The three men had stepped away. Garrett tried to convince them to take his side. He was certain that it was in their best interest to remove Evangeline from the equation before matters became worse. He had been very persuasive; the men were about to yield to his confident determination.
“No, Garrett!” Felicia barked. “It may be sooner than expected, but extracting her was always part of the plan. We’ll take her to the main lab. We’ll let them make the decision.” Her words brought an abrupt silence to the group. She stared each one down until she felt their compliance with her decision. Garrett tried in vain to outstare her, but his bravado was no match for her tenacity.
She took one more look at Evangeline then walked toward the driver still seated in the vehicle. “Keep her comfortable, but keep her sedated,” she ordered. “It’s for her protection as much as ours.” The man nodded, got up from his seat, and moved toward the back of the vehicle to open the medical kit attached to the sidewall.
Without another word, Felicia walked away from the transport and toward a set of stairs that headed to the sublevels.
“Felicia, where are you going?” Garrett called as she reached the stairs. She halted in mid-stride as her hand touched the railing.
She took in a deep breath and turned her head around to look at him before she spoke. “I’m going to go help that kid pilot you never should have dosed, Garrett!” she said with stifled rage in her voice. Garrett looked away, unable to meet her eyes. He looked over to the other men for support. They had boarded the back of the transport and were assisting the driver with the sedative. When he saw that he would not get any support from them, he turned his head back to the stairwell. Felicia had already disappeared below the floor line.
“And then what?” Garrett challenged. His voice echoed inside the building. Her voice resonated up through the empty stairwell.
“And then I’m going to find out what her husband knows!”
THIRTY-NINE
Jack stared in disbelief as he and Gideon watched Evangeline’s figure slump to the ground. Someone pulled her into the building right from off the street. The resolution on the display was grainy and shadowy, focused in on Evangeline and her attackers from some distance. As hard as Gideon searched, no other cameras with a better vantage point to the abduction were accessible to his networks. Any cameras that were once in service in that area were simply offline with no records of damage or repair.
Jack disconnected from the virtual workshop and picked up his communicator to call the security department. An automated voice answered the call and began to record his personal information and location. Jack heard a mild beep and another voice spoke up.
“This is Officer Carnes, Mr. Evans. My records show you’re reporting your wife abducted in the LTZ,” he said.
Jack was frantic, but he knew that coming apart at the seams would do nothing to help his wife. “Yes, I just watched her being stunned and pulled into a building on the corner of Apollo Road and Thirty-First Avenue of the industrial district!” He rushed his words, as if forcing them from his mouth faster would elicit a quicker response from a rescue squad.
The security officer replied with unbearable emotional detachment, and perhaps even skepticism. “Mr. Evans, how could you witness your wife being abducted in the LTZ if you are in your home on level seventy-three in Olympus?”
Jack realized this call had been a giant mistake, that he had reached a dead end. There was no way he could tell a security officer that he had created an AI, which had the capacity to hack into camera feeds throughout Olympus and the LTZ. He would implicate himself! He had gotten into trouble for similar infractions in his youth, but those schemes had been nowhere near the magnitude of what he had created with Gideon.
Getting caught hacking again would risk more than his liberty and livelihood. If he wanted to stay out of detention and find out what happened to his wife, he needed to come up with an idea that would let him end the call with the least amount of suspicion. His eyes darted about the room, searching for some kind of inspiration. He glanced at the framed photo on his desk, his favorite picture of their wedding day.
Evangeline had looked so beautiful at the lakeside ceremony. They were both barefoot with their toes curling in the warm sand, and she had worn a short dress with a flowing train. He had chosen his linen suit because it looked like the ones they had seen in vacation pamphlets for the southern ocean resorts. They were both wearing sunglasses and holding up their crystal flutes toward the camera in a toast. He had never smiled so much in his life than he had on that day. He had felt like the luckiest man in the world. His friends had even commented that he had been drunk with happiness.
Drunk…
Jack’s mind started to conjure images of people in restaurants and bars who had consumed too much alcohol, talking with slurred speech and a belligerent attitude. He started yelling into the phone without a second thought, doing his best impression of a clubber.
“I’m telling you! I was standing right here by my window and I saw the whole thing. I have excellent vision, so you can’t tell me I didn’t see what I saw I saw!”
He knocked over a glass for effect, a loud clatter echoing off the walls. “Damn, you just made me spill my drink!” Jack had never been drunk before - he hoped he was not over-selling it. His need to get off the call and brainstorm another plan to find Evangeline consumed him.
“Sir,” Carnes said. “How many alcoholic beverages have you ingested tonight?”
Jack played into the character a little more, walking into the kitchen. “I haven’t been drinking!” he yelled. “And who are you to say I can’t drink in my own house, huh?”
In that moment, Gideon materialized in the kitchen. He opened his mouth, but Evangeline’s voice reached Jack’s ears.
“Jack, who are you yelling at?” he said. Gideon’s improvisational skills impressed Jack more with each performance.
“Where they hell have you been, baby?” He dropped the communicator down from his face. “I just watched you get abducted in the LTZ. How did you get home so quickly?” he bellowed. Gideon watched Jack pretend to be yelling at Evangeline and attempted to act as if he was taking control of the situation. He used his interface with the communication system and broke in on the conversation Jack was having with the officer.
“Give me the phone, Jack,” he said, sounding exasperated in Evangeline’s voice. “Hello? Officer? Hi, this is Evangeline Evans. I’m so sorry for my husband’s outburst. He gets confused when he drinks too much. He was watching a murder mystery program on the display. I’m so sorry for the trouble he’s caused. I’m going to put him to bed. I promise this will never happen again.”
The officer chuckled over the phone. “Would you like us to send over a patrol to check in on you, ma’am?”
“No, but thank you,” Gideon responded. “That’s really not necessary. Again, I’m so sorry for his outburst.”
“Ok, Ma’am. You have a good night,” Carnes replied. “I’ll tell you what; I’ll even cancel the report since it was obviously a mistake. We wouldn’t want there to be any record of something that could be embarrassing for your husband, do we?”
“That’s so kind of you, officer,” Gideon gushed. “I can’t thank you enough. Good night.”
“Good night, Ma’am.”
The call ended. Jack was standing there dumbfounded at how well Gideon executed the spontaneous charade. Then he shook his head and refocused on more pressing matters.
“Okay, Gideon,” Jack said, walking out of the kitchen. “We can’t rely on the authorities to help us. We need to get back into the workshop and figure out what happened to Evangeline. Plus, I need to install some more modifications to your program.”
Gideon dissolved from the kitchen while Jack went back into his study and reconnected with his virtual workshop through his neural interface.
forty
Bathed in shadows, Campbell gave himself a pat on the back for his foresight into placing a tap on the E
vans’ home line, diverting all calls through his command center. He deactivated the headset’s voice-altering feature and put it down on his desk. He brought to his ear the earpiece that gave him a direct channel to General Reynolds. The call connected with a subtle click and Campbell began his report without prompting.
“There’s been a new development,” he said in his characteristic calmness. “Captain Evans was abducted in the LTZ. Her husband is somehow aware of the abduction and he notified security. I was able to intercept his call, so there’s no report on record.”
Campbell could hear Reynolds’ slow, steady breathing. If there was one thing Campbell knew about the man, it was that he was patient, but in a treacherous way.
“This is beginning to get out of hand,” Reynolds warned. “You’d better get control of this situation.” The connection terminated with eerie finality.
Campbell sat back in his chair, folded his arms, and began spinning in his chair in a slow circle. He needed to think and the repetitive circular motions always helped him focus. This new turn of events, her abduction, was not his doing.
“It must be them,” he thought to himself. “Could they still be alive? If they are, how have they managed to return to Earth without attracting any attention?” He could not dismiss the possibility that the enemy would be attempting to recruit Evangeline to their cause.
“But, why now?” he asked the empty room. “What has changed that would cause them to risk exposing themselves?
He needed to ascertain what Jack Evans knew regarding the extent of Evangeline’s level of contact with her parents since their disappearance. What secrets did they share that could aid him in his hunt for the fugitives?
An unexpected concern was brewing in Campbell’s mind. Somehow, Jack Evans had witnessed Evangeline’s capture in the LTZ before his own analysts had informed him about it. And why, Campbell wondered, had Jack called security to alert them about his wife’s abduction, just to pull off a half-assed drunken act? Campbell had played along just to let Jack believe he had fooled a security officer, but the fact remained that Jack’s knowledge of events miles away from the citadel troubled him.
Another concern threatened to interfere with the meticulous moves and counter-moves of Campbell’s master plan. Someone had been with Jack, impersonating the missing captain. These red flags only assured Campbell of one thing: Jack Evans became an unexpected player and could not be permitted to survive the night.
Campbell’s chair slowed to a stop facing his desk. He needed someone to go talk to Jack Evans about his wife’s current relationship to her parents. Once that information had been gleaned, the talking would be over and the threat Jack Evans presented would be eradicated.
Campbell needed a friendly, if not familiar face, to fulfill such a sensitive interrogation. He needed someone that would not arouse suspicions, someone that had a legitimate reason for showing up late at night and start asking questions about Evangeline and her parents.
He activated his keyboard and began typing in a message.
“YOUR PARTNER WILL CONTINUE THE SEARCH FOR CAPTAIN EVANS ALONE. PROCEED TO THE HOME OF JACK EVANS. FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS TO FOLLOW.”
It would be a risky move on his part. Sending in his agent under cover might expose more than Reynolds would be willing to risk, but Campbell was confident. This Jack Evans would be alone and emotionally vulnerable, unarmed, and unaware of the danger he would be inviting into his home.
FORTY-ONE
Evangeline did not understand why her head was spinning though a fog as though on a merry-go-round whirling at Mach speeds. She tried to get her bearings in the darkness, but she was helpless to determine where she was. Her memory was full of holes; she recalled dinner with Jack, then a conversation with an Angel at the Level Ten Crisis Unit. But why had she been in the LTZ marketplace? None of it made sense.
Her muscles screamed against the knotted cramps in her arms. She shifted her weight, trying to work out the kinks, but she found that her wrists were bound together behind her back. She pushed the rising fear back down and remained as motionless as she could. She took a deep breath to clear her mind and ease her anxiety. She focused on her survival training burned into might through countless drills. The first step to survival was to assess the situation.
She stayed still and focused her attention on the one sense that was not totally inhibited: her hearing. She listened to the sounds of a vehicle traveling on smooth roads, making irregular turns that jostled her body. She heard and felt the vibrations of the moving vehicle through the thin pad she rested upon. A faint recollection crept into her mind and filled some of the gaps of her memory. There had been men, and a delivery vehicle. Her senses were becoming sharper, the haze beginning to clear.
She tensed her legs to swing herself into the upright position only to discover her legs were also bound together. When she tried moving her legs, the tension pulled against the bindings that held her wrists behind her back, cutting into her flesh. She took a sharp breath between her teeth.
“Seriously?” she screamed in her mind. “I’ve been hog-tied?” The vulnerable position caused her adrenaline to spike. Her heart pounded in her chest and she started to struggle against the bindings.
“Easy, Captain,” a voice said. It was a man’s voice, calm but firm, full of authority. “Relax. We had to sedate you to get you out of the LTZ. We’re not going to hurt you. So, please stop thrashing around before you hurt yourself.” A hand rested on her arm, and she jerked away as if the hand were a branding iron.
“Don’t touch me!” she screamed, thrashing her body in any direction she could. She heard the sound of her muffled voice and could sense the hood that had been placed over her head while she was unconscious. It was also just then she became aware of the fabric that pressed against her eyes.
“Great!” she thought to herself. “I’m blindfolded and there’s a bag on my head.” She lashed about in violent spasms against the agony that had grown in her arms and legs. She tried in vain to connect her boots to one of her kidnapper’s faces, but managed to strike nothing but the mat.
Several pairs of hands placed themselves under her arms and legs and eased her up off the floor. She recoiled from their touch and screamed, “Let me go!” She felt their hands spread apart as her body dropped onto a hard, metal seat. The inertia from her thrashing caused her to lose her balance and tip forward. She braced herself for the impact of her face on the floor, but the numerous hands caught her around the shoulders and pushed her back into a seated position.
She refused to acknowledge their assistance or express gratitude for them saving her from landing face-first on the floor, but she did manage to blow out an exasperated breath of air. There was a low chuckle off to her right while another voice at her left mumbled a sarcastic, “You’re welcome.”
The various hands were continuing to restrain her against the seat of the vehicle until she felt flat strips of an unknown material slide across her shoulders and waist. She heard the click of a safety harness at her chest and the alien hands released her. She continued struggling against the new restraint, but she froze when she heard the sound of a blade sliding from its sheath. “Was it really going to end this way?” she thought.
“Why didn’t you just slice me to bits when I was unconscious on the floor?” she spat at them through the hood, her voice full of heat and venom.
She flinched again as a single hand rested alit like a bird on her shoulder.
“Easy, Captain,” a gentle voice said. “I’m just going to cut your bindings.”
Her body tensed in preparation to attack in the darkness. If she was going to die, she was not going to make it easy for them. She reacted too soon and ended up fighting against the restraints when the voice cut through the air with sharpness.
“If you would kindly stop thrashing about!” he said through gritted teeth. “I’m trying to remove your hood, but the way you’re flailing about I’m as likely to remove your head! Now please, Captain Evans, qui
t this tantrum before you hurt yourself! You have my word that we will not harm you!”
Evangeline ceased straining against the hand that held her back against the seat and she took a deep breath. Her shoulders relaxed and she nodded her head in silent agreement to his commands.
“Better,” the man said with a sigh of relief. “Now, if you continue to behave, I’ll take off your hood. No one is going to hurt you, but if you keep flailing around, I’m just going to knock you back out for the remainder of the trip. Deal?” he asked with a steel edge in his voice.
Evangeline sat still for a moment and considered her options. She knew that there were two possibilities for allowing an abductee to see the faces of her captors.
They either did not care if she saw their faces because they were going to kill her anyway, or they genuinely did not intend to harm her, and that hiding their identity was not their biggest concern. Her thoughts raced toward Jack and she hoped it was the latter.
“Deal!” she growled, and within seconds, the hood was lifted away. She gulped the fresh air, which was laced with the scents of metal, dust, and sweat. It was a welcome relief from the stale air she had been breathing under the hood. Despite the refreshing new air, she was still agitated that she was blindfolded and her captors remained unidentified.
“Why have you taken me?” she demanded of the faceless voice. “What do you want from me?” Who knows what she may have stumbled upon when she had chosen to tail the mysterious couple through the empty streets? Then she remembered why she had pursued them, and the urgency coursed through her anew.
“Where’s that couple I was following?” she burst out. “It’s urgent that I speak with them! My friend’s life may be at stake!”
“All your questions will be answered.” he replied, his voice calm and even once again. “But not by me, and not right now. I will tell you this; the couple you were following had to make sure you weren’t being followed yourself. We don’t want anything from you, but there are people we work with who are very interested in your well-being. To answer your first question, it was not our intention to kidnap you tonight, but Felicia decided it was in your best interest under the circumstances. Just please be assured that we’re not here to hurt you.”
Avenging Angels (The Seraphim Chronicles Book 1) Page 22
