Habitats (an Ell Donsaii story #7) (15 page)

“Strip
?” she asked indignantly.

The burly guy leaned over and snipped the plasticuffs
with a wire cutter.

“Yeah.” Abe said, “This roadblock is probably just a coincidence, but I’m not taking any chances. We’re going to make sure you don’t have any GPS tracking devices on you.”

“No! I refuse.”

He sighed, “Either take ‘em off
yourself or Joe’ll Tase you. Then we’ll
cut
them off. Your choice?”

Vivian hesitated a moment, then
, mortified, she reached for her top button.

***

Ell called Amy, “Hey, sorry to wake you up but Vivian’s been kidnapped.”

Amy, whose in
itial reply had sounded sleepy, suddenly sounded completely awake. “Oh, no! Do you need me to man the ‘emergency station’?”

“Yeah, I’m hoping you can get over there. Hopefully we can handle this without needing any of that stuff, but I’d like
for it to be ready.”

“I’ll be there in a
few minutes.”

Steve spoke in Ell’s ear, “The roadblock has been set up and it shouldn’t be long before traffic starts to jam up there. On GPS, Vivian’s location is approaching the block and the speed of her vehicle is starting to drop. According to our mapping you’re only a mile or so behind them now. Randy is a little way ahead of you at the back of the pack of vehicles that are slowing for the roadblock. Barrett, Mary and Jason aren’t far behind you… What are your plans when the traffic gets jammed up between you and them?”

“I’ll pull over onto the shoulder and drive the rest of the way up to Vivian.”

“Come on, Ell! That’s just
crazy
! First of all, approaching that car all by yourself will give away all we’ve worked for with the roadblock. They’ll see you coming and use Vivian as a hostage instead of a kidnapping victim. There’ll be
no
chance that the police will be able to just open the door of the limo as if they’re doing a simple inspection, then draw weapons before the kidnappers are able to.”

Ell didn’t say anything for a moment. Just before Steve was about to check the connection sh
e said. “Okaaay. You’re right. But how are we going to deal with it if the kidnappers have a gun in her side when the cops open the doors for their ‘look.’”

“I don’t know, but there’s at least a moderate chance they’ll just think it’s a contraband search and won’t be prepared
when the cops open the door. If you show up, they’re going to know the jig’s up.”

“OK, I’ll drive up close
r but stop before I look like a threat. I’ll let the cops do their thing.”

After a couple of minutes t
raffic had slowed to a crawl so Ell pulled out onto the shoulder. She had Allan plot her position versus Vivian’s on a map on her HUD.

Ell had just seen the limo in the distance
near the roadblock when a large “four wheeler” crew cab type pickup truck with enormous tires pulled out onto the shoulder ahead of her. At first she was surprised and a little miffed that someone else was
also
illegally using the shoulder she thought of as “hers.”

But then s
he watched in horror as the truck stopped beside the limo. Several people leapt out and dragged Vivian, wearing a man’s clothing, across and into the truck. Ell accelerated hard to catch the truck, but she arrived just as it turned, drove down the embankment and right over a fence that it crushed beneath those huge wheels. As she watched it bumped its way out across a field.

To Ell’s horror a couple of the police
officers ran a short distance from the roadblock and began shooting at the truck!

Ell tried to follow
the truck but her Focus “high centered” on the downed fence, leaving her stuck watching the truck disappear into the darkness away from the headlights on the freeway. “Allan are you still tracking Vivian’s position on GPS? Does it say she’s in that truck crossing the field?rossing ˀield?r

Allan said, “Yes. GPS lock is good. That
is
her in the truck.”

“Dammit.” Ell breathed.
She got out of the car, telling her AI to connect her to Randy. “Randy put your hand up out the window of the car and wave so I can see you.” A moment later she saw a hand waving over the driver’s window of one of the cars up by the road block. Ell ran that way.

As Ell dropped, breathing hard, into the seat next to Randy she said, “Steve, make sure the cops know that the ki
dnappers took Vivian off across the fields in that big four-wheeler type SUV. Ask them to open up the road block except for arresting whoever is still in the limo. We need them to let us through so we can track those guys down.”

“Yeah,
’ Steve said, “I can’t tell the police
we
want to pursue. We aren’t
supposed
to be doing their jobs. I
can
tell them the quarry escaped and they’ll start after them, dropping the road block in the process.”

“OK but Steve? They fired their weapons after the truck!
Is that normal police procedure? Firing at a vehicle that has a hostage?”

“
Really? Shit! I suppose some of the officers got a little too enthusiastic. I’m pretty sure they aren’t supposed to be firing their weapons unless they think there’s a threat to life. They’ll probably have hell to pay at an ‘after action review’ later.”

The line of cars started to move as the police
began waving them through. As Randy drove past, Ell saw the limo off to the side with several police officers around it, guns drawn. “Steve?” she said, “I’m not sure I want these police knowing exactly where Vivian is. They’re a little too excitable for my taste.”

“I don’t think we should start lying to the police. I’ll tell my liaison about the shooting and ask him to get them to be more careful.”

“OK,” Ell said musingly as she watched the progress of Vivian’s GPS location on her HUD. It was following one of the smaller country roads, still heading mostly east. Ell scanned ahead trying to figure out how she and Randy could get there from one of the closer freeway exits. Of course, it would be just her luck that the kidnappers would turn back onto the freeway about the time Ell left it. “Randy, let’s take the next exit. I can see a connector to the road they’re on with Vivian.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“Randy, don’t you ‘Ma’am’ me!”

“Yes Ell,” he said patiently, rolling his eyes.

Ell didn’t know whether to be relieved or worried when she saw that Vivian’s location had pulled off the road and stopped. Could they have reached their destination? Were they changing their plan—which Ell had assumed was to get to the beach and meet a boat? Was this an American group rather than a foreign one like she had assumed? Did they have a helicopter or airplane? With some distress Ell realized that Keals thithe road there looked straight enough for a plane to land and take off.

***

Vivian had been shaken at every turn. First to be abducted, then to be dragged out of the limo into the truck. Again when the truck bounced off the freeway, over a fence and through the field. Now the tremendous road noise the huge tires on the truck made at speed bored into her. Now, without warning, they’d turned into the yard of one of the houses along the road. All but the driver got out at the front of the house and the truck pulled off around back. The men dragged Vivian up on the porch and, without knocking, kicked the door in.

“Abe” dragged Vivian in the door a few minutes later
and she found the little family that lived in the house assembled in the kitchen.

Abe
addressed the wife, a somewhat matronly woman. Pointing to Vivian, he said, “Find some clothes that will fit her.”

The woman said, “I ain’t helping you!”

Dispassionately Abe turned and backhanded her husband with his pistol. The man fell to the floor, looking dazed. Blood welled from his nose and a large cut on his cheek.

Abe pointed
his gun at the woman. “Find some clothes that will fit her.”

The woman covered her mouth and shrieked but didn’t move from where she stood
, her wide eyes focused on her man. In a loud, though dispassionate voice, Abe said, “Do I have to hit one of your kids too?”

The woman’s eyes flashed to
her son and daughter who looked to be between the ages of five and ten. The children looked terrified. Nonetheless the daughter dropped to her knees and bravely crawled toward her father. The mother reached out toward the daughter but Abe stepped between her and the child. She stared at Abe a moment, then she whimpered and started toward the back of the house. One of Abe’s men followed her. Another knelt and started putting plasticuffs on the kids.

Abe knelt by the man who lay moaning on the floor. “I need an authorization code for your car.” T
he man only moaned incoherently. Abe sucked his lower lip pensively. His wife returned with some clothes. Abe said, “Give them to her,” indicating Vivian. To Vivian he said, “Change.”

Vivian turned to go around the corner into the living
room and Abe said, “Joe, go with her.”

Vivian said, “I
can’t have any privacy?”

Abe simply shook his head
. He turned to the wife, “I need the authorization code for your car.”

The wife moaned
, but Vivian heard her give it to him.

Avral/Abe turned to the driver of the truck who’d just come into the kitchen. He said, “Go. Make sure the code works and then change the code so they can’t remote it after we leave. Change the license plates and see if they have any spray paint you can use to Kou nd t change the car’s appearance.” He knelt and looked at the husband’s eyes, “Pupils are unchanged, just a concussion.”

For a moment
Abe just stayed there wondering. Was that roadblock really for them? Or just a coincidence? If it was for them, how had they been tracked? He got up and stepped out of the kitchen. Quietly he spoke the name of the driver of the limo so his AI would connect him, “Did you get through the road block?”

There was no answer.

Next he said, “Eliom,” the name of the man from the lead car. “What happened at the road block?”

“I left my Glock lying out on the front seat like you asked. They didn’t even notice it. Just
glanced in the window and waved me through. Did you guys get through OK?”

“Damn! No. We turned off
the road in the truck. I can’t reach the guys in the limo so I think they got picked up by the police. I don’t know how they found us, any ideas?”

“You took the woman’s AI and shut it down?”

“Yes. I’m not an idiot.”

“Ob
viously, we’ve missed something,” Eliom said patiently. “I’m just making sure it isn’t
something
obvious. Have you discarded the AI in case it has a tracker in it? Have you gone over the woman to make sure she doesn’t have one on her?”

“The headband was in the limo so if that’s what they tracked, it’s gone now. I made her change her clothes
, but I’d better search her. Shit!”

Vivian had put on a large t-shirt and some baggy sweatpants. They were a little bit big, but better too big than too small. Abe came into the room and said, “Hold still.” He stepped close and ran his hands over her scalp through her hair. He unhooked her earrings and handed them to Joe, “Smash these.”