Matt flung the door open with almost enough force to pull it off its hinges. He flicked on the light and went down the stairs two at a time. At the bottom he stopped and looked both ways down the halls. It was dank and musty in the basement, and everything had a bluish-black haze around it. It looked like your typical spooky underground passage.
"Which way?" Peter asked, looking around the corner nearby.
"I don't know." Matt took his com link from his pocket and put it on, signaling Anton and Peter to do the same. "Lindsay?" he asked into the microphone.
"Yeah?" her voice came through full of static, interruption from the machines and pipes.
"Ask Emily if she knows where the boy might be hiding."
Lindsay's voice could faintly be heard as she asked Mrs. Hunntersen Matt's question. "Try the main control room," she spoke to her boss, "if they're not there, try the secondary power room. They're the noisiest, they wouldn't be heard from in either of those places."
"Thanks." Matt signaled his elders to follow him in his search for the control room. 
"Shit!" Matt said loudly from inside the control room. The three had decided not to split up to reduce chances of being overpowered by Jaime, if they found him. Anton and Peter waited just outside the door for Matt to come back out.
"That's it, I'm going to check the power rooms," Peter said to Anton, and left before Matt came out of the control room.
"Peter!" Anton called after him, but Peter didn't look back as he ran down the hall.
Peter pulled open the door to the secondary power room and nearly got hit in the head with a flying piece of copper pipe. It ricocheted off the metal door and bashed him in the left knee. He fell to his right knee and pulled himself out of his assailant's line of fire. He took the com link from his ear and yelled 'SHIT!' almost as loud as he could. He stuck the small device in his jacket pocket and stood up.
He could faintly hear Matt and Anton calling for Natascha and occasionally for him, but didn't say anything back for fear of revealing his position. He didn't exactly fancy having more pipes thrown at him.
"Jaime, I'm coming in," Peter called out loud enough so that the boy inside the power room could hear him. After getting no response, he stepped into the large room.
"Where the hell did he go?" Matt asked, more to himself than anyone else.
Anton didn't say anything, just looked around for a sign of the three people they were searching for.
Jaime heard Peter come into the room and shuffled backwards, keeping Natascha in his grip. He had put a cloth through her mouth to make sure she made no noise, and had the blade to her throat. She made small pleading noises, but nothing more.
Jaime pulled her to the corner of the room, behind a couple of generators. Sick of the noise they were making, he pulled the plugs out of the wall, and the room instantly went quiet.
The room was silent. He must have stopped the generators, Peter thought. He inched closer to the back of the room, holding the piece of pipe that had been thrown at him before, cherishing it as his only protection. He could faintly hear a kind of squeaking noise from the back of the room, and followed it, suspecting that might be Nat. It could be Jaime for all he knew.
He came across the two 'kids' sitting on the floor at the back of the room. He took the com link out of his pocket and said into the mike, "I found them. Power room two," before putting it back.
"Don't come any closer," the young man warned him, and Peter's eyes darted to the shaky hand holding the knife at the girl's throat.
"Alright man, whatever you want," Peter replied, putting the pipe on the floor. "Why aren't you waiting for the money?"
"Do you think I'm that dumb? One of my friends is waiting for it. He gets the money, calls me, and I let her go."
"Why don't we try to work this out?"
"To hell with working it out!" Jaime said while leaping at Peter, leaving Nat sitting on the floor. The girl backed away into the corner as much as she could as she watched the two men battle it out.
"Matt Praeger?" one of the police officers asked, walking up.
"Yes. You're here, finally. We've got a kidnapper down there with his hostage and a member of my team," Matt replied nervously. "They're in the second power room."
"Alright, I'll send some of my men down. "He signaled two other officers to go into the school basement and another three to evacuate everyone.
Peter's back crashed against a generator as Jaime lunged at him. A sharp pain shot up and down his spine as a knob pressed into it, and he was punched in the face. Kicking out, he managed to trip his assailant before he could get another punch in. Feeling an urge to protect the girl, Peter picked the body off the floor sideways and slammed him into the wall, hearing a faint crunch.
"This way!" Matt led the two officers, Officer Carter and Officer Daniells, through the dark halls towards the power room.
Peter picked the limp body off the ground by the shirt and held his back against the wall. At the same moment, Matt and the two officers came rushing through the door, the policemen with guns readied. Peter held his grip on Jaime's shirt until Matt grabbed him by the arms and pulled him back, out of the way of the officers. Officer Daniells picked Jaime up off the ground and stood him up while Officer Carter handcuffed him. Together they walked him through the door and back upstairs.
As soon as Jaime was out of the room, Matt let go of his captive and Peter rushed over to Natascha, who was still tied up in the corner, weeping. He pulled the cloth that was in her mouth over her head and dropped it on the floor. He untied her hands from behind her and helped her stand up. She immediately clung to Peter as a lost puppy would. He put his arm around her to comfort her and the three of them went back upstairs.
An ambulance was waiting outside the school and all the students and teachers were gathered at the police tape, trying to see what happened. Officers Carter and Daniells took Jaime to the ambulance, his back nearly having been broken when Peter had thrown him against the wall. They lay him down on a stretcher, climbed in the back with the paramedics, and the ambulance left.
Matt, Peter and Nat came out of the school a minute later and they went over to Anton, who had been waiting outside. He had been talking to Lindsay over the com link and she and Emily Hunntersen had rushed over. The three were waiting at a picnic table in the front of the school, Anton trying to assure Emily that Nat was going to be okay. Emily stood up and hugged her daughter fiercely, not caring that the blood dripping from the gash on Nat's arm was staining her yellow blouse. Anton and Lindsay watched the reunited pair, happy that neither was in distress anymore. Emily finally let go of her daughter and let Anton take care of the cut on the girl's arm. He cleaned it, bandaged it, and let the girl go.
"Thank you so much," Emily told Matt, Anton, Lindsay, and especially Peter. "If you ever need anything, just, please, give me a call." Emily shook everyone's hand, Nat following suit, and they went to Emily's car to go home.
"Well, I guess that one's finally over," Lindsay said, watching the two women walk away. "Thank God she's okay."
Peter stood, rubbing his back, only slightly ashamed of what he had done to Jaime. "Let's go home, shall we?" he suggested.
"Let's," Matt replied for all of them, and they all went to the Expedition, anxious to rest and not have to worry.
10:00pm
"Peter, I've decided to keep everyone out of the house tonight. We'll be staying in the bunks in the lab, okay?" Anton asked.
"I don't have a choice, do I?" Peter asked sarcastically.
"No."
"Alrighty then. I think I'm going to go now. I can hook up the machines."
"See you tomorrow."
"Yeah." Peter headed out to the lab, preparing for another night of bad dreams. |
