Robert Woods sat at his desk in his spacious office and pressed the intercom button on his phone. When his secretary answered he said, "Try Mrs. McKenny again, Julia, please", then released the button. He was just about to open a file when the intercom beeped. He pressed the button again to answer it.

"I'm still getting the answering machine, Mr. Woods," his secretary said.

"Damn," he swore. "Get Sullivan on the phone." He released the button and turned his chair to look out the window at the San Francisco Bay. The intercom beeped and his secretary announced that his call was on line two. He picked up his phone. "Sullivan, I need you to go by the McKenny house. Our girl is still not answering and I'm getting a little more than concerned." He listened for a few seconds then said, "Good. Let me know." He hung up and got up from his chair and walked to the window. He looked out across the bay in the direction of Sausalito as if he could see Kelly's house.

A large man in a crumpled sport jacket stepped into the office and walked to one of the two chairs that sat in front of Woods' desk and sat down.

Woods turned and looked at the man as he sat down. "I think we may have a problem," he said.

The man looked up at Woods curiously. "With?" he asked.

"Mrs. McKenny," Woods answered and returned to his chair behind his desk. "She hasn't reported in since she got back and she's not answering her phone."

"I thought we had her under surveillance?" the man asked.

"We do," Woods stated. "But they're saying they haven't seen any lights on in the house. Seems she got into her car yesterday morning and acted like she was coming in, but then got out of her car and went back into the house and no one's seen her since."

"Hmmm," the man said thoughtfully.

"I just sent Sullivan to check on her," woods said.

"I told you I thought she might be a problem," then man looked at Woods. "She was just too head strong. The hardest on we have had."

"I know," Woods nodded. "But I thought that would pay off in the long run. That once the treatment took effect..." he let his sentence trail off as he began to fiddle with his pen thoughtfully. Just then his intercom beeped.

"Mr. Woods? Mr. Sullivan's on line two," his secretary announced.

Without acknowledging her Woods picked up the phone and looked at the man across from him as he spoke. "What did you find out?" he asked Sullivan. A look of shock came over his face.

The large man rose up and sat forward in his chair.

"What do you mean, she's gone? Gone where? How could she be gone?" Woods' voice betrayed the fact that he was on the verge of panic. "Well, find out. There's got to be some clue around there somewhere. She can't just have vanished. I want those idiots that were supposed to be keeping an eye on her to report in." He listened for a few minutes then said, "I don't care what you have to do...just get me some answers." He slammed the phone down and looked at the man across from him.

"Gone, huh?" The man said simply and Woods nodded. "Well she doesn't know anyone outside of the organization so where would she go?"

"As far as we know...she doesn't know anyone outside of the Organization," Woods said and got up and started pacing the floor.

"What do you mean?" the large man asked.

Woods stopped and looked directly into the man's eyes. "What if she's starting to remember?" he asked in a hushed voice.

The large man sat back in his chair, his brow furrowed and took in a deep, loud breath. "Do you think that's possible?"

Woods returned to pacing and shrugged. "I don't know. All I know is she's disappeared. And it looks like she left of her own accord. Why? I have no idea. I just know we have to get her back before ..." he let his sentence trail off.

"Before she does start to remember," the large man said quietly.

6 months later

Kelly had been touring the U.S. with the National Rodeo Association for six months. She had joined up with them after meeting Kevin and Toni (a husband and wife roping team that belonged to the group currently on tour) in a diner just outside of Medford, Oregon. They knew nothing of her situation, only that she had hit the road looking for adventure.

Kevin and Toni had taken her in and, after much insistence by Kelly, given her a job to pay her way. Her job was basically to help load and unload their horses, help saddle them up and get them ready for an event and whatever other little chores they needed help with. (It was the only way Kelly would accept their offer to stay with them in the motor home.)

After a couple of weeks Toni had noticed Kelly's natural connection to the horses. They responded to her in a way Toni had only seen one other time before and that was with her grandfather, a Sioux Shaman. So Toni discussed it with Kevin and during a three day break tested Kelly's horsemanship.

Kelly had no knowledge of ever really being around horses much. She could remember renting some one time on a family vacation (and even that memory was fuzzy). But she felt the connection Toni had seen. It was as though when she looked into the horse's eyes, there was some sort of communication that passed between them. The two usually skittish horses of Kevin and Toni's were calm and passive in Kelly's hands.

Toni had decided to let Kelly ride her bay mare, Chickeepoo. When Kelly swung into the saddle and took the reigns it was obvious that she knew what she was doing and that she was completely at home. As she ran Chickeepoo through her paces, Kelly displayed the calm control of someone totally in charge and the headstrong, sometimes uncontrollable mare sensed it, too, and responded without hesitation to every one of Kelly's commands.

Another member of the touring rodeo association observed Kelly's display and offered up one of his horses for her to ride in the Barrel Racing portion of the rodeo (to which Kelly agreed as long as they split whatever monetary winnings she might earn).

From that point on Kelly traveled with Kevin and Toni from the West coast to the East coast and back again as a member of the association and competitor. Their last scheduled rodeo was to be held on the last weekend of a two week long country fair just outside of the seaport city of Seacouver, Washington.

Kelly was looking forward to this rodeo because she had discovered during her bus ride to Medford, Oregon that she loved the rain forests of the Pacific Northwest.

The motor home was traveling along the Columbia River on the Oregon side. As Kelly looked with fascination at the scenery she asked, "Do you think we'll have some time for any sight seeing before the rodeo?"

Kevin smiled as he maneuvered the motor home through light traffic. "I'm sure we will. If we keep going we should be there by tomorrow morning which will be a week ahead of schedule," he answered.

"Never been in these parts before?" Toni asked.

Kelly shook her head. "It's like a different world. It's so beautiful. So green and clean."

"Yep," Kevin said. "Welcome to the Pacific Northwest."

As Kevin predicted, they arrived at the fairgrounds outside of the Seacouver city limits just after sunrise the following day. They checked in and located their assigned "camp" spot and Kevin and Kelly unloaded the horses while Toni prepared breakfast.

After breakfast Kevin joined a group of the men for a poker game, Toni went into the back room of the motor home to take a nap and Kelly decided to take Patches, the brown and white Paint on loan to her, for a ride along the beach of the peninsula.

TO BE CONTINUED