2 Dads groggily opened his eyes, slowly regaining consciousness. His head hurt so much he thought he would vomit. He tried to swallow back the bile that rose in his throat but choked instead. He was gagged. He glanced down, trying to see what was in his mouth. It was his own tie. He reached up to pull his tie out of his mouth but found that his hands were handcuffed around a metal pole.
Something was wrong with his left eye. It wouldn't open all the way and it felt like tears were leaking out the corner and trickling down his face. He raised his shoulder as much as he could to wipe at it and could tell by the wetness on his shirt that he had wiped away blood.
If he could just remember what had happened...but he could only think about how tired he felt. He leaned forward and rested his forehead against the pole. The metal was cool against his pounding head. He let his good eye close and started to sink into sleep. The saliva pooling uncomfortably in his mouth caused him to choke and he woke up more fully this time, struggling to swallow around the gag.
He realized he probably had a concussion and would need to force himself to stay awake. His jaw ached and he could tell his lips were split open at the corners. He determined to recite the radio alphabet as fast as possible. It was something he did on early morning watches to stay awake. He made it as far as M…Mike. His CO would figure out a way to get him out of this. Mighty Mike Flynn wouldn't let him die here.
He rested his cheek against the pole and took stock of his surroundings. It was a storage room. He noticed the logo of the hotel he was staying at on several items. So he hadn't been taken very far, at least.
His memory suddenly came flooding back. He was in Singapore on holiday. He had been on an epic poker tour of Southeast Asia and should be flying home tomorrow. He must have done something to piss off one of the other players. But what? He didn't cheat at cards anymore, his dog tags were hidden beneath his shirt so he couldn't be identified as military, he didn't remember sleeping with anyone's wife…although it was a resort hotel, and the place was crowded with beautiful European women, so it was possible he had stepped over a line with the wrong guy's wife.
The fact that he seemed to be alone in a dimly lit storage room didn't inspire confidence that this was a ransom situation. Shouldn't someone be asking him who his richest friends were? Presumably, they had his phone and wallet which means they knew by now that he was Navy. They would also know by now that he wasn't as rich as his new suit implied. He wasn't a high roller and yet they had targeted him anyway.
His brain was too foggy to make sense of the situation. The poker game had ended—he had broken even—and he had stopped by the bar before calling it a night. He was heading up to his room when a maintenance man had gotten in the same elevator, and they had gone down instead of up. Which seemed fine at the time, what was the rush to go back to his empty room? But when the doors opened upon a staff only level the man had turned and punched 2 Dads in the face.
Another gap in his memory of the night appeared. Clearly, he had lost the fight.
He choked again as the gag impeded his ability to swallow his own saliva. He swiveled his head towards the sound of a door opening. A man he didn't recognize stepped into the room and closed the door quietly behind him.
"Kosov-Meyer," He stated 2 Dad's name.
2 Dads tried to keep his expression neutral, but it was difficult to control any aspect of his face. His left eye was more firmly shut than it had been minutes ago, and he couldn't move the lower half of his face due to the gag.
His captor took out a phone and held it in front of his face, angling it for a better photo of 2 Dads' injuries.
"Say hello to all your friends. You had better hope they like you…a lot." He spoke with a heavy Russian accent.
So this was a ransom situation. He tried to talk, to convince the guy to remove the gag, he knew if he could just have a chat with this guy then he could sort it out. He could tell him to contact the Australian embassy or the Navy. He only succeeded in making grunting noises and his questions came out sounding like monotone humming. He just needed to talk with the man and they could come to an agreement.
His captor turned his back on 2 Dads and crossed the room. He paused in the doorway and looked back at 2 Dads over his shoulder. "Talking is overrated, Kosov-Meyer."