Stockholm Syndrome
3. Smokescreen
The truth, the truth...There is no truth. These men, they make it up as they go along. They're the engineers of the future. ~Alex Krycek (Tunguska)
"And you're positive no one saw you?" Raelyn could hear a deep and raspy voice of an unfamiliar man. Everything was black; she finally realized this was due to her eyes being closed. She fidgeted; she couldn't move. She seemed to be tied to a chair.
What happened? I remember watching Batman Begins and then…Oh my God.
It all started coming back in portions, out of order: running out of her house, reaching for the mace, fighting for her life, hearing a noise, a man yelling in Russian when she kicked his crotch, a cloth going over her mouth…
"Of course I'm sure," came another voice. This one sounded younger and annoyed. It seemed familiar…Yes; it was definitely the man who had taken her.
"I've arranged everything. Her coworkers think she's on extended vacation. She has few friends or relations. She'll disappear with no problem." This voice was also raspy, like a smoker. But it had an oily, cruel undertone. Raelyn opened her eyes involuntarily.
"Ah, you're awake, Dr. Anderovney. Good." It was the man who had last spoken. He had wavy gray hair and was wearing a black suit under a dark blue trench coat. He was, indeed, smoking a cigarette. There were other men in the room, most of who were old and smoking cigarettes. One was young and standing silently behind the Cigarette Smoking Man talking to her. Raelyn assumed he was the one who had taken her.
"What do you want?" she asked nervously.
"Well, Doctor, you have some information that's very important to us. Do you recall a certain Dr. Damien Tanner?"
"Yes…H-he died last month. A car accident, I believe."
"Did you complete his autopsy?"
"Yes, I felt obliged…he was an old coworker."
"Why would they want an FBI autopsy for a standard car accident?"
"Um, I think Agents Mulder and Scully felt there were some irregularities. They seemed to think he was murdered." It frightened her to say that word. She just wanted to keep talking, anything to stall them. She squirmed against the binds that held her. The Cigarette Smoking Man observed this.
"I've noticed you are fidgeting quite a bit," he said. "Are you frightened perhaps?"
"Ya know what I've noticed? You're all white men. Is this the KKK or something? Am I being inducted into the KKK? 'Cause that's not really my style."
This seemed to throw the group off a bit. They stared at her strangely, obviously startled by this burst of nerve. But stress had taught Raelyn to cope with humor. Apparently this irritated the Cigarette Smoking Man.
"You need to watch how you speak to us, Doctor. We are far more powerful than you could ever imagine. We will not hesitate to-"
"Y-you can't make me disappear!" she blurted hastily. "People will know I'm gone! I ha-have a family, friends, a boyfriend!"
"You have a boyfriend? Really?"
"Yeah, so if this is some twisted version of The Bachelorette and you guys are the contestants, I'm afraid the show is cancelled."
"Good Lord," muttered a well-manicured man. "She has quite the sense of humor."
"Shouldn't we hurry this up?" added another, stockier man.
The Cigarette Smoking Man waved a hand at the younger man behind him.
"Alex, please help our guest understand the urgency of this situation."
Alex smiled, pulled a gun out, and pointed it directly at Raelyn's head. She had never seen such a willingness to kill in someone's eyes.
"I'm surprised you're not walking crooked," she mumbled. She regretted it immediately. The last thing you need is to be on these guys' bad side, Raelyn thought to herself. If this is their good side…
"What?" the well-manicured man questioned, losing his formal manner momentarily.
"She got in a lucky kick," Alex said, tilting his head to one side. He had a smooth, arrogant voice even when he wasn't telling someone to 'shut up'.
"I don't suppose you yelled and tipped off the neighbors?" inquired the stocky man with the raspy voice. Raelyn got the feeling he wasn't too fond of Alex. Then again, neither was she.
"No, I-"
"Actually he did," Raelyn said, trying to get the attention off her. "In Russian. Now, I'm not too fluent in Russian, but I'm guessing he said something between 'Ouch' and 'There goes any plans of having children'."
Alex was still smiling, but he looked thoroughly annoyed, obviously ready to knock the living daylights out of Raelyn. The Cigarette Smoking Man, however, seemed amused.
"Dr. Anderovney, I only have one more question and then you may leave."
"All right…"
"What is Dr. Tanner's code for his files on his home computer?"
" I…" she trailed off. She searched her memory. "I don't…I honestly don't know."
"Alex, please."
Alex walked up and pushed the gun forcefully into the side of Raelyn's head. Now was the time to panic.
"No, please! I haven't the slightest clue! I barely knew Dr. Tanner; he never told me his password!"
Alex grinned. "Maybe a shot to the leg would persuade her to tell the truth."
"No! I'm telling the truth! I'm not a brave person, I'm not a hero; if I knew the password, I would give it to you!"
"Not if you knew its value," Cigarette Smoking Jerk said, letting out a cloud of smoke from his mouth. "Take her away, Alex."
"NO! Please, you said you'd let me go!"
"If you answered my question. You have yet to answer, Dr. Anderovney."
"Don't kill me! His favorite color's green! Maybe that's it! He liked the Beach Boys! Please, I don't know! I just-"
Help! I need somebody!
Help! Not just anybody!
Help! You know I need someone!
"What the," Alex muttered as he pulled a cell phone from his pocket. The Beatles continued singing as he checked who it was. "It says Sean Pendrall."
He took my cell phone? That's just beyond wrong, Raelyn thought. I made that Pendrall's ring tone because he's always calling for help…Only now I need it way more than he ever did.
"Give it to her. But make sure she answers correctly," ordered The Cigster. Alex put the phone on speaker and clamped it her ear, making sure his gun was also close to the cranium.
"Hello?" she answered hesitantly. How could she alert him without getting her head blown off?
"Hey, Dr. Anderovney. What are you doing out so late? I tried calling your home phone, but you didn't pick up."
"I'm, uh, out with some friends. We're just…eating."
Raelyn sucked at lying.
"Oh…you're out eating this late? It's like 3:00 AM."
"Yeah, just…eating. You know. Why did you call again?"
"Oh! I was wondering if you were going to be able to do an autopsy for Agents Scully and Mulder in about an hour. Scully normally would, but she's swamped. You know she's very talented in different fields."
"Yeah, I know, Pendrall. I don't think I can…I'm, uh, going on extended vacation."
"You didn't mention it. Where are you going?"
Alex rolled his eyes. Apparently Pendrall talked too much for his taste.
"I'm going to…Florida. It's so beautiful this time of year."
Cigarette Smoking Man waved a hand to signal that she should hang up. Raelyn was hesitant to leave her only chance at the moment, but she was also hesitant to get shot.
"Well, I have to go now. Bye…Sean."
"Bye. See ya-"
Alex snapped the phone shut. He stuck it back in his pocket and pulled something else out, something silver…
"Oh God," Raelyn moaned as she saw that it was indeed a knife. But instead of slicing her throat and having blood spurt out, Alex cut the ropes holding her hands and feet. He grabbed her arm and began leading her out of the dark room, the other men observing indifferently.
"Wait! Where are you taking me?"
No one answered. Alex pulled her out into a parking lot and turned left sharply, practically dragging her to the mini cooper.
The mini cooper?
"Oh my God! I don't believe this! You stole my car? What is wrong with you? Have you no ounce of decency?"
"Will you freaking shut up? God, why did we have to get the coroner with the biggest damn mouth on the planet?"
Raelyn blushed. She was shy by nature, but stress and fear brought out a panicky, talkative side of her.
Alex shoved her into through the passenger door and handcuffed her to the seat. He hurried around the other side and jumped into the driver's seat. Raelyn wasn't sure how he had found her keys, which she always kept in her Batman cookie jar hidden in the back of the top cupboard in the kitchen. (Paranoia, remember?)
Then he did something absolutely unacceptable. He blindfolded her.
"What the heck?" she cried. "Is that really necessary?"
"As a matter of fact, it is. We wouldn't want you being able to tip anyone off on where you are."
"You stole my cell phone, my car, and myself. I guess I figured you'd take the house too."
"I've got my own place, thanks."
They started driving, quite fast she noted. Alex seemed a bit jerky at turns and seldom stopped, which suggested either they were in a secluded part of the city that had little traffic or he just didn't care about trivial stuff like the law. Raelyn had never gotten a ticket herself.
"So was Dr. Tanner involved in something illegal? How did you all know him?"
"That's none of your business."
"Well, just wondering…At least tell me what kind of place we're going. An abandoned warehouse, a factory, Taiwan?"
"My apartment."
Ugh, not the answer I hoped for. In fact, I think I prefer Taiwan. Okay, I just have to pay attention. Try to find something that'll tell me where we are. And keep this psycho talking.
"Well, I…" She could think of no smart remarks. Her fear and anxiety was growing. What would he do to her once they arrived? Kill her? Or worse?
"What's wrong? Too forward for the first night?" Sarcasm dripped from each word. So, he had a sense of humor too. Probably not a good thing…
"Actually, it is. Kidnapping and blindfolding is never exactly praiseworthy, but the manhandling of a defenseless woman was a nice touch. I'm very impressed. It takes a lot of skill to be a henchman. How much do you usually get paid?"
"You know, you talk a lot for a terrified captive."
"I'm distracting you, so you won't be ready for my big move."
"And what move would that be?"
"If I told you that, I wouldn't stand much of a chance.
"I'm about ten times stronger than you. You spend all your time dissecting corpses, while I fight almost every day. I have a gun and you're wearing handcuffs. I don't think you stand much of a chance either way."
And so started a relationship of bitterness, angst, and annoyance. These things are of course known to destroy love. Yet for once they would manage to create it. Much like victims of Stockholm Syndrome, the captive would find love with the captor.
Author's Note: Please, please, please review! I'm begging here people! Reviews make me write faster and improve my work! Moving on…again, a bit of language and violence but that's what the Teen rating is for. Do you prefer first or third person narration? Please tell me how I'm doing on capturing the characters and if Raelyn is at all being a Mary Sue. Hope you all enjoyed this. :)