Pandora's Box (13 page)

Madison
’s breath caught in her throat.
 
“Pandora’s Box?
 
What is that?”

“We think it’s something that Grainger invented, something powerful.”

“Is it deadly?”

“I hope not.”
 
Tyler
’s mouth took on a grim twist.

******

Chapter Six

As they walked down a shabby hallway to the last apartment door,
Madison
tried to digest what
Tyler
had told her in the cab.
 
She couldn’t get over the fact he’d known about Pandora’s Box this whole time.
 
In fact, he knew more than she did about it.
 
Tyler
had been right about one thing.
 
They should have shared information a long time ago.
 
She wondered if he’d be interested to know that Pandora’s Box had been her father’s last words.

Tyler
rapped on the apartment door with his bare knuckles.

The door jerked open almost immediately and a short, nervous looking man glared at them both.
 
His bloodshot eyes went from her to
Tyler
to her again.
 
He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe she was standing in his doorway.
 
Poking his balding head out, he glanced down the hallway.
 
Then he grabbed
Madison
by her coat sleeve and yanked her through to his side.

Tyler
followed close behind.

The man shut the door carefully; although, by the tight expression on his reddening face
Madison
imagined he wanted to slam it.
 
Once it was closed he turned on them.
 
Physically shaken and looking a little green around the edges, he whispered louder than some people shouted.
 
“You promised to protect me!
 
Why did you bring her here?”

Tyler
shrugged his wide shoulders.
 
He leaned casually against the wall near the door and watched
Madison
as she sized the little man up.
 

She recognized him.
 
Skinner.
 
She couldn’t remember his first name.
 
He’d worked as a janitor at the CIA building in
Virginia
.
 
She had passed him in the hall many times, noticed him as he cleaned the lobby, nodded at him in the elevator.
 
Her mind whirled in confusion, wondering how Skinner had traveled from invisible janitor to hunted man.
 

Madison
took a moment to visually check out the apartment.
 
Furnished with a drab couch that folded out into a bed, beaten up wood coffee table, rickety bookshelves, and an outdated console TV, there weren’t many personal touches in the room.
 
A suitcase lay open in the corner, clothes spilling out.
 
There was a personalized coffee cup on the table, #1 Dad, an unframed photograph of a young girl, and a pack of cigarettes.

She took notice of the way
Tyler
’s gaze continuously returned to those cigarettes as if they were engraved with gold.
 
Was he a smoker?
 

No, she decided; he was in the process of giving the nasty things up.
 
There was unmistakable hunger in his eyes when he looked at them.
 
She knew that look.
 
Although she’d never smoked, she felt that way about her career.
 
The thrill of her job, the danger gave her such a rush that she didn’t think she could ever walk away.
 
Her work was an obsession, a vice she couldn’t kick.

She couldn’t think while the couch was unmade.
 
She hurried to it, fixed the sheets and blanket into place before transforming the bed back into a couch.

Tyler
gaped at her.
   

“Well?”
 
She met
Tyler
’s eyes head on before placing the last cushion back into place.
 
“What’s his story?
 
Why are you hiding him out here?”

Skinner wailed like a wounded animal.
 
He grabbed the sides of his head with both hands, pulled on what was left of his hair, and went down hard on the couch.
 
“Why did this have to happen to me?
 
I never did nothing to nobody!
 
I was a good guy.
 
I minded my own business, worked hard, never left early or stole supplies.
 
Now they’re trying to kill me.”

Skinner was a man on the edge.
 
It wouldn’t take much to push him over, so
Madison
approached him with caution.
 
She’d been trained to deal with these situations, but Skinner was a janitor.
 
How had he ended up in this mess?

Madison
sat next to him on the couch and gently patted his back.
 
“It’s okay.
 
I’m here to help you.
 
Tell me who’s after you and why?”

“I don’t know.”
 
He looked at her, his facial features twisted in agony.
 
“I was minding my own business, mopping the hallway one night when an agent named Warner came running toward me.
 
He slid on the wet floor, went down hard.
 
I helped him up, and he shoved a file into my hands, told me ‘they’ would kill me if they found out I had it, so I needed to run away and hide.

“He was babbling like a maniac, talking about microchips and brainwashing.
 
He told me these microchips can change anyone, make them do things they wouldn’t normally do.
 
He said they could make even your closest friend become your enemy, and he couldn’t trust nobody cause anyone could have one.

“I thought he was joking at first.
 
You know, I thought I was being put on.
 
It wouldn’t have been the first time some of the agents had made me the butt of their jokes.”
 
He shook his head and tears welled up in his eyes.
 
“I could barely understand what Warner was saying to me.
 
I remember he was sweating a lot.
 
There were huge pit stains under his arms and the front and back of his shirt was soaked.
 
He was babbling about microchips and brainwashing and killing people.
 
I tried to give him back the folder.
 
I tried to go back to my work.
 
I needed to mop the floor where he fell, but he wouldn’t let me.
 

“He hit me across the face, screamed at me to run before they killed me too.
 
So I dropped the mop because I wasn’t going to get any work done with him yelling at me like that.
 
I figured he was crazy.
 
I was going to call security.
 
But I never got the chance.
 
I heard them coming, yelling at the tops of their lungs for him to put his hands in the air.”

Skinner broke down then and began to cry.
 
Harsh sobs wracked his body.
 
He shook uncontrollably.
 
Madison
stroked his spine in an effort to get him to finish the story.
 
She needed to collect the details.
 

After a few moments of quiet sobbing he continued.

“He spun me around so they couldn’t see I had the file in my arms, and then he whispered for me to leave.
 
He told me I should get out of the building as fast as I could and keep running
.
 
Go somewhere safe
.
 
That’s what he told me to do.
 
Go somewhere
safe, but don’t trust nobody.
 
Then he put his hands up in the air just like they told him to do.”

“What happened?”
Madison
asked.
 
She glanced in
Tyler
’s direction, saw his sour expression before returning her attention to Skinner.
 
“What happened to Warner?”

“They shot him!”
 
Skinner wailed.
 
“”They shot him right between the eyes.
 
I had turned around to look at him again.
 
I wanted to tell those people that I had nothing to do with it and I wanted to give them the file, but they shot Warner and his blood splattered all over my face.”

Agent Warner had been missing for months.
 
Foul play suspected.
 
The story had been spread across the newspaper every single day until the next big thing came along.

“What did you do?” she asked.

“I ran.
 
I screamed and ran as fast as I could.
 
They chased me and they shot at me, but they missed.
 
Good thing I’d worked in that building for so many years.
 
I know every nook and cranny of that place and I hid myself until they were gone.”
 
He nodded at
Tyler
.
 
“Agent Law was working late that night too.
 
He helped me get away from them and then he hid me here and he’s kept me safe every day since.”
 
His expression turned bitter.
 
“Until now.”

Madison
told Skinner to relax.
 
She wasn’t going to do anything to put his life in further jeopardy.
 
Now that she knew the truth she would work with them to help bring the bad guys to justice—whoever that was.
 
But first there was one thing she needed.

“I want the file,” she said.
 
“I need to see it with my own eyes.”

“No deal,”
Tyler
said in a gruff voice, taking a step forward, a scowl on his handsome face.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” she said.

“Skinner doesn’t have the file.
 
I do.”

“Then let me see it.”

“No.”

Madison
jumped to her feet and stalked across the floor to him.
 
She’d had just about all the interference from him that she was going to put up with.
 
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t figure out what side Tyler Law was really on.
 
She wagged her finger at him, ready to chew him up and spit him out.

Whatever she was going to say would have to wait.
 
Before she could utter a single syllable, the door flew open and three people charged in.
 
The first gunman inside fired his gun at Skinner.
 
The bullets hit him squarely in the chest.
 
Skinner fell on the coffee table.

Madison
kicked the gun out of the second guy’s hand.
 
It flew across the room.
 
She grabbed a lamp from the end table, ripped the cord out of the wall, and threw it at him.
 
It hit him square in the head.
 
He yelped.
 
Before he could recover she executed a flying kick, feet to chest, and sent the guy speeding through the air.
 
He hit the wall hard.
 
Guy number two was down for the count.

In the meantime
Tyler
went after the first man.
 
He hit him several times before throwing him into the entertainment center.
 
The entire thing fell on top of the guy.
 
He was pinned like a bug under a heavy book.

Unfortunately the third gunman was the Blond Assassin.
 
She filed in last, gun raised and ready.
 
With a cheeky smile she pointed the gun at
Madison
’s head, not giving her a chance to fight.

“I think you both know what I want,” she said.
 
Her eyes were on
Madison
, but she spoke to
Tyler
.
 
“If you don’t give me what Skinner took, I’ll kill her.”

“He isn’t giving you anything,”
Madison
said.

“For your sake, you’d better hope you’re wrong.”

“You want the file?”
 
Tyler
picked up a manila folder.
 
“Here.”
 
He threw it at her.

The Blonde Assassin lost her focus for a moment.
 
Her eyes dropped sideways to the scattered papers on the floor near her expensive shoes.
 
Madison
spun around, leg swinging high in the air and she kicked the assassin, sending her sprawling sideways.
 
The gun fell from the blonde’s hand.
 
She scrambled for it.