Flight 12

Flight 12 – a serial novel by Travis Creel

CHAPTER 21: DISRUPTIONS

Previously, on the surface:

• Dai, out for an early-morning wank in a known-to-be-safe area, nonetheless encounters an orange dodecagon and is taken. Like the others, he has disappeared on his birthday.

• When searching for Dai, Seth and Harry hear a helicopter overhead, giving them hope of rescue.

• Jordan and Miles arrive on that helicopter, and are startled when Sean, after disabling some kind of tracking device, leaves, warning them that Stimulever may search for them. Underground:

• Ian requests that Stan's castration, scheduled for December 11, be cancelled or postponed. Hamish, unconvinced of Ian's loyalty, threatens to geld Ian instead. The other left-siders, including Al, Theo and Piers, face the same fate at some point.

• A humiliated Leo, anxious to escape, witnesses Percy entering the Egress Room, from which transportation to the surface is possible; he is unaware that Ian has seen him doing so, or that Ian has learned the code Percy used to gain access to the room.

In Switzerland:

• The Stimulever board, noting Miles and Jordan's absence from Alphaworld, sends a board member, Germán, to Aruba to confirm that Sean has taken them to Betaworld, and, once there, discreetly done away with them, eliminating a threat to The Project.

In flashbacks:

• Years ago, Seth – then a married man – had a daytime sexual encounter with Sean, after which he fell asleep, which he described as `the worst mistake of my life'.

• • • • • • • • SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8 * * * * * * * *

ST. MORITZ, SWITZERLAND – JESÚS

• (on the phone) So, Germán, what do you have to report?

• (Germán) Got here early this morning. There is no record of either Murdock or King at their hotel in Alphaworld. In Betaworld I spoke to the hotel clerk and confirmed that both arrived here Thursday the 6th and have not checked out. However, I was able to penetrate their hotel rooms, which were empty and the beds unslept in.

• Consistent with Sean having disposed of them after taking them to Betaworld.

• The hotel has no record of Sean, but he may have used an alias. Who knows, he may be back in Alphaworld and en route to Zürich by now. I can't confirm that he's terminated Murdock and King.

• Okay, Germán. Keep poking around. Show the bellboys and maids pictures of Sean, see if anyone recognizes him. If you turn up nothing by tomorrow, come on home.

• Got it, chief.

ORANJESTAD, ARUBA – SEAN

They expected me to have killed Jordan and Miles. I didn't. Optimally, Jesús would have no news of them and I could tell him I dispatched them in Betaworld. But more likely, Hamish would discover them – or already has – and would report it to Jesús. My story would be that I figured Hamish would do the job for me, and, with the bodies on an island that didn't exist in Alphaworld, there would be no trace. If he didn't, well, they were still trapped in Betaworld, and thus no threat.

But Sean, Jesús would say, didn't you realize that introducing an unplanned element into the environment would throw off the physics? Gosh, no, Jesús, that never occurred to me! Physics is not my thing.

Of course it occurred to me. I doubted that their mere presence would cripple The Project, but it would throw Switzerland a curve and might disrupt things if they didn't make the right adjustments. And I was all about disruption.

If Jordan and Miles were caught, I had little hope for their survival. That would cause me regret: Miles because he had faithfully played my fool, believing I was in love with him. Jordan because he was hot; I wanted to spend more time with him – in a horizontal position without benefit of clothing. It would be sad to see him go, so it was just as well that I would not be present to witness it.

On the other hand, maybe they could escape detection for long enough to disrupt The Project and emerge from it whole.

SOMEWHERE ON THE ISLAND – JORDAN

Having slept overnight in the woods, we continued north, finding no sign of Augie or Vic – or Stimulever. Sean had advised us to avoid the west side of the island, as that was the most likely place that they would be looking for us, if they were indeed looking for us. We stuck to the woods, avoiding the beach, where we would be exposed.

And then we saw something strange. Very strange. The first evidence of human presence we had seen on the island. It was a slightly-raised slab of granite, almost circular but with edges that were straight lines. I counted twelve sides. It was about a dozen feet across and sort of a teal color.

Miles and I stopped to admire it. It was so smooth and polished, like a modern tombstone. It seemed like some kind of oversized talisman, like it had some mystical importance; there was something spiritual about it, like it was calling out to us. Miles seemed particularly affected, and took the moment to put his arm around my shoulder and hug me.

Who had made this – and why? Was it part of some giant display of public art? Whatever it was, I approved.

And we moved on.

STIMULEVER BOARD – ST. MORITZ, SWITZERLAND - JESÚS

• (Ari) Hamish just transmitted. Someone's on the island.

• Details.

• A sensor detected vibrations at the south end of the island. Hamish sent Percy up to investigate and he found nothing. The sensor looked like it had shorted out, so he thought it was a false alarm and they didn't report it initially. However, they just got a positive hit from the teal portal. Two bodies.

• Murdock and King?

• I think so. The teal is too far from the Tower for it to be the Twelve. The vibrations could have come from a chopper; Sean can fly a chopper.

• I presume Percy found no chopper. Sean could have dumped them there, figuring they were out of the way, or that Hamish would capture and execute them.

• Exactly what he should do.

• Not yet. It might be more of a disruption if they go underground.

• What if they reach the Tower and connect with the Twelve?

• That may cause a problem – or not. But their presence on the island will probably alter the calculations. Get Thibaut in here – Dolph as well.

• I still think they should be terminated, Jesús.

• You always do, Ari.

THE DORMITORY – PAUL

I had just returned from a session with Anthony. He fucked me hard, then planted fifty swats on my ass with a fraternity paddle. I was sore inside and out. I still didn't understand what he was doing here – how could a guy who was my high school classmate back in Richmond be here with me now?

After he fucked me that first time at his home when I was sixteen, there were more times. He was always extorting me, threatening to send pictures of me to my mom. Every time my mom had a late `meeting' – which, Anthony explained, meant that she was at a motel with his dad – he drove me to his house where we had sex, for which he always insisted I wear a jockstrap and nothing else. How's that for irony – now I'm imprisoned by a jockstrap I can't remove.

And then Dai came. Dai, who I wish was fucking me instead of Anthony. Dai, Dai, sexy Dai. I wanted him. I wanted him to fill my bowels with his seed. Considering what he was going through, he probably had no seed left. For while the lieutenants focused their attention on my ass, for Dai it was his dick.

FUCK ROOM B – DAI

I'd arrived in a pitch black space yesterday. When I came to, there was a cage around my genitals. Despite having spewed what felt like gallons onto the giant orange phallus at the dodecagon, I was horny.

They came for me, blindfolded me, took me to another room, laid me face-up on a table, and released my cock from the cage. It sprang into action, and as soon as it was hard, I felt them put something else on it, something both metallic and soft at the same time – however that was possible.

It started sliding up and down my cock, sending my balls into high gear. It was jerking me off, and instantly I grew more and more excited and unleashed a gusher sooner than I ever would have expected. And then I felt stimulation in my balls, and I grew hard again. And it started jerking me off again.

I knew what was happening – I was being milked.

As I was being manipulated toward my second orgasm, I felt a weight. Someone had climbed up on the table, above me, and soon a cock was pressing against my lips.

• Open your mouth, boy. No reason why your cock should be the only one to lose its load.

The member that penetrated my mouth was large and uncut. He pushed down my throat to make me gag, but my cock was so stimulated that I didn't even mind. Despite my initiation by the Mayers at Stanford, I had spent most of my gay life on top, and preferred to have my own cock serviced than doing the sucking myself, so I was not as expert at bringing him off as I would have wanted my own partners to be. But after a while, I truly got into it, urged on by the surges in my balls, and we managed that magic moment of simultaneous orgasms.

A second cock replaced the first, and the machine (for that was what it was) continued to milk me. This orgasm took longer and I began to feel pain as my cock felt like it had nothing left to give. And yet it gave, just as the man filling my mouth gave generously to me and I swallowed his milky-white discharge.

I was not done. A third cock, and then a fourth pushed past my teeth and as the number grew I got more and more skilled at servicing them, even as my own cock was now being pulled so hard it felt like torture. My cock was in pain from being machine-sucked so hard when I had nothing left to give. Me, who always had the world's most voluminous output, had been milked dry – and then some.

After the fourth man came in my mouth – and my cock spewed for the fifth time (a pitifully small amount), the blindfold was released.

I gasped. The four men who had just raped my mouth were the Mayer brothers. The very men who had inaugurated my sex life, in a tattoo parlor.

And then all four of them simultaneously pissed on my face.

THE DORMITORY – PAUL

• I can get us out of here.

• Leo, what are you talking about?

• I know how to get to the surface.

• How?

• I saw the flight attendant – that Percy – go into a room where there was a pole and he slid up it, like sliding down a firepole except backwards. He was going to the surface, I know he was.

• Is the room unlocked?

• No. There's a code.

• And of course Percy told you the code.

• He did say it out loud but he went too fast. We'll have to get it from him.

• How are you going to do that?

• We'll kidnap him and force him to give it to us.

• Leo, that's a stupid plan. Number one, he won't. Number two, how are you going to kidnap Percy with all these lieutenants around? Number three, what's going to happen when we get caught?

• What can they do that they haven't done already?

• Kill us.

• They're not going to kill us. If they wanted to kill us, they would have done it already. No, they want us down here – all of us. They're going to bring down everyone else, all twelve of us, I know it. On our birthdays. Something's going on, Paul, something's going to happen once they have us all down here.

• They might kill us then.

• Which is why we need to escape before they do. The last of our birthdays is on the 31st, which is twenty-three days from now. I don't know about you, but I'm not putting up with this shit for twenty-three more days. You're right, though, we need more forces. We have to recruit others. Dai, Lucas –

• Lucas is on their side.

• Yeah, fuck Lucas. But we'll have to –

• (a new voice) What do you mean, fuck Lucas? Lucas does the fucking around here, understood?

Yeah, it was Lucas, who had just entered the room, his rod parallel to the floor and stiff.

• (Lucas) I'm not on their side. I'm on my side. I'm on the fuck-who-I-want-when-I-want side. And right now I want to fuck Paul.

I had just come from a rather vigorous encounter with Anthony – the last thing I wanted at the moment was another cock up my ass. But there was little hope in dissuading Lucas when he had his mind – and his penis – set on something.

• (Lucas) Come on, Jockstrap. Let's party!

• Lucas, can we do this some other time? I'm kinda sore from –

• (Lucas) Sore? Are you a sore loser? Because you are a loser, that's plenty obvious. You want me to fuck Leo instead?

• (Leo) You did me this morning. It's Paul's turn.

• (another new voice) Paul's turn for what?

• (Lucas) Oh, hello, Jap Boy. You're looking rather limp. Have fun at the milking station?

• (Dai) Shove it, Lucas.

• (Lucas) That's exactly what I'm going to do. Right up Paul's pussy.

• Lucas, please, I've been fucked so often today.

• (Lucas) Then one more won't matter much, will it.

• (Dai) Leave him alone.

• (Lucas) Whoa, look at the kamikaze pilot. Acting tough for someone six inches shorter and fifty pounds lighter than me.

• (Dai) Just – leave him alone.

• (Lucas) Or . . . what?

• (Dai) Or . . . do me instead.

• Dai, you don't have to –

• (Dai) No, serious. You get fucked six ways from Sunday and they leave my ass alone. All they want is to drain my cock. Take my ass, Lucas.

• (Lucas) Slant-eyes, I might just take you up on that.

And in seconds the `might' turned into reality. Lucas pounced and forced Dai to the floor. Before I knew it, he was splitting Dai's ass with his powerful tool and I watched Lucas's heaving buttocks as he forced himself in and out of my best friend's shapely rump.

My best friend. Who else would have done this for me? I felt so humble. I felt so valued at the same time. I realized at that moment that Dai was more than my best friend. I was falling in love with him.

UNDERGROUND – IAN

I was falling in love with him. There was no denying it. I was in love with Stan. Why else would I have risked going to Percy to try to spare him from castration? That effort had backfired in a major way – and now Hamish was suspicious of my motives, and had demanded proof of my loyalty, threatening to substitute me for Stan on his scheduled castration date, three days away.

Not that I thought that Hamish would take off my nuts. I was 90% sure it was a bluff. But only 90%. That remaining 10% made it not worth risking.

But finding Percy's route to the surface gave me an idea. Of course, the first idea – now that I had the code for `odd days' – had been to grab Stan and head to the surface.

The idea was satisfying, the pragmatics problematic. Once we got to the surface, then what? How did we get off the island and out of Hamish's reach? The very fact that we tried to escape would be all the evidence Hamish needed that I was disloyal. My balls would be chopped off for sure, to be followed by my head. I don't mean that literally – Hamish had more diabolical methods in his arsenal than a quick, painless decapitation. My end – and Stan's – would be gruesome and slow.

No, knowing the escape route was useful information. But I would not use it to escape.

ON THE ISLAND'S EAST SIDE – JORDAN

Afternoon of our second day on the island. No sight of anything or anyone, other than that weirdly beautiful teal shape in the ground. Fortunately, we found plenty of fruit along the way, with enough juice in them to keep us hydrated.

We had reached a point where we could see the edge of the forest. There was an open area, like a meadow. Miles suggested we go over there – we could move faster without having to pick our way around trees and fallen branches, and if Augie and Vic were anywhere around, we wouldn't see them in the woods.

It was a risk, but I was increasingly convinced that Stimulever was not out searching for us, and I was tired of the slow progress we were making, so I agreed.

When we did, we saw another strange thing. The meadow was all full of tall grass, the kind that came up to your waist or so. But fifty yards away was an area where the grass had been totally cut, in the shape of a semi-circle. And at the middle of the straight edge – the diameter of the semi-circle – there was a large black object, taller than either of us by several inches.

Miles started to laugh. "It's a penis! It's a freaking penis!"

Indeed it was. This was the second indication we had that there was a human presence on the island. And that human presence might be Stimulever.

• Let's not go near it.

• Don't you want to touch the penis? I mean, it's a penis as tall as either of us.

• And that's . . . not normal, Miles. We're in this weird Betaworld, and maybe a giant penis in the middle of a meadow is normal in Betaworld, but until we get a better sense of where we are and what this is, I think we need to stay clear of it.

• . . . Hmmm. Well, girl, you just may have a point there. Sure is beautiful, though, isn't it? I mean it's like the perfect model of a giant dildo.

• A dildo for an elephant. . . . Miles.

• Yeah?

• Do you see that?

• Do I see what?

• That. Over there. It's like something bright over the tops of the trees.

• Oh. Hey, yeah.

• It's like orangy – no, it's more than one color, kinda hard to tell.

• But not a natural object.

• I think we need to go there.

• It could be Stimulever.

• Yeah, and it could be Augie. We're heading to the north end of the island anyway. Let's check it out – we'll be careful, but let's try to get there before nightfall.

• Agreed.

AL'S CELL – AL

• You know a way out of here, Leo?

• I do. All I need is a code. Then I can gain access to a room that leads to the surface.

• So how are you going to get the code?

• Percy has the code. We kidnap him and force him to give it to us.

• Do you think he would?

• He will if we threaten to kill him. We don't need a weapon, we could strangle him. We show him we mean business by starting to strangle him, and then when he sees that we could really kill him – he'll give us the code. I mean wouldn't you, if it meant saving your life?

• I guess. But – how are you going to kidnap him?

• We need a bunch of guys. I've got three from the right side of the plane – at least, I think I do – but I need three or four more from your side. Do you have anyone to suggest?

• Yeah. This guy Stan – I was captured with him. And two strong guys named Piers and Theo, I think they'd go for getting out of here.

PIERS'S CELL – PIERS

• But there's lieutenants all over the place, Leo. They'll protect him.

• Yeah, where's yours now?

• I'm not sure – I guess at lunch.

• Exactly. They have a routine, Piers. Every day between one and two the lieutenants aren't around. But Percy is. I've seen him in the corridors. Unless he's with Hamish, he's unprotected. We time it right, we can grab him without any lieutenants around.

THEO'S CELL – THEO

• Is Piers doing this?

• Yeah, I've got him, plus Al and two guys from the dormitory. Al suggested a guy named Stan?

• Yeah, Stan's cool. He's two cells down on the right. But you're sure Piers is doing this.

• He said so.

• Okay, I will, too, but only if he does. I'm not leaving him behind.

• Are you like – a couple?

• We run a theater company together. Piers is gay, I'm not. But we've known each other since we were kids. We're like Damon and Pythias.

• Who?

• Never mind. Okay, how do we do this?

• Your roommates – the lieutenants – are gone from one to two, right?

• More like twelve-thirty to two, but yes.

• Twelve-thirty to two, perfect. We spend this time in surveillance – what's Percy doing, does he have a routine, figure out where and when's the best time to grab him when he'll be vulnerable. We do this today and tomorrow. Then on Monday we strike.

• Why so soon?

• There's a rumor that something bad is going to happen on the eleventh – that's Tuesday.

• Something bad?

• Piers told me that some of you guys don't seem to be here anymore.

• Yeah, attendance at meals is getting smaller. I thought they're letting guys go.

• Or maybe they're taking their torture games to the next level. The kind you don't recover from. We've got to act sooner, Theo, not later.

• Monday?

• Monday.

STAN'S CELL - STAN

• And Al is in on this.

• Yeah, Al, Theo, Piers, and I think I can talk two of my roommates into it. We take it beyond this group and somebody's gonna let something slip. But with you, that's seven of us – easily enough to overpower Percy and probably a lieutenant or two if we can't get him alone.

• I'll have to think about it, Leo.

• What's to think about?

• (A guy named Ian, that's what to think about.) . . . Okay, I'm in.

I have the sense Ian's not so happy here. Maybe he wants to escape, too. . . .

ST. MORITZ, SWITZERLAND – JESÚS

• (Ari) Chief, one of the penis portals detected visitors. Could be a Twelve, but there were two of them, and in a location that Murdock and King were headed.

• They may spot the tower from there. Anything we can do to prevent them from getting to it?

• You know what my answer to that is, chief.

• I'm looking for non-lethal solutions, Ari. At least for now.

• Maybe a deluge? Force them back into the woods for shelter?

• The tower would be better shelter. A deluge would just make them seek it even more.

• Yes, but the Twelve will hunker down inside the tower. Once they're in, we can lose the door handles like we did the other night. If the intruders can't get in, they may give up and go somewhere else.

• (picking up the phone) Simon? Can you adjust the weather on the island?

• (Simon, on the phone) What do you need?

• A deluge. An absolute deluge. Flash flood type. Can you do that?

• (Simon) I can.

• Make it so.

• Aye, Captain Picard.

• Excuse me?

• Never mind, chief. I forgot you don't watch much television.

THE PHALLIC TOWER – SETH

After talking to Harry, I'd developed a plan. We had to have a meeting. I thought we'd hold it outdoors but a storm was approaching and it looked like a doozy. As the first drops of rain hit, you could tell that torrential downpours were imminent, and a rumble of thunder was heard in the distance.

We herded them all inside, and I realized that I was addressing all of seven people: Ed, Vic, Tim, Augie, Jasper, Gary/Cody/Ray and Harry.

• Today marks one week since the twelve of us arrived on this island. Over the course of that week, we've lost four guys. Yesterday, we had great hope when we heard a helicopter overhead, but instead of being rescued, we lost Dai. Maybe it took Dai off the island, we don't know. But we have to take steps to protect the rest of us. I'm going to let Harry take over and discuss what we think we know about the structure of this place.

• (Harry) Well, that might be overselling it, Seth, but I'll tell you what I've figured out. We've talked about all the twelves – there were twelve of us on each side of the plane, which was Flight 12, the map of twelve Federal Reserve Banks corresponded to our home cities, the dodecagons have twelve sides, the tower and the dodecagon here on the floor have twelve colors, this is December, the twelfth month, we all have birthdays in December, and the dodecagon floor displays the dates of our birthdays, all prime numbers except for 1.

• (Tim) Nobody's birthday was December 1.

• Abe's was.

• (Jasper) Yeah, but he was on the other side of the plane.

• (Vic) Maybe he was supposed to be here instead of Seth.

• (Harry) We don't think so. The flight attendant moved Gary – Ray at the time, so if Abe was supposed to be here, I think he'd have been moved as well.

By now, everyone knew of Gary's multiple personalities.

• (Harry) Let's talk about this dodecagon on the floor and the ones outside. Each wedge has a number that's one of your birthdays. Paul, Lucas, and probably Leo were taken by dodecagons the same color as the wedge that had their birthday on it.

• (Tim) My birthday's on the 23rd. And the 23 appears on the magenta wedge. So the magenta dodecagon is my dangerous one?

• (Harry) Exactly. Ed, your danger color is purple, Jasper's is vermillion, Vic's is teal, mine's chartreuse. Augie's is green and Gary's is yellow – and we saw how those dodecagons affected them before.

• (Seth) The red wedge with the number 1 may be for me.

• (Harry) Also, we've found another `twelve'. Each of us, it turns out, was born in a different year of the Chinese calendar. Augie saw a dragon on Lucas's violet dodecagon – and Lucas was born in the Year of the Dragon. Some of us saw a rat on Gary's – and he was born in the Year of the Rat. I don't know what to make of it, but it sort of explains the images we've been seeing.

• (Ed) This is all fascinating, and it's good to know I should watch out for purple – but how does that help? We tried to protect Dai, and failed.

• True enough, though I don't know what else we could have done. Either he left voluntarily, in spite of all our warnings, or somehow vanished in the middle of the night, like my clothes did.

• (Jasper) And Paul's.

• (Vic) Yeah, this island is good for taking clothes.

• (Ed) Why are we talking about clothes? My birthday is next Thursday. I want to know if I have more than five days to live.

• Valid point. The next birthday is Augie's, on Tuesday. We know he has to avoid he green dodecagon. But we also suspect that the dodecagons can move.

• (a cacophony) What?/Move?/What do you mean move?/ That's insane/Jee-sus!

• I saw the violet dodecagon – the one that took Lucas – and I swear I passed by that same place earlier and there was no dodecagon there.

• (Gary) So what does that mean, sir?

• You don't have to call me `sir', Gary. It means we can't take it for granted that we know where they are. Tomorrow, we're going on reconnaissance. We're going to verify that the green and yellow dodecagons are where we saw them before. Augie, since your date is up next, it's best if you just stay here. Gary, you can look for the green but not the yellow. We're going to hunt for the others, especially the purple because that's Ed's color and he's next after Augie. We'll go in teams of three in case someone finds a dodecagon that makes them want to take off their clothes or something.

• (Ed, with a glare at Augie) Not that we have that many clothes left.

• (Augie) It's not my fault!

• Once we find them, we're going to keep an eye on them and make sure they don't move, and make sure that the person whose color that is goes nowhere near them. Augie, on the 11th, you will have at least two others with you at all times. I'll be one of them.

• (Augie) I'm scared.

• Don't be scared. We'll be with you every step of the way. If they try to take you, they'll have to take me at the same time. We'll protect you, Augie.

Of course, that's what we said to Dai. And what I had said so many times to my three little boys.

FLASHBACK – SETH (CLEVELAND) – five years ago (continued from Chapter 17)

I'd had a glorious bout of late-morning sex with Sean, on a day when I'd called in sick to work. After we had showered together and robed, we had a cup of coffee and he had coaxed me back to bed. I had to pick up the boys from day care later, but I had a couple of hours before I'd need to leave. We didn't have more sex but just lay there, bodies comfortable just being next to each other. Only I fell asleep.

Waking – how long later? – with a jolt.

• Shit, what time is it?

• Four-thirty.

• Dammit, I was supposed to pick up the boys at four! Why didn't you wake me?

• I fell asleep, too. I just woke up a little while ago. But everything's fine.

• Everything's fine? The boys have been waiting for a half hour. Megan will be expecting me home with them by now.

• Does the day care have your number? And Megan's number?

• Yes, of course.

• They haven't called here, have they? If they were concerned, they would have called one of you to find out when you were picking them up. They didn't call you, they must have called Megan and she picked them up.

• I would have thought she would have called me to ask why I was delayed.

• She probably just hopped in the car and figured you'd sort it out later. Anyway, you seem to have needed the sleep.

• I didn't . . . sleep well last night. You kept invading my dreams.

• I'm getting to you, am I?

• You are. Dammit, Sean, I want you. I want you heart and soul.

• And body?

• Especially `and body'. Only I'm married with triplets. I should never have married Megan and I should never have had kids. But I did marry Megan and I do have those boys and I love them to death and I can't give them up. And then you come along and disrupt everything.

• What do you expect me to do, Seth? Give you up? You're not the only one who's fallen in love.

• . . . Where's my phone? I've got to call the day care and make sure everything's okay.

So far as the day care center was concerned, everything was okay. Uncle Herman had picked them up, right on time, explaining that the boys' father couldn't make it.

The boys don't have an Uncle Herman.

FLASHBACK – SEAN (CLEVELAND) – five years ago

It wasn't official yet, but Seth had been tentatively identified as the likely Trigger. The physics and our consultant Dolph both said that our Trigger Man needed a tragedy in his life. And we were about to provide one.

It was admittedly wicked of me to have slipped a sedative into his decaf.

[COMING UP NEXT: CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO – ALTERING THE PLAN]