Taken

Zoey (Chapter 13)

When I woke up, I was lying on a bed with the lights out.  

Well, when I don’t know where I am, and I’m lying on a bed with no lights on, and the last thing I remembered seeing before waking up where two teenage boys, yeah, I’m going to freak out.  I tried to sit up, but I fell right back on the pillows.

“Ouch….”  I moaned.  It was like being stabbed all over again.  Wait.  Stabbed...   I remembered everything.  Brad…

“I wouldn’t try moving too fast if I were you.”  A man’s voice said from the left front corner of the room.  I jumped; startled that someone else had been in the room the whole time.

He came closer to the bed, and I realized it was one of the guys who I had seen when I was conscious for a moment.  “Who are you?”  I asked, trying to keep the panic out of my voice. I didn’t feel threatened by him, which I assumed was a good thing, but I wasn’t going to let my guard down so fast.

“My name’s John Troop.”  He said.  “How do you feel?”

“Like I’ve been stabbed.”

He smiled.  Damn, he was hot!  But then an image of Brad popped into my mind… ugg.

“Ok,” he tried again.  “On a scale of one to ten how do you feel?”

“About an eight right now.  The real question will be how I feel when I get up.”

He looked down and nodded.  “What happened back there?”  I asked.  “And is Brad really…?”

He looked up his eyes full of sympathy.  “I’m so sorry.”

I took a deep breath.  I didn’t like crying in front of strangers.  But to be honest, I wasn’t sure why I wanted to cry. Brad had literally sold me out.  He knew I would be kidnapped or killed as soon as he led me into that ally.  He had it all planed.  Was that a good enough excuse to not be sorry about his death?  Or should I be greatly upset that I had lost my boyfriend even though he tried to have me killed?

I decided to put it all out of my mind.  However, I also decided to not to be too upset that he had been killed.  He had had it coming.  I wasn’t going to get wrapped up in it, and mourn his death as if he had died trying to save me because he really hadn’t.  If he wanted to save me, he wouldn’t have led me down that ally in the first place.Case closed.

 I went back to the problem at hand.  “How do you know my name and what the hell is going on?”

He seemed to be considering what to tell me, and he wasn’t looking directly at me.  I continued to look at him, and saw just how handsome he really was.  His dark hair, brown eyes, his tan skin, his perfect face.  If I believed in the Greek gods, I would have considered him one.  He finally looked at me and my heart jumped.  I was surprised at myself.  I normally never fall for a guy when I have just met him, let alone right after my boyfriend had just gotten killed… not that that last part happened often.

“Do you feel well enough to walk?” he asked me.

“Um, yeah, I think.”

He helped me to my feet, but as soon as I was standing on my own, I felt dizzy. I wanted to just fall back on the bed and pass out. But I fought it off. I had to find out what was going on.  But I guess I didn’t shake it off fast enough for John not to notice.

“Are you ok?” he asked as he grabbed my arm again.

“Of course.  I’m fine.” I started walking to the door and I felt better. 

We walked outside of the room and right into a mini Grand Central Station.  “Where are we?” I asked.  My mind wasn’t able to process everything I was seeing.

“This is a place not very many people get to see; C.I.A. Headquarters.”

I just stood there staring. There were lights flashing everywhere, wanted criminal posters posted on just about every desk and wall, people running around and getting excited as they pointed out something on a computer screen.  It was incredible!

“Follow me,” John said as he started walking down a hall.  As we walked, I asked him questions.  The first one being; “How the hell did you guys get me here?  I’m pretty sure airports don’t like when people try bringing unconscious girls onto their planes.”

"It was a private plane.”

“Why did you bring me here? I don’t think I’ve done anything illegal besides maybe running a red light, but I didn’t think that was C.I.A. material!”

He laughed.  “No that’s not why you’re here. You’re not in trouble with the law, but you might be with some people.”

“Why so fugue with the ‘some people’ part?  What people?”

 “Um, I would rather not say much more until we meet up with the others.  I might have said too much already.  Here we are.”  He started to open a door and I backed away.  He moved his hand away from the door handle.  “What’s wrong?”  He asked.

“How do I know that I can trust you?”

“Well, you’ve trusted me this far…”

“How do I know this is safe?  What if there are armed guards in there?  After what happened at the theater, I don’t want to take any chances.”

“If I was one of the men who had tried to kill you, wouldn’t I have killed you in your sleep?  And why would I have killed those guys if we were on the same side?  Come on…”

"You wouldn’t have killed me in my sleep because you want to know something. That could be why you’re leading me into that room; to interrogate me then when you have the information that you want, you’ll kill me.  And the reason you killed those guys was to throw me off, to make me think that you guys weren’t on the same team”

“What?!  No, no, no.  That’s not what’s going on, I promise.  Just calm down.  We aren’t going to hurt you, we want to help you.  Really, it’s ok.”

“Who’s in that room?”

“My dad and brother and maybe the head of the agency.  I’m not a hundred percent sure on the last one.”

“How do I know that’s not code for something?”

“Are you always like this?  Non- trusting?”

“I tend to be that way.”

He looked at me for a minute.  I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but I was pretty sure the nuns at my old high school wouldn’t have liked it.

“Look,” he started.  “If you don’t trust me, that’s fine.  Leave.  But I can tell you right now that you would regret it.  There are a lot of things going on right now that we have to explain to you or you just wouldn’t get it.”

“Are you implying that I’m dumb?  That I need you to explain things to me because I wouldn’t get it on my own?”

“No, I’m not saying that at all!”  He sighed and I could tell he was getting frustrated.  He looked really attractive when he was frustrated…  Damn!

“You know,” he continued, “you would make a fantastic agent.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere.”

“I’m not kidding. You would be great.”  He stopped for a moment.  “Please, just listen to us.  It will only take about 15 minutes, and I think it’s worth it.  Trust me, once you hear what we have to say you’re going to be shocked.”

“I’ve been attacked by terrorists, and I saw my boyfriend get shot to death.  I don’t think anything will shock me anymore.”

He smiled grimly.  “We’ll see about that.”

Great.

................................

Comment and vote plse!

~Emily~