St Louis, Missouri, Olive Street Adult Detention Center, 2019
Sitting on the cot, Luke pulled his knees into his chest and rested his chin between them; staring at the metal sink in his isolation cell.
The tap had a slow drip; and he concentrated on each fat droplet as it slowly formed and swelled, until it magnified a tiny fly sitting on the rim of the sink. Eventually. it would grow too heavy; distort the fly's image, before dripping with a hollow splat that echoed down the drain.
He supposed he should sleep. It wouldn't be long before Agent Williams began his next round of questioning. Luke understood this was a game; a way to wear him down, until he begged to tell all his secrets just for one moment of peace.
I'm so fucking tired!
He'd tried to get information on Leo, but his pleading fell on deaf ears. They wouldn't even tell him the time, amplifying his disorientation. And they locked him away from the general population, not for his safety, Luke knew, but to break him.
He lay back on the purposely-made concrete slab; the thin mattress providing little protection from the cold hardness beneath it. The florescent light above him spewed a slickly yellow he knew was designed to interfere with the prisoner's sleep.
Directly over the bed, the vent for the air-conditioning blew a continuous stream of near freezing air, causing a relentless case of goose bumps. It was just another tool in the interrogator's arsenal to further torment him with.
Luke wanted to scream and shout and lose it in one of his most spectacular Super Snyder breakdowns. But he wanted to stick it to his captures more. So he slowly blew air in and out, focusing his mind on Noah.
He was more than relieved that Noah ran, certain he had Chris to thank for that. Regardless, he was so grateful he kept sending up small prayers of thanks for it. He knew that Noah would do whatever he could to follow through with their plan.
"Listening, Sweetheart?"
Luke may have been in isolation. But that didn't mean he couldn't hear the other prisoners. And they knew he was there, too. They knew the famous fugitive was somewhere in the cell block with them. Luke's face was all over the news.
The prison voices were the worst thing about being there. They were a promise of things to come, if this turned out to be the rest of his life.
"I got somethin' realspecial to show you, when they let you out of the hole, Blondie," another voice teased and a few others cruelly laughed.
Luke simply closed his eyes and tried to drift away inside his mind. He thought about Leo, and how at times like these Leo knew just how to make Luke laugh.
I wish you were here to make me laugh now, Kiddo.
A shuffling outside his cell door made him sit back up with his feet on the floor. The guard on duty opened the door, nodded at Luke before stepping back to reveal a beefy man in suit and tie, carrying a briefcase.
The guard didn't wait to introduce the visitor, simply closed the door and left the two of them alone.
"Hello, Luke," the man greeted with a deadpan face. "I'm Agent Lin."
Luke felt his protective walls instantly rise up. He didn't like the look of this guy at all.
All his life Luke had had a natural instinct for people. He was somehow able to look beyond the façade of the external person and reach the reality beneath. It was how, back when he first met Noah, he'd seen the beautiful person hiding behind the man Col. Mayer had tried to mold in his own warped image.
And even with Agent Williams, although a complete 100 percent son-of-a-bitch, Luke knew the man was all business and professionalism. Williams was a person, who had a job to do and would go to the ends of the earth to achieve it. With Agent Williams, Luke at least somewhat knew where he stood.
But this man was another story entirely. He put Luke instantly on edge. And Luke had an unsettling feeling he'd seen this man some place before.
"Why are you here?" Luke asked. "I've already made it clear to Agent Williams that I'm done talking."
The man smiled steadily. He took a seat on the end of Luke's cot and comfortably rolled up the sleeves of his white collared shirt. "Honestly, Luke. That's not really of any concern to me."
Luke narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the man. He frantically wracked his brain as to the hint of recognition he was now sure was no coincidence.
"You really should have stayed in hiding," Lin continued, adjusting the knot in his tie and brushing lint off his pants. "If you had, then there may never have been a cause for us to meet again."
Meet again?
Luke searched his mind desperately.
Again?
As the large man stood once more, his lower right arm leveled with Luke's eye-line; and the memory slammed Luke full force.
No!
A cobra tattoo looked ready to strike; the tail curing around Agent Lin's wrist.
"It's you…" Luke made a move for the door.
"You don't want to do that," the man quickly warned.
Luke turned on his feet and stared into the black eyes of Sen. Marsden's bodyguard, the same bodyguard who'd been there in Oakdale on that fateful day. Luke found himself once again racking his brain to recall the information.
Garrett. His first name is Garrett.
Garrett widly smiled. "Ah, I see you do remember me. That's good. Then you know how very important it is to pay attention."
Luke's head was overloading and he gaped at the man. "Why? Why are you doing this?"
"The whys are none of your concern, Luke." His manner was all business and polar cold. "What you should be worrying about is keeping that good looking kid of yours safe. Leo, right?"
Luke felt instantly sick as his son's name traced this man's tongue. "Don't you fucking touch him!"
"And who's going to stop me? You?" Garrett laughed like it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. Then gravely he turned back to Luke. "He's not doing so good. you know?"
The breath blew from Luke's body and he sank back down to the cot. "What? What do you mean? He was fine, when we left him…"
Garrett shook his head in mock sadness, clucking like a hen. "Seems he took a turn for the worse over night. Infection. Poor little guy. Looks so small and helpless in that big hospital bed… Only two sick adults for company..."
Jesus! He's been in Leo's room!
Garrett looked pitifully up at Luke. "Doctors say he's really sick. But they think he's strong enough to pull through… unless of course… something should happen…"
Luke's heart stopped. He had to claw at his chest to get it going again; and for a moment he felt like passing out. If they chose to hurt Leo, Luke was powerless to stop them. And they knew it.
Barely able to function let alone speak Luke croaked, "What do you want?"
"Luke, we both know you've reached the end of the road. You're not getting out of here; and pretty soon the FBI will catch up with Noah… if they haven't already done so."
As he spoke, Garrett approached the small table and clicked open the locks on his briefcase. He removed a small notepad, a couple of pens and a calculator. Then Garrett felt along the sides until Luke heard a click. The bodyguard removed the briefcase's false bottom.
"I have a little gift for you." Garrett reached inside and revealed a coiled up length of blue nylon rope, which he flung to the cot beside Luke.
Luke felt his insides turn to ice.
"I think we understand each other quite clearly. Right, Luke?" Garrett's eyes flicked to the air conditioning grate on the ceiling.
The pure horror of what was being suggested to Luke sent the blood buzzing in his ears and the hairs on his arms to stand up. He was trapped. They had him right where they wanted him.
"One of you dies today," Garrett continued, calmly packing up his briefcase, locking it and heading for the door. He knocked twice, waiting to be let out. "Only you can control which one it will be."
Luke wanted to reach up and claw the man's eyes out; reach across and tear the man limb from limb. He couldn't help a parting defiant glare but all it achieved was to bring Garrett slithering right up to his face.
"Don't think for one moment that I'm bluffing. Unless you do what is expected of you, I'll hurt him… I'll make sure he begs for mercy. Do I make myself clear?"
The man backed away as the door opened; and waited for Luke's shaky nod of acceptance.
"It's been nice chatting with you, Luke. Shame we won't get another chance."
It was only after the key turned in the lock; and he was alone, that Luke realized he was crying. He peered down at the rope beside him, bile rising up his throat and shooting from his nostrils. He didn't even bother trying to make it to the small toilet in the corner. He vomited up beside the cot.
Minutes, maybe hours, past. Time became irrelevant. In this place there existed only Luke, a dizziness, and the coiled blue snake beside him. Every time he reached out to touch it, his arm would shoot back as though burned. But finally he got to the point where he could rest his hand on it, grip it… then lift it.
He pulled the rope through his hands. It reminded him of the reigns of the horses he used to ride as a boy. He found comfort in that at least. He tried to use that to make peace with what he had to do.
His breathing was pretty shallow he'd noticed; his body already preparing to shut down in anticipation of the action he kept replaying in the back of his mind. He practiced each motion over and over, so that when he finally worked up the nerve, it might be easier like following the recipe in a cookbook.
In a moment of terror, he considered reporting the whole incident to the superintendent. But he quickly dismissed that as folly. The only reality that existed was the threat to his son's life. And there was only one option to save him.
The worst part was his inability to explain himself to Noah. The knowledge that Noah would blame himself for this, without knowing what had happened, sat heavy on Luke's heart. But that wasn't something Luke could worry about now.
It was their cardinal rule… Leo was all that mattered.
As he tied the rope into a hangman's noose, a memory flashed across his vision. It was of Noah squatting beside their toddler son, singing a rhyme to Leo, teaching the child how to tie his shoelaces.
"In through the rabbit hole, round the tree. Out pops the rabbit and off goes he..."
Noah's gentle voice in Luke's head soothed him. He felt himself slipping into a strange kind of tranquility; like a tethered boat bobbing lightly on the waters of a calm lake. He saw his family in the times where they were the happiest, laughing, playing ball. Noah running alongside Leo's bicycle as the child learned to balance.
He stood on the edge of the cot; and snaked the end of the rope through the wire mesh of the air conditioning unit. He faded so far away from himself now. He performed this act as though he were watching someone else do it. Because, this simply couldn't be happening to him.
The noose slipped easily over his head.
He swallowed.
He closed his eyes.
He pictured his family. All of them.
He stepped off the cot.
That was when the calm ended.
The tightness of the noose was such a shock. His eyes watered. His toes scrapped the floor as his feet saught leverage. The instinct to survive was stronger than he ever imagined, as he desperately clawed at the rope viciously digging into his neck.
He'd never seen colors like the ones he was seeing flash across his vision.