Snatched

by Michael Arches

  Moore shook his head. “We ain’t, at least I ain’t, waiting around for some committee of DC bureaucrats to tell me how to enforce the law in this county. I was planning to ask Hiram to punch out a window in that jet so we can lob in a few tear gas canisters. You gonna tell me we can’t do that?”

  He looked straight at Yang with a scowl.

  The G-man kept a straight face. “At present, my agents and I are acting under your authority, Henry. But that could change at any time. Senior DOJ management is meeting as we speak, and I cannot imagine what they will decide is appropriate.”

  The sheriff grinned. “Then, let’s take care of this little problem for them before they work themselves into a tizzy.”

  He motioned for Hiram to approach, he put an arm over the gunner’s shoulder and conferred privately. Moore then spoke with several of his other deputies. Six of his cops hopped into two vehicles and drove over to the plane.

  Hiram climbed in the chopper, and Dusty took off, repositioning the chopper closer to the jet and turning it so Hiram could get a clear shot. Then, the pilot landed.

  Because both Hiram and his target were both stationary, Athena didn’t expect him to have any trouble hitting whichever window he chose.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  The first bullet punched through a window in the center of the jet. The second and third shots to the same spot created an opening a foot high and wide. One of the deputies near the plane ran over to the open window, raised a tear gas launcher, and fired two cannisters inside.

  Then, the cops hurried over to the plane’s door and waited for whatever came next.

  Within a minute, the door popped open, and a set of stairs unfolded. Dominique Santiago dashed out first, coughing and wheezing. Athena stood behind the helicopter to make sure she couldn’t be seen, but Santiago was too busy barfing to notice anything.

  Right behind her, five tough-looking men deplaned as quickly as they could. The cops forced everyone to the tarmac face-down and secured them. That was satisfying to watch, no two ways about it.

  -o-o-o-

  Before Athena could follow Cici's advice and forget, she had to take care of one more loose end. She found Cici joking with a group of other girls, and pulled her aside. “Listen, I need your help on one thing. Some really nasty people are after me. You can’t mention anything about me in public, or those nasty people might figure out where to find me. So, you don’t remember hearing or seeing anything about Christina Nielsen.”

  Cici frowned and shook her head. “Not gonna work, girlfriend. It’s all gonna come out. Too many people know what monsters Leo and the others were and how badly we all suffered.”

  “Sure, but they don’t have to know what I did to help the FBI. Only a few people know about that part. You should tell the truth to the cops, but to everybody else, just say you don’t remember who you gave those passwords to.”

  She snorted. “Like, are you serious? How about if I say I gave the password to, uh…Jackie?”

  “That might work. But before you say anything, let me check with her.”

  Cici nodded.

  They relaxed and chatted about nothing in particular until a couple of school buses showed up. A few of the women and girls had already been taken away in ambulances, but most of them were sitting around waiting for a ride to town.

  In a loud voice, Moore said, “Okay, ladies, were going to take you to Monticello. You’re going to our high school gym where we’ve set up a lunch for you. We’ll also have to get your basic personal information and ask a few questions. After that, we’ll take you to a hotel where we’ve arranged for rooms for tonight. That’ll give us time to figure out how to get you back to your loved ones.”

  He paused for a reaction, but nobody spoke.

  “One last thing, folks. This is really big news. The cable TV guys are already showing up in town. It’s completely up to you whether you want to speak to them or not.”

  “I can hardly wait,” Cici said. “This is my big chance. How do I look?”

  Athena felt exactly the opposite, craved anonymity, but said, “Pretty good. When we get to the gym, I’ll help you clean a few smudges off your face. Then, you’ll look fantastic.”

  Cici beamed.

  A new star was about to flash to life in the American firmament. But then a dark thought intruded. What if Cici ended up as a different kind of slave?

  Athena took the girl’s hand. “Listen, you gotta be real careful with those TV people. They’re just looking for a story. No matter how nice a reporter seems to be, he isn’t looking out for your best interests. Just his own.”

  “Good point. If you see me messin’ up, pull me aside. I’ll appreciate all the help you can give me.”

  Athena prayed she meant that. “It’s a cliché, but true. The celebrity world is a jungle.”

  “And I’ll be on my own. You’re my only real friend, except for maybe a few kids I grew up with. They haven’t seen me in five years.”

  That choked Athena up so much she couldn’t speak. Instead, she sniffed back her tears and nodded.

  Cici helped Athena walk over to the buses. The former prisoners swarmed around the doors, as though they couldn’t wait to get away from the windswept and dismal airport. Athena had to agree.

  Before they could climb on board, Beau said to her, “Don’t go yet. I have to ask you a few questions about the assholes we’ve arrested.”

  “Fine,” she said, “but first, any news about Maggie and Jackie?”

  He wiped something black and sticky off her cheek with his index finger. It was a beetle covered in soot that must’ve fallen out of her hair. God, she was filthy. As was he, but he was still her hero.

  “Both are fine,” he said. “Jackie has fully recovered and will meet you at the gym. Maggie needs to stay at the hospital for observation. You can see her later.”

  With that, he began asking questions about who various people were and what they’d done. Both Athena and Cici answered his questions.

  When he finished, Athena said, “You didn’t ask about the worst guy, the big boss. Cici knows more than me about Hugo Langer and his role.”

  She explained how she knew Langer through Misha and Leo, and how Langer had micromanaged the La Plata Compound and Homestead House.

  Beau nodded. “Special agents in New York City are already moving in to arrest him. Your info will be helpful to hold him without bail. The bastard’s obviously a major flight risk. But sounds like Cici never dealt with Langer directly. We may have to cut a deal with someone who did. By the way, Leonid Ivanov claims to know something he says is ‘extremely important to the well-being of the FBI.’ Any idea what he might be talking about?”

  Athena thought back on her dealings with Leo and shook her head. “He did let me, Jackie, and Maggie go, instead of shooting us. That counts for something, but I’m sure he didn’t expect us to survive. I was never privy to his secrets.”

  Cici put a finger to her cheek and thought for a moment. “All I know is he wasn’t worried about the FBI surprising us at Homestead House. Sorry, Beau. The other guards were terrified. But Leo told them, ‘Not a big problem. I’ll let you know if we have to worry.’ Some guys stayed skeptical and asked for details, but Leo wouldn’t say any more.”

  “In that case,” Beau said, “we’ll talk to him about a deal, but the terms will depend entirely on how good his info is. At a minimum, he’ll do decades in prison for his role in this nightmare.”

  Athena, Cici, and a couple of cops were the last to get on the bus before it headed to town.

  Chapter 30

  Monticello High School Gymnasium

  The rest of the afternoon was mostly a blur. After a shower, Athena sat with Heather to give her a detailed accounting of what’d happened since she first saw Jackie and Mia in the Durango gas station.

  When they had all been debriefed, Athena, Jackie, Donna, and Cici bummed a ride from a local cop to the hospital to visit Magg
ie. To Athena’s surprise, the patient looked almost as good as new.

  While they stood around Maggie’s bed in her private room, Athena mentioned the problem with the Santiago cartel. That killed the celebratory mood. Everybody agreed Athena needed to keep a very low profile.

  To that end, she suggested that their public story should be that Jackie worked with Cici to connect the iPod and contact the FBI.

  “Don’t expect me to falsely claim I did anything helpful,” Jackie said. “In fact, I don’t want the public to know anything about me either. Most folks will think we’re freaks, and they’ll particularly scorn our babies. People went nuts after World War II when they found out how the Nazis had been breeding super babies. Those poor kids were pariahs all their lives.”

  “I’m gonna figure out why our babies are different,” Athena said. “Maybe it’s something subtle that we can forget about.”

  The others snorted in very unladylike ways.

  “People don’t pay millions for anything subtle,” Donna said.

  Athena felt her face warm because she was being ridiculous. Langer wouldn’t have gone to such incredible lengths to create and hide the über-babies unless there was something fucking amazing about them.

  That realization left her highly conflicted. Part of her wanted her über-baby to actually be amazing, but she had to worry about that later.

  Instead, she said, “Look, some story is going to come out, either a real one or a fake one. Some heroine told the FBI exactly where we were, and reporters are going to insist on finding out who worked with Cici to save everybody’s ass. Inquiring minds will want to know.”

  Maggie chimed in with her groggy voice, “How about Donna discovered the iPod and gave it to Cici. Our young superstar found the password, logged into the Wi-Fi, and texted Beau. The kid’s amazing.”

  Everybody grinned and stared at Cici, who frowned. “I’m not going to exaggerate. The real story is unbelievable for a girl who can barely read the Dick and Jane books. Part of stardom is that everybody will be looking for a way to bring me down. I won’t give ’em any extra ammo.”

  “You’re not listening, ladies,” Athena said. “One of us crazy bitches did it. I got an excellent reason for saying it wasn’t me. That means it has to be one of you.”

  “How about Brenda?” Maggie asked.

  The others stared at her blankly.

  “I didn’t tell any of you about her because she’s a former cop. Needed to keep a low profile or the guards would’ve beat the shit out of her. And she was very forgettable. Five-six, light brown hair, a mousy face. A little pudgy.”

  “Yeah,” Cici said. “I like it. Brenda was sweet but so shy.”

  “Works for me,” Athena said. “I’ll make sure the cops know about good ol’ Brenda.”

  They all grinned at each other.

  -o-o-o-

  ^When Cici grabbed her fifteen minutes of fame with CNN, it turned into a two-hour, prime-time special. Just that quickly, she became America’s latest sweetheart.

  She told her story of being abused by her dad before puberty and sold at age thirteen. And she named names for every man who’d taken advantage of her and all those who’d stood by and let it happen. In addition, she explained how she’d lied to them and manipulated them to survive.

  By the time she got to the part about giving the password to Brenda, the reporter interviewing her didn’t ask anything more about that. Everybody focused on the abuse, which they should’ve.

  -o-o-o-

  Legacy Inn, Monticello

  The next morning, all the cable TV channels reported bad news. Hugo Langer had managed to avoid arrest by flying in one of his private jets to Bermuda then to parts unknown. That soured an otherwise lovely breakfast buffet for the former prisoners.

  Athena spent most of the morning helping Cici as she flitted from one interview to another. Thanks to the girl’s natural star power, her face seemed to turn up everywhere.

  Beau worked with agents in Kentucky to arrest Cici’s parents. Her father was charged with a dozen felonies, and her mother was a knowing accomplice. Cici’s three sisters and brother publicly welcomed her return to safety.

  Doctor Wu was threatened with dozens of sexual assault felonies. Athena remembered her promise to Donna when Wu had saved Maggie.

  At lunch with Beau, Athena said, “I hope the Bureau realizes Wu was much less evil than the guards. Sure, she was greedy, but I’m sure they were blackmailing her to force her to continue to work for them.”

  He looked at her askance. “You saying you want us to cut her some slack? If so, because of all the help you’ve given us, I’m sure Yang and the others will listen to any recommendation for leniency you care to offer.”

  “Yeah, sure, I’ll put in a good word for her,” Athena said. “Plus, she’s probably the only human source you’ve got who knows any details about their genetic experiments. She told me the real brains behind this technology works in China. Good luck getting access to him, assuming they haven’t killed him already.”

  He blew out a deep breath. “Good point. And we’re not having much luck breaking into Leo’s and Langer’s computers, either. Yang has his best techie working on Leo’s laptop, but he can’t get past the login screen. Similar problem in the Big Apple. The Bureau’s best geeks from DC are trying to crack into Langer’s network. Total failure, so far.”

  She gazed at him and fought a smile, unsure how candid she should be about her hacking prowess. One thing was clear. Somebody needed to get into Langer’s network to find out most of the details about the Über-Baby Project.

  “You know,” she said, “Langer could start up again in Nicaragua or some other safe foreign land.”

  Beau frowned. “Nobody’s happy about that possibility, for damned sure. And we lost one of our best potential witnesses against the billionaire bastard. Ivanov was found dead this morning in his holding cell in Salt Lake City. If we’re not careful, Langer could come home, deny any connection to the damned project, and be declared innocent by a jury.”

  That settled it for Athena. “Listen, I have quite a bit of experience with sneaking into computers. Just between you and me, I can get into almost anywhere, including DOJ’s supposedly highly secured network. Let me know if I can help.”

  He groaned. “Sure,” he said, “but understand one thing. Our IT folks think they’re super-hot shit. If they ask for help at all, they would probably go to other geeks in DC, like in the National Security Agency. Unless, of course, you have a degree from MIT or have worked for Microsoft or Google, some company like that. Sorry.”

  She wasn’t surprised at their attitude. She had worked for Google but as a lowly contractor. And when it came to smugness, she’d seen too much in the private sector already. The FBI could do things their way, and she’d work alone, as usual.

  -o-o-o-

  Legacy Inn, Monticello

  By the end of the day, most of the women and girls had left Utah for their former lives. Before anyone left, though, Athena collected an email address or a phone number in case she could provide further information or help, particularly for those who were pregnant.

  Athena stayed because Beau had wormed his way into her heart, and he was still working his ass off in town. Cici stayed because Athena was a much better mom than her old one.

  One thing was certain—the girl needed a particularly good stage mother. All the New York talk shows kept trying to coax Cici to their studios. Athena agreed to travel with Cici, as long as she could do so safely. The marshals in the witness protection program came through. Athena became Carol Winter, with new IDs and access to her old bank and credit card accounts.

  After a week in New York City, Athena realized Cici needed a professional agent in addition to a stage mom. Athena called a classmate from law school who worked in LA handling contracts for a studio Athena had never heard of.

  He recommended three creative agents he knew well and trusted. After inte
rviewing each of them and searching online, Athena recommended Liz Barrymore to Cici. The kid was on her way to infinity and beyond.

  Chapter 31

  It took Athena six weeks, working twelve-hour days, to break into Hugo Langer’s hyper-secure computer network. Thankfully, it was worth every second of effort. She not only gained access to all of his records about the Über-Baby Project, but she discovered, Langer had restarted in Nicaragua.

  Within three months, Athena knew everything about Hugo Langer, down to the brand of his underwear. She also learned that he’d already earned over a hundred million dollars selling test tube children.

  That was due in large part because three hundred surrogate moms were growing rounder every day at his private military base two hours east of Managua. And his rates had gone up. The greedy billionaire charged $3.8 million for each baby, with half paid before another embryo would be implanted.

  Most interesting of all, Athena discovered what made the kiddies so damned marketable. Thanks to gene splicing, each kid was guaranteed to be immune to twenty-seven of the world’s deadliest diseases, including AIDS.

  The real selling point, however, was that each newborn was a clone of a remarkable person. A copy was sure to be successful because the original already had been.

  Langer had prepared a portfolio with photographs and biographies for thirty-nine different humans who supposedly epitomized the highest standards of the human race.

  He even provided detailed notes on how the DNA donor had been raised so that the clone’s new parents could reproduce those conditions if they chose. They could ensure both nature and nurture mimicked the original.

  Athena didn’t recognize most of the names who’d offered DNA to Langer, but she had seen an article in the Washington Post about one of the men, a Japanese chemist who’d invented a new kind of battery.

  Her review of the individual bios told her that the DNA donors had all excelled at some of the world’s most elite universities and then gone on to some professional or creative success. None of the donors were well-known, but within their chosen fields they were admired by their peers.