3: Ransom

Though he wasn't one to remember specific details of dreams, Artemis could get a general sense of their character from the way he felt when he woke up (or so he reasoned).
As he slowly came to the next morning, he felt…off. The strange, inexplicable sensation gradually gave way to complete dread. Apparently, it hadn't been a good night. Everything felt just a few degrees too cold. Had the weather turned bad?
But wait—he knew this feeling.
The feeling of waking up alone. Single. It's easy to get used to the feeling of another body.
These thoughts went through his head, simultaneously speedy and sluggish, within just a few moments before he realized she was gone. He sat up quickly, heart rate quickening before he'd fully processed anything.

He told himself not to assume the worst—perhaps she'd gone to eat breakfast or go on a morning jog. Maybe she was in the shower, or went to MSH early. Unfortunately, he knew her too well. She was definitely a creature of habit
No, she refuses to eat breakfast out of principle because she doesn't feel she should be obligated to eat it and hasn't yet found a culture with breakfast items she's deemed acceptable.
Most of the time she exercises in the evening. Besides that, we're traveling.
The shower isn't running right now. I'd be able to hear it.
Maybe she went in early, but if I know her as well as I think I do… she wouldn't go without me. Would she?

Before he could fully think through the last one, his cellphone rang from its place on the bedside table. He fumbled for it and answered after a couple of rings.

"Yes?" Too early to answer with excessive politeness.
"Are you two on your way? I hate to bother you this early, but we've still got work to do." It was Yumi's father on the line. "I tried calling her a bit ago, but she didn't answer."
"I was just going to call, actually—she hasn't come in yet?" Artemis asked, growing worried.
"No, not at all, and I haven't heard from her. Did she go out? Breakfast or a morning run?"
"No, no, she's not one to do either of those things. I'll have a look around and let you know if I find her."
"I don't have the best feeling about this. After she just kept staring into space yesterday, I fear there's something she's not telling us about."
"I hope you're wrong," Artemis sighed, ending the call.
He searched the room entirely, which didn't take long. Knowing somehow that he would be unsuccessful, he picked up his phone and attempted to call her.
A buzzing sound came from her side of the bed.

"Shit," he hissed. Her phone, her purse, everything was left behind.

No notes nor any sort of indication of where she'd gone. Everything was as it had been the previous night, though, so no break-in occurred. She hadn't seemed angry enough to leave, just…distant. So what was going on?

He dressed hastily and phoned Yumi's father again. "There's no trace of her here. I'm going to see if the hotel won't let me check their security feeds from last night. See what information you can find, I'll be on my way soon."
"Understood. Has she left her belongings there? Tracing purchases made with her credit cards could—"
"That won't work. She left everything behind."
"So that means she most likely couldn't have purchased transportation of any kind on her own. There's someone else involved."
"That's what I was thinking. We'll discuss this further after I look at the footage."

He had to collect himself before he left. Steadying himself against the wall, he found himself nearly overcome with a confusing array of emotions ranging from hope to rage to abysmal despair. If anything were to happen to her…
To ground himself, he turned his thoughts to more pleasant times—just to have something, anything, to hold onto.

Before they'd been living together, they saw each other quite often, though in secrecy to minimize the media's collective suspicions. That meant sequestering themselves inside one of the two apartments—typically, it was his, as Yumi continually insisted that hers was dirty and didn't have a very good view of the city. It wasn't the city he was interested in looking at, but he didn't mind, regardless. He enjoyed the small marks she began to make on his space, arranging a thing or two the way she liked it, leaving behind small personal belongings by accident. Rather than finding it invasive, he found it endearing. Then again, the young man was so hopelessly enamored with her than he may have found anything she did endearing.

Their "dates" were, at first, slightly awkward. Given time, though, they felt perfectly normal. Having both known the comforts of dining out and engaging in expensive frivolity, the simplicity of nights in was refreshing.
One evening in particular, it was nearing the time when they usually parted ways for the night, both eyeing the clock unpleasantly. Time passed far too quickly.

"I, uh, I think I've had a bit too much wine," Yumi ventured. "I'm not sure I should go home." In truth, she could more than handle her alcohol and was barely affected. But he didn't have to know that.

"Well, I guess I could have someone drive you back, as I probably shouldn't be driving either," He started, trying to get a feel for what she actually meant. The very moment her subtle smile started to fall, he knew. "But it's rather late. Not safe to be out at this hour, right?" Street crime was virtually nonexistent in the area.

"You've got a point. I'd really hate to impose, but if I have no choice…" She replied coyly.

"It's no trouble at all." Even more uncharted territory. "There's a couple of guest bedrooms, if…"

"Actually, that's not exactly what I was thinking. I know we've only been doing this for a few weeks, and I know you don't want me to see you as pushy, but the thing is, well, we're both adults, and I hope I don't seem too forward if—"

"If?"

"Fuck it." She simply couldn't maintain the charade any longer. If every other part of her life was so governed by convention, why not have just one where she could act according to her own will?
She yanked him towards her by the collar of his shirt and proceeded to kiss him as though it were the last thing she'd ever do. He certainly didn't put up a fight; in fact, it was the exact answer he was looking for. There were certainly barriers between the two of them caused by a certain trepidation—what they'd created was so important that neither was willing to risk anything.

He'd be damned if tearing down those barriers wasn't the most fun he'd had in a long time. And after that point, he rather disliked sleeping alone.

----

The room was freezing.
Her senses, once shut off, began to open one by one. She was acutely aware of the room's temperature; thereafter, she felt a slight sense of discomfort in her back, as though she'd been laying uncomfortably for some time.

Need to get up. Artemis is probably waiting. God damn, why is it so cold? Why can't I open my eyes?

When she attempted to move her hand to clear the sleepiness from her eyes, she found herself unable to do so. There was some sort of restraint—cold, metal, foreign.
With considerable effort, she opened her eyes. It took a moment or two for everything to come into focus, especially given the glare of the fluorescent lights above her.
Had she ended up in the hospital somehow? Why the restraints?

Her mouth was dry, lips cracked.

"mmmf… A…Artemis?"

I have no idea how I got here.
Scream, you idiot. Do something.
Alice? Is that you?
They took us. We wandered right into a goddamn trap--

All attempts to move were thwarted by the restraints. She began to thrash about wildly before abandoning the pursuit and resigning herself to simply looking around the room. It was, as far as she could tell, a medical examination room of some kind. Though the lights seemed bright at first, the room itself was actually rather dimly lit. Displayed on a screen nearby were what she assumed to be her vital signs; the erratic heart rate revealed her terror.

"Oh my, you're finally awake! I was beginning to believe we'd given you too much sedative," came an unfamiliar voice.  Male. Older. American, maybe Canadian? "Are you feeling OK?"

"Where am I? Did something happen?" She managed to whisper in response, the man still out of her field of view.

"Now, now, there's no need to worry yourself about that. Can I get you anything, my dear?"

"You can tell me where the fuck you've taken me and never refer to me like that again," she said through clenched teeth. A throbbing headache made her more than slightly irritable.

"I'll forgive the hostility for now. You must be a bit confused—allow me to introduce myself." He moved to stand over her, smiling broadly. "You can call me Dr. Bernstein. I'm an expert in cybernetics, and it goes without saying that you're concealing something very important."

"Alice?"

"No, no, though she is a remarkable AI. I'm more interested in that technology keeping you alive as we speak, the one that let you survive what should've been a fatal car accident. The technology that MSH thinks it can keep all to itself."

She would've glared were here eyes not already narrowed to block out what little light there was. "How do you know about any of this? They said the information was gone."

The man laughed heartily. "In this world of infinite data redundancy, you should've never believed that. But it is true, the data itself is gone—or so we think—but people still talk."

"What do you want with me, then? I don't have the data and it's not like I can tell you how to assemble the device." She continued to squirm.

"Oh, but you can," He replied, running his fingers through her hair. "You see, MSH insists that the information is gone, but they may change their tune once they're aware that their actions have put someone valuable in danger. Failing that, we can simply remove the device and attempt to analyze it however we can."

"I need it to breathe."

"Millions of others need it for the same reason," He said grimly, turning to exit the room. "Oh, there's a fellow here who'd simply love to meet you. Cole Lundstrom—you could call him my understudy—is the whole reason you're here. I will warn you, though… he's not quite so friendly."

A few moments later, she heard a different, lighter set of footsteps enter the room.

"So you're the one," a younger man said softly. "The one they thought was more important."

"I have no idea what you're talking about—Cole, was it? Cole, let me out of here and tell me what's going on," Yumi asked, desperate at this point. "Please."

He chuckled to himself. "Not being able to move… I hear it's pretty unpleasant. My wife didn't seem to like it much. Nasty neurological disease destroyed the connection between her brain and her body. Do you feel trapped?"

She nodded weakly. Cole pressed a button near the bed and she found herself sitting up as the motor attached to the bed-moving mechanism whirred.
He was quite a bit younger than his predecessor, though older than her by at least a few years. What struck Yumi, though, was his smile. It wasn't particularly dark or foreboding—just a slight, innocent smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"Good."

Once they were face to face, Cole drew back his arm and threw a forceful punch across her face.  She tasted blood—it leaked from the corner of her mouth.
This fucker is going to pay.

"Dr. Bernstein just wants to get the information he needs. Me? I'm here to make you suffer. Even if we find another copy of the data and you get to go free, I will make sure every subsequent step you take and breath you draw are so miserable that you will want to stick those pretty lips of yours around the barrel of a loaded gun." He leaned in close, lips to her ear. "It's because of you that I lost the only person who ever meant anything to me."

He turned to leave, slamming the door shut behind him. At a loss, Yumi closed her eyes and turned inward for answers.

Alice, how did we end up here? Where is here?

When you came to MSH to check up on me… it was a trap. They started messing with the system to lure you in, knowing you'd let me take refuge in your mind. Once you were asleep, they used me to guide you right into their hands. I didn't think I could be hacked or controlled, but…. Fuck, I wish I could've warned you. I'm sorry. They shut off my navigation functions once you were in the car, so I can't tell you where exactly we are.

This doesn't make any sense. Kidnapping somebody is brave, so they're bound to be caught…

I think they falsified medical documents claiming that you were a Miss Elizabeth Livingston being transported to a different hospital overseas for treatment.

Overseas?

Well, while I can't say where we are specifically, I can claim with some accuracy that we're somewhere... in the United States.

----

When Artemis arrived at MSH, the atmosphere lacked the frenzy of the previous day. Everyone simply seemed frightened, silently shuffling from one place to another.
The network was now entirely normal, but something much worse was amiss.

"No sign of her on any passenger manifest of ships or planes that've left the country in the last few hours," A particularly worried father greeted him as he walked in. "No cab dispatchers have seen her, nor anybody working public transportation. I trust those accounts—it's hard to miss spotting a celebrity. What did you find in the security tapes?"

"It's the strangest thing. At about 3 in the morning, she just… walked out of the building. No one coercing her, nothing. She just left. The night guard said he would've tried to stop her and call her a cab, ask what she was doing out that late, but he must've been away from the desk because he doesn't remember seeing her," He explained.

"Was she sleepwalking, maybe?"

"I doubt it. Besides, someone would've spotted her wandering around," Artemis said. "Could this have something to do with how she was acting odd after we recovered Alice…?"

"I feared that might be the case. If that's true, I have no idea whatsoever what might be going on. The problem with our network disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared."

As they were walking, a frazzled man in a lab coat ran to catch up with them.

"Dr. Cohen!" The two stopped and turned to allow the man to catch up. "We just received a message from an unknown sender. As of right now we've been unable to trace it, but… I think it's something you need to see."

"Do you think—"

"Sure reeks of a ransom note to me," he answered quickly, not needing to hear the question.

They were led into a nearby room with a computer monitor, a video queued up on the screen.

"It's a bit of animated text then a short video clip," He explained prior to pressing play.

MSH, we admire your work—but it's useless if you keep it a secret.

We believe you've lost sight of your responsibility as true scientists to better our world. You've let fear stand in the way of progress.

As much as it pains us to do this, we have acquired Subject Alpha—the one you refer to as Yumi, the one whose life you graciously saved.

You have three days' time to recover the schematics about her device, if you can. After that point, we will simply remove the device and deconstruct it to remove its secrets. Yes, she will die.

But millions will live once we release the device to the public. Even if we are all arrested and killed, the information will be out there, will be known. Then no one will be able to stop the advancement of mankind.

We think it's fair to trade one girl's life for the health and wellbeing of millions, don't you?

The video clip began. Yumi, in a waist-up picture against a plain white backdrop, spoke into the camera, seemingly fighting back tears.
"I don't know what they want with me. I'm scared. Please, try to find what they're asking for. Please, goddammit, I don't want to die."

Get going. She has precious little time left—and we will be watching.

YOU KILLED MIRIAM FULBRIGHT

Underneath these words was a display showing Yumi's vital signs, beeping away like a ticking clock.

Artemis pursed his lips, attempted to unclench his fists and drew in a deep breath.

"We're going to find these people… and we're going to kill them."