Pearl

Chapter Twenty: Relocated

Randal O'Lane sat in a hard plastic chair across from the hospital bed. He looked over at the woman who lay partially propped up by the mechanical bed with curiosity. It wasn't just anyone who could take a bullet to the stomach and survive.

Mrs. Thompson smoothed the rough hospital blanket that covered her, making sure to keep the pressure light as her hands ran over the bandages that still swathed her midsection. She was tired, but refused to let it show on her face.

They were entering the third hour of their interview, and she had about had it with repeating herself. If this agent asked her one more goddam time if she remembered anything else about the attackers, he was going to regret it.

Instead he sat back, looking down at his notes in contemplation. To her immense relief, he flipped the notebook closed. He laced his fingers together, leaned his elbows on his knees, and smiled.

"That is about all I need from you right now," he said. "I'll be in touch if anything comes up—"

"Just a minute, please" Mrs. Thompson said, lifting a finger. O'Lane raised his eyebrows.

"I think after answering all those questions I deserve to ask a few of my own," she said evenly.

One side of his smile quirked higher than the other, and O'Lane sat back in his chair. He motioned that she should continue.

Mrs. Thompson let out a breath that she hadn't even realized she had been holding. "I'm sure that there is a lot that you can't tell me, but please...What are you planning to do about the people behind these attacks?" Her hands fisted in the blankets as she spoke. "They took my Emma, and now they want my Rebecca, too. I need to know that we're safe with you." 

Randal nodded, but released a deep sigh. "Mrs. Thompson--"

"Lynne is fine."

"Lynne. My team is doing everything we can to track this group down, and your cooperation has been an immense help," he began, and Mrs. Thompson resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the platitudes.

She was surprised, however, as he continued. 

"All the same, I don't believe in lying to my witnesses. We've been on this hunt for years, and we have lost more in team members than we've gained in leads," he admitted without batting an eye. 

Mrs. Thompson swallowed, taken aback by his honesty. She tried again, her voice even more tentative. "And Emma? Have they ever—Has anyone come back from them?"

O'Lane's expression flickered for a brief second, and he pressed his lips together. Mrs. Thompson's hands clenched even harder as he started to shake his head. 

"Never," he said.

The door to the hospital room flew open, and the rest of the Thompson family burst in with Trent at the lead. One of the agents in suits followed behind, disbelief splashed across her face. 

"What is it, hon? What's the matter?" Lynne asked as her family crowded around her bed. Rebecca was audibly sobbing, and Lynne reached out to cradle her head as best she could.

Trent extended a shaking hand forward, the phone in his palm still in the middle of a call.

"Mom, we---Sumil, he...thinks he's found Emma."

~Part II~

"You two have been such a disappointment."

Larry blinked his eyes open, head spinning as fuzzy shapes slowly consolidated themselves into concrete objects. He felt clammy, his skin sticky against the stale air.