by Bill Myers
“Thank . . .” He could say no more.
They headed down the sidewalk as fast as they could. But even as Piper helped the man, she sensed there was something familiar about him. She’d seen him somewhere. They were a dozen feet from the hospital doors when she heard Zach shouting across the street.
“Piper? What’s up?”
She turned as he ran to join them. “This man, he’s having a heart attack,” she shouted.
Zach arrived and moved to the man’s other side.
“Thank you,” the man gasped. “Thank you.”
Zach nodded. Glancing to Piper, he asked, “Any sign of Eli?”
Piper shook her head no. “You?”
“Nothing.”
They reached the emergency entrance. The doors hissed open, and within seconds an orderly was at their side. Grabbing a wheelchair, he eased the man down as a nurse arrived with a clipboard.
“What’s your name, sir?” she asked.
“Gabriel,” he wheezed.
“Like the angel?”
He nodded.
The nurse wrote it down and turned to the orderly.
“Let’s get Mr. Gabriel inside, stat.”
They rolled him toward a pair of frosted-glass doors. But when the doors slid opened, Piper caught her breath. For there, just inside the hallway, stood her little brother.
“Elijah!” She called.
The boy looked up and smiled.
Zach saw him too.
But when they started toward him, Elijah turned and raced down the hall.
“Elijah!” Zach called. “Eli!”
By the time they got inside the door, their little brother was nowhere to be found.
Monica, Silas, and Bruno cruised the streets in their van.
“How could a huge motor home just vanish?” Monica demanded.
“Well . . . uh . . . maybe we can’t see it,” Bruno offered.
“I know we can’t see it,” Monica snapped. “Otherwise we’d . . . see it.”
“Uh, yeah.” Bruno gave a giggle. “That’s what I thought too.”
Monica looked at him, thought of saying something, then figured it would do no good.
“Maybe they’re hiding it,” Silas suggested.
“Where do you hide a motor home?” Monica grunted.
Silas immediately hit the brakes, and they all flew forward.
“What are you doing?!” Monica demanded.
He said nothing but pointed to the building directly beside them — the one with the sign reading Underground Parking.
“Yes!” she exclaimed. “Yes! They could have hidden it in a parking garage. Let’s check them all out. There can’t be that many. Let’s search every parking garage until we find them!”
Mom and Dad continued rummaging through the storage room, tearing through box after box of stationery supplies.
“These people must sure like notes,” Mom said as she tossed another box of sticky notes to the side.
Dad nodded and glanced to the door. “What we really need is something to help us pop that lock. If they hadn’t taken my wallet, I could have used a credit card or at least a — ” He stopped, seeing a look of hope cross Mom’s face.
“What about a metal ruler?” she asked. “I’ve got a whole box of them right here.”
“Let’s see one.”
She handed him a ruler and he headed for the door.
Mom followed as he crouched down to peer through the small crack between the door and the frame. Then, ever so carefully, he slipped the ruler into the crack and tried to catch the underside of the bolt.
A moment later the door gave a click.
“Got it!” he said.
“Now what?”
“Now we try to find a way out of here.”
The children’s surgical unit was on the fourth floor of the hospital. There, in a small conference room, an older doctor spoke to some very frightened parents.
“We feel that brain surgery is the only chance for LeAnne’s survival. But, at best, it’s only a fifty-fifty chance.”
A long pause followed before the father cleared his throat. “Those aren’t great odds, Doctor.”
The doctor nodded. “I understand how you feel. But, as you know, we have the best surgeons in the city for this kind of procedure.”
The father nodded. “That’s why we had her transferred here. But only fifty-fifty . . .”
Another pause followed.
Finally the doctor answered. “A fifty-fifty chance is better than no chance. And that’s what she’ll have if we don’t operate.”
Across from the room an elevator dinged. The father looked into the hall to see the elevator’s door open and a six-year-old boy with dark hair and glasses appear. The boy stepped into the hallway, looked both directions, and then headed for the children’s ICU.
The green van entered the hospital’s parking garage.
“There it is!” Silas shouted.
After three garages, they’d finally found the right one.
Silas brought the van to a stop and stepped out. Pulling his gun from his waistband, he silently approached the RV. He opened the door carefully and looked inside. No one was in sight.
“It’s empty!” he called back to Monica.
Monica nodded. “All right then. Let’s you and I comb the area. Bruno, you stay here in case they come back.”
Bruno replied. “Yes, dear Monica. Your wish is my command.”
Monica gave him a look, then shouted, “Knock it off !”
Chapter Eight
The Noose Tightens
Elijah peered around the corner into the ICU.
There were a dozen beds with all sorts of hanging bottles that were dripping and electronic gadgets that were beeping. At the far end, two nurses were speaking to a young doctor. But it was the third bed that caught Elijah’s attention.
The girl he’d seen hit by the car was lying in it.
She looked awful. There were tubes running into her nose, mouth, and arms. Her skin was as pale as paper.
Slowly, Elijah made his way toward her. But he didn’t get far.
“You there,” a bald orderly called out from behind him. “Little boy.”
Elijah froze a moment and then continued forward.
The voice continued. “You’re not supposed to be in here.”
Elijah was only a few steps from the bed when the orderly’s huge hands grabbed him by the collar.
Within seconds, he was back outside the ICU with the orderly waving his finger in his face. “Children are not allowed in there. Where are your parents?”
Elijah shrugged.
The orderly grabbed him by the arm and escorted him down the hall to the reception desk. Here he spoke to an angry-looking nurse. “I caught this kid in ICU. Do you know who he belongs to?”
The nurse shook her head and eyed Elijah suspiciously.
“How’d you get up here?”
Elijah turned and pointed at the elevator.
“I see,” the nurse said. “He probably just wandered on and pushed a button. Call Security. They’ll find his parents.”
The orderly nodded. He pointed to a chair next to the desk. “Sit there!” he ordered as he reached for the phone. “We’ll find your parents.”
Elijah sat with a quiet sigh. He only wished that the man was right.
Dad looked around the corner and down the hall toward the exit.
Two burly guards stood at the front door. They didn’t wear uniforms. In fact they looked more like thugs than security guards. Both wore shoulder holsters with guns.
“Someone’s coming,” Mom whispered from behind him.
Dad pulled back, took her hand, and together they darted to the nearby stairwell. “Upstairs,” he whispered.
They stole up the steps silently until they reached the second level, where Dad checked out the hall, making sure the coast was clear.
“C’mon,” he said.
They stepped into the hallway and moved
past a bunch of offices. The first two were lit and had people talking inside. The third was dark. He reached for the knob and gave it a try.
It opened with a quiet creak, and they stepped inside.
The office was small with only a desk, metal filing cabinet, phone, and computer. There were no windows.
Spotting the phone, Mom reached for it, but Dad stopped her. He pointed to the blinking lights on it. “Someone will see the light. Let’s try the computer instead.”
Mom nodded as Dad sat down in front of the computer and worked the keys. She began to pray quietly.
Moment’s later the email screen popped up.
“Yeah, baby!” Dad whispered. Then turning to Mom he asked, “So what do we say?”
“Write the kids first,” she whispered. “Tell them we’re okay. And tell them not to try and find us.”
Dad started typing. “Got it.”
“And after that . . .” Mom took a breath. “After that, have them call the police.”
In the dark room, Shadow Man stared at the photo of Elijah Dawkins. He drummed his fingers on his jet-black desk. “So young,” he muttered. “And already such a threat.”
Just then, a tiny green light on the signal board next to his computer lit up. Frowning, he picked up the phone and pressed a key.
“Who isss usssing the sssystem in room 211?” he demanded.
“I don’t know, sir,” came the reply.
“Find out and report to me at onccce. There should be no one in that officcce.”
“Yes, sir.”
Shadow Man stared at the green light a moment, his suspicions growing.
“Is there anything else, sir?”
“Yesss. Kill the computer line in Room 211.”
“The computer line, sir?”
“Yeesss! Shut it down, now!”
“Yes, sir.”
Shadow Man slammed down the receiver and glared at the light. A moment later it went dark.
Elijah fidgeted in his seat.
The nurse gave him a nasty look.
He fidgeted again.
She looked at him again.
Finally, she picked up the phone, dialed, and spoke. “Hello, Security, have you found the boy’s parents yet? He’s driving me nuts.” She listened a moment. “Well, keep looking. Oh, and send someone up here to take him off my hands. He can wait in your office.”
She hung up the phone and glared at Elijah.
He fidgeted.
She glared some more.
Moments later, a gray-haired orderly arrived.
“That was fast,” the nurse said. “Are you here for the kid?”
The orderly nodded.
“All he does is stare at me with those huge eyes of his and fidget. Stare and fidget. Stare and fidget. He’s driving me crazy.”
The old man nodded again and held out his hand. Elijah smiled, slipped out of his chair, and grabbed onto the man’s hand.
They headed down the hall. But instead of going to the elevator, the orderly took him directly to ICU.
Elijah looked up at him and grinned wider. The old man smiled back.
Suddenly, the double doors opened, and a doctor and several nurses walked by. But for some strange reason they didn’t even notice Elijah and the orderly. Then, from the opposite direction, a bald orderly also passed.
But, again, he didn’t see either one of them.
The gray-haired orderly released Elijah’s hand and nodded. Elijah returned the nod and entered ICU.
He approached the third bed, the one where the little girl slept. Then, ever so gently, he reached over and touched her head.
“Something’s wrong,” Dad said. “I’ve lost the signal.”
Mom looked alarmed. “Did you get a message out?”
“I think so . . . at least to the kids. But — ”
The office door exploded open, and two big thugs entered.
“Don’t move,” the first ordered. “Don’t touch the keyboard.”
Dad nodded. “The signal’s shut down anyway.”
Finally, a third man came into the room — the strangest person Mom or Dad had ever seen.
He was huge, a good four hundred pounds. Somehow his head didn’t quite match his body. But there was something even stranger. Even in the light, parts of the man could barely be seen. It was like he was constantly cloaked in shadow. It made no difference how directly the light shown on him; parts of his body, especially his face, could never be seen completely.
“Very clever, Mr. Dawkinsss.” The man seemed to hiss more than speak. “I sssee you have sssent a messsage. ”
Stepping closer to the computer, the man stared at what Dad had been writing.
Of course, Dad turned, trying to delete the message. The man made a horrible sound like a screaming, suffering animal. Dad was then thrown across the room as easily as if he were a rag doll.
He crashed into the filing cabinet and slid to the floor. Mom screamed and ran to him.
The man of shadows hunched over the computer.
“Ssso. Sssending messagesss, are we? Perhapsss I can asssist you.”
He stared hard at the computer. Then, to Mom and Dad’s amazement, the keys suddenly began moving on their own.
The man read the words as they appeared on the screen:
DEAR KIDS,
DISREGARD PREVIOUS MESSAGE. NEED HELP.
BEING HELD AT COMPOUND IN MOUNTAINS. COME FOR US. MAKE SURE ELIJAH IS WITH YOU. DIRECTIONS ARE BELOW.
MOM AND DAD
The man turned to the couple and laughed at the look of alarm on their faces. “Don’t worry. I’ll give them very clear directionsss. They’ll have no trouble finding usss.”
“This is one big hospital!” Zach complained as he plopped down on the sofa in the third-floor waiting area.
“He’s gotta be here,” Piper said. “We both saw him.”
“But where? And why is he hiding from us?”
Piper shook her head and glanced at her watch.
“Oh, great, we were supposed to meet up with Cody and Willard four and a half minutes ago.”
Zach snorted at her exactness.
“Well, we were,” she insisted.
“Right.”
“We should get them. See if they’ll help us look.”
Zach nodded and lumbered to his feet. “All right. I’ll go. You keep looking.” He started for the stairs.
“And tell them we’re sorry for being late,” she called.
Without turning, Zach gave a wave and continued toward the stairway.
Elijah slipped out of ICU and into the hall. He made his way quickly toward the elevator. Now he would find Piper and Zach. He pushed the call button, and moments later the elevator door opened. He checked the hall one last time as he backed inside.
“Can you believe this?” a man behind him said.
“Right into our hands.”
Elijah spun around to see the skinny man with the pointed nose . . . and the woman with the bright red hair.
Chapter Nine
Race for Your Life
Zach spotted Cody standing next to the RV in the garage.
“Hey,” he shouted. “Elijah’s running around somewhere in the hospital. We need you guys to help us find him.”
“Uh . . .” Cody raised his eyebrows, blinked twice, and nodded his head to the right. “We can’t, uh, come right now.”
“Why not?” Zach asked as he approached. “And where’s Willard?”
“He’s, uh . . .” Cody did the same weird eyebrow raising, blinking, and nodding. “We’re working on the RV.”
Zach frowned. “Why do you keep blinking like that?”
“I’m not blinking,” Cody said as he blinked, raised his eyebrows, and nodded to the right.
