Wrong Place (The Wrong Series) (7 page)

It was a
bout this time that he wished their door had a peep hole in it so he could tell who was outside the door and whether or not they were someone he trusted enough to see him in his boxers.

“Just a minute,” he called and then started walking back to his room to get some pants.

When he reached his room, he heard a loud crack at the door. There was no doubt about it. Someone was kicking the door open. He immediately ran to his dad’s room and grabbed the black 45 caliber pistol that his dad had previously purchased for protection against a home invader. Nathan had treated him like an idiot over the concept that they would ever need it. As a matter of fact, he made sure to point out that more people die from gun accidents in the home than are ever protected from an intruder, but now he was the one who felt like an idiot. He was holding the very gun he had protested and refused to even test fire. Now, he wished that he had test fired it at least once. Having collected the gun, he darted from the room and ran to the front of the house. There he pointed the gun straight at the two intruders. One was the biggest man he had ever seen, and to top it off, he was pointing a gun back at Nathan, while in contrast, the other was a girl who wouldn’t have struck an ounce of fear into a mouse. She was short with brown hair and a small frame. Nathan’s hands were visibly shaking.

“Don’t come any closer,” Nathan said in a shaky voice.

In spite of his warning, the man started walking forward. Nathan began backing up as the man was moving forward.

“What’s wrong with him? Is he slow in the head?” Nathan shouted to the girl while still aimi
ng his gun straight at the man.

“Yeah, that’s my theory anyway,” the girl responded in a joking tone.

Nathan backed up until there was literally nowhere else to back up to. He was against the wall. He looked the giant man straight in the eyes and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. He pulled the trigger again and again but still nothing. Then the man was on him. Nathan was easily thrown to the ground face first where the large man grabbed his hands and then tied them behind his back with what felt like a zip tie.

“Who are you people
, and what do you want?”

“In due time
, Mr. Grey, but here’s a little advice for you. If you want to threaten someone with a weapon, first take off the safety,” the girl said.

How could I
be so stupid, Nathan wondered.

“Now, for a little fun,
” The man said wickedly.

“No,” The young gir
l said while taking a gun from her side and pointing it at him.

“We’re
bringing him in clearheaded to get as much information as possible out of him.” 

“Come on! It won’t hurt to loosen up his tongue a little.” The man said
as he looked at Nathan like most people would normally look at a steak.

“Absolutely not!” 

“I think I like her idea better,” Nathan interjected.

“Fine,” the
large man said angrily.

He began to ball up his fist and then drew it back.

“Hey, what are you . . . ” Nathan managed to say before he felt a hard blow.

He had thrown one of his large fists straight into Nathan’s skull. Nathan was
still conscious, but beyond dizzy. He could hear the two of them arguing.

“What was that for?”

“It’s so we won’t be constantly hearing noises from the trunk on the way.”

They certainly wouldn’t be hearing noises from him because he was starting to lose consciousness. The next thing he knew
, he awoke still very groggy in a small and rather foul smelling trunk.

While Jacob was putting Nathan in the trunk of their car, Trish took a look around Nathan’s house. She wanted to see if this Nathan person was who he said he was or if he was actually someone who could be working for their enemies. She knew that they were stretched for time, so after looking for a minute, she simply grabbed N
athan’s wallet and walked out the door. With that, she and Jacob were off.

Sam arrived at the address that was supposed to be Nathan’s and stopped on the road near it. She could tell that something was wrong.  The door was standing wide open. She decided that it was best to park a little down the street and go
assess the scene in a stealthier manner. She approached the house while trying to stay under the cover of every bush and tree in the area. It wasn’t hard as Nathan’s house was in the middle of nowhere, and there were trees all around it. As she hid outside the house, she saw a large man carrying a limp body. The man, in a not so gentle way, threw Nathan into the trunk.  Sam started making her way back to her minivan. She knew that she had to follow them if she wanted any chance to recover what was hers, and now that she knew that these people were literally willing to kidnap or kill for what had been lost, she knew that she was on to something really big. There was more to it than just that, though. Her mess and her mistakes had led to all of this, and if Nathan was still alive, she had to rescue him. No, I won’t just follow them. I’m going to help this guy before they reach their destination, and then he’s going to take me to get what is mine, she thought confidently. As she cranked the minivan, she knew her mission. No mistakes and no excuses. It was time to prove her worth, if to no one else, herself.

Ch
apter 7

Back at the underground base, Dan’s interrogation was just beginning.

“So Mr. Driver, I’m going to ask you a few questions, and if I feel that you’re answering honestly, everything will be fine, but when you lie to me, I promise that you’ll feel more pain than you can even imagine,” Fields said.

“You’ve got the wrong person. I’m just a normal guy.”

“See, I believe that to be a lie, so now I have to hurt you,” Fields said in an almost pleased voice.

“Guard, let’s give Mr.
Driver a small taste of what’s in store for him.” 

The guard quickly and happily complied. He walked up to Dan with a s
mall pair of needle nose pliers and took one of his bound hands. Dan didn’t know for sure what was about to happen to him, but he didn’t think it would exactly be pleasurable. The guard took a firm grip on Dan’s thumbnail with the pliers and in one swift yank, ripped the nail straight off his thumb. Dan cried out in mind-numbing pain.

“Now, I think
I will ask you my first question. Who do you work for, and what is your purpose for being here?”

“I work for you, and I’m simply trying to earn a living. What is this place
anyway?”

“First of all, I’m asking the questions and second of all, what do I do to you when you lie?” 

“You hurt me,” Dan said in a low voice.

“Right, well I won’t
disappoint you. After all, I’m a man of my word,” Fields said as he turned and banged on the big metal door behind him.

Two more men entered the room.

“I want a tooth this time, maybe something near the front,” Fields said while motioning to the guard.

The two
men held Dan’s jaw, and the previous guard reached into his pocket and retrieved the same pair of pliers. He grasped his top right canine tooth and with a quick yank, the tooth was removed. Blood dripped from Dan’s mouth. It had been extremely painful, and Dan knew that the worst was yet to come, but he simply wasn’t going to give Fields anything in this interrogation.

“Do you think I like to hurt you, Mr. Driver?”

“Probably.” 

“This is your final chance. Who do you and Samantha Fisher work for, and is someone named Nathan Grey involved in any of this?”  

Obviously Dan had no idea who Nathan Grey was. The very mention of him was puzzling to Dan. Were there more people involved in this mission that I didn’t know about, Dan wondered.

“I don’t
know anyone named Samantha or Nathan. I also don’t work for anyone, except you.”

“Okay. D
on’t say you weren’t given the chance to spare yourself some pain,” Fields said.

He then tapped on the door once again and walked out. Two men replaced him in the room. They had a large cloth and a bucket of water. Dan knew what was about to happen. He had been trained to withstand water boarding, b
ut the feeling was not one you ever got used to. It was truly the worst form of torture imaginable. As these new men came closer to Dan, the other three men were undoing the ropes tied to his hands and feet. They then threw him to the floor. Dan had to try to go somewhere else in his mind. He closed his eyes and prayed for strength. Outside the door, Fields could hear extreme choking and gurgling sounds.

Next we’ll deprive him of sleep, and then if that doesn’t work, Jacob can have his turn, Fields thought as he smiled at the sound of Dan’s suffering.

* * * * *

Back in the car, Trish and Jacob were discussing something of interest.

“What took you so long back at the house?” Jacob asked.

“I wanted t
o look around to make sure this guy is who he says he is.”

“Well, what did you find?”

“I didn’t have much time to look, so not much. I did get his wallet, though. Unfortunately, there’s nothing in it that would make me think he’s working for any of our enemies.”

“Let me have a look at it,” Jacob said while snatching the wallet from Trish’s hands.

“Give me that back. You need to watch the road, Jacob.”

“I’m fine.”

Just then, a car passed them and pulled in front of them.

“Jacob
, watch out!” Trish screamed.

“What is . . .” Jacob managed to say before seeing what Trish was talking about.

All he could see in front of him were brake lights. He quickly swerved into the left lane and started to go past the car. As he did, he heard what sounded like a gunshot and lost control of the vehicle.

*
* * * *

Sam raced up toward the car that had taken Nathan. It was a fairly st
andard black luxury vehicle. She really hoped that this would in no way turn into a car chase. Her poor minivan simply couldn’t take it. As she slowly caught up to the car, she formulated a plan. Not a good one, but a plan, nonetheless. She passed the car she had been pursuing and pulled in front of them. She then began to slow further and further down until she was moving only thirty miles per hour. She pulled out a pistol that she had kept in the pocket of the van and rolled down the window. The car nearly rear ended her, but swerved into the left lane just in time to start going around her. She waited until the right back tire was in view and then shot. She hit her mark. With the back tire shot out, the car swerved to the right and Sam was able to clip them in the right back quarter fender sending them spinning into the ditch. She slammed on her breaks and then came to a stop. Now it was time to get Nathan.

Nathan awoke
in the trunk with his head pounding, only to discover that his hands had been zip tied to his feet. He heard a disturbing sound. A gunshot cried out, and then he heard air leaking from somewhere. He felt the vehicle swiftly swerve and then felt an extreme impact. He was tossed all about in the trunk. When the movement stopped, he noticed something. The trunk lid had been forced ajar. He rolled himself out of the car and as soon as he did, sure enough, broken glass began to stick in his skin. What luck! You’ve been abducted and been in a major car crash in one day, Nathan thought sarcastically. As he began looking around, he noticed something. It looked like the large man who had been his captor earlier had been thrown from the car. He lay motionless a few yards away, and to be honest, Nathan was glad. He didn’t exactly want the man to die, but he had kidnapped Nathan and gotten him into a car accident, so he didn’t care if the big guy was hurt. Nathan scanned the rest of the area and found a minivan a few feet in front of the crashed car. There was also one more thing that was odd. A wallet was lying in the middle of the road that looked a lot like his wallet. I might as well check it out on my way to the van, he thought. He found a way to his feet and began hopping, in his underwear with his butt in air, and yes, it
was
embarrassing. When he got halfway there, he stopped to grab the wallet as best he could. Then he heard a voice.

“Hurry up,” it
commanded.

The voice
was strangely familiar. Yes, he was sure he knew it.

“I said hurry up. C
ome on,” the voice said again, and this time Nathan recognized it.

Is that
Sam, he wondered. Great, first I ogle the girl, then I’m unable to speak to her, and finally, here I am hopping up to her in my boxers. Could this day get any weirder, he wondered. As he reached the car, she opened the passenger side door and motioned for him to get in. How am I supposed to do that, Nathan wondered. After seeing the predicament that Nathan was in, Sam got out and came around to his side. She quickly took a knife from her pocket and cut the bonds holding him. He immediately got into the van, and they sped away. After a minute of silence, Nathan spoke.

“Okay, what in the world is going on? I need some answers!”

“I’ll make you a deal. A question for a question,” Sam said.

“Fine, but I’m going to go first.” 

“Okay then, go ahead.” 

“Why in the world are these people after me?” 

“They probably think you’re involved in the same things I’m involved in. Now, do you have my flash drive?”

“N
o, not exactly. It’s probably on the way to Georgia right now. What are you involved in that I’m suspected of being involved in?” 

“I was investigating the company that your interview was at. Why is my flash drive on the way to Georgia?” Sam asked in a frustrated voice.

“It was password protected, and I have a friend who can unlock things like that. When he’s done, he’s supposed to send it back to me in the mail.”

“
So you do realize that you just made your friend the number one target for these people, don’t you?” 

“Kind of like you did to me, huh?” 

Sam looked angry and irritated at what he had just said to her, but she knew what he said was true. She felt guilty, but she didn’t know how to make the situation better now.

“I’m sorry
. That was a little bit harsh. Here, you can have the next question,” Nathan said. 

Her facial expression returned to normal.

“Why do you have a dog on your underpants?” Sam asked and laughed.

“I hones
tly don’t know, but this is pretty embarrassing. Where are we going, by the way? Please say to get some pants,” Nathan said while smiling.

“Yeah, I think
we should definitely get you some pants, and then I have a place where we can regroup and plan our next move.” 

On the way to get pants and then back to her hotel room, she told him some of the little details about why she was investigating a simple solar plant. Honestly, a lot of it was hard to believe, but who was he to say it wasn’t true? He had been kidnapped, been in a car ac
cident, and now he was sitting beside a beautiful woman in underwear decorated with a cartoon dog. Yeah, none of that seemed like it would be possible just a few hours ago.

* * * * *

Back at the crash scene, Trish woke in a daze. Her head was pounding and for a good reason. At the moment of impact, her head had hit the side window hard, knocking her unconscious. She turned and grabbed the door handle and forced the door open. Upon further investigation, she saw Jacob’s body laying a few feet away. He was motionless. Oh, great. I didn’t like the guy, but I didn’t really want him dead, she thought. She reached down to feel for a pulse, and then he stirred.

“God, my h
ead’s killing me,” Jacob said and moaned.

He had some pretty bad cuts and bruises
, but surprisingly, he had no critical injuries. After seeing that he was okay, Trish approached the trunk. It was open, and sure enough, Nathan Grey was gone.

“Damn it, h
e’s gone!” Trish shouted.

“What
?” Jacob asked while rising to his feet as quickly as he possibly could.

“We have to call Mr. Fields and get someone to pick us up
. Then we have to make a plan to pursue them,” Trish said in a much more calm tone than she had used before.

“Why? H
e couldn’t have gone that far. I had his hands tied to his feet. He has to be hopping around here somewhere.”

“Okay
, really think about it. We were run off the road by a car, and that car’s no longer here. Do I really have to spell out to you what just happened?” 

Suddenly
, Jacob remembered the car. Normally, he wouldn’t have been so stupid that he didn’t realize that Nathan had been rescued by whoever ran them off the road. Jacob was thrown from the car, and honestly, he was still very fuzzy from the crash. Because of this, he wasn’t able to think straight.

“Yeah
, I guess you’re right,” Jacob said while reaching into his pocket to get his phone.

He
made the call to Fields.

* * * * *

Once Sam and Nathan arrived back at the hotel, Sam felt a renewed sense of hope because now she at least had a location for where her most convincing, no, who was she kidding,
only
piece of evidence, was. Her new companion, on the other hand, seemed to be a little less enthused. The whole day had been a shock to him, and while initially he appeared to take all this pretty well, the grim reality of his situation was quickly starting to sink in. How else would a person react to so many things being thrown at them at once, Sam wondered. 

“This is us. Room 808,” Sam said.

As she opened the door, Nathan made a b-line straight for the bed and lay down. The day had been too much for him, and all he wanted to do was sleep. Within a few moments, that’s exactly what he was doing. Well, where am I supposed to sleep, Sam wondered. She then stepped out of the room and made a call to talk the situation over with Jason. After catching him up on everything that had happened, he spoke.

“The good news is that it actually looks lik
e you’re on to something. Now, for all the bad news. We aren’t going to be funding your trip to Georgia, if you go.  You also have to know that you’ll officially be looked at as a rogue agent if you go through with this. I won’t be able to cover for you on this one, and finally, and potentially the worst part, Agent Driver hasn’t reported in for the last twenty-four hours. Now, normally that wouldn’t concern me, but with everything new that’s happened and the fact that he’s always been very punctual about checking in between six and seven every night, I have cause for concern.”