Chapter 88 - Taken

Benjamin

I held Saphira in my arms, close to my body.

"Ben." She said a little too loud.  I pressed my hand against her lip, gesturing for her to be quiet. 

She look up to me in plain fear. I hated myself for putting her in harms way like this. Outside the bathroom door I heard a few pair of footsteps and at least five men speaking. It was unsafe to climb back up in the safety space that was created in the sealing.

As a kid I used to play in the tunnels that were in this house. When I was born my grandfather was very much against the idea of me not growing up in the palace. He had several reasons for that. Safety being one of them.

When my grandfather had built this house for me, when I was not yet born, he thought of the lay-out carefully. This house seemed normal, but there were but ten panic rooms, hidden in the walls, sealings and underground.

Once their attention seemed to be elsewhere, I gently picked her up and carried her up the stairs, that led into the sealing. It felt strange, holding her like this again. I carefully placed her on the floor of the tunnel we entered and slowly retrieved the stairs back in the sealing, leaving no trace of us.

It was dark in the tunnel, as I had forgotten to turn the lights on, in the part of the maze when I went to rush to Sap. I flicked on the lights and took Saphira in.

"Are you alright?" I breathed. "Yes." She squeaked.  "No, not really actually." She said and pressed herself against me. I opened my arms and wrapped myself around her.

She looked up to me with a lot of questions in her eyes. "You are safe now." I said as I kissed her cheek.

"What is happening?" She asked. "I'll tell you in a bit. Let's just sit here for a while." I told her. My heart was speeding like a mad man. I had to calm down before we returned to the others.

Saph was quiet and placed her head on my shoulder, stroking through my hair. She seemed to know exactly what I needed right now.

Once the moment of pure angst was gone and I was calmed down, the closeness of Saph felt a little uncomfortable. "Come, let's go find Lynn and Jazz." I told her, wanting to see my wife.

We crawled through the tunnels and I had a unnerving feeling, which I could not describe. Something felt utterly off.

Lynn was crawling towards us, from the opposite side of the tunnel and my heart started racing again. Panic overwhelmed me. "Where is Jasmine?!" Lynn and I said at the same time.

Both of our mouths fell open. Lynn Turned on the screen which was closest to her. "I thought you would go after her!" She almost shouted in an angry tone.

"Why would I go after Jasmine?" I said narrowing my eyes at her. "You are unbelievable!" Lynn said accusingly.

"What is going on?" Saphira said in a small voice.

Lynn shook her head, while she looked at the screen. A chill went down my spine. "They have her." Was the only thing she said.

I turned a screen on and I swiped through the images. I saw at least ten men and one of them was shoveling my wife in a black van.

I had a hard time breathing.

"How?!" I said staring Lynn down.

"Don't you dare be mad at me!" Lynn grumbled. "You jeopardized your own safety to get Saphira, leaving your wife behind." She said disapprovingly. "These tunnels were build to keep you safe, not us!".  Lynn was making no sense to me.

"So I should of left Saphira behind then?" She pissed me off now. Although truth, I was only pissed at myself.

"They almost caught the both of you, when you pushed down the stairs in the bathroom. Jasmine went to distract them. I wouldn't of let her go if I would of thought you were as careless to not turn on a single screen when you had her!." Lynn cried. Tears flowed down her cheek.

I felt numb and as if I was frozen. I should of gone after Jazz right now, but I did not know how to go about this. I did not know where they were taking her.

If I turned my phone on right now they could trace us. "Go get the others and you should all get into the underground room right now." I instructed Lynn and Saphira.

"What are you going to do?" Saph asked me.

"Get my wife." I said unable to breath as the horror of the event finally sank in.

Suddenly we saw a dozen police cars drive up to our home. Lynn and Saph looked relieved, but I sure was not.

The police entered our house, as most doors were open. They had there guns aimed and they seemed prepared to fire at any sound. I turned on the speaker, which could both be heard in the secret tunnels as outside of it. "Mom and dad, Seth and Adam, you can all come out now. The police is here."

I wanted to let the police know we were coming out, so they would not fire there guns at us, when we came out.

"Come." I said to Lynn and Saph, as I pushed the ladder back down. We all climbed down and opened the door of the bathroom. There were policemen standing outside the door.

"Are you Benjamin?" One if the cops asked. "Yes." I sharply breathed out. "Your father, the sultan had informed me that you were in some kind of danger and one of you hit the panic button, which gave us a warning of threat in our system." Another explained.

"You mean my grandfather." I raised one eyebrow. Not that those technicalities mattered in any way. "He is pleased that you are safe." An officer said that was holding a phone.

"He says we should relocate you to another safehouse." The officer continued.

I shook my head. "They have my wife!" I said unable to control myself. The officer repeated my words and listened to the other side of the line. He then gave me the phone. I was unable to move. So he pressed it against my ear.

"Son." My grandfather spoke to me. "Yes." I hissed.

"They have Jasmine!" I roared, not giving him a chance to speak. "I heard that." My grandfather said in a low voice. "But at least they don't have you." He said meaningfully.

"How could you say that!" I yelled.

"Calm down son." My grandfather tried to sooth me without any success.

"She is not wearing any panties." I said as violent images entered my mind, thinking of what they could do to her. And it was all my fault.

My grandfather did not react and it was quiet for a while.

"Go with the police men, and I will find her." My grandfather promised me. I saw Seth and Adam walked into the hallway with tears in there eyes.

"I will go look for her and find her myself." I told him.

"Listen to me, and listen carefully Benjamin prince of the house of Saud. You. Wil. Do. No. such thing." He warned me.

"Our house is under attack and we have to keep our heads!" He said.

"They want you to go after her. It is a trap." My grandfather spoke each word deliberately. I looked up to the sealing, really trying not to lose it.

"I need to find her." I said, pain starting to overwhelm me.  "We will." My grandfather promised me again. I knew he couldn't be sure of that. And I knew that he would say anything to make leave this house right now.

"Fine." I snapped and gave the phone back to the police officer. My mom and dad were here now as well and my mom flew in my arms, sobbing. "My son, my son." She cried in Arabic.

I held my mother until we all got in different police cars. 

They led us to the airport and put us on a plane, when I remembered something. "The bracelet!" I said looking at Saphira. She looked riddled.

"Yeah!" Lynn said. She can be tracked!

I called my grandfather and he immediately picked up the phone. "Have you tracked her already." I breathed without greeting him.

My grandfather sighed. "It seems as if her chip is not active." My grandfather said in a very quiet manner. The woman of the house of Saud were given a bracelet with a chip so they could be tracked at all times. Woman that were born in the house of Saud were given it at birth and others at their marriage.

Although most did not know the bracelet held a chip. "This has to be someone from the inside." I grumbled.

"I know.." My grandfather said carefully.