Warning: contains scary people, slight violence and a French girl with terrible dress sense!

Chapter Three

Li woke with a start. It was dark, but a chink of light was coming through a hole somewhere. He tried to say something but there was a piece of tape over his mouth. His hands and feet were tied together. What the hell was going on! He seemed to be in some sort of bag. It was slightly open to give him some air. He rolled the bag onto its side and squinted out of the hole. He was in a small room filled with other bags and suitcases. He was in the luggage compartment of a plane! Where was it going? He tried to remember what had happened.

Li walked down the street, whistling a tune. He was going to pick up some groceries for Sakura at around 9 pm. Suddenly three men in balaclavas jumped out of a bush at him and shoved him into the boot of a nearby red Mini. He tried to struggle, but one of them put a handkerchief soaked in some foul-smelling chemical across his face. Everything went black.

So that was what was going on. He must have been kidnapped and drugged. But why? While he was considering this, a mechanical voice spoke from somewhere above him. He could make out a few words:

"...plane...arriving at...ten minutes...keep...seatbelts fastened...thankyou...flying...airlines," it said. Ten minutes? Not long. But where was he going? There were so many questions. Now he knew how Sakura felt sometimes - defenceless and small without anyone to protect her.

Sakura.

How was she going to manage by herself? She was probably going mad! Li cursed himself for going out at night. The streets of Japan could be dangerous - you never knew who was lying in wait for you. Had his feet not been tied together, he would have kicked himself, but he decided to keep quiet. Less painful, and hopefully a little less dangerous.

After a while the plane came in to land. He felt the bag he was in being lifted and put onto one of those conveyor belts people collect their luggage from after a flight. Feeling a little sick, somebody finally picked up the bag and carried it out of the airport. When he was put down some place or another, he heard an engine starting. That meant he must be in a car. It drove for about half an hour, then the engine stopped and three doors slammed shut. Someone opened the boot and unzipped the bag. It was a huge, muscledman with tattoos all over his arms and very short spiky hair. He untied Li's hands and feet.

"Get out of the car," the man instructed. His voice was deep and threatening. Li did as he was told. Two other men were standing nearby, one tall and skinny, the other pretty much average. They both had black balaclavas on. He guessed it was about six o' clock as the sun was beginning to set. Nobody seemed to be around. The skinny guy opened the door to a block of flats and walked inside. The two other men and Li followed. They got into a lift and went up to the sixth floor. It consisted of two rooms - one containing an old bed and a wooden chair, the other was a bathroom.

"Sit down," the third man said. Li sat in the chair while the skinny man tied him into it. He hated being tied up. The tape was removed from his mouth. He breathed deeply, having been deprived of a proper air supply for the last few hours.

"What do you want from me?" Li shouted. "I have nothing to give you!"

The muscled man smiled - a mean, thin smile. "Dude, we know who you are. Li Syaoran, rich business executive. We took you because wewant the combination to thesafe in your workplace. It contains money and important documents vital to us.Only you and a few other people (who would have been more difficult to kidnap) know it. Are you going to tell us, or are we going to need to use this?" He drew a large knife from his belt. The blade flashed in the evening light. Li gasped.

"I don't have to tell you anything," he said, a lot more bravely than he felt.

"Where shall we start?" the skinny man enquired. "A finger? Two?"

Li screamed. "Okay, okay, I'll tell you! The combination is..."

He stopped for a minute, unable to believe this was happening. Suddenly, he had a brainwave. Give them the wrong combination! "The combination is 4529," he lied, without a trace of hesitation.

"It better be," the third man said menacingly. The first man held his knife to Li's throat. "Because if we find out you've lied to us, you are in BIG trouble. Now go. And tell no-one of this."

Li rushed into the lift and pressed the ground-floor button. It was old and slow, but when he got to the bottom he ran out so fast he almost crashed into the wall. Luckily, the door was open. Without looking where he was going, he ran outside into the street and smashed straight into a statue.

"Monsieur? Êtes-vous bien? Parler!"said an anxious female voice. Li groaned and opened his eyes. His head hurt like hell. He was lying on the floor. There was a worried-looking woman of about 21 years kneeling over him, her very long brown hair escaping from its ponytail and tickling his face. She was wearing neon-pink lipstick and dangly silver earrings. Behind funky red rectangle glasses, frightened hazel eyes looked into his. Knowing very little French, he didn't reply. She withdrew and he sat up, rubbing his head.

"Do you speak English?" the woman said. Relieved she could speak one of the same languages as him, he answered her. "Yes. Who are you?" he asked.

"My name is Amélie. I am here on 'oliday from la France," she said with a heavy accent. She held out a hand and he took it, pulling himself up. He did a double-take. This Amélie had a very strange idea of fashion. She was dressed in a blue poloneck with the sleeves rolled up, black Spandex shorts, green fishnet tights and silver strappy high heels. There were a few gold bangles on her arms and she had three different necklaces. "You look like you need some 'elp," she said worriedly. Li put a hand to his face. His eye was swelling up and he could taste blood in his mouth.

"'Ere, you can come back to ze place where I am staying at ze moment," she offered kindly. Li nodded gratefully. It was about a five minute walk to her place - a small house she was sharing with her sister. The said sister opened the door and blushed when she saw Li. Amélie was pretty in her own way, but this girl was beautiful. She had a delicate, heart-shaped face, big brown eyes and short, shiny brown hair. She was wearing a red kimono patterned with flowers and embroidered Chinese slippers.

"Come in," she said. Her voice was like a drop of dew rolling down a snowdrop petal, her smile like the sun on a cloudy day. Li stepped inside. Beautiful though she was, Sakura was the only girl for him. Amélie gabbled away in French with her sister for a while, leaving Li standing in the doorway kind of helplessly. A few minutes later Amélie stopped talking and approached Li.

"It is decided," she said, smiling. "You stay."

Li smiled back gratefully. "Thankyou, Amélie. Thankyou."