CHAPTER 97 – THE BARGAINING CHIP

"You take one side, I'll take the other." Jack motioned with his head and then walked to the left side of the cafeteria.

As Elizabeth went from table to table asking diners if they had seen Aaron, she told herself to remain calm. Trying to convince herself that this was just like when the small boy had floated away during the lack of artificial gravity. That he was somewhere safe. Enjoying himself.

Jack's right. We're on a transporter.

It wasn't as if some woman could kidnap their boy and pretend that he belonged to her. Every passenger knew that the only infant on the transporter was Aaron Daniel Thornton, son of Jack and Elizabeth Thornton.

And ignoring the fact that they were on a vehicle hurtling through space, it was a relatively safe environment.

He's probably being kissed and fawned over by some woman missing her grandchildren or nephews, she thought.

"Okay, thanks anyway. Sorry to bother your meal," Elizabeth told a group of engineers who had paused in their conversation to report that they hadn't seen Aaron.

Looking across the room she caught Jack's eye. He gave a tiny shake of his head indicating he hadn't had any luck either.

"No one has seen him," Elizabeth reported uneasily a minute later when she and Jack met in the center of the room.

"Don't worry. Obviously, he's not in the cafeteria but he might be close by."

"Should we send a board-wide message? Asking whoever stole our son to bring him back before I go ballistic?"

"Bit dramatic. Let's ask around some more. Whoever took him may have taken him to the kitchen."

"We would have seen them when we were in line," Elizabeth argued.

"Maybe she took him for a crawl in a corridor, or maybe he needed a diaper change and she took him to a bathroom."

"Without a fresh diaper?" Elizabeth raise her eyebrows.

"That's it," Jack said with a hopeful look. "She probably took him to our quarters to get a fresh diaper. Let's check there."

As they hurried down the hallway, Elizabeth complained that the passengers were becoming way too familiar with their son. It had been cute when he had become somewhat of the ship's unofficial mascot and everyone liked to tickle his toes and run a hand through his soft hair whenever they saw him, but if a passenger or crew member thought that it was okay to take him without Jack or Elizabeth's permission, familiarity had gone too far.

"You know how most everyone treats him likes he's one of theirs. They look out for him, ask about him. The lieutenant from IT asked if she could snuggle with him last week," Jack reminded Elizabeth.

"I mean, it's nice if this lady who took him wanted to change his diaper for us, but the whole thing just doesn't make sense. We were just in the cafeteria line," Elizabeth said in irritation. "Why wouldn't she tell us?"

"I don't know. Maybe she was trying to do us a favor. People know how busy we are, and you had the head injury a few days ago. She probably wanted to hold him, noticed he had a dirty diaper, and decided to change it for us."

"It's still pretty odd."

"Scientists are odd. But if he's not here, we'll go to the security office and check the cameras."

"You don't see me going around taking other people's kids," she grumbled as she thought about someone nonchalantly walking off with Aaron Daniel.

Jack smiled. "You spend all day walking off with other people's kids. You have a small classroom of other people's kids. And you've taken kids to eat before when their parents aren't around. And you've taken the kids for walks around the ship on your educational tour things."

He has a point, she realized.

Elizabeth's irritation at someone taking her son turned to bewilderment when the door to their quarters slid open.

"Did you leave his diaper bag stuff on the floor like that?" Jack asked.

The now empty bag, a clean cloth diaper, a small plastic bottle, and the silicone teether made from melted condoms lay scattered with other objects on the floor.

Elizabeth stepped over a small container of wipes, and looked around.

"Why are our beds unmade? And someone was in our lockers!" she exclaimed.

"What the hell?"

A stunned Jack picked up a pillow and tossed it back to the top of a berth. Moving to the open lockers, he scanned the items inside.

"Look around. Anything missing?" he asked over his shoulder.

"We don't have anything to be missing," a dumbfounded Elizabeth replied. "Clothes, our laptops, that's about all we have. Why would someone go through our belongings?"

"Do you think this is payback? For your health and welfare inspections?" Elizabeth asked a moment later as she and Jack began picking clothes off the floor as they tried to grasp what was going on.

"I was just doing my job," Jack answered dismissively.

"But some people were upset. Really upset." Elizabeth paused when she remembered what Joyce and Susie had told her days ago in the elevator. "Homicide! Not home side! Some man was mad at you for going through his belongings. The twins saw you arguing with him! They heard him say homicide! Only, they couldn't pronounce it right and I thought it was something about a home! Maybe this is his way of getting back at you!"

Jack shook his head. "That was just one of the ensigns. He was irritated because I found some alcohol in his quarters, and had to write him up. He yelled that it wasn't like he was committing a homicide. He was a bit pissed at me, but he got over it."

"Can you pull up the security footage from the hall cameras?" Elizabeth asked hurriedly.

Rather than head to the Security Office, an impatient Elizabeth had used her computer savvy, Jack's Earth Citizen number, and Jack's password to pull up some camera footage on her laptop.

"I can only get a few minutes at a time because it's too much data to download all at once. And the pixels aren't going to be as sharp," Elizabeth explained as the keyboard making a clicking sound under her fingers. "How far should I go back?"

"What time did we go to dinner? Do it around then. I don't think this was a random ransacking."

"You think they were looking for something?"

"It's possible. It's too coincidental with your assault and the corn investigation. It also could be two people. One got Aaron and another searched our place. But let's just assume for now that it was one person. My guess is the person didn't find what they were looking for here, and then went to the cafeteria and got Aaron."

"Here," Elizabeth announced and the couple stared at the small screen. Waiting for the images to finish downloading.

"Who is that?" a puzzled Jack asked as he squinted his eyes and leaned closer.

"She's either got short hair or it's tucked up under her ball-cap. Who do we know with short hair? And someone that size?

The couple watched as the figure picked up the diaper bag from Elizabeth's desk, rummaged through it, and then dumped its contents onto the floor. She next moved to the lockers, but apparently didn't find what she was looking for in the storage units.

Elizabeth gasped. "It's Jolene!"

"Are you sure?" Jack studied the image.

"Yes! I think. No wonder the twins didn't recognize her. She works the night shift. They wouldn't know her. You interviewed her. What did she say?"

"Nothing. She seemed normal. Have you had any conversations with her? Seen her acting odd? Heard anyone talk about her?"

"I don't even know her. She's a night-shift worker," Elizabeth repeated. "I ran into her in the corridor earlier but that's it."

"What did you say to her?"

"Nothing. Just pleasantries. She had picked up Acorn's toy when he dropped it."

"Why would she be in here searching for something?"

Elizabeth lifted her hands in confusion. "I don't know. Maybe she wasn't. Maybe she was just mad about a health and welfare inspection. You went through her stuff so she decided to mess with our place. Seeing me in the hallway reminded her of you going through her stuff. She wants a little payback. Mess up our place. Take our kid temporarily. You know, inconvenience us because you inconvenienced her."

"I looked through her locker and berth. I didn't steal a kid."

"What other reason could she have?"

"Seems a bit much. I'd figure out it was her and write her up. She'd be in more trouble than it's worth just to get even with me for doing an inspection. . . . . Which means she might be the person who assaulted you and is involved in the corn scheme."

"If she was the person who hit me with the laptop and stole it, why is she coming back to our quarters?"

"Pull up more footage. Try the hallway?"

Elizabeth clicked on her keyboard, and was rewarded with a blank screen. Her forehead crinkled in puzzlement as she clicked some more.

"That's odd. It says there's no connection. That the electrical system's got a glitch. It must have just gone down."

"Let's go to the security office, " Jack told her and moved towards the door.

"It won't do any good. I'm hacked in. No cameras or videos are working."

Jack and Elizabeth stared at each other. Wondering the next step.

"Let's think rationally," Jack announced as he tried to make sense of the situation. "Someone was smuggling corn on-board the transporter to take it to Coal Valley to substitute for a lesser grade and be awarded a lucrative contract. I did inspections but couldn't find anything. You accidentally received holograms linking people to the scam. Someone hit you over the head when you caught them stealing your laptop. Now someone has taken Aaron and looked through our stuff. Why?"

A bewildered Elizabeth moved to sit down and felt Aaron's cord of objects hanging out of her back pocket. She pulled it out and set it next to her on the berth.

A split second later her eyes got wide and she grabbed it again. "The flash drive!" she exclaimed.

"What about it?"

"Jolene saw me with it," a stunned Elizabeth shouted out as she showed the home-made toy to Jack. "When Aaron dropped it, I thought she was looking at me oddly because it's a weird assortment of playthings for a baby and I was explaining how his toys were sent to Mock Earth. That I had taken objects and stung them together for him to play with. But she didn't care about that! She was staring at it because she saw the flash drive! I put a flash-drive on the cord because it's all encased in plastic so I didn't think it was a hazard for Acorn. He could chew on it and he'd be fine. She wants the flash-drive! She thinks I have a copy of the holograms on it!"

"And she came here looking for it?"

"She didn't know I was going to your office to get you. Maybe she thought I came back here before dinner. She didn't find me or the toy here so she went to the Cafeteria. But Acorn didn't have it with him! Because I had it in my back pocket!"

"Is one of the holograms on there?!" an astounded Jack asked.

Elizabeth shook her head. "No, but she doesn't know that. She wants the flash drive to destroy it."

"And she's using Aaron as leverage to get it," Jack said worriedly.