Once I am far enough from Amar and the school, I pull my phone out and dial the number on the little paper. I tap my foot anxiously and I clench my teeth in anger as I recognize the voice on the other line. Eric
" I swear to god, lay even one hand-..." I start to yell at him but he cuts me off
" Hate to interrupt your little threat but I don't have time for it. Meet me at 656 Annex Road , in the underground parking within an hour , alone and the chip in hand or I will shoot a bullet in each one of their hearts, like you did my men" he hisses and I bite my tongue from saying anything as I start running in the direction of the address
" What chip? I have no idea what you're talking about" I huff out.
"It's in the bear. Bring it to me. You only have an hour. Come even one minute late and all you will find is their body pieces" he hisses at me and shuts the phone off. I stop and scream into the air and few people give me weird looks as they walk by.
"Ok. Think, think... bear...bear..." I grab my hair in frustration
"You need to relax and think clearly four" I jump at the sound of Shauna in my ear. I touch the ear piece in my ear. I forgot to take it off.
"Shauna I have less than 60 minutes to find this chip and bring it to Eric. I have no idea what bear he is talking about" I say angrily
"Four, you need to think rationally here. Please just take a calming breath " She says desperately and I give a big sigh. I close my eyes and count to ten and release.
"Ok, so Eric said the chip was in the bear. So it has to be in a toy right? I mean it has to be something that I can accesses easily, if he wants it in an hour right?" I say and Shauna agrees
"Can it be one of the twins toys?" Shauna says and I try to think if I ever saw any stuffed bear around the house , but I can't think of any.
"I don't recall seeing any bears at the house" I say desperately.
"Did Tris or the girls ever mention anything about a bear" Shauna asks and I groan , clenching my fist in anger and desperation.
"I don't think so.. " I say and once again I close my eyes and think back to the time when Tris and I where together
" The girls love you , you know that" Tris smiles at me and I give a smile back. I love them to
I shake my head to get rid of the flash back.
"You can buy them anything you want. The credit card I gave you is linked to an account where Amar is depositing money it. Buy the twins toys and whatever else you guys need."
" The girls have everything they need. We don't need charity from you"
" Four, I think I love you
"Fuck" I yell into my the air, opening my eyes. Nothing, I can't think of anything
"Shauna... I..." I start out but then suddenly another memory hits me.
" Izzy has a stuffed bear that Eric gave to her. She carries it everywhere with her to make her feel safe. I haven't seen her use it for a few days, I guess she feels safe around you"
"The bear! The bear! Eric gave Lizzy a bear that she loves. I remember Tris telling me once." I shout at no one in particular.
"So then the bear would be where the girls were staying with Amar. Call Amar and tell him to give you Tris's number so you can call her" Shauna says and I quickly pull out my phone. I tell Amar I need to talk to Tris right away and I would explain everything later to him. After a few moments of hesitation he gave me the number and I called Tris. Sam picked up the phone and I asked for the directions to the house they were staying. I sigh in relief as I was only about 5 minutes away from the house.
I look at my watch and curse. Only 50 minute left. I'm going to need a car
I run out into the road and a nice sports car stops in front of me, honking. I run over to the driver's side and pull the small and balding old guy out of it, promising to return to him after. I gun it down to the house
"Grand theft auto. Never would have guessed" I hear Shauna huff and I roll my eyes at her. I think the theft is excusable based on the situation. It's a matter of life and death.
I get to the house within few minutes and I jump out and kick the door open.
"Ok the twins bed room. Should be upstairs" I say as I run up the stairs and into what I assumed was the girl bed rooms. Everything looked as it was , when they were in the safe house with me. I quickly start opening drowses and closets and after a 5 minute raid I still couldn't find the god forsaken bear. Just as I was going to give up and go downstairs in search of the bear, I see a little brown foot sticking out from under the bed. I run and grab the toy from under the bed and curse in happiness. Finally, I had found the bear.
"That was cutting it a little too close. You have less than 30 minutes and then it's going to take you about 30 minutes to reach Eric" Shauna says as I run back to the car
"Not if I can help it" I mumble and start the car. Shauna gives me the directions as I drive, weaving in and between the traffic. I don't stop at any lights and almost crash several times. With only 5 minutes to go , I reach the address and stop in the underground parking. I jump out with the bear in my hand and look around the disserted old parking garage with warning signs all around
"I'm going to send back up" Shauna says
"No! Eric said I had to come alone. If je suspects anything, he'll hurt the twins"
"Four, this is a sucide mission. You are not doing this alone"
"Shauna, I'm not asking you. I'm telling you to stand down until I can give you the signal. Understand? Until I give you the go ahead, you do not send anyone"
"Fine. But I swear you better make it out of here or else..." She chokes and i hum in agreement.
"Eric. You fucker, I'm here" I yell into the dark garage and I finally see him approach. It takes all my will power to stay put and not tackle him to the ground
"Four, you made it. I was starting to wonder if you ever were going to show up." He smiles and when I don't say anything he holds his hand out. "I believe that you have something that belongs to me"
" First, the girls" I say and he rolls his eyes.
"Follow me" He says and wordlessly I follow behind him. We walk deeper into the garage and I start to get static in my ear. I hear Shauna once or twice , as I continue to walk and then the ear piece goes dead. No signal and no more communication to the outside world. Great
We stop at a door at the end of the garage. There are warning signs and trespassing signs all around the door. Eric pulls out a card and slides it through what looks like a busted card swipe. With a click the door opens. Guess it's not busted after all. We walk for a few minutes and the garage changes into a warehouse type building and my eyes widen as I see tons and tons of giant metal containers. Eric whistles and two armed guys bring out the girls who are tied up with gags in their mouth
I lurch forward to grab them but I am hit on the back of the head with a metal rod. I fall down onto my knees as I hear the girls scream
Eric picks up the bear and rips the head off of it and pulls out a small chip . I hear Lizzy break down in sobs. He throws the bear aside and walks over to a laptop which has been set up and inserts the chip.
"See this little chip here? This holds every blue print to our operation. This was the only thing you could have used to get us, but now..." He smiles , walking away from the laptop
"You got what you wanted, let the girls go." I groan . He thinks about this for a second and nods his head, indicating for the guys to let go of the girls. They come crying into me, but with their hands tied I reach around and hug them tight
"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry" I chant over and over again to them as I bite the inside of my cheek from tearing up. Eric turns around and pulls out his phone and starts talking to someone. With his back to me, I tell the girls to turn around and with their backs to me, I quickly start un- tying their hands.
"Pretend your hands are still tied up. When I say run, you run as fast as you can and find a place to hide in one the big boxes, ok" I whisper into their ears. They slowly nod their heads. I finish untying their hands but keep the rope around their hands lightly so it looks like their hands are still tied.
"Ok, well what should I do with them?... But...No..No... I understand... Ok..." Eric turns around and I straighten up
"Let the girls go. They have nothing to do with this. You have your chip" I say and slowly walks to me. I stay sitting on my knees, allowing me better access not only to his balls but also his gun which I noticed was hidden in his sock.
"See, I would love to let them go but you guys have seen too much" He says and pulls out one of his guns from his gun holster around his waist. He aims the gun at Lizzy
"Eric, there your daughters. How can you do this to them" I shout at him
" I hated these whiny, annoying brats since the day they were born" He sneers at me and both the girls gasp .
"There little kids, they are supposed to be annoying and whinny , but you're their father. It's your job to protect and love them no matter what" I yell
Izzy suddenly steps up and walks forward to Eric. She holds his eyes and in that moment I realized how brave this little girl is. She mumbles something through the gag in her mouth but it sounded like "daddy I love you". Eric back hands her and she goes flying. At the moment I tackle him, un- able to take anymore
" run" I scream and the girls sprint in the directions of the boxes. I punch Eric and take him to the ground, and successfully getting the attention of the other guards around the room so most stayed put instead of running at the twins. I am pulled up by my hair and I kick him in the balls as hard as I can and he falls down in agony. Another guy grabs me and punches me in the face, causing my already broken nose to start sputtering blood. I push the guy off me and bend down and grabs Eric's gun out of his laying body. I pull the trigger and two men go down and I flip over the table with the laptop and it goes flying to the other side. I hear a gun being cocked, and I duck and the bullet bounces off the table. I pull my gun out and take aim and shoot another men down. I turn , and find Eric has disappeared into the warehouse like structure. I look to the other side and my eyes go wide as I see Izzy crawling across the floor, trying to reach the laptop
Fuck, Fuck, NO!,
I try to whisper her to run the other way, but she doesn't hear me and continue to crawl to the laptop
The guy stops firing at me and I stand up just in time to see him laugh and aim the gun at Izzy's head. I tackle the guy down, just before he shoots and the bullet blurs past Izzy's head by a mere centimeter. She picks up the laptop and runs the other way
I don't have time to think about her little stunt as I punch the guy, knocking him and his gun to the ground. With one final blow, I knock him unconscious. But before I can move, I feel the hard barrel of a gun against my head.