Ell Donsaii 13: DNA (27 page)

He headed for the house where they were holding the kid. Roger should have already fed the kid and have some pizza ready for Jamieson. They’d off the babysitter and head for the rendezvous he’d planned with Wang.

He’d never noticed that the chain between Ell’s wrist cuffs had already been cut…

***

Zage was standing on the box beside the stairs in the basement, bored out of his mind. He felt pretty hungry and thought the kidnappers should deliver food soon.

He had his wooden closet rod stuffed in the waistband of his pants. The cup of ammonia and the spray can of window cleaner were on the shelf next to him.

He’d been ready for nearly an hour and was really tired of just standing there!

Zage decided to get down and sit on the stool beside the box. He should have enough time to scramble back up on the box when he heard the deadbolts starting to turn. Just as he moved, though, he heard a vehicle drive up.
The stairs must come up near the front door!
he thought with some excitement.
That’ll give me a lot better shot of getting outside where I can get a GPS signal.
His excitement diminished when he considered the possibility that the car might be bringing more members of the kidnapping team. Having more of them in the house could make an escape even more difficult.

Then he faintly heard a knock on the door. The tread of boots was followed by the creak of the door opening. Voices spoke. Zage had Osprey amplify his hearing and with great relief, decided he was hearing somebody delivering pizza!

A few minutes later, the door groaned shut and the sound of the boots moved away from the door, but not toward the stairs. Nonetheless, Zage decided that they’d probably deliver the pizza downstairs soon. He decided to stay up on the box.

A few minutes later, he heard the boots coming back his way.

The bolts in the door started turning.

Zage plugged the two extension cords together to electrify the shopping cart.

He picked up the cup of ammonia in his left hand and the bottle of Windex in his right.

His heart had been pounding, but now it felt to him like it was slowing down. He’d felt this way when Amy’s car had been forced off the road and the man came in the door after him. But this seemed to be… much more powerful. The world seemed to be moving slower. The bolts were turning in slow motion.

Ell had been lying in the back of the van as it bumped along. In her ears, she heard Allan say, “Zage is about to spring his trap. Do you want the audio and/or video feed?”

“Put it in my left eye and ear,” Ell said, “I’ve got to start moving myself. She rolled a little and reached her right index finger to cut the “single-strand” section of her left handcuff. Then she sat up to cut her ankle cuffs…

Holding the pizza box with his right hand, Roger turned the doorknob with his left and pushed open the stair door down into the dim basement.

As he stepped forward, something splashed in his eyes. At first he felt puzzled…

Then it started to burn…

He dropped the pizza box and reached out to steady himself with the handrails. But something caught his foot—he started to fall. For a second he thought he’d be able to catch himself, but then lancing agony shot through his left hand…

When the stairway door had opened, bright light poured through the opening. Zage leaned around the corner to see the man and pizza box silhouetted in the light.

It seemed as if he had all day, as he swung the cup up, adjusting the trajectory a tiny bit so it sent the ammonia right into the man’s eyes.

The Windex won’t add much,
he thought, dropping the spray bottle and pulling out his closet rod. The man’s left foot caught on the wire above the second riser and the guy started to fall forward. Zage saw him drop the pizza box and reach out for the handrails.

It looked as if the guy might catch himself, so Zage swung the closet rod at his left hand.

Hard!

Zage hadn’t been sure how hard he’d have to hit the man’s hand to keep him from grabbing the rail, so he swung as hard as he could.
Maybe that was a little too hard,
he thought when the back of the man’s knuckles burst open under the whistling impact of the one inch wooden dowel. The fingers flailed back uselessly and the hand slipped off the rail.

The man continued to fall.

As Zage scrambled off the box and onto the stairs, he focused on the man’s other hand which had a desperate grip on the right stair rail. It looked like it might keep him from falling

Zage swung the closet rod again.

Now the man’s broken right hand also slithered loose and he plunged down the stairs.

Zage’s last glance as he was about to exit the stairwell showed the man twitching, one arm on the shopping cart. Worried that the man might die if the current continued to go through him, Zage paused, reached unerringly back around the door and jerked the extension cords apart.

Out on the landing, Zage saw a door ahead and to the left that looked like it probably went outside. As he ran for it, he looked back and to his left, into the house, to see if any other kidnappers were coming after him.

No one yet.

He turned the knob on the door and pulled—the door didn’t open!

Then he heard his mother’s voice in his ear, “Zage, you’re in an old house and that’s a simple mechanical door lock. There’s no AI. Turn that flat thing above the doorknob to your right.”

Feeling greatly relieved to have help, Zage said, “Thanks Mom!” as he reached up and twisted the thumb knob. Though he’d expected it, the door still didn’t come open.

His mother’s voice said, “Now turn the knob.”

Zage did, and the door came open. He shot out the door and ran toward the trees.

Steve’s voice said, “We’ve got a GPS signal! Zage, keep going into the trees! We’ll be there in… ten minutes!”

Zage’s mother said, “Zage, Steve’s people are going to take care of you for a few minutes. I’ve got to deal with a different problem, then I’ll be there too.”

Jamieson was negotiating as he drove. “Wang, you need to be at
that
location with the rest of my money. I’ll contact you there and tell you…” Something flickered in the corner of his eye. He spared a glance from the road and turned toward it. To his surprise the foil was lifting up. At first he thought it was some kind of wind lifting it, but as he kept speaking, “where to meet me…” Donsaii’s head appeared.

She was smiling, but the smile didn’t look friendly.

The lights went out…

Wang wondered what had happened. There’d been a meaty thud; then Jamieson stopped speaking. Before he essayed to say, “What did you say?” he heard a woman’s voice, apparently coming from Jamieson’s AI. She said calmly, “Hello Mr. Wang. Unfortunately, Mr. Jamieson was just injured while carrying out your operation. We’ll still be able to provide your goods though. Where would you like them delivered?”

Wang’s mind raced.
What happened?!
he wondered. He hadn’t liked Jamieson, but still felt shocked that the man had just been injured severely enough that his second-in-command was having to complete the mission. If he got hurt that badly, would his team really be able to deliver Donsaii and her son? Nonetheless, having already spent four million dollars with nothing to show for it so far, Wang felt very anxious to close the deal. His superiors would
not
be pleased if he’d spent the four million for nothing! “You have both of them?” he asked.

“Yup.”

“And they’re in your complete control? Bound
and
tranquilized?”

“Yup, well, not the kid. He’s not a problem.”

Wang thought about asking whether the terms were still the same, but thought that might just invite them to jack up the price. Instead he said, “Okay, I’ll continue to honor the agreement I had with Jamieson. Deliver them to slip fifteen at the Port City Marina in Wilmington North Carolina in three hours.” Wang’s men wouldn’t be at slip fifteen, they’d be at fourteen, just across from it, but they’d see Jamieson’s people coming. “No more than two people for the delivery.” He hoped that this woman didn’t start heaping restrictions on Wang for the meeting like Jamieson had been.
Maybe we can get Donsaii and her kid without even paying the other four million,
he thought.

“Okay. The delivery guy will be wearing a light shirt and dark pants. How will we recognize you?”

“Challenge and response. We’ll call, ‘Jerry,’ your response will be, ‘can.’”

“No problem, see you in three hours. Don’t forget our money.”

“Okay.”

Agent Calder was seething. Donsaii sounded like she was negotiating to take these people down herself! The woman was out of control! Calder’s team had tried to follow Donsaii when she’d gone out per the kidnapper’s demand, but had promptly lost her despite the video feed from Donsaii’s AI.

Calder had repeatedly asked Donsaii for a GPS location, but the woman hadn’t responded. While she was parked there waiting for this Jamieson guy to show up, they’d just about located Donsaii by carefully going over the video record of her drive. But then Jamieson had arrived, broken the window, Tased Donsaii, and shot her with the tranquilizer dart!

Cursing her team frantically, Calder had exhorted them to find Donsaii before they lost her for good. She’d been feeling sick to her stomach over what was going to happen when the people upstream from her found out she’d lost one of the most famous people in the world to kidnappers—right under her nose!

Then, despite being drugged, manacled, and then handcuffed to floor bolts in the back of that damned van, Donsaii had suddenly gotten loose. She climbed into the front of the van, punched Jamieson’s lights out, despite the fact that he was driving the van on manual. She, apparently effortlessly, brought the vehicle to a stop at the side of the road. She uncomfortably bound Jamieson’s ankles, up between his wrists, to the wheel of his own vehicle with plasticuffs. Strangely, she gripped Jamieson’s head for a second before she got out of the passenger door, sent Calder the GPS location of the van and disappeared.

Calder suspected that Donsaii must already know where her son was or she’d have stayed there trying to get the information out of Jamieson.
How the
hell
did I lose
all
control of this damned investigation?!

While Calder was on her way to the location of the van, Donsaii’s voice finally came in her ear, “Thank you for your patience Agent Calder. I’ve got my son and Ms. Reston and will be returning home now. I’m assuming that you and your team will be able to deal with Mr. Jamieson, as well as Mr. Wang and his associates down at the Marina?”

Calder wanted to explode, but restrained herself. If she got those guys she could come out of this smelling like a rose. No need to piss Donsaii off and have her point out that she’d essentially rescued herself… somehow. Heavily, she said, “Yes Ma’am. What about the other members of Jamieson’s team?”

“Only one of them appears to have been at the house where my son and Ms. Reston were being held, so I guess you’ll need to work on Jamieson to find the rest of them. The guy at the house has been injured in a fall down the stairs into the basement where they were holding their captives. You might want to bring an ambulance when you pick him up. My AI’s providing yours with the GPS address.”

“We’ll need the audio-video records from your son and Ms. Reston ASAP!”

“Um, sure, we’ll get those to you.”

***

Zage ran pell-mell into the woods. He wanted to keep running, but just like in the past when he’d tried to run a long way, he soon found himself desperately tired. As he slowed against his will, Steve’s voice came in his ear, “Zage, I think you’ve gone far enough. At this point you should hide because, if they
are
following you, they’ll be able to run faster than you and they’ll follow the noise you’re making.”

“Okay,” Zage gasped. “Where?” He swiveled his head so that whoever was watching the video from his AI would be able to help him choose a location.

Steve said, “Over to your right there. Climb over that big fallen tree and huddle against the other side. We’ll be there in just another few minutes.”

Zage trotted over to the big tree and scrambled over it. He hid in a little recess on the other side and waited for his breathing to calm. His heartbeat, which had been thunderously slow, seemed to come up to a normal speed as the world appeared to slow down around him. As the world normalized, he started feeling really tired. He also felt guilty about Amy, “Steve, shouldn’t I go back and try to help Amy get away?”

“No! No,
you’re
the one they really want, so the best thing you can do for Amy is stay out of their hands so they
have
to chase
you
. We have other people who’ll help Amy about the same time I’m picking you up.”