New York. Lyndon tower; 10/12/2012. 08:25.
"That opportunistic little shit!" Diane shouted angrily.
The mother and daughter pair were meeting in the office of Robert, Mary telling her what happened last night after her meeting with Bryan Bones ended.
"You should have called me the second it happened Mary!" Diane said disapprovingly at her daughter.
"I had it handled so no, I should not have. You needed to rest mom." She said, frowning, not liking the tone of her mother.
"You mean you got the hacker girl to handle it." She corrected.
"Yes, Nathaniel put her under my command while he is away, I'm glad he did it by the way." She said, a hint of pride in her voice.
"Do you have news of him by the way?" She asked, concerned.
"No but it did warn me it would happen, if anyone can bring back dad, it's him." She said confidently.
"You're still hell bent on not telling me how he had a direct line to the President of the United States or how he knew things that he shouldn't and can do things that he should not be able to do?" She sighed.
"Mom, we talked about this. This is not my place to say, he told you he will explain once he is back with dad, you just have to wait."
"I hate waiting, you should know that by now." She grumbled.
"Oh trust me, I know." Mary answered, making a grimace.
At that moment, the cellphone of Diane starts ringing. Looking at the caller ID, she paled visibly.
"What is going on mom?" Mary asked.
"This is them." Diane said, accepting the call. "Hello?"
"Ah Madam Lyndon, glad you answered so quickly to the phone." A man said with a heavy accented english.
"Khalid, I want to talk with my husband!" Diane shouted.
"Look at you making demands like that. Do I need to remind you who holds the power here? Maybe beating your husband up while you can hear him would satisfy you?" He said in a dark tone.
"No! Please, no! Don't hurt him please!" Diane almost begged on the phone.
"I like that attitude better." He said with a self satisfied tone that left Diane wanting to smash his head open. "I'm going to pass him the phone. Be nice and do not talk about anything that would make me angry or you know what is going to happen." He threatened.
After hearing movement on the phone, she heard the voice of her husband and put him on speaker so that both of them could hear him.
"Hello dear." The voice of Robert said, Diane and Mary could tell that he was tired.
"Dad, are you alright?" Mary asks with worry in her voice.
"Ah, Mary." He said, hearing a smile on his face. "Yes, I'm just tired, they get their rocks off from preventing me from sleeping. Don't know why they're doing it however." He said.
"Don't worry dear, we are going to get you back, we miss you, I miss you." She said with emotion.
"I miss you too, even that annoying grandson of mine." He said with a tired laugh. "What is he doing right now by the way?"
Exchanging a look, Mary answered.
"He's busy with homework right now but I know he's thinking about you a lot."
"If that ain't cute." Khalid said on the voice with sarcasm. "Now that you know he's alright, we can go to the next phase. You have my money right?" He asked.
Looking at each other again, Mary nodded. They did not have the money as Nathaniel refused to even consider it but he had told her to lie when Khalid was going to ask her about it before leaving.
"Yes, we got it." Diane answered with conflicted emotions on her face.
"Good. In three hours a flight is going to take off from JFK to Riyadh, the flight number is BG 2168. One of our people will take the money and put it in a yellow suitcase and take that flight. Once arrived, I will make sure the suitcase is not inspected by security and my mens will pick him up and lead him to me. After that, we will trade the money with your husband and everybody goes their separate ways. Do you understand Madam Lyndon?"
"Yes, I understand. We will do as you say." Diane said, sounding defeated.
"Good." He said, hanging up.
Once the man had hung up, Mary did not lose time and dialed Nathaniel's number.
"Yes mom?" He said in an emotionless voice that made her skin crawl.
"Sweetie, they called us."
"Oh good, what did he say?"
"He wants one of our people to take the next flight with the money to Riyadh. After that, his people would take our men to him and Robert and then made the trade. What are you going to do sweetie? We don't have the money."
"Don't worry mom, I will handle everything." He said, reassuringly.
"Nathaniel! I want my husband back!" Cried Diane over the phone. "Just let me give the money to them, please. I'm not cut out for that kind of thing, I don't even know where Riyadh is located!"
"Riyadh is Saudi Arabia Capital grandma."
"And how do you even know that?" She shouted irritatedly.
"Because I'm there right now." He answered, making the two womens in the room gaped.