Saving Private Jeanette - Chapter Five "I Like Big Bucks"

"Jeanette?" Simon asked into Brittney's cell phone, after he though her heard it being hung up. "Jeanette? Are you there? Jeanette?!"

Simon handed Brittney's phone back to her.

"What happened?!" Brittney asked, freaking out.

"She just hung up!" Simon exclaimed.

Brittney dropped to her knees, and began to cry, uncontrolably.

"My little sister's in trouble!" Brittney cried. "We've got to help her! We've got to help her!"

"I realize that!" Simon cried out. "Come on, we're wasting time, let's try to find her..."

Jeanette's captor was in the kitchen, buttering toast, when he suddenly had an idea... now that Jeanette has connections, who realize she's missing, and possibly in trouble, they're obviously going to try to call her again. Well, he's not about to part with Jeanette easily... but if he got something just as good in return...

Brittney's cell phone began ringing, the caller I.D. said it was Jeanette.

"It's Jeanette!" Brittney cried.

"Well answer it!" Eleanor pleaded.

"Hello?" Brittney answered the phone.

"Hello, Brittney..." was what Brittney heard from the gravely voice of Jeanette's kidnapper.

"It's not Jeanette..." Brittney whispered to the rest of the group, as she covered the mouthpiece of her phone.

"Well talk to whoever it is, anyway!" Simon suggested. "Maybe he'll share information with us!"

"He-he-hello?" Brittney responded into the phone.

"So, Brittney..." said Jeanette's captor, "it's been a while since you've seen your sister, huh?"

"Uh... yeah?"

"Would you like to see her again?"

"Please! Please, please, please!"

"Not so fast there, Brittney, you can see Jeanette again..."

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"If..."

"'If'?"

"If I get something in return..."

"Something in return?!"

"Do you even realize how valuable your sister is?"

"'Valuable'? Of course I realize Jeanette is valuable! But what do you mean by that?"

"I'm not about to let her loose again anytime soon, unless I get something just as valuable in return..."

Brittney covered her phone again, "this guy's crazy!" She whispered. "He won't let Jeanette go, unless we give him something just as valuable in return!"

"Ask him what he wants!" Eleanor pleaded.

"Whatever he wants, it can be replaced!" Simon told her. "Jeanette can't. We'll give him whatever he wants, if it means getting Jeanette back!"

Brittney gulped, and resumed the phone conversation, "so... what did you have in mind, valuable-wise?"

"Oh, nothing big," said the villain, "just five million dollars."

"Five million dollars?!" Brittney responded.

"Five million dollars?" The others asked, not sure if they were hearing correctly.

"Surely you're sister's worth that?" Asked Jeanette's captor.

"Jeanette's worth more than!" Brittney exclaimed, defending her sister's honor.

"I agree," he responded, "make it ten million dollars!"

"I didn't mean... I mean... wait a minute..." Brittney began.

"Ten million dollars, and that's final."

"But we don't have ten million dollars!"

"Ten million?!" The others shrieked.

"Well," he told Brittney, "you better get me ten million dollars, if you want to get Jeanette back."

Brittney sighed, hopelessly.

"I'll tell you what," he said, "if this is too much trouble for you, you don't have to get me ten million dollars."

"Really?" Brittney asked, hopefully.

"Really," he replied, "if you can't get your hands on ten million dollars for me, I'll just keep Jeanette all to myself."

"We'll get you your money! We'll get you your money!"

"Good. Now I don't have time to waste, so you've got forty-eight hours."

"Forty-eight hours?"

"Two days."

"As opposed to forty-eight hours?"

"Just get me my money by then, if you want Jeanette again." He hung up.

Brittney hung up as well.

"So?" Simon asked. "We have to give this character ten million dollars in forty-eight hours, or he won't release Jeanette?!"

"That's what he said..." Brittney replied, on the verge of tears once again.

Jeanette had no idea what to expect next, that is until her kidnapper walked back into the room, and sat down in front of her again.

"It's all just a big waiting game, now." He told her.

"Hmm?" Jeanette mumbled through the tape over her mouth.

"If your sister can come up with ten million dollars for me in the next two days? You're free to go..." he told her, as he began to tickle her chin with his finger, freaking her out, "I believe you are worth every penny of that price, don't you?"

Jeanette couldn't answer, so, all she could do was basically shrug. Never before had she ever thought of herself... her physical body, her mind, her life... as being valuable. At cash value that is. Was she worth ten million dollars? She had no idea. Miss Miller would tell her she was more valuable than any amount of money in the world.

"In the meantime," he continued, "I'll take care of you..." he finished, as he placed his hands on Jeanette's knees, slowly moving them up her thighs, under her skirt, as Jeanette tried to press her thighs together, thinking he was about to do something ugly, and unclean, like try to remove her underwear.

Simon borrowed Brittney's cell phone once again, in an attempt to call Dave.

"Simon," Brittney began, "the battery's almost dead!"

"We have to get ahold of Dave!" he told her.

At that moment, Dave was about to call the police again to report the disappearance of his boys, when the phone started ringing.

"Hello?" He answered.

"Dave! We contacted the person who kidnapped Jeanette!" Simon said into Brittney's phone.

"What?!" Dave replied. "Simon? Where are you kids?!"

"We're on the corner of Henley Street, and Hannibal Drive," Simon told him, "but we got in contact with the person who kidnapped Jeanette!"

"And?" Dave asked.

"He says he wants us to pay him ten million dollars within the next forty-eight hours, or we'll never see her again!"

"Terrific..." Dave sighed, "are you kids alright?"

"For the most part..."

"Good, stay right where you are, I'll drive by to pick you kids up, right after I place another call to the police with this information, okay? Okay? Simon? Simon?!"

"It died..." Simon said, as he handed Brittney her phone.

"So, what do we now?" Brittney asked.

"I guess we'll have to come up with ten million dollars, somehow..." Alvin said.

"How?" Theodore asked. "The only way we could come up with that amount of money, in such a short time, would be to rob a bank!"

Everyone paused for a moment, before Simon let out a small sigh.

"Simon... we're not..." Eleanor began.

"What else can we do?" Simon asked. "God only knows what this guy is going to do to Jeanette if we don't get the money to him..."

"Suppose he still doesn't let Jeanette go when we give him the money?" Eleanor asked.

Simon sighed again.

"What we need to do," Alvin added, "is find out where this guy is, and try to bust Jeanette out!"

With no other alternative in mind, Simon had to agree with Alvin. "That's the only thing we can do..." he said, "but this could be very dangerous... we don't know if this guy is armed, or just how dangerous he really is... one thing is for sure... we're going to have to be very discrete about this... you guys sure you want to do this?"

"Absolutely!" Brittney cried out. "We must save Jeanette, no matter what!"

"Then what are we waiting for?" Simon asked. "Let's follow these cigarette butts to where ever it leads us, and hope we'll find Jeanette alive, and okay!"

The gang pressed on down the street again, while Dave tried calling each of the boys' cell phones, only to hear them ringing upstairs in their bedroom. "I thought I told those boys to carry their phones with them at all times!" Dave said to himself, as he called Miss Miller.

Miss Miller was already awake, and saw her other two girls were missing. First Jeanette, possibly being kidnapped, and now Brittney and Eleanor going missing, Miss Miller was having an emotional breakdown when she heard the phone ring.

"Hello?" She wailed, as she answered the phone.

"Miss Miller?" Dave asked. "The girls are alright!"

"How did you know they were missing?" She sniffed.

"Because my boys are missing too," he explained, "but Simon called me just five minutes ago, he told me where they're at, and he told me that they contacted Jeanette's kidnapper, and what he wants in exchange for her return!"

"What? What does he want? I'll give him anything he wants, just to get my baby back safe and sound!"

"Ten million dollars."

"But I don't have ten million dollars!"

"None of us do, that's why I'm about to call the police, and let them know what this guy is asking for."

"Oh, bless you David!"