BAD WINE CRAPPY CHOCOLATE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN-4

He wants to use her as a hostage," Max responded.  "Nathaniel thinks I'll be afraid to do anything to him if he has Cori."

"What are we going to do?" Cybil asked her brother in an anxious tone. "If anything happens to her..."

Brandon embraced his sister before responding.

"The only good thing is that Nathaniel doesn't have any reason to hurt our mother, and he has every reason to keep her in good health. The only way she can be of use to him is as a hostage, so he has to keep her alive.  What we have to do is figure out where he's taking her. Any ideas, Max?"

"I don't have any. How about you, Hooch?"

Bardy's associate thought for a moment before answering.

"I don't know this part of the territory, so I couldn't even make a guess," he finally replied. "But if you want me to track him, we have to get moving. His trail will get cold really fast."

"They already have a big head start.  How can you possibly catch them?" Roger asked him.

"They're two people on one horse," Hoochie responded.  "He's going to have to rest the animal if he wants it to last."

Brandon noticed the knapsack Hoochie was holding. He had left one just like it at Bardy's Knob.

"You said this guy is really bright, right Max?" 

"He's almost as smart as you."

"So he's probably figured out what the Mises are used for," Brandon said. "And he'll probably search Cori's sack.  He'll find a Wayfinder in there."

"Call me stupid," Bardy said, "but what the hell is a Wayfinder?"

"It's an electronic compass. I set it to lead Cori to a place in the First Territory where the Mis will work."

"Nathaniel will figure that out," Bardy told him. "He'll go to the First Territory. And then use the time machine to get away from me."

"We'll get some horses and follow them," said Brandon.

"I'm not very experienced with those animals," Roger pointed out.

"That doesn't matter," the senator interjected. "The kidnapper is going into the First Territory. I think that Cybil, Roger, and I will pay a visit to David Skinner, the senator there. We can alert him to the situation in the Second Territory. And he might be able to get Cori back for us. Where is this place that they're going to?"

Brandon started to remove the map of the wormholes from his sack, but then hesitated. After seeing the senator taken into custody, he no longer believed that the government could be trusted. Allisours operated in all of the territories, including the one they were about to enter.

"How do we know he won't give the information to Foster?" Brandon asked him.

"I've known David for years," Chris replied in a confident tone. "He's completely trustworthy."

"You've also known Foster for years," Brandon said in an acidic tone. "Maybe you were in on this thing all along. Did you help them murder my mother and father?"

"Your father died in a traffic accident. Your grief stricken mother took her own life soon after his death."

"Cori would never do that!"

"And you know this for a fact? You can tell for certain how a person will react to the loss of a loved one?  How presumptuous of you."

"He's right!" Cybil interjected. "She wouldn't do that!"

"Did you know that Vitala was a fraud?" Brandon asked accusingly. "Did you help Foster get Vitala approved anyway, so he'd finance your campaign for senator?"

"I've made many decisions during my many years of public service," Chris said coolly. "You tinker in a lab for a year, coming up with some gadget that satisfies someone's supposed need, and think you've accomplished something. The policies I've implemented have affected the lives of millions of people, most of which, including the approval of Vitala, turned out for the better. I, and the others that worked to make the Roster Plan a reality, took a nation that was forty trillion dollars in debt and found a way to pay it off!  Thirty years later, the Seven Sovereign Territories owe nothing to anyone. And neither do I, for that matter!"

"Not even for letting your friends murder innocent people?! But of course, you were well compensated for looking the other way. I've seen your house."

"You lived in it, you ungrateful son of a bitch!"

The two men seemed ready to come to blows before Cybil intervened.

"Come on, you two. We have to get Cori back. I've known David for a long while too, Brandon. We can trust him."

"You'd better be right, Cybil," her brother responded.

"This is one dysfunctional family," Bardy remarked to Hoochie.

Brandon went into the aircraft and used its computer to produce a copy of the map.  He handed it to his sister, while ignoring Chris.

"How will Nathaniel get across the Second Territory's border?" the senator wondered aloud.

"He'll probably use a false iris," Hoochie responded.

"Maybe, but remember he has to get the woman across, too," Max pointed out. "And she won't be very cooperative. He'll have to bribe someone to look the other way, if he has anything to bribe them with."

"He does," Hoochie said reluctantly. "Nathaniel took some of your gold, boss."

Gold, which had always been a rare commodity, was even more valuable at this time in the future. The leaders of the Seven Territories had decreed that every ounce of the precious metal within their domains was to be held by the government. The gold was used to back credits issued by the territories. This made men like Max Bardy crave it all the more. He was now incensed that his private stash had been diminished.

"That son of a bitch better go back to the stone age if he wants to keep me from finding him!" he roared.

"Let's go," the senator said.

They started to get in the air craft, when Max suddenly began staring at Roger. The political advisor stopped in his tracks, feeling as though he had been assailed. 

"Is there something the matter?" he asked nervously.

"How did you know we were here?"

Roger hesitated, and then said: "I have a friend in the Security Bureau. He tipped me off."

"Are you sure you didn't tip him off after overhearing me talking to Hoochie at the Canes' house?" Max asked accusingly. "I think I'll have him take the chip out of your head so you can't use it to rat us out again."

Roger, who had already been rattled by the day's events, almost swooned.

"You'll do no such thing," Cybil intervened. "Get in, Roger."

Max released the political advisor from his intimidating glare.

"Not everyone is in league against you," Brandon told him with a sardonic grin, as the two of them got into the aircraft.

You'd be surprised, my friend, Bardy thought to himself after considering his friend's remark. You'd be very surprised.