“Everyone: say cheese!” Kelsey said excitedly. Along with her two friends: Meredith and Susan, she flashed a big smile and hit the button on her phone. It clicked, taking the photo. Kelsey looked at it to make sure she got a good one. As always, it was perfect. The 19-year old coed stood in the center of the picture with her two friends on either side, grinning faces pressed close together. Kelsey was a brunette, her long hair tied back in a ponytail. Meredith had long raven black hair while Susan had her red hair cut in a short pixie cut. Below, the skimpy bikinis they’d bought the day before were on full display as were the fit, young bodies wearing them.

“Come on Kelsey!” Susan said, as she and Meredith ran for the pool. Laughing and whooping, they threw themselves into the crystal blue water with a splash.

“Just a sec…” Kelsey called back. Hurriedly, she typed out a short “Chillin’ @ the Pool w/ my gals! #SummerFun #NewBikinis” and hit post. She tossed her phone into her poolbag and, laughing, ran to join her friends in an afternoon of care free fun.

***

In a dark room somewhere, a man sat at a computer, watching as the carefully programmed algorithm he’d set up trolled the internet. Periodically, pictures would pop on screen; some professional, some from news sites but most from social media. Each showed a different young brunette woman. He clicked through them, rejecting most, sending others to a file for later consideration.

The man stopped as another picture popped up. It was like most of the others from a social media post: showing a teen girl at the poolside with her friends, but the man looked at the photograph long and hard. From the top of his desk he picked up another, physical photograph and held it beside the screen, comparing the two. The man grinned, reaching for his phone. “I think I’ve found what you’re looking for…yeah, a near perfect match…I think your search is over…I’ll let you know when I’ve got the details for the pickup.” He hung up and set his phone down.

Turning back to the computer, the man fed the post into another one of his algorithms and set it running. When it was finished, he would know all there was to find out about this Kelsey Mitchell, including where to find her…

***

Kelsey brought up the latest selfie on her phone. It showed her and her friends sitting close to each other on the battered old couch in their apartment. Kelsey had on pajama pants and a t-shirt. Susan wore an oversized sweater and leggings and Meredith a tank top and sweatpants. With the caption “Wednesday Night Movie Night! #DisneyClassics” she posted it to her social media.

The three friends spread out on the couch as Meredith scrolled through Disney+ to find the movie they’d settled on. She’d just queued up the movie when there was a sudden crash from the front door of the apartment. The three girls looked up, crying out in shock and terror as a group of men in black ski masks rushed in. Kelsey fumbled for her phone, thinking to call 911, but she froze as one of the lead intruders raised a black pistol in her direction and squeezed the trigger.

To her surprise, and relief, instead of the sharp bark and searing pain of a bullet, Kelsey heard a soft “pfft!” and a tiny pinprick in her belly. When she looked down, she saw the feathered end of a dart sticking to the front of her shirt, a small bead of red showing where it had pierced the skin. An instant later, the room started to spin around Kelsey as the drugs began to take effect. The last thing she heard before she sank into oblivion were two more puffs of compressed gas and startled yelps as her two friends were darted as well. Then she knew nothing…

***

When Kelsey came to again, she was lying on the hard concrete floor of a cell. It took her a moment to work out that was where she was. The last dregs of the drugs that had been used to knock her out left the teen disoriented and confused. “Is this a prison? Am I a prisoner?” She wondered. Kelsey couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to abduct her, but it had happened nonetheless. She wondered, fearfully, where her friends were and if they were in the same situation as her.

Kelsey struggled to her feet, not an easy task for her at the moment. Her hands were pulled behind her back and locked in a pair of steel handcuffs which dug into her wrists painfully. Another cuff was locked around her right ankle, joined by a short chain to a staple bolted to the floor of the cell.

“Eeh-oo? NN–ee-unn!!” Kelsey grunted. A round rubber plug was wedged between her teeth, held there by tight leather straps circling her head. “Nn-ee-unn!! EEesss!!!” She grunted as loud as she could, trying to get the attention of her captors.

Her cries seemed to have been heard. A moment later, she heard a rasp of metal on metal. Turning, she saw a slot in the door had been slid open. A set of dark eyes looked through at her. A second later, it slid shut again. Kelsey heard the sound of a key turning in the lock on the door and it swung open on rusty hinges. Two men came in. One of them looked to be one of the intruders who had kidnapped the teen and her friends, or at the least he wore the same black fatigues and ski mask they’d had on. The other man was dressed in a business suit but likewise wore a black mask.

“There are a couple points we wish to make perfectly clear, young lady…” The man in the suit said. “Firstly, no one knows where you are, so don’t count on being rescued. Escape is also an impossibility. We are used to keeping our prisoners very secure.”

“Secondly…” He continued, ignoring Kelsey’s frightened murmurs. “So long as you cooperate and do what we tell you, no harm will come to you, or your friends. There is a task we want you to perform for us. If you do so, all will be fine. Otherwise…” He trailed off, leaving the threat unspoken, but understood.

The other man, meanwhile, had taken out a key. The cuff on Kelsey’s ankle was unlocked. He grabbed the teen by one arm and led her out of the cell. She found herself in a short corridor with two or three cells on either side of the one she had come out of. Opposite, another door led off into the rest of whatever building she had been brought to.

“Look here.” The man in the suit said, stepping up to one of the other cells. He slid the viewing slit back and gestured for Kelsey to look through it. As she stepped forward, Kelsey could hear the sound of an angry feminine voice, grunting curses through a gag and the rattling of chains. A young woman stood against the wall at the back of the cell. Her hands were raised and locked into shackles chained to the wall above her head. Another set of cuffs further down secured her feet. She strained against them, spitting angry invective through a thick panel gag which covered the lower part of her face.

Kelsey stared in shock. The woman in the cell wore only a skimpy pair of panties and she was dirty and disheveled after being held captive for however long she had been kept down here, but aside from that the other young woman was a near perfect match for Kelsey. There were some differences; her hair was shorter and cut a different style, but the resemblance was still uncanny.

The other girl noticed it too, as Kelsey raised her face to the viewing slit and grunted something back. For a long minute they stood and stared at each other, eyes wide with shock and confusion.

This was ended as the man in the suit pulled Kelsey back and slammed the viewing slit shut. He turned to face Kelsey. “Your doppelganger in there is a certain Miss Alicia Keys. She recently inherited a controlling stake in a multinational company our organization is interested in acquiring. As far as the wider world knows, Miss Keyes is currently on a Meditation Retreat at a private resort. When she returns next week, she will announce that she has changed her plans and will be withdrawing from active management of the company and public life altogether. She will then sign certain documents which will give our organization complete control of the company and all her assets.”

He grinned, “Of course, she will actually be you, impersonating her. We’ve searched hard to find someone close enough in appearance to pass for Miss Keys. Over the next several days, you will be trained to mimic her voice and mannerisms as well. Of course, if you fail, try to escape us or otherwise interfere with our plans…” He led Kelsey to the next two cells, letting her look through the viewing slits in the doors. Meredith was in the first cell, Susan in the one beside it. Both girls were chained up and gagged the same way Kelsey had been. “We will hold your friends as our prisoners, to ensure your cooperation. Do your job and all will be well, but fail and the next time you see your friends will be identifying their bodies at the morgue. Understand?”

Numbly, Kelsey nodded. She couldn’t believe what was going on here, but it was painfully clear her only choice was to follow along with what these people wanted and hope some opportunity for escape would appear. But whatever happened, she knew she couldn’t risk letting anything happen to her friends.

“Excellent. Now, first things first, you’ll need to have your hair cut, to match Miss Keys. Then, we have some videos of her speaking before the board of directors. You will study her voice and movements until you can pass for her.” He nodded to the other man who led the teen through the other door out of the cellblock and to begin her intensive training.

Beneath his sky mask, the other man grinned watching them go. The plan was working just fine so far. The girl they picked up was a dead ringer for Miss Keys. Soon, their organization would have control of her company and assets, just so long as the girl played her part.

“Too bad for her, though.” He thought, chuckling. She didn’t realize, and wouldn’t realize until it was too late, her captors couldn’t afford to let any of their prisoners ever go free. Ordinarily, that would be handled with a pistol shot to the back of the head and a late night boat ride out to sea. But luckily for the four girls, they were all young pretty enough that another, more lucrative option presented itself. Whether they would consider being trafficked into the international trade in bondage slaves and sold to the highest bidder better or worse then a quick execution he didn’t know, or care. The money he and his associates made from selling them would be a nice bonus in addition to everything else they stood to make from this scheme.

“Just one more week…” He thought eagerly. “And it will be done! Nothing can stop us now!”