A/N Okay. So the update is majorally late. Sorry. I've been trying to force myself to update other stories besides this one. So, I'm updating in order of most reviews. You guys are in second, and will probably always be in second, because the story in first has 313 reviews as of the current moment.
Thanks to all reviewers!
Dedication: To my fabulous reviewers, kungfukitty2006, whitetigers, MissMe113, franknjoe, Miss Fenway, Cherylann Rivers, and sleuth girl.
Disclaimer: An-Jelly-Ca owns nothing.
"Let's go for a little ride." Jim said flashing a brief smile at Vanessa and Phil which far from comforting them only served to unnerve them further.
"I don't know if that's such a good idea," Vanessa said swallowing hard and searching her brain for an excuse. "Phil and I really need to be getting to work, we just wanted to stop in and say hello to Tim and be on our way."
"Nonsense," Todd cut in smoothly. "I'm sure you have plenty of time to come with us, you see, I was talking to my boss, and he is very interested to meet you, he might even offer you a job, and I'm sure any job the boss offers is much better then the barely above minimum wage jobs the two of you probably have." He continued obviously trying to act like they had a choice in the matter.
"Besides," Jim interjected. "Tim will be there." He said smugness rolling off him in waves.
"Tim? But, Tim works here." Phil countered.
"Not any more, the boss thought Tim showed promise and had him transferred to his main offices." Jim explained, and just like that Phil knew they had no chance of avoiding the trip to Marion's 'office.'
"You did say you wanted to say hello to Tim, right?" Todd queried his tone pleasant.
"Fine. Let's go." Vanessa said reluctantly, it was clear that they could either go 'willingly' or be knocked out and dragged to Marion but one way or another they were going to go, and maybe they'd be able to see Frank.
The drive to Marion's office was dead silent: Todd and Jim were not especially big on small talk and Vanessa and Phil were too busy planning an escape to bother questioning their captors further. Vanessa and Phil were ushered through the door and down a long hallway to Marion's office upon their arrival at the outwardly dingy warehouse that served as Marion's temporary headquarters.
They were greeted by Marion himself who rose from behind his desk offering his hand to each of them in turn. "Miss Bender, Mister Cohen, it's a pleasure to meet you, I've heard so much about you." Marion said by way of greeting. "Your reputations in electronics precede you, your skills are said to be quite shocking especially for ones so young." He continued. "Please have a seat." He added gesturing to the two cushioned chairs positioned in front of his mahogany desk.
Phil and Vanessa immediately sat feeling a bit like children in the principal's office. "Mister…I'm sorry, but I didn't catch your name?" Vanessa started purposely pretending she didn't know who he was for the sake of appearances. There was no reason for him to know how much they had discovered about him and his organization.
"I apologize, where are my manners?" Marion replied. "My name is Jonathan Marion; I am the CEO of a large business conglomerate, I learned of both of you through an associate of mine and I'd be delighted if you were to accept a position at my company."
Phil and Vanessa exchanged a nervous glance unable to decide how to proceed, they were certain that refusal was not exactly an option as Marion would likely just force them to work for him as he had done with Frank, but at least if they pretended interest in Marion's offer he might trust them and let them see Frank. On the other hand they could refuse to cooperate, and maybe Marion would lock them up in the same place as Frank and Callie. And, while being kidnapped wasn't exactly ideal it was a sure fire way to find out where they were keeping Frank and Callie.
"Can I be frank with you Mr. Marion?" Vanessa asked abruptly coming to a decision.
"Yes, of course, Miss Bender."
"We both know that you're more then a CEO of a large business conglomerate, and that you want to retain my services and Phil's for that matter for more then just some typical tech work or accounting." Vanessa began, carefully watching Marion's face for his reaction, as she spoke she could feel Phil's eyes boring holes in the side of her head, clearly wondering what on earth she was doing.
-I am a line-
"We need to decide on a story for when we arrive." Joe said half to himself, half to the others crowded into Tony's car. "We obviously can't just storm onto the property demanding to know where Vanessa and Phil are, this isn't some deserted warehouse, it's supposedly an office building and they're not going to want anything to shatter that façade."
"Which means we can't all go storming in there, it should just be one or two of us that go looking for them while the others wait in the car." Fenton clarified his son's words in a grim tone.
"I'm going." Joe said automatically. Fenton frowned but didn't protest.
"Do we have any idea what kind of business is supposed to be happening there?" Joe's father said addressing the group at large. "If we can act like we're there to do business and just casually look for Vanessa and Phil or pretend like we were supposed to be meeting them there for business purposes we'll likely be accepted a lot easier."
"Phil and Vanessa did most of the research, it was mostly computer stuff, and we were really just concerned with finding out where Joe was." Chet responded.
"That's going to make things a lot harder," Joe mused. "We can always just go with the standard my-friends-called-and-asked-me-to-pick-them-up-here story."
"At this point I think we're going to have to." Fenton responded.
"I think I should probably take one of the guys with me," Joe said. "It'll look more like a bunch of friends meeting up for lunch that way, it'll look weird if I walk in with you, it's more likely to raise flags." Joe said addressing his father.
"I'll go with you," Tony volunteered. "Phil and Vanessa were in my search group when we were looking for you and well…" Joe nodded in understanding saving his friend from speaking further.
They reached their location shortly after this; they parked down the street from the building. Tony and Joe got out and walked the rest of the way so that anyone watching would see only two apparent friends entering an office building.
"Hello," Joe said flashing a bright smile at the receptionist, a blonde woman who appeared to be in her early twenties, the name plate on her desk read Amanda Trater. "I was wondering if you had seen some friends of ours, their names are Phil Cohen and Vanessa Bender."
"They were coming to see a friend of ours who works here." Tony added.
"I'm afraid I've never heard of either of those people, but if you could supply me with a physical description I might be able to help you."
"I have a picture actually." Tony said pulling out a group shot taken shortly before Frank died; he had been using it to show to people when they were searching for Joe. "Vanessa is the one on the far left, and Phil is the one two spots over from her." He continued pointing out both Vanessa and Phil in the photo.
"I'm not normally supposed to give out information about our patrons." The receptionist said nervously chewing on her lower lip as she thought.
"They aren't patrons really, they were just here visiting a friend." Joe argued. "Please. I really need to talk with them," He said giving her his best pleading look.
"I suppose if it was an emergency I could tell you." Amanda said looking at them imploringly.
"Oh. Yes." Joe paused. "That's actually why I need to see them, Vanessa's cousin, Callie, got in an accident, I was supposed to pick her up and bring her to the hospital."
"Well, considering that this is a dire circumstance, I suppose I can tell you what I know." She said with a small smile. "They came in about an hour ago accompanied by two of our security guards, they were led tone of the back offices, and they came out again with the same two security guards about fifteen minutes ago, they left the building, I don't know where they went after that. I hope that helps."
"Yes, thanks so much for your help," Joe said flashing the woman one final smile before swiftly exiting the building Tony following close behind him.
"How did it go?" Biff questioned as soon as they got back into the car. "Did you find out anything?"
"The receptionist said that security escorted them to a back office about an hour ago, they stayed in the office for awhile, and then were escorted out about fifteen minutes ago, and she said that's the last she saw of them." Joe recapped.
"Assuming that she's telling the truth, and that's probably a big assumption, if Phil and Vanessa left escorted by security they're probably being taken to Marion, that said, they're likely at the same building as Frank and Callie." Fenton mused.
"So, how do we proceed?" Joe asked.
-I am a line-
A/N Review, please. Updates should pick up because I am trying to finish or come close to finishing the story before school starts on August 26th. (I'm hoping for delays, our school has asbestos and they've been working all summer to get it out but they are nowhere near finished and we can't go back until it's gone. There's talk of as much as a week delay.)