In the middle of the night, two carriages were sweeping through the streets. The gap between the two was visibly lessening. Not many could bear witness but the ones who did could only gape in surprise.
Trace put his head inside, the carriages were running parallelly now. Suddenly, one of the carriage took a sharp turn. Luckily, Thomas also made it owing to the wide street.
"Young master, tha horses can't run for long," Thomas shouted.
Trace heard it, but so did the one of the two person who kidnapped Lucas. Should I jump over, Trace pondered. He looked at the other carriage, closed window and its frame with door handle below it.
I can grab it, Trace made up him mind. He put his hand outside to test the grip. With a jerk, the kidnapper's carriage turned again, this time towards the right. Trace was almost pulled out of the carriage. His heart beat increased. Just after the turn, Thomas made his carriage catch up again.
"Young master.
"Tha bastard is not letting me pull ahead. I jump on tha damn bastard," Thomas voice sounded again.
"No, I am doing it," Trace shouted back.
After taking a deep breath, Trace put his head out of the window. He extended his hands on the other carriage to grab something. But his hands fell on the window flat.
Quickly, he adjusted his body and grabbed the frame that was sticking out with one hand. The other hand held the door handler. After taking another deep breath, he pushed his lower body out.
Luckily, his legs fell on the foot support of the other carriage. He looked forward sticking tight to the fame. The wind was caressing his whole body now and his clothes were fluttering wildly.
"Young master, open tha door," Thomas shouted.
Slowly, one of the carriages was shifting ahead. Thomas anxiously looked towards Trace. His grip tightened around the reins, the horses could not keep up with the fresh horses of the kidnapper.
"Hold tight, young master," Thomas shouted again.
In his heart, hope was mixed with anticipation. Suddenly, the carriage in the lead violently bumped. Thomas thought his heart would rip out off his chest.
Trace's body shook violently, one of his legs slipped out of support. The carriage was now moving like a snake, repetitively going over pits on the road.
"Young master!"
Thomas screamed at the top of his lungs when he saw Trace's body fall backwards from the carriage. His throat instantly became hoarse, and he pulled the reins to slow down his horses. And tired to steer away the horses toward the other side of the road.
The kidnapper heard it and knew his plan worked. But in a split second, the carriage window above Trace opened and a large hand charged out! It directly wrapped around Trace's face.
Thomas let out a shrill scream on seeing the sight. The carriage in front drove steadily now, the scene passed under flickering lights.
Trace was pulled inside the carriage from the window. He huffed with his head down on the floor. After sometime he checked if the hand was still on his face.
Inside the carriage was dark, the space would only lighten up when passing by street lamps. Trace gulped and slowly looked upwards. A large shadow was on him, when the carriage passed a lamp, a face was revealed.
"KYAAAAAAAAA."
Thomas heard the shrill scream of Trace mixed with another. The kidnapper also looked back towards his carriage, but continued forward with a dark expression. Even if the little boy got on the carriage, the door couldn't be opened from the inside.
…
At the Binpark Ranch Office in Einsquare, the wall hiding the secret space was closed. Two men walked close to it. There was a striking contrast between the physique of the two.
"The other carriage is gone," a deep voice said.
"You think I am blind," an annoyed voice snapped back.
The big man pulled out two bricks and the wall was pushed back. He stepped forward and with one hand slid open the secret door. The lean man looked around before saying.
"Close the door, fast."
"Sir are you coming inside?" the big man asked.
"Close the damn door!"
The lean man said after taking a step. He said the same thing multiple times as he walked inside. When he was completely in, the big man closed the door.
Lamps inside the big storage space were lit. On seen the expensive carriages, a pained expression appeared on the lean man's face.
"Sell this, and this."
The man pointed towards two carriages. One was a low rider carriage towards the end. Its frame was extremely close to the ground. While the other one was a carriage with normal height but flashy.
"And move the rest!" the thin man commanded.
"Tonight?" the big had a bad feeling about this.
"Yes, now move," the thin man shouted.
The big man did not move, instead he signaled his boss to keep quiet. He pointed towards the other end of the room.
The boss snorted and turned around in the direction being pointed. But he did not see anything. But on being signaled again, he moved further to the left then took a few steps forward.
"You are right, tonight will be a bit early. Let's come tomorrow," said the thin man with a smile on his face.
Sounds of footsteps fading away was heard. It was the big man standing at one place and stamping his feet. Soon, the room turned completely silent.
A man stood up from behind a carriage. He wiped his forehead before turning towards the door. Just as he turned, his expressions froze and slowly melted into panic.
…
A loud cling sounded, it was followed by screeching of tires. The horses stopped unable to pull the carriage any further. No other carriage could be seen anywhere near. Binpark horse safety mechanism had finally kicked in.
From the driver seat a man jumped out, he took out a pill from his pocket and put it between his teeth. Quickly, he swung his hand on the window. With a crackling sound, the glass broke. Mouth of a small cylinder was put inside, it emitted a fizz and colorless gas flowed in the carriage.
Unexpectedly, a current of wind rushed out from the window. The man crushed the pill between his teeth and stepped back. A talisman! A thought flashed his mind and he ran away leaving the carriage behind.
Inside the carriage, Trace was holding a card towards the window. He faintly heard the sound of footsteps running away but stayed alert. The man could be faking the noise just like the man earlier tonight.
"Let's leave this place," a feminine voice came out of the carriage.
"No, the kidnapper might still be here," Trace resorted.
Trace was kneeling on the carriage seat. He squinted his eyes to see clearly. The scene outside the window was getting blurry. Slowly, his eyes closed and he collapsed.
…
Trace smelled an intimate scent, and saw the familiar ceiling. He sat up straight and looked around the room. It was his ordinary room, with a mini table, small bookshelf and a drawer for clothes.
On the table was wrapped food, Trace quickly ate before going upstairs. The sofas were occupied by two people sleeping soundly. Master who was sitting behind the table nodded when Trace came into the room.
"Take it," Master said.
A notebook was kept on the table. Trace picked it up and opened the first first page. He flipped the pages multiple times, standing on the same spot in the room.
"Young master, yer fine," Thomas was the first to wake up.
"Yes, thank you for yesterday. Rose also helped me a lot," Trace said.
"Thank me not, yer did great and rescued beautiful Rose. She too saved ya at good time," Thomas said, a little bit embarrassed.
Everyone in the room turned their head towards Rose. The sofa could barely hold her body. She was sleeping silently, only light noises of her breath was audible.
"She is like her father," Thomas sighed in smiles.
Trace agreed in her mind. But suddenly, his eyes widened. He looked at Rose again before turning the pages of his notebook.
"I got it! I have solved the case," Trace excitedly looked towards his master.
"Very good, Trace. Let us know about it after Rose wakes up," Master said.
…
"Beautiful Rose, you were mistakenly kidnapped," Trace said.
Rose and Thomas were shocked, they looked at each other before looking back at Trace. Master who was at the side nodded, boosting Trace's confidence.
"They actually wanted to kidnap your father, Lucas. The night you were kidnapped where were you sleeping?" Trace asked in anticipation.
"On the sofa. Tha lamp of ma room ran out of gas. So I was at tha sofa reading under tha street lamp light and fell asleep there." Rose revealed.
"Were you covered in a blanket?" Trace asked.
"Cold winds from tha window so yes," Roses nodded.
"Young master, yer amazing," Thomas clapped happily.
"But why they want to kidnap pa?" Rose asked, puzzled.
"It's because of the fortune he got," Trace quickly answered.
But something felt off. Trace turned the pages again. If the fortune was only a bunch of coins then why would Binpark Carriage kidnap Lucas. More importantly, how did Lucas know that he would be kidnapped yesterday night.
"When were you kidnapped?" Master interrupted at this point.
"It was more than two weeks ago," Rose said.
Thomas and Trace looked at each other. They clearly remembered Lucas saying that his daughter, Rose, was kidnapped two days ago. That would only be a three days from now.
"Rose, do ya hit yer head on something," Thomas said.
"How did you know it was more than two weeks ago," Trace asked.
"They gave me different food every day," Rose said licking her lips.
"Seems like they did not want to harm you. Neither did they wanted to kidnap your father after mistakenly kidnapping. Lucas was safe until..." Master looked towards Trace.
"Until tha damn bastard got on tha job," Thomas sad at this point.
"You mean, he only went to the ranch office yesterday?" Trace asked.
When Thomas nodded at him, Trace noted in down. He was utterly shocked by this. Lucas would be safe if he stayed away. Did he go because he wanted me to save Rose? Trace pondered.
"The meaning is simple, someone wanted to kidnap him but was happy even if they got his daughter. They made no moves against him until he purposely got close to them again," Master summed up the situation.
The curtains were closed and room turned dark. Only the light from the crystal ball emerged. Immediately, everyone's attention was drawn to it. Colors alternated and finally settled on green.
"No harm has come, no harm will be done.
"Mysteries are art, complex webs spun.
"Shrouded is truth, despite being one.
"Greed is endless, enough to even drown the sun.
"My divination says that Lucas will come back safe. It will take time but he is safe. His time is the sacrifice that needs to be made for fixing mistakes. If we don't move, nothing will move. But if we do, the results will still not turn in our favor."
Master stopped and looked towards the people present. Thomas and Rose might not know but Trace knew. His maser was looking towards him asking a question. Trace asked the question back to himself. Do I want to continue?