Chapter 27

Vaughn opened his eyes slowly. As some light flooded in, he had to squint to keep his eyes from adjusting to the light as quickly. A man was walking in front of him smoking a cigar. Vaughn held in a cough as the man blew some smoke into his face. Nodding to some guards in the back of the sparsely lit room. "Hold him." Vaughn could feel strong hands securing his shoulders. Looking around, the man took his cigar out and ground it into Vaughn's arm. His muscles tensed up as the man eventually took the cigar away from the burned area of his arm and tossed it on the ground.

"Who do you work for?"

Vaughn looked up at the man saying nothing.

"Answer me!"

"F Off!"

Looking over Vaughn's shoulder at the guards, the man muttered, "Come and get me when he's ready to talk," and proceeded to walk out of the room.

The first guard came over to Vaughn and sneered. The guard brought his arm up and slammed his elbow into Vaughn's face. Blood filled Vaughn's mouth, and turning to the guard, he spat it out at him. The guard looked down at his black shirt with little droplets of blood, and then looked up angrily at Vaughn. Punching Vaughn in the face, the guard laughed as a torrent of blood started running out of Vaughn's nostrils. Before Vaughn could do anything else, he felt another jarring impact that knocked him unconscious.

The darkly clad person was bending over, reaching into the cradle as Sydney quietly managed to get out of the bed. Looking around frantically, the only weapon she could see within reach was the telephone on the nightstand. As quietly as she could, she reached around to the back, disconnected the telephone cord, and grabbed the base in her hand. Stealthily running to the figure's side, she bashed him across the face. She could see blood coming from his face. As he fell backwards, she could see J. D. in his hands. His body cushioned the flow for J. D, and while he was down, Sydney walked up to him.

With all the force she could muster, she slammed her foot into the figure's genitalia. The man sat up as fast as he could, setting J. D. aside in order to clutch his private area. Using this distraction, Sydney grabbed J. D. and ran out of the room and to the door next to it. Placing her eye next to the scanner, she allowed it to read her retina before the panic room door opened. Placing J. D. in the cradle inside the room, she quickly exited the panic room and triggered the door to close. When the satisfying click resounded, she knew J. D. was safe.

Sydney knew she had to get to her gun in the bedroom if she was going to have a chance to minimize the damage the fight would cause. As she turned the corner to her room, she was relieved to see that no one was in there. Running to her drawer, she pulled out the gun. Running back to J. D.'s room, she saw the thug starting to stand up.

"Freeze," she yelled, aiming the gun at him. As he turned around slowly, she kept the gun trained on. "Take off your mask," she instructed next.

The man slowly put his hands up to the seam of the ski mask. Slowly pulling upward, Sydney looked at her unknown assailant as his facial features became more familiar.

A quiet creak of wood caused Sydney to whirl around quickly. The last thing she saw before she dropped was a fist coming closer to her face.

Kendall furiously dialled Sydney's number. He heard it ring. Once. Twice. Three times. The ringing continued. After around two minutes, an out of breath Sydney answered. "What is it?"

"Agent Bristow, we have a problem."

"We have a problem here, too."

"What is it?"

"Someone broke into my house. They were after J. D. I only saw one of them at first."

"Did you recognize this person?"

"Yeah. It was Sark."

"Sark was at your house?"

"Yeah, but he wasn't the only one."

"Who else."

"Lauren Reed."

"What?"

"She snuck up behind me. She used something to knock me out." Kendall heard a groan.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah."

"Did they get your child?"

"I don't know. Your phone call was what woke me up. Let me check."
Kendall waited on the other end of the line while Sydney managed to get up and walk over to the panic room. He heard the door slide open. A gunshot sounded, and then two more. "They're still here!" Sydney yelled into the phone. Kendall heard more gunshots, and then the line went dead.

Vaughn tried to open his eyes, but he could only get one open. The other was swollen shut. A new man was standing in front of him. "Are you ready to talk?" the man said in broken English.

Vaughn remained silent. The new man gestured to the guard that had knocked him out earlier. Vaughn felt the restraint on his left hand loosen. He tried to overpower the guard, but the beatings had made him weaker. His hand was forced around front and then secured to a metal armrest that had been set down next to the chair.

The guard unsheathed a knife that he had on his belt. "Pick a finger," the new torturer said.

"How about this one," Vaughn said, retracting all his fingers but his middle one.

"You Americans and that stupid obscene hand gesture," the man said shaking his head. "Very well, take it," the torturer said. Vaughn felt the sharp edge at the end of his middle finger and grimaced as it started to move back and forth.

…TBC…