Chapter 28: Kidnapping IV - This is Fine Too

Annabelle had to admit she didn’t think her plan through. 

Step one was getting her feet free so she wouldn’t have to waste precious time cutting through the rope when she was on the run. That was easy enough. 

Step two was to summon the communicator from the Akashic World in her mind and buy a knife. She’d use it to cut through the rope binding her hands together.

Finally, step three was to just beat her captors up and then escape. Although they were both men and larger than her, she thought she could do it.

All mech pilots had some training in martial arts in order to prepare their bodies for the rigors of mech piloting, and to make them more in tune with themselves and their capabilities.

Annablle was pretty confident that as long as she broke free, the other two won’t be able to stand a chance. They don’t look like special agents—they seem more like grunts hired for a specific speciality. 

The Gecko would be more trouble, though. She thought she saw a scar on his face, probably from a knife wound. It wouldn’t be his first rodeo. The older man was harder to read, but she didn’t think that he’d be very skilled given his stiff movements.

Of course, none of all this mattered since she couldn’t even execute step two. The two men had her walk out in front where both of her hands were visible!

It’s probably no big deal, though. She could wait a bit longer for her chance. She just hoped that she’d find an opportunity soon. For now, the situation was still under control and she knew where she was. That would all change if her captors managed to get her into a vehicle.

There were already several things she had tried. 

Slowly falling back didn’t work as when she fell back far enough to hide her hands, Chameleon suddenly told her to walk faster. That man hated her.

Tripping didn’t work either. Chameleon just pulled her up and had her keep walking. All she got out of that were tears in her pajamas and dirt on her face. The wind blowing through the tunnel often blew through those new holes, making her shiver.

What can I do?

Sadly, no answer came to her. She could only obediently walk straight ahead.

The tunnel bent ever so slightly at times, just enough to obscure something beyond the curve. As she rounded one such curve, she saw a faint light in the distance. Faint yellow light spilled onto the ground.

Her heart sank. It was some kind of vehicle. The lights she saw were definitely headlights, aimed down at the ground.

She slowed down, but the two men behind her, especially Chameleon, would not let her. Instead, they sped up, heartened by the sight of their ride. Chameleon gave her a shove to hurry her forward. She almost fell a second time, this time unplanned, but luckily she managed to keep her balance.

The car, an off-road vehicle that looked like a jeep, came into view soon when they got close enough that the bright headlights no longer obscured the shape of the car behind it.

“Hey! Bobcat. That you?” Chameleon called.

The call bounced around the walls of the tunnel, easily reaching the car. At that, one of the car doors opened and someone stepped out, waving.

“Yup. That’s him,” Chameleon said with satisfaction. Annabelle risked a look behind her, peeking at Chameleon’s face. The sour apprehension that had been almost perpetually stuck on his face was gone.

Happy that he can finally get out of here, I suppose, Annabelle thought gloomily. Is there nothing I could do? 

It’s not like she won’t have a chance to escape once she was in the car but it was cramped in there. Out here in tunnels, it was spacious enough to duck and wave. She could use her agility to its full effect to avoid being cornered while she waited for opportunities to attack.

In a cramped car, especially a moving one, that wasn’t an option. There, strength was king.

For an agile attrition fighter like her, it was the worst kind of scenario. She preferred to wear down her opponent with injuries before dealing the finish blow, since she lacked the power to directly contend with the boys in her class. That style carried over to her piloting. 

There was only one other person in the car aside from Bobcat. She didn’t have to worry about knowing the other person’s name because the previously silent Chameleon blurted it out right after he caught sight of him too. 

“Bear, you’re here too. I’m so glad to see you!”

Annabelle scoffed to herself. Who was the one annoyed that Gecko revealed your name huh? You hypocrite!

While she insulted Chameleon behind his back to make herself feel better, she really couldn’t. The man sitting in the car was huge, easily two meters tall and almost as wide. He took almost the whole front passenger seat. Although she couldn’t see him clearly because of the tinted window, she didn’t think all that mass was fat.

Bear was aptly nicknamed.

Sweat soaked her palms and she couldn’t even wipe it thanks to her bonds. She looked down as she approached the car, unwilling to meet any of their eyes.

While Gecko pushed her into the back seat of the jeep, Bobcat had Chameleon stay and talk.

“Good work, Chameleon. I knew you could do it,” he said, patting the older man on the back. He didn’t wear a mask, and neither did Bear. 

As a matter of fact, as Gecko got in with Annabelle in the back seat, he took off his metal mask.

Young...

Here was another hypocrite, calling her a kid when he had a babyface. She was tempted to call him out for it, but she wasn’t in the habit of offending the person she had tentatively gotten on the good side of.

Bear and Bobcat seemed experienced and Chameleon was annoying, Gecko was really her best bet for an unwitting ally, especially given his rebellious streak.

“Thank you, Bobcat. It wasn’t very difficult and everything went according to plan,” Chameleon said with a small bow. They exchanged a few more words that Annabelle didn’t catch before they separated.

Annabelle watched them with interest. Bobcat seemed to be the highest ranked person among the four present. Chameleon clearly referred to him, and Bear also let him do the talking. He looked decently strong, too.

He had the confidence of someone assured that he’s doing the right thing correctly, that he hadn’t made a mistake. His attitude wasn’t overly proud or snobbish either, so chances were he had the skills to back everything up.

This is getting worse and worse, she grumbled.

And sure enough, Chameleon got in on Annabelle’s side opposite of Gecko, sandwiching her between the two of them. 

Although Annabelle had planned to sit on the side and then break free while hiding her hands in the corner, that idea went up in smoke when Chameleon forced her to move in. 

Reluctantly, she did.

She cursed to herself. Every single time.

There was no more time to think. Her chance to escape failed. Now she had to gamble on escaping from a moving car. She’d like it better if it was day already so she could cause trouble in the middle of traffic, but unfortunately the sky was still dark. That meant the road would be empty, though it offered its own set of advantages if she was smart about it...

She began to survey the interior of the jeep. Knowing her environment was too important to ignore if she wanted to escape. As her eyes flicked from place to place. she found Bobcat staring at her.

Uh oh... does he know what I’m doing? Maybe she shouldn’t have been that obvious. Stopping now would be too suspicious, so instead she continued. But slower. And she moved her head more.

She didn’t know if she was acting fake or not, but she imagined that her “scouting out” action became more like “curious about the inside of a jeep.” Not the most convincing of lies, but what could she do?

Whether her act fooled him or not, Bobcat slipped into the driver’s seat. He played with his comms and then raised it to his mouth.

“This Bobcat with the Tunnel Team. We’ve recovered the girl.”

A quiet voice came from the comms that Annabelle had just barely caught. “Understood. Our employer is requesting an image.”

Bobcat sighed and turned around in his seat. 

Without even asking her consent, he snapped a picture of her and sent it through the comms. Annabelle fumed inside.

A moment later, the voice came again. “Good job. Our employer has confirmed the target. Come back to us. We’re withdrawing the other teams.”

“Roger that.” Bobcat nodded and shut off his comms.

He stuck a key into the electronic lock and with a refreshing ringtone, the electronic systems of the car came fully online. Without warning, the powerful engine roared and the vehicle shot forward, bouncing on the old train rails, ratting Annabelle’s brains and teeth.

This... is... fine... too....

It was fortunate that she wasn’t the only one uncomfortable. Both Gecko and Chameleon had leaned forward to grab onto something. That meant they couldn’t see behind her for the first time since she concocted her plan.

There was no way she’d let this chance go by!

Trying hard to not throw up, she slipped on a pained expression that was not entirely faked and reached for the communicator.