by Al K. Line
"No, you're almost family, you get to keep your money. And your daughter."
I hoped I could make good on that promise. Kidnaps never went well. Usually everyone ended up dead.
An Emotional Time
"I should have told you guys, I'm sorry." Steve turned to Vicky. "Forgive me?"
"Of course, I understand." They had a nice big hug and smiled at each other. Steve broke down then, the release physical. He crumpled to his knees, bent his head, and sobbed. The poor guy had lost his daughter, taken in the worst possible way, and her mother was dead. Sunshine was with mean, violent men in a strange place, they wouldn't be treating her well, and she would be scared. And held in a less than savory way—she was a powerful shifter with insane skills, so these sick dudes wouldn't be taking any chances.
"I haven't seen her for a while," said Steve, standing and rubbing at red eyes. "Me and her mum, well, it didn't work out. I was kind of a player back in those days," he said sheepishly. "What can I say, the ladies love me."
"Idiot," laughed Vicky, digging him in the ribs.
"I know. Anyway, we were together for a while, then it went sour. This was when Sunshine was a baby. We split up. I saw her most days though, my little girl is so beautiful. Then the problems started. Things became dicey when the news got out about there being a new Wild One, and Sue just buggered off with her, left and never told me where they were."
"That's cold," I said, knowing how that must have felt.
"Yeah, that's what I thought, but I guess she did it for Sunshine, to protect her. But I would have gone with them, to be close to my girl, but I wasn't the most reliable back then so I forgave Sue. Anyway, I saw them both regularly until recently. Sunshine had been playing up, and I mean big time, getting up to all sorts. Rebelling, wanted her freedom, not to be cooped-up away from real life. I don't know where it was, I was always blindfolded and drugged if you can believe it. Sue and her cronies took no chances."
"Who was with her?"
"People she trusted. Friends, and a few important members of the community who moved in with her and stayed put, never left apart from to take invited guests. That way, nobody ever knew where they were, it could have been anywhere. Man, what a fucking mess. Sorry, I have nothing to tell you. Sometimes the trip took two hours, sometimes two days. I got no ideas because I was out of it the whole time however long it took and I'd wake up in a room, and that was it. The location was always different anyway, a house somewhere, maybe by the ocean, maybe with a few acres around, but never a soul in sight and we never ventured away from the property. She wasn't allowed."
"How did they do that?" asked Vicky. "How could they move so much and nobody track them, find where they were going?"
"Someone did," I reminded them both.
"Yeah," Steve sighed, "someone did."
"And I know how they moved about. I know how they kept her safe."
"How?" they both asked.
"They used a boat."
"Damn, why didn't I think of that?" Steve slapped his head.
"That's why we're here?" asked Vicky.
"Sure is. They must have used a boat to travel about the country, maybe even Europe, stopping at different locations, keeping Sunshine away from people and with nowhere to go apart from on special occasions. It's what I'd do if I wanted to contain someone and ensure they never got away. You can't escape the sea."
"Unless you're a dolphin or a fish," said Vicky.
We both stared at her.
"What?" she asked.
"That's a good point," said Steve, as shocked as me.
"I have loads of good ideas," snapped Vicky, hands on hips in full angry-mom pose.
"Do you?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Can shifters turn into things like that?"
"Not usually. But Sunshine's not a normal shifter. I haven't heard of it. We're always oxygen breathing with lungs, not, er, how fish do it."
"You don't know how fish breathe, do you?"
"Do too! But I don't think she could do that, don't think anyone can."
"So they lived on a boat, ship, whatever. Hell, maybe even a submarine although that's pushing it, and traveled about. She couldn't turn into a fish, and hopefully not a dolphin, so the plan worked. But someone got to them and you want your daughter back."
"That about sums it up."
"You should have just told us, asked, saved the trouble."
"But you worked it out," said Steve, looking triumphant. "I was right. You worked it out without getting emotional and now we have a lead."
"Yeah, but it's a big coastline. A big port, and there are a lot of boats."
"But we have me," said Vicky. "Now I have something to go on I can check cameras, check boats coming and going. We'll find her."
"I hope so," said Steve. "We don't have long. Deadline is midday tomorrow, and then they want their money."
Getting Somewhere
We wandered about a bit, looking for clues, just checking the general vibe and seeing if anything untoward caught our eye. It didn't. But truth is we were all too tense, the immediacy of the problem exacerbated now we knew it was Steve's daughter. How could you slowly take in the sights, study boats and people, the comings and goings of the populace when you knew that at this very moment there was a frightened child somewhere? It was impossible to concentrate.
We headed back to the car so Vicky could grab her gear and then we went to a nice late night bar where there was plenty of room for us outside. Vicky got to work. For the next hour or so she sipped on a soda water and whacked the shit out of her keyboard while Steve and I held stilted conversation but mostly stared out to sea and imagined all kinds of horrors taking place. It wasn't a pleasant hour.
"It'll be okay," I said, my heart going out to him.
"Will it? I know you'll try your best, I have total confidence in you, but I'm not so sure. These people must be nuts to try something like this. They know nobody will pay, or they should, but they did it anyway."
"But you would pay, wouldn't you, if you had the money? I do."
"Do what?"
"Have the money. You can have it if you want, to pay them. I would, I'd pay and then I'd kill them. I'd spend the rest of my days if I had to, but I'd pay. I'd get her back, then hunt them down and kill every last one of them."
"I wouldn't ask you to pay them, but thanks for the offer. That means a lot, it really does. But it isn't our way, it's not what we do. I can't, I just can't. I've gone over this a million times, wondered if I could get the money and give them what they want, but I've decided I won't pay, not even if I could."
"She's your daughter, man," I said softly. "Is it worth the risk?"
"Come on, Arthur, you know as well as I do that there's no fucking way they'll let her go. They'll keep her alive until they get their money, just in case I insist on seeing her before the trade, then they'll kill her, or try. They won't risk anything going wrong, her identifying them, and apart from all that they know who she is, what she's capable of now, and what she'll be capable of in the future."
"You mean they don't want her coming after them?"
"Exactly. They are well aware of the insane power she'll accumulate over the years, and they know they'll always be looking over their shoulders, that when she's old enough and the time is right, she'll find and kill them. So, no, I won't pay, it isn't our way, and I can't let this become the norm. You don't deal with kidnappers. That's our policy, and it remains our policy."
"Fair enough. What about telling your people though? You sure they can't help? Maybe they can help track them down."
"None of us, including me, and trust me I've spent years trying to do it, have been able to even find where Sunshine was living, so there's no chance of us finding her now."
"Don't be so sure. These people have been stupid enough to take her in the first place, so they found her, and they have to be pretty dim to try this on, so maybe your people stand a chance."
"No, you're the best at this, so
if you can't find them nobody can."
I didn't want to ask but I asked anyway. "Have you considered that this is one of your kind? Maybe someone you know? Could it have been someone on the inside, who was there already, supposedly to protect her but deciding they'd try for a windfall?"
"I've thought about it, and it could be. Hell, I don't know anything anymore. I can't think straight." Steve put his head in his hands and squeezed his eyes shut tight as if he could block out the pain he felt. It wouldn't work. Nothing would, apart from holding his daughter in his arms and knowing she was safe.
I gave Steve an awkward pat on the back and said, "We'll get her back, don't you worry," and arched an eyebrow at Vicky as she glanced up from her laptop. She shook her head; she had nothing.
The sadness I felt deepened, an ache in my heart I knew didn't even compare to how Steve felt, and then, just like that, as if a scalpel had been wielded by an experienced surgeon, I felt nothing.
My head cleared, my body felt weightless, thousands of thoughts, ideas, and tentative plans slammed into my mind, and I saw this for what it was without the emotional undercurrent. It was a simple theft, we had to go steal a precious artifact and the owners didn't want to relinquish their prize.
I smiled, I knew what to do. But where had the emotion gone? I didn't care one way or the other.
With a glance at Steve and Vicky, who both stared at me in confusion and if not concern, then wonder at the sudden change in mood, I knew they felt the same way.
We were all empty of heart.
Strange Feelings
"What just happened?" asked Vicky, shaking her head and rubbing her arms as if that would help.
"Beats me," said Steve, a deep frown on his face. He froze then, searched inside same as we did, and gasped when he understood what had been done to him.
"I can't feel it, the love, the connection. Everything's remote, like it isn't important, not really. Or not the same. I miss her, I want to get her back, but I've lost that deep bond, like I don't feel affection the same way."
"I'm the same. It's like my heart has been emptied. Emotion's been chopped off, or stunted, or something. Ugh, this is weird." I almost toppled off my chair as a wave of dizziness washed over me and threatened to rip me from my mooring.
My will surfaced to battle this intrusion, to ground me, bringing me back myself, and through wet eyes I saw the others fight the same inner battle. We raged against the emptiness that would consume us and leave us shells of human beings, lost to what made life worth living.
And then, just like that, the void vanished and I felt normal again. Sadness settled in for the long haul, my heart cried for Sunshine's safety, and I vowed to do all in my power to save this little girl.
"You feeling okay now?" I asked Vicky.
"Yeah, what was that? It was so strange. It was almost like I was a different person, like I didn't care.
"Same here. Scary stuff. But I feel okay now." Steve was visibly shaking, the thought of not caring about those you knew you loved more than life itself was a lot to take in and accept. It made you feel like the worst kind of person for being able to think that way, to not care.
I checked the other people at the tables around us. Several were still dazed, and a few were trembling like Steve, clearly having come out the other side of this. Maybe we'd recovered faster because the truth fog hadn't touched us fully, that we were magic by nature so could fight it easier. It wasn't like that for your average citizen, and a lot of them were already arguing, some storming off, others in each other's faces, shouting and screaming.
"Let's go somewhere quiet," I said as I got up and grabbed my things.
We left the clueless citizens to it; there was nothing we could do. We had our own set of problems to deal with and they took precedence.
Coincidence?
"This has to be related, right?" asked Vicky, trotting along beside us to keep up.
"Oh gosh, you should be on Mastermind with an intellect like that. You'll be champion for sure," I replied, maybe with a slight undertone of sarcasm.
"I was just saying. First the truth thing, then the emotional withdrawal, the empty heart, and now Sunshine being taken. You think they are connected?"
"I don't think, I know." I turned to Steve. "You ever heard of shifters who can control the emotions of others?"
"No way, not our thing at all. None of us could do it even if we wanted to. How could you?"
"I dunno, that's why I'm asking. You can't influence people's emotions?"
"Only through our innate animal magnetism."
"Then that's it then. Let's be honest here." I stopped and the others did too. "You're a good-looking guy, you have this thing about you, it draws people in, makes people fall for you. Female shifters are the same," I said, the mood suddenly dark as we all recalled how I'd fallen for a sexy shifter and what that led to.
"Yeah, we all have it," said Steve with a smug smile. Damn but he must have had a lot of action over the years. Lucky sod.
"You can kind of play with people's emotions then. You can make them do things because of your draw, almost like a vampire glamor, and it extends beyond the area you're in, to people all around you."
"I see where you're going with this," said Vicky, smiling.
"I don't". Steve frowned. Bless him, he never was the smartest.
"Your sphere of influence is tight, and it's mostly about sexual desire, the intense pheromones you give off, but there's something else about shifters too, they heighten senses in others, make people take notice whether they want to or not, and they don't always know it's because of you."
"I guess, still don't see what you're getting at."
"What I'm getting at," I explained patiently, wondering not for the first time if Steve was secretly smart and this was all a front, "is shifters can influence emotions in the simplest of ways through pheromones, sheer presence, but it goes beyond that. What if a very powerful shifter, say one who didn't have all this figured out yet, was in distress? Maybe the signals she sent out would be all messed up. Maybe she's fighting for her life and trying to force her captors to tell her the truth about what's happening. Maybe she's trying to not feel scared, to empty her heart of all emotion so she can focus on her escape. Maybe."
"Maybe it's Sunshine!" said Steve, his face lighting up with hope.
"Yes, you could be onto something there," I said, now in no doubt Steve had definitely bumped his head a few times when he fell out of the smart tree. Plummeted, more like.
A Break
While I patiently, meaning I only shouted a little because he was sad, explained to Steve what I thought was happening, Vicky stumbled about with her face stuck in some small digital device. Apparently, it was just as good as a laptop. She alternated between tapping, squinting, cursing, and apologizing to the people she bumped into because she wasn't looking where she was going.
"Yes!" she shouted, making us turn and hurry back as passersby glanced at her before hustling past, scared she too had gone nuts and would start criticizing their clothes or punching them just because she felt like it.
"What is it? Have you found something?" asked Steve, hope there despite the lack of progress so far.
"I have." Vicky grinned, looking mad, and when she had that look on her face, a mixture of smug and happy, you knew she'd done her job well and wouldn't be afraid to explain in detail how she did it.
"I managed to bypass the doobie and blast past the dongle and then sandwich a bison between the onion network and the server wedgie then insert myself right up into its..."
It went silent, and after several seconds I realized this and emerged from the zone I always entered when Vicky explained things in technical talk.
"Were you listening to me then?" Vicky stood on tiptoe and gave me a hard stare.
I gulped.
"Sure was. Something about a sandwich and an onion and doing stuff with code. Maybe a bison as well?" I ventured. "Although I don't know what that is."
"
You always do this," she complained. "You zone out and make up words in your head."
"Do not," I protested. The nerve of the woman!
"What did I say then?"
"You said you were going to bypass the technical jargon and tell us what you found because we don't have much time and neither of us understand a word you're saying when you bang on about networks and servers and code and jackknifed security systems and firewalls or any of that stuff."
Vicky glanced from me to Steve and when she saw the state of her boyfriend she relented. "Fine. Thought you'd appreciate all the hard work I do."
"We do, honey, but you're too good at this stuff, leaves us shaking our heads in wonder," said Steve. Damn, but he was smooth. Maybe he wasn't so dim after all.
Vicky fawned over him then smiled sweetly and gave us the lowdown without preamble. A first.
She'd hacked into the cameras that were all over the port, every movement recorded as you entered or exited. The same firm also had cameras all along the waterfront to keep an eye on the expensive boats moored up in the harbor directly across the quay from the cafes, bars, and restaurants. There was no way to avoid them. If that wasn't enough, most of the businesses were also hooked up with the same company, guess they got a discount, and the company also had uniformed security people who patrolled day and night and were always on hand for any emergency or crime committed.
All of that is to say that Vicky may not have had such a hard time as she tried to make out, but she had hacked into their archives and retrieved the data, run it through esoteric software that could trace patterns of repetition. When that failed, she'd simply checked out the timeline around when Steve got the call, which had been early afternoon, and worked her way backwards.
"There they are," she said triumphantly.
"I can't see a bloody thing." I squinted at the tiny screen but it was all blurry.
"You've got old man eyes," said Vicky.
"Have not, you have. They're fine, the screen's too small."
"It is a little hard to see much," said Steve.
