Only borrowing them Janet, only for a little while

Missing

Stephanie drove to her hotel. Her thoughts were on Ranger. They had both made some very telling admissions of their feelings for each other. Time would tell if they wanted to take it to another phase.

She pulled into her parking spot at the hotel. It was very late at night. She prepared to leave her car. Suddenly, the door was wrenched open. Stephanie had only a moment to scream. A man reached in and put a cloth over her face. She struggled for a minute then sagged. He pushed her over to the passenger side and climbed in. He started the car and headed out of the parking lot.

Stephanie woke with a blinding headache. Her hands and her feet were bound. She was laying on a mattress in a dark room. Trying to clear the cobwebs from her brain, she began to process her surroundings. She couldn't remember anything except that she had obviously been kidnapped. Boy, after getting out of the Bounty Hunter game, this was a complete surprise. Her spidey sense had dulled in the time she had been away.

She heard noises outside the door. Listening carefully, she started to process little things. They were near a train track; she could hear a train whistle. It appeared that the room she was in was small, not really a bedroom. There were shelves along the wall filled with jars. It was very cool in there, and she wondered if it was a cold room in an older home.

Her thoughts turned to Ranger. If they had been home, she was sure that Rangeman would have noticed her absence by now. She had removed all the trackers when she had left so many months ago and was relatively sure that they had not been replaced. It looked like she was on her own here.

Some time later, the door opened. The only light was from the other room. No light switches were turned on. A man came into the room. He was middle aged. He was tall and had a lean build. He was balding and carried himself arrogantly. He came over to her, being careful to stay away from her.

Her mouth took over by itself. "Let me go, asshole. If I get near you, you are in for a world of hurt." He laughed. "I am looking forward to getting to know you. I like feisty." With that, he put down the plastic tray of food in his hand and left the room. The door closed and locked. Stephanie sagged.

Ranger sat in his hotel room. He had phoned her hotel room. He had phoned her cell phone. He had a bad feeling. Taking into account for the drive back, and her sometime stops for food on the way, she was late, very late.

He picked up his phone. Swiftly he made two calls. Ram picked up. Swiftly explaining the situation, he said they were on it and would head for the hotel. They would call him back. The next call was more difficult. Tank answered. It was 0200 and even he sometimes slept. Ranger quickly explained what he suspected. Tank was already up. Ranger could hear the rustle of clothes. He promised to get back to him as soon as he could.

Ram called him first. Stephanie's car was not in the lot. The night attendant had not seen a person matching her description come into the hotel. In fact, he said nobody had come in.

Ram asked him for a list of the vehicle license plates for registered guests. He was being difficult. Ram produced his gun and he suddenly became more helpful. He handed the printed list to Ram. Ram walked out the door. The night clerk wondered if he should call the police or stay out of it. He went back to his ebook.

Dividing up the list Ram and Woody started to check cars. Finally, they came to a number not on the list. Walking around it carefully, they noticed on the floor some torn up cloth and a strange looking bottle. Woody made short work of the lock and they were in. Using gloves, they picked up the bottle. Yup. Chloroform . They phoned Ranger.

Meanwhile, Tank was at Rangeman. He brought up the tracker information. That little tracker that Tank had slipped into Stephanie's handbag was active. It was a new model and guaranteed longer reception. This was the first time it had been used. They had a very faint ping. It was on the very edge of all their equipment. They could not get an exact location, but it would be close.

Relaying the information to Ranger, Tank looked out the door. Greco, a new hire was on monitors with Cal. Tank told Cal to get Bobby and Lester up to his office. He was on the phone to Boston. They were still in possession of the plane. They had been ferrying a high dollar FTA back and the plane was still at the airport. It was supposed to fly back tomorrow. He told them to get it ready for a Bomber rescue. He told them to dress appropriately. He would call back with more details.

By now, Les and Bobby were in the office. They had been asleep, but that innate ability of soldiers to go from stand down to operation ready was going to be useful now. Tank had already called for the helicopter. As part of the operation, Ranger had any mode of transportation available by the FBI at a moment's notice, and they were taking full advantage of it now. Swiftly, the three headed to the weapons room. They were unsure what they were up against so loaded up accordingly. Bobby already had his field pack. By the time they got to the roof, the helicopter was already preparing to land. They hopped in. Giving the directions quickly, they were off.

Ranger, along with Ram and Woody stood in the parking lot. The car door was open. The bottle with hopefully some fingerprints was in an evidence box.

Ranger was talking to another FBI agent. He had driven up from Lexington and had just arrived. It looked like there might be another potential victim. Ranger was in hunting mode. He had to find his Babe.

He blamed himself that he had accidently put her in harms way. He had to find her.

He had spoken to Tank and they had a rough area where the tracker was sounding. They would have to do some groundwork. Swiftly, he barked orders, Time was of the essence. If this scumbag had Stephanie, she was in real danger.

At the same time, if he harmed even one hair on her curly head, he was in serious danger.