Page 68 of John’s Yearning

“There’s no way for us to get there before they dock,” Oliver confirmed. “And once the ship docks, our chances of finding the girls are basically zero.”

John squeezed his eyes shut. No, he couldn’t give up. He could never face Savannah again if he couldn’t bring her little girl home. It would break her heart. And he realized then that it would break his too. Over the last few days, Buffy had become part of his life, although he didn’t know how it had happened. There had to be another way to getting to Buffy. A faster way.

“Then we just need to call in some help,” Ryder said from behind him.

John turned to him and locked eyes with him, when he suddenly realized what Ryder was referring to. “You’re right. Make the call.” Then he holstered his gun. “Zane, lock these bastards up in our cells. We’ll hand them over to Donnelly once the girls are safe and we’ve got their boss.”

“Pleasure,” Zane said, and from his facial expression John could tell that Zane was looking forward to inflicting a little pain on the bastards while transporting them back to HQ.

Fine by John.

29

John arrived back at Scanguards a little over half an hour later. Savannah was waiting for him in his office. When he reached the door, he stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. The news he had for her wasn’t what they’d both hoped for. On top of it, he knew it was time to come clean, because the solution he and his colleagues had come up with in order to get to Vladivostok and save the girls before they were scattered all over Russia, was one that involved supernatural powers.

He felt his heart thundering in his chest. The moment of truth was here. And he had no idea how Savannah would react.

He knocked to announce himself, then opened the door and entered. Savannah spun around. She’d been looking out of the window where day was turning to night. Just like in his own home, the windows at Scanguards were coated with a special UV-impenetrable film that made it possible for a vampire to stand in front of it without being burned.

Still dressed in his Kevlar suit, he placed his helmet and gloves on the desk.

“You’re back. Where is she?” Savannah looked past him. “Where is Buffy?”

He let the door snap shut behind him and walked toward her. “I’m sorry, Savannah, the girls weren’t at the docks anymore. They’ve already been transported away.”

Tears shot into Savannah’s eyes and a sob tore from her throat. “Noooooo!”

He pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her. “Shhhh! Don’t cry. Not all is lost. We got the two guys who kidnapped them, and they talked. We know where they are. We know where Buffy is.”

She lifted her head and looked at him with eyes filled with fear and just a smidgen of hope. “Where? Where’s my baby?”

“On a ship headed for a Russian port.”

“Oh God!”

He could see in her eyes what was going through her mind: the ordeal her daughter was going through, the despair she must be feeling, thinking that nobody was coming to rescue her. The loneliness, the hopelessness.

“We know which ship they’re on, and we know when they’re arriving, and where. We’ll be waiting for them.” He hesitated.

She studied his face now. “Something else is wrong, isn’t it?”

He wasn’t surprised anymore that she could read him so easily. Maybe it would help in the end. Help her understand that he wouldn’t hurt her, help her understand that he wasn’t a monster, despite what he had to tell her now.

“There’s something you need to know.”

“Oh God, they touched her, didn’t they? They touched my baby!”

He quickly shook his head and gripped Savannah’s shoulders. “No, they didn’t. It’s not that. But there is something.” He paused, not knowing how to start.

“You’re scaring me, John. Please, what is it?”

“The ship Buffy and the other girls are on will dock in Vladivostok in three hours.”

“Three hours?” As the words left her lips, an expression of horror and despair darkened her face. “No, no, no!”

“Listen to me. There is a way for me and my team to get there in time.”

She let out a shrill laugh. “How? It must take what, eight hours, ten hours to fly there? You’ll be too late.”