Nabiki was out of her mind trying to figure out where Sherry was. She had been all night long sweeping Sherry's room. It was impossible for her to be kidnapped and not have left anything behind.
Nabiki's beeper sounded and she looked at her message. "Contact Birkoff, urgent", it said and so she went to her room, and phoned him.
"Hey, Birk, what's up?"
"Nabiki, news. Sherry's tracker has been activated and I didn't even know she had one. What are you going to do?" Birkoff asked while trying to plan a sequence for them.
"I'll try to get in touch with North and Trace. I'll get back in touch with you as soon as possible. Thanks Birky, I owe you one".
"Nabiki, this is Operations. I want you and Michael in my office at once. You may not tell anyone what Birkoff has told you, understood"
"Yes, sir I do. I'm on my way".
So Operations was in this one. She should have known. He was always in the middle of disaster. Nabiki dialed a number and when the other line picked up, she said: "Michael, Sherry's tracker has been activated. When Birkoff called me, Operations took over and he wants us there ASAP".
"Thanks, Nabiki. I'm on my way. Meet me at the Conference room and we'll go together".
"Understood"
Once Michael and Nabiki entered Section One, Michael went to Operations, while Nabiki went to Birkoff.
"Hey, Birkoff. What can you give?"
"Well, I lost Sherry but not before finding out were she is. Here's the address." Birkoff handed Nabiki a piece of paper as a crash came from Operation's office.
"Nabiki, what have you found?", Michael asked.
"She's been held in an abandoned hotel close from here. I'm almost sure who has her. Let's go". Nabiki said as she dialed the CLHQ's.
************
Part Twenty-Nine - Northstar
"North!! Get down here quick." Birkoff yelled into the intercom.
North, startled, dropped the cup she had in her hand and splashed some of the hot liquid on her. "Damn." she muttered as she grabbed a tissue and quickly wiped up the worst of it. "I'm on my way Birkoff."
North ran down the stairs and made her way to the communications room. She wondered what was up that would make Birkoff yell the way he did.
"Okay Seymour. What's up?"
"I had her signal!" he said excitedly. "It wasn't on for long but at least long enough for me to get a partial lock on it."
"Where?"
Birkoff pointed to the map on the wall.
"Good work Birkoff. Let the others know and we can get started on the retrieval." North ordered. "By the way have you seen Operations?"
"Yeah, he was here a few minutes ago but I haven't seen him since. Why?"
"Well he was checking something out for me and I was wondering if he had any news."
"Not that I heard North."
"Okay. Thanks anyway."
"North! There you are." Rita said as she and Roy came in breathless. "Have you seen Sophie at all? We were out and we got separated and now she is nowhere to be found."
"Great. Another operative missing." Birkoff sighed. "Just what we need right now. I'll get on it and see if we can find her signal."
*****
Sherry couldn't believe her luck. If she didn't have bad luck she wouldn't have any luck at all. She could only hope that Birkoff had been on the ball back at CLHQ.
Sophie started to stir and wake up from her forced upon nap. Rubbing her head as she tried to sit up she moaned. "Where the hell am I and what happened to me?"
"Hey Sophie! Welcome to the party."
"Party?" Sophie was confused. "What party?"
"My party Sophie. It seems you were getting a little too close for comfort by my friend's version and he just didn't want it to end just yet."
"End? What end?" Sophie tried to shake off the wooziness she still felt. After sitting up for a few minutes and letting the dizziness pass she realized what had happened to her. "O'Brien. It was that bastard O'Brien wasn't it?"
"And Sophie gets the prize!" Sherry snapped. "Yeah it was O'Brien. Apparently this did start out as a test for us all but he changed the game plan midway through."
"Oooohhh wait until I get my hands on him." Sophie spit out.
"Well girl you will have to stand in line behind me."
******
"North. In my office now."
North rolled her eyes. Just what she needed, Operations in a foul mood. He had been acting funny for the last few days and not at all like himself. "On my way."
******
Curlly came into CLHQ rubbing her head and she grimaced as she touched the sore spot. She was so close. But she did manage to get a glimpse of the person. Or at least she thought she did. Even if she couldn't believe whom she thought it was.
Everyone was running around Headquarters as she made her way into the Comm room. "Hey Birkoff. What's happening?"
"We found Sherry. Or I should say we think we found where she is. The bad news is that now Sophie is missing too."
"But I just saw her before I got knocked out." Curlly insisted.
"You okay Curlly?" asked Birkoff as he punched some more numbers onto his console. "Maybe you should go to Medlab and get yourself checked out. And where exactly did you see her anyway?"
"Out back. I saw Michael, at least I think it was Michael, and Rita too but they were going in the other direction. I can't believe I let myself get tricked like that." she said shaking her head.
"Well at least we know that they can't be too far away then and makes it look as though the location we got on Sherry is very feasible. I only hope that it's not too late by the time Michael gets to her."
*******
North came storming into the room. "It's O'Brien."
Curlly nodded her head. North just confirmed her suspicions. She wasn't wrong after all. "Yeah. That is who I thought it was but I thought to myself that it couldn't be. I guess i was wrong. How did you find out North?"
"Operations. This was supposed to have been some kind of test for all of us but it looks like O'Brien had his own plans. Ops is not a happy camper right now."
"Don't worry North. It will work out in the end and I'm sure O'Brien will get what he deserves." Curlly assured her friend. "And I am sure you will get Ops back into a good mood once this is done with."
"Yeah he will once we let Frick and Frack have a crack at him. And that will be after we let Sherry have a go. As for Ops, yeah I think I can handle him." North said with a small chuckle. "Any news yet Birkoff?"
"Not yet but I'm sure we will hear something soon."
************
Part Thirty - Black Clad Figure
He knew they were getting close. It was time to get out of here. Quickly. He was disappointed, however, that Michael was simply sitting in his office letting the others do the work. It would have been so much more satisfying to go up against Michael. Oh well ... you can't have everything.
Gathering the needed equipment, he made his way to the room holding Sherry and Sophie. "Hello ladies. Sorry to tell you this, but the time is up. And Sherry, I'm sorry, but I have to renege on that promise I made to let Sophie go. Sorry. Anyway, I need you two lovely ladies to sit down back-to-back on the cot."
Sherry laughed. "Yeah, like we're gonna take orders from you. Why should we cooperate with you? You're only going to kill us anyway."
O'Brien pulled a gun on them. "That's why I like you, Sherry. You're so quick to grasp a situation. Unfortunately, I don't have time to argue with you. You can either die right now where you are, or you can cooperate and give yourselves a small chance of getting out of here alive ... provided the others find you."
Looking over at Sophie, who was still a bit woozy, Sherry decided she had to give her a chance. "Fine. We'll cooperate. So what exactly is it you're going to do?"
"Why, I'm going to tie you up, or rather, you're going to tie Sophie up and then I'm going to tie you up. Can't have two of you loose and only one of me, now can we?" Pointing the gun at Sophie, O'Brien threw the rope and Sherry. After she had tied Sophie up, O'Brien motioned with the gun for her to sit down as well. "And please don't try anything. If you do, Sophie will die, as will both of us. If I'm not out of this room in 5 minutes to deactivate the timer, a deadly gas will be delivered into this room. We will be dead within 10 minutes. And, it won't be pleasant. So please cooperate. I know you're quite skilled as an operative, but I'd think twice this time."
Sherry sighed. She knew he was right. There was no way she could disarm and disable O'Brien, get Sophie, and get out of the room and deactivate the timer in 5 minutes. She had no idea where it was to begin with. Once she found it ... if she did, it would take a while for the computer to cycle through the sequences to find the right sequence to unlock the code.
Sherry sat down on the cot next to Sophie. O'Brien holstered his weapon and tied her up as well. Then he proceeded to attach an explosive device around Sherry. He pushed a few buttons and the timer was set at 20 minutes. Then he hit the switch and the time began counting down.
"Well, ladies, you have 20 minutes. Sorry I can't stay to see how this plays out, but I really do need to be going. I do hope you get out of this, truly I do." With that, he walked out and closed the door behind him.
Sherry had never wished for anything like she wished for ESP or mental telepathy at that point. She screamed out in her mind. "Michael ... North ... Rita ... Nabiki ... Curlly ... anybody ... get us out of here." She also began to frantically try and get the ropes loose around her wrists. She could feel them biting into her skin. She knew she would have nasty cuts and burns from them. But if that was the worst she got ... she would be sure never to miss another Sunday church service if she could help it.
"Sophie, come on. Work on your ropes. We have to get out of here fast. I just hope if I get these ropes off that this bomb doesn't have some sort of motion detector on it. Why didn't I think to ask him before he left!"
He could resist one last note. It was just too much fun. He quickly scribbled the note and placed it outside the door to Michael's office. Once again, he was unnoticed. Then he left Section for the last time.
Michael was pacing in his office. "What is taking so long. We need to find her. I need to find her. I've got to do something!" Rita didn't know what they could possibly do until they had a bit more information, but she followed Michael out the door. Michael paused when he opened the door. He stooped over and picked up another enveloped. Quickly he ripped it open.
"They now have 15 minutes, unless they try to move too much between now and then. Motion sickness, you know. In that case, I can't be responsible for the mess that you will find. And since you've had such a hard time finding us, I'll tell you where to look. The basement of the old abandoned hotel two blocks from Section. My suggestion.... HURRY!"