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The blindfolded boy in the back of the car sat as still as possible, and whenever they glanced back at him he hadn’t moved an inch. One would expect a kidnapping victim to exhibit more fear, but this child would have appeared perfectly calm if the men driving hadn’t already known what kind of fear their presence evoked.
The man in the driver’s seat let his expression sour, taking the next turn with more abrupt force than was strictly necessary.
“Oof,” Said the man in the passenger seat, tugging irately at the lapels of his fancy suit to straighten it out. “What was that for, McCracken? There’s no one following us this close to the harbour.”
The man in the driver’s seat glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. “The little chicky doesn’t seem to be properly intimidated by his kidnapping. And, Crawlings? Next time you choose to speak, maybe don’t give away information about our location. You never know who might be listening.”
“What?” Crawlings spluttered. “Who’s listening? The kid? Sharpe?” He gestured to the man sitting beside the boy in the backseat.
McCracken tsked and shook his head, turning the car smoothly into the door of a large warehouse. “Really, Crawlings. Do we need to have another discussion on how resourceful Benedict’s kids are?”
Crawlings pursed his lips, but climbed out of the car and slammed the door without a word. Grumbling under his breath as he headed into the warehouse about how ridiculous it was that all three of them had been sent to capture one singular child.
Sharpe smiled pleasantly at McCracken as he opened the car door, pulling the boy roughly and handing him over. The child flinched slightly at the sudden contact, but he still didn’t make any noise. McCracken frowned at this, digging his fingers into the boy’s shoulder cruelly as he shoved the child in front of him, following Crawlings. He grinned with satisfaction when a muffled whimper escaped the boy’s clamped lips.
Once inside, he led him over to a support post, taking a length of rope that was coiled there and securing the boy’s hands to the column. He left a short amount of slack, enough that the child could move his arms, but minimally.
As soon as he stepped back to admire his handiwork, the boy tested his range of motion and wasted no time dragging the blindfold down so he could see, blinking in the late afternoon light that was streaming through the high windows.
“McCracken,” The boy said evenly, turning and looking at the Ten Man with an expectant expression.
“Reynard,” McCracken responded coolly.
“Are you going to tell me what you want from me?” Reynie tried to speak neutrally, but the Ten Men’s years of experience scaring and hurting children had sharpened their senses to pick up on the slightest tremor in a voice.
“Oh, you know,” Crawling scuttled out of the shadows behind Reynie, a pleased smirk on his face as his sudden appearance made the boy jump, “Information about Benedict. Any plans, hobbies. The usual.”
McCracken clapped his fellow Ten Man on the back, hard. “Let’s avoid talking about our plan too much, eh, Crawlings?”
“I’m not going to tell you anything,” Reynie interjected quickly, “The others are going to come find me, so you might as well let me go now.”
Sharpe barked out a laugh, and even McCracken quickly covered a small smile. “Think we’re that scared of Milligan, do you? What’s he going to do, steal our briefcases again? Look at us disappointedly? Insult our sense of fashion? It’s not like his is much better, with that dirty old coat he’s always wearing.”
Reynie shifted uncomfortably, trying to readjust the rope where it was biting into his wrists.
“Ah, come on now, little ducky. Surely there’s enough time for us to have one or two short discussions,” McCracken smiled charmingly, “We just want to have a little chat. That’s all. You can give us some of your time, such a small favour after all the trouble we had to go to to get you here.”
“Well, maybe I’d be more likely to talk if you didn’t kidnap me.”
Sharpe slapped Reynie across the face, leering down at the boy as he blinked back startled tears. “Anything else you’d like to say, deary?”
“My, my,” McCracken clapped slowly, “It seems you’ve picked up a few quips from Milligan himself. Let’s see if you have his skills to withstand interrogation too, why don’t we?”
Reynie paled, but he pressed his mouth into a grim line and set his shoulders stubbornly.
“Now, what should we start with?” Sharpe settled his briefcase on the ground, opening it and sending a sly glance to Crawlings. “It’s been so long since we got to use everything in here, I worry some of our tools are beginning to feel left out.”
“True,” McCracken drawled, “but a few of our things seem to have lost their bite, now that we’ve been spending so much time together.” He pulled out the cigar box, shaking it gently next to Reynie’s ear and laughing at his stifled flinch. “Right, Reynard? Old Pandora’s not so scary now, is she?”
“And it’s not as if we can use any of our calculator bombs without blowing ourselves up too.” Crawlings tossed the said explosive back and forth between his hands.
“Proper caution,” McCracken warned, snatching the calculator, “It wouldn’t do for you to set this off because of your carelessness. I might be forced to have a word with Mr. Curtain about your continued employment after a mistake like that.”
“We also haven’t had a chance to replace those paper clip chains after that last… incident,” Sharpe said sorrowfully, “So, that leaves our clipboards, pencils, gum, neckties, laser pointers, and watches. That’s more than enough options for us to have a little fun while we talk.”
“Milligan will find me.” Reynie said again, setting his gaze determinedly on a spot on the wall, above the Ten Men’s heads.
“Oh, I’m sure he will, little fox.” McCracken tutted, “But it will definitely take him a long time, especially with the interesting mess we left for him.”
Reynie started, mouth opening in surprise as his eyes darted back to McCracken. “What did you do?”
“Nothing much,” Crawlings chuckled, “After all, you didn’t really want to see your friends in one piece again, right? Children can be so delicate, you know.”
The boy froze. Completely still, not even breathing as he considered this statement. After a few seconds, he spoke. Slowly, and with a tone of heavy calculation.
“You wouldn’t have been able to hurt them. The three of you were focussed on me, and in the time it took for you to bring me here, any other Ten Men who might have been helping you would have finished the job and shown up. My friends are fine.” He sounded as if he were trying to reassure himself.
“Maybe you’re right and maybe you’re not,” Sharpe hummed as he drew out a pencil and began spinning it between his fingers.
“What we can tell you,” McCracken loosened his tie with a bright smile, “Is that the little kiddies scream quite nicely. It took a while for young Kate to come around, but eventually she sang for us too. Now, are you ready?”
Reynie blanched, shaking his head and muttering under his breath, “They’re fine, they’re fine, they’re fine—”
Crawling shook his sleeves down in preparation to activate his watches, looking delighted as their crackling caused Reynie to shrink into himself again.
“You’ve had a chance to be acquainted with our rather shocking handshake before, haven’t you, Reynard?” McCracken and Sharpe shared an exasperated eye roll behind him. “Or maybe you’ve just been on the receiving end of Mr. Curtain’s? Well, I can assure you that this will only hurt at least as much.”
He stalked forward, and Reynie curled into as tight a ball as he could and resigned himself to whatever was going to happen. He could handle it.
And, indeed, it was about the same as Curtain’s silver gloves. Not pleasant, and certainly not something that could be ignored, but tolerable. Or, he assumed it would have been tolerable if they had stopped after once or twice. Still, he hadn’t felt his heart stutter from the constant electrical shocks yet. He may have blacked out for a moment, but he was alive, and that was a win in his book.
“It seems our little fox isn’t up to play nearly as much as Milligan usually is,” McCracken said, a hint of disappointment in his voice, “Oh well. I suppose we can wait for him to wake up properly before we go at it again. It’s not like we don’t have the time.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that, McCracken,” Sharpe called, turning his head toward the street side of the building, “It sounds like we might be having company sooner than we were expecting.”
“Drat.” McCracken gestured for Sharpe and Crawlings to pack up their briefcases as he slunk to a back door and pressed his ear against it.
“It seems we will have to leave you sooner rather than later, Reynard. I do hope you enjoyed our time today as much as we did. We’ll be seeing you again.” And with a wink, he slipped out the door, followed closely by Sharpe and Crawlings.
Reynie blinked dazedly at the portion of the floor he could see from his slumped position. He knew he should probably get up, but just thinking about it made his muscles ache even more.
The door that he and the Ten Men had entered through banged open, and a panicked shout could be heard in the echoes.
“Reynie?”
Milligan Wetherall came into view, still holding his dart gun, but he nearly dropped it as soon as his eyes landed on the boy still half curled up on the floor.
Being a professional agent, Milligan finished searching the warehouse for any danger before kneeling next to Reynie.
“We’re all clear inside the warehouse, Hardy,” He said into a radio. “They must have escaped before we got here.” There was some staticky murmuring from the person on the other end, and Milligan glanced concernedly down at Reynie. “Yeah, I’ve got the kid. He’s in rough shape, but I think he’ll be alright.”
The radio sputtered again, but Reynie didn’t catch anything that was said. Milligan sighed as he stowed it away in his pocket before reaching out and carefully resting a hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“Are you alright, Reynie?” Then he shook his head. “Sorry. Let me rephrase: do you think you can move right now?”
Reynie let out a quiet noise that he had intended to be a “No”, but instead sounded more like a wounded bird. He shook his head slowly, resting it back against the support column when the motion made his vision blur and spin.
Milligan sighed again, frowning as his gaze fixed on the rope still securing Reynie’s hands. Leaning forward, the man carefully cut through the loops encircling his wrists, letting out a low hiss as he saw the raw skin underneath. “I’m so sorry, Reynie. I’m sorry it took this long—”
He was cut off as Reynie suddenly jerked, fumbling to sit up.
“Woah, woah. Easy there, buddy. Hang on—” Milligan quickly reached out and caught Reynie before he collapsed again. “What’s wrong?”
“They— They said—” Reynie gasped, “The others. Are they okay? Kate— McCracken said—”
Milligan gently tightened his hold, trying to focus him. “Reynie. The others are fine. Kate is fine. McCracken was lying. He does that sometimes, remember? He told you I had died that time, and I hadn’t. I promise you, everyone is safe.”
Reynie blinked slowly. “They’re safe? They’re safe.” He started shaking. “Oh. Okay. Milligan? I think I’m going to pass out now.” And, with that, he slid forward into the man's waiting arms.
“Oh, Reynie,” Milligan said softly, “What on earth happened to you?”
Reynie woke up in a moving car, and for a moment he panicked.
He struggled to move, shoving against the seat belt and repositioning himself so he could look frantically out the window, before a voice broke through his thoughts.
“Hey, Reynie, it’s alright. We’re just headed home. We’re almost there.”
Milligan. It was Milligan’s voice.
“Safe? ‘M safe?” Reynie shivered. He felt like that one time he’d had a really bad flu, and it was as if even just air molecules brushing against his skin caused him pain.
“Yeah,” Milligan chuckled sadly, “You’re safe. Now, can you maybe try and sit straight? I know it might be a bit painful, but I would hate for you to get hurt due to improper seat belt usage.”
Reynie shifted as best he could, wincing as he did. He could see trees passing by outside, but it was like watching one of those old zoetropes, where the images were sort of disjointed and choppy. He blinked and then they were stopped in front of Mr. Benedict’s house.
Milligan slowly opened the car door, making eye contact with him before continuing. He undid Reynie’s seat belt, leaning in carefully.
“Do you think you can walk?” He asked quietly.
Reynie looked down. “I don't think so. Sorry.”
“That’s alright.” Milligan smiled, carefully gathering the boy in his arms. “You’re a lot lighter than some of the agents I’ve had to carry before.”
Upon entering the house, Milligan saw Kate sitting on the stair railing, swinging her legs. Her head whipped around when she heard the door opening, and she leapt off the bannister.
“Milligan! You found Reynie! Is he okay? Are you okay? What happened?” She raced up to him, pausing for a scant few seconds to call over her shoulder, “Milligan’s back! He’s found Reynie!”
Milligan sighed internally as he heard the other inhabitants of the house begin to stir from where they had no doubt been waiting in anxious anticipation. He felt Reynie stiffen in his arms, and whispered to him, “Don’t worry, I’ve got you. It’s just the others, they’ve been worried about you.” To Kate, he said, “Let’s move to somewhere more comfortable, Katie-Cat. Do you think you can get the door to the living room for me?”
Kate nodded. “Gotcha.” She turned on a dime, shoving the door with a bang and holding it open as far as it would go.
Once inside, Milligan gently set Reynie down on one of the couches. Kate raced over and pulled a blanket out of the basket sitting in a corner of the room.
“Hey, Reynie,” She called in a soft voice, “Do you want a blanket right now? Or would you rather just sit? You can just nod yes or no, if you want.”
Reynie struggled to answer her, eventually nodding weakly. She took great care in draping the soft fabric over his shoulders, tucking it in around him as she went. “Just tell me if that’s uncomfortable, okay?”
At that moment, Sticky and Constance came tumbling into the room, followed closely by Miss Perumal.
“Mr. Benedict said that we should let Miss Perumal come in here and talk to you first, but I said if Kate gets to be here so should we.” Constance declared, scrambling onto the couch next to Reynie.
“I— I came too. I wanted to be sure you were alright.” Sticky said sheepishly, glancing at Constance with nervous apprehension. “Maybe you ought to get down, Constance. You don’t know if he’s okay with that.”
“No.” She bit back stubbornly, sticking her tongue out at him. Then, more quietly, she turned to Reynie. “I’ll get down if you want. Are you okay?”
Reynie smiled at her tiredly, nodding. “Uh, ‘m fine, Constance. Thanks.”
Miss Perumal took this as an opportunity to settle herself on his other side. “Reynie. Reynie, what happened? Are you —Of course you’re not fine— Is there anything I can do to help? What do you need?” She ran her hand tenderly through his hair, and he closed his eyes for a moment, leaning into the touch.
“Don’t feel good, Amma,” He murmured, “It hurts.”
“Oh,” Miss Perumal blinked back tears at this, “What can I do?”
“Jus’, just don’t leave.” His voice was hushed and he already seemed half asleep, slumping into her.
In the emptiness that followed, fragments of Milligan’s conversation with the other adults in the kitchen could be heard. Constance perked up at one of the snatches, listening intently.
“It’s like that time the men in the maze tried to grab me,” she whispered into the silence, “With their watches. That’s what happened to him.” Her face screwed up like she was trying not to cry.
“Hey, Connie girl, don’t cry.” Kate scooped her off the couch and gave her a tight hug. “Reynie’s a lot older than you were back then, remember? And you were fine afterwards, right? And now Reynie’s back with us, so he’ll be okay too.”
Sticky nodded. “In most cases, electrical shocks can cause some pain and confusion for a short period of time, but the symptoms always fade. He’s probably just really tired.”
Constance pulled her red blotchy face away from Kate and looked at him. “Does that mean we should leave him alone? Since he needs to rest?”
Sticky inhaled in preparation to answer, but was startled by a quiet noise from Reynie. Everyone turned to look, and the boy was hunching in on himself in his sleep, breathing quick, shallow breaths.
“Reynie?” Miss Perumal pushed the hair out of his face, laying a hand on his shoulder and shaking him slightly. “Reynie, wake up. You’re safe.”
Reynie awoke with a gasp, curling up even smaller and covering his ears. His panicky breathing had sped up, and he started shaking again.
“Reynie.” Milligan had entered the room, moving swiftly across to the couch where everyone was gathered, looking at each other in uncertain dismay.
“Hey, it’s okay, buddy.” Milligan carefully covered Reynie’s hands in his own, slowly pulling them down and wrapping his long fingers over them. “Reynie, you’re safe. We’re back at the house, remember? I’ve got you. Can you look at me?” Milligan spoke soothingly, keeping his tone low and even.
After a few seconds, Reynie cautiously turned toward him, fear evident in his wide brown eyes. “Millig’n?” He caught his breath, stumbling over it for a moment. “We’re— Oh. We’re not at the warehouse anymore. I remember.” He loosened his body, falling back against the cushions as his chest heaved. “Sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologise.” Milligan loosened his hold on Reynie’s hands, running his fingers through the boy’s palms, “You’ve just been through a very frightening experience, that’s enough to give anyone nightmares. Now, do you think you can run through some grounding exercises with Kate and the others while Miss Perumal and I go and have a word in the kitchen?”
He glanced at Miss Perumal as he said this, waiting for her response.
“Yes,” She nodded at him, before turning to the children. “Kate, Sticky, do you still remember the 54321 method we were talking about?” When they both nodded the affirmative to her, she smiled at them gratefully. Giving Reynie one last hug, she stood up and followed Milligan.
As soon as the adults were out of the room, Constance turned petulantly to Sticky. “Why didn’t I learn about this numbers thing?”
“Because, Constance,” He replied wearily, in the tone of someone beginning to feel like a broken record, “When Miss Perumal asked if we wanted to go over some grounding techniques for anxiety and things, you said it ‘sounded like a waste of time’ and that you’d ‘rather eat grime’. It’s okay, though, Kate and I can do it.”
Constance wrinkled her nose at him, but she seemed proud of her rhyme, so she just crossed her arms and settled back against a pillow.
“Alright, Reynie,” Kate began, sitting cross legged on the ground in front of him, “What are five things you can see that are small enough for Constance to hide in her pockets?”
Reynie looked at her in confusion, and Sticky blurted, “That’s not how the 54321 system works!”
“I know,” Kate grinned, “I improved it. ‘Five things you can see’ is so boring, not to mention it’s too simple to really be distracting.”
“Okay,” Sticky thought about it, “I guess that makes sense. But maybe let's tone it down a bit first. That’s kind of a complicated category for right now. How about five things that are red, like Constance’s jacket?”
“Oh, that’s a good idea! Nice job, Sticky,” Kate beamed at him, “Alright then, Reynie, can you name five red things in this room?”
“Um,” Reynie took a deep breath, “There’s some red on my sweater,” She nodded approvingly, “And the lampshade over there, and that copy of A Christmas Carol, and, uh,” He looked around uncertainly, “There’s one of Constance’s coloured pencils. And Kate’s bucket.”
“Good job!” Kate crowed, throwing her hands in the air. “Your turn, Sticky.”
Sticky adjusted his glasses, thinking for a moment. “Using Kate’s model, what are four things that would be smooth to touch?”
Instantly, Reynie replied, “The window.”
Sticky smiled, seeming relieved that he hadn’t made the task too difficult.
“And, um,” Reynie cast around for something else, “The table. It’s polished wood, so that’s pretty smooth. And there’s that rock we brought back from the river, and Constance’s rain boots.”
“That’s four,” Sticky said, letting out a short sigh, “Is this helping?”
“I think so,” Reynie said slowly, “I don’t feel as scared now.” He put a hand over his heart and felt it beating steadily, though at a much less rapid pace.
“That’s good,” Kate patted his knee, “Do you want to keep going?”
“Um, not, not right now. I’m just really tired,” Reynie mumbled quietly.
Sticky nodded. “Your body has stopped releasing adrenaline, so it’s understandable that you’re tired. Some people call it adrenal fatigue. But now that your brain has recognised that you’re safe it’s relaxing, and you’re probably exhausted from everything that went on today.”
Reynie shivered. “Don’t remind me. But, if… If I go to sleep, will you guys leave?”
Kate said “Not if you don’t want us to” at the same time as Constance declared a loud, resounding “No”. She glared at Kate.
“He’s been missing all day, and now he thinks we’re going to leave him alone again?” The small girl puffed up like a cat, scowling, “He’ll be lucky if I let him sleep by himself tonight.”
Reynie laughed, still tired, but sounding lighter for being surrounded by his friends. “Thank you, Constance. If the grown ups come back, please tell them not to worry.”
“You don’t have to think about that right now,” Kate readjusted the blanket as Reynie laid down, “We’ll tell them not to wake you.”
Reynie meant to reply, but instead he sighed and slipped once more into sleep.