Kaznia
''Couldn't she simply have gone back to the island for a while?'' General Laurel Lance asked. To tell the truth, she was getting rather irritated about having to take part in this search for Savage's bed mate.
''Not without letting me know'' Savage growled at her. ''I want her found.''
Don't we all, Cassandra thought. She was genuinely fond of Alice - and knew that her father would be like a bear with a sore head if anything had happened to his closest friend.
When Alice hadn't come back from her walk - and it was a route that she knew well - some of Lance's troops had been sent to search for her. The most experienced tracker among them found a few scuffmarks on the ground but wasn't sure what had caused them.
''She could have sat down - got a stone in her shoe, maybe.'' was the soldier's conclusion.
She'd been on the route. Now she'd vanished. Kidnapped?
No one wanted to say it, but they were thinking about what had happened to Dronon and then Caspar. If Alice was the next on their unknown enemy's list, then she was almost certainly dead.
Eventually the coming of night had driven them off the trail, although Savage was determined to go back the next day. When the others turned in, he prowled about his room, acting rather like the bear his daughter had compared him to. In the end he did lie down, fully clothed, drifting into a light, uneasy, sleep.
From which he awoke with a jolt. Someone was in the room with him. He reached out towards the drawer where he kept his gun. Another hand, another arm, brushed against his. Suddenly the bedside light came on and he found himself looking at a familiar face.
'He caught hold of her, perhaps a touch too firmly, for she winced.
''Sorry'' he relaxed his hands a bit. ''Where have you been?''
''It's a long story'' Alice murmured. ''but I'm here now.''
She moved closer to him, as if aiming for a kiss. Then she jammed something against his side. He might have screamed, if he'd been able to get any sound out. Something that was not-quite electricity had coursed through him. It hurt like the blazes, and it left him unable to move. He could see though and the figure that was now pulling away from him wasn't his Alice. Wasn't even human.
He remembered that he'd thought the arm he'd brushed against in the dark had been furry - as this creature's arm was, along with much of the rest of it. The inhuman face looked down at him, a cold look in its eyes.
''He's paralysed. He's all yours.'' the furry being said, stepping backwards. The thing's voice was still female.
Several other figures moved into view. Mostly male, all human - or at least humanoid.
He was being lifted from the bed, dumped onto some kind of stretcher. Straps were being fastened tightly about his arms, legs, thighs and chest. He tried to struggle but got no response from his muscles.
Suddenly he caught sight of Cassandra's eyes, as awake and helpless as he was. She was strapped to another stretcher. His fury rose but had no effect on his condition. Nikki was in a similar state. Lance was too but appeared to be unconscious - perhaps she had been able to fight. He hoped she'd done a good job.
Where were his guards? They were being taken outside and there was no challenge. He would have slumped, had he been able to move. No doubt the guards had been dealt with in the same way as the four prisoners - or in a worse manner.
They were being carried away from the house, into the landscaped grounds of his estate. What he suddenly saw at the far side of a coppice shocked him more than anything this night - a strange aerial craft was waiting for them. He had seen plenty of Time Master technology - as well as that from Earth - to know this didn't come from either place. It was as alien as that creature that had somehow pretended to be Alice.
They were carried on board, taken to some kind of storage hold and simply dumped on the ground. Their captors left. Later - perhaps five minutes later - he felt movement. The vessel was in was going up- and up - and up. He was able to see Nikki's eyes from where he was lying and saw them flicker slightly. The paralysis was starting to wear off - but that didn't help much. They were on an alien craft, being taken out of Earth's atmosphere, heading for some unknown location. He'd never felt so helpless before. He didn't like it. He'd get his own back for this.