Chapter 03: Helpless

“A, I just got a report that SWAT is on the way. Apparently, the police are getting calls about a possible hostage situation.”

“Great. Anything else I should know? Like, how the hell do I get out of this room?”

“Where are you?”

“Laundry; lots of machines in here.”

“I can work with that,” he said and she could hear his fingers slamming across his keyboard as he pulled up the hotel’s blueprints. “Ok, head to the west wall and tell me if you can hear fans on the other side.”

Alexa did as instructed and placed her ear to the wall. The low humming of large, industrial fans whirring seemed far off but, distinct. “I hear them.”

“Good. Now,” he said, blowing out a breath. “You might not like this part but…”

“Let me guess, you want me to go through those things to get out of here. What are they, ventilation?”

“Bingo. I am trying to hack into the electrical system but, all I can see are fire alarms and sprinklers. I think that hotel is old school so you’re going to have to disable the fans on your end. Look around you, A, do you see a control panel or fuse box?”

“I see it.” Racing to the corner, Alexa pulled open the electrical box and inhaled a breath as she took in the abundant amount of wires, fuses and switches. “What am I looking for here, K?”

“A yellow wire with a large red clip on the end. It should be marked by dark blue writing with the letters MRC Freq. With such an old building, A, I’d suggest whatever you do DON’T put anything metal in that thing.”

“Right.” Grabbing a rag from the machine beside her, Alexa gripped the wire, and slowly released the breath she’d been holding as she snatched the cable out in one swipe. The room quickly started heating up as the air system began to power down.

“Hurry, A. I think they almost have the door,” he warned, hearing the commands over his police radio.

Wriggling through the vent, Alexa shimmied into the duct space and found herself staring at the large fan with blades considerable enough to shred her to pieces. It took two minutes to navigate the dark chute before she breathed fresh air. “I’m out and on the way back.”

“Good. I’ll see ya soon.”

“Well then, it looks like WET have decided to up the stakes,” Alexa said as she stepped inside their hotel room some twenty minutes later. “That’s fine. If they want to play dirty, they’re in for a fight.”

“What are you thinking?”

“That I’d like to see how well they handle their dirty laundry being aired to the masses. Evidence or not, even just a hint of conspiracy could hurt their bottom line,” she shouted from the bedroom as she changed out of her dress.

“I’ll see what nasty little tidbits we have to work with.” Kasper said, turning back to his computer while Alexa took a seat on the couch. Hoping for a little distraction, she turned on the TV and began flipping channels. Every news station was reporting on the attack at the Hyperion, many accounts detailing the waiter that collapsed dead in front of the Secret Service with a knife in his chest.

“At least there’s that,” she said to herself. Knowing the one person that could positively identify her was no longer a concern helped to ease her tension a little.

“Whoa!” Kasper exclaimed, prompting Alexa to turn and face him. “Just got a notification on Jennifer Barnes’ phone. Someone took her kids.”

“What do you mean took them?”

“Like they have been kidnapped, A, take a look.”

 Pulling up from the couch, she moved above Kasper’s shoulder and examined the series of texts he’d screen grabbed from the WET executive’s phone. They were pictures of her children, Justin and Denise, sitting on a floor of a unidentifiable room, mouths taped and hands tied. “Oh fuck…”

“Yeah,” Kasper said, looking through the saved folders for any other information he could find. “You don’t think…”

“That we may have had a hand in this? I do. In fact, I think whoever did this was after the same thing we were, only they made a play for the kids. And because Jennifer no longer has the box to give to them, those children may not make it out alive.”

“So what do you want to do?”

“What the police won’t be able to. Bring those kids home safely and take care of the people that did this.”

Kasper nodded and clicked off the cloned phone. “I tapped into their security cameras when we got here, so we already have an in. I’ll see if I can locate and identify any suspicious person on or around Jennifer about the time they were taken.”

“And while you’re doing that, I’m gonna go have a chat with Jennifer.”

“What? A, that place will be crawling with law enforcement. If there has been a ransom demand, they won’t let her out of their sights.”

“Relax, Kas, I know what I’m doing,” she said grabbing up her bag and ensuring she had ammunition for her sidearms. “I shouldn’t be long. Call me if you find anything.” Alexa took the keys from the sideboard and headed out the door.

Kasper was right. The place was swarming with police and FBI alike. Red and blue lights lit up the Barnes’ street and the entire cul-de-sac was blocked off by cruisers and black government vehicles.

Shooting off a quick text to Kasper, she waited on him to respond. Moments later, her phone beeped and she glanced down at the screen. 517-555-3684; Jennifer’s personal cell phone number. It was a gamble. The police were likely monitoring any and all forms of communication but, she needed to try. Thinking up a message she hoped Jennifer would understand, Alexa texted:

917 – Back door – No cops

And she didn’t have to wait long.

Please.

The message was concise but, Alexa could feel the pain behind the demand and swiftly fired back a response.

Back door.

She repeated. Slinking around the back of the house, Alexa hopped the tall privacy fence and watched as Jennifer gave some excuse to step outside.

“Hello?” The distraught mother called. Alexa whistled and Jennifer started into her direction. “Please, just give them back. You got what you wanted, I just want…”

“I don’t have your children. I came to help you get them back.”

“What? Then how did you know they…?”

“I monitor everything with your organization. Look, we don’t have much time. What can you tell me about their disappearance?”

“I don’t know.”

“Have there been any demands?” Alexa asked, keeping an eye on the patio door for movement.

“They want what you took. Without it…”

“Don’t worry. I’ll get them before anything happens, Jennifer. I promise.”

“Why? Why are you helping me? Not a week ago it was you who threatened to harm them.”

“Empty words. Like I said, I’m an assassin, not a psycho. Now, you can put your trust in the police and the FBI and hope they don’t fuck up negotiations or, you can let me do what you know I’m good at.”

“I trust you,” she sighed. “Please, bring them home.”

“When they call again, tell them you have what they want and try and make a deal but, stall for as long as you can.” Scaling back over the fence, Alexa rushed to her car and back to the hotel. “Anything new?” she asked, hurrying back to Kasper’s side.

“Nothing. How about you?”

“It was as we thought, they want the blackmail box; it was the only demand.”

“So now what?”

Alexa nibbled on her bottom lip as she considered the question. It was a safe bet to say WET was behind this. The box contained secrets of many of its top employees and Jennifer had not made it a secret to these high-powered men she was willing to play dirty to get what she wanted. Any one of them could have instigated this matter. “Jennifer said she’d used this box to become a member of the Board of Directors right?” 

Kasper nodded, following Alexa’s train of thought. “I should check into the finances of the other directors. See if anyone’s made any large sum withdrawals or transfers to pay for this sort of thing.” It took him a moment to tap into the last fifteen employees listed on the board before he came back with a response. “There have been three who have made highly suspicious transactions in the last two weeks.”

“We will want to narrow it down a little more. What are their names? I’ll compare their sins in the black box and see if any are truly worth this level of aggression.”

“Charles Spaulding, Renee Szymanski, and Louis Bowden.”

“Charles Spaulding: enjoys the tracks and gambling on games. He reportedly paid a college basketball player to fix a few, increasing his payout in the fall of 2007 and then again in 2008 and 2011.”

“Sports fraud. In this instance the player might face worse charges than the exec. Probably not worth kidnapping and risking possible jail time,” Kasper responded.

“Renee Szymanski: diverged resources earmarked for the company’s retirement funds into an unmarked account for three years. Jennifer estimated the amount to be nearly $2.5 million.”

“That is definitely up there with ‘reasons to kill,’” Kasper said, noting the man’s home address.

And finally, Louis Bowden: also a scammer, he trimmed off the top of contributions for five of WET’s charities. While it appears these organizations received major donations from the company, in reality they make maybe 10% of the total gross for every fundraiser WET sponsors. And Louis is still skimming to this day.”

“Ok, so narrowed down to two. We can each take a suspect and follow their activities. See if they are in contact with the kidnappers.”

“I don’t think we have time for that. These people want this box and it’s not a matter of sit and wait.”

“Let me guess, you want to pay these men a visit?”

“Oh, Kasper, you know me so well.”

“I do. These are bad men. Even if they have nothing to do with the present issue, they are taking advantage of innocent people. Might be good for you to release a little steam” he said, ripping off the top page of his notepad. “Their addresses. Good luck.”

Renee Szymanski’s Dutch colonial home was a quick drive from the hotel. It took Alexa less than thirty minutes to get in and get information. Szymanski was easy. A sniveling, weasel of a man, she didn’t even have to hit him before he was handing her his bank account numbers and begging forgiveness. There was no way he could live with the idea of a hired gun harming two innocent children.

That left her with Louis Bowden. Bowden lived in a very nice penthouse suite near the waterfront. A bachelor with few close friends and no siblings, Alexa had to think of the best way to make her approach. According to Kasper, he very rarely called his parents; even with his mother’s declining health. The man appeared to have no moral compass whatsoever so playing on a sense of decency was out.

Getting into the building was relatively easy however, accessing the penthouse was a different story but, Alexa had a plan. Breaking into the apartment just beneath Bowden’s, she climbed up the terrace from his downstairs’ neighbor and pried open his sliding glass door. The inside of his place was clean; immaculate even. For a bachelor, Bowden seemed pretty anal about tidiness. Screwing on a silencer, she quietly moved around the living room in search of clues.

Alexa heard a voice coming from an upstairs room and she started in the direction. “I told you not to contact me. What the hell are you thinking?” She heard a man growl into a phone. Bingo. “Do you have what I want or not? ‘Close’ is not a ‘yes!’ If the bitch doesn’t want to give it up, show her how serious we are. You do whatever you have to and get me what I want. Don’t call me again!”

Bowden threw the phone onto the coffee table in front of him and immediately stilled in his tracks. Alexa loved this part. Hearing the slide of a weapon snap into place, the man knew he was in trouble. “Looks like we don’t have to waste time with an interrogation after all.”

“Are you police?” Bowden asked, without making an attempt to turn around. His voice was shaking, showing fear as he slowly raised his hands above his head.

“Nope!” Alexa said, drawing out the p with a popping sound. “I’m the person that’s going to put one bullet in your knee, one in your ankle, one in your gut, and possibly a few in your head if I don’t get the answer I’m looking for. Where are the kids?”

“Please. I—I don’t know.”

“Oooh. Wrong answer.” Alexa fired a shot, Bowden fell screaming. With haste, she darted towards the remote sitting on the table beside him and turned on the TV as loud as it would go before also sliding his phone out of reach. “Now, let’s try this again. Where are the kids?”

“I—I hired someone, ok? I don’t know where they’ve taken them! I paid them to keep me out of the loop. They could be anywhere!”

Again she fired, the next bullet pierced the man’s ankle and he again cried out in agony, clutching at his foot. “Remember where I said the next bullet would go? You’re running out of body parts, Louis.”

“I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT ME TO SAY! Prior to tonight, I only communicated with them by email. They just called but, it was an unknown number.”

“You hired them, Louis, how did you initially contact this person?”

“Craigslist.”

Alexa shook her head and moved towards the man’s desk. “I don’t see any emails here, Louis. Did you delete them?” she asked, checking his inbox, spam and trash bins. He nodded and again she sighed as she dropped into the chair at his desk. Dialing Kasper, she asked him how long it would take to recover deleted mail. As an answer, he instructed her on how to enable remote networking.

And after he gained access to Bowden’s computer, she watched and waited. Fifteen minutes later, Kasper had a location not far from the children’s school. She quickly jotted down the address and left Kasper to do more cleanup. As she turned away from the screen, he had just pulled up Bowden’s browsing history. “Thanks, Louis, I got what I came for.”

“Good. Now will you please call me an ambulance?”

“An ambulance? Why would I do that?”

“I’m dying here!”

“You’re bleeding, not dying,” she replied, stepping over him and jabbing her foot into the wound on his knee. “Do you know who I am?” He shook his head no. “Does the name Travis Stark ring a bell?” Louis’ eyes grew wide and he instantly tried to crawl away. Alexa laughed with the recognition. “Just so you know, I was coming for you either way; this little kidnapping bit just sped up the process.”

“Wait, w-w-wait, please. I have information, loads of information. In fact, I can give you a box full of stuff about WET, you can use it however you want.”

“You mean the one you kidnapped Jennifer Barnes’ children for?”

“Yes! There is an endless source of information. The bitch was blackmailing us all.”

“Yeah, I know. Too bad for you your little scheme came about a week too late. I already took that box from her.”

“No…please…I have money.”

“Me too. And as for the gut, well, in an effort to save some time, what do ya say we just skip to the end?” Without hesitation, Alexa fired three more rounds into Bowden’s forehead. “What ya got for me, K?” she asked, sliding behind the wheel of her car.

“Two guys,” he said as she turned on the Bluetooth and backed out of the lot. “Bowden made contact two weeks ago on Craigslist like he said. I traced the IP of the person that posted the ad. ”

“Ad?”

“Get this, the guy marketed himself as a professional abductor, selling his services to the highest bidder, Bowden won with a bid of $50k; $25 down, the rest after the job was done.”

“How was that shit not taken down immediately?” 

“It’s the internet. Guess it wasn’t taken seriously? Either way, it’s gone now. Still, I was able to track the original advertisement and found the guy by his IP address. Bobby Lawrence. Nothing really impressive about this guy. He got popped as a juvie for a few minor B&Es and a handful of misdemeanor larceny charges.”

“So he what? Serves his time in a detention center then wakes up one day and decides he should aim higher?”

“Hey, I wouldn’t be where I am now without a little trial and error, A.”

“And I’m sure you didn’t kidnap two innocent children and hold them for ransom…at least I hope not.”

“Be careful out there, Alexa. This guy seems a little desperate. Like you said, you don’t just start out on this type of major crime. There may be something we don’t see that led him to this point.”

“Yeah well, whatever it was, it’s about to come to an end one way or another. I’ll call you when I have the kids.” She pulled up to the Play and Learn Academy, parking near the construction zone that had caused the learning center to shut its doors for the time being. Alexa noticed the caution tape that had been attached to the front entrance was slightly ripped and chose to access the building from a different point.

Reattaching her silencer, she climbed through the window of an office and carefully made her way to the front of the building. “Dude, we are gonna be so rich!” She heard a man exclaim.

“We won’t be anything if that bitch doesn’t give us what we want.” Came the voice of the second suspect.

“Dude! She’ll come through. What kind of mother would just leave her kids to suffer?”

“Mine did.”

The conversation stalled for a moment before the first man moved closer to where the other sat. “What do you plan to do with your $10k?”

“No honor amongst thieves,” Alexa said to herself, watching the men from her position around the corner.

“Can you stay focused? We haven’t been paid yet. Don’t get too excited.”

Alexa still had not caught sight of the children and she was beginning to wonder if they had them in a different location altogether. “Why don’t you go check on the cargo?” The less chatty man instructed of his accomplice. The taller of the two suspects walked towards a room adjacent to the main hall where the two men had been keeping watch. A light came on and Alexa could see it was a play room of sorts. Finally, she spotted Justin and Denise and noticed though scared, they seemed relatively unharmed. 

The light went out again and she waited for the two men to move into the main hall once again. When they stepped an adequate distance away from the room, she moved in. Promptly aiming, she took one of the men down right away. The second swung his arm around and fired a shot in her direction. Alexa ducked, rolled and returned fire, catching the man twice in his chest. His weapon hand flew out and away from his body, discharging two more rounds as he hit the floor.

Stepping closer, she fired two more shots, one each into the heads of the downed men before rushing the door of the playroom. The children’s scream was muffled behind the tape and she knelt down to eye level with them as she raced to undo their binds. “It’s ok,” she said in a soothing tone. “My name is Amanda and I’m taking you to your Mom.”

Alexa helped the kids to the car and grabbed her phone from the cup holder and sent a quick text to Jennifer’s number.

J&D are ok. See you soon.

Twenty minutes later, Alexa pulled down the street neighboring the Barnes’ and left the engine running as she stepped out with the children and walked them through their neighbor’s backyard.

                                                                                                                          Front door. Now.

“Run home.” Alexa watched as the kids took off across the street. The front door opened and both Jennifer and Greg stepped outside. Justin and Denise flew into their parents’ arms and Alexa hurried back to her awaiting vehicle and took off to the hotel.

Kasper met her as she entered the living room, clapping loudly as she stepped in the door and she smiled and took a bow before he pulled her into a hug. “You did your good deed today,” he said as she pulled away. “Do I even need to ask what happened with the men that took them?” Alexa shot him a look and he nodded in conclusion. “Didn’t think so.”

Alexa’s phone chimed and she reached down to check the new message. “It’s Jennifer,” she announced before reading the text aloud: “‘how could I ever thank you enough?’”

Alexa smirked and glanced at Kasper before she responded: I think I know how.

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