Long Blonde Hair, Sky Blue Eyes Pt. 05

He and the work team got caught up chasing a discovery and forgot lunch; he also forgot to check the phone he had left in his office until just before three. Aila had information, but there was no response from Annika or Rhonda. He quickly perused Aila's info, and made a call to Carl.

"Is Annika with you or her team?" he hurriedly asked. "No, I haven't seen her; let me check with Cal - he was expecting her. ^No, she's not with him either. What's going on? You seem worried."

"My newest AI found something you need to see; bring Cal, Amanda, and your chief of security to my office immediately!"

****

Carl, Cal, Amanda, and Captain Reynolds (USAF-SF, Ret.) were in Erik's office facing him and a puzzled Johnny, who had just gotten off the phone with Hanna. "She says she hasn't heard from her since early morning, before school started."

"Then let me show you what Aila found when I told her to look for Annika on the deep web." He turned the monitor to face them, and let them read what he had.

While they were reading, he stated, "Annika was wrong - that wasn't a fan that jumped into their limo! He's part of a kidnapping ring, and the fact that neither Annika nor Rhonda is asking scares the crap out of me!

"Captain, I'm sorry we don't have time for niceties like introductions, but what do you recommend we do?"

"Has anyone gotten a ransom demand? ^No? Okay, that's good. Have you gotten a call, text, or email from a source you don't recognize? It may have a strange title."

Each looked through their phones, and one-by-one responded negatively. The captain was texting while they looked.

"Okay, I'm getting a team together. I need someone to come to her apartment with me to determine if anything looks different."

Eric interrupted: "She spent the night in my apartment across the street. I don't know if she left or not. She was supposed to be here by ten, and once we decided she might be in danger, Rhonda went there to escort her. I don't think we've heard from either since."

"Then the team will proceed to her apartment, and I'll have someone meet me at your apartment."

"That's fine, but I'm going with you. I'll get my .357 from the safe and meet you downstairs."

Erik dashed off to the gun safe in Johnny's office to get his arms. The captain looked askance at Carl, who shook his head. "No, there will be no stopping him; besides, he has the keys, knows the building, and is very proficient with firearms."

"Let's go!" Erik yelled at the captain, who followed him down the stairs and to the front door. "Slow down! If we're being watched we don't want to set anything off. Don't cross until we can't be seen from your apartment, and then take us to it by a route they wouldn't expect."

They walked downhill past the apartment complex, crossed, and ran through the covered parking area below the complex. They took the stairs up one floor, and crept to his room. "Use your key card, but stand to the side. When I push the door open, wait a second or two for shots or a booby trap, and then knell in the doorway with your revolver ready. I'll be standing behind you. If nobody..."

"I know; I've had the civilian urban warfare training. Let's do it!"

Erik unlocked the door; no shots or explosion, so he knelt with Captain Reynolds behind him. They saw nothing moving, so Erik jumped inside facing the kitchen/dining area, and Reynolds kept an eye on the hallway to the bedrooms and office.

"Over here!" Erik whispered urgently, before moving quickly toward a body lying on the kitchen floor. He looked over the bar between the two rooms, and cleared the kitchen before kneeling next to Rhonda, who was bound, gagged, and bleeding from what appeared to be a gunshot wound to her torso and a blow to her head.

Erik grabbed two hand towels, folded them, and pressed the folded towels against the wound. Reynolds cleared the other rooms and called 911. He then took pictures of Rhonda and the area around her with his phone.

When Erik applied pressure to the bleeding wound, Rhonda moaned and opened her eyes. Reynolds removed the tape gag, and cut the zip tie around her ankles. "Can I reach behind and cut the tie around your wrists, Lieutenant?"

She nodded and tried to turn on her side. "No, let me. Stay as still as possible so he can keep the pressure on the wound. How bad are you hit?"

"I can feel my limbs and it hurts like hell, so I don't think it hit my spine. I've been bleeding a long time, though, and I'm starting to go into shock, so let me tell you what happened before I do.

"I got here just before ten, knocked on the door, and it opened. There were two people in the doorway; the large man from the limo, and a woman. Both had pistols aimed at me, so I came in when they ordered me to. The woman disarmed me; the man said, 'You're the bitch from the limo!' and hit me above the left ear with the butt of the pistol. I think it was a P96. That dazed me enough that they were able to tie me up, and then drag me in here.

"They had Annika bound and gagged; she was sitting in the chair that's pulled out from the dining table. She was only wearing a terry cloth robe that was pulled open, and she was shaking and crying. A third person, another woman, was holding a gun against her neck. They held us here until a call came in sometime after noon. The women took Annika into a bedroom and she came out dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. The man took another call sometime later, and they gave Annika instructions about how to act when they left the apartment."

Reynolds offered her water, and then said, "You're talking too much; just give me descriptions and tell me if you saw any identifying features, then you're going to rest until emergency personnel arrives.

Her voice was softer now. "6'2" 240 at least; wavy black hair and brown eyes, dressed in khaki pants and checked shirt with buttons, black leather shoes. Dagger on neck with several drops of blood. First woman had brown hair and eyes, 5'5" 150, dressed in jeans and black sweatshirt; gold locket on gold chain around neck; birthmark on cheek by right ear. Other woman was 5'3', 115, small feet, bracelet tat around right ankle, with blonde hair and light blue eyes. Wearing athletic shoes, denim Capri jeans with white sweater.

"When they left, the brunette told the man to make sure I was secure and join them. They left; he stood over me, said "American bitch!" and shot me. He laughed, said he hoped I died slowly, and left.

"I didn't hear them say anything helpful, but my guess is that the man and brunette woman are Russian or Eastern European, and the other woman is an American from the east coast."

She started to speak again, but Erik could tell she was weakening fast. "No more! I hear the EMTs coming. I won't release the pressure until they are ready. You've given us enough to go on for now; save it for when you're feeling better.

She nodded, but whispered, "Find her; she's terrified, and they're cruel." He promised they would, and turned it over to the EMT kneeling beside him.

Reynolds said, "Lay your revolver on the table with mine and stand beside me against the wall with your hands raised in front of your chest; the cops are here."

They wasted a half hour convincing the detectives they were not the perpetrators, and another being grilled about what Rhonda told them. The detectives were still argumentative and loudly questioning the whole story when Oliver and Carl arrived with the police commissioner, who yelled at them about wasting time and gave orders to be followed immediately! Their attitude did an immediate 180, and they scurried to the door to make the calls they should have made an hour ago.

The commissioner apologized and asked to be updated. Captain Reynolds told him what they found, what Rhonda said, and that they were 100% certain Annika had been kidnapped. Carl instructed Erik to tell the commissioner what he found on the dark web, but the commissioner called the lieutenant who just arrived over to listen. Erik told them what the discovered, and Lieutenant Karha asked if Erik could show the search results to him.

They walked hurriedly back to the office and began reviewing the search results. Johnny came in while Karha was reading and Erik gave him the highlights. He blanched, and said he was going to get Hanna. Erik told him to get his arms first, and be highly alert; any or all of them could be targets!

When Karha finished he asked Erik a question; before answering, Erik prompted Aila to update the search for Annika, and to extend her search to include the three perpetrators. When that was done, he answered the question. Watching Erik and his AI prompted more questions from the tech-savvy lieutenant, who suddenly seemed to have included Erik as a partner.

They worked side by side for a half hour, and Aila rewarded them with news on Annika and on the three perps. "Dude, I don't know you that well, and you may want to leave now, because I'm about to access your traffic cameras and anything else I think we can use to find them!"

The lieutenant replied, "You are doing this on my authority; we need all the information we can get right now!"

With the names and photos Aila produced, and a picture of the navy Mercedes van that apartment surveillance caught Annika being tossed into, it didn't take the state police facial recognition long to catch the van exiting off I-94E in downtown St. Paul. The downtown traffic cameras didn't catch the van, but one in the warehouse district caught a glimpse two blocks south.

The lieutenant called his counterpart in St. Paul, and an unmarked car was dispatched to the road on which the van was last seen. The officers determined there was only one entrance that was hidden from the cameras before leaving the area. Both lieutenants called their commissioners, who set up a joint call.

The St. Paul S.W.A.T. team was dispatched, after being made aware of the hostage situation and the likelihood that the abductors were part of a well-armed Russian gang. The team stayed several blocks away and dispatched scouts, who pushed cameras under two of the doors. The van was identified, as was the man who shot Rhonda, Dmitry Agapov.

He was talking to two other men, and all three were carrying assault weapons with large magazines. No women were in sight, but they could see movement though the blinds in one of the offices.

A plan was devised that depended on stealth, with team members entering the building from three sides. The first team would enter and secure the office where they believed the hostage was being held, with the second and third teams coming at the men from both sides.

The plan almost worked, but another vehicle entering through the garage doors to the south caused the three men to get up and start walking that way. The team assigned to take and secure the office, however, was in ideal position when the door opened and the women drug Annika into the hall. Both were silently taken down by SWAT team members hiding in the darkened hallway, and Annika was hurriedly escorted down the hall and into their waiting assault vehicle, which sped away.

Dmitry and his companions, who now included four men from the black Mercedes Maybach S-class, were seriously surprised when a bullhorn demanded they put down their weapons and lay flat on the floor. Dmitry fired in the direction of the bullhorn, and the four men scrambled back into the $300,000 automobile. Dmitry was taken down by a single shot, which prompted the other two to lie down and push their weapons away.

The Maybach tried to back through the closed door behind it, but the steel door and a hail of bullets fired at the tires and engine ended that effort. The four men got out of the riddled car with their hands up, and were promptly surrounded, cuffed, and arrested.

Carl and Eric were in a MPD car with the commissioner speeding toward St. Paul by the time Annika made it to police headquarters. She was wrapped in a blanket drinking coffee and talking with a counselor when her dad and lover arrived. She dropped the coffee and ran into Erik's arms, held him as tightly as she could, and sobbed tears onto his shirt for two minutes, before inviting Daddy into their embrace.

After two more minutes, she asked, "Is Rhonda okay?"

"We checked on the way over here and were told she was weak due to blood loss, but stable," Carl answered.

"Blood loss? I didn't think her head was bleeding that much."

"Dmitry, the big guy who tried to kidnap you in California, shot her after they took you down to the van. Erik and Al - Captain Reynolds, found her and called for help. They believe she will fully recover, but it will take at least several weeks."

That caused another round of sobbing, and shaking, before she spontaneously said a prayer for Rhonda's recovery. That calmed her a bit, but she was still shaking. She looked at her Daddy and bravely asked, "How did they find me so soon? I was terrified because they said I would be moved into Canada tonight, and then taken to some place called Kaliningrad, or something like that. I think it's in Russia."

"Police cooperation between cities, with help from Erik and his newest girlfriend, Aila, were the main reasons." Annika looked up at Erik when she heard girlfriend, but caught on when he smiled. "Oh, your new AI!"

At that moment, a police officer in a crisp suit entered the conference room to ask if Annika felt well enough to talk to them yet. She looked at Erik and Carl, and answered, "If they can be with me. I'm still so upset I'm shaking."

"We don't normally permit that, but I know enough about this case to know they have already been questioned, so I'll allow it - if they agree to remain silent."

As they entered the hallway, the Lieutenant said, "FYI, someone from the Minneapolis department will be sitting in with us. The kidnapping occurred in one jurisdiction and the rescue in another, so we share duties in this matter."

Erik's question, "Since it's a kidnapping, is the FBI involved?" drew a smirk. "No, we handled it before they knew what was happening. I'm sure they will come storming in soon, but right now it's just the two PDs; even the state police aren't involved yet."

The MPD representative was a deputy commissioner, as was the other representative from the St. Paul department. The lieutenant was courteous but not deferential toward them; he had been in on it from the start, and it was his case. Annika was seated between Erik and her dad, across from the three officers.

After the legal requirements were met, Lt. Edvin Laine asked Annika to start at the beginning and tell them everything she could remember. She was stronger than she had been, but her voice quivered and quaked as she began describing what she remembered.

"Erik had gone to work, and I had just showered when the doorbell rang. I put my robe back on and went to open the door. I looked through the peephole and saw this pleasant looking blonde woman smiling, so I opened the door. Another woman appeared and both thrust guns in my face! They pushed me back and came inside, warned me if I screamed I would die, and then the man from the limo appeared in the doorway. He came inside, shut the door, and laughed.

"He said something like 'I'm glad you're undressed - it will save time!' The dark haired woman said they were here on business, and the boss said I wasn't to be hurt unless I got stupid. He said he wasn't going to hurt me, and that I would enjoy it. She told him if he touched me she would call the boss, and they yelled at each other in a language I didn't understand.

"The blonde had been closing blinds and drapes; she told me to come into the dining room and take a seat. She made me sit across a chair, took zip ties, duct tape, and something plastic out of a big purse. The dark haired one put her gun against my forehead and told me to cross my hands behind my back. The blonde pulled my wrists together and used a plastic zip tie to keep them there.

"They did the same to my ankles, and by then I was crying so loud I was wailing. The man said to shut me up, so they stuck the plastic thing in my mouth and taped it. I tried to resist, but they said they would knock my teeth out and do it anyway, so I let them.

"We sat there for a while, but I needed to pee so bad I couldn't stand it. The dark haired woman finally understood and took me to the toilet. She pulled my robe up, I peed, and we started back. The man stepped in front of me, pulled my robe open, and said that the boss wouldn't care if he looked.

"They led me back to the chair, made me sit, and then the doorbell rang. They whispered among themselves, and then the dark hair woman and man went to the door. The blonde pushed her gun against my temple and told me not to make a sound. I was so scared I almost peed again! They suddenly opened the door, and both aimed their guns at Rhonda. They told her to come inside; she did, and they took her gun. The man hit her on the head with his pistol, and they tied her up and gagged her while she was lying on the floor. They drug her into the kitchen, made he lie on the floor, and warned that if she moved she would die.

"By this time, I was almost hysterical with fright, and was crying so hard I couldn't even think. The blonde woman tried to calm me down by telling me they weren't going to hurt me, but I didn't believe them after what they did to Rhonda.

"We stayed there what seemed like a very long time. I was praying that Erik wouldn't come home and get shot or hurt, but I was hoping someone would call the police and they would rescue me. I just felt so helpless!!!"

Annika broke into sobs again. The lieutenant let Erik and Carl hold and comfort her until she calmed down. He got a bottle of water from outside, and offered it to her when she was calmer. "I know this is painful, but we need to get as much information as we can while everything is fresh on your mind. The man they called 'the boss' is a Russian mobster named Anatoly Koslov. He was in a car that came into the garage, and we captured him there, with six other men."

When Annika heard the name, she squeezed Erik's hand, but didn't say anything.

"The one you call 'the man from the limo' is Dmitry Agipov; he's one of Koslov's most trusted lieutenants. He was shot when he fired at the SWAT team, but will live. Our immediate problem is that Koslov has too many shysters on retainer, and they are already scrambling around trying to get him released, claiming he was just there to see his friend Dmitry and knew nothing about the kidnapping.

"That's why we need your story, and Rhonda's. If we can use them to break one of the others, and we think we have a good chance with the blonde woman, whose name is Linda Warren, we can hold him until trial. If he gets out on bail, he will be in Russia in ten hours."

"I understand," Annika said with new resolve. "I'm still traumatized, but I know I need to do it so I will!" She sighed, took a drink of water, and resumed. "Nothing happened until they got a phone call a while later. The women took me into our bedroom, cut my ties, and told me to get dressed. I found the jeans and blouse I was going to wear to the meeting that morning, and put them on with my cross trainers.

"They told me to fix my hair, and warned that if I tried to escape they would shoot me in the back and cripple me for life. I began crying even harder, but brushed my hair. The brunette woman found one of Erik's hoodies and told me to put it on. I did, and we returned to the dining room until they got another call. They warned me again about getting shot in the back, took me downstairs, and tossed me head first into this big, dark colored van.

"The man... Dmitry came down a few minutes later, and the driver turned north onto the street in front of Daddy's office. After we had been driving for a few minutes, Dmitry made me lie on the floor of the van, kneeled beside me, and began feeling me up and talking dirty to me. I was naked under the robe, and he was squeezing, pinching, and pulling my breasts so hard I was screaming through the gag.