Chapter 13 #3
“Not necessarily,” Rubin countered, as they drove toward the corner stores. “Her father’s a jerk, from the word I’m getting. All ego. All about power. So I could still see him pulling this stunt. Plus, we can’t be so sure it isn’t just more of the same governmental BS we were dealing with before.”
“Okay, I can see her father thinking he outranked us. But do you really think that our own government is involved? Because that would be wild,” Hayden stated, as they drove as fast as they could on the roads.
Rubin snorted. “You know Terkel, right? You heard what happened to him and his team? Whatever you heard, the real thing was worse.”
Hayden went silent, and his expression grew hard. They kept quiet for a while, until Hayden spoke first. “You’re wondering if US government agencies had something to do with her kidnapping?”
“Yeah, I am,” Rubin declared. “I don’t want to be, and I don’t know that the beginning of this nightmare is the same as what the ending of the nightmare is now that she’s here on our coast, versus a shack in the middle of nowhere in Kazakhstan.
It could alternatively be her father. I hate to say it, but I’m starting to wonder if her father is just being superprotective.
Maybe, after receiving word that she was back and safe, he made his own private arrangements, trying to keep everybody else away from her. ”
“I’m not against that,” Hayden conceded, “but it would be a completely shit move if he did that, while knowing the government and all our units are out here trying to save her, and he’s just stolen her away again, without letting anybody know.”
Rubin phoned Mason. When Mason’s voice came online, he sounded sleepy. “Sorry,” Rubin said.
“No, no, it’s fine,” Mason replied. “What have you got?”
He shared their location and the direction they were going, noting that cameras should be somewhere up that way, and it would save them some time if they could at least get a confirmation of the direction of Tricia’s vehicle.
“I’ll get back to you in five.” And he disconnected. It was less than five when he called back. “Tesla’s running the cameras right now.”
Rubin smiled at that. “Dang, did I wake you both up?”
“Let’s just say, with these babies, you grab a few minutes of sleep when you can,” he murmured. “It’s all good.”
In the background, he heard Tesla’s voice but not clear enough to determine what she said.
Mason noted, “Hang on a second.” Then suddenly Tesla was on the phone.
“They turned left at the upcoming intersection,” she shared, telling them the exact location.
“And somebody is in the back seat, based on what I could see on the cameras. I zoomed in as much as I could, but I’m not able to see faces on any of them, but there’s a driver, one person in the passenger seat, and one in the back. ”
“So, two men are with her. Good enough,” Rubin stated. “Any other cameras up that way?”
“No, that’s your last one. Then just basically small private cabins are up there. You’ve also had rain in the last little while, so, with any luck, you should see tracks.”
He smiled because he could work with that. “Thank you, Tesla.” And, with that, she disconnected without even reconnecting with Mason.
Mason sent a text. Need anything else?
Rubin responded, Nope, will let you know. And, with that, he pocketed his phone.
At the intersection, which was obviously busy at times, at least enough to warrant a camera, they turned as instructed and kept driving, but not nearly as fast as they were before, checking to see if any recent tracks turned off up ahead.
They passed a few potential turnoffs, then saw a spot where it was instantly obvious that a vehicle had recently turned onto that small dirt road.
Wet, rutted tracks were obvious even in the poor light.
They followed it. Seeing a long clear road ahead, they shut off their lights and drove slowly forward.
They didn’t want to let anybody know they were here or to give away their position.
As they approached, moving as carefully and as quietly as a vehicle could, they found a place to pull off. Turning around, they parked on the side of the road so they could get out of here quickly. Then the two of them quietly exited the car and spread out and headed up the road on foot.
It was a longer driveway than they had expected, but that was good news for them. When they made it up, lights were on in the cabin, with no sign of anybody outside. They both eased forward. As they got a little bit closer, they heard Tricia asking for information and being told to shut up.
She went very quiet for a while. “You guys aren’t government either, are you?”
One of the men laughed and quipped, “Depends on what arm of the government you’re talking about.”
“No, you aren’t government. You aren’t looking after me at all. You are the exact opposite.”
The second man snapped, “You’re here. You’re in a cabin, and you’re safe. Now would you just shut up? Think all you want, but don’t speak.”
Rubin had to smile at that because the one thing Tricia wasn’t good at was shutting up, frequently at times when it would have been to her benefit. Even now he was surprised when dead silence came. Yet, after another minute or two, she spoke up again.
“I need to go to the bathroom.”
“You just went to the bathroom.”
“Yeah, well, I need to go again, thank you,” she muttered. “And how come this place doesn’t have running water?”
“Do you see where we are? Nothing is out here. You can go to the outhouse.”
“Great,” she snapped. “I don’t want to use the outhouse.”
“Then you don’t need to go to the bathroom at all, do you?”
“Fine,” she replied, frustration in her tone. “I’ll go to the outhouse then.” She stood up and walked over to the door.
One of the men grabbed her arm.
She shrugged it free and snapped, “Either take me or stand here and watch to ensure I don’t go anywhere else.”
“You know bears are out there, right?” one of the men pointed out, and the other one laughed.
She noted, “There probably are.”
“Like you’ll be worried about that.”
“You mean I shouldn’t be?” she asked, turning to look.
It should have been harder to hear, but apparently so little insulation was in the cabin that their voices carried outside.
Rubin had to wonder at one point if she was doing it intentionally because her voice was much easier to hear than the others.
The men’s words were harder to decipher, but through some assumptions and based on the topic of conversation, Rubin was able to follow both sides, as he stared through the window, trying to keep track of where she was going.
He quickly slipped around to the back of the cabin, with a hand motion to Hayden as to where she was. Moments later, up ahead, he watched the side door open with a bang.
“Just go already!” yelled one man.
With that, she walked outside toward the small outhouse in the back, muttering the whole way.
“Of course it’s an outhouse. Jesus, why would it have indoor plumbing?
I know I should just be happy there’s a place to go at all, but holy crap, seriously?
” She kept up her one-sided conversation the whole way.
Finally the man yelled at her, “Stop being so damn bitchy about everything.”
She just glared at him and then retorted, “Right, you’re one to talk.”
“I am one to talk,” he snapped. “No wonder you’re single. Nobody’ll put up with this shit.” Then he slammed the door to the cabin.
Rubin watched as the man turned and headed deeper into the cabin, and that was Rubin’s opportunity. He crept up behind the outhouse and whispered through the back wall, “Hey, it’s Rubin.”