Strangulation Point 5

No cache for 3 and 4 yet.

      58 seconds remaining.

        Gus Pesa gripped the envelope and his gun tightly. He was beginning to sweat profusely. Everyone pointed their gun at someone else. They all growled insults in the dim light. His own gun was beginning to feel slippery in his hand. “Hey, shut up!” He shouted.
        Everyone turned to him except Epi. “Listen.” He bean. “Alberto left a message on this envelope.”
        He began to read it again:

You seek to walk
Through walls of chalk
Rather than go around
Those, tightly bound.

Here’s a clue.
To you, the few
There is a world of trouble
Amidst the moral rubble

It’s easy, when boxed in
To fight your toxic kin
Indulge those demons summoned
And the things that shouldn’t be opened.

        “What does that mean?” Hugo was confused.
        “I don’t care much.” Epi interjected. “I want to hear Everard’s explanation for those videos.”
        “which you haven’t even seen.” Hugo retorted. “I think Gus is right. We have to get out of here first then settle things.”
        Ronophe nodded. “Then we need those passwords or the bomb will go off. How long do we have?”
        Sara smiled. “Enough time for you to tell me who you were supposed to kill.”
        “Enough time for Everard to explain to me what he was doing with my mother” Epi shouted.
        “Wait…” Gus pleaded. “Get the codes. Get out…”
        “What’s in the envelope?” Amy asked calmly. “Maybe it’s the answer.”

        35seconds remaining.

        Gus’ hand trembled as he opened the flap up. Inside he found a number of photographs. “Just these.” He said. “There’s a photo, maybe a CCTV cam shot of someone beating a black kid. Hugo?”
        He nodded. “Yes. I’m sorry.”
        Gus continued, feeling crestfallen. “Photos of my daughters with drug barons. Photos of Ronophe with LA mobster Walker Mason. Umm…”
        “Hurry up.” Sara shouted without taking her eyes off of Ronophe.”
        “A photo of Epi’s mum having sex with someone… but, it look more like Epi than Everard.”
        “Rubbish.” Epi turned red. “It is not me. I didn’t… I… I didn’t know it was my mother!”
*
        10 seconds remaining.
*
        “Oh man. You disgust me.” Hugo stepped back and over the boxes. “How?”
        “Stuff that.” Ronophe crouched down next to Everard, who was now staring into space. “We don’t have long left. What are the passwords?”
        Everard snapped out of it. “I know them.”
        He struggled to his feet and with Ronophe’s help walked over to the computer. The green cursor still flashed on the black screen. There were four lines with little white spaces for the passwords. He typed them in quickly. After he had finished he pressed return and staggered down onto the floor.
        “Easy.” He struggled for breath. “Not, really.” He laughed silently as blood spilled onto the floor. “The… the first one… was the dimensions of the room. He… the voice… said times instead of by. So the… answer is 119 839 572. The second one was… a bit harder… but… I got it. He… said that… the victims century wasn’t important… but, he said that added up they were…”
        “So.” Ronophe anticipated him. “If you add all of their statistics together you get a number. Amy here was seventeen. She was born on the thirteenth of June in eighty-nine. That reads 17130689. You have to add the zero in so all three have the same number of digits. Add them together and you get 135 491 983.”
        Everard nodded. “Then…”
        A shot fired. Everard fell back against the computer. He was still. Everyone looked around and saw Epi standing and staring intently. “He knew it all along. The swine… why didn’t he cancel the thing before?”
        “But you didn’t have to shoot him though!” Hugo shouted. “Why did you do that? Everard’s always been a pompous a*s but its no reason to shoot him.”
        Epi turned his gun towards his buddy from training. “Shut up racist. Beating on a black…”
        Hugo saw the gun turning towards him and fired once hitting Epi between the eyes. The gun fell from Epi’s hand as he slumped onto the floor, lifeless. Hugo hesitated for a moment looking at his smoking gun then turned to Gus. “I’m sorry.” Then took his own life.
*
        Ronophe crouched down next to Everard as the ringing from the gunshots still echoed. He placed a finger against his bloodied neck. A faint pulse struggled to be felt. But it was there. Ronophe smiled. “You’ll be ok my friend.” He whispered then turned around.
        “Is this madness over now? Three of us are down already and we all seem to be hiding our bugbears. Drug runner, incest, racism, mental problems and…”
        “And you.” Sara said calmly. “I loved you but you never made a move.”
        “I was too nervous.” He smiled weakly. “And there were too many problems. Just because I’m white and from Canada doesn’t make me automatically rich with a nice house and oodles of confidence.”
        “But it did make you a witness killer, right?” Her voice was beginning rise.”
        Gus dropped the envelope and walked towards them. The floor had become sticky; like the atmosphere. “This place is not good for any of us. We’re all in this together. I did the drug running and customs clearing for Walker Mason. But, I never met him.”
        Ronophe sighed. “I killed witnesses yes. But, they were always gang members. I never killed an innocent.”
        “That don’t make you innocent.” Gus added.
        Sara’s faced twitched a little as her eyes bulged with rage. “You both worked for that slime bag? We are meant to be cops. Cops damn it. You are a disgrace.”
        She took the gun off safety. Ronophe still wasn’t pointing his back at her. Instead it pointed to the ground. All he could think about was that his chances of ever living happily ever after with her were plummeting to such depths that now she wanted to kill him. “What is your sin?” He asked her.
        She looked at Amy and touched her shoulder. “You have two bodies in you. I have two minds in mine. You are the chimera, the fourth password. My sin is that I lied about my past to get onto the police force. I have a multiple personality disorder. It’s amazing what cops don’t notice. But, I was never bent. I always fought the criminals and protected the innocent!”
        “Wait.” Gus stepped even closer. “You are mental nut job? You are no better than us b***h. If there’s one thing I hate then its hypocrites like you and…”
        “You.” She smiled crazily then fired at him.
        As he fell Ronophe levelled his own gun at her. But, she was too quick. From her sitting position she swivelled round and fired off two rounds at him. One hit. The power of the hit sent him flying. As he crashed into the wall he fired indiscriminately.
*
        For a long time there was just pain and darkness. Ronophe was aware of pain in many places but none hurt so much as the gun wound in his shoulder. Not even the lump growing on the back of his head or his flayed palms. As he began to breathe deeply, calm down and look around the dark room he became aware of the sudden silence. All he could hear was the ragged breath of the unconscious Gus next to him. “Amy? Sara? Are you ok?”
        No one replied. The room seemed to be lit solely by the glow of the computer screen. “Amy? Sara? Are you there?”
        Again no reply. He struggled to pull himself up with his good hand. It was then that he felt something on the wall. It protruded out into the room by a few centimetres. “Ah…” he thought to himself. “Light.”
        His hand scrabbled across it and flipped the switch. As the dim light flickered on he saw the switch was bloody. But, he hand was not. He turned around and touched the back of his head. His fingers came away bloodied. “Oh great.” He mumbled.
        Gus continued to breathe. Each breath was ragged. A small pool of blood had formed around his head too. The filthy bricks danced and changed places as he stumbled across the room. Sara lay on her back motionless. He crouched down next to her and closed her eyelids then kissed her forehead. “Sometimes life is just not worth it.”
        Then he turned to Amy. She too lay still but with her eyes already closed. He kissed her forehead too. “You said that I wasn’t meant to save you. You were right. I wanted to save you but look what I did.”
        He stayed still, kneeling, for some time looking at the two ladies. “What do I do now? Four dead. Two dying. 2 living victims and only one good arm.”
        He closed his eyes tightly to fend off some of the pain then checked his radio. There was nothing but static. He tried talking into it. “Officers down. Cannery road…” But there was just empty fuzz.
        Then he remembered that the trap would be sprung if they got the passwords right. Everard had done it. He had worked out all the clues and saved them. So, as some adrenaline pumped into his veins, he pulled himself up and went over to the man, Joe Dans. “This should be easy. The coils should be loose now.”
        He began to pull the steel cords with his good hand. They moved easily. He loosened one around the left hand first. As he tried to tug the one around the man’s neck his head was jerked backwards. Something began to constrict around his neck. “What! Who is this…Alberto?”
        As he neck was pulled backwards he saw the cold face of Dora Pandleson staring at him. “You forgot one password… Sphinx. But you know Sphinxes are not the only stranglers round here.”
        The cord began to tightened even more. He couldn’t breath. His good hand pulled as hard as he could but couldn’t loosen her grip. As the veil of black peace began to descend across his face he saw Joe Dans’ eyes open.
        Dora dropped the cops’ body to the floor. “Useless, all of them. Useless.”
        She then wriggled out of the coils. Once on the floor she went over to her box. She reached into the sand that lined the bottom and slid across a small panel then withdrew a small bag. Next she shut the box up. “Don’t want any more of that gas coming out.” She laughed.
        “Definitely not my dear.” Joe pulled himself free. “I’m touched that Ronophe wanted to rescue me. But, then again he was always the monster slayer amongst them. A good heart but completely useless.”
        Dora opened her bag and pulled out some cosmetics. As she began to remove her make-up Joe reached into the other two boxes and turned small levers inside them. “I’m surprised that no one got the box clue. They wouldn’t have killed themselves if they had kept your box closed.”
        “Right, right.” She removed her wig to reveal short black blonde. Now that the make-up had been removed she looked a lot younger. More like her real age. “Are you going to remove your make-up dear?”
        “Nah, he smiled as he moved from the boxes to the floor space in the middle of the room. “Somehow they all died without ending up on the trapdoor. How lucky is that?”
        “Yeah.” She smiled. “Fate is kind.”
        He stomped on the floor once and the stone began to crumble. The stony shards echoed as they rolled down the staircase. “Your lair and our escape awaits.”
        She stood up and looped her arm through her bag. “I’m ready. Lets go.”
        “First, come here you little nymph.” He glanced at her wild eyes and freckled face then kissed her lips. They were dry but hot. She looked into his flame filled eyes. “This was the most fun I’ve ever had. Thank you.”
        “Anytime my Slovenian babe.” He smiled.
        As they began to walk down the stair in the floor there was a scraping noise and the door opened. It swung open first and slammed into the wall with a thud. Moments later the Police Chief of Monterrey fell down to his knees, keys in hand, panting for breath. “Mighty police chief. You slay me.” Joe laughed.
        “what?” The Chief stared at him. “You were meant to be the victims.”
        “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Dora yawned. “Two innocent broads and a businessman. But it don’t quite work like that.”
        “Then,” He gripped his heart and tried to calm down. “Who are you?”
        “Walker Tyson Mason at your service, Sir.” Mason saluted. “And this is my lovely beau Nida Ceh. Enjoy your death.”
        Before the Chief could respond there was a gun shot and he collapsed to the floor. “You could say.” Alberto Sphingo said as he limped through the door. “That Zeus is dead. Not before the mean gringo tried to off me outside.” He spat on the body.
        Tyson nodded. “Good work Sphingo. You know what to do now. Cover it up then call for back-up.”
        “Right you are.”
        Tyson and Nida then walked down the stairs and into her secret cellar. Once inside they flicked a switch. Soon after the trapdoors which were once hidden beneath the brittle floor were closed. Nida poured a glass of red wine from a small cabinet. As he sipped his wine Tyson began to laugh. “That was just like the movie Reservoir Dogs.”
        “Yeah.” She grinned. “Remember at the end when all the cops came in but it was too late. Funny isn’t it?”


The End

        Everard closed his eyes and lay still after watching them depart. It wasn’t over for him…