The Taxi pulled up a few streets away from where Christian was heading. He paid the driver and then headed off, not entirely sure where he was going, only knowing the rough location of the address Alec had sent him.
He made his way to the canal and then walked along by it. It was obvious why Alec might come here if he knew his way around. The area was run down, metal pipes were rusting and paint flaked from the walls of warehouse and industrial buildings, and empty bottles of ancient vodka lined the potholed, concrete ground.
He sent a new text to Alec, telling him he was outside what he thought was the right place and then received one back quickly telling him to come in a side door.
Whatever this building once was, it seemed that maybe a butcher had once inhabited it, going by the smell. It had fire damage too, going by the black marks on the outside walls and the roof that didn't appear to be entirely stable, but still hung on in there. As the door creaked closed behind him it sent a reverberation around them in what was a large, echoey chamber.
"Hello?" He asked, and heard the sound come back to him, followed quickly by Alec's voice beckoning him further in.
"Christian! You came alone?"
"Yes... where's Kamil?"
"He's safe. I just need to know that everything is right before I give him back."
"Right?" Christian scoffed as he approached the nervous looking Alec. "None of this is right, surely you see that."
Alec darted to a window that had holes in the glass and, standing to the side, checked there was no one outside who had followed Christian. Satisfied, he rubbed his sweaty palms on his jeans and then moved closer to where Christian stood.
"Why are you doing this, Alec?" Christian wanted to appear as calm and sympathetic as possible, even though inside his mind was spinning and his throat was dry.
"Because I tried everything else, Christian, everything! I tried being nice about it, and subtle, and after all that time we spent together I knew this was right, but Syed just keeps getting in the way of everything."
"I don't understand."
"I mean, it should be us!" Alec waved his hands between them. "Not the two of you. Syed just keeps hanging on."
"You offered him money to leave." Christian accused.
"And he said no. No! No one says no to me like that, and I offered him a fair price!" Alec clutched at his hair.
Christian could see that something had snapped inside him and he had no idea how he was supposed to talk to someone who was acting like that. He felt like he was approaching Alec like some startled animal but he had no better ideas right now. All he had to do was keep him calm, work out where Kamil was and, somehow, get out of there.
"Alec, he probably just didn't understand what you were offering..." Christian hedged.
"I made it perfectly clear!" Alec shouted. "But none of that matters now because you came when I called you. That's the important thing."
"Yeah," Christian swallowed and did his best to act like there was nothing wrong. "Where's the baby?"
"Where's the baby? Where's the baby? Is that all you care about?" Alec's face distorted as he spoke to Christian. "This isn't about the baby, it's about our deal. We need to finish it..."
"Kamil is..." Christian struggled to say it but he had to try and communicate on Alec's level right now. "He's a part of this deal too..."
"Yes, yes, fine, he's in the other room. Stay where you are!" He yelled as Christian started to move to go get Kamil. "You can see him once I know for sure that we're both on the same page. Once I know that I can trust that you want to come with me..."
"What did you say to him?" Syed demanded, despite the fact that his parents were sitting with the Police, with Zainab already fussing and wanting to make cups of tea, while Masood made her sit down. They'd already told the police as much as they could and now Syed just couldn't continue to bite his lip and stay silent.
"What do you mean?" Masood answered, as he sat by his wife and gave the Police some sideways glances.
"I mean, something must have happened while I was in the kitchen with Jack. Christian wouldn't just take off like that!"
"Is Christian a relative?" A young police offered chipped in. He was sitting near Zainab and looked rather taken aback when she coughed in surprise at the question.
"My God, no," she said, "Christian is... he's..."
"He's my boyfriend." Syed chimed in quickly at Zainab's hesitation. "He must have heard from Alec and gone after him. He tried to call him earlier."
"Alec Banagher?" The officer asked, "The man who took your son?"
"Yes." Masood and Syed said in unison.
"And Christian is your boyfriend?"
Syed rolled his eyes, "Yes, Christian Clarke. Alec is his boss."
Syed looked around himself. One of the detectives had gone into the kitchen with Jack now, to hear more of the story from him - probably the best way to get a calmer detailing of the events - while the younger officers sat in the living room dealing with his parents. Jack was hopeful that he'd be able to give some input on what to do, or what should be done, clearly missing aspects of his old life.
"And Alec is your boss, too."
"Yes, but elsewhere, until I quit this morning. Look, he's obsessed with Christian, I told you this already."
"Just making sure we have all the facts straight." The officer tried to give a friendly smile but no one was in the mood to care about pleasantries so they ignored him and he dropped it rather quickly.
"Are we supposed to stay by the phone and wait for a call, like in the movies?" Masood asked.
"Well, his letter did say to wait for instructions, however if you're correct and Mr Clarke already received word then we may have to consider other options."
"Like what?" Zainab sat forward in her seat.
"Well, our logical next step is to attempt to trace where Mr Banagher is hiding. We'll get an alert out on his car, and check all possible residences and friends. In this type of situation, he is likely to have gone to familiar territory. If the kidnapping wasn't calculated far in advance, that is. We can also now try and trace Mr Clarke as well and hopefully he can also lead us to Kamil."
"He should never have gone though, should he?" Syed rubbed his hands together nervously at his own rhetorical question. He kept thinking that he needed Christian there to calm him down - yet Christian not being here was why he was so anxious. "He should have waited."
"He did the right thing," Zainab said quietly. At first Syed had barely registered her words, and then, considering how unlikely they were to have come out of her mouth, he turned to her with wide eyes, unbelieving. "If Alec wants him, he can have him. I just want my baby back." She started crying again and leant her head on Masood's shoulder as he hugged her close.
"We'll be able to trace your phone if any calls come in. There is still that possibility. On top of that, does Mr Clarke have a car?"
"No. He'd have taken a taxi." Syed answered. "There's a taxi rank nearby, he'd have gone there, I think." He perked up. The company would know where he'd been dropped off too. They'd be able to find him after all.
The young officer stopped writing in his pad and stood. "I'll be right back, just need to fill in the Detective Inspector and we'll sort out where we go from here."
Syed breathed a deep sigh. Now that he thought they'd be able to find Christian he just wanted to get a move on. Police procedure already felt agonisingly slow, even though he was aware that lives depended on everything being taken into consideration. But he just wanted to find out where that taxi had gone and follow it right now. He'd break doors down himself to get Christian and Kamil back. And there was no way he was going to just sit there and wait for the Police to bring everyone home safely.
When Christian had rushed into that fire to save Stacey, Syed had felt guilty for not going up himself. Not that he felt less of a man; he just wished he'd had Christian's courage and he'd prayed that he could be as strong as that. He'd never wished for something to happen that would force him to do anything drastic but since that day seemed to have come, he was determined to do everything in his power to get his life back on an even keel.
He'd stop at nothing, until he had his baby brother home with his parents, and the love of his life safely back at home with him.