Chapter 12: Kidnapped

March 14th - March 17th, 1987

My birthday present to Suzi was three trips to the Kinsman Stables for an afternoon of horseback riding with yours truly. On Saturday, March 14th, right after baseball practice and lunch, Suzi and I left for the stables for our first horseback riding date.

While it would be close to another month before the leaves on the trees would pop, the grass was starting to green, the weather was unusually spring-like and the daffodils were starting to bloom. Having scheduled it back in early February, I couldn’t have been more pleased by how the weather had chosen to cooperate.

We took my car, but Suzi drove most of the way after having just gotten her driver’s license earlier that week. I originally wanted to take a limo and go in style, but Suzi insisted. The stables were a good forty-five minute drive from her house past the western edge of Mehlberg. They were popular due to their location being next to a state park with several horseback riding trails.

After horse riding, we were eating dinner at a popular cafe right next door to the stables as it was the only decent place to eat for miles and catered to the hungry riders coming off the trail.

I put my copied horseback knowledge to the test that day. I spent nearly a half-hour getting acclimated but then didn’t have any trouble riding the beast. While we spent over three hours there, we were only in the saddle for half of that. We were constantly told to get off the horse and walk in order to prevent our legs from locking up at the end of the trail. An hour and a half on the back of a horse doesn’t sound like much, but that was more than enough for me. Despite all the exercise I had been doing, by the time we were heading back to the stables, my groin muscles were screaming at me.

Suzi loved it, and I loved getting the chance to spend that personal time with her. The three of us kept saying we needed to do more one on one things together instead of as a group. Now that Suzi could date, we were able to do shit like that. Next weekend, Joey was taking her to dinner and a play at Barnhoff College. I think Joey was more excited at finally taking Suzi out for a date in his Mustang than he was about the actual date itself.

The cafe had special pillows for riders to sit on that really made a difference. We sat next to each other at a booth in the cafe, ordering one of their sweetheart specials where you got food for two on a single plate and their gigantic malts came with two straws. The food was pretty good too. Very homecooked tasting but with unique flavorings like little sweet onions mixed in with the corn.

Riding a horse for three hours was not the best activity prior to getting it on with your girlfriend in the back seat. Why? Well, you both smell like horses for one thing. It’s a pretty big turn off. That and I have to admit Brad was right when he once said the back seat in the Trans AM was a little small for that sort of thing. Suzi and I spent less than five minutes back there before deciding to head to the apartment in Oakley to shower and make love.

Didn’t I mention the apartment before, did I? Well, in order to continue to go to school at Oakley Senior High, we had to have a place of residence in the school district. The apartment was technically in Mehlberg’s Senior’s territory, but that only mattered if I was going to take the bus. My dad owned the apartment building, but my mom had to rent the apartment for me to qualify. While it technically wasn’t my primary residence, officially it was. All my official mail went there. If I received any mail from the school, the sup would call and I’d swing by and pick it up on the way home.

I was driving us home and were less than five minutes from the cafe when there was a loud pow that shook the car and my steering wheel felt like it was steering a startled pig with blinders on. Don’t ask where that comparison came from. I don’t know where half that shit comes from.

Anyway, at least the brakes still worked. I slammed them on and managed not go off the road entirely. It was already dusk at the time, not quite fully dark, but getting there and my headlights made it difficult to see through the smoke that started pouring out from underneath the front of the car.

As I flung open my door, Suzi exclaimed, “What happened?”

I said, “I don’t know. Come on! Get moving! Don’t you see the smoke?”

We could hear another vehicle coming up the road, and as Suzi rushed to get out and flag it down, I recognized the odor of the smoke. It smelt like the smoke bombs Joey and I played with one year on the Fourth of July.

The vehicle pulled off behind us, a van I realized, and just as it pulled to a halt, the side door opened and I heard two pops. Suzi gasped and when I turned to look at her, I saw her stagger while holding her chest. Then I heard the pops again and felt the darts hit me in the right arm.

Panic flooded my brain as I recognized the sensation of the tranquilizing darts stealing my focus and energy. I barely had enough sense to reach out to Joey for the share link, but I was swallowed up the darkness before we could fully connect our virtual grasps.

A sharp pain in my arm brought me out of my slumber. My head felt fuzzy, and I found my arms and legs tied to a chair. I started to hear people talking, but their words were too faint to understand. I regained my senses very slowly, and once I was somewhat alert, I pretended to still be asleep.

From the sounds in the room, I gathered that someone was getting an excellent blow job. From what the man was saying, the female who was doing the sucking was tied up in a helpless position. But she was willingly giving him the blow job.

I tried to reach out with my mind to find what was going on. The cry I made from the pain in my head alerted everyone that I was conscious.

Someone pulled my head up by my hair, making my eyes open automatically. The scene in front of me didn’t make much sense at first.

I appeared to be in a mixture of a doctor’s examining room and a bedroom. The shock of seeing the hogtied nude form of Penny happily sucking a man’s cock while getting her ass fucked was almost as great as when I realized it was her father’s prick she was sucking.

The man in a lab coat who had pulled my hair said to me, “Why are you so shocked? I know you have done this and worse to your slaves.”

I refused to respond. Instead, I tried to scan his mind, resulting in my head pounding again.

The dark-haired skinny mid-fifties man said with a sneer, “I wouldn’t try any more of that. The drug I gave you prevents your brain from receiving sugar too quickly. Did you know telepathy uses a lot of sugar? The pain you feel is only warning you that brain damage will occur if you continue depriving your mind of its sugar.”

I snarled, “Who the fuck are you, and what do you want with me?”

“Who I am is not as important as who I will become,” he said, walking behind me. He returning with a hypodermic needle filled with a greenish liquid he placed on a tray beside me. “In a few days, you will be calling me master. You will use your telepathic skills to enslave as many people as I wish, starting with your lovely girlfriend.”

I said softly, “Don’t bet on it.”

Hearing me, he said, “Oh, I don’t have to bet on it. The proof is right in front of your eyes. That slut over there and her father will do anything Steven or I ask happily.”

Towards the bed, he said, “Steven, take your toy and your father somewhere else. I am about to begin.”

Steven answered, “Well, begin. We’re not stopping you.”

“You know that only one person can imprint themselves while the serum works on his brain. You agreed to follow my decisions when I gave you your father and sister. Now please, leave.”

“Shit. All right, Uncle Jake. If you hadn’t had so many chances already to shoot me up with that stuff, I would be afraid to just hand him over to you. Just remember who your friends are. Come on, bitch.”

I sat appearing calm but in reality, I was frantic. As he swabbed my arm with alcohol, I said, “If you let me and Suzi go, I won’t seek revenge on you. But I must warn you, I have a very powerful family and friends. If I turn up missing, it would be only a matter of time before...”

Jake interrupted me, saying, “I have waited seven years to capture a telepath. Nothing you say will stop me from completing my father’s wishes. You will rebuild my family’s estate, and then repopulate it with slaves.”

He held up the needle and squirted a small portion out before lowering it towards my arm.

My cry of pain startled him slightly, but he just smiled and said, “That won’t do any good. You cannot possibly use that power to...”

I cut him off with my smile, looking at him with bright eyes.

As the empathic connection formed, I said, “No, not that power. But another.”

With empathic strength I didn’t know I possessed, I quickly lowered him in a forced hypnotic state, watching the shock and fear on his face slowly dissolve until he was completely expressionless.

When his arms fell to his sides and the needle dropped to the floor, I said, “There now. You’re feeling more comfortable now, aren’t you?”

“Yess...”

“You would be even more comfortable if you sat down on this chair. In fact, you really want to, don’t you? Oh ... But I can’t get up. If you could untie me, I’ll let you sit down on the chair.”

I was manipulating my own emotions to fit what I needed him to feel as I spoke. I desired to sit on the chair, then I needed to untie the ropes, and finally I lusted to listen to the words which were spoken to me.

Once I was free, I had him sit down and demand me to tie him up. I used suggestions to find out who and what he was, and what was going on.

Penny’s grandfather died five years before she was born. Ever since then, her uncles and aunts had been driven to explore every form of brainwashing while searching for a telepath vulnerable enough for them to capture and break to their will. I wasn’t the first telepath they had captured, but that had been before Jake had perfected his drug, and apparently, the poor soul went insane. They lost nearly three-fourths of their slaves and several of their family members to the insanity before blowing up the building where the telepath and several others were.

While they had only lost twenty people in the explosion, over a hundred others had lost their minds, including Jake’s wife, two of his sisters and a brother. And his own son had died in the explosion which was probably why he had taken Steven under his wing like that. Jake had instilled the need to control others into Steven while continuing to work towards his father’s goals.

By the time I got that much of the story out of him, I realized I was wasting time. After several minutes of suggesting and working through his resistance, he finally told me how to counteract the drug he had gave me, and I released him to prepare the dosage and inject it in me.

Twenty minutes later, I tested my telepathy by attempting to read his mind. I was relieved when I felt his contented thoughts, then immediately turned him into my humble slave.

I asked, “Where is Suzi?”

“She is in our holding chamber with the rest of our intended slaves, master.”

“Is there an antidote or a treatment to undo what that drug does?”

“No, master. The effects of this drug are permanent.”

“If you are right, then you are going to live the rest of your life begging people to shit in your mouth.”

I ignored his whining as I began reaching out to scan the household. I found Steven’s mind and barely issued my first command to him when my head started pounding again.

“Shit. Your fucken drug...” I said as the room spun around.

Jake helped me back into my chair, and then I sensed Steven was on his way here. I just had enough time to tell Jake he would have fake it before Steven slammed the door open and stomped in.

Steven blasted, “What the FUCK is going on! I felt him screwing with my mind!”

The twenty-three-year-old man realized something was very wrong when he noticed the needle on the tray and the ropes on the ground that had bounded my arms and legs. He controlled his desire to flee and then decided to do just the opposite. He attacked.

Before I could react, he slammed right into me, knocking me to the floor so hard that he winded me and caused my head to spin madly. Jake came to my rescue by throwing himself at Steven, not realizing Steven had picked up the needle. The scream Jake made when Steven stabbed him in the gut made me shiver. I had never been so scared in my life.

In desperation, I lashed out with my mind at Steven, causing my head to explode in pain. But as my vision started to go black, my eyes told me he had collapsed on top of his uncle, and for the moment I was safe.

I jumped when I was awoken by a soft hand stroking my cheek. To my relief, the hand belonged to my mom, and Joey was kneeling beside her.

I croaked, “How?”

My mother said, “We both felt your fear, sweetie.”

Joey added, “I was able to keep a lock on you after you passed out.”

I looked around, finding both Jake and Steven missing.

Joey asked worriedly, “Where’s Suzi?”

I reached out to her, finding her still unconscious and moving away in some kind of vehicle.

I said while trying to get up, “They still have her. We need to go.”

Joey opened a share link with me as he helped me to my feet.

As the share link restored me, I sighed, “Thanks, I needed that.” Then I said urgently, “Penny’s brother has ... used some kind of drug on Penny and her dad, and probably her mom too. They’ve been brainwashed. The guy that did it was going to do the same thing to me.”

I started running for the door as I said, “He said it was irreversible! We have to get Suzi back before they use it on her!”

I quickly realized I had no idea where the hell I was when I entered a long hallway with at least thirty different doors. Joey and my mom led the way to the roof where a helicopter was waiting.

“Holy shit,” I said when I realized the helicopter was some kind of jet copter that they had hijacked. The pilot had already started spinning the blades, readying for a quick take off.

It took ten minutes for us to home in on the van Suzi was in. The van was on the highway traveling at a dangerously high speed and swerving around other vehicles. As Joey took care of the driver and the van pulled off the road, I scanned the rest of the van. To my dismay and relief, Suzi was the only passenger in the vehicle.

My past mistakes had made me very cautious about what we would find when we approached the van. I gasped with my realization of who the driver was as I used his eyes to inspect the insides of the van.

Michael carried Suzi out to us before I would let Joey inspect the van. Michael’s hair had been dyed black, obviously in honor of Steven’s black hair. While my mom examined Suzi, I painfully inspected Michael’s mind.

Some of his memories were hard to call up, for his brain chemistry had been altered by the drug they had used on him. From what I could tell, Penny had lured the two brothers into her house where they had both been tranquilized and taken to the same lab we had just left.

It appeared that Steven was quite intelligent and very twisted. He had planned everything since the moment he realized his father was no longer interested in the slave project. Steven had even used the drug on him, his own father.

The effects of this drug were different than the one his father had used on Penny and I. I called Michael’s memory up of his experience very easily. In fact, it seemed to constantly be in the back of his mind, reinforcing his desire to please and serve Steven and Penny.

Instead of being addicted to the sexual pleasure and desire that the other drug produced, this drug excited specific areas of the brain while it reduced the activity in other areas. Michael’s senses had been amplified to many times the norm while his individuality and several key cognitive functions had been suppressed. His mind had been flooded by the sight and sound of Steven telling him to be his faithful slave and the like. The strength of the signals coming from Michael’s senses had burned themselves into his defenseless mind.

Steven’s brainwashing skills were extremely good. Michael couldn’t willingly recall anything of his past life unless Steven asked him too. His life appeared to begin when the needle was pulled from his arm. And the memories afterward I found to be very distressful, and not very useful.

Steven loved to physically abuse his slaves. Once Michael had told Steven everything he knew about me, which wasn’t much, Steven had him prove his loyalty and love by having Michael lick his ass. After Michael’s tongue had penetrated his rose, Steven knew Michael was his, and proceeded to rape the helpless slave, not caring about the pain his rough treatment caused. Michael hated every moment of it, but never for a moment considered complaining or resisting his master’s wishes.

Thankfully, Steven lost interest in him very quickly, and for several months Michael was given to Penny who was taking a very active part in the preparations to capture me. Then a few weeks ago, Steven again questioned him about me, then proceeded to abuse him horribly when Michael couldn’t tell him what he wanted to know.

Michael had bruises all over his body, possibly a few cracked ribs, a black eye, and his left cheek was severely swollen. But from what I could tell, Michael had weathered better than David who had apparently been in the hospital for several days before assisting Michael in stealing the van.

I had to take a break once I got that far, so I checked with my mother to see how Suzi was.

My mom said, “She’s been mistreated, but not severely. From what I can tell, she’ll be okay once the sedative they gave her wears off. They haven’t tampered with her mind. What about the other one? I take it you know him?”

I explained about Penny’s two twin boyfriends and the hell they had been put through. We decided the best thing to do was to fly them both to the hospital, meaning two of us would have to stay behind.

Joey and I stood by the van as the helicopter took off. We both wanted to go with them very badly, but knew we were stronger together and wasn’t about to make my mom stay behind. I suppose that was the first instance where Joey and I thought about it like that.

Just as the helicopter disappeared from our sight, a police car pulled up behind the van with its lights on. Two policemen got out, hands on their holsters, and told us to stay where we were and to keep our hands where they could see them.

Joey said, “Shit. I bet they think we were driving the van.”

As one of the officers made me turn and spread my legs to be searched, I said, “Officers, we just got here. Honest. We were dropped off by a helicopter and...”

“Now that’s a new one,” he said as he frisked me. “He’s clean, Bob.”

Bob Burke said, “So’s this one. You boys are in a lot of trouble. As if you didn’t know it, this van was stolen by two teenage boys.”

The one who searched said, “And because I don’t see a helicopter, you two have the right to remain silent...”

As Officer Sinak continued reading our rights while they handcuffed us, Joey said, “Uh, Tim?”

I said, “Hang on, Joey. Help’s on its way.”

Burke began, “That better mean your parents are coming for you. ‘Cause if it doesn’t...”

Burke paused and looked up as the familiar sound of a helicopter grew loud enough to take notice.

As the helicopter sat down in the green space between the divided highway, I looked up at Sinak and said, “That’s our ride. Can we go now?”

Recovering from his shock, he said, “I’m sorry, kid. That doesn’t prove a thing. We still have to take you ... Bob, didn’t the description say two black haired males?”

“And one of them had a black eye,” Burke sighed, suddenly reaching for his keys.

Sinak said, “Sorry, guys. A simple case of mistaken identity.”

I finished magnifying the differences between the descriptions and us in their minds. Actually, I could have done more than just magnify, but tampering with the minds of the law ... Isn’t that some kind of federal offense?

They had our wallets with our licenses, and after giving them an edited statement of how we came to be there, they let us go. They radioed to have someone interview Michael at the hospital.

While we were in the air, Joey and I opened a thought channel so we could discuss the events.

I thought <What I don’t get is, if they had time to pick up everything of value and leave, why didn’t they take me with them too?>

<Maybe they saw it was too big of a risk. What if they didn’t have any more of that drug and didn’t want to chance you waking up and taking over the place?>

<That reasonable, I suppose. But they couldn’t have known about you and Mom coming to get me, so why did they have David and Michael steal the van, then send Michael off with Suzi as a decoy?>

<Good point. Either this asshole is pretty smart, or pretty paranoid. Show me what you got from Michael’s head again.>

I allowed him access to my mind, letting my attention wander to the ground below us.

But then my conscious spoke up, and I couldn’t help but think to him, <Shit, Joey. This is all my fault. If I hadn’t left Penny with her dad... >

<Don’t start that shit again. From what I see, Steven would have gotten his hands on her sooner or later. At least now we know how to protect ourselves.>

I asked, surprised, <What? Did you figure something out?>

Joey responded, <I think so. I was comparing what you remembered about Michael’s mind last summer and what you found today. Those commands you gave him last summer. It doesn’t look like that drug can get around them. Michael couldn’t tell anyone what you told him about Penny and her dad.>

<Whoa! You mean ... All we have to do is send each other a command that would stop us from doing whatever Steven says and the drug wouldn’t work?>

<Something like that. But not just Steven. And we need to check Michael’s head out a little more and get a better idea what to prepare for. But I think it would work.>

<Man, I hope so.>

Joey went back to examining my memories to see if he could find anything else while I sat quietly, trying to keep my mind from wandering too much. As the helicopter approached the hospital, I reached out to Suzi to check on her.

I thought to Joey, <Shit. Suz is still out cold.>

When we landed on the chopper pad of the hospital, the pilot informed us he was leaving and we’d have to find other transportation. I was a little disappointed by that. That jet copter had been really cool to ride in, but I didn’t want Midge getting jealous and let it drop from my mind.

Besides, there were more important matters to deal with. Michael did in fact have three cracked ribs, and they were also treating his swollen cheek when we arrived. But his most serious injury was an anal infection from the violent rapings Steven enjoyed. Actually, Michael’s condition was mostly due to his programming to ignore any physical discomforts he had while carrying out Steven’s or Penny’s orders. Michael simply hadn’t been able to admit that he needed medical attention while helping to prepare for my capture.

My mom was having a lot of difficulty explaining how Michael and Suzi had obtained their injuries to a woman police officer when Joey and I found her.

“Mom, how are they?” I asked, interrupting Officer Peterson’s latest question. I quickly scanned the woman’s mind, finding she didn’t believe my mom was in any way responsible but had the feeling she also wasn’t telling everything.

My mom said, “Michael is going have to stay at least the night, and Suzi still hasn’t woken up. They took a blood sample from her to try and find what they used on her.”

Officer Peterson asked, “I take it you are friends of the two victims?”

“Michael’s a friend of a friend, and Suzi’s our girlfriend,” I said, not really paying attention to what I was saying.

Joey was busy checking out Michael’s head for himself while I was fascinated by Kim’s mind. I was considering telling her the truth, thinking she might be able to help us.

Kim had blinked at my slip up but didn’t waste any time on it. She asked several questions about our involvement, and after getting pretty much the same story as my mother had given her, she thanked us and went to talk to the nurse at the counter.

I was just about to discontinue my scanning of her mind when I felt her momentary excitement as her partner walked up.

Officer Rick Corben was a six foot tall, dark haired, nicely built man with a boyish face. It was their third day as partners, and Kim was having second thoughts about the arrangement when she found herself incredibly attracted to him. She had always had a thing for younger men, and on more than one occasion found herself thinking indecent thoughts about some kid she had just booked. It always took a good romance movie or novel to get herself straightened out.

Corben was anything but what his innocent face portrayed. He had used his looks to get into the pants of many women, starting way back in the eighth grade. Even though he had sex with three other women on the force, he had never allowed it to interfere with his work. So he had immediately put the thought of tasting Kim’s sex out of his mind as she turned it towards him.

Having already copied her home address and phone number into my head, I did the same with Corben’s before turning my attention to Suzi as I walked up to her bed. Her mind was asleep, and that’s all I could get from her. I felt Joey’s concern start to grow, so I slipped my arm behind his back and pulled him towards me. We stood side by side as we both probed her mind and body for signs of normal activity.

I didn’t hear my mom leave the room, but when she came back in, Joey and I stopped our probing. Joey sat down while I turned my head towards my mom. I knew the moment I saw her face that it wasn’t good news.

I asked, “What is it?”

“They couldn’t identify the drug they found in her blood. They’re having to send it out to a lab.”

Joey asked, “How long will that take?”

“A few hours at least. For the moment she’s not deteriorating. Her heartbeat is strong and there’s no indication she’s anything but asleep.”

I asked, “Do they have any idea how long she’ll be out?”

“No, dear. But I’m afraid ... they’re not sure if she will wake up anytime soon. She appears to be in a coma.”

Joey and I looked at each other and immediately knew we had both come to the same conclusion. Before my mother even realized something was up, I sat down in the chair next to Joey, pulled the coin out from around my neck, and pressed the coin against Suzi’s hand. Then Joey and I closed our eyes and with the help of the coin formed a share link with Suzi.

Joey and I shuddered as we felt Suzi’s energy mix with ours. I realized I was slipping down in my chair and panicked when the experience with John popped into my head. I quickly connected with my mother, then I started connecting up to as many people as I could, trying to dilute the sleepiness I was quickly succumbing to. After the first five or so people, Joey started to do the same.

My mom had to verbally say, “Boys, that’s enough people!” before I realized we had connected to nearly one hundred healthy individuals. I still felt a little tired, but I wasn’t sure if it was from Suzi or just a result of our numerous sharing links.

We started to close the links when Suzi stirred and cracked her eyes. We each took a hand to hold.

Suzi asked, “What happened? Where am I?”

Mom asked before we could reply, “How do you feel?”

“I think I feel okay,” Suzi said, trying to sit up. When she accidentally pulled the IV in her arm taunt, she said, “Ouch! Ow ... I’m a little sore from riding ... and this needle in my arm doesn’t help.”

My mom pushed the call button for the nurse, and a few minutes later, the doctor was checking her out.

Suzi’s parents arrived in my dad’s helicopter and agreed with the doctor she should also stay the night for observation. Joey and I stayed with her after my mom went home in the helicopter. We had made the excuse we wanted to stay in case Steven or one of his helpers somehow manage to sneak in to grab them, but no one was fooled. We simply couldn’t bear leaving her alone for the night.

We had told Officer Peterson about the attempted kidnapping before my mom left. Sunday was a pain in the ass, filled with red-tape, interviews, and a bunch of bullshit about why we hadn’t reported the kidnapping immediately. The whole part of how Joey and my mom had found us was left unexplained and that really bothered them. The truth was we didn’t know how to explain it convincingly, so we didn’t try.