She filtered into Tonic along with some of the late-lunch crowd. She saw him in the corner, so she ordered a drink and then walked over to his tiny, rustic province.
“Well, if it isn’t Mr. Galleani. How are you?” She smiled as she sat down on the couch opposite of him.
“I have to say, I’m feeling pretty good.”
“How long’ve you been here?”
“I don’t know; several hours, maybe.”
“Would you mind some company for a while? I can’t stay long.”
“Not at all. Say, are you hungry? I was just about to order something.”
“You must be a mind reader; I’m famished.”
William smiled at her and motioned for the waitress. They ordered Thai chicken satay and char Sui chicken pizza, and he instructed her to keep the drinks coming.
As the waitress left, the woman leaned across the coffee table and whispered, “I see you took my advice after all.”
“What advice?”
“Don’t be coy with me, William Galleani; you know exactly what I mean.”
“I suppose I did. Isn’t it such a beautiful disaster?”
“Only if it moves the pieces on the board closer to where we want them. Otherwise, I think it’s dreadful.”
“Maybe so, but it’s just a bunch of hick cowboys anyway. It’s not like they’re going to be on our side. So in that respect, sooner or later we’d’ve had to deal with them.”
“That’s a good point.”
The waitress returned with their food and drinks and the conversation drifted into a lull while they ate. The food was extraordinary, and they relished it.
“So,” she said, “what’s next?”
“Well, I guess I have to wait until I hear from my new friend again before I plan my next move.”
“Mr. Arayo?”
“Yeah, I don’t have any way to contact him, and I imagine that’s how he’s going to play the game. Until then, I guess it’s more of the same; I visit a few cities and try to wreak as much havoc as possible. Keep the fires burning, so to speak.”
“When he does contact you, what then?”
“Something in Los Angeles, probably. I absolutely hate the west coast. I don’t know if it will be nuclear though; they’ll be on the lookout for that. Maybe biological, I haven’t decided on the specifics yet.”
She laughed scornfully, “So you’re next target will be because you have a particular antipathy for a geographical region? Isn’t that elementary? This is supposed to be business, not petty personal distastes.”
He scowled at her and retorted, “Hey, I’m the one sticking my neck out. I’ll decide what’s petty and what isn’t.”
“William, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Right; excuse me for a minute.”
She watched him as he stumbled towards the restroom and disappeared around the corner. She waited for several seconds before retrieving the tiny vial from her purse. She emptied its contents into his drink and quietly slipped out of the bar. When he finally reemerged, she was gone. Good, he thought to himself, glad you got the point. He sat back down on the couch and reached for his glass of Guinness.
***
“William, wake up. Wake up. We’re closing; you’ve got to go home, dear.”
He finally opened his eyes and stared up at the blur that he assumed was the bartender. His head was pounding and the room was spinning.
“What?”
“It’s closing time; you’ve got to go, sweetie. Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, I think; would you mind helping me up?”
He stumbled and nearly fell as she helped him to his feet. The spinning only got worse as he stood and looked around. His head was pounding so hard he could scarcely think.
“Are you sure you’re alright? Do you need me to call you a cab?”
No, I’ll be alright; I just need to get home and sleep it off. It’s only a few blocks.
“You must be having an off night, babe. You haven’t had anything to drink in hours. I didn’t even realize you were still here until I started cleaning up the place.”
William groaned and rubbed his head as he slowly made his way to the door. He did not want to talk anymore; it only hurt his head to speak. He just wanted to go home. The bartender helped him to the door and watched him stumble off into the night.
He had barely staggered a block east down G Street before the city began to spin too violently for him to stand. William dropped to his knees and tried to wrest himself from the sickening feeling. He crawled to the steps of The United Church and grasped the railing to steady himself. He could feel himself getting sick as his mouth began to salivate. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths to help ward it off.
He heard a faint whistle, like a bird, somewhere in the distant darkness. He tried to ignore the sound and focus on his breathing, but it only grew louder. He suddenly felt a strong sense of a presence near him. The deep, bass tone of the man’s voice startled him.
“Well hello, little hummingbird. F eeling sick?”
As William cautiously cracked his eyelids to peer up at the man, darkness suddenly enshrouded him. He was jerked off the steps and carried over someone’s back to a vehicle not far away. The air was expelled from his lungs as he landed hard in the floor of the van. He curled into a ball and struggled to breathe, but his lungs refused him. He could hear several men laughing as the engine roared and the tires squealed on the pavement beneath him.
The sickness overwhelmed him and he retched in the hood that was still over his head. He was too terrified to remove it, much less utter a word. Instead, he rolled around in the back of the van. The smell only made him feel sicker, but there was nothing left in his stomach to purge.
The vehicle turned so often, he had no idea which direction they were taking him. He felt a sharp prick in his arm and tried to recoil, but a firm hand held him in place. The muffled voices in the vehicle grew distant and his eyes became heavier by the moment. William finally relented to the drug’s effects.
***
William awoke in a tiny, concrete cell void of anything. The floors sloped gently to a small grate in the center of the cube. The room was too small for him to stretch out completely, so he curled into a ball. It was cold, so cold. As he rubbed his arms with his hands to warm himself, he realized he was not wearing his shirt. He ran his hands down his body and found that he was wearing nothing but his briefs. His head still throbbed, though not as painfully as before. William had no idea how long he had been there before he had awoken.
He had never been in a room so dark and quiet. The vacuous cell seemed as if it was beyond space and time. William tried to count off the seconds as they passed, but before he could even reach thirty he felt as if he was going mad. He resigned to lying motionless on the floor.
He did not know if he had been in the cell for hours or days when the light finally came on. The illumination from the fluorescent tubes was unnatural and uncomfortable. The light was too bright for his eyes, so he squinted until they could adjust, but they never did. Immediately after the lights assaulted his eyes, a low hum to assail his ears.
He heard the revolting sound of steel scraping against steel as a narrow plate at the floor level of the cell’s door slid open. A long, thin knife clattered loudly on the concrete as it was tossed through the opening. William recoiled as he heard the same deep voice as before.