Reid, page 3
“Still,” Anders went on, “it’s also possible the women now have new kidnappers, and the players have changed. We assumed the Russian government had gone after them, but we don’t know if that’s changed.”
Reid groaned. “The only good thing about this is knowing that both women are valuable to the Russians, as in seriously valuable. So chances are good they will want them alive.”
Anders nodded in agreement. “If these two women can do anything along the lines of what you and Terk can do, that makes perfect sense. I’ve never quite understood how Terk stayed safe all these years.”
“Part of it was the fact that our government kept their skill sets a big secret, keeping what they could do on the down low. They didn’t want anybody knowing about Terk and what he could do either. Now that Terk and his team are free and clear, they still basically work for governments, a few different ones now,” Reid explained. “So I don’t think anybody is ready to brace them again, especially not if they know the story of how Terk and his team survived that awful attack.”
“True, but some egomaniac out there would like to test you guys, I’m sure. So you always wonder if it won’t happen someday.”
“Yep,” Reid murmured. “I feel as if Terk’s team has discussed that, and everybody is prepared to do what they need to do. Yet they want a chance to live a normal life, whatever that’s worth or even means.”
“Does it have a meaning when it comes to you guys?” Anders asked, with a sigh. “It seems as if Terk’s always been chasing shadows, and now he’s got people who are important to him, people he cares about—a family, a wife. I guess I’m surprised that he’s still doing what he’s doing.”
“He’s always had people who are important to him. His team was his first family, from what I hear. He takes pretty good care of his team and always has. I think you’ll find that he’s doing what he’s doing to keep everyone alive. Terk isn’t the only one with a wife now. A good share of the team is partnered up, one way or another, and I don’t even know how many babies are on the way. Terk does what he does to ensure they’re on top of their game, so that he can keep them in all good shape, plus keep them strong and active in the industry. That way he knows what’s going on—instead of being blindsided, the way they were the last time. Staying isolated doesn’t end well.”
“That makes more sense.” Anders nodded. “If you think about it, you have to keep your enemies close.”
“As the saying goes, keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” Reid clarified. “In this case, I highly suspect that a trusted friend in Veni’s world betrayed them in the end, and that will be hard for her to handle too.”
“It has to be,” Anders agreed. “Betrayal is always hard, but, when it comes from inside your closest circle, it’s the worst, and unfortunately it happens way too often.”
With one final check they walked out of the building, searching their surroundings. Reid sent a text message to Terk, asking if they checked all the street cams in the area around the building.
Terk phoned him. “Did you find anything inside?”
“Not really, except energy confirmation that Veni was here. She was kept in the corner, where everybody coming and going could see her.”
“Either as a prize or to keep her under control?”
“Probably both. There was … pain and some degree of fear in her energy. I’m not thinking that she’s seriously hurt, but I don’t have any proof of that. She was definitely drugged though. She was walking through a cloud while she was here.”
“All of that makes sense,” Terk noted a bit too harshly. “I’m not sure where to send you next.”
“I’ll take a walk around the exterior of the building and see if I can find her energy again, just in case we’ve missed something,” Reid shared, disconnecting from Terk and passing the information to Anders. “I want to check out the perimeter of the building.”
“I’m coming too.”
Reid nodded. “Probably best if we stay together anyway.”
“Any particular reason?” Anders asked.
He gave him a crooked smile. “Yeah, because the Russians have a tendency to shoot first and to ask questions later,” he explained, “and it would be nice if I had somebody to back me up.”
“That’s what I’m here for,” Anders said cheerfully. “Can’t say I particularly want to get shot on this job, so I’ll do my best to avoid it too. Yet it is that kind of a job.”
“Apparently. And the fact that they kidnapped and drugged a twenty-six-year-old woman and her mother is despicable.”
“Yeah, and what I really don’t understand is who would have done it and why. I mean, it seems the Russians had her first, but there may have been an interruption or a handoff, right? We definitely need a full history.”
Reid asked, “Don’t you already have it? It should have been in your inbox already.”
“Sure, I read it on the way over,” Anders confirmed, “but it was incomplete, and I have questions. Like, what is your relationship with her? What are her abilities, and how is it that somebody could make use of them against her will? I need anything that you’ve got to share.”
“Sure, just ask me. I met her during college, parted ways, but kept in touch here and there. Then I lost track of her months ago. Her mother can be used as the perfect leverage to get Veni to do pretty much anything. She’s a transmitter, a very strong one. Plus she’s pretty good at determining whether someone is lying or telling the truth,” he added, with a wry smile. “She can basically just look at you, register the energy, and say, Yeah, bullshit.”
At that, Anders stared at him, eyebrows raised. “I can see where that would be very helpful for several types of businesses.” He considered that for a moment. “Yeah, I suppose any government would really like to have that in their arsenal, wouldn’t they?”
“Absolutely. Though in her case, she has a fairly no-bullshit style about her and calls out people when they’re lying. I also know that she can sometimes send out messages, which adds to her value. She’s a transmitter but not a confident receiver, so, as long as she’s sending messages, we may get a location on her. Yet she won’t call out to Terk and ask for help because she can’t receive messages on her own.”
“How is that even possible? I mean, that’s like giving somebody a car but not giving them the ability to drive. I mean, you need both halves of a talent like that, correct?”
“It certainly would help, yes,” Reid muttered. “However, nobody really cares about why we have our abilities. It is what it is, and, while we all know our gifts can evolve, that is not the topic of this discussion.”
“Do you mean they can really change over time?”
“They can. They can grow, and they can certainly be developed. Lately Terk has seen them change at a much faster rate. Certainly in Terk’s case, as each team member came back after being injured, they had all grown at a pretty crazy rate,” Reid shared. “And part of me is kind of jealous. Yet I really don’t want to go through what they went through in order to get there.”
At that, Anders burst out laughing, as they walked around to the back of the building. “No, I don’t imagine you do,” he noted, “but, if it gave Terk a lot more abilities, and it’ll help keep him safe, I’m all for it.”
“Oh, it will definitely do more to keep him safe. He can also talk to more people. His ability to empower others is also huge,” Reid added, “which is one of the reasons why I would consider moving over there. I’ve been footloose and fancy-free, but then you start to wonder if there isn’t more for you, if there isn’t more you could be doing. And those guys over at Terk’s team are doing it, so a part of me would very much like to check that out.”
“Let’s get this job done first,” Anders noted, “and then you can go play house in that crazy castle full of all those children they’ve got coming along.”
“I know, right?” Reid laughed. “Can’t say I would mind being around kids either. A lot of joy in that.”
“What about kids who have the same abilities?” Anders asked, staring at him. “No way Terk’s kids won’t be gifted. I understand Terk’s wife has energy skills too.”
“It can happen, and that’ll be one of those things they’ll have to look at—making sure the kids are welcome and valued, regardless of whatever abilities they have. However, I don’t think that will be a problem with Terk. He would probably say they were lucky to be born into a gifted family because they wouldn’t be tormented by the nightmares and voices in his head at all hours the way Terk had gone through all by himself. And yet Merk, his brother, doesn’t have any of those woo-woo skills, which I always found strange.”
“Yep, and Merk is one of my best friends,” Anders shared. “I understand his frustration sometimes too. I know that his brother was tormented constantly, so Merk didn’t really want anything to do with it.”
“The psychic opportunity is probably still there for Merk, if he ever wanted to open that door,” Reid suggested.
“I think Terk may have mentioned that a time or two, and Merk’s always just shot him down. I don’t think that door is one he ever wants to open.”
“It’s not for everyone,” Reid agreed, looking over at Anders. “Just knowing something is about to go down is one thing, but then to find out you can’t do anything to change such an outcome is pretty devastating. That’s something we deal with constantly.”
“Yet Veni doesn’t deal with that, does she?”
“Nope. For her, it was more of a party game, at least until whatever happened to her, that thereafter set her on this path.”
“I wonder what that was.”
“I don’t know. I haven’t had any personal contact with her in a couple years. Yet I’ve always searched online for her at times to see what she’s been up to,” he admitted. “I knew that her family was living in Russia, and I had always hoped that she was trying to get out. Yet I didn’t realize that things were desperate enough that something like this was in the cards. For her to have participated in an escape attempt like this, instead of just trying to sneak out, means that it was serious, and sneaking away wasn’t an option.
“So that says to me, if she couldn’t just sneak out, someone was controlling her life, and she must have been terrified of them. And that is something I’ll have a hard time forgiving myself for not seeing the signs. Veni comes from the heart. She’s a good person. If she can help you, she will, and, if she can’t, she’s a no-bullshit type person. So she won’t, and she’ll tell you why.
“Yet to think of somebody hurting her, simply because she can tell whether somebody tells the truth or lies, that’s a little hard to handle. However, I also know how governments feel about things like that. So, if she has those gifts and potentially more, she’s an asset they can’t afford to let anybody else have, even if they don’t want it for themselves.”
At that, Anders looked at Reid and nodded. “It could be just as simple as that. The Russians are scared that what she might do is more than what she’s let them know about. So essentially they’re afraid of whatever she can do, and they might be afraid that the West could utilize them against Russia.”
Chapter 3
The sound reverberated across the room. Veni’s head spun, as she groaned back to awareness, her cheek on fire, as she stared balefully at the man who had struck her.
“There you are,” he greeted her, with a smile. “See? You cooperate with me, and I’ll cooperate with you.”
She blinked, trying to clear her head once again, knowing that the dizziness came from the drugs they kept putting into her system. Drugs were the death knell for somebody like her, but these guys didn’t care. As long as it made her more cooperative, they were all for it. That just added more to her pain, not that they cared. It was all about them and what they wanted. She closed her eyes again, earning another slap across the face.
“I said, wake up,” he snarled.
She blinked several times, wincing at the sting on her cheek and at the pounding in her head.
“That’s more like it. Now stay awake or …” he threatened. He studied her, as she gave in to her urge to sleep. “Do I have to hit you again?”
Slowly she shook her head. Her mouth was bound with a gag, her hands and feet were tied in front of her, and her body would soon scream in agony now that she was conscious. Not that he would mind.
“I brought you food and water,” he stated, quickly untying the gag around her mouth. He handed her the water bottle, and she drank greedily. Almost immediately he pulled it back and glared at her. “Drink it slowly.”
She noted this was the same man missing a tooth, who had seemed almost fatherly before, but that persona was long gone. Now she was dealing with this monster, who cared about nothing but making her follow whatever orders he gave. Guys like that were always around, happier to beat and to abuse than to be decent human beings. She shouldn’t be surprised that the Russian government had hired somebody like this. Probably the regular government staff was around, the people nobody ever got to know about, yet they were here nonetheless. She slowly sipped at her drink, afraid that he would snatch it away from her again.
She knew she needed to drink slowly. Otherwise she would throw up. She would also need a bathroom thereafter, which she wasn’t sure whether they would offer or not. Even now, as the water went in, she felt her other bodily systems rising up. She handed him the bottle and whispered, “I need to go to the bathroom.”
He nodded. “It’s about time,” he muttered. “You should have gone a long time ago. I was starting to get worried,” he declared, almost in disgust. “Get up.”
She frowned at him, slowly getting to all fours, then to her knees, struggling to stand, as both her feet and her hands were still bound. But she made it to a vertical position, swaying a bit, slowly gaining control.
“Good, you’re doing better than I expected.” He quickly cut the bindings on her ankles and her hands and barked, “Follow me.”
The bottle of water was still on the table where he’d placed it, and that was the only item in the room. She picked it up and followed him.
When he saw her with the water bottle, he laughed and muttered, “Fat chance,” then took it away from her.
She didn’t say anything. It would have been nice to keep the water bottle, but she wasn’t surprised. Men like this were all about control and obedience, making sure she did what he wanted, causing absolutely no trouble for him. That would be the key to surviving this.
He took her to a small bathroom. “You got a couple minutes, and that’s it.”
She nodded and went inside, grateful when he let her close the door. She went to the bathroom first, her bladder desperate to be emptied, and the relief was huge. She finished, then washed her hands and her face. There was no mirror, but, for that, she was quite grateful. The last thing she wanted was to see what a nightmare she looked like right about now. She opened the door to find him standing in front of it.
He nodded approvingly. “Good, you didn’t overdo your stay in there.”
She shook her head. “Where’s my mother?”
He shrugged. “She’s with somebody else, not me.”
She didn’t say anything to that, and he obviously wouldn’t elaborate. She and her mother had been split up for a reason, and Veni knew it was likely all about control again. Her guard led her back to the same room, and, while they’d been gone, somebody else had left behind a blanket and a mattress, a blow-up one perhaps, placed directly on the floor. Regardless she was grateful for any little bit of comfort.
“I’ll bring you food in a few minutes.”
She nodded and whispered, “Thank you.” Then she walked over to the makeshift bed and sat down. She immediately reached for the blanket and pulled it around her, feeling the chill from before hitting her once more. Nothing like coming off the drugs to have your body react with horrible precision in every way you didn’t want it to.
He frowned at her. “The food will help.”
She didn’t say anything, just shut her eyes and sank down into the corner. He closed the door, leaving her alone. As soon as he was gone, she peeked about, careful to not appear to be too excited—in case she was being filmed. She cast a quick glance around to see where she was and if there were any easy way out. She knew the answer would be a hard no, but she had to try. As she searched the windowless room, she was relieved to see no visible signs of any cameras, which also surprised her. However, this room had a high ceiling with rafters, so she suspected any cameras were up there. In a place like this, a prison, cameras would be everywhere.
This looked like maybe another temporary holding position; she wasn’t sure. Just enough things about it worried her. She huddled in the cold, waiting for her body to warm up, even as her teeth started to chatter.
When the door opened, and the same guard came inside, he frowned at her, probably when he heard her teeth chattering so badly. “Here’s hot soup and some bread.” He placed them on the table and stepped back out again. He gave her a searching gaze, as he left.
She didn’t care. She knew he would be checking out her reactions, everything she did essentially, and there wouldn’t be any easy passes from here on out. Yet she knew that a rescue had to happen. That hope was the only way she and her mother would survive this nightmare. Veni didn’t quite know how it would play out, but it would, and she refused to give up on that idea. At least the British government knew they were missing, their rescue plan having gone awry. Now it required a rethink and some time for somebody to come up with something new in order to get them out.
The trouble was her lack of communication, and, at this point, telepathy was seemingly impossible. She could transmit a message, or maybe she could, if and when the rattling in her brain calmed down and the drugs finally eased out of her system. That was the one thing she was hoping for and counting on to get her and her mother out of here.
