Disclaimer: I do not own Human Target and intend no copyright infringement.
A couple of days after the ordeal at the opera, Ilsa decided she needed to learn how to pick a lock. It seemed to be easy enough: A quick search on the internet produced hundreds of "how to"-guides. The first few test runs with the handcuffs she found in the office's kitchen drawer worked fine. Then she decided to pick them while actually wearing them.
A totally different story…
And of course, someone walked in on her.
Ames.
She loved the idea of teaching her boss and extended the lesson to duct tape and cable fixers.
It became a very long afternoon…
Looking at it now, however, after being abducted, blindfolded, gagged and chained to a chair with handcuffs, the effort had definitely been worth it. Thank God she always kept a bobby pin with her...
Okay, now her hands and feet were free. But she was still caught in the tiny storage room of what looked like a cabin in the woods, with one thug right outside the door. The other two had just left, one to get firewood, one to refuel the car.
Ilsa's thoughts went back to the office. Remodeling it had been a lot more difficult than she had originally expected. All kinds of loaded weapons stashed everywhere! Explaining that to the handymen had been a nightmare. Her first taste of what she had gotten herself into…
One day she had asked Chance about it and he had explained that home-field advantage always wins. Knowing a place intimately and using its features to one's benefit was something intruders never could. Very conceivable explanation, but was it helpful now? Well yes, it was, if she…
The foolish woman was actually screaming. And stomping the ground with her feet. The thug couldn't believe it. As if they kept her in a place where someone else could hear her. He ignored her at first, but after a while she was starting to get on his nerves and he barged into the room.
The floor panel that Ilsa had loosened sent him crashing to the ground. She jumped up from the chair and hit him over the head with it. With trembling fingers, she took his gun and cell phone and handcuffed him. Following her initial instinct, she made a run for the door.
Only to stop dead in her tracks.
She was in the middle of nowhere – wilderness as far as the eye could reach. Judging from the thug's clothing, he was familiar with this kind of environment. A hunter perhaps. Stood to reason that the other two were, too. In that case they surely knew how to read tracks. No chance she could be messing with them in the woods, especially not with darkness rapidly approaching.
What now?
Suddenly a memory jumped at her, a conversation she had had with Winston shortly after they had started working together. "What makes Chance's methods so special?", she had asked him and he had replied: "He always does the unexpected." And then he had told her about the day they had saved Princess Victoria's life. Everybody thought they had left the hotel suite, but in truth…
It took Ilsa all the courage she could muster, but she went back into the cabin.
"I'm hiding in a cupboard", Ilsa told the team over the phone. They were already in the van, rushing to the location the signal from the thug's cell phone indicated.
"A cupboard?", Guerrero repeated. "That's not…"
"That's perfect." Chance's voice. "Stay there, don't make a sound, we'll get you out of there."
"Dude…" Guerrero obviously didn't agree with him. "If they find her in that cupboard…"
"She can still shoot them." Chance's voice again.
"Or she could play it safe and wait for them by the door, gun at the ready."
Obviously there was some nonverbal debate going on between them. For several moments Ilsa heard nothing but the sound of the van's engine. Finally Guerrero spoke up again.
"This is a me-or-you-type situation, boss. If I were you, I'd shoot them the moment they walk through the door."
Ilsa thought of Hector Lopez. He had struggled with her. The shot had gone off more by accident than design. This was different. They were talking about cold-blooded murder here.
"Chance, what would you do?"
Although the question clearly hadn't been directed at him, Winston chose to reply. "Both versions have their advantages and disadvantages, Ilsa. It will take us at least another thirty minutes to get to you. Should they come back in the meantime you have to be prepared, one way or the other."
Ilsa rested her head against the cupboard's back wall. Both men wanted to protect her. The only difference was that Guerrero was thinking about her physical safety first while Chance had her soul in mind.
"I'll stay in the cupboard", she finally said.
Ilsa couldn't see it, but hearing this, Guerrero nodded, in an if not agreeing, but nevertheless understanding manner. "We'll hurry up, boss."