Complicado (Queen of the South, My Season 6)

Part 24 - Point of No Return

James looked around at everyone's frozen faces as if assessing the situation and as Teresa stifled a cry and sank heavily into the closest chair, he seemed to come out of his trance. The notion that a child of his had been kidnapped broke something inside of him that he didn't know was still intact. He felt his knees liquify, his strength give away, but one look at her and then at Louise's terrified face brought on anger that made him bunch his fists as if preparing to hit.

"The cameras on the poles, James!" Pote's voice came to him.

Thank God, Pote had been next to him in many crucial moments in his life!

"Yes, let's go!" The soldier was back in an instant as he grabbed his keys and ran after Pote. James's security company and hi tech gear included surveillance not only on the property and the businesses, but on the roads leading up to them, despite the lack of municipal permission.

Teresa heard the snapped lines and realized what had happened. It gave her hope and she lifted herself up and found the strength to tell the rest where the men had run off to.

===

The license plate of the beige sedan was clearly visible on the cameras James had put on several electric poles along the road leading to the property. He started at the screen wondering how they would track the kidnappers and find the kids without the involvement of the authorities, not only because they had no idea if a ransom demand wouldn't be coming, but also because they had no idea with whom they were dealing.

James had mastered a decent level of hacking skills when he had worked for Finch. But that had been long ago and despite his best efforts he could not hack the Ministry of Transport database to search for the license plate. They sat in the office in his shooting range and looked at each other with mounting frustration.

"This is a rental vehicle, Cabron!" Pote said when he decided to take another look the car snapshot blown up on the monitor. "See that sticker here...on the wind shield! It looks like a rental sticker."

That made them look for the logos of the local rental car companies online, until they located the one. It had five offices in the whole Cape Town Area.

"Let's split!" James said. "You and Chicho go to Nyanga to see if you can get a hacker on board. The place where you get the unregistered guns would be able to point you in the right direction!" Nyanga was a sketchy neighborhood to the north of Cape Town, where everything was for sale.

"And you?" Pote asked, holding the door handle as James took the turns on the way to the house way faster than safe.

"I'm gonna take Marcel with me...and go see the rental car company...maybe I'll get a name...somehow!...Will leave the women in the house in case someone makes a contact!" James stopped the SUV with a screech of tires and was out before Pote could reply.

===

"Ne fais pas l'idiot avec moi, Marcel!" (Don't play dumb with me)! James could hear Louise Dumas's distorted voice as she argued with Marcel and then broke down in sobs. "C'est ta faute, de courir après ce stupide anglais!" (It's your fault chasing this stupid Englishman).

James couldn't understand as she spoke in French, but he figured she was blaming her husband as he saw her hitting his chest with her fists when he was trying to calm her down; and the scene broke his heart.

Teresa wasn't doing any better, although she had withdrawn and looked composed, but James knew the calm to be the façade for the cold gripping fear he himself felt. His mind refused to even think about how the whole experience would affect her still very fragile mental state after his going to prison just a few months back.