Ell Donsaii 13: DNA (21 page)

Unable to see worth a damn, Jamieson gave up on unbuckling the kid and pulled out his knife, cutting the straps. He hauled the flaccid kid out of the car and into the van. “You’d better drive,” he said to Roger.

Roger gave him a wide-eyed glance, then grinned, “What the hell happened to you?”

“Little bastard punched me in the nose. Get us going. I’ll tie the woman up.” Though he worried that Roger might have figured it out, he was still careful not to let anyone on the team know exactly
who
they were kidnapping. He worried that one of the team might turn Jamieson in, just in the hope of a reward.

Roger climbed into the front and dropped the foil curtain. The van bounced up on the road and started rolling while Jamieson started restraining Donsaii with an inordinate number of plasticuffs. Then he turned and did the same to the kid, using ordinary plastic ties since plasticuffs didn’t come small enough for a kid.

He sat back, lifting his headband to wipe at his eyes and staring at Donsaii. When he’d been tying her up he’d thought she felt kind of… soft. He’d been expecting a super athlete like her to be
much
more muscular, even though, as a woman, he still thought she’d be less muscular than the men he dealt with.
Surely she’d be a lot more toned than this! Could I have been wrong?
he worried.
Maybe this isn’t Donsaii after all?

He lifted the headband to wipe his eyes some more and looked at the kid. The little bastard had already recovered from being Tased and was glaring at Jamieson. Jamieson rubbed gingerly at his nose, “You little shit. I think you broke my nose!”

The kid’s eyes narrowed, “Why are you doing this?!”

For money
, Jamieson thought. He said, “I work for some people who want your mom,” he waved at Donsaii, “to share some of her secrets with the rest of the world.”

The kid blinked, looked at Donsaii, then said, “
That’s
not my mom.”

Jamieson’s guts cramped and he turned to look at the woman. He knee walked over to her and looked down at her face. He tugged at her hair,
Not a wig!
He rubbed hard at her nose, then at the rest of her face,
No facial disguise prosthetics! Shit! Shit! Shit!
He went back to her hair, parting it and looking for any evidence of strawberry blond roots. No, it looked like real brunette hair!

“Besides,” the kid said, “my mom doesn’t
have
any secrets.”

Reaching in the pocket of his coverall, Jamieson pulled out some heavy scissors and started cutting her clothes off. None of her skin looked as pale as Donsaii’s. Once she was naked, he looked in her armpits and her crotch for spots she might have missed while coloring her skin. It was all the same, not a speck of her looked like it belonged on a strawberry blond.
Aw crap!

He pulled the blanket over the woman, stuffed her clothes into a metal locker, and turned with his scissors to the kid. Staring wide-eyed, the kid said, “Why’d you cut her clothes off?!”

“Need to make sure you guys don’t have any tracking devices on you,” Jamieson said as he started to cut the kids clothes off.

The kid started thrashing around violently, screaming, “Stop!”

Jamieson backhanded the kid, “Shut up and hold still!” With an angry stare he leaned down close to the kid’s face, trying to intimidate the little snot.

Instead of being intimidated, the kid snapped his head forward, bashing his forehead into Jamieson’s already throbbing nose.  Jamieson reared back with an agonized bellow. He had to blink a couple of times to clear his vision.

Then he smacked the kid harder, gratified to see the little shit’s head sagging to the side and his eyes looking dazed. “You hold still or I’m gonna beat the
crap
out of you!”

Jamieson cut the clothes off the now listless kid
, I hope he’s got a concussion!
Jamieson thought.

The trailing car from Ell’s security team skidded to a stop beside Amy’s Focus. When they’d realized something was happening up ahead, they’d gone to manual and started to pass the slow-moving vehicle in front of them. When they’d tried to do that, the vehicle had put on its turn signal as if turning left. Dan had swerved back into the right lane to go by on that side, but then the car had turned off its signal and swerved back into the right lane as if its AI had been avoiding the overtaking vehicle. When Dan had turned back to the left lane, it had again tried to turn. Finally realizing that the vehicle was actively blocking them, Dan had accepted some fender damage to force his way past it.

However, by the time they’d arrived at the scene of the kidnapping, all the vehicles which had forced Amy off the road were gone!

Up ahead, Dan saw the lead car speeding back toward him.

Dammit!
He thought, looking around. Several roads led away and he had no idea which direction to go.

***

Steve said, “Ell, I’ve got bad news.”

“Zage and Amy’ve been kidnapped.” Ell said rapidly, unwilling to wait for him to explain it at his pace, “I’m on my way.”

“How did you know?!”

“Allan… He monitors everything. He hasn’t been able to localize them off their GPS though. Do you know where they are?”

Steve’s eyes darted up to his HUD, “Um, no, not yet.”

“Do you know what’s wrong?”

“Uhhh… Maybe it’s just taking a minute to acquire?”

“It’s been several minutes already! Where are you?”

“On my way to where they were captured. I can’t review the video from the scene because I’m driving on manual to get there faster.”

“Me too,” Ell grunted.

“Mary,” Steve said, “have you gone over the imaging yet?”

“Working on it still,” Mary said, sounding intently focused. “Vid from the cameras in Zage’s contact shows them being put into a panel van. Current imaging shows no windows in the back and foil between the back and the front driving positions. I suspect no GPS signal is getting into the van for their implants to pick up.”

“Dammit!” Ell said, “I knew we should’ve found a way to put bigger antennas on the implants.”

“Probably still wouldn’t have worked inside that metal box on wheels,” Mary said. “When they take them outside to move them into a building, or whatever, we’ll get the location then.”

“We’re getting farther and farther behind the eight ball though,” Ell said, her voice expressing anxiety and irritation. “Feed me the image from Amy’s cameras.”

The image in Ell’s left contact went black for a second then flashed back to show her the road. Allan said, “There’s no imaging coming from Amy’s cameras so I’m not going to keep giving you the image from it. It’ll only block your view of the road. Her headband’s been put in some kind of a box. I suspect a metal box to block it from getting GPS.”

“Let me see the feed from Zage’s contact then!”

“You should turn the driving of your car back over to the AI before you have me do that.”

“Override the car’s AI and keep it going at the highest possible safe speed. Then
give
me that feed!”

Ell’s left contact started feeding her a view compatible with the inside of a panel van. It wasn’t very good, because Zage’s eyelid was at half-mast. His head was drooping off to the side and the view pointed toward the floor, rocking back and forth with movement of the vehicle, “Did that son of a bitch drug Zage?!”

“I have not seen him administer any drugs,” Allan said dispassionately, “he did however, strike Zage on the side of the head. I suspect Zage is concussed.”

Ell’s voice seethed with anger, “I’m gonna hurt
that
bastard!” She watched the back and forth rocking of the image for a moment, then said, “Allan, you should be able to tell when the vehicle turns left and right from the way the image from Zage’s contact leans as it goes around corners. Assume it’s traveling at the legal AI speed and calculate the route it must have taken from the site where they were captured.” Zage’s head lolled to the right and stayed there.

Mary said, “Ell, there was a lot of rocking back and forth from the uneven shoulder when the vehicle pulled back onto the road, Allan won’t be able to tell which direction the van initially turned.”

“All he has to do,” Ell grated, “is figure the distance to the first turn it made. That distance will be different depending on which way the van started. Even if it
is
uncertain, Allan can calculate the distance to the next turn, then the next… No matter which way they go, eventually they’ll be turning in a direction and at a distance that only fits
one
route out of there. Trust me, Allan’s
good
at this kind of stuff.”

Allan said, “Assuming that the vehicle’s under AI control, at standard speed, the timing of the turns they’ve made so far most likely places them at this roundabout.” A map popped up on Ell’s HUD with a red arrow flashing beside one of North Carolina’s many traffic circles. “Unfortunately, the movements of Zage’s head suggests that the vehicle has sped up and slowed down more than one would expect with an AI in control, suggesting it is being driven at least partially on manual control. If so, it could be at either of these two other roundabouts.” More arrows started flashing at the other locations, “In addition, the vehicle has been going around a roundabout for long enough that when it exits, we won’t know which direction it’s going. We could make a guess if we assume it’s going at exactly the standard AI controlled speed, but we couldn’t be sure. I
will
continue calculating and refining possible locations based on all the data I can get from speed assumptions and Zage’s head motions. I may be able to narrow the possible locations, but it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to define the exact location.”

“Oh geez!” Ell moaned. “Be sure you’re querying GPS constantly. We don’t want to miss a quick transition from the van to a building.” She paused for a second, then said, “Connect me to Zage…” Putting on her Raquel voice, she said, “Zage, can you hear me?”

Zage didn’t respond.

Ell sighed, “Okay, try connecting me through Amy’s implants… Amy, can you hear me?”

No response there either…

***

Zage awoke muzzily as he was being carried down some rough stairs. He struggled a little bit, then realized he was wrapped in a blanket. And his hands and ankles were strapped together! The memories of being dragged out of the car and into the van shot through him. He twisted his head around and managed to poke it out a gap in the blanket. He tried to look around. Someone was carrying him past a room
filled
with junk. Chairs, fans, wheelchairs, old tables, a couple of bicycles, a toolbox, junk shelves and cleaning supplies. He felt a little muddled and couldn’t quite take it all in, but even though he felt a bit confused, he realized his AI would be able to play it back for him later.

Past the storage room, Zage was carried into a small bedroom with a single double bed, a chest of drawers, a small table, some shelves with books, and nothing else. The man laid the Zage on the bed, unwrapped the blanket from around him, cut the plastic bands around his wrists and ankles with a pair of wire cutters, and stepped back. He pulled open the drawer, rummaged around and then tossed some clothing on top of Zage.

Another man came in carrying Amy, also wrapped in a blanket. She looked unconscious. The guy dumped her unceremoniously on the bed beside Zage. A couple of minutes later, the plastic bands on Amy’s wrists and ankles had been cut. They dropped a coverall on top of her naked form, then went out the door.

Zage heard them setting some locks. He waited quietly until he’d heard the sound of their footsteps going up the stairs. Uncomfortable being naked, once he felt sure they were gone, he rolled quietly off his side of the bed and quickly put on the clothes. Feeling more comfortable himself, he picked up one of the blankets they’d tossed on the floor and used it to cover Amy. As he worked he whispered, “Osprey?” He wondered if they’d removed the ports from inside his ear canals and off the backs of his teeth while he was unconscious. His tongue could feel the bumps of the ports on the back of his front teeth, but wondered if they might have done something to them. However, since that kind of tech had come as a benefit of his mom’s job out at D5R, most people didn’t know it existed. He hoped the men might not have searched hard enough to find it.

With great relief, Zage heard Osprey respond, “Yes?”

“Call 911 and tell them that some bad men have…” Zage realized he wasn’t actually sure what had happened. He’d never heard of kidnapping. “Shot Amy and I and taken us somewhere in a van. Use your GPS to let them know where we are. I think they’re… pretty ruthless.”

“The police and your mom already know what’s happened. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to use GPS to know where you are. I’m connecting you to your mother now.”

Zage heard his mother’s voice, “Zage! Are you okay?”

“Yes…” Zage found himself unable to continue around a sudden frog in his throat. He gasped a little sob; then said, “Some bad men…”