Chapter 22
Authors Note: Here's the basis of all information and the beginning of the end of this story. Here goes nothing...
"Jeffrey Kight," Arnoldo said studying Sable's face, "is in relatively close proximity to this building. He will leave early this evening and that's when you go in and wait for him to return."
"Why don't we just go now, find him, kill him, and let that be it?" Sands asked.
"He's been on the run for years, do you think that he'd take a chance at being caught now? No, follow the plan this time, Sands. There can be no chances taken, if he escapes this time there's a slim to none probability we'll find him again."
"Alright, so we follow the plan," Sable remarked. "What happens when we find him. Do we kill him and leave or do you want the body?"
"I want no remains of him." Arnoldo said solidly, "None."
"Oh goodie, we get to burn the house." Sands scoffed, "just what I had planned for the rest of the day."
"I don't want there to be enough of him left for DNA or forensics to find. There can't be any shoe marks on the front steps, no wisps of hair left on the carpet. Total obliteration."
"Why don't you want them to know? Wouldn't they give you another medal to add to your collection?" Sands inquired.
"He's supposed to be dead, mission gone wrong. That's why you can't fail this time. Shoot him, shoot him anyway you can to bring him down. Hell, get him in the back so long as the bastard dies."
"No." Sable said with quiet finality, "never in the back, I want to see the look on the fucker's face as he dies."
Sands smiled, Arnoldo looked to Sable curiously. She was a ruthless killer, but the level of hostility in her tone didn't fit with the nonchalance the two usually exhibited when told to kill.
Sable met his gaze evenly, she had a thing against kidnappers the same way Sands had an aversion to psychologists. She didn't feel the need to explain anything, there would be no point. Deal with the mission at hand, let the chips fall where they may.
* * *
"648 Hawkin Ave," Sable confirmed. "Just as Arnoldo said, big house with nobody home."
"We can't assume that," Sands wasn't having particularly comfortable feelings from the place, big houses meant more places for men to hide. "Keep the gun ready."
"When is it not?" Sable arched a brow and explained the layout to Sands in case they were separated. "Big staircase in the front there are twenty stairs, railing in the middle. Double doors, wooden about double our height. Marble floors, chandelier on the ceiling. Open kitchen, dining room, office, well you get it, no doors aside from closets in this house."
"No doors?" Sands mused, "He's definitely not good at this. No doors meant that he has something to hide, where better to hide it than out in the open."
"You think he'd have guards?" Sable asked as they crept closer to the house.
"Probably not, anything's possible though. If he's really as desperate as Arnoldo made him out to be then yeah, there'll be a few."
"Makes our job interesting."
"Never a dull moment." Sable checked her guns one last time before they opened the door. Sure enough directly inside the door were two heavily armed men dressed in black. They were taken care of before they had time to reach for their weapons.
"Two down..." Sable said.
"... and a whole shitload to go." Sands pushed the black sunglasses up further on his nose. He could sense how big the house was, from the small echo of their boots on the marble floor and the smell of expensive furniture in the air, Jeff sure made a good living off kidnapping. It was a shame that it had to end here.
It didn't matter if any heard them walking through the house, the sooner they came out the better. That would save them the trouble of having to play round up. Sable wasn't going to worry about Sands, he was able to take care of himself.
"We set them up and watch them fall," he was whispering.
"You said that a lot of times over the years. What exactly does it mean?" she asked allowing her voice to carry to the upper levels of the mansion. "Directly above you, two on the right, three on the left."
Bullets broke a vase to Sable's left and one came in very close proximity to where Sands was reloading a gun. The marble tiles would never be the same, not to mention the door had a few new peepholes.
The men collapsed around where Sable and Sands stood, seven down now and they were just getting started. Where were the rest of them? Did they want to play hide and seek?
"There are a lot of people in the world, you know? Some are boxed in screaming for freedom, but when it's given to them they hurry back behind secure walls. Then there are those who never have known a box, they've made their own decisions and won't have it any other way," he paused and fired a shot into a corner of the opposite room.
A muffled grunt and a thud later had Sands going back to finish his explanation.
"I throw shapes, the people scurry back within the walls I set up for them and I'm free to roam where I please.'
"So you trap them with the shapes that you throw, manipulation, so to speak."
"They were trapped from the start, they'd never have made their own way out. You, however, would kick and fight your way out should one ever be sent your way."
"I'm glad you have hope for me." They climbed the stairs warily one behind the other.
"Well, I am your partner after all."
"Bravo," a man's mocking laughter resounded around the high ceilings of the upper story. "You've managed to take out my guards. That takes talent, I approve of your philosophies, now if you can only find me."
Sable and Sands went in opposite directions, she headed down the corridor to the right kicking in doors and training her gun ready for anything that moved. Sands listened for any sound that might come from the rooms doors' he opened.
"Nothing." They both said as they met each other in the middle. "Absolutely nothing."
"Having fun?" The taunting voice was back, "are you enjoying my house? I find it quite enjoyable, I'd hope you feel the same."
"I'll tell you what I find enjoyable." Sands muttered, "he can see us. There's a camera or something that he's using to watch us go through the rooms."
"Very perceptive of you," he cheered, "That is correct, there are cameras. I have to be able to watch what's going on, don't I? Come and find me little puppets, I'll be waiting."
"Puppets?" Sands snarled, "When we find him I'll do some string jerking of my own. Puppets..."
"What's up is down and turned is straight. Dark becomes light and children weep for new life. Hidden from view yet close to the world, we hear you but you can't see us even when you look."
"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Sable demanded.
"Riddling." Sands replied, "we hear you but you cant see us... under the floors? They'd hear us walking around and we'd not know because we wouldn't have looked there."
"Dark becomes light, it would be dark, but lit because he has electricity."
"Hidden from view, but close to the world," she nodded, close to the world as in earth. Soil compacted around their four walls and the children were there with him.
"Tick, tock, tick, tock." The voice mocked them, "for the pretty lady... you are in for a surprise."
"I'll give him a surprise." Sable twirled the gun idly. "We're wasting time, where would the entrance way be? Under a rug?"
"Most likely, where are there rugs on the first floor?"
"Under the piano." Sable remembered the grand piano and the crimson red carpet underneath it. The trapdoor would have to be there, she'd stake her life on it.
"Lead on," Sands motioned for her to go first, it was obvious Jeff hadn't noticed his lack of sight. The more advantage they had the better. He listened to where she stepped and also used her exaggerated body language to make adjustments. Stairs were not easy and made Sands glad for elevators.
Every step down had made him picture falling the rest of the way, the loss of gravity. When going down stairs with eyes closed, no one had ever been able to keep them closed the whole time. The feeling of uncertainty and gravity shifting was hard to bear. The stair case seemed to go on forever.
Sable moved as though she were wary of an ambush when, in reality, she proceeded down the staircase slowly so everytime Sands came down another stair her hand would lightly brush his knee.
Sands was grateful for her assistance, she did more than was necessary. If things had been reversed, would he have taken things as well? Would he be as... considerate as she was being?
After lifting the bench of the piano out of the way, Sable located the hinge of the trapdoor. It was just as she'd suspected and confirmed Sands suspicions. The house had no doors because it wasn't used.
"It's dark, isn't it," Sands asked when he felt her hesitate at the top.
"Yeah, very dark. I can't see anything beyond the first step."
"Close your eyes." He instructed, "go down the first stair and feel nothing but the darkness. All around you, it's not harming you in any way, just surrounding you keeping you from being seen. Move with the shadows and merge with them."
She listened to his voice, focusing solely on that she relaxed until she could indeed feel the darkness. There was a silence to the air and a stillness that he must have felt. Even without the riddle Sands would have been able to tell.
There was another presence in the room, her grip on the gun tightened and she muttered a few choice words under her breath. He could see them, but they couldn't see him and no shots were taken yet. He obviously wanted them alive, maybe to taunt them some more.
A hand reached out and yanked her roughly down three stairs. Her leg throbbed painfully but nothing was broken. Blood was running down from a small, deep gash below her knee. She rolled to a crouching position and listened for any noise at all.
She heard Sands curse, flesh hit flesh and then she heard nothing. Light slammed on and she closed her eyes against the sudden dots swimming through her vision.
The first person she saw was Sands, he was still standing, but the glasses had fallen off during the fight. And there had been a fight, her gaze next fell upon Jeffrey Kight. It took her a moment to place where she knew him from, then all color drained from her face.
She forgot about Sands' sunglasses being tossed from hand to hand, forgot that they were supposed to be killing him, all she thought about was seeing him again for the first time in ten years. Jeffrey Kight, kidnapper extrodinaire.
Sable would know, she had once been one of those children.
Jeff took one look at her stricken expression, the gaping holes where Sands eyes should have been and threw back his head to laugh. It was a sick deprived sound, high and maniacal it echoed around the room eerily.
This was her fathers killer, and the man who had taken from her everything that once had mattered. The son of a bitch would pay for what he did, revenge was a bitch and its name was Sable.