Takeover || (Completed)

Release

Everyone at the palace was going on with their daily lives. Sure, it was strange that Luke was going to be in London for around a week, but they had developed their own ecosystem that functioned normally with him so his absence didn't make all that much of a difference. Caryna, Jacob, Jamie, Chris and Judit had been separated into their own desk at the conference room since the other 11 people hadn't betrayed Luke's trust as such, but weren't awfully loyal to him and were more loyal to Alex. Those 11 people now only covered small work like taxes. The big five, basically Luke's inner, inner circle, covered the most important issues like education, military and economic output. However, all were oblivious to Luke's precarious situation. That was all going to change soon.

Luke was in the room with no food or water for at least a day. He was almost sick many times. He had changed his mind about a previous statement. This is where I die, thought Luke as he looked around at his surroundings. It was very plain. It was all concrete, the walls grey with a flaky paint job. The only source of light came from a bulb above his head, only attached to the ceiling by a single wire. It didn't look very looked after, as was suggested by the smell of rotten eggs that stung his nostrils.

Luke didn't get much sleep. He never really had, but in this situation, he couldn't manage more than four hours at a time. When he wasn't sleeping, he was staring at the ceiling. Or the walls. Or on the floor. It didn't matter which one he looked at - they all looked the same. The only differentiation was that some areas got more light than others. Nothing else. His wrists were painful from the handcuffs that had been poorly attached to him and were fit for a toddler's hand, not his. He couldn't say for sure who had brought him here, but he had a faint suspicion that it was Jimmy. Jimmy had been with him the night he had, presumably, been taken hostage. So, unless someone had broken into their house to take Luke hostage, it had to be Jimmy.

The ransom message was broadcasted on all French channels two weeks after Luke had been taken hostage. Luke had been fed nothing but gruel and stale water, once every two days. He never really ate much, but the food was almost always readily available. The lack of it would make him appreciate his luxuries if he was able to make it back to the palace alive. His captors made the message simple on their broadcast.

"If the country of France is unable to satisfy our ransom of fifty million pounds, then we will not hesitate to kill Luke Ross. You have a week to pay up, or your ruler is dead. We will contact you."

Luke really hoped that they managed to pay up the ransom, though he was partially surprised that the ransom had increased by 500 per cent. For now, however, he would have to do what he had been doing for the past few weeks - sleep and contemplate his existence.

Caryna and Jacob had just seen the broadcast from the supposed captors of Luke. Everyone else had left the room for the night. After all, they had made the broadcast at 1 am - which was notoriously known for being a time when people sleep. They quickly woke up everyone else and told them the news. Because the eleven sticking to Alex instead of Luke were staying in one room - a punishment for their 'treason' - it was easy to get them all together and tell them what had happened. Meanwhile, Jacob was waking Jamie, Chris and Judit up. Immediately, almost everyone began work on various ways in which they could rescue Luke without spending any money. There were three or four people, however, who continued to sort out other matters that they would normally tackle. They all had some pretty good ideas, but none trumped the one to simply send in a GIGN team to rescue Luke and incapacitate the captors. Luke would hopefully stay alive and they wouldn't waste fifty million pounds on Luke if he did die. It was a win-win.

Luke was counting the drops of water that dripped off a cavity in the ceiling. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Luke continued to count the raindrops until his captor came into the room. He was holding a large, black block that had indentations in it. He held it out to Luke, simply saying,