Average Joe and the Extraordinaires (3 page)

Chapter
4

Do What
Now!?

Through
the slits in the locker, Joe could still see Beauty, the lady he was trying to
help, but now things had gotten a bit more complicated.  For one, he had found
himself in a very secret part of his favorite football team’s stadium, so
secret in fact that the buttons to get there weren’t on the elevator.  He was
also being pursued by dangerous men in black suits thanks to his good deeds. 
But none of that held a candle to the fact that this girl whom Joe had named
Beauty could change her face and clothes on a whim.  She had changed from a
tall, dark skinned, dark haired woman in black pants to a blonde haired girl
wearing a blue security outfit and it only took an instant.  He had to play the
scenario in his head over again just to process it all.

A knot of
tension welled up in his stomach. He couldn’t help but feel as if the blonde
who used to be Beauty was a sitting duck.  But it was her who had told him to
tie her up, so he assumed she had some sort of plan.  It was wishful thinking,
but Joe was hard pressed thinking otherwise.  He left it all to her and somehow
trusted her judgment wholeheartedly.  He had carelessly staked his life upon
it.

There were
men’s voices and then a loud crash.  Joe could see men’s heads over the tops of
the smaller lockers in the middle of the floor, and there were many of them. 
Most of them were in black suits, but he saw a few wearing a blue security
uniform, with pants just like the blonde’s.   They all seemed to be searching
for something or someone.  An older guy dressed recklessly in a salmon-colored
shirt and white pants walked near the blonde in the chair.

“I was
sure our intruder would come this way.   If whoever broke in didn’t want this
girl, then I don’t know why they came to this floor.  Keep looking!  They can’t
have gone far.”

He was
red all over but reserved the darkest shade for his neck and face.  His balding
head shined like the sun when the light caught it, and glistened as brightly as
the long locks of blonde hair on the sides and the back of his head.  He tapped
the chair and signaled two of the men in black to his side.

“Bring
her.  We’re going to need collateral for that old agent.”

He looked
the blonde’s face and grabbed her by the cheeks.  Beauty pretended to be in a
half-sleep state, which was more conscious than she and Joe had found the girl,
but none of the men raised objections to that.  The balding man pulled back her
hair so that she faced him.

“The old
man is being a real pain in our collective behinds.  If he doesn’t back off,
I’m going to have no choice but to do great harm to you.  You ready to tell me
why you came here?”

The man
smiled and Beauty simply slumped down into her chair when he released her. 
Joe’s heart had stopped, for the man was looking dead at him it seemed.  Joe
dared not move.  He dared not even breathe, and he hoped to heaven that his
locker-mate would not make any sudden movements.  The man seemed to stare on
forever and Joe was stuck in the moment.  He didn’t know if he should just wait
for his fate or if he should run out there and fight for his life.  Either way,
he knew he’d die, but he also knew that he was no warrior and had no real
prideful aspirations to “go out with a bang,” as they say.  Truthfully, he
didn’t trust himself.  He didn’t know what he would do next and that frightened
him.  For now he waited.

“Where’s
the lock for that locker?  It’s the only one I see without a lock and I don’t
trust unlocked things in secret places.”

He walked
towards the metal coffin and was halted mid-stride by one of his subordinates. 
The security officer in blue had an explanation for him.

Security:
“That’s Pete’s locker.  He hasn’t locked it since he’s worked for you guys. 
The only thing he keeps in there is that funky Pantera t-shirt that he likes to
over-wear.”

“Well,
tell your friend Pete to invest in a lock.  Alright, let’s go, we’re burning
clock here.”

Two of
the men in black untied Beauty, handcuffed her, and placed a cloth bag over her
head.  The bigger of the two hoisted her over his shoulders and carried her. 
Ten seconds later, the room was completely empty.  Joe waited ten minutes to
even make a peep.  He waited until even the small bumps couldn’t be heard
anymore.  Once the coast was clear he opened the locker and got a better view
of the hallway outside.  He stopped and listened, more clearly now, to the
sounds outside the room.

He moved
himself awkwardly past the sleeping blonde girl to the outside of the locker. 
He looked at the girl more carefully now.  She was much more beautiful than he
had noticed before, even though she was drooling and sweating unpleasantly.  He
was also a sweaty mess, but being trapped in a sardine can while scared to
death would do that.  He grabbed the girl, and she stirred after returning to
the cooler air of the locker room.  She shivered when he placed her on the cold
floor.  He nudged her by her shoulder but got no response.  He let out a
whisper.

Joe:
“Hey.  Pssssssst!  Wake up.  I need you to wake up.  Psssssst!  We’re in
danger.”

No
response.  He shook her some more but nothing.

Joe:
“Sorry ‘bout this.  I don’t hit girls, I swear.”

Joe
slapped her face once, twice, then thrice.  He contemplated striking her harder,
until a better idea came to his head.  He walked to the back of the room, to
the showers, and ran the water from one of the faucets.  He came out with a
handful of cold water and nearly tripped trying to quickly get it to the
blonde.

Joe:
“This is stupid.  I’m going to spill all this water and have to do this all
over again.”

He didn’t
spill, much anyway.  He knelt down but forgot to apply a little restraint and
dropped all the water he had in his palms straight onto the blonde’s face.  She
quickly sprang up coughing and snorting and slapped Joe bloody.

Joe:
“Ouch!  What the hell!”

Blonde:
“What the hell?  What the hell!  You almost drowned me!”

Joe:
“Sorry, sorry.  Keep it down, we’re in danger.”

She
rubbed her face and tried to wipe as much water and grogginess from it as she
could.  They must’ve done a number on her.

Blonde:
“Who are you, kid, and what happened?”

Joe didn’t
think the girl was far enough from his own age to be calling him a kid.  He
stared into her curved brown eyes.

Joe: “My
name is Joe and that’s all I really know.  I was helping some lady out and we
came down here.  I guess she was trying to free you.”

The
blonde girl stood up and blew her nose into her shirt.  She said something to
herself, but Joe caught it as he rose up with her.

Blonde:
“A woman, huh?”

Joe:
“Yeah, and she got captured after she freed you.”

Blonde:
“And you’re her partner?”

He answered
without hesitation.

Joe:
“Yeah, but she brought me in last minute and still never had the chance to
bring me completely up to speed.”

Blonde:
“You agreed to help her out without even knowing what her mission was?”

Joe
nodded his head and smiled.  It was stupid but true.  He had gotten himself in
a situation that might cost him his life and he had done so without the promise
of a reward or even a clear purpose.

Blonde:
“Do you want to rescue her?”

Joe: “No,
that would be a bad idea.  I think she planned to get caught.”

Blonde:
“Hold on.  What time is it?”

Joe
stopped and pulled his phone out. His signal was completely dead but it still
displayed the right time.

Joe:
“It’s 3:43.  In the afternoon.”

Blonde:
“We need to go to the seventh floor.”

Joe: “You
want to do what?  That’s the floor below us, right?”

Blondie
nodded her head.

Chapter
5

One More
Thing

Joe: “We
need to leave before they kill us.  To leave, we go up.”

He
pointed up at the ceiling.

Blondie:
“We need to do one more thing before we leave.  It’s important.”

Joe
didn’t want to tempt fate any more than he already had.

Joe: “I’m
sorry, miss—”

Blonde:
“Dahlila! D-A-H-L-I-L-A!”

Joe: “I’m
sorry, Dahlila, but I can’t think of anything more important than getting out
of here alive.  I have the keycard that we’ll need to get out of here.  Now
let’s go.”

Dahlila
simply smiled.  Her smile made Joe uncomfortable.  He felt that she knew
something that he didn’t, which he knew was extremely true.  She walked over to
him and placed her head on his chest.  She looked up into his eyes and uttered
a phrase that made Joe’s heart race.

Dahlila:
“Kiss me.”

Joe: “Wha—what?”

She
backed up and let out a laugh.  Joe stood where he was confused.

Dahlila:
“Never mind all that. I just wanted this.”

She
produced the elevator keycard that Joe thought he was safely guarding in his
pocket and giggled uncontrollably.  Joe looked at her, hurt.

Dahlila:
“Sorry for the deceit, but I may need your help on floor seven.  In exchange,
I’ll lead you out of here using a safer exit than the elevator.  The elevator’s
a kill-box at this point.”

Joe: “So
how are we going to get to the seventh floor without the elevator?”

Again
Dahlila smiled.

Dahlila:
“Well, of course they would make stairs.  We just have to find them and from
there I can get us out.”

Joe: “I
don’t know if this elevator key will work on any other doors.”

Dahlila:
“It won’t, but one of these will.”

She
produced three ID badges from her back pockets that were all white with blue
rims and held them up for Joe to see.

Dahlila:
“Now let’s go and we need to step on it.”

Joe
followed closely behind Dahlila, who moved just as fast and with nearly as much
grace as Beauty.  She glided down the hallway going towards the elevator and
past all the empty doors.  Joe saw that a few of the doors they passed had
electronic key locks, and was curious as to what was behind those doors.  Ahead
of him Dahlila had stopped abruptly at a particular door that wasn’t any more
special than the rest.  She swiped her keycard with complete confidence and
opened the door.  She entered and Joe entered after her into a narrow hallway. 
They walked all the way down the hallway, past another door that was also
locked with a keycard, and found steps leading downwards.

Joe:
“How’d you know this was the right place to go?”

Dahlila:
“I’d say that I knew thanks to thirty percent observation and seventy percent
guessing.”

Dahlila
laughed, apparently amused by the truth and the fact that it had worked.

Dahlila:
“I always saw guys coming in here and not coming out for long amounts of time.”

They
slowly crept down to another level that they both hoped was the seventh floor. 
Dahlila looked around and kept low.  She pulled Joe down to his knees so fast
that the boy barely had time to let out a small cry which was quickly stifled
by Dahlila’s hand.  Joe looked at her accusingly, but she merely shushed him
and continued moving forward.  Down the hall was a door, but to the left was a
window that spanned about a third of the hallway.  Voices could be heard from
behind the window, and Joe was getting that sinking feeling in the pit of his
stomach.  It was the same feeling he got whenever he knew he was about to get
in trouble for something stupid.  They slowly crouch-walked under the window
and down the hallway.

Dahlila:
“Almost there…”

Once they
reached the door, Dahlila swiped her card and they hurried through.  The voices
behind them abruptly stopped.  Once out the door Joe and Dahlila both stood up
and looked around the hallway.  Dahlila didn’t seem as concerned as Joe at the
fact that they may have been spotted and moved forward with ceaseless
determination.  Her eyes seemed to be taking in every detail.  Joe wasn’t sure
where they were and couldn’t understand the purpose of this part of the stadium. 
There was nothing but long hallways and numbered rooms in each of the
hallways.  All of the doors they had checked so far were locked.

Dahlila:
“Damn.  I have no clue what door I’m looking for.”

She let
out a sigh.

Dahlila:
“This sucks.”

She
stopped for a moment and looked down the hall they were standing in.

Joe:
“What are you looking for?”

Dahlila:
“A person.  Let’s split up and search the hallway by ourselves.  We’ll cover
more ground that way.”

Joe
didn’t like that idea, it made no sense to him.  He didn’t even know who they
were looking for.  Before he could object, Dahlila took off and Joe assumed he
would just search the other side of the hallway or another hallway altogether. 
He decided to do another hallway; he figured he would cover much more ground
that way.

He now
felt completely vulnerable.  He knew he was someplace that he shouldn’t be, and
even though he had gone in far deeper, he hadn’t felt the true depths of his
fear until now.  He saw the cameras that lined the halls and he heard the
distant footsteps that didn’t belong to himself or Dahlila.  He was in danger,
and if he didn’t leave soon he was going to die.  He knew this, maybe all
along, but with Beauty and Dahlila he had forgotten his fears.  Now, without
them, he was as good as dead.  He didn’t necessarily want to go back alone
either, so he figured he should just continue looking for whoever or whatever
it was that he was supposed to be looking for so that he and Dahlila could just
go back together. 
What did she want?
he wondered.

He softly
pressed the handle on each door he had come across, which all had surprisingly
low-tech methods of entry.  These doors had metal locks that required metal
keys instead of plastic cards and electronic circuitry.  Joe could not take his
mind off of the footsteps that he had heard earlier and the quieting of the
voices when he and Dahlila had entered through the door.  He began to sweat.

Joe:
“Dang it…”

He became
more anxious every time he failed to open another door and moved further down
the hallway.  He thought about the cameras and how they must have clear images
of his face.  He wondered why no one had come to stop him or Dahlila and that
frightened him more than anything else. 
Why else would people this secretive
be waiting to capture us
, he thought.  They were planning some grisly,
horrific punishment for him.  One that ensured that he wouldn’t even get a
proper burial.

Joe:
“Dang it!  I don't want to be here…”

He
continued to press on through his fears and attempted to open any door that he
saw.  None would open.  He looked back and saw that he’d tried at least ten
doors so far.  His stomach sank again.  He thought about how he had touched all
the doors and how his sweat-stained hands had left very noticeable fingerprints
on each and every one of the perfectly polished handles.

Then he
heard footsteps growing louder and that brought him to attention.  They came
from the front of him, at the end of the hall.  When he looked forward he saw
no one, but the person was getting closer, and with all the doors around him
likely locked he was trapped.  He backpedaled to the previous hallway.  He
wanted to run, but figured that if he could hear whomever’s footsteps as clear
as he could, they would hear the pitter-patter of his running just as well, so
he walked as fast as he could.  He looked back to see if whoever owned those
footsteps had caught him, but saw no one at the end of the hall.  He reached
his end and looked back one more time before turning the corner and suddenly feeling
all the air being crushed from his throat.

He now couldn’t
see anything but the ceiling, his body flailing against the pressure of a man
far bigger than himself.  What little air he had was nearly gone and his eyes
started to water.  His hands could only yank at the ears of his attacker.  He
was on the verge of giving up when he felt the hands around his neck slacken
and his body fall to the ground.  About two seconds later the body of his
attacker fell next to his.  It was a woman, a huge one, in a uniform with the
word “W-Sec” on it.

He
struggled to find his lost strength, and looked up. To his surprise, it was
Dahlila’s face. The light above her made it hard to tell.  He slowly stood, and
was even more surprised by what was behind her back.