InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Hijacked Honeymoon ❯ Chapter 23

 

Hijacked Honeymoon

 

Chapter 23

 

Kagome wished that Sesshomaru could have spent the night, even if just so she could nestle against his warmth to sleep. But he had to return to the neighbour's house, clear her new plan with his boss and go over contingency options.

 

So he'd left her alone to toss and turn in her bed, unsure if she'd done the correct thing by suggesting to Hojo that they take their honeymoon. But the waiting for Hojo to do something had gotten to her. She'd wanted to act. She needed closure on the past in order to move on to the future.

 

She'd finally fallen asleep in the early hours of the morning to dream of Sesshomaru. Sesshomaru's arms holding her. His tone encouraging her. And she'd felt strong and powerful.

 

Then Hojo had invaded the dream. And she'd awakened with her heart pounding to the shrill sound of the telephone ringing. With a grown, she rolled over, reached for the phone and knocked it to the floor.

 

Damn. Dame. Damn. “I'm coming.” She fumbled with the covers, her feet tangled in the spread. When she finally freed herself and answered, she was slightly out of breath. “Sorry, I dropped the phone.”

 

Hojo sighed. “Can you be ready to leave by noon?”

 

“Noon?” she almost squeaked out the word. She'd told Hojo she could leave quickly, but she figured she'd have at least a day or two's notice. “Sure. Are we still flying through New York?”

 

“Yes. But you needn't worry about the details, all the reservations are taken care of.”

 

“We are going to the same hotel?”

 

“It's a surprise.”

 

Oh, no. Sesshomaru wasn't going to like this at all. He'd wanted to make everything safe for her ahead of time, but if she didn't know where they were going, that wouldn't be possible.

 

“How long will we be gone?”

 

“Why?”

 

“I need to know how much underwear to pack.”

 

“Plan on ten days. I couldn't get off for a full two weeks. This was the best I could do.”

 

“I understand. And I appreciate what time you can give me.” She winced as she said it realizing how needy she sounded, but Hojo would expect her to be suitable grateful, so she was. “I'd better hang up and pack. See you soon.”

 

In a flurry of activity, Kagome showered, brushed her teeth, then packed. Hoping Sesshomaru would come over so she could talk to him one last time before she left, yet knowing he wouldn't risk it, in case Hojo had her home under surveillance, she tried to keep her min on practicalities. Passport and visa, check book, sunscreen, reading material for their long airplane ride and lotion for her skin that always seemed dry ay high altitudes. Kagome had never flown out of the country before. But she and her mom had once flown to Florida and gone to Disney World when she'd been eight. And she'd flown with her mom to see several specialists during the last year of her illness.

 

By noon, Kagome's stomach was clenched so tight, she feared eating anything. Aboard the plane, she tried and failed to read a magazine. Guarding herself constantly to prevent herself from craning her neck to search for Sesshomaru, she nevertheless wondered if he was on her flight to New York. She didn't see him during a trip to the lavatory, or he could still be sitting up front in first class. Or he might have scent one of his cohorts. Or simply catch up with her in New York. Or Egypt.

 

“I didn't realize you were such a nervous flyer,” Hojo commented, absently patting her hand.

 

“I'm not so much nervous about flying as excited about our trip. I've never been out of the country.”

 

“Since you've never been anywhere,” he sneered, “I hope you don't mind that I altered our plans.”

 

“By changing the hotel?” she forced herself not to grip her seat's armrest too tightly. “No, I don't mind.”

 

“We're not going to Egypt.”

 

Her lower jaw dropped open. “We're not?”

 

“I thought your fist trip should be European.”

 

“But we don't have a visa.”

 

“A visa isn't required in most European countries.” Again he shot her one og his patronizing grins.

 

She tried not to think about Sesshomaru, about how the change in plans might throw off the Shey Group, who were expecting them to fly to Egypt and who might not realize until they failed to show up in Cairo that Hojo had changed their destination.

 

Making herself breath, making herself ignore the nausea in her gut, she told herself the Shey Group had the wherewithal track terrorists, and a simple change in flight plans wouldn't throw them off her trail. “So where are we going?”

 

Hojo opened his newspaper and smiled. “It's a surprise.”

 

 

Sesshomaru rode in a military aircraft that would arrive at a Washington, D.C., base and jet-helicopter him to Newark Airport, timing his arrival to land a full hour before Kagome and Hojo's plane. Through a headset, Sesshomaru spoke to the Shey Group's premier computer specialist. Ryker Stevens's expertise was finding secrets through means legal and not a legal. Sesshomaru wasn't concerned about Ryker's hacking through airline reservation systems to learn exactly where Hojo was taking Kagome.

 

“He's good,” Ryker told Sesshomaru with admiration. “He's used FBI resources to cover his bases. He has reservations into Stockholm, London, Barcelona, Cairo, Jerusalem, Rome and Munich. Since Stockholm and Munich would require a layover for the night, I'm ignoring them for now.”

 

“What about hotel reservations in those cities?”

 

“He's probably made the reservation under an alias. Same with a car reservation.”

 

Sesshomaru heard typing as Ryker's fingers danced over a keyboard. “I'm checking FBI classified dossiers to find his aliases. Ah, yes. Hojo has duplicate passports in the last names of Henderson, Gere, Williams, Bonita and Tanner. He's requested an additional passport for his wife, Kelsey Tanner. Okay, we've got their manes. He'll be making his reservations under the alias Richard and Kelsey Tanner.”

 

Sesshomaru relaxed a little. “Good work.”

 

“Standard operating procedure. I'll cross reference the names to every flight leaving Newark today in just a few minutes.”

 

Sesshomaru schooled himself to patience. No one was better at searching out information than Ryker Stevens. The man's computer genius was said to rival Logan Kincaid's—but the men specialized in different areas. Sesshomaru had no doubt Ryker could discover their final destination, but time was of the essence. It was imperative to install their people before Hojo and Kagome arrived.

 

“Hojo's not planning on leaving out of Newark,” Ryker informed Sesshomaru, his tone certain. “He's booked a flight to London out of La Guardia. He has ten different connections from the there.” Ryker kept typing and talking at the same time. “Whoever's fronting him the money has plenty of it.”

 

“Yeah. The stakes on this one could be billions.” Sesshomaru knew that Kagome was in the middle of a complicated international situation through no fault of her own, and he couldn't help admiring her for how she was handling herself. He just wished she hadn't had put herself in danger to help her county. “The Middle-Eastern states don't like the idea of oil going down to ten cents a barrel, which could happen if Dr. Ni Ru Higurashi successfully completes his invention.”

 

“Kincaid briefed me. He's sending in every man he's got free to monitor, watch and assess. You're going to be fine.”

 

“Just tell me where he's taking her.”

 

“I'm working the options.” Constant clicking of the keyboard assured Sesshomaru that Ryker was working at a furious pace. “Beside the flights out of Gatwick, he's rented a car, bought bus tickets for Glasgow and train tickets for Edinburgh.”

 

Sesshomaru shook his head. With the leaders of the U.S. and England so cozy, he doubted Hojo would feel comfortable promoting terrorism in a county so friendly with theirs. “My gut tells me he won't attempt to turn her over to terrorists in Britain.”

 

“I agree.”

 

“Besides all these travel arrangements, Hojo also made an interesting call to Greece. It was too short to trace to an exact location. He didn't bother to encrypt it, and what he said seemed innocuous, but we suspected it was a `go' code.

 

Go meant the operation was starting. The best codes were the simple kind. Each contact would have a book of phrases. One person could say, “The weather is fine but it might rain tomorrow,” and the listener could look up those words in their book and it might mean, “Meet me in Paris at the Louvre by noon.” That kind of primitive code was virtually uncrackable without the accompanying cipher book.

 

Sesshomaru had recently completed a several missions overseas and was familiar with the political realities. “Greece is a hotbed of terrorist activity. Any chance that's his final destination?”

 

“Nope. I just got it. “He's going to Barcelona.”

 

“You know for certain?”

 

“For each leg of the journey, he used a different name that matches his FBI passports. They are taking the train from London to Paris, flying to Madrid, then driving to Barcelona. And get this, his hotel reservation in Barcelona is for only one night.”

 

“You think the handoff will go down that quickly?” Sesshomaru asked.

 

“Yeah, but we'll be ready.”

 

Sesshomaru hoped so, but in spite of the confidence he had in his fellow Shey Group team, he'd been in this business too long not to recognize how fast things could fall apart. And his worry over Kagome escalated.

 

 

After the long flight and then extensive traveling by assorted means of transportation, Kagome was exhausted. She'd never experienced Europe or jet lag before, and despite all the wonderfully intriguing sights out various windows, she could barely keep open her eyes. Unlike Hojo, who slept most of the way over the Atlantic ocean and seemed bright-eyes and alert, she wanted a shower, a bed and at least ten hours of sleep. Twelve would be better.

 

In an area on the outskirts of Madrid, Hojo stopped for gas and to buy her sunglasses and a hat. “I can't believe you forgot to pack them,” he berated.

 

Too exhausted to argue or defend herself, when he returned with the items and plopped the straw hat and oversize glasses on her head, she didn't say a word. However, when he stopped at a crowed open-air market with interesting foods, leather goods and ceramics, she shook her head. “I'm too tired to shop.”

 

He turned off the motor, and heat invaded the vehicle. “We'll just get a bite to eat and be on the way.”

 

“You go ahead.”

 

“Come on.” He walked her around the car and tugged her. The exotic spices, the vendors hawking their goods and the colourful cloths flapping in the breeze helped to awaken her. At any other time she would have paused to peruse the fine silver jewellery and leather goods, but she was practically in a walking stupor.

 

When Hojo passed one food stand after another, she planted her feet. Enough was enough. He'd dragged her across half of two continents and an entire ocean. She was tired and cranky and she wanted a shower.

 

Before she could say a word, a parade of dancers and musicians engulfed them on the street. One moment she was standing upright, the next, Hojo shoved her to the ground, knocked off her hat and snatched her sunglasses. Unaccustomed to the bright light, her eyes refused to focus. Then someone fell on top of her.

 

She shoved. “Get off me.”

 

The man didn't budge. Short but muscular, with dark hair and brown eyes, the Spaniard blended right into the crowd. He pressed a gun into her side. “Do not speak, senora. Do not move or I shoot.”

 

Fuzzy-headed, she didn't understand why the man wouldn't let her rise. Or way he had a gun pressed into her side. Were she and Hojo being mugged?

 

Craning her neck in a panic, she searched for Hojo. And the crowd parted. In that split second she saw him striding away with a women dressed like Kagome. She wore a straw hat and the oversized sunglasses. Her hair color and style matched her own. If she hadn't known better, she would have assumed the women was her.

 

Oh. God.

 

Hojo had just handed her over. As adrenaline surged with her fear, Kagome understood that Hojo had suspected all along that he was being watched. So he'd pulled off a switch right in front of whoever was watching. And even if she risked causing a fuss, if the gun hadn't deterred her, the music and singing would have. Even if she shouted, no one would hear. Real fear made her throat tight and her entire body tremble.

 

In all likelihood the Shey Group people tailing Hojo were no longer looking in her direction.

 

She was in a foreign country. In the hands of a terrorist.

 

With no one but herself to depend on.

 

Hojo had taken the bait, but she was the one who'd been caught. As the Spaniard jerked her to her feet, he wrapped an arm around her and jabbed the gun tightly into her side. Heart racing with fear, ribs flinching in pain, mind reeling from the sudden turn of events, she searched the street for a way to escape. For someone who might be sympathetic to her cause. But no one seemed to notice her plight.

 

She let her knees buckle, but the man carried her as if she weighed nothing. Within moments he shoved her into a van, climbed in after her and signalled the driver to go, talking in quick bursts of Spanish that she couldn't follow. However, she didn't need a translator to read the hostility toward her in her captor's eyes or his gleaming satisfactions at a job well done.

 

They had caught her. And she had done nothing to stop them. Nothing.

 

In retrospect, she should have screamed. Should have taken her chances of being shot. Even now she should lunge for the steering wheel, yank the van from the road. But as much as she yearned to do something, anything, common sense prevailed.

 

She would pick her moment, let them think she was cowed and too scared to fight. Let them laugh at their victory.

 

Sesshomaru would be looking for her. He would figure out when Hojo had made the switch. He and his Shey Group would find her, wouldn't they?

 

And if they didn't?

 

She would find a way to help herself.

 

 

Already installed in the room next to the one Hojo had reserved, Sesshomaru frowned at Ryker Stevens. “They should have arrived by now.”

 

Ryker opened one eye from the nap he'd been taking. “Traffic between Madrid and Barcelona is atrocious during rush hour.” He checked his watch. “Wouldn't hurt to call our boys.”

 

Sesshomaru picked up the phone and lowered it slowly back into the cradle, the tiny hairs on his neck standing straight up. “No answer.”

 

“When did you hear from them last?”

 

“An hour ago. Hojo and Kagome left an open-air market just outside Madrid and hit the highway—such as it is.”

 

Sesshomaru's cell phone, recalibrated for southern Europe, rang. “Yeah?”

 

Kincaid's voice was not the one he wanted to hear, and Sesshomaru suppressed his disappointment that is wasn't Kagome on the line. “Spanish police just found both of Hojo's tails dead. We've lost Kagome.”

 

Lost her?

 

Panic made his thought race. The police had made a mistake. Kagome would show up in the lobby any moment.

 

Stop it.

 

He didn't have time for denial.

 

Sesshomaru relayed the information to the computer expert. “Ryker, see if you can pick up Hojo's location.”

 

“He's gone to ground,” Kincaid told Sesshomaru. “One witness in the open-air market claims she saw a man force a brown woman into a white van.”

 

“Did the witness get a license number?”

 

“The witness can't read. She's five years old. However, she insists that red balloons were painted on the side of the van.”

 

“I'm on it.” Ryker started typing. “But text searches are much faster then for logos. This isn't going to be quick.”

 

“We'll find her,” Kincaid said. “We're using all our resources. Interpol. CIA. With Hojo on the run, we can apply pressure.”

 

Ant that pressure was considerable. “Thanks.” Sesshomaru ended the call and paced.

 

Hojo had planned this well. No doubt he had a nice, safe hidey-hole. And despite the combined resources of the free world, finding one man wasn't easy.

 

Sesshomaru calmed his rage by reminding himself that these terrorists needed Kagome alive. And they needed to trade her for Dr. Ni Ru Higurashi, her father. With that thought, he called Kincaid back.

 

“We may need Ni Ru Higurashi over here.”

 

“Our government will not give him up to save his daughter.”

 

“They can pretend the decision is up to Dr. Higurashi, can't they?”

 

“Letting him out of the country is out of the question.”

 

“Damn it, Kincaid. Those terrorists have her. If they don't get what they want, they won't hesitate to kill her.”

 

“Let me see what I can do.”

 

Kincaid didn't lie to his men. He didn't soft-pedal bad news. But when he said he'd see what he could do, he'd move Congress, the Senate, the Cabinet and the joints chief of staff to do as he thought best. And it was rumoured he nudged the president on occasion.

 

Ryker was typing furiously at work. Kincaid would pull every string in his command. Unfortunately, Sesshomaru had nothing he could do—except wait.

 

But that wasn't good enough.

 

“If anyone needs me,” he told Ryker, “I'm going to the open-air market in Madrid.”