Page 38 of Mountain Refuge
Walking into the back room, I saw what appeared to be a standard stockroom for a grocery/convenience store. Jackson, or Jack, continued to the wall opposite the door we entered, and pulled the firealarm.
Except, no alarm went off. Instead, a series of beeps occurred and then a hidden door sprang open. Jack took the time to put a chair in front of the door to hold it open. I assumed that was for my benefit, because it made no other sense to prop a secret door open. That kind of defeated the purpose of a secret door.
My jaw dropped as I walked into this room. Holy Mother of the Internet. Tony Stark would have an orgasm walking in here.
An entire array of monitors decorated the one wall. There was a single desk in the middle of the room, facing the monitors. I saw videos of intersections with cars passing through, what looked like a baby’s bedroom, the outdoor view of someone’s house from a door camera, some big shot’s office with the Chicago skyline, and so many more. He was monitoring all of these cameras? Why?
Jack pointed to the monitor of the baby’s room. “That baby was abducted from the hospital right after her birth. She was thankfully located but her kidnapper got away. When I heard about it, I hacked into the nanny-cam in her nursery in order to catch the perp if there was a second attempt.”
He pointed to what looked like a kids’ soccer game. “That’s the camera closest to the park with the clearest view of the playing field. There have been numerous reports of a strange man watching the toddler games. I plan to get a look at his face next time he shows so I can identify him and figure out why he’s stalking the park.”
Next was what I assumed to be a big shot’s office in Chicago. “Warren Barrington the Third has had six secretaries in four months. The last reported that he raped her in his office. While a rape kit and police report were made, both have mysteriously disappeared, along with the hospital records. Multiple sexual harassment reports have been made against him over the years and all have been dropped. I have a suspicion ClaireConrad was not the first woman he’s assaulted. One of my men snuck into the high rise and planted the camera in his office. It’s unfortunate that we have to wait for another attack, but, if one occurs, I’ll catch it and my men will take care of him.”
I didn’t know what take care of him meant but I could guess.
“This is…insane.” This wasn’t like Big Brother’s watching; this was like Creepy Uncle is watching and waiting for you to fuck up.
Jack sat down in his chair in front of the keyboard. Since all the monitors were on the wall, there wasn’t one on the desk too. Instead, it was just the keyboard, a notepad with a pen, and a picture of a little girl. It was an older picture from the hairstyle and clothing, maybe from the 90s or early 2000s. The girl was posing with a smile. School photo?
Jack typed into the keyboard. All but one monitor went blank. I was shocked to see myself on the screen. It was last week when I’d been at theCVSstore getting the surveillance video. “It wasn’t until you led me here that I even knew he’d made a stop before exiting the city. He told me he’d gone straight to the motel. The man was clearly frazzled, and this stop likely skipped his memory of the events. I’ve deleted the video off the backup servers, but unfortunately you made a copy of the video. Did you show it to anyone?”
My eyes were stuck on myself. “You were following me?”
He spun around in his chair to face me. He seemed extremely calm. “I’ve been following all the heavy hitters who pose a threat to Mr. Greene and those children. You are the only one who figured out Gunther is lying to the police and media. Since I’ve planted enough false trails to keep the others busy, I know they will not become a problem. You, however, might be depending on what you did with the copy of the surveillance video.”
I swallowed hard. A problem that needed to be taken careof, like that CEO bastard who raped his secretary? My heart started thumping in my chest.
“Why bring me here? Why show me any of this? I could have asked you questions, and you remained anonymous. I never would have guessed Jack the General Store owner was Jackson my mysterious contact.”
Jack swiveled around in his chair again to face the keyboard. He typed in something else, and the monitor changed.
Again, it was a picture of me. This one was an actual picture though, not a video. I was in my military uniform surrounded by my squad of Devil Dogs. Good men, men who had lost their lives needlessly.
I both loved and hated that picture. It was one of two pictures I kept in my wallet as a constant reminder of how fleeting life could be.
“Josephine Gonzales, age thirty-eight. Single, never married. Born to Hector and Isabella Gonzales in San Jose, California. Parents were illegal immigrants. Your parents were caught and deported when you were seventeen and your sister was fifteen. Your parents could have taken you with them, but they begged Immigration to allow you to stay since your sister and you were born in this country. You were only months shy of eighteen. You received your emancipation status and took guardianship of your sister, Constance Gonzales, or Connie as you called her.”
The picture on the screen changed and I was faced with a picture of Connie and myself outside our school. It wasn’t a posed picture. In fact, we were in the background of the intended picture. But I knew this picture so well. I’d studied it for hours on end until I knew every pixel, line, and color.
It was the last picture ever taken of my sister Connie before her disappearance.
I had walked into our high school. She had said she wasgoing to wait for a friend. I left to go to class. I left my sister outside our high school, alone and vulnerable.
Her friend Gabby claimed she never saw Connie outside the school and had gone inside, assuming that’s where Connie was too. Then the bell had rung, and it hadn’t been until lunchtime when I’d seen Gabby but not Connie at their usual table.
Connie had vanished into the ether, never to be seen or heard from again. I’d taken guardianship of my sister and I’d failed within months of accepting the responsibility.
A couple of days after her disappearance, a garbage man had called the police to report an unusual find. The police had collected Connie’s purse, backpack with her schoolbooks, and her bloody shirt, pants, and—worst of all—torn panties. Her body was never found.
I’d long ago accepted that Connie was dead. She’d died a horrible and gruesome death while I’d been sitting oblivious in math class. After graduation, I joined the Marines. I refused to ever be so helpless and powerless again.
And I hadn’t been…until that RPG that had taken out my squad. Three of us had survived the initial blast. One had succumbed to blood loss before the EVAC could reach us. The other had taken his own life after returning to the States. He’d been a triple-amputee. His wife had taken one look at him, turned, and never looked back. Rogers had signed the divorce papers before putting a bullet in his head.
So much pain. So much loss.
First my parents, then Connie, and then my squad.
I refused to cry at their memories though. I’d shed tears for each of them a long time ago. I was done crying.
