Treacherous Impulses: Day 5

Word Count: 30,003

Summary of Events:

Hilton and Mackenzie ran into Hilton's agent at the Milan airport; Hilton refused to cooperate with his agent's request, but gave him the keys to the car they'd rented so as to return it to Brussels. While they flew Hilton planned their attempt to warn Dr. Haner — in which he would accompany Mackenzie. After getting their hotel room they went and got disguised. They got to Dr. Haner, but thanks to Brian the fifth recognizing Hilton and telling Dr. Haner's brother, Robert, they were found out anyways, yet succeeded in passing on the warning which was quite obviously not taken seriously. Sirens woke Mackenzie at four in the morning and so as to alleviate her fears she checked the news sites and found Dr. Haner had been kidnapped. She woke Hilton and they began their search . . . 

Excerpt of the Day:

"Mackenzie looked over at Hilton. He seemed wide awake now, and his gaze was intently on the road, yet there was also a bit of excitement in his entire composure. Like this was fun to him. Like he was enjoying himself.

He whipped around the traffic circle and kept going past the turn to the hotel. Then he started to slow down to a more respectable speed.

"Where are we going?" Mackenzie asked.

"We're going to look around and see what we can find," Hilton replied quickly. "A sign of the kidnappers maybe."

"I doubt we'll have any more than the police," Mackenzie said.

"What do we have?" Hilton asked.

"What I learned from CNN," Mackenzie replied.

"Which is?" Hilton asked.

"Dr. Haner's tour manager, Walter Sitzler — who I think might be the skinny man — went out for a smoke. When he came back Dr. Haner's light was on, so he knocked to see if Dr. Haner was still up, and why. No answer. So he went to the front desk and got help. They opened the door and found no sign of Dr. Haner, but evidence of a struggle," Mackenzie replied.

"What sort of evidence?" Hilton asked. "Did they say anything about blood?"

"I don't remember," Mackenzie replied.

"Well look," Hilton said.

"My phone bill's going to be terrifying with all this data roaming," Mackenzie said.

"Fine, use mine," Hilton said, pulling his phone out of his breast pocket and throwing it onto her lap.

Mackenzie turned it on. It needed a passcode. She handed it back. Hilton typed in the code and passed it back.

Selecting the internet browser app, Mackenzie typed in CNN to search and selected the main page. There was a new article on Dr. Haner's disappearance already: Missing American Sociologist Kidnapped.

According to the article Robert Haner had given a statement along with Tallinn Police that, based on the evidence at the scene of the crime, Dr. Haner had been kidnapped after violently struggling with, and even succeeding in wounding, his kidnapper.

"It says that Dr. Haner wounded his kidnapper," Mackenzie said.

"Or maybe the kidnapper wounded Dr. Haner," Hilton said. "I doubt forensics works that fast."

"Yeah," Mackenzie agreed. "Maybe Robert doesn't want to think of his brother as bleeding."

"He wrote the article?" Hilton asked.

"No," Mackenzie replied. "But he gave a statement with Tallinn Police, probably because he's exCIA."

"Probably," Hilton agreed.

Mackenzie kept reading.

Robert Haner was quoted as saying that they already had two suspects, a male and a female, whom they were trying to locate.

"Oh great," Mackenzie said.

"What?" Hilton asked.

"I think Robert Haner thinks we kidnapped Dr. Haner," Mackenzie replied.

"Oh?" Hilton asked.

"Here's what he said: 'We've been having some suspicious encounters over this tour which have led us and the investigators to believe that we already have our suspects, a male and a female; we're not certain as to their identities or location yet, but are seeking to pinpoint their location and bring them in for questioning.'""