Brennan could only sit in the rigid chair in silence as his captors were conversing several feet away. He could not make out what they were saying, but he could tell that it was an important conversation, and it distracted them from him. Now's my chance to escape he thought. He looked around for something sharp that could cut through the rope. There were no corners, pipes, knives, cut glass, or anything sharp within twenty feet of him. Even the chair didn't have any corners, everything was round.
After nearly an hour, his captors finished their conversation and three of them went upstairs, while the other two watched Brennan. Brennan was so intent on trying to escape that he somehow did not notice the two men watching his every move. He decided to try to move the chair over to the stairs, where he could cut the ropes on the corners. Moving was not too difficult for him. His feet were not tied to the chair, but they were tied together. He tried to stand, the ropes around his arms and the back of the chair as well as the ropes around his waist helped him support the chair. He inched closer and closer to his freedom.
"I don't think that's going to work." The leader of the group said with a calm smugness that reminded Brennan of Ekhart. Brennan turned, saw the two men watching him, and sat down again with an agitated grunt. The two men moved him over to his original location. "I guess we'll have to have a guard at all times, or a security camera." The leader smirked.
The three men who had left returned with a video camera, a tripod ,a long distance transceiver, and a bucket full of water, half of which was immediately dumped on Brennan's head, drenching him all over. The tripod was placed on the floor about ten feet in front of Brennan, and the camera was placed on the tripod facing him. One man distributed face masks, and everyone put them on. The transceiver, which looked like it had been somehow modified, was turned on and connected to the camera and a television, which was placed next to the camera facing Brennan. All five men stood behind or beside Brennan, making the hostage the focus of the group.
"We know about the specific frequencies used by Mutant X so your communications cannot be listened to. That is how we were able to impersonate the Dominion to order you here, where we were ready. Now we can send a message with our demands to your people, and in exhange, they get you." The leader said as he nonverbally ordered one of his accomplices to turn on the camera and the television.
At Sanctuary, Jesse was trying to find the identities of Brennan's captors using the vague descriptions given to him from Shalimar and Lexa, who were standing right behind him in case they recognized anyone.
"So what exactly did the Dominion say they were going to do about this situation?" Jesse turned to Lexa with a curious look on his face.
Lexa was agitated. "They said they would try to find them, and we should keep them aprised of what's happening.
As Jesse turned back to his search, the computer screen went black, then a message came up. It read: Transmission being received. On the screen appeared four masked men. Directly in front of two, and in between to others, was Brennan, bound, gagged, and drenched. Their leader spoke up. "Hello, Mutant X. You may call me Mason." He looked at the way they shuddered after hearing the name of the man they hated most. He smiled. "Yes, I intentionally decided to have you know me by the same name as Mr. Ekhart, my former employer."
Shalimar, Lexa, and Jesse realized that man worked for Genomex. Their past had come back to haunt them.
Mason continued. "As you can see, we have Brennan Mulwray with us, and he seems okay. Why doesn't he tell you himself?"
Taking his time, he untied the gag and removed it from Brennan's mouth. "Brennan, are you okay?" Shalimar asked.
Brennan nodded. "I'm alright."
"Well, thank you for your input. That will be all for now." Mason gagged Brennan as he was before and turned to the camera to talk to Mutant X. "He will be returned to you safe and sound as long as you give me exactly what I want."