Chapter 45
“What do you want from me?” Esmie said through gritted teeth.
“To give yourself up. We need to understand why you survived the injection of purple glass and the others didn’t. You’ll come with me back to Genetronetics so they can run tests on you.” The mayor folded his hands on his protruding stomach.
Esmie released a hollow laugh. “I was never injected with purple glass. It pricked me in the eye.” She yanked off the sunglasses to show him the purple slash across her face. The mayor’s eyes widened, then his face became impassive again.
“You still should have died. Anyone who touches purple glass dies, even if it takes a few hours longer. They eventually succumb to the radiation poisoning.”
“Don’t you have a cure for radiation poisoning?”
“No, who said we did?” The mayor’s cold eyes narrowed on her.
Esmie pursed her lips together. The radiation cure had come from Samson.
At least from what she could remember her brother saying.
Samson created the cure. She had assumed they used it in the lab at the Law Enforcement Division.
Maybe it had only been between Samson and Leo.
“No one told me. It was just an assumption.”
The mayor stepped closer and pointed a large, menacing finger at her.
“You better not be lying to me. Our team has been trying to come up with a cure for radiation poisoning for years. If there is one, I need to know about it. Now.” When Esmie didn’t answer, the mayor stepped back into place and ran a shaking hand through his gelled hair.
A breeze ruffled his suit jacket as the fog swirled around and clung to his pant legs.
Esmie forced herself not to shiver at his menacing glare.
She didn’t know what to do. Her imagination ran wild with how they would torture her to find their answers.
But she couldn’t leave her family to die. It was either her life or theirs.
“You are hiding something. We’ll find out either way once we run our tests.
So, will you come willingly? Or by force?
” The mayor’s voice lowered at the end. Esmie sensed a presence around her.
She peered through the haze up at the buildings surrounding her.
Within the gaps of the fog’s wispy tendrils people dressed in all black tactical gear from head to toe, with helmets and masks, lined the windows and roofs, all holding guns aimed at her.
Would she be able to take them all at once?
As if reading her mind the mayor shook his head.
Either way, she wouldn’t leave her brother and parents to die. To lose them would be to lose a big piece of herself. She wouldn’t be able to go on knowing she caused their death, not when she had already put so many other lives at risk.
“Fine. I’ll go with you. But I need to see Leo and my parents. Alive.”
The mayor sneered at her. “Come with me, and don’t try anything stupid.” He marched off at a quick pace. Esmie jogged to catch up, remaining several feet behind him for good measure. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted the men and women still had their guns trained on her.
As they entered The Plaza, more guards came alongside to flank them.
The uneasiness in Esmie’s stomach bloomed into full grown panic.
The anger she felt dissipated. Her fate sealed.
Genetronetics loomed ahead, like a giant ready to capture her within its steel and glass teeth, hungry to crunch out the purple glass from within her body.
“Put the power reducing cuffs on her,” the mayor commanded without turning around.
The guard on her left pulled out a pair of rigid cuffs, with metal shackles and a black thick bar between them. Esmie flicked her fingers and they flew from his hands. The mayor glanced back.
“No cuffs. I made a promise to come, and I’ll only be subdued once I see my family is safe,” she said. The mayor’s cold eyes flicked to the guard and shook his head. The guard flexed his hand then placed it back on his gun.
They entered the lobby, much quieter than the night of the masquerade party.
The security guard stationed at the entrance merely nodded as they passed, continuing to gaze forward.
The colorful lights and displays from the night before were gone with the cold lobby back to its normal business-like self.
The mayor led her toward the bank of elevators and her heart hammered inside her chest, but instead of entering them, he hooked a right to stand in front of what appeared to be a service elevator. Its plain metal doors muted from use.
Pulling out a keycard, the mayor pressed it against a scanner to the left of the doors.
The elevator opened with a whoosh, no ding to signify its presence.
The mayor entered standing to the side to allow Esmie in.
She stood behind his large frame. Two of the guards entered.
The others stopped in the lobby, staying stationed at different points.
Esmie tried to peer around the mayor and the security guards to see what the others were doing in the lobby, but the doors shut with a soft click before she could spy anything.
A slight jolt signified the elevator was moving but there were no buttons to push. It descended instead of ascended which threw Esmie’s body into high alert. She pressed her hands against the elevator which grinded to a stop. The guards and the mayor stumbled.
“Where are we going? You said you were taking me to my family,” Esmie said.
The mayor turned his head around, once he caught his balance.
His eyebrow cocked and a smirk settled on his lips.
“They aren’t in this building. We have a journey to get to them, and we can’t do it above ground.
We’ll be taking the tunnels from here on out.
Don’t fear, little one. I am eager to see more of your powers and if accessing their full potential means allowing you to see your family, I’ll risk it. Can you release us now?”
Esmie contemplated him for a moment, then realizing she really didn’t have another option, she released the elevator.
It shuddered, then descended again. One of the guards released a low breath, beads of sweat visible on his upper lip.
The other guard pursed her lips, her dark hair bunched under her helmet, but neither said a word.
Just turned back to stare at the front of the elevator.
The elevator stopped and the doors swooshed open to a landing several feet wide by around twenty feet long.
The landing abutted to another tunnel, similar to the one Esmie had just traversed but much wider.
A sleek silver car with dark tinted windows was parked next to the landing.
The mayor pulled out a fob from his pocket, clicked a button, and the doors slid open.
“Ladies first.” He gestured to the backseat.
Esmie slid in along the soft, black leather.
She missed the old cracked, creaky leather of Samson’s car, something she thought she’d never say.
This one hardly made a sound, surprisingly enough with the mayor’s heavy frame.
He sat next to her in the back with the other two guards sitting in the front.
The car had no steering wheel, from what Esmie could see.
The mayor clicked another button on his fob and the car started, pulling into the middle of the tunnel and zooming forward.
The mayor kept his eyes straight ahead as the car drove itself down the tunnel, quiet and smooth.
“Why are you helping Genetronetics anyway?” Esmie asked. She might as well get answers while she could.
“I am the primary stakeholder there. I invested in Tyler long before anyone knew who he was. I’m ensuring I get my investment back and more.” The mayor continued staring out the windshield.
“Is that why you killed him? Because he wasn’t performing to your standards?” Esmie accused.
The mayor sighed. “I didn’t kill Tyler. His death hurts my cause more than helps.
His solution would have solved all our problems. No, his death was because of the commissioner whose greed for my approval and his own power caused him to mess up my plans.
Of course, he didn’t realize it because he doesn’t know my affiliation with Genetronetics, but it cost us a lot more time.
Time which will be made up now that we have you to study. ”
“How do you know the commissioner did it? What does he have to gain from killing Tyler?”
“Apparently, Tyler had the cure for stopping purple glass from killing the user, but instead of alerting the Law Enforcement Lab Division of his findings, he decided to petition Andloor Capitol for another contract and more money. I told Tyler his vendetta against Andloor Capitol would get him into trouble and it did. The commissioner felt backstabbed. His and Tyler’s partnership was one of convenience, until one of them could take full control and eventually credit.
I didn’t know the commissioner would go to those lengths to secure his position.
That was my mistake.” The mayor rubbed his eyes.
“I still don’t understand how you know all of this and why you haven’t done anything about it yet?”
“A little birdy saw what happened. Our informant met up with Tyler to tell him about you. Unfortunately, the commissioner was also there hiding in the shadows. He admitted to luring Tyler there to stop him from cheating Andloor Capitol of more money. The informant was able to get away and told Stanley at Genetronetics. Personally, I wanted to get rid of the lad. The less people involved the better. But Stanley assured me he’d keep him in line and he did help get you to me so we shall see if he proves himself.
As for why I’m not doing anything, I currently can’t because it would reveal my motives and position. ”
“The informant. It’s Chad, isn’t it?”
“What a bright and intuitive mind you have. Perfect fodder for purple glass to exhibit its best powers. You will be exciting to study.” The mayor glanced her way, approval etched across his face, before he went back to staring out the front window.
Again, the hairs on Esmie’s neck tingled.
She wanted to wring her hands but didn’t want to give the mayor the satisfaction of showing her nerves.
He may be staring ahead along with the guards, but she knew his eyes were still watching every move she made.
The mayor’s affiliation with Genetronetics, would ensure his investment, now including her, remained intact and made him the money he desired.
His motive for all of this was money, as if he wasn’t already receiving enough as the mayor from the people of Andloor?
No, he wanted more along with more power.
Darkness enveloped them, with only a few lanterns in the ceiling, just like the tunnel she walked.
To keep her mind from running in circles over the new information the mayor told her, she stared out her window watching the sides of the tunnel flash by, wishing she was back in Samson’s car.
The thought gripped her heart again, but she shoved the grief away.
Worse than the mayor seeing her nerves would be him seeing her tears.
After around twenty minutes of tense silence, the car began to ascend on a slight hill.
Esmie faced forward, eager to see where they were going.
A pinprick of light shone, then became larger as the hill continued to steepen.
The end of the tunnel grew, and they finally exited into a jungle.
At least that’s what it looked like to Esmie.
Trees surrounded them while they drove on a smoothed out sandy, dirt road.
Moss clung to the tree branches, swaying ever so often in the wind.
“Where are we?” Esmie couldn’t help but ask.
“At the edge of Andloor City,” the mayor answered.