When Beretta came back, she didn’t look happy. “There was a plumbing van reported missing. Unfortunately, they found it dumped in the river not too long ago and no one saw anything in the area. Has the Alchemist contacted you?”

Lady Bird shook her head. She wasn’t sure whether the Alchemist was purposely making them wait or if he was just slow with the instructions. She wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t know how to handle a hostage situation. He’d never been the type to take them until now. Hopefully, he would make a mistake and that would work in their favor.

“Wayne did. He said he’s coming home early.” Lady Bird sighed. “I can’t believe that there was a secret tunnel none of us knew about. How could we miss that?”

“How were you supposed to know that a plumbing problem meant a secret passageway? Who was the last villain who used this warehouse as a base anyway?”

“Um, someone called the Cobbler. A solo act who mainly needed the warehouse to store all his supplies. His shtick was making shoes that would explode and having people pay him money to stop their shoes from exploding with them in it. Unfortunately, most people would just take the shoes off, so that didn’t work out well for him. Not exactly the type that would have an escape tunnel anyways.”

Beretta nodded. “I will tell you this. In our business when you have someone close to you, these types of things happen no matter what precaution you take or how hard you try to prevent it. They would’ve gotten ahold of her somehow. I suspect their next step would’ve been to target her friends or her grandparents to draw her out.”

“Would she fall for such an obvious trap?”

“Fall? No. But she wouldn’t just leave them. You’d be surprised by how many things she tries to handle on her own because she doesn’t want to worry anyone.”

Around that time, her phone went off. It was an email from an unknown source, but she knew it was from the Alchemist. She opened it.

"It's the usual. Come alone, no tricks, meet at these coordinates…" She showed it to Beretta. "It sounds like he just took a template and entered in the proper information. I knew he was pretty green, but this is just kind of pathetic.”

“That’ll be to our advantage. You get the ransom ready and I’ll scope out the area.” Beretta noted the coordinates.

“Number One…”

“I’m sending a security Minion with her.” He confirmed as picked up his walkie-talkie. “And the ones with the supplies to fill in the tunnel should be arriving shortly.”

Sometimes, even Number One’s uncanny ability to be one step ahead weirded Lady Bird out. But it came in handy, especially in situations like this. She was glad that he was on her side and not working against her. Beretta and the minion took their leave.

“Prepare the ransom, Number One. But let’s give the Alchemist a little bonus…”

--

Orion didn't converse with Terri after he finished cleaning his guns. She didn’t bother to engage him either. He got up from the table and ruffled her hair as he passed. She bristled under the rough touch.

"Any word yet, Chiron?"

"I just received further instruction. We'll be handing her over soon." Chiron opened a bag and removed the first aid kit. "We better clean her up a bit."

Chiron wasn't all that gentle with the wipe, but Terri was just glad to get the dried blood off her face. The cut on her nose stung a bit, but it wasn’t terrible. He undid the cuffs around her ankles. He glanced up at her as if challenging her to do something. As tempting as it was to attempt to use his head as a soccer ball, it wouldn’t be the wisest thing.

"You’re going to be someone else's problem now." He undid the handcuffs, still keeping an eye on her.

"Other than that chair incident, you've been pretty well-behaved," Orion commented. "I'll make sure to give you a good rating on SIK.com."

"We're professionals. We don't use a website to tell us how good of a prisoner someone is."

Chiron paused for a second before tapping the side of his helmet.

"Ok, they're here. I'll conduct the transaction and you hang onto her in case he tries to double-cross us."

Orion motioned for Terri to stand up. To her surprise, he didn't put the cuffs back on. The heavy hand that sat on her shoulder was probably security enough for him. He would be right. The techniques Berretta taught her wouldn’t work on someone as experienced as Orion.

They went outside where a typical panel van was parked. Terri wouldn't have been surprised if the Alchemist had rented the most cliched-looking van he could find. Chiron and someone else was talking things over. Terri wasn't familiar with the Alchemist, but she knew that wasn’t him. He was probably back at their base. The man handed Chiron a briefcase. Chiron opened it and then nodded to Orion.

“Well kid, it looks like this is where we part. Tell your Mom I said hi.”

He pushed her into the open door of the van and shut it behind her. Terri pushed herself up.

"Greetings, young lady. I hope you haven't had too rough of a time."

The Alchemist sat in the front seat and turned around to look at her. He didn't look older than twenty. Terri merely nodded.

"To tell you the truth, you're my first prisoner ever. The good news is that Lady Bird agreed to pay the ransom rather quickly, so this won't last much longer."

Terri decided to press her luck since the man oozed overconfidence and inexperience.

"Mr. Alchemist, I'm a bit hungry. Can we stop by Tito's Taco Stand and get something to eat?"

To her surprise, he considered it. Then to her further surprise, he nodded.

"Why not? It's on the way there and we have plenty of time."

This poor guy had no idea how to do this. Terri almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

--

It had taken a lot to convince Beretta not to come with them, right away at least. Lady Bird couldn’t say that she blamed her. After all, the kid was her charge. But bringing Beretta might make things even tenser. It was probably pushing it to bring Number One with her, but it was pretty much a known fact that wherever Lady Bird was, Number One would be there too.

“You don’t think the plan is too risky, do you?” She asked him as she held the briefcase in her lap. “While the Alchemist isn’t what I consider dangerous, things can go wrong. Beretta will kill me if something happens to the kid.”

“I think it’s a reasonable plan.” He pulled onto the street that would take them to the meeting place. “And I have a feeling that Terri will have something up her sleeve too. Have you ever known her to just sit around and do nothing in captivity?”

“No. She might be quiet, but that’s because she is planning something.” She had never escaped from her the few times she had kidnapped her, but she’d certainly tried and gotten close. “I guess we’ll just have to see which one of us springs our trap first and go from there.”

The place the Alchemist chose to do the trade was a very popular spot to do such things. Lady Bird wasn't sure how it was still around and not shut down. But there was time to think about that later.

"I'll keep the car running." Number One told her as she got out. "If things get dicey, I can get us out quick."

Lady Bird picked up the briefcase and got out of the car. "Keep an eye out for Beretta. She'll probably make an appearance. Hopefully, we notice her before he does. We don’t want him running away with the kid.”

The Alchemist was sitting on a pile of rubble leftover from when a confrontation between a hero and a villain happened. She noticed a bag from Tito’s Taco stand next to him. He knocked it to the side when he saw her approach. She held the briefcase in front of her.

"I got you wanted you wanted, Alchemist, now give me back the kid."

He nodded and waved his hand. Terri emerged from the van and came over to him. Lady Bird noticed that she was keeping her hands in her pocket. He didn't know what he was doing, did he? He grabbed Terri as she went to walk past him.

"I may be new to this, but I'm not completely naive. Walk halfway here, put the briefcase down and walk back."

Lady Bird did as instructed. The double-cross would probably happen as soon as he picked up the briefcase. He made Terri come with him and he picked up the briefcase. Terri edged away from him without going too far. She was handling something in her pocket.

“Thank you very much, Lady Bird.” He shook the case some. “As I said, we’ll discuss the financials later. So perhaps in the meantime, I can keep Terri here around. You know, to ensure your good behavior.”

“You know that wasn’t the deal, Alchemist.”

“I’m altering it. Though if you fuss too much, I’ll alter it even further.” He took his hand off Terri's shoulder. “It wasn’t in my original plans, but since she doesn't seem to be as troublesome as I thought she might be worth keeping around."

Terri looked over to Lady Bird and gave a subtle nod. She wasn't sure what the kid had in mind, but it was nice to at least have a signal of some kind.

The kid turned and drove her elbow into the Alchemist's stomach. As he doubled from the blow, the kid took her hand out of her pocket and tightened her fist. Something light red sprayed onto the Alchemist's face and he gave a pained cry. The kid booked it.

"Run! He's got a whole bunch of minions in the van!"

Lady Bird didn't need to be told twice. As usual, Number One’s timing was impeccable and he was already driving to meet them. Lady Bird barely had time to dive into the car with the kid before shots started flying.

“Is it okay to leave the briefcase behind?”

“It’s fine. Let’s just focus on getting away.”

Lady Bird looked out the back windshield and saw a vehicle pursuing them, one of the Alchemist’s own and not a rented van. He had brought a lot of backup. There was no way this car could outrun them. Terri looked out the back too. Just when the vehicle caught up to them, a car suddenly cut the pursuing vehicle off.

“Hey, that’s Beretta’s car!”

“I was wondering when she would make her entrance.” Lady Bird pulled herself up into the seat. “What did you get him with? I hardly think that even he would let you smuggle in pepper spray.”

The kid opened her hand, revealing a hot sauce package. “They give you a dozen of these at Tito’s. They say it stings more than even pepper spray. He didn’t know that.” She put the package down. “Sorry I couldn’t grab the briefcase. He didn’t drop it like I thought he would when I hit him.”

“No worries. The real briefcase with what he wanted is the trunk. It’s his fault for not checking it right away.” Lady Bird buckled up. “Now let’s get back to the Nest. I think we’ve all been through enough today.”

Terri tilted her head. “Then what did you give him?”

“Just a little something to remember us by…”

--

After an employee of his used a whole water bottle to wash both of his eyes out, the Alchemist got up. They still stung a bit, but not as bad as before. If this was what he had to deal with when taking hostages, he didn’t want to do it again anytime soon.

“Have they caught them yet?” he asked.

“We lost contact with them. It sounded like someone interfered.”

“Probably a hero of some sort.” He sighed and blinked a couple of times before picking up the briefcase. “Let’s get out of here before any more show up. We have at least one thing that we want.”

They loaded into the rental and drove away from the spot. The Alchemist opened up the briefcase and his eyes went wide.

“That conniving…”

The device went off and the inside of the van became engulfed in the same substance that ruined his chemicals. The driver, unable to see or steer that great, crashed into a light pole. The Alchemist wasn’t getting the deposit back on the van, that was for sure.