Identities Ch. 05

It was then, as the leader was pulling open the doors to the back of the van and the large man with the green eyes was bundling Nadia inside, that Mark saw it. There, above the collar, as her hair was swept back from her face by the wind.

A violent shock jolted through him, freezing him to the spot. Before he could recover himself in time to shout out a protest, she had disappeared behind the van doors. The tall man climbed in after her, and the leader slammed the doors shut, then walked up the length of the van to climb into the driver's seat.

The growl of the engine starting knocked him out of his paralysis. As the van lurched off down the drive, he spun about to face the others, feeling like he was about to explode.

"It's not her."

"What?" Michael and Daniel spoke at the same time. Chris, who had turned and started walking back to the house, halted and turned around again.

"It's not her, it's not Nadia!" Mark said urgently.

"What are you talking about?"

"It's her ear, her fucking ear! It's not the same. I knew something was off, I knew it!" Mark felt himself becoming frantic. He remembered the doubt that he had felt after looking her over on her first day in the house. If only he had made the connection then! How had he not seen it before? "Do you still have the picture?"

Michael pulled it out of his jacket pocket, frowning intently at Mark as he did so. Mark snatched it up.

"Look at this. This woman here, you see her ear?"

He brandished the little photo at the other three, who looked at it with expressions that ranged between puzzlement, suspicion, and impatience.

"She has a fully formed ear lobe. See – here! With that little diamond or whatever on it. Her ear lobe is detached."

Michael looked down at the photo, and then up at Mark again, his eyebrows raised.

"Okay well the girl that we just put in that van, her ears are attached. They connect right to her head, they're entirely different! I saw it, just now!"

It was agony to have to explain when every impulse inside him was telling him to get in the car and start driving after the van. He had the horrible feeling of time trickling away from him, like sand between his fingers. He had to act, and had to act now. If he waited even a minute too long, he wouldn't be able to catch up to the van, and he would lose her. But he needed the help of the other three, and maybe, just maybe, this would convince them.

"You see: it's not the same girl," he nearly shouted. "She was telling the truth all along, she really is Arley, our Arley."

Michael, Chris, and Daniel looked at him and said nothing. Michael's eyes were slightly narrowed.

"She's not the woman that von Bauer was after! She's just a lookalike!" Mark said angrily.

"So?" It was Chris who spoke, his voice as cold as the icy wind swirling around them. Mark looked at him, taken aback.

"Who cares what her name really is? This German guy told us he wanted her, we've delivered her, and we're getting paid."

"We've delivered the wrong person! We've sent an innocent girl off to be tortured and enslaved!"

"You're such a fucking hypocrite, you know that?" Chris sneered, stepping forward. "You think handing over one girl to be 'tortured and enslaved' is so terrible, but you wouldn't mind handing over the other? As if you wouldn't have a problem with this if she really was Nadia? No. You've just got cold feet." He stepped even closer to Mark, his bearing increasingly hostile with every word he spoke.

"Well too fucking bad, pal. You knew what we were doing, and you signed up for it. And I'm not letting you get in the way of my ten million."

"I'm going after her. I'm getting her back." The words came out of Mark's mouth before he was aware of thinking them. There was no time – if he couldn't convince the others, he would find a way to do it on his own.

Chris swore viciously and turned partway about, apparently to keep himself from losing control. "And what happens if you do get her back, huh?" He was on the verge of shouting himself now as he stared incredulously at Mark. "Assuming, of course, that you can get around Mr. Marine there, 'cause there's no way a guy like that isn't carrying. But just say you get her back – then what? The second you set her free, she'll be turning all of us in!"

"No, she won't." It was Michael who spoke, his voice calm. Mark, Chris, and Daniel all turned to look at him. There was a hard gleam in the man's dark eyes that made Mark uneasy, but he didn't have the mental space just then to figure out why.

"She won't," Chris repeated, his voice saturated with sarcasm.

"No," Michael replied evenly. "I'll take care of it. I'm coming with you Mark. I agree, we need to get her back."

Some instinct in Mark was telling him that Michael's involvement was a very bad idea. But he pushed the feeling aside. He needed Michael, he couldn't hope to do this alone.

Chris looked around at Daniel in disbelief. But Daniel remained as silent as ever, his eyes worried.

"The money is already transferred," Michael continued. "We just need to get in and access it. It can be done in ten minutes, long before von Bauer suspects we're reneging. You'll all get your share." Then, speaking to Mark directly: "You drive, I'll sort out the accounts as we go."

Mark nodded and hurried towards the car without a backwards glance. He didn't have the slightest idea how they were going to extract Arley from her new captors, but that could wait. Right now, he had to find out where they were taking her. Glancing over the roof of the car as he walked around it to the driver's door, he saw Chris stalking back to the house. Daniel, however, was still standing on the frozen grass, his face indecisive. Michael and Mark had already slid into the front of the car when Daniel finally hurried forwards, muttering something under his breath. Mark waited for the third man with his foot hovering over the gas.

"Okay, let's do this," Daniel said as he got into the back seat.

Mark stepped on the pedal, and the car shot forward. A bit of the tension inside him drained away as he guided the vehicle towards the main road, while Michael worked intently on his phone beside him. He didn't know when or how, but in one way or another, he was going to get her back.