The frightened man on the screen looked straight at the camera. Hunter quickly pressed the ‘print screen’ key on his keyboard, saving a snapshot of his entire desktop to the computer’s clipboard. He now had what he hoped would be an identifiable shot of the man’s face.

‘Now, the reason why I’m calling you, Detective, is because I need your help.’

On the screen, the man started panting heavily. Fearful sweat covered his entire body. He was on the brink of a panic attack.

‘OK, let’s take it easy,’ Hunter replied, being certain to keep his voice calm but authoritative. ‘Tell me how I can help you?’

Silence.

Hunter knew the caller was still on the line. ‘I’ll do everything I can to help you. Just tell me how.’

‘Well . . .’ the caller responded. ‘You can decide how he’s going to die.’

Four

Hunter and Garcia exchanged uneasy glances. Garcia immediately clicked off the call and quickly punched the internal code to be connected to Operations again.

‘Please tell me you’ve got a location for this creep,’ Garcia said as the phone was answered at the other end.

‘Not yet, Detective,’ the woman replied. ‘We need another minute or so. Keep him talking.’

‘He doesn’t want to talk anymore.’

‘We’re getting there, but we need a little more time.’

‘Shit!’ He shook his head at Hunter and signaled him to keep the caller talking. ‘Let me know the second you get something.’ He disconnected and tapped back into Hunter’s call.

‘Fire or water, Detective?’ the caller said.

Hunter frowned. ‘What?’

‘Fire or water?’ the caller repeated in an amused tone. ‘The pipes inside the glass enclosure you can see on your screen are capable of spitting out fire or filling the enclosure with water.’

Hunter’s heart stuttered.

‘So pick, Detective Hunter. Would you like to watch him die by fire or water? Shall we drown him or burn him alive?’ It didn’t sound like a joke.

Garcia shifted in his chair.

‘Wait a moment,’ Hunter said, trying to keep his voice steady. ‘You don’t have to do this.’

‘I know I don’t, but I want to. It should be fun, don’t you think?’ The indifference in the caller’s voice was mesmerizing.

‘C’mon, c’mon,’ Garcia urged between clenched teeth, staring at the line lights on his phone. Still nothing from Operations.

‘Choose, Detective,’ the caller ordered. ‘I want you to decide how he’s going to die.’

Hunter kept silent.

‘I suggest you pick one, Detective, because I promise you that the alternative is much worse.’

‘You know I can’t make that decision . . .’

‘CHOOSE,’ the caller shouted down the line.

‘OK,’ Hunter’s voice remained calm. ‘I choose neither of the two.’

‘That’s not an option.’

‘Yes, it is. Let’s talk about this for a minute.’

The caller laughed angrily. ‘Let’s not. Talking time is over. It’s decision time now, Detective. If you don’t pick . . . I will. Either way, he dies.’

A red light started flashing on Garcia’s phone. He quickly swapped calls. ‘Tell me you’ve got him.’

‘We’ve got him, Detective.’ Excitement colored the woman’s voice. ‘He’s in . . .’ She paused for a moment. ‘What the hell?’

‘What?’ Garcia pushed. ‘Where is he?’

‘What the hell is going on?’ Garcia heard the woman say, but he knew she wasn’t talking to him. He heard some more undecipherable whispers coming from the other end of the line. Something was wrong.

‘Somebody better talk to me.’ Garcia’s voice raised about half an octave.

‘It’s no good, Detective,’ the woman finally answered. ‘We thought we had him in Norwalk, but suddenly the signal jumped to Temple City, then to El Monte, now it’s showing the call is coming from Long Beach. He’s rerouting the signal every five seconds. Even if we keep him on the phone for an hour, we wouldn’t be able to pinpoint him.’ She paused for a moment. ‘The signal just moved to Hollywood. Sorry, Detective. This guy knows what he’s doing.’

‘Shit!’ Garcia tapped back into Hunter’s call and shook his head. ‘He’s bouncing the signal,’ he whispered. ‘We can’t get his location.’

Hunter squeezed his eyes tight. ‘Why are you doing this?’ he asked the caller.

‘Because I want to,’ the caller came back. ‘You have three seconds to make your choice, Detective Hunter. Fire or water? Flip a coin if you need to. Ask your partner. I know he’s listening in.’

Garcia said nothing.

‘Wait,’ Hunter said. ‘How can I make a choice if I don’t even know who he is, or why you have him in that tank? C’mon, talk to me. Tell me what this is all about.’

The caller laughed again. ‘That’s something you will have to find out for yourself, Detective. Two seconds.’

‘Don’t do this. We can help each other.’

Garcia’s eyes had left his computer screen and were now locked on Hunter.

‘One second, Detective.’

‘C’mon, talk to me,’ Hunter said again. ‘We can figure this out. We can come up with a better solution for whatever this is.’

Garcia held his breath.

‘The solution is either fire or water, Detective. Anyway, time’s up. So what is it going to be?’

‘Look, there’s got to be another way we can . . .’

TOC, TOC, TOC.

The sound exploded through Hunter and Garcia’s phone so loudly that their heads jerked back, as if they had been slapped across the face. It sounded like the caller had slammed his receiver against a wooden surface three times to get their attention.

‘You don’t seem to be listening to me, Detective Hunter. We are through talking. The only word I want to hear from you right now is either fire or water. Nothing else.’

Hunter said nothing.

‘Suit yourself. You don’t want to pick, I will. And I pick fi—’

‘Water,’ Hunter said in a firm voice. ‘I choose water.’

The caller paused and let out an amused chuckle. ‘You know what, Detective? I knew you would choose water.’

Hunter stayed silent.

‘It was obvious, really. When you considered the options you had, death by drowning seemed less awful, more humane, less painful and quicker than being burned alive, right? But have you ever seen anyone drown, Detective?’

Silence.

‘Have you ever seen the despairing look on a person’s eyes as he holds his breath for as long as he can, knowing death is all around him and closing in fast?’

Hunter ran a hand through his short hair.

‘Have you ever seen the way a drowning man frantically looks around himself, confused, searching for a miracle that is just not there? A miracle that will never come?’

Still silence.

‘Have you seen the way the body convulses, as if it was being electrocuted, as the person finally lets go of hope and breathes his first mouthful of water? The way his eyes almost bulge out of his skull as water enters his lungs and he slowly starts to suffocate?’ The caller deliberately breathed out heavily. ‘Did you know that it’s impossible to keep your eyes shut when you’re drowning? It’s an automatic motor reaction when a person’s brain is starved of oxygen.’

Garcia’s gaze returned to his screen.

The caller laughed one more time. This time a relaxed giggle. ‘Keep on watching, Detective. This show is just about to get much better.’

The line went dead.

Five

All of a sudden and with incredible speed, water started jetting out of the holes on both pipes inside the glass enclosure. The man tied to the chair was caught by surprise, and fear made his whole body jerk violently. His eyes widened in complete desperation as he realized what was happening. Despite the gag in his mouth, he started screaming, frantically, but on the other side of the screen Hunter and Garcia couldn’t hear a sound.