Whoever it was that grabbed him, they roughly pulled his arms behind his back, and he felt something loop around his wrists... not cold and rigid like metal, but warmer, more pliant. Plastic zip ties. He heard the zip, and felt the sharp plastic bite into his wrists. His captor spun him roughly , and he felt himself being hauled over one shoulder like a potato sack. Then what must have been a second pair of hands quickly zip-tied his feet.
"You were right Mikey, I don't think this one is a Red Devil," said one of the voices which was high and reedy.
A deeper, more mellow voice answered, "Lucky thing for him. We'll talk to the boss, probably ransom him off before we decorate the walls with his brains." The comment was made directly too him, probably meant to scare him. He figured he ought to play along, otherwise they might just kill him now.
He whimpered a little bit and try to squeeze out a few drops of pee, but he haven't had enough of the latte yet , so he settled instead for tensing up his entire body until it shook. The two thugs chuckled sadistically.
But for some reason Gary couldn't bring himself to feel scared. He actually felt more annoyed that he wasn't able to finish what he was doing. It also didn't hurt that he was an enormous tech-geek. He already had a plan.
They walked him not too far away, and dump him unceremoniously what he realized was the bed of a cargo van, its ribbed floor poking painfully into his back. He had to pull the his feet back quickly in order to avoid having them crushed when the door got slammed shut.
He could still hear their muffled voices though.
"Okay, now let's go pick up that arsenal in the cage. Did you bring that bolt cutters with you... "
"What? Of course I did... " The voices drifted away.
Gary waited a few more seconds just in case one of them decide to come back. Then, in as quiet a voice is he could possibly manage, he said into the air, "Hey Esmerelda,"
A small computerized female voice came from his pocket.
"How can I help you?"
He breathed a small sigh of relief. It was still working. He had called the "digital assistant" on his phone Esmerelda , primarily so that it was far less likely to be said in casual conversation, meaning he could leave feature on all the time.
"Enable the GPS," he told it.
"Task completed."
"Send text to Jackie."
"More than one match found. Would you like to text Jackie the douchebag motorcycle dude?"
Gary briefly chuckled, but quickly became serious again. "Yes," he confirmed.
"What is the message?"
"It looks like some douchebag bikers came and kidnapped me, and are going to ransom me and probably sell your weapons. I've got my GPS on, the codes for it are in my van. Please come get me, if you don't mind. Esmerelda send the message."
"Message sent."
"Activate stealth mode."
"Understood. Silent running, motion activated camera, sound activated audio recorder standing by. This will be the final message before deactivating stealth mode. Going dark in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..."
The phone went silent.
After that, all he had to do was lay there in wait to be rescued, so he put his mind back to the problem at hand. Somehow those oddball pictures had something to do with the program, he just couldn't figure out what that something was.
Then as they were bouncing along down a particularly bumpy road, which he suspected was not by accident, it suddenly came to him: Negative Space. All the pictures used the obvious picture to shape the space where there was no picture.
Applying this to the program he realized it wasn't the text in the code that made the program, it was the spaces, the tabs, and the other in between parts that created the code.
And now that he had the goddam answer, he couldn't apply it to the goddam code. He tried in vain to remember what he had seen in the code , but he hadn't been paying attention to the spaces!
He lay there in agonizing mental frustration, waiting for rescue. He heard a commotion outside, a little while after the van stopped, then the two douchebags got out of the van, and it was more noise outside.
Gary just lay there listening to the sound of his own breath, his brain a lightning storm anticipation. The back door of the van opened, and he was hauled into a sitting position, the black bag yanked off his head, revealing the haggard square-jawed biker.
"Jackie?" He said, squinting as the light made his head pound. "About time... I wasn't sure I would was going to make it much longer."
As soon as Jackie got his hands free, he reached into his pocket for his smartphone.
"I've had the answer to the code for what seems like hours now. Do you know how frustrating it is to have a key that you been hunting for forever, then as soon as you find it you can't get back to the door it opens? I thought I was about to go insane. How long has it been anyway?"
Jackie shrugged and said, "A little over an hour."
Gary shivered. "That long? I'm surprised I'm not a vegetable by now."
He looked up past Jackie, and saw an orc, a skinny dude, a hot chick with her shirt hanging half open, another biker who looked like Jackie, only older, longer hair, and a beard.
"Uh... did I miss anything?"
****************************************
Rachele looked at the gnome with laser focus, looking to Davin like she was having a difficult time maintaining her composure.
"You had your phone recording everything while you were in that van? And you never mentioned it to me?"
Gary looked a little taken aback. His eyes lost focus for a moment while he thought about what she said. "Huh. Yeah, I forgot that stealth mode has automatic recording features. Is it important?"
"My cover for being here is to investigate the Goats Head Motorcycle Club for extortion, racketeering, and possibly arms dealing. Yes. It. Is. Important." The last part was said through clenched teeth.
Gary gulped.
"I'll uh... just email you with everything I've got, how's that sound?"
Rachele calmed a little, the vein in her forehead no longer throbbing.
"Yes, thank you."
Robert inclined his head toward her.
"What?" she demanded.
"It's your turn," he reminded her.
They all looked at her. Her eyes swept around the room, but she realized that everyone else had indeed explained themselves.
Her jaw muscles tightened. "Fine," she spat.
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