Collateral

Ellie is hiding behind a small trash container in a dark alley. Ellie shivers. She is still wearing her night grown, although she doesn’t envy Sophia at the moment. Sophia sits against the alley wall, dressed in her girl scout uniform. She has a realistic gash on her leg that she spends half an hour painting, and she plays the part of being wounded well.

She really hopes Sophia’s plan will work. When the clock strikes two, an eighteen-year-old woman walks into the alley. Ellie is relieved. She could always trust that woman to be punctual when she walked home after her night shift. The woman walks past Ellie, whistling a song, unaware of the danger that looms over her. The moment she spots Sophia, she gaps and rushes towards her. “Oh my god, are you ok? It is going to be okay.”

The woman kneels in from of Sophia and puts her purse next to her, probably looking for a bandaid. Ellie makes use of this moment to walk over to the woman. She cocks her gun and puts it against the woman’s neck.

“Don’t move, and don’t make a sound.”

The woman turns around and looks Ellie in the eye. She is both dead afraid and surprised.

“Ellie, is that you?”

Ellie looks her childhood friend in the eyes.

“Yes, it is me. It has been a long time, Stephany. I wished we met again under better circumstances.”

Stephany looks at the gun and back at Ellie in terror.

“Why are you doing this, Ellie?”

Ellie lowers her gun but keeps it steadily in her hand.

“I am sorry about this, Stephany, but I don’t know who I can trust. Mr Johnson has launched a full-scale manhunt for Sophia and me, and I —”

Before Ellie can finish her explanation, Stephany abruptly pushes Ellie to the ground, and Ellie hits the pavement hard. Stephany scrambles away and runs out of the alley.

Ellie slowly sits up and looks at Sophia. “That could have gone better. Please tell me you at least managed to plant the tracking device on her.”

Sophia smiles. “I did. So if we are lucky, she will run straight to her Mom.”

“I hope so. Only Stephany and her mother know where your dad’s secret hiding place is.”

Ellie sighs. “Well, she will tell her mother’s lover what happened, so we need to move before they find us.” Ellie struggles to get on her feet. After the fall, her upper leg seriously hurts. Sophia helps her up. They run deeper into the alley, where the silver-white van is parked. After they start driving, Ellie gets out the controller and checks Stephany’s tracker.

“Looks like Stephany is running back to my apartment.”

“That makes no sense.”

Ellie shows her the monitor. “I am not kidding.”

Sophia thinks for a moment.

“Remember when we followed the trail of blood from your apartment? We found a pool of blood in the elevator but couldn’t find the floor he got out of.”

“Yes, I was there.”

“Well, I thought he couldn’t have gotten that far with the amount of blood he lost. And he called in the manhunt on both of us really quickly.”

“No, what are you getting at?”

“Did your Mom ever tell you why she moved into that building?”

“Still not with you, Sophia?”

“What if your apartment is in the same building as Mr Johnson’s safe house? Stephany always talked about how she could see Elliot Bay from her apartment.”

Ellie thinks. “So you claim that Mr Johnson has a safehouse on one of the top floors in that building? That means he just crawled to his safe house. That explains why we couldn’t find his blood trail on the lower floors we checked.”

“Exactly”

Ellie punches her address into the driver’s console. It is only a short drive. When they arrive, the area is filled with runners. Mr Johnson probably has called every contact, every runner and mercenary, to be on the lookout for them. This wasn’t going to be easy.

Ellie looks again at the controller. Stephany is already inside. As Sophia predicted, she is inside one of the top apartments, probably already warning Mr Johnson.

“There must be a way to get inside without being seen.”

“There is a maintenance shaft in the corner of the building. It is accessible to the street, and you can reach every floor through it.”

Sophia laughs.

“I have a better idea. Why hide if we can hide in plain sight?”

“What do you mean.”

“I have multiple girl scout outfits. You can borrow one. We probably have a similar size.”

“I am not sure.”

“Do you rather climb a maintenance shaft?”

Ellie sighs. Of course, it is safer and easier to disguise themselves and walk in.

Sophia smiles. “I dreamed years of doing your make-up one day.”

The girls drive two streets away, and both get dressed as girl scouts. Sophia takes quite a long time doing her own and Ellie’s make-up, but after she finishes, they look like a pair of 13-year-old girls.

They walk back to the building, both carrying tin cans. When Ellie and Sophia walk in, a big guy stops them. He holds a colossal silver rifle, almost as big as himself.

“Good afternoon, girls. Do you happen to have seen those two women?” He shows both of them a picture on his tablet.

Sophia smiles, “I am sorry, sir, I don’t recognise them.”

“That’s ok. Thanks anyways, girls. Good luck selling cookies.”

“Thank you. I hope you find them.”

After they pass the entrance, they continue to the elevator. Inside, Ellie speaks up.

“Well, that was easy.”

“I know, right.” Sophia laughs. “Imagine we needed to climb all this way.”

Ellie rolls her eyes. She takes the console out of her tin can.

“So the apartment should be on this floor, according to the tracker.”

The girls follow the tracker’s location, and both stand before Mr Johnson’s apartment. The tracker indicates Stephany is behind the door.

Ellie tries to connect the lock on the door to her cell phone, but Sophia stops her.

“You don’t need to hack it. I have a better device.”

She opens her tin can and reveals a crowbar. “Are you ready?” She whispers.

Ellie pulls out her gun and aims it in front of her. “I am ready when you are.”