Chapter 15

"Steve? Steve? Are you still there?"

Catherine hung up and then called him back, but it went to voicemail.

"Damn it!"

Furious, she threw her phone across her office. Startled by the clatter, Danny was in her office moments later.

"Catherine, what's going on?"

"We have to go to Maui. Helen is missing, and if I just heard right, so is Steve."

"Then we'll leave right away. I'll let the others know."

Danny didn't ask any more, sure that every second was precious to save Steve and Helen from whatever they had gotten themselves into.

As quickly as possible, the team packed up the most important equipment and made a quick call to the Governor, who also quickly arranged for them to be flown to Maui by helicopter.

Within half an hour, they were on their way to Maui by helicopter.

Steve didn't know what to do. He was almost in shock as the man pointed his gun directly at Helen's head and his daughter had lost her closed expression. Steve could clearly see the panic in her eyes and he was desperate to free her, but there was a problem. Steve actually had Liana's credentials, since they were on one of the photos she had included with the letter. But he couldn't just give them to the guys, because he already knew that Liana had access to secret NSA data that couldn't fall into wrong hands. On the other hand, this was his daughter, and he couldn't just let her die. And Steve had no doubt that this man would make good on his threat. So Steve had to do something quickly.

"Okay, you win! I'll give you the credentials, but please don't hurt her!"

The man lowered his gun and stepped away from Helen.

"There you go. Give me the access data now!"

"The user name is Liana Upton_7567. Her password is Lima Sierra Uniform Hotel 050.2847."

The man had noted what Steve had said and was now smiling with satisfaction.

"We'll check it out right away, and I sincerely hope for your sake that you wasn't lying to us."

The man left the room and Steve was alone with Helen.

"Helen, are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I just want to get out of here."

"I understand. Listen, I promise you I'll get you out of here safely, but you have to trust me, okay?"

"Okay."

Steve looked around the room and noticed that his chair was very close to the wall. So Steve stretched out his arms, which were tied behind his back, and was lucky enough to find a nail sticking out of the wall on which he now rubbed his restraints. After a short time they were cut and since Steve now had his hands free he could also untie his feet from the chair and then he stood up and freed Helen. Then they quickly took back their cell phones, which were lying on a table in the room. Now they just had to find a way out of the building to escape. Steve thought for a moment. Going through the door to his left wouldn't be such a good idea since the man had just disappeared through it. He might be in the room right behind the door and they would run right into him. That left the door to Steve's right.

"Helen, listen to me carefully. You stay close behind me and move as quietly as possible."

"Got it."

So Steve quietly and carefully opened the door and saw that it was dark behind it. This indicated that there was no one in the room and so Steve and Helen stepped into the room. It was very dark and you couldn't really tell what was in the room, but there seemed to be another door at the other end because there was a little light shining through a crack in the floor. Steve walked with a quick step to this door and listened for a moment. He didn't hear anything, so he tried to open it, but it was locked. That wasn't too much of a problem though. Steve simply stepped back and kicked the door with all his might, causing it to spring open. Steve and Helen were lucky because this door led outside. They were now standing in a meadow, and only the next house was visible in the distance. There wasn't much else around them.

Suddenly, they heard a loud voice coming from the building they had just escaped.

"I think they realized we are gone. Helen, run out of here as fast as you can. Try to get to a police station somehow and notify Catherine or Danny. I'll stop those guys from following you."

"But Steve, they'll kill you!"

"I can handle them, now run!

Helen still didn't move and the voices grew louder.

"Helen, run now!"

"I won't let you down!"

"You won't. But you must go now to contact Catherine and Danny. So please run now."

Helen finally listened to Steve and started running. She turned back for a moment and saw Steve go back into the building and close the door. Now it was up to her to make sure he was saved and she would not let him down. First she ran a little farther to get some distance. Then she pulled out her cell phone and checked where she was. The good news was that she was still on Maui, the bad news was that she felt like she was in the middle of nowhere and it was still about 4 kilometers to the nearest police station. Of course, it was a long walk, but Helen did not have time to walk. So she realized that she would probably have to run the distance. It was a good thing that, in addition to swimming, she liked to jog in her spare time. But before she started running, she called Catherine, who answered immediately.

"Helen?"

"Yes, it's me."

"Thank God. Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine, but you and preferably the whole team need to get to Maui right away. We really need your help here."

"Okay, take it easy. We are already on our way and will be landing in 20 minutes. Can you tell us where you are and where Steve is?"

"I'm in what feels like the middle of nowhere right now, but I ran straight to the police station like Steve told me to because he... he stayed with the kidnappers. He wanted to stop them so I could get away. I'm sorry, Catherine. I should have stayed with him."

"No, you did everything right. Don't worry, Steve can take care of himself and we'll rescue him. Can you tell us where he is?"

"I don't know the name of the place, but his cell phone is on and he has it with him. So you should be able to locate him."

"Good, then run to the police station quickly and we'll come get you and save Steve. I promise."

With that the phone call ended and Helen started to run. She wanted to cover the distance as fast as possible and then somehow help to save Steve.

By the time Steve got back into the building, three men were already coming at him. Steve wanted to fight them, but he saw that they were all pointing guns at him, so he had no chance.

"Where's the girl?"

"I forgot, sorry."

"Do you really think you can play games with us?"

The man who appeared to be the boss motioned to the man to his left. The man stepped up to Steve and cuffed his hands behind his back. Then the man pushed Steve forward and took him into another room. The boss turned to the other man who was still standing next to him.

"Take Jack, find the girl and bring her back here."

The man nodded and immediately went to work. The guys had probably learned from their mistake and took Steve to a different room than before. There they chained him to a chain attached to the ceiling. So Steve was hanging by his arms and his feet were just touching the floor.

Then the man who had brought him here left the room, and shortly thereafter the leader of this group came back in.

"So I'm going to ask you nicely one last time. What is the password from Liana Upton to the NSA server?"

Steve didn't say anything for the moment. Inside he was just working on finding a way out.

"I promise, that you will regret your decision."

The man left the room and two men Steve had never seen before came in. They approached him and began torturing Steve with beatings and electric shocks to get him to give them the password.…

Hope you like it :)