An Ecology of MInd (13 page)

When he had woken up, he had found himself gagged and tied to a chair. He didn’t even know where he was. He tried to untie himself or break free but was
unable to. A little while after he had woken; three Asian men entered the room.

None of them spoke. The heavier set of the men had hit him a few times in the face then stepped back while the second man held a pistol to Don’s head, and
the third man had taken a couple of pictures with a cell phone. All of this was accomplished efficiently without them saying a word. There were no attempts
to question him. Hitting him seemed to have no purpose other than making him look bad in the photo. From that he assumed he had been kidnapped, and they
were using the photo to apply emotional pressure to whomever they were showing it to.

His parents were not wealthy, and neither was he. He wasn't married so there was no wife to ransom him. He wasn't currently working on a case that he
thought might cause him to be kidnapped. Unless he was missing some other connection, that left his sister Wendy.

Wendy was not wealthy either, but she did work at the National Security Agency. She was only an analyst in the computer department, but getting some sort
of leverage on her, was the only thing Don could think of as a reason for kidnapping him. He did not like the idea of anyone applying pressure to his
sister to do something.

Don had struggled but had been unable to loosen the plastic ties that bound him to the chair. All he managed to do was to hurt his wrists and ankles.

He had no idea of why he had been taken. The actions of his kidnappers did not bode well though. Since they made no effort to avoid letting him see them,
he was not optimistic that they planned on letting him live in the long run.

He didn’t even have any idea if anyone was looking for him yet. He wasn't sure what day it was, but when they had taken him, he was just on his way home
for three days off work and had not made any plans with anyone to do anything. He could be missing for days before anyone even noticed unless the
kidnappers showed the photo, they took to someone he knew, to pressure them to do something. Overall, it was not a good situation.

It seemed like he had been there for a few hours, and he was getting a very sore butt from sitting in the same position for so long. It was amazing how
painful something as simple as sitting could become with time. He heard some noise at the door and heard a lock being worked. The same three Asian men who
had roughed him up and taken his picture came back in. Two of them were carrying some chains, and the third had a plastic tray with what looked like a
couple of sandwiches and a plastic bottle of water on it.

"What do you guys want?"

None of them answered or even seemed to care that he had spoken.

"I don't know who you are or what you want, but you might have the wrong guy. I'm a cop, and you don't want the cops involved in this, so you should let me
go."

Still nothing to show they even heard him.

The two with the chains waited by the doorway while the one with the tray carried it behind Don. He could hear him setting it down. After placing his
lunch, the man took the tray and moved over by the door and pulled out a pistol and pointed it at Don.

Don figured it was unlikely that they were going to shoot him then feed him. Still, having the weapon pointed at him was not a comfortable feeling.

The two with the chains came over and started attaching them. One set went around his ankles. Another was placed around his wrists and attached to those at
his ankles. The last chain was locked around his neck, and then he heard them attaching it to something behind him that he could not see.

One of the men who had brought the chains then used a small pair of wire cutters and cut the plastic restraints that held his wrists and ankles to the
chair and stepped back by the door. All three stepped outside the door and closed it. Don heard what sounded like a fairly substantial lock, click into
place. The door looked solid as well.

He tried to stand up and quickly found that the wrist and ankle chains did not let him stand fully upright. He got up and stood as best he could then
turned to see what was behind him. There was a simple single bed and a small table. Those and the chair he had been sitting in were the only furniture in
the room. There was a plastic pail in the corner, but he did not even want to think about what that was for right now.

The chain from his neck was connected to a large steel ring that seemed bolted securely in some fashion to the base of the wall. He would check and see how
secure it was after he ate.

Standing was uncomfortable because the chains would not let him straighten beyond a sort of half hunched position. He shuffled over to the bed and rolled
onto it and lay on his side. This position at least gave his aching butt a break. He lay there just long enough for the worst discomfort to subside before
he worked himself back into a sitting position. He reached over and took a sandwich and then discovered that the wrist chains did not allow him to feed
himself normally. He could do it, but had to hunch forward with his head and upper body to be able to reach his mouth with the food in his hands.

Whether it was intentional or not the length of the chains did a great job of neutralizing his martial-arts skills. The bastards did not give him any
chance to be a threat. They seemed very good at their jobs and Don really hated them for making him feel helpless.

After finishing the two sandwiches and drinking the water, he tried yelling that he had to use the bathroom. He got no response and after a while he gave
up and pissed in the bucket. Then he went and tested the strength of how the neck chain was fastened to the wall. He did not know how they had anchored the
metal ring, but he got absolutely no movement out of it at all. Giving up for now, he lay curled up on his side on the bed and tried to think of some sort
of plan.

It might have been residual effects from the tranquilizer dart, or maybe it was more drugs in the food or water, but for whatever reason; he dozed off
again fairly quickly.

He didn't think he slept long, but with no clocks and the window boarded up or sealed in some way, he could not be sure. His wrist watch was taken at some
point. A bare bulb in a ceiling fixture was left on all the time, so he didn't even know if it was night or day. He could see that it did not take long for
any real sense of time to be lost.

He was laying on his other side now and facing the wall, trying to think for the hundredth time, why he might have been taken and coming up with nothing
more than his initial thoughts. It must be to pressure his sister to do something. He heard a small noise and then a thud outside the door. He perked up
and listened carefully because it was the first noise he had heard from outside the room since he got there.

About a minute and a half went by, and he heard the door being unlocked. He sat up as best he could because he would rather be upright when they came in.
He just felt less vulnerable sitting up than lying down. It was purely psychological, but at this point he would take what he could get.

The door opened, and a very attractive woman stepped in. She was Asian and looked to be about five foot two. She was dressed in grey trousers of some kind
with a grey hoodie and dark grey sneakers. There was something predatory about her, but it could just be the black gun with a silencer, in her hand.

"I'm Kim. I'm a friend of your sister Wendy. You okay with getting out of here?"

Don just looked at her. He could not think of a less likely savior in a situation like this than this small woman. He quickly pulled himself together with
a jerk and answered, "Hell yes."

"I've got some keys from your guard here. I'm assuming they unlock your chains."

Kim walked over and knelt to try the keys in the lock on the ankle chains. The first one did not fit the lock, but the second one did. She used the other
keys on the locks for his wrists and neck.

Don straightened up and tried to get rid of a couple kinks from being hunched over so long.

"There are two more of them. We should get out of here before they get back."

"There were three more and they never left. You don't have to worry about them. They're dead."

Don looked at her. "Are you alone?"

"Yes."

"Who the hell are you?"

"I told you. I'm Kim. I'm a friend of your sister Wendy. We should be going. I have things I want to do. I have a car a short way down the road. Are you
okay to walk?"

"I'm pretty stiff but should loosen up as I go, so yes, I can walk, let's go."

They went out of the room, and Don could see the man who had held the gun to his head for the photo, dead on the floor. His body dropping must have been
the thud he had heard and the soft noise the silenced pistol.

"Do you have another gun? I'd feel more comfortable with one."

Kim turned the one in her hand around and offered it to him.

"Take this one if you want. It's not mine. I just took it from one of the other guards."

Don just looked at her. He did not know what to make of this woman who said she was a friend of Kim's. Now was not the time for questions though, he took
the gun slowly and said "Lead the way."

Kim went around him in the hall and led him through the house. Don saw a body in what seemed to be a living room. He looked like he had a hole in the side
of his head, but the other side had not been blown off like you would get with most gunshot wounds to the head. Maybe he had been stabbed, but he did not
see any sign of a knife. There was another body in the kitchen. Same thing, he looked like he had a knife wound in the side of his head.

When they reached the door, he could see that there was daylight outside. From the position of the sun it looked like it was around mid-day. Not knowing
the directions he could not tell from a quick glance if it was morning or afternoon. There was another body on the outside step. He did not know what had
happened, but he had a hard time accepting that this woman had done all this. His cop instincts were screaming that this was not right.

"Where are your friends?"

"I told you that there is just me. Are you still okay, or do you need some help?"

"I'm fine."

Don checked the gun she had given him. There seemed to be an almost full clip and a round in the chamber. Having the gun made him feel a bit more secure
but things just felt wrong, and he felt uneasy. He didn't trust this Kim person or the situation. Still, first priority was to get away from here.

Looking around, he could see that the house was surrounded by quite a bit of land and trees. The house looked vaguely like a farmhouse, but he couldn’t see
any crops.

The woman was leading him across a field. He couldn’t see a reason for going in that direction, but she seemed to have a definite destination in mind.

Kim glanced over at him. “What do you know about what is going on?”

“I don’t know anything. I was drugged and kidnapped just outside my house and woke up here tied to a chair. You said you were a friend of Wendy’s. What
does Wendy have to do with this?”

Don glanced around and saw they were quite a way from the house now. He grabbed Kim’ upper arm and swung her around to face him then grabbed her other arm
as well and gave her a quick hard shake.

“In fact, missy, I want some answers right now. What is going on? And just telling me you are supposedly a friend of Wendy’s does not cut it. This whole
thing is strange. Who are you working with and who killed the guys back at the house? I don't buy that you did it on your own.”

The woman did not look intimidated. She just looked at him with a cold expression.

“Okay Slick. I’ll cut you some slack because you are Wendy’s brother, and because you got your panties in a bunch from being kidnapped, and all traumatized
and shit. That means I won’t do anything to cause permanent damage, but if you don’t stop manhandling me and let me go, having cute blue eyes won’t save
you. I will cause you a lot of pain.”

He glared back at her and tightened his grip on her arms even more. “I said I want answers. No more bullshit.”

He saw a blur and felt his arms being knocked aside and his legs being swept out from under him. He suddenly had his face in the dirt with his arm twisted
in what felt like a vise. A small sneaker clad foot was pressing very hard on the side of his neck, and his back felt like it had been plugged into an
electric socket. The pain was excruciating and cut through the shock at how easily he had been put down by this pint sized Asian chick.

The pain shooting up his back lessened slightly. “Are you ready to show some manners or are you enjoying this?”

He was more shocked than angry, and he was pretty pissed off.

“I’ll let you think about it some more.”

The intense pain shooting up his back returned full force for a few moments of agony and then lessened off again.

“I’m waiting on an answer, and I’ve got things to do. For one thing Wendy is worried sick about you since she got that photo of you beat up and tied to a
chair.”

That seemed to cut through the jumble of emotions he was feeling.

“Okay, okay, I’ll behave.”

The pain vanished except for a slight residual tingling sensation, and the sneaker left his neck, and his arm was released. He turned and looked up at her.
He could not fathom her doing that to him.

“Let’s go. I haven’t got all day. Wendy’s worried about you, and I have to do some things to make sure she is safe now that they don’t have you to hold
over her head.”

“The idea that his sister might not be safe got him up and moving.”

Kim continued to lead them across the field.

“Who are you?”

“You keep asking that and I keep telling you. I’m Kim. I'm a friend of your sister. What don’t you get? Oh wait, I forgot you’re Polish. I'll say it slower
and use smaller words. Me ... Kim. Me ... friend ... Wendy. Me ... here ... help.”

Don glared at her. "Alright, I get it. Where do you know her from?”