Chap 4
Lex's POV
A day later… the doctor had come and gone and Avi was due to wake up anytime now. Lex had placed a motion detector in her room so he would know when she woke. Lex sat in a meeting… he wasn't sure what it was about… some charity or something…he wished he could just give them money and get it over with…he thought: ' Ah fuck… what the hell am I going to do with her when she wakes up?' 'Avi Straricco' he thought, looking at the information discovered by her fingerprints. 'Wonderful. This is exactly what I need, to be implicit in the kidnapping of Straricco's little sister… and partner? Just wonderful.' 'I wonder who did this to her, and why in god's name did they deliver her to me?' The motion detector alarm flashed on his laptop screen… 'Time to rap this up.' He stood up. "I am afraid I am a bit short on time today, could you please summarize in a minute what you want and why?" The man speaking blinked, collected his thoughts, and rapidly told Lex that he should support local environmentalist agencies for good PR and a healthier planet for our children. Lex smiled at the last part, the man obviously believed in what he had said, and had done a brilliant one-minute summary. 'Enviromentalists?… why not?' "Very well, you have my support in executing this program, see my lawyers and accountants for details." The speaker's face lit up, and Lex left the room in a good mood, until he remembered Why he had left the room… ' The Girl' he thought bitterly. 'Well, I'll just have to play this by ear.'
Avi's POV
Avi woke at dusk; the gray light was beginning to fade through the single small barred tinted window, and a nightlight was activated. She lay abed, perfectly still for 3 hours as they had taught her. Her mind still slightly reeling from the sleeping drug, she remembered reciting When you wake up in a strange place, in a possibly dangerous situation, and are possible hurt, stay still as long as possible after waking. Use this time to listen to your surroundings, to assess your physical condition, to work out where you are and how you got there, and to learn whatever possible about your captors. So she tried to think…'Well… I have a splint on my arm, a bandage on my ribs, and my head feels a bit funny… so therefore… my captor probably does not want me dead…yet… how comforting…' She stopped trying to think, and gave herself back to peaceful, safe, oblivion for a little bit longer. The drugs finally wore off, and she was left with a horridly sharp mind and painful memories. She began to shake; she could not help it, despite her efforts to stop. She remembered. She was still shaking terrified an hour later, when a knock came at her door...
Avi stopped shaking, now frozen in terror she stared at the door…as the knock came again… and her instincts took over, and she sprang into action. Avi looked around the room… she saw a chair in the center of the room, back to the wall, in the shadows 'perfect' she tried to get up to get to it and came tumbling to the ground, ' well, I guess this Stratricco does crawl.' She thought bitterly, as she painfully pulled herself by her good arm to the chair and situated a blanket around her, covering her from head to toe. Then she used her good hand to clumsily tie back her horribly messy hair with a tie that had miraculously stayed with her. 'Fuck!' she thought as the knock came again, 'oh well, here goes nothing'… she took a deep breathe, collected herself, slid her mask on, and said quietly, her voice hoarse, " Enter."