Tuesday, December 26th
Jessie awoke with a start that morning. She lay in bed awake, listening in vain for any sound. She felt depressed, but she didn't know why, at first. It was the day after Christmas; she should be happy. Her mother was still visiting...and then Jessie remembered why she was upset. As she sat up in bed, she sighed, remembering the conversation she had overheard the day before. Her parents had been arguing about her. Her mother had been trying to persuade her father that Jessie would be safer in Colombia with her.
Jessie shook her head and walked over to the window. She watched a group of Cardinals circling around the yard. They would land on the snow, searching for food, and then fly off again into the trees. The blizzard had left about ten inches of snow on the ground. But Jessie thought that it might as well have left two feet of snow. Jessie was still trapped in this house with feuding parents. No matter with which parent she chose to live, it would still cause a rift in her family. She couldn't deal with this anymore. She had to get away.
Before she could decide where to go, however, she heard a knock on her door. She yelled to the caller to come in, and was not surprised when it turned out to be Jonny and Hadji. Jessie knew that they had been concerned about her the previous night. Sure enough, Jonny said,
"Hadji and I are going skiing today. Why don't you come with us?"
"I don't really feel like skiing today," Jessie said, turning back to the window. She really just wanted to be alone.
"Jess, we can tell that you've been stressed out. You need to get out of this house."
"We will not take 'no' for an answer," Hadji added. Jessie sighed,
"All right!" She knew that they wouldn't give up. In a way she was glad that they were relentless. She would have turned them down and then spent the rest of the day sulking.
After she had dressed and found her skis in the hall closet, she met the boys downstairs. Race and Benton had left early. Benton had an appointment with an ambassador from Bangalore, the province of which Hadji was the rightful heir. At present, Hadji's mother was acting as royal regent until Hadji could finish high school in the States. Race had gone with Benton to keep him company—and safe. Estella, Jessie guessed, was still in bed—she enjoyed sleeping in while on vacation.
Jonny and Hadji each had on a black ski jacket and jeans with snow boots. Jessie, however, was wearing a white ski jacket with gray windbreaker pants. She had jeans on underneath, but she knew that after skiing down the slopes a few times, she would appreciate the extra layer. As she was braiding her long red hair, she said,
"By the way, where are we going? I don't want to go to someplace crowded. It's the day after Christmas. The ski resorts are going to be packed." Jonny was leaving a note for his father when he answered,
"I thought we could go to that abandoned ski lift on Briar Hill. Nobody's used it in years, and no one even knows that it works. Hadji and I discovered it last year, and figured out how to fix the ski lift. It has only one slope, but it's like our own private ski resort."
"All right," Jessie said. "Sounds like fun." The three teenagers arrived at Briar Hill about 11:30. They had stopped to have a quick lunch at a pizza parlor in the closest town before heading up the mountain, where they knew there would not be any food. When they reached the ski lift, Jonny disappeared into the operator's shed. A moment later, the lift came to life, and the three young people hopped on a chair to make their way toward the top of the hill.
Each of them was an excellent skier. Benton and Race had taught the boys to ski at an early age, and when Jessie came to live with them, she learned to love skiing as well. This would be the first time this winter that she had the chance to go skiing, and she was glad to be out on the slopes again. She hoped that this would take her mind off of her parents.
A few hours later, she was laughing with Hadji about the tumble that Jonny had taken on the hill. All three were pink-faced and out-of-breath, but they were having a great time. They slid off of the ski lift to make one last trip down the hill before heading home, when Jonny stopped suddenly and said,
"Hey, did you hear that?"
"What?' asked Hadji.
"I don't know. It sounded like a scream. Maybe someone's in trouble."
"Perhaps we should find out," Hadji said following Jonny toward the operator's shed at the top of the ski lift. The three teenagers left their skis inside and then headed toward the woods across from the top of the ski lift. The three of them walked for a good fifteen minutes without hearing anything. Jonny thought that maybe he had been hearing things and almost suggested that they turn around and go back, when he noticed a house through the trees. It appeared to be deserted, but Jonny pressed on. He was sure that this house was the source of the noise that he had heard. The three friends crept up to a window near the front door of what turned out to be more of a cabin than a house. Jonny peered through the icy window and saw three people sitting at an old wooden table in the middle of the room. He noticed Jessie and Hadji pushing in around him, straining to look through the window as well. They stood there in silence for a while trying to hear what the people inside were saying. The woman and man, who looked to be in their thirties, were questioning a younger man. Their conversation did not look friendly.
Suddenly Jonny heard footsteps approaching from behind him. He spun around to find two hulk-like men almost upon them. One man grabbed a hold of Jessie as Jonny lunged at the other, who shoved him to the ground. Hadji leaped at Jessie's attacker and managed to karate-kick him in the head. Jessie pulled away from his grasp, as the other attacker turned on Hadji. Before Jessie could run away, though, her attacker grabbed her braided hair. In a well-rehearsed action, Jessie immediately grabbed a hold of the man's hand, as he clutched her hair. She held his hand to the back of her head and instantly knelt down on her right knee, ducking her head against her chest and using her own weight to throw the man over her shoulder. He did not have time to react before he was already falling head first over this 17-year-old girl, and he could not stop his fall, because she still had a hold of his right hand. He fell flat on his back in the snow, releasing Jessie's hair, and before he could realize what had happened, Jessie was running toward the forest. She looked around quickly as she reached the tree line and saw that her attacker was quickly in pursuit of her. The people from inside the cabin must have heard the commotion, because the older man and the woman had come to the assistance of the other attacker. Among the three of them, they had managed to take Jonny and Hadji captive. Jessie increased her speed, which was not saying a lot, considering that she was running in ski boots in a foot of snow, and lost him through some evergreen trees. She huddled under a large pine tree, as she watched him pass by at a run and heard him crash through some more trees farther away. She remained in her hiding place, in the shadow of the tree until she could not hear him anymore. With her white coat on, she hoped that she blended into the snow, as she sat with her legs buried by the almost 12-inches of snow. It suddenly occurred to Jessie that she was lucky that her pursuer was so stupid. He should have realized that with the snow on the ground, he could have just followed her tracks and easily found her. Instead he had run right past the pine trees, where she was hiding, and kept going, thus making tracks of his own. In his blundering through the forest, there would be no way for him to tell which tracks were hers and which were his.
Jessie waited for over an hour, but did not hear the man pass by again. Perhaps he had gone deep into the forest looking for her, or maybe he had gone back to the cabin another way. She was becoming cold sitting there in the snow, even with all of her layers. Earlier she had tried calling the Quest Compound. The phone had rung three times before Dr. Quest's computer system IRIS had picked up.
QUEST COMPOUND. HOW MAY I DIRECT YOUR CALL?
"IRIS, this is Jessie. Is my dad there?"
NEGATIVE. RACE BANNON IS UNAVAILABLE AT THE PRESENT TIME. WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEAVE A MESSAGE?
"No," Jessie whispered into her cell phone. "I'll try his cell phone." Jessie disconnected and immediately dialed Race's cell phone. His voice mail picked up.
There was a lot of static on the line, but she left a message anyway.
"Dad! We're in trouble. We went skiing on Briar Hill and ran into some criminals. They've captured Jonny and Hadji, and I don't know what to do. I can't leave them here. I'm going to wait it out and see if I can get to them somehow. Please hurry." She didn't know how her dad would find them, even if he did get the message; they were in the middle of the woods. It was worth a try, though. She turned off the ringer on her cell phone so it would be on the vibrate mode. If her dad called back, it wouldn't give away her position.
That had been almost an hour ago, and her father had not yet returned her call. She decided to try her mom's cell.
Estella picked up on the second ring, since her cell was in her coat pocket. She had taken Jessie's car into town to do some errands. She was just leaving the Rockport public library, where she had borrowed some books for the rest of the week. She hated to sit around the house just watching TV, so she intended to do something productive.
"Oh hi, Jess," Estella said after noticing Jessie's name appear on the screen of the phone.
"Mom...(static)...skiing, and we...(static)...trouble."
"Jess, wait, I can't understand you. We must have a bad connection."
"Jon...Hadji are...(static)"
"Jess, are you there?" Estella practically shouted into the phone, but there was nothing but static now. She hung up and tried Jessie's phone number, but it gave a busy signal. As she pulled her car out of its parking spot, she thought about the phone call. She did not know where Jessie was, but she hoped that she was all right.
Jessie looked at the sky, which had grown darker as she had been hiding out. She still had not seen a sign of Jonny, Hadji, or their captors. Jessie had to do something. It would not be easy, but somehow she had to find out how Jonny and Hadji were doing. Jessie took a deep breath and moved out from behind the pine trees. She cautiously made her way toward the cabin. The late afternoon was quiet—not even a light breeze disturbed the silence—and she was sure not to make much noise as she walked through the snow.
As she neared the edge of the woods, she noticed three sets of footprints in the snow—the tracks that she and the guys and made earlier, when they first found the cabin. She hesitated; she had to think this through. She could try to follow one of those sets of footsteps, exactly, so that later if one of those men came out, he'd see the three sets leading to the cabin and not think twice about them. On the other hand, those footsteps led straight toward the front window of the cabin. She was not about to make the same mistake twice. At last she decided to keep to the woods and continue around to the back of the cabin. Then she could stake out the situation before deciding whether or not to approach the cabin.
The back of the cabin had only one window, and although a light had been coming from the front window, no light shown from this smaller one. With any luck, she thought, Jonny and Hadji were in the room with this back window. Since there was no light coming from that window, she figured it was probably separated from the main room in which those men were.
Despite the risk, she had to find out if her friends were in that room and if they were alive. She glanced around the cabin quickly and seeing no one, she dashed straight over to the solitary window. She crouched down next to the window and carefully looked through, in case someone was looking out the window at the same time. At first she could not see anyone in the room—just a small bed, but as her eyes focused more, through the dirty window, she saw Hadji sitting across from the window, right next to the door. He was tied to a chair, but he was conscious. She couldn't see Jonny. Quickly she glanced around her to make sure no one was around.
When she returned her gaze to the room, she noticed that Hadji was looking at her. He saw her! Then she realized that he was talking. Was he talking to her? She couldn't hear him, and she knew that he would not be stupid enough to shout to her, with all of those people in the next room. All of a sudden, though, she saw to whom he was talking. Right below the window, Jonny had edged his chair far enough away from the wall, so that he could see Jessie outside the window above him, and she could see him. She smiled at him and almost tried to open the window but thought better of it. If the people in the next room heard her, it would all be over.
Jonny seemed to read her mind. He shook his head and motioned to the door of the room. He knew it was not worth the risk. Jessie glanced around her again. The sky was even darker now, and before long, her visibility would be severely impaired. She could not risk anyone sneaking up on her. So she turned back to the window one last time and put her hand on the glass. In this one gesture she hoped that she conveyed not only her need to leave for the time being but also her concern for the two boys being held prisoner inside. She tore herself away from the window and rushed back to the safety of the woods.
She fought back the tears that were threatening to surface. She did not want to leave them, but she knew that they understood why she had to. She had accomplished what she had needed to by looking through that window. Now she knew that Jonny and Hadji were alive, and they knew that she was safe too. But she also knew that she could not return to the window. Not only would it be too risky to expose herself like that again, but also she needed to keep an eye on the front door (the only door to the cabin.) Now that it was getting dark, there was a good chance that some of the people would leave. She had to know who left and when.
Jessie made her way back to the front of the cabin, staying behind the trees as much as possible and virtually out of sight of the cabin. She returned to her place among the pine trees and waited. The sky grew darker still and the night colder. Jessie pulled her white hat out from inside her coat and pulled on her matching gloves. She looked at her cell phone, but there were no messages from her parents. There probably weren't many cell phone towers up there. She wished that she could send word to her parents of what had happened, but there was no way to get a hold of them from up there, and she couldn't leave. If she went back to the car, it would take at least half and hour to get there and another hour to drive home. By the time she returned with her parents and Dr. Quest, Jonny and Hadji could be dead or gone. If those men took them away, she would never know where unless she stayed and watched the cabin.
She cursed herself for not taking the communicator (an invention of Dr. Quest's that works like a cell phone, only with a video camera also, so the caller can view the person on the other side of the line.) But then again who would have thought that she would need to take it skiing? She doubted whether Jonny or Hadji had brought theirs either. All she could do now was wait—and watch.
Benton and Race arrived home about 5:30 PM. Benton expected to find a houseful of hungry people, and after enduring a stressful day filled with politics and negotiating, he was ready to suggest that they order pizza to be delivered. He entered the living room, with Race right behind him, and found Estella sitting in an armchair staring at a book, but not really reading it.
"How was your day, Estella?" Benton asked the redheaded woman, joining her on the couch. Race crossed the room to sit in his own chair, not really caring how Estella's day had gone. He was still angry about the previous night's argument and did not care to open the lines of communication with her just yet.
"Well," Estella began, getting right to the point, "Jessie called me on my cell phone earlier. I couldn't really understand her, because the connection was so bad, but I'm worried about her."
"The kids aren't here?" Benton asked, glancing at his watch. "Did they all go out together?"
"I don't know," Estella said, shaking her head. "They were all gone before I woke up this morning, but then I did get up sort of late." While she was talking, Benton stood up and walked over to the small table in the hall. The members of his family often left notes there for each other. Sure enough, a note in Jonny's handwriting lay there. Benton picked it up and read it, as he turned back toward the living room.
"It's from Jonny," he told his companions. "It says that they were going skiing, and that they would be back around 5:00. It doesn't mention where they were going skiing."
"Why on earth would they go skiing today?" Race finally spoke up. "On the day after Christmas, the ski resorts must be packed." Benton did not answer, but simply shook his head.
"Jessie called about two hours ago," Estella continued, as if no one else had spoken, "and she did mention Jonny and Hadji, but it sounded like they were all in trouble."
"Did she call the house?" Race asked, becoming concerned.
"Not while I've been here," Estella answered, rising from the couch to pace the room.
"IRIS," Benton said, urgently, "Did Jessie, Jonny, or Hadji leave a message while we were gone?"
NEGATIVE, said IRIS
"Damn," said Race. "IRIS, did any of them call while we were out?"
YES, said IRIS. JESSIE BANNON CALLED AT 3:48 PM.
"She didn't leave a message," Race mused before saying, "IRIS, did she say anything else, like if she would call anyone else?"
JESSIE BANNON SAID THAT SHE WOULD TRY CALLING RACE BANNON'S PHONE.
"Of course!" Race said, pulling his cell phone from his pocket. "I forgot that I had it. It's been off all day."
"Is there a message?" Estella asked, looking at him for the first time.
"Yes," he said, holding the phone to his ear. A few moments later, he shook his head and said, "I can't make out the message. There's too much static." He listened to the message again and said, "She said something about going skiing and trouble. Where would they have gone?"
"Well," said Benton, "There are only two ski resorts within two hours of here, but both would be packed today. I don't know why they would even bother going. Anyway, if one of them were injured, the medics would have alerted us. IRIS, are there any messages?"
NEGATIVE, replied IRIS.
"Maybe there was a bomb threat or something," Race said, standing up abruptly. "Something that would incapacitate the entire ski resort."
"I'll call both resorts," Benton said, heading toward the kitchen. Estella returned to her spot on the couch. Race began pacing. Five minutes later Benton returned to the living room. "Well, Deer Creek has not had any accidents or other problems today, and Ski Mountain reported an injury, but it wasn't Jessie or the boys. There aren't any other ski resorts within a few hours of here."
"Could they have gone to a park or someplace not really known for skiing?" asked Estella.
"Not those three," said Race. "They like the adventure. There aren't any big hills around here that are open to the public."
"What are we going to do?" asked Estella, her head in her hands.
"Wait!" said Race. "What about the tracking device on Jessie's cell phone?"
"It only works if her cell phone is on," Benton said, but he pushed some buttons on the keypad next to the security box on the wall. If Jessie's cell phone were on, then the grid under the keypad would have lit up and pinpointed Jessie's position according to how many miles from the Quest Compound she was and in which direction. But the keypad remained dark, and Benton sighed and turned back to Race and Estella. "Her cell phone must be turned off."
"What about the communicators?" Race said and dashed up the stairs. He returned a few minutes later holding three small, computerized boxes. "If we find those kids," he said, heatedly, "they are never going to leave this house again without their communicators." He sighed and joined Estella on the couch. No one spoke for a while until finally Benton said,
"Race, when you were listening to Jessie's message, could you hear pieces of words behind the static?"
"Yeah, a little. But I couldn't make out the words."
"I know," said Benton, "but IRIS may be able to. We could plug your cell phone into one of the computers and see if IRIS can filter out some of the static." IRIS was the force behind Quest World, which could only be accessed from the lab computers in the lighthouse, but any computer in the compound could access IRIS.
"That's a great idea," Race exclaimed, and he led the way to the computer in Benton's study. Benton hooked Race's phone up to the computer and typed in a few commands before leaning back in his chair to wait. A voice pattern showed up on the monitor and above it the word "ENHANCING" blinked on and off. A few moments later, "ENHANCING" blinked off and an image of a play button popped up in its place. Benton placed his hand on the mouse to move the cursor over the play button and left clicked on it. Immediately the message began and Jessie's voice filled the room:
"Dad! (static) trouble. We went skiing (static) criminals. They've (static) Jonny and Hadj...(static) to do. (static) can't leave (static) to wait it out and (static) to them somehow. Please hurry."
"We'll have to enhance it some more," Benton said, and he typed in some more commands. The enhancing process began again. Several minutes later the message once again filled the room, but it still wasn't much better. "I'll give it an hour or so," said Benton. "It'll probably take awhile." Race stood up and left the room. Benton followed a couple of minutes later. He could tell that Race was worried about Jessie, but Benton could not help but feel like his sons were in more trouble than Jessie. She was the one who made the phone call, so she must be in a better position than the boys. Benton did not return to the living room with Race and Estella, but ascended the stairs to his room instead. He needed time alone to think. With all of the times that his family had been in danger, he always had a feeling that they would make it through. But in most of those situations, either he or Race knew where the kids were. Now he had no idea where they were or what had happened to them. He hated feeling this helpless.
Race sat on the couch in the living room, his head in his hands. His ex-wife stood staring out of the window. How had things gotten so messed up, he thought to himself. When Jessie came to live with him and the Quests, he just sort of assumed that she would always stay with him. After his argument with Estella the previous night, he wasn't so sure that everything would work out. Estella wanted Jessie to go live with her again. She thought that life with the Quests was too dangerous for Jessie. Well, this situation sure was not helping. Jessie and the boys were missing, presumed in trouble, and Benton and he didn't know how to find them. If they found the kids, Estella would take Jessie away, and Race would never see her again. He knew that he was overreacting, but the situation seemed so hopeless.
He did not know how long he had been sitting there, when Benton placed a hand on his shoulder and said,
"IRIS just told me that she has deciphered as much of the message as she can." Race and Estella immediately followed Benton into his study. The voice pattern had again appeared on the monitor, and Benton sat down at the console to hit the play button icon. Race and Estella pushed in toward the monitor to listen to the message."Dad! We're in trouble. We went skiing (static) ran into some criminals. They've captured Jonny and Hadji (static) don't know what to do. I can't leave them here. I'm going to wait it out and see if I can get to them somehow. Please hurry."