The Queen Of Spades

Chapter 8, Continued, Again

I smelled it before I saw it, the smell of decay. I looked around for the source and saw the body slumped in the corner. The sound of footsteps on metal had me spinning around, even though I knew it was Gideon. "What is that smell?" He asked with his shirt pulled up over his mouth and nose. I glanced back at the stranger's body and something caught my eye. On his chest was an envelope, safety pinned to his flesh. My name was on it, so I went over and plucked it from the body—the skin coming with—to read it.

To the queen of spades,
This is the junkie to whom you told everything that night right in this very train car. This was your only safe haven, and you were the one to destroy it. You have embarrassed us for long enough, this time you won't have a chance to escape. We want the files by the end of May 2021 or you and everyone you know will die.
A list of everyone and how they will die if you defy us again:
I had to stop reading, but one name in particular caught my eye. Jacob Penn.

I dropped the paper, how did they find Jake? There was no plausible way that they could know about him. Gideon picked up the letter and read it. My breathing caught in my chest.
"Oh, wow. I'm so sorry, this... is intense. Do you want to leave?" His voice held real emotion when he said it.
"I've gotta call Oliver." I struggled to take my phone out of my pocket with my hand shaking so much. Gideon gave me his phone and I dialed Oliver's number. He didn't answer, after the third time I called him I left him a voicemail. "Oliver, they found Jake. Get them to a safe house. I need your help." I hung up and gave the phone back to Gideon. "Thanks." I told him. He dialed 911 and stood outside with me in his arms until the police showed up. The letter was stuffed in the elastic band on my bra and neither Gideon nor I told the police about it as they taped off my safe haven with crime scene tape and took the body and the baskets that had been in there for over two years away. We gave our statements to the police but weren't allowed to leave until someone came to pick us up, seeing as how we were minors. We sat under a tree together for a half hour until Nada picked us up.