I turned my head away. “What is that?”
“Just water.”
I took a tentative sip. It was cold and refreshing, and then I was gulping as fast as he bothered to pour it.
“Easy, now,” he said. “No need to be so greedy.”
He took the bottle away, and I was panting. I turned my head and could see that there was a lantern on the ground just behind me. It cast a circular dome of light over me, but I struggled to see past the light. Only dark shadows lurked. The ground looked like black gravel. I couldn’t see him.
And the room was completely silent other than the sound of water below me, slowly trickling.
“We’re in some sort of mine.”
“Very good.”
“Are you the man who shot my grandfather?”
“I was sorry about that particular collateral damage, but to answer your question, yes—I shot him.”
I could barely choke out the next word. “Why?”
“I was actually there for Viktor, but I realized I didn’t want the game to end, so I shot your grandfather instead. Tell me, was Viktor enraged? Did he take it personally?”
“This is all about Viktor?”
He hummed a note. “It didn’t start that way.”
I needed to keep him talking. “How did it start?”
“I was hired to oversee the transport of the USB drive by the broker—just to make sure no one interfered. Running into Viktor was only a coincidence. A happy opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”
I tried to look behind me, but I only saw more shadows. “Why do you hate him so much?”
He moved to stand behind me, and he whispered with his lips against my ear, like a lover would. “Because the love of my fucking life left me for him.”
I cowered from him. “Justine.”
I heard the cock of his gun. “Don’t say her fucking name.”
“Okay,” I whispered. “Sorry.”
“Not as sorry as Viktor will be when we are done today.”
“Are you going to kill me?”
He laughed a slow, low laugh. “No, this is where it gets fun.” He lifted the lantern. “Take a look around.”
I sat on an armed wooden chair at the end of a tunnel. With the lantern light, I could see that I sat next to a dark, never-ending abyss. He threw a flare over the edge, and it became a tiny speck of light far below me. Then he threw a second flare across the abyss. It landed on a ledge that was directly across from where our tunnel ended. It looked like the continuation of the tunnel, but its side had been caved in with rocks right near the mouth.
“There used to be a wooden footbridge here, but it’s gone now,” he said, as he adjusted the ropes above me. “The drop next to you is a natural fissure in the rock, worn down by millions of years of water running.”
“What are you doing?”
“Well”—he adjusted another rope above my head—“you’re going to be sitting on this chair, hanging over that abyss with these four ropes holding the chair in midair. The drop is about one hundred feet, which, in case you didn’t know, is about nine stories. When you fall, you will freefall for almost three seconds before you splat on the ground like a watermelon.”
Oh my god.
“You’ll be sitting in this chair, and your hands will be tied to the back. Viktor is going to come along this tunnel because I’m going to create a trail for him with flares.” He shone his flashlight down the tunnel. He pointed his flashlight to the ledge above. “I’m going to be on that ledge with my rifle and my night vision.”
“I don’t understand,” I stuttered.
“It’s very simple. When he arrives, he will be struck with two choices. He can stand here, safe from my bullets, and watch the ropes burn until you drop to your death. Or he can reach out and try and pull you to safety.”
“But then you will shoot him.”
“Obviously. One of you will live—I’ll make sure of that. It will be his choice.”
My voice was shaking so hard I could barely speak. “What do you mean, the ropes are going to burn?”
He smiled at me. “I’ve doused the ropes in a flammable agent. Once he gets here, I’ll light them on fire so he has a finite amount of time to react.”
“He won’t have time to run and get help.”
“Cute and smart. Come on now. Time for us to get set up.” I felt him drag the chair closer to the edge.
“Please don’t,” I begged, terrified of both the height and the darkness. “I’m scared of the dark.”
He laughed. “Isn’t this fun?”
And then he shoved the chair over the edge.
I screamed, and my high-pitched fear echoed around me as the chair violently jerked on the four ropes. I pitched forward, and if my arms hadn’t been tied behind me to the chair, I would have been flung forward off the chair into the depths below.
By the time the chair stopped jerking and came to a stop, dead center over the shaft, I was sobbing uncontrollably.
“Easy, now,” he said. “Time for me to get set up. Start thinking of what you want to say to your boyfriend. I have a feeling he’s going to try and save you.”
I watched as he disappeared down the tunnel, dropping flare lights as he went. And then everything went silent. I hung there. All I could hear was the sound of running water far below and the creaking of the ropes above.
holyfuckholyfuckholyfuck
I was too scared to look down, and then I heard his voice.
Viktor was yelling. “Blaire.”
“Viktor,” I cried. “I’m over here.”
I could hear the sound of his footsteps running.
“Stop! Don’t move,” I screamed when he came around the corner.
He lifted up his hands. “Whoa, Blaire.”
Tears were streaming down my face. “He’s waiting up there for you. You’re here to watch me die.”
“No, that is not going to happen.” He sounded so calm and matter-of-fact.
I decided in that moment that I was going to save Viktor. “He’s going to set the ropes on fire above me. And you’re going to watch me fall to my death.” I could taste my own snotty tears on my lips. “I need you to do something for me.”
“Easy, Blaire.”
“Viktor, listen to me. I need you to shoot me before I fall. I can’t have the last seconds of my life to be me plunging to my death. Save me those few horrible moments.”
“Hang on. I’m coming to get you.”
“He’s going to shoot you if you come into his line of vision. There is no beating this.”
“Okay, okay,” he soothed. “Can you move your hands?”
“They’re tied behind my back.”
He knelt down and started to take something off his back. “Blaire, I need you to become very still. Can you do that for me?”
“I don’t know.”
“Steady breathing—like that yoga pose you like.”
“Corpse pose? But I’m not lying down.”
“I want the pose where you just stay completely still and you breathe very calmly.”
“Okay.”
“Now, flatten your left arm against the chair a bit. Don’t move.”