The Adventures of Emily Tual Book One
Chapter Eighteen

Bastet was at the secret meeting place. She was waiting for Agent Simmons and his men to bring the chosen one there. It hadn’t been easy for her to get there. Even with having a rental car paid for with cash and a false name, she still had to be careful. She was sure that a few of the Black Hands that served the Man with the German Accent had tried following her. She wouldn’t be surprised by that. When she had been leaving her building, she had counted at least six Black Hands outside her building. She had taken a taxi to the rental car shop. There weren’t any signs of the Black Hands there but they could have been hiding. She had taken many detours to get to the meeting place.

She looked around her car. The meeting place was in a remote building in the farthest outskirts of Cleveland. She had parked in an alleyway behind a dumpster. Bastet took her phone out and looked at the screen as a text message appeared on it. It was from Agent Simmons. His text said that they would be there in a few minutes. She smiled and put her phone down. Soon they would be free of the chosen one’s threat.

Emily looked at Agent Simmons. “Are we nearly there yet?” She asked. She was getting nervous. It seemed like they had been in the car forever. She wanted to just get back to her family. She missed her cousins and her little sister so much. Agent Simmons didn’t look at her. She hoped it was because he was driving. She couldn’t help but feel though that there was something that he wasn’t telling her. That really made her worried. “Agent Simmons?” She asked. She held her book closer to her chest.

The agent in the shotgun seat turned to her. “We’ll be there soon.” He told her. “We’re just focused on making sure that we’re not being followed.” Emily wanted to believe him. The agent then looked at her book. “So what’s that?” He asked, hoping to change the topic.

Emily looked down at her book. “It was a gift from my mother.” She answered. “It’s all I have left of her really.” A tear came to her left eye and fell to the book.

The agent smiled. “Can I see it?” He asked.

Emily shook her head. “I rather not let go of it.” She said softly. “It means a lot to me.”

The agent smiled. “It’s okay.” He told her. “I’m an F.B.I. agent. You can trust me.” The way he said it made Emily not feel any easier. It made her wish that they would reach their destination a lot faster. Emily looked at the agents that were on both sides of her. They were both looking out their respective windows and each had a hand under their jackets. Emily had a feeling that they were holding their guns.

Agent Simmons looked in the rearview mirror at Emily. “Is everything okay?” He asked.

Emily looked at him. “I don’t know.” She answered truthfully. “I just feel like something is off but I don’t know what it is.” She looked over her shoulder at the traffic behind them on the highway. “Shouldn’t there be more agents here?” She asked. “You know, back up on the scene?”

Agent Simmons smiled. “The other agents are busy with escorting your family to the safe house. We thought the kidnappers would try to go after them. Easier to catch at least one or two of them than it would be trying to get through four agents to get just one girl.” He explained to Emily.

Emily looked at Agent Simmons. She wanted to believe him but she wasn’t sure if she should. She looked at her hands. The bandages covering her mysterious wounds reached the bottom of her hands. She looked down at her book. She wished that it could help her right there.

She then looked up as she heard a phone ringing. The agent in the shotgun seat took out a small phone from a compartment in front of him. “It’s D.C.” He said before he answered the phone. “Yes Sir?” He asked. There was a moment of silence. “I don’t know where she is.” He answered after a minute. Emily noticed that Agent Simmons looked at the agent. There was no way that she was the “she” that the agent was talking about. So who was he talking about? “I’ll be sure to tell Simmons. We’re still working the case.” He looked at Agent Simmons and nodded.

Agent Simmons looked at Emily and the two agents. “Top secret phone call.” He told them. He pressed a button and a divider appeared between them. Agent Simmons looked at the Black Hand in the shotgun seat and nodded. The agent put the phone on speaker. “Agent Simmons speaking.” Agent Simmons said.

“You have no idea where Bastet is?” The Man with the German Accent asked. It sounded like he wasn’t too happy.

“No Sir.” Agent Simmons answered. “I haven’t seen her in quite a while.”

The Man with the German Accent leaned back in Bastet’s armchair. “Is that so?” He asked. He wasn’t alone. There were several Black Hands, all of them loyal to him, in the suite. A few of them were going through the cat’s stuff. The others were standing guard. There were even more questioning the people on the other floors. He had shown up at Bastet’s apartment to give her instructions and had heard from a few of his Black Hands that she had left. “She’s not here at her suite like she’s supposed to be. I was wondering if you or your agents had spotted her at the hospital where the chosen one is.”

Agent Simmons and the Black Hand looked at each other nervously. “How would she know which hospital that the chosen one would be in?” Agent Simmons asked. After hearing that question, it had never occurred to them that the Man with the German Accent might have sent his own men to the hospital to make sure that none of the other Black Hands like Bastet interfered with the Darkness’s orders. They had been so focused on getting the Chosen One and looking out for Gabriel and his allies that the thought of the Man with the German Accent sending his own men had never occurred to them. “None of the agents or police reported seeing any odd or suspicious people in the hospital.” Agent Simmons answered.

The Man with the German Accent frowned. He could tell that Agent Simmons was trying to cover up something. “You still have the Chosen One at a hospital, right?” He asked. He motioned the Black Hands closest to him over.

“No Sir.” Agent Simmons answered. “We’re moving her to a safe house. After all her kidnappers are still out there on the loose.” The way he was saying it made it sound like he was trying to say he was keeping the Chosen One safe from any rogue Black Hand.

The Man with the German Accent set his phone down and turned on the speaker. “Where is the safe house?” He asked. It was time to see where Agent Simmons’s loyalty was.

“Sir, with all due respect, I rather not say on this line.” Agent Simmons answered. The Man with the German Accent looked at his men and nodded. The Black Hands all marched out of the room. They had been given their order without a single word being spoken. Agent Simmons was being suspected of being a traitor and possibly in league with Bastet.

“Tell me when you’ve gotten to the safe house then.” The Man with the German Accent told Agent Simmons. “Hopefully by then we’ve found Bastet.”

Agent Simmons looked at his fellow Black Hand as the line went dead. “Do you think he knows?” The Black Hand asked him.

Agent Simmons wasn’t sure. He was really hoping that the Man with the German Accent didn’t know the truth. That could ruin the plan. “He doesn’t know where we’re taking the Chosen One.” He told the Black Hand. “That’ll give us time and we can easily shift the blame on Bastet. Claim she had attacked us.”

The Black Hand shook his head. “That will be hard to pull off.” He told Agent Simmons. “We’ll have to make it look like she hurt all of us and we’ll have to kill the child.”

Agent Simmons smiled. “We’ll make it look like she attacked us right after she kills the Chosen One for us.” He told the Black Hand. They looked at each other and smiled. After they did that, they would easily get back on the Man with the German Accent’s good side again.

Emily was looking at the divider. Agent Simmons and the other agent had been behind it too long for her to feel easy. She had a bad feeling about that phone call. She had to know what they were talking about. Agent Simmons had said it was a top secret call but that didn’t make her feel any easier. She looked at the agent to her left. “Can you ask them to lower the divider?” She asked.

The agent looked at her. “No.” He answered. “It’s a top secret phone call.” Emily looked down and that was when she saw it.

On the man’s hand, there was a tattoo of a black hand. Her heart sank. She wasn’t going to a safe house to be kept safe from the men who had tried to kidnap her. She was being kidnapped by more of them. That meant that Agent Simmons had to be one of them. She thought back to what her book said. That there were followers of the Darkness known as Black Hands. Agent Simmons and the agents, if they were even agents, were Black Hands. “Can you ask Agent Simmons to stop somewhere?” She asked. “I need to use the bathroom.”

Without warning, the other agent injected something into the back of Emily’s neck into a bloodstream. Emily reached for the spot where the injection had gone in. She felt weird. “What did you do to me?” She asked before she passed out. The book fell from her hands and onto the ground.

Agent Simmons lowered the divider. The Black Hand in the shotgun seat looked at the two Black Hands in the back seat and the unconscious Emily. He frowned. “What happened?” He asked.

Agent Simmons frowned and looked in the rearview mirror at Emily. “Is she alive?” He asked.

The Black Hand on Emily’s left nodded. “She saw my tattoo. She had asked if we could stop so she could use the bathroom. I know a lie when I hear one.” He explained to the two Black Hands in the front.

Agent Simmons shook his head. “We need to get going if we’re to come out on top.” He said. He looked at the unconscious child. “No doubt by now her family has been alerted to her no longer being in the hospital. If they haven’t, no doubt he’ll alert them to her being gone.” That did sound like something that the Man with the German Accent would do. Just so that he could keep to the plan that their master had come up with.

At the hospital, Delaney, Elizabeth and Rachel watched Mr. Tual talking to the nurse at the receptionist desk. Whatever they were talking about, it sounded serious. They could see that Mr. Tual didn’t look happy at all and Rachel could tell that her father was trying to keep calm. “What are they talking about?” Delaney asked. “We should already be going up to see Emily.” She looked at Rachel. Rachel had the report that her and Emily’s mother had written. She looked determined. No doubt she wanted to get their discovery to her sister.

Mr. Tual went up to the three girls. He had a grave look on his face. “Daddy?” Rachel asked. Her heart sank. She could tell that something was wrong. “What is it?”

Mr. Tual looked at them and shook his head. “Emily isn’t here.” He told them. Rachel gasped and fell back into a seat.

“Not here?” Elizabeth asked. “Then where is she?”

Mr. Tual took his phone out. “That’s what I’m about to find out.” He told them.

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