A Matter of Circumstance by M J Marlow (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud .TXT) 📖

every computer on his network around the world in a dizzying pattern until they were ready to release it to their contacts in the FBI and Interpol. Any trace would send the information skipping back to the beginning and start the cycle over again. She was going to make this bastard pay. He found her in the kitchen with a glass of wine in her hand, watching the moonlight shining on the lake beyond the house. He took the glass from her, shaking his head. Then he made her sit down and got her some juice. “We must take care of you and your little one, ma petite,” he said as he filled a glass for her. “No more wine or alcohol for you. I shall hire a nurse and a personal chef to see you receive the best care.” The very morning a pregnancy was confirmed ten weeks later, she was fourteen weeks along. Her child had been conceived the first week of her marriage to Hawk. Madison took her to the prison to speak to her father. Madison remained hovering in the background as she spoke to Nicol. They kept their conversation innocuous and innocent. It was only when Madison stepped out as they were leaving that she had her chance to give him the true message. “Don’t worry, Papa,” she whispered in his ear as she kissed his cheek. “The ball is now in play.” “Then it is time to make the bastard pay!” He smiled and kissed her on the forehead. The all clear was now sounded and it was time to bring the man down. He waited until they were gone and then he made a call. “Philippe. Get word to Travers. He is going to be a father so he can expect Madison to start the blackmail soon.” Hawk came back from a particularly traumatic rescue of a kidnapped child to find a message on his desk. For the past three months he had been receiving updates from the man who was holding his wife, usually news of how she was doing, orpictures of her glowing in health but looking frustrated. He knew how she felt. He wanted her back home with him where she belonged but all his pleas to Interpol had been politely ignored so far and his superiors refused to let him take time off to go after her himself. He read it and ripped the note into pieces. The phone rang and he heard Madison’s voice. “I’m coming for her soon, Madison,” Hawk said tightly. “If you’re wise, you’ll let my wife come home now and save the damage I am going to do to get to her.” “Did that feel good?” Martin asked as he arrived just as the receiver crashed down. He walked in and closed the door. “You know he is going to make you pay for that.” “As long as he is not making Victoria pay,” Hawk replied, “I can handle it.” He saw an envelope on his desk and he opened it. “It’s from her father,” he said as he showed Martin a facsimile of a check for twenty million dollars. “An account has been opened for your child in this amount. Grandpere Beauclerc.” Hawk looked mystified and then his eyes widened. “Victoria is pregnant?” He was stunned, then elated, and then worried. “She’s pregnant, Martin, and that bastard has her!” He sank into his chair. “I have to get to her! I don’t care if Interpol won’t help…” “You have friends who have far more pull then Interpol,” a man spoke up from the doorway. Philippe closed the door behind himself and showed them his credentials. “I thought it was time we met.” “How soon can we get my wife back, Inspector?” Hawk asked him bluntly. “Straight to the matter,” Philippe nodded. “I am going to like working with you, Agent Travers. You remind me of my partner.” He pulled a disk out of his jacket pocket and held it up. “On this is the name and contact information of one member of an underground network that you may use this once to help you bring Victoria home. Once you have contacted them, the disk is to be kept locked away until you can give it to your wife.” He sat down. “Victoria has done her part, she has set up the transmit program that is going to feed us information from Madison’s network. If she were not pregnant, we would ask her to remain with him.” He saw Hawk’s dark look. “Your wife is one of our best people, Agent Travers; only her father has done more to assist us in the never-ending war on crime.” “My wife is an agent of Interpol,” Hawk said tightly. He saw the man shake his head. “No?” “Your wife and her father are freelance,” Philippe told him. “They belong to a shadow organization that loans their services to whatever agency needs them. Since they are exceptionally gifted operatives, no one contests this choice. Unlike you and Agent Cavenaugh here, the FBI and Interpol cannot order them. All the cases they work are by their choice.” He saw their stunned looks. “Of course they have been known to feed intelligence to the more visible agencies if they happen across something they believe might be of interest in the course of an investigation.” “You’re telling me that my wife and her father are spies,” Hawk choked out. “Such a clumsy word for what they are,” Philippe laughed. “Nicol prefers intelligence consultants,” he continued. “This is not to be made known, gentlemen. Our agency prefers its anonymity.” He looked at Hawk firmly. He held the disk up again. “The timing of her extraction is up to Victoria. If she feels it is best to wait a few weeks, or even months, before she leaves, you must allow her to make that decision. Can you do that?” Hawk nodded and he put the disk on the desk. “You will not hear from me again, Agent Travers. From this point on, only the person on that list will have any reason to contact you.” He smiled and nodded his head. “Good day and good hunting.” “Who was that man?” Glen asked as he came into the room just after Hawk slid the disk into his pocket. “What man?” Hawk and Martin said together. “Be that way,” Glen shrugged. “I’ve learned not to ask. I just thought you’d like to know that Victoria has sent you an email.” “How would you know that?” Hawk asked as he pulled up his account. “She copied you?” he noted as he saw the message. “Why the hell is ‘my’ wife copying you?” “I think it might be wise for us to make a hasty withdrawal, Glen,” Martin said as he turned the young man around and pushed him out. “Hawk?” Hawk put up the sign for ‘call’ and Martin left, closing the door so his friend could have some privacy. To say Hawk was not pleased with the message he received was understating the case. It was not from Victoria at all, though he was certain she had been forced to send it. She had managed to add the hidden cc to the message while Madison was distracted. Hawk opened the attachment and saw a contract between Nicol Beauclerc and Nigel Madison stating that the ‘daughter and grandchild of one Nicol Beauclerc, Victoria Beauclerc Travers and her unborn child, have been purchased by Nigel Madison as guarantee of loyalty’. Madison was telling Hawk that Victoria and Hawk’s child were Madison’s property. “He’s daring me to come after him,” Hawk snapped as he got out the disk. He slid it into his drive and the instructions for its use came up. “Once you have contacted the first person they will send your message along. State your request; every person named on this list will see it done. You will only see the first name and no others will be made known to you. In this way, the last person on the list; who is closest to your objective is not compromised should this disk leave your hands.” Hawk shook his head. How was that man not a spy? He flexed his fingers and typed his message: ‘I want you to do everything in your power to get my wife and child away from Nigel Madison and back to me. Hawk Travers.” The screen blinked three times and then his message was gone. A moment later three words appeared on the screen: Consider it done. Hawk had to accept it. He was in no position to storm Madison’s home on his own. He could only hope he could trust the stranger who had appeared in his office with this disk. Victoria’s life and the life of his unborn child depended on him. Victoria smiled as she heard the beep that signaled an incoming message. She left the book she’d been reading on the window seat and crossed to the desk. Madison had put a laptop in her rooms so that she could amuse herself when he wasn’t with her, thinking she was not aware of the fact that anything she did on it was fed back to his people for analysis. So she used the home shopping network and gourmet cooking site that her organization had set up to send updates and receive messages. Madison came in as she was reading the message. “I didn’t know you were interested in such things,” Madison frowned as he saw the picture of a homing pigeon being released. His hand came down to stroke her neck and she shuddered. She wanted so badly to tell the person sending her the signal for ‘do you want to be released’ that she was more than ready to accept their help, but her contact had told her something big was in the works and she needed to be in place to get the information for them. “They send me offers of all sorts of items,” Victoria shrugged as she typed in ‘not at this time, try again in a month’ and hit the send button. “I made the mistake of buying something for my uncle a few years back and they have me on their list now. What would I do with homing pigeons?” “You’re looking tired, ma petite,” Madison said as he massaged her shoulders. “You should take a nap.” He felt her shudder and he hid his smile. He helped her to her feet and nodded to the nurse. “Madame Travers is going to take a nap. You may have the rest of the afternoon off.” The nurse left the room and Victoria stood still as he made her got to bed. He tried to take her hand in his and she slapped him. He laughed and got out the sedative, and watched her closely until she had taken it. He took the empty glass from her and set it on the nightstand. “Your husband nearly died today,” Madison said after she had started to weaken. He saw the concern in her eyes. “One day he is going to walk into a situation he cannot control, ma petite. You will be a widow then and I will marry you.” “I will never marry you,” Victoria shook her head. “I will…” “You will do as I wish, my pet,” Madison broke in firmly. “I shall raise his son as my own.” “You are a cruel man, Nigel Madison,” Victoria retorted. “You don’t care in the least that what you are doing is hurting people, do you?” “Of course not,” Madison looked at her. “Why should I as long as I get what I want?” He grabbed her chin in his hand. “I thought you would realize that by now, my dear. It’s been three and a half months since you came here as my hostage.” “You can’t keep me here like this forever,” Victoria whimpered as he pulled her to him. “Please