Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 410

410 /471

I stood there in the dark, breathing hard, and I wanted to hunt him down to the ends of the earth. But I had a mask on, and a compound full of girls who needed me, and I had made a promise to myself about the helpless.

"Find him," I ordered my men. "Bring me his head. He cannot have gone far."

Then I had the rest of my men round up the girls. There were seventy two of them in that building, all of them young, and I did not think there was a single one over twenty five. They were brought to me one by one, and I injected each of them with the antidote, and many of them struggled, fought, screamed, because they did not know what I was giving them. Some of them had given up on living entirely, and they did not fight at all, just stood there with dead eyes while I pressed the needle into their arms.

Only when I had injected all seventy two did I explain. "You were poisoned. Hemovax, a slow poison that kept you compliant. The monthly check-ups, the doses, they were never medicine. The injection you just received is the antidote. You are free of it now."

Then I had my men share the money we found in Bryan's room. Millions in cash, divided among all of them.

I gave them a short speech. "Learn to be strong. Learn to defend yourselves, so that no one will ever force you to live a life you do not want. You are free to go and do much better things with your lives."

Many of them broke down. They cried, and they got on their knees, and they thanked me, and I found the crying and the kneeling and the gratitude irritating, so I turned and left.

At the safe house, my men returned with bad news. They had combed the city, and they could not find Bryan.

I stood at the window for a long time, and then I put a prize on his head. "One billion," I said. "To whoever brings me Big Bryan, or leads me to him. Spread the word."

I went home that night, back to the fortress, and the house was quiet, everyone in bed. I was exhausted, more exhausted than I had been in years, and I took a quick shower and got into bed.