Chapter 2

Earlier that day

A tall, bulky figure stood opposite the apothecary, watching a thirty-something man and a young girl interact with each other. The man grunted slightly before speaking in a low voice, seemingly to himself but in actuality in a hidden comm. "It's him, all right. And he's got himself a pretty little thing."

"Are you sure?" came the answer in his ear.

"'Course I'm sure. Watched him stepping out of that blue box of his. He looks different, though. Maybe plastic surgery or something. But he's still got that arrogant look on his face. Besides, don't know anyone else what has a blue box like that."

"So... what's happening then? I guess she's staying close to him."

"Actually, he went into a medshop. Guess he's feeling a little down."

"What's the girl doing?"

"Looking at some pretties," the man told his partner. "So, what do you think, Mlark? Want me to nap him when he gets out?"

There was a pause. "I have a better idea, Kelb. Nap the pretty thing. That'll get his attention."

Kelb shook his head. "I don't know..." he murmured. "What would we do with her?"

"Don't you think it would upset him if we took his tart away from him?"

Kelb huffed. "There's an empty-brainer. I mean, what do we do with her after we nap her?"

"We just keep her under lock and key. Keep her awhile and let him get all concerned and stuff. Then we spring on him that he can get her back for a price."

"And if he won't pay up?"

"He will. He'd never leave someone he cared about behind." Mlark paused. "And if he doesn't? Well... does she look like the type that would sell on the market?"

"Oh," he answered with what was obviously appreciation. "She's fit. I think we could probably get more out of her on the market than from Smyt."

"Well... maybe we'll do a double-cross on him. Would serve him right."

Kelb gave a short huff of a laugh. "You got that right. Okay. I'll nap her in a minute. Can you have the transport ready at the end of the alley?"

"You bet. Be there in less than five at the Byrk Street exit."

Kelb nodded at the answer but didn't reply. Instead, he slowly stepped out of the shadows and lowered the hood on his head, putting on a casual appearance as he sauntered towards the girl. A couple of feet away from her, he turned as if a particular item caught his attention and then slowly "perused" the selections before him, inching his way towards her before bumping into her. "Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't hurt you, did I?" he asked the girl, touching her shoulder.

Glad was surprised at the bump but not any more so than she would have in the market at home. "No. You didn't." She turned back to what she'd been looking at. It was a little carved music box. When opened, a toy that looked like a clown jumped up and down to the music.

"That's good," he answered with a grin. "You come here often?" he asked, reaching into his pocket.

"My first time," she said turning back to the friendly man.

"Me too. Looking for a present for my brother. I think I see one, though."

"What are you going to get him?"

Kelb looked around for a moment before smiling widely. "You," he told her bluntly. A second later, he covered her mouth with a cloth, wrapped an arm around her chest and dragged her back around the kiosk and into the crowd.

Glad didn't have a chance to scream. She dropped the music box and tried to struggle but whatever was in the cloth made her sleepy. Within seconds, she was limp.

"That's it, little girl. Nighty-night time," he told her as he drug her through the market towards the exit Mlark had indicated. Not a soul took issue at such a sight since it wasn't unusual for a person to need help leaving due to alcohol intoxication. As promised, the transport car was waiting for him. "Easiest snatch I ever did! Boy, is she thick! Probably doesn't have a suspicious bone in her body. She's going to be an easy sell."

Mlark laughed. "I'd love to see Smyt's face when he finds his precious pretty's gone."

"Got that right. It'll be priceless!" Kelb pulled her hair away from her face. "Hey, check this out."

"What's that thing?"

"Don't know. Nice stuff, though." He lifted the Eye of Horus pendant off her chest to get a better look. "Look at the way it shines. And I think that's gold around that jewel."

"Hmmm... This might be even more profitable than we thought. Take it off her. We'll sell it." Mlark looked at the necklace with interest as Kelb took it from Glad's body. "Not nearly as pretty off her neck as on it. Oh, well. Someone out there will buy it." He watched Kelb climb out of the transport. "I'll get this pretty back to the kennel, then. You better get our worth out of that necklace. I'll meet you back there."

"You got it." Kelb smiled, his teeth gleaming. It didn't take him long to find a buyer for the necklace, especially after he gave a sob story that it belonged to his grandmother and that they were forced to sell it in order to buy medication for her. With the money safely in his pocket, he made his way through the streets via public transportation requiring multiple transfers to a run-down visually non-descript building. The odor from the place, though, wasn't. It smelled of animals, captivity, and fear.

Kelb walked into the kennel, hitting his hand with a fan of krekkers. "10,000 krekkers. Not too bad, eh," he said to his brother.

Mlark grinned. "Not bad at all. Pretty is still out like a light. I put her in kennel two. Figured we better keep her nice and soft. She'll sell better that way."

"Yeah. You got any leads as to who's buying young girls now?"

"Big question is... who isn't?" he grinned broadly. "Besides, we took her across district lines. We clean her up nice and pretty, put her on the market..."

Even as he spoke, a low moan came from the kennel in question. "Oh, my head," the girl murmured, touching her forehead in an attempt to ease the pain.

"She's awake," Kelb said needlessly.

"Ya think?" Mlark commented with a roll of his eyes. He took a step towards the kennel, dropping down into a crouch. "Morning, sunshine. Or rather, evening."

Glad startled at the sound of the male voice in her ears, her eyes instantly open and searching. "Who are you?" she demanded. "Where am I?" She grimaced slightly as the smell of the place filled her nostril. "Ugh. Smells like an unwashed barn in here." She looked around again, desperation tinting her eyes. "Where's the Doctor?"

Kelb laughed. "Doctor? Never heard of him. Your Joniah Smyt, on the other hand, is probably running around Grecia District trying to find you, not that he'll succeed. As to where you are, you're with us."

"Who's Joniah Smyt? Where are we?"

"We're at our kennel. Nice one, eh. Hope you don't mind your accommodations. Looks like Mlark cleaned it up okay." He nodded to the long, concrete floored room. It was obviously used to keep animals, but a mattress had been thrown in.

Glad looked at the small area, noticing the steel bars and the mattress. "You put me in a cage? Why? Am I under arrest?" She swallowed, slowly standing. She again looked at Kelb, a frown on her face as she remembered what had happened. "I know you. You said you were getting a gift for your brother and then..." Fury edged into her eyes. "You abducted me!"

"Oh... she's a bright, ain't she," Kelb tossed over his shoulder to Mlark. He looked back at her. "Yeah. You must have missed me telling you that you were the gift. 'Course you'd been knocked out by then."

"She's brilliant," his brother replied sarcastically. "She's thick as mud pudding. She'll be easy to handle."

"You let me out of here!" Glad ordered. "You let me out of here now! Take me back!"

"Not a chance, missy. You're worth too much." Kelb turned to his brother. "What do you think? 750,000 krekkers?"

"Maybe more, depending on what's under all that cloth," Mlark answered.

"You're going to sell me?" she exclaimed. "You can't do that!"

"Course we can. Just find a buyer, get our krekkers and you're theirs"

"But that's... that's just... wrong! I'm a free person! I don't belong to anyone!"

"Right now, girlie... you belong to us," Mlark told her.

She folded her arms over her chest, trying to be brave considering the circumstances. "And who in bloody hell are you?"

"We're the bloody Flarng brothers, that's who," Kelb answered.

Mlark gave him a glare. "Shut your yap for a change, will ya? Bad enough you're pandering to this prat."

"Who are you calling a prat?" Glad retaliated, not knowing what a prat was but getting the distinct impression by Mlark's tone that the word was an insult.

"He's calling you a prat, prat." Kelb turned back to his brother. "So. What'll we do next? Huh? Send a randsom note?" He scrunched his forehead. "How much you think he'll pay for her release?"

"Anything we ask," Mlark told him, looking over Glad as if she were already undressed.

Glad frowned. "What's a randsom note?"

"It's ransom, not randsom," Mlark lectured both of them. He turned to Kelb. "You're as thick as she is!"

"I'm not thick!" she yelled at him.

Kelb shrugged. "Whatever." He rubbed at his stomach. "I could do with a bite. How about you?"

"I guess," Mlark answered, his eyes on Glad for a long moment before he turned away. Even as he did so, though, a metallic bang reached his ears, telling him that their prisoner had hit the bars of the cage and was shaking them.

"Let me out!" she demanded loudly. "Let me out now! When the Doctor gets hold of you, he's going to rip your head off!"

Kelb looked on as what seemed to him to be a crazed teenager went wild. "What the hell's the matter with her? We ain't hurt her none."

Mlark huffed. "Females are getting so disrespectful these days. Don't pay attention. Go grab your bite. I'll join you soon enough, once I teach this pretty some manners."

Kelb looked at his brother and noticed the gleam that he got in his eyes when he was angry. He had felt that anger aimed towards him and wondered exactly how she was going to be taught her manners. With a nervous, "Okay. Be back soon," he turned and left.

Glad gripped the bars of the kennel tightly as if just squeezing them would open the door. She watched with fury as the one known as Mlark turned towards the kennel.

"You're going to stop being a prat, you hear me?" he said with his most menacing voice. "And that starts with not yelling. You got that?"

She gasped slightly, taking a couple of steps away from the bars. She tried hard not to show how his voice frightened her. "Fine. I won't yell. I'll scream at the top of my lungs until the Doctor comes!"

He hit the bars hard. "No! No yelling, no screaming. Especially to no doctor. Just be a good little girl, you got that?" His lips turned up cruelly. "Won't be a girl much longer, though."

She took a shaky breath, her fear starting to show. "You don't scare me," she lied.

"I should," Mlark sneered. "Remember, I get to choose who we sell you too. I can choose someone that breaks a new girl in gently or one that throws her to the wopruts."

"The Doctor will stop you," she answered, her voice growing quiet. She raised her hands and tucked them under her chin. Frowning, she looked down and noticed her Eye of Horus pendant was missing. "Where's my necklace? Where's my necklace?!" she demanded, her voice rising again at the loss.

"You won't need that where you're going. They don't allow the skanks to keep any jewelry..." At her blank look, he finished, "...so since someone was going to sell it, Kelb and I figured it should be us."

"You what?" Tears started to form in her eyes. "But Merlin gave me that necklace! It's mine! You had no right!"

"Listen, girly. You need to understand the new reality you're living now. You have no rights. You're going to be sold and the only people with rights are going to be the ones that pay your master for your services. Got it?"

Glad swallowed tightly, forcibly straightening herself. "The Doctor will stop you. He'll rescue me. He's a Knight of the Round Table."

Mlark shrugged. "Whatever that is. I told you I don't know anything about no doctor. Why aren't you crying about Joniah Smyt? After all, he was the one that brought you here in that blue box. Doesn't matter, though. Neither of them's going to rescue you and if, by some chance they find you after we've sold you, I doubt either one of them will want you anymore."

It didn't take long for her to make the connection Mlark was giving her, that the man they called Joniah Smyt and the Doctor were the same person and she told him so before realizing the sexual implication he was making. "You think I... that he... He would never! He's chivalrous and noble! Unlike you! You're just a coward!"

"Yeah, well... this time the cowardly approach is the winning one. By the time he finds you..." His eyes turned harder, "...if he finds you, Kelb and I will be long gone having reclaimed the life your precious Doctor Smyt took away from us. We just want what's ours." He gave her a once over look again. "If you're the ticket to that and it hurts Smyt in the meantime, that's just the cherry on top of the sundae."

"Don't you hurt him!" she growled, banging on the bars again, the thought of her friend being harmed infuriating her.

Laughing without humor, Mlark answered, "Oh. He'll be hurt. That much I can guarantee you. We plan on making him feel the pain of your loss deeply." Mlark then turned and walked out of the room, turning the lights out as he did so and leaving Glad in utter darkness.

With the lights out, it seemed as if Glad's bravado went out with him. Lowering herself to the floor, she sobbed softly, feeling more helpless than she could ever remember feeling before.