Chapter 14
“We missed him,” Michael said, slamming his hand down on the dining room table. The plates and glasses wobbled, and the cutlery rattled. “I still can’t believe it!”
Thomas and Clary were at Ethan and Diane’s house, having a dinner party with them and Michael and Emily.
Michael was red-faced and fuming.
“It was a near thing,” Emily said, rubbing her husband’s back. He sat with his head in his hands. “They were up at the ridge, but it seems they were too late. He had already lowered the signal.”
“It’s only been a day,” Thomas said, astounded. “How did he get up there with no one seeing him?”
“It’s like you said—there are no patrols up there,” Ethan said, passing the bowl of peas to Clary.
“Maybe it’s time to get some patrols up there,” Diane said.
“We can’t risk tipping him off,” Michael said. “We need to catch this ruffian with his signal flag in his hand. Then we’ll finally be one up on El Aguila and can stop sneaking around. This would be so much easier if we could all meet without having eyes on us.”
Thomas nodded. “So, what then? What do we do now?”
“We’ll have to wait,” Emily said.
“Yes. El Aguila seems to be in a demanding mood,” Diane said, pouring some gravy over her mashed potatoes. “Maybe he’ll send another demand through, and we can work on a way to catch the spy then.”
“I had a thought,” Clary said. “What if we do something reckless?”
“Like what?” Thomas asked. He had come to appreciate Clary’s unusual way of approaching problems.
“We’ve been sneaking around trying to have meetings without the spy knowing, but what if we throw all of that caution right out the door?” she asked.
“What? And we advertise the meeting?” Michael asked skeptically.
“No,” Clary said, smiling. She spoke excitedly, as though the words were just dying to bubble out of her. “We just don’t keep it a secret. We don’t camouflage it. Instead, we let the rumor mill bring him to us.”
“How?” Diane asked.
“We set up a meeting somewhere where we can control the space and who comes in and goes out. The spy will want to know what all of us are gathering for. Especially if we don’t let anyone know. Then he’ll have to poke his nose in, and that’s when we nab him,” Clary said.
There was a contemplative silence around the table.
“You know, I think you might be onto something,” Ethan said slowly. “Yes, especially if we’re very casual about it. If we make it sound like nothing, then he’ll be forced to think it’s definitely something.”
“Exactly, but it will be nothing,” Clary said. “A nothing of a trap.”
Michael’s eyes were gleaming now. “You know, Clary, I’m really glad that you’re on our side because you’re as sly as a fox.”
She grinned. “Well, it comes with growing up on a stagecoach. You have to solve problems in unusual ways.”
They hashed out the details over dinner, and by the time they were done, the plan was locked down.
In three days’ time, they would have a meeting, and it wouldn’t be dressed up like a dinner party, a business meeting, or anything else.
They would drop hints that it had to do with something really important.
They had decided to make it look very hush-hush and secret, whetting the spy’s appetite.
This would be a meeting that El Aguila needed to know about—and quick.
Thomas walked Clary home after the dinner, and he was in good spirits. He believed that his brother and his family were safe and that he was off the hook with the bandit king.
Taking Clary in his arms, he kissed her, enjoying the feeling of holding her close.
She kissed him back, and it felt wonderful to be free to love her, to know that they were going to win this fight.
One day soon he would ask her to marry him, and then he wouldn’t have to leave her side again.
Yes, she was the one for him and the sooner he made it official, the better.
He went home to his empty house and went into the kitchen.
Thomas saw the paper on his kitchen table the moment he stepped into the room. He froze as though an icy wind had just blown in, turning him into an icicle. It was just for a second, and then he rushed over to the table.
Picking up the paper, he read its message.
“You’ve proven you can be relied on. Now, you will blow up the mine office. You have one week, or your family dies. And remember, I’m watching you.”
Thomas clutched the paper in his hand, crushing it. He was so furious that he wanted to hit something. What was this nonsense? He had done what El Aguila asked him to do, yet his family still wasn’t safe! How long did this monster think he could keep Thomas on a leash?
Something tickled the back of Thomas’s mind. Had the note said that he would be done once he’d destroyed the elevator? Had it said that his family would be free? He had assumed, but now that he was thinking about it, that might not have been the case.
There came a knock at his door.
Thomas jumped in fright and then stormed to the front door, in no mood for visitors.
“What?!” he yelled as he opened the door.
Mark stood on his doorstep, looking taken aback. He had another man with him. “Are you okay?”
“No, not really,” Thomas snapped. “I need to find Robert and the others.” What other choice did he have? There was no way he could do what El Aguila was demanding of him.
“Ah, okay,” Mark said uncertainly. “I don’t know if this is a good time or not, but this man says he’s your brother.” He stepped to the side, and Thomas could see the man behind him.
“Tom,” the man rasped weakly.
“Luke?”
It was Luke, but he looked terrible.
“Luke! Good heavens! What did they do to you?” Thomas demanded, torn between horror and overwhelming relief that at the very least his brother was alive.
“Should I get Diane?” Mark asked as he helped Luke to enter the house.
Thomas stared in shock and horror at his brother. His right eye was swollen shut, and he had a gash on his left cheek that was oozing a trickle of blood down to the collar of his shirt, which was red and stiff with blood. He was holding his side and limping, his right leg hardly holding his weight.
Hurriedly, Thomas stepped up to his brother and took over supporting him from Mark. “Please, Mark. Hurry and fetch Diane and Ethan. I think we’re going to need them both. And if you happen to come across Robert, we’ll need him as well.”
Mark nodded and rushed off.
“He was on guard at the gate,” Luke said through cut, swollen lips. “I got lucky, I think. He seems like a nice fellow.”
“Mark is a very nice fellow,” Thomas admitted. “And yes, we got lucky. Now, let’s get you to the sofa before you fall over.”
They hobbled and hopped to the sofa in the parlor, and Thomas helped his brother to sit.
Then he propped him up with cushions and helped him rest his damaged leg on the sofa.
It was terrible. Luke looked as though, apart from being badly beaten, he had also been dragged all the way from Turner’s Vale, where he lived, to Unity.
“Where are Tilda and the children?” Thomas asked.
“They still have them,” Luke said, sounding exhausted.
“They came in the middle of the night and just overwhelmed us. At first I thought they were just looking to steal our silverware and the few pieces of jewelry that Tilda got from her mother, but they didn’t want that.
These men were horrible. For a week, they kept us all together in the house, and then they started separating us, taking the children from us for hours on end.
Then, four days ago, they took the children and Tilda and left.
They left me tied up in the barn. Some of them gave me a kicking before they all disappeared. ”
“So, you managed to escape?” Thomas asked.
Luke nodded. “Only just. They set fire to the house and the barn. It’s all gone, Tom.
There’s nothing left.” Huge tears began to roll down Luke’s face as he spoke.
“And only God knows what they’ve done to my wife and children.
What is this all about? Why did they come for me? I don’t even know them.”
Luke began to weep, and Thomas’s heart broke.
This is what El Aguila had done to Luke’s family in the time it took to destroy the elevator? What kind of monster did those things? What had he allowed to happen to poor Tilda and the children? Bile rose in Thomas’s throat, and he couldn’t sit still anymore.
Rising, Thomas went to the drink cabinet, which he seldom opened. It held a bottle of whiskey that Ethan had given him as a birthday present the year before. This was a good time to open it. Thomas had been saving it for a special occasion.
Thomas drank his whiskey in one shot. Then, leaving his empty glass by the cabinet, he took the other to his brother.
As he was handing the glass to Luke, who was wiping his face with a handkerchief, Thomas heard footsteps on the front porch. Then there was a knock on the door. “Come in! It’s open!”
Luke downed his whiskey and handed Thomas the glass. “Thanks.”
There was the sound of more footsteps coming down the passage, and several people entered the parlor as Thomas returned to his seat.
Mark had done an excellent job finding everyone that Thomas needed, including Clary. She was pale and looked terribly worried as she hurried over to him.
“I heard your brother was here and in trouble,” Clary said.
Thomas held out a hand to her and felt instantly revived the moment she took it.
With her came Diane, black medical bag in hand; Ethan, looking worried; and Robert and Lucy, both with stern expressions.
Thomas introduced Luke to everyone, and then they all took seats around the room. While Diane examined him, Luke told his story again.
It wasn’t any better to hear it for a second time. In fact, Thomas found it worse.
“They’ve taken your wife and children?” Robert asked as he made notes in his notebook.
“Yes,” Luke said.
“Any idea where?” Robert asked.
Luke nodded. “They said something about a place near San Antonio. I don’t know exactly where.”