The Rescue

Chapter One

The Rescue

“Where’s Seth?” Sadie whispered through the darkness.

“I don’t know,” Fami answered. “He was just behind me.”

“He probably stopped to eat something.” Her brother’s stomach was a bottomless pit.

Sadie slid her night-vision goggles onto her forehead and pushed a small button on her watchband that turned the face of her watch into a global positioning device. Inside the air vent shaft were two red flashing dots, representing herself and Fami. Twenty feet behind them was the third dot . . . Seth!

“I found him,” she told Fami. “Back where the vent separated.”

“Figures,” Fami said. He was used to Seth always wanting to do things his own way. But now they needed to work as a team more than ever if they were to help save Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher from the terrorist group who had kidnapped them. There wasn’t time to wait for reinforcements to arrive and help them. They were the Fletchers’ only hope.

Using the same wristwatch, Sadie pushed another button activating the communication function. “T-2, this is T-1. What the heck are you doing? Over.”

“I’m checking out this other option. Over.”

“Negative, T-2. Bat and I have confirmed this is the correct location. Over.”

Seth didn’t answer.

Sadie waited a few more seconds to give him time to respond. The less time they were on their transmitters, the less chance they had of being discovered. Their code names, T-1 for twin number one, Sadie; and T-2 for twin number two, Seth; along with Bat, code name for Fami, kept them from being identified. The fact that Sadie was T-1 still irked Seth, but that was beside the point right now.

“T-2,” Sadie said into her wristwatch, “immediate response requested. Over.”

“I’m right behind you.” Seth’s voice startled Sadie.

She turned and looked at her brother in the dim glow from their transmitters. “We don’t have time for this.”

“I wanted to make sure we were taking the right tunnel,” he said. “I don’t think this is the way to Mom and Dad.”

“Listen!” Fami hissed.

The three kids froze, straining to hear the noise. A faint whirring and clicking echoed through the vent.

“This way,” Sadie said. Then she turned to her brother. “Stay with us!”

“I will!” Seth snarled.

A faint light began to fill the air shaft.

Fami turned and put his fingers to his lips. They were getting close to the source of the noise.

After creeping slowly along the shaft, they neared an opening that was covered by a metal grate. Fami moved aside, allowing Sadie the first glimpse.

“A computer room,” she said. “I can’t tell if anyone’s inside.”

Seth peered through the slats of the grate. “It’s the control room. There are monitors showing the grounds outside and different areas inside the building.”

“That means there are guards somewhere,” Fami said.

“That also means we can find out where they’re keeping Mom and Dad,” Sadie replied. She thought for a moment. “Seth, you need to crawl to the next opening and see what kind of trouble you can stir up. Hopefully that will pull the guards from their station so I can check the monitors.”

Seth hesitated.

“Now!”

“Okay,” he said as he began to inch silently away. Fami stayed behind with Sadie.

A voice inside the room below drifted through grate. “Hey, Jantzen, wake up. You’re supposed to be on guard.”

Sadie and Fami barely breathed as they listened.

“Here’s your sandwich,” the man continued. “Anything on the monitors?”

“Nah, nothin’.” The guard named Jantzen stretched his arms overhead. They hadn’t seen him because he’d been slumped down low in his chair. “It’s as quiet as a church today.” There was a crinkling of wrappers and the click and fizz of a can of soda pop being opened. “Hey, I told you I wanted ham and Swiss on whole wheat.”

“Sorry,” the other man replied, “they only had turkey and cheddar, or tuna fish. If you don’t like it, next time get your own sandwich.”

“Did you at least remember to get mustard?” Jantzen asked. “I gotta have mustard.”

“Tell you what, I’ll cover your post while you go get what you need so you can quit your whining.”

“Hey, I can’t help it if I’m particular about my sandwiches,” Janzten said, scooting his chair back with a loud screech.

“Pick me up some chips while you’re there, will ya?”

Janzten grunted a reply and left the room. The guard bit into his sandwich, leaned back in his chair, and propped his feet lazily on the counter. He chomped down a few bites of his sandwich when, suddenly, an alarm sounded. One of the monitors flashed a red warning signal.

Sadie and Fami nudged each other. Seth had done his job.

The guard made an announcement over a loudspeaker and raced from the room.

Knowing they only had a split second to check the monitors and computer system to find her parents, Sadie steeled herself for entry into the room.

Fami helped her remove the grate from the vent and, with the use of a nylon rope they had with them, lowered her through the ceiling into the room.

Once Sadie’s feet touched the ground, she went straight to the computer and began navigating the system for any sign of her parents’ location in the building.

“Any luck?” Fami asked.

“No,” she replied, her fingers shaking. The men would be back any minute. “I can’t find anything in the computer.”

“What about the monitors? Did you check them?”

“Fami, I know what I’m doing,” she snapped. Panic sent her heart racing and made her palms sweat. She glanced up at the monitors as she pulled in a calming breath, and, suddenly, right in front of her face were the images of her parents, tied into chairs that were back-to-back.

Chiding herself for not listening to Fami, she announced, “I found them,” then quickly accessed the layout of the building to find the location where her parents were being held.

Before she cleared the screen, she changed the setting on the monitor to replay the last thirty minutes of recorded footage. She just hoped it was long enough.

With the push of a button, she cleared the computer screen and jumped up from her chair.

“Let’s go get them,” she said, grabbing hold of the rope.

Using the knots that were spaced twelve inches apart, she climbed the rope back up through the ceiling as Fami held it firmly.

She quickly rejoined him in the shaft, and they pulled up the rope as the sound of men’s voices came their direction.

“The grate!” Sadie whispered. She and Fami picked up the heavy grate and slid it into place just as the men burst into the room.

“I say it was just a malfunction. That power surge we had earlier probably messed up the timers on the alarm system,” Jantzen explained.

“I don’t know. Something tells me something fishy’s going on. We’d better keep a sharp eye out. The last guys who didn’t detect an intruder still haven’t been released from the hospital.”

“Do a quick security check on the computer while I check the monitors,” Jantzen instructed.

“Let’s go,” Sadie whispered so only Fami could hear.

Without making a sound, they crawled along the shaft until they were a distance from the security room. Sadie stopped long enough to make contact with her brother.

“I know where they are,” she told him over the transmitter.

“I’ll be right there,” he answered.

Seth joined them in the shaft, and Sadie quickly explained to her brother what she’d seen on the screen. He had an uncanny knack of understanding building layouts and position.

“We need to follow this shaft,” he began.

“Listen!” Fami interrupted. Voices drifted through the shaft. They were faint, but something about them sounded familiar.

“It’s your dad,” Fami said. “I’m sure of it.”

“Then let’s go,” Seth said. He started in the direction of the voices, but Sadie stopped him.

“Something doesn’t feel right,” she cautioned.

“Sadie, it’s them. We have to rescue them.”

“I know.”

“Then what’s the problem? Let’s go.”

“Fami,” Sadie said, “what do you think?”

“There is danger if we go ahead and danger if we stay. I think we need to keep our eye on our goal.”

His words made sense. Danger was all around them, and who knew what would happen to their parents the longer they remained locked in that room?

“Okay,” she surrendered. “Let’s go.”

Staying close together, they crawled toward the sound of the voices, which grew louder and clearer the nearer they got.

Sadie’s heart pounded wildly in her chest. She couldn’t explain it, but something didn’t feel right.

Just then Seth let out a startled scream and disappeared down the heat vent.

“Seth,” Fami called, making the mistake of crawling forward one more step. He slid downward as the vent made a sudden drop. “Help!” he cried. Turning, he grabbed at Sadie to stop himself from sliding, but he only succeeded in taking her with him.

She stifled a scream as they made the terrifying ride through darkness, the vent groaning and creaking under their weight. The ride came to an abrupt halt, and they landed in a heap on the ground inside some kind of cavern. It smelled musty, of moisture and mold.

“Get off,” Seth growled, giving Fami and Sadie a strong push with his hands and feet.

Dim lights on the walls gave an eerie glow to the cavern.

Seth stood, grateful that no bones had been broken, and looked straight at a metal door that was bolted shut. He took a step toward the door.

“Stop!” Sadie cried.

Seth froze, then looked down at a low laser beam that ran across the front of the door about one foot from the ground.

“Whoa, that was close. Good thing you have those glasses.”

“Yeah, except we have another problem,” Fami told him.

“What?” Seth asked.

“The doorknob,” Sadie said.

“What about it?” Seth questioned.

Sadie studied the doorknob closely. More than anything, she didn’t want it to be what she thought it was, but the glowing red numbers on the time bomb strapped to the door read four minutes and fifty-eight seconds.