Chapter 14

Loid POV

Damian and Anya head to her room, and Yor passed out in the bed. After I offered her more wine knowing the number of glasses it takes to put her right to sleep.

Using this time I was able to further analyze the recordings of the bug at the Blackbells. Becky's dad mentioned a Dr. Petrov but doesn't say much about him other than trying to locate him. Which piqued my curiosity.

I go to my spy computer and do a search on him and find out that he has his doctorate in Engineering and he wrote articles on how to weaponize the material Desmonds is trying to get his hands on.

According to his tax records he works as a professor over at Berlint University. I'll need to figure out a way into the campus. So we can get close enough to talk to him and question him about what he knows.

Other than that the Blackbells didn't provide much information aside from him working from home.

Becky's phone however offered a bit more insight. I was able to build off the timeline Anya started even though I had to fix the order a bit.

One thing that stood out was Becky made plans with her boyfriend which she clearly didn't show up for.

Yet there isn't a single follow up message in over a week. But looking at their thread they texted and sexted quite often, which would mean it's not her regular behavior. Which doesn't alarm him in any way? I agree with Anya that he needs to be questioned.

After getting this new information things slowly started coming together but still incomplete.

Let's start with what's obvious. The staff say they never saw her leave the property. Which means she was taken from her room, which we know because her room didn't look trashed on Saturday when Anya and I came to check on her after the first attack. From the looks of it, they entered through the balcony and likely exited the same way.

Though it looks like she put up a fight while they were after her, which proves they must've had knowledge of her getting ready to sneak out.

I look over the photos Anya took, I wish there was something we could compare it to. To see if anything is missing from her room. They left her phone behind so she couldn't be tracked.

Could be Donovan's mercenary group behind it, but how is the boyfriend involved? Could it be a coincidence that her boyfriend and the professor are at the same university.

I realized the time had flown since I was so engrossed in the details of it all. I walk up to Anya's door and wait a moment and just hear the murmur of them talking. I wait a moment before I knock on the door letting them know it's getting late when Damian opens it rather quickly.

I peer around the room to see if anything is out of place, but nothing seems off. I bid Damian good night, being sure to extend the invitation.

Then head to the living room as Anya walks him out. It still angers me just a mild simmer seeing him put his hands on her, just because I'm protective of her. Trust your daughter and it's best for the mission. I turn away and head to my room once I hear his bike speed off.

I decide to wrap it up myself and lie down beside the quietly snoring Yor and let peace take me for the night before I talk with Anya about Phase 2.

Yor had left in the morning to have her dress tailored again. That woman is a clutz in her formal wear. So that left just Anya and I an opportunity to catch up on what I found out so far.

She nods, taking in all the information focused on the task.

"Did Becky have a routine when she would sneak out?" I ask Anya, she thinks for a moment before responding.

"She usually plays music loud to cover any sounds of her escape." She is not fully sure of her answer. "Does she leave through the front or back door?" She shakes her head "She would go through her balcony."

That confirmed how they got in and grabbed her. "Someone had to have alerted them; that she was going to be sneaking out and knew the balcony was going to be accessible." She shakes her head angrily, gracing her features "had to be her asshole boyfriend." She exclaims.

"Which is why I need you to sign up for the next tour to Berlint University. Maybe you can put in a special request to sit in on an engineering lecture. That should give us an opening to talk to the professor." I say taking notes.

"Becky's boyfriend should be a priority in finding her right? I need to find an opening for him too." Anya adds pointing to my notepad. I have to think for a second because she's right. We have two suspects on the same campus, so we should try and talk to them both the same day to not raise suspicion by having multiple visits.

"I'll have to look further into him and his schedule and see if we can set up something." I say making a note to ask Frankie for the information.

Anya sits forward taking some of the documents and pulling them forward so she scans them for the details.

This feels good. Being open and working together.

She smiles, shuffling a different pile, "Are you reading my mind?" I already know. She shakes her head smirking "Nope." clearly lying.

She looks over the documents more and asks "Do we have anything else on Dr. Petrov's personal life? Family members?" I start to collect the papers and say "I'm waiting for the files from city hall to come in. Why?" I ask her curious about her train of thought.

She bites her lip nervously while I'm still trying to finish gathering the documents, noticing Anya mixed up the piles.

"It's just that when I was at Damian's the night of the party, I heard a person screaming in the woods... For a moment when I was running I could hear their thoughts and they said 'sorry Katrina'. I just thought maybe it could be connected." She ponders thoughtfully.

"We should be ready for any possibility." I say walking toward my room to put everything away in the secret compartment to put my spy files and hide my equipment from Yor.

Bond whines beside me and I realize we were so engrossed in our spy work he hasn't been out for a walk. "Anya take Bond out!" The perks of being a dad.

Anya POV

I scoff but begrudgingly agree to take Bond out since he sent me a vision of exactly where he plans to pee.

"Bond, don't you dare." I pet his head "give me one minute." I quickly changed into my workout gear, deciding to go for a run with him. Since I could use the air. I popped on my custom fitness band that Becky gave me last Christmas, when we were planning to start the new year on fitness. They don't even look like tech because she had them encrusted with diamonds that they look like regular bracelets. But we still wore them from time to time for gym class.

Connecting it to my phone again to track my steps and everything else. I put on my headphones and slide my phone in my pocket and grab Bond already leashed and head out the door. After I let Bond do his business first we broke out into a decent pace as we jogged through the park near the apartment.

I try to focus on the facts Papa and I were going over and there's still so many unknowns and questions. I'm trying to keep the faith that she's still alive and okay, even if her family is clearly trying to keep it under wraps. How are they planning to do so when the days go by, the school will surely question it. Will Mr. Blackbell eventually cave in to protect Becky, or will she just be a casualty of this war.

I continued going through the events and the information over and over to the point where I circled the entire park 5 times. I should head home, because Bond is starting to slow down his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth from trying to keep up, so I decided to get his old butt home.

Once I got home and gave Bond a big bowl of water and some lunch which he happily began lapping up. Once he was satiated I sat at the dining room table going into the app so I could see my run stats.

I scroll through the information noting my top speed and average stride and my heart rate and so much more.

After a while I just start perusing through the app completely bored since I'm so run down from the run, it's all I can manage to do at the moment.

I clicked on the social tab where you can compare your stats with your friends. When I gasp, and see Becky's stats over the past weeks. Her heartbeat is steady but there are times where it speeds up throughout the day. I jump out of my seat, Becky's alive!

As if on cue papa strides in with some laundry in his hand that he must've just washed and is about to fold. "How was your run?"

I stand quickly striding over to him even if my muscles ache when I do so. "Papa!" He drops the laundry "What's wrong?" He looks at me but I ignore his worried thoughts "Look!" I practically shoved my phone to him, "that's Becky's fitness band stats."

I show him mine by holding it up my arm. He's scrolling through the dates, "these readings are recent." He noted the same thing I did.

I flipped the screen back to the main menu to show him my lap information. Tracing the lines where it tracked my run and the paths I took. "Don't these things have GPS trackers?"

He forgets the laundry completely as he puts the phone on the table and heads to his room already calling out orders "Call your mother and see how long she's going to be, if it's too soon ask her to pick up some stuff from the store for dinner." He has the box of everything we have so far, and puts it on the table beside her phone. "I'll call Frankie so he can expedite the information we need so we know what we're working with."

He puts his hands on my shoulders centering me since I didn't realize I was shaking, "We're going to get her back." He pulls me into a hug "You did good Anya. You did good." I squeeze him back "So when are we going to get her."

"Patience," he says wisely. I just feel antsy, wanting to drop an army on Desmond to get Becky back.