Stranger's Call

Part Four

Annie stopped after twenty minutes of silent crawling. Meg, only a few inches behind her, buffed her head against the other girl’s foot at the sudden pause ahead. The nineteen year old turned her head towards the other for a minute, putting a finger up and over her lips. Meg nodded, her eyes growing wider as she placed one nervous hand over her own mouth. They both peered down through another vent, the unmistakable sounds of someone talking meeting their ears through the cracks. 

“I have her ready. Yes, I know you wanted to collect at eight. No, I said no. You have to give me another two hours to organize.” The voice was all too familiar. Annie squinted down into the room under her. 

The kidnapper held a mobile phone up to his ear. He had nothing covering his face from what the girls could tell but the same black hoodie from earlier. It did manage to block part of his face from their view. The room he paced as he spoke was small, not big enough to store more than two or three pieces of furniture without seeming overcrowded. In fact there was only a rather littered desk against a wall and a computer chair under it from what she could make out. The desk lamp was the only light being used in the room, as the kidnapper paced in argument. 

“Fine. Yes, tomorrow morning would be much better. I’ll have the subject ready.” He pulled the phone from his ear for a moment, glancing at the screen before speaking, “Nine a.m. will be perfectly fine. I do have work to do with the other test subject, but I’ll insure you get what you need. Yes, that is fine. Just be sure to bring in the proper paperwork and the amount we’ve negotiated.” 

Annie glanced wordlessly at Meg. There was something far too menacing in the last of the kidnapper’s speech. What was he selling exactly? And who was he getting ready? They both glanced down as the man spoke again. 

“No. I have absolutely no need for any extra hands. What do you mean I’m making a mess of things? Do you think I can control these subjects' internal recoil? I’ll have everything in order as expected, nine a.m. And you can make the transfer as we discussed earlier.” He paused in his pacing and rested a hand on the desk, pulling a sheet closer to him and glancing at it silently. “The pieces are being delivered to different locations. Everything is in proper packaging and ready to be transferred as well, as soon I finish with the extended subject.” 

Annie inhaled sharply understanding, at last, what the kidnapper meant by his words. She looked at Meg for a minute unsteadily, a new fear crawling in her chest. They both had no time to communicate because the man spoke under them again and they returned their attention to him. 

“Do not take that tone of voice. I have been distracted from my work for weeks, and I had to handle a few unfortunate messes. You know this.” His voice sounded irritated as he spoke. As though he had had to repeat the same conversation before. “I don’t care what you think, Burton. I am the only one working hard here, and I do it all on my own.” He threw one hand in the air in anger at whatever was said to him. “I am not asking for help. I simply want to be acknowledged for my work, is that not clear enough. I will have the girl in order and ready for transfer tomorrow. That is, if you’ll let me get off this ridiculous phone and get back to work.”

He slammed the phone down onto the table after a second. The audible clunk of metal on wood met the girls’ ears overhead. The kidnapper glared at the wall and without warning yelled at the top of his lungs, grabbing the closest thing on the desk and hurled it across at the wall. What he grabbed was a stapler and it smashed the wall hard enough to leave a small dent and fell back across to him at his feet in a few pieces. He kicked them and walked out of the room, momentarily pausing at the door and straightening his sweater, pulling the mask from his pocket and placing it over his face before exiting the room. 

Once the door slammed behind him Meg looked back at Annie and whispered; “He’s selling you and having you transfered somewhere else.” The fright of the certain knowledge leered in her voice, as Annie nodded her head.