Warning: Rated for language, intense suspense situations involving children and nudity.
The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.
Author's Note:
For the purposes of this story, Mrs. Ishiyama's first name is 'Miko.'
She was in the kitchen, cleaning vegetables for the evening's meal. The children should be home momentarily, she thought to herself, I need to make sure Hiroki gets right on his homework, he's been falling behind in Math. Yumi can finish with the vegetables and set the table and...
The phone rang. She answered it, "hello?"
"Miko Ishiyama?" said the caller.
"Yes, this is she," she replied.
"I have a message for you," the caller said.
There was a moment of silence, then she heard a scream over the phone, "Aaaaaaaaaaiiiii! Stopppppppp! It hurts! Mommy! Aaaaaaaaaaiiiii!"
It was her son, Hiroki.
Immediately after that, "Bastards! Leave him alone! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Yumi.
After a moment, the caller was back, "I trust you understand my message."
"What do you want," she said, shaken, "we have very little money, but whatever you want..."
"What I want is for this whole business to be over," the caller said, "very soon, you will be contacted by the police. Tell them nothing, or what you just heard will be a pale imitation of what will happen to them. Don't tell your husband either. You will be contacted later with further instructions. We can see and hear your every move, so don't try anything stupid."
"I understand," was all she could say.
"Good. And by the way, don't forget to pick up some tampons at the store, you used the last one this morning." The call ended.
She hung up the phone, visibly shaken. What was going on?
An hour after she received the phone call, the police came to the Ishiyama residence.
"Excuse me, ma'am, but are you Miko Ishiyama, mother of Yumi Ishiyama?" the officer asked when she answered the door.
"Yes, how may I help you?" she replied, trying to retain her composure.
"Ma'am, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your daughter was kidnapped at around 3 pm today. She was walking home with an acquaintance when she was grabbed off the street, about three blocks from here. The young man was seriously injured, and is currently being treated at the hospital, but he was able to tell us a little bit. If I may, could I come in and ask you some questions?"
She allowed a little of her terror show. "Yes, please come in," she said, her voice starting to shake.
The officer came in and politely asked his questions; could she think of any reason why someone would want to take her daughter; was there anyone out of the ordinary seen in the neighborhood recently?
While the officer was talking, he received a call on his cell phone. He spoke with the caller for a moment, then ended the call.
"Mrs. Ishiyama, I'm sorry to be the bearer of more bad news, but I just got a report that your son, Hiroki Ishiyama, has disappeared from school. No one can account for his whereabouts from about 3 pm today."
She screamed and broke down and started to cry, now. She had held back her tears as long as she could, making sure the policeman had no reason to suspect that she already knew about the abductions. But her terror finally overwhelmed her and she collapsed to the floor. The officer helped her into a chair and tried to give her some reassurance.
By the time her husband got home, the house was swarming with police. When he arrived, Takeo Ishiyama was confronted by several police officers, demanding some identification from him. As he complied with the request, he demanded to know what was going on. He fainted when they told him.
Miko had recovered in the meantime, and was listening to what the detective now assigned to the case was telling her. His voice was far away to her, like a muffled sound at the other end of a tunnel. The only thing she truly heard was the screams of her children.
The police finally left them alone, leaving two uniformed officers in a patrol car stationed in front of the house.
Dinner was forgotten about, neither she or her husband had any appetite. He shuffled about the house for a few minutes, then staggered upstairs, a broken man. Miko heard his sobs as he climbed the stairs.
She sat at the kitchen table, lost in her nightmare. She was so lost that she was startled when her cell phone rang. She scrambled for it, and answered the call.
"That was a very good job, Mrs. Ishiyama," the caller said, "you did very well."
"What do you want," Miko asked the man, "I told you earlier we have little money..."
"This isn't about money," the man said, "and your children are safe, for now. What happened earlier wasn't permanent, just painful. I have been told by my employer to tell you that you have one day, tomorrow. After that, you will meet with us at a location we will give you tomorrow night."
"And what about my children," she said.
"What about your children is if you don't show up at the appointed place at the appointed time, you'll spend the rest of your life wondering where all of the pieces of them are. I will call back tomorrow night."
Click!
In front of a computer terminal in a computer lab, three levels below the basement of an old factory, four friends were listening in on the phone conversation Mrs. Ishiyama just had.
After the call ended, the blond headed boy sitting before the computer terminal asked, "Were you able to get a phone number?"
"Yes, Jeremie, I was," came a voice from the terminal. On the screen, there was the image of an older man in a display window. The reply came from the man.
"I not only have a phone number," said the man, "I was also able to isolate the cell tower the call was coming from."
Another window popped open, displaying a map of Paris. A red dot blinked for a moment, then the map zoomed in on the location. It was in the Warehouse District of the city, a maze of warehouses and light manufacturing.
"About how big an area are we talking about," the boy asked.
"Approximately one half a kilometer radius," the man replied, "that's a lot of territory to cover."
"Can you do it?"
"Yes, I'm monitoring that tower and the ones around it for any call coming from that unit. If I find anything more, I'll contact you immediately."
"Thank you, Papa," said the pink haired girl standing next to the boy in the chair.