Chapter Two
Steve made the 20-minute run to OSI headquarters in under 15 minutes. He found his daughter and Oscar both pacing the floor as they worked to make sense of what'd happened, to formulate a plan.
"The plate came back stolen, Dad," Lauren told him, before Oscar got the chance to say it. "Dead end."
"You said you know these people?" Steve prompted.
"Yes, but they blew up their own warehouse when we went to arrest them; that's how some of them got away. And now...we don't know their location," Lauren said wistfully.
"But we can find out," Oscar said softly, motioning for everyone to sit down. "Steve, you're not going to like this very much, and we can argue about it later, if we have to, but we can find Jaime's location through a GPS chip in her arm."
Steve was stunned. This was the first he'd heard of it. "When...how...?"
"At your last check-up before you retired, Rudy implanted the chip into both of you, to be used only in the case of a life-threatening emergency – like this one."
"We'll talk about the privacy issue later," Steve said urgently. "Right now, it's a Godsend. So, where is she?"
"Rudy's downstairs in his lab, activating the chip," Oscar explained.
"Let's go. Lauren, you wait here."
"Steve," Oscar said slowly, "Lauren will be the other member of your team -"
"Now, wait a minute! My daughter is not diving into a viper's den to take on armed kidnappers."
"Dad, what do you think I do for a living?" Lauren reminded him.
"She's good, Steve, and she's got the inside track on these people – information you'll need, once you find them."
"But -"
"C'mon," Lauren urged, "let's go see if Rudy's got the tracer up and running."
Reluctantly, Steve followed his boss and his temporary new partner down to the basement.
Rudy Wells, now close to 80, moved with the spry, quick steps of someone much younger. "The chip is active, and I've got a signal, but they're still on the move," he told the trio. "Wherever they're taking her, it's out of DC."
"Or they could be going in circles," Lauren speculated, "to try and avoid detection." She looked down at the screen, and Steve placed a hand on her shoulder, extremely impressed. In his mind, he could still see five-year-old Lauren and her twin, James, receiving medals from Oscar for remembering a vehicle description and partial plate number when Jaime had been taken by a group wanting to steal her bionics. The two children had kept their heads and been instrumental in saving their mother.
"They're stopping," Lauren observed.
"Maryland – just over the border," Steve added, writing down the coordinates. "Let's go."
"Wait, Pal," Oscar called after him. His hand extended toward Steve, who shook his head when he saw what Oscar was trying to give him. "I don't need a gun; give it to Lauren."
"I have one, Dad, and you never know." She took the gun from Oscar. "He'll carry it – for Mom," she said as father and daughter headed out together.
- - - - - -
"I can't call you 'Dad' in front of these people," Lauren pointed out as Steve drove toward the Maryland state line. "It'd give them leverage we don't need them to have. And I don't think I should call you 'Steve' -"
"Whatever feels natural is fine."
"Dad, I'm so sorry -"
"For what, Honey? Yes, these men were after you, but you aren't responsible for the actions of criminals, or for your mother's choice to do what she did. You need to know that and believe it."
Lauren nodded silently. "These guys are real pros," she told Steve. "Had an army's worth of weapons and ammo stockpiled, but most of it went up in the explosion. Wouldn't surprise me if they had a second cache somewhere else, though."
"What were they dealing in?" Steve asked, finally beginning to treat her like a partner, instead of just his little girl.
"Weapons systems, mostly - new, experimental ones that we don't have the capability or technology to intercept."
"World domination?" Steve concluded.
"Maybe, but I don't think so. Extortion seems more their style. Get the money and be done with it."
"If they're out for money, they should be making a ransom demand for your mother."
"Oscar's having any incoming ransom or demand calls transferred to my cell." Lauren managed a very slight, ironic smile. "Or, as you'd say, 'that new-fangled contraption trying to pass for a telephone'."
- - - - - -
Jaime opened her eyes to discover she'd been blindfolded and gagged. She tried to pull at whatever was binding her hands and feet, but she had no strength. She remembered the shot they'd given her that had made her body go limp, right before they'd put her in the van and conked her in the head. Muscle relaxants...must've made me weaker...she told herself. She could hear two people breathing off to her side, maybe ten feet away, but they didn't react when she began trying to move around. The only other sound she heard was the ominous threat of a gun being loaded and cocked.
- - - - - -
"You've got a datacom, right?" Steve asked, as he and Lauren got closer to their destination. The building appeared to be two suites of offices, bisected by a large storage area, with more warehouse space in back.
"My cell has the datacom frequency built-in; just have to push a button."
Steve nodded. "I can get up on the roof, and hopefully tell you where they're holding her, and which entrance might not be guarded. Then I can meet you there."
"I'm trained in stealth," she reminded him. "I can get into the building. Probably not from the roof, though; better leave that one to you. How 'bout I give you five minutes to make a move from up there, then find my own way in? If they come after us and we've split up, it'll be that much more distracting. Divide and conquer."
Steve hated the thought of his daughter breaking into a building that was quite possibly filled with heavily armed thugs, but...this was his partner sitting next to him, and the plan was a good one. He nodded agreement, his conflicting emotions keeping him from saying more.
- - - - - -