20 minutes in the desert, p.1
20 Minutes In The Desert, page 1
part #12 of 20 Minute Series
20 MINUTES
IN THE DESERT
DANIEL HURST
www.danielhurstbooks.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental.
20 MINUTES IN THE DESERT.
First edition. May 7, 2021.
Copyright © 2021 Daniel Hurst
Written by Daniel Hurst
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
20 Minutes In The Desert
Jelena *
Bogdan *
Curtis *
Nancy *
Ronnie *
Louise *
Lindsey *
Diego *
Ethan *
Betty
Harry *
Leon *
Carol *
Jill *
Conrad *
Mark *
Tom *
Valentin *
Kelly *
April *
Next in the 20 Minute Series...
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About The Author
Books By Daniel Hurst
Events take place between 06:00 – 06:19
Nine hours after events in 20 Minutes In Las Vegas
If you see the * then the character has featured in the series before...
Jelena *
06:00
Jelena Markovic looked out at the last remnants of night in Las Vegas. From her vantage point on this balcony of her suite in the middle of this city, she could see the orange glow on the horizon. The sun was beginning to crest above the mountains, reminding everybody who was soon to wake up that this place of glowing neon was still very much situated in the middle of a barren desert that should really be inhospitable to everything but scorpions, spiders and snakes.
As she saw several of the hotel lights go out in favour of the more natural daylight that was now becoming stronger by the second, Jelena looked down at the other source of light that was much closer to her. It was the glow from the iPad screen in her hand, on which she had been reading several news articles from her home country as she sat there and witnessed night turn into day. She had always been a morning person, although considering that this was a holiday, she hadn’t planned on getting up so early today. But then again, she hadn’t planned on her boyfriend telling her last night that he had spontaneously booked himself onto a helicopter ride due to take off at 6 am.
While Jelena sat here now on this balcony belonging to The Bellagio, Bogdan was at an airfield somewhere else in the city, strapping himself in and preparing to soar even higher than she was right now over this vast desert that continued to grow redder with every passing second. It made her a little nervous to think of the man she loved hurtling through the sky at high speed on the way to the Grand Canyon, which was where the helicopter ride was due to visit this morning. But she also knew how excited he had been when he had seen the video of the tourist trip, and that was why she hadn’t protested too much when he told her he really wanted to do it.
Bogdan had hoped that Jelena would join him in the aircraft too and that they could witness the wonder of the canyon together, but she had shaken her head firmly and said no. Jelena had no intention of getting into an aircraft, no matter how spectacular the view below it might have been. She was just about okay with getting on an actual plane, but helicopters were not for her. She much preferred being here on this balcony sofa now with her iPad in hand and this lovely view of the sunrise over Sin City.
This was high enough for her.
Scrolling her finger down the screen of her personal electronic device, Jelena continued to catch up on new events in her home country of Serbia. Even though she was on the other side of the world, it was important for her to feel connected to her native land, and one of the best ways of doing that was to keep abreast of current affairs. The website she was on was owned by one of the largest news companies in Belgrade and covered everything from political scandals and public affairs stories to sports results and weather updates.
So far, she had watched a video of a politician making a speech ahead of an upcoming election. She had read a report on the state of the water in the River Danube. She had glimpsed last night’s football result in which one of Serbia’s biggest teams, Partizan Belgrade, had claimed victory. And she had also noted that the weather in her home city was warm and sunny. That last bit of news made her smile because she knew that her mother and sister would be enjoying the good weather, most likely sitting down by the river and spending time with friends or simply reading a good book.
Lowering the iPad for a moment, Jelena smiled at the thought of her family members, as well as longing to see them again soon. The plan after Las Vegas was for her and Bogdan to fly back to London, where they had recently bought a new home with some of the money they had won in the lottery. But now that they were financially free, it meant that things like firm plans could become much more flexible. With that in mind, Jelena decided that she would speak to her boyfriend about perhaps heading to Serbia for a little holiday on the way back, delaying the return to London in favour of spending some more time with family and friends.
As the sky continued to turn from black to blue, with a whole load of oranges and yellows mixed in between, Jelena could feel the air temperature changing too. Considering this city was located in the middle of one of the most scorching landscapes on Earth, it did get chilly during the night when the sun went down behind the mountains. But now that fiery ball was showing itself again, the cold air was becoming warmer, and Jelena knew it wouldn’t be long until she was too hot again and had to retreat inside to where the air-conditioning would work its magic.
Looking out across the city, Jelena noted that all the lights on the buildings had now gone out, making this place look slightly more normal compared to when it had been ablaze with neon during the darkness. It had certainly looked spectacular last night when she and Bogdan had been out enjoying the many amenities on offer, accompanied by Nikki, their casino host, who had ensured that anything they wanted could be arranged. They had spent time gambling downstairs in the casino, although not too long because money was precious and Bogdan was a terrible roulette player. They had enjoyed a lovely meal in a French restaurant, marvelling almost as much at the furniture in the place as they did at how good the food and wine tasted. And they had purchased front-row seats to a spectacular Vegas show, watching various performers sing and dance right in front of them and clapping loudly with delight when the curtain had eventually come down. It had been an amazing evening, and while Jelena didn’t want to know exactly how much money they had spent to experience it, she knew it was important that they enjoyed themselves now they had the funds to do so.
Lord knows they had spent enough time in poverty before things had got better.
As more sunlight filtered out across this scenic city, Jelena looked at the glowing red mountains in the distance and wondered how Bogdan was getting on. He would be out there somewhere now, peering down at the desert floor as they whizzed over it, probably with his face pressed up against the window like an excited child. She smiled at that thought and hoped he was having a great time. But she also wished he would hurry up because she missed him, even if it had only been an hour ago when he had kissed her goodbye and slid out of bed.
Before he had left, he had told Jelena that he would return around mid-morning but that she wasn’t to wait for him if she wanted to order food in the meantime. She had shaken her head as if to say that she would not do that and was happy to wait for him, but that had been before her stomach had started rumbling, and now all she could think about was food. Could she order without him? He had told her that she could. Besides, he might have been given something to eat on the helicopter.
There was no point in her starving while he was out there feeling full and flying high.
With that in mind, Jelena got up off the balcony sofa and went back into the suite, heading for the phone that was sitting on the bedside table. Picking it up, she pressed the button on the device that she knew would summon the private butler who had come as a complimentary gift when they had first checked in here. Both her and Bogdan had tried using the butler’s services as little as possible during their stay here so far, mainly because they didn’t like the idea of somebody having to run around after them. But there was no denying that it made things easier when they needed something, particularly for Jelena, who had lost her ability to communicate verbally after her ordeal at the hands of the sex traffickers last year.
Jelena wondered how long it would take the butler to get to her suite, considering that she had never pressed this button before, and also the fact that it was the crack of dawn and he was surely sleeping. But amazingly, there was a knock at the door within sixty seconds, and Jelena couldn’t believe that he was here already.
Opening the door to her decadent suite, Jelena smiled at the pleasant man in the uniform who was standing on the other side of it, ready to offer his assistance. Beckoning him into the room, Jelena returned to the bedside table, where she picked up the room service menu and quickly flicked through the breakfast options before making her choice and pointing it out to the brilliant butler. With a nod of the head, the man scurried away, and Jelena wondered how long it would take him to return with her warm meal.
Not long, if his arrival had been anything to go by.
Realising that she needed to take her mind off her growling stomach until breakfast did materialise, Jelena returned to the balcony and re-took her seat. As the temperature continued to increase, she went back to reading the news on her iPad to while away a few more minutes until her hunger could be satisfied. But she almost wished she hadn’t picked the device up again because when she did, she saw the face of a man she had never wished to see again.
It was him. The one who had kept her locked in that room in London.
The one who had beaten her and left her starving whenever she wasn’t being made to satisfy the client’s demands.
The one who had been there on the day when she had her tongue removed after a failed attempt at escape.
It was Laslo.
Jelena knew she would never forget his face and often saw it in some of her worst nightmares, even now that she was free, but she had not been expecting to see it again here, in real life, when she was wide awake. But here it was, the face of that evil man, plastered all over this Serbian news website alongside a headline that made her happy and shocked in equal measure.
‘BULLET HOLE IN BODY OF BELGRADE MAN.’
Jelena read the article as quickly as she could, needing to know exactly what had happened to this man whom she had longed wished dead but who she hadn’t seen since that day she escaped from his clutches last summer. It was in the article that she found out that his body had been discovered in a river in Romania. Apparently, a drainage unit near the river had become clogged, and upon further investigation, Laslo’s corpse had been found to be the cause of it. Now it was believed that the Belgrade native had been murdered, and the bullet hole in his chest was the main reason for that. But according to the last paragraph, the police had no idea who the killer might have been or why the victim had been a target. The article just ended with the rather ominous note that the police were investigating and that they hadn’t ruled out the murder being linked to organised crime in Serbia.
Putting her iPad down and looking up at the sunrise again, Jelena thought about Laslo and what his death might mean for her in the future. Did knowing that he was dead make her feel better? He had obviously got his comeuppance, however it had happened, and it was the least he deserved after what he had done. So yes, she did feel better now that she knew he was no longer out there enjoying his life after ruining so many other people’s. But did the mystery of his murder make her feel uneasy? Yes, it did because not only was it unclear who had killed him, but now that he was dead, there was less chance of information being shared that might help stop people like him trafficking women in the future.
Jelena had always hoped that the police would catch up with him at some point and make him talk, potentially saving the lives of hundreds of other women who were most likely still trapped in the captivity that Jelena herself had been fortunate enough to escape from. But now he was dead, his secrets had died with him, and Jelena would have to find solace in the fact that the full story of his criminal deeds would never come to light.
As she stared out at the red rock in the distance, beyond where the early morning sunlight was gleaming off the side of the various shimmering hotels, Jelena wondered who had been the person to pull the trigger and end Laslo’s life. It could have been anyone, considering the type of illicit activity that the victim had been involved in. Perhaps it was a powerful crime boss, who had decided to silence Laslo or even punish him after letting Jelena get away. Or maybe it had been some kind of dodgy deal that had gone wrong, where Laslo had been looking to cash in only to have the tables turned on him at the last second. Or it could have been a simple mugging and a case of Laslo being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was unlikely that Jelena, or indeed the police, would ever know the full story.
He wasn’t the first criminal to be dredged up from a riverbed, and he wouldn’t be the last.
Jelena consoled herself with the fact that she was a long way away now from the life that had seen her involved in such dangerous and deceitful activities. Against the greatest of odds, she had managed to get out of that tiny room in that dingy London flat where Laslo and his accomplice kept her and now here she was, sitting on the balcony of a hotel suite looking out over Las Vegas. She had one man to thank for that, and he was a man that was more valuable than a thousand Laslo’s could ever be.
It was Bogdan.
The man who had saved her.
The man who was now somewhere in the sky, looking down over dawn in the desert.
Bogdan *
06:01
Bogdan Petrovic looked down over the scorched desert floor and marvelled at the arid landscape as the helicopter he was in continued to get higher. He had booked himself onto this flight out towards the Grand Canyon last night after seeing a video that showed several tourists having fun on the expedition. Now he was experiencing it himself, he had to say that the video didn’t do it justice.
The view from up here was unbelievable, and it was only going to get better the further out into the desert they went.
He was sharing the helicopter with five other people. There was the pilot who was masterfully handling the controls as he spoke into his mouthpiece and informed his passengers about this journey, as well as checking in with air control at various points too. There was an excitable Chinese couple sitting in front of Bogdan, neither of whom spoke a word of English but who were both snapping away on their cameras as the flight progressed. And lastly, there was a polite English couple sitting in the back beside him, who he had chatted to before take-off and who he now knew as Curtis and Karen.
The English couple had told him that he looked familiar and that had been when Bogdan had amazed them by informing them both that he had been the lucky winner of the lottery a couple of months ago, which explained why they seemed to recognise his face. Curtis had shaken Bogdan’s hand and asked if he could borrow five pounds, which had been a joke and one that the Serbian man had heard a few times ever since he became a millionaire. But now the chatting was over, mainly because the helicopter was now airborne and the noise from the propellers overhead was too loud for conversation. Instead, the excited tourists in the aircraft had their headphones on and were listening to the voice of the pilot over the intercom as they peered out of the windows and left Las Vegas behind.
The city they were all visiting on holiday was huge, but it hadn’t taken long for the helicopter to leave its bright lights behind, and now they were out in the middle of the Mojave, heading for the Nevada border. Soon, they would enter Arizona and get their first look at the canyon, which was one of the seven natural wonders of the world. At over 277 miles long and 10 miles wide, the Grand Canyon was unlike anything else on Earth, and Bogdan couldn’t wait to see it. He only wished that Jelena was here beside him to see it too, but she was back at The Bellagio having a lie-in, far too much of a nervous flyer to accompany him on this sightseeing trip today.
He couldn’t wait to get back and see his beloved, but there was plenty to see before that, and as the helicopter veered slightly to the right, Bogdan continued to look out of the window in awe at the sprawling sun-kissed landscape below them.
‘The Mojave Desert is the driest desert in North America and also one of the oldest,’ the pilot told his passengers as the helicopter roared on into the wilderness. ‘It is believed to have been in existence for over 2.7 billion years, and there were many dinosaurs that called this place home before man came along and started to fill it with casinos and buffets.’
Bogdan chuckled as he listened, keeping his eyes on the oranges and reds of the lunar-looking landscape as the sun crept higher in the sky. It had been pitch-black when he had arrived at the airfield to board his flight this morning, as well as chilly, but now the sky was blue again, and he knew it would be another sweltering day in the city when he eventually returned there at the end of this trip.
‘The highest recorded temperature in the Mojave was 130 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s 54.4 degrees Celsius for those passengers who come from a place that uses the metric system.’
