Nick just stood there. He had never defied authority before, but his growing concern for Kim’s wellbeing began to push his timidity aside. Walking into Quentin’s room, he shook his head to clear out the remaining cobwebs and began to mentally gird himself for more.
Quentin had slipped on a pair of slacks and was busy buttoning his shirt. He gave a silent curse upon realizing they had taken all his gear to an unknown location, so he pulled out the walkie-talkie from the still stunned security guard’s belt and clipped it to his waistband.
“Let’s go find your daughter,” the tabloid reporter said.
39
WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT out, Kazimir Morgenstern immediately knew what had just happened. Despite the distraction of a pounding hangover, he managed to put his suit back on and began to make his way down the stairs and into the lobby of the hotel. A few couples and families fearfully milled about, and the overwhelmed hotel staff were trying their best to calm them.
Taylor Erskine was there, waiting for him by the main entrance. “I’ve called for an electric cart to bring you to the helipad. It should be here within the next fifteen minutes.”
Kazimir looked at him, quiet resignation in his eyes. “We can’t wait for it. Take me to the helicopter, now.”
“This way, sir,”
The moment they walked out into the hotel’s front driveway, the two of them were shocked to encounter a small group of casually dressed people waving flashlights, lighted candles, and pro-environmental banners standing just outside. One of the men in the crowd started clapping his hands and the rest of the group began chanting as one, repeating the same phrase over and over.
“Morgenstern! Morgenstern! The king of bribery and corruption!”
Kazimir was taken aback, staggering sideways. “W-who are these people?”
Erskine brought the walkie-talkie up to his mouth. “I need a team to disperse and arrest some protestors. Main lobby entrance. Now.”
The same local man who had started the clapping stepped forward and pointed at Kazimir. He wore a shirt with a red hammer and sickle. “There he is! The corrupt billionaire! In the flesh!”
A few others in the crowd began jeering while the rest continued their chant, pointing their cheaply-made flashlights in an attempt to shine a spotlight on the head of the Morgenstern Group. Kazimir could only wince as he held his arms up to try to shield his eyes from the blinding lights.
Erskine drew his gun, eliciting gasps from several resort guests who had walked out into the driveway to try and find out what the fuss was about. “You are all illegal trespassers here! Put those flashlights down and get on your knees! You’re all under arrest.”
“You can’t arrest us, we are locals here,” a woman protestor said to him. “These are our islands!”
“Foreign devil. Go back to where you came from,” said another in the crowd.
Erskine was about to point his gun at them when an ear-piercing scream silenced the cacophony. Everyone turned to look at a woman in a bright robe running towards the hotel entrance. Erskine recognized her as the wife of a prominent Bollywood entertainment mogul, and one of the invited guests for the evening’s grand opening.
When she got closer, everyone gasped. The woman’s flowing dress was covered in bloodstains and the tears ran like rivers down her pudgy cheeks.
“What happened, dear sister?” one of the protestors asked.
The woman knelt down on the sandy ground, her shrill voice bordering on hysteria. “My husband. Sanjay. Something came out from behind the trees and tore him apart!”
Kazimir needed no further prodding. He began to push himself past the ever-growing crowd of protesters and resort guests. “Let me through.”
The clapping man grabbed him by his elbow. “You are staying here!”
Erskine ran up to them and brought the butt of his gun down on the side of the clapping man’s head. As the protestor went down Erskine fired two shots into the air, causing the crowd to panic and disperse in all directions.
Kazimir continued to quickly make his way down the concrete path leading towards the airstrip. It would take a bit of time, but he felt it was better than waiting. His worst fears had been realized, and he knew that Proteus had somehow made it to the resort area.
Erskine trotted alongside him, waving the pistol at anyone who attempted to bar their way. His walkie-talkie continued to squawk as his men began to find more corpses. The nearby sounds of gunfire were unnerving, but his loyalty stayed intact.
By the time they had made it halfway to the helipad, Kazimir was already out of breath and could barely keep up the pace as his right knee began to buckle. Erskine held him by the elbow as they both continued on, the deep shadows around them heralding danger.
As they got close to a cluster of small buildings, they could hear the whine of the helicopter’s rotors. The aircraft’s navigational lights could be discerned, their glow faintly reflected upwards into the night sky.
Round another bend and I’ll be at the helipad, Kazimir thought. He was already thinking about what needed to be done when he got back to the mainland when he heard a noise somewhere to his left.
The blockhouses surrounding the helipad had no lights on, and the maze of darkness around them had suddenly become a place of unseen danger. Erskine could only realize how stupid he was for not bringing a flashlight along. Now they had to navigate around large shadowy areas, perfect hiding places for whatever was out there.
Kazimir was not to be denied. His physical exhaustion partly abated the gnawing fear at the back of his mind, and he relentlessly moved down the path leading to the helipad. The only thing that mattered was survival, and he focused on that single-mindedly.
Erskine remembered he still had his smartphone, and every new model these days had a flashlight app. Pulling out the device from his jacket, he quickly thumbed the screen and turned it on, casting much-needed illumination at the shadows around them.
As he held the flashlight to his left, just behind his boss’s face, the dim light from the phone shone over a pair of yellow eyes with black pupils. Erskine shouted out a warning as he leveled the gun and fired, but the ghastly apparition had suddenly gone away, back into the inky blackness around them.
Kazimir sensed the beast was giving him a choice, and he took it. Using all the weight he could muster, he lowered his shoulders and pushed Erskine off the sandy path.
The security chief cried out in surprise as he fell sideways while rolling onto the ground. The sudden, unexpected push had thrown him into the darkened side of a warehouse, and Erskine had dropped the phone and the gun while trying to stop his fall.
Kazimir kept running until he could clearly see the helicopter up ahead. He heard Erskine’s screams behind him as he made it into the field of lights the rotary bladed aircraft was emitting while it still sat on the helipad, and he didn’t bother to look back.
40
VAIKOM MENON STILL carried the foot-long industrial wrench he had found inside the power plant. Using that and the wire cutter in his shoulder bag, he was breaking open and destroying every electrical fuse box he stumbled across. The one time he encountered a pair of security guards he thought they would arrest him for sure, but the two uniformed men had a look of terror in their eyes as they ran past him and out into the darkened grounds, the beams of their flashlights pointing in every conceivable direction.
Expecting a wave of insults and forcible arrests during the protest, Vaikom had been taken by surprise when he heard the screaming not long after he had cut off the main power. He ran over to the twilit pavilion, only to find it devoid of people. The trays of food were untouched and sparkling champagne bottles remained unopened in their ice baths. Even the band instruments had been left behind on the center stage.