try begging
Leon's gaze shifted to the gun pressed against Ellie's head. Since it had already been fired once, there was no need to cock the slide again. All it would take was for that damn rat's finger to pull the trigger. A poorly maintained gun could fire even with a small shock. Any rash attempt here would likely result in Ellie losing her life. There was only one way to extend his daughter's life until at least midnight.
"Fine. I'll let you go."
It was simply a matter of letting Ellie go willingly. Leon gestured to Campbell, who was standing a step behind him. Immediately, the driver turned the sedan around and parked in front of them. When he gestured again, the soldiers surrounding Wilkins cleared a path to the sedan.
"Leave the engine running and get out."
The cunning rat had many demands. She even tried to extort money from him. Leon, who had pulled out a wad of bills from his wallet, suppressed the urge to throw the money at the villainous hostage-taker with all his might. For his daughter's safety, he would endure it for now.
As soon as he got Ellie back, he would dismantle that rat alive, piece by piece.
"Dad, Daddy." As he approached to hand over the money, surrounded by soldiers with their guns drawn just in case, the child reached out to Leon and cried.
"Don't do anything stupid."
Wilkins snatched the money and warned fiercely. Leon stepped back without being able to hold the child's hand, his fists clenched painfully.
"Mommy, I don't want to go! I don't want to! Waaah!"
The man silently glared at the kidnapper who was hugging the child so tightly it seemed like the child might suffocate, as she got into the car.
"No..."
Grace had thought it was a trap. She realized too late that he really intended to send the child away.
"Nancy, let go of the child! I'll go instead!"
"Grace, stop it."
"Let go, please!"
The man held Grace back and wouldn't let go as she tried to run to Nancy.
"Stop it. You're scaring Ellie more by doing this."
"No. No, I won't."
She hit his chest repeatedly to make him let go, but he didn't loosen his grip on her.
"Ellie is watching. Get a hold of yourself."
It was the moment she had to helplessly watch her found child be taken away. She couldn't get a hold of herself.
Bang! The car door slammed shut.
"Mommy!"
Ellie, who had been pushed back into the seat, immediately clung to the window. Behind her,
Nancy kept poking her head with a hard object and saying mean things.
"If you don't be good, you'll never see your mother again."
"Hic, Mommy..."
Outside, her mother was sobbing uncontrollably. Her father was holding her and comforting her while looking at Ellie. Through the closed window, she could hear her father's voice mumbling.
"Daddy will come find you. Don't cry and wait for me."
Because her father always found her first.
Ellie rubbed her eyes and waved her hand.
"Bye."
At that moment, her father's eyes turned sad.
"Daddy too, hic, don't cry. See you later. Ellie will be good..."
"Sit down."
"Ah!"
Just as Nancy Wilkins pressed the child's head down with the hand holding the gun, a flash of madness appeared in Leon's eyes.
"Don't forget. Midnight at Moore Church. If you follow, the deal's off."
Wilkins shouted, rolling down his car window. The car immediately started moving with a rough engine sound.
The child, clinging to the car window and looking at them with pleading eyes begging for help, grew smaller and smaller.
"Nancy! Please give her back!" Leon held Grace back, refusing to let go. He could feel her tearing at his tie, like a noose tightening around his throat, as he glared at the disappearing car.
Since he couldn't lead the military across the border, rescuing the child and killing Nancy Wilkins was something he could only do while she was still on this land.
Outside the car window, a worn paper bag that had been lying in a puddle left by yesterday's rain was being crushed under a soldier's boot. The word 'Henson' was illegible. It was something the child had been holding and dropped.
"How could she point a gun at a baby, how could she put a gun to her head, I'm going to kill her!"
Grace was clutching the stuffed rabbit she'd found in the puddle, along with the paper bag, and was screaming her lungs out, treating it like her daughter. He wanted to say the same thing, but he had to hold it in. Worry outweighed his anger.
"I'll kill them. I'll kill them."
"Grace, stop it."
If she continued like this, she might lose consciousness again, and this time, they might have to take her to the hospital. Leon pulled Grace into his arms as her eyes flickered and she seemed about to faint again. Her breathless screams gradually subsided.
"Huk... Ellie..."
Burying her face in his chest, Grace sobbed, then suddenly burst into loud tears and grabbed his collar with trembling hands.
"How am I going to save her? How am I going to get her back? Once she crosses the border, that's it. They're just keeping her alive to use as a shield. They'll kill Ellie once she's no longer useful."
It was an accurate assessment, and he had no other answer.
Sending the child with the kidnapper had been the best decision at the time. But it might turn out to be the worst decision of his life.
"If Ellie dies, I'll die too."
'I'll kill them' had changed to 'I'll die'. A woman forged by a will to live was now contemplating death.
"Grace, don't say that. The fight isn't over yet."
If I lose this battle for my child's life, I'll never forgive myself. Maybe my life will end at thirty-two, after all. If Grace tries to follow the child, he'll chase her as always.
Grace was stroking a doll as if it were Ellie, muttering the same words over and over.
"I'm going to die. I'm going to die." Unable to bear it any longer, Leon snatched the doll, which was soaked in dirty water, and threw it away.
"What are you doing..."
He grabbed Grace as she tried to pick up the doll that had fallen into the passenger seat. He held her face firmly in his hands, forcing her to look at him.
"Snap out of it! This isn't the time for this."
Soothing her wouldn't work. He needed a rougher approach. Leon scolded Grace as harshly as he would a soldier who had lost his mind on a battlefield where bullets were flying.
"Ellie is just waiting for her mom to be strong. What are you going to do if you give up now?"
"...Give up? I haven't given up."
Finally, focus returned to Grace's eyes.
"You're the one who can find a way to save Ellie, not me. I don't know Nancy Wilkins. You're the only one who can read her mind. You're the only one who can find Ellie before midnight. Understand?"
Leon recalled the analysis Grace had given when he told her that Fisher's daughter had died in an accident.
"When we were on the farm, it seemed like Uncle was nicer to Ellie than to me. He even talked about his daughter when he looked at Ellie. He already saw her as his daughter. So, wouldn't he gradually resent Nancy, who was hostile towards his own daughter?"
It was a precise prediction that Fisher would betray Wilkins in some way because of Ellie.
"Use your head. You grew up with her, you know her better than anyone. Think like her. Where would she take a young hostage and what would she do?"
As soon as he let her go, Grace rubbed her face, nodded, and fell into deep thought.
"If I were Nancy..."
She tried to recall everything she knew about Nancy and the experiences they had shared, trying to imitate the kidnapper's thoughts and actions.
"She would definitely move north, but she wouldn't take the shortest route. She would deliberately take a detour."
Just like when she had planned a detour to Newport Harbor after rescuing Ellie from this man's townhouse, assuming she would be caught.
The strategies of Nancy, who had grown up with her, trained with her, and operated with her, would not be so different from Grace's.
"There will be a warrant out for her at the border, so she won't cross it right away. She already demanded that you guarantee me permission to cross the border."
Asking her to return the child after crossing the border meant also obtaining permission to pass through the Norden border.
"It's easier to just dump it on you."
Nancy, the most intelligent and cunning of the four Wilkins siblings, preferred to have others do the dirty and dangerous work rather than do it herself.
"I'll only show up at the meeting place after dark. Even if you mobilize a sniper, hitting a target in a dark forest is impossible. I need a place to spend time until then, but I won't hide in a hotel. I can't stay in one place for long. You're sure to unleash your army and search for me like a rat."
Once she got into the groove, her mind raced.
"I'll have to abandon the car after escaping. I'll have to steal another car. But if I can't find one to steal, I'll take a train. There are no phones on trains, so even if someone recognizes me, they can't call the police."
Grace clapped her hands, agreeing it was a good idea.
"Yes, I would keep changing trains and circle the north to reach the border. That would be a pretty safe way to pass the time."
As he listened to the analysis, Leon jotted down the impromptu plan on a notepad and smiled mysteriously. It felt like he was peering into Grace Riddle's mind, not Nancy Wilkins'. Grace herself was finally revealing the mind he had been desperate to understand.
"First, I need to choose a crowded station. So that no one easily recognizes or remembers me."
Grace covered her face with her hands for a moment, lost in thought, and then made another prediction.
"But now that you have a bruise on your face, it'll be easy to attract people's attention. Besides, Ellie won't act like a daughter in front of others, so we'll take first class where there are fewer people."
"So, you've already made these calculations while extorting money from me."
"Exactly. Oh, and by the way, Blanchard rebels always say that first or second-class passengers aren't suspected of being criminals."
Leon chuckled bitterly.
"And Nancy doesn't really like children. She hates the noise they make. If Ellie cries or keeps talking, she'll get annoyed..."
The continuous analysis suddenly stopped. Grace's bright expression turned dark.
"Grace."
Thinking she might lose her mind again due to a terrible imagination, he put down his pen and reached out. But before his hand could touch her, Grace shook her head vigorously, shaking off the terrible thought herself.
"We're going to save them. We have to find them quickly."
As Leon continued writing his analysis in his notebook, a scene he couldn't shake kept repeating in his head.
Two tiny palms were pressed against the glass, turning pale. The child's sea-green eyes, pressed close to the window, spoke desperately.
Save me.
She was watching as a bad person dragged her away, while her parents, the people she trusted most in the world, just watched.
From this moment on, even if you no longer love us, it's a punishment we deserve.
Even though she resigned herself to that, when he told her to wait without crying, instead of getting angry or crying even louder, she stopped crying immediately. As if to say she would endure it, she even forced a smile on her tearful face and waved bravely.
You still believe in us.
Even though I'm a sinner whose hands are stained with blood and will inevitably stain you with blood, you, an angel, still believe in me. I'll be right there. Wait for me.
I broke my promise to never leave, but I will definitely keep my promise to find you again.