Chapter Twenty-Eight
had no idea how long I'd been laying on the cold metal surface trying to figure out how I could loosen the straps that held my arms down. Every time I wriggled, the guard cleared his throat as if to warn me against moving around. I had just shifted my attention to trying to figure where I was and how to escape when I heard the sound of a door opening. I listened carefully and heard the sound of footsteps coming toward me on the tile floor as I craned my neck to try and catch a glimpse of the person crossing the room. The person was dressed in all black from head to toe making it impossible to tell if it was a man or a woman. Ignoring me, the person went straight for the area behind me quickly moving out of my view.
"Hello?" I called. "Excuse me, I think you've got the wrong person."
"Shut the hell up, missy," the goon who'd been guarding me growled. "I'm not gonna tell you again."
"This is all a mistake," I said trying to regulate my breathing so that I didn't sound as panicked as I felt. There was something that told me I might be able to appeal to the new guy by reasoning with him. "I didn't do anything, and I have no idea why I'm being held prisoner here. Can you at least tell me why I'm here?"
"Lady, I'm not going to tell you again," came the response from the guard. "Shut your fuckin' mouth or I will shut it for you!"
I weighed my options and decided that being quiet was probably the best choice at this point. So, I lay absolutely still and listened for any sounds coming from the two men behind me. I could hear low whispering, but I couldn't make out any distinct words. It was maddening not to understand what was going on or why they were holding me. And then, out of the low murmuring, I heard two things. Lab. Hard drive.
I inhaled sharply and held my breath as I listened for more words, but they'd stopped talking. The man in the dark clothing walked toward me, then stopped somewhere behind me out of my sight line. I tried to tip my head and get a look at him, but he was smart enough to say out of my sight.
"We want that hard drive," the voice whispered. It sounded vaguely familiar, but the whispering and something else masked the identifiers. "Give us the hard drive and we let you go."
"I know what you're talking about," I replied recalling Dr. Powell's instance that the files find their way to the right people. Instinctively, I knew that these were definitely not the people he had mentioned. "I don't have anything! I was fired from my job, so I don't even have access to anything."
"Don't lie to us," the voice rasped. "We know you have the hard drive. Give it to us."
"You're asking for the impossible," I said as I twisted in my restraints as I tried to get a look at my captor. "I don't know what you want!"
"Don't play stupid with me, little girl," the voice said in my ear the person wrapped a hand around my throat and squeezed hard enough to make my eyes bulge as he cut off my air supply. "I'm not kidding when I say that I want what it is you have. I know you have it, and unless you give it to me, I'm going to deny you air."
I was thrashing in my restraints as I tried to get my hands loose so I could claw his fingers from my throat, but it was to no avail. He was demonstrating that he had all the power and I had none.
"I...I...I..." I gasped trying to form words in the absence of air. Easing the grip on my throat, the captor allowed a small stream of oxygen trickled into my lungs before cutting it off again. I choked out, "I don't...have...drive...still...looking..."
"You don't know where it is?" the voice whispered inches from my left ear while loosening the grip a bit. I struggled to draw air into my lungs and form words.
"No," I gasped as I felt a tiny flow of air entering my lungs. Something about the voice was oddly familiar, but my primary goal was to ensure that I kept breathing, "Didn't locate it."
"You are going to need to find it," the voice hissed. "What do you need to find it?'
"Computer," I gasped as he suddenly let go of my throat and backed away. "I need a computer! And server access!"
My brain was spinning from the lack of oxygen and the understanding that I was going to have to bluff my way out of the restraints if I had any hope of escaping these goons. I knew that the files were safely stored off the server on a hard drive I had tucked away in a safe place in my apartment, but they didn't. And since I had no idea where the hard drive that continued the rest of Dr. Powell's files was, I was going to have to figure out a way to fool them into thinking I was giving them what they wanted. I wasn't sure how I was going to do that, but I decided to take each thing step by step; first the restraints, then I'd worry about everything else as it came.
There was still a small part of me that hoped Ryan or Cece would figure out where I was before things got really bad and that they would swoop in and rescue me at the eleventh hour. However, I also knew that counting on that to happen was pure foolishness, so I began formulating my backup plan.