Chapter 9

12th of June 2017 - Florida, Jessica Walker’s Residence:

It has been a day since Markus heard from his daughter Jessica. At first, when he didn’t hear anything from her during the day yesterday, he thought that his wife and son arrived that morning and he thought that they went out for the day and forgot to call him to let him know what was happening. But when evening came, he was getting paranoid about what might have happened to them.

You see, before Markus became a farmer, he used to be in the military. He was no ordinary soldier though, he was in the Special Forces, where he had to do things that he couldn’t talk about. Things that to this day keep him awake at night. It was the reason that he left the Special Forces, it got too much for him and he could forgive himself for what had to be done. So to become a man that could look into his children’s eyes without feeling too much guilt, he decided to become a farmer like the rest of his family, to lead a normal and quiet life, not having to worry about being killed or doing things that he couldn’t live with.

Although he had left the Special Forces, it didn’t mean that his instincts and training that he gained during his time in the Forces left him. No, right now his instincts were telling him that something was awfully wrong. It was possible that when his wife and son arrived at Jessica’s yesterday morning, things might have gotten out of hand and they didn’t have time to call him. But during the night once everything had calmed down, he knew that Jessica would have called him, knowing how worried he would be.

So seeing how he didn’t hear anything the night before, he decided that unless he heard something that morning, he would have someone look after his farm and take a plane to Florida and visit Jessica, to make sure he wasn’t being too paranoid. He knew that he couldn’t call the cops, as they would think that his family was caught up with seeing each other and forgot to call him and that he would have to wait a few days before reporting a missing person report. Saying that his family was so busy that they forgot to call him unless they had a health or mental problem, they couldn’t do anything for a few days.

But Markus knew better though, they were his family and he knew what they are like more than any cop. So when he didn’t hear anything from Jessica this morning to tell him what was going on one way or another, he knew that something was wrong and he called someone to look after the farm and jump onto a plane to Florida. It was early evening by the time he got to Florida and got to Jessica’s flat.

As he got there, no one answered the door, so seeing that no one was answering, he knocked on the neighbour’s door. An old lady opened the door and Markus asked, “Are you by any chance Ms. Robinson, my daughter’s, Jessica Walker, neighbour?”

“I am,” admitted Ms. Robinson, “who might you be?”

“I’m her father Markus Walker,” the father informed the old lady, “I was wondering if you have seen Jessica and her baby Rose and her sister Gabrielle today?”

“No, I haven’t, in fact, I thought they would have called you.” admitted Ms. Robinson, “An out of town sheriff came by here two days ago. They informed your daughter that your wife and son were in some sort of accident and were taken into a hospital.”

“Really?” asked a worried father and husband, “I haven’t heard anything about that, do you know what hospital they went to.” Markus knew that there was more to this than meets the eye, as he knew that the moment that Jessica knew what was going on with her mother and brother, she would have called him to let him know what was going on. But seeing how he had no call from her, he was worried as to what was really going on.

“Sadly no,” the old lady admitted sadly, “but I do have the details of the sheriff’s car, what the Sergeant and Deputy looked like.”

Not for the first time in his life Markus was glad that there were nosey neighbours, and that his daughter lived next to one. “Do you mind if I have the details? I would like to learn what happened to my family.”

“Of course Mr. Walker.” agreed Ms. Robinson as she closed the door and a few moments later came back and handed the notes to Markus. “I hope that Jessica and the rest of your family are okay. Your daughter has been the most pleasant neighbour I ever had. She is quiet and helpful should I need help.”

“Thank you Ms. Robinson, I’ll let you know if I find anything.” Markus informed her as he bid his goodbye and left, time was of the essence right now. He didn’t know what was going on, but if his worst fears were true, then Jessica and his family were kidnapped and were in danger. But if they were kidnapped, why hasn’t there been any ransom for their safe return? There were too many questions and not many answers. He had to work quickly to find his family and make sure that they were safe.

Seeing how he has been out of the game for a while now, most of his contacts might be either dead or no longer want to do anything with him. Sure he had a few favours he could call on, but he didn’t want to call on them unless he had to, as he could burn a few bridges where he didn’t have to. That meant he had to call his sister, Stephanie, or as her friends and family call her Steph.

So once outside in the car that he rented whilst he was here, he picked up his mobile and called his sister. Upon his sister picking up, he heard Steph say, “Mark, it has been a while, I thought that you weren’t going to speak to me again or at least for a while.”

You see, the last time he spoke to his sister was a few years ago, they got into a fight because of the life choices that his younger sister picked. It was bad enough that she decided to join the SOF, it became easy to join in the late 90s where as long as you pass their entrance exams, you can join right after high school. But what was worse was that after a few years in SOF, she left to become a mercenary, a gun for hire.

Sure she did it and created a small Private Military Company, PMC, and instead of being called mercenaries she and the people she hires are called Security Contractors. But she was using the skills that she learned in the SOF for financial gain, instead of helping the country. Hiring her team to any of one of the fifty countries that allow PMC as long as the pay was right.

Steph told her brother that she didn’t like how the government was dealing with things, that she didn’t agree with the political reasons for some of the things that they had SOF do. She would prefer to get paid better for her skills if she was going to do questionable things. Starting a PMC was better than following orders from a corrupt government, at least this way she could say what happened, not the government.

Markus disagreed, he didn’t like that she would use the skills she learned to defend the USA for-profit and for other countries. There was a fight about this, where Markus said that if she couldn’t stand SOF, then like him she should quit the jobs and become something else, a bodyguard if she wanted to use her skills, at least it would be protecting someone instead of using them for other countries’ agenda. But Steph disagreed and so they fought about it until Markus said that as long as she was a PMC, he wouldn’t talk to her ever again.

“Listen, sis, I know we have our differences, but I’m calling you for help.” Markus informed his younger sister, “I fear that something has happened to your mother, siblings and your niece.”

“What do you mean Markus?” Steph asked, using her brother’s full name, showing how worried she was. She knew that unless something big happened, her brother wouldn’t call her for her actions. So Markus told her the story and his worries. “So you’re worried that they might not have been real officers?” Steph asked in worry

“That or they were real officers, but they are corrupt.” Markus voicing his fears,

“Whatever the case, why would they go after our family?” Steph asked, worried about her family.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s someone from our past, we did upset a lot of people over the years.” Markus reminded his sister, he would have said that she had more than him, but he didn’t want to get into a fight whilst his family was in possible danger. “What worries me is that they haven’t asked for a ransom yet.”

This worried his sister more, she dealt with kidnappers in the past and knew that they would normally send a ransom if it was a real kidnapping. If it wasn’t a normal kidnapping and didn’t ask for a ransom, then it was because they wanted to make a point to the rest of the family or some other sinister reason.

“What can I do to help?” Steph offered, wanting to get her family back as soon as possible for her brother.

“I have details about the men that took Jessica, Rose and Gabrielle, what they look like and the car that they are using.” explained Mark, “I would like it if you could see if you can find anything.”

“Not that I’m not willing to help, but can’t you call in one of the favours you earned over the years?” asked Steph, “Don’t you have a few in the Law Enforcement?”

“I do, but if these people really are in Law Enforcement, I don’t want them to catch wind that I’m looking into them.” Mark told his sister that Steph could see his point, no need to warn those you’re looking for by admitting you’re looking for them. “I have a few other favours I could call in, but I don’t want to call them unless I have no other options. You know the ones I’m talking about.”

“I do.” Steph admitted simply, these favours that her brother was talking about were like get out of trouble cards, which you earned from those in government be it their own other country governments. Or those within power. You don’t get these favours easily and you wouldn’t call on them without a good reason, like getting you out of shit where normally people would leave you in the shit for political reasons. So calling one of these favours might be useful to help to find their family, you don’t know what the future might hold, who might come after you for their deeds from the past and these favours might help you out more. So she could understand why her brother wouldn’t want to call them in unless he had to. She had one or two herself, she wasn’t planning to call them at any point soon, if ever, as her children could use them if they had to.

“Okay, give me a few moments to set up my computer and then give me the information.” Steph told her brother.

“I know we have had problems in the past, but thanks for doing this for me.” Mark thanked his sister.

“You don’t have to thank me, brother, we’re family, I would do it in a heartbeat.” Steph admitted, before a few moments later she went on to say, “Okay Mark, give me the information that you have.” Which Mark did.

After about half an hour of waiting for his sister to find something, she finally said, “Now this is strange, as you would expect the plates were fake, they were under the name of Johnson Sheriff Department. But the thing is I can’t find any paper trail to lead back to who hired or owned the car. This is strange as if you look deep enough, you always find a paper trail to lead back to whoever is behind something like this. It would seem that this isn’t a small-time thing, that there’s something deeper going on.”

“You’re saying that there’s someone well connected protecting these bastards?” Markus asked darkly, worried about his family, wondering what was happening to them and why. Was it his fault that they have been kidnapped or his sisters? “I hate to think this, do you think it’s possible that whoever is behind their kidding is somehow connected to us? We have upset quite a few people who would love nothing more but to make us suffer.”

Steph would love nothing more but to say no, that no one in her or her brother’s past could be behind this. But the truth was that she didn’t know, as her brother said, they had upset quite a few people during their time in the SOF, people who would love to see them suffer for their part in whatever they ordered to do. Sure, they used different names during the missions and no one knew who they really were so as to protect their family, but she knew that if someone had enough money to pay off certain people, it would be only a matter of time before someone found them if they wanted them to pay.

“I’ll be honest Mark, I don’t know, I really don’t.” Steph said with worry, “I would need to look into this to make sure, call in some favours that I have, but it’ll take some time though. Maybe a few hours, maybe a few days, but it’ll take some time no matter what.”

“Damn it!” Markus said darkly, unhappy about this, wanting to know where his family was now.

“Listen, Mark, you know if I could get the information now, I would.” his sister told him.

“I know, I know, I’m just worried about them.” Mark sighed in frustration.

“I know, I am too, they are my family too.” Steph told him, “Listen, I’m going to hang up and call a few people now. Give me a few hours, and I’ll call you back with any news, be it good or bad. But I’ll keep this line clear so that if you can think of anything or anyone tries to connect you about them, you can call me and let me know.”

“Thanks, sis,” Mark thanked her, “I’m going to find a place to stay for the night. But if you find any leads where I can search, please let me know. I hate standing around when my family could be in danger.”

“I understand brother, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.” and with that Stephanie hanged up, leaving a worried father to his thoughts.

Markus had no idea what to do or where to go, he was just worried about what was happening to his family. Just then as he thought about where he could go, there was a knock on his car window. Looking up at the window to see who it was, he saw a hooded man wearing a plain mask, he had a sign in his hand saying: IF YOU WANT TO SAVE YOUR FAMILY, OPEN THE WINDOW! DON’T DO ANYTHING STUPID LIKE PULLING YOUR GUN OUT OR YOU’LL NEVER FIND THEM!

When Markus read the first part, he was indeed planning to pull out his gun, that was until he read the second part. So keeping his hand away from his gun under his seat, he slowly opened the window. As he did, the person dropped a mobile phone onto his lap and said, “If you want to find your family, answer the phone when it rings. Don’t follow me or if you do, you won’t be able to find them.”