Last time:
Bruce turned to his comrade and said, "Lets go do this. I don't want us vulnerable for long."
He turned his attention to the teenagers and said, "Don't try anything, or the consequences will be severe." On that note, He walked out of the bathroom, M2 at his side.
As soon as the two men left the bathroom, Annabeth turned to Percy and said, "Are you ok?" You were turning blue for a second there. Can you breathe alright?"
Percy nodded and gestured towards his gag. Bruce and M2 may have tied his hands behind his back, but they had tied Annabeth's in front of her by mistake. She got what he was saying, and crawled over to him. She sat up until her hands were level with his mouth. She reached forward and, with some difficulty, was able to pull his gag out of his mouth, but not down under his chin. It wasn't the best, but he could speak now, and it would look like it was still in all the way to Bruce and M2
His voice rasping, Percy said, "I'll be fine. But how are you? You looked really scared when they dragged you in here."
"I'm fine, no harm to me." The unspoken 'yet' weighted heavily on both of them.
With a sigh, Annabeth turned her eyes to Percy and said a plan that had been forming in her mind for the last few minutes. "Hey, do you know the janitor's entrance a couple of halls down from here."
"Yea, I use it to sneak in when I am late for school." Percy said. "Why?"
"What if I said that there might be a way to get us out of here using that door?"
"Wouldn't that be dangerous?" Percy asked her. "Those psychos are watching us 24/7."
"But they are not right now, are they?"
"No," he said slowly.
"Ok, then here's what we can do. I can try to contact officer Blowfis again and tell him to make a distraction by the front of the building, where there will be no people." Seeing his mouth opening and reading his mind she said, "The office ladies will have gotten out by now. They can just go through the emergency door in the bus heads office."
"I'm following Ya, go on," Percy said, shaking his head in contemplation.
"So then, while they are distracting the two men, we can sneak out of here." Annabeth finished happily, pleased with her plan.
"I like it, but there's two problems with that." Percy said with a frown. "Number one, I can barely walk five feet, let alone two hallways, and the stairs down the door. Number two, we don't know that Bruce and M2 are the only men here."
"Oh" Annabeth discouraged. But even as a new plan was forming, it was stopped before it could begin. Bruce and M2 walked back into the bathroom.
Bruce turned to the two and said, "Come on, now that everyone else is gone, we are moving."
Annabeth's heart fell, how would Percy walk to wherever they were going?
"Where are we going sir?" She asked, trying to be as respectable as possible.
It was all for nil. Bruce just turned his head towards her and said roughly, "You will see when we get there. Now stop dragging your butt and get up. Help Leroy over there, it looks like he is having trouble and I don't want anyone lagging behind." Annabeth nodded and stood up the way Percy had earlier. Then she turned towards him and helped him up.
She offered her side to him, and he leaned into her. Annabeth couldn't help but notice that he fit almost perfectly into her.
She shook her head to dispel the thought. 'Now isn't the time' she chastised to herself. Instead she focused on helping him limp down the hall.
They followed Bruce through the school. It was eerily silent. There were doors open and blinders scattered on the floor. Papers were lying crumpled in the hallway, and Annabeth could see a situation card like the one that had spelled their doom lying in the hallway.
Then, they arrived at the office. Percy's face was white from the effort of walking the school. Annabeth's arm was growing numb from supporting him. She didn't know if she could support him for much longer.
Bruce gestured for them to walk inside, and they did. As they walked inside, the first thing Annabeth spotted was they puddle of blood on the floor by the front desk. Was that from the lady on the speaker?
The second thing they noticed were the three men standing guard by the front door. 'Well, that answer the question on whether or not it was just Tristan and Bruce here.' she thought with a wry smile.
One of the men, who she decided to call Man, barked at her, "Why are you smiling princess? You have no reason to right now." Annabeth wisely kept quiet, even though she was halfway to telling him how his nose look liked a hawk had scratched at it, which would account for the deep scars running throughout it.
Bruce turned to the teens and said, "Well, Kate, Leroy, say hi to the rest of my gan- I mean team. The one to the left is Ulisse, the one in the center is Marquez, and the one on the right is Gabr. They are all from out-of-town, as you can see."
Annabeth could defiantly tell. Ulisse had a distinctive Italian look with tanned skin and light hair. The one called Marquez was defiantly Latin American. He had dark brown hair and slightly lighter tanned. Gabr looked similar to Marquez, but different. He was also wearing a turban, which gave him away as Arabic. 'What has our principal gotten into?' she wondered.
Ulisse pointed towards a corner, which fortunately had chairs, and said, "Sit there, don't get up, and don't speak."
Annabeth and Percy silently did as they were told. Annabeth helped Percy sit into a semi comfortable position, and then sat down next to him. Now that they had stopped moving, his face was regaining some colour, but not for long.
Tristan then trailed in, carrying the computer. He set it up on the front desk, facing towards Percy and herself.
"Think Alfred will want to talk to us now?" Marquez said inquisitively.
"No, but Officer Blowfis sure will." Tristan replied, and as he did, he Skype called the officer. There was a bing, and then the officer's face showed up on-screen.
"Ah, Officer Blowfis was it? I do not believe we have had the pleasure of talking. My name is Tristan."
"Nice to meet you Tristan. Now, seeing as we kept our part of the deal, can you show me the kids and prove you kept your part?" The officer asked this nervously, as if he was afraid of being turned down, or that they hadn't kept their side of the deal and hurt Annabeth.
Tristan nodded and turned the webcam so the officer could see them. Although the pair couldn't see the screen clearly, they could hear the audible sigh of relief he gave.
"Thank you."
Tristan didn't rely in kind, but in stead said, "Is little Alfred ready to talk yet? Or will he need a little more… encouragement? In fact, I have my friends to help me if I do need help." Tristan turned the camera towards the three lackeys. "I will give you first names only, but you will find out who they are so enough. There is Ulisse, Marquez, and Gabr."
"I have told you once, the principal will not negotiate. And do not hurt those kids. They have done nothing to you!"
"Oh on the contrary, they make me hunger for pain, to hurt someone. I haven't felt like that for a long time. So you see, they have done something." Bruce said, stepping in line of view of the camera.
"So Alfred won't talk, well then, I guess that me and my friends get to have some fun. And you can watch. In fact, you have to because if you don't how will you know how to negotiate their release with me?"
Officer Blowfis was silent.
"Ok then let's get started!" Bruce said, happiest he had been since the teens had first encountered them. He turned to them and beckoned for them to walk to the middle of the room, where everything, including the surveillance cameras could see them.
"I imagine that you have hacked the cameras in hops of learning our plans, so we disabled the sound, but not the picture. So now you can see this happen from every angle." The officer replied only with a stony glare.
As Annabeth and Percy reached the middle of the room, the men converged on them. They forced the kids down, and through a jungle of arms, Annabeth could see the webcam repositioned at and angle.
When the arms cleared, ropes were tying down the to armchairs which were bolted to the floor. Above her, the men grinned with sadistic smiles.
Bruce turned to them, gave them all a knife and said, "Lets the games begin." Then he turned to the webcam. "This is how this is going to go. Every five minutes, I will ask you if Alfred will agree o talk. Tell that to him, as he is probably just out f view of us. If he says no, we will inflict some sort of injury on them. I will alternate which one gets hurt. We will start with the girl. Now, doe Alfred agree to talk to us?"
Officer Blowfis looked off-screen for a second, turn back towards the webcam and said with a heavy sigh, "No."
Bruce nodded, turned towards Gabr and said, "You can start."
The man nodded and leaned down towards Annabeth's legs. He turned them slightly, so the back of her ankle was showing. Annabeth's heart grew heavy with suspicion. From biology class, she remember that was where the Achilles Tendon was located. She hoped he wasn't, but as he leaned down, she steeled herself.
Annabeth's world went up in flames. It hurt so badly! She couldn't feel her feet, she could barely see, and just barely could she hear someone screaming. It was herself, she realized.
Then, someone was sticking a needle in her, and the pain went away slightly. She still couldn't feel her feet, or any other part of her body, but she felt like she would live.
Bruce grinned and turned towards the camera. "Heard about the break in earlier today at that hospital pharmacy? That was us. We couldn't have our hostages not able to feel the pain, now could we? You have five minutes until the boy gets it. Think wisely." with that, Bruce muted the screen, and said to the teens, "I hope he says no."
Hey guys! I just want you to know that I normally don't update this frequently. The reason is, I have to do this program June 9-29, and we won't get lots of access to computers, so my updates may be sporadic. The good thing is, I have Sundays off, so I will try to write that week and post on Sundays. One last thing, a challenge: Can anyone tell me how I came up with Percy and Annabeth's fake names? Virtual cookies for everyone who finds out!