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Her head tilted from side to side as she tried to make sense of the image on the screen. “What is it?” The van lurched to a screeching halt and she grabbed the edge of her seat to keep from being dumped into the floor. Between the jarring movements of the van and the disorienting picture on the screen, her head began to feel a little fuzzy until the camera stopped moving and she was able to focus in on picture.Oh, dear God no!Her heart stopped for a full three beats before jumping into her throat with the force of the adrenaline that fueled her ragingpulse.
“Left or right?” Daniel called from the front of thevan.
She fought the urge to close her eyes, to shut out the horrid scene being forever burned into her mind. Her trembling hand flew to her mouth instead, covering the scream of terror she somehow managed to suppress into an agonizing moan of despair. She’d seen photographs of tortured slaves, some of them dead, some of them barely living. She’d listened to countless statements from survivors and read thousands of victim files. Never. Not a single thing she’d ever seen or heard could have prepared her to see the true evil being inflicted upon Natalie right in front of hereyes.
Strapped to a wooden table, her pale and lifeless body was covered in deep, swollen bruises. Trails of bright, crimson blood ran from the old wound on her thigh, mixing with the sweat and dirt covering her naked skin.Oh, God!The fingers on her left hand were broken and twisted in odd angles, the swelling turning her entire hand an unnatural hue of blue. Her right leg was suspended by a harness, chains from both the ceiling and the table holding it immobile from every direction. Her other leg was cuffed to the table at the ankle and knee. She could see the sharp, metal spikes on the insides of the cuffs digging into Natalie’s skin, tiny rivulets of blood leaking from their wounds. Even if she had the strength to move she couldn’t, lest the spikes dig further into her flesh. She tore her eyes away from the purely medieval scene and focused on her face. Strands of her sweat-soaked hair were matted against her cheeks, her lips chapped and split in several places. Her silver eyes were open but soulless, focused on something beyond her horrid reality that only she could see. Rebecca wanted to vomit. How could someone do this to another humanbeing?
“Rebecca! Right orleft?”
She jumped from her seat, placing her body between Daniel and the monitor as she bent down to peer out the front windshield at their location. Sweat had beaded on her forehead, dripping into her eyes and mingling with the tears she couldn’t quell. Her lungs seized, her chest tightened against the ache in her heart and no matter how many times she tried, she couldn’t get the words past the lump in her throat.Sweet Jesus, Rebecca. You gotta keep it together.She swallowed hard, forcing the air from her lungs and the word beyond her lips. “Right,” she breathed, gulping in a fresh lungful of air. “And hurry, Daniel.Please.”
“Dammit! I’m trying! Can’t you find a way around this damntraffic?”
Her pulse was racing too fast. She needed to get a handle on it before she could tell him more. “Stay on this road. I’ll see what I cando.”
Returning to her seat she tried to grasp what Diver was saying and block out the images on the screen while she studied the GPS maps. It was a wasted effort. When she thought she couldn’t possibly deal with another crisis, her cellphone beeped indicating another call was coming in. She glanced at the incoming call notice.Keller.If she took the call she could risk losing Diver and that was not going to happen. “Do you have a cellphone,Daniel?”
Daniel shook his head. “No! I had to give it up as part of their agreement not to send mehome.”
Hell.She would have to add ignoring Keller’s call to her growing lists of infractions. Dumbo was right. She probably didn’t have a job to worry about anymore so what was the point? “Take a left at the next large intersection. If you keep the buildings on the right, it should lead you to a roundabout. The train station will be on your right. Follow the tracks for about three miles and it will lead you directly behind thebuilding.”
“Got it. Are you back insideyet?”
“I’m working on it.” It was all she could give him. She couldn’t tell him. Not now. Not until they got there and could do something to stopit.
Grasping for anything that could make a difference, she pushed aside as many of the overwhelming emotions as she humanly could and tried to see the scene from an investigator’s point of view. “Diver, look at the wall behind the table. It’s concrete block. Do you see anywindows?”
“Are you fucking out of your mind? I don’t know! I can’t watch thisshit!”
“Diver, take a deep breath. We need to figure out where she is inside the building! Please, just try to look at the wholepicture!”
“I...damn!” She could hear his growled curses and labored breaths as he tried to pull himself together. “I…fuck! Uh, I’m seeing what you are seeing. I don’t think so. Is it abasement?”
“Can you enhance the picture at all? Maybe lighten it up alittle?
“I can try. Give me aminute.”
“Wedon’t—”
“Look at me,pet.”
Rebecca’s response derailed. Her skin crawled with anger and revulsion as she watched Jauhar lean over Natalie, the person holding the camera moving to the side to keep her face in the frame.Sickbastard!
“Look at me, girl.” He patted her face, repeatedly trying to rouse a positive response from her. When she didn’t so much as blink he wrapped his hand around her throat, choking off her air supply until her body began to convulse against the table. She gagged, coughing and gasping for air when his fingers finally loosened their strangling grip. Tears streamed from the corners of her rapidly blinking eyes, as if just awakening from a terrifying nightmare.Only this nightmare isreal.
“That’s it, pet,” he spoke at a near whisper. “For future reference, I do not like to be ignored.” His hand cupped her left breast, pinching her nipple. Natalie tried to squirm away, nearly screaming when the spiked cuffs burrowed further beneath her skin. “Remember that the next time I call for yourattention.”
Rebecca chocked back her own impulse to vomit as Diver’s words turned into wave after wave of deep, retching sounds. “Hang on, Diver. We’ll get her out of there.” She wasn’t sure if he could even hear her over his heaves. Hell, it didn’t matter if he did. She needed to believe the words weretrue.
“I am quite flattered your dearsaviorIssa left my mark intact. I suppose he did not have the heart to tell you about it once he discovered your acute loss of memory. That would have been a little difficult to explain once he filled your head with his carefully constructed tale of your little family tragedy. Poor little orphan, Thalia.” His wicked chuckle echoed through the room, the hollow sound feeding Rebecca’s suspicion of a basement, or bunker of somesort.
“It’s a basement, Diver. I’m sure of it!” The electronics on top of the small built-in desk slid to the far side of the van as Daniel hit the roundabout at break-neck speed. The tires hit the curb and Rebecca was bounced from her seat, catching one of the monitors in her lap as she hit the floor.Ouch!Daniel offered no apologies, the engine revving to gasket-blowing levels when he hit the straight piece of broken asphalt on the otherside.
“You cannot blame him for telling you such lies, pet. He was never quite the same after his lovely daughter took her own life. He was an embarrassment; entirely unreliable and useless. I was within days of finding a more reliable partner when he passed by your beautifully beaten and broken body lying at the bottom of your cage.” He laughed when Natalie turned her head away, refusing to look at him. “I was reluctant to give you up, pet, as I had already invested much time and effort into your…training. But sometimes the power to control a person is more valuable than mere flesh. As long as he did my bidding I thought it was a good bargain. It appears as though I was right, at least for a little while.” Natalie’s nostrils flared with each raging breath when he gripped her chin and forced her to look at him.That’s it Natalie. Fight him. Don’t give up. We’re almostthere!
“Issa the Savior. That is why you called him Issa, is it not? You think he saved you?” When she didn’t acknowledge his question, he clenched his fist into her hair and yanked her head from the table, his raging face inches from hers. “Be very mindful, pet. No one will save you now. And do not expect such foolish affection from me. You are nothing to me. Do youunderstand?”
Rebecca’s cellphone beeped again with another incoming call. Another call from Keller. It was at least the tenth time since the first call she’d ignored. Her stomach in knots, she ignored this one, too. She couldn’t deal with him and Jauhar. Her complete focus needed to be on sending this evil animal back tohell.
