Jake returned to the room a few hours later to find Marie fast asleep. He walked past her to his ringing phone on the desk.
"Yes?"
"Excellent work, Jake."
"It was too easy."
The voice at the other end laughed.
"I'll call you again in thirty-six hours, her father should make the delivery. And if he doesn't, you'll get to have some fun."
He heard Marie stir in the background, "yes, sir."
Jake hung up the phone and walked over to Marie.
She glared at him, fire in her eyes.
Jake laughed sending chills down her spine.
Marie looked into the dark corner of the room.
"Not going to talk to me are you?"
"Why should I?" she snapped her voice cracking.
Jake laughed again, "Because my dear, I am the only person you will have any contact with for a while, depending if your father cooperates with us or not."
"What?" Marie looked at him, scared.
Jake stood up and looked down at her causing her to press against the wall in fear.
He smirked and walked out of the room.
"It's been thirty six hours and the warehouse is empty. She's all yours. Record it and send it to her family."
"Will do."
"And Jake, prove the point, but don't over do it, we need her to last until we get everything we need."
"No problem."
Marie's eyes went wide and chills went down her spine at his tone of voice.
Jake hung up the phone and put it into his pocket. He walked into a conjoining room.
Marie's heart began to pound when she heard rattling chains.
"Are you sure this isn't overdoing it, Jake?" she heard a man say.
"This will prove the point, and she won't be too worn out for anything else I may have to do," said Jake.
Marie trembled; she was terrified to find out what was coming.
Marie's eyes filled with tears and she began to breathe quickly when Jake came into the room, followed by Alex with a camera.
Jake knelt in front of her.
"I'm sorry my dear, but your father failed to comply," he said unchaining her right arm.
"W-what?" she whimpered.
Jake didn't say anything but continued to unchain her left arm.
Marie head butted him and dashed for the door.
Jake took a second to pop his nose back into place then stood up.
"Uh, uh, uh, young lady," he said walking towards her, "your not going anywhere."
Marie ran out the door and down the hallway followed closely by Jake and Alex with the camera.
She darted around corners desperate to loose the men, but to no avail. She heard their running feet getting closer.
She ran up the stairs and out the door.
"I told you to lock that door!" she heard Jake's voice yell.
She quickly opened a door and shut it behind her, and hid behind several crates inside the pitch-black room.
After several minutes Marie heard footsteps outside the door.
The door slammed open sending a stream of light into the room.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are."
The door shut sending the room into darkness once again.
Marie pressed herself closer to the crate.
Slow, heavy footsteps made their way across the room to the very back. She heard objects being moved around. She stood up quietly and tiptoed to the door.
She grabbed the handle. It was locked.
"No! No! No!" she whispered, frantically twisting the locked handle.
"Yes, yes, yes my dear."
She spun around and pressed her back against the door.
"It's locked, and there is no where for you to go."
Marie began to shake, eyes darting around trying to see in the darkness. She couldn't tell where his voice was coming from.
"And now, you are in big trouble," he hissed in her ear.
She shrieked and punched at the source of the voice but hit nothing.
Marie panicked and ran forward but a rough hand grabbed the back of her dress and threw her back against the door.
A metal pole made contact with her knee, face, stomach, and the back of her head. She fell to the ground.
He grabbed the back of her dress and unlocked the door, pulling her out of the room and leading her to the staircase.
Jake walked her down one flight of stairs and paused at the second landing.
"Ready, Alex?" asked Jake.
"Ready," responded a voice in the shadows, followed by a red light flashing in the darkness.
"W-what are you doing?"
The man chuckled, sending chills down her spine.
"You'll see, my dear."
"Please, don't-"
A gloved hand covering her mouth cut off Marie mid sentence.
"This is what you get for not following through, General Wilson," he said menacingly for the camera.
He threw Marie down the flight of metal stairs.
Marie screamed out each time she hit a step. A few pain filled seconds later she was face first on the ground, covered in scrapes and cuts with bruises already forming.
Hearing Jake's footsteps getting closer, she pushed herself up on her hands and knees and tried to crawl away.
Jake chuckled and grabbed her around the waist and held her back flat against his chest as she effortlessly struggled to get away. He trapped her arms under his left arm and held her off the ground. She kicked and screamed as he carried her back into the room, then into the conjoined room followed by Alex with the camera.
He grabbed her right wrist and put it into the cuff above her head followed by her left wrist. She stood on her tiptoes to keep the pressure off of her right arm.
Marie's heart was pounding and she was taking short shallow breaths. Jake disappeared to the other end of the room then a few seconds later, came back to her, carrying a metal pole.
"W-what are you d-doing?" she whimpered
Jake laughed sending chills down her spine.
She closed her eyes as he pulled back to strike her. Suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her side then another on her thigh.
She yelled in pain.
The strikes continued all over her body followed by screams of pain.
After what felt like hours, the beating finally stopped.
Her whole body ached.
She could already feel the bruises forming, and she could tell a few ribs were cracked.
Marie watched Jake step in front of the camera.
"Now, I'll give you a second chance to deliver the weapons. But a warning, your daughter will suffer more each time you fail," Jake said maliciously.
General Wilson was shaking with rage and even had tears in his eyes.
He had seen the package on the doorstep this morning and refused to let his wife watch it with him, the detectives, and police.
"See what you did? See what happened to my daughter because of you?" General Wilson exploded, "My daughter can not continue to suffer like this!"
"We are doing to best we can sir," said the detective, "There are no fingerprints on any of the packages or DNA of any type."
"How is that even possible?" he yelled.
"We believe these people are professionals, they have had years of practice at this. They want these weapons bad enough to kidnap and torture a teenage girl like it was nothing. These people mean business."
General Wilson put his face in his hands as the chief spoke.
"So what are we going to do? We have until midnight tomorrow to deliver this list." he asked looking up.
The detective finally spoke up.
"General Wilson, I'm sorry but we cannot allow you to hand over this kind of weaponry. It could be easily used to control the country," explained the agent, " We will make fake weapons that function well enough to convince them that they are real. We will then track him down by placing a tracking device into each fake weapon. That way we can find out where they are keeping your daughter."
"What if it's found? And what if they discover they're fake? They will find out and he will kill her for sure!"
"They won't find out, sir, we are going to place it deep within the weapon."
"You better get my daughter back to me. Alive. Or there will be hell to pay."
Marie opened her eyes.
"Where am I?" she asked herself.
She was in a dark room, lying on her stomach in a bed.
She rubbed her eyes with her good hand and looked around. The room was made of four cement walls and the one across from the bed had a steal door. The only things in the room other than the cot, was a toilet and a sink.
She very slowly and carefully moved and sat on the edge of the bed, her injuries burning in pain with the movement.
She looked up, hearing voices outside her door.
She ran across the room, ignoring the pain, and beat on the door and screamed.
"Help! Help me! Somebody please help! Help!"
The door swung open violently throwing her backwards onto the ground.
Marie yelled out in pain.
A man with short spiked white blond hair and cold blue eyes walked into the room.
He wore a black button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbow, black jeans, boots, and black leather gloves. He had pale white skin, sparkling white teeth, and his nose looked swollen.
"Good afternoon, my dear. Did you sleep well?"
"Who-who are you?" she asked softly.
"Did you really think I would wear that mask all the time my dear?"
Marie looked at the floor.
He knelt down next to her and reached out for her good hand.
"Come on, get up."
She warily took his hand. He helped her to her feet, his hand tightly holding her shoulder, and led her back to the cot.
"Now, maybe your father will deliver the weapons this time. I'll be back in a little while to check on you again."
He left the room shutting and locking the door behind him.
Marie sat on the cot, praying her father would save her.
"Here are the weapons," called out General Wilson as his workers carried them into the abandoned building.
"Now where's my daughter!" he yelled into the darkness.
"Its another envelope," said an undercover police officer handing it to the General.
Another undercover police officer slipped closer to him as he tore it open and read it aloud.
"You will receive your daughter after all of our deals are complete. Another list will be delivered to you shortly."
General Wilson put the paper back into the envelope and put it into his coat pocket.
He then hurried to his car and ordered his driver to take him back to the office.
He had to update the FBI.