by Jen Gentry
****
Jewel found herself locked up in a steel box. She was very groggy as if she’d been heavily drugged. It took a while for her to fully come aware of her current situation, but soon she realized that she was being held in a dark metal box. Her hands and feet were bound and her mouth was gagged. She had a feeling that she was on a plane in the air. The only other time she’d flown on a plane was on the jet Emily used to take her home to Perry House. She had that queasy feeling in her stomach now like she did then when Emily’s plane was in the air.
Having no idea of the time or where exactly she was didn’t bother Jewel so much. It was being trapped in the box that really made her panic. She took as deep a breath as she could with the gag in place and tried to calm herself. Then she began to pray.
****
At Perry House, Gemma was on her knees at her bedside. She’d started praying and fasting the moment after the police and ambulances left the estate with Jake. Gemma asked the Lord for answers and called out to him to allow Staniel to come to her with any word on Jewel and what was it that was needed to bring her home. After nearly two days of pleading with her heavenly Father her guardian angel Staniel appeared to her at last. His message was not one of hope, but for Gemma to accept the will of the Lord and to minister to Emily. She was to break her own fast and gather her strength as Emily was going to need her.
Gemma learned at an early age to accept the will of her God and she trusted her God without any doubt in her heart. Too many times the Lord had brought her through one hardship or another and He surely would not fail her now. It will be as you will it to be, Father. Gemma went back to the main house and began to prepare a meal for the ones she knew would need it.
Bradley and Marta made it back to Perry House before nightfall. They’d left the baby and Amy with Marta’s parents in Hook Pond for the evening, but Marta would need to get back to little Derek to nurse him soon. They both agreed that Bradley would be staying at Perry House with Emily at least until Ethan could be located.
“Bradley, I don’t understand how the Lord would let something like this happen,” Marta whispered in her husband’s ear as they walked up the front steps.
Bradley tightened his hand around Marta’s. “Don’t worry, Darling, our God is still God and He is as always still in control.”
Marta kissed her husband’s cheeks. “I am so blessed to have married such a rock solid man of God.”
Bradley mumbled his assent as Emily opened the door to let them both in.
“Thank you both so much for coming. Have you had any word on Ethan?” Emily looked exhausted as she took Bradley’s and Marta’s coats and ushered them into the front room. Gemma already set out coffee and sandwiches for them.
Bradley made Emily sit down in front of the fire before she fell down. “No word on Ethan yet, but I would imagine he is in the air as we speak, and that means he can’t call us. I have a feeling that for whatever reason he missed his flight and had to catch the next one before he had a chance to let us know of it. He’s bound to turn up soon. So how is the young man at the hospital? Is he talking yet?”
“No, he’s still unconscious. I just don’t understand how he came to be in my driveway with a gunshot wound. I can’t trust that he was trying to protect Jewel and took the bullet trying to save her. But there is no trace of Jake on the security camera footage other than when he entered the unlocked gate. So I have no way of knowing how exactly he is tied to the men who took Jewel.” Emily hung her head and sobbed—she was out of her mind with worry for Jewel and Ethan.
Marta held and comforted Emily. “Remember our Lord brought you and Jewel together for a reason and I’m sure he has this all in control now.” Emily continued to sob as Marta rocked her. Marta looked up at Bradley. She’d never seen her friend so distraught before. It was as if Emily had lost all her faith.
“Hey, Emily, did you say you had camera footage of Jewel’s abduction?”
“Yes, the disk is in my laptop over there on the coffee table, help yourself.”
Bradley sat down in front of Emily’s laptop and watched the whole scene with the two men who grabbed Jewel. Both men were bald with tattooed markings on their heads. Bradley recognized those markings.
He had seen tattoos like those before many years ago on the guru Bathomet. This did not bode well for any of them for not only was Jewel in danger now Ethan was as well. Somehow the Ba al` must be on to them. The Ba al` had to have tracked down Ethan’s home and taken Jewel to make him stop looking for them in the Netherlands.
“Um, excuse me but I need to make a few phone calls.” Neither woman looked up as Bradley excused himself and went to a private room. He told the men working for him to drop everything and head for Amsterdam. He wanted them to find Ethan wherever he was. After he hung up his phone Bradley knelt down and prayed. Dear Heavenly Father, please send your angels to protect us and bring Ethan and Jewel back home safe. I ask your forgiveness if I have overstepped myself in trying to bring Bathomet and his associates to justice. But I come against any and all demons involved in this. I call you out, dark ones, and command you in Jesus’Name to release my friends. Right Now!”
Back in the front room Marta continued to pray over Emily and to comfort her. Aunt Gemma came in and put her arms around both women and that was how Bradley found the three of them huddled together.
Later, Bradley took Marta back to her parent’s house so she could nurse the baby and he returned to Perry House to wait for any word on Jewel, Jake, or Ethan. He met Emily running out the door.
“I have to get back to the hospital, Bradley, Jake is awake.” Emily tried to run past him.
“Emily my car is right here get in and I’ll take you.”
Minutes later, they arrived to find Jake’s room full of police officers. They were trying to get Jake to talk to them. So far he was awake and looking at them, but not saying anything.
Emily shoved her way in. “Look, Jake, you better start talking. Where is Jewel? Who took her? And how is it you came to be on my driveway with a bullet wound in your chest?”
Jake tried to sit up and talk but the pain was unbearable. He motioned for Emily to come closer.
One police officer tried to hold Emily back but she shoved him away. Bradley stood right behind her to keep anyone else from touching her.
“Well… WHERE IS JEWEL?” Emily shouted in Jake’s face.
“I don’t know where they took her, but the men who have her belong to a gang called The Merchandizers. The men are foreigners they’re like Dutch or something. The leader is called The Opper. They take people and sell them as slaves. I know most of the people taken get shipped overseas. That’s all I know. I hope you find Jewel soon.” Jake drifted off again and Emily wanted to shake him, but held herself back.
Emily turned to Bradley. “I have to talk to the P.I. right now. We need all the information we can get on The Merchandizers. Oh, and Opper is Dutch for boss.” Bradley helped Emily push her way out of the crowded room, but they were met at the door by a local detective from the police department. The man held up his badge as Emily and Bradley stepped out into the hallway.
“Ms. Bell, I know you are very concerned for you sister, but you need to step aside and let us do our jobs. You won’t be doing your sister any favors by going after a gang of human traffickers. Just calm down and let us look into this. I assure you we are doing everything we can to locate your sister and bring her home safely.”
Emily looked at the detective like he’d sprouted another head. “You do what you have to do detective. But know this. The search for my sister just went global. So I ask you just how far is your reach and how much red tape are you going to have to go through to get any useful information on The Merchandizer gang?” At that, the detective gave Emily a blank stare.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. You do whatever you need to do detective. I’m going after my sister with everything I have.” Emily turned on her heel and walked away. Bradley followed her leaving a flab
bergasted detective behind.
For the next hour both Emily and Bradley called any and all connections they had in New York to find out anything they could about the Merchandizers. Bradley called in his own private detectives and sent them out on the streets of New York to look for the Merchandizers and bring them in. Bradley wasn’t going to wait for the police either. His men were given orders to round up any members of this gang and bring them to the docks where Bradley owned a small private warehouse. He planned to get information from the gang members first hand. Bradley was taking personal responsibility for both Jewel and Ethan’s lives. He couldn’t help but feel that this whole mess was his fault.
****
Jewel dozed off and on as the effects of whatever drug she’d been given wore off. Her limbs were numb. She could feel the plane she knew she was on begin to descend. The landing was not smooth and Jewel got thrown around a bit. She tried to look out one of the air holes in her metal box but it was dark and she couldn’t see anything. Voices started low and got louder as the men talking came closer. They were speaking in a language Jewel didn’t recognize.
The lid to her box opened suddenly without warning and a bright light flooded Jewel’s eyes blinding her. She felt a needle prick in her right arm and then her world became fuzzy before she drifted out of consciousness again. The only word she could make out from the men before she slipped away was Amsterdam.
****
Ethan woke up on a cold cement floor in some kind of basement or storage room. He’d been in and out of it for at least a few hours, but at least now he wasn’t so disoriented. He wasn’t sure how he’d gotten here but his head was pounding like mad as if someone had whacked him with a baseball bat. He rubbed the back of his head there were no cuts or breaks that he could tell.
Carefully he pulled himself up into a sitting position, so far so good. He was a little dizzy but otherwise intact and mobile. The rumbling sounds of airplanes taking off and landing told him that he was still at or near the airport and he hoped that it was the one in Amsterdam.
Ethan checked his watch. He’d been out of touch now for the last twelve hours and a quick delve into all of his pockets confirmed his worst fears; his cell phone was gone. Whoever did this to him had been thorough. At least he hadn’t been tied up. He seemed to remember two large men shoving him into the basement here very quickly as if they’d needed to get rid of him in a hurry. The men had been speaking in a lower Saxon-Dutch that Ethan knew to be spoken mostly in the eastern regions of the Netherlands.
It did not escape him that the eastern part of the Netherlands was where the cult he’d been searching for was purportedly located. It seemed someone thought he was close to locating the elusive group and had obviously tried to take him out. Something had spooked them. Otherwise he’d be dead right now. This cult didn’t play games. Anyone who’d tried to find them usually ended up missing or dead and now Ethan could see why. He stood up dusted himself off and started looking for a way out.
****
The private jet carrying Jewel taxied down the runway and into a private hanger. This jet belonged to powerful men who had special clearance to fly in and out of the Netherlands without any interference from customs and therefore Jewel was easily transported into the country with no one the wiser to her location. She was still unconscious when the men who’d drugged her before the landing pulled her from the metal box carried her off the plane and shoved her into a waiting car. The car pulled away but not before Ethan still searching for a way out caught a glimpse of Jewel being carried off the plane through a narrow and dirty window on the door to the basement office where he was being held captive.
As the car drove away with its precious cargo, Ethan banged on the locked door holding him back with all his might. The heavy metal door was locked tight from the outside and wouldn’t budge. After exhausting all his energy trying to body slam the door open Ethan gave up, slid to the floor, and started to pray. "Dear Heavenly Father, you are the only one who can save Jewel now. Please send your angels to protect her and if it’s not too much trouble could you maybe help me out here. In Jesus’ Name, Amen."
On the other side of the door Ethan heard a smashing sound and then the lock holding the door in place shattered. He stood up and the door swung open.
****
Marta moved in with Emily at Perry House and hired a nanny to care for the children so she could help Emily search for Jewel and Ethan. Ethan hadn’t turned up on any flights coming or going from Amsterdam or New York. Emily was distraught and inconsolable. Where could Ethan be? Where was Jewel right now? Where they both safe? How could Ethan disappear like this just when she needed him most? All these thoughts jumbled her mind and made her numb. But the most disturbing thought was; how could the Lord let this awful tragedy happen? Emily felt herself growing more upset with the Lord by the minute and she told him so every second she got. Emily had never felt more distant from her God than she did right now.
Bradley returned to New York to search for the Merchandizer gang. He promised Emily he’d call her the minute he knew anything. Bradley Steel III was one of the wealthiest men in America. His maternal grandfather, a wealthy oil and steel tycoon, had set up funds for Bradley from the time he was born and being the last of his mother’s family, Bradley had inherited it all. Bradley’s Aunt Amelia made sure that Bradley had been well cared for until her untimely death. He always felt his Aunt Amelia’s death was somehow connected to Bathomet and the Ba al` the guru served.
It would have been fine to leave Bathomet and his little cult alone until Marta had been attacked this past summer. Since then he’d been searching for the guru he held responsible for the death of his aunt and the near death of his wife and unborn son. Bradley wasn’t sure how he’d made this connection, but in his heart he just knew that it was true. There had to be a way to stop this demonic attack on his loved ones and Bradley was determined to use every weapon in his arsenal to do it.
Bradley parked his car outside the darkened warehouse on the docks. He’d brought in the best mercenaries he could find on short notice from all over the world to search the streets of New York for the gang members of the Merchandizers. So far the mercenaries had brought in eight of the tattooed thugs from off the streets and one of them was called ‘Opper’ by the others. Bradley did not relish in the thought of dealing with these thugs, but was hoping to get the answers he needed to help him get Jewel and Ethan home safe. For now that was enough, but if he could also gain knowledge of the whereabouts of Bathomet then that would be a welcome benefit as well.
Bradley steeled himself and went into the warehouse. He needed to appear as formidable as he could to scare these thugs into retribution and make them talk. Bradley went into this battle fully armed with the armor of God and surrounded by the most fierce warrior angels the city of New York had to offer. These angels had been waiting for this moment to come. It was time to clean house and get these slave traders off the streets for good.
Bradley abhorred the thought of actual torture against any human, but a few scare tactics and little truth serum were going to go a long way he hoped in getting the answers he needed. His hope was to put the fear of God into these men and then turn them over to the detective in Hook Pond so justice could be served in accordance with the law.
****
Liam and Samuel led the legion of angels into the warehouse at Bradley’s side. The eight men were bound, gagged, and tied to chairs that had been bolted to the floor. They were surrounded by huge grotesque demon sentries as their personal guards. The demons tried to abandon their charges when the mercenaries captured them one by one but they were bound by the angels and brought in to suffer alongside their human charges.
The angels surrounded the men and the demons fully lit with flaming swords drawn. As the demons began to shriek in terror so did the bound and gagged men. A fear like none of these men had ever known descended on them. The leader of the team of mercenaries hired by Bradley asked him if it was time to admini
ster the truth serum. Bradley gave his assent.
The captured gang members continued to cry out in fear as one by one they were given an injected concoction that for all they knew it was poison and a death sentence. Some of them even wet themselves. The one called Opper was the only one who held out in defiance.He glared at Bradley and dared him to take off his gag.
Bradley walked up to him looked him in the eye and yanked the gag from his mouth. The massive demon attached to the Opper boasted. “You’ll never find what you seek. Even if you torture us you’ll never find the girl. She is lost to you, forever.” As the demon spoke so did the Opper. Liam grabbed the demon by the throat and poked it with the tip of his sword. The demon cried out like the real coward he was and so did the Opper.
Liam ordered the demon, “Silence! In the name of the one most high you will cease your ramblings and let the man you hold tell the child of God where the girl is.”
Within an hour Bradley had the exact location of the island of the Ba al`. He had the mercenaries load up a packing truck with the Merchandizers in it. The detective in Hook Pond was about to get a special delivery.
These men would never again prey on the lost and helpless people on the streets of New York again. Unfortunately Bradley worried that a new crop of others just like them would spring up in their place and he sent a silent prayer heavenward that the Lord would watch over all the innocents who were suffering at the hands of awful men like these.
As Bradley drove away from the warehouse his cell phone rang. It was from one of his men in Amsterdam.
“Sir, we have Dr. Ethan McGowan. He is safe and alive and he wants to talk to you.”
“Oh, Praise God. Put him on then.” Bradley had never been more relieved as when he heard Ethan’s voice.
The Gift of Empathy
Chapter Fourteen
Ephesians 6:13
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.