The Spirit Box (10)

Chapter 10: The Kidnapping

As I walked into Chief's office, I noticed he was upset, and also had a small, ornate box on his desk. "Is that what I think it is?" I asked, intrigued.

"Oh, this?" Chief said, picking up the box. "It contains the spirit of Virginia Hall, a legendary OSS agent from World War II."

“So you found Mysterious Joe? Why do you need Virginia’s spirit though?” I asked.

“My phone rang late last night. I picked it up, and listened to a disguised, deep voice tell me that my son, Little Chief, has been kidnapped. They threatened to kill him unless I could get them ten million dollars in cash or resign my post as Chief of police. I don’t have ten million dollars and I sure as hell am not resigning and letting the kidnappers take advantage of the fact that I no longer have access to police resources, making them impossible to catch. I decided to look for him on my own, and I had just left Little Chiefs apartment an hour prior so I knew the kidnappers were nearby. I went out looking for him, asking anybody who was a potential witness if they’d seen anything. I couldn’t find him, my whole body turned pale and I felt nauseous. That’s when mysterious Joe showed up with Virginia Halls spirit.”

"I’m so sorry to hear that. That's incredible, though, that mysterious Joe gave you just the right spirit," I said. "I'm sure her expertise will be invaluable. We’re going to find your son," I said.

I was stunned. Genuinely stunned. Little Chief was my neighbor. I enjoyed talking to him. He was the only stoner I associated with, and always had great advice. Or, at least his advice sounded great, but stoners make everything sound amazing.

“I’m scared I’ll never see my son again,” Chief said.

"I'm so sorry, Chief," I said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "We'll do everything we can to find him. Have you inhaled Virginia Hall yet?" I asked.

Chief nodded, looking angry. "I know. We’re going to catch these sons of bitches. We’re going to put them in prison, and I’m going to get ten minutes alone with them. And with Virginia Hall's help, I have the skills of a master spy at my disposal."

With that, Chief opened the box and inhaled Virginia’s spirit.

“I’ll help you with any and all paperwork and administrative tasks while you focus on finding your son,” I said.

“Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you Fred. You’d be Chief pro tempor while I’d be a regular old detective! I refuse to be sidelined. I’ll lead the whole investigation myself,” Chief said.

“Whoa, I’m just making a nice offer…” I said.

“Sorry, that was Ms. Hall. Yes, you can be Chief for the day. I want every detective here on the case,” Chief said.

“On it,” I said and barked orders at everyone to get started.

With every officer and police resource at our disposal, we launched a massive search for Little Chief.

Chief used Virgina’s espionage skills to gather intelligence, track down leads, and piece together clues.

I was sitting at my desk when Chief came bursting into my cubicle, the wind gust he created practically knocking down the thin walls surrounding my desk.

“I interviewed a witness who was able to identify one of the suspects, who worked at a flower shop. I found him, and he was a little punk, refusing to talk. But as the hours ticked by, and maybe a few knuckles were broken by a hammer that fell on them by accident, he finally told me the location of my son, Little Chief.”

“Yah, we definitely need more funding from the city if we’re going to secure our hammers to make sure they stop falling off the shelves by accident and hitting knuckles! Damn budgeting office!” I quipped.

Chief laughed before continuing.

“He’s in an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town, Paseo Del Mar. Get our SWAT ready, we’re going in now,” Chief said.

I gathered our forces and we all got in our police vans and followed Chief.

I sat in the back of one of the vans with Yi and let one of the rookies drive.

The way to the abandoned warehouse was so long, I fell asleep.

I had a dream that we rescued Chiefs son without a single casualty. I woke up whimpering, in a cold sweat.

“You ok?” Yi asked me.

“I just had the worst nightmare. We rescued Chiefs son, and I didn’t get to kill a single bad guy,” I said.

“Oh god, sounds terrible,” Yi said and smiled.

*****

As we got closer to the warehouse, our truck was hit and swerved into a nearby sidewalk.

I was knocked around so hard I hit my head against the van and now felt dizzy.

“What the hell?” I said.

“Better inhale,” Yi said and took out his spirit box.

I took out John’s box and inhaled him.

I heard a screeching sound and looked out the now broken van window to see a large, old Mercedes G4 backing up, dented from hitting us and probably about to ram our van again.

“Out of the van,” I said as the G4 gunned it and sped towards us.

We were out just in time.

“What the hell kind of car is that?” Yi asked.

“It’s an old G4 that the Nazis used to use. Why this asshole is ramming it into us, I have no idea,” I said.

The man in the car got out, and several other cars surrounded us and our other vans.

The man inhaled a spirit from a box before making an announcement in a thick and evil sounding German accent.

“I am Klaus Barbie, and America will pay for its treachery! France should have been ours, now Los Angeles will be ours, ha ha ha!” Klaus said as his men pulled out machine guns.

“You are all our prisoners,” Klaus said.

“I can’t wait to lock this asshole in my vault,” I said.

“Who the hell is he?” Yi asked.

“Klaus Barbie is a notoriously evil Gestapo officer and piece of human garbage who should be added to a tire fire. He was a mass murderer and torturer who was known as the ‘Butcher of Lyon,’” I explained.

“God damn animal,” Yi said and flew towards Klaus.

Klaus fired and hit Yi in the arm, who dropped to the ground.

“Yi, no! Klaus, you son of a bitch!” I shouted.

“Do something,” Klaus challenged.

“Don’t worry, Fred, I’m ok! The body armor took most of the damage!”

Klaus yanked Yi up and put a gun to his back.

“Everyone inside the warehouse, NOW,” Klaus shouted.

“I don’t think so,” Chief shouted.

Klaus pointed his gun at Chief in a failed attempt to intimidate him, but Chief just pointed up.

Klaus looked at the sky and saw paratroopers parachuting down from the sky.

“What the hell? No! You’ve ruined everything! My plans! My world domination! Ruined,” Klaus shouted and started firing rounds into the sky.

The paratroopers started firing back.

“Nazi scum,” Chief said and knocked Klaus to the ground, dislocating his jaw.

Somehow, Klaus managed to put his jaw back into place, despite his screams of pain while doing so, got himself up and ran to hide inside the warehouse like the coward he was.

The paratroopers rounded up the other Nazis and arrested them. Their spirit boxes were in there cars, and I was able to quickly convince the people to sneeze them back into their boxes. Some aggressive punching might have been necessary with a few, but worth it to get these piece of crap spirits back into their perspective boxes.

“Now, let’s find Barbie!” I said and grabbed a 12 gauge from the broken van.

Chief, Yi and I walked inside the warehouse.

“Where are you, Klaus? I want my son back. Don’t be a coward and come out from hiding, you piece of crap,” Chief shouted.

“I’m over here, you little American fairy. And I’m no coward. You’re the one who used the spirit of a woman to track me down,” Klaus said.

“Sounds like you’re jealous. At least I have a woman,” Chief said smugly!

We turned a corner and saw Klaus holding a Luger P08 to Little Chiefs head.

“Not another step,” Klaus said.

“Virgina, how good is your aim?” Chief whispered.

“What was that? I can’t hear you!” Klaus said.

“Dad, I’m scared,” Little Chief said.

Chief fired and landed a round in the center of Barbie’s head, who dropped to the ground.

“I’ll go find his spirit box before this guy turns into a spirit zombie,” I said.

“They can do that?” Chief asked.

“Yup. Seen it before. There were cultists who came back as zombies,” Yi said.

“The spirits can apparently reanimate corpses,” I said.

I walked out, scoured the old crashed car Klaus was driving, found his box and got back just in time. Klaus was standing up.

I opened up the box and sucked out his spirit.

“I’ll be back,” his spirit shouted as it was sucked into the box.

I closed it and shouted, “no you won’t.”

Then I threw the box into a lit furnace.

“Enjoy hell,” I said and smiled to spirit screams.

“Didn’t you want to add that to your collection?” Yi asked.

“That one’s not even worth keeping. Plus, there’s a dozen more outside I can lock away,” I said and smiled.

Yi and Chief gave me high fives.

“Can someone untie me now?” Little Chief said.

“Oh, right,” I said and untied him.

“Thanks for saving me, guys,” Little Chief said. He got up and immediately hugged his dad.

“Of course. You’re my son, and I love you,” Chief said and started to tear up.

“I love you too, dad,” Little Chief responded, and now Chief was balling.

“Wow, Chief, I’ve never seen you cry before,” I said.

“Shut up, Fred,” Chief said, and we all started laughing.

Fun fact: Virginia Hall was a real spy, code named Marie and Diane. She was a famous OSS agent during World War II. She worked with the United Kingdom's Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in France, making significant contributions to the Allied war effort.