Chapter 11
I will find you….
Catherine closes her eyes and repeats Vincent's words in her head as the door slams shut.
She is placed in a cell.
I will find you…I will find you…
Catherine knows that Vincent will find a way to get to her. That is what scares her the most. She does not want Vincent to come for her; she needs him to stay away. As long as she cooperates they will let him live…otherwise, they will kill him, slowly, painfully and they will make her watch.
The female beast, Natalie comes in and lets Catherine know they will be leaving soon. They dare not stay long; everyone knows that Vincent will come for her. Catherine doesn't speak… doesn't even acknowledge Natalie's words. Vincent will go crazy when he arrives here to find her gone.
Catherine rips off the bottom part of her shirt and stuffs it under the mattress. She is not sure how far Vincent can track, but she wants to leave him something. As she does this, she says "I will find you Vincent; no matter what….stay alive and I will find my way back."
The older gentleman comes in and introduces himself as Tony Barnes. Cat wonders if everyone calls themselves Tony Barnes or if this is really him. She does not say anything about shooting the previous Mr. Barnes. She allows herself to be led out to the waiting helicopter. As she gets onboard she can hear Vincent, she hears his roar as the beast rams against the fence surrounding the helipad. She looks for him, but she is shoved into the copter. The door slams shut and the last thing she hears is the anguish in his voice as it is abruptly cut off.
Vincent is panting heavily, his face upturned following the helicopter as it takes off with Catherine inside. His anguished roar reverberates across the countryside as he stands there, helpless.
Tess finds him. He is out of control, the beast fully in control. He is pacing and every so often he hurls himself at the fence. Tess is frightened but he is the only one who can tell her what happened.
"Vincent! Vincent! What the hell happened…..where is Cat?" She gets no response from him. She puts her hand up to her ear, tapping on the device JT gave her earlier.
"JT… Vincent has lost it, a helicopter just left here, can you track it, I don't know what is going on but Vincent is freaking out and his attention seems to be directed at the copter."
"On it!" JT answers her back.
Tess tries again to reach Vincent.
"Vincent! Cat needs you, she needs you right now, so snap out of it….you can save her, but not like this! Vincent!"
At the mention of Cat's name Vincent slows down and returns to himself.
"Tess! She is on the helicopter, have JT track it, we need to see where it lands!"
"Slow down big guy and tell me what happened, JT is already tracking the copter."
Vincent is struggling to maintain control, the beast in him wants to hurt something, wants to get inside that facility, even though Vincent knows that Catherine is not inside.
"They surprised us, they had a device that controlled me and they grabbed Catherine, they had a gun to her head, a guy said something to her and she let them take her….Tess we have to find her.
"We will Vincent" Tess placed her hand on his shoulders. "We will!"
JT hacked into air traffic control was able to determine which blip had taken off from the facility. He was in the process of tracking it when Vincent and Tess burst into the gentleman's club.
"JT talk to me." Vincent said pacing. "Tell me you know where she is!"
JT pointed to a blip on the screen….."That…..took off from your location just before Tess called me. I don't know where it's going but it's headed inland and not toward the ocean, so that is a least one good thing."
Vincent called Dana.
"Muirfield or whatever we are calling them now….. took Catherine. They are in a helicopter and JT is tracking them, can you get access to a helicopter? Great, where can you pick me up?"
Vincent turns to JT.
"JT give me one of those ear communicator thingy's. You keep tracking her and let me know where she lands."
Tess wants to help and asks Vincent to take her with him.
"Tess I have no idea what I am walking into or how I am going to get Cat back, I can't get to her if I am worried about you too. Please trust me, I will find her and I will bring her back." He takes off out the door to go meet Dana. Tess doesn't realize it but he hears her last words as he races out.
"Bring her back Vincent….please bring her back."
Tess turns to JT and he holds her in his arms, her head against his chest.
"He will bring her back, Tess….he will bring her back."
Catherine is quiet; she doesn't ask any questions, she doubts they would tell her the truth anyways. She has no idea how she is going to get out of this, but she will find a way, Vincent will come for her, she has no doubt about that, and when he finds her, she will be ready.
After about 2 hours, the copter lands and she is transferred to a van. As she leaves the copter, she manages to drop more of her shirt on the ground. The wind catches it, but doesn't blow it far. As she is shoved into the van she manages to scrap her hand on the metal, she squeezes her hand and several drops of blood hit the wet leaves.
JT radios Vincent that the helicopter has landed and gives him the coordinates. After that there is not much JT can do besides wait and pray that Vincent finds Cat and brings her home.
Vincent's helicopter lands and he jumps out, immediately reaching out to Catherine. He can smell her; he looks around and finds the torn shirt. He holds it up to his face inhaling her scent. He stands there….tracking her. He has a moment of panic when he scents her blood. He blurs to the spot and is relieved to find only a drop or two, pride in her swells in his chest. That is his girl. She trusts that he will find her and this is her way of letting him know she will be ready. He returns to the copter and Dana advises him that a car is on the way.
"Good tell them to keep their eyes open for anything unusual. Cat is in a vehicle, and she is bleeding which will make it easier to find her. But if she finds another way to signal, make sure they stay frosty."
Vincent updates JT and Tess about what he has found and JT starts scanning all the CCTV footage he can find. "Vincent you're in upstate New York, not too far from the Canadian border. If they try to cross with her, we should be able to find her."
"I don't think they will try a border crossing with her, too risky that she wouldn't cooperate…..JT scan with Google earth and tell me what is around here. It would have to be something isolated and quiet. Whatever they want Cat for; it's going to have to be secluded."
It didn't take them long to arrive at their destination. Cat was surprised they stopped this close to the helicopter landing site. They must be very confident that Vincent wouldn't track her here. Hopefully they were over confident. Cat was taken into a small room and the door locked behind her. She looked around there was a bathroom, a bed, a small table and 1 chair. Guess they weren't planning on her having visitors. There was a buzzing sound.
"Welcome to your new home for the time being, I am sure you are hungry. Feel free to clean up and food will be sent up to you right away."
Cat did have to pee and she took a shower to clean up, she wanted no trace of blood on her, she was going to stay put and not give them a reason to move her again. She ripped more of her shirt, to make it look like it was supposed to be that way and used the other to wipe the blood off her hand, she even squeezed a bit more out, she then stuffed it up into the exhaust fan in the bathroom. She had no idea where it vented, but any chance for Vincent to find her she would take.
In her head she chanted. I am here Vincent…..come find me….come find me.
Food was slipped under the door; there was a little slot at the bottom. Smart on their part, as she tried to look out all she could see was feet, no angle she could get along the floor brought her vision up any higher. She was hungry so she ate. After a few minutes she felt tired, she realized they had drugged her as she slumped to the floor.
What she did not see, was the two men in lab coats that came in, drew her blood and then laid her on the bed just before they left.
Vincent tracked Cat's scent to a heavily wooded area, when he got out of the car the scent of Cat's blood was overwhelming. He blurred around and found no other trace of her. Then JT called him and advised that there was a large underground facility in the area. "Some sort of pre WW2 bomb shelter, only it's huge." Vincent looked down at the ground. Catherine was somewhere underneath him.
Vincent scoured the area, but could find no entrance to anything that appeared to lead underground. He starts to panic.
"JT I can't figure out a way to get inside…..I can smell Catherine everywhere, I know she is here somewhere!" Vincent is pacing back and forth all around the area, trying to determine where exactly her scent is coming from. He wants to start digging, but he is afraid that whoever this is will have sensors placed just in case.
JT can sense Vincent's agitation over the phone. He is so worked up, so fearful for Cat that he can't think straight.
"V listen big guy….calm down…..you have other abilities, so get yourself together and use them! I am waiting on some thermal imaging software from Dana and I will go over this area with a fine tooth comb. But seriously dude, get your shit together and use your big bad beast senses!"
Vincent knows JT is right, but he is so scared for Catherine. He takes a few big breathes in…..holds it…and lets it out. A few sessions of tactical breathing and he is calm. Reaching out with all his senses he scans the area. He hears the trees moving in the breeze, he smells the earth and the animals nearby. He hears the smaller animals as the burrow through the underbrush and the insects as well. He waits…something is missing…birds. There are no birds making noises…as he zeros in he realizes there is a whole section of the woods where there are no sounds.
"JT…there is a section out here with no sounds. No animals and no birds…..a dead zone. That has to be where she is or at least an entrance."
"Great, but sit some surveillance out there for a bit, if Catherine really is the prize, I bet some big wig bad guy is going to show up! And when he does…"
"I will be ready for him." Vincent growls the words out.
Catherine wakes up in bed, she has no idea how much time has passed. She remembers eating and then nothing…rubbing her arm, she feels the needle mark. They must be watching her, because she had not been awake very long when the door opened. Mr. Barnes walks in and with him are two soldiers; they flanked him as he comes into the room.
Cat tries to school her expression; she is shocked because she recognizes both of the men. They are from Vincent's old unit. Ray, the one Vincent called Pammy Sue was one, she didn't remember the others name but it was definitely another from that same picture. And they were both very much alive!
Barnes clears his throat and then addresses her.
"Ms. Chandler, may I call you Catherine?" Without actually waiting for her response he continues. "It is my hope that you will be cooperative during your stay here. We mean you no harm and actually want your help." At her perplexed look he continues… "I know our methods here are unorthodox, but you will see you can be a huge help to us. The members of your family have been a part of this organization for generations." He smiled at her, but the smile did not reach his eyes.
"You want me help, why don't you start by telling me who you are?"
He smiled, again with only half his face, it was pretty creepy.
"My name is Tony Barnes," She looked at him skeptically. "Yes I am the real Tony Barnes, for reasons you will soon come to understand I need keep a low profile. And yes, I am aware that you shot Frank Darnell, posing as me." This time he did not smile.
"You have natural abilities that would be of use to us. We have the ability to enhance those abilities, to make you stronger, faster and more psychically gifted than you currently are. We are in the business of beasts. Creating them, controlling them and unfortunately sometimes hunting them. Our existence is only known by a few, and they are vetted thoroughly before hand. Think of it this way. A person with your abilities could hunt down rouge beasts"…he turns to her…."saving lives in the process. You could help us train beasts, you have done excellent work with Vincent Keller."
At the mention of Vincent's name, Cat glances sideways at Ray and the other soldier, but there is no recognition.
"I did not train Vincent!" Catherine is pissed. "Despite what you did to him, he retained his humanity…..you tried to break him and you failed."
Barnes glares at her.
"You are very wrong about that Catherine, we broke him down and put him back together again and set him loose killing beasts and he was doing a very good job, until you interfered! You don't give yourself enough credit, if it wasn't for you and your abilities, we would have had to put Vincent down once he finished his missions. Don't get me wrong, you ruined him, he is no good to us now, but we haven't wanted to make a scene by putting him down. Going public with the Windsor girl was a smart move on his part, it made it very difficult to exterminate him…..For now!"
Catherine gets out of bed, she stalks over to Barnes.
"We had a deal…I cooperate and Vincent stays safe!"
He nods his head and clasps his hands behind his back.
"That we did, so tell me are you ready to cooperate?"
Catherine knows she needs to cooperate, she needs to stay alive. Vincent will come for her. She knows this down to her core.
"Why don't you show me around"…..she pulls her shoulders back and looks him right in the eye…"And tell me more about this psychic stuff."
Vincent's patience is beginning to wane.
"JT you find anything?" As he waits for JT's response, Vincent thinks about Catherine. They came so close to losing everything. He screwed up, Catherine lost faith, and they finally found their way back to each other. Nothing was going to keep them apart. Vincent didn't care who he needed to kill, he would find Cat and they would live out the rest of their lives together.
JT was excited when he contacted Vincent.
"I did it buddy, I found them. It was hard; they are way underground, like nuclear bomb underground…."
Vincent cuts him off.
"Where is she JT, save the how I did it for later please!"
"Sorry…..Vincent I got thermal imaging up and running and I can see you. Head west and keep going until I tell you to stop."
Vincent heads off in a jog.
"Stop…The heat signature is strongest right underneath you. It has to be where they are venting. Look around and see what you can find."
While Vincent looks around JT explains. "This is an old nuclear site, built in the 50's when everyone was afraid of nuclear war. It was big enough to house all the important people from NY…..I have heard about a list and if your name was on that list you were saved in the event of a bomb being dropped. It was never used and the government sold it to a private owner 20 years ago."
"JT stop talking in my ear, I need to concentrate." Vincent reached out with all his senses; trying to feel Catherine…She was there just on the edge…..edge of what he did not know. "She is close JT….I can feel her." All of a sudden he heard it. The slight hiss of air being released from a valve. "JT, I can hear air, can you see anything?"
JT studied the computer screen….all of a sudden there was an increase in the heat signature. "Vincent about 20 feet to your left, it should be right there!"
Vincent moved quickly, it was still venting. From what he could tell, the vent only opened in order to vent carbon monoxide to the outside; it was a one way valve probably to protect the inhabitants from radiation. It wasn't big enough for him to get inside.
"Dammit JT it's too small, I can't get in there, not to mention I am not sure there would be enough oxygen!"
JT thinks….if they are venting CO, they must have a way to get oxygen in. If the CO is super heated, then logically the oxygen would be…
"Vincent, there is a cold spot about 10 yards due east of you. It might be where they bring in fresh air."
Vincent blurs to the location and JT is right, there is an intake pipe and it is big enough for him. "JT I am going in….."
"Good Luck Buddy." JT was not sure if Vincent heard him as the com link went dead.
While Vincent is making his way into the facility, Catherine is getting the grand tour as well as a science lesson.
"Hold out your hand." Barnes directed Catherine as he placed a red gemstone into it.
Catherine closed her hand around the gem. She was calm, now that she knew what to expect. She felt the same rush of power, she could not tell if her eyes were glowing, but she could see Ray and the other soldier's beasts. The difference was they were hideous and frightening, not at all beautiful as Vincent had been. She flexed her arms feeling the muscles there, she wanted to run and jump, but most of all she wanted to fight.
"You can feel the obvious effects of the gem; I can tell, but concentrate, tell me what you hear."
When Catherine reached out, she heard everything. It was so loud and overwhelming she dropped the gem to cover her ears, but when she did that, everything was quiet.
"What the hell was that?"
Barnes smiled.
"That was the gem. Certain gems have certain properties, all make you stronger, but some make it possible to control beasts, this one makes it possible to talk to beasts….mentally."
"So that it what all that noise was?"
"Yes, you were hearing all the beasts here in the facility all at once. We can teach you to filter them and tune out what you don't want to hear."
"Can I 'talk' back to them?"
"Some of them have the ability to talk back, but not all. Still it comes in handy to know what they are thinking, it will give you an advantage if you have to take one out."
While he was talking, she mentally asked Ray…Ray can you hear me?
Ray gave no indication he heard her. Barnes was going on and on about something but while it appeared that Cat was paying attention she was not.
Frustrated, but willing to give it a shot she mentally yelled…..VINCENT!
Vincent making his way down the ventilation system almost lost his grip when he heard Catherine yell his name. He caught himself. "Catherine?" He whispered. He could have sworn he heard her, but it was not with his ears…..
Barnes was asking for the gem back.
Cat was determined to hang on to it. "Can I keep this for a bit, it's very interesting and new and I would like to experiment? See if I can filter the voices and focus on individual beasts. She looked at Barnes with wide eyed innocence.
He stared at her, too bad he wasn't a beast, she was still holding the gem, and she could have heard what he was thinking.
"Of course you may, we would have to put you in an observation room, can't have you running around here just yet."
Cat agreed, and ignored the obvious, they could have just put her back into her room, she was sure she was under observation there. But whatever he wanted was fine….for now.
Vincent continued down into the facility, JT was right it was a long way down.
Cat was alone in the room. Taking the gem, she focused all her energy on Vincent, she thought about him, the way he moved, the way he smelled, the way he touched her, the sound of his voice, the sexy way he said her name. She focused on him, until he filled all of her senses.
Vincent…
Vincent stopped there it was again, he heard her. This time he knew it was in his mind. He stopped and focused, listening for her heartbeat…faintly he heard it. This time he projected her name. Catherine?
She heard him…..Vincent….Vincent I am here.