Warning: Mention of torture.
Chapter 7.
It was 4 pm and the seriousness of the situation was characterizing the lab. It was so quiet you could hear a needle drop. In fact Horatio couldn't ever remember it had ever been so quiet there. What at the moment bothered him the most was that they were not any closer to find their team members.
Just then the silence was broken by a scream of terror. The redhead startled as it was followed by Natalia screaming out, "No, no, no."
He at once knew the scream was hers and stormed to the DNA lab to see what was going on, only to see her falling apart in tears, her hand on her computer screen, and Valera's arm was around her shoulders, holding her tight.
"What is going on here?" Horatio asked, looking at them with over worried eyes.
"Calleigh…" said Valera, turning the screen so the redhead could see. The sight of her made him gasp; there she was trapped in a box, underground, crying and banging against the wall to get out. Her clothes were dirty and bloody, as was her face.
"This wasn't the worst part," Natalia whispered.
"What was?" asked Horatio, even more concerned.
"She was forced to a maze, Eric was controlling it, why I don't know, and then when she got out dropped down like a sack of potatoes and passed out. He raped her and then put her in the box. There is no feed of where she's buried," Natalia answered.
"Is there any way of telling if this is direct?" asked Horatio, looking at the screen.
"No, be quiet, she's saying something," said Natalia, turning up the sound as Ryan walked into the room. As they were listening she was telling them her messages.
"Horatio," Natalia whispered when she was done.
"We'll get her out, I promise, where did you get this?" he asked in a calm tone.
"My mail," she answered as the feed stopped.
"Let me check mine," said Horatio, logging on on the other computer in DNA, only to find he had gotten a video link as well, only his was from Eric's point of view. Filming him by the controls with a gun against his head, then him on the glass covered room. Then he got chained up for a while, before watching Calleigh and being strung up, listening to Calleigh's talking. Making him go even more insane. Horatio watched his ex-brother-in-law's hands and feet, they were bloody and the skin was open because he had dragged so much in the chains.
"Can he get out of them?" asked Valera shocked as the feed stopped.
"Not unless he tears his limbs off," said Horatio with a heavy sigh.
Just then a new mail arrived to Natalia's and Horatio's laptop. They both opened them and Horatio read, "This will be the last you ever see of your team members, by the time you'll ever reach them they will be dead. How does it feel to fail Lieutenant? To not be able to save the ones that you care about the most. Catch me if you can."
Natalia opened hers, clicking on another video link, seeing Calleigh in the glass box again, she seemed calmer now, but that was most likely from exhaustion over anything else. It was then she saw something else, ants, and more ants than she had ever seen walking towards the box.
"Horatio, they are going to surround the box, the fear will kill her," said Natalia, her eyes shining in terror and worry.
"What is making them go there in the first place," he said, seeing that Natalia was right. The ants were walking right towards the box surrounding it. Calleigh wasn't aware of it at first, but it only took her a couple of seconds to see it. They could hear her scream out in terror over and over, before she yelled for Natalia and Horatio then screamed out in terror again.
Tears were streaming from Natalia's eyes, her hand on the screen as she whispered, "Please fight them. Horatio there got to be a way to track them."
Ryan thought for a second before saying, "Maybe I can…Nat move aside."
Natalia moved aside and let Ryan have some room; he clicked around as fast as he could. In fact Natalia had never seen him work that fast before. He sighed saying, "I doubt I can track his IP address as well it seems to be bouncing all over the place."
"So what you are saying is that we are going to let them die, Horatio do something," Natalia demanded, looking at the redhead.
Horatio looked at her with helplessness in her eyes, for the first time in his life he had no solution to the problem at hand. He had no idea on how to track them down.
It was then Valera's soft voice broke through saying, "Can't we just go logical about this?"
"What do you mean?" asked Horatio, frowning at her.
"Well we know where he captured them, and I doubt he would go far, he would need a house or something, with sand or dirt around where he could dig down Calleigh's box and a basement to hold Eric. Now if we find a map or something over the buildings in the area that has that we might have a shoot," said Valera.
"You're…you're just brilliant you know that," said Natalia, kissing her cheek as Ryan went online to find what she had just described.
Horatio gave her an approving nod as he was wondering how many houses in Miami that had a basement or a bomb shelter when Ryan said, "We should also see for places that used a lot of electricity lately, as you would need that for the maze at least."
"Shouldn't we also check if anyone bought any massive chains lately," said Natalia thoughtfully.
"I seriously doubt that would lead anywhere considering people use them for S/M," Valera pointed out.
"You got such a dirty mind," said Natalia, shaking her head, watching over Ryan's shoulder as he tried to find the house they were looking for.
"Hey, I'm not the one doing it, I just have the knowledge," said Valera with a shrug.
"Like you never wanted to try," said Natalia, rolling her eyes.
"Ladies, can we please keep focus on trying to find Eric and Calleigh," said Horatio in a serious tone, not really in the mood of hearing who did what conversation.
The three younger CSI's used to two laptops in DNA to try to find houses that might hold their friends, knowing it might take forever if they didn't happen to be very lucky.
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