Many thanks to Cee for the edits and suggestions.
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Mancini frowned as Frank told him the news that the little sneak had already set off the homer. The frown changed to a smirk as Frank detailed the way that the sneak had died. The frown returned when his earlier thoughts about what needed to be done before they could quit the place intruded on his momentary pleasure gained on ridding himself of both of the middlemen. As soon as the deal had been concluded, they would have to get out of the state and even the country. But Mexico was warm and safe and welcoming if the right pockets were oiled and the Mancini family knew which pockets to oil. "Rig the building." He'd be able to move back into Chicago full time when the heat had died down. He didn't need this place anymore. "Tie the charges to a remote detonator. We'll blow it as soon as we get to the airstrip." He waited for the answering nod from his subordinate and then asked, "How was the buyer going to get into contact with us?"
"The creep said the buyer was going to contact him on that."
Mancini made sure the phone was on and then pocketed it. "Thanks. Leave Stuey in the corridor outside. "
Frank nodded and exited the room.
Once Frank had gone, Mancini knelt down by Meg. Guessing that she'd zoned on the pain, he pressed down on one of the bruises on her face. "Meg." As her eyelids began to flutter, Mancini took his chance and opened the link and pushed past the pain, confusion and anger that was swirling around in the head of his sentinel and went straight for the controls. He slid the pain control down as far as he could. He removed himself from the link and said, "Meg, girl, come on. Mancini relaxed as she moved to the working position, even if she had fought to keep the link blocked, he was sure that she'd obey him now. "I just nudged your pain slider down. Can't have my sentinel being in pain, not when I need her." Mancini explained as he stroked her hair knowing that it calmed and focused her. "How are the prisoners?
"Frightened." There was a pause and just as Mancini thought she'd zoned again, Meg spoke, "The one that was injured, his breathing is rapid, he's probably in pain. I haven't given him anything since he went back. He'll need something if he's to be moved again. He's not a sentinel…."
Mancini nodded in agreement. "Sounds fair enough. You can check the long haired hippy over too. He's the one that's going to earn me the big bucks. Stuey will go with you. I've got to clear the office."
Meg nodded and then stood up. She said softly, "I'm ready," as she grabbed her medical bag from the counter.
Mancini indicated the door, "Make it quick. The buyer could call any time. I want them ready to move as soon as he says the word." Meg nodded and moved into the corridor. Mancini followed her and called, "Stuey come here."
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Blair checked the dressing over Dan's shoulder wound; satisfied that the wound was still dry he sat back down by Dan's side.
"How does it look?" Dan asked.
"Dry." Blair smiled at Dan. "That's good isn't it?"
Dan rolled his eyes and said, "Yeah. Just peachy. I'll be fine for making a run out of here, punching out the guards …."
Blair shook his head. "Well, you know us meek and mild guides…."
Dan merely muttered, "Uh –uh. You meek and mild?"
Blair sobered a little. His gaze focused on Adam who was handing a bottle of water to Tina. In a lowered voice, he asked, "Meggie Courcy, was she one of the kids at the commune?"
Dan took a few moments to answer. He spoke quietly, "Yes." "Roger Courcy was present at the raid," Blair commented.
Dan laid his head back against the wall. Again after a few moments, he said, "I don’t know that. I was only involved in the aftermath; testing and placing the children. Apart from Adam, there were three others that were strong guide material." Blair grimaced, Dan sounded as though it was commonplace to… Dan, seeing the expressions cross Blair's face, continued, "The parents were either dead or in custody. If it hadn’t been me, it would have been someone else in the GDP. We were acting according to the regulations. "
"But Adam was the only one that was on line at the time?"
Dan grimaced as a wave of pain went through his body. After he'd recovered his breath, he said, "Guess the blanket only lasts a while."
Blair nodded. He added semi sarcastically, "Yeah, that's why we have to bond every so often." He immediately regretted his words. He fussed a little over Dan and then said, "Guess it’s just the usual GDP thing. Just as you start thinking that things are changing, something crawls out from under a stone." When Dan didn't answer, Blair continued, "Did you ever wonder about whether he was bonded or not?"
Dan took his time to answer. "The consensus of opinion at the time was that the adults were providing his barriers. None of the children we tested were sentinel material. "
"You obviously didn't test all of the children then," Blair commented acidly.
Dan let out a sharp hiss of breath as a wave of pain went through him and then asked Blair, "You got any ideas yet about how to get out of here?"
Blair opened his mouth to reply then promptly shut it. He looked across at Adam again and commented softly, "I don’t know. I…."
Dan followed his gaze and shook his head. "Far too dangerous, too unpredictable."
Martin broke into the conversation. "I agree."
Blair shook his head at the way Martin had remained unobserved for such a long while. "Next time tell us you're listening ."
Martin shrugged. "Frobisher was a bird watcher. We used to lie in the undergrowth for hours." He caught Blair's annoyed stare and ducked his head in a gesture of apology.
Blair looked at Dan who had a small smile on his face and then back at Martin. He challenged the GDP guide, "So what would you suggest?"
Martin shifted a little and then said, "The sentinel … I mean she's thin … I mean one of our duties… I mean I always made sure Frobisher ate the right stuff. It was a bit of a struggle working the hours we did but…."
Blair held his hand up to stop Martin from going off at a tangent and began to think furiously. How had she reacted when he'd thanked her for being gentle? She'd patted his back. Martin was right, she was thin. Her guide hadn’t been looking after her properly. How could they exploit that?
"Chief," Martin's whisper voice broke into Blair's thoughts before he could think of anything.
Blair looked up and saw the outer door beginning to swing open. He signalled to the others to kneel.
The young guard was the first to enter the room. After nodding in apparent satisfaction at the obedience of the prisoners, the guard turned to face the corridor and whistled. Meg walked in and stood at the side of the guard. "Go on, girl, and be quick about it." Meg nodded and moved towards Slater.
Ignoring for a moment what the sentinel was doing with Slater, Blair glanced around the room at the others and saw that Mark was looking speculatively at the guard. Blair turned his attention on the guard and wondered if they could try something as time was obviously running out on them. Trying to think like Jim, Blair considered the guard; young, relaxed, maybe a little off guard, it could work….
"Want to try, Guide?" The guard mover closer to Blair. Smiling, the guard fingered the trigger of his gun. "What do you think the odds are that I wouldn't hit one of your pals here before you even got close?"
A low growling noise erupted and Blair's view of the guard was blocked by Meggie Courcy. Despite still being constrained by the virtual wall constructed by the dampeners, the Dark Guide smiled. The sentinel was operating on pure instinct, protecting the guide dampened or not. How could they turn this to their advantage?
"Hey, girl, just a joke. No need to get rattled. Haven't you got a job to do?"
Blair saw that the back muscles were still stiff and she was still positioned to protect him if the need arose. Meggie remained in her place, between the guide and the perceived danger.
"Want me to tell the boss about your disobedience?"
Blair let the breath he'd been holding out when Meggie's head dipped and she moved to pick up the medical bag and then moved on towards Dan. He started to rise to follow her when the clicking of a trigger made him stop. Blair turned back towards Stuey and saw that the guard had trained his gun on Mark. He held up his hands and sank back to his knees. He said, "My head's hurting again. I thought your… medic could give me something for it." Blair tried to look as helpless as he could. Hopefully the guard would buy the excuse.
The guard delayed answering and looked as though he was trying to decide whether Blair was telling the truth or not. After a few moments he relaxed his trigger finger and nodded. "If she has time when she's finished, while she's down here, she might as well check you over."
"Thank you." As he bent his head down in apparent thankfulness, Blair peered out through his fringe at the others. They were all watching him, waiting for a signal he guessed. Closing his eyes momentarily, Blair sent out a silent prayer, 'come on Jim, come on Jim.'
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Simon looked around the three groups of people who had each taken a whiteboard. Each group had covered their respective boards with notes and symbols and arrows and stars. He saw Jim arguing about something with Watts. Simon had to smile at the young GDP officer who was almost standing on her toes to get face to face with the Senior Sentinel Prime of Cascade. She'd come downstairs straightaway with the files they'd requested from the GDP task force with the apology that her superior had gone out to see a snitch and had not yet returned. Jim had allocated her to his group which also contained Lisa and Karl. Walton had taken a group that included Niven. Edwards and David led the final group which included Donna James. Deciding that it was time to collate the work of all three groups, Simon clapped his hands to gain their attention. When that didn’t stop the noise, he bellowed, "Stop!"
Everyone turned around immediately. David had evidently been in the middle of writing something down – he still had a pen in his hand.
Once he had everyone's attention, Simon pointed out the window and said, "Daylight will be gone soon. Let’s see what we have. Walton, you go first." Simon drew a legal pad towards him and started to make notes. He waited until each of the groups had given a report and then said, "So, what you're saying is that we have connections for -"
"Detective Ellison?" All looked at the door where Technician Hayes was standing.
"What have you got?" demanded Ellison.
Waving a cassette around, Hayes began, "I knew you were in conference so I thought I'd check the machine myself." Hayes paused as he registered the presence of the GDP officer in the room. After a moment he continued quietly, "There's something on it you should hear."
Jim took the tape out of the technician's hands and handed it to Simon. "Play it." Jim retreated to the wall and looked out of the windows as Simon played the tape.
"You sure this was hooked up to Curtis's line?" Walton's question broke the silence that had fallen in the room.
Simon looked at Hayes and said, "This is GDP Captain Walton. One of the guides taken was his."
Hayes swallowed and nodded. "I am sure, sir. I did the job myself."
Simon looked across to Walton who caught his questioning gaze and shook his head. Simon said to Hayes, "You may go. Keep quiet about this."
Hayes nodded and left the room. Once the door was shut, the room exploded into noise. Edwards grabbed Simon's phone and dialled an extension and began to ask for an impossibly long list of equipment. Lisa was on her cellphone talking to Dr. Harvey at the hospital. Simon looked over to where the two GDP personnel stood. Watts was shaking her head; Walton looked stricken. Simon was sympathetic; it looked like one of their own had betrayed them. Only one person hadn’t moved from his position, hadn’t even looked around the room. Taking a deep breath, Simon moved over to where Jim stood. "Hey there, Detective, we've got them now. Let’s go get them."
Jim clenched his jaw and shook his head. "No. That's exactly what he wants us to do."
"Mancini?"
Jim gave a rueful grin and shook his head. He turned to look at the whiteboards. "I think we've been looking in the wrong direction all the time, Simon." Jim took a step into the room and held his hands up. "Can we have some quiet?" It wasn't a question but an order. Everyone shut up. Once he had everyone's attention, Jim turned to Donna. "Tell us what you found out about Meggie Courcy's background."
Edwards interrupted, "Senior…." Jim silenced him by holding up a hand.
"Roger Courcy comes from a family that were old New York, old money. The background of her mother was very hard to trace, even back then it was as if someone had tried to pretend she never existed. I managed to find a marriage certificate that showed they were married about a year before Meggie was born. From the few smidgens of information I could find, Meggie was born about nine months later. Three months later, Meggie's mom disappeared from Courcy's life. Meggie reappears on the scene when she was fourteen. Apparently her mother died in a forest fire at a place called Larchwood. She's buried on Courcy's country estate. Since she started living with her father, Meggie was home schooled and then she was kidnapped." Simon nodded his thanks as Donna came to a stop.
"Larchwood." Everyone turned to Walton. "We're connected via Larchwood. Smith and I were on the GDP raid on a commune called Larchwood. Courcy accompanied us on the raid."
"Isn’t that a bit unusual? I mean a civilian?" questioned Simon.
Walton ran a hand over his hair. "He was along by the special request of the area commander. We, I mean the GDP, had been after Larchwood for years. Rumor had it that the commune had helped the area Commander's son's guide across the border a few years back. Since then it had been high on the hit list. Anyway, I was pretty low on the totem pole at that point, so I didn't know anything that my superiors didn’t want me to know. Smith and his guide were on the frontal assault team. Smith got a commendation. His unit came under fire from a woman. He took her out. " Walton paused. "We were at the rear of the group coming round the property from the other side. The guys were trigger happy. A party of unarmed civilians came under fire inadvertently." Walton glanced at David and Edwards briefly and then looked away. "I zoned, woke up in the hospital."
Watts spoke up, "But Martin wasn't there. He told me once when we were having coffee that he and Frobisher had been based in Cascade all their lives."
"I'll get his record checked out. What about Commander Slater?" Edwards looked at Walton.
Walton shook his head. "He wasn't one of the officials that came to see Mark and me when I was recovering. He wasn't at the scene beforehand. The officer that came to see me was a Captain Bryant." "
"When did Courcy make his famous Sentinel speech?" Jim queried.
Donna replied immediately, "About four years ago."
"But that's the same time as - " commented Lisa. She broke off when her cellphone began to ring. Turning away from the others, Lisa answered it.
Jim rubbed a hand over his hair. "Exactly. Interesting don’t you think? Especially as Courcy told Blair he'd watched a bonding and found it disgusting."
Lisa held up her phone. "Dr. Harvey is heading over here. She'll be bringing a field emergency kit." Lisa stopped when her phone rang again. . With an apologetic nod to the Senior Prime, she answered it. The conversation was short. Once she'd closed the line, Lisa looked up again. "That was Harvey again. Smith has gone missing. He had a visit from our favorite GDP officer round about lunchtime. The guide assigned to him was out getting lunch at the time. When he came back, Smith was gone."
"Damn," Walton whispered.
"He certainly knows how to push all the buttons doesn’t he?" muttered Jim.
Simon nodded gravely back in return. Looking across at Rafe and Henri, he ordered, "Find Courcy and bring him back here."
"What grounds?" queried Rafe.
Simon chewed that one over but before he could reply, Donna James butted in, "Tell him you're re-opening Meggie's kidnapping file. He won't be able to resist." Donna smiled sweetly at Simon.
Simon chewed on his cigar for a moment and then he nodded to Rafe and Henri. The pair nodded back and left the office. The phone rang on Simon's desk. Simon answered it and scribbled some figures down. He put the receiver down with a crash and looked up at the expectant crowd. "Hayes found a receiver or whatever they call it. Here are the co-ordinates."
David snatched the paper from Simon's hands. Watts grabbed a map of the greater Cascade area and began pinning it up with Karl's help. Walton, Jim, and Edwards were crowding around the map before it was straightened out.
Before Simon could cross over to join them, Jim turned around and barked at Lisa. "Pais take one of the PD helicopters and get out there. Find an observation post. We'll be following soon. "
Lisa merely nodded and turned immediately, her guide, Karl following closely behind.
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Smith, panting from his run from his parked car, stopped underneath a tree close to the edge of the forest. Once he'd recovered his breath, he dropped the mini arsenal he'd carried with him to the forest floor. Smith listened for a moment, and once he was satisfied that there wasn't anything threatening in the immediate area, he crept forward to the edge of the forest.
A large ellipse had been carved out of the forest. Smith ignored the large area of the land that was being slowly reclaimed by the forest. His focus was on the collection of buildings that lay 750 meters to his right. The ones closest to him were roofless and nature was beginning to reclaim them. Smith refocused on the central core of buildings. He smiled coldly to himself as he watched a couple of men trek across the quad area towards another building. It would be like shooting ducks at the county fair; he couldn't miss. Smith glanced up at the sky noting that the sun was sinking and soon it would be dark. Perfect cover.
Smith stood up and moved back to where he'd dropped his equipment. He crouched down and opened the biggest box. He ran a hand over the gun. It was one of the new long-range police tactical weapons. He'd tested one a few months ago. Smith pulled on a pair of gloves and then began preparing the weapon for firing.
As he started to fill the box magazines with ammunition, Smith heard the distant clatter of a helicopter overhead. Smith dropped to the ground and listened as the helicopter came nearer and then retreated. After a little while, Smith got up and returned to his task.
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Despite the gathering gloom, Lisa moved easily through the forest towards the point she'd picked out on the helicopter trip out from Cascade. Her gun was in its usual place in the shoulder holster; her backpack contained all the other equipment they would need until the rest of the Clan followed. Occasionally she'd look back to visually check on Karl who was following closely behind. He was dressed like her, all in black and with camouflage paint on his face and hands. The link was humming; Lisa half aware that Karl was following her path more through the link than by his sight or by depending on the hand he'd placed on her back.
Lisa sensed that the forest was coming to an end and she eased up her pace and signalled to her guide to stop. Lisa made her way forward and dropped to her stomach, hiding herself in the long grass that marked the boundary of the forest. She looked around and nodded to herself; this was a good place. Here she could see the entrance to the buildings, the ramshackle road that led away into the darkness and a good deal of the forest edge. Once Karl had settled next to her, Lisa switched on the transmitter that would tell the others where the pair were. Using her sight she began making visual sweeps of the area, gun in hand, she was ready for action.
TBC
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