by KJ Kalis
Chase shook his head, “I’m sorry. I can’t talk about the specific work I do without clearance. It’s classified. The best I can tell you is I’m in research and development.”
Jess was a little surprised at how quickly Chase had blown off the detective’s request for information about his work. The words tumbled out of his mouth sounding like they’d been repeated a thousand times. Normally, her brother was happy to talk about the things he was passionate about. What did they have him working on at Trident labs? What were all those vials and microscopes for in his lab? The last Jess knew, he was working on some sort of water reclamation system for the desert. The thought passed in her mind that perhaps it had been a lie. Chase had always been quiet, but all off a sudden it seemed like she knew little of her brother and his life.
“One last question, if you don’t mind. You said your wife’s name is Piper?”
“That’s right.”
“Where is she right now?”
“I have no idea…”
5
Piper tried to smile as she left her Saturday morning yoga class. The fragrance of cedarwood incense filled her nostrils as she made her way to the front door, slipping on sandals over her bare feet, one of the many pairs that were stacked by the door. A voice called to her from a short round woman with cropped hair, “Have time for a latte, Piper?”
Piper shook her head at the woman, who was a local art dealer Piper had made friends with over the last few years, “No, I’m so sorry. I’d love to, but today won’t work. We’ve got family stuff going on. Next time, maybe.” She tried to sound like she meant it.
Piper walked out to the parking lot, the heels of her sandals making a slapping sound on the underside of her foot as she walked. Her car chirped as she pressed the fob to the convertible’s locks. The silver Audi had been a present from Chase the year before for her birthday, but not a real present or a real surprise. Piper had chosen everything about it, from the color to the upgraded heated steering wheel and plush carpet. Sliding into the driver’s side, Piper set her yoga mat and bag on the passenger side seat and powered her phone on, her hands shaking just a little. Landon had told her to go about her business this morning, to pretend that nothing abnormal was going on. But trying to concentrate on bending her body had been nearly impossible knowing what he had planned. The instructor, a former ballerina named Darlene, came over to check on Piper a few times during class when she found her resting, “Are you okay?” Darlene whispered, placing a warm hand on Piper’s back.
“Yes, just a little tired today. I didn’t sleep well,” Piper lied.
“Just rest then. No reason to push the body where it doesn’t want to go,” Darlene said consolingly.
Sitting in the cupholder of the Audi, Piper’s phone chirped after it had a chance to sync with the satellites. Her hands trembled again as she picked it up, wondering what she would find, if anything. Maybe Landon had decided not to go through with it? Maybe Abby was out with Jess or she was home already? Piper’s fingers were sweaty as she accessed her history. There were messages waiting for her. The phone let her know that Jess had tried to call seven times, there was a message from her dentist reminding her it was time for her next cleaning, and a message from a number she didn’t recognize, one that wasn’t stored on her phone. Piper opened it up, almost missing the spot on the screen with her finger. As it loaded, she realized there was a picture attached. Piper started to cry softly as she saw it. It was Abby, behind a chain link fence, sitting on a small metal bench. The message read, “She’s safe.”
It didn’t seem that way to Piper.
6
After Detective Saunders left Jess and Chase in the parking lot at the Trident Labs building with a promise to call them with any updates, Jess watched as Chase stared off into the undeveloped acreage behind the industrial park, “What do we do now?”
Jess wondered the same thing. “I think we should go back to your house. See if we can find Piper. She needs to know about Abby, don’t you think?”
Chase nodded.
“Once we find Piper, maybe we can figure out what to do. Maybe by then, someone will have contacted one of us.”
“You mean like the police or the FBI?”
“Yeah, but I was thinking maybe the people that have Abby...” Saying the words out loud formed a new lump in Jess’s throat. Her mind was still reeling, trying to cope with the details of what had started off as a fun morning. Tragedy was always that way, Jess realized. People would be going about their business and then all of a sudden, a car T-boned you, someone died of a heart attack while eating their dinner or slipped on a piece of ice and cracked their head open, leaving them in a coma. Things could be going along just fine and a second later, the world could nearly tilt on its axis. At least that’s how Jess felt.
“Okay. I’ll meet you back at the house.”
Jess turned away from Chase, walking towards her car. Spending a few minutes with Detective Saunders had been strangely calming although he didn’t have any answers. Maybe it was just the process of going through the information that was helping. As Jess slid behind the wheel of her car and turned the key, the engine rumbling to life, she reminded herself that she’d been a victim too. Sure, Abby was gone, but she needed to cut herself a little slack if she wasn’t feeling like she was one hundred percent. But I have to be, she thought to herself, a wave of guilt rushing over her as she pulled out of the industrial park. It’s my fault Abby’s gone. My fault. A wave of what-ifs ran through Jess’s head. What if we hadn’t gone to the diner today? What if I’d stopped at the bank another time? What if we’d gone just a little bit later? But the biggest what if was the one that was nearly choking her: What if they couldn’t find Abby, if she never came home? And even if they did get Abby back, would she be okay? There was no telling what was happening to Abby right now. Jess swallowed, checking her rearview mirror. Chase was behind her, staring straight forward, his lips pressed in a thin line.
Even as a child, Chase had never been very emotional. It was as if the scientific part of his brain had grown way faster than the emotional processing side, Jess thought, taking the turn back onto Mesa Boulevard. Into her memory flooded the image of Chase sitting at his desk when he was eight years old, a line of rocks he’d collected from their backyard meticulously arranged on an old kitchen towel on his desk. She’d come running into the house, crying, after falling off her bike. Chase never even got up. How he would process the kidnapping over time, Jess wasn’t sure. She whispered a silent prayer that they were able to get Abby back and that her brother wouldn’t hate her forever.
The traffic was light, typical of midmorning on a Saturday in Tucson. Not that there was ever heavy traffic anyway. It wasn’t like they lived in Los Angeles or Chicago where the lanes were packed from daybreak far past sunset. The sun was making a high arc over the desert, lighting up the gradations of browns and pinks and oranges of the mountains with an occasional patch of green, the spheres of an ocotillo or the arms of a saguaro cactus jutting up into the sky. The weather was a stark contrast to the feelings Jess was carrying in her soul, she realized, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter.
As Jess turned on the road toward Chase’s house, she glanced back. He was still behind her. Jess had the overwhelming urge to keep driving, pretending that nothing had happened, that the morning had gone by exactly as it should and they were parting ways like they had so many other times, a quick wave and a “See you later.”
But that wasn’t the case.
As they got close to the entrance for Chase’s development, Jess’s hands started to get a little sweaty. She wiped them on her jeans. She wasn’t sure if Chase had taken the time to call Piper on the way from the lab or even if he’d been able to reach her. How Piper would respond, Jess wasn’t sure. Piper was unpredictable like that. Jess sighed as she pulled her car up in front of Chase’s house, his car passing behind hers, driving to the garage.
As Jess got out of the car, she picked up her c
ell phone and stared at the house for a minute, Walking up the driveway. Chase met her outside. He nodded his head, “Piper’s car is here. I’m going to go in,” he said, stopping in midsentence to stare at his phone. He looked at Jess and then held up his phone. The number calling said unknown.
Jess’s heart started to pound again, a tightening passing over her chest, “It could be Abby. Put it on speaker!” she said.
As Chase’s finger slid across the screen, he said, “Abby, is that you?”
The mechanical voice of a woman was on the other end of the line, clearly computer generated. “We have your daughter. She is safe and unharmed. I need twelve vials of ABG and the formula in eight hours. If you don’t provide it, we will kill her. If you call the police, we will kill her immediately. We will be in touch.”
Jess watched for a moment as Chase froze in the driveway, his eyes wide. Jess leaned toward him, “ABG? What’s that? They didn’t ask for money?”
Chase’s mouth hung open and he started pacing back and forth, rubbing his hand through his hair, pushing it away from his face, “I can’t, I can’t,” he said.
Jess watched him, her eyes locked on him as he paced back and forth, “You can’t what? What is ABG?”
“I can’t talk about it. I can’t give them what they want. They are asking for something that’s impossible. I can’t do that. Oh my God, what’s gonna happen to Abby?”
Jess was confused, “Chase, what’s going on? Talk to me.”
“This has to be targeted, Jess. They took Abby on purpose. Nobody knows about the work I do at the lab. I never tell anyone. There had to be a leak.” The words rattled out of his mouth faster than Jess could understand them.
“No one is saying you leaked information. What is ABG?”
“I can’t tell you!” Chase yelled, leaning forward, almost knocking her over. “Don’t you understand? It’s classified. I can’t tell you! I can’t give them what they want.” Chase started to pace again, running his hand through the top of his hair again, “They’re going to kill Abby. My work is going to get her killed.”
“Can’t you call your boss?”
Chase didn’t respond for a minute. Whether he was ignoring her comment or just didn’t hear her, Jess wasn’t sure. “I have to go inside. I have to talk to Piper. You can come in if you want, or don’t. It’s up to you.”
His words stung. Had Chase forgotten that Jess was in the bank, too? That this wasn’t her fault? Jess watched as Chase walked away. Part of her wanted to run back to her car and jump in, going back to her house and back to her life, but she knew she couldn’t do that. Chase and Abby, and even Piper, they were family. If nothing else, they needed to stick together.
As Chase walked away, Jess looked down at her phone. Should she call their younger sister Rachel? Jess blinked away tears. She desperately wanted to call their parents. Her heart ached realizing how much time had gone by since they died in the house fire. Standing alone in the driveway, Jess decided against calling Rachel. There was no need to get anyone more concerned until they knew something more. Jess glanced toward the house, weighing her options, and realized she had Abby’s phone still in her back pocket. If nothing else, she needed to go in and give it to Chase. She set off up the driveway at a trot, slowing down as she got into the garage. Piper’s Audi was making a ticking sound, the kind that happens as metal cools. Jess put a hand on the hood as she walked by. It was warm. Piper had been out while the robbery had happened. But where? Why didn’t she have her phone turned on? Jess couldn’t imagine a situation as a parent that you’d shut your phone off. What if they needed you? What if it was a day like today? She shuddered, suddenly grateful she didn’t have kids… at least not yet.
Jess pushed the thought out of her mind knowing it was none of her business. Eight hours. She checked the time on her phone. It was just after ten. Whatever was going to happen would happen between that moment and six o’clock. Time was ticking.
Jess pushed the door inside of the garage open, stepping onto terra-cotta tiles just inside the back door of Chase’s house. She could hear low voices and crying. Walking forward, Jess passed the laundry room and a bathroom into the kitchen. Chase had his back to a bank of windows that looked out on their backyard, which faced part of a golf course. Piper was hunched over the kitchen island, sobs coming out of her body. She glanced up and then looked at Chase, “What’s she doing here?”
Before Chase could answer, Jess looked at Piper, “I’m so sorry, Piper. I don’t know what to…”
“Do?” Piper stared at Jess accusingly, “If you’d just leave us alone none of this would happen. We’d be fine right now.”
Piper stomped off to the other side of the house. Jess looked down and then glanced at Chase, who’d taken off his glasses and was wiping his eyes. He’d been crying, “Chase, I am so sorry.”
Jess swallowed. The only other time she’d seen him cry was at the funeral for their parents.
Chase put his glasses back on, “No, I’m sorry. Piper shouldn’t have said that. None of this is your fault, Jess. They’re trying to get to me, not to you. You just got caught in the crossfire.” Chase slammed his hands down on the granite countertop and bit his lip, “They warned us something like this could happen. I never thought it could. I mean, my research isn’t that important, after all. It’s not like I’m developing a nuclear bomb, or something.”
“What do you mean, they warned you? Who’s they?”
Chase sighed, “The lab. They warned us. All of us. We have meetings twice a year — security meetings — that warn us about threats. Trident does defense contracting.”
“You told me that. That’s not a secret.”
“Well, you know part of it. The work we do, a lot of it is top-secret. A lot of it I can’t talk about outside of the lab. I can’t even talk about it outside of the people who’re working on the same project I’m working on. And for this project, it’s only me. I’ve been working on this for the last five years.”
“And whatever it is you are working on is what they call ABG? That’s what the kidnappers want?”
Chase nodded, “Yes. But I can’t give it to them.”
Jess reeled. How could Chase not give them what they wanted? “What do you mean? Can’t you call your bosses and tell them? Maybe they would give you some samples of whatever it is, at least something enough so we can get Abby back?”
“You don’t understand, Jess,” he said, the muscles rippling across the side of his jaw, “They would never agree. Hundreds of millions of dollars have gone into developing ABG. There is no chance they will give up any part of it. Not even the first chemical in the formula. It wouldn’t matter if it was the Queen of England who’d been taken. They will not give in. They have a non-negotiation policy with terrorists. I signed it. I agreed to it. You know what that means? I’m on my own. And there’s nothing I can do for Abby.” Chase turned away, shutting Jess out.
The gravity of what Chase said landed heavy on Jess. Was he giving up? Jess eased herself down onto one of the barstools that was perched at the edge of the center island in the kitchen, looking down, her hands in her lap, a wave of nausea crashing over her. Was this really happening? She was sitting in her brother's kitchen, her niece had been kidnapped, his wife had accused Jess of interfering in their life, and Chase just told her there was nothing he could do to save his own daughter. How was this even possible?
A memory of Abby wearing a fancy hat caught Jess by surprise. When she’d been eight, Chase and Piper had gone to the Kentucky Derby with friends. Abby had learned about the tradition of wearing hats at the race and had made her own, spending all weekend wearing it around the house while Jess watched her.
Jess blinked a couple times, wishing Abby would walk around the corner wearing one of her homemade hats, but she didn’t. She wasn’t there. Jess swallowed and then looked at Chase. He was leaning his back against a wall in the kitchen, staring at the ceiling. Jess wondered what he was thinking. She stood up, “What if we
contact the lab? You don’t think your bosses would be sympathetic?”
“Sympathetic? Yes. Able to do anything? No. All the research I’ve done has been bought and paid for by the US government. They own it lock, stock and barrel. If I give up any iota of information, even to try to save Abby’s life, I’ll never see her again. They’ll charge me with treason and drag me off into some hole somewhere. She might be alive, but I’ll spend the rest of my life rotting in jail.”
“Chase, we just can’t give up! Don’t you have a lab here at your house? Can you make up something and give it to them, so they’ll give us Abby back?”
“And then what, Jess? I hand them a shopping bag full of some vials and they smile pleasantly and hand Abby back to us and we go on our merry way? That’s not how this works. They want the formula and twelve doses. Even if I could fabricate them, it would take days. And I’m betting they’ll test them. If they don’t work the way they’re supposed to, then guess what, they’ll come back for me and for Piper, heck, probably for you, too. We’ve been told the people like this, they don’t stop. It’s one of the risks of the job. I just never thought I’d have to face it.”
Jess sat frozen on the stool, unsure what to do. Inside of her, it felt like a clock had started running in the back of her head, each second and each minute going by, taking Abby further away, somewhere they couldn’t get to her. And now Chase was arguing that it was basically impossible to save his own daughter. Before Jess could say anything else, Piper walked back through the kitchen, her face dry. Only her eyes, just a little puffy, gave any hint that she’d been crying. Jess furrowed her eyebrows, waiting for Piper to start yelling at her again, but she didn’t. Piper stared at the two of them, opened the refrigerator door and pulled out a bottle of water. Closing it, she walked away without a word.
Knowing they had absolutely no options was unacceptable. Jess’s mind lurched into action, “We have to figure this out, Chase. We aren’t just going to give up on Abby.”