Hunting the Fox

Chapter 19

Kiera woke up in the morning as the sunlight filtered into the bedroom. She opened her eyes slowly and felt confused. She was in bed wearing her t-shirt and shorts from last night, but could not remember anything. Her mind felt clouded and prevented her from remembering last night's events.

'We attended a party at the Opera last night.' Kiera thought. She sat up slowly and her head pounded as if she had too much to drink. 'Did I drink too much wine?' She held her head in her hands as it pounded against her skull.

The room felt oddly strange to her. It was eerily silent and when she glanced around the room. She noticed that Ryan was not in the room.

"Ryan?" Kiera called out weakly. She half expected him to come into the room holding a glass a water and some aspirin. To talk about how much fun... She stopped in mid-thought. Her head started to clear and she remembered something. The pills he gave her last night.

She gasped in horror, "Ryan drugged me last night?' She thought, "He said something about me staying safe and out of the way.' Kiera closed her eyes tightly trying to think about last night.

Opening her eyes, Her mind flooded with last night's events. She called out for Ryan again in a panic, but only silence greeted her. She began to worry. Then she noticed an envelope on Ryan's pillow. Grabbing her glasses from nightstand, she picked up the envelope, and opened it to see Ryan's handwriting. Feeling her heart beat hard against her breast, she read the letter.

'My Graceful Gazelle,

I am truly sorry for drugging you, but you needed to stay safe. I cannot reveal some truths right now. Therefore, I need to tell you as much as I can. As you guessed, Victor is going to do something horrible at the G7 summit, but I'm here to stop him. He did kill my parents, but what I left out was Victor is the leader of a terrorist group called the Libertarian Nationalist Front or LNF for short.

Somehow, this group has targeted you. I discovered this last night when Victor's thugs caught me. He wanted me out of the way, so they could kidnap you. He still wants to kill the world leaders in two days, but he wants you too. I must stop Victor at all cost, for yours and the world leader's sake. I have friends watching the hotel. Stay in your room, you will be safe. I will be back tonight and I can explain everything.

Gazelle I love you more than life itself and will do everything in my power to protect you. I want this all to end so we can spend the rest of our life together. Please stay in the room and keep the doors locked.

With Devoted Love,

Fox'

Kiera read the letter again with blurry eyes as her tears fell onto the paper. She wiped away the tears from her eyes angrily. She tried to read between the lines. Trying to determine what he was not telling her.

'What are you hiding from me Ryan?' Kiera though, 'Who are you really working for?" She crumpled the letter in her hand. She felt anger, despair, and loneness.

Kiera glanced at the clock on the nightstand. The clock read 9:00a.m. She climbed out of the bed and walked on shaky legs to the kitchen. Grabbing glass, Kiera poured some water and drank deeply. Her mouth felt stuffed with cotton. Thinking for a moment on what to do, Kiera decided to call Sandra. She walked back into the bedroom and found her phone. She pulled up the contact list and pressed Sandra's contact. She waited as the phone rang and rang until the voicemail picked up.

"Sandra, we need to talk. Ryan I mean the Fox is on the move. Something is going to happen today and I believe Fox is going to try to stop it. Call me back soon." Kiera disconnected the call and placed the phone in her back pocket.

Kiera grabbed something to eat and drank some more water. She thought about what to do next.

'Why didn't she answer the phone?' Kiera thought drumming her fingers on the table. 'I need to see if there are any clues.'

Kiera looked around the room thinking about if there were any clues. She decided to go through Ryan's dresser.

'Why is Victor after me too?' Kiera thought about what Ryan had said in the letter.

As she thought about this, her hand felt something near the back of the dresser. The object was small and felt soft like velvet. Grasping the object, Kiera pulled it out of the dresser. Turning over her hand, she saw it was a small-hinged black velvet box. Kiera's hand trembled as she opened the box. Inside was a beautifully designed princess cut diamond. The diamond was set into a platinum band. The band had smaller diamonds inset into it. The ring looked old and oddly familiar to her.

Suddenly a loud sound, followed by flashing lights erupted in the room. The hotel fire alarm had gone off and Kiera jumped in fright almost dropping the box with the ring inside it. Quickly she closed the box and placed it back in the dresser. She tried to make it look as if it was undisturbed. Kiera put on her running shoes and turned to leave her hotel room. As she placed her hand on the doorknob, Ryan words flooded her mind.

'Do I leave or what?' Kiera though, 'What if there is a real fire?'

Kiera felt the phone vibrating in her back pocket. Grabbing it quickly she thought it might be Sandra. She pressed the connect button without looking at the caller ID.

"Sandra where have..." However, another voice cut her off.

"Kiera," A female voice said, but it was hard to make out the voice with the noise from the fire alarm. She turned away from the front door and placed a hand over her other ear.

"Who is this?" Kiera asked shouting.

"Kiera, it is me Kate," Kate responded yelling back, "What is all that noise?"

Kiera heard the female say Kate, "Kate, the fire alarm is going off. Have you heard from Sandra?"

"No...but...texted from alley." Kate replied.

It was hard for Kiera to hear Kate, but she thought she heard something about an text from a alley. Then it dawned on Kiera. Kate found out whom texted the LNF agent in the alley that night at the Foxhole.

"What Kate?" Kiera shouted, "What about the text?"

"It...Marcus...Marcus texted...guy!" Kate shouted over the phone

"What about Marcus?" Kiera shouted back.

"Marcus texted the guy in the alley!" Kate shouted each word slowly.

Kiera's hand dropped from her ear, 'Dear god, Marcus texted the person, but why?' Kiera thought.

"Kiera...there is more...Marcus is..." Kiera could not make out what Kate was saying.

"Hello Kitten." A male voice with an English accent spoke into her ear from behind her. "This is going to hurt a bit."

Kiera spun around to discover a man with brown hair standing in the main room with a taller man behind him. Kiera distracted by the fire alarm and the call that she did not notice them enter the room. Kiera gritted her teeth in pain as a jolt of pain stabbed her in the side. The pain felt white hot as if being shocked with electricity.

She looked down and saw a small black rectangular plastic box in the man's hand. Kiera gasped in pain as the man pressed a button and an electric arc appeared between to metal prongs. Electric volts ripped through her body causing her muscles to go tense. The pain was intense as the white-hot electricity arced through her body as she screamed in pain. With another jolt of electrical shock, Kiera pitched forward into the man's arms.

"Get the hell over here and help me!" Kiera heard the English man say as he struggled to hold up Kiera's tense body, "Well you were quite easy to find pet."

Kiera felt herself dragged out the hotel room. Her phone dropped to the ground and still connected to Kate. She tried to scream, but her voice would not work. She noticed a hotel employee lying on the ground next to the front door. There was blood on the floor next the employee's head.

'It makes sense,' Kiera thought as her body spasm, 'They must have set off the alarm and used the employee's card key to gain entrance into my room."

They dragged Kiera downstairs as the Englishman yelled for people to move out of the way. He said they had an injured person who needed medical attention right away. Kiera saw the people moving out of the way and looking at her. Kiera tried to scream, but her voice would not work. Everything looked like she was watching a scene of a movie. It did not feel like she was there. The two men took her out of the back entrance of the hotel. Most likely an emergency exit since the fire alarms were activated no other alarms would go off.

"Hey you stop or I will shoot." Kiera heard someone shout. She heard the pop of gunfire and then there was silence.

"Well so much for the guards." Kiera heard the Englishman say as they tossed Kiera limp form into the back of a dark vehicle.

She felt the vehicle bounce as the two men climbed into the car. Her cheek pressed against the cool leather seat. She tried to move, but her muscles would not respond to her.

"Time to sleep my sweet Kitten," The Englishman said. A cloth pressed against her mouth and nose. She smelled something sweet and tried to hold her breath.

"Normally I could do this all day, but we are pressed for time." The Englishman said.

Something hit Kiera hard in the stomach. She took in a deep breath of the sweet smelling cloth. As she sucked in breath, the sweet smell assaulted her senses. Kiera felt dizzy and her world spun out of control. Everything when black as the vehicle jerked forward.