Mousetrap Part 1
Lucas Wolenczak chewed his thumbnail, staring at the screen of the computer, trying to work through the latest knot in his programming. He stretched in his chair and noticed it was almost one a.m.. It had been a long, busy couple of months.
After the seaQuest went down, he had been at loose ends. Secretly afraid that his father would drag him along on his next project Lucas had been relieved when his father left. No one had seemed surprised when Lucas had accepted the captain's offer to move into his house near New Cape Quest and showed up at the first design meeting for the new SQ. He was in charge of redesigning and updating the computer system. On their rare days off, Captain Bridger would take him to baseball games, the beach and amusement parks. Places his own father had never bothered taking him.
Inspiration struck and he started pounding on the keyboard, thoughts of sleep pushed out of his mind. Looking at the corner of his screen, he saw that his "new mail" symbol was flashing. Pushing the button to bring up his mailbox, he read the message and sprang out of his chair.
Slowly opening his bedroom door, Lucas peeked out. Captain Bridger lay on the couch after falling asleep in front of an old movie. Good, he could escape questions and wouldn't have to lie. Walking quietly, he picked up the car keys and took a glance at the older man's face. Even in his sleep the lines of exhaustion that were evident during the day didn't fully disappear. Lucas knew the captain was having nightmares a couple of times a week, had heard him thrashing in his bed. The captain was a man possessed, throwing himself into his work, trying to forget the destruction of his boat, saying goodbye to Dr. Westphalen and trying to protect Lucas from the anger being expressed toward his father.
The teen continued toward the door. With any luck, he'd be back before the captain woke up. He slipped out and closed the front door behind him.
Lucas parked the car on the street and looked at the dark house which looked deserted. Walking up the steps to the porch, the full moon lighting his way, he called softly "Dad . . . dad. I'm here. Where are you?" Opening the door, he walked into the dark hallway as an uneasy feeling came over him. Maybe coming here alone was not the best of ideas.
"Lucas" The voice came from the back of the house.
"Dad, is that you?" The teen walked toward the voice and entered another room. "Dad, what is this nonsense, why didn't you just come to the house?"
He jumped when the door slammed behind him and a dark figure appeared from a shadow in the corner. In the moonlight streaming in the window, he immediately recognized the boots, long coat and long hair.
"Regulator!"he gasped. "What game are you playing?"
"Sorry kid. No game, just business."
Lucas didn't see the gun butt coming toward his forehead till it was too late. He fell into the darkness.
Captain Nathan Bridger rolled over to escape the sun shining in his face but ended up falling off the couch. Picking himself up slowly and sitting back on the couch he wiped the sleep from his eyes and yawned. He was surprised to see that it was after nine. Wondering if Lucas was up yet, Bridger knocked softly on his door but there was no answer. He checked the bathroom and it didn't look like the kitchen had been used that morning. Opening the door, he saw that the teen's bed was in its usual state of disarray but it was empty. The computer was on and the stereo was playing softly.
"Lucas?" Nathan called, "are you here?"
Walking back into the hallway, he called again. No note and the car keys were missing. It wasn't like Lucas to leave and not let him know where he was going. They had made an agreement when the teen had come to stay. Lucas could come and go as he pleased as long as he informed Bridger of his plans. Going back to Lucas' bedroom, he sat down at the computer and pressed the space bar to bring up the screen. He sighed as he read the message that appeared: "Lucas - need your help. Come right away to 205 Monroe Ave. Big trouble, hurry! Dad"
Bridger called Dr. Wolenczak's office only to be told that Lucas' father was in Europe for six months. Trying to stay calm, he punched another button on the vidlink. He only had to wait a few minutes for Commander Ford's face to appear on the screen.
"Jonathan, we may have a problem. Lucas is gone, left sometime last night."
"Where would he go, Sir? He's a teenager . . . maybe he just went out to meet a girl and lost track of time?"
Bridger shook his head. "Lucas wouldn't just run off to meet with a girl. He would, however, run off to meet his dad if he thought that for once in his life his dad needed him. He received email that appeared to be from Dr. Wolenczak, but I just found out his father is in Europe for six months, so there's no way his father could have met him in New Cape Quest at 2:00 a.m. this morning!" He closed his eyes for a minute to get his emotions under control. " He knows how I feel about his father and probably thought I'd stop him from going, so he didn't wake me."
Ford looked down at his watch. "Okay, I'll come by and pick you up in half an hour and we'll go look for him. Maybe it's a prank one of his friends played on him. He's probably asleep on somebody's floor after a night of partying."
" I hope that's all this is, but I'm getting a bad feeling about this. There's an address in the message Lucas received. We'll go check it out." Bridger flicked off the vidlink and went to his room to get ready to go.
Though the sun shone brightly there was still a chill in the air. Bridger tried to remember what Lucas had been wearing the night before; a T-shirt and shorts. He hoped the kid had grabbed a jacket before he left. He was waiting, with coffee in hand, when the commander pulled up. Not surprisingly, Hitchcock and O'Neill were in the back seat. Hitchcock had agreed to stay on and help begin building seaQuest II before she went onto her next job as captain of the Clinton.
"Morning, sir" they greeted him.
"Morning," he echoed back as he slid into the front seat. He gave Ford quick directions to the address they were headed to.
"I checked with the members if the crew that Lucas would talk to, but nobody's seen him." Ford reported.
"Shouldn't we contact the police with this?" Katie questioned.
"No, I think we'll keep this low key for now. It could still turn out to be nothing."
They pulled up behind Bridger's black sports car which was parked in front of a deserted house. The captain got out quickly to look in the car windows and tried the car doors, which were locked. The alarm system was on. He almost laughed. Trust Lucas to think of the car's safety before his own. He joined the others standing on the sidewalk staring at the house. The yard was overgrown, the paint peeling the house in a general state of disrepair. No one had lived in this house for a long time. Glancing at the others, Ford walked carefully up the porch steps and into the house. The others followed behind.
Bridger signaled them to spread out and search the house.
"Captain!" The yell came from O'Neill at the back of the house. He was standing in what used to be the kitchen, holding a sneaker, when the others came running.
"This looks like Lucas' sneaker" O'Neill said.
Ford dropped to the ground to study something.
"What did you find, Jonathan?"
"Blood."
Three pairs of eyes looked at the captain as color drained from his face.
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Lucas groaned as he slowly opened his eyes, and his hand flew up to his aching head. He rubbed the gash he found there and a few flakes of dried blood fell off. Looking around the room, he noted the drab gray concrete walls, and the rough stone floor. High upon one wall was a small window and he could see that it was still night. He was lying on a metal bed which was the only piece of furniture in the room. The dark gray metal door opened. Lucas sat up as the Regulator walked in, followed by a large, blond man with biceps the size of tree trunks.
"Good, you're awake. Sorry Eric had to put you out like that, but we didn't think you'd come willingly," the Regulator said with an apologetic tone.
"What do you want from me?" Lucas demanded.
"My boss wants some information and she paid me a good price to bring you here."
"After what I did for you on the seaQuest, you'd treat me like this?" Lucas questioned with surprise.
The Regulator sat down on the bed. "Times have been tough, kid. I've had to work a little harder to make money. If you co-operate, my boss says she'll let you go."
Lucas snorted. "Yeah, right, and if you believe that, I've got some oceanfront property in Kansas to sell you. Just what does your boss want? And who is your boss anyway?" Lucas asked defiantly, trying to ignore the bodyguard who was glaring at him.
"She wants you to give her the vocoder information."
"No way!" the teen declared angrily. "And what does she think she's going to do with it anyway?"
"Oh, I'm sure she'll find ways to use it to fit her needs." Regulator gave a nod to the bodyguard, who grabbed
Lucas by the neck and forced him to the floor. With the stone floor pressing into his bare knees, he clenched his teeth to keep from crying out. He would not give them the satisfaction.
The thug put his face close. "Come on, kid, I'm going to get the information out of you one way or another, so make it easy on yourself and tell him what he wants to know."
Lucas spat in the man's face.
Enraged, the man back- handed the boy three times across the face before the Regulator could stop him.
The Regulator jumped up, and tried to get between the man and the teen. "Stop it, you're only supposed to scare him, not hurt him!"
The bodyguard tossed Lucas on the bed and left, with the Regulator pushing them out of the room, leaving Lucas alone with his pain.
Miguel Ortiz poured two glasses of ice tea and turned back towards the living room. Bridger's house had been turned into an information center. After running tests on the blood Ford found, UEO medical labs had compared it to Lucas' medical records and found that it matched the teen's. Hitchcock and O'Neill had stayed at the deserted, old house to see if the neighbors had seen or heard anything. Ford was currently on the vidlink, talking to the crew at the new boat's construction site. Bridger had insisted that work on the boat continue, despite the teen's disappearance. Ortiz had put a call into the local police, who told him they couldn't do anything until the next morning. Too bad Crocker wasn't still around or he'd get to the bottom of this puzzle in no time, Miguel thought to himself.
Attempts had been made to reach Dr. Westphalen on the off chance Lucas had contacted her, but Miguel had to leave a message for her. Ben Krieg, assigned to a UEO base in England, had given up on a new relationship with Commander Hitchcock. His former crew mates had not heard from him in several months.
Captain Bridger alternated between pacing and staring out of the window. He had said little since coming back from the old house, letting Ford take the lead in the investigation. Miguel walked over to the captain and held out one of the glasses of ice tea.
"Captain?" Ortiz said gently.
The captain blinked, as if to pull himself back to reality and took the glass. "Thanks, Miguel."
Bridger turned back to stare out the window and Ortiz studied his captain's profile.
"Stupid kid," Bridger said softly. "Why didn't he wake me up? I would have gone with him. His common sense flies out the window when his father's concerned."
Ortiz was unsure what to say. " Someone sure knew how to yank Lucas' chain. That's the one message that would cause him to go running." He fell silent, trying to think of some words that would soothe his captain.
Ford came up to stand next to them. "Somebody broke into the computer lab where Lucas was working on the new vocorder. They stole it."
Bridger arched an eyebrow. "Well, now we know why he was taken. Next we need to figure out by who and to where. Are Hitchcock and O'Neill back yet? Maybe we should get ownership records of that house. Jonathan, contact Katie and have them swing by city hall. Who would be interested in the vocorder?"
Lucas figured he had been left alone for about 12 hours. Looking out of his little window, he could see that the sun was shining and his stomach was making rumbling noises. Using his T- shirt, he had finally stopped the blood running from his nose. The dirty shirt had gotten thrown into the corner with the one sneaker he had still been wearing. The other one must have fallen off when he was being taken hostage.
What would Bridger and Ford do in this situation, the teen asked himself. Well, stupid, they wouldn't be in this situation 'cause they wouldn't do such a stupid thing in the first place, he answered himself back. He let out a loud groan. Ok, pull yourself together. The Captain is probably tearing apart every house in the city looking for you. The silent conversation with himself continued. You don't even know if you're still in New Cape Quest, he told himself angrily. Bridger is probably so pissed at you right now that he might get around to looking for you in, oh, three or four weeks! Oh, shut up, he thought to the little devil in his head.
The opening door startled him out of his thoughts, and he sat up to watch a tray being put in the room against the wall to the right of the door. The door closed again and Lucas got up to examine the tray. It contained a small bowl of water, a washcloth, a filled glass, a sandwich, and a clean t shirt. He used the washcloth and water to wash the dirt and blood off his face, threw it into the shirt/sneaker pile and put the clean shirt on.
Gee, I wonder when laundry day is around here, he thought trying to give himself a little laugh.
Eyeing the food and drink suspiciously, he thought about all the movies he had seen where the kidnappers drug their victims, and decided not to touch it.
The door opened again and the blond thug, Eric, walked in, followed by a dark-haired man. They grabbed an arm on either side of the boy.
"C'mon, kid, the boss wants to see you. Don't try anything funny 'cause Ricardo hasn't had lunch yet and he gets really mean if he hasn't eaten," the blond said with a nod toward the dark-haired guy.
Lucas was marched up the hallway. He twisted his head from side to side, trying to take in everything, looking for clues about where he was. The teen gave a brief thought to escaping but decided to wait to see if his chances got any better. Besides, his curiosity got the better of him and he wanted to find out who the "boss" was.
They entered a room that was about thirty feet up the hall from where his cell was. The room was a plush office, done in red and gold, with bookcases, a big wooden desk, and an elaborate computer setup on one wall. Lucas was thrown into an overstuffed armchair and his guards took up positions on either side of the him. A door opened up behind the desk and the teen noted that it was not the door he had been brought in. He wondered where it led to and where exactly he was being held.