“Maybe, she wants to be independent,” said Axel.
“Let’s hope not,” said Santiago.
“Maybe she’s not going to show,” said Tristan.
This earned him a round of boos and an elbow from Taylor.
“She’ll show,” said Axel. “Gwen’s not the type to stand us up.”
I looked at Taylor and then J.P. We were thinking the same thing: ‘you don’t know her.’ But we kept that comment to ourselves.
“She’s going to show,” Axel continued. “And we’re going to have a great time.”
He was so sure of himself. There was such confidence in the way he said it that we believed him; we wanted to believe him, and he made it easy for us.
Even Tristan seemed to get a sparkle in his eye. “Let’s get ready, guys. We can’t disappoint.”
We arrived at The Cellar shortly before the agreed upon 9 pm. Fashionably late is not for men as anxious as we were. The place lived up to its name; we had to go down a dingy staircase to get to the entrance. The place was packed, and loud and dark.
“We’re going to have a hard time finding her here,” I said.
“I think that’s the point,” said Nolan. “That’s why she didn’t want us to pick her up. She wants us to find her, to hunt her down.”
Of course, none of us knew if what Nolan said was true, but we all accepted it as truth anyway. That was fine by us. We were Marines; finding our target and closing in on it was what we were all about.
The place was full of girls in short skirts and shorter tops. Their eyes followed us lustfully as we made our way through the crowd. A tall blond threw herself, literally, onto Manny, but he slinked and shifted away from her. She quickly turned her attention to Nolan.
Another girl tried to pull Tristan onto the dance floor. He refused. She made an exaggerated pouty face, but we kept making our way through the crowd, our eyes scanning the place for our target.
Taylor saw her first. He pointed her out to us. There were probably sixty or seventy people separating her from us. She spotted us and waved, but made no move toward us. That was fine.
If that’s the way she wants it. We’ll go to her. Now that we have her in our sights.
The music was a constant techno beat. And the people, most with their heads up and eyes closed, bobbed and swayed and flailed their arms to the beat. I kept my eyes on Gwen as we eased our way through the cluster of oblivious dancers. She, in turn, slipped behind a wall of people and out of sight.
Manny tapped me on the shoulder. He motioned for me to take the left. He tapped Santiago on the shoulder and motioned for him to take the right. We fanned out. She thought she was being sly, but she would not slip through our net.
The place was pitch black with a strobe light flashing intermittently to the beat every few seconds. In one instance, I saw Gwen to my right a few feet away. She saw me too and smiled mischievously. The room went dark again. A moment later, the strobe light flashed, and she appeared farther away—farther away from me, but closer to Taylor. This time, it was I who smiled mischievously.
As the strobe light accelerated, Gwen drifted closer and closer to Manny. She saw him and made her way back from where she’d come.
Now, Gwen drifted closer and closer to J.P.
She saw him and darted her eyes in all directions. The room went dark again; impossible to say which direction she’d gone; but also impossible that she’d get away.
When the strobe light flashed again, I saw she was arms’ length from Nolan. He didn’t grab her. He smiled and stood his ground.
Gwen went left.
The strobe light flashed, and she was now at arm’s length from Taylor. He didn’t grab her. He smiled and stood his ground.
Gwen backed up. With each flash of the strobe light, she was closer to the wall, and we were closer to her. She turned left then right. Eventually, she turned right smack into Axel. He smiled at her, stuck out his arms and trapped her. She looked around frantically but then conceded. She smiled back at Axel and gave him a hug.
7
Gwen
In the dark, surrounded by bodies bumping into me, I made my way to the back of the club. With the help of the strobe light, I spotted the men. They were easy to spot. It wasn’t just the high and tight haircuts; those were quite common in San Diego. It wasn’t that they were all tall and muscular and good looking; that, too, was common in San Diego. But there was something else about them that made them stand out in the crowd, even in a dark crowd. They all looked different, but they all had that same focused look about them, like they were on a mission, which they were. Like they had a target in mind, which they did.