The Cage Read Online Free PDF Page A

piss.”
    Clint shifted from one foot to the other, looking miserable. His expression was pinched and pained. He clutched his groin with one hand. Nobody answered him. The only other sounds in the cage were Jared’s quiet, muffled sobs. He’d started crying again soon after the gunman had departed with Carlos. Jared had collapsed in the corner, sitting with his back against a stack of cell phones, knees drawn up to his chest, arms wrapped around his legs, face hidden, sobbing. He’d been unresponsive to all of their attempts to console him. Eventually, they’d just left him alone.
    “He said something else,” Jeff told them. “Before. I just thought of it now. He said that he doesn’t want to wait a year. Not him, meaning the gunman. It sounded like he meant someone else.”
    Scott nodded. “Yeah, I caught that, too. Maybe he’s got a partner outside in a getaway car?”
    “Or maybe he’s just crazy,” Roy said.
    “I’ve really got to piss,” Clint repeated, squeezing his crotch. “My back teeth are floating.”
    “Hold it,” Jeff said.
    “I don’t think I can. My eyes are turning yellow.”
    “Well, for Christ’s sake, don’t do it in here! We’re in enough shit without it smelling like a toilet in here, too.”
    “Oh, fuck off, Jeff. You always were Bumble’s little pet.”
    Jeff whirled around and advanced on the older man. “Really? We’ve been locked up for ten minutes. Are we really going to start turning on each other already, Clint? Is that how you want this to go? Like every hostage movie ever made?”
    Clint held up his hands in surrender. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m just…scared.”
    “We all are,” Jeff said. “It’s cool. I’m sorry, too.”
    “I really do need to piss, though. Whatever he’s doing out there, I hope he lets us out of here soon.”
    “If he lets us out.” Scott gripped the wire cage with both hands and stared out into the warehouse. “They’ve been gone a long time. Maybe he’s left already. Killed Carlos and then high-tailed it the fuck out of here.”
    “Stop it,” Roy said. “That line of thinking will lead to no good. He didn’t kill Carlos. He said that he wouldn’t.”
    “No,” Scott replied. “That wasn’t it. All he said was that he needed six of us.”
    “Same thing.”
    “Maybe,” Jeff said. “Or maybe not. Even if it is, how can we believe him? I mean, I don’t know about you, Roy, but I kind of have a hard time taking the word of some crazy fucker who just blew away two of my friends. You said yourself he might be nuts.”
    “Exactly.” Scott nodded in agreement. “And he never said that he wasn’t going to kill us. Carlos asked him point blank, and all he said was that bullshit about the satellite signals.”
    “I don’t know,” Roy said. “If he was going to kill us, I would think he’d have done it when he marched us back here. Or once he’d locked us inside. Why draw it out?”
    None of them answered.
    “I wish he hadn’t taken our cell phones,” Clint said.
    “Why?” Jeff wrapped his fingers around the cage’s wire mesh and stared out into the warehouse. “It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. There’s too much concrete back here. We wouldn’t have been able to get a signal.”
    “Then why did he smash them?”
    Jeff shrugged. “Maybe he didn’t know that. Or maybe he just wanted to make sure.”
    Scott scratched his chin thoughtfully. “He did say that he didn’t want anything sending out or receiving a signal. Maybe that meant our cell phones, too.”
    “No,” Roy said. “That wasn’t it. He said something about—”
    Jeff interrupted them both. “Guys, we’re debating the ravings of a nutcase here. I mean, come on. Does it really matter what he said or what he didn’t say? The guy is a fucking loon. We’re looking for logic where there is none. Rational people don’t walk into stores and start shooting the employees. He’s crazy. End of story. Instead of worrying about his