4. Captivity

"Oh my God, Mr. William. Would you take your employees hostage? Isn't that wrong?" asked Mark calmly, despite two thugs grabbing his hands from behind.

"Don't patronize me about what is or isn't wrong for me to do! Now tell me who you are!" scolded Mr William as he looked at Mark from head to toe.

Mark seemed to struggle with whether to confess now or later.

"Let me introduce myself, Mr. William. I am Mark Miller, a representative of the audit team from Headquarters," Mark said in an arrogant tone.

Suddenly, every other pair of eyes in the room widened in surprise. One of the shocked thugs almost lost control of Mark's hand, and Mark almost managed to duck out of the way before the other attacked Mark's lungs from behind, knocking him off balance.

William was now in complete shock. His mouth was suddenly stiff, and he was unable to speak. There was a few moments of silence before Mark's voice finally returned,

"So please cooperate, Sir. First of all, tell these people to let us go," Mark ordered as he stood up with a firm grip on the two thugs.

Suddenly, William laughed harshly. He seemed to find Mark's statement amusing.

"Let you go back to sniffing around like rats, you mean? Oh, no. I'm not that stupid," William snapped with a sarcastic smile on his thin lips.

Aileen shuddered spontaneously. Her hands were painfully pinned behind her back, and she was being ambushed by two large thugs. It felt as if they were in extreme danger. How was that?

Laura seemed to be standing right in front of the closed door. The only way in and out was that door. Maybe she could try to evade the thugs and run away to call for help. It was perfect bad luck that they were in a conference room with a dampening wall.

"Wait, I wonder where you got a whiff of this sabotage? I kept it so clean. I guess you have no proof at all. Isn't that right?" provoked William. His eyes alternated between Mark and Aileen.

"I haven't found any evidence other than the captures of the original documents you sent to the headquarters, Mr. William," Aileen finally replied after Mark's cryptic nod gave her the code to admit that her findings went that far.

Laura's eyes widened in horror. This meant that Aileen had found the document before she had caught her. Shit, she might be the one Mr. William would blame this time.

William was a little taken aback before he let Aileen continue her explanation.

"If we're not mistaken, you manipulated the data to sabotage real orders for your benefit. Is that correct?" Aileen asked with a deep frown on her face.

She even forgot for a moment that she and Mark were being held captive. If William got angry and ordered those thugs to beat them up, that would be bad, too!

But for some reason, she still felt safe because she was in a conference room in the office. Where William would not be free to hurt them because of the danger of their location.

William coded the thugs with his eyes, and somehow, Mark and Aileen were already being suffocated by two thugs, each with a strangely smelling handkerchief. Mark struggled to resist but was then robbed of his strength by the smell of what appeared to be sleeping gas, which forcefully filled his nostrils.

Both prisoners passed out and were taken into custody.

*

Morning sunlight filtered through the holes in the mud roof. The coolness and dampness that seemed to emanate from the room, ventilated only by the small holes in the roof, gradually dissipated in the warmth of the sun.

Mark's eyes blinked, almost simultaneously with Aileen's, who seemed to be bound and lying on her side beside him. Immediately, Mark realized that he was the same, his hands and feet bound in a prone position. Ah, damn it! He cursed silently.

After blinking a few times, Aileen realized what had happened. The two of them were now trapped in a room that seemed to be part of an old building.

"W-where do you think we are?" Aileen asked Mark. As if confident that the man would always have an answer to any of her questions.

"I don't know, Ms. Aileen. Let's keep quiet and listen to the voices out there. Maybe there's a discussion or something within earshot, right?" Mark suggested later.

To which Aileen responded positively with silence and ears. Her whole body was stiff and sore from being tied up in such a position. But what can I say? Her eyes had scanned the entire 12x10 square meter room and found no way to untie herself.

Mark himself was still struggling with the tight and clinging bonds on his legs and hands. It was difficult to move, no matter how hard he tried.

"Crazy! Damn, bitch William. I can't believe he dared to kidnap us like this. Is it like we're going to be exterminated?" asked Aileen finally.

Her numb and stiff hands forced her to cry out in pain, even though her prestige and pride forbade it.

"Take it easy. We'll survive," Mark replied in a tone full of certainty.

His confidence certainly raised questions in Aileen's mind. After all, she did not know what possibilities there were to get them out of the cage.

Then she looked at Mark and cast an uncertain glance at the equally bound man.

"What, you don't believe it?" Mark saw the doubt in Aileen's eyes.

Aileen remained silent with her lips pursed as if she was too lazy to argue with Mark in such an uncomfortable position.

"I am telling the truth. I have a transmission that connects my cell phone location with the investigating team at Headquarters. And if they don't get a daily report from me for one day, they will start looking for my whereabouts," Mark explained, answering the doubt in Aileen's eyes.

Suddenly, the girl was a little relieved to hear that. Although it hadn't happened yet, there was at least a possibility that the rescue team would come to help them after 1x24 hours from the time they were kidnapped.

Then, it seemed that Mark had just realized one important thing. Where was his cell phone? He moved to feel for the flat object that should be in the pocket of his cloth pants. But nothing, even though his hands could not feel freely because they were tied behind his back, but the results of his inching just now confirmed one thing!

That his cell phone was no longer in his pocket!

"Ah, shit!" he growled as he moved his body in frustration. The toe of his shoe made contact with a nearby wooden chair, making a squeaking noise.

"What's wrong?" Aileen asked, surprised by the behavior of the man next to her. And just as quickly, she let out her frustration with a grumble when Mark revealed that the cell phone he was talking about had disappeared!

"Where's my cell phone?"