A Danger That Lurks In The Darkness | A TPQ AU |

XXXI | A Proposition

MINI
"This message is for Aru Shah."

The words were coming from Aiden's mouth, in his voice, but she knew they weren't his.

Aru's eyes were narrowed, her fists clenched. She could see that her jaw was set, and there was an angry glint in her eyes.

"You know who I am. You know you shouldn't have meddled in my affairs. And now... your husband's at my mercy. If you try to approach him, and remove it, the bomb will go off. Everyone here will die. Which is why I have a proposition."

Aiden's voice broke, his hands clenched around the podium. A deathly silence filled the hall.

"Y-you find me. I'm in this building, and with me is one of the detectives who also decided to meddle in my affairs. Isn't it funny, how he turned out to be the groom's cousin?"

He squeezed his eyes shut, and it seemed as if the ground beneath Mini's feet had disappeared; as if the world had pivoted on its axis, leaving her disoriented, and... confused.

He has Rudy. He has Rudy. He's going to kill us all.

"You have twenty minutes. You find me, and only you and the cop die. Nobody else. The bomb is disarmed, and I go on my merry way. Or, you don't find me, and the bomb goes off, and everybody in this hall dies. Your choice."

Silence fell, once again, as, with trembling hands, she stared at the cracked phone in her hands.

Aru grabbed her wrist and pulled her out.

Mini could hear the barely restrained rage in Aru's voice— mirroring her own.

"I'll need your help." Aru clenched her fists, and Mini could see the skin stretched over her knuckle bones.

"Of course. But... how will we find him?"

"I... think—" she brought out Rudy's phone. "Aiden gave this to me before he... went onstage. This is Rudy's."

She swiped up, ignoring the twinge in her heart, and saw that the phone had been opened to the voice recorder app, where it was still recording.

She stopped it, and rewound it to the beginning, bringing it close to hers and Aru's ears.

"Is this... Aiden and Rudy?"

She heard laughing, and both of their voices; she tried to ignore that, tried to ignore the airiness in his voice— and was that discomfort— it didn't matter. Not anymore. All that mattered was for him to be alive. For them all to survive. She waited... they heard some shuffling, the sounds of running water, and, then...

Mini felt her stomach turn. A dull, hollow sound, like metal on bone.

Followed by a crack, and, faintly, Aiden's voice, sounding scared: "Rudy?"

At this point, Mini knew what had happened to him. A look at Aru's face insinuated that she, too, knew.

Bile rose in Mini's throat: If a head wound is allowed to bleed out... or if it isn't bandaged properly, or if it's a concussion— he has to be okay. He has to. I don't— I can't—

That train of thought was interrupted by Aiden's voice on the recording: "What are you going to do to him?"

A scratchy laugh was heard over the recording... a laugh she knew all too well.

Momentarily, bright lights flashed before her shut eyelids; but that didn't make sense, Nikita had ensured warm lighting for the wedding. Momentarily, her shoulder twinged; but even that didn't make sense, she'd had her painkillers—

Focus. She told herself. She couldn't get lost in her thoughts, she couldn't afford to—

Not with everybody's life on the line. She forced herself to listen to the recording, just in time for Mark to say: "Somewhere we both can watch the show."

"We're wasting time," Aru growled, as Mini took a deep breath.

"Aru. Listen to me. The bomb— we need to go back to the reception hall and tell everybody to switch off their phones— heck, any device they have."

"I— I already did,"

"Now we need to figure out where they are—"

"That'll take too much time, let's just— search every room—"

"That'll waste even more time!"

"Then how do you propose we find him?!"

She watched as Aru checked her watch— "Fifteen minutes left, Mini. I can't let anybody die."

"I know." She said, quietly. "But..."

Mark's words were stuck inside her head— Somewhere he could watch the show.

"How do you think he knew?"

"This isn't the time for rhetorical—"

"No, he needed a way to watch us. The reception hall. To ensure Aiden didn't just.. throw off the bomb vest."

"A camera on it—"

"No, that would send out an electromagnetic wave that could make the bomb go off at a time he didn't want—"

"So the only option left would be..."

She glanced behind Aru's head, her eyes meeting the steady blink of the red light from...

"The security cams," they both whispered, together.

"Nikita mentioned that this used to be an old mansion— which means that they probably didn't have a camera connection,"

"She... told me that the cameras were rewired into the main wiring of the old mansion, which would lead to.."

Mini glanced at the floorboards beneath their feet, knowing what was under there—

"The basement. They're in the basement."

————

a/n: my exams start on the twelfth, so this week will be the last update for the cop au for quite some time. the next update will most likely be on the ninth of march. thank you for your understanding!!