Dangerous by Default

55. Into the dark

The sound of the front door slamming echoed throughout the apartment. Caine looked at Mina, aware that she was in a deep state of shock. If he had looked in the mirror, he knew he would have found a similar painted on his face. A mangled body had spattered what seemed like every inch of their living room in blood. This wasn't like a danger stunt, where they could just throw on a disguise and be done with it. They had actual ties to this person, ties that could get them in prison for life.

But not all was lost. He had a gut feeling.

"I may have done something" Caine said, relieved to have her eyes meet his. "Please tell me I did the right thing. I.. it seemed like the only way. It's just that our little robo doggy looked so much like the womb, and they were right next to each other."

He stepped towards her and pulled Mina's hand forcefully to the kitchen. Mina's eyes widened and she gasped aloud in delight. The womb was still sitting on the island where she had left it.

"But what did you.. Bubba! You're a fucking madman! A genius."

"Will this help us?"

"Yes! Artemis was hibernating, so he has to be turned on to be any use to us. Good news is, if they think it's the womb and they plan to use it, they have to turn it on. Artemis' GPS will show us where they are, and better yet, where Ami is."

Mina's eyes started to dart from side to side. Her sudden silence told Caine that she was mapping out possible futures in her memory palace. He was grateful for it, faithful that she would surface in a moment with a brilliant plan fully formed. She had to.

She spoke sooner than he expected, a frown in place of the confident smile he had expected.

"What if they don't turn him on for years?"

"It doesn't matter. If they turn it on, we will know."

"We have to call the police. Who knows what they've done to Ami."

"Mina, don't you get it? Janus err- White Wing, is the police. She's got us cornered. The button hat from my exhibit was reported stolen. Probably by her. She interrogated me over it."

"When did this happen? You didn't tell me that Janus interrogated you!"

"I tried to, Mina. There wasn't time. It was the morning after the jump. You were so happy about getting funded, and we haven't really had a good moment since." Caine reached for a nearby bottle of scotch, taking a swig before continuing.

"She outright accused me of conspiring with Pechaude. Apparently he'd been accused of committing fraud in the past, was nearly convicted of it in France for pushing off a Ponzi scheme to get pensioners to buy shares of rare stamps as a retirement investment. What a guy."

"Investing in rare stamps?"

"Mhm. She claimed he'd been up to it again, but now with manuscripts. Asked if I was working with Pechaude, if the museum fiasco was a ploy to boost the value of my work."

"So she's been leaving a trail of breadcrumbs since the beginning. She was going to kill Pechaude all along, and wanted all of the evidence to point to you as the most likely suspect. And now he's here in our apartment with his head blown off and your shaker hat is covered in his blood!"

"I'm sure White Wing is planning to wait for the right moment for the gun to surface with my prints on it, too."

"We need to get out of here. The police are probably on their way already. They're only going to hold us up."

"But why didn't she just kill us?"

"Maybe in case the surgery doesn't go as planned, or Ami dies. I'm the backup. I'm not a geneticist so I'm not as useful as her, but that's all I can think of. Ensuring we go to prison helps protect their leverage over us, we'll be kept somewhere safe and easy to find."

"Mina look! The cops are already here. We need to fly."

Police cars were barreling up Leavenworth Street towards their block, one after the other swerving in a fishhook to a screeching halt. Faceless voices shouted from the tents that lined the sidewalk, some of them booking it up the hill.

"Just wait a second!" Mina froze in place. Her eyes twitched back and forth again.

Caine ran into the bedroom and started throwing clothes into a duffel bag. His mind was racing. This is just another danger stunt. There's the climb, the wait, and the escape. Ropes. Wet suit. Parachute. He looked at an array of woodworking tools through the half-open french doors that lead to his workshop. Blade. The bag had gotten heavy. What was he not thinking about? He had gotten too comfortable taking hours to meticulously plan every detail of their stunts. The unknown danger laid ahead of him like a black expanse, and he was grasping at the edges of shadows pretending like he knew what he was doing. But he had no idea. Phone charger. Fuck.

"Caine!" Mina shouted his name, the voice trailing through the hallways and catching his ear mid-thought. He raced to her, unsure if she was calling out in terror or...

"It's on! They turned Artemis on! I know where they're keeping her! We're going to Dimensions!"

Caine leaned against the window. A row of police officers had set up a perimeter around the entrance to the building. There wasn't much time.

"Mina, we can't go anywhere if we don't get a move on. Let's talk on the way."

"Oh shit!" Looking down at the bag in Caine's hand, Mina bolted in and out of the kitchen in an instant. "I don't know if we'll ever come back here, and we can't risk this falling into the wrong hands."

Mina had come back with the womb in her arms, placing it gently among the wetsuits in Caine's bag.

"Mina, come on!"

She grabbed his hand and they raced past Pechaude's body to the stairwell. Caine propped the door slightly open. Heavy footsteps were pounding up the stairs below.

"We're trapped!" Mina shouted, her hands gripping Caine's wrist tightly.

"Not yet. My studio!"

They ran back through the living room, past the twisted blue-eyed stare that watched them from Pechaude's half-destroyed face. The old hardwood floors squeaked under their feet as Caine pulled them into his workshop.

"Shaker ingenuity" Caine said as he rushed over to his workbench before sliding it aside. "Help me with the table!" He dropped his bag to the sawdust covered floor. Mina and Caine pressed their shoulders into the heavy work table. It lifted slightly.

"What are we doing, Caine?"

There was a pound on the front door. Caine had known they were only a few seconds away from the police storming the apartment. How could he explain to the police that the man who lay dead in his living room was shot by one of their own? Not just any cop of the SFPD, but Janus Thromgood? She was a talking head on CNN for christ sake. Caine dug deep into his body and took a deep breath. Nodding once at Mina, who was watching him intently, they heaved the heavy table up off the floor. Caine caught it in his hands and kept pushing like his life depended on it. The table lifted more, up until inertia carried it over the apex and sent it crashing onto the floor amidst a heap of half-finished chairs that snapped under its immense weight.

Caine swiftly pulled a large rug that had been underneath the table to expose a dark hole that plunged below the dark depths of the building. Through its center, a thin drive shaft rose up from the water turbine deep in the tunnels under the Tenderloin. It was narrow, but they had no other choice. The door smashed open. Caine picked up the duffel bag carrying the purse and lifted Mina into the hole, clutching on the shaft as she descended into total darkness. A small wooden chair was pulled into place over the hole as he descended. Voices had seemed to fill the apartment all around him. It wouldn't stall them forever, but it would be enough.