He laughed, a deep laugh that was terrifying. “I’ll see you very
soon now, Rebecca. And then I’ll have a surprise for you. Never
forget, this is my game and you will always play by my rules.”
He hung up. She knew in her gut that wherever he was hiding
this time, there wouldn’t have been any way to trace the call, no
matter how sophisticated the equipment. All the others knew it,
too.
She depressed the button. They’d heard everything. They knew
exactly what she knew now.
She didn’t take anything with her, except her Coonan. When
she got into the Toyota, she again pressed the small button, then
started the car. “I’m leaving for the gym now.”
Her precious mother, she thought. She’d escaped him by falling
into the coma. He’d been in the hospital, asking about her. It was
too much, just too much.
She drove to Klondike’s Gym in just over eight minutes. It sat
right at the very end of Night Shade Alley, a big concrete parking
lot in front, trees crowding in all around the rest of the two-story
building. There were windows all across the front, lights filling all
of them. There were at least two dozen cars in the big concrete lot.
She’d been here once with Tyler. That had been in the middle of
the day. Not nearly the number of cars there then. Perhaps since it
was so hot during the day, the Mainers waited until the evening
cool to work out. She drove in, picked a place that had no cars near
it, turned off the engine, and sat there. Five minutes passed. Nothing.
No sign of Krimakov, no sign of anyone at all.
She depressed the button on the wristband. “I don’t see him. I
don’t see anything out of the ordinary. There are lots of people
here.”
Everyone should be here by now. They were ready. They all
wanted Krimakov. They would do absolutely nothing until they
had Krimakov. Everyone had agreed on that.
There was nothing to worry about. “I’m going in now.” She got
out of the car and walked into the gym. There was a bright-faced young man at the counter, looking like he’d just worked out hard.
His clothes were sweated through. “Hi,” he said, and looked at her.
She wasn’t wearing workout clothes.
She smiled. “I was here once before and I rented a locker in the
women’s locker room. My clothes are there. I need to pick them
up.”
“I know you. You’ve been on TV, on every channel.”
“Yes. May I please come in now?”
“That’ll be ten dollars. What are you doing here?”
She opened her wallet and pulled out a twenty. “I’m here to
pick up my workout clothes.” He didn’t even look up. She watched
him for what seemed like forever as he got her a ten in change. He
pressed a buzzer and she went through the turnstile.
The room was large, filled with machines and free weights and
mirrors. The lights were very bright, nearly blinding. A radio
played loud rock, booming out from the overhead speakers. There
were lots of young people here tonight, thus the raucous music.
There were at least thirty people throughout the big room. Upstairs
were all the aerobic machines. She heard talk, music, groans,
the harsh movement of the machines, nothing else.
What was she to do?
She walked back to the women’s locker room. There were three
women inside, in various stages of undress. No one paid her any attention.
Nothing there.
She walked out of the dressing room, and this time she walked
slowly, roaming through the big room, looking at all the men.
Many of them were young, but there were some older ones as well,
all of them different one from the other–fat, thin, in shape,
paunchy. So many different sorts of men, all there on this night,
working away. Not one of them approached her.
What to do?
A couple of young guys were horsing around, doing fake hits,
laughing, insulting each other. One of them accidentally backed
into the arm of an old chest machine. The big weighted arms
weren’t clicked in to a setting. When the young guy hit it, it swung