Chapter IV


The next day Kitty sat in her apartment absently flicking through a magazine. She hated it when Pietro had to suddenly rush out like this. His lifestyle was so hard on her; she never knew when he'd be back, or if he'd even come back. She wished that he would leave Excalibur and settle down with her, but she knew that this would never happen. He was too important to Excalibur.
She put the magazine down, got up and picked up her mobile. Shopping always cheered her up; she just needed someone to go with. Preferably another woman, so she could talk about Pietro to her. She dialled in a number and waited as it rung. "Come on," she ordered the phone, and suddenly a voice answered at the other end. "Hello, Amanda Sefton."
"Hey Amanda, it's Kitty here."
"Oh, hi! How are you darling?"
"Oh, I'm pretty good," Kitty lied. "Do you want to go shopping?"
"Sure. Just let me get some clothes on."
"Uh, 'Manda, it's one in the afternoon?"
"I know, but Kurt just wouldn't leave…"
"Kurt?" Kitty cut her friend off. "I thought it was Ray?"
"Oh, Ray was ages ago. No Kurt's this new German guy. He's some kind of diplomat who's working in London and let me tell you he is great in bed…"
"Okay Amanda, how about you tell me about that later. Meet you in ten?"
"Usual spot."
"Yeah."
"I'll be waiting for you."
Kitty put the phone down and pulled on her coat. Despite being summer, London was still cold and prone to rain and Kitty wasn't taking any chances. As she walked out of the apartment building and turned left she thought she saw someone duck back into the shadows of a door, but there was no one there when she looked again. Shrugging she carried on her way.
After walking for about ten minutes she was sure that someone was following her. She increased her pace and then suddenly ducked into a side alley. After several minutes no one had followed her in. Confident that she had gotten away safely she turned around. A huge man stood in front of her. As she was about to scream he clamped a massive hand over her mouth. She struggled ferociously until she suddenly felt the prick of a hypodermic needle in her arm and then the world slowly faded away into blackness.

Pietro had given the patch to Excalibur to analyse, and now was on his way to visit Kitty after a long debriefing session. Until any further clues as to the whereabouts of the Wolverine or those two would be assassins from the Hellfire Club, Pietro was on leave again.
He parked his BMW outside his apartment, locked it and then walked inside. He took the elevator up to his flat and then unlocked the room. "Hey, Kitty. I'm home." No answer. 'That's strange,' he thought as he searched through the flat. When he found no trace of his girlfriend, he grabbed the telephone and dialled her mobile number. The phone kept on ringing until a mechanical voice told him it was 'impossible to connect him at this time'.
Pietro flopped down on the bed. Doubtless Kitty was out with her friends, bemoaning Pietro's line of work, and she simply didn't have her phone switched on. As he lay on the bed, the experiences of the past day suddenly caught up with him and he was asleep within minutes.

Kitty woke up in darkness. She could see so little that when she opened her eyes she wasn't sure whether she was still asleep or not, but she knew she wasn't. For one thing she could feel the ropes that bound her hands biting into the skin of her wrists. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she noticed another person in the same room as her. "Where are we?" Kitty whispered.
"How the hell should ah know?" the other person answered in a distinctly deep south American accent, and sounded rather impatient. She turned to look at Kitty as she answered and Kitty caught sight of a woman's pale face and a white streak in her hair.
"I recognise you! You're that pop star, Rogue."
"Mah real name's Marie, Rogue's only mah stage name. And so what if ah am?" Rogue sounded even more impatient.
"Nothing," Kitty said defensively. They sat in silence for a couple of minutes before Kitty voiced another question. "Do you know who kidnapped us?"
"No. All ah know is, some big guy was waiting for me in mah dressin' room and he knocked me out with an injection. Then I woke up about ten minutes before you did."
Kitty nodded, then lapsed into silence. After a couple more minutes she was about to speak again, when a double door was thrown open. Incredibly bright light poured in, silhouetting two figures in the door. Attempting to block out the light with her hands, Kitty recognised one of them as the man that had kidnapped her. The two men approached her and Rogue and picked them up roughly, slinging the women over their shoulders like sacks of grain. Kitty struggled, but the man's grip was like a vice and her struggling was in vain. After a few minutes the men entered a room and dumped Rogue and Kitty in chairs.
"Where the hell am ah?" Rogue shouted as soon as she was put down.
"Welcome to my home, Madam Marie."
Kitty and Rogue both looked up as a cultured English voice spoke out from behind a desk opposite them. A man was standing there with his back to the women, hands clasped behind him.
"Who the hell are you?" Rogue spat.
"You Americans make such prolific use of swear words. I find that most annoying, don't you Miss Pryde."
"Shut up, you bastard!" Kitty loaded her voice with as much hatred as she could, earning a look of admiration from Rogue.
The man laughed and turned around. He was quite old; Kitty guessed he was in his early sixties, with short white hair and piercing blue eyes. He smiled pleasantly at Kitty. "Defiance is such a typical quality of young women now a days. One I find most amusing. But it will do you no good I'm afraid, Miss Pryde. You are completely at my mercy."
"What do you want with us?" Rogue asked.
The man smiled again. "What I want is very simple. A small trifle, really."
"What do you need me for?" Kitty put in.
"You my dear, are here for a very special purpose."

Pietro woke up instantly as the telephone started ringing. He grabbed it and picked up the handset. "Pietro Maximoff."
"Hi, is Kitty there?"
"No I haven't seen her today, um…
"Amanda."
"Amanda. Why?"
"Well she agreed to meet me at a café and she hasn't turned up yet, and that was, no, not now Kurt, I'm on the phone. Sorry. That was three hours ago."
Pietro frowned. "Well I got home about two and a half hours ago, and she hasn't been home yet or rung me."
"Okay, Kurt wait one minute, ohhhhhh!" Pietro heard Amanda emit an excited scream and then the phone line went dead. He sighed and then suddenly his pager started beeping. He grabbed it and looked in horror at the single word on the screen. 'Aquatic'. That was Excalibur's code word for a major crisis and that any agents paged must return immediately to headquarters. He grabbed his jacket and ran out to his BMW.

Pietro burst into the briefings room at Excalibur headquarters, breathing slightly hard after having run hard for several minutes. Already in the room were Xavier, Lance, Callisto and a man that Pietro didn't recognise. Xavier looked up as Pietro came in. "Ah, Pietro. This," he gestured at the man behind him, "is Remy LeBeau."
"The twenty year old millionaire?"
"The same," the man spoke in a drawling voice with a distinct American accent from the deep south.
"Remy's here because his fiancé, the pop star Rogue, has been kidnapped."
"So why do you need me?"
"Kitty's been kidnapped as well."
Pietro felt like someone had hit him in the stomach with a heavy object. He sunk into a chair and Lance clasped a friendly hand on his shoulder.
"The kidnappers have just sent a ransom demand. We have three days to reply."
"What do they want?" Callisto enquired.
"Remy," Xavier moved back and the young American took his place.
"They want something I created. A piece of software that allows even the most intricate security system to be hacked within a couple of seconds."
"The Gambit Program?" Lance asked. Remy nodded.
"Why did they take Kitty?" Pietro pulled himself together enough to ask.
"We don't know." Xavier said.
"Well there's only one way to find out." Pietro stood up. "I'm going with Remy to the drop-off point for the ransom."
"Then what?" Callisto asked.
"I track whoever the bastards that kidnapped my girlfriend are back to their hideout and rescue Kitty."
"Pietro that's an admirable suggestion, but you need backup. You can't go it alone," Xavier's tone was soothing.
Pietro shook his head. "This is something I've got to do on my own."
"We won't interfere in your rescue of Kitty. We're just going to be there to make sure you get out okay."
"Fine," Pietro relented, sitting down again.
"Good." Xavier touched a control and a holographic map of the drop-off point appeared on the table. It was in an abandoned quay on the side of the River Thames. "Pietro and Remy will be here," Xavier indicated the centre of the quay. "Lance, you're going to be here," he indicated a fire escape that led out of a warehouse and provided a perfect view of the whole of the quay. "Callisto will fit a tracking device to the kidnapper's vehicle, which Pietro can use to follow them after the rendezvous. Understood." All the agents nodded. "Good."
Don't worry Pietro. Kitty will be safe, and you'll get her back in no time. Just wait and see." Lance said confidently. Pietro wasn't so sure.

Again, sorry for the delay. I'll try and update a lot faster from now on. I hope you enjoyed chapter IV, and keep those reviews coming.