now. She’s a reporter for El País, and she also runs an animal shelter in the city, saving all kinds of animals and finding them new homes all over the world.”

“Oh, I love that.” Arden sighed deeply.

“But yeah, so after that, Jared took my hand and we walked outside. Mei and her uncle left, and a man was putting the kids on a bus… Who was that man? And where did that bus come from?”

“That was all Darius,” I told him. “And to this day, I have no idea where that bus came from, but asking is useless. He doesn’t answer questions like that. And that man was my friend Evgeni. He was another operative.”