Chapter 4

No matter how many times Veni asked, the answer was always the same. She couldn’t see her mother. She was afraid her mother may not be alive anymore. She wasn’t in the greatest health to begin with, and, with all the drugs she’d been dosed with throughout this kidnapping, quite heavily too, it was possible they’d caused a problem for her mother. For that, Veni would never forgive them, but she was a long way from making them pay, and that was something else that drove her crazy.

When the door opened the next time, she was half dozing. Startled, she stared up at the man, a stranger.

He looked around several times, then frowned at her. “Hardly the nicest accommodations.”

She shrugged. “I highly doubt anybody here cares.”

He nodded. “Of course you would believe that, but we’re really not animals.”

She studied him warily. The friendly approach always came with a more conditioning strategy, and she wasn’t really up for any of those.

“I hear from my men that you’re asking to see your mother.”

She nodded. “Yes, she was kidnapped with me.”

“Kidnapped?” he repeated, opening his eyes wide. “That’s rather strong terminology.”

“Not at all,” she stated carefully. “It is what it is.”

He glared at her.

She didn’t say anything more, knowing that this would be the one man she would have to watch out for. He might be playing the game and projecting himself to be a nice guy at the moment, but absolutely no way behind that facade did he give a crap about anything but what he had come for. Naturally she wasn’t buying it and was highly suspicious.

“The good news is your mother is alive, and she’s asking about you.”

Veni felt instantaneous relief, even though she tried hard not to let him see it, but, of course, he did.

He smiled. “See? We’re really not so bad.”

She didn’t say anything.

“And now I suppose you’ll want to see her,” he added, with an almost disinterested shrug. “Of course, in order to let you see her, I’ll need something.”

“What do you want?” she asked warily.

He smiled. “For one thing, we’re not at all happy that you tried to leave us in the first place,” he shared. “Everybody was pretty sure they were treating you right, and we had no reason to believe that you weren’t a very welcome and wanted member of the scientific community here.”

She just stared at him because, if anything was further from the truth, she’d yet to hear it. She had been a prisoner, so the comment was hardly worth responding to.

“Apparently you didn’t see it that way. Otherwise I don’t know why you would have chosen to try to leave.”

“If any of that was true, then leaving wasn’t something I would have had to try. Leaving would have been something I was entitled to do.”

“We don’t really like it when people leave, especially when we’re busy doing extremely sensitive research,” he explained, looking at her. “We just want your cooperation.”

She stared at him, not sure what she was supposed to say to that, knowing that he sought a whole lot more than cooperation.

He nodded. “You don’t like that either, I see. You’re really not a team player, are you?” he asked, with a small smile.

“I’m not a team player at all, when I’m a kidnap victim by force,” she stated calmly. “There is nothing else to call this, when I am a victim of whatever shenanigans you guys are up to.”

“Shenanigans,” he repeated, with a smile. “I like that. It’s a great term. Now, obviously you aren’t terribly impressed, but that’s okay. We’re hoping that this next stay will make you a little more cooperative.”

Her heart sank at that because it just meant they would make her life a lot more miserable.

“We will be moving you soon, but not today. Your mother is not in the best of health.” He enunciated every word.

It was so hard to not respond.

“She really wants to see you, but, if you won’t cooperate, well,… obviously you won’t get to see her.” And, with that, he nodded. “I think I’ll have a hot cup of tea.” As he walked to the door, he stopped and looked back at her. “Think about it.”

Both the tea reference and the mention of her mother’s ill health were just more games. Obviously Veni would love a cup of tea, but, since that wasn’t even being offered, he was using it as a reminder of all the things that she wouldn’t get, quite likely ever again, all because Veni had rejected their little rules and had tried to walk away from them. Being a prisoner was one thing, but being a prisoner like that? No, not her style. Not anybody’s style, and maybe that was the problem.

As she thought back to the other people who were there at the lab, she wondered whether one of them had noticed a change in Veni’s behavior or had in some way lied to get her in trouble. And it had coincidentally occurred with such perfect timing that they were on their way out the door… and out of the country. Even now, Veni was tired of traveling, but, hey, she would take as many trips as it would take, if it would get her out of this mess.

As she sat, her head bowed on her forearms, fervently hoping that her mother was okay, Veni felt something, like a weird tapping in her mind. She stiffened and looked around cautiously, still not sure if anybody was watching her because rafters were up above, and it always reminded her of the possibility that cameras could be pointed down at her. She didn’t know what espionage equipment looked like these days, but she knew it must have advanced considerably, probably well beyond anything she could ever dream up. Again, the tapping came, a steady tap-tap-tap. She frowned and, in her mind, whispered, Hello?

There was more tapping and still more, as if somebody was there, but they weren’t getting the message. Then again, she was a transmitter. That didn’t mean the person on the other end was a receiver. She could just hope that somebody out there had an idea that she was in all this trouble. When the tapping continued, she glared all around her, only to realize again that someone could be watching her. She immediately subsided, but, confirming her suspicion, the door opened, and somebody stepped in and did a quick search of the place. Not seeing anything, he turned, then glared at her and walked out.

If she’d ever needed a second confirmation that she was being watched, that was it. And it sucked because that also meant they were watching her when she slept. They were watching her, seeing if she had any contact with anyone, not that she had, but it was a reminder that she needed to be even more careful.

Just then, the tapping resumed. Keeping her face blank, she closed her eyes and pulled the blanket up around her face, as if to go to sleep, then immediately started sending messages. Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?

Just when she thought maybe somebody was getting through to her, with the tempo of taps stopping and starting again, then the tapping stopped completely. Frowning, she shifted uneasily, feeling pain in her heart, like she hadn’t felt in a long time. Worried for her mother and now wondering if the stupid food she’d eaten was drugged, she felt herself slowly succumbing to a deep sleep once again.

*

“Dammit,” Reid muttered.

Anders stretched, waking up slowly to look at him. “I presume you’re still trying to contact her.”

“I thought I was getting somewhere,” he shared. “There was a weird connection, or at least I thought there was. She seemed to be sending an SOS, and I was trying to reassure her that we were here. I was hoping to get her to connect, but nothing came, and now it’s just… she’s gone offline again.”

“Offline,… connect,” Anders repeated, shaking his head. “I don’t speak the language, I guess.”

“Yes, there is a specific jargon,” he confirmed, with a smile. “But it’s not all that different from anything else electronic that we have. Think about your cell phone battery dying.”

“Does she have a battery like that?”

“We all have batteries to a certain extent. Terk’s recharges on the go, and mine is pretty good at staying charged. I need sleep to recharge. That’s usually the biggest thing for me. In Veni’s case, I’m not sure what she needs to do. Right now she’s not sending or receiving in any way,” Reid described. “It’s all just blank.”

“Sleeping or even drugged maybe?” Anders asked.

“Could be. My guess is, if she’s getting weaker, it could be either one,” Reid replied. “Although, if they’ll move her again, I suspect the easiest way would be keeping her isolated and drugged.”

“They must really be afraid of her.”

“I suspect they are,” Reid noted. “I’m not kidding when I say she was a really strong transmitter.”

“But what good is a transmitter if you don’t have a receiver?”

“That’s what her point has always been.” He gave Anders a crooked smile. “At the time, she didn’t particularly like a suggestion I made and pretty much got in my face for it.”

“What suggestion was that?” Anders asked, looking over at him, as he stretched again.

“I simply told her that I happen to be a receiver.”

Anders started to laugh. “Of course you are. How did I not guess that?”

“Hey, we were good friends, and I really liked her, but she had made it abundantly clear that she was destined for other things.”

“Yeah, I wonder how she feels about that right about now.”

“Don’t know,” Reid muttered, “and it’s not as if I have a chance to ask her.”

“Hold that thought,” Anders declared. “With any luck we’ll get through this, and you can ask her yourself.”

“Yeah, well, I suspect she’s still probably not too interested in anything I have to offer.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t count on that,” Anders argued. “You’re perfectly positioned to be the hero who comes and rescues her. That could go a long way toward clearing up all kinds of things.”

“Maybe so, but who wants a relationship based on that?”

“Once you have a relationship, you can build it into something else, but you have to get your foot in the door first. From the sounds of things, she pretty well slammed it on you the last time.”

“Yep, she sure did,” Reid agreed. “Can’t say I’m too interested in revisiting that chapter.”

“I wonder about that,” Anders countered, but his tone was dry, with almost a silent humor.

Reid looked at him, with an eyebrow raised. “Meaning?”

“Meaning that Levi has this tendency to pair people up. I know everybody at Terk’s place has fallen madly in love too, so maybe Levi’s and Terk’s whole love magic thing is continuing and spreading somewhere else now.”

“Yeah, I heard about that,” Reid stated, “though I can’t say I’ve ever experienced any of that magic myself.”

“No, me either, but then this is your job right now,” Anders pointed out. “I’m completely out of it, since I’m already well and truly hitched,” Anders noted, with a big smile. “That is something I wouldn’t change for the world. But you, on the other hand, still have a long way to go.”

“Great.” Reid rolled his eyes. “I appreciate the way you put that.”

Anders laughed. “How long until we land?”

“Twenty minutes, and then we have to pick up a rental. Beyond that point, we’re on our own.”

“Got it,” Anders said. “That’s the way I prefer to hunt.”

“Me too,” Reid agreed. “We’re still waiting for Terk to come up with some intel as to where we’re going though.”

At that, Anders looked at him, startled. “Nobody’s gotten back to us on that?”

“Nope, not yet,” Reid stated, “and that’s where the concern is. We’re not exactly sure where she is, and we don’t have a target area to start looking.”

“Kazakhstan isn’t exactly a small place,” Anders muttered. “An awful lot is going on in that country too.”

“Exactly, and if we talk to the wrong people—”

Anders nodded. “We’re screwed. Tell me again why we’re even here?’

“Because of me,” Reid declared, with a wry look. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine, but don’t you have anybody on staff who can sort out where Veni is?”

“They’ve been using all the usual methods to no avail. But a guy on Terk’s team—a relative newcomer, I guess—is apparently a locator, specifically, a direction finder. Don’t ask me what that is because I’ve never worked with one before.”

Anders looked at him in surprise. “I think I remember hearing something about that on another case,” he muttered. “The guy can only give you directions, like literally go left or whatever, but, hey, maybe that’s all we need.”

“I don’t know. It still sounds kind of dodgy.”

Anders started to laugh. “Isn’t that my line? This is all pretty dodgy, if you ask me, and I feel kind of useless to tell you the truth.”

“Not at all. You’ll still get to do it your way, but, in this kind of scenario, we have a little bit more of a helping hand. And I hate to admit it, but, all too often, that helping hand turns out to be completely useless.”

Anders nodded. “Yeah, there have definitely been times where we could have used a helping hand, and it wasn’t there or available,” he shared. “Not that we blame people with your gifts, by any means. There’s always an understanding that, when it’s there, it’s gold, and, when it’s not, well, back to the drawing board and the good old-fashioned ways we’ve always done things.”

“Exactly, and that’s the way we’ll work this one. If our direction finder can help us sort out who, where, what, and how, that’s even better, but there’s a good chance he’ll be just as lost as we are.”

“Time will tell, and we’ll know soon enough.”

Just then the plane started to descend. “Can’t say I’ll be upset to get out of these airplanes and on the ground again,” Reid admitted. “Just something about traveling this way makes me feel as if everything is out of control. I really would prefer to be behind the wheel.”

“You and me both,” Anders said, as they buckled up for the landing. “What we need now is that little bit of intel to shake something loose.”

“When we land, we’ll check in and see if they’ve come up with anything. It can’t be complete silence.”

“If it is, and the kidnappers are planning on moving her again, it will be almost impossible to find her and her mother.”

Reid nodded. “I know, and that’s why I’m not even considering it.”

With that, they settled back and waited for the plane to land. Before long they were in their rental and on the road. Anders drove, as Reid spoke to Terk on the phone.

“Okay, we’re heading to the city, but we have no idea where we’re going.”

“I’ve got Langdon here, trying to sort it out, but he’s not really picking up anything,” Terk shared apologetically.

“Fine, I get that. Unfortunately we get that all too often, but we still need some idea of where Veni is.”

“Yeah, unless you want to start the old-fashioned way, taking her picture around.”

“We’ll have to, but it would sure as hell help if we had the right city at least.”

Terk laughed. “We’re pretty sure that you’ve got the right city, so don’t double-check yourself on that. Once we get any better directions, I’ll let you know.”

Reid ended the call with a groan and looked over at Anders. “So far they don’t have squat. We’re here, and, yet, if I’m wrong, it’s a completely wasted trip.”

“So, let’s not go on the assumption that you’re wrong,” Anders pointed out. “You were pretty adamant about it at the time.”

“Yeah, and nothing like time to make you wonder if you were a fool,” he admitted, staring out at the scenery all around them. Just then he got a text. “Huh.”

“Yeah, and what’s that text about?” Anders asked.

“Langdon says, go left.”

Anders looked at him in surprise. They were on a multilane highway, with multiple vehicles all around them. “Yeah, and whereabouts does he want me to go left?”

It came back in all caps. LEFT NOW!

Immediately Anders changed lanes, swearing at the lack of details in the text and the last-minute timing. By the time they’d navigated into the leftmost lane and hit the exit, he looked over at Reid and muttered, “Please tell me this guy’s got something good.”

“I have no idea.” Reid stared at his phone, as if a viper were about to strike again. “All I got was left and then left now.”

“Yeah, I got that much,” Anders stated, “and here we are, left, meaning left now, but where the hell is that leading us to?”

As Reid looked up and around, he noted they were heading into a suburban area, with marginally maintained structures and farmhouses with big fields but not big orchards. It was more like small farms that people were using for housing, more than working farms. “I’m not exactly sure where we are, but that was a pretty specific order.” Just then his phone buzzed again. He looked down and muttered, “At the next light,… on the next corner”—waiting for each message to come in—“turn left.”

At that, Anders looked over at him in surprise. “Seriously?”

He nodded. “All I can tell you is what this text says, and it’s not as if we have anything else to go on, so we might as well.”

Shaking his head, Anders followed the directions.

Reid noted the small lane that Anders drove along, with big farmhouses on either side, but again they were in a poorer area, and these were definitely locals, not farmers. A few people stared at them as they drove by, suspicion on their faces, no sign of a warm welcome. “It definitely isn’t a place that a stranger will be welcome,” Reid stated.

His phone buzzed again. With an eye roll, Reid quickly read it out loud. “Left and then the next left.” Then came another message.

Sorry, I don’t know where this will take you, but that’s all I’ve got for now.

Frowning, Reid read the latest text to Anders, as they took the first left, then almost immediately a second left. Then they pulled into a driveway. “Shit.”

Immediately an old man stepped out, glaring at them.

Reid muttered, “He doesn’t know why we’re here, and neither do I, but this is all we’ve got.”

“Well, crap,” Anders replied, as the old man came toward them, with fury on his face. “You know we’re not welcome here, right?”

“Yeah, we aren’t. But the question is why, and does it have anything to do with the missing women?”