Yuri's Office
Yuri sat down at his desk, eager to get Clay's photo online. The most he had ever gotten for someone was $20 grand. With Clay though, he expected to get at least $100 grand. He uploaded the photo to the dark web and started the bidding at $25 grand. He then decided to leave the bidding open for only 48 hours, rather than his usual 72. The quicker he could get him off the mountain the better, but he also didn't want to move too quick. Afraid that if he cut the bidding off too soon, he wouldn't make as much money.
Command Center's Location
Mandy came hauling ass into the control room after an intense interrogation with Andrei. "I've got something." She said eagerly as she pulled up a website on one of the open laptops.
"What is it?" Lisa asked.
"Andrei showed me where Yuri upload's the photos for his customers to bid. Said if he has our boy, it's only a matter of time until they upload his info." Mandy said as she quickly maneuvered her way through the dark web, searching for Clay.
Their hearts broke seeing how many people were actually listed for sale. They ranged from newborn babies who had been born into the life, all the way up to people presumed to be in their twenties and possibly early thirties.
"There are so many!" Lisa gasped, as Mandy continued searching for Clay. She made it through every page and profile looking for him, but Clay was nowhere to be found.
"Maybe they just haven't had time to upload him yet." Lisa suggested.
"It has only been a few hours since they've taken him. Just keep refreshing it. He has to pop up on there eventually." Blackburn instructed.
"How about the second location. Did you manage to get him to talk about that?" Lisa asked.
"Yeah. He said he knew about the location, but would only talk if we could make him a better deal. I told my boss. It's in his hands now." Mandy sighed out of frustration. "He's playing 'let's make a deal' with us."
"The only kind of deal that guy's getting is one that lands him in a prison cell the rest of his life." Mandy mumbled. "I'll make sure of that."
Bravo's Location
As Jason and the guys fought for control of the village, it became clear to them that they weren't getting out of here as quick as they had planned. It took a grand total 102 minutes for them to take down anyone who stood in their way. A lot longer than their initial 30-minute plan.
As they did so, they noticed how many people were being held prisoner there. There were literally people everywhere of every shape, size and color. Some older, some younger. Some healthy and others looking like they had been put through a ringer.
Their hearts sank. Not only for these people, but for Clay. Where ever they were keeping him, chances are, he was in a similar situation.
They couldn't just leave these people here, but they also couldn't take them with them to find Clay. The mountain was dangerous enough for them, and they were extremely experienced. These people though, they probably never did anything remotely close to trekking their way through a mountain.
All in all, there were about 77 people. Jason had called into Blackburn and sent pictures of each and every person while they waited for help to arrive. While waiting, Lisa went through each picture that was sent and matched them up with pictures on the site Mandy had showed them, meanwhile Mandy was still keeping an eye on the site, waiting for Clay's photo to pop up.
Command Center Location
"Alright Blackburn. I've managed to match all 77 photos Jason and guys sent over with photos online. 28 people are still unaccounted for." She trailed off.
"28? That's a lot of people still." Eric replied.
"That's not all. The ones that seem to be unaccounted for… they all have higher prices on their heads. They have to be at the second locat-" Davis was saying before she was cut off.
"I've got him!" Mandy shouted from her seat. "It's not good!"
Eric and Lisa quickly ran over to Mandy and stared at the computer screen. The first thing they noticed were the cuts and bruises on his face and arms.
"You think they did that to him?" Lisa asked, almost not wanting to know the answer.
"I doubt it. Probably happened during the fall." Eric answered.
Next, they noticed the details surrounding the photo. Starting bid: $25k, biding window: 48 hours. That meant they had 48 hours to get to the location and get their kid back.
"Mandy, keep an eye on it. If anything changes, let us know immediately." Blackburn ordered as he radioed into Jason.
Bravo's Location.
"Bravo one, this is havoc. Be advised we have new information. Bravo six has been uploaded to the bidding website. Time frame is only 48 hours." Eric stated.
"48 hours!? It's gonna take us almost that long just to get over there!" Jason stated.
"I suggest you get a move on it then. Back up to assist with the freed prisoners will be there any moment now. They'll be ok until they get there. Just move quick, but be careful!" Blackburn's voice sounded urgent which didn't help settle anybody's nerves.
"Only people taking pretty boy home is us! Now let's go him!" Sonny declared as he started making his way towards the new location.
Clay's Location: Time in Isolation: Unkown
Clay woke up with no sense of time. When he fell asleep, it was pitch black. When he woke up, it was pitch black. Was he asleep for a half hour? Was he asleep for 8 hours? He had no idea and there was no way to tell. It was extremely frustrating. It was at that moment that he realized that this was far worse than anything SERE could have prepared him for. He had no idea how long he was here, or how much longer he would be, but he could already tell he was starting to lose his mind.
As time continued to pass, he became more and more paranoid. He had completely convinced himself that no one would be looking for him and that he was either going to be stuck in here forever or until he was sold.
With nothing else to do and feeling completely out of touch with everything, Clay broke down and started to cry.
He wasn't even sure what he was crying about. Boredom? Being abandoned? Pain? Hunger? He had no idea, but he couldn't seem to make himself stop. The only thing he knew was that he was completely losing control of all of his emotions.
The crying had drained everything out of him. So much so that he literally cried himself to sleep even though he was sure he had only been awake for an hour or so.
Yuri's Office
Yuri stayed hunkered down in his office just keeping an eye on his computer screen. He has now had Clay in his possession for almost 20 hours. The bids on him took off immediately. Far quicker than Yuri had expected. In fact, he hit $100k around hour 17. This was going way better than he could have hoped for. If he was already at $100k at hour 17, he could only imagine how high the bids would be at hour 48.
He had thought about sending someone in to Clay's isolation cell with crackers and water. The guy had to be hungry and he had to try to keep him looking like he was still in great shape, but then he remembered how disrespectful Clay was to him when he was first brought in and thought about making him wait a few more hours.
By then the sensory deprivation should be kicking it up a notch and he might be able to get Clay to talk, or at least get him to tell him his name. Plus, the small amount of light that will enter the cell when he opens the door will be completely overwhelming. Decision was made. He was going to make him wait.
Command Center Location
Blackburn had left the room to get a few hours of sleep. He hated doing it, but none of them would be any good to Bravo or Clay without doing it.
After getting two hours of sleep, he walked back into the command room. "Any updates?"
"Nothing good. The bids are up to $116k and are showing no signs of slowing down." Mandy voiced in frustration. They had tried to find a way to shut the site down, but whatever they were using was making that next to impossible.
It could be shut down with time, but time wasn't on their side. It had been 27 since Clay was taken, leaving only 21 hours left before the bidding ended and Clay was potentially gone forever.
"What about Jason and the guys? They doing ok?" Blackburn asked after hearing the news about the bids.
"So far so good. They had a few tricky obstacles that needed to be maneuvered, but they managed to get through them with minimal delays. It's gonna be close, but if they can keep up this pace, they should be able to make it there before the 48 hours are up." Davis explained.
