Dirty Hacker✖️Egobang

Ch. 19

Flashback

"Don't worry, Suzy. I'm coming."

Arin dashed out to his car to save his long-time friend. He knew where, what and how long he had.

38583 Bakers Street
$5000
12:00 A.M.

Arin looked at the digital clock in his car as it read "10:52 P.M.". He had just over an hour to save Suzy, pay his landlord, and redeem his reputation.

His landlord, Manny, has been known to "take care" of his clients when they don't pay rent. Arin went into the deal with full knowledge of how Manny treats his renters, but he just assumes his well-made animation would get him somewhere. Clearly, that had not been the case yet.

His beloved sister, Suzy had been captured over night without any warning. Unless you include the past five months of letters and threats as warnings.

He put the pedal to the medal making it down the first three roads. As usual, just as be began to approach the light, it blinked from green, to yellow, to red. He had to stop at a five-way intersection.

"2 minutes lost," he though to himself. Arin was terrified but kept a calm exterior. He knew if any police saw him screaming or crying in his car, they would pull him over. He had no time to lose.

11:03 P.M.

As he rounded the corner, he saw the building well within 500 feet of the car. He prayed to the god he had no faith in for his Suzy to be safe. She was all he had in his little town in Florida. All the men he met left him after the third date.

The cold, brick building was becoming increasingly closer. The icy blue hue of the paint and the dull gray of the concrete floor. Arin knew exactly what room they would be in. Manny, the egotistical prick he is, was going to be inside the lead manager's office. No doubt.

Arin dropped his car off in front of the building. He had no time to park.

11:28 P.M.

He could feel his art begin to beat faster and sweat drip down his forehead. Arin was sprinting down a huge, open room with crates, forklifts, and miscellaneous office supplies. At the end of the room was a long hallway with flickering lights. The building had been out of commission for over six years now.

He stopped in his tracks when he came across a splitting corridor. To the left were rooms 122-144, and to the right were rooms 145-165. No rooms were labeled in English, only Spanish and the occasional middle-eastern language Arin could not understand or identify. He went down the left pathway, assuming the manager would be at the end.

Surprisingly, he was right.

He wiggled the doorknob until it comes off the door completely. The other half of the knob falls off as well, giving him a large enough hole just to peek in to see if Manny would be inside.

What he saw made his skin flush and his blood pressure lower. Suzy was tied up in a chair, hair cut half off, half naked, with cuts on her upper arms and thighs.

Arin busted the door wide open to see Manny passed out with five bottles of whisky on the table his head had been resting on. Suzy began to scream for Arin, but the duct tape covering her lips made her words nearly impossible to make out.

Arin began to step forward towards Suzy before being tackled to the ground by Manny's henchmen.

"Boss," the tall one yelled, "he came."

Manny awoke from his "nap" to find Arin's face crushed into the ground. His yelling was slightly more audible than his sister's.

"I guess you did show up," Manny stumbled over from his foldable chair to Arin. The henchmen picked up Arin by his armpits just enough so he could barely touch the ground with his toes. "Where's the cash?"

Arin pointed down to his back pocket. He swiftly replied, "Down there, but let me down to take it out." Manny gestured for his henchmen to drop Arin. Afraid to fight, he complies coughs up the dough. All the money had been from his parents. Shameful.

Arin handed Manny the money. Manny fanned it out and began to count it, occasionally holding up a bill to the light. "Not bad, not bad at all." Manny's approving tone spoke volumes to Arin. "Let her go, boys."

The henchmen untied Suzy and tore off the tape. The cuts on her legs and arms had stopped bleeding, but they were clearly in need of cleaning. The men pushed the siblings out the doors to the office.

On the car ride home, the radio was off upon Suzy's request.

"Arin, if you needed help, I would have been there," Suzy kindly suggests. Arin couldn't hold it in anymore.

"I know, but I want to be proud of myself. Ever since dropping out, everyone has been so out on me. I just wanted to do this on my own, but I still couldn't do that right."

Arin's eyes filled with tears as Suzy leaned over to take the wheel. "It's okay," she consoled, "I'm here."

"Suzy..."

"Yeah?"

"Th-this may sound weird," his words came out like a scratched record, "but can you call me big cat?"

"Anything for you, big cat."

11:59 P.M.