Chapter 5
Treasures in East Asia

“I’ve told you, we have a treasure seeking permit, we’re American, we were hired by…”

“I’ve heard enough of these lies!” a short Filipino man shouted in Ben’s face. He was dressed in military garb and for the third time, he’d interrogated Ben about why they came to find these two Americans in the waters around one of the most popular islands in the chain known as the Philippines.  He didn’t seem to believe Ben that they were not spies or looters, and this was the second day that they were both imprisoned for no reason.  Ben had tried to ask for permission to call the man who hired them to locate the treasure so that he could corroborate their story, but the authorities refused.  The round-faced man before them had their ID’s and their passports, sneering at them and assuming that they were fake.  Ben had finally had enough.  They had been questioning both of them together until now, and Ben was uneasy about what the guards and other military men could do to Abigail if he was not there to defend her.  Ben’s fear was suddenly calmed by the fact that they really had not broken the law—why should they be afraid?  

“Why should I talk to you anymore?  I’ve already told you what I know and why my wife and I are here.  Our papers are in order according to your laws.  You have no reason to keep us here,” Ben said evenly.  A scream in the near distance brought Ben to his feet only to be slammed back into his chair by the men who stood until now against the wall behind him.  

“I swear to God if they hurt my wife…” Ben growled.

The man raised his hand to strike Ben but stopped when another similarly dressed and decorated man entered the room and spoke quickly in a native language.  The interrogator responded in kind and then wiped his hand down his face before composing himself and looking at Ben.  He said nothing, but narrowed his eyes and then ordered the men to return him to his cell.  Ben was silent as they roughly dragged him back to the row of dingy prison cells and three guards emerged from it before Ben was pushed inside.  The third of them was cradling his hand and gave Ben a disgusted look before spitting on the ground in front of him.  The door was bolted and Ben hardly turned around before a force knocked him to the ground.  Ben recovered his bearings and discovered this force was his terror-stricken wife.  

“Abigail!” he gasped, hugging her tightly as she clutched him close to her.  “What did they do?  Did they hurt you?  Did they touch you?”

“I’m not hurt…they tried to touch me and…I think I broke someone’s hand,” Abigail weakly recounted.  “The other two were holding my arms down and I kicked at him and caught his hand.  Ben, I’m so scared!  Why are they still holding us?” Ben worked them up to a sitting position against the furthest wall from the door and pulled Abigail into his lap.  

“I don’t know.  They have our documentation so we can’t leave the country without them knowing…they won’t call the Hawaiian Historical Society to verify our story, and I don’t know what else to do,” Ben said, kissing the top of Abigail’s head.  

“What day is it?” Abigail asked.  Ben glanced at his watch, one of the only valuables that was not taken from him when they were taken into custody.  

“It’s Saturday...” Ben mumbled, rubbing his face. Abigail grabbed his hand to get his attention and met his eyes.

“If it’s Friday in the States…honey, you haven’t called the kids,” Abigail said.

“I can’t help that, Abigail.  We’re in an East Asian prison,” Ben lamented.

“Don’t you see?  They’ll worry!  They’ll figure out that something’s wrong and they’ll look for us.  We didn’t tell anyone we were going because we weren’t allowed to, but if the kids get to your desk and they can figure it out from the information you left on it…” Abigail left the thought open so that Ben could fill in the blanks in his mind.

“They’ll figure out what we were working on and they can look for us,” Ben muttered, looking at Abigail in surprise.  He really hadn’t thought that the kids would worry that much about one missed phone call.  

“You really think they’d think that far ahead?  To go to the house and check on us?” Ben asked.  

“These are our kids, Ben.  If it had been your mom and dad, would you have worried about them? Abigail countered.  

“For the record, my dad got slapped for even attempting to find this treasure,” Ben replied.

“Yeah…right before he got unbelievably lucky.  Focus!  Our kids would come looking for us, Ben, and you know it,” Abigail said.  “I’ll bet that they even called Riley and Jacob and they’re organizing a search as we speak.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” Ben said, tightening his grip on Abigail.  “I just hope they put two and two together fast!”  

* * *

“What’s wrong?” Patrick asked Emily after the two had spent time reading to one another while lying in a large hammock.  Emily’s expression had suddenly soured, and she carefully sat up.  

“Something’s not right,” Emily murmured.  “I’m not sure what it is, but something’s not right.”

“That’s pretty hard to do considering where we are, love,” Patrick teased gently.  

“I know,” she replied.  “That’s what concerns me.”

“You don’t think it’s the kids, do you?” Patrick said after a pause.  

“Call it a parent’s instinct, but I think you’re right,” Emily said, waiting for Patrick to sit up before they both got out of the hammock and returned to the house.  Emily went through the house straight to a window that should have overlooked the front yard.  Instead, as Patrick and Emily discovered not long after Emily arrived, it showed them their family and allowed them to view the goings on as if they truly were nearby to see it.  

“No!” Emily cried, unable to tear her eyes from what she was seeing.

“What is it?  What happening, Emily?” Patrick asked, coming to stand behind her at the window.  Emily turned and buried her face in his chest and he held her as he glanced out the window to see a concrete jail cell, and his son and daughter-in-law seated on the floor, mussed and dirty from their time there, clutching one another close in fear.  

“What’s going on?” Emily mumbled.  “Where are they?” She was too afraid to turn around again.  

“Dear God…tell me they weren’t foolish enough…” Patrick said, hugging Emily tight.  

“What?” Emily demanded.  “Foolish enough to do what?”

“Do you remember my trip to Japan to find—”

“Yamashita’s hoard?  You warned him about that!” Emily growled.  “We both did!”

“I know, darling, but apparently history is repeating itself.  Where do you suppose our grandchildren are in all of this?” Patrick replied.  

“What I want to know is where Riley and the others are!  Where were they when Ben and Abigail were getting thrown into some filthy prison?” Emily said, starting to cry.  The image changed and it was morning in Washington DC.  Clouds made the sky gloomy and gray, and thunder softly rumbled while rain fell onto the thirsty ground.  Out of the house they were looking at came a baggage-laden Riley with Jacqui on his heels.  Their youngest daughter was following steps behind, nodding while her parents conveyed orders and she seemed to be texting or recording the information into her phone as she walked, carrying a backpack of her own.  The image changed again and this time, the Bonners were the ones leaving the house, at the same time, carrying not quite the amount of bags that Riley and his family did, but they were packed for a trip all the same.  

“Where are they going?” Patrick thought out loud.  Emily finally composed herself and looked as the image rotated twice more to show that Will and Charlie and their families were also on the move.  The last time the image rotated, it showed Ben and Abigail’s home, and an anxious Abe staring out the rain-splattered window.  

“Something tells me that help is on the way, Em,” Patrick said softly, squeezing her shoulders comfortingly.  “Dry your eyes, now, love.”  

“I hope they can get to them soon!” Emily whispered.  

* * *

“Staring like that won’t make them come any faster, Abe,” Jane said softly.  She was sitting on the sofa in the great room with baby Mary in her arms, a big pink blanket covering Jane from her shoulder all the way to her lap as the infant nursed.  

“I know, I’m just worried is all,” Abe said.  “Looks like the rain is letting up.”

“That didn’t last very long.  Strange, isn’t it?” Jane said.  

“When we were little, mom used to say that it rains when the angels weep.  You think maybe grandma and grandpa know that something’s wrong?  Maybe grandma knows that dad’s in trouble and she’s crying for him?”  Jane smiled at this romanticism.  

“Maybe you’re right.  She must know that we’re all going to be looking for them and that’s why the rain stopped so suddenly,” Jane rationalized.  Abe crossed the room and sat down on the sofa beside Jane, softly kissing her lips.  

“Thanks, honey,” he said.  

“For what?” Jane asked with a smile.

“For being patient when I’m being silly,” Abe said.  

“It’s not silly to think of the loved ones who have gone before us or to imagine that they still play an active role in our lives.  It’s not silly because it’s true.  Our experiences with our families shape everything about us, so it’s fair to say that even though they’re not with us physically, that they will always influence us,” Jane explained.  “We all loved grandpa and grandma Gates…and we’ll always miss them.”   Abe wrapped his arm around Jane’s shoulders and briefly hugged her before the first of several knocks on the door forced him to get up and go to answer it while Jane put little Mary in her carrier and put her shirt back in order before the others arrived in the room.  

Greetings were brief and the family descended on the den, setting up computer equipment and focusing on what they knew and figuring out what they didn’t.  It would be an hour and a half before all of the computers were up and running and the wireless internet connection kicked in to connect them to the rest of the world.  

“Confirmed!” cried Charlotte as she and Emily Anne looked up from Ben’s desk and a handful of notes in Japanese and in English.  “Mom and dad are after the Yamashita treasure.”

“How did you figure it out?” Riley asked them from behind his laptop.  “I thought neither of you spoke Japanese.”

“We don’t.  We pieced enough of it together from internet translation databases and what we had in English,” Emily Anne said.  

“Sounds good to me,” said Jacob, peeking around the monitor of his own laptop.  “Way to go, sweetie.”

“Thanks, dad,” Emily Anne blushed.  

“What’s this?” Will asked, pulling a letter out from under the stack in front of Charlotte.  

“Don’t mess those up!  I haven’t gotten to those yet!” she hissed.  

“This is from the Hawaiian Historical Society,” Will said, scanning the document.  Riley immediately began searching the internet for information as Charlotte dug through the pile to find out if there were any other letters from the same place or person.  

“What do they want and why the secrecy?” Emily Anne asked, peeking around Will’s arm.  

“Secrecy?” Abe asked.  

“If mom and dad were on a treasure hunt, you can be sure they’d be so excited they’d have told all of us that they were going and they wouldn’t have gone without Uncle Riley or Uncle Jacob and their mad-crazy computer skills if they had had a choice,” Charlotte answered in nearly the exact words that her twin would have used.  

“You have a point,” Jacob said.  

“Where is this supposed treasure?” Nadya asked, wandering into the room with her granddaughter, baby Rachael, snuggled against her shoulder.  

“The story goes that during World War II, the Japanese army looted and pillaged and generally ransacked various places, hiding the gold as they went along, thinking that the gold would finance Japan’s war effort.  After the war, all of the people who knew anything about where the treasure was hidden, or if it had been moved, were killed or executed for war crimes by the allies.  There are speculations as to where it is or what became of it, but now no one knows for sure,” Meri said.  

“Wow…” said Jacqui, sitting down in an oversized chair.  

“Yeah.  Definitely wow…” said Jamie.  “What was Uncle Ben thinking?”

“What do you mean?” Will asked defensively.  

“I don’t mean it like that.  I just mean, let’s think like Uncle Ben for a minute here.  I mean, Grandpa Pat got *slapped* for looking for this thing.  The fury of Grandma Em is not something any of us wanted to mess with let alone him or Uncle Ben.  What could have been so important about this treasure that not only did it override everyone warning him not to, but that he and Aunt Abigail agreed not to tell anyone that they were going?”

“That’s a point,” Cris said, leaning over the back of the sofa.  There was silence for a few moments as Will and Charlotte poured over three letters from the same man, Adrian Bradford.  According to the letters, he was in charge of acquiring antiquities for the society, and the challenge of locating Yamashita’s treasure once and for all required discretion and expertise, both of which the Gates family was renowned for.   

“I have an idea, but it’s going to take some coordination,” Will said, looking up at his family.  

“We’re all ears, Will,” Jacob said.  

“Remember when dad told us about how he got into places like the National Archives opening and the president’s birthday party at Mount Vernon?” Will said.

“Yeah, he dressed like he belonged there and blended in,” Riley answered.

“Exactly.  If this guy has enough clout that he can order a world-renown treasure hunter to go off the grid to find a treasure for him, he’s got enough clout to do just about anything.  There would be nothing stopping him from, say, hopping a plane to Japan to check on his investment?” Will elaborated.  

“Will, that’s crazy!” Emily Anne insisted.  “We don’t even know if they still are in Japan, we don’t know who this Bradford guy is, and we don’t know where your mom and dad started on all of this.  Maybe Bradford had more information that they needed.  What are we going to do?  I’m not sending you in there armed with a textbook and a smile.”   Riley hid a smile at this.  Some days, Emily Anne really did sound like her namesake, Grandma Em.  

“These are my parents, Emily,” Will said sternly.  All motion in the room stopped—Will rarely used just her first name.  “Whether I have to hop a plane or a kamikaze missile, I’m going to find them.”   

“I don’t think there’s any reason to start a fight over this,” Jacqui said before Emily Anne could lose control of her quivering lower lip.  Little Danielle fussed in the quiet—she knew tension when she felt it.  There was another space of quiet before Abe looked up from his place beside Jane and then stood.

“The longer we stand here, the more danger mom and dad are in.  If we’re going to do something, we need to do it fast,” Abe said.  

“I’m in,” said Charlotte.  “What’s first?”

* * *

“If dad saw you right now, he’d think he was looking in a mirror,” Abe said, smoothing the wrinkles in his brother’s suit jacket and then adjusting the knot on the tie.  He gave up a moment later and began to re-tie it.

“I’ve tied that thing three times!” Will whined.

“Dad’s not very good at it either,” Abe muttered with a small smile.  Will looked at his brother and for a moment, wondered when it happened that Abe was tall enough to look him in the eye.  He touched Abe’s arm as he finished tying the tie and Abe stopped, swallowed hard and looked his brother square in the eye.  

“Just promise me they’re all right,” Abe whispered.  There was a space of silence before the brothers threw their arms around each other in a manly hug.  When they arrived back in the great room, Jacqui snapped a picture before Will could protest.  

“Aunt Jacqui!” he said good-naturedly.  Will was definitely worth the picture in his father’s black imported silk suit.  The shirt he wore beneath it was deep red and the tie was black to match the suit.  Will had had to stuff the toes of his father’s shoes, but not by much.  

“Very impressive, Mr. Gates,” Jacob said, patting Will on the back.  Will’s summer tan was dark from a three month dig in Central America and it did credit to the colors he was wearing.  He definitely looked the part of a rich investor from Hawaii.  

“Uncle Riley, do I have a plane?” Will teased.  

“Not only do you have a plane, but you have an entourage,” Riley said.  At that moment, Meri, and Jamie entered the room in black suits with white shirts and Abe was only minutes behind in a suit of silver gray with a matching tie and a dark lavender shirt.  

“Meri and Jamie are going as your personal security detail, and Abe as a legal representative.  Emily Anne will go with you as your personal assistant,” Riley said.  

“No,” Will said.  “Jamie’s too scrawny to be security, and Emily Anne’s a distraction.”

“That’s the whole point of a personal assistant,” Emily Anne said with a wink.  

“…and I don’t have to be a muscle-bound bonehead to be dangerous,” Jamie added.

“Muscle-bound bonehead?” Meri repeated incredulously at his brother.  Jamie ducked and laughed.  

“What about the kids?” Will said, flustered.  

“That’s why they have grandparents,” Nadya said.  

“All right,” Will said, taking a minute to look them all over.  “All right, let’s roll.”  

“Wait!” Charlotte cried.  “You’re not leaving me behind.”  Will and Meri looked up at his Charlotte, standing at the top of the stairs dressed as if she could have worked in Abe’s ‘law office’.  “It would make sense for a high-powered attorney like Abe to travel with his own paralegal, wouldn’t it?” she said.  

Will took a moment to decide what to say but Meri had no such hang-up.  

“You don’t need to do this, Charlie,” Meri said as his wife arrived at his side.  

“Like hell I don’t.  These are my parents.  You’re going, my brothers are going.  I’m going,” Charlotte said.  “You all abandoned me to go play boy heroes on the last major treasure hunt.”

“Can we leave now?” Jamie asked.  “You heard what Abe said; the longer we stand around…”

“By all means.  Let’s go!” Emily Anne said.  

In minutes, Will and the others had everything they needed and were on their way to the airport and from there, on their way to Japan.  

* * *

After interviewing with the authorities in Japan, Will discovered that his parents had indeed been there and had spent time researching at a library and had done very little sight-seeing before leaving, bound for the Philippines.  Will thanked them politely and the kids were off again, the commercial flight from Japan to the Philippines was fraught with tension.  What would they find when they arrived in Manila?  

As Abe, Jamie, Charlotte and Meri dozed in the seats in front of them, Will and Emily Anne couldn’t sleep.  Will was flipping idly through a magazine when Emily Anne rested her hand on his.  

“What’s wrong?” Will asked her softly.  

“I could ask you the same thing,” she replied.  

“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” Will said, setting the magazine in his lap.  

“You’re just scared.  We all are,” Emily Anne said gently.

“Don’t justify it for me, I was a jerk.  Yes, I’m scared for my mom and dad, but I didn’t need to take it out on you,” Will replied.  Emily Anne nodded quietly and Will slid his finger beneath her chin and lifted her face to meet his eyes.  

“I love you, baby,” Will said, applying several small, soft kisses to Emily Anne’s lips.  

“I love you, too,” Emily Anne said as he stroked her cheek.  

“I think the plane’s coming in toward the final stretch.  We’re going to have to wake up our entourage,” Will teased, making Emily Anne finally smile.  

* * *

When the kids retrieved their luggage and exited the airport, there was a stretch limousine waiting for them.  

“Are you sure you have the right person?” Will asked the driver.  

“I was told to look for someone matching your description. Is this you?” the driver asked, handing Will a note addressed to him.  He smiled and nodded.   Will turned to the others and read the note quietly to them.  

“We decided that high-powered American executives should travel accordingly.  Love, Uncle Riley, Aunt Jacqui, Uncle Jacob and Aunt Nadya,” Will read, a smile plastered across his handsome face.  Charlotte fought a giggle as they turned back to the driver, who had already loaded their things into the trunk and was smiling as he waited for them to get into the car.  

“Thank you,” Will said to the driver, gesturing for the girls to get into the car first.  The ride to their five-star hotel (Cristina and Mary’s idea) was silent.  The kids did their best to behave as if this was the norm and they did business this way all the time.  Gratefully, no one asked questions that they couldn’t answer.  

“Where do we start?” Charlotte asked when they had gotten settled in their rooms.  

“Computer’s coming online here in a minute.  We should have our video connection to home soon,” Abe said.  

“We tracked mom and dad this far—shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to figure out where they went from here,” Will added.  

“Good morning, Manila!” yawned Riley when the video connection came online.  Baby Mary was snuggling against her grandpa’s shoulder and drowsily sucking her thumb.  

“We’re exactly 12 hours behind DC,” Will said at Charlotte’s confusion.

“Good afternoon, Uncle Riley,” Abe said.  “It’s 5:30pm here.  Must be 5:30am there,”

“How’d you guess?” Riley asked dryly.  

“Great shadow there, Uncle Riley,” Jamie teased.  

“You’re just saying that because you’re on the other side of the world and I can’t get to you,” Riley replied.  

“If you can help it, don’t let Mary suck her thumb.  She’s got her pacifier for that,” Abe said, his paternal side momentarily kicking in when he spotted his baby girl.  

“Do you have anything else for us, Uncle Riley?” asked Emily Anne.

“Should be in your email right now,” said Riley, typing one-handed as the other hand supported the baby.  A couple of seconds passed before a shadow came over the computer screen and a pair of slender hands lifted Mary from her grandfather’s shoulder.  Riley smiled up at this person, who bent to softly kiss his lips and her hand lingered on his shoulder as she walked away.  

“I hope the kids aren’t being too much trouble,” Meri said.

“Not at all.  I think Jacqui and Nadya are actually having more fun than usual,” Riley replied.  

“Got the email.  This should help us a lot.  Thanks, Uncle Riley,” Abe said.  

“Keep us posted, guys,” Riley said before he severed the video connection.  

* * *

“The last time dad’s credit card was used was at this hotel,” Abe explained.  He had downloaded all of the information from the email into his phone and the others had done the same so that they all had the same information.  He got out of the limo to check with the lobby and discovered that they had not yet checked out.  Abe returned to the car and shared this information, adding that they had left the hotel three days before but had not checked in. Abe told the receptionist that some urgent business had taken them out of town but that they were definitely coming back.  This seemed to pacify the hotel staff and the kids were off again.  

“We’re at a dead end,” Jamie said.  “They were here, but they could be anywhere now.”

“Think about the treasure they’re after,” Meri said.  “If the treasure is underwater…”

“They’d need a boat,” added Jamie.

“They’d also need diving gear.  Mom doesn’t dive, but dad’s an expert,” Will said.  

“According to the legend, the treasure was supposedly sunk and buried in Bacuit Bay.  So we need to go there and see if there are any vendors who rent professional diving equipment,” Charlotte said, using her phone to search the internet for just that.

“We don’t know if dad brought his own equipment though,” Will said.  “He’s pretty picky about that stuff—he’s only going to trust it if he’s used it himself before.”

“The shipping alone would have been through the roof to take the equipment with him,” Meri said.  

“Executive decision?” Charlotte said, looking at Will.

“We’ll check with the dive shops on the off chance that dad didn’t bring his own equipment.  Abe, take Charlie with you and go to the boat rental shop.  That’s about the only thing that dad couldn’t have brought with him,” Will said.  The others were agreed and when they arrived, the kids left the limo with instructions that they would call when they needed him.  

* * *

“Arrested?” Will said, more loudly than he intended.  Abe and Charlotte called him from the boat rental shop, having discovered that the boat that their father had rented had been returned by the police after Ben and Abigail had been taken into custody.  

“That’s all they knew.  They gave us a number to call for the police station.  He assured us that they speak English and that they could give us some answers,” Abe said.  

“Meri, call this number and see what you can find out,” Will said, giving him the number for the police station.  “I’m calling our ride.”

“What could they possibly have been arrested for?  Their papers were all in order and their passports were current,” Emily Anne said softly.  

“They don’t need probable cause here,” growled Jamie, gesturing for Emily Anne to precede him out the door.  

“Damnit!” Meri hissed, slapping his phone closed.

“What is it?” Will asked when they caught up with Abe and Charlotte.  They only waited another few minutes before the limo arrived.  

“They don’t know anything.  According to the inspector I talked to they were released, so they don’t know where they would have gone,” Meri said.  Minutes later, Meri’s phone rang again. He was surprised to discover that it was the inspector.  

“After doing a little looking, I’ve discovered that your friends were picked up by a nondescript car outside the police station.  The plate was visible to the camera so we ran the plate.  It belongs to a special section of our military.  They have a facility on Palawan Island.  If you like, I can recommend a charter flight service to get you there,” the inspector said.

“Thank you, yes,” Meri stammered. “That’s very kind of you.”

“These do not respond well to visitors,” the inspector warned him.  “I wish you luck in finding your friends.”

“Thank you, sir.  I think we’ll need all the luck we can get,” Meri said, copying down the information he gave him.  

* * *

When the team arrived in El Nido Airport, they had all gained an edge of nervous excitement.  They rented two jeeps to get them from the airport to the military installation that the inspector had told them about.  As he predicted, the guards at the gate were less than hospitable and demanded their identification and passports.  Thanks to their family’s talent for faking credentials, the fakes that they had brought along to supplement their true papers and identification passed inspection and they were allowed to pass, with guards to accompany them, into the compound.  Emily Anne swallowed hard and fought the urge to grab hold of Will’s arm.  The installation was more than Spartan—it was sterile.  The smooth concrete walls gave the impression that they were underground, though they had not gone down any stairs or down any noticeable slopes on their way.  Their guide tried to say something to them in a language they didn’t understand and Will said, “In English, please?”

“Ah, yes…Americans…I had almost forgotten,” the man sneered.  “What interest do you have in our prisoners?”

“My interest is business.  I hired this man and his wife to seek out the Yamashita treasure if indeed it still exists.  I thought I had provided everything needed for his success, but it seems we’ve run into some…complications,” Will said, standing up a little straighter.

“You travel with many people, American,” the guide said, looking Emily Anne up and down.  She lowered her eyes instinctively and tried to unobtrusively disappear beside Will.  

“Who I travel with is not part of business today,” Will said firmly.  

“Your assistant?  She’s lovely,” the guard commented.  

“Thank you,” Will replied as they continued to walk.  

“Your wife?” the guard asked, holding a door open for them leading to the interrogation area.

“My mistress,” Will said, looking the man in the eye.  The guard grinned lustfully and muttered ‘good luck’ as they passed through.  

“Who is this?” sputtered a red-faced lieutenant.  The guards shrugged and Will and his security detail took a step forward from the group.  

“My name is Adrian Bradford.  I’m here to secure my investment,” Will said, matching the harshness of the man’s tone.

“Investment?” the lieutenant demanded.

“I sent an explorer after a treasure supposedly lost in this part of the world.  He stopped relaying communication three days ago and I’ve followed the trail here,” Will said.  “I didn’t want there to be any misunderstanding between us regarding the legitimacy of whatever story he told you, so I came here personally.”

“You are either very brave or very stupid, American,” the lieutenant barked.  

“There doesn’t need to be a problem here.  Release my employee and anyone with him and we’ll leave you,” Will insisted.  One of the guards that had slowly approached to surround them reached out and touched Emily Anne’s bottom, making her squeal in surprise.  Jamie, the closest to her, pulled her away and lashed out at the man, laying him on the floor in four strikes.  Will covered his surprise—he hadn’t realized that when Jamie said he didn’t need to be muscle-bound to be dangerous that he hadn’t been kidding.  

“I’ve had enough of this,” Will growled.  “Stop stalling and give us what we came for!”  The lieutenant sneered hatefully, but gave orders in a language that sounded vaguely like a mixture of English and another language that none of them recognized.  Three guards disappeared and returned a minute later, dragging a reluctant and fearful Ben and Abigail, shoving them out in front of the very well dressed group so that they fell to the floor.  Will took a breath to steady himself and ordered Meri and Jamie to help them up and get them out of there.  Will smoothed his jacket and narrowed his eyes as he nodded curtly to the lieutenant instead of saying goodbye.  The atmosphere was thick with the repressed emotions the kids were fighting not to reveal until they were certain that they were out of range of the compound.  As a matter of fact, they waited until the plane that had brought them to Palawan returned them to Manila.  They took the time to retrieve Ben and Abigail’s things and then made for their own hotel.  This whole time, Ben and Abigail clung to one another, numb with fear and confusion.  

“They don’t recognize us, Will,” Charlotte murmured as they rode in the limo back to the hotel.  

“I know.  They just need to eat and rest and get cleaned up.  They’re going to be okay,” Will assured his sister.  Abe called Riley as they arrived to let everyone at home know that they had finally found Ben and Abigail, and that they were on their way back to the hotel.  When they arrived, the kids split into small groups.  Emily Anne and Charlotte took Abigail and Will and Abe took Ben, and they attempted to pull them into separate rooms to help them get cleaned up.

“Abigail!” Ben cried.

“No!” Abigail wept, reaching for her husband.  

“Mom!” Charlotte said.  “Mom, it’s okay!”

“You’re safe now, dad!” Abe said.  “You guys are going to be okay!”  

For the first time since their perilous jail-break, Ben really looked at his rescuers.  Recognition sparked in his blue eyes and he suddenly started to cry, throwing his arms around his boys.  

“Ben?” Abigail whimpered.  “Ben, what’s..?”  She looked at the tall blonde young lady who still held her arm and was smiling at her and then finally found those blue eyes that were so remarkably familiar.

“Charlotte!” Abigail sobbed.  She wilted into Charlotte’s arms and the pair gave their children no more resistance to the help they offered.  The entire team would sleep more soundly that night and would have a much better report for Riley when they got up the next morning.  

* * *