Baby Gone Bye

by Marilee Brothers

  “Stop!” the nurse said. “She’ll choke.”

  The baby’s cries turned into a gurgle. She closed her eyes, flapped her hands, and disappeared.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  “READY, ABBY?” Gabe said.

  “Yep.” Abby grinned and gave him two thumbs up.

  They spoke in whispers even though the van was parked well away from the long driveway leading to the Scientific Academy of Merit. The L-shaped building was obscured behind a high masonry wall with perimeter lights spaced twenty feet apart. On the long trip down the interstate, Landman had described the layout of the building and campus in meticulous detail while Simon made notes. After a quick stop at an all-night Wal-Mart, Gabe and the others were armed and ready to roll. At least that’s what Simon said.

  Still, Gabe had his doubts. He couldn’t quell the anxiety boiling in his gut as Abby trotted toward the main gate and call box. He bit his lip to keep from calling her back as her figure receded in the distance.

  “Give her a couple of minutes, then we’ll follow,” Simon said.

  “This sucks,” Gabe muttered. “Should be me, not Abby.”

  “Dude, don’t panic,” Simon said. “We’ve covered this ground. First off, you’re not a hot-looking chick. Second, you’ve got no witchy powers. Trust me, this will work. After she does her thing, I’ll clone the ID badge and we’ll be good to go.”

  Gabe wanted to believe his brother. He really did. But he felt like such a tool letting Abby and Simon doing the risky stuff. He clenched and unclenched his fists, hoping and praying Abby’s powers didn’t fail her. After all, she was, in her own words, a novice witch. Maybe they should have brought Luanne instead.

  Stop it, Gabe. You gotta believe.

  “Now?” he asked Simon.

  “Yeah. Got your cell phone?”

  Gabe nodded. Once they’d gained access, he’d call Papi who, along with Jacob, would drive them to the employees’ gate at the back of the building.

  Simon grabbed his gear bag. “Ready?”

  “Let’s do it,” Gabe said.

  Papi stepped out of the van. “Good luck, boys. We’ll wait for your call.”

  Gabe and Simon hurried down the driveway and slipped into the shadow of the wall. Backs pressed against the rough surface, hearts pounding, they waited. So far, so good. No shrieking alarm. No snarling guard dogs. No rough voices shouting orders. Nothing.

  They crept closer to the gate where Abby stood, speaking into the call box. “Please, please I need help!” Her voice was shrill with panic.

  The call box crackled with static. “What’s the problem, miss?”

  “My boyfriend, he . . . he stopped the car and pushed me out when I wouldn’t, uh, you know, do it. My cell phone is in my purse. He drove off with it. I need to call my parents and . . .” Her words dissolved into realistic-sounding sobs.

  “Hang on. I’ll be right there.”

  Gabe smiled. Damn, she was good. He crossed his fingers and silently wished her luck. The next part of the plan was tricky. She had to get up close and personal with the guard in order to get him under her control. What if he stayed behind the gate, too far away? What then?

  Gabe and Simon slid down the wall, closer to the gate.

  Abby, sensing their presence, took a step toward them and whispered, “He’s coming. Driving a golf cart. Get ready.” She grabbed the hem of her shirt with both hands and jerked. Buttons flew as the front of her shirt ripped open revealing smooth, bare skin, a lacy black bra, and the dragon pendant lying between her breasts.

  “Whoa,” Gabe breathed, watching as Abby flopped face down in front of the gate, her body shaking with sobs. He heard the golf cart roll to a stop and the sound of footsteps approaching the gate. A beam of light played over Abby’s body.

  “Miss? Are you okay?”

  Abby, her face streaked with tears and dirt, struggled to her knees, clutching the gaping shirt with her left hand. “No, I’m not okay,” she said between sobs. “He ripped my shirt. When I told him to stop, he shoved me out of the car. I fell down and hit my head. I’m so dizzy. Don’t think I can walk.”

  After a buzzing sound, the gate began to grind slowly open, and a stocky man appeared. Motionless, Simon and Gabe flattened themselves against the wall. The security guard kept his flashlight trained on Abby as he approached her. “Geez, you’re just a kid. You sure you can stand up? Head injuries are tricky.”

  “Yeah,” Abby said. “I think I’m okay. Thanks, mister.” She lifted her right hand.

  The man grasped it in his and pulled her to her feet. “My name’s Tom,” he said. “Let’s get you inside, and you can call your folks.”

  The guy was so nice, Gabe almost felt bad about what would happen next. Almost. Then, he pictured his baby daughter, alone in her crib, waiting for him to take her home.

  Just do it, Abby.

  Abby clung to Tom’s hand. “I’m still a little dizzy.”

  “That’s okay. Take your time.”

  Slowly, Abby released the front of her shirt and covered the dragon pendant with her hand. She mumbled something that sounded like gibberish to Gabe and stared into the man’s eyes. “Tom,” she said, “you’re not going to remember anything that happens here tonight. There will be a black hole in your memory. Nod once if you understand.”

  Gabe held his breath. He felt Simon stiffen beside him.

  After a long moment, Tom’s head bobbed.

  “Now,” Abby said. “I’m going to count to one hundred. While I’m counting, you can’t move. If you do, something terrible will happen. The ground beneath your feet will open up and you’ll fall in. When I reach one hundred, you will turn and go back inside, but you’ll leave the gate open. No matter what happens, you will not let anyone close the gate. Got it?”

  Tom nodded again. Abby began counting.

  Gabe gave Simon a shove. “Go!”

  Followed by Gabe, Simon stumbled out of the shadows and approached the guard whose ID tag was clipped to his belt. Simon unzipped his bag and removed his equipment. The jailbroken phone. The reader. The blank ID badges. The portable printer. Turned out Simon didn’t need the hundred count. By the time Abby hit seventy-five, the job was done.

  While Simon stowed his gear, Gabe called Papi.

  When Abby said, “One hundred,” Tom blinked twice, turned, and shuffled back through the gate. He climbed into the golf cart and drove toward the building without a backward glance.

  The van pulled up beside them and they piled in. Gabe grabbed hold of Abby and pulled her close. “Girl, you’re something else. So proud of you.”

  “What about me?” Simon said.

  “Yeah, you were pretty awesome too, but I’m not gonna hug you.”

  “Drive through the gate and turn left,” Landman said. “The parking lot and employee entrance is at the back of the building. If they’re still here, all the specimens will be locked inside their rooms. So, we’ll have to disarm the CCTV, take care of the guards, grab the baby, and split.”

  Gabe gulped. “Specimens? Really?”

  “Yep,” Landman said. “Supes. Specimens. That’s what she calls us. That’s what your baby is to Samantha Worthington. Let me tell you, she’s one crazy bitch. She uses philanthropy to fool people.”

  “It’s not enough to get our child back. This woman must be stopped,” Papi said.

  “Good luck with that,” Landman said. “Gary, the guy who helped me escape, told me she’s got the local authorities in her pocket.”

  Papi bristled. “There has to be a way.”

  “Baby first,” Gabe said. “Then we’ll figure it out.”

  Papi guided the van to the back of the building and pulled into the employee parking lot. Landman peered through the side window and muttered, “Only two other cars here. Somethin
g’s wrong. Should be way more.”

  “Makes our job easier.” Gabe reached for the door. “Leave the engine running, Papi. We’ll try to make this fast.”

  Abby and Papi would remain in the van. Gabe, Simon and Landman would—providing everything went as planned—enter the building, disable the CCTV cameras, deal with the guards, grab Birdie from the nursery, and split.

  “Hold on,” Landman said. “Almost forgot. Graciela thought you might need this.” He placed a tiny bracelet made of Mayan stone into Gabe’s hand. “In case something happened to the other one.”

  Nodding his thanks, Gabe stuffed the bracelet in his pocket. “Grab your weapon and let’s go.”

  Gabe held his breath as Simon waved the cloned ID badge in front of the RFID reader. He let it out in a gusty exhale when a buzzer sounded followed by a subtle click. The door was unlocked. They slipped through and entered a long hallway lined with closed doors.

  “Cameras first, then guards,” Landman said. “Do it fast.”

  Thanks to Jacob Landman’s memory and Simon’s precise notes, they knew the location of the cameras. Landman went left, Simon took care of the middle, and Gabe raced to the right. Each man lifted his super-soaker squirt gun filled with midnight blue latex paint and fired a blast at each camera. Sticky rivulets of paint splattered the ceiling and walls along with the camera lenses.

  Dripping with nervous sweat and dark blue paint, Gabe hurried back to the others, head swiveling back and forth. What the hell? Where was security? It couldn’t possibly be this easy.

  “Nursery,” he panted.

  Landman pointed to the left. “End of the hall.”

  Simon raced ahead of him and waved the ID badge in front of the reader next to the locked door of the nursery. Gabe threw the door open and fumbled for the light switch. The overhead light hummed, flickered, and grew brighter, revealing an empty room. No crib. No changing table. No baby.

  “God dammit!” Gabe swore. “Where is she?”

  Landman’s head drooped and he sagged against the wall. “I was afraid this would be the case. She’s moved everybody out.”

  A sledgehammer of despair punched Gabe in the belly. Unable to speak, he covered his face with cupped hands.

  Landman gripped his arm. “Come with me, Gabe. Let’s check the other rooms.”

  With a glimmer of hope, Gabe followed Landman and Simon down the hall. Maybe, just maybe, it was possible the baby was in a different room. Simon opened a door, flipped on the light, and they stepped inside a sterile, windowless room with a single bed, a small dresser, a wooden chair.

  Landman’s face lost color. He drew a shaky breath. “Spent way too much time in a room like this.”

  Before they could exit the room, a buzzer sounded, the door at the end of the hall clicked open, and a man yelled, “We know you’re in there! Come out with your hands up. The cops are on their way.”

  The only sound was the creaking of floorboards as the security guards crept down the hall. Simon and Gabe exchanged a glance. Gabe whispered, “I got this.”

  Simon added, “Me, too,” and flicked off the lights. Gabe and Simon stood side by side, pressed against the doorjamb and waited until the footfalls grew louder.

  “Now!” Gabe whispered.

  The brothers burst from the room, blasting blue paint into the surprised faces of the two unarmed security guards.

  Temporarily blinded and yelling curses, the men staggered backward, swiping at their eyes. Gabe tackled one. Simon piled on the other.

  Gabe pressed his forearm against the man’s paint-speckled windpipe, bared his teeth, and snarled, “You like breathing?”

  The man nodded.

  “Then you will tell me where to find my daughter.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  SECURITY GUARD—ID badge, Ricky—caved quickly. After they locked the other guard inside one of the secure rooms, Simon and Gabe quick-stepped Ricky to the van. They stowed him in the passenger seat next to Papi, wrists and ankles secured with one of Gabe’s torn-up tee shirts. Ricky reluctantly agreed to guide them to the farmhouse, where all the specimens had been re-located, as long as they didn’t turn him in to Samantha Worthington. When he spoke her name, he shuddered.

  Gabe sat directly behind Ricky and peppered him with questions. “What kind of security do they have? Can you get us in? Do they have my kid?”

  To all questions, Ricky pleaded ignorance. “I don’t know, man. I’ve never worked out there. All I know is, after Landman escaped, Worthington got worried and moved all the supes out.”

  Gabe wrapped an arm around Ricky’s neck and squeezed. “You sure about that?”

  “Ouch! Damn, that hurts!”

  “Gabriel,” Papi cautioned. “Please bear in mind we want this man’s cooperation.”

  “Yeah,” Gabe muttered. Patience-wise, his cup was empty. If he had to hurt Ricky to get Birdie back, he was more than ready to inflict pain.

  “Why were you guys unarmed?”

  “Didn’t need no guns. Nothing left there to guard except for the lab, and Worthington’s the only one with the code to get in.”

  After passing endless fields of rice and pasture land, Ricky peered through the darkness and said, “You’ll want to turn right on Old Mill Road. I think it’s the next stop sign.”

  Papi slowed the van and made the right hand turn onto a gravel road. “How far?”

  “Not sure. Might end at the gate to the farmhouse.”

  “Might?” Gabe repeated through gritted teeth. “Do you even know where we’re going?”

  “Oh, this is the road all right,” Ricky hastened to add after glancing at Gabe.

  The road snaked to the left and then the right.

  “Lights ahead,” Papi said. “Must be the place.”

  Not knowing what they would be facing, Gabe set his cell phone inside the center console. “Papi, when you get a chance, call Detective Paulson. His number is in my contact list. Ask him to contact the FBI Sacramento. Tell him Birdie has been kidnapped and give him directions to the farmhouse.”

  “It’s the middle of the night, son,” Papi said.

  “It’s the FBI, Papi. The time doesn’t matter. Tell them Samantha Worthington is experimenting on humans. It’s the whole Hitler/master race thing. If we want to stop this woman and free the others, this is the only way.”

  Papi nodded. “I’ll handle it.”

  They approached the sprawling two-story farmhouse on foot. A sign attached to the fence said, DANGER! HIGH VOLTAGE. KEEP OUT! The fence consisted of narrow white slats reinforced with diagonal metal straps and was topped with three additional strands of barbed wire. The bottom of the fence was anchored in concrete. Light streamed out from between the slats creating a stippled pattern of black and white stripes across the dark perimeter.

  “High voltage, my ass,” Simon muttered. “No insulators.” He stepped toward the fence.

  “You sure?” Gabe said.

  “Yep.”

  “Careful, son,” Papi cautioned.

  Simon extended his right hand.

  Gabe held his breath.

  Abby clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle a scream as Simon touched the fence.

  Nothing happened.

  He turned to the others and smiled. “Told ya.” He stepped away from the fence. “No CCTV out here. They must depend on the sign to keep people out. There are cracks between the slats, which means we can see what’s happening. And something’s definitely happening.” He waved them forward.

  Gabe heard men calling to each other but couldn’t make out the words. Overriding the shouts came the strident voice of a woman yelling orders. “Idiots! Check the grounds. Hurry!”

  Abby gasped.

  Gabe, his heart in his throat, grabbed her hand. Had they been se
en? Was the woman sending her goons after them? He crouched low and peered through the narrow slats into a scene of chaos. Four men with holstered guns tramped across the broad front yard, shining their flashlights across its surface. An attractive blond woman stood on the front steps, arms folded across her chest.

  “What the hell?” Gabe whispered.

  Landman crouched next to him. “That’s her,” he said. “That’s Samantha Worthington.”

  Gabe stood. “They must have spotted us. They’ll be out here soon.” He took a deep breath, trying to quell his rising panic. “We need to drop back. Figure something out.”

  “Wait,” Landman said. He stood and held a finger to his lips.

  One of the men called, “You sure she’s not inside?”

  “Yes, dumb shit, I’m sure,” Worthington yelled. “Check the bushes over there. Find that damn kid!”

  Swamped with relief, Gabe bit back a shout of joy. He settled for a big grin and fist pump. “Damn, she did it! She vanished. They’re looking for Birdie.”

  He prayed she’d landed in a semi-safe place, giving them time to figure out a rescue plan.

  Abby squeezed Gabe’s hand. “Now what?”

  Simon, still peering through the slats, said, “I’ve got wire cutters in my gear bag. We could wait until things calm down, ’til after they find her and then go in.”

  “They’ve got guns, mi hijo,” Papi said.

  “Gabe,” Landman said. “The Abolescos are ultra sensitive to their surroundings. The baby may be able to sense that you’re near.”

  The image of Birdie lying on Lizzie’s bloodied sleeping bag appeared in Gabe’s mind. “I can’t call out to her. They’ll hear me.”

  “I’ll be right back,” Abby said. She turned and raced toward the van.

  Simon unzipped his bag and pulled out the wire cutters. “If she senses your presence, maybe that’s all she needs to find you.” He walked a few yards to the left and looked through the slats again. “There’s a big bush right here. The guards already checked it. I’m gonna start snipping.” He pointed a finger at Gabe. “And you do whatever it is you do, the woo-woo stuff. Just get the kid over here where I can reach her.” He dropped to his knees and began working on the fence.