“Axel, there is someone here.”
“Who? Nora brought people over?” Axel asked and Lily didn’t give him a response. Suddenly, the two men in the room grabbed Nora and she struggled with them.
“Oh my God, they grabbed Nora.” Lily said in fear and tears rushed into her eyes.
“What?” Axel asked confused.
“Axel, they are coming.” Lily said in tears as the men walked away from the living room.
“How many people are there? Be precise.” Axel said.
“Three, four, I don’t know.” She replied.
“Where are you?” He asked and she sniffed as she shook in fear.
“I’m… I am on the balcony.”
“Go to the next bedroom, get under the bed, and tell me when you are there.” Axel ordered as he ran his hand through his hair and paced in his room.
Lily ran as fast as she could and got into the next bedroom by the balcony, she got under the bed and breathed heavily.
“I’m here.” She said and sniffed.
“Now, the next part is very important. They are going to take you.” Axel said and Lily cried.
“No, no. Axel, they look so scary.” Lily cried.
“Don’t cry, listen to me, Lily.” He said but Lily kept crying.
“Lily please. Stay focused baby, listen to me.” Axel said.
“Okay.”
“Leave the phone on the floor, concentrate, shout out everything you see about them, hair colour, eye colour, tall or short, scars, anything you see. You understand?” He asked and Lily cried.
“Okay.” She replied and Axel could feel his heart race in fear for the first time in a really long time.
Axel heard the footsteps, also weird language and Lily’s cries.
“They are there, I can hear them.” He said and Lily whimpered. She didn’t want to cry out loud.
“Move the phone closer so I can hear.” Axel ordered and she withdrew the phone from her ear.
Suddenly she noticed something odd, they were leaving.
“They are leaving. I think they are…. Lily trailed off and screamed as she felt someone drag her under the bed.
“Axel!” She called in tears and Axel shut his eyes as he felt his heart ache.
The people dragged Lily out of the bed and she struggled with him, just like Axel had asked her to, she started to yell out what she she could about the person holding her.
“Beard, six feet, dark hair. Tattoo, right arm. Sun and moon.” She yelled. She was about to yell something else when the person knocked her out.
Axel couldn’t hear her screams anymore. He suddenly heard footsteps then the phone was picked up from the floor.
“I don’t know who you are, I don’t know what you want, if you are looking for ransom I have got a lot. I have also got something else, and they are a very particular set of skills, skills that I have acquired over a very long career, skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my wife and sister go now, that will be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you, but if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”
“Good luck.” A voice with a weird accent said and the call ended. Axel remained on the spot as different thoughts ran through his head.
He could still hear Lily’s screams in his head.
Axel rushed into his closet and got dressed, he grabbed his keys and he seconds later, he was out of the house and inside his car.
As he drove, he placed a call across to Max and picked up.
“Dude, its past midnight.” Max said in a sleepy tone.
“Lily and Nora have been kidnapped.” He said and Max’s eyes snapped open immediately and he sat up.
“What?”
“I am going to send you an audio right now. I need it analysed. I am on my way to our base, meet me there in ten minutes. Get me a plane to Paris too.”
“Okay.” Max replied and the call ended.
Axel drove as fast as he could, and in minutes, he arrived at their base. It was a small basement of a building where he and Max kept a lot of stuff they used in their missions or other things.
He arrived inside the basement and he walked to one of the shelves in the rooms. He pulled out a bag from one of them and opened it.
Inside the bag were different kinds of passports. Passports of different countries.
He couldn’t travel on a mission with a high profile, especially in a case of kidnapping. It could be anyone who has Lily and Nora, any of his enemies who would do anything to get him out of the way.
He needed to keep a low profile.
He searched for what he needed and gathered everything he would use in a bag, by the time he was done, Max already arrived at the building too. Max walked into the base and met Axel in a state he hadn’t seen him in a very long time. A worried state.
“Dude, what happened?” Max asked.
“I got a call from Lily. There were people in the apartment and they took her and Nora.”
“Woah. ”
“What have you got?” Axel asked Max.
“Okay. I got one of our men to run the analysis and he said they are speaking Albania based on their accents in dialect they must be from a town called Tropoje. Even the Russians avoid these people. The one you spoke to, his name is Marco. And there is information that a mobster boss named Marco Ucho moved to Paris six months ago. If he is the one, he is a big fish and the tattoo is like a group ID between them. I don’t think you want to hear the rest.”
“Fucking say it, Max.”
“More information about it is that if truly it is these people, they are into trafficking of women.”
“Keep going.” Axel said and Max stared at him for a few seconds before going on.
“Okay. Their previous m. o was to offer women from emerging East European countries like Romania, and Bulgaria jobs in the West as maids and nannies. Once smuggled in, they would addict them to drugs and turn them into prostitutes. Lately, they have decided it is more economical to kidnap traveling women. It saves them on transportation costs.” Max explained and Axel sighed.
“What else?”
“Based on the way these groups operate, our analyst says you have a ninety six hour window from the time they were grabbed.”
“To what?” Axel asked.
“To never finding them.” Max replied and Axel sighed. He had never handled something like this before.
It was always so easy for him in running anything he had to do, illegal. This would be so hard for hin because he had no connection among this men, and this was because he was not involved in trafficking human. It is really bad and out of the line.
The only connection he has is with the Russians and Traids then other little gangsters too. This was really way beyond him.
“You good man?” Max asked and he nodded in response.
“Were you able to get me a flight?” He asked and Max nodded.
“Are yoy going to go alone?”
“Yes. I will need someone to get me infos and handle things around here so wait back.” Axel said and he nodded in response.
“I am sure you will find them.”
“Yeah.” Axel replied and carried the bag.
“Firstly, I need to get to Paris.”
********
MANY HOURS LATER
Axel arrived in Paris and headed straight to a local hotel he could use. When he was done, he headed to the address of the apartment Nora dropped when they were leaving.
He got to the building and he walked out of the taxi, he looked up at the building and looked around before going in. In took the elevator and stopped on the floor the room was on.
He got out of the elevator walked to the room according to the number on the address, the door was opened when he got to the front of the apartment.
He walked into the apartment and paused when he saw their bags on the floor.
Slowly he started to look around the room to see if there was any clue he could find. As he checked around the house, he found Nora’s phone on the floor.
He picked it up and noticed it was a little broken but it was still working.
He guessed her password and it was correct, it was her birthday that was the passcode.
Immediately the phobe unlocked, the phone app was displayed. And there was a number saved there but with a strange name.
It was saved as ‘Airport Caleb’
Axel thought of where he could find Caleb. There were a lot of Caleb at the airport. By the way, he had no idea what he looked like.
As he thought of what to do, he got an idea and he sent the number to a Max informing him to find the person who own the number.
Axel made his way out of he room and headed to the airport. On his way, Axel’s phone beeped and he picked it up.
It was a message from Max and it was a pic. He found the guy!
He stared at the guy’s picture and he drove faster.
He got to the airport and found the guy at the entrance and he was about to get into a taxi with a lady.
Axel rushed to the guy and pulled him away from the lady and hit him. Before Axel could blink, he felt someone hit him from behind and he fell to the floor.