Chapter 34

Sunday afternoon 3:00 pm

Nearby Old Bean Coffee Shop

Harborton Washington

The squirrels were going insane. Mei could hear their chattering and understand their sense of alarm but couldn’t understand the specifics. And to make it worse the squirrels were reporting from an unknown location. Tom had given them all pretty specific geographic markers for Ben’s house, the high school, the coffee shop, Lizzy’s house and Sarah’s house and these squirrels didn’t report from any of those.

And where was Kelly? Mei had driven Sarah’s car to Old Bean to rendezvous with Kelly but it was 3:00 and there was no sign of her. Mei was getting a really awful feeling about this. So she decided to see if she had been held up in the coffee shop. Mei entered the shop and quickly located Kelly’s boss, the 30 something, blond haired Lucy.

“Hi Lucy, have you seen Kelly? She was supposed to be here to drive home with me.” Mei asked.

Lucy recognized Mei from her visit this morning and knew that Mei and Kelly were like sisters. She didn’t hesitate to tell Mei what she knew.

‘Hi Mei, sorry, but Kelly left early about half an hour ago. Maybe she got distracted and forgot. She was talking to one of our regulars and she said she was going to introduce her to some people at the shelter.” Lucy said.

Mei could understand Kelly getting a little distracted, she knew how Kelly was when anyone around her was hurting, but between missing the rendezvous and the squirrels, something was really wrong.

Sunday afternoon 3:00 pm

Ben’s house

Harborton Washington

Ben and Sarah were going over the topo maps of the area where Mei had identified the location of the red Dragon compound when Sarah felt it. Her sister was in trouble! She clutched Ben’s hand.

“Baby, we’ve got problems. Something’s wrong with Kelly.” Sarah said anxiously.

“What is it, can you feel any details?” Ben said with a frown.

“Nothing specific, Just a few seconds of anxiety, then nothing.”

Just then they all could feel the squirrels going crazy. Unfortunately, these weren’t just the ones that Tom had been working with on their language skills, so it was difficult to understand what they saw.

“Tom, can you help translate what the squirrels are saying and see if you can get an idea of where they are reporting from?” asked Ben.

“Aye Cap’n.” Tom said, snapping off a salute with his fluffy tail.

Lizzy flew over to the kitchen table.

“What’s happen...” she started to say.

Just then Mei called. “Ben, my love Kelly’s not here, the squirrels are churning and the last anyone here knows she was on her way to the Women’s Shelter accompanied by a woman she met at Old Bean.” Mei stated calmly and precisely.

“Thanks Mei. Stay put and stay alert, we are going to come to you and see if we can track her down.”

“Okay everyone, something’s up with Kelly. We need to stay calm and stay observant and alert. Panic and worry is not going to help the situation.” From this point on, no one is out of sight of the rest of us and we stay armed at all times. We are going to go pick up Mei and try to pinpoint her last known location. Tom, we’ll need you with us as a scout and translator.”

“Yes Ben!” the girls echoed.

As Ben said this he was certain he knew what happened and he was also certain it was his fault for not anticipating this move, but he knew he could not let it cripple his thinking or his behavior if they were going to get Kelly back.

.

“Okay let’s head out. Tom’s at point until we reach the Jeep we’ll give you a minute to clear the front.” said Ben. As Tom stepped through the cat door onto the porch, Ben and the girls gathered what they needed. Ben almost left his heavy field glasses behind but decided to take them.

Sunday afternoon 3:30pm

Harborton Women’s Shelter parking lot

Harborton Washington

They all gathered in the parking lot of the Women’s Shelter after combing the area for clues. Ben was really concerned since by now they knew that Kelly had definitely been kidnapped and possibly injured. Between what Mei had found out and the squirrels they knew where the attack had occurred. Tom was able to find a coherent squirrel who reported ‘Pretty, nice lady ran to boy. Bad men grabbed her. And put her in their vroom vroom. Other bad men got in pretty, nice lady’s vroom vroom and all drove away toward setting sun.’

Ben knew what the likely next steps were going to be and that it was going to involve a great deal of violence. He had to make sure that Maria had considered what she was getting into.

“Maria, are you 1000% sure about this?” Ben said as he looked Maria in the eyes. “Don’t feel for a second that we will think any less of you if you need to stay home. They don’t know who you are so right now you are safe. Please remember that we are all committed to this and the other girls at least have a goddess looking out for them.”

“Ben, Kelly is my sister and if I didn’t do everything possible to help her I could never live with myself because I know she would do the same for me.” said Maria softy.

Ben couldn’t speak just then so he gave Maria a quick hug. They were all gathered in a loose circle next to his Jeep while they considered their next move.

“So Mei, you are certain they have taken her to their compound?” asked Ben.

“Yes, there aren’t any other suitable facilities nearby, and they would want to ensure security after the failures involved in trying to abduct you. I’m aware of other operations like this and their next move is to call you and try to use Kelly to leverage you into handing yourself over to them.”

“Yep, that’s what I was thinking also. Well I guess that means that there’s no reason for them to wait. It doesn’t give us much time to set up a rescue. At least we have a big advantage. They don’t know that we know where they are based.” Ben muttered.

“Ben, a couple of other things to consider. First, you have to insist on proof of life no matter what they say or do. If you do not, Kelly is as good as dead the second you hang up the phone. They will have zero compassion and zero compunction about killing her or anyone else. They are not like people who kidnap for money. Second, if there is even a hint that the authorities are involved they will immediately do a level one sanitization which means killing anyone even remotely involved, including you. This is to deny your value to any other agency or organization. They trust their ability to cover up and to either move or hide assets and resources from your government since their operation has been running freely without interference for so long.” Mei said soberly.

“Thank you Mei, my love.” Ben said and kissed her lightly. “Okay I think we should head out to the compound to see if we can get some solid intel on the layout and where they are keeping her. Sarah and I have already identified a few locations where we can probably observe them unseen.”

“Sar, doon forget I c’n do a close in recce as needed” said Tom.

“Tom, thank you. That might help a lot. Do you think we might be able to get some help from any of the wild animals?” asked Ben.

“I don’t knoo fer car’tin sar, but the squarrels seem to ken her as a goddess herownself. Mayhap ta other wild ones will as well.” said Tom.