Part X
The Hall of Presidents. Bethany had wanted to visit that. Glancing back at it from the bench she was on in Liberty Square, she noted the next show time. If she hadn't spotted Murdock by then, she'd forget her crazy ideas and go inside for the show.
There were just eight more minutes to go when she finally saw the lanky man. Bethany had very nearly missed him, but when she did get a good look, she took a deep breath. The kids were missing and the nasty man that had given her the bad vibes was right behind Murdock. In fact, he seemed totally surrounded by big guys with another in front of him and others to either side.
Murdock's expression was far from that sheepish half-smile he'd given her earlier. The man that called himself Hannibal used the title Captain when he spoke of Murdock. At the time, giving the man she'd seen a military title seemed silly, but the way he was walking at that minute? In fact, his whole posture practically screamed military now. The way those men were surrounding him gave her the uncomfortable feeling of watching someone being marched to a firing squad.
Again doing without thinking it over, Bethany got up and began following the small group. She didn't have to follow too closely to keep them in sight. It was taking a lot of walking, but thankfully the men weren't rushing. When their destination became obvious, she stopped following and caught her breath. Heading back toward Main Street, she decided she'd catch a lift on one of the buses that would take her back to Cinderella's castle. She could only hope she could find the group again.
On the island, the other three team members had met back at their rendezvous point. It was Face that had come back with news. He had talked to one of the park employees saying that he was looking for his brother. The man remembered Murdock's distinctive jacket and the big guys with him. They'd all boarded the riverboat. He didn't remember noticing any kids with that group though.
B.A. was seeing red by this point. Messing with kids was the lowest of the low in his book not to mention not wanting to go back to Annie with the news that Dawn was missing and no longer with Murdock.
Hannibal headed them back to rafts. It was a less roundabout way across than the riverboat ride. If the kids weren't with Murdock, he must have hidden them somewhere. He couldn't come up with any scenario that didn't involve danger to the kids that would cause Murdock to do that.
"Come on, men - let's not waste any more time picking up the trail. Whatever Murdock's come across, it's serious."
Speaking of Murdock, he was being taken into the the A-shaped resort hotel that had the monorail going through it. Under other circumstances, he'd have really enjoyed looking around. But the men weren't just taking him inside, but to the Presidential Suite. Seemed odd to him that the President would want a suite down here when he had the whole White House back in Washington, D.C.
The man inside the suite was certainly not the President. He was, however, livid and immediately began yelling at Baby Huey in Japanese. A lot of what was being said was pretty incriminating, which puzzled Murdock until it occurred to him that these people didn't have a clue that he could understand Japanese. He wanted to keep them ignorant of that little fact, so he needed to adopt some sort of look to help him mask that he knew what was being said.
He thought about using the look B.A. tended to give him when he was calling him a fool, but dismissed that as too angry of an expression. He finally decided to go with the expression Face tended to get if a woman turned him down. Puzzled and trying to figure out what could possibly be going on. Yes - that would be the perfect one.
It was just as well that he'd already decided that. It kept him from reacting to the order to secure him. Two of the guys grabbed hold of him, forcing him into one of the chairs and tying his hands behind. Murdock couldn't help but notice from the clumsy way that the knots were being done that these guys certainly had never been scouts. Not that he was about to give them pointers on how to do them better, of course.
~This could work out for us after we find the boy. After all, someone will need to be framed for the boy's kidnapping. It may as well be the interfering American and he will be killed during the rescue. Yes, that should work well.~
Murdock winced as the rope around his wrists was given an extra tug. Whatever they did or didn't know about knots, they sure did manage to get them tight. Too tight. This was going to be tricky. Especially if they didn't leave him alone.