It was early in the morning when Mike walked into his office. He couldn't stand being at home where he felt utterly helpless. At work he couldn't do much for Kate either but at least he could bury himself in paperwork. It kept him busy and his direct senior happy.
He was glad they kept him up to date with Kate's situation now he wasn't the one to keep in touch with the hostage takers anymore. Someone in Canberra was mailing back and forth with the Tovaluan government but it was going slow. Every time they came up with yet another demand which had to be fulfilled before they would release Kate. He knew he had to keep believing in it, but after every morning, hearing there was something else added to the ever growing list, he became more and more afraid they would only have to go there to pick up her body.
Mike had turned on his laptop almost without realising what he had done and now the sound of it made him realise where he was. On his desk was a new stack of folders for him to battle through. That alone would keep him busy for the rest of the day, but he knew for sure more work was coming his way. The troubles in Tovalu had fired up other riots in the region and all available ships were out there to make sure it didn't spread to Australia as well.
To cross one thing of his extensive to-do-list he opened his mailbox. It amazed him how many mails he received during the night, as if he had been the only one to sleep during that time. Some he could understand; there were the reports from the patrol boats which were sent after every shift. That was an everlasting flow of work but today his inbox was overflowing!
After sorting and shifting the work related mails from the junk he was left with just one mail he couldn't place. He knew he had seen the e-mail address before but he couldn't place it in his mind from where he knew it. It didn't have a subject either so that didn't help much. It could be a mean virus that would spread and destroy everything he had on his laptop as soon as he opened it, but that wouldn't explain why he knew the address.
Not knowing what was in the mail he finally clicked on it to open it. Expecting some sort of ad for something he didn't need in the first place he was shocked to see something totally different.
"Oh no. Oh God!" he exclaimed.
He physically distanced himself from his desk before he could look at it again. His heart raced and beats of sweat were forming on his back. This was something different from an ad, well maybe it would work as an ad for a horror movie.
In the mail was a picture of Kate. She was on the floor and looked straight into the lens of the camera. She was trying to get away from whoever was in the room with her, tears and fear in her eyes. He had never seen her this scared in his life. She was drained, exhausted, scared and there was nothing he could do for her. Mike couldn't look at it much longer and left his office to wash his face with cold water.
What had happened for someone to make a picture of such a vulnerable person? Had Kate done something wrong to aggravate them or had Canberra not done enough and was this a warning to hurry up? When he had received the short video with Kate in it she had looked tired and scared but she was still the strong woman and navy officer he had gotten to know over the years. What he had seen just a few minutes ago was a woman who didn't see a future anymore.
Mike looked at his own image in the mirror and shook his head. He had to go back and read what was written in the mail before he should draw conclusions. It scared him a bit to have to look at Kate like that longer than he wanted to, but he had to if he wanted her back as soon as possible. He had to find out what they wanted this time.
Back in his office Mike sat down in front of his laptop and made the picture appear again. This time he tried to look at Kate's surroundings. She was in a wooden building which was badly lit. The reflector stripes on Kate's uniform were the brightest parts in the picture since they reflected the flashlight from the camera. Behind Kate, in one of the corners was a hessian sack, stuffed with something and tied with a small rope. It looked like a makeshift pillow. There was no blanket or something that would go through for a mattress but Mike was pretty sure the bag was used as Kate's pillow.
"They make you sleep on the wooden floor," Mike whispered in disbelief.
In another corner of the picture there was a part of a bowl visible. He came as close to his laptop to see what it was before he noticed some rice in it. "Thank god they give you something to eat," he sighed.
The picture gave two different sides to the story. On one side there was a scared looking Kate but on the other hand they did feed her and possibly let her drink something as well. The only way to find out what was going on was to read the message which came along with the picture.
"You better hurry up with our demands or we'll have to put some consequences to your reluctance." Mike had to take a deep breath. He didn't want to think about consequences, he just wanted his Lieutenant Commander, and good friend, back. The only thing he could do was to forward the message and hope. Hope they weren't too late already.
