Jonathan and the rug cleaner carried the rug out of the house gently and put it in the truck.
"I’m going to ride along. Don’t want to take a chance with that rug."
The cleaner looked at him like he was crazy, but he agreed and got into the truck. Jonathan took one last look at the garage and got in the truck. He whispered "Good luck, I love you." To no one in particular as the truck pulled out of the driveway.
The garage door opened and Jennifer drove her car out. She made her way out of the gates and drove until she reached the highway. It seemed like hours before she reached the abandoned airfield. The only sign of life around was the private airplane sitting down the runway. Jennifer walked around to the trunk and opened it. She then helped Jessica climb out.
"I’m sure glad Mr. Stetson suggested the oxygen mask." Jessica said.
Jennifer smiled and linked arms with Jessica. Together they walked towards the airplane where Amanda and several other government agents were waiting for them.
Lee Stetson was sitting outside of the hotel in his rental car. He was watching the main doors when he saw Jonathan Hart enter the hotel. Lee cursed to himself, got out of his car and followed Jonathan into the hotel. He walked through the doors and looked around, but Jonathan was nowhere in sight. He decided to take a long shot and see if Jonathan was playing detective upstairs. He took the elevator up to the 7th floor, where Amanda had heard Hank and Tessa talking. He rounded the corner and saw Jonathan jimmying the lock to one of the doors with a nail file. Lee snuck up behind him, pulled out his lock pick and held it in front of Jonathan’s face. Jonathan jumped at the unexpected movement.
"Need some help?" Lee asked, frustrated.
Jonathan grinned, took the lock pick in his hand and said, "Sure" while he proceeded to pick the lock. The door opened with a squeak and the men walked inside.
"You know, Amanda saw them out in the hall, not in a room don’t you?" Lee asked.
"Yeah, and you know they were probably either leaving or returning."
"Sure, but there’s no way to know which room they were in."
"Amanda said they were standing outside room #456, right?"
"Yeah." Lee answered, a little perturbed. What did this guy know about spying? He was just a business tycoon.
"Just humor me." Jonathan said.
"I thought that’s what I’m doing." Lee said sarcastically.
Jonathan and Lee proceeded to look through every drawer and closet in the room. They were coming up empty when a thought occurred to Lee. He went over to the bed and lifted up the mattress.
"Aah, hah." Lee said as he pulled the manila folder out that had been revealed under the mattress.
"What is it?"
Lee was looking through the papers inside the folder intently. "I think there’s more to this then what’s going on at the Conservation Center." He stated.
"Why, what’s in the folder?" Jonathan asked.
Lee frowned as he handed the folder over to Jonathan. Jonathan looked through the pictures and his face only wore a mask of confusion. "These are inventories, animal inventories. They’re probably from the Conservation Center. Why would someone kill two people and threaten Jessica over a list of animals?"
"I don’t know, but look at this one." Lee said as he took the folder and pulled out one of the papers. He pointed to an animal listed as Species #92899UN. "All the other animals have descriptions, names, even pictures. This one has a number and it’s not mentioned again."
"But this is just a list of all the animals at the Conservation Center, why would they steal it. Unless, it has to do with our friend #92899UN." Jonathan said, thinking aloud.
"Exactly." Lee agreed. "We have to find out what animal it is and why it’s not named or otherwise mentioned. It’s not even mentioned in the list of food they buy for each species. Either 92899UN doesn’t get fed or they’ve lumped it in with another species."
"We have to get back into the Conservation Center."
"No problem, come on." Lee put the folder back under the mattress and they straightened up the room before leaving the hotel.
Amanda’s car pulled into the driveway. She and her passengers got out of the car and walked into the house. It wasn’t a large house, but it wasn’t small either. It was an old farmhouse that had been renovated and refurbished as a present from Lee. When she found out she was pregnant with their daughter, they knew they’d need to find another place to live. Amanda fell in love with the farmhouse immediately and Lee liked nothing more then to make her happy.
"So, how long were you married before you had to let the cat out of the bag, so to speak?" Jennifer asked.
"Not even an entire year. We could pull off a secret marriage, but we knew it’d be impossible to pull off a secret pregnancy."
"Unbelievable." Jennifer smiled.
"That’s what my mother said." Amanda giggled.
Amanda, Jennifer and Jessica where standing in the foyer. They had just put down the suitcases when a young girl, with curly brown hair and big blue eyes came into the room followed by a smaller boy who looked to be a miniature version of his father.
"Hey, there’re my babies." Amanda cooed as the children ran to her to welcome her home. She pulled them both into hugs. "Where’s your grandmother?"
"Right here." Dotty West called from the adjacent kitchen. Dotty smiled and walked over to hug her daughter. "Welcome back, darling." The children stood shyly beside their mother.
"Thanks, how were they?"
"Angels, of course. Now, I need to get home, you don’t need me anymore today do you? Because, if you do, I can…" Dotty started babbling.
Amanda cut her off. "No, mother that’s fine. See you soon." Amanda kissed her mother on the cheek. Dotty whispered "I Love You" and gave Jennifer and Jessica a confused stare as she left the house.
"Kids, I want you to meet some people. They’re going to be staying with us for awhile." Amanda said.
"This is Mrs. Jennifer Hart and her daughter Jessica." Amanda pushed the boy and girl over to stand closer to Jennifer and Jessica. "Jennifer, Jessica, these are my children, Anna and Eric."
"Hi there." Jennifer said. "How old are you?"
"I’m twelve, he’s eight." Anna answered. "How old are you?" she asked Jessica.
"Sixteen."
"Anna, we were hoping you’d let Jessica share your room while she’s here…ok?" Amanda asked.
Anna shrugged her shoulders. "Sure." She said. "Come on up." Jessica grabbed her suitcase and followed Anna up the stairs.
"Do I haveta share my room with her?" Eric asked, indicating Jennifer. His eyes were wide with anger. There was no way he was going to let a girl in his room.
"No, sweetheart, she’ll stay in the guest room." Amanda said, hiding her smile.
"Good." Eric said. "I’m gonna go play outside."
"Okay, have fun." Amanda called as Eric walked out of the house. As soon as he was out of earshot both Jennifer and Amanda cracked up with laughter.
"Are you sure?" Tessa asked.
"Of course I’m sure. She’s gone, they snuck her out somehow." Hank replied, angrily.
"I thought you said you were watching the house!"
"I was." Hank looked sheepish. "They tricked me with a rug."
"A what? Never mind, I don’t want to know. We have to find her!" Tessa yelled.
"I think I know where they’ve taken her."
Tessa grinned. "Well, now that’s different." Tessa put her arm around Hank and she walked him to the couch. "Sit…and talk."
Evening rolled onto the Virginia hills quietly and without fanfare. Dinner had been served and eaten and now, Amanda sat in her library talking with Jennifer. Anna and Jessica had gone upstairs to bed only moments before. Eric had fallen asleep on the couch, his head lying gently on his mother’s lap.
"He’s so peaceful now, you’d never believe he’d just terrorized two teenagers, fought a war, saved the damsel in distress and stormed the trenches all in time for dinner." Amanda said as she absently stroked her son’s head.
Jennifer laughed. She was looking at a picture that sat on the end table beside the couch. "Who are they?" she pointed to a picture of two grown young men.
"My sons, Phillip and Jaime." Amanda smiled, wistfully. "Jaime’s in college in Pennsylvania. Phillip’s in graduate school. I think he’s going to be a chemist…he always has liked to blow things up." Amanda paused and laughed nervously. "I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. I’ve only known you a couple days and you already know most of my life story. I hardly know a thing about you. Got any deep dark secrets?"
Jennifer laughed. "Hah, no, not really."
"It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me anything. I’m just being nosy."
"No, it’s okay. I really don’t have any secrets. Although, I could tell you about Jessica."
"Jessica? She’s your daughter."
"Yes, but she hasn’t always been. And in order to tell this story, I have to start at the beginning…with Max."
Jessica watched as Anna came back into the bedroom. They had both just finished preparing for bed. Jessica was sitting on Anna’s bed reading a book. Anna grabbed her copy of Anne of Green Gables and sat down next to Jessica.
"What are you reading?" Anna asked.
"The Accidental Tourist." Jessica closed the book with a sigh. "This has got to be the most boring book I’ve ever laid eyes on."
"Then why are you reading it?"
"I’m doing a paper on Anne Tyler. I think I’ll just read the back of the book and the last couple pages."
Anna giggled.
Jessica looked at the book Anna was reading. "Anne of Green Gables? I read that a couple years ago."
"Me too. I’ve read it a million times. I love it." Anna smiled. "What are you thinking about?" she asked when she noticed Jessica’s pensive stare.
"Nothing." Jessica looked back down at the book, but she didn’t open it.
"Come on, I won’t tell anyone."
"Really?" Jessica asked.
"Pinky swear." Anna smiled and Jessica linked pinkies with her.
"I saw something and it got a man killed."
Anna’s jaw dropped. "You’re kidding?"
Jessica shook her head no. "Do you believe in Unicorns?"
"I’m not sure. I used to." Anna answered quietly.
"I do. I’ve seen one."
Lee and Jonathan were skulking around the basement of the Conservation Center. Night had fallen hours ago and no one was left in the building. They had gotten in through a basement window that was just above ground level. It was the same way Lee and Amanda had gotten in here before. Now, he and Jonathan were making their way to the stairs. They needed to get to the area where the animals were. First they needed to find something that would tell them how the animals were organized. It wouldn’t work to be searching the entire center all night. So, they made their way to Kevin’s office. Lee opened the door and whispered "Watch out, there was a cage in the middle of the floor last time I was in here." The little flashlight Lee carried didn’t add much light to the room.
Jonathan didn’t answer him as he entered the office and headed for the file cabinet. Lee searched the desk. Both came up with nothing. They couldn’t find any reference to species #92899UN."
Jonathan started to move towards the desk, however he tripped over a cage. "That the cage you meant?" he asked.
"Yeah, that’s it." Lee grinned.
Jonathan picked it up and sat it on the desk. "Why would a cage be in here?" He wondered.
"Well, Kevin did work with animals."
"Yeah, but not in his office." Jonathan said as he opened the cage. The cage was a regular cage, with bars on 3 sides and a solid floor. The floor was about 4 inches thick. Lee took the cage and began to feel along its floor.
"What are you looking for?"
Lee didn’t answer him, but he didn’t need to, for as soon as the question was asked Lee had popped open a secret compartment in the cage. Lee reached in and pulled out a book.
"It looks like a journal of some sort." Lee said.
"Open it up." Jonathan suggested.
Lee began to read the first page and then skimmed through a few pages before he found an interesting passage. "It’s a trainer’s journal. He talks about feeding schedules and exercising the animals and breeding for the most part. Then he starts to digress. He found something…he doesn’t go into specifics."
"A mutation?"
"Yeah, maybe it seems like he was breeding some palominos and he ordered a group of new horses to breed with the one’s already here. One of the horses could have had a mutated gene."
"Does he say what it was?"
"No, wait, he mentions Jessica in here."
"What?"
"I thought you said you never knew Kevin." Lee asked.
"I didn’t."
"Jessica did. It says here she’d been helping him take care of the horses. Did you know she was spending so much time here?"
"No, I knew she liked to visit the animals, but I had no idea."
"The last entry is dated the day he died."
"What does it say?" Jonathan asked.
"Jessica says she knows what 92899UN is. I’ve asked her to come and see me today."
"That’s it?"
Lee nodded his head. "I think Jessica is the key to all this. She must know more then she’s told us."
"I don’t understand why she wouldn’t talk to me or Jennifer about what she’s been doing."
"Well, she is sixteen. Maybe she’s trying to exert her independence. Be grateful…working with horses secretly is a much better way to rebel then the ways I chose."
"Yeah. Come on, let’s get out of here."
Lee tucked the journal in his jacket and he and Jonathan left the office and the conservation center without anyone knowing they were there.
Hank and Tessa watched the old farmhouse from a distance. They had been there since dawn and everything was quiet so far. The people inside the house were just beginning to wake up and move around.
"How’d you know where she was?" Tessa asked.
"I found Jennifer Hart’s car at Acer Airport."
"That place has been deserted for years."
"Decades, so it wasn’t too hard to track down the flight plan of the only plane to take off from Acer Airport in 18 years."
Tessa smiled evilly. "So, now we just have to get the girl away from the rest of them."
"I have a plan."
"Well, Hank, if it’s as good as your plan to find her, I’m all ears."
Lee and Jonathan arrived at the airport right after breakfast. They wanted to arrive in Virginia within the day. They knew Jessica had information they needed.
"I called Amanda, they’re going to take a picnic to the lake and we’re to meet them there."
"Good. Did you tell her about the journal?"
"Yeah, she says Jessica hasn’t said much to her or Jennifer for that matter, but that she and Annie are stuck to each other like glue."
"Really?" Jonathan questioned. "The little sister she’s never had kind of thing?"
"Maybe, or maybe Jessica told Anna what she knows."
Amanda, Jennifer and the three kids arrived at the park by the lake by afternoon. Amanda and Jennifer were setting up the picnic table. Jessica and Anna had set up a blanket under a shade tree and were watching the boats in the lake. Eric was playing with his ball when he saw his brother, Jaime heading towards him.
"Jaime!" he yelled as he ran towards him. Amanda smiled and walked over to her sons.
Jessica looked up to see what all the commotion was. Her breath stopped when she saw a very handsome young man talking to Amanda and Jennifer. Eric had run off to get his ball again. "Who is that?" she asked.
"Oh, that’s my brother, Jaime." Anna answered.
"He’s quite a hunk."
"Eww. No, he isn’t, he’s my brother! Besides he’s way too old for you." Anna said.
Jessica laughed. "Come on, introduce me."
Jessica and Anna walked over and joined their mothers who were talking to Jaime.
Hank and Tessa watched the entire scene with great interest.
"I think it’s time for a change in plans." Tessa said.
"What?"
Tessa looked at Eric who was coming closer to them with his ball. No one was paying attention to him, as they were too involved with the arrival of Jaime King. Tessa paused and waited, and then when Eric was close enough she reached out and grabbed him. She had her hand over his mouth quickly, but he still managed to yell for his mother. Hank grabbed the boy and he and Tessa started running. Amanda, Jennifer and Jaime were running to catch up to them. Tessa and Hank jumped in their car and drove off before anyone could catch them.
Lee and Jonathan were walking towards the picnic area when they saw Jessica and Anna running towards them. Anna was crying and Lee and Jonathan ran to meet them. Lee took Anna in his arms.
"What’s going on?" Lee asked.
"Some people, they grabbed Eric." Jessica said.
Lee let go of Anna and ran to the picnic area. He stopped in his tracks when he saw his wife sitting on the ground in Jaime’s arms. Lee ran and pulled Amanda into his arms.
"What happened?" He asked.
"They took him. They took our baby." Amanda cried.
Lee held his wife securely in his arms. "Who? Who took him?"
"I don’t know." Amanda said through her tears.
"It was a man and a woman." Jessica said quietly.
"Did you see them? Do you think you could identify them?" Lee asked.
"Maybe, they were running pretty fast."
"Lee, we should get the police." Jonathan suggested.
Lee and Amanda both nodded their heads solemnly. Jaime held onto his little sister as they watched their mother’s heart breaking.
(Ci)
"We’ll do everything we can to get him back for you Amanda...Lee...everything."
"Thanks Jonathan, Jennifer." No words could be found for their loss.
"Are you hungry?" It had been a while since Hank was actually with a child much less taking care of one. He had a little boy too; Henry Jr. would be about 13 now. Hank hadn’t seen him since he was about Eric’s age. "Thirsty?"
"I WANT MY MOMMY!"
"Look kid. It will only be for a little while. If you don’t shut up, I’m gonna make you!" Tessa only wanted to spend enough time with this kid to get the other.
"Tessa you’re scaring him!"
"I don’t want no more outbursts, do you hear me?" Eric stared in disbelief that all this was happening. He could feel the mean man was more caring of him than the mean lady. He began to quietly whimper, "Mister, I just want to go back home. To my mom and dad...please"
"I know you do," Stroking his hair to reassure him he wasn’t going to let Tessa hurt him. "And if they play their cards right, you can go back very soon."
"But what if they don’t?"
"Let’s hope they do. Now you sit here quietly and don’t move. I’m going to the next room to find out how to get you home sooner. Okay?"
"Okay...okay I’ll sit here like you said."
"That’s a good boy."
Hank was so angry with Tessa for making him do this! "It’s not him we wanted Tessa!"
"Then it’s what we’ll have to settle with."
"How sure are you that the Harts will turn over their daughter in exchange for this child? I think you’ve done it now Tessa!"
"I’m so sick and tired of hearing you tell me what you think I should do! Once we cash in with Species #92899UN we’ll be set. Monday at approximately 3pm, we get our money. If you don’t quit haggling me, I’ll make it that you don’t see a penny of it."
"You wouldn’t dare! I’m the one who found out what Kevin was doing! How dare you threaten me!"
Realizing she still needed Hank for the rest of her plan to be carried out, she was going to have to hear him out. For a while though, only for a while. Hank saw the look on her face. It would only be a matter of time before he was eliminated.
"Look Tessa, whatever you want to do. I’m taking the kid to get something to eat."
"Yeah, that’s a good idea. Grab me a bite would-cha?"
"Be back shortly."
He had to get out of there and get this kid back to the farm. If Tessa didn’t have any proof of how the experiment was done, they’d never pay her and have to deal directly with him. After all, it was he who over heard Kevin and the Jessica talking about it. He brought it to Tessa’s attention! He then could pay off the loan shark he borrowed the money from to get working on this project. He had to get to Daston’s lab journal and get out of town.
