Miscalculations [Closed]

[saronym]

Are they going to give her back?

Owen left the question hanging in the air while he watched the reply messages come through including what he was looking for : a picture of Anita. He held the phone closer to his face studying the edges of the frame. It was no use just a dark looking seat of a car. Anita strapped in a smiling. No hints. No clues.

“Of course, love.” He lied with confidence. Owen didn’t know if they would or not. “Look.” He held the burner out screen facing Julianna. The screen focused just on the picture of Anita. He made no indication that he wanted her to take the phone, just look at the picture. He didn’t want her reading that last message. Unharmed. For now.

“Anita is just a tool to get what they want. They’ll keep her happy and I’ll give them want they want. It’s fairly standard procedure.” He put his free hand on the back of her neck and brought her to him so he could press a kiss to her forehead. “I know you’re scared, but you have to trust me.”

Pulling away from his wife again, Owen’s fingers moved rapidly over the keys of the burner.

> I expect another picture on the hour

“Cain? No.” He said as the text sent. Then he was on his Blackberry again. Owen sighed loudly, he would never get a moment off the phone, just like when he worked. He found Cain’s contact, it was saved as ‘Cain (son)’ as if he knew any other Cain’s.

> Where are you

“I don’t think they’d bother with him. Older kids are...more unwieldy. Harder to fool. More resourceful. If you will.” Owen’s tactical musings about the cons of abducting older children were said without any emotion. His mind was processing a million possibilities while he stared at the screen waiting for Cain to reply.

> downtown

Owen nodded when he got confirmation. “He’s fine.”

> your mother and I need you to come home now
> its an emergency
> check your rearview and call me if you think someone’s following you

This time Owen handed the phone over to Julianna so she could read the messages for herself. He checked his watch and then plopped back down into his office chair. Back on the laptop again, this time plugging in the coordinates he’d already memorized into the CAF mapping software. It was a topographical mapping program with layers and contour lines in black and white. Imagery that likely only someone trained in interpreting the program would be able to understand.

Owen knew the place. A construction project all but abandoned by the Covenant. A controversial one. They’d purchased the rights to the land in an entire canyon and side of the mountain. They shut the public out from their beloved hiking trails and begun building a new armory into the base of Cheyenne mountain. An unexpected amount of snowfall that winter had halted the project. It would remain unfinished at least until the ground thawed again. Why would they choose to meet there?

Glancing at his watch again, Owen's eyes rolled to the ceiling momentarily as he calculated travel time, “I have until twenty-two hundred. I’ll have to leave an hour earlier.” He was really more talking to himself than Julianna and his eyes were back scanning the location data on his screen.

Owen was beginning to wonder if it wasn't some disgruntled eco-terrorists who had Anita. Unwashed environmentalists who wanted to smoke pot and hike naked in the woods. That would be a comforting thought. Environmental idealists would be easy to deal with. Especially from a tactical standpoint. Untrained, undisciplined zealots he could handle. But the theory didn't quite fit the bill of using scramblers and GPS spoofers. It didn't fit with his instincts, either. He frowned as he leaned back in his chair, his fingers combing absently through his hair, his mind working again on who his adversaries might be.