I obviously could not rest or even relax. Too many worries and questions were running through my head. How amazing that was! Worth called Jude two hours later to tell us where to meet him. It was located to the north of the city, in an intertwining of warehouses of identical appearance, located on the banks of the Detroit River.

We went there in a deathly silence. We had not exchanged a word and barely a glance since the inspector left. There was a kind of muted accusation between us; no need to be a seer to know that Jude was mad at me for suggesting this solution and probably even more mad at himself for accepting it. Although the effects of the blood exchange seem to be gradually dissipating, I didn't think we would be able to overcome that. Our partnership was already more than complicated, and it was becoming totally unbearable. As soon as this whole thing was over, we would each go our separate ways. This thought tightened my heart. I was perfectly aware that it was stupid, but... still.

A car was waiting for us and Worth got out before Jude had even turned off the engine. Another man accompanied him, he was not very tall and, although he was young, he was already getting bald, not to mention his belly was starting to go over his belt. The inspector introduced him as Agent Paris, specialized in surveillance and monitoring of all kinds. He wasn't very talkative but effective, after all that's all we asked him to do.

He placed an almost invisible earpiece in my right ear and an equally microscopic microphone on the back of my T-shirt collar. Then he implanted me with a kind of microchip under my skin which, as he informed me, was a tracking device that would allow them to follow me. He implanted it in the hollow of my knee, because according to him it was a place they wouldn't check. When he implanted the device, I discovered I could be quite creative in my cursing, when in pain. It hurt like hell!

Once all the preparations had been made and the equipment checked and rechecked, I limped painfully to Jude's car in the hope that the pain and numbness would soon fade away. Then he led me, always in silence, to my apartment where he was supposed to drop me off. We then had to fake an argument, to make potential lookouts believe that I would be alone for a while. I didn't think we'd have much trouble with this last part of the plan. Jude stopped with brutality and the most effective screeching of tires along the sidewalk right in front of my building. He leaned over me so that he could open my door with his right hand and did so with such force that the angle hit the ground in a rough sheet metal sound.

- 'So that's how it is?' I shouted, outraged. 'Now that you've got what you wanted, you throw me away like an old sock! What about your part of the deal, then? You were supposed to help me find my friend.'

I tried to be as desperate and miserable as possible, which given my current thoughts was not an overly complicated thing to do.

- 'Thank you for your help,' Jude replied in his most beautiful sociopathic voice. 'Now get out of my car.'

I struggled with my seat belt with trembling hands and reluctantly pulled myself out of the vehicle. Once on the sidewalk, I had to take a small step back to avoid hitting the door, which Jude closed as violently as he had opened it.

- 'I hope we'll never have to meet again.'

And on these charming words, he started off in a hurry, leaving me all weeping and trembling on the sidewalk.

That point had been subject to debate, because I had insisted that I would not normally behave in this way. I'd rather be the kind of person who's raging and running after the car than whining on a sidewalk. Nevertheless, Jude and Worth thought I should look as vulnerable and fragile as possible, because if they thought I was helpless, they might be less inclined to use the strong method to capture me. If that was their intention. Otherwise, combative or not, I wouldn't live long without Jude to take the bullets and the blows for me. Thinking about him left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. We had not rehearsed what we had to say to each other to make it seem as natural and spontaneous as possible. On the other hand, his last sentence bothered me. He didn't have to say it, since I had already gotten out of the car. So had he done it to accentuate the dramatic effect or because he really meant it and wanted to send me a message? After all, now that Worth was watching me with a few trusted men, he was no longer really needed. I was still hoping he'd stay, just in case. But yes, of course he would stay: even if it wasn't for me, he would do it for Aria.

It was with my head down and full of questions that I entered my building; no need to pretend. I painfully climbed the stairs as if all the weight of the world was on my shoulders, discreetly trying to determine if something out of the ordinary was happening. When I arrived at my door, nothing more interesting than a cat meowing in front of a closed door had happened. So I went in, unable to stop myself from tensing and expecting an ambush, but there again, nothing to report.

I locked the door, finally looked around and broke down. Worth was going to hear me! The whole apartment was turned upside down. There was not a square inch of floor that was not covered by something. I knew the police had searched our apartment when we both disappeared, but I hadn't considered that they could have put it in such a state. This should certainly have been the least of my worries, but I still felt betrayed and almost violated. Even if they hadn't stolen anything, I felt it was an invasion of my privacy, a burglary in a way. At least they could have respected our belongings. I, who had never had anything of my own, was now gradually being deprived of what little I had managed to acquire by myself.

I let my tears flow without holding them back. Never mind if I looked like a wimp, after all, that was the plan. I was so numb that it took me a long time to realize that the phone was ringing and even longer to find it. I finally discovered it, lying on the floor, under one of the couch cushions. The answering machine had not been switched on, so it was still ringing when I finally got my hands on it. I picked up the phone to hear unsurprisingly Worth's voice. The phone call was also part of the plan, because we suspected that my phone was being tapped, even though the police had not found anything. However, what I was going to say to him would certainly deviate from the original line as well.

- 'Miss Jones, what a joy to have you back among us,' he said in a more than sarcastic tone. 'May I ask where you were and why you so abruptly left? From now on, the game is over. Consider yourself officially a suspect in this case.'

And he hung up on me!

I didn't even have time to say a word. I was so angry that I forgot for a moment the role I was playing and threw the phone across the room screaming with rage. When I realized it, I promptly collapsed to the ground and all the objects on it, pretending to sob. I tried to wait for a time that seemed right before getting up and going to the bathroom, which had not escaped the ransacking either. I didn't even try to clean up and just poured a little water on my face. I would have taken a shower, but I couldn't take the risk of having the microphone found on my shirt. So, in the event that there were cameras, we agreed that I would keep the same clothes. Hopefully they will not take too long, because it may end up looking suspicious and quite unpleasant for me.

So I did what I assumed a depressed and desperate young woman would do. I collapsed on my bed trying to fake catatonia. After only thirty minutes, I was already on the verge of despair, when the doorbell rang. I got up sharply but walked through the apartment in a more measured way. When I arrived at the door, I looked through the peephole and saw only a large bouquet of flowers. I couldn't help but smile in spite of myself: either they really thought I was a poor little thing with no brains, or they didn't have any! Because having flowers delivered to me, who had never received any in my life and at almost ten o'clock in the evening, was more than suspicious. I took a deep breath, made a little silent prayer, opened the door and prepared to be kidnapped. Well, that's what I was hoping for, because if they were there to kill me, I didn't stand a chance.

So I opened the door, a big silly smile on my face, as I supposed every young scatterbrained woman receiving flowers did! The bouquet was so big that it almost completely concealed the man holding it. Given his size, he must have needed both hands to hold it. The risk that he could hold a weapon was therefore limited. I thought to myself stupidly, that I would have liked to be a young girl whose biggest concern was to choose the colour of her nail polish and to know if she would have a large enough vase to put the bouquet that her boyfriend had her send every week. But of course, it was all this stress that was going to my head, I had never even put on a nail polish in my life!

- 'Oooh.... it's beautiful!' I cried with my most beautiful dummy voice. 'Who sent it to me?'

- 'As if you didn't know, bitch!' the man said in an aggressive and vulgar voice.

It was one of those moments when so many actions take place simultaneously that you have the feeling that they are happening in slow motion. While giving me this very distinguished answer, the man dropped the bouquet, which crashed softly to the ground. Then in the same movement, he pulled out a gun, pointed it at my chest and fired. I just had time to think that we had made a mistake and that Aria was going to pay a high price for it, before a great pain exploded in my chest and everything went black.

***

I was cold and sore everywhere, especially in my chest. A weight seemed to be compressing my chest, hindering my breathing. Strangely enough, I had the impression that it was a lesser evil, but no matter how hard I tried to remember, I only got dazzling headaches and the impression that my brain was in pieces. I must have lost consciousness again, because when I came to my senses for the second time, everything seemed clearer to me and bits of memories began to flash back to me. I was shot at point-blank range, I should be dead! I tried to move and was rewarded with a myriad of pains radiating from everywhere, certainly due to my position on my stomach on the hard, cold ground, tied and gagged like a Christmas turkey. To top it all off, I was in my underwear; I understood better why I was so cold.

I began to get uncontrollable chills, made worse than painful by my anything but natural position. In addition, my chest pain was starting to concern me because it had not subsided, quite the contrary. I tried to calm down and take small regular breaths. I was about to open my eyes slowly, when I heard the voices of two men approaching and seeming to be arguing. So I kept them closed and tried to stay as still as possible as they entered the room. They kept quiet for a moment, then resumed their discussion as if I was not there.

- 'No, but you're really crazy? What would we have told the boss if she was dead?'

- 'Cut the crap, John! She wasn't likely to die of a tranquilizing dart,' the man who had shot me replied with the same class as ever, with gum in his mouth.

- 'Of course she could have, you idiot! Considering you shot her at close range and in the heart. It's a good thing she's still alive. Oh, I swear, amateurs...' the infamous John grumbled for himself.

But apparently, it didn't go unnoticed by the other jerk.

- 'What did you just say, John?' he roared in a voice full of threats.

- 'You know very well,' he replied in a very calm voice. 'So now you're gonna calm down or I'm gonna blow your brains out, and I don't think many people will blame me.'

His tone was cold and professional and left no room for doubt.

- 'Now, see if she has a tracker. We don't have much time left before the next team picks her up, and they'll want to leave immediately so they don't risk her waking up on the way.'

- 'It's not likely! There was a dose for a horse! She'll be in dreamland for at least six hours.'

He snapped his gum and I felt him coming closer to me.

- 'Make it quick, and no groping!' the man named John added as he left the room.

I wanted to yell at him not to leave me alone with this guy, who not only was a dangerous jerk, but was also an perv apparently... Lovely! I hesitated for a moment to show them that I was awake, then thought to myself it was a bad idea. They seemed to believe that their drugs were acting on me like they were on others, which apparently was not the case and could prove to be a good thing for me later on. So I had to simulate deep sleep. Considering my state of stress, it wasn't going to be the easiest thing to do.

I tried to relax as much as possible and keep my breathing slow and steady. Nevertheless, all my efforts were destroyed as soon as he started searching me. Well, to search, you have to have something to search for and since I was in my panties and bra, it was more of a palpation. He started with my head, or more precisely my hair, and passed his hands through my scalp, rolling the skin under his fingers, before continuing with the ears. What were they looking for like that?

That's when it hit me, and I had to make a superhuman effort not to hiccup with surprise. We had been betrayed! I could hardly believe it could be Worth or even Jude, but after all, I hadn't known them for a long time. Anyway, whether it was them or not, someone was working with the kidnappers, because they were obviously aware that I had a bug implanted under my skin! I relaxed slightly as I realized that it couldn't be Worth, Jude or even Agent Paris since all three of them knew where the tracer was, which wasn't the case with the pervert who was groping me.

Now that he was done with my head, he wasn't just palpating. He had switched to groping and apparently took as much time as he enjoyed doing it. He painfully squeezed the base of my breasts without turning me over, which caused to hurt like hell, especially where I had received the dart, when he lifted me up without softness. The pain was so severe that it was almost unbearable, and I could not hold back a groan. I was already planning his reaction when I heard him laughing softly.

- 'It hurts, you bitch!' he said low as if he was talking to himself. 'Even completely drugged, you still feel pain apparently! That's good to know.'

He pressed against the wound with such force that I moaned again and could not stop tears of pain from running down my cheeks.

- 'Aberrations like you... it shouldn't exist!' he continued with a voice full of both hatred and desire, while clumsily brushing my breast in a repulsive way.

My God, make the other man come back! I couldn't stand his touch anymore without reacting. Everything inside me pushed me to struggle and scream at him to get his dirty hands off my body, while my reason forced me to remain motionless and to fake a drug-induced sleep. I knew it was in my best interest to remain static, but it was getting harder and harder to force myself to remain so. By not reacting, I felt like I was giving my consent, and that I couldn't stand it. He finally lost interest in my chest and began to lower his hands. There was no way I was going to let him get to that point! I was about to struggle and scream despite my gag to get the other guard's attention when he entered the room again.

- 'What the hell are you doing? I had some additional information: apparently, their technicians often implant them in the hollow of the knee. Check it out,' he said in a chief warrant officer's voice before leaving the room.

I've never been so happy to hear someone in my life. Which apparently was not the case for my torturer, who executed himself reluctantly. He touched the back of both my knees strongly and obviously found it. I felt a brief cut followed by intense pain as he pulled the bug out of me without hesitation. Uncontrollable tremors then seized me, due to cold and stress as well as pain. This must have pleased this sadist very much, because he introduced the tip of his blade into my wound and began to turn it slowly. Now I couldn't help but scream. Surely warned by my cries suffocated by the gag, the other man ran back into the room.

- 'You really are a fucking psycho!'

The pain subsided a little when the blade was removed from my flesh. I clearly heard the knife fall to the ground, followed almost immediately by a dull shock strong enough to make the walls tremble, accompanied by a soft noise, then a plaintive moan.

- 'If I ever catch you doing it again, protégé or not... I'll kill you. I hope you didn't wake her up completely. Because there's no way she's going to travel conscious, and I'm not sure she'd survive another dose of tranquilizer.'

On these not very reassuring words, he approached and turned me back without care. I tried not to open my eyes and look as lifeless as possible. I must have been convincing, because he also brutally put me back in my initial position and left the room, accompanied by his sidekick dragging his feet. When I no longer felt their presence in the immediate surroundings, I relaxed my control over my body and let the pain and relief take me, hopefully, into oblivion.