American Heroes Series - 01 - Resurrection (11 page)

Ethan’s brow furrowed slightly. “By threatening the families of museum employees?”

“What
if
, Ethan?” she looked stricken. “What if they are trying to get the Robe another way?”

Ethan just looked at her. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

“I’ll be right back.”

Cydney and the detective watched him walk out the front door.  The detective, sharp and seasoned, looked at her.

 “Do you want to tell me what this is all about?” he asked frankly. “What’s the FBI doing here?”

Cydney told him what she knew. The detective made notes in his book, looking both annoyed and skeptical. As Cydney spit out the last of the story, her cell phone suddenly rang. Jolted, she raced for her purse in the entry. It was sitting on a decorative table which she knocked over in her haste. Yanking the phone out of her purse, she looked at the incoming number and realized that it was Olivia’s phone. She answered it on the fifth ring.

“Hello?” she almost shouted.

There was a long pause. “Mom?”

Cydney burst into tears of relief and terror. “Olivia, where are you?”

“Um….” Olivia faded off and the next voice that came on the line was not that of her daughter. “Mrs. Hetherington?”

Cydney’s blood ran cold. It was a male voice she did not recognize. “Who is this?” she demanded. “Where is my daughter?”

“Your daughter is perfectly safe,” the man replied. “In fact, I called just to let you know that Olivia is safe, warm and fed, and will be my guest for a time. She’s completely sound and whole providing you do as you are told.”

Cydney felt a jolt of terror, as if all of her fears had just been confirmed. By this time, Ethan had come back in the house and the detective motioned to Cydney and the phone. Understanding the gist of the man’s hand signals, Ethan got up alongside her and put his head against hers, his ear against her cell phone so he could try and hear some of the conversation.  He looked at the detective and mouthed the words.

Get a trace.

Pressed against Ethan, Cydney was trembling as she struggled to not fall apart completely. “What do you want me to do?” she asked, fighting off the sobs. “God, please don’t hurt her. She’s all I have. She’s just a little girl.”

“And she’s perfectly safe,” the man reiterated calmly. “She had macaroni and cheese for dinner, although she didn’t eat very much of it. She seemed to want to talk more than she wanted to eat.”

“Talk?” Cydney repeated. “Talk about what?”

“The Lucius Robe, of course. She says that she has seen it up close. She also says that you are in charge of its security.”

Cydney’s heart sank; she could feel Ethan’s muscular arm go around her, giving her an encouraging squeeze.

“I’m in charge of the exhibit,” she answered with a quivering voice. “Security is included with that. Please, can you just bring her home? Or drop her off somewhere and I’ll pick her up. I swear I won’t press charges.”

The man laughed softly. “Somehow, I think that would be out of your hands.”

“Then what do you want? I don’t have a lot of money, but I’ll do whatever it takes. Just don’t hurt her.”

She was starting to cry again and Ethan hugged her gently.  The man on the other end of the phone didn’t seem moved by her tears.

“I don’t want money,” he said frankly. “But I do want your help.”

“Help with what?”

“The Lucius Robe.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Give it to me.”

“
Give
it to you?” Cydney repeated, growing agitated. “But it doesn’t belong to me or even my museum. It belongs to the Bristol Museum of Antiquities. We only have it on a four-month loan.”

“Is it worth the life of your daughter?”

“Oh, my God!” Cydney shrieked. “You would kill her if you don’t get it?”

The man on the other end of the phone remained quite calm in the face of her hysteria. “She’s perfectly safe. But if you can’t provide me with the Robe, I cannot vouch for what will happen to her.” His voice suddenly turned hard. “Olivia for the Robe, Mrs. Hetherington. And if you involve those FBI agents in this, you’ll never see your child again.”

The line abruptly went dead. Ethan pulled the phone from her grip, handing it over to the detective as Cydney let out a scream of horror.  Ethan put his arms around her, picked her up, and began to carry her down the hall.  He called back over his shoulder to the detective.

“See if they were able to get a cell tower reading on that call,” he said. “Hurry up; they’re more than likely on the move.”

The detective flew into action and got on the radio to dispatch. Meanwhile, Ethan carried a very hysterical woman down the hall, peering in the open doors until he came to what he correctly assumed was her bedroom.  He kicked the door open wide, listening to it bounce off the wall and slam shut behind him.  He fell with Cydney onto the bed, keeping her wrapped up in his powerful embrace.

“Calm down,” he murmured. “Nothing’s going to happen to Olivia. We’ll get her back safe, I promise.”

“Let me go,” she struggled furiously. “I have to go get my daughter!”

“We will,” he insisted, trying not to get elbowed. “But we have to have a starting point.  The cops are tracing that call so we can see what cell tower she transmitted from. It will tell us where to begin our search.”

Cydney had moved beyond hysterical gasping and was now crying as if her heart was breaking.

“Oh, my God, my baby,” she sobbed. “You were right. Those zealots really do want the Robe. They kidnapped my daughter to get it.”

Ethan sighed heavily, tightening his grip on her now that she wasn’t struggling so much. “It never occurred to any of us that they would go after museum personnel, and certainly not their families,” he said quietly. “This is something completely new for this bunch.”

Cydney continued weeping into his chest, getting mascara and lipstick on his white dress shirt.

“They have my baby,” she wept.

He shushed her softly, stroking her head with one hand and feeling particularly helpless at the moment. There was nothing he could do until the cell tower was traced.

“Yes, they have her, but she’s unharmed, she’s been fed, and I’m sure they will treat her very well as long as they think they can get what they want by holding her,” he was trying to sound positive. “Olivia is a smart girl; she can take care of herself and I suspect she’ll have no problem telling these guys what she thinks of all of this. If anything, I’d worry for the kidnappers. Little do they know they’ve abducted the next ruler of the world.”

Cydney’s sobs turned into weepy giggles as she heard her words echoed in his statement.  She was on an emotional roller coaster as she pulled her head from his chest and gazed up at him with her wet, beautiful eyes.

“Oh, no,” she sniffled. “What happens if she turns the tables on them and bends them to her will? She’ll have a bunch of religious zealots at her command and we’ll all be in trouble.”

Ethan grinned at her, thinking that she was an incredibly lovely woman.  He stroked her head, gazing into her magnificent eyes and pleased that her pluck hadn’t left her completely.  It told him a lot about her strength of character.

“I hope I’m on her good side, then,” he muttered. “For now, however, I need for you to be strong. We’ll get through this but you have to trust that we’ll get her back unharmed. I really need that confidence. Okay?”

Her tears were fading as she gazed up into his handsome face.  She felt an odd spark in her chest, something warm and thrilling that she hadn’t felt in years.  In the midst of a crisis, it was hardly the time for such selfish feelings.  But something about Ethan Serreaux had touched her from the beginning and now in her time of crisis, he was a strong and calming rock.  She didn’t know a whole lot about the man, but at the moment, she was grateful for him.

“I… I’ll try,” she tried to sniffle away the last of her tears. “I’m just really terrified for my daughter.”

“I know,” he stroked her head again. “But you’re going to have to trust me, all right? This is my job.”

“I trust you.”

He smiled and patted her head.  Gazing into her lovely face, he felt an overwhelming urge to kiss her that could not have been more poorly timed.  So he let her go and climbed out of the overstuffed bed.

“Where’s your medicine cabinet?” he asked.

She pointed to the adjoining master bathroom.  Ethan took off his suit jacket, laid it on the end of the bed, and went into the bathroom. Turning on the light, he opened the medicine cabinet and read a couple of prescription bottles, coming to a halt when he found a bottle of Tylenol PM.  Popping two into his palm, he put some water in a glass that he found next to the sink and went back in to the bedroom.

Cydney was sitting up by now, watching him curiously.  He sat down on the edge of the bed.

“Here,” he handed her the pills. “Take these.”

She peered at the tablets. “Why?”

“Because you need to sleep and calm down, and I need to get together with my unit and figure out what our next move is.”

Reluctantly, she popped the pills and drank the water.  Setting the glass down on the night stand, she turned to him somewhat calmer.

“Now what?”

“Go to sleep. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”

“Are you leaving?” she grabbed him by the arm. “What if those people come back?”

He shook his head and patted her hand. “I’m not leaving,” he told her. “I’ll be out in the living room all night. There’s no way I’m leaving you alone.”

She felt a tremendous amount of comfort with that statement.  “All right,” she lay back down on the bed but the tears were welling again. “Thanks for staying. I feel better.”

He smiled at her, standing up so he could wrap her up in the coverlet.  When she was properly swaddled, he stood over her with his hands on hips.

“Go to sleep,” he commanded gently. “I’ll be outside if you need me.”

He was nearly to the door when she called out to him. “Ethan?”

He paused. “Yes?”

He heard her sigh. “The cat,” she said. “I have to feed Olivia’s cat.”

“I’ll do it. Where’s the cat food?”

“Pantry.”

“I’ll feed it. Now go to sleep.”

“Okay. But… Ethan?”

“Yes, honey?”

“Olivia… I can’t help think about where she’s sleeping tonight. Do you think she has a bed or is she all tied up in the back of someone’s car?”

He didn’t want to upset her, not now when she was calming. He tried to be careful with his reply. “I would suspect that she is being well cared for and probably has a nice bed somewhere.”

“Not tied up?”

“I would seriously doubt it,” he tried not to sound too harsh. “Cydney, honey, this is one of those things you have no control over. I seriously doubt that Olivia is being mistreated. In any case, you just need to tell yourself that she’s fed and she’s unharmed. Given the circumstances, that’s an excellent thing to focus on right now.  The rest we’ll deal with as it comes. Okay?”

She was sniffling. “Okay.”

He was just closing the door when she suddenly sat upright in bed. “Ethan!”

The abrupt tone started him and he shoved the door open wide. “What’s wrong?”

Her face was slack with surprise. “Oh, God… I don’t know why this didn’t occur to me from the start, but Olivia has GPS tracking on her phone,” she began tossing back the covers. “I got it as a feature but I’ve just never used it.  I’d completely forgotten that she has it. We can track her through the cell phone provider. You just input the phone number and it locates her phone.”

She could have told him that five minutes ago but he didn’t really blame her; she had been too hysterical to focus.  He yelled over his shoulder to the detective down the hall.

“Anyone have a laptop?” he called.

“I do,” Cydney began climbing out of bed. “It’s here on my desk.”

Ethan could see it in the darkness. He went to the desk and picked it up before she could reach it.  With one hand, he turned her around for the bed.

“Get back in bed,” he told her firmly. “I’ll handle this.”

She squirmed away from him, out of his reach. “Please,” she begged softly. “Please let me see where she is.”

He just looked at her. She sounded so horribly pathetic and he knew there was no way he could refuse her.

“All right,” he set the computer back on the desk and flipped on the light. “Boot it up and let’s see what we can see.”

Now that she was actually taking some action towards finding her daughter, Cydney was much calmer. The laptop booted up and she logged on to the Internet, going immediately to her cell service provider. On the homepage was a GPS link; Cydney entered Olivia’s phone number and wait with baited breath.

She didn’t realize that Ethan, the detective, and two uniforms were standing over her shoulder, watching the map of the San Gabriel Valley load.  Immediately, the cell phone was located in Pasadena near the Old Town district.  Wherever it was, it was stationary and sitting at a major intersection. The detective immediately got on the radio, contacted dispatch, and advised the Watch Commander of the situation.  But Ethan put a stop to any further police action.

As Cydney sat with her eyes glued to the tracking screen, Ethan made it clear to the detective that this was a federal matter given the association to The Lucius Robe.  It was obviously a terrorist act and beyond the jurisdiction of the local police department.  Just as he and the detective began to get into a verbal altercation, more voices were heard entering the home and one loud voice in particular.  J.D. Dickerson had arrived and he was infuriated that the terrorists he was supposed to know had pulled a fast one.

Cydney remained at her desk, watching the screen, as Ethan and the detective left her bedroom and went into the living room, where they had a spirited debate about federal jurisdiction as it related to the local police department with J.D. in the middle of it.  Cydney heard the loud, sometimes agitated voices, disturbed that no one seemed to be too intent on finding her child. The more they argued, the more disturbed she became. 

With the GPS screen still up, she rose from the chair and quietly closed the bedroom door. She hoped that they would think the closed door meant she was sleeping.  Quietly, she changed into a casual jog suit and a pair of sneakers. Unplugging the computer, she hoped her battery had enough life for her to track down her daughter. If all of those cops in her living room weren’t going to do anything about this, then she was.  She had to get to Olivia.