Chapter 8
Tom, awakening from his sleep, and still in a groggy state, could hear the unmistakable sounds of water lapping the side of a boat. As he became more aware of his surroundings, he could feel his hands secured behind his back, so tight that they were causing severe pain to his wrists. He could also feel that his legs were just as tightly bound, and surmised that it was probably the same thick rope used to tie his hands. A piece of duct tape over his mouth finished his captor’s handy work, thereby making him completely silent and immobile.
The pain coming from his head overshadowed the pain from his binds. Tom, with effort, glanced to his right side, finding Alyse sitting against the front of the boat, and bound in the same way that he was. She appeared alert and aware, looking at him with no apparent expression, although it was hard to surmise because the tape covering her mouth was doubled, covering the bottom portion of her face. He thought, almost whimsically, that she must have put up a fight making their captors a little edgy.
It appeared to be a small and sporty vessel, not overly expensive, but more typical of a boat used for family vacations. The boat was clean except for a few drops of blood that he knew had come from the injury that he sustained earlier. Two middle eastern men sat in the swivel chairs at the front of the boat, the one at the steering wheel had just brought the boat to a full stop; and the other, the obvious follower in this crude command structure, swiveled his seat towards Alyse and then to him.
He recognized one of the men as a notorious terrorist that many countries had fallen victim to in one of the many attacks that he had perpetrated.
You have to be kidding me, he thought, now we have the terrorists after us also.
The man mouthed something in a different language to the other man, I wish I had taken those FBI quick language classes; he shifted his weight in hopes of alleviating some of the pain coming from his wrist and hand area. Glancing at Alyse, he noticed her completely still as if she were studying the situation and every move the two men made. He wondered if she knew what the men were talking about; Of course, she did.
The leader of the two turned towards them and he could see the man was probably in his forties, with a slightly graying beard. The man appeared professional and did not match the image of someone carrying out this sort of act.
“You two have made this very difficult for my bosses,” the man said in near perfect English.
Perfect, a multilingual killer, I bet that looks good on the resume, still at this moment finding comedy in his own mind.
“And you.” He said shaking his head from side to side and looking directly at her, “Aren’t you just a regular superhero, coming to the aid of your boyfriend. “ I do have to thank you for contacting your reporter friend; after a little torture, he was able to give us your whereabouts before meeting an untimely end.”
Tom could hear Alyse mumbling underneath the tape that covered her mouth, and he could see hatred fill the eyes of her innocent face. This silent outburst just made the man laugh at her; He could feel the anger rising inside, but there was not a damn thing he could do about it.
“Well since you are about to die, I guess I’ll answer the obvious question that you must be asking yourself.” The man said. “Why would the very people that are being misaligned by your two western governments and accused of acts of terrorism that they had no part in, want you silenced?” The man knew he held all the cards and a tone of arrogant superiority laced every word that came from his mouth, he was enjoying this.
“My people need someone to hate just as much as your people, and with your two countries, and their unlimited resources killing our people, that hatred was already present. We lacked one thing; however, see it is necessary from time to time for my government to show success against the west, and the terrorist acts that your corrupt leaders perpetrated against their own people gave our leaders that much needed success. This, as you know, caused great rejoicing in our countries.” He was trying to justify the manipulation of his own people.
“We could never have carried out the level of attacks that took place, so we just sat back and took the credit for them. As you say in your country, a win-win situation,” he said starting to rise out of his seat. The man spoke just five more words, “Now it's time to die.”
Tom watched as the two men lifted a small tarp that was covering two cement blocks, each grabbing one and carrying them over to he and Alyse. He feverishly started wiggling around trying to free himself, knowing there was little he could do to free himself; he would have to resign himself to the fact that he was going to be drowned alive. This thought, as horrible as it was, paled in comparison to the thought of his love attached to a cement block at the bottom of the ocean. He had let her down again. The two men hurriedly attached the blocks to the ropes that already bound them, tying them meticulously with several knots. After completing the task, both men stood over them like an executioner about to carry out the grim task.
Simultaneously, they hit the water and even though it was the least of their problems, the only thing that came across his mind was just how cold the water was. He was in arms reach of Alyse, but because of his binds, he could not hold her to comfort her in their last moments of life. He heard two more splashes, which he recognized as the concrete blocks being thrown in the water by their killers. He instantly felt a jerk on his feet, followed by a rapid acceleration in his descent into the depths of the ocean.
Suddenly, he felt a hand grab his arm and spin him around, and before he knew it, the pain from his wrists was gone and his hands were free. Looking down he saw the top of Alyse’s head who was fumbling with the rope that held the cement block. He noticed the binds and block that had secured her hands and feet, had been cut off, and were undoubtedly racing to the bottom of the ocean floor. Just like that, the decent stopped and he felt her lifting him back towards the surface of the ocean. Maybe the man on the boat was right, maybe she was some kind of super agent. She motioned for him to swim sideways, already knowing they had to get far enough away from the boat, so that when they surfaced they would be lost in the vast darkness of the noisy ocean.
He felt the growing pain in his lungs as he became desperate for air. The two figures broke the surface of the ocean quietly, and causing more noise than they would have liked to, gasped for air. As the air reentered their lungs and the pain diminished, he could see the lights of the boat becoming faint, the distance between them and there would be killers lengthened. They were alive.
“Out of the pot and into the frying pan,” he said remembering something that his dad used to say to him when he was a little boy.
He wanted to ask her how she managed to get free, but there were more pressing matters on his mind, like trying to get back to land before drowning or being eaten by sharks. They must have treaded water for over an hour without saying a word to each other, when he heard the roar of a boat engine coming from behind him.
“They're coming back for us,” he said, grabbing Alyse and starting to dip under the water in a feeble attempt to hide.
“No they're not, that’s our ride sweetie,” she smiled at him with reassurance.
“What, how?” he said almost getting used to being shocked by the woman.
A young Spanish man pulled a small boat up beside them; an even smaller boat than they had just been on, “Want a lift?” he said jokingly.
With the man’s help, they pulled themselves into the boat, and sat at the back of the boat wrapped in each other’s arms, happy to be alive.
She felt Tom’s gaze upon her, “You want to know how I got free?” Without waiting for a reply, she held up the back of her dark wet hair, shimmering in the moonlight, and he could see that underneath the long hair that flowed down her sleek back, was a hairpin that seemed to be there for no reason. She removed the pin and with one twist on the end of the pin, she pulled a hidden knife out of its hiding place, “They made two mistakes, not tying me tight like you, and they didn’t take my locket.”
> She lifted the gold locket off her chest and opened it, instead of a picture of a loved one inside, was a button. She pressed the button, and within a few seconds, a beeping noise could be heard coming from the waist of the Spaniard who had picked them up. The man pulled up his shirt and retrieved a beeping device from his belt, turning and smiling at her before continuing to guide the boat back towards land.
“Jose is the son of an old friend of my father’s; he is the one person that can be trusted. His father owed his life to my father, and in this area, that makes our two families forever bound,” she said squeezing him tight while laying her head on his shoulder.
He felt her warmth next to his cold body, and he never felt more in love and alive in his life. He was truly content as he felt the mist of the ocean spray against his face as the boat sped off into the dark night.