Takumi wondered if it was normal to be thinking like this when something like this happened to you.

Just a few minutes ago, a bunch of guys in masks had grabbed him off the street and took him to some run-down dusty building full of old boxes. The whole place was covered in dirt and the floors were mostly just grit and dust on top of concrete. They'd thrown him in a room with piled up crates, cardboard and cobwebs, then locked the door. Maybe most nine year old kids would be scared at this, but Takumi felt angry. Three of the men stayed behind, outside his prison, still wearing their ski masks.

"My dad'll kick your asses for this!" He shouted. The three men ignored him. A tall one who the others seemed to listen to was on the phone. Takumi was already thinking of him as the Smart One.

"We've got his kid, boss. We just need to get the message to him now."

Takumi listened, but heard nothing from the rest of the conversation.

"...Yes boss, I'll be sure to let him know the price he pays for what he did to the guys. He wants to see his son again, a million dollars."

"I thought the boss and the others were gonna shoot him when he shows up?" A bulky, slow-talking one said. Slow and Dumb

"Jeez, shut up you moron!" A short, squeaky voiced one said. Squeaky.

Takumi felt frightened now. They were going to shoot his dad? What had his dad done to them? Were they the guys his dad had got into a fight with a few weeks ago? He'd beat them all up, so maybe they were sore losers...

"We won't hurt him if we don't have to. What'll we do once you've met with his dad?" The Smart One continued. There was another pause.

"Okay, no problem."

Smart One hung up without even saying goodbye. Even Takumi knew that was pretty rude, but come to think of it these guys hadn't been very polite so far.

The boy looked around the room, seeing only boxes and crates. Nothing seemed to be in them, but there was a small window on one wall. Then he spotted something the three thugs should really have not left with him. His bag.

He quietly looked inside it, and found they had been pretty stupid. They'd left him his phone! He then noticed that it had no signal.

'Uh oh. What does dad do when his phone loses the signal?' Takumi thought, looking at the phone puzzled.

'Oh yeah, he moves it around the room to try and find a better spot!' he remembered, and began walking around, watching the signal strength bar on the phone... stay completely flat.

He sighed, and looked at the window. Maybe if he could get there the signal might come in the window...

***

"Wait... Where's that bag?" Smart One realised.

"Bag?" Slow and Dumb asked.

"The kid had a bag. Where is it?"

"In with him."

The other two thugs stared at their slow thinking associate.

"You left the bag with him?!" Smart One exploded, rushing towards the door. He quickly unlocked it and slammed it open, causing Takumi to jump.

"Give me that phone, kid!" Smart One yelled. Takumi handed it over, frightened. The man began checking it.

"Good. You didn't use it to phone anyone. Dumb move, kid, you had a full signal..."

'...No way! That's not fair!' Takumi fumed.

The thug then left, locking the door. Takumi stood annoyed for a moment.

"...Hey, can I get my phone back? Please?"

Smart One came back to the door, and shouted through it.

"Later. I'm borrowing it."

***

Smart One finished the text message, sent to "Dad". His boss was pleased.

"Good work. That'll do the trick, getting a message like that from his son's number. Now, you know what to do with the phone."

"Sure." Smart One said, dropping the stolen phone to the ground.

He had played it smarter than Takumi would realise. He had driven far from the storage building that they held the boy in, and had sent the message there. Still, the boy had wanted his phone back, and he had said please...

***

Takumi sighed. The Smart One had been away for ages. He hadn't really expected his phone back but he liked having a phone like that. Most other kids his age weren't trusted with one and if he lost it his dad might stop trusting him. It occurred to him though, that might not be such a big problem compared to other things...

He checked his bag again, wondering if he'd put his DS in it. No luck. Maybe a book. Nothing but school jotters. This was boring...

He was looking at the window when the door reopened. Smart One threw the phone back in, and Takumi was shocked to see it. It had been stamped on and smashed to bits.

"No more phone calls for you, kid. I used it to send a message to your dad though..." Smart One taunted. Squeaky cackled, his laugher sounding as annoying as his high pitched voice.

Takumi ignored his broken phone. It wasn't much use any more.

***

The thugs had failed to think of one thing by sending a text message. That perhaps the recipient's phone wasn't being answered. As it was, Jacob Angelo's phone sat for nearly half an hour before he noticed the text message from his son's phone.  

In that time, Takumi had decided to try something. He'd take a wooden crate and found he could push it slowly and not make much noise. His goal: to reach the small window. It looked a little loose, so he figured he could open it.

'They're gonna freak out when they find I've got away! Takumi gleefully thought as he climbed onto the crate, and tried to push the window. Only to somehow loose his balance and begin to topple backwards.

"Whooooa!" He cried out as he fell, landing on some of the cardboard boxes. The noise he made brought Slow and Dumb running, with Squeaky behind.

"What was that?!" Smart One shouted.

"The kid tried to climb through the vent!" Squeaky guessed wrong.

Takumi was a little dazed, but turned to see his fall had somehow knocked down the cover to a vent. A vent that was right below the cardboard boxes he'd landed on.

"...Keep an eye on him. I'll be back in a minute." Smart One yelled.

"Sure thing." Slow and Dumb said. The two thugs stood in the door, not taking their eyes off Takumi.

Eventually, Squeaky spoke up.

"How dumb are you anyway, kid?"

"Not as dumb as you!" Takumi retorted. Somehow this didn't cut deeply and Squeaky kept talking.

"Seriously, climbing cardboard boxes? Even if you got into the vent that's a dumb thing. I heard a story once. A little brat, like you. All snot-nosed and curious about things. Wanted to look inside the air vents in his school, so he climbed in. You know what's in a vent?"

"...Rats?" Takumi ventured.

"Sometimes. And especially after this kid went in. Cos he didn't come out again. See, air vents aren't a straight line. There are fans inside them. Big fans. Fans that sometimes aren't on. This kid, they figure he was passing one when it switched on. They found him a week later. Both halfs of him." Squeaky said, in the best grim voice he could muster.

Like Takumi's scathing retort, this scare story fell flat.

"Cool! There's really fans that cut you in half inside vents?!" Takumi said, surprising both men.

"Uh..." Slow and Dumb said, most freaked out.

"Was he all rotten and messy? Did they find him cos of the smell or cos of the rats?!"

"Wow, kid, you're messed up..." Squeaky said, genuinely horrified, having forgotten that boys between the ages of 6 and 12 have little grasp on the difference between "cool" and "disgusting", as well as the fact they could have surprisingly morbid imaginations.

Smart One returned in time to find Takumi still babbling on about the air-vent kid.

"...What is this little brat talking about?"

"I tried to scare him to stop him climbing in the vents again..." Squeaky admitted.

"And you told him a scary story. Smart. I told you to watch him, not try and make him pee his pants..."

Takumi stared at him.

"It wasn't a scary story." The boy noted. The Smart One sighed.

"Maybe this will scare you..."

***

"Doesn't scare meee..." Takumi sang.

"God, shut up kid!" Squeaky screeched.

Takumi had spent the last ten minutes loudly shouting about how the three were failing miserably at their efforts to intimidate him.

"La la la la you're all stoopid la la laaaaaa..." Takumi continued, being deliberately tuneless. It annoyed everyone else...

"Okay, that's it." Smart One fumed, rushing to the door again. Inside. Takumi turned to look at him, grinning. Smart One sighed, for even with his hands tied behind his back, and feet tied together at the ankles, Takumi was hopping around, his shoes loudly clattering off the floor.

"Let's see you hop around and make noise with no shoes." Smart One said, grabbing Takumi and yanking his shoes and socks off as the boy struggled.

"I can still hop around!" Takumi said defiantly as he was dropped. He stood, and then found that even though he could, there was no noise, and his feet hurt on the rough gritty floor.

"Isn't it fun to hop now?" Squeaky cackled.

"I'll just sing instead..." Takumi huffed. Smart One smiled, and then produced a roll of duct tape. Takumi struggled, but soon enough, his mouth was taped shut, and his loud protests were muffled.

The three then locked the door, laughing intently. Takumi kept trying to be heard, but his muffled words barely passed the door. He then looked back at the crates. Hopping up to his feet, he managed to then get over to the crate and shuffle his way to climbing up it. It didn't occur to him the irony that he managed to get onto the crate without falling off now, even with his hands and feet bound.  He nudged the window with his head, and it flapped open slightly. Below the tape, Takumi grinned.

***

He'd managed to push his upper body through the small window, and was trying to wriggle his legs through when it occurred to him, that he would have to fall head first.

'Wait, that's not going to be a good idea... he realised, and tried to stop and think of another idea. However, he was already too far through, and slid out with a muffled squeal of surprise.

Luckily, his landing bruised only his pride, twisting during his short drop to land on his side. The fact it was grass here also helped soften the blow. He stood up, then his eyes went wide.

He'd stood on nettles! He bounced around screaming, muffled by the tape...

***

He'd kept hopping away, not sure if anyone was following or even if anyone was around. Eventually, he reached a road, and soon enough, the sight of a boy bouncing along with hands and feet tied caused a motorist to pull over. Takumi was glad to see the woman driver leave her car, and tried to explain through the tape his predicament.

"What's going on here?!" The woman asked. She then yanked the tape off, not being gentle.

"Ow!" Takumi complained.

"What exactly do you think you're doing?" The woman pressed on.

"You've got to help me! I got tied up by..."

"Bullies?" The woman interrupted.

"No, these guys! They wanted my dad to give them money for me."

The woman seemed sceptical.

"Well, if that's true, I had better phone your father for you. Does he have a phone?"

Takumi realised if she phoned his dad, she'd realise he was telling the truth. He told her and she dialled it.

"Who is this?!"

Takumi smiled to hear his dad loudly shouting through the phone.

"Is this Mister Angelo?" The woman said.

"Yeah. I've got your money..." His dad's voice said.

The woman turned pale. Takumi didn't realise his dad's voice was lowered after "money" and went on to threaten his mystery caller.

"I... I'm not one of the men. Your boy is safe..."

"Are you a cop?! Did you arrest them?!"

"I'm not with the police..." The woman faltered, feeling both terrified and foolish that she'd thought the story from the boy was a lie...

***

"Nice having that kid quiet." Squeaky noted.

"Yeah." Slow and Dumb agreed.

They'd sat in blissful silence for over half an hour. No clatters, no jumping, no singing.

"They ought to be meeting his dad soon. He won't bother us again."

"Say, what are we gonna do with the kid after this? The boss never said." Slow and Dumb said.

"Not sure. We'll see. I think we'd better check on him. He's been a little too quiet..." Smart realised. He headed for the door, unlocking it and opening it.

"He's gone!" Smart yelled. At that instant, the doorway into the building burst open and a dozen policemen stormed in. Squeaky and Dumb threw their hands up as the cops surrounded them.

At the intended meeting site, the rest of the gang were alarmed by the sudden arrival of a helicopter and a small army of police cars. The roads to escape were cut off, and through a few tried to run away, the helicopter helped the squad cars chase them down.

***

Back at where Takumi had met the now-very embarrassed woman, Jacob had arrived and began fussing over his son. The police had also arrived with him.

"We've caught all of them, Mister Angelo. It seems the ones at the place they told you to meet had a trap set up like you son says. He's a brave boy. He saved himself and he saved you."

"I hope you kicked their asses." Takumi said. The policeman smiled.

"Oh, trust me, kid, they'll get what's coming to them. People like them always do."

Takumi sat for a moment, thinking.

"Hey, now they're all arrested, can we go home?"

"Not yet. We need to ask you and your dad a few more questions at the police station." The policeman said.

"Oh." Takumi said glumly. He then spoke again.

"Well, can someone go get my DS?"

"Uh... Okay..."

"Oh, yeah, and my bag. And did you find my shoes, I think the smart guy took them... Oh hey, at the police station do you guys have any ice cream? Or just donuts?" Takumi began.

'They're meant to be asking you the questions, Takumi...' Jacob thought as his son began rambling on.