::hides from the army of rabid armed furbies:: Sorry about the delay everyone, I was totally planning to update yesterday, but work got in the way of writing this chapter. I had to stay late to set up and rehearse for the talent show we had today. I have no talent, by the way. Yeah, so a comment about the story before I get on with the chapter: I loved all of your scenarios as to where Brennan was. Too bad I already knew where she went, or else I probably would have sent her off with Russ. But anyways, onto the story… oh, and watch the timeline. It's shifting in relation to the previous chapter.
Chapter 24—Code
Wednesday, 13 June 2007, 6:43pm
She smiled at the security guard as she left the lab for the night. "Good night, Jeffery," she said as she passed, impressed she remembered the man's name.
"You're leaving awfully early, Dr. Brennan. Everything okay?" Jeffery asked, surprised both to see her leaving early and that she remembered his name.
"I'm meeting someone for dinner. Have a good evening," she replied, exiting through the double doors and walking towards the parking garage. Opening the door to the stair well, she sighed. The lights were still out. Shaking off her suspicion of the dark, she started down the stairs.
She made it to the first landing, taking a deep breath and plunging even further into the darkness. I really should tell maintenance about this tomorrow, she thought. Although she was surprised to see they hadn't fixed it yet, since they use the same stairwell.
Halfway down the second set of stairs, she began to get lightheaded and her thoughts were becoming fuzzy. Taking a few steps back, she sniffed the air, trying to figure out what was making her feel so bad. When it finally registered what she was smelling, she had lost most of her ability to move.
Struggling against the fumes, she made it back to the landing, pulling vainly on the door with the hope it would open. It was either stuck or locked, she couldn't tell as she began losing consciousness and collapsed onto the floor.
A few moments later the door opened, hitting her limp form with a muffled thud. The man bent down, lifting her body carefully and carried her into the garage, placing her in the back of a car, where he proceeded to tie her hands and legs together and gag her before buckling her in.
His partner emerged from the stairwell a moment later, pulling off his mask and handing over Brennan's purse and files she had been carrying.
Climbing into the SUV, they drove down two stories, pulling up and stopping alongside the door to the stairwell. The driver climbed out and quickly cut the bolt that held the door shut, pausing to pull on a mask and waiting for his partner to do the same before opening the door. Together, they lifted the lid onto the barrel and dragged it out of the stairwell, lifting it into the back of the vehicle.
Checking to see that Brennan was still unconscious, they pulled out of the garage and headed to the outskirts of the city.
Wednesday, 13 June 2007, 7:05pm
She was just coming around when they pulled into the abandoned warehouse, confused as to where she was and what was going on. Her mind cleared remarkably quickly as her captors pulled her from the vehicle, tying her securely to a chair. She struggled against her restraints, the rope rubbing painfully against her skin.
"Her damn phone keeps going off," one man told his partner with a heavy brogue, gesturing to the purse.
"Stop complaining," the smaller of the two said to the first, "It isn't going to be here much longer anyway." His brogue wasn't nearly as thick as the first man's, Brennan noted, hoping it would be useful.
The second captor placed a pencil and paper on a desk, dragging Brennan's chair to it forcefully, ignoring her muffled cry of pain when he stepped heavily onto her foot. Shoving the chair against the desk, he handed her the dull pencil.
"You are going to write a note to your FBI-agent partner and tell him to stop the investigation you are currently working on," the man instructed her, pushing the paper closer. "I don't care what you write, but don't tell him who we are, where we are, or anything else that will give away our plan. I will read it, and if it's not to my liking, you'll rewrite it."
She heard a gun being cocked somewhere behind her, feeling it pressed against the back of her skull. Trying to swallow against the gag, she lifted her hand as best she could to write the note. She had one chance to tell Booth where she was, and it had to be hidden well enough her captors wouldn't see it, but obvious enough Booth would.
"Make it quick," the man with the heavy accent told her, pushing the barrel of the gun more forcefully against her scalp. "Or we'll kill you before your 48 hours is up."
She wrote quickly, using a variation of a standard, but basic, code. Her captors didn't strike her as the smartest men in the world, and she hoped they wouldn't notice the strange capitalization in the note.
After just a few minutes she stopped writing, dropping the pencil onto the table and watching it as it rolled off and onto the floor.
The smaller of her captors, who seemed to be the one in charge, stepped forward and snatched the letter from the table, reading it quickly. He smiled at the last sentence, knowing he would, but not before forcing her to watch as he killed someone else at the 24-hour mark.
Picking up the pencil from the floor, he added something to the bottom of the note. Folding it, he placed it in a blank envelope, sealed it, and handed it back to her with the pencil. "Address it," he demanded.
Painfully lifting the pencil again, she printed "Booth" on the outside of the envelope and dropped the pencil again.
Grabbing the envelope again, he looked at his partner. "I'll be back in a few minutes. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."
The other man didn't respond as the first climbed back into the car and drove out of the warehouse. He removed the gun from the back of her head and dragged the chair to a pipe in an alcove off the room, wrapping chains around her already immobile form and locking the padlock. She struggled in vain against the ropes, biting back a cry of pain as the rope rubbed raw spots on her skin.
Grinning at her evilly, the man took a few steps back into the main room and flipped a light switch on the wall. A piece of glass slid into place, locking her in the tiny space as a vent in the corner opened.
She could feel herself growing drowsy as the smell once again engulfed her. What is this? she wondered, fighting to stay conscious long enough to identify the gas. At least I was right, she thought as she realized she was losing to the looming darkness. Please find me Booth, she prayed as her last thought before succumbing to the painless world of the unconscious.
Wednesday, 13 June 2007, 7:25pm
Across town, Dava King's killer entered Brennan's apartment. He walked quickly into the kitchen and placed the note and phone on the counter, knowing her partner would come looking for her. Laughing softly he left her apartment, locking it securely behind him.
Wednesday, 13 June 2007, 8:15pm
Booth, Angela, Hodgins, and Cam were gathered on the platform, pouring over the note that had been left for them. In her neat script, though the wording was strange and capitalization completely shot, they read:
booTh,
i was kidNApped oN my way out of the lab. he Got mE as i was enteRing the Parking Structure gAraGe, He Could hAve usEd some kind of chemicaL Blend. hOdgins help! he is fOrcing me To wriTe my own rAnsom noTe and He iS readIng it to make suRe I doN't tell you who he is or where he's tAken Me. not that i know the answeR to Either siLLy questIon. you need to stop looKing into the murDer of dava kiNg. tell cullen to stop the Investigation. iF you don't, he will kill me in 48 hours.
bones.
Scribbled almost illegibly underneath her note was another line:
We will kill Emily King at 7:30pm tomorrow night, whether or not our demands are met.
Hehe, once again I leave you at an evil stopping point. But I will have the next chapter posted in a few hours. Now you need to review to play the game: What is with the gas they're using? What is hidden in the note? Why did she tell Hodgins to help her?
