Chapter Ten
As he started to wake up again, Danny wondered why he felt like he was floating several feet off of the ground. The tall, brown-haired rolled onto his right side, trying to get comfortable on some sort of weird pillow that rested under his head. He could hear the quiet voices of Sam, Mike, and Nessa nearby, which made no sense as the trio hadn't been in the Camaro where he had fallen asleep. McCoy opened his eyes to see nothing but dark green fabric staring back at him. His eyes traveled upwards until they came to a stop on Mary's familiar face. As the red-haired woman smiled down at him, Danny finally realized that the "weird pillow" was her lap.
"You're awake." Mary noticed, gently playing with his hair.
"Where are we?" a curious Danny inquired, getting to an elbow and looking around. His question was answered almost immediately as the semi-familiar interior of one of the Montecito's private jets came into view. It also cured his puzzlement as to why he felt like he was floating. "How in the hell did I get on the plane?"
"Mike and Ed carried you in." Mary explained as Danny sat up fully on the black leather sofa. She shook her head. "You looked so peaceful in the Camaro that nobody wanted to wake you. How are you feeling?"
"All right." Danny replied, rubbing the remaining sleep from his eyes with his left hand. Stretching his arms behind his head, he got to his feet, but needed a few minutes to get his balance adjusted due to being up in the air. "I should probably go talk to Ed, and get the mission specifics."
"Yeah," Mary nodded, "he said that he wanted to see you when you woke up."
Nodding back in response, Danny headed for the nearby door, which led to the cockpit. It slid open just as McCoy reached out his own hand to do so, and a surprised Ed Deline was revealed to be standing on the other side.
"So, you're awake." Ed remarked, sliding the door closed behind him.
"Yeah." Danny replied, stifling a yawn. "Where exactly are we?"
"We just crossed the border from Arizona to Mexico." Ed replied, motioning for Danny to follow him over to a nearby table, where a map was layed out, and chairs. "Sleep well?"
"Yeah." Danny replied before thinking. "You really think that it's smart to leave you-know-who in the cockpit, all alone?"
"Absolutely." Ed nodded, sitting down in one of the chairs. "Keller might not be the most reliable, but he's not suicidal." The gray-haired man chuckled as his protégé sat down. "Besides, the bastard knows that if anything were to happen, my spirit would haunt his ass." Stifling his laughter, Deline pointed to a black spot on the map. "According to the trace we ran, the phone call was made here in the town of Cuenca."
"That's right on the Andes Mountains." Danny noticed, looking at the map.
"Jack's contact apparently knows of a small airport around there where we can land without attracting too much attention to ourselves." Ed continued, taking his finger off of the black spot. "If the Professor realizes we're coming, he might do something to Jillian and Delinda."
"But how do we find him?" a curious Danny wondered, looking into his mentor's eyes. "I mean, it's been hours since that phone call was made, Ed. He's probably in Colombia, Peru, or even Brazil by now. Cuenca is probably just a memory."
"We should still be able to find some trace of him there." Ed countered, not willing to be anything, but optimistic. "And Jack does have contacts in the area, so…"
"That's another thing." Danny replied with a sigh of reluctance. "I know that you trust him, Ed, but I'm getting a bad vibe about Jack." He shook his head vehemently. "He's coming along with us, even though there's nothing personally in it for him? That's not his style."
"He's the only thing we have right now that could even remotely lead us to my wife and daughter." a firm Ed replied, getting to his feet and heading back to the cockpit. "Trusting him is a chance that I'm willing to take." "You really think that Jack's planning on selling us out, man?" a curious Mike asked, walking up behind Danny just as Ed shut the door to the cockpit once more.
"Keller never does anything for free." Danny replied, not taking his eyes off of the cockpit door. "If we're not paying him to do this, then the Professor probably is."
"Get the kid caught up to date?" a curious Keller inquired as Ed sat back down in the co-pilot's seat. The dark-haired, blue-eyed man glanced at his former partner.
"Yeah." Ed nodded, putting his headset back on. "Everything good to go once we reach Cuenca?"
"Yep." Keller replied, looking slightly unsure. "You sure you really want do this to them though?" A chuckle escaped him. "Loyal as they all are, they're going to be pretty pissed off at you, man."
"It's the only way." an unrelenting Ed replied with a single nod.
Slightly wincing as her back collided with the back of the seat as well as her hands bound behind her, Delinda Deline wished more than anything to have the blindfold that had been placed around her eyes removed. As far as the blonde-haired, green-eyed daughter of Ed Deline could tell, the jeep she had been placed in had been traveling for quite a while through a mountainous region before reaching what seemed to be a jungle of some sort, based on the heat and the few branches that had hit her while riding.
Her thoughts, however, were elsewhere. They were with her father, whom Delinda assumed was coming to rescue them, and the reason she believed to be behind her mother and her being moved to a new location. Jillian was also in her thoughts as the older woman had been placed in a different vehicle, and Delinda had no way of currently knowing whether that vehicle had ended up in the same place as she had. She had also been thinking about her friends back in Vegas, especially Danny (whom the Professor had mentioned harming in some fashion). Delinda knew for a fact that if her father was coming on a rescue mission, then there was a good chance that some of them were coming with him. This was the sole reason she had probably kept up her strength, knowing that help was on the way.
Suddenly, a pair of rough hands yanked the blindfold off of her eyes, finally letting the Delines' only child see where she was. Her guess that she was in now in some sort of jungle had been accurate as lush vegetation now surrounded her, except for where the three jeeps had just come from. Delinda could also see her mother standing nearby, and felt a red-hot anger arise in her. Much like herself, the older woman's hands had been tied behind her back and a group of the Professor's men surrounded her. The older, curly-haired man himself stood in front of the group, staring at something just through the trees and bushes in front of them.
A gasp escaped Delinda as she realized what he was staring at. The façade and stairway of some sort of ancient temple greeted her green eyes. Although a layer of moss pretty much covered the exterior, one could still see the brown stone and gold used to construct the building. Deline was still too stunned to resist when two of the men behind her grabbed her arms and began to lead her forward. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see her mother getting the same treatment.
"Well, it appears that our host hasn't arrived yet." the Professor remarked, turning to look at the men he had brought with them. "No matter. You know where to put them."
"You're really going to take us in there?" a curious Jillian inquired, looking up at the ancient building.
"I'm afraid so." the Professor nodded in response. "You see, one of the uses that the ancient Incans had for this temple involved their rituals concerning death." A chuckle escaped them. "Which makes it a highly appropriate setting, considering what we have planned for your husband once he gets here."
"You bastard!" an enraged Delinda exclaimed, trying her hardest to get out of the restraints on her wrists. "You'll never get away with this! My father will murder you with his bare hands!"
Saying nothing in response, the Professor simply walked over and hit Delinda hard across the face. The dazed, blonde-haired, beautiful woman probably would have fallen to the ground, if not for the men behind her holding her up.
"Delinda!" a horrified Jillian screamed, trying to run over to her daughter. However, the men behind her only tightened their grip, not letting the older, blonde-haired woman go anywhere. "You monster!"
"You'll keep quiet unless you want me to hit her again!" a stern Professor said, looking at Jillian, who immediately relaxed. "Take them inside, and lock them up." As the men carrying Delinda passed by him, the Professor stopped them momentarily. "Make sure that she's all right before leaving them. Brat's more trouble than she's worth."
"Got it." one of the men nodded before they continued on their way.
"What do you want me to do, boss?" the man who had harassed Jillian earlier said curiously.
"You, Raul, have a very important job to do." the Professor replied, "Ed Deline will coming running to us like a fool if he knows that his precious daughter's been hurt." An evil smile appeared on his face. "You know who to contact to make sure that that information gets to him."
"Yes, sir." Raul nodded, pulling out his satellite phone.
To be continued...