White Space Season 2

old? What sort of life did they lead? Why were they chosen by Conway Industries?
    Oh, the many mysteries of a brand new square!
    Stephen zeroed in on the screen, still paying moderate attention to the other 29, though most of his focus, and new enthusiasm, was aimed at the freshest feed.
    At first, the screen displayed nothing but darkness. Patient 0719, whoever they were, was still sleeping.
    “Wake up, wake up,” a man’s voice said to Patient 0719. The voice seemed familiar, though Stephen couldn’t place it just yet.
    The patient opened his eyes.
    The room was bright, white, and the ugly face in front of the patient was one Stephen Anderson had never once been happy to see — Paladin Chief Carl Kaiser.
    “Ah, you’re awake, good, great, excellent,” Kaiser said looking down at the Patient. From the vantage point, it seemed as if 0719 was sitting in a chair.
    The Patient groaned, his words in mumbles. He was either groggy or drugged, maybe both.
    What the hell am I watching?
    Kaiser disappeared from view, then returned a moment later holding a small hand-mirror. He held it to the Patient’s face.
    Stephen’s heart leaped in his chest as he saw Milo’s face in the mirror, his son’s face bruised, eyes confused and frightened. Almost haunted. Milo was in a chair, hands cuffed to the chair’s arms.
    What the hell are they doing to him?
    Kaiser set the mirror on the ground and leaned down, putting his face and its big blue electronic eye, in front of Milo’s.
    “Hey, there, Daddy, if you happen to be watching, your little Milo here has been a very, very naughty boy.”

    * * * *

CHAPTER 2 — Jon Conway

    Jon paced Houser’s hotel room, trying, again, to reach his friend by phone.
    Where the hell is he?
    Cassidy sat at the suite’s small dining room table, staring into space, her eyes red and hands running over one another in constant worry, likely craving pills to calm her.
    This can’t be happening again.
    Emma went missing one month before, eventually returning but with zero explanation for her time away. Was she sleepwalking? Was she lost? Had she woken and sleepwalked her way out of the hotel this time? And why the hell was Houser now gone, too? The rental was also missing, which Jon chose to see as a positive sign. Houser was likely with Emma, which meant his daughter was probably safe.
    Cassidy was less certain — afraid Houser had taken her niece. “He fucking took her!” she screamed earlier, repeatedly and with increasing hysteria until Jon finally managed to calm her, a bit.
    He tried talking sense into her, to assure Cassidy that there was no way in hell Houser had kidnapped Emma. He had known the PI a long time, and trusted him more than anyone in his life. No fucking way Houser would ever do something like that. There had to be a good reason, a logical explanation. But Cassidy wouldn’t — or couldn’t — hear him. She was beyond reason or logic, so terrified. Jon couldn’t argue with her, though. It would only make things worse.
    So, Jon did what was one of the hardest things for him to do — exercise patience while waiting for any number of people to return his call,
    He’d placed calls to the local police, his brother and father back on the island, Chief Brady, and even a couple of Paladin officers Warren put him in touch with. Nothing yet. Brady was trying to get GPS data on the rental, but for some reason was running into a roadblock with the rental affiliate on the island. The chief told Jon he wasn’t sure if the company was stonewalling, so Jon put a call into his lawyer, to put pressure on the District Judge to issue an order for Brady.
    All this shit took way too much time. Jon wanted to be out there, looking, but his logical side kept telling him to relax, and that they would surely be returning soon.
    As the clock ticked, and morning grew older, Jon kept trying to think of something, anything, which might explain Emma and Houser’s absence. He had run his mind through dozens of possible scenarios — everything from Houser taking the girl to the grocery store to get something she needed, then getting somehow waylaid on the way back, to Paladin officers returning to reclaim Houser, this time taking Emma with them.
    Houser wouldn’t take Emma to the store without letting them know. He wasn’t that thoughtless. And nobody had seen Paladin guards storm the hotel, which seemed like something that would have been impossible to miss. Plus, Paladin had no jurisdiction