BLOODBURG Page 15

  Allie bared her teeth in a fake smile and pressed close to Joseph.

  Joseph led her to the last two chairs in the middle row, apart from the other bidders to allow them to speak privately.

  “Something’s not right about him,” Joseph muttered to himself, preoccupied and staring into the distance.

  “About who? Martino?” she replied, furrowing her brow.

  “No. Our new friend, Dr. Smith,” Joseph grumbled.

  “Do you think he’s the one you’re looking for?” Allie whispered.

  “No, but I think he’s working for whoever it is. I got the impression he wasn’t being genuine about his research.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He obviously knows more relating to the wreckage than just about its rare metallic composition.”

  “Do you think the bounty hunter told him?” Allie asked.

  “Maybe. But I think Dr. Smith only revealed just enough to get a good read on us and see if you or I might be who his boss is looking for.”

  “I thought we were convincing,” Allie said in a surprised tone.

  Joseph smiled. “You were amazing, but I get the feeling they already know who we are. I think we’re being set up.”

  Allie gazed cautiously around the room. “Should we leave?”

  “That’s just it.” Joseph’s expression was cold and stoic. “If we leave before the auction begins, we’ll definitely give ourselves away. But if we stay for the whole thing, we might be giving them exactly what they want.”

  “So, what do you want to do?” she asked nervously.

  “We’ve got no choice.” Joseph sighed. “We’ll have to ride it out. Who knows? Maybe something will come to me before it ends.”

  “I hope so,” Allie replied. “Anything I can do?”

  “Just keep an eye on our doctor friend over there.” Joseph nodded toward the front row on the opposite side of the room where Dr. Smith had just sat down. If he leaves, we leave. Got it?”

  “Got it,” she replied confidently as Martino approached the podium.

  “Welcome! Welcome, everyone!” Martino said loudly. “We have many absolutely wonderful items this evening. Let’s get to it.” He motioned to three nude women chained together at the side of the stage. A cold chill ran down Allie’s spine as the click clack of their stiletto heels echoed across the stage floor toward him. “Each of these beauties has a clean bill of health and they are all still virgins. Let’s start the bidding at five hundred thousand!”

  A man dressed in Arabic robes nonchalantly raised his paddle to bid on the group.

  Allie was horrified and she couldn’t stop the impulse that came over her. She grabbed Joseph’s paddle and raised it when Martino asked for a bid of six hundred thousand.

  “We have six!” Martino smiled, looking directly at Allie. “Do I hear seven?”

  The Arab glared at her, raising his paddle once again.

  “Seven! Do I hear eight?” Martino cheered.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Joseph grumbled under his breath.

  “What I can,” Allie snapped through clenched teeth. “Just take it out of my ten million.” Allie raised the paddle once again.

  “Eight! From the lovely lady!” Martino chanted. “Do I hear nine?”

  The Arab leaned over to his companion for a quiet conversation. Seconds later, he glared at Joseph and raised his paddle.

  “Nine hundred thousand!” Martino crowed. “Do I hear a cool one million?”

  Joseph grabbed Allie’s arm gently.

  Allie sighed, understanding she was to stop bidding, and lowered her gaze to the floor.

  “…going once…going twice…sold to bidder number thirteen!” Martino called as the room broke into a polite round of applause.

  Joseph clapped and forced a smile, respectfully bowing toward the Arab. “I know you don’t know much about their culture,” Joseph leaned toward Allie, “but if you do something stupid like that again, I may not be able to stop them from demanding me to hand you over to them to pay for your blatant disrespect.”

  “I’m sorry,” she replied sheepishly. “I was just trying to help.”

  “I understand, but let me handle the bidding.”

  Allie nodded, fighting back tears, not only for offending Joseph, but also for knowing there was nothing she could do to help those poor girls.

  ***

  Most of the auction went as smoothly and quietly as Joseph had hoped it would. He had managed to win the fifty-dollar printing plates and the wreckage from the recently destroyed spaceship. Allie smiled and gave a nod to Dr. Smith. He acknowledged her in return.

  Unexpectedly, Martino announced one last surprise item of immense value up for bid. Joseph shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

  “What’s wrong?” Allie asked.

  “I have no idea what this item is going to be,” he grumbled.

  “I don’t see what the problem is. It’s just one more thing,” she offered.

  “You don’t understand,” he snapped. “The programs for these events are printed weeks in advance, and proper protocol states that nothing is ever auctioned without first being displayed.”

  They watched anxiously as a cart covered with a black velvet cloth was wheeled to the center of the stage.

  “Well, folks!” Martino began. “This little beauty is a late entry that just arrived yesterday. I know we rarely get our hands on something this exclusive, but here it is!” Martino hastily unveiled it, revealing a nuclear warhead.

  The crowd gasped. A few couples bolted from the room.

  “Don’t worry, folks!” Martino laughed. “It’s perfectly safe. Let’s start the bidding at twenty million.”

  “Seriously? It’s safe? Or can that thing still blow up?” Allie whispered loudly as the bid amounts steadily rose higher and higher.

  “Martino would never have allowed it to be brought here unless he knew it had already been disarmed,” Joseph replied coldly. “But it could be made usable again.”

  “That’s insane,” she muttered.

  “Yes, it is.” Joseph grimaced. “I think it’s time we were going, don’t you?”

  Allie nodded and followed Joseph out of the seating area toward the exit. He stopped momentarily to return his paddle to an attendant standing behind the last row of chairs.

  “Thank you,” Joseph said quietly, holding out the paddle as the auction continued behind them.

  The man took it and smiled, noting the 19. He handed two glossy slips of paper to Joseph. “Here are your receipts for your purchases. We hope you’ve had a wonderful time this evening.”

  “It was sensational,” Joseph said. “Please give my regards to Martino and tell him I’ll be in touch.”

  “Of course, sir,” the attendant smiled. “Your items will be waiting for you in the valet parking area. The driver will escort you directly back to the hangar and transfer them to your aircraft.”

  “Excellent.” Joseph smiled, adjusting his glasses and holding his arm out for Allie. “Come, my dear.”

  They headed to the elevator as the room erupted in a loud cheer for the North Korean man who’d won the nuclear warhead for a mere sixty-five million dollars. Once inside, Joseph reached over and softly squeezed Allie’s hand. He smiled, staring deep into her eyes, then muttered something under his breath, which she could only assume was the reflection spell for her ring.

  They continued in silence back through the noisy lobby and casino toward the main doors. They walked outside into a downpour. A driver stood by a limousine, doing his best to hold onto a sign that read BECKEMEYER while the relentless wind threatened to rip it from his hands. Allie grabbed onto her wig, trying desperately to keep it from blowing away in the storm.

  Before they reached the car, Joseph stepped in front of Allie and took off his coat. “Listen closely,” he said as he draped it over her shoulders. “When you get in the car, I want you to immediately get out on t
he other side. I need you to hit the ground face down, and don’t move a muscle. I’ll be right behind you. Got it?”

  “What about the driver? Won’t he notice me when he goes around the car to get in?” Allie asked, now increasingly worried.

  “No. I’ll make sure you’re cloaked, but I need you to stay as low as possible so he won’t see the rain bouncing off you.”

  “Okay.” Allie’s voice shook.

  He smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll be right behind you.”

  Joseph wrapped the coat around her shoulders and then held out his arm to Allie as they dashed toward the limousine. The driver opened the door for them, and Joseph pressed two one-hundred-dollar bills in his hand as he climbed into the back seat of the car after Allie. Instantly, Joseph slid across the back seat and out of the car, covering Allie with his body on the ground beside the car.

  Joseph cloaked himself and Allie, chanting, “Eravio a’polupti.” Suddenly, a swirling pocket of icy air froze the pounding rain into a thick box around them.

  The driver rushed around the front of the car and slid behind the steering wheel. When he pulled the door shut behind him, the limousine exploded into a ball of flames, killing several unfortunate people who were standing too close.

  Allie screamed as the ground below her rumbled from the force of the explosion. The shockwave cracked and split the ice around them.

  Joseph used all his might to push himself up and off her, quickly breaking the ice apart. “We need to move!” he barked, helping her to her feet.

  Allie ignored her fear as she followed Joseph away from the burning limousine.

  A crowd had gathered, gaping and pointing at the flaming vehicle as a group of men tried to extinguish the fire and search for survivors.

  Joseph and Allie reached a fancy sports car on the far side of the lot and ducked behind it. “I think we’re far enough now,” he said, panting from the exertion. “Notice anything strange about our new audience over there?”

  Allie scanned the crowd, trying to catch her breath. The bystanders gawked and pointed at the chaos that raged on, except for a little man in thick glasses who stared directly at her and Joseph. Dr. Smith.

  “Is he the bounty hunter?” Allie asked, dumbfounded that such a meek little man could be a threat to Joseph.

  “Unfortunately, no.” Joseph replied, defeated, as he watched an extremely tall and gangly man approach the doctor.

  The man’s hands, neck, head, and face were covered in strange tattoos. He locked eyes with Joseph and grinned excitedly, pulling a phone from his pocket.

  Instantly, Joseph’s phone rang, and he sighed heavily before finally answering it. “Hello there!” he chirped mockingly. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I think you missed.”

  “No, I don’t think so…Joseph,” the tattooed man spat. “You don’t know how happy I am to meet you at last.”

  “Good for you.” Joseph grimaced. “I wish I could say the same, but you’ve ruined my favorite suit, not to mention some rather priceless items it took me months to acquire.”

  “My sincerest apologies,” he replied sarcastically, leering from ear to ear.

  “Well then,” Joseph said, tilting his head to the side. “I guess I’ll be sending the bill to you, Mister…”

  “Sranx, of the Bristlis Clan,” he boomed proudly as his tattoos glowed a bright red. Joseph instantly recognized it as the onset of a Moklozian suicide ritual.

  “The warhead!” Joseph’s eyes went wide in horror. “It wasn’t disarmed, was it?”

  “No,” he gloated, the tattoos glowing brighter and brighter, sizzling the Moklozian’s skin. “And now, our deaths will earn my soul a place at the side of Contabesko Himself!” he shouted, pressing a button on his phone to activate the detonation sequence on the warhead.

  “Allie, come on!” Joseph shouted as he ran over to a very expensive yellow supercar and opened the door, quickly jumping inside. He pulled the key out from under the visor and jammed it into the ignition.

  Allie barely got both feet into the car and shut the door before Joseph put the car in reverse, slamming into the car behind them. He pushed the gas pedal to the floor, forcing the car behind them backward just far enough to be able to turn and move out. He quickly shoved the car into gear and smashed his way through the narrow open space between the rows of parked cars. Joseph pushed the engine as hard as he could until they finally reached the road to the other side of the terminal near the runway.

  “Call Marcus!” Joseph yelled, tossing his phone at Allie. “Put it on speakerphone!”

  “Yes?” Marcus answered.

  “Get the plane ready for takeoff! Now!” Joseph barked, barely missing a light pole when the back tires lost traction on the wet pavement.

  “All planes have been grounded because of the stor—”

  “Just do it!” Joseph interrupted.

  “Got it,” Marcus acknowledged as he entered the cockpit, patching Joseph’s phone call through the speaker system. “Where should I pick you up?” he asked, starting the engines and taxiing the plane forward.

  “There’s not enough time!” Joseph shouted as he struggled to keep the car from swerving off the roadway. “The bastard brought a nuclear warhead to try and kill me. The good news is he had to be certain it was me before he activated the detonation sequence. The bad news is that we have less than four minutes before it explodes. You need to get the plane off this island before the whole place goes up.”

  “I can’t just leave you here,” Marcus argued.

  “Hang on!” Joseph howled, jerking the wheel to the left, sending the car skidding over a long patch of grass and crashing through a barbed-wire fence on the outer edge of the flight line.

  Allie screamed as large chunks of the front of the car tore off with the fence, cracking the windshield as it barreled over the top of the car.

  “We should be able to get into position on the runway behind you in a little under two minutes. Begin your ascent, but I need you to keep the plane level ten feet off the ground.”

  “You’re going to climb up through the landing gear?” Marcus asked, almost panicked.

  “Yes,” Joseph replied calmly. “But if we can’t make it before you reach the end of the runway, just keep going. Understand?”

  Marcus was silent.

  “Is that understood, Marcus?”

  “Yes,” he replied somberly before Joseph hung up.

  Moments later, the car slid around the front corner of the terminal near the middle of the airstrip. Joseph and Allie saw the rear of the plane as it made one final U-turn onto the runway before gaining speed through the driving rain.

  Joseph pushed the accelerator to over one hundred miles an hour, trying to maintain control of the vehicle as he raced onto the runway.

  From the cockpit, Marcus watched as Joseph’s car sped directly toward him, nearly hydroplaning as it swerved to avoid colliding with the landing gear beneath the left wing.

  When the car cleared the back of the plane, Joseph slammed on the breaks, sliding sideways and nearly spinning a full one eighty before skidding to a complete stop on the back end of the runway.

  “Here we go,” Joseph said, jamming the gas pedal to the floor. Within seconds, the car quickly closed the gap between him and Marcus.

  “How are we going to reach the plane?” Allie shouted, gripping the dashboard with white knuckles, struggling to keep her nerves under control.

  “Cho’nasta vianalli!” Joseph shouted, whipping his hand off the steering wheel and punching the roof, detaching it from the frame of the car in a blinding flash of red.

  Allie felt a strong gust of warm, wet air against her face and neck as the wig blew off her head. She watched nervously while Joseph struggled to steady the vehicle as he steered it behind the plane’s right tires.

  “Tomatcha de’Bratinati!” he yelled, pointing to the open wheel well directly above them.

  Allie watched in amazemen
t as several thick vines appeared and snaked their way down to the car.

  “Climb up!” Joseph instructed.

  Without hesitation, Allie grabbed onto the vines and started to climb as fast as she could, hoisting herself up with all her strength until she finally reached the wheel well.

  Joseph was relieved to see she’d made it, but he suddenly realized the plane had reached the end of the runway and was now slowly beginning its ascent. His only option was to let go of the wheel and jump onto the vines. As he jumped, the car careened out of control and skidded across the pavement, crashing into a large barrier. He latched onto the vines and sighed, prematurely believing he was out of danger, when the car exploded beneath him, sending a sizeable piece of shrapnel into his left calf. Joseph howled in pain, his grip faltering. Gritting his teeth through the agony, he pulled himself up the vines, finally collapsing into the wheel well where Allie waited for him.

  “Oh my God, we did it!” Allie shouted, throwing her arms around Joseph’s neck.

  “Hang on! We’re still exposed out here!” he barked, shoving her aside as he quickly pushed open a small service panel leading into the cargo hold. They crawled in, and Joseph slammed the panel shut and shuffled over to the intercom. “Hit it, Marcus! Go! Go! Go!”

  Marcus pushed the throttle forward. Within moments of reaching a safe altitude, the cockpit was flooded with a blinding light as the warhead exploded into a large mushroom cloud of fire and smoke, destroying the island.

  The shockwave from the explosion engulfed the plane, jolting it and setting off every alarm in the cockpit. Allie and Joseph slammed against the wall of the cargo hold as both engines cut out from the blast, the plane diving toward the ocean.

  Marcus fought to regain control of the aircraft as the ocean waves approached. His muscles burned as he steadied the steering wheel, willing the engines to fire.

  “Come on, come on!” Marcus growled as the altimeter sped toward zero until finally, the engines sparked back to life. He pulled back as hard as he could on the steering wheel and pushed the throttle forward, giving the plane just enough thrust to pull out of the nose dive and level off.