Stealing the Heart of Mr. Steele

[Atlas]

The early morning air is cold and crisp as Clark and I wait for any sign of "The Angel." It should have returned two days ago, but something must have delayed it. A feeling of fear and dismay has been gnawing at my nerves the longer this drags out. Something tells me Cordelia needs me, needs us.

But w

we will be unable to do anything if we cannot find what island she is on. Our investigations have narrowed the location down to 6 potential locations either on or near Catalina Island. We tried to go to theo help, but they couldn't do anything until we confirmed where she was being held and that

police she was there under duress. Without those bits of evidence, for all they know she is just hanging around having a nice, sunny vacation.

Clark taps my shoulder and points at the horizon. A smallish white boat is moving closer to the dock. As it approaches, the name Angel becomes visible on its bow.

Thank God!

Clark has readied a micro drone that will attach itself to the boat and serve as a tracker. Once it reaches the island, it will begin searching for Cordelia and any evidence that she is there by force.

My brother will be monitoring the feed carefully directing its flight to gather evidence while I lead the strike team we have hired to retrieve her. As much as I am grateful that the police are willing to help if we can give them what they need, I am not risking my wife and child on their ever-shifting notion of what that need is. As soon as I know where she is, I'm coming to get her.

"Don't worry, Atlas," Clark places a reassuring hand on my back as he hands me a fresh cup of coffee." We're going to save Cordy. She's going to be just fine, I know it."

Taking the cup I sigh. I wish I had just a fraction of his optimism. "Let's hope so."

From the safety of Clark's rented van, we watch Jude as he disembarks and drives away in a waiting car. As soon as we know it is safe, we race from the van and get to work. Thankfully it doesn't take us too long to hide the drones where we need to. We have just enough time to place the drones and other trackers and return to hiding inside the van before Jude returns with a car full of food and other supplies. We were about to leave, our work done, when we noticed Jude pause to read a letter. "This might be important," I say as I ask Clark to wait before starting the car. "Are any of your drones ready to go? I want to get a look at that letter."

"On it." Clark activates one of his mini drones and sends it out to hover close enough to see everything, but far enough to remain mostly undetected. As angry as I still am about how my brother spied on me and

my

wife for all that time, I am also grateful that he developed a skill that will hopefully bring Cordelia

home to us.

Jude doesn't even look up as Clark's drone floats into position. The drone does its best job of trying to see around Jude's massive form, but we are only able to see bits and pieces of it before Jude folds it roughly, shoving it back inside the envelope. "Fuck!" we hear him swear under his breath. "What am I going to tell her?"

Jude continues going through his mail. He seems to grow more and more agitated as he opens each letter one at a time.

"What did the letter say?" I demand.

"I'm trying to get a better focus," Clark explains. "Oh, there we go!"

On the top of the page, it has Cordelia's name, which is right next to the word "patient."

And below that are a series of test results that make little sense to me.

"Can you interpret what we are looking at?" I ask.

"No," Clark grumbles. "Not exactly. It looks alot like the DNA report I received when I sent my own sample to find out my lineage," he explains. "Although this one looks a lot more complex."

I have no idea why he might want her genetic profile, but something about the report made him angry.

We need to get to her. We need to get to her now. Because whatever Jude is planning, it can't be good.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.