To everyone who has read, commented, favorited, alerted… THANK YOU! As a newb, it's a treat to have some positive encouragement and I'm having a lot of fun with this.
Chapter 4
It turned out there lived a couch right there in the booth where Auggie stood. It had been hauled into the conference floor supposedly for "atmosphere" but really for a place to crash when someone pulled an all-nighter. Or in Auggies case, several.
The whisperers finally introduced themselves with much wry amusement as Harry and Sally. They didn't mind at all having a fellow geek sleeping on their vinyl couch and Auggie was soon out, trusting Annie to wake him if anything happened. She continued to converse in low tones, getting details, plotting a course of action.
He figured he'd crashed around dawn and when he finally struggled back to the surface of consciousness his watch read 11:30. He lay still for a few minutes, trying to clear his head and get re-oriented. He didn't hear Annie's voice nearby. The entire room still seemed covered by the unnatural hush, so unlike the usual DataTech bustle.
He nearly jumped out of his skin when a quiet voice spoke, so close the person must have been sitting quite near him for some time without moving.
"I know who you are."
Auggie fought down the panic and disorientation he still felt and lay quietly without moving for a second, then sat up, trying to appear calm, although his heart hammered against his ribs.
"What do you mean?" he asked guardedly.
"You know what I mean."
Auggie had used this trick before on assets. Pretend you know more than you do to get them to start blabbing. He wasn't about to fall for it. But the frightening thing, he realized, is it might not be a trick. The strange thing was that he had a hard time deciding if the quiet, calm voice came from a woman with a decidedly low voice or a man's tenor. He waited. Sometimes if the ball was in his court he could win the game by refusing to play.
"Annie's gone, you know. They took her right away."
"They?" Auggie kept his voice carefully neutral.
"Melkin's guys, of course. He can't have spooks nosing around in here."
Spooks. He (She?) did know.
Uh oh.
Was this androgynous, disembodied voice next to him one of "Melkin's guys" too? Was he guarding Auggie, and if so why sit so patiently waiting for him to awaken? Auggie had an absurd image flash through his mind of a large golden Buddha statue sitting patiently beside the door of a Chinese restaurant. The trouble was that the Buddha always smiled with benign content while this voice beside him made his skin crawl.
"You'll have to come with me now," said the voice, gripping him suddenly by the wrist with a force that told Auggie immediately that his companion was both male and very strong. Auggie thought about pulling him close and taking him out, but decided he'd gain more information on Annie's whereabouts if he played along for a while. He reached with his free hand for his cane, folded and tucked under the front edge of the couch, but he was pulled to his feet before he could retrieve it. Terrific.
"Sshh," warned the man, keeping a grip on Auggie's wrist while at the same time prodding his back with the nose of a gun. Auggie rolled his eyes. This guy obviously stayed up late watching old mafia movies too much.
Auggie considered his options. Here in a crowd with only one captor his chances were the greatest at freeing himself. It would be so easy to pretend to trip, grab the guy's arm, then shoulder, then he would have the advantage.
Wait, he told himself.
The man led him on a zigzag course through the maze of booths and displays. Because he was trying not to attract attention, he guided Auggie carefully around obstacles and Auggie followed meekly, concentrating instead on discovering any useful landmarks. The booth where he had slept was near one edge of the large room, near the door where they had entered from the chilly night outside. Now they were making their way directly across the display floor, snaking through the avenues of cloth dividers. Auggie expected to head for the other side of the room and was mildly surprised when the man stopped near the center.
"Here he is," the man said in his quiet, even voice.
