Chapter Three
Jaime's scream instantly brought Steve back to full consciousness, but it was too late. He could hear the car's tires screeching as it pulled away, but the trees were too thick for him to see where it was headed. When he emerged on the other side, out in the open, Jaime and her captors were gone. He pulled the datacom from his belt, alerted the search teams to Jaime's last known location and the fact that she'd been taken away in an unknown vehicle. Rudy and Oscar were listening, as well, and upon hearing that he was hurt, Rudy instructed him to stay where he was; they were on their way to get him.
"But – I have to find Jaime!" he insisted.
The radio crackled back to life with Oscar's stern voice on the other end. "Steve, don't move. That's an order."
Orders meant little, when Jaime's well-being was on the line, but in this case Steve knew Oscar and Rudy were right. They found him within minutes, and the three men returned to the hospital where Rudy would take a look at Steve's head before they planned their next move.
"She obviously doesn't have all of her strength back," Rudy noted, peering at the small, discolored bump and laceration on the top of Steve's forehead, "or she'd have cracked your skull wide open."
"She didn't know what she was doing," Steve told them, wincing slightly as Rudy cleansed the wound. "She didn't even know who I was."
"Amnesia," Rudy concluded, shaking his head. "There was no recognition at all, Steve?"
"None. I've known Jaime almost her whole life, and she'd never have taken a swing at me – ever. I looked straight into her eyes," Steve said, "and I can't explain it, but she...she just wasn't there."
"Sounds like severe cognitive impairment, as well," Rudy summarized, sitting back in his chair as he finished tending to his new patient.
Steve shook his head in disagreement. "I don't think so. She was thinking the whole time; I could see her mind working. She felt trapped, and she panicked and lashed out, on gut instinct, I guess. I'm not sure, but I think she was so focused on keeping me away that she never even noticed someone coming up behind her."
"Did you see anyone?" Oscar asked.
"Not really. I saw a person – I'm sure it was a man, not a woman – just as the branch knocked me down. I can still hear her scream, though. It was more than pain, beyond fear or panic. It was like...they were killing her."
- - - - - -
'Jennie' woke up slowly, and was once again baffled and terrified by her surroundings. The air in the darkened room was damp and a bit chilly, with a musty smell that made her queasy. She could move her head, but that was about all. Gradually, she found that she'd been tied to chair, up against a wooden support beam. Her arms were bound securely behind the chair, around the pole, and a second length of rope around her waist completely immobilized her and had been tied so tightly that it hurt her to take a deep breath. Her feet were also tied together and fastened to the bottom rung of the chair. She struggled briefly, but realized it was futile and sank back in defeat. Time – somewhere between an hour and eternity – passed, and she suddenly heard voices a short distance away.
"All that time we spent tracking Austin, and you bring me a woman?"
"You should see what she did! The huge chunk of wood she picked up, well, you'd swear she's bionic, too."
"Idiot! If she was bionic, don't you think she'd have fought you off? Or at least, tried to?"
"Maybe we could use her as bait. It looked like Austin knew her, like they were connected somehow."
"If she knows Austin, maybe she's got things floating around in her head that could be useful."
'Jennie' heard several sets of footsteps coming closer, and a door opened somewhere behind her. She closed her eyes, afraid to see whatever (or whoever) was coming next. A man walked up to stand in front of her, so close she could smell his aftershave. His laughter as he looked at her (she could feel him looking at her) chilled her to the core.
"Well, I'll be damned," the man said, his voice glinting with malice. "Hello, Jaime."
'Jennie' knew he was talking to her, but Jaime was a boy's name, wasn't it? When she didn't open her eyes, the man cupped her chin in his hand and slowly tightened his grip until it was painful. 'Jennie' looked up at him silently, frightened but also angry.
"That's better," he told her. He turned to his two accomplices – the man who had brought her here in the car – but kept a firm hold on her face. "Don't you know who this is?" he asked them. "She's Jaime Sommers, Austin's fiancée, and from what I saw her do at Rona's place, she's everything he is. And she cracks safes."
"Lot easier on the eyes than Austin," one of the men added. "So we did good, after all, huh?"
"Accidentally, but yeah." He turned back to 'Jennie', finally releasing his hand from her chin. "What's wrong, Honey; nothing to say for yourself?"
'Jennie' had no idea who he was or what he wanted, but she knew she didn't like him. He leaned in closer, mocking her, and without stopping to think about it she showed her contempt by spitting in his face. Shocked and extremely angry, he drew back and slapped her hard enough to slam her head against the support beam.
"That was a mistake," he told her. He headed for the door, turning around as he reached it. "Work her over," he told his men.
"A woman?" one of them protested reluctantly.
"She has plenty of useful tidbits in that pretty head, and she'll be sharing every one of them with us, if she wants to keep breathing!"
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