For Ads611 - A true friend

Hostage

Part One

"God damn it!"

"Something wrong, Jim?" Becky Lynch asked as she approached the reception desk from behind. She could see that the security guard had decided to try and deal with some of the boredom of the night shift by watching some highlights of a soccer game on his iPad, which was standing on the corner of the desk. It wasn't as if she could blame him. Guarding an empty office building all night had to be one of the most boring jobs in the world.

"Sorry, Ms Lynch. I didn't hear you coming. That was never a red card," he added, looking angrily at the iPad.

"No? But that was a goal," she pointed out as the team that Jim apparently liked conceded after a defensive error.

"That's more than enough of that," he said, hitting the device's power button. With that, he heaved his enormous frame out of his chair and walked around the desk. At this time of night, he needed to unlock the building's front door to let her out.

Becky yawned as she waited for him by the door. It had been another very long day. That was life, though, when you were heading up a project such as the one she was working on. All of the hours would be worth it when her invention finally went into production. Even conservative estimates valued her new computer chip, named the BL-04, at more than ten million dollars. If her own estimates on the chip's performance proved to be correct, which was what she and her team were currently in the process of testing, it had the potential to increase the processing power of military supercomputers by more than 65 per-cent. The American government would virtually allow her to name her price in return for exclusive access to the chips.

"You're the last one to leave, again," Jim said as he lumbered up to the door. "They really need to give you a pay rise."

He had no idea that Becky was in fact the mastermind behind the company who employed him. That information was way above his pay grade.

Becky smiled kindly. "Maybe one day, Jim. You never know what's around the corner, do you?"

"You sure don't," Jim agreed as he used a key card to unlock the large glass door and held it open for her. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Becky walked out into the street, stopping for a moment to button up her jacket against the cold.

A white van was parked half a block down the street. There was no reason for anyone to pay special attention to it. No one could see through the small tinted windows in the rear doors that there were two blonde women in the back of the van, both looking through binoculars. They were dressed in black from head to toe.

"That's her," one of the women said.

"Confirmed. She's walking to her car. Move out," the other one sternly ordered the van's driver, a dark haired woman, as Becky's car pulled out of the parking lot up the street a minute later.

The engine fired up and the driver made an easy U-turn on the almost deserted street.

Becky Lynch had a brilliant mind when it came to technology. What she didn't know was anything about was counter surveillance. That much was obvious to the woman driving the van. Although she had made sure to keep several cars between the van and the target's car once they had found themselves on busier roads, she had been able to tell that the redhead had barely looked in her mirrors at all. So much the better. Having the element of surprise would make their first job a lot easier.

"Still on her tail, Bayley?" a voice asked from the back. "She must be nearly home by now, if she's sticking to her routine."

"I know what I'm doing, Charlotte," Bayley replied patiently. "She's three cars ahead of us, and has no idea we're here."

"Alright. Just keep a close eye on her."

"Shut it," the third woman ordered harshly. "Focus on your job, and let Bayley focus on hers."

"Sorry, Ronda," Charlotte said. "I'm focused."

A few minutes later she felt the van taking a slow right turn, and guessed where they were. They had scouted Ms Lynch's routine enough times. Having a routine was a really bad idea when you also happened to have an idea that was worth millions of dollars, as the inventor was soon going to learn.

"We're on her street," Bayley said from the front. "Put your masks on and get ready."

Charlotte and Ronda each had a black ski mask to put on. Once they had done so, their eyes were the only things not covered in black. If anyone did happen to see what was about to happen, which was extremely unlikely at this late hour, there would be nothing to identify them. It was be hard enough to even make them out as women.

"As soon as we stop, you open the doors, I'll grab her and get her in here, you shut the doors," Ronda told Charlotte.

"Got it."

Becky lived in a perfectly ordinary two storey house, on a perfectly ordinary street. The BL-04 chip was her big breakthrough, and promised to change her circumstances for good, but for now she lived like countless millions of other people across the country. Pulling her car up to the curb outside her house, she stifled another yawn, looking forward to the prospect of getting into bed as soon as she could.

Tiredness certainly didn't help her reactions when she got out of the car. As she locked the door, a white van drove past her slowly, moving partially over to the other side of the street to avoid her. Even the quiet squeak from its brakes didn't alert her to the possibility that something might be wrong.

Only when she saw the doors fly open out of the corner of her eye did she notice the danger. It was already much too late by then. A figure clad all in black, including a ski mask, was charging towards her, with another standing at the back of the van.

The second it took her to process that these people were going to kidnap her was a precious second that she didn't have the luxury of wasting. She tried to get her legs moving to run away, but before she made it two paces a strong arm wrapped around her waist.

Becky attempted to scream for help but a latex gloved hand clamped tightly over her mouth, turning her cry into a stifled growl. Trying to struggle out of her attacker's grasp proved futile, and the kick that she did manage to get in on the other person's leg had no effect.

Within seconds she had been dragged backwards into the back of the van. Panic combined with the hand over her mouth, which was also half covering her nose, made it almost impossible for her to breathe. She attempted to scream again, but this time it was even less effective than before.

"Shut the fuck up," Ronda ordered Becky, forcing her down onto her front on the wooden sheets that constituted the van's bed, then planted a knee between her shoulder blades to keep her pinned down. Keeping her hand clamped tightly in place, she half turned to Charlotte. "Tie her up, quick. And make it secure."

Charlotte closed the rear doors and the van started moving, only seconds after it had stopped.

"Hmmmmph!" Becky screamed into the hand as she tried to writhe her way out from under her attacker, who, shockingly, was a woman. Lying on the floor with her head turned to one side, all she could see was the side of the van and the wooden floor. There were no clues as to who these people were.

Charlotte had several lengths of rope ready to secure their hostage. First, she wrenched Becky's hands behind her back, causing her to scream in pain, and tied her wrists tightly together, finishing with a type of knot that she knew would never come undone due to Becky struggling. In fact it would get tighter the more she fought against it.

Unable to resist against being tied up, and unable to effectively scream for help, Becky tried to move her mouth enough to bite the hand that was covering it. Her efforts proved partially successful, but all she really got was a mouthful of nasty tasting latex, followed by a hefty punch to the right side of her head.

"Bite me and I'll kick your teeth down your throat," the woman snarled in her ear. "Lie still and shut up, and you won't get hurt. If we wanted to hurt you, I'd have caved your head in by now."

"Nmm pmmph," Becky mumbled as she felt her ankles being tied together, the rope already biting cruelly into her skin through her socks. At least she had a long sleeved jacket on to prevent the same feeling in her wrists.

The realisation began to set in that she wasn't going to escape. It was incredibly unlikely that anyone had noticed her abduction taking place, and even if she could somehow get out from underneath the woman who was pinning her down, there was at least one more in the back of the van with her. Maybe it was better to keep herself safe by cooperating for now and see where these people were taking her and what they wanted, she thought.

"That's better," Ronda said, feeling Becky stop fighting her.

Charlotte lifted Becky's ankles, then wrenched her bound wrists up as close to them as she could, which made her cry in pain again. After some more quick work with a length of rope, Becky was secured in a hogtie that she couldn't hope to escape from.

"Good. Now gag her," Ronda ordered, shifting her weight off their captive and moving to the side to give her partner more room to work, but keeping her hand in place until her Charlotte was ready.

Charlotte had a sock and a white hand towel ready for the purpose. She rolled the sock up into a ball and held it near to Becky's mouth.

Having no intention of being gagged as well as tied up, Becky chose not to scream when the hand was removed from over her mouth. Instead she kept her lips closed as tightly as she could. Straining against her bonds, she realised that she was capable of virtually no movement at all. The pain in her shoulders was especially excrutiating.

"Really?" Ronda said impatiently, and pinched Becky's nose to stop her breathing through it.

Left with no choice, Becky had to open her mouth to breathe, even though she knew what would happen as soon as she did. Charlotte stuffed the rolled up sock into her mouth.

"Don't try and spit it out," Ronda warned her while Charlotte rolled the hand towel a couple of times on its width, making it the perfect size for a thick, effective gag.

"Mmppph!" Becky protested as the towel was forced between her teeth. It was then wrapped around her head and tied off just as tightly as the ropes were.

"Good," said the person who had tied her up. It was another woman!

"Now lie still, and stay quiet," the first voice told her, before issuing another order to her accomplice. "Get the blindfold on her."

"Nnmmm," Becky pleaded, biting down on the towel as hard as she could. It was no use. There was no way she would be able to chew through the gag, or work the sock past it to get it out of her mouth. These people knew what they were doing.

Another hand towel was quickly tied around her head, covering her eyes. Unable to see, move, or talk, Becky felt scared to death. The feeling of utter helplessness was like nothing she had ever felt before. Apart from the sound of the van's engine, silence had now descended. She knew the two women were still there though, and were willing to hurt her if she started struggling too much. Risking using her fingers to feel out the rope that was forcing her into the hogtie, she established that she couldn't find the knot, let alone untie it.

Breathing heavily through her nose, she moved on to trying to work on the gag. The cloth was tied so tightly between her teeth that the corners of her mouth rubbed painfully against it whenever she tried to move her lips. The sock in her mouth was already soaked through with her saliva, and drool began to leak down her chin. It felt so pathetic, and she was unable to do anything about it.

The only thing she might have been able to have any luck with was working the blindfold loose by rubbing her head on the floor, but she couldn't do that without being seen by her captors. In an attempt to relieve at least a small amount of the pain, she tried to work the rope around her wrists a little looser.

"Stop fucking struggling," she was ordered by the woman who had grabbed her off the street. "That's the last time I'm going to tell you without giving you a kicking."

Charlotte grinned across the van at the leader of the three woman team. The job had gone well so far, so much so that Ronda even smiled back at her, which was a real rarity. With their hostage blindfolded, they had been able to remove their ski masks. Lying on the floor between them was a million reasons to smile. In less than twenty four hours the million dollars they were going to exchange for Becky Lynch would be in their hands, which was in addition to the million they had been paid up front. With the payday being split equally between them, they were looking at collecting the best part of three quarters of a million dollars each. Not bad at all for a day's work. There hadn't even been much risk or difficulty involved.

Panic threatened to consume Becky, but she used all of the inner strength she could find to try and keep calm. The position she was in was terrifying and painful, but she hadn't actually been hurt by her abductors. The woman had told her she wouldn't be hurt if she stayed quiet and didn't struggle. She had to hope that meant they wanted her alive. That certainly seemed to make the most sense. If she had been abducted by men, she would have been afraid of being raped and murdered, but that seemed a lot less likely with women. No, it made more sense for this to be about the BL-04 chip. But why would they kidnap her? Surely it made more sense to break into the office and steal her research data if that was what they wanted? And who were these people anyway? Those were all questions she didn't have answers to.

For now, what she had to do was repeat the same mantra in her head: Stay calm. Breathe. Stay calm. Breathe.

These people wanted, needed, her alive. That was good. Right now she was helpless, but they weren't going to keep her like this. This was just while they transported her to wherever they were going. She hoped that once they got there, they would let her out of the bondage and take off the gag. If she was lucky, she might even somehow get a chance to escape.

Mile after mile seemed to drag by. The pain and discomfort increased with each passing minute, which also made her fear grow. None of her captors were saying anything or even moving around. She tried to listen to the sounds of the van's engine and notice any changes in direction in the vague hope that she might figure out where they were heading. It wasn't working.

To try and relieve some of the pain, she risked turning her head to the other side. Thankfully, she received no reaction, either verbal or physical. Maybe the two women had fallen asleep? Could she be that lucky? She risked a soft moan into the gag and bit down on it again, trying to grind it between her teeth. Still no one said or did anything. As pathetic as it was, she began to feel a little hope. Willing no one to see her, she strained against her bonds again as hard as she could, and was able to reach the rope around her ankles. Desperately, her fingers probed for the knot.

Then she froze. Something cold and hard had been pressed against her throat. It had to be a knife. The second voice she'd heard whispered a much more chilling threat in her ear than the one the other woman had made. "She said she'd give you beating if you carried on struggling. I'll just cut your fucking throat. All I need is for you to give me a reason."

That was too much for Becky, who passed out from the fear.

"I think she passed out," Ronda informed her partner with a hint of sarcasm.

"Well, she's still and quiet isn't she?" Charlotte shrugged.

"Good. We've still got a long way to go."