Hunting Grounds

Chapter 15

Kate had sat in the back seat of Espo and Ryan's unmarked cruiser all the way home. It also meant there was a wall between her and them. She was on the perp side of the car and it kinda reeked back here.

She was bombarded with questions. While she did trust them with her life, she couldn't trust them with what she knew was the truth. Everyone would get their story even if it didn't answer all their questions or give them anything that would help them understand.

Sadly while they were waiting for someone to get here, the Navy had shown up and had taken Rick away. Worse, she didn't even get to see him since the Portland Police had arrived and separated them.

Then came finding out that answering Ryan's and Espo's questions had been hard enough. Next came question after question from Captain Montgomery. And then things got worse. Her dad was sitting in the conference room waiting to talk to her. Her dad got to question her in-depth before Roy had gotten his chance.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, CSI had appeared. Roy had ratted her out that she had lost possession of her service weapon. They demanded answers as to how that had happened and where she had last seen it. Then who had it now?

First came the CSI paperwork concerning the loss of her service weapon. Only then did she get to go home. Tomorrow would be a paperwork day. She would be required to write down absolutely everything that had happened to her onward from her arrival at the scene.

It was late as she trudged down the hallway toward her door only to spot Lanie sitting on the floor, waiting for her.

"It's about time, girlfriend!" Lanie was angry with her. Her disappearance had hurt her badly, and she was scared for her.

"Everyone has questions. I have to spend all day tomorrow writing everything down. Then I have to see a psychiatrist before I can be reinstated. After that, I have to be recertified before I can be issued another service weapon, and that's only after CSI approves.

"I thought getting lost had been bad enough. This is almost worse. I suppose you have questions, too." Kate searched for her keys to unlock her door.

Only now did Lanie raise her bottle of wine and a bag filled with Chinese that was just now reaching Kate's nose, causing her empty stomach to growl at both of them.

"Come on in, and I'll tell you what I know. It's not as much as you think," Kate warned her.

[_] /\ [_]

"So you like him?" Lanie had listened to her explanation and had interrupted her countless times as Lanie tried to get to the good parts.

"Is that all you got out of all that?" Kate almost couldn't believe her best friend. Yeah, it did sound like her best friend. Lanie had been after her to finally find a real man to call her boyfriend and had tried many times to set her up with blind dates. Sadly the ones Kate had agreed to had gone badly.

"You spent all this time with him. He's a Navy SEAL which means he has to be built, and I can tell by the way you talk about him that he's handsome, so what else?" Lanie wanted to stick to the good parts, and this Rick sounded like a good part to her.

"We were lost in the woods for days, Lanie. Weeks even. What the hell do you think happened?" If Lanie thought she had gotten on her back on the pine needle covered ground, she was nuts.

"Doggie style. Come on, Kate, admit it. You like him." Lanie knew there was more than one position to have sex.

"If I say yes will you go home so I can get some sleep?" She had eaten and drank wine while answering Lanie's questions.

"No! You finally find a real man. A United States Navy SEAL no less, and you spent all this time with him. So give. What do you think of him? Did you at least kiss him?" Lanie studied her face for a clue. "YOU DID!" Lanie could see it.

"I don't even know where he is, damn it! The Navy took him away." She had nothing.

"So call him." Lanie looked at her like she was stupid.

"I can't!He doesn't have a cell phone. He lives on base. Whichever base he's at at the time. And no, I don't know which base they took him to. Except for Espo, I don't know anyone that was ever in the military who could even begin to look for him." Kate had been kicking herself for them not talking about where they might take him. Or who she could contact in an attempt to find him.

"Oh, you've got it bad, girl." Lanie could hear it in her tone of voice. Kate was in deep, and it was about time. "Alright, I'll go, but we're talking about this again," Lanie threatened her before she left. "And I'm pressing Espo to try and find this Richard Rodgers, Navy SEAL."

Kate closed the door and slumped against it. DAMN IT! She did miss him. She had no way to contact him and had no idea where he was. Her cell phone was gone, and she was going to need another one. Likely with a new number since someone could have her old one as far as her service provider knew. Even if it was sitting in the ship, without a battery and no SIM card installed.

"Rosie!" She had one hope left. Kate hurried to her bedroom to find her laptop. She piled her pillows on the bed, sat down, and turned it on. The second she was online, she saw four emails waiting for her from Rosie.

Kate had a broad smile as she typed a response to the first one and pressed SEND. She was busily typing a response to the second one when she got a new one from Rosie. She finished that one and pressed SEND.

Now she had a question for Rosie. Did she have a way to search for Rick?

"I can enter their computer system and do a search," Rosie offered.

"NO!" Kate told the empty bedroom and typed the word NO. "Someone will spot you and possibly trace it back to your location. You have to remain hidden. We can't take the risk."

"As you wish," Rosie responded. "Did you have any trouble? Your planet is interesting. There is so much information on this Internet system you have. Did you know a whole lot of it is false information?" Rosie was having trouble understanding this planet.

"Don't believe everything you read. I was asked a lot of questions as was expected," Kate said. "First, we need to set up a secure way for us to talk. Even these emails can be monitored."

"I have already taken that into consideration. This communication that I initiated is being routed through 14 different VPNs. Your responses are routed the same way. I will create a new system for each email I send. Only respond to what I send," Rosie advised her. "Do not send me anything."

"OH!" Suddenly Kate felt stupid. Rosie was clearly a lot smarter than she thought.

"I know you can't monitor your exterior or have control over any of the ship's systems. So please be careful," Kate asked her. "Rick brought up something. He talked about buying a remote house in Maine with lots of land. Can you access Real Estate sites and do a search for a place? I don't know how much money Rick has so try and limit it to say 500k to 600k if you can. Lots of land and remote. We need to hide the ship better."

"I know you can't monitor your exterior or have control over any of the ship's systems. So please be careful," Kate asked her. "Rick brought up something. He talked about buying an isolated house in Maine with lots of land. Can you access Real Estate sites and do a search for a place? I don't know how much money Rick has. Please limit it from 500k to 600k, if you can. Lots of land and remote. We need to hide the ship better."

"I will begin immediately. I will send you a list you can share with Rick when you talk to him. Just stay safe. You and Rick are all I have." They had saved her from oblivion, and she had learned to like them.

"Send me the list. If you send me an email I'll respond after I get home. Try to avoid sending me emails at work unless it's an emergency. That system is rigorously monitored."

"Understood. Good night, Kate." Rosie signed off and terminated that connection route.

"Good night, Rosie." Kate turned off her laptop and headed for the bathroom to take a shower. It had been a long day, and she was still wearing filthy clothes and wanted to feel clean again. Kate decided on a nice hot bath filled with her best bath salts. Stepping into her tub, she sighed loudly. Those ship's showers had been just weird. What she had here was so much better.

[_] /\ [_]

Kate knew Lanie wasn't satisfied with what she had learned though she had left anyway. Now Kate was sitting at her desk writing her report. After she completed it, she would be banned from the precinct. She couldn't come back until she had clearance from the department's shrink. And even then, she had to go to the gun range to get recertified.

Except after hanging up the phone to make her appointment with the shrink things got worse, not better. Dr. Carver Burke – that was his name – didn't have an opening for another two weeks. Unless, of course, someone canceled.

About the only saving grace she could find in all this was that she was still being paid. She'd been placed on paid leave since they couldn't find her.

While she wrote her report, her mind kept turning to Rick. Where was he? What was he doing? How the hell was she going to find him? She didn't have any military contacts, and while Espo might have some military background, he wasn't Navy, and she doubted he could learn anything.

[_] /\ [_]

Kate knocked and entered when Roy looked up. "My report, sir." It was after lunch, and she was actually hungry. She had wanted to finish so she could start her two-week wait. Though she still had to wait for what CSI had to say about her losing possession of her service weapon.

She knew where it was, and so long as she never used it where anyone could trace the round back to her weapon, or worse, find it, they would never really know where it was. The same applied to Rick's weaponry and ammunition that weren't even on this planet any longer. Save for his hand weapon, which was right next to hers on their alien spaceship.

"When is your evaluation?" Roy questioned her since it was up to her to make the appointment.

"Not for two weeks," Kate replied with a groan. Two weeks was an incredibly long time to be sitting at home doing nothing.

"I don't want to see you back in here till he's cleared you, Beckett. Regulations." Even he couldn't do anything about that. "Go spend time with your dad. He was worried sick when you turned up missing." Truth be told, he only worried after he had been advised that Kate was missing. But that was a technicality.

"Yes, sir." He might actually have something there, Kate had to admit.

"Dismissed, Beckett. We'll all still be there when you get back."

"Yes, sir." Kate reluctantly agreed it was the best she could do and waved at the guys as she walked toward the elevator and headed home. Her dad would be at work which meant her apartment was about the only place she could go.

[_] /\ [_]

Rick didn't know what Kate was going through, but he sure knew what he was going through. A pair of MPs had shown up, escorted him to their car, and had taken him straight to an airport. Once there, he was put on a C-130. A very comfortable plane to be flying in, to be sure. NOT! But he was used to this, so he didn't let it faze him.

However, since they hadn't flown for long, he was betting they were somewhere near Boston, his first guess. From here, he endured another car ride in the back seat.

This place didn't appear to be a military base since he didn't see a heavily armed gate they had to pass through. Gate yes, just not that heavily armed. Although the buildings all had this military look to them.

General Greene Avenue was his first clue. Turning onto 4th Avenue was his next clue.

Number 1 on 4th Avenue was where they stopped, let him out, and took him inside. All three of them gained an escort who took them to a room where he was left to stew and contemplate his fate.

Thanks to his training, he was betting it would be about an hour until someone finally showed up. Someone did. Based on what the man was wearing, he was a colonel. Rick didn't even rate a general; he was immediately put off by the snub.

Rick told this guy his story over and over again. Oh, he asked more detailed questions, but he always got the same thing.

NO! He didn't know where he'd been taken to. It was a heavily wooded area, and no, he wasn't alone. A homicide detective with the New York Police Department had been left right next to him. Together they started walking in hopes of finding civilization.

It wasn't until they entered a campground that they saw anyone, and that had taken them days. Thanks to his training, they ate off the land and drank rainwater when they could. He still had his vest, but all of his pockets were empty. All of his weapons were missing, as was the detective's.

They got a ride into a small town, and no, they didn't see the name of it. There they got a lift from a tanker driver who was filling up a gas station. He dropped them off at a truck stop, and no, they still hadn't bothered to find out what town they were in now.

It wasn't until they were in Portland that they worked out they'd been in Maine. They just didn't know where in Maine. Thanks to the terrain, they kept having to backtrack since they had no climbing gear. Until they ran across that campground, they never saw another living soul.

It was only as his interrogator was leaving that Rick asked, "Can I at least have some water?" Granted, he had eaten Chinese and had drunk something but that was a few hours ago.

His interrogator never said a word and Rick didn't get anything to drink.

[_] /\ [_]

Rick was bored, tired, and beginning to get a little pissed off. It wasn't his fault he wasn't in Qatar any longer. And no, he had no idea how he'd gotten out of the country and ended up in Maine, of all places. One minute he was sitting on the toilet, and the next, he was in the woods. That part was the absolute truth. After that, it was all story with dashes of the truth thrown in.

[_] /\ [_]

It was hours later, and he was still in the same room with just the two chairs and not a single window. Finally a different person, this one with a sidearm in his holster, dropped off an MRE and a bottle of water onto the spare chair and left.

"AN MRE! REALLY?" After all he had been though they couldn't give him a decent hot meal? "I am a captain, you know. In charge of my own SEAL team. I deserve better." He was betting someone was listening.

Still, he moved his chair closer to that chair so he could open his bottle of water and drink some of it, followed by opening his MRE. "Sweet and Sour Chicken. At least it's one of the better ones." When it came to Meals Ready to Eat, there were a lot worse. A whole lot worse. Chicken à la King and Beef and Pork patties came to mind. Then there was Cheese and Vegetable Omelette. MY GOD! How could people eat some of this stuff?

[_] /\ [_]

Rick was still sitting in his chair, waiting patiently. He refused to get up and pace the room. He also refused to get up and knock on what he was betting was a locked door to ask to use the restroom since he did need to pee now that he had finished his bottle of water and his MRE.

It wasn't that he didn't want to do both. But it was the principle of the thing. He wasn't the victim here. Yeah, technically, he was, but it wasn't his fault. Also, there was no way he would tell anyone that he'd been taken to another planet, and then escaped in a very modern spaceship. And that he knew precisely where the said spaceship was. Absolutely no way in hell was he doing that.

He had just enough imagination to know what the government would do to him and Kate, let alone Rosie and that spaceship. That spaceship was his and Kate's, and that was the end of that story.

[_] /\ [_]

Rick was just about ready to sit there and pee his pants all over their floor when in walked that same colonel and his armed MP.

"We're moving you, Captain Rodgers. We will take you to an airfield where a military jet will transport you to a place just outside of DC," the colonel with no name informed him.

"Let me guess. Suitland, Maryland, home of Naval Intelligence. They didn't like the answers I gave you, so they want to give it a try. I don't have anything I can tell them that I didn't already tell you. I was sitting on the toilet in Qatar and woke up in the woods. I was weaponless and stripped of anything of use, including my combat knife. Even the homicide detective didn't know how she got there. One second she was getting ready for a raid with SWAT, and the next, she woke up next to me.

"That's as good as it gets. We were more interested in finding our way to a city for real food and a real bed before contacting anyone. What were two more hours after a quick cat nap?" Rick repeated the same bits of the story all over again.

"This MP will escort you to the restroom and then to the car, where two more MPs will drive you to your plane. Have a pleasant journey, Captain Rodgers." He turned and left and didn't even wait to see if he got a salute since he outranked Rick.

That told Rick that he really was lost in the system. No one was going to trust him any time soon.

[_] /\ [_]

His jet turned out to be a Department of Defense Cessna jet, one used frequently by senators, generals, and suchlike people. So at least things were improving. It still didn't have a toilet or a mini kitchen, nor one single bottle of water. At least his escort didn't come with him. It was just him and the pilot behind a locked door.

"DC, here I come." He did at least have a few friends in Naval Intelligence, so maybe where he was going would turn out to be better than here.

"Yeah, in a pig's eye."