Chapter 8

When Veni woke up, she was groggy, her tongue thick. When she muttered, “What the hell,” her tone was raspy. She realized right away that the better food she’d been given had been laced with drugs. That’s why she’d been given so much and such a variety in order to disguise the taste. This confirmed that they were afraid she was communicating with someone, or else it was some sort of a lesson.

She didn’t know which.

She’d been drugged before, and that had made it much harder to communicate. Now she didn’t know what to think. She wished she could see her mom again, but that was also a torment because she couldn’t get her out of here. Her mother didn’t appear to be suffering terribly though, and that was a good thing, but she was also a highly respected microbiologist. Yet her stem cell research was a little bit out of her field. However, since she had made such incredible breakthroughs, nobody would argue against her value of doing any work.

They also wanted her to continue with her stem cell work, hence this mess presumably. Veni wasn’t even sure what to do about that. As the day wore on, she wished she had some water. That was one thing they always kept from her, and she could really use it, especially with her tongue tasting the way it did. The door opened suddenly, and her jailer, Toothless, walked in, glaring at her still.

“What? So you didn’t like the questions he asked, so you drugged me again?” she asked bitterly. “Good thing they don’t want me to do anything, since the drugs are killing any chance of that.”

Startled, he looked at her for a long moment and didn’t say anything but slammed the tray down and quickly disappeared. She didn’t know if she’d scared him enough that he would lay off the drugs or if he was just following orders, more than happy to send the drugs into her bloodstream and to shut her up.

She’d tried not being difficult, and she’d tried not getting too mouthy, but she was getting fed up and really just wanted Reid to get her the hell out of here. That thought wasn’t helping her either. As she reached for the bottle of water, she studied it and found the seal had been broken. Frowning, she put it back down again and stared at it. She needed water. If they had just reused a bottle—which would make sense if they didn’t have supplies—and didn’t add any drugs, that was one thing. The other thing was, what were her options when she needed liquids in her body. Still, she put the water bottle off to the side and didn’t touch it, eyeing the rest of the food on the plate, already hesitant to try anything.

When Toothless returned a little later, staring at her untouched food and water, he asked in an aggrieved tone, “What’s the matter with the food this time?”

“You probably drugged it again,” she snapped, with a wave of her hand. “I can’t trust you.”

He stared at her, and she watched his face work with fury but didn’t know which of several options were the cause. Was it because of the drugs in the food or because he was angry at her for having doubted him? Or that the drugs had to be given to her, and, if she wouldn’t cooperate, she would get injected with them. She wouldn’t make anything easy on them anymore. She closed her eyes, and he picked up the tray and disappeared.

When Toothless returned with the boss man, she nodded. “So, it was drugged, and now I have absolutely no say in it?” she asked in a mocking tone. “Do whatever,” she muttered. “And if it renders me unconscious permanently, that’s all the better.”

At that, the boss froze, turned to her jailer, and said something in a language she didn’t quite understand. And right in front of her, an argument ensued, but she didn’t need to speak the language in order to understand that it was over her being drugged.

The boss now faced her. “If you’re good, I won’t give you more drugs.”

She stared at him in surprise. “Have I not been good?” she asked, waving an arm around her prison cell. “What is it you expect me to do? I’m already a prisoner here. I can’t even go to the bathroom without asking you guys for permission. The food is all over the map. I either get no food at all, or the food that I get is drugged. I always know when it’s drugged because that’s the only time you give me an actual meal. Water is something I don’t even get, and I’m so parched from your drugs now that it’s affecting my system,” she muttered. “I don’t know what you expect from me, but I’m well past the point of dealing with any of it.”

Worried, the boss walked over and checked her temperature, picking up her wrist, as if to check her pulse. She deliberately slowed her system, trying to throw him off. He turned and barked something at Toothless, who immediately disappeared. When he came back, he carried two sealed bottles of water in his hands. He passed them over to her, and she immediately cracked one open and gulped down some water. When she finally lowered the bottle, she whispered, “Thank you.”

“We’re not trying to hurt you, you know,” the boss muttered in English.

She spoke Russian and several dialects, having spent many years in the country, yet the boss had returned to English. She found that interesting, since it meant that English was probably his first language. “You could have fooled me,” she replied. “The food, the water, the drugs, plus no daylight, no place to wash, and nothing at all to improve my spirits, yet you want me to perform like a pony.”

He winced at that. “Hey, it’s not me,” he declared, “but, once you piss off the government, they tend to get real hands-on in a hurry.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” she muttered. “I never wanted to spend my life as a prisoner.”

He cracked a smile. “If you changed that attitude, you wouldn’t be a prisoner.”

She snorted. “No? And what would I be?”

“You would be an employee.” And that joke had him laughing uproariously. Then he turned and left, but he barked out more orders as he walked away. Toothless glared at her, so she assumed that he was once again in trouble or at least charged with doing more that the boss wanted Toothless to do. But she had water without drugs added, and that was worth something.

When Toothless returned later with a hot, thick soup and slabs of bread, he glared at her and said, in Russian, “It’s not drugged.” Then he left.

She wasn’t sure whether she could believe him or not, but the thick bread would be hard to drug, right? So she ate that first, while she studied the soup. It looked to be fresh and was very tempting. When she didn’t eat it, a doctor came in, at least she assumed he was a doctor, with his white coat. He came with his own spoon and ate several bites of the soup himself, as if to demonstrate it wasn’t drugged. Then he left as well. Knowing that she was being watched, she cautiously took a couple bites and then polished off the bowl and the rest of the bread. Cracking open the second bottle of water, she had some of that as well.

She needed to go to the bathroom again, and, so far, she had a bucket, or she asked, if she wanted to deal with the guards. But now, knowing that she was being watched all the time, she sure didn’t want to use the bucket. Not to mention the smell, since they didn’t clean it out or even give a crap. She’d used it to throw up a time or two, and that was still sitting here as well.

About an hour later Toothless came and led her to the bathroom, where she relieved herself and quickly washed her hands and her face. There was no mirror, which was probably so she couldn’t break the glass and use it as a weapon. When he opened the door on her, a bit surprised, she was still scrubbing her face. He waited for her to finish, then led her back to her cell, where he closed the door once again. There, she sank into despair.

Although she was feeling better and had a full stomach, just knowing she was back in this windowless room again, after being out even for those few minutes, was heartbreaking. She sent out a desperate plea to Reid. Please be coming.

She got an instant response.

Yes, we’re coming.

With a smile on her face, she fell asleep.

*

Reid probably shouldn’thave told her that, but she needed to know that they were on it. He didn’t tell anybody that he had kept up communication with her, as more of a point of reassurance for her than anything. He was also trying to figure out who else was telecommunicating with Veni too.

That was a concern, and it was also a concern for another reason, and he wasn’t sure anybody else had picked up on it. He quickly sent Terk a text, asking what were chances the voice in her head was another prisoner. Terk sent a response that made Reid’s blood run cold.

“I’m pretty sure it is.”

Of course that meant that they not only had to rescue Veni and her mom but somebody else. Reid told Terk that as well, and his response came back immediately.

“I’m on it.”

Reid had to smile at that. An awful lot could be said about somebody who would rescue someone else who was gifted, yet being held prisoner because of what they could do—especially knowing it wasn’t a job or something he got paid for. Yet Terk did it because it was the right thing to do.

Reid sat back in the car, as they pulled into the parking lot of the medical supply house, and stared. “Where is everybody?”

“It is the weekend,” Anders replied.

“Oh.” Reid shook his head. “Wow, I’ve really lost track of time.”

“That’s all right. I’m on it.”

“I’m glad you are. I don’t have the level of experience in this sort of thing that you do.”

“Which is why we make a decent team,” Anders stated, with a smile, “because I don’t have any experience in the crap you’re dealing with.”

Reid burst out laughing. “Very true.”

“Now text Terk and see if he’s got anything to offer.”

“I’ve been talking to him this last bit.” He smirked and added, “Telepathically. Still, we do need to see if Langdon’s got any directions for us.”

“Levi just sent me the blueprints for the place as well because I would really like to know if this is empty for the weekend. There is also another aspect. What are the chances that Veni’s being held here? If she and her mother are here, maybe they’re someplace where nobody would even run across them because it’s not a regular part of everybody’s workspace. I’m thinking like an old factory, a warehouse, some storage barns, and things like that.”

“She’s warm enough, but she has a blanket,” Reid shared.

“You contacted her? Did she tell you that?”

He hesitated and then shook his head. “No, I’ll just say it’s an impression.”

Anders shot him a look. “When you get confirmation of that…”

“Right.” Reid grinned. “You’re really all about facts, aren’t you?”

“I am, and you’re really all about impressions and feelings.”

“It’s a lot of the work I do,” he admitted, “although it’s not even work-work.”

“What were you doing before?”

“I took care of artillery for years, but I left the military about two years ago, after being pretty upset with what was going on. I was an artillery master, but you know there’s only so much of that you can do before you wonder why you’re even doing it.”

“Been there, done that,” Anders stated. “It’s one of the reasons I do this now because I couldn’t before.”

Reid recognized the resolve in his tone. “You mean, making decisions and helping people when the government won’t? Because, in this case, the government is definitely involved.”

“Which reminds me, we haven’t had any feedback from Jonas in a while.”

“Good point,” Reid noted. “Let me send Terk a message about that.”

When his phone buzzed not too much later, Terk shared how Jonas had supplied some of the information about this company. He also stated that the person they communicated with in terms of getting the women out in the first place had gone missing two days after connecting with the women, and another body was just found in a back alley.

“Great, so they’re making sure that nobody is available for us to question.”

“Exactly, and, of course, that’s not a surprise, but it does raise the stakes a bit.”

“Yeah, it also means that anybody involved in hiding these women may just get wiped out. Or already has been.”

“Exactly, and yet the old man’s car was potentially used, and he is still alive—or was alive that day—which may explain the visitor he had there that morning.”

“Yeah, I would like to have a talk with him again,” Reid muttered. “That was definitely a curiosity. Plus I can confirm if he’s still alive.”

“Maybe he is, since he certainly put out the alert to his bosses that people were asking for the women, and the people had made it as far as Kazakhstan, which must also be a concern for the Russians,” Terk murmured. “Yet I’m thinking he’s dead. If you get more people on your tail, we need to know about it because I sure don’t like surprises.”

“I suggest we just take that as a blanket statement and assume we have more people on our tail than we expected,” Reid replied, half joking.

As they walked up to the front of the building, Anders flicked through images on his phone.

“Blueprints?” Reid asked.

“Yeah, blueprints. Of course the building’s closed, and there is security presumably, but, on the surface, I’m not seeing any cars in the parking lot or nearby.”

“It’s probably no more than what we would consider regular security on a weekend,” Reid pointed out, “so maybe no security at all.”

He snorted at that. “Also, business hasn’t been very good lately, so maybe the security part is something that went by the wayside.”

“Maybe. I don’t know.… I suggest we scale the gate and go around the other side,” he muttered.

“Or,” Anders offered, “just pop the lock on this gate and go in and out the front.”

“Yet that will let somebody know because cameras should be around here.”

With that, they quickly skirted the perimeter, looking for a place to get in. Along the back fence, where the garbage came and went, was a gate. It was only held closed by a chain.

“I’ve never quite understood why people are so lax about places like this.” Reid shook his head.

“It’s not even that they’re lax,” Anders reminded him, “but people who cart off the garbage must really get pissed with locks and keypads. I bet they really don’t give a crap and don’t see any point of it being secure. It’s not as if this is some super-high-security espionage farm, so, from their point of view, closing up a gate like this is minor.”

And, indeed, it was minor, just a simple chain, which they unwound instantly, and were inside. They quickly looped the chain back around the gate again, so, from a quick glance, nobody would know that they had entered. With that, they dashed to the loading docks and studied the layout.

“According to the blueprints, this loading dock will let us in on the ground floor. It goes down one more floor for storage and up two floors to manufacturing and offices.”

“Good enough,” Reid said. “I’ll go down. You go up.”

At that, Anders looked over at him, his lips twitching. “How about we reverse that? I’ll go down, and you go up.”

“In that case, why don’t we just stay together,” Reid replied, with a laugh.

Within seconds, they were inside the building, and they both had weapons out at the ready. As soon as they cleared the main floor, they shared a look. “The fastest thing would be to clear upstairs, but being offices, they’re not holding anybody there, not through a workweek at least,” Reid shared. “My bet would be downstairs.”

“Mine too.”

And with that settled, they quickly took the stairs down below the loading dock into the storage area. As soon as they got down there, Reid felt energy wafting in. He reached out and grabbed Anders by the arm. “Something’s going on here.”

Anders waited, looking at him. “When you say that, what do you mean?”

He shook his head. “I know you’re looking for absolutes in this, and, as much as I would like to give you some, I just don’t have them.”

“Then tell me what this means to you, at least.”

He contemplated the area for a moment and then nodded. “It means that somebody has been using energy here.”

“Okay, is that good or bad?” Anders asked cautiously.

“I want to say good because I think it’s probably Veni, but there’s an awful lot of it.”

“Meaning?”

“I’m not sure,” Reid admitted in exasperation. “Maybe check in with Terk.”

“Oh no, no, no, no,” Anders said. “You check in with Terk. I only talk to Terk when he’s got something to say to me.”

He snorted. “You don’t think he would have something to say right now?”

“If he did, he would already be on the phone.”

That was an indisputable truth, so moving cautiously forward, the two of them came up to a junction that led down a dark hallway with multiple doors on either side. Reid pointed left.

Anders whispered in a low tone, “Is that your buddy telling you left again?”

“Nope, just me following my instincts.”

Anders nodded. “In that case, I don’t have a problem following it. Instincts have kept me alive more than a few times.”

They moved slowly, cautiously, down to the other doors. As they came to the first one, Reid put an ear against it and couldn’t hear anything going on. They kept on going to the second one, same thing. Third one, same thing. When they got to the fourth one, there he heard voices, and it sounded like a TV was on. “Maybe the jailers,” he whispered.

He looked over at Anders who motioned to carry on down to the next door to see if they could find the hostages. Security should be here, and this could just as easily be the security room. Cameras could be in there, or nothing but somebody who needed a place for the weekend. They kept on walking past door after door after door, until finally they came up to the last one, where Reid tilted his head and pointed.

Anders just shrugged, as if not seeing what he was pointing out, but it was energy and a lot of it. He pointed toward the room and nodded. At that, he tried the handle, but it was locked. Quickly taking a tool from his pocket, he had the lock undone within seconds, then pushed open the door. They both stepped inside and closed it behind them, and there in front of them was a woman curled up on a bed, sound asleep.

He raced over to her side and checked, then looked back at Anders and whispered, “It’s not Veni.”

Shocked, he stared at him and asked, “What?”

He nodded. “This isn’t Veni.” Matter of fact, she was older. He looked at her closely and then added, “I think it’s probably her mother.” He checked for a pulse, but she was sleeping soundly, completely undisturbed by their actions. “By the looks of it, I think she’s been drugged.”

“That’ll complicate matters,” Anders shared. “I was really hoping they’d both be ambulatory.”

“You might be hoping, but, in this case, you’ll be disappointed.” He looked at the door. “We need to find Veni.”

With that, they stepped back out into the hallway and headed across the hall to the closest door. Reid looked at the energy and nodded. When Anders popped the lock, they stepped inside, their weapons at the ready, and found another woman curled up in a ball on an inflatable mattress, sleeping. He raced over to her side.

He placed two fingers at her neck, turning her face gently so he could look at her, then he glanced back at Anders and smiled. “It’s Veni.”

She murmured something.

He reached out a hand and gave her a gentle shake. When she didn’t respond, he gave her a harder shake. She woke up, glaring at him. Then her eyes widened, and she scrambled out of his reach, pulling the blanket up tight.

His heart broke for what she had gone through, but he reached out a hand again and whispered, “Veni, it’s me. It’s Reid.”