02/15/2019
**Note: I'm loving all of your comments, keep them coming. Apologies to anyone who read the spoilers in the reviews before they read the all of the chapters – I included a note in the summary to give fair warning to those who haven't yet read it. Enjoy this chapter!
Stephanie was walking through a maze of darkness, tripping over rocks and sliding on gravel. Something was propelling her forward, but she had no idea where she was going. She couldn't turn her head to look around. She came to the edge of a mountain and saw a man with his back to her. She tried to call out to him, but she couldn't form the words. He turned and gave her an evil, yet strangely familiar smile and disappeared over the edge, but not before she saw the blood all over the man's hands and the body lying beside her. She fell to her knees and screamed and screamed and suddenly Tank's concerned face swam into focus.
"I think you were having a nightmare," Tank said. That's putting it mildly, I thought. "Dreaming about blowing up cars again?" "I wish," I said. "We're just about to land," Tank said. I buckled my seat belt and took a deep breath. As soon as we had received our instructions for our next location, Tank chartered a flight to get us down to Miami right away. Tank was sitting to my left and Sylvio to my right. I don't think any of us had slept more than a couple of hours since Ranger went missing. I was both exhausted and full of nervous energy, anxious to find the next clue in this game from hell that we had to play.
Sylvio had been typing away at his computer from the moment the plane left the ground. He wasn't kidding when he said his fingers were like magic. "Anything of interest pop up?" I asked him. "Maybe," Sylvio said. "I've been researching this family that bought SE Corp and it seems completely out of character for them. I'm cross referencing employees and partners to see if maybe anyone has a history with the family. Ranger wanted me to check on the daughter who runs the place, but so far I'm not seeing much." My heart constricted a little at the sound of Ranger's name, but I pushed the feeling aside. "Well Ranger must have had a good reason to ask you to check her out," I said. "Agreed," Sylvio said. "That's why I'm not calling it on this one until I'm certain I've uncovered everything." "Exactly how much can you uncover?" I asked him. "I can pretty much find anything with the exception of what you store in your head. And even then, it's not outside the realm of possibility that I can't find it," he said with a small smile.
The plane touched down and I grabbed my phone to check for messages. It had been a little more than 4 hours since the clock started ticking for us to solve the next clue. 20 hours left. I saw that I had a voicemail so I listened to the message. "Um Stephanie," the little girl's voice said. "It's me, Julie. Can you call me? It's kinda important. Thanks." I immediately dialed Ranger's daughter Julie's number. "Hey Julie," I said when she answered. Trying to keep my voice light I said," I got you voicemail, what's up?" "Have you heard from my dad?" she asked. "Not today, why is something wrong?" "I tried to call him a few times and it keeps going right to voicemail." "Well, you know your dad," I said. "He's probably just tied up with work. I'm sure he'll call when he's able." No way was I going to tell Julie anything about this situation. The last thing Ranger needed was for anyone else to know, especially his daughter. "Was there something I could help you with?" I asked her. "Well I got this package and the instructions said it's real important that I give it to the hero's hero right away. Do you know what that means?" she asked.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. So now this psychopath has dragged a little girl into this? A girl who has already had her fair share of horrific events happen to her. When I get my hands on this guy I'm going to murder him myself. I guess I know where the GPS coordinates were going to lead us. "Actually Julie," I said, "I'm coincidentally in the area, and I can swing by and pick up the package and bring it back to your dad. I bet it's an old friend just playing a joke on him." "Yea," Julie said, "maybe." She didn't sound convinced. "I wouldn't worry about it," I said. "Are you home now?" "Yes," Julie said. "Ok, I'll be there soon."
I told Tank and Sylvio about the package and their "what the fuck" facial expressions matched my feelings exactly. Not a lot of people know that Ranger has a daughter. "This guy is good," Tank said. "That information is almost impossible to find." I agreed. "Do we need to be concerned about this package?" I asked. "I mean, do we need to check it for explosives?" "We have a Rangeman office near here so we can have them do a security sweep on it," Tank said.
A Rangeman car was parked at the airport for us so we piled in and hit the road to Julie's house. I was trying my best to stay calm so that I wouldn't completely lose it in front of Julie. She's a lot like her dad, smart and tenacious. I didn't want her to suspect anything was wrong, especially because she would demand to know the details. We arrived at Julie's house and I went to the door and rang the bell. Julie answered and smiled up at me. "Stephanie!" she said. And she hugged me. I smiled back and wrapped my arms around her. "It's good to see you Julie," I said. "What are you doing in Miami? It's a crazy coincidence that you are down here huh?" "I'm just down here checking on something for work," I said. Not technically a lie, I thought. Ranger WAS my job. "Can you stay and visit for a while?" she asked. "Gosh I'd love to, but I really have to get going." She looked a little disappointed, but she understood. "Here's the package," she said. "Should we open it?" Curious brown eyes started up at me. She had Ranger's eyes. "I think I better wait until I see your dad," I said. "Stephanie," Julie said. "What's really going on?"
Tank walked up the sidewalk and joined Julie and me at the door. "Tank!" Julie exclaimed, and she jumped into Tank's arms. "Hi sweetheart," Tank said. "Steph, can I have a moment alone with you?" Tank asked. We stepped away from the front of house. "I don't feel comfortable leaving Julie here without our protection. Someone obviously knows where she lives and Ranger would sooner die than have someone take her again. We need to keep her near us, at least until we know she's not in danger." "What about her parents?" I asked. "I called them and told them that we needed to borrow her for a few hours. They know she'll be safe with me." I looked back at Julie. She was standing there, watching us, arms loosely crossed. "She reminds me so much of him," I said. "Yea," Tank said. "Like we need two Rangers." For a split second our eyes locked, like we were both thinking about something that was impossible and crazy, yet, was it? Nah, not possible.
I walked back over to Julie and said, "I need to talk to you." Julie's eyes widened and she said, "is something the matter with Dad?" "Well, we aren't exactly sure." I relayed as much as I felt comfortable telling Julie, and I reassured her that we would get him back. "I want to help," Julie said. "Ok," I said. Better for her to think this was her idea than us planting the seed that someone may be out to get her. "Let's get this package opened then," Julie said. She started to rip at the paper and I put my hand over hers, stopping her progress. "We are going to take this to Rangeman to see what we are dealing with first," I said. "What are we waiting for, let's go."
Tank, Julie and I loaded ourselves and the package into the van and headed for the Rangeman office. It was located about 20 minute away, but in Miami traffic that turned into almost an hour. We were down to 18 hours and we didn't even know what we were up against with this latest clue! We finally made it to the office and Tank carted the package down to the basement. A security team was going to sweep it and clear it of any hazards. Although if we just drove around for an hour with a bomb in our car, I really didn't want to know!
The security team cleared the package, and I did the honors of tearing it open. It was fairly small in size, about as large as a computer tablet. I carefully opened the box and peered inside. There was a note, along with a smaller box. I handed Tank the note and opened the small box. Inside was a single skeleton key, like the kind you see in old houses in the movies. Tank handed me the note and I read it aloud: "Roses are red and blood is too, find the lock for this key or your hero is through."
We all stared at each other open mouthed. How would we ever solve this?