Hunting Holly

Chapter 1

Riding in the trunk of a car, handcuffed, is not one of my favorite forms of transportation. In fact, it’s usually one of those moments where you stop and ponder whether this job is really worth it. Unfortunately, I have those moments rather often. What I hate more than riding in the trunk of a car handcuffed, is waking up in said car and not remembering how I got there. Not only is it uncomfortable, it’s also unnerving.

Rolling over, I quickly searched the trunk for anything useful and found that I was the only occupant in the trunk. I switched my hands in front of me. Sounds easy enough, but it’s a tricky thing to do when in the confined space of a car trunk. When I had that accomplished, I braced myself against the inside of the trunk and with both feet, I kicked where the tail lights were located. Nothing happened at first, but after repeating the move, I heard the bulb break. With a broken tail light, a cop might see it and pull the car over, but not very likely. Silently praying my kidnapper had not heard me, I slipped off my shoe and pulled a lock pick from the sole. I quickly loosened the handcuffs, so it would appear that I was still bound, but I could twist out of them. I set to work on opening the trunk from the inside. From the speed of the car and the lack of turns it was making, I assumed we were on the highway. Suddenly, the car made a sharp turn and started to slow down. Since the car was probably taking an off-ramp, I needed to work fast if I was to get out of this mess. The emergency release lever was disconnected, it was hopeless. But I would be stupid not to try it. Next, I jammed the pick into the lock and tried to pop it open, but that did not work either.

The car slammed to a halt, and I hit the inside of the trunk, hard. I will definitely be feeling that tomorrow. Then I jerked to the left as the car drove on. I started to panic, What will happen if I can’t get out of the trunk? Where were my captors taking me? I thought. The car turned a few more times, and the sounds of traffic faded. It seemed they were taking me to somewhere isolated. The car slammed to a stop, but I braced myself against the side this time. I heard the car doors open, then close, and I scrambled to adjust the cuffs, making them loose so I could pull my hands out quickly.

The trunk popped open and I tensed my body, preparing for the blow that I knew was coming. The larger of the two men stood over me and punched me in the face, and my head reeled a little. I could taste blood in my mouth. He grabbed a fist full of hair and dragged me out of the trunk onto the ground. The smaller one had a small hand gun and stood just out of arms reach. My eyes flicked back to the larger man just in time to see his fist pull back and steeled myself for the blow. The hit almost knocked the wind out of me, almost. I kicked as hard as I could at the larger one’s knee and put all my weight behind it. At the same time, I twisted out of the loose handcuffs. The man’s knee bent backwards and made a sickening crunch as it broke. He let me go, fell to the ground and screamed. I spun around to meet the smaller one, who raised his gun to shoot. I grabbed his wrist and pointed it away from me, twisting his wrist with a sharp jerk. I spun under his arm and broke it over my shoulder. He dropped the gun and I kicked it away, rolling into a judo throw. He landed in front of me, on his back. I straightened out of the throw and stomped on his forehead, which knocked him out.

My cell phone had fallen out of his pocket and I picked it up along with the handcuffs and gun. I spit out some blood from my mouth and glanced around at my surroundings for the first time, realizing I was standing in front of an abandoned warehouse surrounded by woods. To the east and a little farther down the only road in sight were a few small old houses. Sadly, it looked like nobody was home. The smaller guy was down for the count, but the larger was trying to get up. He held a small knife in his hand. I opened the handcuffs, kicked the knife out of his hand, and kicked him back to the ground. I handcuffed him to the chain link fence next to him. I cocked the gun and looked down at his face, contorted with pain.

Who are you? I asked simply.

You bitch, he spat at me, then screamed as I stepped on his broken knee.

Who are you and why did you kidnap me? I asked again.

I’m Markus and he paid us, he spat through gritted teeth.

That’s better. Now who is ‘he’? I asked.

That’s Garret, he said looking at his companion lying on muddy gravel ground a few feet away.

No, I don’t really care about him. I mean the man that paid you to grab me.

Go to hell, he snarled. I put more pressure on his knee and rotated my foot a little. Okay, okay, I’ll tell you! I don’t know who he is, just a voice on the phone. We get a package with a picture, place, and time, he replied.

And you were supposed to bring me here? I asked.

Yes, then we call him for instructions, he gasped as I ground my foot into his knee. That’s all I know, I swear! he cried.

Was I the only person you two were told to grab? I asked, slightly lifting my foot off his knee.

No, a boy too, but that’s all! His picture is in the car, he said quickly.

I walked to the car and opened the door. It was cluttered with papers and old food. I found a ziplock bag with the contents of my pockets from before I was grabbed. I picked up the pile of papers on the dashboard. The stack included several pictures of me as well as notes on my weekly schedule; it was unsettling how much they knew. I came to the last picture and it was not of me. It took me a second to figure out who it was, because it was so blurred. I gasped and dropped it. It fluttered to the gravel ground and landed face up. It was Matt, my best friend.

I pulled open my phone and pressed the speed dial. The phone rang for a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Finally, it was answered by a brisk feminine voice.

Holly? Where the hell are you? What happened? You sent a distress signal and we came right over, but all we found was your empty apartment. Report and make it fast.

Tonya, I have a problem here. Long story short. I was kidnapped and brought to some warehouse. I incapacitated the kidnappers and found that they were also supposed to grab Matt, I reported.

I need more to work with than that, kid.

Two guys, both down. One with a broken leg and the other…let’s just say he is not going to wake up anytime soon. I also have one handgun and one car with a little gas. They were supposed to call their boss for more info. A few houses, a couple blocks away, might be a safe place to get more supplies. I ran through the report and read the address off the side of the warehouse.

That’s more like it. I’m pulling up your current location on the computer now and it looks like there is a gas station about two miles east. I can have a team sent to clean up the mess in a half hour. Force them to make the call and get all the info on who this guy is, then shoot the two and walk to the gas station. Clean yourself up and wait for a ride, I’m sending someone now, she ordered.

What! Kill them? I can’t do that! I gasped.

Sure you can, just pull the trigger and hide the bodies ‘til my men get there. said Tonya.

I’m no killer, I said quietly.

Look, Holly, you knew what you were getting into when you joined us. Sometimes the ends justify the means. In this case, that means shooting the kidnappers. You don’t get to pick and choose what you do when you work for us; it’s all or nothing.

I have another idea. If this doesn’t work, I’ll knock them out and hide them. Then you guys can do the rest. I hung up before she could protest and set to work.

I dragged the smaller one, evidently named Garret, into the passenger side of the car. That was the easy part, even though he easily weighed sixty pounds more than me. The hard part would be the call. Reaching into Garret’s pocket, I pulled out his cell phone and shut the door. I walked back to Markus, flipped open the phone, and started searching for the right number.

I am going to call your friend, and you get to tell him you have me. Then, you get to ask what to do next, and whatever I tell you to say, I informed a rather pissed-off Markus.

Why should I? he spat.

I raised the gun back to his temple, Because I have this. Now just a few rules before we get started. First, no tip-offs. You really don’t want him to know anything I don’t want him to know. If you know what I mean. Secondly, no screaming in pain or anything like that. We don’t want him to know your plan did not work out. Lastly, don’t do anything stupid. If you behave you might just live through this. Agreed?

He nodded his head.

Great, now what’s the number?

I dialed in the number that he rattled off from memory.

Thirty minutes later, I walked up to the gas station. It felt good to have my stuff back: my wallet, cell, knife, and other knick-knacks I always carried. I went into the bathroom on the side of the building first. It probably wasn’t a good idea to walk into a store looking like I just fought for my life and covered in someone else’s blood. I cleaned up in the sink, but there was little to do for some of the cuts and bruises. Inside the gas station store, I bought a water bottle, ham sandwich, and small first aid kit. I handed the clerk cash as he tried not to stare. With my new items, I walked back to the bathroom and cleaned up the cuts as best I could. My face wasn’t too bad, but my hand had a gash that wouldn’t stop bleeding. I wrapped it up and sat by the bus stop, waiting for the ride Tonya said she was sending. I didn’t have to wait too long; about twenty minutes later, a black SUV pulled up. The tinted window rolled down showing a platinum blond woman of about forty.

I’m Jessica. My orders are to get you to the Local Command Center, she said simply.

That was good enough for me. I climbed in.

We drove through most of the night. After hours of back roads, I had no idea where we were or where we were going. After a few hours in the dark, I could feel the adrenaline fade out of my bloodstream. I hadn’t slept since the night before, not counting the ride in the trunk. I was tired, but I couldn’t sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the faces of Markus and Garret. I knew Tonya wanted me to kill them, but I couldn’t. She would not be happy with me, but I stopped two unnecessary killings. They didn’t deserve to die, they were just following orders. I saved them, but that didn’t mean that their boss would not kill them for failing.

I found that Jessica had my duffle bag and my computer with her in the car. Every member of the Organization had a bag near the door, packed with everything they needed to just grab the bag and walk away from their home. It looked like I wasn’t going back to my little apartment. I pulled out my mp3 player and listened to some loud music as I watched the street lights blur. I was fighting exhaustion.

Jessica was silent most of the way to the Local Command Center. We finally pulled up to a private bank somewhere in a small city. I grabbed my bags and followed Jessica in a back door. We walked to a service elevator, when she ran an ID card through a scanner. The doors opened and we stepped inside. The elevator went down past what must be the vault and through another complex hidden several stories under the bank. I understood why this was a good hiding place for a command center; a private bank was a good cover for a lot of security and had a reason for being so deep underground. People could come and go at any time and seem like either customers or workers at the 24-hour bank. A bank also has a reason for requiring a lot of computers and hardware.

Without ever setting foot in the underground compound, I knew the layout and floor plan. Every Local Command Center was basically the same. I have been to the one in London and lived in the one in Moscow for a while. They all had a few things in common: each one had an Intelligence and head of Operations Center (IOC), training room, kitchen, recreational room, dorm rooms, small medical center, and so on. I still didn’t know every room in the complex, because there were a few things off-limits to me; mostly because I was not a full member. I wasn’t allowed in the IOC or the armory, but that did not really bother me. I always had something to do and kept busy.

Jessica walked up to a man I recognized instantly. First, he stands out in most groups, and secondly, I have been training with him every day for the last three years or so.

Here she is, Nick. I have to go, I’ll be missed if I stay any longer. With that, Jessica turned and left the way we came.

Are you alright? he asked me in a quiet and tired voice.

Yeah, I’m fine, I answered.

Matt just arrived, you can see him after you write up what happened. Nick pointed to a table with papers waiting.

Paperwork! Really? I was almost kidnapped and you want me to do paperwork? I asked incredulously.

Holly, you know the rules. When something like this happens, you write it up, and it gets filed away. Arguing with me won’t change that. I don’t make the rules, he stole the argument right out of my mouth.

I sat down and recorded what happened that day. When I had finished, I looked at Nick with my eyebrows raised, silently asking if I was allowed to go. He crossed his arms and nodded, then mumbled under his breath, What am I going to do with you?

I hurried off to find Matt. It wasn’t hard. Like a typical teenage guy, he was in the kitchen. He was sitting on the countertop eating chips. He looked up as I walked in.

Holly! You’re here! What happened to you? I heard you were kidnapped right after we said good-bye, concern was all over his face.

I sat next to him on the counter and helped myself to his chips. Yup, I was grabbed and woke up in the trunk of some car. I fought my way out and found out they were supposed to grab you, too.

Yeah, yeah, I heard that, but what happened after that? he asked impatiently.

I called their boss and made one of them talk to him and made a deal to meet in three days in the parking garage of a casino. Then I hung up and knocked the two guys out, but I wouldn’t kill them. I made it look like they were in a car crash. They can’t tell the cops how they really got the injuries. ‘Well Mr. Policeman, I kidnapped a girl and she beat us up’, you know what I mean? Plus, we can follow them to wherever they go and find out who else is in on it.

Holly, that’s genius! he smiled at me.

All because I refuse to kill some thugs, I mumbled leaning my head against the cupboard, sighing and closing my eyes. I found I was more tired