Jason woke several hours later in the back of a vehicle. His head was killing him, and he could feel dried blood over the largest bump he’d ever received. When he opened his eyes, he actually saw double. He’d heard that expression before, but to experience it first hand was something indescribable. His stomach rolled and he tried breathing through the pain.
The last thing he remembered was bending down to put on his shoes. Had he gotten them on? He wiggled his feet and realized he was indeed wearing both shoes. Then his mind cleared. Katie!
Looking around, he cursed the double vision; his eyes wouldn’t focus on anything. He could tell they were still moving, since he felt the familiar rumble and motions of being in a vehicle. Since he was able to stretch out his full six-foot-one frame, he knew he wasn’t in the trunk of a car, so he gathered he had to be in a van or a truck of some kind. Trying to move his hands, he realized they were tied behind his back. Rolling over, he felt a soft body next to his and realized Katie was there. She must be knocked out, since she hadn’t moved when he’d touched her. He saw red as he thought about the men hitting her over the head like they had hit him. She could be bleeding, or worse.
“Oh, looks like this one is awake. You must not have hit him as hard as you think.” The accent was thick and the English was very bad. But Jason instantly knew who was speaking due to the slight nasal sounds. Broken nose guy and his minions had found them.
“What did you do to Katie? Where are you taking us?”
“Oh, he thinks he gets answers.” He heard two men chuckle. Where were the others?
“What did you do to Katie?” he said more forcefully.
“Miss Derby is not hurt like you; we use sleeping powder. She’s to be delivered untouched. You on the other foot, not so much.”
“Other hand, Mikolas,” his colleague jumped in.
“Oh?”
“It’s on the other hand, I think.”
“Oh, yes, Raul, you are right. You, on the other hand, not so much.” They both chuckled.
Jason’s mind was too foggy to register their conversation, but his fingers had found his pocket knife. The thugs had forgotten to frisk him. Slowly removing it, he pulled it open and started working on the ropes behind his back.
“Where are you taking us?” He knew he needed to keep them talking or distracted so they couldn’t hear what he was doing. Even if he couldn’t completely focus on their faces, he could tell that broken nose guy no longer looked over his shoulder at him.
“We are going to get paid.” They both laughed. “We are getting paid big for that little one. For you, I think maybe we just feed to the sharks.” They both laughed and started speaking in Greek, or what Jason assumed was Greek. He recognized a few words, but they were talking too fast for him to catch anything important.
Jason finally got his hands free and twisted so he could start working on releasing his legs.
He listened to them speaking and thought he heard them say “Derby”, “millions”, and “ferry”.
When his feet were finally freed, he moved over and felt for Katie. Realizing that they hadn’t even tied her hands or feet, he lay there and tried to think of his next move.
How was he supposed to fight these two off if he couldn’t even see straight? Plus, the vehicle was moving too fast for him to make a jump for it. If he tried something while they were still moving, well, he didn’t think his head could stand a car accident. So he stayed still and kept trying to focus his eyes.
Less than an hour later, he could feel the turns and stops of being back in a large town or city. He reached over and tried to see if Katie was awake, but she didn’t move. He would just have to carry her after he took care of these two. Somehow.
When they came to a stop, he watched as the bigger man, Mikolas, got out while the smaller man, Raul, sat behind the wheel, looking off in the distance.
Moving slowly, he got up onto the balls of his feet and looked out. He could see Mikolas out in front of the van, talking to a large man. The pair stood by a small boat and he could tell they were at a small marina.
Moving quickly, he put his sharp pocket knife against the other man’s throat.
“Don’t move.” When the man nodded, he asked, “Where are we?” Jason watched the two men on the dock. They were in a heated discussion and he watched as the larger man reached for his wallet.
“Igoumenitsa docks.”
“Where are the other men that were looking for us?”
“What other men?”
“Don’t mess around with me. The other men at the airport.”
“They went ahead to Rome. They will be watching the airport and bus stations for you.”
“Who wants Katie?” He watched as the men argued some more and knew that his time was running out.
“I don’t know. Mikolas deals with that.”
He bent down and grabbed the tire iron he’d seen earlier, probably the one they’d used on his head, then he hit the man, knocking him out.
He quickly stepped over Katie, then quietly opened the back doors. Picking Katie up, he tossed her lightly over his shoulders. She didn’t move. When he sprinted for the first building, which was just a few feet away, he realized how dizzy he was. He didn’t hear any shouting and hoped he’d gotten away, unnoticed. When he reached the corner, he ducked behind it and continued to run until they were a dozen blocks away. He weaved through the empty side streets, taking different routes so they didn’t travel in a straight line. He felt a little drunk and was sure he looked that way, but it was almost impossible for him to walk in a straight line. Several times he’d ended up grabbing onto a wall of a building to steady himself.
Finally, when he hit a few larger streets, he started to pass people, and he was thankful no one said anything to him. Instead, they just looked at him funny, so he tried to avoid as many people as he could, keeping instead to back streets.
His vision was going gray around the edges and he was finding it harder to carry Katie. His breath was coming in quick bursts and he worried what would happen to them if he passed out. He tried hard to stay focused.
He didn’t know where he was going, but knew that they had to get as far away from the docks as possible until he could see straight. Several times he stumbled and almost fell, so he’d grabbed on to the wall and had been walking with his hand against it. He finally felt his energy wavering when he heard an angel.
“Parakalo?” A woman stepped in front of him, causing him to come to a complete stop. She held her hands up and continued to speak to him in Greek.
“English?” he asked. He tried to hold onto her voice, tried to keep from passing out.
“Vai, yes of course, do you need hospital? Is woman hurt?” He noticed then, that the young woman was wearing a nurse’s outfit.
“Yes, she was given sleeping powder of some kind.”
“Vai, parakalo. Yes, please, come with me to nosokomeio.”
Jason looked at her not knowing what she was saying.
“Hospital.”
He nodded slightly and followed the woman back about half a block to where he’d passed an older white building. Not seeing clearly, he’d run right by the hospital.
“Ohi, you are bleeding.” She pointed to his head as they walked in the doors.
“Yes, I was hit and knocked out.”
“Did you?” she made a motion like she was sleeping.
“Yes, I blacked out.”
“Ohi kalo,”
Jason walked over and laid Katie down on a gurney the woman was motioning toward. When the woman gestured for him to lay down on the other one, he sat down facing Katie. He watched as an older doctor rushed in and started examining Katie.
“My name is Airlea, you?”
“Jason, and that’s Katie.”
“Kalós, you wait, I get better English.”
Jason watched as the pretty brunette walked away, then he turned his attention to the doctor and nurse taking Katie’s vitals.
Less than
a minute later, a young boy around twelve walked back in the room with Airlea.
“This is Michael; he is English better.”
“Hi, Michael.” Jason looked down at a dark-haired boy. His clothes were bigger than they should have been and his hair was long and wavy. He wore a large smile on his face, but Jason could see concern in the young boy’s eyes.
“Hello, Airlea wants to know what happened, was there an accident?”
“No, we were jumped.” When the young boy just looked at him, he clarified. “Two men hit me and gave Katie some sleeping powder, or so they called it, then they put us in a van and brought us here. I knocked one over the head and we ran away until I ran into Airlea here.”
The boy turned and translated.
“Ohi, Ohi kalo,”
“That’s not good,” Michael translated. Then the boy listened as Airlea asked more questions and turned to translate again.
“Airlea needs to know how long you blacked out for.”