“How can I help you, Sir?” he asked in a slow and annoying drawl.
Patton’s glare was the only response he got. Against his better judgment, he opened the door. Without asking, Patton charged in.
“Sir, you can’t just come in. The building is closed!”
Patton turned back to him and grabbed him by the collar of his maroon suit coat. “I don’t give a damn about your hours! My wife was supposed to be home three hours ago! I haven’t heard from her since noon. Now, are you going to help me find her or do I need to stick your Taser up your ass and see how it works from the inside out?”
The man, young and inexperienced at conflict, began to shake and stammer. “Sir… Sir. I don’t know anything about this. Just… let… me… go.”
Patton did so but gave him a little shove in the process.
“Did they teach you how to use that radio or is it just decoration?”
The guard unclipped his radio and pressed the button.
“Anton. Anton we have a situation in the front lobby. Can you come down here please?” A hiss of static punctuated his last words.
There was a crackle over the radio. Apparently this Anton was responding.
“Use proper radio protocol on this net, over.”
The young security guard rolled his eyes at this. “Anton, just please come up here. I have an unauthorized person in the lobby.”
“Will be there in two mikes. Out,” came the response.
He looked at Patton and shrugged his shoulders. Patton rolled his eyes at this inexperienced moron. “That means two minutes,” he told him. “It’s the military way of saying minutes.”
The kid shrugged again and turned away. Just over a minute later, a powerfully built black man descended a short set of stairs and approached Patton.
“Can I help you, Sir?” he asked politely.
Patton held up his phone, which had a picture of Jennifer on the screen. “Yes, I’m looking for my wife,” holding his phone in the security guard’s face.
The second guard looked at the picture. It was obvious to Patton that he recognized her, but he was waiting for the obligatory lie that he didn’t.
“Yeah I’ve seen her before but not today. She usually signs out right at five o’clock.”
Patton nodded. She did sign out right at five because she didn’t want to be in this God-forsaken place for any longer than she had to be.
“So she didn’t sign out today?” Patton asked, feeling the panic beginning to rise.
Anton shook his head. “No, Sir. Like I said, I haven’t seen her today.”
Patton gazed up and saw a surveillance camera. If there was one camera, he figured, there had to be many more. Enough, probably, to cover the entire building. Rather than continue on with these people, Patton said thank you and walked out the door. He briskly walked back to the truck and Frank could tell that something was wrong.
“What’d they say?” he asked Patton.
“She didn’t sign out and the security guard hasn’t seen her all day.”
Patton was driving angry again, tearing down residential streets, headed towards Frank’s house. When Patton turned the last corner, he saw three Blue Creek Security Service vehicles in front of Frank’s house, their lights blaring.
“What the hell?” Frank said, looking at Patton with wide eyes.
Patton wasn’t about to stop and find out what was going on. Instead, he trolled by slowly. Three city vehicles were parked at the curb, but Patton could only see two uniformed city officials. They were outside milling around. That meant that at least one person was inside, looking for Frank or for something inside of Frank’s house. Patton pressed on the gas and sped away from the scene.
“Where are you going?” Frank asked. “Let’s go see what the hell they’re doing in my house!”
Patton ignored him and kept driving. Once he turned the first corner he accelerated and headed for Jennifer’s house. When they came into sight of her house, though, they saw a familiar sight—more city vehicles. Patton pulled over and stopped at the end of the street. They were too far away to be seen, but they were too far away to see what was going on. The two friends looked at each other with two completely different expressions. Frank was scared and confused. Patton was angry and focused.
There was only one more place to go, but Patton figured they had people at his house also. They would have to hole up and wait for dark where Patton could think. Apparently something had set Asher off and had forced his hand. Asher didn’t know that Patton had prepared for this very thing and that he was the wild card.
Jennifer woke up groggy and in unfamiliar surroundings. When she tried to lift her head she saw stars and felt a wave of nausea pass over her. She laid her head back down on the hard pillow and took inventory. She definitely wasn’t at home and if she was at the hospital, doctors and nurses would most likely have been milling around her. No, she definitely wasn’t at the hospital. Rather than lift her head again and run the risk of bringing on another wave of nausea, Jennifer turned her entire body at once. Lying now on her left side, she was able to take in her surroundings. She found that she was on a very small bed that was part of the wall. There was no frame or headboard or footboard to speak of. Across the very small room was a stainless steel sink. To the left of that was a stainless steel toilet. Towards her feet was a desk and a chair. The room couldn’t have been any larger than… a prison cell.
She gasped audibly, stifling it with an open hand. She pushed herself up to a sitting position to get a better view of the room. It was indeed some sort of cell, probably measuring no more than eight feet by eight feet.
“What the hell am I doing here?” she asked herself, subconsciously rubbing her head. There was a large bump… no… two large bumps there. She raised her wrist to her eyes to check the time but saw only bare skin. Of course there was no clock on any of the walls. A small window above the desk let her know that it was night. What she didn’t know was that she was now an inmate in the new prison. Construction started that spring, and while the facility wasn’t completely finished, the offices, the medical facility, and one wing of cells were far enough along that a few dozen prisoners could be housed.
Jennifer went to the small window and looked out. She couldn’t see very far in either direction and the only thing across from her were more cells. Beginning to feel claustrophobic, she walked across the cell to the window. A sliver of sunlight was beginning to break over the eastern horizon. Suddenly she thought of Patton. Some mornings they would wake at daybreak and take the dogs for a walk, or go for a run on the highway above the lake. It had become one of the favorite aspects of her life and the thought of her husband, her being taken away from him and him not knowing where she was, made her cry. She tucked her chin into her chest and watched her tears splatter onto the desktop.
Daybreak found Patton and Frank sleeping in their offices after a long and busy night. They knew that city officials would eventually look for them here, but for now they were safe. Patton parked his truck inside their warehouse so there were no outward signs that they were there. In case they were discovered, Patton had a small stash of weapons and ammunition in his office.
The night before they drove out to Patton’s house and found a familiar scene—four city vehicles. Numbered among them was a large, black Chevrolet SUV. The ominous looking vehicle encouraged Patton to keep driving. He needed to get inside his house, but didn’t want any trouble—at least not yet. A mile past his house, Patton turned up a narrow gravel road. They curved and switch-backed and eventually made their way back towards Patton’s house. After thirty minutes of meandering through the hills in the dark, they crested a rise. Disoriented, Frank finally realized where they were—on a hill about three hundred feet above Patton’s house.