The lightly rolling waves of the ocean sent the ship gently bobbing up and down. Unfortunately for Rose the waves also sent her stomach rolling, but there was nothing gentle about it. She spat once again over the railing into the waves to clear out the vile taste of her retching out of her mouth. She was no stranger to nausea and vomiting but it was still an unpleasant experience.
She had been plagued with horrible bouts of morning sickness while carrying John which had caused Roy worry to no end. Hospitals had been too risky at the time and she was not about to let what happened to Olga happen to her. Rose had endured then and she would endure now. Seasickness was something that she was just going to have to overcome as she was going to be stuck on this floating wreck for a few weeks. But dear heavens she would have killed for some ginger tea right now.
While she had thus far avoided capture and detection, Rose's primary concern had been finding a way to leave New Zealand and somehow get to the states. With no money, no passport, and trying to lay low, her options were not exactly plenty. Weighing the pros and cons she had eventually settled on traveling by ship. Assuming she could find one, that is.
By the third night of lurking around the bars and hangouts of a port Rose caught wind of a captain willing to take passengers. No papers, no questions, no problem. For a modest fee of course. Their destination had been Chile and while not exactly close to Maverick headquarters it was an improvement over being stuck on an island in a different hemisphere of the world. From there it would only be a matter of heading north and to where her husband and son awaited her.
She hoped that they were waiting for her.
Upon finding the grey haired captain, the man had confirmed the rumors of taking on passengers and had agreed to her paying to board. The amount that he had stated had made her wince internally, but she had agreed that it would be no problem. The ship had been set to depart in three days which allowed Rose to address the rather pressing issue of her complete and utter lack of funds as her stolen money was nearly dwindled down to nothing.
The next few days were not some of her proudest. She desperately needed money and there were very few ways to obtain it in this run down port and stay hidden from electronic observers. Jack may have forgiven her for resorting to prostitution if it had come down to it, but there was no way Rose would have been able to forgive herself. Even the teasing kisses that she had to dish out to married men wanting to spice up their dull lives to lure them in the shadows and leave them robbed and occasionally bleeding had left her stomach twisting in guilt.
Like always, she did whatever had to be done to get the job finished. But in spite of the danger, the flirting with men other than her husband, Rose could not deny that some part of her was enjoying this. The cat and mouse, cloak and dagger of it all. It had been many years since she played this game but she was pleased to learn that she had lost none of her skill at it.
The day to set sail came and once she had handed over the ill gotten cash the woman had been unceremoniously welcomed aboard by the apathetic captain. Along with the thirteen or so other unofficial passengers, Rose had been shown where their quarters for the trip would lay. The small windowless room was a soulless grey with too many bunks crammed into the small space. Several of the other passengers began to gripe over the conditions as they scouted for the cleanest of the spaces.
Rose took the first one she came to, oddly nostalgic for her days back at boot camp. The voyage would be far from comfortable especially if her cabin mates continued their complaining the entire trip, but it held the promise of getting her one step closer to her family. In the end it was all Rose needed.
She had gone back to the deck after they had set off to watch New Zealand grow smaller and smaller in the distance. It was so bittersweet to say goodbye to her home of many years. It truly was a beautiful land, but she would have been contented with a shack in the desert so long as John and Jack were there to call it home as well. The wistful yearning for her boys had soon taken a back seat as the waves had grown a bit more forceful and her stomach had begun to protest greatly leading to her current sorry state.
The crew and passengers could be heard in the dining hall carrying on with their crude jokes and equally tasteless food. Even if she hadn't begun to slightly heave at the thought of eating, there was no need to tempt trouble by interacting too much with the others. Her provocative new style of dress had drawn a few eyes but with her hidden gun and knife, not to the mention smoldering rage at having her family stolen, Rose was wary but ultimately unfrightened.
There was not much for her to do now other than endure the voyage that was sure to pass agonizingly slowly either throwing up over the railing or looking up at the grey ceiling above her cot. Not to mention avoiding everyone else on board as much as possible. If Rose were honest with herself, the potential threat of her shipmates was far preferable than the invisible threat of the one who was out for her blood.
The lustful glances the crew were at least human. The blank expressions on those that had accosted her that day on the road were disturbing and chillingly unnatural. It was a relief to be out on the ocean away from cellphones, cameras, and the internet. Rose knew that a few of the passengers had electronic devices but she intended to stay well away from them and keep her disguise in place just in case she was filmed.
Her pursuer seemed something out of a nightmare. Every unblinking lens of a camera was a potential eye for him to look out of. That bloody scene with that unfortunate bystander played out once more in her minds eye. He had been sacrificed without a thought all in an effort to kill her.
A man who was convinced they acted in righteousness felt that any collateral that fell by the wayside was an acceptable loss. Someone driven by a higher purpose was far more dangerous than someone simply taking orders.
The threat could not be denied when the man himself had informed her himself of his reasons and justifications.
As bitter as the taste lingering in her mouth, the memory of their exchange soured her thoughts once more. It had been such a harsh end to a day that had initially seemed so bright and full of hope. The day that the chance of finding Jack had shifted from a wish to a possibility.
-0-0-0-
It was only a week after her meeting in the airport with Rabbit did Rose receive an unexpected package. It was a light day at work and she had taken her lunch early. She was working through the box of assorted doughnuts as if the bottom of the box held a secret message that would solve all her woes. If not at least the sugar and carbs would help take her mind off of things.
Rose had just picked up one of the white powdered treats when a tap at her door caught her attention.
"Sorry to disturb your lunch Rose." The office secretary, barely out of her teens, timidly peered in through the door holding up a small box. "This just came in for you."
"Come on in Sue. Thank you for dropping it off for me." Rose dusted her hands of the powdered sugar and cleared a spot on her cluttery desk for the package. The young woman delivered the box and returned to her duties leaving Rose to observe the item curiously.
The name and address were unfamiliar to her. The box was small and lightweight. Warnings about opening strange packages flitted through her mind halting her briefly but Rose was soon cutting at the tape. Jack had always told her that she could not resist her curiosity. With a bittersweet smile Rose opened the small box to receive a small clamshell phone wrapped in bubble wrap.
She turned it over in her hands, frowning at the unexpected item. Flipping it open revealed the device to be fully charged. There were no contacts listed, no photos, it couldn't even access the internet. Growing more curious by the moment Rose dug more deeply into the small phone, determined to find what secrets it held.
She found it in the notes. A bank account number with instructions to transfer a substantial amount to it. The message was signed neatly at the end with T. .
Rose felt her pulse pick up. Rabbit had informed her that he would be in touch with her, and address the subject of payment. She hadn't know when he would contact her but she had been prepared with the money. Rose felt a twinge of guilt as she logged onto her office computer and went about transferring the funds.
That money had been gifted to her by Roy for John's college funds and she hoped that they would both understand the necessity of the action. Indeed Rose doubted that John would ever forgive her if she had a chance to find Jack but held back.
She sat back with a sigh, trying to exhale the tension that had set into her shoulders. Before she even had a chance to run through a single breathing meditation the little phone rang. Rose quickly grabbed it and answered hardly registering the "I'm late!" jingle as the ringtone.
"Hello?" She managed to successfully hold back the slight waver in her voice at the anticipation.
"Alrighty, payment went through." The chipper voice was one that Rose recognized as belonging to the man she had spoken to last week. "Sorry for asking payment upfront before letting you in on my lead. I've tried the 'payment after services rendered' thing and got burned one too many times. Hard to get people to pay if they die on you first."
"You certainly know how to inspire confidence." The dry comment escaped her before she could reign it in. Instead of offense she got a hearty laugh in return.
"Yeah well, I'm talking from experience here. Before we proceed I suppose that this is the perfect time to warn you that digging a little deeper might draw the attention of certain individuals. You want to risk it?" The words were cautionary but the tone was challenging. Rose had never been one to back away from a challenge.
"I think we both no the answer to that." Rose said confidently. Nevertheless she did rise from her chair and made sure that her office door was locked. "Now...tell me how you were able to find a lead on my husband whenever the smartest people I know of were not able to."
"Ok, first of all a little cybernetics lesson for you." Rabbit said around what sounded like a mouth of chips. Rose tried not to be incensed that he was treating this so casually. "Cyborgs have got a lot of software in them. It's not all just fake limbs and organs. All that hardware has to have the software to run it all meshed up in there with their brains. Since every brain is unique then it makes sense that every cyborgs' software is unique. Ya follow me?
"Indeed I am aware of this. I happen to be married to one if you recall."
"Hush, I'm on a roll. Even though there are many cybernetic doctors, at the end of the day they are all just people. And despite different techniques and skill levels, they still think like humans so their patients are all rather similar despite any individual differences and special customizations." There was a brief pause and the rustling around in a snack bag could be heard. "But for cyborgs like your husband, they have an entirely different...hmm how to say...lets call it a 'texture' than the others. They were converted by an AI with an entirely different way of thinking than us mere mortals. Despite the advancements made in the field based off of the Patriots' work, those converted by them stand out strikingly against the masses."
"You are saying that my husband can be tracked due to his unique 'digital fingerprint'? Rose rubbed at a forming headache. This was nothing new to her. Hal had said something similar to her many times over the years during their search. If she had transferred those funds for something that she already knew…
Rose reached for her powdered doughnut, seeking a cure for her frustration in the sugar.
"Exactly! I'm willing to wager my left nut that his uniqueness is why the Hunter went though the trouble of physically catching him rather than just hacking him directly...Yes I know about the trap, I dug up the report your people made on their findings...But anyway I talk from experience when I say its so much harder to hack into a system designed by an AI than people. Not impossible but it takes time and in Jacky's case it couldn't have happened without him noticing and putting an immediate stop to it."
"It is a relief to hear that he's safe from that at least." Rose sighed with a minutely lightened heart. Hacking had actually been one of Rose's primary fears whenever she and Jack had reconnected.
Not only had there been the shock and horror of the extent of what had happened to him over their separation, but it seemed like every other day there was a case of brain jacking in the news. The cruel turns of fate had already stolen away his body from him. If his mind were to be stolen away as well it would have been all too much. Granted over the years the tech and security measures have greatly increased but Rose would still feel a thrill of fear whenever the news outlets would cover such cases.
"Alright, lesson over. Anyway, you remember how your cute friend with the glasses and the wiz kid couldn't track him beyond his last known location in Romania?"
"Yes." Rose remembered all too well how that cold trail mocked all their best efforts.
"Well it took a while but I found that same unique texture of his again. Briefly."
"Where was it? How long ago was this? Do you know if he's still there?" Rose sat up straighter in her chair, firing off questions. This was so much more than they had found over years of searching. Hope flared to life once more.
"It was shortly after he was captured, quite some time ago. The location was near the border of Romania and Hungary. But it was only for a short while, just a blip really, until it disappeared for good." Her earlier hope twisted uncomfortably into dread in her stomach.
"What do you mean for good?"
"Not for good as in dead" Rabbit was quick to assure, then ruined it with the next words out of his mouth. "Although that certainly would be a possibility, but why bother with transport if he was to be killed? For good as in he's never managed to get back online. My guess is that he came to briefly during transport. Perhaps almost escaped, but then it was made for sure that he could never get away again." The words sent a chill running down Rose's spine.
"If you are trying to reassure me you are doing a rather horrid job of…"
"There was another texture." Rabbit said excitedly, voice low. "Not Patriots unique but they have certainly gone through some customizations. Very different, almost AI-ish and almost normal. Really weird. And hella hidden let me tell you. I'm...uh...kinda embarrassed to admit it but I only found this other guy by pure chance. No wonder your computer friends missed it. Now, you wanna know what else I found that was interesting?" He asked playfully.
"Please Rabbit. I am not in the mood for games. This is my husband we're talking about. Not a treasure hunt."
"Alright, alright. Geez." Rabbit groused but relented. "All those cases where those Jack's child solder buddies were dying and going missing? That same hidden signature was present as well. Ha! I managed to find him. This is the individual responsible for all of it."
"You're telling me that you actually found this person…"
"Yep!"
"...and will track him down?"
"Nope!"
"Rabbit so help me God…" Rose warned, crushing what remained of her doughnut in her fist.
"Shit, you're no fun. I'm not gonna track him because of two very important reasons. First reason is I'm not stupid. This guy is a bounty hunter and a damn good one. He also happens to specialize in hacking and forcing others to do his dirty work. I start sniffing around too close to his business and I'm next to disappear. Understand?"
"Yes." Rose said with forced patience. "I would like to understand how we are to find Jack if we are not going to track the man who took him."
"That would be because of reason number two. Your husband wouldn't be taken along for this guys little bounty hunting missions. He would just be dead weight. No offense. Most likely he would probably be tucked away somewhere in storage. Captivity. Whatever." The snack bag rustled again on the other end of the line.
"But still finding the culprit would lead to Jack. He would have to be kept somewhere nearby to be kept alive. And there is always interrogation if this bounty hunter won't talk." Rose was heartened by the way Rabbit spoke with such confidence. However the thought of not going after the one responsible sat poorly with her. She wanted vengeance. Badly.
"Like I said, too dangerous. I'm absolutely willing to be that someone elsewhere is being hacked to take care of your man. This right here is how we find where he's being hidden. I don't need to track this bounty hunter guy down. Not really. I just need to know where he's been."
"I'm not sure I quiet follow..."
"Oh come on. Do I have to spell it out? Medical equipment, hospitals, supplies. And not just any supplies at that. All that fancy stuff needed to keep cyborgs alive. All I have to do is trace this guy's signature around to any sort of medical facilities that have the required equipment and just like that, we close in on where Jacky may be kept locked up at."
The potential of Rabbits plan hit her with enough force to steal her breath away. And to think that all that had stopped the others from following along this route was that hidden little signature that Rabbit had just so happened to come across. Rose still felt he was being deceptive but right now with the possibility of getting Jack back dangling out so close in front of her she could not find it in herself to care.
"Have you found any leads yet? Are you getting close? Will you know if he's alright?" The questions flooded out of her one right after another. Rose felt energized by the optimistic possibilities in a way that she had not felt in years.
"Nothing yet but it's only a matter of time." Rabbit said, the thrill of the hunt evident in his voice. "It's not as simple as I'm making it out to be. Like I said, this guy's texture is weird and hard to track. But now that I've got my payment I am on it. Wanna place a bet on how fast I can find your man?"
"No but I do ask that you keep me updated. These years in the dark have been harder than you can imagine. Now that you've given me some hope please don't leave me in the dark any longer."
"As much as I want to say yes so you don't get all weepy on me, I'm going to have to decline on that one." Rabbit said to Rose's dismay. "It's just not safe. The more we communicate, the more Mr. Hacker Man may catch wind that we're onto him."
"Could you at least tell me who this individual is? You speak as if you've already dug up his identity." Rose pleaded.
"Also not a great idea. I know you would get some of your friends to look him up and that may also draw attention. I know that this is not easy but for once I speak with complete sincerity when I say trust me. I 'll find him. I've got my own reputation to worry about, you know?"
Despite Rose's best efforts Rabbit would not budge on giving her any intel. Not knowing something was like an itch in her brain. Even as a child she never could tolerate a secret that she didn't know. It wasn't one of her best qualities but then again she never claimed to be perfect. In the end she had to put her faith in this strangers promises that he would find Jack for her.
And what sweet sounding promises they were.
Rose had been immeasurably grateful that her next client had been a simple case. If it had been something complex she would have been sure to make a mess of it. Her mind had been a whirl of a dozen different thoughts all swirling about and spawning new ones. What would be the next step once she had received word of Jack's location? Who would be the best to call for assistance? How would they set about retrieving him without alerting his captor?
Another worry that gnawed at Rose would be in what state would they find him in. The last time her husband had been in captivity he had emerged...unwell. It had been years since he had gone missing. Who knew what kind of state he would be in. Unfortunately here would be no way to know until the time came. She strongly considered bringing in Sunny to assist whenever he was found.
The girl both bright in mind and spirit, had a way about her that just softened Jack. Perhaps it was residual protectiveness from where he had to wade through hell to rescue her. Perhaps it was out of gratitude and obligation for the girl's mother who died to ensure that they both lived. It could even stem from the fact Jack had once told Rose that he regretted that he couldn't have taken in Sunny himself. Either way, between the two of them, they would have him fixed up in no time.
Despite her best attempts to hide it, John had noticed her distracted air that evening. She wanted to tell him the good news, she truly did. Her boy had grown so sullen and withdrawn ever since Jack had disappeared. The only thing that held her words back was the worry that somehow Rabbit was mistaken. If she told John the good news only for it to be a false lead or that something had gone wrong, well she was afraid that it would crush the boy's spirits entirely.
"Just a new client today." She had answered casually. Blue eyes peered at her curiously, not quite believing it. "A very difficult client at that. Don't worry about helping clean up. Some work will help me take my mind off things."
At that John had accepted her lie easily, thankful to get out of chores and back to his online games. She had gone about the evening tasks on autopilot, hardly paying attention to what she was doing. Her distraction followed her into the night, long after the quiet sounds of John's late night games had ceased.
Rose had wished dearly that she could fall asleep as easily as her son. The hope that Jack would be found and returned to her had taken root and would not be shaken loose. Wishes and wants so close to being reality made the thought of yet another night alone to be unbearable.
Rose wanted Jack to be found safe and sound, ready to return to them. Hopefully the only ill plaguing him would be sheepishness at having to be rescued. She wished to see her son happy once more with his father back home. The bright eyed little boy that trailed at his fathers heels would replace the moody young man he had become. She wished to have her husbands arms wrapped snugly around her and his sweet words whispered in her ear. For too many years they had been forced to be apart due to circumstances during the course of their relationship. They had so much lost time to make up for.
Rose had let out a heavy sigh and turned to face the rest of the empty bed. It had only been her laying here for far too long. Jack only ever slept in his own room but would always stay by her side until she fell asleep. Many times he would stay awake all night if he could not extricate himself from her grip without disturbing her too badly. Rose always scolded him for staying up like that when she could quite easily fall back to sleep once he had left. Jack would always insist that he didn't mind and enjoyed the quiet moments beside of her. Even if he did tease her that she snored.
Rose missed that stubborn man so badly it hurt. She missed his wry comments and bad jokes. She missed they way he would handle her so gently so as not to hurt her that it almost boarded on reverence. She missed the way he would smirk up at her from below whenever she would clutch at his hair in breathless ecstasy.
Rose threw off the overs off with a growl of frustration. She always could have relieved the growing heat within herself with their drawer of toys or her own hands but it wasn't enough. She wanted his hands, wanted him. Even if they could no longer sleep together in the conventional way the fire was still burning bright between them in their marriage. Dammit it had been far too long.
Pulling on her house shoes and sticking her phone in the pocket of her robe, Rose had turned away from her maddeningly empty bed and left for the living room to cool off. Frustrated and heartsick she had slipped a movie into the DVD player, their first one they shared together, and had settled down to spend the night lost in memories.
Thirty or so minutes into the movie her phone had rang. A glance at the caller ID had revealed a number unknown to her. Rose decided to ignored it, assuming that it was yet another scam caller determined to try and part her from her money.
Rose declined the call and slipped her phone back into her pocket. Before her hand even had a chance to leave the device it was ringing again. It was the same number as before. She was about to block it when curiosity tickled at her. Looking at the still ringing phone in her hand she decided to answer it on a whim.
"Hello." Rose said, expecting an automated voice expressing their concern about her vehicle's warranty.
"So you're Rosemary." An unexpected person on the other end of the line said.
This voice certainly did not belong to some automated message. This person was male, adult, perhaps approaching middle age, and had a curious mix of a Midwestern accent with some other unidentifiable one. This unknown man had a soft deep voice. It would have almost been pleasant on the ears if the words spoken were not saturated with cold contempt.
"Excuse me? Who is this?" Rose kept her voice neutral as possible. Under her carefully curated tone ran a prickle of unease at this unknown caller.
"I must admit I had not expected you to sound so normal. You have made some bafflingly unhinged choices in your life. I thought such derangement would carry somewhat through in voice as well as deed." The insulting words were delivered calmly, almost dispassionately. He might as well have been making an offhand comment on dreary weather. "Then again your files show that you are rather adept at blending in as needed."
"And might I ask, once again, who is speaking?" Rose kept her tone coolly polite, the true chill was the feeling of ice water running down her spine. The darkness of the living room took on a sudden sinister quality as a feeling of foreboding set in. Even as the words left her Rose had a feeling she knew who she was speaking to.
'I suppose that this is the perfect time to warn you that digging a little deeper might draw the attention of certain individuals.' Rabbit had warned her.
That quiet voice soon confirmed her fears.
"My name is unimportant, but I am the man who took your husband."
Rose could have swore that her heart had stopped at that moment. The words spoken had been so blunt. There was no hint of gloating, vindictiveness, or anger. It was as if this man knew that he had ripped her heart out and simply couldn't be bothered to care. Her lungs urged her breathe once more as they had been arrested along with the rest of her in that single simple sentence.
"Jack? What have you done to him? Where is he? Why have you done this?" Rose managed to temper down her flood of questions to a quiet voice that would not wake John even though the words wanted to burst out in a shout. She hardly realized that she had sprung up from where she had sat. Her voice shifted from pleas to outrage and back once more. She began to pace in front of the television, movie still silently playing.
"Why? Why?" A spark of life finally lit up in that dispassionately empty voice. Confusion. Incredulousness. Anger. "Oh I think you know exactly why. The question I ask you now is why are you not thanking me for what I've done? Could it be that you are cut from the same cloth? Under that carefully curated mask of loving mother and kind therapist does the same kind of monster lurk? Perhaps I was mistaken in overlooking you in the beginning."
The deep voice slowly grew more bitter in his building rage. It was not an explosive sort of anger, all blistering heat and shaking fists. This man was carved from solid ice. It was a frozen grip over the heart that allowed for no softness of mercy. Rose suddenly realized that she was standing upon a precipice and if she did not chose her words very carefully she may find herself thrown into the abyss.
"What do you want from me?" Rose asked quietly. She was thrown off by the wild swing of the lack of emotion to the excess of it. She would have tried to analyze it were she not so unsettled. She returned to her spot on the sofa and clutched a throw pillow tightly.
"I want you to stop looking for that man. It is for the good of all that he is out of the picture. Your husband was a mad dog that needed to be put down. I did what had to be done."
"What are you saying?" Her voice hardly more than a horrified whisper. That statement was so heart-stoppingly final. The implication that Jack was dead was enough to make her clutch at her chest in pain.
"I know the child to be ignorant to the sins of his father and thus have no interest in him unless he shows a predilection to take after his sire. But you are a different story. I highly doubt you are ignorant of his history. I could send you the files, but I suspect you already well know his past. That means that you are either approving of his nature, simply too blinded by love to admit to his faults."
"I…" Rose did not know how to answer such accusations. She still felt that she could not properly breathe, much less find the words that would not provoke the unstable man. There was also the bitter sting in her soul that knew what this man said to be true. She knew what demons haunted Jack and loved him anyway, blood drenched hands and all.
"Although I can not truly hold that against you. It happens to many." The biting words bled out their passion until they were hollow once more.
"I have contacts." Rose blurted out. "In very high places. Money, resources, you name it. Anything you want and I can get it for you. Please let him come home. At least let me know if he's still alive." She ground her face into the throw pillow to catch the tears that had fallen loose.
"I already have what I want. One less rabid animal loose in the world to bring about death and destruction. It's my responsibility to cull the rest of them now. My purpose in contacting you is that I want you to stop looking for him. Tell your people to stop looking for him. I know that you hired someone, a rather unsavory individual at that, to do some digging. It won't work."
Had he known since she met with Rabbit at the airport or was it the conversation today with what caught his attention? 'The payment.' Rose slowly realized. She had logged onto her work computer to transfer the funds. If she was under observation that would have certainly caught someones notice. She scathingly berated herself for such an amateur mistake.
The thought of the person that had managed to capture her husband was watching her every move was chilling. All of the fight drained out of her at the thought that this caller may be watching her at that very moment, veiled by the shadows.
"I can't." She confessed brokenly. "He's my husband..."
"Forget that wretched facsimile of a man and move on with your life." To Rose's surprise it sounded honest to God that this man were sincere in his words. That veil of nothingness lifted showing an actual concerned human being beneath it. Rose saw that shred of humanity and pounced, grasping for a small hint or a shred of hope.
"You don't know the full story. He's not the kind of person you think he is. Please. Please tell me if he is still alive or not. At least tell me this." She pleaded softly, trying her damnedest to get anything out of him.
"I am...disappointed." The man sighed, it was a deep weary sound. "I have contacted you to warn you off this path you're on. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and give you some time to think on it. I have a very good idea what you may think of me Rosemary but I am not an evil man. I just one that does what has to be done."
"You have not even told me who you are." Rose desperately played for information, sensing that this harrowing exchange was nearing its end. "You will not tell me where my husband is or even if he is still alive. You haven't even told me if this is personal or not. You tore my family apart. The least you can do is give me the courtesy of a name to curse."
The silence stretched on, growing taunt and threatening to snap. Rose began to despair of gathering any information to go on.
"...Some have called me the Hunter. If you still have others seek that man out then the only conclusion I will be able to draw is that you are just as mad as your husband. If you are I shall have to dispose of you accordingly."
The call abruptly ended with a resounding finality.
Rose numbly lowered the phone from her ear to her lap. The call screen reverted back to her beloved photo that she had taken of John and Jack roughhousing and covered in grass in the back yard. The phone remained sitting in her hand until the timer returned the screen to black.
The satin material of her robe did nothing to combat the dark chill that was running through her veins. A stark contrast indeed to the heated way that she had begun this night and the bright optimism of the day. That tantalizing hope that Jack would soon come back to her had morphed into soul crushing hopelessness and fear.
Rose tried regain that small ember of hope once more. Staring at their film still playing without taking any of it in, she replayed the conversation over in her mind in search of anything she might have initially missed. In the end it was Hunter's insistence that she back off that nudged the dying ember to a faint spark once more.
She had been searching for years, why tell her to back off now? It must mean that Rabbit was on the right trail and that had this Hunter disturbed. After all, if Jack was gone there would be no point in warning her way from searching. And Rose had no intention of giving up on him.
In the end all she could do was wait...
-0-0-0-
A particularly loud crash against the hull of the ship startled Rose back to the present. The waves were beginning to grow more agitated and clouds rolling in on the horizon blocked out the twilight stars. There was a storm rolling in. The perfect weather to match the state of her soul.
She reluctantly left the railing for her small section of the ship. The darkness of the ship's interior welcomed her even as darkness fell over her thoughts.
One again she was stuck waiting. She had had enough of it. Waiting for Jack to come home. Waiting for the search parties to find him. Waiting for Rabbit to do his digging while Rose constantly looked over her shoulder and jumped at shadows. It had been enough to drive one to madness.
It was ironic that she was forced into this waiting game once more as she slowly made her way across the ocean. Only now it wasn't just Jack, but John too that she was worried to death about. Was she headed back to her family or was she the only one left? She could be running back to their open arms, the time of the three of them being forced apart finally over. Or she could be racing across the world, unknowingly chasing after ghosts.
.
Authors notes:
I'm going to level with you guys, I hate this chapter. I have written it, rewritten it, rewrote the rewrite, and I'm still not happy with it. I don't know how things got so muddled up in my mind from outline to text but here we are. It might be because Rose's segments have a different flavor from the rest of the story due to the flashbacky nature of them. It could be that I'm losing my mojo. Or it could be the fact that the heat is making me stupid and cooking my brain. I step outside and it's like that dream scene from Terminator 2. I would have kept working on this one longer but I get the feeling I'm not going to be happy with it (can't nail it on every chapter I guess) and with over a month between chapters I think I've made you all wait long enough as it is.
Thank you everyone for reading and try not to spontaneously combust this summer. No promises from my end.