Desperate Search

Hey Ho, on this sunny Sunday I'm just updating chapter 10. They are still looking for Anne, where will she be? For better imagination I'm posting several maps on Tumblr and Pinterest. Ust have a look. My account name is Mexxi3003.

Chapter 10: Desperate search

Last time in chapter 9: Suddenly Aramis noticed a black shadow at the farthest edge of the English Garden. He switched to a closer camera, but the face of the figure never appeared completely. All he had were a few frames showing a side view of the face. And the setting sun made it even more difficult to recognize anything, or anyone. He opened an image processing program and ran the recording through it. Maybe that would yield the clue he had hoped for. He could barely wait the few moments the program needed. Finally the file was ready. He opened it.

Now that he was able to freeze the three-minute video sequence and zoom in, the shadow turned out to belong to three black-clad figures – men, based on their height, build and movements. He started the video again and noticed that the man on the right appeared to be carrying something over his shoulder. It was hard to make out, but Aramis was certain that it had to be Anne. Why else would they be sneaking through the garden, dressed in black and carrying something apparently heavy. Moreover, Aramis was absolutely certain that Anne was no longer at the chateau. He had searched every nook and cranny inside the chateau and in the gardens. No stone had been left unturned. So this burden, even though it was hardly recognizable as a human being, had to be Anne.

Finally, Aramis got lucky. In one of the last frames of the video, the man on the left turned around, so that Aramis could see his face. Immediately he paused the video again and zoomed in on the face. "That should work," he murmured to himself. He copied the face and entered it into a facial recognition program. As with the fingerprints, the software was connected to official databases. After a few minutes, which felt like an eternity to Aramis, a message appeared on the monitor. Match found.

Immediately, he clicked on the result and a personnel file opened. He sent the file to the server, closed the laptop and hurried out of the surveillance room, heading straight for the guard room. Only a few of his colleagues were still there, cleaning their equipment or talking quietly together in a corner. The others had apparently gone to bed or were on duty. Porthos and Athos sat at the large, round table in the middle of the room, surrounded by file folders, laptops and papers. Aramis went over to them and unceremoniously dropped his laptop on the table between them, not caring that it ended up half on top of the other two notebooks, disturbing his colleagues. "Aramis, what are you doing?" Porthos complained.

"I found something," Aramis said. Now Athos took notice as well. Aramis showed them the personnel file. "On the tape from the English Garden I found three hidden figures. One was carrying something over his shoulder, very hard to make out. One of them got his face caught on camera. Facial recognition identified him as one Antoine Masqué."

Athos and Porthos needed a few moments to process those news. "I went through all of the tapes." Porthos couldn't believe that he had missed something like that. In the current situation they all had to give 100%, if not more.

Aramis didn't want to show him up. "I just went through absolutely everything. This is from a camera that is almost never checked, let alone updated, since it only monitors a very small area at the outer edge of the English Garden. With the electric fence, normally no one would go there." That managed to improve Porthos' mood again.

Athos took a closer look at the personnel sheet. "I think we should visit that Masqué guy. It says here that he lives in Évry. Porthos, are you coming?" Porthos nodded and stood up. Here was his chance to make up for his lapse with the tapes. Aramis was already at the weapons locker, getting his equipment.

"Aramis, you stay here." Athos stopped him, as he got up as well and headed for the door.

"Hey, I found the lead and I'm not going to just sit around here!" Aramis' voice grew louder. He desperately wanted to be there when they found Anne. Without him, the two would still be groping around in the dark.

Athos went back to Aramis, signaling to Porthos to go ahead without him. "Aramis, I'm not sure if it's your heart or your head making the decisions right now, and we can't risk finding out the hard way. Moreover, Treville will be relieved if at least one of is remains at the chateau. D'Artagnan won't be here, he'll stay in Paris overnight. If you come with us, Treville would be the only team leader left here."

Aramis still felt unfairly treated, but on the other hand he understood Athos' arguments. "Okay, but if you find anything, let me know. Maybe I can support you from this end," he reluctantly agreed. Athos nodded and rested a compassionate hand on his friend's shoulder for a moment, before he followed Porthos to the garage.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

D'Artagnan had dropped Henry off near the Metro station and was now parked two streets away from the Red Guard headquarters. A commlink connected him to Henry. Hopefully no one would think to search the young man.

Henry had to go only three stops and was now only a few meters away from the dye factory. He had a sinking feeling in his stomach. The closer he got to the entrance gate, the slower his footsteps became. However, D'Artagnan and the others were counting on him and that gave him the courage to go on. As usual, there were guards at the gate. They scanned his card and let him through. It was already pretty late, most of the Guard members were probably at home or in one of the bars all over Paris. The mess hall would be the logical for whoever was still here.

The room was occupied by a couple of senior members and a few recruits, sitting at the tables, drinking beer. After too many brawls had broken out, hard alcohol was forbidden on the premises. Henry joined a group of newbies and pored himself a glass of beer. "Hello."

The others greeted him. "Henry, where have you been? Marcheaux has been looking for you."

That couldn't be good. Henry took a big gulp of his beer. "I was with the family. A few personal problems," he said, trying not to arouse suspicion. The others nodded, apparently believing his excuse.

"Good to have you back. There's a lot to do, but the old vultures have snatched up the juiciest tasks", one of them said.

Henry became interested. "Oh, what needs to be done?" D'Artagnan, listen in on everything from the car, perked up his ears as well. One of the men started to list the tasks. "The jeweler outside of paris needs to be robbed. He didn't pay the rent." At the word 'rent' he winked and Henry knew that in reality they were talking about protection money. "Then someone needs to beat up the butcher in the Rue de Gais, again. How I hate that job," another man continued "And then the rent has to be collected in the whole eastern sector. That's why only a handful of us are here right now. That's going to take a while. Even we are only still here because of the Gais job."

Henry nodded. So far, nothing out of the ordinary.

D'Artagnan was disappointed in the result so far as well and was just about to recall Henry. The young man didn't need to run into Marcheaux. Suddenly he could hear the scraping of chairs and a dark voice close to Henry said, "You can thank Bertrand. He blew it."

"What do you mean, he blew it?" Henry asked.

The owner of the dark voice had apparently sat down beside Henry. "Bertrand has screwed up with some big shot. A bishop or a baron, I don't know, they're all the same riff-raff. Anyway, the big shot had a lucrative offer."

Henry was dying to know more, but he didn't dare ask. Luckily, one of the other newbies did it for him. "What kind of offer? A murder?" The eyes of the other men began to shine. Henry couldn't understand how someone so young could be so eager to kill. He would never be able to kill someone, of that he was certain.

"No, you fool. You know we're not talking about murder," the older man with the dark voice scolded. "No, the job was to kidnap someone from Fontainebleau."

A murmur rippled through the group. Fontainebleau meant the chateau, so the king or someone close to him. That was really a lucrative job. Before Henry could learn anything else, Moreau appeared. "What are you talking about? They're newbies, lowest rung, flunkies. And what are *you* doing here?" Moreau looked at Henry suspiciously.

"Just checking in for my new assignment," Henry answered.

"Get out of there," D'Artagnan whispered in his ear via the commlink.

"Well, I have to get my stuff for the job. I'll be going then," Henry stammered. Cautiously, he squeezed past Moreau, who let him go and took a seat with the other men. Henry walked out of the mess hall and headed towards the barracks. Once he was sure that no one was following or watching him, he changed direction and hurried to the gate instead. This time the guard there was too distracted by a beautiful woman to notice Henry leaving. On the way to D'Artagnan's car, Henry's heart was still hammering wildly. When he got into the car, D'Artagnan was on the phone.

"Yes, Athos, they had an offer for an abduction from Fontainebleau, but apparently they didn't get the job," he said. Then he fell silent, listening to the voice on the other end of the line. "Okay, understood. See you." D'Artagnan ended the call and turned to Henry. "That was good work. You already helped us."

The young man was happy at the praise, but the next words put a damper on his good mood. "You'd better stay in Paris tonight and take care of that job with your friends. For your safety we don't want them to become suspicious."

Henry nodded and opened the car door again. D'Artagnan noticed that the young man was starting to panic. "Don't worry, I'll stay close," he promised. Somewhat reassured, Henry got out of the car. He was just past the intersection when he saw his friends coming out of the gate. "Henry, where have you been, man?"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The sun was just rising over the horizon, when Porthos and Athos were on their way to Masqué. Évry was a small town south of Paris and a little north of Fontainebleau. A lot of newcomers were changing the face of the town. Their suspect lived in the southwest, near the E15. The two men parked near the house and waited for the appropriate time to visit. They couldn't very well show up at half past six in the morning. In Fontainebleau maybe, but here in Évry several small gangs had their territories and it was better not to mess with them. Around nine o'clock they got out of the car and walked up to the door. After they had rung the bell for the second time, a blonde woman opened. She was shabbily dressed, her hair uncombed, and a bathrobe covered her pajamas. Apparently she had still been asleep.

"Madame, please excuse the disturbance. We would like to speak to Antoine Masqué." Porthos tried to be as polite as possible, but they were on the clock. With an abduction, the first 24 hours were crucial. The woman in front of them yawned and scratched her head. This is going to be fun, Athos thought. "Madame? Antoine Masqué?" he tried again.

"What do you want with my fiancé?" the woman asked snappishly.

Porthos quickly came up with a ruse. "City council. We have some personal and very urgent questions, that's why we came by in person."

"Well, you're out of luck, he has the early shift today."

That was not good news, although the man could just have used that as an excuse to his girlfriend. The early shift made for a good alibi.

"Is your fiancé working for the Red Guard? You know, these security guys in Paris?" Athos asked.

The woman shook her head. "No, no one around here is working for them."

That was good news for a change. "And do you or he happened to know the king?"

The woman gave him a confused look. "The king? What king?"

"Monsieur Louis of Fontainebleau. Millionaire, benefactor, real-estate mogul." Porthos threw a few descriptions into the discussion. Sometimes he liked to brag with the social status of his boss.

The woman rolled her eyes. "No, we don't hold with the likes of him. You can see what it's like around here."

She was right about that. It wasn't exactly a nice part of town. The garbage apparently hadn't been picked up in months, and the police didn't dare enter some of the blocks anymore either. The gangs had the town firmly in their grip and were making the most of it.

"Does your fiancé have financial trouble or why are you living here?" Athos asked. He didn't want to insult her based on where she lived, but financial problems stemming from gambling or stock market speculation often led honest men into committing crimes.

The woman seemed to find the question impertinent and refused to answer. However, sometimes silence was answer enough.

Athos tried one last question. "Does your fiancé have any other property? Or a place he goes to frequently?"

Apparently this question was deemed harmless enough for the woman to answer. "He's often in the Fôret de Senart."

Porthos nodded. He knew the forest, he had played there often as a child. They thanked the woman, apologized again for the disturbance and went back to the car. Athos fetched the laptop from the backseat and entered the information. A few seconds later, a map of the forest area opened on the screen. The satellite picture showed a lot of dense foliage and in between a few huts in more or less dilapidated condition. "A lot of possibilities," Athos remarked. Porthos nodded. "The infrared drone could help us. D'Artagnan should have it in the car, together with all the equipment for Henry's spy mission."

Athos nodded, already dialing his younger friend's number.

"D'Artagnan, leave your position. It's your choice if you want to pull off Henry or not, but we need the drone." Athos was never a man of many words.

"Athos, that's not possible. Henry can't get away and I can't leave him alone. What do you need the drone for?"

Porthos provided a little more information. "We just met the fiancée of one of the kidnappers, who was stupid enough to get his face caught on camera. He wasn't at home, but she said that he's often at the Fôret de Senart. The area is too big for just the two of us to search on foot, so we have to narrow it down."

Now D'Artagnan understood. "Okay, I'll be with you in an hour." The call ended and Athos and Porthos headed to the Fôret to start scouting around in the hopes of finding a few clues even without the drone.

Meanwhile, D'Artagnan told Henry to find an excuse to get away early. He didn't want to leave the young man behind, but he had to take the drone to the Fôret.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Constance was on her way to the guard room. She had to find one of the four bodyguards and that was the most likely place. If she didn't find anyone there, she'd have to go to Captain Treville. Luckily, in the guard room she found Aramis sitting dejectedly on a sofa, a rifle in his hands. "Aramis, I'm glad I found you."

He looked up, hoping to see Anne standing before him. His hearing was playing tricks on him now.

"Constance, what can I do for you?" He felt powerless and beside himself with worry, but he hadn't lost his charm.

"I keep trying to call Anne, but of course she's not picking up," Constance said.

Aramis nodded; he already knew that.

"I tried looking for her phone, but I couldn't find it. I mean, it's just a small chance, but if she has her phone with her…."

"….then we can locate it!" Aramis finished her sentence. With newfound confidence he got up and went over to one of the computers. It took only a few practiced keystrokes for a map to appear on the monitor, showing a large number of blue circles. "We'll have the location in a few seconds. I hope her battery isn't dead yet."

Constance kept her fingers crossed and prayed for their plan to work.

A small beep put an end to their waiting. Their prayers had been answered; the location of Anne's phone was displayed on the monitor. "So, where is it?" Constance asked. Aramis made a note of the coordinates, grabbed his jacket from the chair and headed for the garage. Constance followed him.

On the way to the cars Aramis asked, "Would it work, if I said it's too dangerous and you had better wait here?"

Constance shook her head. "No, no chance, I'm coming with you. I promise I will do everything you say, when we get there, but Anne may need me and four eyes are better than two anyway."

There was no arguing with a woman like that. Aramis and Constance quickly got into one of the Volvos, - the right kind of car for the muddy roads in the forest - , and headed for the coordinates of Anne's phone. As Aramis turned from the chateau's driveway onto the road, he called Athos.

"Athos, we managed to locate Anne's phone. It's somewhere in the Fôret de Senart."