CHAPTER 6: THE MESSAGE IN THE DRAWING
CHAPTER 6: THE MESSAGE IN THE DRAWING
Bridget refused to leave the command center Ryder had established inside one of his office buildings.
She hadn't slept in thirty hours.
Every ringing phone made her jump.
Every unopened door made her hope.
Then a courier arrived carrying a plain brown envelope.
"No return address."
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
It wasn't a letter.
It was a child's drawing.
Bridget recognized it instantly.
"Annie..."
The picture showed a little bird inside a square cage.
Behind the cage stood four tall pine trees.
Above them was a mountain.
In one corner, Annie had drawn a tiny red gate.
Nothing else.
Detective Morales frowned.
"It's just a drawing."
Bridget shook her head.
"No."
"She always hides messages in her pictures."
Ryder stepped closer.
"What kind of messages?"
"When she was learning to read..."
Bridget smiled through tears.
"...she'd draw clues instead of writing words."
Ryder studied the page in silence.
Then his eyes stopped on the red gate.
"Zoom in."
A technician scanned the drawing onto a monitor.
Hidden among the red brushstrokes was a tiny symbol.
The same golden crane emblem from the delivery van.
Ryder looked toward his security chief.
"The monastery."
The chief blinked.
"You think that's what the gate means?"
Ryder nodded slowly.
"There are only three abandoned mountain monasteries within two hours of the city connected to that symbol."
He pointed at the four pine trees.
"And she's telling us which one."
Meanwhile, Annie sat quietly in the back of another vehicle.
The kidnappers had begun transporting her before sunrise.
She looked frightened.
But inside, she was counting.
Left turn.
Bridge.
Tunnel.
Three minutes uphill.
Gravel road.
She memorized every sound.
Every vibration.
Every voice.
One guard laughed in Japanese.
"The little girl is quiet."
Another answered,
"She's accepted her fate."
Annie lowered her eyes to hide a tiny smile.
They had underestimated her again.
She wasn't giving up.
She was collecting everything.
Every word they spoke...
...was another clue leading Ryder Burke straight to her.
Far ahead, hidden in the mist-covered mountains, the abandoned monastery waited.
Neither Annie nor her captors knew that a convoy of black SUVs had already left San Francisco.
Ryder Burke sat in the lead vehicle, his expression unreadable as he loaded a pistol and looked once at Annie's drawing.
May you like
"This time," he said quietly, "we bring her home."
Behind him, Bridget gripped the drawing to her chest, silently praying they would not be too late.
