Chapter Three

Jacob looked at her sleeping figure and sighed happily. For someone so smart and so blessed, she didn't look as much either one lying strapped down to a bed, heavily sedated. He really hadn't planned on sedating her, but he also hadn't figured she would get so wound up, either. Once the reality of who he really was had set in, she became increasingly and surprisingly violent. Thank God he had managed to call for back-up or she might have managed to overtake him and escape. It was a large castle, but all he had to do was push a button to alert his two bodyguards and they would come to his aid in a heartbeat. Now, he just needed to check on his 'other' prisoner in the dungeon. With an enthusiastic wave to his unconscious half cousin, he exited her room and quickly ran down into the bowels of the castle.

"Well, hello, old man. Bet you can't tell why I'm in an incredibly good mood, can you? Oh wait; I bet you can," he taunted through the small barred window of the door.

Henry didn't look up at him, only continued to hang his head as he sat in his chair. "Congratulations. You kidnapped Bianca. You'd just better keep your promise and not hurt her."

"Henry, Henry, Henry," Jacob replied, sounding disappointed. "Now you know I told you I wouldn't harm her. However…"

"However what?" Henry asked, looking up at his captor.

"Well, she did become a bit rowdy, so my guards had to sedate her and keep her from causing harm to herself or others. You never warned me she was quite so temperamental."

Jacob's eyes twinkled as he watched Henry stand up so quickly that the chair toppled over. "Jacob Langley, I swear upon my last breath that you will pay for this!"

Jacob laughed. "Gramps, you were supposed to have had your last breath back in nineteen ninety six. Too bad you were only faking it."

"You truly are your mother's son, J.J.; cold and heartless and jealous to no end. I guess you wanna end up like her, too?"

Suddenly, Jacob grabbed the bars and shook them, his eyes wild. "Don't you dare talk about my mother like that! I lost her because of you and that dreadful granddaughter of yours! Keep talking and I'll inflict so much pain on her, she'll wish she were dead!" he screamed before spinning around and storming off. Too bad Gramps didn't know that Valeena was no longer in the castle, but tied up at Bianca's house. One last check of his sleepy cousin and he'd be off to torch the place she once called home. "Sorry, Valeena; your loss is my gain," he whispered to himself, feeling better already.

Balki exited the egg and looked around as they found themselves in the middle of a lovely park filled with people playing with their dogs, eating a picnic lunch and strolling along, hand-in-hand. "Wwoww," he breathed, taking it all in.

"Move along, keep moving, nothing to see here," Larry said to random people that walked by, staring at the egg-shaped machine that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"Cousin, surely Bianca isn't here. This place doesn't look like the spleen of a crime," Balki told him.

"Balki, Bianca's not being held captive here," Larry replied before turning to a nearby couple walking by. "Excuse me; we're looking for a place with the name Long Horn. Do you know where we could find it?"

Balki waited patiently while the man quickly replied, giving Larry as much information as he could before walking away. As soon as he was out of earshot, Balki leaned over to Larry. "Cousin, what did he say?"

Larry looked at Balki, a confused and slightly annoyed look on his face. "I have no idea what he said. I don't even know what language he was speaking!"

Balki nodded and saw a young lady holding an umbrella. "Excuse me, miss? We are looking for a place that go by the name Long Horn. I think it's where General Custard and his army were depleted."

"Balki, you're thinking of Little Bighorn. We're looking for somewhere called Long Horn," Larry hissed.

"I think there are a few Long Horn restaurants around London. There's also a shoe store, a haberdashery, a car park, a castle and a Laundromat," she told them, counting each one off on her fingers before walking off.

Larry groaned. "This is going to take forever! Balki, what are we going to do?"

Balki scratched his chin for a moment, thinking. He wasn't sure what a haberdashery was or even how to say it, but not one of those places sounded like somewhere for a man and his scary female hologram to hide.

Suddenly, he snapped his fingers. "Cousin, I've got it!"

"You know where they are?" Larry asked, hopeful.

"No, but I know who can help! We need to get out of London Bridge and go back to Bianca's house. If anyone can help us, it's R.O.B.!"

"Balki, you're a genius!"

Balki looked away sheepishly. "Well, I don't know about that."

"Come on!" Larry cried, pulling him back into the machine and punching in the information.

A minute later, they appeared across the street from a giant fire truck parked in front of a house.

Balki cupped his hands around his eyes to shield the sun's reflection from the Plexiglass and looked out. "If you wanted to fight fires, you could have just told me, Cousin."

"Balki, I don't want to fight fires! I wanted to go to Bianca's house so we could see-oh my Lord! Balki; that is-I mean was Bianca's house!"

Balki scrunched up his face and choked back a sob. "There was a gas leak, Cousin. She must have really bad karma chameleon! She-"

"The house is a total loss, but thankfully, no one was inside. Damn arsonists," one of the firemen said before getting back on the truck.

"Balki! Bianca wasn't inside, but someone intentionally burned her house to the ground. Either they were hoping she was there, or they burned the house down to get rid of evidence."

Balki hiccupped. "I'll miss that self-flushing toilet and its blue water. I'll miss her multilingual microwave. I'll miss R.O.B. and Wakamaru!"

Larry looked at Balki, his look of shock and horror mirroring one another. "R.O.B.!" they cried in unison.

Bianca tried to mentally push her way through the fog in her brain. She needed to open her eyes, if only for a minute. Surely, she was just having a nightmare and she would be back at either her house or Larry and Balki's apartment. "Larry," she whispered, her mouth dry and her tongue heavy. Where was Larry? Did he really come back to the apartment or had that been a dream, as well? He had told her so much information that it was hard to process. Her grandfather had been blackmailed? Something about a murder and cover-up? And what did he try and tell her just before Balki cried out? "Larry, I need to know…" she tried to speak. "Balki."

Open your eyes, Bianca! she scolded herself as she tried as hard as she could. When she finally did, everything was a big grey blur. Where was she? Was anyone there with her? Why did she feel as if she had morphed into a rock? "Balki, where are you?" she asked, gazing around the room to look for any other color that looked like a human.

Suddenly, she heard a loud banging noise and she managed to let out a small whimper that sounded like "help".

"We brought your food," a gruff-sounding man growled as he set down a blurred mess to her right. Bianca tried to speak again, but her voice was subdued by the loud banging noise. If only someone could help her figure out what had happened after Larry told her about her grandfather. She remembered Balki screaming and something about Valeena…Valeena!

"Valeena, are you okay? Who shot you?" she mumbled, trying to sit up from whatever she was lying on. "Are you with Balki?"

When she heard nothing but deafening silence, she let a cry escape her throat. Why was this happening to her? For the first time since she was eleven, she wished her grandfather was there with her. He'd know what was going on.

"B, I'm right here. You can't see me, but I'm closer than you think. Just hang on tight because ol' Henry's got a plan to save you," a voice spoke to her inside her brain.

"Grandfather? Is that you?" she asked, finally able to sit up for a second before the weight of the air pulled her back down. "Please save me."