Antonio
We weren't able to track that bastard so now we have to watch the videotape of the video-call from yesterday in hope of finding something useful. I have watched the videotape repeatedly since I woke up but without luck.
A knock at my door makes me sigh in frustration. "Come in!"
A maid walks inside with a tray with food. "Sorry to disturb you sir," she simply says and switches my untouched breakfast out with a new plate with lunch and a big glass of water.
She walks out again but stops at the door. What now?
"Oh hello Mr. Riccardo."
"Hello miss," my dad's deep voice sounds.
I repeat the same three seconds in the video.
"Antonio... you have watched that video a thousand times, people are already working on it, you should take a break- "
"Wait." I cut him off and hold up my hand.
The silence. The volume.
"What?"
"Get Baldassare."
"What- "
"Now!" I only take my eyes off my computer for a second, and see my dad leaves my office.
Baldassare walks inside with my dad right behind him.
"What's up?" he asks, he stands behind me looking at my computer. I stand up and gesture him to take my seat. I start the video.
"See." I point at the screen.
"What?"
"Go back."
"There is silence, but the volume goes up..." Dad is now looking at the screen too with a slight hope in his eyes. "Can you do so we can hear it?"
"Maybe, give me a couple minutes."
He begins to do things I don't understand. 10 minutes pass by before Baldassare speaks.
"Okay, this is the best I can do." He plays the video.
It's hard to classify, it's a weird sound, not clear at all but I have a feeling that this can help us get closer to finding Alessia before it's too late.
"...I know a program that can identify sounds but it's going to take a while."
"Download it for me so I can hear it."
"Okay."
*
Baldassare leaves my office and goes to the Living Room.
I sit on the couch in my office, resting my head in my hand, listening to the same sound on and on again.
The sound, it feels so simple but yet so hard to identify.
I think I have listened to the sound around 150 times before someone rushes inside my office without knocking. I get angry, no one comes in without knocking. My anger quickly disappears when I see Baldassare.
I don't even get to stand up before my dad, brothers, sons, and nephews rush inside.
I stand up and follow Baldassare to my desk, he takes my seat.
"What is it?" I ask him desperately.
"The program says it's a metal drum."
No one says anything, trying to let what Baldassare just said in.
"Metal drum?... A metal drum? what do you mean a metal drum?" frustration takes over me.
"Let me search it up," Baldassare says.
"I know what a metal drum is," I say frustrated, but he ignores me.
Pictures of metal drums and oil drums show up on the screen.
"Oil drum?" I frown.
"Isn't there an old oil factory nearby?" Roy asks us.
"Nearby and nearby," Sabino says, tilting his head side to side, "I think the nearest one is about 6 hours from here by car."
"5 hours," Samuel corrects him.
"Doesn't matter," Sabino says frustrated before he mumbles: "idiot."
"Where is the nearest oil factory?" I cut them off before they get too well.
"Let me check," Baldassare says before the sound of the keyboard sounds again.
"There is an abandoned one right outside Pennsylvania... It's about 5 hours from here."
Without saying another word, I pick up my phone and scroll through my contacts.
"Who are you calling?" my dad asks me.
"Max," I say before I put the phone up to my ear. I call three times before he picks up the phone.
"Hey."
"Hey, I guess you already heard what happened." My dad makes the others but my brothers leave the office, and I go sit back on the couch.
"Yeah, about Alessia? Is there anything I can do?" My dad and my brothers take a seat on the other side of the coffee table, looking at me.
"I need you to drive to the old oil factory outside Pennsylvania."
"Got it. I will call you back when I get there."
"Alright." I hang up and place my phone on the table.
My dad, my brothers and I are staring at the phone waiting for the news.
When Max calls me back, I nearly jump up from the couch to pick it up.
"Hello?"
"Hey, I'm here now."
"Do you see anything?" I ask, the desperate tone in my voice doesn't match my image but I can't care less.
"Wait a second." I hold the phone to my ear and look around waiting for some answers. My dad gestures to me to put it on speaker so I do and place the phone back on the table. We all stare at it like cats waiting for a mouse to come out of its hiding place.
"Umm," he says from the other end of the phone.
"Do you see anything?" I nearly shout, getting a look from my dad but I ignore it.
"No-Yes... men with guns."
"Do you see anything else?"
"Wait a minute." I wait on the edge of my seat. "A bike, a broken black bike."
"Alessia left on her bike... it's there."
"What can I do?"
"Send me a blueprint of the factory and mark everywhere there is a guard, and possible places Alessia could be. Now!"
"On it." I hang up and rush to my desk followed by my brothers.
"I'll get the boys!" my dad shouts before running out of my office.
I pick up the table lamp and turn it upside down revealing a keypad, I tap the code in and the middle bookshelf behind my desk goes down into the floor, a doorway shows, and my brothers and I go in.
I go over to the AK-47 and pull out the wall cabinet, I stare at the nearly empty wall cabinet.
"Why are there only three left?" I shout.
"There is basically only the guns left," Dominic says.
"NO! This can't be true!" I shout frustrated.
"Relax. We will take what we got. We don't have time to waste, Alessia doesn't have time for us to waste," Dominic says sternly. He's right, I hate when my little brother is right but he is, and my daughter needs me too much to make my pride take over and not do as Dominic says and relax.
"Roy, Sabino and I are great with an AK-47, we will take them," Carlos says, I nod and hand him them.
"Roy, Sabino!" he calls, and as they walk in he hands each of them an AK-47 and a bulletproof vest.
Dominic hands Carlos a gun and I hand him a bulletproof vest, everybody walks in one by one, getting their stuff and taking a pair of safety glasses and earplugs before walking out again.
Lorenz walks in and goes for the vests while my brothers and I put on our own.
"No. NO. You stay here- " I shout.
"But dad- "
"NO, it's not for discussion. You stay here-" I take a deep breath to try and relax myself, I put my hand on his shoulder. "I need you to look after Robin, okay? You are the one closest to him, he needs you right now," I say with a calmer voice.
"I'm nearly 18."
"Nearly," I point out.
"Sabino is only 2 years older than me."
"It's not my business what Sabino may or may not."
We walk down to the hall while Lorenz tries to convince me to let him go.
Before I walk out, I cut off Lorenz's ramble with a hug. The knowledge that something can happen to me, and leave my kids parentless gives me so much pain.
"I love you; you know that right?" I say and kiss him on the forehead.
"Yeah," he mumbles before I rush over to Robin and pick him up in my arms in a hug.
"I love you, just remember that."
"Just bring her home," he says into my neck, I gently pad his back and let him down.
"I will," I say and kiss his forehead too. I rush over to my mom and hug her.
"I love you," I tell her.
"I know." I glance at my youngest sons and back at mom.
"I trust you." She nods, understanding my assignment, it's not the first time she hears those words.
"The blueprints have been sent to everyone," Tony tells me before I go out in the car and take the driver seat. All my kids sit in here waiting for me to take off.
"Why are you not going? We need to save Alessia!" Diego shouts.
The worryness inside me grows, my sons may be adults but they're still my kids. If I am feeling like this with a kid I have only known for months after so many years apart, I can't imagine losing one of my sons to death.
"I know I don't say it much, but I love you, all of you... and I'm so proud of all of you." I know it's not the time, but I need to tell them.
"We love you too dad. And whatever happens it's not your fault, we chose to go with you well knowing the risks," Alexander tells me, and the others agree.
"I won't judge any of you if you want to go inside now," I say, and no one says anything.
After a second Matteo breaks the silence.
"Okay, great, no one. Now put your foot right down on the fucking accelerator!"
I speed out of the gate and catch up with my brothers on the way to the helicopters. We will land some miles away from the factory and drive the rest so we don't get seen. If that bastard knows we're there he might kill Alessia if he hasn't done it already.
My sons turn their attention back to the blueprints, and Alexander is talking with Roy and Pietro over the phone, trying to come up with a plan to save my little girl.
I'm coming for you, princess. I'm not going to lose you again. Ever.
Third Pov.
Back in the gaming room is the only sound of Robin's footsteps walking back and forth, biting his nails, and tears down his cheeks.
Lorenz, their aunts, and grandma are sitting on the couch watching Robin's movements with worried looks.
A waiter walks inside with a tray with five bottles of water and a pill bottle. She puts the tray on the coffee table and hands grandma a bottle of water and the pill bottle before she walks out again.
"Maybe you should get some sleep, the waiting is killing you," grandma says, trying to hand him a sleeping pill.
"No! I can't sleep now, what if something happens!" Robin shouts.
"Jesus Christ Robin it's not gonna put you in fucking coma it's making you sleep and like any other sleep we can wake you up again. The waiting. Is. killing you," Lorenz says frustrated.
"I'm tired of being treated like a child that needs to be protected all the time!" Robin shouts.
"You're twelve. You are a fucking child! You need to sleep."
"MY SISTER IS OUT THERE BEING TORTURED AND SOON KILLED!" Robin is now screaming. Lorenz stands up.
"SHE'S MY SISTER TOO! DON'T YOU THINK I'M JUST AS SCARED AS YOU ARE. DON'T YOU THINK I WORRY JUST AS MUCH ABOUT ALESSIA AS YOU?"
Robin starts to cry; Lorenz hesitates but pulls him into his arms.
After a moment they go sit on the couch, so Robin is sitting on Lorenz's lap. Lorenz takes the water and the pill and gives it to Robin.
"You promise to wake me up?" he whispers through his sobs.
"I promise," Lorenz reassures him. Robin swallows the pill and hands the bottle back to Lorenz.
Robin adjusts himself and Lorenz wraps his arms around him.
After a few minutes, he falls asleep.
Grandma opens the pill bottle and pour one out, and hand it to Lorenz along with a bottle of water.
"You should get some sleep too." Her soft caring voice fills the room.
"No- "
"It's not for discussion," she cut him off with the same soft and caring voice, but he knows there is no room for discussion. He swallows the pill and hands back the bottle.
"You promise to wake us up?"
"Of course," she reassures him, and lays a blanket over them.
And after a moment Lorenz falls into a deep sleep, with his little brother in his arms.
While looking at the two youngest boys, everybody is secretly praying for their husbands, sons, and siblings to get back in one piece.
Wordcount: 2177
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