As soon as the door slammed, Jonathan felt all of the anger and frustration that had been building up inside of him at the sight of Jennifer with Durenga explode in a burst of strength that tore the post he was handcuffed to off the wall. He turned toward Conny. "I’m going after him. I didn’t tie your ropes very tight, so you should be able to work your way out of them fairly easily."
Across the room, Claire nervously looked at Jonathan. "He has a knife at her throat, Jonathan, don’t make it worse trying to be a hero."
Jonathan stopped at the door. "It can’t get any worse Claire. If Rothenburg gets here before we get back, try to stall him." With that, he ran out the door.
Conny turned toward Claire. "How could you not tell me?" he raged. "I had a right to know that I was a father. Maybe, if you had told me, this wouldn’t be happening now."
Clarie tried to think of something to say that would make Conny understand why she had not told him that she had given birth to his son. "I’m sorry" was all she could think of.
"You’re sorry. That is probably the biggest understatement I have ever heard" Conny replied with a voice that was loaded with sarcasm.
"I thought I was doing what was best for our son, Conny"
"Why didn’t you let me make some of those decisions? You never even gave me a chance, Claire. Were you afraid that I would turn my back on you? Or were you more afraid of Matthew and what he would do if he found out?" Conny’s voice began to take on a touch of sadness over the choices he was not allowed to make.
"I’m sorry, Conny, but at the time giving him up was the only thing I felt I could do for him. I know now that I made the wrong choices, but I can’t go back and change them, no matter how much I want to. Now all I can do is pray that Jonathan can somehow find a way to save Jennifer from our son."
Jonathan raced down the stairs, his ears straining for any sound that would tell him that he was getting closer to catching up to Jennifer. At each landing, however, only silence greeted him. Finally, his breath coming in heaving gasps, Jonathan reached the basement garage.
"Jennifer!!", he shouted, looking around. Jonathan turned toward the sound of a car’s screehing tires. "Durenga!" he screamed. As he watched the car fly out of the garage and onto the street, Jonathan felt as if his whole life were slipping through his fingers like sand and he was powerless to stop it. He knew that he had no hope of catching up with Durenga now, since his car was still parked in front of the hotel. His only hope was Rothenburg. Maybe he would know where Durenga had taken Jennifer. Shoulders slumped, Jonathan slowly started back up to the suite.
As Kyle Rothenburg navigated the late morning traffic, Steven Edwards tried to figure out what had gone so wrong. What had happened to prompt Kyle to take me to Jennifer instead of making her bring the plans to him, he wondered silently. Finally, he could stand the silence no longer.
"Matthew, what’s going on? I know that something is wrong. I have the right to know what it is."
Rothenburg gave an angry snort. "That incompentent fool has messed up again."
"Who? The hitman? What was his name? Durenga, wasn’t it?" Steven asked.
"Yes. Durenga. That man has been a screw up since he was a boy. I promise you though, that this time will be the last. If he were any kind of man, he would have suceeded when I sent him to California to convince you that I was serious. I guess that there are some things you have to do yourself if you want them done right."
"The attempt on Jennifer was your doing?" Steven asked, already knowing the answer but wanting to hear Rothenburg admit it.
"Of course it was my doing. It has always been me. You don’t seriously think that Durenga has enough brains to think up a plan this elaborate do you? I’ve always been the brains, Steven, when will you realize that?"
"I’m beginning to see that I underestimated you all these years, Matthew." Steven replied, silently promising to do whatever it took to make sure that Kyle Rothenburg would never hurt any one he loved ever again. He had already lost Suzanne to this madman, he prayed that he would not lose Jennifer as well.
"Stop calling me Matthew! My name is Kyle Rothenburg! Rothenburg! Matthew Townsend died many years ago, when Wainwright double crossed me. Now, at last. I will get my revenge."
"The same way you got your revenge against me by killing my wife? I didn’t double cross you, Kyle, I didn’t even really know what I was doing. Conny asked for my help and I gave it to him. I did the same for you."
"You did nothing for me!" Kyle screamed. "All you did was give back some of what was rightfully mine. You were living the good life, and I had nothing because you took it all away from me."
"So that made it all right to try to ruin my life? You killed my wife, Kyle. How does killing Suzanne compare to losing some stupid plans?" Steven asked, feeling anger rising up inside him over a wound that would never fully healed.
"Stupid plans? Steven, you have no idea what those plans meant to me. They were going to be my crowning achievment. Instead, they were the beginning of the end. I lost everything - all of my treasures, all of my money, every single thing that I valued was gone before I knew it." Rothenburg complained bitterly.
Steven looked thoughtfully at the man he had once called a friend. "You forgot about Claire."
"She was my finest trophy, Steven." Kyle replied. "Unfortunately, when the trouble started and the money ran out, she left me too."
"Perhaps if you had treated her more like a wife and less like a trophy, she would have stayed with you. Love is a powerfull glue, Kyle, it holds two people together when everything else in the world is trying to tear them apart."
"Don’t lecture me about love, Steven. Clarie and I had a happy marraige until you and your wife brought Wainwright into it."
"If she were really happy, she would have never strayed Kyle. Don’t blame you marital troubles on me." Steven said simply.
Kyle Rothenburg’s hands tightened on the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. "I took my revenge for that a long time ago, Steven. Your happy marriage came to a crashing end too, didn’t it?" he chuckled. "How did it feel Steven, knowing that your wife was never going to come home? Did your world come to a end like mine?"
"What happened to you is nobody’s fault but your own, Kyle. As much as I loved Suzanne, I couldn’t let her death be the end of my world. I kept on going. I had to. I had Jennifer to take care of." Steven replied.
Rothenburg stared at the traffic. "Ah, but this time is different. I hold all the cards. We play by my rules. This time I’m going to win it all."
"You won’t win this time either, Kyle. Your precious plan is in pieces. Somehow, Jennifer and Jonathan will figure out a way to stop you, and then you will have lost for good."
"Shut up Edwards. You have no idea what you are talking about. Besides, your darling daughter is no longer in the position to help her husband stop me." Rothenburg said with a smirk.
"What are you talking about?" Steven cried. "What has happend to Jennifer?"
"You will find out soon enough, my friend. There’s the hotel. Now remember, no funny business on the way in or you won’t make up it to the room. Let’s go."
When Jonathan got back to the room he found that Conny had freed himself and Claire. The look on his face told Clarie that Jennifer was still very much in danger.
"Oh, Jonathan, you didn’t catch up with them did you?" she cried.
"No, Clarie, I didn’t. Durenga was already pulling out onto the street when I got to the garage. Our only hope is that Rothenburg will have some idea of where they would be going."
Constantine Wainwright’s sightless eyes bored into Jonathan. "What makes you think he would tell you anything. He knows that Durenga has the plans - and that is the only thing he cares about."
Jonathan stared back at him. "Then we have to come up with some reason to force him into helping us. We better do it quickly, too. He will be here soon."
Clarie looked at Jonathan as if he were crazy. "How can you be so sure that he is even going to come here?"
"Because this is the last place his precious plans were. He will come here first to see if Durenga left anything behind for him. Then he will probably try to go after Durenga himself. I’m not going to let him out of this room until he tells me where that madman has taken my wife."
"Do you think he would take you with him when he goes after Durenga?" Claire asked fearfully.
"Rothenburg is not going to go after Durenga," Jonathan stated with finality. "When he leaves this room, it’s going to be in handcuffs with a police escort."
"What are you planning Jonathan?" Conny asked, admiring the way that Jonathan was taking control of the situation.
"I want the two of you to stay on the couch and pretend that you are still tied up. I’m going to wait behind the door and jump Rothenburg when he walks in."
Wainwright smiled. "Simple, but it should work. If he asks where you are I can say that you are tied up in the bedroom. That should give him a false sense of security, enough for you to disarm him."
"I hope so. He’s the only one who can tell us where Jennifer might be," Jonathan said, starting to feel somewhat hopefull. "He should be here any minute, let’s get into position."
Claire gently took Conny’s hand. "I hope this works, Conny."
"Me too Claire. Me too."
Just then there was a soft shuffling sound outside the door. Jonathan quickly stepped behind the door.
On the other side of the door Kyle prodded Steven with his gun. "You’ve been good so far, Edwards, keep it up and open the door. I’ll let you go first just in case Durenga has a little surprise set up for me."
"You are all heart Kyle, do you know that?" Steven Edwards gently took hold of the door knob, more afraid for Jennifer than ever before. He was filled with dread at the prospect of what he would see when he opened the door.
"Hurry it up, old man, I haven’t got all day" Rothenburg angrily muttered.
Steven took a deep breath and pushed open the door.
