Chapter 109: Keep Your Enemy Closer Part 4

The bag over her head almost sent her tumbling, but strong arms lifted her and jogged away. The dress bound her as efficiently as ropes. The dust from the sac made her cough until the world spun around her. Cal thought she been put in a wagon, but she couldn't say for sure.
She lay concentrating on breathing without coughing and thinking through her predicament. Whoever had grabbed her wanted something. If they'd intended her death, she'd be a corpse in the river already.
Rough hands dragged her out of wherever she was and carried her into a house, and down the stairs. She was dumped into a chair and her hands tied behind her. Then she waited, the dampness working its way through the sac, chilling her.
"My, my," the voice made Cal grind her teeth. She only knew one person who could make innocuous words sound like an insult. "How far the great Shillingsworth family has fallen, pretending to be a foreign whore. Of course, we both know it isn't far from the truth." A blow rocked her head and almost knocked her to the floor. "You've stolen from me, insulted me, made me look bad in front of my peers."
"You didn't need any help from me to achieve that last part."
The blow to her stomach took the wind from her and left Cal gasping.
"Since you insist on talking like a man I will oblige." Another blow pushed her out of the chair to land on the floor.
"I'm tired," Cal said. "I'd like nothing better than a bath, so get to the point. Unless you did all this just to show how manly you are by beating up someone bound and blinded."
Someone picked her up and slammed her back into her chair.
"Fine, since you are so impatient." A hand grabbed the bag and twisted, cutting off her air. "You stole my future. That electrical machine was my retirement. I would finally have been able to live as I deserved."
Cal wanted to taunt him more but didn't have the breath to talk.
"You will hand over plans to this airship you're building. They'll be worth more than that machine. Do this and I'll even let you live in your fantasy where people think you're important. You're a tool, nothing more, but I'll allow you to learn it for yourself. I know you think you're brave and not afraid of death, but what about those people around you? Your friends and their precious babies? Infants are so fragile, and I'll make sure they know it was your choice. You choose yourself over them. I have evidence of your treason. The Shillingsworth name will never recover." He let go of the bag and Cal gasped in air. She tried to form words, but what came out was laughter. The situation was absurd. How could he believe any of this would sway her?
He hit her again and again, screaming obscenities at her. Finally, she lay on the floor retching, thankful she hadn't anything to eat.
"If I walk out of this room, I will destroy everyone you care about."
"Fine." Cal spat out blood. "But even if I give you what you want, you'll still never be anything more than a spineless worm."
He growled.
"You kill me, you get nothing. The only way forward is to keep me alive. You aren't the only person after my skin. If one of them gets to me, you're done. So if you want your plans and wealth, you keep me alive until they're done."
"I can kill you and steal what you've already done."
"I'm the only one who can build this thing. Ask any of my engineers."
"You are to start sending me plans. Immediately. Leave them in your desk, my person will pick them up. Oh yes, I have someone in your group, I already know everything you're doing." He sneered and Cal bit her cheek to keep from laughing. How desperate he was to show his importance.
"Right, let me go have my bath, and your spy can build the thing for you." Cal lay on the floor, fog from the pain and lack of air making her detached from the world. She decided on a whimper to play to the man's ego. He needed to think he'd won.
Hands snatched her up and carried her out into the cold air. The wagon rolled through the streets. Cal concentrated on breathing, spitting out blood whenever it threatened to choke her. Someone yanked her out of the wagon and dropped her on the cobbled road. The ropes binding her hands vanished and the bag was pulled off her head. She couldn't get her eyes to focus on the vague shape walking away. The clop of hooves and creak of wheels faded.
Cal lay on her back staring up into the black sky. Somehow she needed to find the strength to get up and walk somewhere, anywhere, to get help. It just wasn't there.
A face leaned over her, it faded in and out of focus.
"Bri," Cal whispered. "What...?"
"Hush." Bri put a finger on her lips, then picked her up. "Let me take you somewhere safe." He carried her through silent streets until they got to a park, the trees looming bare and stark over her. Bri laid her on a bench, then wrapped a coat around her.
"Someone will come soon. Just wait for them. You're safe. I swear it. I will find out who did this and kill him."
"Not yet," Cal whispered. She closed her eyes and waited for someone to come and take her home to hot water and safety.