Cat And Mouse, chapter 6

The sun shone directly in through the window, hitting Alice in the eyes. She moaned and turned to her side only to realize she wasn't on the couch. She rubbed her temple and sat up. Tom was at the end of the bed, pulling on a pair of boxers.
"Fuck. I slept with Tom," she grumbled.
"What was that, babe?"
"Oh god, he's calling me babe," she thought to herself. "Nothing. Hey, you got any coffee?
Tom shook his head, "Nah, all out. Plenty of beer though."
"I think I'll run out and get some, there's a Starbucks on the next street over. You want anything?" Alice got out of bed to realize she had no clothes on. She blushed, but Tom just smiled and threw her a ratty, Ramones tee shirt.
"Here, you can have this. And I've got some jeans on that chair over there. I'm gonna go shower."
"Okay, thanks. I'll see you later when I get back."
"You're coming back?" He whipped around, a huge grin plastered on his face.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I?"
"Yeah, I don't know. Maybe we could spend the day together, go for a walk around the city. You don't have work, do you?"
"Nope, it's a Sunday, I think. Anyways, I'm sure Christi would've covered for me if I did have to show up."
"Okay, bye for now." He leaned in and kissed her on the lips. She responded but then pulled away, licking her lips.
Tom went to the shower and left Alice to wander around the apartment, surveying the wreckage from last night. Beer bottles and plastic cups formed a second carpet and with the still-lingering pot fumes, it created a small space in the apartment that wasn't affected by the party. She made her way to the kitchen, where she dipped her head into the sink and soaked her hair in warm water, then grabbed a dishtowel and dried it quickly. She went back to the bedroom and found her bra over the headboard. She managed to put it on while walking to the door and had slipped it completely on by the time she made it out into the hallway.
Walking down the street, she got a bad vibe from a red car that seemed to be showing up everywhere. It was glossy, smooth and very stylish. She couldn't help but wonder who could own such a car and why they'd be interested in following her.
Nonetheless, she made it to Starbucks and ordered a medium House Blend and a chocolate chip muffin. It was a wonder she stayed so thin. But she also worked hard at keeping her petit figure, at the gym that is. Waitressing is a workout on its own, anyways. She couldn't be heavy, though, she didn't have the face for it. Her face had always been smooth and tall, a tiny, slightly pinched up nose. She had always been shy about her strikingly good looks.
After taking a sip from her coffee, she walked aimlessly onto the crosswalk and onto the other side of the street, where a Barnes & Nobles was sitting, somewhere inside was a copy of The Hours, which she had been meaning to pick up.

* * * * * *

"Alright, let's see," Robert looked at the photo again. "She wasn't at her apartment."
"Well, I guess we'll just have to wait by there until dark." Pam stuck her head back in from the car window.
"No, no. We should go out and look for her."
"In New York City? She could be anywhere!"
"I want to see the city anyways. And if we don't find her, who cares. We just come back here and shoot her."
Pam shuddered. "Ok, let's go. I could use some coffee."
They drove around the city for a while, looking for a good coffee shop. Pam was just about to get out of the car and head to the small diner they had found, but Robert jerked her back in.
"Hey! Wait!" His eyes were wide with excitement.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Look!" He pointed a shaking finger to the left of the car, where a young woman was crossing the street. "Is... is that her?"
"Hold on, give me the photo." Pam checked. She looked up and then checked again. It was her. "Well we can't just kill her here. We'll just wait until she gets back to her apartment."
"This is a perfect opportunity! We are not wasting it." He leaned forward to the driver and whispered into his ear. The driver nodded and pulled the car up next to the woman, who had by now crossed to the other side of the street.
"Hello miss," Robert said, rolling down the window. "May we have a word with you?"
The woman hesitated. "Uh, who are you?"
"I'm James. And this is Judy." He leaned back to show the woman Pam. The woman titled her head then rubbed her eye. She seemed to mutter "impossible... " but it was hard to tell.
"Oh, hello James. I'm sorry, but I've got to buy a book and then do some errands. Uh, I've got a night shift too."
The friendly smile that Robert had plastered on his face dissolved into a thin line.
"Get in the car."
"Excuse me?"
He opened the door and reached for her arm. "I said get in!' He got a firm grip on her wrist and jerked her into the car.
"Help! God, somebody! Please!" Alice shrieked as loud as she possibly could. Passer Byers stopped and looked at the poor woman as she was dragged into her car. One of them flipped open a cell-phone.
"Go!" Robert slapped hard on the back of the driver's back.
They had driven four or five blocks before Alice stopped screaming. She was seated next to Robert on one side of the limo; Pam was on the other, covering her face with a piece of paper.
"Wha-what do you want with me?" Alice sniffled through her tears.
"I think you know. My partner will fill in any details."
Pam lowered the paper and glared at Robert. "Well... .uh... " She would've gone on, but Alice had already crossed over to her side and slapped her hard.
"Pam!! What the fuck are you doing here?" She was in hysterics.
"Alice, please!" Pam shouted above her usual voice tone, surprising everyone in the car. Except, well, the driver.
"Alice? You know her name?" Robert shifted his view between the two. Pam lowered her head.
"Alice is my... uh... my... "
"Sister!" Alice cut in. "But even I'm questioning that now!"
"Oh jeez, well, uh, you're gonna have a hard time killing her then."
"Kill me? Pam, you were going to kill me?"
"No! Yes, no, yes!" She tugged at her hair. "I, uh, was assigned to kill you."
"This isn't right," Robert said, shaking his head, "She should be dead by now."
"This is rather morbid! I mean I am right here!" Alice shouted, trying to drown out everyone else. But she was the only one shouting, so she rather overdid it.
"I think we'd all like an explanation, Pam."
"Ok." Pam sighed heavily and then turned to Robert. "When I got the assignment, I knew right away I couldn't kill Alice." She looked over at Alice and smiled, but the gesture went ungratified. "But I knew if I said anything to the boss, or to you, you might take action, y'know, kill me or something."
"Oh, Pam, I would never kill you." Robert nodded encouragingly.
She smiled lightly and carried on. "So I decided that I would instead kidnap you."
"Ok, gee thanks." Alice had yet to warm up to the idea that her life had just been saved. "Why didn't you just leave me alone?"
"Cause I knew if we didn't kill you, someone else would."
Robert nodded in agreement. "She's right, you know. You should be thankful."
This was obviously not the right thing to say, or at least not in Alice's mind. "Thankful! I'm being kidnapped!"
"Although, I must say, you're being rather cooperative," he cut in.
Her eyes narrowed and she looked as though she were to pull out a gun and shoot him, but it was him, after all, that had the gun. "What did I even do to deserve this? Pam?"
"Well, do you remember that job I got you awhile back?"
"Yeah, yeah. Some desk job at a company. Back when I lived in San Francisco."
"Uh yes. Well, that company was a secret organization designed to intercept international messages and decode them. Nuclear secrets, war plans, etc."
"Oh god... " Alice ran a stressed hand through her hair. "And where does killing people play into this?"
"Well, the company wasn't working for the U.S. government, they had ties to a communist organization located somewhere in the Caribbean."
"So I was working for terrorists, is what you're saying."
"No, they were never violent, just helping out the little people is all. But anyways an anonymous tipper alerted the government and their currently working on an investigation to shut us down. There are a few hundred life sentences worth of charges they could come at us with."
"And so the company hired you to kill everyone who used to work for it as to destroy any evidence of it ever existing?"
"Basically."
"Damnit! I was just a secretary though!'
"They don't want to take any chances."
"Thank you Pam. Thank you for getting me that job. Were you aware that it would lead to me eventual murder?"
"Alice! I'm not going to kill you. I never was." Pam sighed and pointed to the door. "If you'd like to go, that's fine. Just be careful."
"Uh, I don't think so." Robert nervously looked over at the far end of the street, where police cars were speeding by traffic to get to them.
"Fuck, somebody must've called the cops. Sorry, Alice, but we can't jeopardize the company." Pam's previously despondent attitude and changed with her adrenaline level.
Robert leaned up to the driver and spoke softly as to not alarm him. "Drive as fast as you possibly can and don't stop for anyone." His calm tone surprised the driver more than expected and he floored the gas pedal, sending Robert flying backwards into the seat.
"Alright, fasten your seatbelts. We can hide out in Queens for a little, but we've got to ditch the car and... ." He trailed off realizing what else they'd have to ditch. He shot a guilty look at the driver, who was humming to himself while, quite naturally, driving. "Oh jeez."
"What?"
Robert nodded his head towards the driver and Pam mouthed her understanding. Alice, however, was completely clueless.
Clueless people are not harmful by nature. They're simply exercising the human instinct of finding out everything, even if it doesn't concern them. It's when they do try to figure something out that they can become destructive. Alice was an example of this.
"What about the driver?" She said loudly.
Robert and Pam shook their heads in disbelief. Robert engaged eye contact with Pam and then motioned to the gun in his pocket. Pam was not amused but he just shrugged his shoulders like his suggestion was a perfectly legitimate one.
"Um, nothing. We were just hoping you could drive a little faster." Even though this was just an on-the-spot excuse, it was ironically appropriate as the police sirens were getting progressively louder.
Alice knew they didn't know where they were going. In about six minutes they would be caught. But Alice didn't feel like waiting six minutes, so she offered up an "alternate route".
"Hey, guys. If you take a left onto 5th Ave, you can get to the bridge to Queens a lot quicker than if you were to keep going down this road."
"Left on Queens?"
"No."
"Hey, why are you taking an interest in losing these cops?"
"I don't know, I guess I've grown fond of you, Robert, and I don't want to see you guys in trouble." She gave them both an enormous smile, but only for a minute as her face muscles gave in. The driver took said left and they started down 5th Avenue. The police cars were not far behind.
'Say, Briggs, the limo just turned onto 5th," the police officer said, nudging his partners shoulder. Briggs looked up from his paper and shrugged the comment off.
"Impossible. 5th will just lead them right back on this road, just a few blocks behind us. There's no way that's the right limo."
The officer nodded in agreement and continued down the road they were on.