The Chase

The Consequence

Tara

Our blindfolds were finally removed and it took a minute for my eyes to adjust. In front of us sat an old man. He wasn't ancient but he wasn't middle aged either. He was wearing a velvet suit in red colour and a silk tie with globes on it.

His appearance was eccentric but his expression was far from funny. Behind his bushy eyebrows and genial smile was a calculating and shrewd face.

If Tara was good at something, it was reading a face. Her instincts were always true and quite to the point.

"Hello Miss Collins. I must say you've been naughty."

There was no point playing with this man for he was not to be meddled with if Tara wanted to walk out of the building alive. So she waited.

Waited for her opponent to make his first move.

Her silence seemed to encourage him even more.

"You see, you and I could have been friends but what can I do? Your father is the problem here."

Tara still didn't answer, waiting for Dominic to finish.

"I'd really like to keep you alive but your father is turning to be a little difficult. "

Tara just raised her eyebrow, encouraging him.

"He won't give his plans to ASTEC-M.3. You may know it as his Nuclear project? "

Tara sat up straight.

"And what makes you think that I'll be of any help?" Asked Tara in a low yet firm voice.

"Of course your kidnapping will be a motivation to hand over the project into ahhh... our capable hands."

Tara smiled.

"I will tell you a story Mr. Dominic Suarez. Tara Collins is the daughter of the great nuclear physicist Dr. Graham Orlando Collins, she is always a protected child from the beginning of her school days, she is always accompanied wherever she goes and isn't even allowed to party. When her father finishes his 'Nuclear Project ' as you said, her father decides to let her travel alone for the first time and that too in another state. Nice story but some thing is missing. Am I right?"

There was a hush throughout the room. A deathly silence. The smile from Dom Suarez's face had long gone and it was replaced my a poker face. But Tara could see his eyes working, calculating everything.

"You must be brave woman, to have narrated such a story." Said Dominic, threat clear in his voice.

"I am brave but not dumb. And that is why I have a proposition for you."

Dom just stared at Tara, not giving her any sign but she continued anyway.

"I have the information that you seek but there is a payment for that information and you know what it is. So now the ball's in your court. "

Dom thought for a moment, before saying

"What about the boy?" He asked.

"Double or nothing." Was the only reply she had.

One of the men standing at the back of Dom started walking towards Nate and Tara looked towards him, confused. The man was wearing a funny expression. It seemed he was there to deliver a message but he didn't want to.

"Nathan Anderson, you seem to have made it far enough. Had you been able to hand her over, it wouldn't have come to this."

Wait, how did this man know Nate? Who was he and why did Dom's men know Nate?