Chapter Three

Lynn was the widowed mother of Alyssa, making her Chrissie's maternal grandmother. She was former HHS Secretary, Acting National Security Adviser and now a Senator serving her first term. With stubbornness bordering on obstinacy, Jason knew first-hand how tough she could be and how well a fight she could easily put up. He wondered what terrorists wanted with her, but the thought that they could mean to kill her made his blood run cold. They weren't friends, not at all. They had avoided each other long before Chrissie was born, though the girl knew her grandmother fairly well, but now Jason felt it his duty to put all of his energy into her rescue.

Speeding through the streets as his heart beat fast and hard, he prayed that he was not already too late. Though Tony had said the abduction had just been carried out, he wasn't in the habit of underestimating the surprise capabilities of terrorists. He had to think in terms of quick and intelligent action, but first, his house must be put in order.

“Hello Jason,” Tracy shouted over the phone.

“Hi Tracy, everything okay? What's that noise?”

“The waves! Crashing all about!”

“Oh. Hope the boys are safe and dry?”

“Yeah. We're heading higher up the beach. What's up? Any news... Hey Harry, come back here!”

“No, not really," he coughed, hoping she didn't detect the lie. "Just wanted to know when you...”

“Orville! Keep yourself in line! Sorry Jason, what were you saying again?”

“I said I wanted to know when you guys would return. Those boys are stressing you a lot, aren't they?”

“You don't know the half of it. Anyway, we'll be back by tomorrow.. next tomorrow latest.”

“I'd appreciate it very much if you guys could make it tomorrow...”

“Orville.. I'm warning you! Please Jason, I'm listening.”

“Well, I just want someone to stay with Chrissie is all.”

“In that case, we might come earlier. I'm sure the boys will love it.”

“'Course they would," he chuckled. "Piranhas like them. Say hi to them for me, will ya? Thanks a lot. I owe you one.”

“And I'll surely collect.”

With a laugh that sounded fake to him, he disconnected the call and breathed a huge sigh of relief. That went well. Maybe she would never find out that her mother had been kidnapped. Maybe this whole thing would roll over easily and everything would get back to normal. It was just a wish, but who said miracles didn't happen! For now, he would just have to take one good step at a time and hope for the best while preparing for the worst. With another sigh, he switched his focus to driving the few hundred metres to his house. He had made up his mind to go all out to try and rescue Lynn with help from Tony and anyone else he could count on, but not the FBI. He didn't trust the Bureau to move fast enough or handle things the way he would want them to be handled. The issue of company for Chrissie was now settled and by tomorrow, the Duncans would arrive. They would keep her busy until his return. Ever since the Alvarez incident, Chrissie had distanced herself from her old friends. It was very evident when they returned to California recently. Being alone with no one around the house to talk to and with the not-fully-healed wounds from the breakup with Clyde, Jason feared he might come back to find her worse than ever. Thank God for the existence of the trusted Duncans, whom he had just paid in advance with a lie. Oh God, help me solve this whole thing quickly, he prayed as he swung the car into the parking space in front of their home.

Jason walked into the house with what he considered to be casual urgency. The last thing he wanted to do was alarm his daughter.

“Pretty early, aren't you?”, Chrissie asked as she heard him come in. She was reading a book on the sofa while the playful Mirry struggled to keep her balance walking on the back of the same sofa.

“Got a disturbing call.”

“Everything okay?”, she asked immediately, with a concerned look on her face.

“Oh, no much problem. Just a distant relative of mine in Oakland who's seriously sick. I just need to see him immediately.”

“Oh. Sorry about that.”

“Yeah. I'm gonna be leaving immediately, you know. Sure you'll be comfortable alone?”

“Why not? I'm not a child, dad.”

“You are my child, Sie,” he whispered, bending to kiss her forehead.

“I'm not your child,” Chrissie returned, pushing him away. “Neither is my name Sie. I'm your daughter, Chrissie Anabelle Marie Raids. Get that into your large head.”

“No problem, my dear. But a large-headed man gives birth to a...”

“Don't you dare complete the sentence.”

“Ay ay, Sie,” he said as he walked off to his room.

“You seem to love daring me! One of these days, I'll set Mirry on you,” she called after him.

“I'll just catch her and lock her up in my top drawer,” he shot back.

Picking his favourite and fastest Audi, Jason zoomed away from home. To where? He had no idea yet. He just needed a quiet place to plan a proper course of action. Driving as far out as possible, he found a restaurant in an area where he knew nobody and nobody knew him. There he sat and ordered something to eat. But before he could take his first bite, Tony called.

“So tell me everything about the abduction from start to finish,” Jason demanded.

“She was invited to attend an event by a close friend, that's where she was spirited away.”

“How do you mean? How did it happen?”

“It was simple but smart. You've gotta give it to these far-Righty nutjobs. The place was quite crowdy, then a little scuffle occurred. The next second, her detail could not find her. It was just like she vanished.”

“Just like the distraction.”

“Exactly.”

“Where's that friend who invited her?”

“Here with us. Claims she doesn't know a thing. She was at the event, but she says she never invited Webbs.”

“Maybe she forgot,” Jason said, his mind flashing to an old family friend who had a memory like a basket full of water. “What's her age? Is she on any sort of medication or some hidden condition or...”

“I think she's telling the truth,” Tony said shortly.

“Really? Explain.”

“Webbs was lured alright, but I don't think she had a hand in it. There's quite some irregularities in this case that I wouldn't wanna bug you with, so I'll go straight to what I found.”

“I'm listening,” Jason replied, his body and soul all concentrated.

“Webbs received the invite message at 4:30 the previous day...”

Suddenly, there was silence from Tony's end and Jason thought the connection was lost. He looked at his phone and found that the connection was still on, but yet, no word from his friend.

“Tony, are you there?”

No answer. Then he heard a tune being whistled and greetings exchanged. Jason now knew it was not safe to talk.

“Yeah. Where were we?”, Tony asked after a few more seconds of silence.

“About Lynn getting the message at 4, I think.”

“4:30 it was. But around that time, cameras put Mrs. Bland... I mean, the friend, getting into her car and a taxi stopping at the building. Taxi drops a man who goes into Bland's building. Now, I talked to the building manager. He doesn't know the man, never seen her.. him before.”

“O.. kay,” Jason dragged. “So what you're...”

“Here's the fun part. The man leaves some minutes later and grabs a cab. Something tells me to zoom in on Mystery Man and voila! Our dear man is a clever woman disguised as a guy.”

“Wow. So you got an ID?”, he asked expectantly.

“Unfortunately, no. Just could not, at least not yet, but...”

“Tony, how was the message received?”

“Social media. Why?”

“Then Bland could have used her phone...”

“Or Mystery Man-Woman used her computer.”

“Right. Have you passed this on to the assistant director?”

“He shooed me off. Bland seems big enough meat for the intended sacrifice.”

“Then you've got to convince him, To...”

“Pfff,” Tony scoffed. “I'll only get my ass fired. The guy's under immense pressure to find Webbs, so his confused and overstressed brain has no choice but to hold on to the most concrete thing at hand which happens to be poor Bland.”

“Then we've gotta handle this ourselves,” Jason sighed, running his hand through his hair.

“Yep. Won't be easy though. I've got unrelated tasks here.” “What!”, Jason was surprised. “Aren't you working the abduction?”

“I'm not as powerful as I used to be,” Tony said wistfully. “Boss has got some big boy analysts who are acting as beaters on his wild goose chase.”

“Then you've gotta be careful, man. Can't afford to lose contact with you while Lynn's still missing... But you never told me how you found out that it was a terrorist job.”

“Oh, that? Some ghost of a far-Right group sent Webbs an ultimatum couple of weeks back to stop backing and promoting stuff like Planned Parenthood and LGBT rights, offering her a quiet death in return. Webbs ignored it of course, but after the abduction, their flag, badge or whatever, was found on her car, tucked in front.”

“Not quite a popular MO for such folks.”

“I'm guessing it's the Women's Division.”

“Really?”, Jason chuckled in spite of himself. “Stay on task, Tony. Try to find Mrs. Mystery Man and call me when you have something.”

“Willdo.”

“Thanks, Tony.. for letting me know.”

“Don't mention. We're friends. What are friends for? Anyway, I've got a stake in this too, you know. Anyone dear to my Chrissie is dear to me too. How's she, anyway?”

“Keep dreaming,” Jason scoffed and disconnected the call. He quickly returned to his already lukewarm food. As he ate, he decided to read up on his late wife's mother. He knew quite enough about her personal life, but very little about her political/professional life.

Browsing through her history and education, he found that she had a degree in nursing and one or two Masters in few other courses. During her time in government, she was an ardent left-wing supporter of controversial women's matters like abortion rights and also the American military, being a vet herself. She believed in and constantly professed the necessity of total gender equality and women's rights, even going out of her way to step on toes she had no business stepping on.

After leaving the White House, she went into the private sector, but soon returned to politics, winning a seat for herself in the Senate. She was a widow with two daughters, only one of whom was currently alive and who still had no idea of her mother's abduction. He would never tell her anyway. That would be the mother's choice, that is if he would be able to rescue her. His heart beat faster as he thought of the challenge ahead. It was a tough one, but he had no choice but to overcome it. Failure wasn't an option!

The last time he went on a rescue mission, it was to recover his daughter from the evil clutches of Carlos Alvarez, but this time, it was his mother-in-law in the clutches of terrorists. Different cases require different handling. There was no room for mistakes and that meant he would need help, but not only from Tony. After texting Tony to send him everything he had on the terrorists, Jason left the restaurant and took the long drive to his frenemy's shop.