The Cracks in the Labyrinth

Chapter 6 (Part 4)

"This has already happened before," a voice reminded him. "Twice."

"All bad things come in threes," said a voice, laughing in the kitchen.

Bianca stood next to Adam; her clothes were torn, and she had the Venezuelan flag painted on her face. The bottle was no longer in her hand, and black droplets fell from her bloody hair.

Drip, drop.

"Bianca..."

Adam grabbed her by the arm.

"Let me go!"

"Mommy, don't be mad," said Dario, coming closer to them. Despite his age, he had regressed to behaving like a three-year-old.

"We are not your parents!" Adam yelled.

Dario started crying.

"Look out the balcony door," said Bianca. "It's your fault."

"No, it isn't," said the hollow voice.

"Yeah! He didn't do anything!" another voice agreed.

Adam looked out the balcony; under the heavy rain, thousands of people marched in unison. And they were all his brother. Shocked, Adam turned around and realized that Dario wasn't there with them. He was never there.

"Bianca, tell me the truth," Adam pointed at his phone. "What I heard in that video... What did you do?"

"What did you do?" the question echoed within him.

"Nothing. Neither did you. That was the problem," Bianca said. "And all for thirty pieces of silver. Let me go!"

Adam tightened his grip, drawing his sister closer to him.

"Don't let go of her," a voice begged. And then another. And then another.

"B, tell me the truth."

"Find the person," she said.

"Who? Rafael?"

"The one who sent the email."

"But, Evi is dead."

Bianca shook her head.

"She's still here."

"Where?" asked Adam.

"Remember," Bianca said.

"It's the video hidden in the audio file, right? The one that Zhang has? Is the key there?"

Instead of letting her go, Adam hugged her the same way he used to when she was a little girl.

"I'm sorry I haven't gone to visit. I'm sorry I haven't been to see grandma or Dario. I miss you, but I have to work to help you."

"No," his sister said. "Do this."

"Do what?"

A streak of bright red crossed the sky. Adam thought it was a lightning bolt until he realized that the storm clouds seemed to be ablaze. That blinding light forced Adam to turn his face away and clench his eyes shut. Struggling to half-open an eyelid, he distinguished intense beams of crimson light, flooding the entire living room through the windows and the balcony door.

"Do it," his sister said one last time.

Adam didn't know what time it was, but it was morning already, and it had stopped raining.

Nothing around him looked familiar. I'm at Lili's place, he remembered. Like the small television near the dining table or the lamp next to him, the most mundane things in there looked eerie somehow. Empty shells of what they are supposed to be. The walls were pale pink, the massive painting of the Red Sea was hideous, and the bookshelf filled with porn movies was an atrocity. Although the apartment reeked of humidity, the salty smell of food cooking in the kitchen reminded him of his hunger. The murmur of the city outside was growing louder with each passing second.

Adam realized he had dreamt something. He couldn't remember what it was about. What he did know was that the countdown in each of his wristwatches had a different meaning now. Before they were ticking down toward the deadline he and his cousin in Miami had discussed; the date Bianca and Dario would leave the country. After what happened last night, it was a countdown to so much more than that: it was all the time left for him to find out if his family was in any immediate danger. He had to reveal the truth behind that audio file and figure out why Rafael had sent him that email from Evi's account.

"I have to know if she's alive."

Adam was determined to sort this out. That was the only way he could be sure that his brother and sister would cross the border unharmed.

It's decided, he thought. I'm doing this.

There was no going back.

End of Part 1

With this chapter the first part is over. Part 2 will begin next week.