"It's been two hours," Murdock said, worriedly. "Kay and Face shoulda been here by now." Hannibal shook his head- of all the things to make Murdock act sane, it had to be a missing sixteen year old girl. They had landed in the clearing shortly after receiving the call from me, but Face and I hadn't showed up yet. B.A. was still unconscious, but they had moved him out of the helicopter for safety purposes- they didn't want him to kill them when he woke up. "Man if anything happened to her..."
"Captain," Hannibal cut in. "Faceman isn't going to let anything happen to Kay... in all actuality, it's the other way around we have to worry about." Murdock was about to reply when he heard a voice in his pocket.
"Jeff's Little Angel callin' H.M. Come on back now. Over." Murdock quickly pulled the radio out of his pocket.
"Yeah, Angel this is H.M. Are you all right? Over." I took a deep breath. Considering the fact that Face had a gun to his head while I was talking, telling the truth would definitely get him killed. Lying might get us both killed, but at a slower pace. The alternative- tell the truth, but don't let the bad guys know its the truth.
"We're fine H.M.," I replied. "We just got a little lost, that's all. Hey listen, do me a favor would you? Over."
"What are you doing, kid?" one of our captors asked me. "Any tricks and your buddy gets it!" I looked up at him and smiled.
"Listen, if I don't ask him about this, he'll get suspicious- do you really want that?" He shook his head just as Murdock asked what the favor was. "Okay, listen- remember that word puzzle we were working on this morning? Over." Of course Murdock didn't have a clue what I was talking about... but he figured I was just being crazy, so he decided to play along.
"Sure, Angel I remember. You figure it out? Over."
"Yeah I did- the puzzle was 12-9-15-19-16-9. 'A' equals five. Think you can get it from there? Over." Murdock frantically wrote down the puzzle and the code breaker.
"Yeah, I think I can get it, Angel. When are you gonna get here? Over." There was a pause. A long, unbelievingly long pause.
"I'll be there shortly. Over and out."
"Wait, Angel! Angel, come back!" Nothing. "I don't get this, Colonel," he said. "It doesn't make sense." Hannibal put a hand on Murdock's shoulder.
"Your the authoritative on things that don't make sense, Murdock," he replied. "What's your instinct telling you?"
Murdock said nothing. Instead, he picked up the piece of paper he had written the puzzle on and began to solve it. Seconds later, he handed it to Hannibal. Hannibal took the paper and this is what he read: "12-9-15-19-16-9= Help me."
"She's in trouble, Colonel."
"We maybe in trouble, Faceman." I called. He and I found ourselves in something out of an old Vietnam movie. After being captured in the jungle, we'd been taken to a strange looking military compound, complete with handmade huts, poorly camouflaged munitions depots and me and Face in small bamboo cages, set about fifteen feet away from each other
"Don't think about that right now," he told me. "Everything's gonna be okay, don't worry." Famous last words on Face's part. Seconds after saying that, my cage was lowered to the ground and two huge, ugly looking guys hauled me out. "No, leave her alone!" I heard Face cry out in pain, then looked over to see him holding onto his head- it was bleeding.
"I'll be all right, Face!" I cried. "I'll be all right!" And as they dragged me into a nearby hut, I continued to assure him of that. If only I could assure myself.
"Nice to see you again, Kayla."
"Oh brother, you again?" There are times when I really don't know when to keep my mouth shut. This, as you can probably guess, was one of them. Chase had walked into the room shortly after I was taken in and tied to a chair. He made his comment, I made mine... and I got the butt of an M14 slammed into my right knee. This was the same knee that I had injured during a high school basketball game - our school's gym was concrete with a thin (and I mean thin) rubber lining over it, and I was unfortunate enough to "accidentally" trip over an opposing player foot and slam down on that same knee. So, to put things as accurately as possible, I screamed bloody murder, cussed out the player and was helped off the court by my coach and my father, who never knew my vocabulary was that broad.
Anyway, to get back on topic, I screamed as the gun hit my knee. I never remembered it hurting this much the first time around. No, this time it was much worse... probably because Chase told his lackey to hit me again. And again. And again.
"I told you that you would be getting yours, Kayla," he told me. "And hearing you scream that way makes me feel that this is how you shall continue to get it." I clenched my teeth together. "Oh, poor Kayla- did that hurt?" He snapped his fingers and the gun collided with my knee again. This time, I didn't give him the satisfaction of a scream. "Tell me what I want to know, Kayla, and all this goes away. Refuse and it only gets worse." I looked up at him and glared.
"Your mother wears combat boots." The next thing I knew, a gun went off.
"Yes, we put you in a plane and I don't care if you kill me for it, but you'll have to wait until after we find Kay and Face." B.A. couldn't believe what he was hearing- Murdock wasn't pretending to act sane. He had really gone there, all because of a girl. "She's my goddaughter, B.A.," Murdock continued. "I promised her dad I'd take care of her." B.A. nodded, then grabbed a map.
"Boomer said the Guerrilla compound was around here," he said, pointing to an area on the map. Hannibal looked at it and nodded.
"That's not to far away from here," he replied. "A mile, two at the most. We should get there by dark. What do you think, Captain... Murdock?" Murdock was all ready on his way, fifty feet in head of them.
Face had heard the gun shot and saw two men drag my body out of the hut- I looked dead.
"Kayla!" he yelled. "Kayla, are you all right?!" I gave no answer, confirming Face's worst fears. "Oh God no..." That was two hours ago, and he hadn't seen me since. "Oh god, how am I gonna tell Murdock?"
"Tell me what, Faceman?" Face's head shot up- his team was crouched in front of his cage, two out of three were smiling. Murdock had my backpack slung over his shoulder, prompting Face to give him a questioning look. "We found some guys looking through this and eating Kay's candy. They directed us to you, but I'm not seeing Kay here. Where is she?" Face instantly choked up.
"Murdock," he said... "Murdock, she's..." Hannibal suddenly held up a hand, silencing Face. "What is it?"
"Listen." Face listened- someone in the camp was singing.
Seconds after the gun went off, I felt something jam into my arm. My vision began to fade and the last thing I heard was Chase's voice.
"Keep putting that stuff into her... and tell her friend that she's dead." Some time later, I awoke on a cold cement floor, my hands and ankles tied behind me. I remembered what Chase had said- Face probably thought I was dead. I had to let him know I was alive before Murdock and the rest of the team showed up. But that seemed next to impossible. I felt overwhelmingly tired and my throat was almost bone dry. Screaming was out of the question, as was hoping they left my knife in my pocket- that had been the first thing they took, the second being my bag. So, I did the only thing I could think of- I started to sing.
"Uptown girl- she's been living in her uptown world. I'll bet she never had a back street guy, I'll bet her mama never told her why."
Murdock recognized the song instantly. He'd always liked Billy Joel, although he'd always preferred 'You May Be Right' to 'Uptown Girl,' but he wasn't going to complain. He looked over at Hannibal.
"You guys get Face- I'm going after Kay."
"I'm gonna try for an uptown girl. She's been livin' in her white bread world, as long as..." I silently cussed to myself- I could never get that part right. "And now she's looking for a downtown man- that's what I am."
"I've been told that's what I am." I stopped singing and looked up- Murdock was standing over me, smiling softly. "You okay kid?"
"Hell no, I'm not okay!" I replied as he cut my ropes. "I hurt, I can barely see a thing, I think I'm drugged up... and I can't remember that one line to 'Uptown Girl!'" Murdock chuckled as he took off his jacket and wrapped in around me- I must have felt cold to him. I was probably so cold I didn't feel it. He then lifted me in his arms and held me close.
"Don't worry, Kiddo- I'm gonna get you out of here."