Part 33.
Mulder stared thoughtfully at the map he had hung on the wall of the motel room. It was of the Western United States. He looked at the different patches of green symbolizing forests. There were so many of them! Practically all of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Colorado were covered in forests. California had forests in the Northern part and also along the Sierra Mountains.
"Using your magical powers to locate her?"
Scully slipped her arms around Mulder, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, and he leaned his head back against her as he stared thoughtfully at the map.
"Yeah, my magical pen," Mulder wiggled the one he was holding," says she is, ah, in the Redwoods."
"The Redwoods huh? So she's near Lake Shasta?"
Scully laughed and squeezed his shoulders before walking up to the map. She stared at it for a minute and then said softly, "You don't think she could be in Oregon, do you?"
Mulder walked up and hugged her from behind before he firmly shook his head.
"No. I don't think they would do that, not again. And these aren't the same people like before. They have new plans, new agendas."
Scully nodded and swept her gaze over the entire map.
"She could be anywhere…"
"Not just anywhere. She's in the Sierra's."
Mulder and Scully whipped around at the sound of John's voice. He was standing in the doorway of their room and his face was lit up with new found hope.
"I studied the notes from Kate's details about the place where she was with Monica and something occurred to me. You see, Kate remembered seeing a watch tower. I called her to see if she remembered details about this watch tower."
"And?"
"It had a blue roof."
Scully was staring at him and then turned around and looked at the map.
"And only the Sierra's have watch towers with blue roofs," she concluded.
"You got it." John tossed the information he had gathered onto the bed and went to look at the map too.
"So we have this whole mountain range to cover." John traced the area with his finger and studied it.
"Looks like it." Scully picked up the papers off the bed and looked through them.
Mulder walked over and looked at them over her shoulder and then glanced over at John.
"So there are 36 watch towers. Where do you want to start?"
Scully picked up Mulder's 'magic pen' and walked over to the map. Closing her eyes she stabbed the pen into the map.
"We start here. Watch tower number 21."
Mulder mockingly said, "Scully! I'm shocked. No scientific theories? No reasonable ideas?"
He walked over and kissed her hard on the mouth. "No smart ass comments?"
Scully smiled and punched him lightly. "Better then your magical 'Redwood forest' crap."
Scully turned to John. "This okay with you John?"
John chuckled. "Sounds good to me. As long as we get going fast. Each minute that goes by…"
"We'll be packed in five minutes." Scully began tossing things into a suitcase and Mulder rolled up the map.
John ran next door and began packing too. They should be on the road and racing for the mountains as soon as possible.
John glanced toward the east as he began shoving his things into the Explorer.
"We're coming Monica, we're coming." John whispered and then ran back into his room to get the rest of his things
All three were in such a hurry that they never noticed the Mercedes parked across the street in front of an Italian restaurant. Or the man sitting behind the wheel with a pair of binoculars.
Part 34.
It was morning. Monica slowly woke and could feel the sun stream through the big bay window and warm her chilled body. The airiness and vastness of the room was surprising for a second because she was so used to the darkness in the basement.
She shifted around slightly and immediately realized she had been retied to the chair. Apparently these men were taking no chances, despite how physically weak she was.
But she wasn't weak. Mentally, she was stronger than ever. She thought she should have felt completely hopeless by now, and for awhile she could admit she had. But her anger toward these men was increasing by the second and she wanted to beat them at their own game. She would fight this to the very end.
She just had to work on ignoring her physical weaknesses.
The silence was welcome at first but now it seemed like it was deafening. In the basement she had heard pipes clinging together and footsteps tromping around above her head to keep her from going stir crazy. But now there was nothing. Okay, she would just ignore it.
First things first. She had to untie herself. It had been impossible in the basement because she hadn't been able to see anything. The only times the light had been on was when one of the Red Guns had entered the basement. But not enough time to glance around for tools and not look suspicious at the same time.
Now she had light. But a quick search around the room turned up nothing, like yesterday.
Monica took a deep breathe and sighed with relief that she no longer had rubber over her mouth. Breathing in deeply, Monica made herself relax and clear her mind. Now was the time to start coming up with an escape route. Ignore the eerie stillness and relax.
She needed to know the location of the doors and windows of the cabin. It was definitely bigger than the first cabin she had stumbled upon. She needed to know the exact amount of Red Guns that were on the property. Their regular daily activities and who walked by this room at certain times during the day. Who were her guards and who was the one appointed to bringing her food and taking her to the bathroom.
Monica felt herself drift into what her parents like to call her 'FBI mode.' She was so deep in thought that she hadn't heard the Red Gun enter the room to bring her some food.
She opened her eyes in surprise when she felt her wrists being painfully untied. Slowly she brought her wrists forward but didn't look at them. Monica glanced up at the Red Gun who had positioned himself by the kitchen door and was watching her. Slowly Monica took a bite of the apple and stared at her plate.
A knife. There was a knife on her plate for the chicken.
Looking up, Monica smiled at the Red Gun. She had to distract him. Make him look away long enough for him to forget he had brought her a knife with her dinner.
"Could I ask you a question?" Monica knew her voice was barely above a raspy whisper but her throat refused to let her speak any louder.
The Red Gun didn't respond, only merely lifted his brow.
Not sure how to respond to that, Monica decided just to keep going with it. "I saw these strange lights flickering around the trees by the barn all night. What are they for?"
Monica knew right away her plan was working when the Red Gun stood up with a look of confusion and went to look out of the windows facing the barn about half a mile from the cabin.
While he was looking away, Monica dropped her napkin and knife on the carpet. It was silent so the Red Gun didn't hear, but it did throw off anyone's suspicions if they were watching her through a hidden camera.
Monica picked up the napkin and knife and swiftly tucked the knife under her chair where she would be able to reach it with her hands tied.
She looked up just as the Red Gun turned around, tied her up and muttered something under his breath as he grabbed Monica's half finished cold chicken and carried it away.
Monica breathed a huge sigh of relief when he had gone. That was almost too easy.
She decided to wait until night fell before she made her escape. She had no advantage over the Red Guns but it would help to have the darkness to conceal her as much as possible until they figured out she was gone. She didn't know what she would do when they came searching for her but she'd deal with that later.
Right now she just hoped she would make it out of the cabin despite the fact she could barely walk. Damn it! Monica groaned to herself and tried to flex her muscles a bit as she waited for night.