Secret Boss

Men’s voices echoed such that Frankie couldn’t make out any words at first. Coming to her senses, the high-pitched whine slowly turned to parsable speech…

“They’re waking up already, Travis. Did you call the boss yet?”

“He’s coming, he’s coming. For the love of god, get off my tits. It’s just a few kids.”

Two voices spoke- an American, and someone else she couldn’t pin down- not a local, but maybe still European? She was too frightened to tell. Not to mention the fact that she couldn’t see anything. It occurred to her something was around her eyes. Not just that, but her movements were restricted too. Her arms were bound behind her back and her legs were tied to what felt like a folding chair she was in. She noted the feasibility of toppling it over, but stuck around to see what was going on- and whether or not she’d just found herself ensnared in another run of bad luck. She’d soon discover it was luck, alright.

“Where are we…?” The first sound she heard from the group was her sister. She was happy to see her alive and well but the circumstances pissed her off. Or, at least, they did. Once the situation began to set in, that anger mixed with a cold brew of pure fear. No setup like this could mean anything good.

“Hey- take off their masks, will ya, Ed? This is just weird.”

Frankie’s eyes flinched at the light as her head was manhandled until her eyes were free of the binding. The others were allowed to see, too, and soon she was looking at a big open room in the dungeon with only a few ways in or out- men in suits walked in and out of these paths, entering and exiting the room she was captive in. She wondered- Were those the ones who caught them?

There was food, a fridge, many other appliances, and even beds laid out. Notably there was communications equipment, cameras, and a fair bit of tech as well. Whoever these people were, not only had they spent days in here, at least, they were doing it because they had something to do here.

The most interesting bit was this huge console near the center of the room- it seemed to direct everything, controls incomprehensible but function simple- there was a section for each floor and a number of modifiers for each. Frankie’s hunch was right- with this, you could do anything.

The men both wore the same suit. Travis, the American, and Edgar, the European. Travis wore these cold and intimidating, fairly rectangular sunglasses whereas Ed’s were little circles that gave the appearance of beady, lifeless eyes. Each paired well with their faces- shaved, slim, but hateful and deathly serious, a strong frown on either.

Everyone had come to their senses now. Needless to say the majority of them were freaking out.

“Oh god…” Percy stammered. “Where are we…?”

“Now I’ll never know what happens to Percy…” Greg whined in his seat.

“Whaddya mean? He’s right there.” Katie nodded towards Percival, her head movements lacking in the tight trap of the seat.

“You bastards…” Serah was the first to trade her terror for outright disobedience. “You were the ones makin’ it so bloody hard for us, weren’t ya? You… you were the ones making it so hard for everyone!”

“Is that what the dead girl is worried about? Oh, have we got a ride in store for you.”

“Dead girl?” She stammered. “What are you on about… hurt my boys, and I’ll kill you!”

“Don’t be sick, Travis, we aren’t hurting them.” The more Frankie heard the man’s accent the more she could start to pin it down- probably German. “Just a firm warning is all. Then maybe a prize if they can be good boys and girls and stay quiet.”

“Got something… you don’t want us to see?” Frankie spoke up, joining in Serah’s efforts. These guys were total cowards. She’d seen down the figurative barrel of a gun. And… literal, that one time. If they weren’t even going to kill her, what’s the worst they could do?

“I told you we should’ve kicked them out…” Travis reflected.

“Nonsense. Then what would happen? They go about, telling the story of the funny blackout that happened in the dungeon- and then we get found out. Some formal, up-front encouragement will do leagues better.”

“If you say so. The man on his way?”

“Sure is. What, do you think he would be late? You are such a newbie.”

“Not my fault I didn’t grow up with the guy, geez…”

The pieces began to click for Frankie.

“The man… who?”

Edgar leaned right into her little face and smiled.

“The big, bad wolf.”