God Save the Queen (24 page)

“Anya!”
Kevin shouted.

I couldn’t move. Michael shot up from the floor and grabbed the barrel of the pistol. LaGard wrest
led it from his grasp and smashed the grip over Michael’s head as I vaguely heard Kevin shout, “An! Come on!”

I turned just as LaGard hit Michael again on the head, sending him to the floor. At the same time, Kevin hurled a book
at the mantle clock. The bookshelf on the far wall creaked inward, and I felt myself being tugged into the darkness. After the chaotic scene we had just left, the blackness of the tunnel seemed like oblivion. I obeyed Kevin’s commands like a trained animal: “Faster … lower your head … watch your step here …” and it would be minutes before I’d be able to make sense of the madness we left behind.

Chapter 32

Running

             
I could feel the water sloshing under my feet step after step as Kevin pulled me farther into the darkness. I was only beginning to understand the danger we were both in. LaGard was after me, and if he had finished the job in one round, I knew the second round was reserved for Kevin. My life was in more danger than I ever realized.

             
When we reached the bottom, lights suddenly turned on. I assumed they were motion sensor lights, because as we continued to run down the barren hall, the lights continued to glow. The space we were in resembled an empty parking garage, with ceiling-to-floor pillars every twenty yards or so.

             
I became even more panicked as we passed pillar after pillar. At no point did we see a door. We kept running around expecting to find one, because there’s always a door somewhere, right? But not down here, from the looks of it. We could hide somewhere if need be, but we could only stay hidden for so long. We needed to escape.

             
“Kevin,” I yelled, pulling at his arm, “There are no doors down here. We can’t get out!”

             
Kevin didn’t even look back as he hurried on. “No, there has to be a way out. There has to be.” But I could sense from his grip on my wrist and the look on his face that he was worried too. He mumbled, “We just have to find it.”

             
Then we heard something that made us both stop dead in our tracks. It came from the staircase.
“Careful. Those brats are down here.”

             
“Oh God,” Kevin said under his breath. “How could I--”

             
Apparently when Kevin hit the clock, he forgot to turn it while he passed it, which left the entrance open for LaGard to follow us on our brilliant getaway. Not only that, but he was talking to someone else, an accomplice, and they were both heading down the steps. Straight toward us.

             
Kevin suddenly pointed forward. “There’s the door.” He looked back. “Shit, there’s no time.” Then he grabbed me by the shoulders. “Listen to me. Go and hide behind that pillar. And don’t move, not an inch, you hear me?
You can’t move.
” He looked up as we heard the footsteps getting closer. I nodded as he pointed to the pillar in question. Then he held my face in his hands, his eyes wide and wild and stern. “And don’t scream. Whatever happens, don’t yell, scream, or do anything that will lead them to you.” He looked up once more, reluctantly let go of me, and then ran over to the pillar across from mine. We had nothing else to do up wait.

             
The footsteps hit the floor and I heard LaGard say to his companion, “
Rien
, they made it to the door.” A whisper. “Good idea.” Then silence. I started to take deep breaths.
Good,
I thought,
they’re leaving.

I was wrong.

              Bullets started whizzing past us. I crouched down as pieces of my pillar started crumbling next to me. They had more than a pistol, it looked like. I watched as the pillars and walls in front of me become pockmarked before my eyes. After a good fifteen seconds of shooting, I realized why LaGard was doing this and why Kevin wanted me to be silent. LaGard wanted to scare me out of hiding, to come out running and screaming, begging for my life. I glanced over at Kevin, hunched over as well, mouthing the words
‘Stay quiet.’
I nodded and buried my face in my knees.

             
The shots finally subsided and LaGard finally sighed. “They’re not here.” More whispering. “Fine.” Then the footsteps began retreating.

             
I looked over at Kevin, who looked around his pillar to see if it was safe before getting to his feet. We slowly started backing quickly and quietly toward the door, and once everything was silent and we were absolutely certain we were alone, Kevin and I turned and bolted for the door. I was shocked by the sudden boom that went off behind us, followed by the shrill sound of a whistle as something flew past my ear. I ducked my head as I realized LaGard had only been hiding until we came out. But as long as we could make it for the next twenty feet or so, then we’d be safely behind the door. Fifteen feet. I could see the latch on the door was open, thank God! Only ten feet now. I was almost able to jump and reach it. At five feet I reached out when I heard the thudding sound of Kevin falling next to me. I stopped to help him, freezing when I saw a splash of deep red on his head as he crouched on all fours. It wasn’t a bullet wound, thank God, but how…? Then I heard the familiar sound of stiletto heels clicking no more than three feet away from us. Looking up, I saw the all-too recognizable face of LaGard’s niece, Lynette, standing over us with a gun in her hand, the grip covered in blood.

             
“You!” I said through gritted teeth as I tried to help Kevin up to his feet. He couldn’t make it and fell back on top of me. I yelped at the pain.

             
“What?” Lynette sneered, swinging her weapon around as if it were a water gun, not a loaded revolver. “You didn’t think I’d be able to help?” Moments later LaGard showed up and stood at her side. As he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, he looked the perfect picture of family pride.

             
“
Merveilleux
,” he said to his darling niece. His smile grew wider as he saw both of us whimpering in pain. “Simply wonderful!”

             
“How could you do this?” I shrieked as Kevin again tried to get up, more successful this time. At least he was able to sit up on his knees, though still hunched over.

             
“Should we tell her, Uncle?” Lynette asked, looking like she was dying to.

             
LaGard shrugged. “Why not?” He began to walk around us like a shark teasing its prey, drawing the last drop of terror from his victims before the attack.

             
“You see, Anya, this whole thing started before you or anyone else in your family was born. It began when the Romanovs. There was a secret society of Bolsheviks called The People’s Protectors, who believed that no tyrant should ever rule, and those who did deserved the worst punishment. That is why we executed the family. After the execution however, we learned that the Romanovs had another child they kept a secret--Anastasia’s twin, Nadia.

             
“My father, who was the leader and founder of the Protectors, was able to track down Nadia and kill her before government officials found out. It wasn’t until twenty-five years later that we learned that Nadia had a daughter, Tatiana. Once again my father and his men did their job, but found out again that Tatiana also had a daughter, Natasha, who they had smuggled into America. It was when we found Natasha that I had become part of the force. After we had done away with her, we discovered she had a daughter, Sophie. That’s right Anya, your mother. She had been taken away to England by her father’s brother and stayed there. Married a duke, as I recall. Then the Protectors heard the news: Sophie and the Duke had a daughter. You.

             
“Just three weeks after you were born, we planned to kill you all. The job would be done in one night. But before our attack we found out that your mother had gotten hold of Russian officials to protect her. The Protectors didn’t know what to do. I finally made the decision to lay low until security wore down. We waited years. Five years, to be exact. That car accident was not an accident at all, my dear. The car was hit by a Protector, knocking your parents out cold. With no traffic around, we had to act fast, so we doused the car in gasoline, and it was fourteen-year-old Lynette who dropped the match.”

             
“You … bitch!” I screamed at her.

             
“Sick,” Kevin mumbled, “you’re all sick.…”

             
“You bastard!” I screamed at LaGard as I started to get up, but then I heard the click of the gun and settled back down.

             
LaGard wagged his finger at me. “Now, that was rude. You made me lose my place in the story. Now, where was I? Ah, yes. Well, Anya, once your parents were out of the way, we knew that the only way to get to you was to infiltrate the system. I brought the whole “lost child” case to the Russian government and finally convinced them to bring you to the palace. Once I had gotten you here, I wanted to keep your title under wraps so that when I killed you, no one would know that you were royal. But then that idiot Paul spilled it to everyone, and you soon became beloved by all. So I had another plan. I asked Lynette to come to the palace for a visit. Isn’t it a funny coincidence that all those bombs went off while she was here? All part of the plan. She set them up before dinner. But since you somehow managed to avoid being killed by the bombs, I decided that I would fire your bodyguards, to make it easier for me. But you decided that you were going to change that as well. That’s when I thought to send in an inside man.”

             
“Michael,” Kevin moaned.

             
“
Michael
knew this?” I was getting hoarse from yelling so much.

             
LaGard chuckled. “Please. Michael was absolutely clueless. He’s not part of the Protectors. Doesn’t have the guts. But that is precisely why we chose him. He had no idea what was going on. So once he agreed, my fellow Protectors and I made up a false marriage contract.”

             
“It was fake?” Kevin yelled.

             
“Of course it was,” Lynette said smugly. “What kind of contract doesn’t have loopholes? We needed to make sure the marriage wouldn’t fail. You really think your parents wanted you to have an arranged marriage?”

             
“It was the perfect plan,” LaGard continued. “Michael and you would marry and then I would be close enough. But Michael ruined it by going back to that whore of his. We were able to hide it from you for a while, but once you found out I knew that our plan was in danger. Then you began to rely on Kevin more, which threatened your relationship with Michael. I had to intervene, especially after you two snuck off at the Coronation Ball. I convinced Michael that he must propose to you. But when you refused, I knew it was time to take matters into my own hands. And now, dear, here we are.” He looked straight at us; his eyes squinting as a wicked smirk crossed his face. He turned to Lynette and said, “Finish them.”

Lynette raised her pistol aimed right at Kevin and me. I closed my eyes as I saw her pull the trigger. I heard a click.

              But there was no loud boom, no brief moment of pain, and thankfully no white light at the end of a tunnel. I opened my eyes and looked at Kevin. He too looked amazed that he was still breathing. We did hear a persistent clicking sound, and when we looked up and Lynette, whose finger had clearly pulled down on the trigger. But there was no ammo left. She had used it all trying to scare us out of hiding.

             
“What is this?” LaGard shouted. He grabbed his gun and pulled it as well, aimed and ready. He repeated the same action that Lynette had done only moments ago, and had the same results.

             
Kevin quickly pushed forward and yelled “Run!” as he too tried to stand up, but LaGard was one step ahead of us. He lifted his emptied weapon and brought it crashing down on Kevin’s back, making him scream with pain and fall helplessly to the concrete floor.

             
“Kevin!” I cried, but it was then I felt something solid and cold his the back of my neck. I could only see white for a little bit as the pain worsened, then I felt it again, in the same spot. The last thing I remembered seeing was Kevin’s body lying on the ground, his arm outstretched toward me. Then everything went black.

Chapter 33

Captive

             
I awoke to find myself lying in a dark and drafty room with no light, only the faint glow of moonlight through a filthy window. There was another window on an adjacent wall, but absolutely no light came through that, so it was good for nothing. Good for keeping me right where I was, because both windows were heavily barred.

             
I knew I wasn’t in a prison cell, though, because no prison could be as filthy as this. Prison beds are hard, and the flimsy cot I was lying on sagged like a hammock. There were no sheets on the mattress, and the thin blanket that covered me had a horribly rank smell. On the plus side, there was a toilet. It
looked
like a toilet anyway, unless the moonlight was playing tricks with me. I could just make out the porcelain base behind the stall-type partition, and there was a torn shower curtain for a door. Close to my cot, there was a door (locked, no doubt) with what looked like a mail slot in the middle.

             
I tried to get up, but immediately felt a flash of pain from the back of my neck down to my back, so I lay back down. I felt where the pain was coming from and my fingers found a rough patch skin, which wasn’t skin at all but a hard scab. I realized that this was the spot where Lynette had knocked me out with her gun. I must have been unconscious for days, because a scab that big takes days to form.

I examined the rest of my body to see what other damage had been done.

              Besides my neck, the rest of my body didn’t seem to suffer much damage. Just some bruises on my wrist and legs, I assumed from when LaGard and Lynette carried me away and dumped me in a car trunk or whatever. My dress and shoes, though, got the worst of it. My dress was ripped and splotched with blood. My shoes were badly scuffed, which didn’t surprise me by the way my feet ached. I now pulled them toward me and gave them a good but painful rubdown. I continued to rub them until I heard the door in front of me unlock and open.

             
It opened about a quarter-way open and I saw something shoved onto the floor of my room. Then the door closed as abruptly as it had opened and I heard a few clicks as it was locked again. A little light appeared in the room as the door slot was pushed opened and I heard Lynette’s voice shout,
“There’s your food. Eat it.”
Then everything went dark again as the slot closed.

             
Sitting up was too painful, so I rolled out of the cot onto the floor and crawled over to see what was on the menu. It was hard to make out in the darkness, but it seemed to be a bowl of soup with some blobs of grease and shreds of unidentifiable plant matter floating around. Weirdly, there was a drinking glass standing smack in the middle of the bowl. Interesting presentation, I thought glumly, but I was starving. I dipped my finger into this mess and tasted it. It was a very bad, very watery cabbage soup--with a glass of tepid water right in the middle of the soup bowl, did I mention that? I began to eat. Although I was starving, I wasn’t able to get the food down as easily as I thought I would. And the water tasted worse than the soup. I was just glad I wasn’t able to see what I was drinking. After the grueling experience of eating, I leaned against the door to relax.

             
As I was trying hard not to let my dinner come back up, I was able to hear the voices of LaGard and Lynette. Nothing revealing, not yet, but I was also able to hear the sound of a television in the next room.

             
“And the search for Tsarina Anya Alexandrova is still going on today. We talked to Terrence Surand earlier today to update us.”
Then I was able to hear the recognizable voice of Terrence come on. “We are doing all we can right now to find her. We have sent out seven forces in the East….”

             
Then I heard LaGard’s evil laugh.
“I always knew that man was an imbecile. He’s sending the forces in the wrong direction!”
Lynette’s irritating cackle followed that, and I zoned them out and tuned back to the TV.

“Throughout the world, people are sending there deepest condolences to the palace. Flowers have lined the entrance and pictures hung on the gate. Earlier this morning we tried to meet with the two men who were last with the queen before she was kidnapped. Both men, however, have been
hospitalized for the last two days and are unable to answer questions.”

             
I rested my head against the wooden wall and fought back tears at the thought of both Kevin and Michael lying in the hospital. I wondered if they shared a room. How awkward would that be?

It then occurred to me that b
oth of them were in the hospital because of me. I let the tears fall as I thought of the pain they must be enduring. Michael had serious head trauma while Kevin must have gone through agonies from the blows to the back of the skull and back. I began to shake as I kept thinking about it.

             
I finally made myself get up, despite the searing pain of every movement, and fell back into the cot. I found a semi-tolerable curling position and began to think.

             
In the past seven months I had gone from a regular American girl to a princess, then a tsarina, and finally now a captive. And in the past seven months I was able to achieve so much more than I would have in Littleton. I had opened hospitals and orphanages. I helped people who needed it, and had met some truly amazing people.

             
That got me thinking about Kevin. I could remember the first day that I saw him, fidgeting in the principal’s office. I remembered all of our fights, never suspecting the passion that lay behind it all. Well,
he
did, according to the letter he left pinned to my bedroom door, but I didn’t. Not until the Halloween dance, when I felt the first delirious rush of feelings I fought so long and hard. But since I was sworn to hate him, I knew that something was there, something I didn’t want to address at the moment. And like he had said in his letter, the night of the bombing did change our lives for the better. He was willing to save my life then, unaware that it was going to become something of a habit.

             
Then I began to wonder if Kevin was thinking about me. Well, of course he was, but I was heartsick that he didn’t know if I was alive or dead. He might have seen me getting dragged off before he too passed out. If there was anyone who would keep the faith until the very end, it was Kevin. But now I realized that things were different. He and Michael were in a hospital, getting all the attention and care they needed. And I was … well, I didn’t have the slightest clue where I was, and that’s just what I’d avoided thinking about until now.

LaGard obvious changed his mind about killing me, and I don’t think it was just for lack of bullets. And with that psycho Lynette at his side, I suspected that something dire was in my future. Oh, they had plans for me, all right.