by Jenni James
Chapter 6
A s Knoah laid in bed that night he couldn’t believe he’d been such an idiot. Veera had broken important plans with him before so he didn’t know why he was so shocked that she hadn’t shown up for frozen yogurt that night. He’d waited a whole hour for her before he had given up and gone home. He’d even skipped his mom’s famous Crazy Cake so he wouldn’t be too full for yogurt and the cake was long gone when he got home because Riggs finished off the entire thing. He’d gotten really mad at Riggs about it but he and Riggs both knew that wasn’t what he was angry about. Apparently Veera had a thing with breaking plans with him.
His phone started buzzing on his night stand and Knoah checked the number. He didn’t recognize it. He looked at the time. 11:52. Who would be calling him at this hour?
“Hello?” he said, asking it like a question.
“Hello, Knoah?” The man’s voice was panicked and Knoah perked up?
“Yes?” he answered quickly.
“It’s Thomas St. Pierre, have you seen Veera? Is she with you? She left around 7:30 and wouldn’t tell me where she was going. I assumed she was with you so I didn’t worry, but now…”
“What? Veera? No she’s not, I haven’t seen her since the graduation ceremony. Is she not home?”
Thomas swore loudly. “No! I thought they were bluffing but they’ve got her and I don’t know where they’ve taken her. They say if I call the police they’ll kill her.”
Knoah jumped out of bed. “WHAT?! Who? Who has her? Where did they take her? You have to call the police Thomas! No matter what they said.”
“You don’t know these people Knoah. They’re bad news. I think they’ll really do it unless I do what they say.” Knoah had never heard Mr. St Pierre sound this way. It made Knoah go cold all over.
“Who are they Thomas? Tell me what you know. I may not be the police but my brothers and I can find her.”
Thomas hesitated but his desperation won out. “One of my clients is in a legal battle with a guy that is bad news. They’ve been threatening me and my family so I’ll intentionally lose the case. I’ve put them off for about a year but the last court session didn’t go their way and the cryptic email they sent has had me looking over my shoulder for weeks. I got another email tonight and…and….” his voice broke and he couldn’t finish.
“And what Thomas? What did it say?”
“It’s not what it said,” Thomas said quietly. “They sent a picture of Veera gagged and bound somewhere in the mountains. I don’t even know if it was these mountains. It still freezes up there in May. I have to get her back tonight. If I don’t make something go their way in court by Monday they’ll kill her and then they’ll go after Olivia. Veera can’t be stuck with them until Monday Knoah. Who knows what they’ll do to her by then or if she’ll even make it to Monday.” He sounded terrified.
“What kind of people are we talking about Thomas?” Knoah had a sick feeling in his gut thinking about some lowly criminal with his hands on Veera. He needed to be ready for anything.
“The man I go up against in court wouldn’t touch this with a ten foot pole, but his crony, James, he’s probably the one handling this. He knows no boundaries Knoah. I’m sure he’s hired a couple of tweakers looking for their next fix to help him with this. She’s not safe. Not even if I do what they want.”
“We’ll find her. They can’t have gotten far. It sounds like they wouldn’t be smart enough to. And Thomas, send me the picture.” He hung up, and ran to Travis’ room.
Chapter 7
A lready 10 precious minutes were gone since the phone call came in and all Knoah had done was get his brothers out of bed, explain the situation to them and get everyone moving. When he’d gotten to the part about the threatening email, Max ran to his room, brought back his laptop and started clicking furiously away at it. Knoah knew he was a whiz at computers but it wasn’t until Travis asked Max how long it would take him to find out where the email came from that he knew Max was more than just a common computer geek. It dawned on Knoah that these were probably the ‘special skills’ Travis had referred to before the graduation. Max’s clicking must have paid off because he said he found the senders IP address or something. Max said it looked like the email was sent from the old Crawford place.
Another long ten minutes later and they were geared up and out the door. Knoah’s truck, which he used for most of his guided hunts, already had a few guns, some ammo and his hunting pack that he kept stocked with emergency essentials. He hoped it would be enough because he didn’t have time to grab anything else.
Knoah’s phone chirped as they reached the empty-looking Crawford house. It was from Thomas St. Pierre. Knoah held his breath and opened the message. The photo was grainy and was probably taken from a flip phone so it was hard to tell if Veera was injured or not. Red hot anger boiled up inside him as he looked at the image of her gagged and tied to a metal chair. The flash from the camera made it hard to recognize anything in the background except for two trees behind her right shoulder. Their white bark made them easily recognizable as aspen trees. He quickly forwarded it to Max, who had hung back to see what else he could find out with his laptop, and asked him if he could clear it up. He needed to know if Veera was injured.
The upstairs window where Knoah had seen a glowing light the night before was now completely dark. If the picture of Veera was taken in the mountains, Knoah didn’t think he would find anyone at the old house so he told Travis and Riggs to stay in the truck and keep in contact with Max. Knoah pulled out his hand gun that he kept in his Truck glove compartment. He wanted to be ready just in case.
It took him only a minute to check the whole downstairs since most of the walls were torn away and only the 2x4s remained. It took him longer to make it up the rickety staircase without falling through broken treads but the search upstairs was almost as quick. Then he reached the room with the only glassed window.
It looked and smelled different from the rest of the house. A flashlight was laying in one corner of the room and there was a lingering smell of smoke. There was an old desk against one wall and a dirty envelope sat on top of it. Knoah walked over and looked inside. He pulled out what looked to be a recent photograph of Veera’s family. Veera’s face had been X’d out in red marker.
Knoah quickly retreated with the photo and showed his brothers. “Here, look at this. They were definitely here. Have you heard anything more from Max?”
Travis answered, “Just got off the phone with him. Somehow he tracked a cell phone signal here. He said that it doesn’t seem to have pinged any other towers. If they took her up a mountain they most likely went up that one.” He pointed west where the road in front of the Crawford house led straight up the mountain. Knoah and his brothers were all familiar with the mountain and the terrain but 2:00 in the morning was not a great time to be heading up there. They’d be relying solely on artificial light since the moon was hiding behind a thick layer of clouds.
“He’s going to try and send a message to the number. If it gets service for even a second, the message will go through and he’ll be able to get a more precise location.” Travis finished as Knoah got in the truck and sped west toward the mountain.
“Is Max going to work for the CIA or something?” Knoah asked. He was half kidding but his voice held no humor.
“FBI.” Travis said seriously. “I have a friend who works there and when Max’s name came up as a possible terrorist, he called me. When he realized Max could be an asset instead of a threat, they brought him out for testing and he passed with flying colors. He reports to Virginia for training in a few weeks.”
Knoah hadn’t been serious when he asked the question but it was clear that Travis was. “Why did they think he was a terrorist?” He asked seriously.
“After Max got caught stealing from Thomas St. Pierre, he started hacking more than just bank accounts. He realized he could make more money selling fake passports on the dark web and there was less of a chance of getting
caught.” Travis said.
They were still on the paved road but Knoah was watching for any clues he might glean from the sides of the road. “Max stole from the St. Pierre’s? Dude how do you know all this?”
“I don’t know. Max and I talk. I suspected he was up to no good when I was still in high school but I couldn’t prove anything. Then, when he ratted you out to Veera’s Dad he felt terrible and he called me and told me everything. He told me he thought he had no choice. Thomas was going to press charges when he found out Max was stealing from him. So Max offered him information on Veera in exchange for his mercy.”
They reached the end of the paved road and were heading onto the dirt road now. He’d have to go slow so he didn’t miss any possible signs left behind from whatever vehicle they were tracking. Riggs had been quiet in the back seat that was way too small for him but now he piped up, “To Max’s credit, he did try to help Veera leave New York and go to Canada with you but she wouldn’t.”
Knoah was surprised by the sting from those words and said, “Ouch. Thanks for rubbing salt in the wound buddy.”
“Do you know why she wouldn’t go though?” Riggs sounded almost giddy. “Olivia told me the other day when we were talking at our graduation rehearsals. She said she was worried about her sister coming home because her dad and Veera had just barely started getting along again after Veera had refused to talk to her parents since that night they sent her off to college. She told me that their dad had threatened to have you arrested if she didn’t leave for that women’s college or something. He told her he would make sure the judge threw the book at you and you’d never be able to work in Canada or anywhere else after he was through with you. Veera was so angry at her dad when she finally learned enough in law school to realize that her dad had been mostly just bluffing.”
“Arrested? Riggs what are you talking about?” Knoah was shocked by Riggs’ revelation but after a glance at Travis he could see that his older brother was not. “Travis? What do you know?”
“Knoah, please don’t be mad okay? Veera came to see me a couple years ago at MIT. She told me that the reason she left that night without saying goodbye was because her dad told her that if she left for Canada with you he would have you arrested and thrown in jail for up to 15 years because you were 19 and she was still 17, which legally made her a minor. And technically you’d been an adult for a whole year of your relationship so he used that as leverage to. He had her so scared of what he would do to you that she didn’t dare even contact you.” Travis let this sink in for a moment. Knoah and Veera had been in the same grade but because Knoah had started school when he was six and Veera had skipped the first grade, there was over a year difference in their ages.
Travis continued, “He told her that if she did reach out to you, he would use evidence he had collected from when you guys were dating and use it to have you extradited to the US to face your charges. When Veera turned 18, a year into her schooling at Barnard, her dad cleared out her bank accounts so she couldn’t go to Canada to find you. She scrounged up enough money for gas and she was going to drive there but he had her car re-possessed and she was stranded in New York with nothing but a meal card to the cafeteria. I’m pretty sure she tried selling that too but the school found out and stopped her before she could make the deal.”
Knoah’s mind was trying to process all this new information while still keeping watch for signs that a vehicle had left the road recently. Travis pulled out a fancy looking telescope and was assembling the pieces. Knoah wanted to hear the rest of his brother’s story. “So why’d she come to see you?”
“It took her over a year after her bank account was cleaned out to earn a substantial amount of extra money. When she finally had enough money to fly to Canada she went to the airport and bought a ticket with cash so her father wouldn’t know she was going. On her way back to New York she had a layover in Boston and came to see me and told me everything. Pull over right up here” Travis had just finished assembling his telescope.
“Trav, we don’t have time for star-gazing right now. I know you’re way into astronomy but this is not the time.” Knoah was still thinking about what Travis had just said. “And Veera never came to Canada.”
“Yes she did. Two years ago. Sometime in May between her semester breaks.” He was focused on the telescope in his hands but continued talking as if he were fully engaged. “And I’m not stargazing. This is a special telescope I borrowed from my lab at MIT so I could check out the sky here while I was home. It has a thermal infrared lens I installed in it so I can see if there are any heat trails we could follow.”
Knoah pulled his truck over and asked the question that was bubbling up inside him. “So why didn’t she come find me when she got to Canada? Did she change her mind once she got there?”
“She saw you with another girl,” Travis said quietly as he lifted his fully assembled telescope to his right eye. “She said you looked happy and you guys even kissed. She didn’t want to mess up anything you had started with someone else since she was the one who technically broke up with you in the first place.
Knoah wanted to find Veera just so he could knock some sense into her. Why hadn’t she came up and talked to him? Why did she just assume he was happy? If she had only talked to him she probably could have seen how unhappy he had been without her!
Travis interrupted Knoah’s thoughts. “I’m picking up some traces of heat on the road still so keep driving.”
Suddenly Riggs shouted from the back seat, “Max got a hit from the cell phone! It’s not an exact location but he’s sending the GPS locations of the area she’s most likely in. And he says he’s having a hard time clearing up the photo.”
Knoah sped up the mountain road even faster than before. He had to find Veera. He needed to talk to her now more than ever. “Riggs, how are we doing on those GPS coordinates?”
“I’ve got good news and bad news, “ Riggs said. The good news is we’re already within the range of coordinates. The bad news is the area is over 6 square miles.
Knoah swore under his breath but his anger didn’t last long because suddenly Travis yelled, “Turn!”
Knoah swerved and turned onto a dirt road covered with trees and fallen logs. “How familiar are you with this infrared scope Trav? Could you get me pretty close to a mile from where they stopped their truck?”
“You got it bro,” was all Travis said as he kept his scope trained on the road ahead. It was darker on this road; the trees and brush thicker. Veera’s captors weren’t the only threat in the mountains tonight. Bears, mountain lions and even wolves lived up here. A girl tied to a camping chair probably made a really good meal for any of them. The thought made Knoah hurry a little faster.
Chapter 8
A twig snapped under Knoah’s foot and he ducked as the beam from the flashlight passed over his hiding place. He couldn’t become careless now, he was too close to putting an end to this nightmare. Waiting for the flashlight beam to make a sweep over his hiding spot, he took a deep breath and continued inching his way toward Veera. Knoah wanted nothing more than to run to Veera and whisk her off to safety, but both of her captors held guns and he really didn’t feel like getting shot tonight. He’d just have to be patient and wait until the perfect moment came to disarm the guys.
Travis was still in the truck, monitoring heat signals and making sure no one else was approaching the area. Riggs had come with Knoah but must be a ways behind him because he couldn’t see him anywhere. They sprinted the entire mile it took to get from the truck to the area Veera was in. As soon as the glow of the fire became apparent, they dropped to their hands and knees and began crawling toward the three people sitting around the campfire. If they could remain undetected a little longer, they might be able to whisk Veera away without ever being discovered. He doubted that scenario very much though.
Knoah army crawled about 50 more feet until he was only 5 feet from where Veera sat in her camping chair. He still couldn’t see Riggs anywhe
re and was starting to worry he’d gotten lost when he heard a sharp intake of breath come from Veera. He scrutinized her and found what had hitched her breath; Riggs had emerged from the forest and was already untying her hands.
With surprising speed, Riggs had her hands untied and her gag removed, but before he could do anything else, one of Veera’s captors yelled to the other, “Quick grab the girl! Someone’s out there! They just untied her!”
Knoah didn’t hesitate, he pointed his gun in the direction of the man aiming a gun at Veera and shot. The gun dropped from the man’s hand who started screaming instantly. The other guy was running at Veera and Riggs so Knoah shot up and tackled him to the ground. They went down hard, each of them scrambling for the gun that lay inches from their faces. He heard Veera scream and dared a glance in her direction. Riggs and the man Knoah had already injured were locked in a similar scuffle. It seemed like Riggs had the upper hand but he couldn’t be sure.
A few more punches and wrestling maneuvers was all it took for Knoah to regain possession of his gun. He was restraining his opponent with a knee to the back and arms pulled behind him when, to his surprise, Riggs walked over and deftly tied the man’s hands together. He gave Knoah his hand and pulled him up off the ground. The man Riggs had been grappling with lay on the ground in a similar manner, his hand still bleeding from where Knoah had shot him.
“Riggs, where’d you learn to tie and untie knots like that man? I’ve never seen anyone work that fast with rope,” Knoah asked.
“Hours of YouTube videos man. I went through a phase where I wanted to become a crab fisherman and I practiced every knot known to man in case I needed it on the crab boat.”
