72 hours, Ch. 5

An unknown amount of time passed by slowly for the three figures lying unconscious in the damp and dimly lit basement while the four men…the kidnappers…in the house above them continued to plot out their plans well into the night.

Throughout several visits down into the basement by the kidnappers, Lance had remained much in the same position that he had been placed in more than 8 hours earlier. Both JC and Joey had come to and had received injections of medications that returned them to varying levels of unconsciousness. Lance, on the other hand, had simply not awakened since he had suffered the heavy blow to his head when their kidnappers had taken the bus that he, Joey and JC had been riding on.

The fact that he had not yet awakened was beginning to cause some concern for the kidnappers, but the worries were for different reasons. As medical students, Cary and Barrett were growing more concerned with each passing hour that brought no change from the young man. Cary was afraid that maybe Lawrence had hit the young man over the head too hard and Barrett was growing nervous by the fact that not only was Lance’s heart murmur was more pronounced than it had been when the young men had been placed in the basement, his heart was also beginning to beat irregularly…sluggishly. With the young man being unconscious, Barrett and Cary weren’t sure how long they should wait before they would need to get some sort of intravenous drug to control the murmur and heartbeat…doing that could prove to be even more precarious for them than it had been in getting the drugs and equipment that they now had on hand. So, for now, they were adopting a wait and see attitude…waiting for Lance to awaken…waiting to see if the heartbeat would become even more erratic, throwing their plans even further.

Zachary felt similar concerns as Cary and Barrett, but not entirely. Sure…he was concerned about the fact that Bass had not yet awakened, but his thinking was branching off into a different direction in that if the blond did not awaken soon, their chances of receiving the full $12 million ransom would become much slimmer…especially if he never awakened at all.

Now, while the other three’s fears and concerns for Lance were somewhat humane, Lawrence’s were not in the very least. He only wanted two things. One, for Lance to awaken long enough to read out the demands being made and then…after that, he couldn’t really care less about what happened to the blond or to the two others lying in the basement below. As far as he was concerned, the three young men could remain in their drugged induced states until the money was paid and the four of them were on their way out of the country.

The money was an important factor, but Lawrence had even more driving desire behind Lance reading the demands…the chance to come face to face with the son of the man he had grown to hate. The demands that he had composed would require that the other two members of Nsync to bring a portion of the ransom to carefully selected location.

“I think we should go back down there and check on Bass,” Barrett said as he played with the stethoscope that was hanging around his neck while looking down at a sheet of paper that was being used to write careful records of the conditions of Lance, Joey and JC. Sure…the group had thought it was rather weird when Cary had demanded that they be kept, but now, with some of the complications that they were running into, he was rather glad that they had.

He looked over his shoulder at the others. “I think we could probably wake him up using an ammonia capsule…I mean…it wouldn’t hurt to try.”

“What do you think, Cary?” Zachary asked as he watched Barrett move across the room to another cabinet, which held all of the medical supplies that had been either stolen or hoarded in preparation for the kidnapping.

“I think that it might work, but I’m not sure if that would be good for his heart…we might run into some problems there, don’t you think, Barry?”

Barrett shrugged his shoulders as he searched over the shelves for the ammonia capsules.

“I guess we should probably take his pills down there, too…maybe something to relax him too, just in case.”

“Don’t knock him out,” Lawrence said harshly as he stepped into the room. “He needs to read the demands. After that…I don’t care…just keep him and the other two alive until the money is delivered by the other two.”

“Do you honestly think that their management is going to let the other two deliver the ransom?” Cary said incredulously as he watched the older man walk toward the refrigerator. “That’s just nuts, Larry…your idea is just plain crazy.”

Just as the words left Cary’s mouth, he knew that he had said the wrong thing. In an instant, Lawrence had moved across the room and had his large hands entangled in the younger man’s shirt as he propelled him backwards into a nearby wall.

Cary yelped in pain as his head forcibly bounced off the wall and he struggled to hear Lawrence’s words through the roaring that immediately filled his ears, filtering out all other sound.

“Don’t you ever…ever…say that I’m crazy…I’m not crazy…I’m not,” Lawrence said through clinched teeth, emphasizing his words by pushing Cary into the wall with each syllable.

“Hey…Larry…wait a minute, man,” Barry said in a near panic as he watched Cary’s pained and fearful gaze slowly become glazed over. He grasped Lawrence’s shoulders and tugged gently, not wanting to turn the man’s wrath in his direction, but hoping to stop what was happening all the same…especially when he watched Cary’s blue eyes begin to lose their focus, his eyelids fluttering as darkness encroached upon the edges of his vision.

At the same time, Zachary reached between the pair and grasped Lawrence’s hands in an effort to pry them from Cary’s shirt. There was a bit of a struggle but as soon as Lawrence’s grip was released, Cary’s knees buckled and he slid down the surface of the wall all the while cupping the back of his head in his hands as he quietly moaned before losing consciousness, his hands falling limply to his lap…his head lolling to the side as his body pitched forward.

No words were exchanged as Zachary continued his hold on Lawrence’s wrists and he pushed the man out of the room where he could cool off while Barrett dropped to his knees before Cary. With hands shaking, he carefully pushed the younger man’s body back into a seated position then grasped the younger man’s face and lifted his head up.

“Hey…Cary…come on…Cary…wake up, man,” he murmured as he gently slapped the young man’s face with the palm of his hand.

“Wha…don…stop,” Cary mumbled as he shook his head in an effort to bring everything into focus while Barrett continued trying to arouse him until the younger man’s blue eyes regained their focus and stared at him questioningly.

“Make a mental note, Cary,” Barrett said with a grim smile. “Don’t ever use the words crazy and Lawrence in the same sentence…okay?”

“Gotcha,” Cary said with a slight grimace as he accepted Barrett’s offered hand and allowed himself to be pulled into a standing position. A wave of dizziness passed over him and he slightly swayed as he reached out to grasp the arm of the man in front of him.

“Whoa…how are you doing there?” Barrett asked as he watched Cary slowly shake his head in, what he guess, was an effort to rid himself of the cobwebs in his head.

“M’kay,” Cary mumbled as he stood up fully and stared at his friend. His mind was still spinning in confusion over what had happened.

“Let me see,” Barrett said gesturing at his head. Cary turned slightly and bowed his head. “Looks okay…might want to put some ice on that, but we’ll do that later after we’ve gone downstairs.”

Cary simply nodded his head in answer to the statement. He was still in shock at Lawrence’s outburst. In all the years that he had known him, he had never encountered such uncontrolled anger from his friend. Inwardly, he shuddered as a new thought entered his mind. If Larry would treat his own friends in that manner…imagine what he might do to the young men in the basement down below.

A firm hand on Cary’s shoulder caused him to startle and he glanced up into the now calm eyes of Lawrence. For a few beats no words were said as the younger man did his best not to jerk away from the larger man. The small spark of fear in Cary’s eyes gave Lawrence a bit of a charge, but he decided to ignore those feelings. Instead he decided to concentrate on correcting the damage he had done with his outburst.

“Man…I don’t know what came over me back there…I’m sorry,” he said holding out his hand to Cary. Cary looked behind the larger man to see Zachary reassuringly nodding his head at him.

Cary then looked down at the hand before him and felt a shudder course through his body as he tentatively reached out and shook it.

“Um…that’s okay, Larry,” he said, struggling to find something that he could say to move beyond the awkward moment, but he found that he didn’t have to when Barrett walked over to them with his hands full of medical supplies.

“Let’s go downstairs and see what we can do about Mr. Bass,” he said, stepping toward the locked basement door at the other end of the room.

“No…I think you need to look at Cary first, then we’ll go downstairs,” Lawrence said as his gaze traveled from Barrett and Zachary to Cary’s dazed expression. “We’ll go downstairs after awhile…once he’s had a chance to clear the cobwebs.”

The others nodded their heads in agreement then watched as Lawrence left the room before turning to each other, their expressions questioning and confused.

“Let’s go ahead and get that ice, Cary,” Barrett said, grasping the younger man by the arm while Zachary left the room to follow after Lawrence.

“They’re both asleep,” Lonnie said, referring to Justin and Chris as he quietly closed their bedroom door behind him and entered into the suite’s living room.

Johnny breathed a quiet sigh of relief and ran a hand slowly over his head as he glanced at the clock hanging on the wall…2:00 a.m.

“I can not even imagine what those three are going through,” he whispered so low that his voice was barely heard by even those seated closest to him. His imagination was running absolutely wild with possible scenarios. Were they hurt…cold…scared? Where were they? Who had taken them? Why hadn’t they heard any kinds of demands?

At the same time, Mike leaned his head back against the couch that he was seated on as his stomach twisted in knots. He was usually responsible for Joey…it had been entirely a fluke that he had not gone with the trio to Michigan. Lonnie had asked him to stay with Chris so that Mitchell could go on to Michigan where members of his family were holding an impromptu reunion the day that they would be arriving. Having spent a lot of time on the road away from his own family, Mike easily traded positions with the newer and younger bodyguard…now he regretted having such a tender heart.

“They’re going to be okay…they’re going to be okay,” Dre said in a quiet, carefully toned voice as his gaze traveled from one forlorn figure to the next in the room. “Just keep the faith that they’ll be okay.”

He was also relatively new, but well liked by the entire crew. His words were always golden…always respected. There were few words said by those in the room in response to Dre’s remarks and it wasn’t fifteen minutes later before the three police officers in the suite encouraged the trio to get some rest. One of the officers explained that, more than likely, it would be early in the morning, well after dawn, before they would hear from the kidnappers.

“You guys really need to get some rest so that when we do get that call, you will be ready and able to help us out. That’s when we’ll need more information from you so that the best plan possible can be made,” the head officer said quietly as he looked at the weary group resting on the couches…Johnny, Dre, Mike, Simon, Lonnie, Mitchell and James. For a split second, he stared in amazement at the five bodyguards…they could all easily outweigh him by almost 50 pounds or even more with a few of them, but that wasn’t what held his attention. What had his total focus was the looks of fear…intense fear and sadness…two emotions that he wasn’t expecting with such large men. While the officer’s gaze continued to be upon the small group, they didn’t seem to notice how attention had been drawn to them and, with very little argument, they headed to the three remaining rooms, but they all knew that there would more than likely be very little rest.

For an unknown amount of time, the dimly lit basement remained quiet and dank…the musty smell of dirt and disuse permeating the thick, damp air. Then quietly…very quietly, the dim silence in the basement was disrupted by a low, painful, almost pitiful moan. Slowly…very slowly, eyelids parted…then squinted…exposing green eyes that revealed confusion…great confusion and pain…his head ached fiercely and his chest was tight. Lance briefly closed then opened his eyes and, as the fog began to slowly clear from his mind, his blurred vision was gradually brought well enough into focus that questions could be raised as his gaze traveled about the shadow filled room.

‘I’m not on the bus…where am I…what happened…JC…Joey…JC…Joey…where are they…what…where…oh, no…James…Mitchell…where are they?’

Having no memory of what may have brought him into this strange situation Lance’s thoughts grew frantic…chaotic…so much so that the headache that he had awakened to suddenly intensified causing him to moan in pain and cautiously bring his hands up to cradle his head in an effort to stop the spinning dizziness that he was experiencing. As he moved his hands, he noticed that not only was there a certain heaviness to them, but also he had heard a tinny, metallic noise when he had moved them.

Gazing in confusion at his hands he grunted in surprise when he saw that his wrists were encased in handcuffs. In a mixture of fear and disbelief he pulled against the bindings, grunting in a mixture of frustration and fear.

“Mmmph.”

‘That didn’t sound right,’ he thought while reaching up to touch his mouth. His eyes opened wide in disbelief when he felt the heavy tape covering his mouth then he quickly glanced down at his ankles and found that tape had also been wrapped about them.

‘How did I miss that?’ he asked himself before a sudden, cold and terrifying chill of realization coursed its way down his spine.

‘Kidnapped…I’ve been kidnapped…’

Fearfully, Lance glanced about him again and he suddenly recognized that he had to be in a basement or storm cellar of some sort due to the beams that protruded from the ceiling overhead and the musty smell that he had somehow missed. He lay quietly for several moments and stared at the shadowed, cobwebbed ceiling above. Moments later, after hearing nothing from above, he heaved a shaky sigh while his thoughts raced wildly inside his head.

‘What’s the last thing I remember…what’s the last thing?’ he asked himself as he briefly closed his eyes in an effort to block out the dull headache that he was experiencing.

‘Okay…I remember getting on the bus…leaving for Michigan…I was working on paperwork at the table…Joey was asleep in his bunk…JC was in the back…I woke up at the table…I moved to the couch then I fell asleep again, I guess…I woke up when the bus lurched…oh, my…I remember a man…he had a gun…’

The sudden memory almost made Lance sick and he took several deep breaths through his nose in an effort to control the rolling situation in his stomach and after several moments, the queasiness disappeared while fear settled deeper into the pit of his stomach. It was also at that moment that he recognized the sick feeling that went along with the beginnings of the irregular tremors that he experienced with his heart condition. With a small moan of frustration, Lance closed his eyes and willed himself to breathe evenly and calmly. If he could just gain control of his emotions, he knew that he could at least attempt to keep the conditioning from incapacitating him…the sluggish beating of his heart and the way it caused his breathing to become shallow and the difficulty his lungs seemed to have in gaining a full breath of air…with his mouth taped shut he knew that the breathing would be an even harsher, more exhausting chore…one that he just might not be able to do. Those thoughts created a tiny stir of panic to rise in his stomach, but he clinched his eyes even tighter in a fierce effort to push his fears aside. He had to remain in control of himself…a cooler head would prevail…he had no idea how or where Joey and JC were and the thoughts of his friends depending upon him helped in pushing down the panic that had been threatening to overtake him while at the same time refocusing his attention away from himself in order to focus totally on finding JC and Joey…he had to.

‘Okay…Joey…Jace…gotta find them,’ Lance thought to himself as he reopened his eyes and allowed his gaze to travel to the walls of the room in search of windows…anything that might clue him in to where he was. Once he found them he saw that it had to be dark outside since he couldn’t actually see out of them…nighttime.

‘How long have we been here? Where is here?’ His thoughts were once again trying to get the better of him, but he once again repeated to himself that cooler heads would prevail several times before he was sure that he could continue his search for the other two.

With a small moan of pain, Lance turned from his back to his left side and slowly began to gaze about him at the portion of the large room that he had not seen behind him. Suddenly, he choked back a small sob of relief at the sight of JC and Joey lying just a few feet away on what looked liked their bunk mattresses…their mouths also covered with tape…their wrists handcuffed before them…their feet bound with tape…JC’s legs also were bound just below the knee…both were either asleep or unconscious. He also noticed that something like bandages not only had been wrapped around Joey’s hands but were also peeking out from under the handcuffs surrounding JC’s wrists. The thought of his friends being injured caused a flutter of alarm to course its way through Lance’s body.

‘What happened to them?’ Lance asked himself as he quickly took in more of Joey’s appearance and then JC’s in an effort to see if either one of them had been hurt any further. Much to his relief, he could see that both were disheveled, dirty and dusty from, what he could only guess was, the basement’s dirt floor, but he could not see any more obvious injuries.

‘Gotta get their attention…gotta get their attention.’

Lance reached up to the tape encircling his head in an effort to find an end to it, but found that with his hands bound like they were, for some reason, it was totally impossible for him to remove the tape from his mouth. And, with the tape layered so thickly, Lance realized that he would have to make a lot of noise in order to get his friends’ attention and that noise might just bring who ever was upstairs down to where they were and he wasn’t ready for that.

With those thoughts in mind, Lance allowed adrenaline and fear…pure fear…to spur him into action. Keeping his eyes locked on JC, who was the closest to him, Lance began to drag himself off his mattress and across the packed dirt floor of the basement. His movements were awkward and slow and he found that it was easiest to drag himself across the floor on his elbows since his bound ankles made his legs almost useless…at the very most he was able to push himself inch by inch across the dirt floor. His elbows smarted painfully with the pressure that he was placing on them…his right one in particular, and he realized that he must have fallen on that elbow when he had been hit over the head on the bus.

At an agonizingly slow pace he continued to move across the floor until he was face to face with JC and the sudden nearness to the older man caused a choked, muffled sob to escape from behind his gag.

In an effort to bring his overwhelming emotions back under control, Lance bowed his head and focused on bringing his breathing back under control before bringing his head back up to once again take in his friend’s haggard appearance.

From a distance, JC had not looked so bad, but being as close as he was now, Lance as able to see dark bruise-like smudges marking his friend’s face. He glanced over JC’s lax body and saw that although his wrists were wrapped in gauze, there seemed to be rope burns peaking out from under them. Lance then glanced from JC’s still figure to take in Joey’s just a few feet away. He seemed to be in a state of deep sleep. Frowning behind his gag, Lance gazed steadily at Joey’s hands and his eyes widened at the sudden realization that there were stains on the bandages.

‘Blood…something happened…blood.’ At that very moment, his heart also decided to begin its sluggish rhythm in earnest causing a wave of dizziness to wash over Lance. Slowly, he lowered himself to the ground and used JC’s mattress to rest his head upon while he concentrated on his breathing.

‘I need to cough it out,’ he thought. His doctor back home had instructed him to cough several times during an episode. Sometimes it would cause the heart to creep back into a regular rhythm, but with his mouth completely covered and the fear of alerting anyone overhead, Lance had no other recourse other than simply lying there and listening to his harsh breathing all the while feeling his heart’s uneven thumps within his chest.

Several minutes passed before Lance felt well enough to sit up and, after several attempts, he heaved a sigh of frustration before putting all his effort into the movements. Seconds later, Lance was sitting back up and able to look back down at JC. The sight of his friend caused the young man to wish very badly that he was awake…he needed JC’s reassurance that things would be okay…that they were going to be okay.

With those thoughts in mind, Lance carefully sat up and scooted even closer to the older man and gently rolled his still body over from his right side onto his back, hoping the movement would elicit some sort of response and he was rewarded with a small, muted groan.

Gently, Lance ran his bound hands through JC’s hair as he mumbled into his gag, hoping the movements and noise would not only help in bringing him around, but would reassure him that he was not alone.

Several minutes later, Lance’s efforts were rewarded and blue eyes blinked heavily a number of times before finally opening all the way revealing first a look of complete confusion, which was quickly replaced by a look of relief.

It was quiet…too quiet in the hotel suite being shared by Chris and Justin along with their manager, Johnny Wright and a small army of body guards, police and FBI. Several hours earlier, Justin had fallen asleep in his bedroom while Chris had been lulled to sleep on a couch in the main room. Later, he had been awakened and led stumbling into Justin’s room and put to bed by one of the bodyguards. Now, the older man was wide-awake, sitting outside the room on the floor of the balcony, his back against the wall, listening to the traffic moving busily below. His fear of heights prevented him from moving any closer to the railing and he contented himself with gazing at the moon overhead as he replayed the nightmare that brought him outside.

The beginning of the dream had been pleasant and fun before turning into what had caused him to sit straight up in bed…his sheets damp with sweat…a scream caught in the back of his throat.

“Time to load up, boys!” a familiar voice called out from the opened door of one of the group’s tour buses.

The group was huddled in a tight circle at least 50 yards from the bus and, at the sound of the driver’s voice, the group parted revealing five smiling faces.

“Sure James!” Justin called out as he leapt onto Joey’s back, causing the other to slightly stumble forward before regaining his balance while JC, Lance, and Chris stepped to the side, laughing at the sight.

“Oof…geez, Justin,” Joey said in a voice laced with laughter. “I should be the one getting a piggy-back!”

Joey’s cries were ignored by the youngest member of the group, who simply wrapped his long, lanky arms around the others chest before pointing toward the bus and shouting in his best, worst English accent, “to the bus, Joseph!”

Chris smiled at the scene and shook his head as he watched Joey grab hold of Justin’s legs before running at a full sprint toward the bus, the burden on his back causing him little difficulty, while Justin began screeching in laughter and mock fear.

“Slow down! Slow down!”

Chris’s smile grew even larger at the scene and he turned to speak to JC and Lance who were now in their own deep conversation over a piece of paper that was in JC’s hands. Taking a second glance at the page, Chris realized that JC was holding a piece of sheet music and, out of curiosity, he stepped closer to the pair to hear what they were talking about.

“New song, C?” Chris asked as he moved behind Lance so that he could read over his shoulder.

“Yeah…this is something that I thought Lance might want to play around with,” JC replied as he allowed Chris an even closer look.

“I think this looks good,” Chris said as he glanced at the dark notes that seemed to bounce all over the page.

“I don’t know…I mean…I’m not too sure about…” Lance began but his voice was drowned out when Joey and Justin’s playful shouts suddenly turned into screams full of terror. Chris’s gaze flew up from the sheet music and he was horrified to see several figures dressed in black standing outside the bus. One of the men grabbed Justin around the waist and jerked him off Joey’s back before shoving him forcibly to the ground while a second figure grabbed Joey by the shirt collar and propelled him face first into the bus.

Chris immediately ran towards Joey who had slumped to the ground…his eyes closed…his head bleeding. One of the figures stepped into Chris’s path and immediately his forward movement ceased. It was as if an invisible barrier had been lifted in front of him.

In horror, Chris watched as Joey was pulled up from the ground and carried onto the bus, while Justin was left lying in a shaking heap on the ground. .

“Joey! Joey!” he screamed while pushing frantically at the barrier.

At the same time, Lance and JC were trying their best to back away from two figures that were walking slowly toward them, guns pointed at their chests.

“No!! No!!” he shouted as he watched Lance being grabbed by the hair…his deep voice screaming out in a mixture of pain and fear and he pulled against the strong hands entangled in his hair. Suddenly, the figure raised an arm and forcibly brought it down, hitting the writhing man in the face. Immediately, Lance became limp, his body pliant and easy to carry up the stairs of the bus.

As Lance’s limp figure disappeared onto the bus, Chris turned his attention to the remaining member of the group being attacked. Vainly, JC was struggling against a dark figure who had his arm snaked around his throat. JC, no longer able to scream without the ability to draw in a breath gazed at Chris…his eyes pleading for help as he continued to struggle weakly against the arms holding him. Just as JC was pulled onto the bus, it pulled away and the barrier holding him in place and Justin down on the ground lifted causing Chris to stumble to his knees before rising up with Justin at his side to race after the rapidly departing vehicle.

In frustration, Chris clinched his fists and wiped them stubbornly against his eyes in a feeble effort to prevent the tears that were threatening to fall from doing so, but he found the task impossible. Shaking his head he opened his eyes and gazed up at the night sky above. He was unable to see very many stars due to not only the clouds passing overhead, but also because of the bright lights from the street below and the surrounding buildings.

“Lord…where are they? Why did this happen to them? Dear God…protect them…please,” he quietly pleaded as his tears began to fall silently as he bowed his head forward in continued silent prayer. Minutes later, he raised his head and looked back up at the night sky, lost in his thoughts. Just as his emotions were about to overwhelm him, the sliding of the balcony door behind him distracted him from those forlorn thoughts.

“Chris?” Justin quietly called out in a voice that was thick with sleep and slightly slurred from the medications that he was being forced to take.

“Yeah?”

“Umm…”

“Come here, Baby J,” Chris said, turning slightly to look over his right shoulder at Justin’s shadowed figure standing several feet away while patting the surface of the balcony beside him. Justin padded over barefooted, wearing his sweats and a t-shirt…his hands entangled in the hem of the shirt.

“Sit down, J,” Chris said gently as he motioned to the younger man. Silently, Justin leaned against the wall and slid down until he was seated at the older man’s side.

“You were asleep when I left you,” Chris quietly commented when Justin did not begin speaking.

“I couldn’t sleep…bad dreams,” Justin said as he stared ahead all the while continuing to tug at the bottom of his shirt with one hand while running the other over his head then his face. “I…um…I dreamed that I had…I had been taken instead.”

“J…” Chris began, but the younger man interrupted him.

“I was taken…and…I tried to get away…you know…but I couldn’t…I tried but they were too big, Chris.”

“It was a dream, Justin…it was just a dream. I bet the meds are making you dream like that.”

“I wonder where they are…are they okay…are they scared?”

Justin’s voice sounded so small…so lost and Chris was compelled to make the situation somewhat better, if that were at all possible and he took a deep breath to steady his voice…to make it sound stronger than he was feeling.

“I don’t know…I’m sure they’re okay…they’re together…that’s something to keep in mind. If I know any of them, Joey will protect JC and Lance…Lance will keep his head and negotiate his way out of the situation and JC…he’ll write a song about it when its all over,” Chris stated with a small, wan smile.

Justin chuckled half-heartedly at Chris’s attempt at humor but soon the chuckles turned into choked sobs full of fear and anger. Chris raised his arm, allowing Justin to lean against the slighter man. Silent tears traced their way down Chris’s cheeks as he ran his hand over Justin’s curls.

“They’ve got to be okay…they’ve just got to be,” he whispered. “Please…God…keep them safe…please.”