Chapter 3

Seto Kaiba woke up on the soft couch in one of many living rooms in his mansion. His mind was foggy from the return to consciousness. It was sharp though and his memory soon returned with only one thought 'find Mokuba'.

"Rowland, ROWLAND" Kaiba called as he stood up from the couch and started to make his way towards the door. The bodyguard entered the room.

"Sir..."

"Have you found Mokuba, you better have started looking? Have the kidnapers made contact again? Have you traced them?" The CEO continued to rant off questions until Rowland interrupted him.

"No, we have not found Mokuba. We have started a sweep and contacted people to see if they have seen him; the police have also been notified and are beginning to help, though we don't expect much. Were doing a systematic sweep for witnesses, but haven't got anything so far." He led the young brunette to the room that he and his team had turned into their base of operations. "We traced the first call but it lead to a public pay phone, and we checked the area and asked if people had seen someone calling but got nothing. Mokuba could still be anywhere. The captors haven't contacted again…yet."

Seto's sense of dread had grown with every piece of bad news his right hand man had given him. Pinching the bridge of his nose in the doorway to the control room, he suppressed his instinct to cry hysterically, putting on his normal ice cold mask.

"So what you are saying is that we have no idea where Mokuba is, when he was kidnapped or who has him." Rowland remained tactfully silent. "Right, keep up the search for witnesses, when they contact us again trace the call and get voice recognition and back ground noise check. The next time they call I want to talk to them myself; no one kidnaps my brother and gets away with it." Seto was vaguely aware that his threat was not especially witty or intelligent, but he was too worried to think much about it.

"Yes sir" Rowland replied, walking over to his team of men that were monitoring the computers, and telling them the new orders, checking to see if there was any progress. Seto sat down, his emotionless mask giving no outward signs of the inner turmoil that was raging within him. 'Be safe Mokuba, please be safe. Please…" anyone who had meet the young CEO briefly would never have imagined him saying please or begging like a lost child. Those who knew him well however would not be surprised by his internal thoughts. The brunette did care greatly for the people that were close to him, and no one was closer to the elder Kaiba than his baby brother.

"Sir" Rowland was distracted, taking his attention off the tracing equipment he was monitoring, as one of his men came and addressed him speaking in a low voice. Getting up, Rowland approached the poker face brunette sitting in the corner of the room.

"Kaiba sir, we have found some witnesses to Mokuba's kidnapping." Seto was immediately interested. "The witness was the owner of a small café; she said she was closing up when a large van drove past. She thought nothing of it, until she heard a cry for help. Looking form her upstairs window she said she saw a small struggle. One of the people she saw being put in the van was a young child with long dark hair." Seto's heart dropped at what he imagined poor Mokuba had to go through. He looked away from Rowland, contemplating the news. The bodyguard looked at the young CEO, he had known the Kaiba brothers since their child hood and felt a strong connection to the boys. The news of Mokuba's kidnapping was devastating to him but Rowland was a professional so he didn't show his concerns. Instead he reported everything he knew to the brunette.

"Sir, the witness also said that she saw two other people put in the van with Mokuba." Seto retuned his attention to the bodyguard.

"What, why?"

"Well apparently they had come when Mokuba had called for help. She didn't get a good look at them but one looked about the same age as Mokuba, judging by the height she described, while the other was older and had blonde hair."

"So now they not only have Mokuba but two other people, this is bad. There'll be more publicity if media find out more people have gone missing. That could hinder our investigation if the tabloid begin to print every discovery we make." Closing his eyes for a moment, Seto settled into silent thought.

Rowland thought this to be a good time to continue. "The van headed south sir, into Dominos more rundown district. If I may, I think this to be a ploy from one of your business partners. They probably employed people so that they were hard to trace, it's not likely just anyone would risk getting caught by you without any outside motivation."

Seto had thought of this possibility but hearing it from Rowland caused the suspicion he had to grow

"I thought of that too, get tabs on any my main business competitors and inspect anyone I have made sufficiently angry in the past 6 months. I want a thorough sweep and inspection. Look at their finances, hack into their contacts if you must, I want a lead on who ordered Mokuba's kidnapping and I want it yesterday, understand?" His voice had not risen but anyone with a brain could feel the increase in raw anger that was coming from the CEO. "It doesn't help us find Mokuba now though; they could have still taken him anywhere. Heading south and then circling back around."

"I understand sir, and will get people to begin investigating likely business suspects. But I do find it highly unlikely that the culprits circled back around." Seto looked up from his position sitting in the chair, raising an eyebrow questionably at the man before him. Silently asking why he found need to doubt his explanation. "From what we can tell the culprits weren't expecting anyone to come to Mokuba's rescue and were forced to kidnap them too. It is also likely then, that they weren't expecting anyone to see what they were doing. So they most likely took the most direct route to wherever they're holding them, in case anyone else came to inspect when they heard the fight." Rowland concluded.

Seto paused for a moment, blinked once and then nodded. "Yes that sounds logical. It narrows down the search, but there's still a lot of ground to cover." Pinching the bridge of his nose again, Seto returned to thought.

As he and Rowland had been talking, the rest of the men had been going about their business. Working as hard as they possible could despite the lake of leads. Another half an hour passed in this manner with people looking at computer screens, calling contacts and giving reports to Rowland on a regular basis. No one talked to Seto, as he remained silent in his personal corner of the room, settling further into his chair. Staring with a harsh glare at the phone he had ordered to be placed on the opposite table in his sight. He continued to glare daggers, his frown deepening as the stress lines began to show on his forehead and around his eyes.

RING, RING…RING, RING…

All heads turned to the phone.

RING, RING…RING, RING…

Seto turned to Rowland, who was holding an earpiece that was connected to the phone. Seeing Seto's questioning glance, he checked everything was ready and nodded once. At Rowland's signal that everything was ready Seto reached towards the phone. Picking it up, he looked as calm and composed as ever, only he could feel the sweat running down the back of his neck and the small trembling of his body.

"Hello, who is this?" His voice was level, but his palms grew sweaty and his grip on the receiver tightened as he awaited an answer. Rowland and his team were listening closely, already tracking form where the phone call was coming from.

"Hello Kaiba, I think you've been expecting me." The voice was smooth, there was no accent, but it had a sharp edge to it, promising danger if the speakers temper was pushed too far. "I'm the one that is currently looking after your little brother, Mokuba." At the sound of his brothers' name, Seto jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed to slits. Such an obvious show of anger on the normally expressionless CEO scared some of the toughest men in the room. If looks could kill they would have heard the sound of the man on the other end of the phone drop dead.

"Why you!" Seto hand began to visibly shake, Rowland was slightly afraid the phone would break. Looking to his men, he checked to see if they had traced the call yet, a small shake, and a turning of a hand indicated they needed a little more time.

"Now, now, calm down Kaiba. We wouldn't want anything to happen to the little squirt now would we?" The voice continued, un-phased by Kaiba's outburst.

"If you hurt him, I swear…"

"Don't worry he's not hurt, well…not yet. But I can't say the same for his blonde friend. The boy really shouldn't have pissed off Vince like he did, and well…Vince got a little carried away. The girls all right for the moment too, but if you want your brother and his friends back safely I suggest you listen to my demands. My Boss was very specific on what he wanted."

The mention of one of the other captives getting hurt worried Seto. What worried him more though is that he had called them his friends. This meant they knew Mokuba and if they knew Mokuba then he would know them, or know of them. Things were just getting worse.

Rowland saw a man give the thumbs up, and call one of the operatives in the area near where the phone call was made. The nearest person was still a couple of miles away, so they still needed more time.

"How do I know if you've got Mokuba, you could be lying through your teeth?" Seto refused to voice the possibility that Mokuba could already be dead. Doing that would make the suspicion true.

"Fine, you want proof, I'll let you talk to him but remember one wrong word and the kid gets hurt." The smoothness in the voice had gone, turning into a hiss of suppressed rage at Kaiba's doubts. There was a distance "hay Greg, get the kid, his bro wants to talk." A pause, "I know the Boss said not to let them but what else am I going to do, just make sure to warn the kid properly about saying anything he shouldn't" a small scuffle followed. Then Seto heard the best thing he had all day, he heard his brothers voice.

"Seto. Seto. Seto." Mokuba was sniffling like he had been crying recently. His voice breaking slightly in happiness at being able to talk to his older brother.

"Mokuba! Mokuba are you alright? What happened? Where are you?" Seto had abandoned all hope of keeping his emotions under control. Seeing the ice prince mask slip, the other men could see just how much Mokuba meant to his brother. The CEO probably couldn't cope if Mokuba were to die. Rowland made a silent vow to get Mokuba back, whatever it took.

"I'm fine Seto, I don't know where I am. It so good to talk to you, please get us out of here." A distant "not likely kid" made Seto's blood boil. "They were going to hurt me but Joey took the beating instead." Mokuba continued.

"Wait, Wheeler? What's Wheeler doing there?" Kaiba was generally confused and now even more worried, if that was possible. 'Why is Wheeler there, and what does he mean take a beating? What if he gets hurt to bad, what if he gets killed? Oh god no. He can't get killed. What will I tell his friends, what will they do? What will I do?

"Seto, Seto, SETO."

"Yes Mokuba, I'm still here. Why is Wheeler there anyway, is there anyone else with you?"

"When I called for help Joey came, but they caught Serenity and threatened to harm her. So Joey stopped fighting. They knocked him out and tied Serenity and me up so now we're all here. You've got to find us; you've got to get Serenity and Joey out. Please, please, please." Mokuba's voice had dropped to a whisper as he pleaded for his friends rescue. Kaiba felt a sudden surge of pride for his little brother. He was stuck in some strange place, suffering bad treatment, with dangerous men and he was still thinking of his friends' safety first.

"I'll try Mokuba, I'll try." He was going to continue, but his brother was no longer at the phone.

"Well Kaiba you've got your proof that your brother here. Now listen closely I'm going to call again with demands from my Boss, ok"

"What do you want?" The rage in Seto rising again "money, royalties, property what do you want? I'll give it to you." He would do anything for his little brother and even help the Mutt. Despite insulting Joey he did not hate him and he did not wish to see the other teen harmed.

"Now, now Kaiba. Don't get ahead of yourself; my Boss has bigger ambitions than that. I'll call you later with his first demand, and how he is going to contact you. So just be patient. Talk to you later Kaiba"

"What do you…" the phone went dead. Rowland looked to his men, he shook his head. Damn they hadn't made it. There contact was still a mile away.

"Tell him to keep heading to the place. He'll probably find another pay phone, tell him to search the area as best he can, and get a team down there straight away." Rowland ordered his men. With their orders given they moved to carry them out as quickly as possible. They were after all the best of the best.

Kaiba stared at the dead phone for a minute, before placing it back down. Turning to his team he too began to give orders.

"See if you can get voice recognition or any giveaway background noise. Check for tyre prints. If they used a payphone they will need to make a quick getaway, they'll probably leave prints. Check for shoe prints as well, witnesses too. I want everything." People moved even faster to carry out his demands. Seto paused to compose himself, his poker face returning and hiding his emotions once again. He walked over to a computer screen and began to listen to the recording over again. Looking for anything that might help find his brother.

Greg tied up the kid once again, put him in the van and got behind the wheel. His Boss made a quick call to tell his Boss that he had contacted Kaiba before getting in the other side of the van. Nodding once, Greg started the engine and began driving back to the warehouse. In the back, Mokuba once again began to cry, his brothers' voice echoing in his mind.