Free Lost Past by Teresa McCullough, Zachary McCullough Page B

there. The barn door was closed well after the horse was stolen.”
    “Which means Mason died for nothing.”  Agent Wilson was standing in the doorway.

CHAPTER 7
     
                  “Who’s Mason ?” Linda asked.
                  “A government psychiatrist. They found out what John was planning to do and wanted someone observing. I felt that it wouldn’t hurt to have one more listener, as long as he didn’t stop us from disseminating the information,” Eric explained.
                  “It hurt Mason,” Wilson said. “Someone got to him before he reached his office. He was killed with what looks like the same kind of weapon that killed some of the passengers on the plane. Also, he was supposed to be carrying notes and a flash drive. They were missing. But I have a video of what happened on the plane. They found the camera attached to a body in a watertight bag. Let me show you.”
                  They crowded around Eric’s computer as the video confirmed the audio that Linda already heard. The four men all looked enough like John to be his identical twins, except one had brown hair, not blond like John. The video showed Arthur Saunders being taken from the airplane.
                  The visual recording made it more real than the audio. Linda was torn between relief in seeing her father leave the plane alive and horror at the way he was treated. Was he alive? Was he safe? Was he afraid?
                  Eric pulled the flash drive out of the computer, but fumbled while returning it to Wilson. It bounced off his chair under the desk. He used his foot to bring it to him while the others separated, no longer crowding around the desk. Eric leaned over with his chest on his knees, to pick up the flash drive.
                  Three of the four men from the video entered the room. John froze and Linda thought that was probably a good idea because they had weapons out. Wilson made his hands visible and empty. Mary was the only one who reacted with action. She started toward them in an obvious attack. “You took Arthur!” she screamed.
                  Brown Hair fired his weapon, even though he wasn’t the one Mary was attacking and she collapsed. In the instant she fell, Linda’s peripheral vision caught Eric sliding off his chair onto the carpeted floor. Cara and John both rushed to Mary and knelt next to her. John started CPR while Cara breathed into her mouth. Brown Hair said something while aiming his weapon at Cara. John stood up and backed off.
                  “Why are you stopping?” asked Cara between breaths.
                  “He said he would shoot you unless I stopped,” John replied.
                  Brown Hair kicked Cara. Everyone started, but Linda saw Eric use the distraction to hide more comfortably under his desk.
                  One of the blonds spoke in English. “Come with us.”
                  “I assume you just mean me,” John said.
                  “All of you.”
                  One at a time, the men fixed their hands behind them. It wasn’t quite handcuffs, but the principle was the same. Wilson’s weapon was ignored.
                  They went up the stairs to the roof, Brown Hair in the lead, leaving Mary’s body on the floor and Eric hiding under the desk. Brown Hair shot someone who stood in the way. There was a gaping hole where a locked door had been. In the helicopter landing spot, there was something that wasn’t a helicopter guarded by the fourth man. Two bodies were on the ground near the vehicle. The ship had stubby wings, no visible wheels, and was roughly the size of a school bus. They entered awkwardly without using their hands. Before they were seated, the vehicle took off. There was no motion inside in spite of the rapid ascent. It took less than twenty minutes for them to