Hostage: Dan Mason Series Book #2

By Darren G. Burton

A young American man goes missing in the Philippines. He simply vanishes outside his Cebu restaurant one night and no one has seen him since. In a country infamous for crime, corruption and the kidnapping of foreigners by extremist groups, everyone fears the worst.

John Harvard suspects his younger brother Tyler is a kidnap for ransom victim, which is soon confirmed when he receives a phone call and a ransom demand. If the ransom isn't paid, Tyler dies. It's that simple.

When local authorities seem disinterested in the case, good friend and crime troubleshooter, Dan Mason, is called in to find Tyler. With the help of a local woman, Dan investigates Tyler's disappearance, but the deeper he digs, the less he seems to uncover.

When he finally gets a solid lead he can follow, Dan's confident the case will be wrapped up soon. But nothing could be further from the truth as things quickly spiral out of control.

**Please Note** - Hostage is a long short story of roughly 20,000 words. It is not a novel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Darren G. Burton
• Release date: Jan 26, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463002483

Darren G. Burton

I have been a writer for over 30 years. I've written numerous full length works of fiction and non-fiction, as well as many short stories and [e-mail]

Book preview

Hostage

Darren G. Burton

Published by Darren G. Burton on Smashwords

Copyright © 2020 Darren G. Burton

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Chapter One

Tyler had no idea where he was. Everything was a blank. His last memory had been closing up his restaurant and preparing to go home.

He’d been in the alley out the back smoking a cigarette. That was when a van had pulled up and four men with guns had got out. At first he’d thought it was some sort of police raid, only the guys hadn’t been dressed in the uniform of the PNP or NBI, and looked more like they were from the provinces rather than belonging to a government department.

Even though he’d been in the Philippines for years, and knew a few words of the local dialect, he still didn’t understand the language and had no idea what the men were saying to each other as they’d approached him, four guns pointed at his midsection. One of the men had lowered his gun and fished something from his pocket. With his teeth he’d pulled off a cap and stuck a syringe into Tyler’s arm before he’d had a chance to react.

Everything had gone hazy very rapidly after that, and next thing he knew we was groggily waking up in a small room on a cement floor, his head aching and a sour taste in his mouth.

He had no clue how long he’d been out. It could have been an hour. It could have been days. All he knew was that it was dark out, a fact made obvious by the black sky he could see through a small open window with rusted bars on it.

The room was hot and humid and his skin and clothing felt damp and clammy with sweat. There was no fan in the room that he could make out in the gloom, and certainly no air conditioning.

In fact, there was nothing in the room except him. On the opposite wall was the entrance door. He staggered to his feet and made his way over to it, but when he tried the handle he soon discovered it was locked.

No real surprises there, he thought.

Tyler put his ear to the door, but couldn’t hear any sounds coming from the other side. He went over to the window then and looked outside, but all he saw was jungle in the darkness. Lightning licked across the sky far off in the distance, too far away to hear any thunder or light up the scene.

He rummaged in his pockets and found he still had his cigarettes. He lit one and puffed on it tenaciously as he continued to stare out into the night.

Who were these four armed men who’d.....well, kidnapped him basically? He had no enemies. What could they possibly want with him? Was it a case of mistaken identity? He hoped that’s all it was, and when they realized their mistake, they would set him free and send him home.

But then again, maybe they wouldn’t. They hadn’t been wearing masks. He’d seen their faces, even though it was all a bit of a blur. They might fear he’d identify them and turn them in to the authorities.

Would he do that if they set him free? He wasn’t sure. All he was certain about was wanting to get out of there.

The effects of whatever they’d jabbed him with to knock him out had pretty much worn off now. He was feeling awake and alert, and the more lucid his mind became, the more his heart clenched with fear of what was to come.

Chapter Two

Dan Mason stared out the window of the A320 Airbus as it flew over the many thousands of islands that made up the Philippines. After a long flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, it had been a brief layover until the connecting flight to Cebu; the Philippines’ second largest city.

The sun was setting as the aircraft lost altitude in preparation for landing at Mactan-Cebu International Airport. Twenty minutes later, when the jet’s wheels kissed the tarmac with a squeal, twilight had descended over the city.

Keen to get off the plane, Dan was one of the first to his feet when the fasten seat belt light eventually went off. He reached into the overhead compartment and withdrew a small backpack, then stood there in the crush and impatiently waited for the doors to open and the people lined up ahead of him to disembark.

After what seemed like an eternity, he was finally off the plane and walking through the terminal building, where he negotiated Immigration and followed the crowd to the luggage carousel. Once outside, a taxi took him to his hotel in Cebu city and, being