Chapter 18: Missing

There were still details that had to be cleared up, but they had gone smoothly. The idea that the crime had been committed by an off-worlder soothed the senses of the locals, and eased the smooth transition to the new authority. Siple's announcement that he would be instituting a 'loyal' opposition was greeted with enthusiasm. It made the state funeral of Orgon, something of a public holiday.

At last, we were able to get away. Morss, and Ndvr were going direct to Filutia while Firph was returning via Earth to get me home. I had been on Mymass for only ten days. So, with the trip taking six days each way, I would have been away for just over three weeks. Firph was much more relaxed on the return trip. I asked him why he had been so edgy on the trip to Mymass.

"At that stage," he said," it looked as though civil war might have broken out. If it had, then it might have sparked off a more widespread conflict. You helped to avoid that, almost single-handedly, I might add. The last galactic war was some two, and a half thousand years ago, and we don't ever want to have another one."

The conversations became more general after that. The time passed quickly, and we were soon landing at Holloman. I asked Firph if he wanted to stay for a meal, but he said that he was going home for a few days leave, and as it was only about three hours away, he would take a rain check. At least, that's how I interpreted it.

I had hauled my bag across to the control tower block, meaning to take it to my office. As I entered the building, I was almost knocked to the ground by a figure rushing in behind me.

"Gone, gone! Bill, you have to do something to help. I'm at my wits end."

"Just a minute, Roas. Slow down, and tell me, who's gone, and why."

"It's Looess. She's gone, and so have two of the colonists off the course. I think she may have suspected them of something, and they kidnapped her to keep her quiet. What can you do?"

"Come up to my office, and tell me again in more detail."

We went upstairs to my office, and I sat Roas down to stop him distracting me. I tried hard to think of Looess, and where she might be.

"Thank goodness, you're back. You needn't think so loudly. You nearly deafened me."

"Where are you?" I thought.

"I don't know. They've kept a blindfold on me the whole time. I can feel as though there are many many people about me, as though it is one of your cities"

I stood, and shut my eyes, still thinking about where Looess might be. Somehow I still kept sensing her thoughts, and that gave me a sense of which direction she lay. I told Roas to ask Kate to find me a compass, and an atlas. Five minutes later I held the compass out in front of my face. Turning a little left, and right, gave me the most likely direction to where Looess was incarcerated. A bearing of about sixty degrees seemed right.

I opened the atlas, and laying a ruler across it, I looked for large centers of population. There were just three: Saint Louis, Indianapolis, and Boston. I told Kate to get me a squad of our Marines who didn't mind a little illegality in their work. I called Bob Mather on his mobile phone.

"Mather."

"Bob, this is Bill Axon. Looess has been kidnapped by terrorists, and I'm going after her. What I need you to do is to standby, so that when I've located her, you can smooth my way with the local police. Can you do that for me?"

"Of course. When will you want me to start pulling strings?"

"Hopefully within the next half an hour."

"Right. I'd better get back to the House then. How will you contact me?"

"Either by radio from a shuttle or by phone. 'Bye for the moment. Kate, have you got those Marines."

"Yes. They're standing by. They asked if they should be armed with lethal or non-lethal weapons."

"Both, I think. We'll want to keep our options open. Are they equipped with body armor?"

"Yes, and I told them to have sets for you, and Roas."

"Good. Thanks, Kate. Come on, Roas, let's get going." I also thought, "Looess, we're on our way!"

Roas, and I rushed down the stairs, and out onto the runway, where a shuttle was waiting. Roas, and I struggled into our body armor, and took the two front seats, with the Marine Sergeant sitting in the jump seat behind us. The six Marines took the seats built up against the side walls of the Shuttle.

I lifted the shuttle quickly to sixty thousand feet, and set the course. As we passed over Saint Louis, I called Looess, "Can you hear me?"

"Of course I can. Please hurry. I'm getting fed up with this!"

She still appeared to be in front of us. I repeated the process just after we passed over Indianapolis. Again with a negative result. They must have her then in Boston. We slowed, and descended as we passed over Boston. We reached the Atlantic. Looess was still ahead of us. It was then that I saw a thin sliver of land, barely sticking out the sea, about two miles out in the Atlantic. We paused, and I called Bob again.

"Hi, Bill. Where have you got to?"

"We're just over the eastern edge of Boston. Looess still appears to be to the East of us. We can see a thin strip of land sticking out into the Atlantic."

"I've got it on the map. Excuse me a moment." I could hear Bob speaking in the background. After a couple of minutes he came back to me. "Bill, are you there?"

"Yes."

"I've been speaking to the Boston FBI Hostage Team on my other phone. They'll meet you in the car park of the Tides Restaurants. All right, I know you don't know the area. If you look at it there's a long thin strip with just the approach road, and beach car parks. There's a large residential bulge at the end, but before that, there's another smaller bulge. The Tides Restaurants are right on the corner where the smaller bulge starts. There'll be a police patrolman to guide you down if you get there before the FBI Team. Got it?"

"Yes. I've got that, and thanks Bob."

I had eased the shuttle towards the thin strip of land. As we approached we could match what we saw with Bob's description. I saw the Patrol officer before he saw us. He did a double take, before directing us to land in someone's back yard. He climbed over the fence as we emerged from the shuttle, and greeted us.

"That's the darnedest helicopter, I ever saw. It looks more like something out of Star Trek. I thought it would be more discrete if you landed here. The occupant here is a friend of mine. The FBI should be here in about..." he looked at his watch, "three minutes."

He had said all that in one long go without pausing. He now took a deep breath.

"Thank you, Officer. No, it's not a helicopter, but a space shuttle based loosely on the Star Trek version. We used as it is a much faster form of transport than anything else we could have used. Please thank your friend for the use of his yard."

At that moment three SUVs pulled into the car park of the restaurants on the other side of the road. We trooped out through a gate to meet them. I turned, and directed two of the Marines to guard the shuttle. The other five, and Roas followed me. The leader of the FBI Team approached me, and threw a snappy salute.