"Katlyn."
Katlyn turned around, fear clawing at her heart. She thought she would never have to hear that voice again. The owner of the Voice stepped out of the shadows of the hallway. She backed up into the kitchen as he stepped forward. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the knife block. She looked back at the Voice and scrambled for a weapon.
Katlyn saw movement out of the corner of her eye and knew that she was going to lose, but she decided that she wouldn't go without a fight. She got to the block and turned, just as a body slammed her into the counter. The knife was ripped from her hand by an unseen force; it was too dark to see. She grunted in pain as the countertop jammed into her spine. Something weakly forced her to the ground, but she wriggled out from under it. She turned when she heard heavy breathing.
"Robert! Are you okay?" a different voice hissed.
Katlyn heard footsteps and saw something glinting in the darkness. On her hands and knees, she crawled away from the counter. Her hand landed in something warm and sticky and she gasped in alarm. She scrambled backwards into the hallway, her hand sticking to the fibers of the rug. She heard footsteps behind her and hands wrapped around her arms. She struggled as the arms lifted her up and close to their possessor.
"Katlyn." the Voice breathed. "Stop struggling."
Katlyn could hear her heart pounding in her chest. She needed to get away. She needed to call 911. She needed to call her father. Without thinking twice, Katlyn went limp, catching the Voice by surprise. Then she broke through the Voice's grip and began to run to the front door. Before she could stop, something slammed into her from the side. Her head bucked and she fell against the wall like a drunk. Then a man grabbed her shoulders and threw her back into the wall.
"Omar, enough." the Voice ordered.
Once, twice, three times. Katlyn grabbed onto Omar's wrists as he threw her into the wall again. Her head went through the wall and cracked against the drywall on the opposite side. The added four inches of give threw her attacker off balance, so she did the only thing she could. She bit at where Omar's face should've been and felt flesh. She bit down hard, tasting metal and blood. Omar pushed away, throwing her into the wall one last time.
She fell to the ground, feeling like she was trapped inside her body. Her eyelids fluttered and drooped. Someone shook her, "Katlyn get up, come on." The Voice was distant and concerned, but Katlyn couldn't get up. She was floating on a cloud, watching everything happen through a watery screen. The screen dimmed until it was totally black, but the cloud was comfortable.
"You idiot." The Voice yelled, the girl's head resting on the crook of his elbow. The recipient of his anger was too busy trying to staunch the flow of blood from his missing earlobe.
Omar just shrugged his shoulders, pressing a white towel to the side of his face. "The bitch bit me, and she stabbed Robert."
He was barely able to contain his anger for the Middle Eastern man. There were only a handful of people in the world who had the skill set their boss was looking for. If Omar had somehow injured Katlyn, it would set their plan back weeks, maybe months.
"I'm going to tell Muhammad about this, but it is up to him to decide what to do with you." The Voice said. He ignored Omar's excuses and walked to the car, carrying the limp form of Katlyn.
Katlyn woke up and rubbed her head. Her mind was fuzzy and her vision was blurry. She sat up, and immediately fell back to the couch. Blood pounded in her ears and she squeezed her eyes closed to ward off the throbbing headache. When the pressure dropped, she opened her eyes again. A blurry sight of a water bottle swam into view.
"Drink this. It'll help the headache go away."
Katlyn looked towards the sound of the voice, but knew that it wasn't his Voice. This person had a Middle Eastern accent, not an English accent. A face swam into view, with big brown eyes and skin the color of coffee. Katlyn weakly grabbed the bottle and brought it to her lips. She took a swig, but dribbled water down the front of her. The man took the water bottle and put it away.
"I hope you are well enough to help us. If not, there are other ways…" the man trailed off.
"What?" Katlyn croaked.
"We want you to break us into the Pentagon's system and retrieve a certain file, and also degrade their security so the database is available to the public internet." The man said.
"And if I refuse?" Katlyn asked, expecting a mortifying response.
"First, we'll kill your father. And if that doesn't work, then we'll and dispose of you." The man replied. "Since you are in no condition to do the work, we'll get you a partner to share the work load."
Katlyn didn't let her terror show to the terrorist. Her heart had practically stopped thinking that another person was to be brutally kidnapped and forced to commit treason.