Chapter Eight

Jason was in a taxi heading to Morton's shop when he received a call from Tony.

“What's up, Tony? Seems you're on time,” he praised.

“I always am,” Tony replied, somewhat impatiently. “Look, I can't talk long, so here it is. I narrowed down Carlos' position to 24 likely places...”

“What! That's not good enough, Tony. You gotta do better.”

“Easy, Ranger. 24 locations. That was before I took a huge risk by outsourcing. Don't ask me how, but I came up with two locations. Just so you know, I didn't get these through the FBI so... you know. That's all.”

“What are the locations?”, Jason demanded immediately.

“Sent them to you. One in Mexico, another here in California.”

“I just received Carlos' latest instructions and I think crossing the border is the general idea. Problem is, he wants to speak to his brother before we leave.”

Tony whistled. "So what are you gonna do about that part?”

“I'll figure something out," Jason breathed, scratching his idea-lacking head. How on Earth he was going to figure out something like this within such a short time frame was the puzzle of the century.

"You're sure this intel's good?”, he suddenly asked.

“Solid as ice. It's either California or Mexico, but since you're going with the latter...”

“Yeah. Thanks Tony. I'll be in touch.”

Jason didn't want to meet Morton at night, so he was quite glad when the taxi pulled over at the store just as the sun had begun to set. He tipped the driver and stepped out of the vehicle, but before his feet touched the ground, another call came in. It was Tony again.

“Any prob...”

“Hey, listen! Chrissie's on the line. She wants to talk to you. I'm running a trace already.”

“What! Put her on!”

“Dad, is that you?”, Chrissie asked over the phone, her voice sounding expectant.

“Yeah sweetheart, it's me! Where are you? Are you okay?”

“Well yeah. I'm uh.. in some weird box over here.”

“A box? Are you alone?”

“Yeah um.. someone just tossed in a phone and I tried to call you, but it didn't go through, so I tried the number you made me memorize back then.”

“Yeah I remember,” Jason whispered, glad that his foresight in making her memorize Tony's office number had paid off.

“Are you there, dad?”

“Yeah, yeah, I'm here. I'm glad you're okay. Now listen, you've been a very good girl so far and you've done fine, but you still need to hold on a little, okay? I'll be on my way in a minute. Have you any idea where exactly you are?”, he asked with bated breath. Everything would depend on her answer.

“No," Chrissie sighed, "just a box.. and a house couple steps away. And the whole place seems fenced too.”

“What kind of fence?”

“Uhh.. wires maybe.”

“Tony, did you get that?”

“Pulling up satellite coverage of the area now,” Tony called back.

“Hey honey, I've got to go now. Make sure to keep the phone safe. If possible, keep it silent, so it doesn't give you away, okay? I love you. Stay safe. I'll be there soon.”

“Okay dad. I love you too,” Chrissie breathed and then the line clicked off.

“So Tony, what have you got?”, Jason demanded of his friend.

“Uh.. it's actually the California location.”

“What exactly is there?”

“It's a wide area, officially abandoned. Fenced off, like she said. There's a single building alright and something like a security post, I think.”

“What's the best point of access?”

“From the south I think, it's closer to the road.”

“I'll take the North. You can keep an eye out for them on the road, but..”

“I gotta go now.. the assistant director - ”

The line clicked off and Jason wondered whether the assistant director had finally caught up with his friend. He needed Tony's assistance on this mission, but he wouldn't wait for him if he wasn't available. He didn't want the FBI involved in the rescue of his daughter for fear of them complicating things and putting her life at risk, but if they were to find out about it, he would work on getting his daughter safe and hope they score an extra point by finally getting Carlos.

Time was of the essence, so he left the alley he had ducked into when the call from Tony came and walked into Morton's store.

“You're late.. very late,” was Morton's greeting.

“Yeah," Jason shrugged, "thought the extra time would do you some good. Did you get everything?”

“Except the M110, but I've got the next be...”

“Forget it. Just get me a pair of night-vision and tough wirecutters.”

Morton wordlessly packed up the equipments and handed over the bag to Jason.

“Thanks Morton.”

“You can thank me by not coming back,” was the firm retort.

Jason didn't respond. He simply turned around and walked out.

*****

Chrissie was startled to find that the door of her box was being opened. It was getting dark outside and already pitch dark inside and she couldn't guess what they wanted with her at such an hour. Quickly hiding the phone in the hay, she crawled deeper into her corner and hugged her knees, willing herself to be invisible. The door was now wide open and she was more surprised than scared to hear a number of voices and a lot of torch beams sweeping about the box's interior. Before she could fully process the situation, two men with torches rushed into the box. They picked her up, each holding an arm and hurriedly led her outside, toward the building.

As they stepped into the building, she could hear Mr. Alvarez speaking in a loud and angry voice, but he was speaking in Spanish, so she couldn't understand a word he said. An elderly fellow came out to meet the men holding Chrissie and beckoned for them to come in. They obeyed and carried their charge into the room before retreating. The room was small and dark and it looked a little different to Chrissie from the way she saw it the last time she was in it, which was when she was brought in to speak to her father. The men had hardly stepped out of the room when Alvarez started bombarding her with questions.

“Did you see Clyde? What did he say to you? Where was he going, eh?”

“Clyde?”, Chrissie asked, surprised, but far from sad. “He said nothing to me and I have no idea where he is.”

“Don't hope for a rescue or you'll end up dead like him, you hear?”

“Clyde is dead?”, she gasped. Chrissie was shocked. She had thought he escaped.

“Oh yes! Dead and useless to you and whoever sent him to infiltrate my organization!”

“The boy has been acting funny for some time even before the girl came,” observed the elderly man that had beckoned for Chrissie to be brought in.

“Shut up, Mauricio,” Carlos clipped. “I never asked your opinion.”

“Yes senõr,” the man mumbled, with a respectful bow and subsequently kept quiet.

“Now you,” Carlos turned to Chrissie. “You never leave my sight. You stay here till tomorrow. Give us trouble and I'll tie you up myself. Understood?”

Chrissie could do nothing but nod. But deep down, she was scared to death. Earlier, she had resigned herself to spending the night in the box and for what it was worth, she felt more comfortable there. Staying in the same room with Alvarez was very far from savory to her. A cold shiver ran down her spine as she imagined the thousand horrible things this man could do to her. Where the hell's my dad, she wondered. She could only hope that he comes fast enough.