Realistic or Modern Gone But Not Forgotten

[DrTrollinski]

The room fell quiet. Melissa finally submitted and slinked down the hall, a meter or two away from Eddie. She set her head back and sighed. Now that it was quiet, it only seemed to get louder with every passing minute. Obviously, the volume wasn't actually being turned up, but... When you're in a quiet room, even the smallest of sounds sound amplified. They were just going to have to deal with it. Melissa shut her eyes, not necessarily wanting to sleep but more just testing the water. Nope. Even if she wanted to fall asleep now, she wasn't going to be able to. She looked at the stalls in the bathroom - yes, they were stocked with toilet paper for when it was necessary.

Worst case scenario she'd stick a ball of toilet paper in her ear and pray that that canceled out the sound.

Much like Elizabeth on her first day, she was getting cold. She didn't have anything to cover up with, but, she'd hide the shivering for now. If she couldn't bear it, she'd have to huddle with someone else. Even if it was just back-to-back, sharing body heat would benefit both of them.

She looked over at Eddie.

"If it's any consolation, it was a good idea in theory." She said.

The following morning, only more games were going to be played. That much was becoming clear. Whatever was going on, someone was watching their every move, no matter what they did, who they spoke to, what they planned. There must have been someone watching. They'd acted up, and maybe this whistling noise was their punishment. It was the kind of noise that, even after it was stopped, you'd still think it was playing in your head.

Sitting there all night and listening to it for hours?

It was enough to drive someone insane.

 

[Jupiter]

The room fell into silence, unspoken was the law that now they had to be silent, that now they had passed that threshold into night time, the time where they were supposed to sleep but couldn't because of the noise that was sounding throughout the room. Eddie really did hope that the only thing that this meant was that they were being warned to be quiet, and that it wouldn't last as long as he feared it would, which was the whole time that he was here.

He'd rather burst his own ear drums and make himself deaf than let himself hear that noise for all of eternity.

In silence, however, they listened. They listened to the noise of warning, and they tried to sleep.

-

Somewhere, USA.
Sometime.
Unknown.

If they had drifted off to sleep with the noise playing, they would be surprised, but glad, to find that it wasn't playing when they woke up. Eddie's ears twitched, trying to find that noise again, the one he had become so accustomed to, but it wasn't there. It was only there in the back of his head, where the ringing played in mockery to his now silence.

He had managed to sleep, curled on the floor with his hands pressed firmly over his ears. How, he wondered, that was possible, he didn't know. He supposed he was younger than the rest of them; he didn't need complete silence, he could sleep through the loudest of heavy metal if he went to sleep with the intent to. I used to be able to do it too, but now it hurt to even think about going to sleep without anything other than sweet silence.

And, Eddie knew, that if you did nothing for fifteen minutes, if you tried to stop all thoughts from reaching you, then you'd have a good chance of falling into a slumber.

It seemed, however, that he was potentially the only one who had managed a full amount of sleep.

Most were awake all night, for example Elizabeth and Bill... Sarah was half asleep, dosing between the states of consciousness and unconsciousness, but she was... Rested enough, that was all that mattered to her.

When Eddie awoke, he blinked a few times before looking at the others, letting out a small sigh.

 

[DrTrollinski]

Melissa had struggled to fall asleep last night, but, only for a little while. She was tired from the long day beforehand, so, after shoving some toilet paper in her ears she actually fell asleep rather easily. Riley merely drifted in and out of consciousness throughout the night, so his night was rather restless, to say the very least. James... He slept fine. Sort of. At one point he woke up and felt the need to bang his head against the wall until he fell asleep again, but, he didn't do that. He saw what Melissa had done and attempted the same thing. Perfect. He didn't know how long the noise would be bearable for after they woke up, though.

Whenever they did wake up, not knowing if it was three hours, one hour, or even twelve hours later, the ringing was gone. But just like Eddie, many of them experienced that same mockery. Even part of the memory crept up on both Melissa and James and made their hearts beat a little quicker when their brains adopted the idea that the ringing had started again - even when it hadn't. You can receive mental 'bruising' from things that are sometimes tiny. You develop habits if something annoys you, scares you, or upsets you enough.

Just like when you work in an office.

You develop the habit of looking at the person next to you with a face that says 'please kill me'.

Melissa groaned and sat up, taking the TP from her ears and looking around.

"Oh, thank god." She whispered, quietly. She looked off at the stalls in here. Wasn't like they were going to be given doors any time soon, either.

Awkward. At least the female-to-male ration was a little evener. She couldn't begin to imagine how Elizabeth felt when it was just her in here. She must have felt... Even more trapped, in some respects.

She'd wait, for now. She looked over at Eddie, then picked her hat up off the floor and put it on.

"Good... Morning, I guess." She said.

She hated this so much already.

Today, another game was going to be played.

Twenty minutes later, the door's hatch at the bottom opened up and the tray slid in, just as it did yesterday. They didn't even get two meals yesterday - maybe today would be different.

It was indeed different breakfast wise, in both a good and bad way.

Every single bowl was labeled with their names, obviously, a bowl being assigned to each person.

Eddie's assigned bowl had more than double of what everyone else had.

Everyone else had the average serving. Except for Bill.

Bill had maybe half of what the others had in theirs.

But there were seven bowls. Whatever game was being played now was for a reason.

Get it quick, Eddie. Enjoy it. Because you've even got some sugar mixed in with yours today, too.

 

[Jupiter]

"Maybe." Eddie shrugged his shoulders - that was in reference to, well, maybe it wasn't morning. Maybe their body clocks had been fucked up already. And maybe it wouldn't be good, maybe they'd have the worst day of their lives. But you could hope, couldn't you, that things would be different this time?

Silence fell again. Some people got up to use the bathroom, in awkward silence. No one laughed at anyone needing the bathroom, because they'd all been, or would be, in the same boat. Even Bill kept his mouth shut for once, and the peace seemed... Regained. There was occasional quiet mumbling, zombie like shuffling around from one side of the room to the other. Something had switched in Eddie overnight that even Elizabeth could notice - somehow his drive had disappeared. The boy who ran back in here last night was now shuffling around with bags under his eyes, a confused expression permanently on his face. Maybe his fight was gone, or maybe he was just lost in thought.

Thought that was interrupted, however, by the footsteps to the door.

Sarah, sat in the corner of the room, stiffened up, her eyes wide and trained on the door.

For them, this was new. They didn't know this meant food, they didn't know that this meant anything. It could be death. It could be punishment. It could be someone new joining the ranks, if they'd slept that long, maybe it was possible. But it wasn't anything like that, no, the door didn't open, but the hatch did. Food.

Elizabeth let out a sigh of relief when she saw the seven bowls, and life seemed to be blown back into the room. She shuffled over and, of mine, was the first to notice the labelled names.

"Our portions." She let out a laugh. "They're bigger. And they have our names on, see." She held up her own bowl and tilted it round, showing everyone her name written on the bowl. She noticed the two bowls that were different, but said nothing. That was not for her to bicker about. Instead, she shuffled back to the wall and sat with the meal on her knee.

Eddie walked over next, and picked his up. "Why-"

Elizabeth shot him a look, and he shuffled out of the way of everyone else, to let the others grab their food.

Bill was the last to take his meal, grabbing it and looking with disgust at the fact that his was... He considered it basically empty. "What sick game is this?" He raised up his portion and looked around, spotting Eddie, who hadn't even touched his yet. In actuality, no one had started their food at this point. "No, that's fucking bullshit, after what you did last night you get all that?" He pointed at Eddie. "You guys seeing this? This ain't fair!"

Not knowing what to say, Eddie looked between the others and opened and closed his mouth, trying to explain. "I-I-Uh..."

 

[DrTrollinski]

Riley stepped forward, "Oh, for Christ's sake. Shut the fuck up." He snapped, taking his bowl from the tray. "It's the same sort of sick game that was played yesterday. We got one less bowl yesterday, and you snatched one of them, every man for himself, right? No consideration, no thought of sharing - you took one without a second thought. So, today, I think you should go hungry. If it was down to me you'd be getting nothing at all, mate." He said. "Eddie shared his food yesterday, he took less, so did James. We all suffered yesterday morning when really we could have all had a somewhat equal breakfast, so now..." He pushed Eddie's bowl towards, well, Eddie. "Eddie's gonna' eat his, and he's gonna' enjoy it without any of us trying to ride his arse for something out of his control. Are we all clear on that, or are we gonna' have to get into a more heated debate?" He scanned around everyone, with the angry eyes, of course.

".. No debate from me. I'm cool." James said.

"Yeah." Melissa said. She hadn't lost her confidence, but, she didn't have as much to say this time - as long as she was going to get to eat, that was what mattered here. She took her bowl and sat back against the wall, and handed Sarah's one to her, too.

"Good." Riley slowly looked around again, then walked back to his corner with his bowl in hand, muttering and whispering a variety of profanity regarding the whole situation. It didn't help that he hadn't slept properly.

"I suppose the main thing is we all got something to eat...?" Melissa said.

Shine a light on things. Sort of.

 

[Jupiter]

Bill shut up and sat down, and pushed his gruel around his bowl with disinterest and lack of appetite. He couldn't wait until the day he got out of here, when he had the chance to go back to his home, eat some classic New York pizza no matter how greasy. God, his mouth watered thinking about it. But instead, Bill just shoved his gruel into his mouth and waited for that day to come. It would be a long wait, if Bill was even one of the lucky ones. Would he be?

There were mumbles of agreement, but smiles from Elizabeth as she encouraged Eddie to eat. He felt guilty enough as it was, the fact that he'd made them have to deal with that ringing throughout the night, and now he was having this...

He was tempted to try and share it, but... He was starving...

Eddie took a few bites and instantly recognised the difference in taste from yesterday, the one yesterday was plain and... Everyone else's seemed plain too, but his... It tasted sweet. Eddie wished he could share, but, he knew the importance of every man for themselves in certain situations. No one was going without, and Eddie, so far, was the youngest. He may have done something stupid, but he was generally agreeable and keen to share his food yesterday morning, when Bill stole a whole bowl for himself. He deserved it.

Right?

He couldn't shake the guilt as he got to the bottom of the bowl.

He wanted to help Bill, but Bill surely didn't deserve the last remaining pieces of his meal, and... He was an asshole anyway.

Eddie finished a few moments after everyone else, certainly a long time after Bill, who had been watching Eddie quietly, expecting to be given some by someone who seemed so eager to keep everyone happy. When he wasn't he tutted and turned the other way from the group.

Silence fell.

A few moments later, Sarah spoke.

"What do we do now?"

"We wait." Eddie shut his eyes, and brought his knees up to his chest. "We just wait."

 

[DrTrollinski]

Waiting, indeed. That was the only choice they had at this point in time. What else could they do? It wasn't worth the risk going back outside, so they were going to have to make do with what they had access to now. That was basically nothing. Their own company, tension was rising, and there were new people that were still trying to settle into things. Melissa hadn't even asked where Sarah was from, but as Eddie said, it had to be somewhere close by to her. At least within an hour of each other, give or take. But that wasn't a conversation that really mattered now. They'd hashed over every possibility, and unless Sarah stepped forward and said she'd been smuggled in from France, there wasn't really much point worrying.

Back to our guys in Maryland, though, Marc had been awake for a little while already. He'd left Milo and Shelley to sleep if they wanted, though. He was waiting on... Something. Every night without Eddie was hard to bear. It got harder with every passing out, knowing that somewhere out there, his boy was lost and alone. Most likely, anyway. He knew he was in danger, that much was established, but he needed to know more.

Which is why, at the dead of the morning, they had a knock at the door.

Marc went and opened it, and he was greeted by a posse of FBI agents. There was a tech guy, then there were field agents, investigative guys, an expert in kidnapping - many of them were friends of Marc, but there were a couple who he didn't recognize.

One of them was definitely new.

If they had a tech guy, he could check the metadata of Eddie's laptop and phone, see if there was anything relevant to the situation. A longshot, but, better than nothing.

They set up in the kitchen - the most central place possible. Yes, there were some updates on the license plate Marc had sent off.

He'd have to debrief Shelley and Milo on the situation once they woke up - god knew they were going to be walking in on a rather unexpected scene. But hopefully one that would be somewhat comforting. Hard to say, really.

 

[Jupiter]

Shelley and Milo slept in separate places, of course. No one touched Eddie's room, though. Milo was out on the couch, giving Shelley upstairs the bed. However, it did mean that when there was the knock at the door, and when Marc went to go answer it, Milo's eyes fluttered open, and he peered through the dark of the early morning sunrise, looking for... For what, exactly? What did he hope it would be? Eddie, of course. He hoped somehow, maybe in some stretch of far fetched, Eddie had simply just got lost, even though he knew the city, took a detour and ended up somewhere he didn't recognise. Maybe he lost his key. Maybe all of this was just... Maybe he was home?

But he wasn't. Instead, it was a bunch of people here to help them find Eddie.

It hammered it in that this was still serious. That he was still gone. Every time he woke up he had those moments where he thought the whole thing had been a dream. He didn't even want to think about what might be happening to Eddie at this very moment, but when he was awake it was all he could think about. Especially surrounded by those pictures of him. It wouldn't go away.

In the kitchen, he could hear them. He hadn't moved from the couch, instead paralysed by the thought that Eddie might not be one of the lucky ones.

But in there, there were people who were determined. Some friends of Marc, yes, some who knew only of how much of a help he was to the FBI. Some who wanted to contribute to that legacy.

Among the group there was Dr. Max Jones.

Spoiler: Jones.

A field agent who was so incredibly intelligent that he was probably the youngest on the force that they'd had in a long, long time. At this point, however, no one would take him seriously. He had proven himself again and again and again that he was capable of bringing people in, of finding the serial killers that his team hunted, but... But this case, this was one that hit close to home. His brother had been kidnapped when Jones himself was actually ten years old, and he'd never been found. Not alive, at least.

A motive, there, to go into this field.

He wouldn't have been someone that Marc worked with before, no, but he was there nonetheless.

 

[DrTrollinski]

Marc definitely didn't know Jones, no, and that was a surprise. He wasn't expecting people he didn't know - he wasn't expecting an outsider to be brought into the little inner circle of all of this. But here he was. Marc took a moment to inspect him, to study him. Why was he here? He doubted it was just out of goodwill that he wanted to help. Marc wasn't expecting someone as unfamiliar as him.

"We got a name from the license plate." The man who seemed to lead the group said. "We don't know how accurate it is. We haven't got much on the person. Haven't heard anything for a few years now - all I know is he's on a few watchlists. Potential sex offender, then a terrorist watchlist. His web searches from a few years ago point in that direction."

"Well that's fucking great." Marc sighed. "A few years, though? What if he's dead? What if this van was stolen?" He asked.

"We're still trying to narrow that down. He's AWOL." He said. "This is Samson, by the way." He motioned off to a younger man.

"I've seen him around." Marc murmured.

"You trained me, sir."

"Oh. Right." He scratched his head. "Tech guy, right?" He asked. "Laptop and stuff is upstairs on the left. You can be left to do your thing?'

"Mhm. I'll let you know if I find anything."

And he wandered off.

Marc looked at Jones.

"So, I don't believe we've met." He said.

 

[Jupiter]

Jones shook his head. “No sir, we haven’t. Dr. Max Jones.” He introduced, but didn’t reach for a handshake. He wasn’t that kind of guy, he didn’t do hand shakes. In comparison to everyone else, he looked like a kid; he definitely didn’t look like someone you would take seriously, did he?

Another person spoke then. “Dr. Jones has been with the bureau for a few years now.” He walked out of the midst of people and held out a hand to shake. “Marc. Long time no see.”

This man, James Archer, had been in the bureau for quite a while too. He was a field agent, the kind who pulled the hostages out of the situation, the muscle man. In all eyes of the bureau he was much more expendable than someone like Jones, but at the same time, he wasn’t expendable. See what I mean?

Milo slinked into the kitchen. He had peeled himself from the couch and pulled himself there because he felt like he could be needed? He didn’t know how much good he would do in comparison to the agents who were actually here to do the job that they did very well, but he wanted to help, and that was something, he thought. He walked straight to the coffee machine, though, and began mixing some coffee. He figured he’d need a lot.

“This is...?” Archer looked at Marc and gestured to Milo, eyebrows raised.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Mhm." Marc looked over Jones.

So far, not impressed. First impressions mean a lot. But at least he said 'sir', so he hadn't been disrespectful all that much, but... The guy you would answer to on an average day deserved at least a handshake, right? Who knew. Maybe there was a reason behind the sudden quirkiness, or maybe he was just rude - or maybe he had something against Marc, but-

Marc, settle.

His mind was playing tricks on him. He wasn't trying to be rude. He doesn't have anything against you. Relax.

"Nice to meet you." He finally added on, then he shook Archer's hand, too.

Milo walked in, and inevitably, he was soon asked about him.

"That's Milo. He's Eddie's friend from across the street. They spend most their waking minutes with each other and he's been helping me out. He's alright. He's been a big help so far - he's helped me dig up quite a lot of stuff. Some of it was dead ends mainly due to bitter coincidence, but some of it actually worked in our favor. It's how we got the footage of the van driving around." He said. "Don't mind him. His lips are sealed." He said. "I doubt the majority of you are here on official business, anyway."

A couple of them shared a look. He wasn't wrong.

Marc looked back to Jones again. "So, what's your specialty?" He asked, "Never met you before, so, if you're going to be helping out I'd like to know a thing or two. Reel me in, Jones." He nodded once. He knew nothing about this guy, and he wanted to know more before they got into the gritty details.

 

[Jupiter]

Milo was happy that Marc didn't suddenly not need him. He'd have hated that; for Marc's FBI guys to come in and take over the show, subsequently sending Milo and Shelley home. Who had been there when Marc needed them? Who had come through when even the slightest idea of Eddie being missing was brought up? Not these guys, that was for sure. In fact, not even the FBI in general. They didn't set out some kind of manhunt, unless there was one occurring that Milo didn't know about, and the appearance of these guys certainly said otherwise.

He nodded his head at the others, looking over Jones and Archer, and then went back to making coffee. He got out as many mugs as he could find, and then milk and sugar, placing some sugar in a bowl so that people could help themselves, and some milk in a little milk jug. He knew where all of this was; Eddie loved coffee on a morning.

Milo had never liked it that much. Now he felt like he didn't have to like it, in order to need it.

Jones wasn't here on official business. That must have rang alarm bells in Marc's head. He'd done nothing to necessarily warrant being brought in and Marc had done nothing to deserve his help, but he was here anyway. That must have meant something? Did Marc really have to think it was so fishy?

He had his hands down by his sides and one of them was shaking nervously. That wouldn't do when it came to firing a gun, if ever he had to.

"I'm a profiler. I've assisted on multiple kidnapping cases, but mainly serial killers." Jones explained. "I think that what we're looking for here needs as many people as we could have, I had Archer run me over with the details, the things he was told." He nodded. "It definitely isn't the usual kind of case, usually we're able to find people in my branch, it's not usually like this, unless it's a larger organisation, and those are a lot harder to find. But you know that already."

Archer jumped in. "Jones is probably the smartest kid I know. He graduated college at fifteen and was doing a doctorate pretty soon after." He let out a laugh. "Thought, if anyone could help us out here, I think it's this guy. I worked with him on a case before, pretty solid kid."

Jones smiled ever so slightly. "I'll try my best."

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Good." Marc said. "We most certainly need people who'll try their best. As for smarts and qualifications, I don't care much for that. As long as we find my son I don't care if we're all doctors of ex-cons." He said, "Plus... This situation is unique. Seeing as the majority of us have a degree here, I'm going to be the first to tell you that that's not going to make a difference." He looked over everyone. "That's not me trying to be funny about it, either. Just honest. This is a new case and a new situation, and chances are it's different to what any of you have ever dealt with before." He explained, then started to meander around the kitchen a little.

"I want every single one of you to forget all the cases you've worked on. Child abduction, hostage situations, runaway kids - whatever it may be, wipe it from your mind. This is something fresh with unusual behaviors and unique tactics of grab-and-run." He explained. "So far, we've done some digging and we're out in the sticks in terms of what we have to go on. We've got one van, the one with the license plate you guys checked out, that circled around Eddie's school several times over the course of a week or so before he went missing. Usual enough behavior, but then it gets odd." He said.

"Another victim, presumably of the same people, was used to lure Eddie into a trap." He said, "Girl sits in the rain, looking desperate and weak. Eddie walks up, tries to help, and bang. Snatched." He said, "This victim detailed quite a lot - what happened, what she went through, what the other people she was with went through. They were made to do things. Sometimes to themselves, sometimes to each other, sometimes to the man behind it all." He explained, "She, however, was released on the grounds that if she told anyone, they'd find her and kill her." He said. "We have no idea if anyone else from that group of peopel escaped. Girl doesn't know, either, all we know is she went to two different locations. Though we're safe to assume this is subject to change."

He ran a hand over the top of his head, "It's clear this is no slave ring or sex ring, either, so that's why I'm telling you to scrap everything you might know about this already. What you know doesn't become relevant beyond the traditional, 'shove him in a van and run' side of things." He said. "Any questions?" He asked. "Contributions? Theories? Scientific methods?"

The last part was a joke, obviously.

 

[Jupiter]

Jones was ticked off already at the dig at intelligence and even the dig at the fact that he had assisted on cases and to forget about them. He didn't have to help someone who wanted to be rude to the people that were trying to help, did he? No, he could quite easily not have come and could quite easily just leave on pretence that he had another case or a family drama. The only reason he stayed was to help find a child who'd gone missing. He was not staying for Marc. Sometimes parents could be insufferable and accusatory of the slightest things when their children were gone, and though he could understand the mental stress behind it, it didn't warrant shunning those who want to help.

He shared a look with Archer and then took a coffee cup from Milo, who was listening in on the whole thing. Even he felt like it was a little out of line. He was seventeen and hadn't finished college yet, high school was... Well he was in the middle of that, and he reckoned if he wanted a job as a profiler like Jones he'd have to work until he was thirty or so in order to get it.

He passed around the coffee cups, indicating that there was milk and sugar on the side should anybody need it, but didn't speak or distract from Marc's monologue until afterwards.

Archer spoke up first. "How old is the girl? If you spoke to her, is she safe? Did you put her in witness protection?"

Milo recalled Marc saying that he would, but he didn't actually think that Marc had ever gotten around to that? What if it was too late for her? What if she had been killed now?

"What kind of things did she have to do, she didn't exactly go into specifics. I mean 'do things' isn't exactly specific, man, how are we supposed to figure anything out about anyone with that kind of wording?" Archer continued.

"Maybe she wasn't ready to talk about it." Someone from the crowd of agents offered up.

"No offence, but I don't care. She assisted in the kidnapping of someone else, and I'm not saying she needs to be punished for it at all, I'm saying that she needs to give us details so we can help the other people. Surely she would wanna help, right?" Archer raised his eyebrows and leaned back.

Spoiler: Archer

/SPOILER]

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Look, I completely agree, alright, but I'm not about to go and force a 13-year-old to tell me that she sucked someone's dick or some grizzly shit like that, Archer." He took a cup of coffee and drank it black. It was filter coffee, expensive, so it was certainly nice in that respect. Black coffee actually isn't that bad.

Or maybe I'm just a fucking psycho.

Who knows.

"She's not in witness protection yet, but that's something I want to organize while we're all here. With this many heads we can make far more progress than just me and Milo. No offense." He looked at Milo for a moment. "Two or three people isn't usually enough to crack a whole case. So, I'm glad I'm surrounded by people with... Various skillsets. Unique ones." He nodded, "We may all be sucked into believing that getting Eddie back unscathed is a likely possibility - hell, we might all be slowly drowning together. But at least we're going to cover more ground this way. Lack of evidence or not." He glanced around the guys there.

"The only issue falls with one thing. I helped work this girl's case - Jones, if you've worked in the bureau in this field for long enough, you probably had a hand in it somewhere, too - It was a miracle the mother didn't slam the fuckin' door in my face." He said, "At the end of the day, the FBI had absolute squat to do with that girl getting home. She just magically reappeared in town. The parents probably want to hang us all by our balls. The chances of us getting a second sit-down with this kid is unlikely, and if we send in more people, for all we know, someone might be watching. Witness protection, fine, but getting her to say what sort of trauma she went through isn't going to help us get any closer to where Eddie is, necessarily." He said. "She said it was somewhere dark. Cold. I'm guessing an abandoned building."

Plus, there was the part of him that didn't want to know what the kid had gone through - just in case it was really extreme. He didn't want to imagine Eddie going through the same.

Maybe that part was obvious to those in the room. Marc just didn't want to know what they were made to go through.

"I think the girl's helped all she can." Marc whispered, rubbing his chin. "If the girl had more people with her, maybe Eddie does, too." He said. "We covered this yesterday, and we sort of deemed that with the amount of missing people that pop up... Every day, well," He frowned. "Finding ones that went missing in similar situations is... Almost impossible. It would take too long to do it." He said. "Right now all we have is theories, theories, and more theories. We don't have anything truly solid other than the license plate, which might just be a dead end, regardless." He sipped his coffee.

"So, let's bounce some ideas. A new case, a sort of scenario we've not seen before. What are the options? Look into people who went missing in unusual circumstances or try and follow a paper trail? Jones? Archer?" He looked between them both. "Anyone, for that matter? Let's consider this our... Unofficial brainstorm."

That was one thing he wasn't going to understand about Jones just yet. If he was here unofficially, why?

God, if he was a fucking rat...

No, surely he wasn't. He looked too... Maybe he was a goody-two-shoes agent. He hoped not. He seemed sincere, he guessed?

 

[Jupiter]

Everyone nodded along to what Marc was saying, now sipping on their coffees presumably. Of course, Milo handed one to Marc as well, it wasn't just for everyone else. Milo was... Well, he already reckoned that he was going to be the kid that ended up running the errands, but if it meant that they could work... He reckoned he could do it without complaint.

Jones nodded and then leaned against the kitchen island before speaking again. "We could do both. We have enough people. We have the plates, we can follow up on the guy they belonged to. Might have been nothing new online or in purchases for a year now but it's easy to drop off the grid if you try hard enough. Start with last known address, maybe people who were related or knew him, it'd be easy to find out if he's still alive through people like that. He'll have a close relationship to someone out there, even from a few years ago, who might be able to point us in the right direction."

There was a nod of agreement from Archer. "He's definitely worth following up on. Something might be able to point us in the right direction. So we get a few people on that, and then, what?" He looked at Jones.

"We get a few people making some calls about similar missing persons cases. Not too many, because like you said, Marc, there's way too many of them to get us too far, but someone might be able to find just the one similarity." He nodded slightly, and then tucked the longer part of his hair behind his ear. "We get a few on the paper trail, a few on missing people." But he had a specific thing he wanted to do himself.

"I personally would like to conduct a cognitive interview with the girl." He bit his lip, thinking for a moment, his finger held up in the air before nodding. "I think it's vital that we get these details, if we can understand what drives the unidentified subject, the kidnapper or the company, we might be able to understand more what we're looking for. I think it'd be beneficial. I'm willing to do that."

Sick fuck. Archer thought. Why would this kid want to interview a child about what happened to her in the hell hole?

Milo sipped his coffee and then mumbled, more so to Marc. "I'm going to wake Shelley up." He disappeared off to the upstairs.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"You can interview her but keep me well away from it." He said, then held up his hand, "This is my son we're talking about. And I'll admit that I don't want to know, personally. Give me the final verdict but I don't want details. This girl looked broken, so... As much as it might be beneficial. Be nice - I want Eddie back, but, I don't want to force a girl to relive awful memories if it won't get us anywhere. I'm no monster." He said. Would it help? He certainly hoped so. At the same time he didn't know how likely it was that knowing details like that would point them in any direction. There were thousands - tens of thousands - of sex offenders and murderers out there in America. Could they really narrow it down to their suspect? Or even a refined group?

"We can get the tech guy to look for any calls or cases that might relate. Maybe we can even track down the-" He thought. "Of course! The names of the people the girl was trapped with. She might be able to give us those - Jones, if you can get through to her, the tech fella' can cross-reference names with the missing person list. Even if it's only first names, we can narrow it down way more." He said. "In the meantime, we need to make sure that if anything comes into FBI jurisdiction, it gets checked out. Even if there's a small chance of it being related, not all kidnapping cases get escalated to us. The only real risk there is that they might not get escalated at all. We just have to hope they do." He said.

"Archer, you can work with me." Marc said. "If the guy who owns the van, or owned it, we might need to muscle him a little to get him to spill." He said.

He looked around everyone.

"But you didn't hear that from me."

 

[Jupiter]

“You don’t have to know. But surely, if it can help us even in the tiniest bit, even just to rule something out, it’s one tiny bit further that we are to finding out the truth, and finding Eddie, isn’t it?” Jones reasoned. He was going to do the cognitive interview anyway, and he didn’t feel like he needed the permission of Marc to do it, but he seemed pretty up for it so long as he himself didn’t have to know the details. He couldn’t blame him, that was his son; he’d probably never ever want to know.

Jones regretted knowing what happened to his own brother. Even the thought of it made him slightly pale.

“Names, got it, I’ll try and get her to remember some names. I’ll try get her to remember some details about the two locations, I’ll walk her through it, or try to, lead her through the experience, but I’ll try to withdraw her from the emotional side of it, don’t you worry.” Jones figured he had a good psychiatrist that he could recommend her afterwards. “Names, events, location details even if its as small as the ground she walked on and how that felt. Something is better than nothing.”

He ran his finger along his bottom lip for a minute, nodding to himself, thinking, planning, and finally he sprang into action. First things first was to even get the permission to interview the girl, and like Marc said, it was unlikely. But not impossible, and Jones had a great power of persuasion.

Looking at the time, however, he figured that he wouldn’t be able to get anything out of an eleven year old at this hour, and so Jones grabbed his coat and scarf, wrapping the scarf around himself, and then buttoned up his coat.

“Cold, Jones?” Archer raised his eyebrows. “Where are you off to? I doubt they’ll be up at this hour.”

Jones shook his head. “Not there. I’m going to go to where Eddie was taken, and then pick some things up from the store, and then to hers, and then-”

“Just update me when you get back, kid.” Archer placed a firm hand on Jones’ shoulder, who smiled ever so slightly and then slinked away into the morning rain. When he had disappeared, Archer turned to Marc. “Where do you want us to start?”

 

[DrTrollinski]

Marc nodded to Jones just as he left.

He could enjoy getting grizzly information as much as he wanted, but, Marc didn't want a part in it this time. Maybe later on when Jones would most likely find Marc slowly drinking himself into a coma, he could deliver the bad news that way. But not now. Knowing what his son may be going through was never going to be something he wanted to experience while sober. He didn't even want to be sober at the exact moment - he was only hanging on for Eddie. By a thread, that is.

With most of them parting ways, Marc pulled the file closer to him and Archer. It was something that detailed everything they knew about the name the van was registered to. He just hoped they could find something that connected him. If not, they were going to be in the dark again.

He flipped the page over. "Vance Adams." He said, "Looking at his profile here, he was a pretty standard guy until he got arrested for indecent imagery. Served a sentence for it." He said, "So, because of that he's on the sex offenders list, and he's on several watchlists. Even antiterrorism. Before he went AWOL he was being monitored all the time, basically. He didn't catch much of a break." He said. "He bought the van in... 2008. Which was shortly before he was arrested for the indecent images - I get the feeling he used that van for more than just looking at pictures, but, obviously none of that's been proven." He said.

"Just looking at the profile, he's almost a perfect match for a kid-snatcher." He said. "One issue, though... He has an ankle bracelet. So his movements are tracked." He said, "It might point us in the right direction if we can get access to the data." He said, "Or tomorrow we can pay him a visit. He lives a couple of cities over, meaning it places him close to the scene of the crime, too." He said. "You up for visiting him?" He asked.

 

[Jupiter]

Jones would never be able to enjoy that kind of grizzly information. He wasn't some sick fuck who got off on listening to stories from eleven year olds about the things that happened to him in captivity. He had nightmares every night about the dead he had seen and the people who he couldn't save, but he couldn't sit by and let the people have it happen again when he could stop it by learning some horrific details that might mean they got further in a case.

"What did he do that got him on the antiterrorism list?" Archer asked, raising his eyebrows and looking at Marc. The guy they were looking for was a sick fuck, really, it was safe to say. "So the van has been used for the last ten years. I know it's a long shot, but couldn't we potentially look for footage of the same van in other kidnappings? Right now all we have to go on is the girl you talked to, the one who came back, but if she can give us names and we can link this guy to various crime scenes, with footage of the van at the very least, then... We have enough to bring him in for questioning, right?" Archer looked over the file, not sat down, instead stood over the table. "Suspicious activity, and all."

Then he thought for a moment. "If this guy has a tracker, we get one guy trying to access his information. Hell, we can try doing that today if you want to visit him tomorrow. It gives us something to look into, might be able to tell us where he's been, and if he's been AWOL, then it tells us where he 'stopped', so to speak. But I think definitely having a look for footage of the van around areas that the girl hangs out, where she was potentially taken and her school, like you found Eddie's, would link him to both crimes, maybe."

With that, he took another sip of coffee, and Milo entered the room, this time with a dressed and slightly confused Shelley. Milo went straight over to the coffee and poured one for Shelley, adding a few sugars and some milk before sliding it along to her.

"You seem to have an entourage of teenage helpers." Archer observed. Shelley had his back to her, and so he instead looked at Marc.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Teenage helpers, indeed." Marc nodded. "That's Shelley, by the way. Shelley, meet my friend Archer." He said. "Anyway, all formalities aside, yes, we should go and get this guy and write him up. We need our tech fella' from upstairs to run some checks on things, but the last known surveillance was his house." He said. He flicked through some more of the details, "And he's on the terrorist watchlist for some Google searches he made at one point in time. He was looking up how to make bombs at home, ways to make molotovs... He had search records of..." He kept on reading the file. "Famous school shootings, most-known school shooters, weapons used in school shootings. The guy's a fucking nutcase." He said. "But seeing as he doesn't seemed to have moved... At least not recently, I guess we're calming down. There's no way he can avoid us unless he's taken the bracelet off without damaging it, which... Is next to impossible." He said.

"I know that the girl went to a school in the North-East of Washington and she went missing on a walk home, I think. To the North-East of here is Bowie." He frowned, "Which is where he lives." He said. "It wouldn't take any more than forty-five minutes to get there now." He said. "It's a little off-the-books, but, we could probably catch him by surprise." He said. "He's close to the school. Sort of. He's close to this town as a whole, so, putting him at the scene of the crime isn't too hard." He said.

Shit.

He was just thinking, if this guy had Eddie, god knows what the poor kid was going through right now. He didn't like thinking like that, but... He had to consider it, didn't he?

"We can worry about footage later. I say we go and see what this guy has to say - we won't accuse him of anything, not yet, but we can get a scope on how he behaves and make sure the van's actually still in his possession." He said.

It was a place to start. It wasn't much, but it was something.

 

[Jupiter]

Archer nodded a few times and glanced over Shelley again, who now was leaning against the counter with the coffee in her hands. She leaned back and looked over Archer the same way that he looked at her, slight distrust in their eyes. Archer wouldn't trust those who weren't FBI, and Shelley... Well she didn't know this man, did she?

He turned back to Marc.

"An unofficial visit is fine by me, but... If you want to find Eddie, and if you want to find him quickly, then... You're gonna need to try and skip the 'later' attitude, my friend." He reasoned. "I'm saying this from the heart, you have the team that would be more than willing to do a lot for you here, you just tell one of them to look through footage, and they will. And if we can definitely link him to the crime, to both of them, even if its just by one hundred percent having surveilled the school looking for her, then we have a lot easier of a reason to bloody him up." He held his hands up in defence. "I think it would be a good idea to at least get someone looking through the footage of the school or something."

"While they're doing that, though, yes, an unofficial visit is fine. I only suggested the other thing first because you said we would do that tomorrow, but if you want to start today, then I'm more than willing. My wife knows I'm not going to be home, she thinks I'm on a case. Technically I'm not, but I am." He laughed.

"What about us? What are we doing?" Milo finally spoke up. "I mean, I don't mind looking through footage but I'm not exactly a master at it. I can try."

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Good point. Sorry, I'm too used to it just being the three of us and I'm still trying to settle into it." He said. "Right, we'll get someone to look at the footage while we're gone. It'll save time." He nodded, "Milo and Shelley, if you guys want something to do, I think the tech guy might be able to cut you in on what he's doing. Remember, this is unofficial, so don't speak to anyone about this shit." He said, "Go have a word with him. He might be able to get you set up to look over the footage. Even if you're not experienced, an extra couple of sets of eyes would be really helpful, and better yet..." He thought for a moment. "You can have the guys that are free working with you to do that." He nodded to the other guys.

"If you miss anything, they'll spot it. And vice versa. Four of you looking over footage from schools and other similar cases will really help us out. We can make some good progress, just be prepared to slam out the work today, guys. We're going to be more or less non-stop. Check the girl's school first, and if you see the same van, drop me a text and let me know."

They were definitely going to see that van before the two of them reached the place in Bowie.

Just to let you know.

Marc looked at Archer, "Alright, let's get a move on." He said.

He more or less ran for the door this time - time to muscle the guy and see what they could find. If he was linked to it in any way, then they were going to have to find it.

He hopped in the car, waited for Archer, and off they went.

 

[Jupiter]

Milo and Shelley nodded. They wanted to help, and though they were glad the FBI was here, they didn’t want to suddenly become useless when they’d been trying so hard. Of course, they knew that they would be able to work faster with the FBI involved, but they still wanted to be part of that. And they could be, considering this wasn’t an official investigation. Milo even wondered if them working on this case might get them in trouble, all of them.

They had been told they could go up and help the tech guy. Fine, good, they would go and do that. Maybe they’d be able to do something productive.

Archer grabbed a large bag that someone had brought in, from the floor, and set it on the table, unzipping it and throwing something large and black at Marc. He put one on himself, a bulletproof vest. Hey. They never knew if this guy that they went to see would be carrying, would they? He nodded at him as he put it on and then put his jacket over the top, before gesturing for Marc to lead the way.

Time for the hunt.

Meanwhile, Milo and Shelley made their way upstairs and to... well, I don’t know which room that the tech guy was in, but they eventually found him and slipped inside. “Hey. Marc sent us to come and help so that we can be useful. I don’t know if you’ve found anything yet, but, we now also need to watch surveillance of the school that the girl was attending, so we can see if the van was present there too.” Milo explained.

Shelley waved slightly. I bet the tech guy was... thrilled?

 

[DrTrollinski]

Vests on, and they were gone.

Now, the tech guy, however, had something else on his hands. They found him in Eddie's room, on his laptop, doing a variety of things that probably didn't make much sense to them. FBI-level stuff probably meant close to nothing to most people, unless you had learned some of themselves.

Sadly, they don't teach FBI computer forensics in high school.

He stopped what he was doing and turned and looked at them.

"Did he?" He asked.

Fucking dammit, Marc.

"Well, if you're only looking at footage, that's fine." He said, "Just take your time, though. Don't rush it." He said, "Hang on..." He sighed and got one of the laptops from his bag. He went to Eddie's TV and started setting up the laptop.

There was nothing but a crystal clear silence for five whole minutes. The longest five minutes of their lives, no doubt.

He connected the laptop to the TV, so the display was bigger, then he logged into some database of sorts, then he selected the area he wanted them to survey (cameras outside the school grounds and in neighboring blocks), and then he connected a wireless mouse up and held it out towards them, not offering it to either one of them in particular.

"Buttons on the UI explain everything you need to know. You can enlarge the displays of the cameras by clicking them, then you go back by pressing the 'Back' button. Simple." He said. "Obviously you've got play. pause, and the plus and minus buttons zoom in on stuff on-camera. You've got fast-forward, rewind, present-time... Don't use present-time, though. There's a six second delay and it won't be any use regardless of that. At least the previous camera footage has an exact time stamp to the second, a date, and clearer video. Still delayed and choppy, but, more consistent than watching it live."

He picked up Eddie's laptop again.

"Let me know if you find anything." He said.