Page 107 of Stolen Omega

I start opening cupboards, discovering various food items, but nothing that might be a tape deck or a speaker. Could be higher up, I guess. Hidden above the overhead cupboards.

Wherever the voices are coming from, I definitely recognize the woman’s voice.

“Mrs. Morris.” Repeating it out loud doesn’t enlighten me further.

I don’t know why I recognize her voice. I only know that I do.

Sighing, I go back through the cupboards, trying to decide if I should risk eating something.

I check the fridge and find a sandwich on a plate, which looks better than chips and water, but it is probably the riskier choice considering whoever made it kidnapped me.

I take a bottle of water from the fridge and a multi-bag of chips from the cupboard.

Sitting down at the table, I eat a bag of chips while the recording loops back to the start.

I listen to it carefully, trying to work out why it’s being played for me.

Whoever took me seems to want me to remember something.

Why else would they be showing me things that seem so familiar?

I pick up the opened multi-pack and the half-drunk water as I get back to my feet.

“Who are you?” I ask the empty room. “What do you want from me?”

Only the woman’s voice answers, repeating her first line.

I leave before the whole thing can play again.

Not wanting to hear it, I close the door behind me.

I take the walk back to my room slowly, stopping to try every other closed door that I pass, and finding all of them locked. The only door that opens is the one to the bedroom.

Clearly, whatever my kidnapper wants me to remember, I’ve been given as many clues as he or she is willing to give.

I’m just going to have to find a way to piece them together.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Russ

One hour becomes two, and then it’s five in the morning. We’ve only covered half of the locations we’d wanted to check out from the air, with no sign of the van and all the sites so far being crossed off the list as unlikely.

The refuel Harris brings us back to the farm in the middle to do is enough to shatter my nerves into pieces. I’m ready to step out of the helicopter and crawl back to Archer’s car. My body is shaking and I’m only not going to puke because my stomach is completely empty.

“How are you holding up?” Archer asks, leaning back and shouting over the sound of the blades above us that are still winding down.

“I’m fine!” I call back, swallowing the urge to dry-heave. “Have you heard anything from Seth yet?”

He looks back at his phone and shakes his head. “Nothing.”

Damn. This fucking sucks.

Harris jumps back into the seat like the maniac he is, tugging his headset on swiftly and then hauling the door closed. He calls out, “Everyone ready?”

Archer gives him a thumbs up, and I prepare for the stomach-lurching take off.

It’s been way too fucking long since Zelena was taken now. The sun’s almost up, and it doesn’t feel like we’re getting anywhere, despite this search method supposedly being faster than driving around.

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