Prometheus - A DCAU Fanfic.

26

---------------

Hobyo, Somalia - 16:03

   "1. 2. 3..." - She exhaled. - "1. 2. 3..." - She exhaled.

Doctor Sarah Folter hated dark, enclosed spaces since she'd been a child. Having been mercilessly bullied throughout her early school years for various shallow reasons, she had developed the phobia after having been trapped in a gym locker by her tormentors for nearly twelve hours. 

So sitting in a shoe closet while restrained, with duct-tape over her mouth and a bag over her head was her own personal nightmare. Breathing exercises was one of the ways she learned to keep her composure. 

Then the door creaked open and she was dragged out. 

For a moment, she was glad to be free from the cramped room, due to her slight claustrophobia, but that relief died swiftly when her brain reminded her she was still being held hostage.

The bag was pulled from her head and after her eyes adjusted to the change in light levels, she got a clear look at one of her kidnappers, a man so large he had to duck to avoid smacking his head off of the ceiling-fan.

Another man was sitting opposite her, who while still tall was much more averagely proportioned, he was leaning back in his chair casually flicking through her notebook, as if he had cracked her shorthand code and could translate the book without needing a key. 

The bags under his eyes told a different story, however.

"Doctor Young." - He greeted, smiling at her. - "It's nice to finally talk to you. My name is Noah. Can I get you anything? Coffee, tea, my friend Leonid over there is partial to a nice cup of bone broth."

Sarah's eyes drifted over to the massive man who dragged her to the table, who was leaning against the kitchen sink.

"It's good protein." - He justified, taking a sip from a large flask that looked miniscule in his massive hands.

Attempting to talk to the two, the Doctor was foiled by the tape across her mouth, who made everything she tried to say, come out as a mumble.

Noah gestured to Leonid, who reached over and freed her from the burden of the tape with one clean rip.

After a squeak of pain, the woman repeated her question. - "Who are you people?" - She questioned, looking back to Noah. - "How old even are you?"

"We're the guys who kidnapped you, but I don't think that's what your asking." - He joked. She didn't know how he could make jokes in a situation like this. - "We're independent mercenaries looking to put an end to Deathstroke, unfortunately that's really hard when he's got a healing factor and super-strength, granted to him by drugs designed by you. And I'm nineteen."

"And you want me to tell you how to read my code?"

"No." - The man smirked. - "I want the name of the book."

The Doctor recoiled at that, he hadn't managed to break her cipher. Had he?

"See, I am an bonified expert in many fields of study, mainly Mathematics and Computing, but I've dabbled in other areas- Cryptology and Linguistics, for example have always been hobbies of mine, so after a little bit of struggle, I did manage to crack it- partially."

He placed his laptop on the table and opened it, revealing the various stickers that decorated the back of the silver casing. After unlocking it, he spun it around. Showing the doctor the nearly completed code.

"After a few failed attempts, I figured out it was polyalphabetically system with numerical interjections, translated from English to Greek, where the codes translate to sets of numbers, numbers which are obviously word, line and page numbers. So, the only thing i'm missing now is the book."