City Spies Oneshot Collection

Taken

I wrote this for Concuss Cairo week (even tho Cairo doesn't actually get a concussion in this fic), which has been happening this week on AO3. So if you aren't on AO3, I guess this is to let you know that there are some other people writing City Spies stuff over there, and while there aren't a lot of us, we have fun. Also, there's a Tumblr community if anyone wants to join that to talk about City Spies over there.

When Cairo woke up, he was tied up and blindfolded with a sock shoved in his mouth. He was in the back of a car, rolling around as the vehicle sped up and slowed down and getting tossed up a few inches in the air every time the car hit a bump. He wished he knew where he was or who he was with, but he couldn't remember.

Cairo didn't know if he had been hit on the head earlier or just sedated because all he could remember was being at Kinloch, waiting for his siblings just outside the gate and then. . . Nothing.

Cairo could hear people talking up in the front of the car, but he couldn't understand the language they were speaking. He tried to listen anyway, seeing if he could pick out any names, but, at that moment, he couldn't.

Cairo tried to stay calm, but he was terrified. He wished he knew who had taken him, where he was going, how long he had been unconscious for, everything. Anything. He didn't know those things, though. He felt powerless and tiny as he was knocked around.

But Mother would come get him, right? Cairo didn't know what else he could think to try to assure himself that he would be ok, but even this wasn't working. How was Mother supposed to know where Cairo was? How would he know where to go looking? It had taken him more than five years of looking, almost six now, and he still hadn't found Annie. How could he find Cairo now?

The car slammed to a stop, and Cairo fell into the backs of the seats in front of him. He wanted to cry out in pain, but he didn't. It took everything he had, but he managed not to make any noises that would make it clear he was awake. He needed every advantage he could get, and secretly being awake had the potential to be a big advantage. Bigger if he could have understood what his kidnappers were saying.

All of the words his kidnappers were saying blended together in Cairo's mind, the syllables he didn't understand turning into mush. He didn't think he could pick out names now even if they were repeated five times.

Cairo rolled back over the other way as the car started again. The changing movements were beginning to make him nauseous. He wondered what his kidnappers would do if he threw up. They wouldn't try to help him and make him feel better like his parents would have; Cairo was pretty sure of that. Even if his mom was complicated, she still always seemed to care about him.

The drive seemed to stretch on forever, each minute of it awful, but Cairo had no idea how much time had actually passed. It felt like hours, but he knew it could have been much shorter than that.

He knew it was over when, after the car stopped, he could hear doors at the front of the car open and then slam close. They were at their destination, wherever that destination was.

Cairo was going to run away as soon as they untied him so he could walk into whatever building they were at. That was his plan at least. That way he could escape and get back to Mother without Mother having to spend years searching him out all over again.

Except Cairo wasn't untied. Instead, he was just picked up out of the car and carried. Even though he was still blindfolded and therefore couldn't see, he could tell he was now outside because he was suddenly freezing in the winter air. Cairo had been wearing a coat earlier, but it was gone now, probably taken away while he was unconscious.

He shivered from the cold, but he tried not to because he didn't want to seem like he was shivering in fear. He knew he couldn't let anyone know he was scared.