I looked up. Jade was standing at the door with a gun in her hand.
"Jade, what's going on?" I asked.
She didn't answer. Two men walked in, one of whom I recognized as the man I saw in the window at the hotel. They handcuffed Chris and led him out of the room.
Jade lowered her gun. "Are you alright?" she asked.
"I'm fine, I think." I slowly stood back up. I was a little confused about what was happening. I noticed my camcorder in Jade's hand.
"Where did you get that?" I asked.
"We've had it ever since we knocked you out that first day."
"Wait a minute," I said. "You mean that you were the one that first kidnapped me?"
"No, not me personally. Our organization knew that the enemy needed you for something, and that they'd probably kill you after getting it. We needed to protect you and whatever it was you had that they wanted."
I pointed at the scrape on my face that I'd gotten in the explosion at the warehouse. "You call that protection?!"
"Sam, we didn't mean for you to ever leave the cabin. But there was some leakage of information and we had to evacuate you before the enemy got there. We were a little too late."
"I see," I said, trying to get things straight in my mind. "So what about Chris?"
Bert straightened up in his chair.
"What about me?" he asked.

It was about that time that the guy in the other chair woke up. I had almost forgotten that he was even in the room, and I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard him speak.
"Where am I?" he asked in a slightly slurred voice.
It must have scared Chris, too. He spun and pointed his gun at the man. In that moment, everything I had experienced in the past few weeks screamed at me to seize the opportunity. Before I could think, I threw my whole body forward and slammed into Chris, bringing him to the ground. The gun slipped out of his hand and slid under one of the counters. Within a couple seconds we had both gotten up again. I knew I couldn't beat him in a hand-to-hand fight, but, now that his gun was gone, he couldn't hurt me as long as I stayed away from him.
I ran across the room, near the chair that the other guy was tied up in. As soon as I saw him up close, I remembered where I'd seen him before. He was the guy called Bert from the cabin I had been taken to when I was first kidnapped! I was very confused, but I didn't have time to try to figure it out. Chris was running towards me, and he looked very angry. I dodged him and ran back to the other side of the room. I tripped halfway and fell to the ground.
My leg was hurt, and I couldn't stand back up. I looked up to see Chris still rushing towards me. He was about 2 steps away when I heard the door slam open.
A voice hollered, "Chris, don't make another move!"

I thought about the message that had flashed accross the computer screen.
If only I knew what was going on, I thought to myself. If only I knew who I can trust.
I stood there for what seemed like ages, holding my hand over the scanner. I could feel Chris watching me out of the corner of his eye. My face felt hot and I started getting dizzy. Somehow everything important seemed to depend on what I did next. For once I wished somebody would knock me unconscious.
Whether it was because of that wish or because I had decided to stall for time, I don't know. Either way, my knees gave out and I fell to the ground. I felt like I was paralyzed, but I didn't try to move anyway so I didn't know for sure. I just laid there, pretending that I wasn't aware of anything that was happening.
"Sam, get up," said Chris. I heard him walk over near where I was. "I know you can hear me. Get up. I told you, this will be much easier with your cooperation."
I stayed completely still.
Things were quiet for a few seconds. Then I heard the click of a gun being loaded.
"Sam, this is your last warning. Get up."
I figured he was bluffing, but I didn't want to take that chance. I tried moving and, surprisingly enough, was able to stand without much difficulty. Chris was standing in front of me holding a gun. I wasn't quite sure what to do, so I just said the first thing that came into my mind.
"What happened?"
Chris just stared at me. I stared back at him.
"Put your right hand on the scanner," he said.
I slowly turned around and started moving my hand towards the scanner again. I was right back where I'd started.
At least I gained some time, I thought, realizing that I didn't even know what I needed to gain time for. Hopefully it had done some good.

"Chris, what's going on? What am I doing here? What makes you think I'd run away?"
Chris didn't say anything. He just walked around the room, looking at the various screens and pressing buttons. After a couple minutes he started walking out of the room.
"Don't go away; I'll be right back," he said with a half smile.
As soon as he walked out I started looking around the room again. There was a table against the wall to my right. There was another door against the wall opposite me. Next to the door was the other sleeping guy. Against the wall to the left of me was a large counter covered with several computer screens and keyboards. While I was looking at the screens, one of them started blinking. It blinked a few times, then stopped. Then some words appeared on it. It said, "SAM STALL CHRIS AS LONG AS POSS." The words stayed there for a few seconds, then disappeared.
It was so strange that I hardly noticed when Chris walked back into the room.
"Alright, Sam," he said as he unlocked my handcuffs, "if you cooperate things will move much easier."
I didn't say anything.
He motioned for me to go over to the computer screens. I had already decided what to do as soon as I was free of the chair. I walked slowly a few steps, then quickly turned and tried to run out the door. It was locked.
"I told you," said Chris, "I need your help." He motioned again for me to walk accross the room.
I walked, very slowly and very carefully, to where he was pointing, keeping my eye on Chris the whole time.
"Now put your hand on that panel and leave it there for a few moments."
He was pointing to a small scanner on the counter. I started lifting my hand towards it, unsure of what to do...

I woke up in a very dark room. I was sitting on the floor, my feet and hands tied up. A few feet in front of me I could see the outline of a door. Other than that, I couldn't see anything. For a few minutes I tried wriggling out of the ropes around my wrists, but it was clear that whoever tied me knew what they were doing. There was nothing I could do but sit and wait.
After a few minutes the door opened and light flooded in. For a few seconds it was too bright for me to see anything.
"Awake now, I see," said an unfamiliar voice. "Just in time." I felt someone cut the ropes around my ankles. "Come on, stand up. We don't have all day."
My feet were numb from being tied, so it was difficult for me to keep my balance. Once I steadied myself I tried to get a good look at the man who was talking to me. Before I could see him he'd turned around and started walking out the door.
"Follow me," he said, grabbing my arm and pulling me along. I tried to concentrate on where we were going. I wanted to get an idea of the layout of wherever I was, but my feet were hurting too much for me to think about anything else. After walking down several hallways we turned into a room that looked like someting out of Star Trek. There were computer screens everywhere. The man shoved me into a chair and told me to stay there. After that he quickly handcuffed me to the arm of the chair and walked out. With my hands tied and my arm stuck to the chair it was clear that I wasn't going anywhere. I looked around the room, wondering what all this stuff was for and why I'd been taken here. That's when I noticed someone else sitting in a chair against the opposite wall. He was also tied up and handcuffed, and he seemed to be sleeping. He looked vaguely familiar but I couldn't remember where I'd seen him.
Just then I heard a very familiar voice
"Hey, Sam. Nice to see you awake. Sorry about the ropes, but I can't have you running off."
It was Chris.

I stared at the camera in disbelief. Thoughts were rushing through my head, mostly muddled and incoherent, but through it all one fact became quite obvious. As I struggled to think through what it all meant, I realized that I should probably get out of Jade's room. I started to turn to leave and my heart nearly jumped into my throat. The curtains were just slightly open and there, staring at me from outside the window, was the window washer I had seen earlier. I tried to conceal my shock and walked out of the room as casually as possible. As soon as I closed the door I rushed down the hall as fast as I could. I turned a corner towards the elevators and nearly ran over someone who had just come up.
"Woah! Slow down, buddy. Where's the fire?"
I looked up. It was Chris!
"Chris! Where have you been?"
"I've been busy," he said. "Come with me. There's someone I want you to meet."
I followed him into the elevator. What happened next went by so fast I didn't have time to react. The elevator stopped but didn't open, Chris pulled out an oxygen mask from somewhere and threw something onto the ground, the elevator filled with a yellowish gas and I started getting dizzy. I was getting tired of being knocked out all the time and fought to stay awake, but within a few seconds everything went black.

"Maybe it's all a misunderstanding." I could hear Jade talking in the room. I held my breath and tried to stay as quiet as possible.
"Maybe so," said an unfamiliar voice, "but we can't afford to take that chance. We can't let him go anywhere until we're sure. Do you have the paper?"
"It's around here somewhere," said Jade. I could hear her walking towards the closet. I scooted as far back as I could, pressing my back into the wall. I could see a shadow just outside the door.
"Oh, wait!" she said. "There it is on the table." She walked away from the closet. "Yeah, that's it. It's a map of some place. We're not sure where. Chris said he knew someone who could help us with it. I just hope we have time to get in touch him. This incident has really slowed things down."
"So once Chris gets back what are you going to do about the kid?" asked the other voice.
"We'll have to take him with us. Like you said, we can't afford to take chances."
I heard some other sounds. Someone typing on a computer, curtains being closed and, after a few minutes, two sets of footsteps leaving the room. After the door shut, I waited a few seconds. Satisfied that I was once again alone, I slowly opened the closet door. Just before leaving the room I took one last look around. Everything was just like it was before, except for one something sitting on a table near the closet. At first I thought I was imagining things. I examined it closer and almost yelled with surprise.
It was my old digital camcorder!