Serial Story: English Breakfast, Part 7
This story is presented weekly in draft format.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 |
English Breakfast, Part 7
Nausea warred with relief as Patrick watched the video the kidnappers had sent to Kane Security’s main email address. Relief that it wasn’t Karen on the screen, but the woman behind the table was obviously drugged and had sustained an incredible amount of cuts on her arms even in the short time they’d been watching. There was no way she could survive that much blood loss.
The knife stopped, hovering above her skin as if waiting for permission to start again. The sound came on, and Patrick heard Karen’s voice as she told them about Kane Security and gave them Patrick’s name.
He was a little disappointed that she made it so easy, but her speech was slurred and forced, which meant either she was drugged, or something had happened to her mouth. If she was hurt, they needed to find her fast if the treatment of the other captive was any indication.
The camera panned in a slow half-circle, coming to rest as another woman came into view. Patrick squinted, turning his head to the side as he realized it was Karen. One side of her face was black and purple, the eye nearly swollen shut and her lip split and bleeding. She was looking up at someone off camera, and there was a set of shiny instruments laid out on a canvas roll on the table in front of her. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what was going to happen next.
Meaty male hands - the same that had held the knife earlier - tied a piece of rubber tubing around her upper arm and then picked up a needle. Patrick’s stomach turned as the video cut to black.
White text displayed the single demand from her captors:
Will trade Ms. Winters for Patrick O’Neil. Meet under Crosstown Bridge, 2am.
“What do you think?” Kane turned off the video and leaned back in his chair, regarding Patrick with the unreadable stare he was famous for. Patrick shook his head, letting out the breath he hadn’t been aware he was holding.
“We don’t have a choice - we have to do the trade. I don’t get it though. They still haven’t made any demands about the journalist. Why not just kill her if that was the plan all along? Why keep her captive if there’s no reason for her to be alive?”
“They wouldn’t,” Kane said, staring up at the blank screen. “I think it’s safe to assume that she had something they wanted, but other than that, your guess is as good as mine.”
“Maybe after you trade me, I can get close to her, find out what’s going on.”
Kane raised an eyebrow. “If we trade you, you mean. I’ve got Tony going through the video for any clues, and Andrew’s working up a couple of ambush scenarios. We have a little time left, so let’s see what they come up with. In the meantime, I want you to go through those photos from the laptop again, and see if you can figure out just what this journalist was researching. Obviously she pissed off some very powerful people.”
Patrick stood to leave, and then stopped at the door. “What about the friend - the one who dropped off the flash drive? Think she’s in any danger?”
“Mia’s on her way over there now. Karen didn’t say anything about her, so she’s probably okay, but I thought it was better to check.”
“With these guys, I don’t think we can take anything for granted.”
Patrick went back to his desk and pulled up the photos he’d taken. Some of the files looked like schematics, and he tried to blow them up with little success - the larger copies were too degraded. It was a building of some sort, but he didn’t recognize the layout. There wasn’t time to check them against the major government buildings in the area - the red tape to get blueprint copies would take hours to get through, maybe even days. He started reading through the document images, looking for any mention of businesses or agencies that could be a potential target.
Half an hour later, he sat back in his chair, frustrated. There were vague references to a research project of some sort, but nothing he’d photographed contained anything specific about who was involved or what the project was for.
Kane approached his desk, his expression serious.
“Find anything?”
Patrick shook his head. “I think the only way we’re going to find out what they’re up to is to go in ourselves. We don’t even really have a clue as to where they might be, though this does reference research, so it would have to be a lab-type environment. But with all the empty or partially empty warehouses in town...”
Kane nodded. “Mia is watching our source - so far, she doesn’t seem to be in danger. And Andrew has a couple of scenarios worked out to get Karen back.” He checked his watch. “We have about an hour left before we have to be at the bridge. Let’s go over the plans for Karen’s extraction. If we can capture whoever comes to the site, maybe we can convince them to help us out.”
Enjoy
this post? Support your author:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 |
English Breakfast, Part 7
Nausea warred with relief as Patrick watched the video the kidnappers had sent to Kane Security’s main email address. Relief that it wasn’t Karen on the screen, but the woman behind the table was obviously drugged and had sustained an incredible amount of cuts on her arms even in the short time they’d been watching. There was no way she could survive that much blood loss.
The knife stopped, hovering above her skin as if waiting for permission to start again. The sound came on, and Patrick heard Karen’s voice as she told them about Kane Security and gave them Patrick’s name.
He was a little disappointed that she made it so easy, but her speech was slurred and forced, which meant either she was drugged, or something had happened to her mouth. If she was hurt, they needed to find her fast if the treatment of the other captive was any indication.
The camera panned in a slow half-circle, coming to rest as another woman came into view. Patrick squinted, turning his head to the side as he realized it was Karen. One side of her face was black and purple, the eye nearly swollen shut and her lip split and bleeding. She was looking up at someone off camera, and there was a set of shiny instruments laid out on a canvas roll on the table in front of her. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what was going to happen next.
Meaty male hands - the same that had held the knife earlier - tied a piece of rubber tubing around her upper arm and then picked up a needle. Patrick’s stomach turned as the video cut to black.
White text displayed the single demand from her captors:
Will trade Ms. Winters for Patrick O’Neil. Meet under Crosstown Bridge, 2am.
“What do you think?” Kane turned off the video and leaned back in his chair, regarding Patrick with the unreadable stare he was famous for. Patrick shook his head, letting out the breath he hadn’t been aware he was holding.
“We don’t have a choice - we have to do the trade. I don’t get it though. They still haven’t made any demands about the journalist. Why not just kill her if that was the plan all along? Why keep her captive if there’s no reason for her to be alive?”
“They wouldn’t,” Kane said, staring up at the blank screen. “I think it’s safe to assume that she had something they wanted, but other than that, your guess is as good as mine.”
“Maybe after you trade me, I can get close to her, find out what’s going on.”
Kane raised an eyebrow. “If we trade you, you mean. I’ve got Tony going through the video for any clues, and Andrew’s working up a couple of ambush scenarios. We have a little time left, so let’s see what they come up with. In the meantime, I want you to go through those photos from the laptop again, and see if you can figure out just what this journalist was researching. Obviously she pissed off some very powerful people.”
Patrick stood to leave, and then stopped at the door. “What about the friend - the one who dropped off the flash drive? Think she’s in any danger?”
“Mia’s on her way over there now. Karen didn’t say anything about her, so she’s probably okay, but I thought it was better to check.”
“With these guys, I don’t think we can take anything for granted.”
Patrick went back to his desk and pulled up the photos he’d taken. Some of the files looked like schematics, and he tried to blow them up with little success - the larger copies were too degraded. It was a building of some sort, but he didn’t recognize the layout. There wasn’t time to check them against the major government buildings in the area - the red tape to get blueprint copies would take hours to get through, maybe even days. He started reading through the document images, looking for any mention of businesses or agencies that could be a potential target.
Half an hour later, he sat back in his chair, frustrated. There were vague references to a research project of some sort, but nothing he’d photographed contained anything specific about who was involved or what the project was for.
Kane approached his desk, his expression serious.
“Find anything?”
Patrick shook his head. “I think the only way we’re going to find out what they’re up to is to go in ourselves. We don’t even really have a clue as to where they might be, though this does reference research, so it would have to be a lab-type environment. But with all the empty or partially empty warehouses in town...”
Kane nodded. “Mia is watching our source - so far, she doesn’t seem to be in danger. And Andrew has a couple of scenarios worked out to get Karen back.” He checked his watch. “We have about an hour left before we have to be at the bridge. Let’s go over the plans for Karen’s extraction. If we can capture whoever comes to the site, maybe we can convince them to help us out.”
Enjoy
this post? Support your author:
Romantic Suspense
| Erotic Romance | Contemporary Romance |
Horror | Flash Fiction | Non-Fiction
**Please
note - If this is your first time posting, your comment
will be moderated. Once you have been approved, future comments will post automatically.
No comments have been added yet.
