Hidden Allies

Chapter Seven

  Emma quickened her pace as she walked out of the alley. They were letting her go. Just like that. The people that had kidnapped her were letting her just walk away. She hadn't believed it at first when Matthew said that he was going to release her, but then he untied her hands and feet.

  She could have just fought her way out once she was free, but something about Matthew had given her cause to stay. She believed him. She believed the story he and Josh had told her. But she still didn't know just what the hell any of it actually meant. It was all just too far fetched.

  When Emma exited the alley, she paused to look around and get some bearing as to where she was. To her surprise, she wasn't too far from the college campus. She checked her bag quickly and found that her purse was still there, money, cards and all. Without ever looking back she hailed down the first cab in sight and got in. When she got to her stop she paid and got off. She hurried to her room, ignoring everything and everyone along the way, and closed the door behind her.

  Okay, Em, time to wrap your head around this. Emma tossed her bag aside and paced the small room. She made several trips to the bathroom to splash her face with water, trying to wake herself up, as if it were all a dream. But nothing changed. She was still in the present, and her confused thoughts spun with everything she had just learned.

    It wasn't real, Emma told herself. What Matthew and Josh had said about everything; it wasn't real. There were no Hidden Allies, or whatever. It just didn't make sense. She weighed in her mind the stories told to her by agent Soil and the two men that had just kidnapped her.

"They're lying." Emma said to the empty room. She had concluded that agent Soil's story made more sense. It was obvious. Matthew and Josh only told her what they did because they wanted what Ari had passed onto her; the memory drive hidden in the lipstick. If that was the case, then what Emma had to do next was obvious. She had to call the police.

  She took her phone from her bag. It was switched off. Josh must have done that to prevent her from calling for help right away. Emma powered on the device and waited. At the same time she found the card agent Soil had given her.

  She was ready to make the call when the phone rang in her hands. Emma jumped and nearly dropped it. The call was coming from a number she wasn't familiar with. Emma was always cautious about taking calls from strange numbers, and she felt a twinge in her gut, but she answered anyway. It could've be Ariel calling for help for all she knew.

"Hello, Ms. Marsh. It's agent Soil." The voice on the other end said.

  Emma choked for a second. It was the FBI. Why were they calling her?

"H-hello, Mr.-Agent Soil." Emma stammered. She didn't know what to say. Had he already found out about what had just happened?
"I was trying to reach you earlier, but couldn't get a hold of you, and you weren't in class either. I had begun to think that something had happened to you as well."

"Oh!" Emma said. Her mind raced to come up with something to say. "I didn't feel like taking any classes today. I just needed a break from everything that's been going on."

"Where did you go?" Soil asked.

"I visited my mother at work." Emma answered honestly. She decided that it would be best not to lie.

"You were there whole day?"

"No. I left just before midday. I wanted to help, so I went to a café where Ariel and I hung out. I was hoping that I might find the man in the picture you showed me yesterday."

"I see." Agent Soil intoned. "And did you?"

"Did I what?"

"See the man in the picture."