Chapter 44

The video started when Audrey went inside a door that led to a completely different area. The first thing she saw was a man chained to the wall in a very short chain. That was the man that had suggested they share the room for the night! He appeared to still be rather intoxicated. Audrey turned around and showed a woman stuck in a pillory. The sound on the camera wasn't the best, but it was clear that the woman was pleading to be released. Then a torrent of water came from above as Audrey moved on. She went into the kitchen and got some food. She took the food up to another room, where there were three people trapped in cages with a bed, just like she had described. She really had gone all-out, when she first had agreed to do this.

Then down to the courtyard again, where the man had just woken up. Nora didn't quite hear what he said, but a man soon came up and gagged him. Then he looked straight at Audrey. Even knowing she would make it out of there, Nora gasped. She didn't hear what the man said, but there was a conversation between the two of them, before Audrey was finally able to make it back to the public area. The video stopped just as Audrey sat down to milk a goat. Nora sighed in relief.

"Is it good?"

"It's perfect. I didn't hear all that was said, but the pictures alone should be more than enough."

"I'll look forward to seeing it then. We'll be at my house in about an hour, do you want to take a nap until then?"

Nora wanted that more than almost anything, but she didn't know if she would be able to. Her survival instinct told her that she needed to remain awake to know where she would be waking up. But she already knew where Bryan lived, he had shared his address with her.

"Are you hungry? We can stop on the way to get something to eat. My treat."

She was starving, but she was already so much in Bryan's debt. Oh, why was it so hard for her to trust him! He hadn't done anything to deserve her mistrust. Quite the opposite.

"Well, I'm hungry anyway. I know there's a McDonalds on the outskirts of town with a drive-through. We can eat in the car, if you prefer that."

Nora didn't know what to say. Her internal panic had reached an all-time high. What was it about Bryan that screamed "danger" to her subconsciousness? Sure, he was desperate to find his wife, but that should make him more trustworthy, not less. He wasn't her father! She had no reason to distrust him. 

"Your wife is suicidal," she blurted out. Her guilt for keeping that from him was probably why she reacted that way. Better to know how he would react to that before she entered his house. "She is treated worse than the other captives and constantly whipped, forced to do slave labor, and restrained. Audrey didn't give a lot of details, but if it is worse than what she told me the rest of them go through, it must be really bad. They call her Kaneez, which apparently means "slave" and she is the only one called that, instead of theow. According to Audrey, she has given up and has tried to kill herself multiple times, but for some reason they insist on keeping her alive. They have no qualms about killing those who try to run away, yet they keep her alive despite her trying to run away. Audrey didn't know why."

Bryan had stopped the car on the shoulder. He didn't look at her.

"I'm sorry, I should have said that straight away, but I wanted to find the best way to tell you. But I couldn't leave you in the dark any longer. I'm sorry."

Bryan didn't say anything for several minutes. Nora didn't dare to break the silence. She thought she even saw a few tears.

"I knew that if she was still alive, she probably wouldn't have had an easy time of it." Bryan said eventually. "But it doesn't make it easier to hear."

"I'm sorry."

"No, don't feel bad. I'm glad you told me. It just means that we need to work harder to stop them. Before my wife gets even worse."

"Shall we tell the FBI straight away, or wait until they have returned to the castle? If we go to them now, we risk that they raid the castle prematurely and not get everyone. Or that they only take the people in the burh and never find the castle."

"I know. We have discussed that. But how long will they all remain in the castle? It could take some time for the FBI to conduct a raid."

"They stay there for quite some time, if our tracking is accurate. And Audrey mentioned something about harvests. I suspect they will stay there until after the harvest season at the very least."

"Either way, even if we go to the FBI now, they would also want to know where the base is. Have you checked whether the GPS tracker works?"

Nora hadn't checked that. Another question came to mind as she started the device that showed where the Trackers were.

"How long does that tracker work? Does it require batteries or something? That was another valid concern Audrey had that I couldn't answer."

"It's the same type that one would use to track animals in the wild or pets. It shouldn't require charging for years."

Well, that was something at least. Nora took up the device that showed where the tracker was and was surprised to see that it was so far away from them. Had she really traveled that far on the bus?

"I was surprised at how far out you were as well." Bryan said. "Did the bus really get you all the way there?"

"Yes, though I'm not sure I would call it a road. They must have had quite some scouting teams, to find these locations."

"They do repeat some of them. Probably those where no one has noticed them taking people."

"Probably. But they must be running out of places to go. This is the second time I've tracked them to this area, they usually try to stay farther away from previous locations."

"Last time was 5 years ago though. They probably think no one keeps track of them that long."

"I still find it hard to believe that no one else has connected the dots."

"Maybe some have, but we just haven't heard about them."

That was a possibility. Since they tried to keep this away from the internet, there was a chance that others had done the same.

Bryan seemed to collect himself and kept driving. They did stop at a McDonalds on the way home and the taste of processed meat felt welcome after that weekend. Nora was generally a fan of organic food, but right now it was a reminder that she wasn't stuck in that place anymore. She felt a pang of guilt as she thought of Audrey again. How badly had she been punished for her apparent stumbling?