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Not waiting for Matt’s reply, I quickly dialed the number to Chris’s cell phone.
“Chris here.”
I took a deep breath and plunged in. “Chris, this is Scott. You need to get a team of agents out to the reserve behind the Academy. Winston took Gene out there for a picnic and the Snake took Gene.”
There was silence on the other end of the line, then a murmur of voices as Chris spoke to someone with him.
“We’re on our way now,” Chris said tightly. “When did this happen?”
“Not five minutes ago.” The fact someone was finally doing something took a weight off my shoulders. “Winston just called me on his cell phone. I think it was happening as he called.”
“What was Gene doing off campus?” Chris asked, irritation hardening his voice. “He was ordered to stay on campus for his own protection.”
“That’s a long story.” I glanced sideways at Matt.
“Which I don’t have time for now,” Chris concluded sharply. “You and Matt stay in your room and lock the door. Don’t leave for any reason, no matter how good it seems. Do you hear me? The Snake may try to use Gene to lure you and Matt out as well. If you hear any more about Gene, let me know. I’ll be there as soon as I can to debrief you. Hopefully, I’ll be bringing Gene with me. You and Matt can occupy yourselves by praying for that.”
“We will,” I promised. “Good bye.”
As soon as I hung up, Matt frowned at me. “Well?”
“Chris is on his way out there.” I repeated what Chris had said about our staying inside. “He’ll be here as soon as he can. He wants to know what happened, but I don’t know what we can tell him.”
“We can tell him it was Winston’s fault.” Matt stood and went to the window. “He conned Gene into going.”
“Maybe, but I should have kept Gene from going at all.” I paced the room in frustration. My side ached, but I didn’t care. I just couldn’t sit around any longer. Not only had I failed to get my parents out of the Snake’s clutches, but I’d allowed the terrorist to get Gene as well.
“How would you have done that?” Matt turned from the window to face me. “Honestly? Sat on him? He insisted on going.”
“I know.” I stopped pacing and ran my fingers through my short blond hair. “I just feel like I should have done something – at least called Chris earlier like you suggested.”
“Sure.” Matt sighed. “Or I could have. You weren’t going to sit on me either. I guess we both kinda blew it.”
“Chris was counting on us to protect Gene.” I sat on the edge of my bed and put my face in my hands. “Now the Snake has him.”
I threw myself back on my bed hard, sending jarring pain through my ribs. The sharp pain forced the breath from my lungs and I began to cough. Each cough sent a stab of pain ripping through my side. I glared angrily as I tried to catch my breath. The pain in my side was just another reminder of the consequences of previous stupid choices I had made.
“I really doubt Chris expected heroics from either of us.” Matt frowned at me critically as I took another ragged breath. “Especially not you.”
“I could have at least warned Gene about that monster who is after him,” I snapped. I was angry with myself for not doing more to help Gene and for being too weak to even breathe. I was especially angry with the Snake for everything he had done to mess up my life over the past month. “When I find that guy...”
“Maybe SATURN will find him first,” Matt interrupted, “then you won’t have to worry about it. Chris might even find both the Snake and Gene before he gets here.”
“I hope so.” I took a careful breath to calm myself down. “I just pray he does it soon.”
“He will,” Matt said confidently. “Until then, all we can do is pray.”
“Chris suggested that also.” I felt ashamed for forgetting. “In my anger I forgot.”
Matt sat down on the edge of his bed facing me. “I can’t think of a more productive way to spend our time.”
I got up slowly and locked the door as Chris had ordered, then sat back down on the edge of my own bed. “Yeah, I could really use it, too.”
It was way after dark before Chris got there. Matt and I had spent most of the afternoon either praying or pacing the room impatiently. We were both relieved when were heard a knock at the door.
“Scott? Matt? It’s Chris.”
Matt reached the door before I did. He quickly unlocked the door and threw it open to welcome Chris. Chris entered swiftly and locked the door behind him.
My face fell to see him alone. I had really hoped he would be bringing Gene back with him. I could see by the expression on Matt’s face that he was disappointed, too.
“We have some good leads,” Chris assured us when he saw our expressions. “We’ll get him back. Right now what I need is your stories. I just spent the last two hours getting Winston’s.”
“Which was probably skewed to make him look good.” Matt scowled.
“Maybe.” Chris pulled the chair away from Matt’s desk, spun it backwards, and sat down straddling the back. “But I doubt it. He seemed genuine, remorseful, and scared to death. Still, I’ll compare it to your version and see.”
Matt and I sat on the ends of our beds facing Chris. We looked at each other solemnly. Matt nodded to me. We had agreed long before Chris got there that I would tell the story and Matt would fill in anything I missed.
Dear Lord, give me strength. I wasn’t going to enjoy telling this story, but I knew it had to be told if we ever wanted to see Gene again.
Chris pulling a note pad and pen out of his breast pocket and started scribbling down everything I said.
“It started with Gene getting an invitation from Winston,” I began softly. “He offered to take him out to lunch.”
“To make it up to him for how badly he’s treated him,” Matt interjected.
“We thought it sounded fishy and tried to persuade Gene not to go. We reminded him that he wasn’t supposed to leave the school for any reason.” I paused to let Chris catch up. “Gene was bent on going and we couldn’t persuade him otherwise. Winston had promised to only go to a public place and Gene was sure Winston could protect him.”
“Winston also said that Superintendent Hinkly had given permission,” Matt added.
“I even called Superintendent Hinkly myself to verify that.” I remembered Superintendent Hinkly’s warning about insubordination and chose my words carefully. “He said he’d given permission, but seemed too busy to really know what was going on.”
Chris nodded grimly. “Mr. Jackson talked to Superintendent Hinkly. We tried to get Winston confined to campus at the same time we did you guys. His parents called Superintendent Hinkly and complained. The Datonas threatened to get Superintendent Hinkly fired. Understandably frustrated, he signed the next pass Winston handed him without looking at it. He feels really guilty about the whole thing.”
“That explains it then.” Explain it maybe, but not excuse it. On the other hand, there seemed to be plenty of blame to go around, so I just shrugged and went on. “Once Superintendent Hinkly said that he had given permission, I stopped arguing. I told Gene if he wasn’t back in an hour I would call you. Exactly an hour later, Winston called to tell us that Gene was being kidnapped. I made him hang up and call 911, then I called you.”
“We’re sorry,” Matt offered. “We should have called you as soon as they left.”
“It certainly would have helped, but with Superintendent Hinkly having given permission, I’m not sure what I would have done in your place either.” Chris looked up from his notes at me and Matt. “I don’t blame either of you. In the end, Gene knew better and went anyway.”
Chris flipped back a few pages in his notebook and read silently for a moment. “Winston’s story was essentially the same. Only he gave a different reason for the outing. He felt left out of what he thought was a big adventure and cooked this up to get in on it.”
“But why didn’t he at least go to a public place like he said he was going to?” Matt asked.
“He wanted to get Gene alone and persuade him to tell the whole story.” Chris folded his notebook closed. “He was afraid Gene would be too nervous to talk in public. Winston thought he could convince Gene to let him help.”
“What about the SATURN agents you were going to have guard the campus?” I raised a questioning eyebrow. “Why didn’t they stop them?”
“Winston has been watching their movements ever since they were posted outside.” Chris rolled his eyes and shook his head. “He figured out exactly when to leave so they wouldn’t catch him. Mr. Jackson was quite upset.”
Chris sighed as he put his notepad back inside his suit coat. “I’m afraid this happened at the worst possible time.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
“Dr. Rogers gets out on parole on Monday,” Chris reminded us. “We’re fairly sure the Snake will try to use Gene to persuade Dr. Rogers to work for him.”
“Bribery wouldn’t work, so now he’ll try threats,” Matt commented grimly.
“Exactly, and this time we’re afraid it will work. Dr. Rogers thinks the world of his son; he’ll do anything to get him back. We even fear that Kestler will try to kidnap Dr. Rogers and take him back to his hideout. If he does that, we’re sunk.”
“But surely SATURN can keep that from happening, if they expect it ahead of time.” I was trying to be optimistic, but SATURN hadn’t really had a great track record to this point.
“We will certainly try.” A hard look touched Chris’s eyes and the muscle in his jaw tensed. “Which is why I’m going to escort Dr. Rogers from the jail to the safe house Monday. We don’t even want him alone for a moment.”
“Can we come along?” I sat up straighter and winced at the sudden movement. “This could our chance to redeem ourselves for this afternoon.”
“Besides, we need to do something.” Matt took up the argument eagerly. “Something other than stay locked in the room for the rest of our lives.”
Chris opened his mouth as if to object, but I cut him off with one more attempt. “Perhaps we can help Dr. Rogers where we failed Gene, or even help get Gene back somehow.”
Chris frowned. “We don’t know for sure that Kestler will try anything Monday, but if he does, it could get dangerous. You guys may be clever, but how could you help if there were an attempt?”
I paused for a moment. We weren’t trained agents and even I knew we wouldn’t be much help in a fight. “We could be two extra pairs of eyes, keeping a look out for anything suspicious.”
“Or one of us could even drive,” Matt suggested. “Then you could be free to devote all your attention to protecting Dr. Rogers.”
“I get that you guys want to help.” Chris’s hard expression wavered. “But you’re confined here for a reason. I can’t have you guys ending up like Gene.”
“We’d be with you, wouldn’t that count for something?” Yes, that was definitely a little brown-nosing, but we were so close to persuading him! Please make Chris let us go. We’ll go nuts if we have to stay locked in our room too much longer.
“And you guys have proved yourselves in the past.” Chris pulled his sunglasses from his shirt pocket and tapped them on his knee. “If I let you go, you will have to promise to obey everything I say to the letter. If an attempt is made, you’re to leave everything to me and stay out of the way.”
“No problem.” I grinned and glanced at Matt. He was grinning widely, too. “When do we leave?”
“I’ll be by at 0800 Monday.” Chris stood to go. “If I can persuade Superintendent Hinkly and Mr. Jackson.” He gestured at us with his glasses and warned, “A big IF, understand. After what happened to Gene, I’m not even sure Marisa could talk them into letting you help.” His reference to my mom caught me off guard, but he kept going before I could react. “Until then, get some sleep and relax. Perhaps we’ll have found Gene by then.”
“We’ll pray for that.” I said seriously as I closed the door behind Chris. I had just locked the door and was turning away when there was another knock at the door.
“Guys, it’s Trinity,” she whispered through the door. “Can I come in?”
“Trinity!” I cracked the door to look out at her. “It’s nearly curfew, girls aren’t even supposed to be in this building this late.”
“It’s really important. Technically, I’ve got ten minutes before curfew.” She glanced nervously down the hall. “Dad is waiting downstairs to take me home. He said he’s coming after me if I’m not down in ten minutes. Please, I need to talk to you.”
I glanced at Matt, who rolled his eyes as if to say he didn’t want to be involved. I doubted anything that urgent could be resolved in ten minutes and I didn’t really want more trouble for having a girl in my room after curfew. Still, I was curious about what might be so urgent. I opened the door quickly. The quicker she was in, the quicker she could leave.
Trinity swept past me and closed the door. “I saw Chris leave. Nobody will tell me anything, so I had to come here. I figured Chris would have told you.”
Her red-rimmed eyes told me that she already had at least some idea about what was going on. I started with the obvious. “Gene’s been kidnapped.”
Trinity’s lips trembled and a tear started down her face. “I know that. Winston told me that once SATURN was done with him. He said he did everything he could.”
“Sure he did.” Matt snorted. “While he was cowering in terror. He didn’t even have the presence of mind to call 911.”
“I’m not saying I think Winston’s a hero,” Trinity retorted. “I didn’t even say I believed him. I just need to know if they found anything. Will they get Gene back from that awful man?”
“Chris seemed optimistic,” I said gently. “They don’t have Gene back yet, but they hope to soon.”
“It’s all my fault!” Trinity covered her face with her hands and sank down in the chair Chris had used. “Gene’s in trouble, and I’m to blame.”
“Trinity, there’s nothing you could have done.” I laid my hand on her shaking back. “Gene wouldn’t even listen to Matt and me.”
“That’s my fault, too.” Her voice caught as she began to speak hurriedly, “This morning, Winston approached me with an idea how we could make you guys include us. He wanted me to help him befriend Gene so we could find out what you guys were up to. Just before they left, Gene got second thoughts. He said you guys told him it wasn’t safe. I... I told him he’d be safe with Winston. I really didn’t think he’d be in any danger, honest! Now he’s gone, and it’s all my fault!”