Would the Russians do something like this? Or the Iranians? Would they have spies that had good enough language skills that they wouldn’t have any accent? Would either of those countries take a risk like that? It wasn’t like David could build them the technology. He just knew about the applications: how a voice-recognition software could identify a particular bad guy, or how a new type of computer virus could beat the protection software. Who would want that information badly enough to capture a U.S. employee on American soil? Weren’t they stealing it all through cyber warfare anyway? The United States wouldn’t stand for this. He had to calm down. The government would find him. Rescue him. Right?

But no one had seen him. Maybe the government would never find out. God, he hoped he wasn’t going to die. Death may or may not be imminent. He didn’t know. But being tied up and blindfolded in the back of a car like this certainly didn’t bode well for his health. David thought about his loved ones. He tried to remember his last interaction with each of them.

He remembered telling his wife, Lindsay, that he loved her when he left for work that morning. He had kissed her on the cheek as she nursed their youngest daughter, Taylor. Her eyes were half closed as she sat in the rocking chair, but she had smiled. David travelled often now. Lindsay held the house together. She practically raised the kids herself. She was the perfect companion. He owed her everything, and loved her more every day, if that was possible.

He had kissed his oldest daughter Maddie on the cheek as she slept in her bed. Was that the last time he would see them? If he had known, he would have told his wife a thousand times how much he loved her. He never would have let go of his daughters. They were the best part of life. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing them.

David tried to think of the last time he visited his mother. It was a year earlier, in the large waterfront home his parents had owned near Annapolis, Maryland. David tried to remember the last thing he had said to her but couldn’t. It was probably about his work. She was always telling him that he worked too hard and too long, and that the government couldn’t keep pushing people like that. That Mrs. Green’s son from church had a government job and he was home every day at 4 p.m. and never had to travel. He hoped he hadn’t been condescending in his response. She only said those things because she cared for him. If she were still around, she would be devastated if he was hurt—or worse. A Navy wife for more than 35 years, she had been tough as nails and dedicated to her three children. She had practically raised them on her own with their father gone so much. He wished she had still been around when Taylor was born. It would have been nice to let her see one more crying grandchild. A slice of heaven for a dying grandmother. But hardship and sacrifice was the way of life in a military family like the Mannings.