27 Hours Missing
Location Unknown Lake
"Did I ever tell you how much I hate being underwater," Jessica whispered to Zach, as she stared at the dark water, and he shot a glance over in her direction to see that there was fear in her eyes. "This really isn't my cup of tea, you know."
"Ah, come on Jess, it's nothing," Zach said, as he struggled to keep above water. Having your hands handcuffed and trying to swim didn't go hand and hand. "Just relax, and it'll be over soon."
"Oh, that's comforting to know." She slid under the water, only to have both Zach and Martin pull her up. "Thanks, guys."
"You're welcome," Martin replied, as Sam ducked under the water. "Sam?"
"Just checking to see if I could spot the boxes," she answered, as she after she came back to the surface. "I think I might have seen one. They're not all together either."
"Oh, great," Zach muttered, as he ducked under the water. Jessica watched in horror and Martin kept a hold on her arm, as he treaded water.
"I'm not going to be able to do this," Jessica whispered, as she watched Zach go under the water, and the two agents shot each other a worried look. "I'm so sorry. This is just not my element. I know it's his. Water is not really Eric's element, but it is more Zach's element."
"You know that he's not Eric," Sam whispered, as she swam over to their side. "Since when?"
"Since he called me Sis. Eric has never called me 'sis' before in our entire life. It was either Jess or Jica. Never 'sis'. It wasn't his name for me. Just like I never called him bro."
"We didn't know that." Just then Zach came up gasping for air and Sam grabbed onto his arm, as he starting to go under. "Hey, you all right?"
"Holy, cow," he gasped, as he looked around. "Those boxes aren't just on the bottom, they're tied down." He shook his head, sending water everywhere. "They meant for us to fail."
"Looks that way." Sam and Martin shot a glance over to see that the man was watching them. "Okay, we'll give it a try. You guys stay up here. Try to keep Jessica calm. We'll be back." Sam and Martin took a couple of deep breaths before going under. Zach took a gentle hold of Jessica's arm as he kept them a float by kicking, for that's all he could do with his hands cuffed in front of them.
"I hope that they'll be okay," Jessica mumbled after a minute, causing Zach to look down at her. Her face was rather pale. "I mean, I don't want them to drown."
"I'm sure they'll be fine, Jess," Zach whispered, as he licked his lips. "They'll highly trained F.B.I. agents. They're good at their jobs. True, I don't think, swimming is something they do everyday, but I think they can handle this."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I think I'm sure." Just then both Martin and same came up with a set of boxes each. "See what did I tell ya?"
"We got them," Martin said, as he swam over to their sides. "No problem at all."
"All of them?" Jessica asked, as she looked at the boxes in their hands.
"Yeah, they were attached to each other, seems when we pulled up one, they came along with each other."
"So we can get out of the water now?" She looked back at the beach to see that man was on the phone with someone but wasn't looking very happy. "Oh, no, he's on the phone with his friend again."
"And that's a bad thing?" Zach asked, as he treaded water.
"Yeah, because usually after he's done talking to his friend, he doesn't end up in a happy mood."
"Oh, I get ya." He then turned his attention to the two agents. "Okay, agents. What do we do?"
"What can we do?" Sam said, as she looked around. "We're in the middle of a lake. We're too far from shore. We can't possible get there without being seen. Even if we tried, they got guns, which means they could shoot us for trying to escape, and we won't even try that way."
"So we go back to them," Jessica muttered, as she turned to look at the man, as he ended his phone call. "Oh, lovely. Just what I wanted to do. Go back to the psycho with the stun stick."
"Hey, cheer up," Zach whispered to her. "We all got to make decisions we don't want to. Like me having to go a college out of state that way across the nation."
"Let me guess, your sister isn't going with you." That got Zach to lock eyes with her."
"How did you know?"
"I've known since you call me 'Sis'." He then smiled, as he shot a smile to Sam and shrugged. "You gotta give yourself credit. Most guys wouldn't put themselves through this torture for someone they didn't know."
"Ah, well I'm very special kind of person." He then shot a glance back at the beach. "Just don't tell your buddy that. Cause if had a hunch, once he figures out that I'm that kind of a person. I'm gonna be in a whole lot of trouble."
"Gotcha." She then looked over at the soaked agents. "Guess we better be getting back to see what he wants."
"Yeah, we better," Sam said, as they started to swim for the beach. "Let's just hope that it's good."
"Yeah, let's hope," Martin said, as they got back to the beach and threw the boxes down on the ground. "Here you go."
"See that wasn't so hard, now was it, Jessica," the man said to Jessica, as he looked over at her. "Even if you don't really care all that much for deep water."
"You know, your sick," Zach muttered, as he looked at the man, as he bent to open the boxes. "You prey on people and their fears. You're a horrible person."
"And you're just figuring this out just now, Eric. Man, you're are slow in the head." The man got to his feet and tossed the keys to Martin. "Open the cuffs, slowly and no fancy tricks, or they'll be dead before you move."
"And I would believe him," Jessica added, as she moved over to Martin's side. "So what do we do now?"
"We stick together, and no panic," Martin answered, as he began to work on her cuffs, and quickly grabbed her wrists when she started to bolt. "And not bolt. We'll get out of this together."
"Okay." She then shot a glance at the others. "Just tell me what I need to do."
"Relax, and follow our lead."
"What are you going to do?"
"Just follow our lead."
"Okay."
FBI: Missing Person's Head Quarters: Bull Pen
Danny and Jack looked up at the screen and a frown crossed Jack's face. "Something wrong?" Elizabeth asked, as she came up to their side. "What's wrong? Is Zach okay?"
"They're going to do something stupid," Jack answered, as he looked over at Danny. "Something really stupid." Just then they heard gun fire go off and they turned towards the screen to see the agents, Jessica, and Zach dive back into the water. "Yeah, they did something stupid."
"Like always," Danny muttered, as they looked at each other.
TBC
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