Chapter Text
“Turn right at the next intersection and straightforward until you are able to see the sea.”, Matty lead them into the coms.
Riley turns right and accelerated in the long straight line.
They are in Africa, and all Mac was able to see, was sand and desert. Some huge trees overlook the roads and the heat is so hot that Mac and Riley can feel they sweat flow on their skin. Riley, grip the steering wheel with her sweaty hands to maintain the car on the road despite the stones and holes which slow them down.
In the last four weeks, America and Europe had declared several hundred people missing. All of them were visiting the extreme south of Nigeria.
A strongly discouraged area to go on holiday.
After some researches, Matty had found that people, who were missing, received a call telling them that they won a holiday all free paid. They accepted.
At first, Mac didn't understand why people accepted to go to a dangerous area in Afrique without asking questions.
Then, he saw the flyer and got it. It promised a luxury villa, fully equipped, on the edge of turquoise water, safari and scuba diving in huge and beautiful areas. People who don't know Africa and can't travel don't ask any question, and Mac could understand that.
Problem : they all vanished at the moment they exited the airport.
Their Intel said that the persons were kidnaped by human traffickers for their organs and that they enslaves them in diamond and oil mines further east of Africa.
Later, Riley had found with satellite, some cargos without clearance, docking in a clandestine harbor.
“Okay Matty, we have a cargo in visual.”, Riley announced, slowing down the car, hiding them behind a big tree.
“Yeah, but something is new, there are containers in stand by in front of it.”, Mac added.
“Effectively, it's new.”
“Riley, do you think, you could have a thermal image of the containers ?” Mac asked, facing her.
“Yes, let me a minute”. She got out her laptop from her bag-pack and started tapping.
“Wow, that's bad.”
“What did you find ?”, he leaned forward.
She turned the screen to Mac:
“There it is.”
“Okay. Matty, we have a problem, we've containers full of passengers if you know what I mean.”
“They create a new wave of kidnappings. You have to find where they will bring them.”, Matty ordered.
“Copy that”.
Mac gets out of the car and with Riley behind him, he approached the containers.
“Hey Mac !”, Riley called him. “through there !”.
They advanced carefully without making any noise. The midday sun taping on the containers, they could feel it was burning, only by the heat which emanated from it on their way.
“It's like a greenhouse. People in there are gonna cook like in an oven ! We have to get them out !”, Riley stopped in front of a container's door.
“No, we can't, people will be hurrying to get out and they'll make us spot, and kill every other missing people.”
“Mac,...”
“Riles, I said no”, he turned to pursue his way. He felt bad to tell her that, but they had no other choice.
Riley, hesitated a second before following Mac to climb on the biggest boat she never saw.
It was like a concrete block pitching to the rhythm of the water under it. Riley thought about what could happen if this thing were to sink. Probably, it would take them with it and they would be drowned.
She was hiding behind a mast, thinking about how many people were here, inside the containers, which were already on the boat.
She looked up when she heard a squeak. The crane was swaying with the hot wind, it was strange and scary.
“Riles, come on !”, Mac called her from the door providing access to the rudder.
She crossed the distance between them and sank into the room. They climbed the stairs silently and passed their head by the hallway to check if it was clear to continue.
It was.
“It's weird, usually when you kidnap people, you hurry, here it feels like if they are allowed to take a break, as if nothing could prevent them from doing this”, Mac pointed out.
“Yeah, do you noticed, it feel like abandoned ?”
“Matty do you think they know we're coming for them ?”
“I don't know guys, the satellite passed hours ago, I can't tell you if this is normal, but stay on your guard.”. She was anxious, Mac could tell.
They sank into the control room and closed the door behind them.
Mac put an emitter under the dashboard and joined Riley, focusing on the map stuck on the back wall.
“Matty we have a map in front of us, but it's not land and sea. There is some red and yellow points and curves and pictograms”, Riley described while Mac came and stand near at her left. She turned to him, asking silently if he had any idea of what that could represent.
He slightly tilts his head to the side, proof that he had an idea on the question.
“It's unusual.”, he started before heading to the map to follow the different lines with his fingers. “It's a mix between several maps, a little geological, isochronous, lithological and topographic here.”, he added, showing at the same time the characteristics of each.
“Okay, I imagine that is bad news.” Riley said without exactly knowing what all these maps were.
Just because of Mac face, she could tell it was worse than what she thought.
They sent pictures to Matty to help the team at the Phoenix, to find the spot where bad guys brought the missing people.
“We should get out of this, you know, I don't want to be here when the men will come back.”, Riley confessed.
“You're right, let's go.”
All of sudden, Mac and Riley were thrown against the wall on their left. Mac hit it violently, a wave of pain explodes in his shoulder and his left ribs, but he ignored it and caught Riley rapidly to prevent her from being hurt. She collapsed into him and he groaned feeling his back sink into the wall.
“Are you okay ?” asked Riley, angst readable on her face, when she looked up at him.
“Yeah, you ?”
“Yes, thank you.”, she withdrew, slowly, from his embrace. “What was that ?”
Mac frowned and looked through the window, before he looked down at the navigation instruments.
“That's worse”, he whispered angst in his breath.
“How worse ?”, asked Matty, while Riley was processing the elements.
“We just cast off the mooring lines.” Mac announced in a tone which froze Riley's blood.
She felt her spine shiver.
“Okay, Matty, you have to send a team to bring the containers always on earth or people are going to die.”
“It's in process.”
“We gonna loose contact with you in a minute or two, I stuck an emitter on the boat so you will be able to trace us.”
After that, there were some sizzles into the coms and Mac and Riley had just the time to hear Matty approved that they were definitely alone.