Chapter 18

Dani woke, for a moment she didn't know where she was but it soon came flooding back to her. She was still in the ambulance, strapped to the gurney. She could see out of the back and side windows but couldn't see anything other than stone walls. The bus wasn't moving, either. Dani's panic tried to claim her again, but her mind knew she had to help herself to get away. Panicking would do her no good.

She started to think what she had that would help her. That was when she remembered. She had her cell phone in her pocket. Dani quickly took it out and called her security people.

"Security..." answered Charles.

Dani knew the voice and was pleased, "Charles, it's Dani. Listen, I have to talk fast. The ambulance was hi-jacked and I've been kidnapped. Turn on or activate all tracking units. But I have to turn my cell off. Tell Mike to find me, please. Tell him I love him."

"Dani, just hang on. Stay with me, and on the line, for just few minutes. I'm trying to lock onto you now," Charles said as he worked hard to get into the network to get the CPS location of the cell phone his boss was calling from.

"I can't. Someone might come back. Please find me."

With that Dani hung up, and turned the cell phone off. For a moment, she was very tempted to call Mike. She didn't know if she had the time so she just put it back into her pocket.

Her next step was to look around the ambulance to see if she could find a weapon to use in case she had to fight someone off. From where she was, though, it was difficult so she started to release the straps when the sound of a gunshot rang out.

Dani froze, not knowing what else to do. That was when she heard voices outside. As she watched the back windows, faces of men appeared. Then the back doors opened.

An average looking man in a very fancy suit walked around and made to get in, but stopped and covered his nose.

"Fuck! What the hell is that smell?" Marco Giovanni said, and then he backed up some more.

"Sir, Bonewits said the girl had been sick several times. Maybe he was telling the truth?"

"We'll see. For know, get her out of there. I wish to talk to her. I'm sure those doors messed things up enough that her security people are coming."

Two men jumped into the ambulance and unlatched the gurney from its floor clamps, and moved Dani out. Dani was very scared as the men moved her away from the ambulance, to where the fancy man waited. He was now leaning against a car.

"Well, my dear, you don't look good at all. So I'll make things quick. You took in someone that owes me a lot of money. Your people caused several of my guys to go to jail, costing me even more money. So, because of that, you're going to repay the debt."

Dani didn't have a clue as to what was going on.

"Please, who are you? What do you want? I don't know anything about money. Please, I'm sick, I need to go to the hospital."

Marco wasn't sure if the girl before him was faking or not, but there were ways to find out.

"Fine, I'll state it differently. That Thorton woman owes me over a million dollars. Since you took her in you can pay it."

What?" Dani was stunned. She never realized that was still an issue, "Carol doesn't owe you anything. Her husband did, and he's dead. You can try a civil case against his estate but they don't have anything."

"That's why you're going to pay it!"

"I'm not paying a debt of a dead man! Take it to the courts. That's what the banks are trying to do. Please, I really don't feel good," Dani finished as she started feeling dizzy again.

Marco moved up next to the gurney and pulled Dani right up to his face.

"Bitch! I'm going to get my money!"

Dani's fear grew again. She swallowed hard then said, "I'm going to throw up."

Marco wasn't a fool. He saw the color change in the girl's face. He let her go, and moved back quickly.

Dani leaned over the side of the gurney, and purged anything that might even remotely be in her stomach.

Ray had just gotten though the gate and up to there everyone else was. It looked like mad house. He also had a funny feeling when he got out of his car that something very bad had happened.

"DADDY!" Sandra yelled when she saw Ray then he found his arms full of a crying girl.

"Baby what is it? What happened?"

"Oh, Daddy," Sandra started, "First the plant manager attacked Dani. He put a knife to her throat. No one knows how she did it but she broke free and punched him in the face. Dad, she killed him with that punch."

"Oh, GOD! Baby, poor Dani, where is she?"

"OH, Dad. That's not the all of it, after she became very sick. They put her in an ambulance. What we didn't know was that the driver was hit over the head and tossed into the trunk of a cop car. An officer and a lieutenant tried to kidnap her. But it gets worse, the ambulance was hi-jacked. Iris was with Dani. She came back with the real EMT and the fake one. She had been hit with a stun gun. The man's ok but Iris is still out of it and the EMT that was hit is still out cold too."

Sandra stopped, as she knew she was rambling. Then she wrapped her arms around Ray and cried.

Ray looked over to where Mike and John were. Mike was pacing like a caged animal, waiting to break free.

John was sitting on the ground holding Iris in his lap and stroking her hair.

It looked bad, and Ray knew he needed to do what Dani asked of him, and take control of things. It was what he knew Dani would do.

"Sandra, baby, we need to get to work. Go get me a large legal pad, no two then get me three people that you thing Dani might have trusted."

"Why?" Sandra asked confused by the requests.

"One is to help me do a roll call of everyone who is still here, so I can compare it to the people listed as checked in. The others are going to help me do an inventory of everything in the facility. Once we have that, we have a place to start."

"Oh. Ok, Dad. I think Robert would know who Dani was talking the most down in the lunch room where all of this scrap took place," replied Sandra, then hugged Ray again then walked towards a very large man.

After Sandra said a few words she returned with what looked like a Native American following.

"Dad this I Robert Greyfeather, he said Dani was talking to Henry Abbot the most," Sandra turned to smile at the big guy, "Robert this is my father Ray Perry. I'm guessing Dani called him to take over the facility. If you would take him to find Henry, I'd be grateful. Also let him know what was found in the offices. That would be such a help."

"Miss Sandra, I would be happy to assist your father," Robert said and held out his hand the man in front of him," You have a very strong daughter, Sir. It's been my honor to know her."

Ray took the hand and shook it.

"Thank you, I'm proud of both my children. Now let me tell you what we need to get done."

Ray released the man's hand then turned to the building while telling Robert what he wanted to do. Sandra smiled then ran off to get the notepads and some pens.

Sandra met back up with Ray and Robert as the came to the lunchroom. To her surprise it was still full.

Henry was standing talking to Smitty when he saw Robert walk in.

"Hey Robert what the hell is going on? Some of the people here said they saw the EMTs come walking back in and..." Henry started.

"I saw that cop lieutenant in cuffs. What gives?" interrupted Smitty.

The room then erupted in questions.

Robert looked to Ray but it was Sandra who took action. Sandra let out a long loud whistle.

"Ok, folks, I know all of you have questions," Sandra started as she slipped off her shoes and stood on a chair next to Robert so the group could all see her, "My name is Sandra Blackwood. I'm Dani's assistant. My father Ray Perry was asked by Miss Dani to come over here and see what he could do to help get things going. First I'm going to tell you all what is going on outside. Yes, several people are in custody, and the FBI will be handling that mess.

"While Dani was down here, I was checking the offices. I found that the Plant manager was a very bad boy, as I found lots of drugs, and some cash and papers. It's from those papers I have an idea where the material and orders where going.

"That's the easy part. Now for the hard part. As you know Miss Dani was taken away to the hospital," Sandra paused and took a deep breath then continued, "we don't know as yet why but two cops worked together, with one doing the action, incapacitated the driver for the ambulance and took his place.

"At some point after they left, however, Men jumped into the ambulance, stunned the driver and Dani's bodyguard with a very strong stun gun. The remaining EMT was given a choice to leave and take Iris, who was the woman here with Dani and leave. I'm sure some of you saw them walking back.

"Iris should be ok. The other EMT should as well but we'll find out more once they go to the hospital," Sandra stopped to take another breath.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, as my daughter said I'm Ray Perry. I'm a shift manager over and facility seven.

"I know you all have questions and right know I know I don't have any answers. I will tell you as soon as I know anything I will tell it to you folks.

"Now on to what I would like and need your help with. This may even help the FBI. But I want to do an end-to-end inventory of everything in the plant. If a machine has five different serial numbers, I want them listed down. This is going to take several days. Once it's done I'll place orders for anything that needs to be replaced if anyone finds something broken. Sandra had been working with Dani and will find either the missing orders stock or have new ordered and here so this plant can get back to work.

"Now I'm going to ask the department heads and shift managers to come of to my left for a quick meet and greet, then I'll find out if we need to keep you people here any longer."

"Was the little boss lady ok? She looked awful bad when she left." asked Abe Bannerson.

"I wish I could tell you. I just don't know," answered Ray.

"How do we know your going to be any better than the others?" asked Smitty.

"A few months ago my son was taken in and helped by Dani. She never asked anything of me to pay anything back. Hell she took in my daughter and I too. I've watched her be as silly as any teen when playing with children and then turn into a different person who barks orders and has trained solders snapping to attention and saluting. I've never heard her ask for anything from anyone," Ray replied.

"Ladies and gentleman," Sandra took up, "I started helping Dani and even went to court with her several times. All she ever wanted to do was to make things right for you and all the other employees.

"It was that and what the other upper management said, that made the courts agree to get as many people as we could back to work.

"Dani had copies of everything out of every facility and went over everything to make sure things were going good. She spent three days going over the reports out of this facility and she didn't like something about them. That's what brought us here.