Ben nodded grimly. “Presumably, at some point yesterday evening with all of the confusion. I imagine it’s why he used Addie as a distraction.” Briefly his gaze flickered on me, but I turned away, desperate to take the focus off me. I was far too embarrassed to admit the truth of my own self-inflicted near death experience just yet.
“What is a VFC?”
“A marine kind of transmitter,” Charlie said.
As I looked back and forth between the two men, I had some difficulty understanding the problem. I could barely stand being cooped up in the cabin for a few hours at a time. If they were suggesting that Wallace was in a potentially smaller space, and had been for nearly a week now, then he surely must have been going mad.
I began biting the side of my nail. Perhaps that was part of the problem. Instead of cooling off, Wallace had nothing but time to sit and stew over the money he had lost, focus on the blows he and Charlie had exchanged, and the loss of future income. Just like I had meditated on favored memories while I froze in Hold 6, Wallace had probably been revving himself up, thinking of every insult or foul play he imagined the gang had ever given him.
“Has he been there, in the container, this entire week?” I asked.
“Likely. Given that we can’t find that damned radio anywhere, and with today’s destruction, I do suspect that day was his first emergence from the hold.”
“But how could he stand it?”
Ben smiled again. This time it was a genuine smile, light around the edges. “It only takes a few rudimentary needs and a great deal of motivation for a man to subject himself to difficult conditions.”
As I looked at Charlie, I was worried again. The subtle sound of his teeth gnashing together was simmering in the room, and though I held his hand in mine, he still remained tense.
“Okay.” I nodded. “If he’s in one of those things, then—” I couldn’t believe what I was about to say. And though I did feel some shame at saying it, it was also the first idea that had come to mind. “Why don’t you just leave him there? Now that you know he’s there, what damage could he do?”
Ben sighed. “Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple. Now that our soon-to-be departed has a VFC, it will only be a matter of time before he can get a signal. With that, he’ll be able to contact anyone on the mainland, including the authorities, who would probably be quite delighted to deliver a missing girl to the embassy and extradite wanted felons.”
Charlie experienced my horror as I clutched his arm. I felt his muscles strain there, but he offered me no comfort and continued to stare ahead.
“Why would he do that? They’d extradite him, too. Wouldn’t they?”
“Well, he might not do that. Even if he did, however, Wallace doesn’t have a criminal record in the United States. His offenses are elsewhere. I very much doubt the Singaporean government would bother with him. Wallace is probably aware of that as well.”
Ben sighed again. He seemed very tired suddenly, very old. “A better case scenario is that he doesn’t use the radio at all and just intends to keep us here, offsetting any profits for us for a time. We’ll lose our drivers, the ship will be confiscated by the authorities, but if we manage to stay out of Changi, then we’ll be stuck here for some time, I’m afraid.”
“That’s what he was looking for, wasn’t it?” Charlie’s smile was wicked in that moment. It made me shiver.
“Looking for what?” I sounded shrill, and while I hadn’t intended to, my voice had come out almost as a scream. My frustration had merged with my ever-growing concern for Charlie, and my heart and head couldn’t take much more. “What are we talking about when you say ‘keep us here’? ‘Out of Changi’? And what in the hell was he looking for?”
The room went silent. Ben Walden looked slightly taken aback, but still no less dignified, while Charlie looked up at me with his small Charlie smile.
“Relax, Vicious.” He took a moment to cup my cheek in his broken hand. I saw a visible flinch of pain there as he unclenched the knuckles. He looked at Ben and smiled. “And she says I got a temper.”