Chapter 9

Day 4 - 2025Jan08 – Thursday – Approximately 9:30 am

"F#$%!" Alec stormed into his office and barely refrained from slamming the door behind him, frustrated beyond measure by his complete lack of leads; having spent the past three days working non-stop, personally reviewing every single file and piece of information they had relating to the rapes and potential suspects. Only a very brave few daring to approach, let alone speak to him since Josh had come howling in with the fateful news, instead throwing all their efforts into helping him try to locate Max and her captor.

Growling almost subconsciously, he began pacing the confines of the room like a caged tiger, something he'd forcefully restrained himself from doing while out in the main area; all too aware of the eyes on him expecting him to lead. His mind a whirlwind of chaotic facts, thoughts and ideas; his eyes haunted and hair wild, his left hand clenching and unclenching furiously at his side while the other held both dark despair and potential salvation in its grasp. The bittersweet knowledge that his mate was still alive, even though she was most decidedly NOT okay, eating away at him; the sheer worry and desperation coursing through him damn near crippling.

The floor was littered with strewn papers, pens, files, and paper clips, while the walls were pitted with scores of fist-sized dents. His desk - a complete write-off after going head-to-head with his rage Monday night - smashed into near unrecognizable kindling; the resulting splinters slowly working their way back out of his skin. His laptop perching precariously now on a folding card table in the corner until a larger and sturdier replacement could be found. His rolling chair still usable at least, although the hydraulic lift mechanism and one of its wheels was broken from being thrown against a support post.

Spinning on his heel once more as he reached the end of the room, he opened his hand and glared down at the flash drive lying so innocuously in his palm, just waiting for him to man up enough to look at the contents. Wanting nothing more than to be able to crush it into oblivion despite his driving need to check on his mate; knowing that she'd likely rather die than ever have him to see her like this. That sifting through yet another one of these would surely destroy something in him as well. His gut twisting into an even tighter knot as thick bile rose in his throat, but he forced it down knowing he had no right to be so squeamish, not when what she was suffering through was far, far worse. His own torment not even worthy of a blip on the radar by comparison.

"S#$% Alec. Pull your head out of your ass. You can do this. You have to do this. It's about the only hope you've got right now of finding her and getting her away from this bastard." He muttered tightly to himself.

He'd already examined the drive meticulously for prints. There were none of course, not that he'd expected to find any as the other two he'd received so far had been clean as well. And after checking with everyone that had been in HQ over the past 12 hours, no one had seen anyone drop it off in his slot while he'd been otherwise occupied, having spent a good chunk of that time out in the main area poring over blueprints and sewer/utility grids in an attempt to find any unexplored bolt-holes within or near TC's boundaries. But there were no fresh clues in that regard either, which only left him with the gruesome task of viewing the heinous thing.

Steeling himself, Alec slowly approached his makeshift desk, his fingers shaking uncontrollably as, after two attempts, he finally managed to insert the drive into the correct slot. Forcing himself to sit lightly in his now wobbly chair, he took a deep calming breath and opened the main folder, clicking through the photos first.

Each one was worse than the one before; Max's normally vivacious features distorted into increasingly disturbing grimaces of abuse and pain. The stark terror and distress screaming at him from her shimmering red-rimmed eyes his ultimate undoing, and he felt hot tears spill down his own cheeks, guilt swamping him anew. Renfro's old taunts kicking up again in the back of his head only to be joined by his own self-diatribe. 'You're defective 494. Nothing but an inadequate, incompetent fuckup. You promised her that you'd protect her. You swore on your life to hold her safe as your mate! But you've failed her, just like you did Rachel, and now she's paying the price!'

After the first few images, he tried his damnedest not to actually look too closely at her, unable to handle much more without screaming out his rage and anguish and trashing what was left of his office. His heart hammering painfully in his chest, his left hand fisting so tightly in an effort to maintain control that blood ran from where his nails were digging into his palm. Concentrating as much as he could on the background, he painstakingly examined every detail for any hint to her location or the perpetrator.

Since the room was windowless, obviously soundproofed in some fashion, and constructed of concrete, he'd narrowed the list of likely locations down to an underground bomb shelter or panic room, or perhaps some sort of abandoned utility shelter. But nothing of appropriate size had shown up on any of the schematics they had access to, as he'd reconfirmed last night.

The only thing he'd really managed to gain so far was a better idea of the guy's build and coloring, but since those matched up with nearly 70% of their suspect population, it was basically useless. The brief snippets of video he'd seen not providing much insight either into mannerisms or personality, which would be a hell of a lot more valuable.

Swallowing hard around the huge lump lodged in his throat, he switched folders and checked the timestamps on the video files next. He was surprised to find that there were two long ones this time instead of the usual montage of brief clips: one which started around 17:00 yesterday and another from around 21:45. Plugging in some headphones and swiping hard at his eyes with the back of his forearm until he felt able to continue, he reluctantly clicked on the first.

It was... Jesus! He didn't know what it was, couldn't think of an adjective disturbing enough to do it justice. The main camera angle changing frequently to capture the best view of her body, while an overlay in one corner was devoted strictly to her face.

It has to be a freakish coincidence, he tried to tell himself, 'cause there's no way in Hell this asshole could've possibly known. But the scene - with the obvious exceptions of the chains and drugs and violence of course – seemed to indicate otherwise; it was far too reminiscent of one of the more adventurous romps he and Max had first started sharing last spring. The sex swing, something he'd picked up on a whim for them to try out.

The rest of this chapter is too graphic to post on FFN. Please go to my live journal to continue:

Chapter 9A http slash slash livejournal dot com slash 21651 dot html

Chapter 9B http slash slash livejournal dot com slash 21833 dot html