AN: This is a modern day fic. Erik is much darker in this as well. still in school so can't say how short up dates will be up to chapter 3. will be out of school in begining of december, will hopfully have more time then. Terrible at grammer, but did my best to find errors. Rating may change. hope you enjoy.

disclaimer: dont own any original phantom ideas, stories or characters.

chapter 1

"911 this is dispatch, we have a level 3 lockdown situation at the firestone corporation building ,we need all units and swat to respond to a hostage and take over situation . I repeat, all available units in the area -over."

The police responded and the sirens rang out through the whole city as police cruisers forced their way through the streets avoiding pedestrians and taxi drivers. The cruisers were heading toward 28th not far from Time Square to the large building known as the firestone cooperation described on the radio.

This sort of situation didn't seem uncommon to find on the streets of New York City. Many police have responded to very similar situations to something like this. But something was different about this situation that put many of the officers on edge, for there was something or someone much more sinister and craftier causing the heist then usual. It was the third hostage and take over situation the police had dealt with in a month and by now detectives are sure it is the same person for all of them. So far however, no one has any clue who it is.

Whoever it was, they were causing a big stir in New York's crime scene and Chief Brady the head of the police force wanted the person stopped as fast as possible. Little did he or even detectives know the true reasons behind the recent attacks on cooperate businesses and federal buildings.

The police cruisers slammed to a halt in front of the building, loading their guns and standing behind their car doors . Chief Brady stood by making orders, watching and waiting.

" Chief I just got off the phone with Chercoff. They said swat is on their way." Said a police officer.

Brady grumbled. He knew that not even swat was going to get their hands on the bastard this time. Boy did they have there work cut out for them. This guys tactics were nothing like he had ever dealt with before. By now Brady was beginning to understand on how this guy worked, but he knew he was still very far from getting any more answers. In The first heist they had found no traces or evidence what so ever. As if a damn ghost just slipped in and walked out with millions of cash and no one thought a thing about it.

It wasn't until the second crime that they got something out of it, only thing that enraged Brady was that after inspecting the crime scene , detectives told him that the evidence was so obviously placed that they suspected that it wasn't at all by means on accident. The bastard was playing with them. Brady couldn't believe it. This time Brady was ready for war.

"How many people are still stuck in the building?" Brady yelled over the sirens and noise.

"At least 20 or more sir, but whether he's keeping them hostage were still not sure." A police officer yelled back.

Brady nodded. "All right I want units stationed in the back of the building and the side. When swat arrives will give the signal and head them in unless we get something from this guy as a warning to stand our ground. Give a report of any movement inside the building or of anyone coming out, all right, now go."

The officers did as was told calling out through the radio to give others their station. Brady felt that this time he was going to get much more out of the guy then before, but for catching him he wasn't so sure.

Soon swat arrived . They all jumped out in there police armor and headed to the chief. Brady told them the situation and what he wanted them to do.

" I want five of you to stay in the front just in case he comes down from the upper levels, the rest I want to head up the steps and go through each of the floors as fast as you can. Radio me for anything that comes along. There are still some people inside so unless someone is endangered by someone else or someone has weapons on them I don't want any shooting. Alright, now go." The swat moved out as soon as he stopped speaking and rushed on into the building.

"Hey! get those people away from the building at least 100 feet away!" Brady yelled out to the police holding onlookers back away from the commotion.

Brady weaved his way through police cruisers and passed cops still pointing their guns at the building. He came up to the swat van and one of the men led him inside. The van was filled with video and audio soft ware and computers. The man who led him inside brought him to one of the screens. It was a video image of one of the swat men. The camera was built on his helmet spot so they could see what was happening inside.

Brady knelt closer to the screen to have a better look. The swat team was heading up the stairs. they were now on the third floor. So far there was no signs of any dangerous people, only people hidden behind there desks. Some of the swat led them out to the stairs while the rest kept moving onward.

Brady concentrated hard making sure he didn't miss a thing. He couldn't believe that this was all being done by one person and waited impatiently to see someone with a gun ready for a fight.

After about 10 minutes the swat team was on the 5th floor. The building only had twelve floors but it was wide so it took sometime to go through. When the swat hit the 8th floor Brady knew something was wrong. He asked the man by him to radio the swat to move slower and be more cautious. On the video the team came into a main hallway where the elevators were. They passed the elevators slowly to reach the other end where another set of stairs where.

On the video the man with the camera moved his head slowly side to side to be ready for any assault. When the swat was half across the hall, one of the elevators suddenly rang to acknowledge that someone was coming down. The swat team stopped and readied themselves.

As soon as the elevator doors opened however, no one was inside, but then suddenly thick smoke started to erupt from inside and bellow out into the hall. The video reception became foggy and nothing could be seen. Brady waited.

As soon as a scream was heard the shots began to fire endlessly. There were shouts and chaos all through out the video feed. Brady cursed.

"Tell your men to retreat god damn it!" Brady shouted and stepped out of the van. He ran passed the cruisers to the front." I want you all back! Stay back by your cars! Ill signal when to fire!" Brady shouted to them.

The swat inside the front lobby began to go up the stairs on to where the firing took place. Some of the hostages or people stuck inside began to come down and rush out the doors.

"Take hold of them! Get them into a cruiser. I don't want them going anywhere, they're witnesses! Where does the swat think they're going! I told them to retreat and come back down! Officer Chase bring those people back now before-

Suddenly a huge explosion on one of the floors caused them to jump away and duck by their cars. Brady was knocked off guard and knelt down on the road. The heat of the explosion was so hot that it made sweat form on Brady's face. It was so loud his ears popped. He got up and took orders once again.

"No shooting do you here me! I want you all back away now!" Brady continued to shout over the hysteria. Many officers were slow in obeying for some lost a good portion of their hearing.

The flames from the explosion began to consume the floor. Firefighters were called immediately and the swat retreated out before they got stuck in the fire.

After about an hour Brady had a huge headache not knowing if it was from the explosion or from the chaos that had took place. Fortunately, not everything went as horrible as he thought. From the information he was given no one had been killed, but there were quite a few injuries. Some of the swat had gotten shot , but luckily in places where they were able to recover and everyone else and made it out with nothing more then some bruises and cuts and a nice story to tell the family.

The fire was not as large as thought so it was put out quickly although the whole floor on which the explosion had been on was completely destroyed. Brady went around checking on everything and everyone as much as he possibly could. He soon would have to get investigators back into the building for any evidence on the guy and what he took. Brady was sure he was gone by now so didn't give a second thought on trying to pursue and find him through the building any longer.

The man from inside the swat vehicle came striding towards him at a rather fast pace. When Brady noticed this he knew there must be good news.

"Sir, I need you to come back to the swat car, I believe we have something caught on tape." Brady nodded and they rushed back to the van.

When Brady got inside there were others as well, back on the computers taking in data. The man who led him in brought him back to the video receiver. The man clicked on a reverse button to go all through the footage. Brady watched closely for anything. The man played it back to the time when shots were being fired in the hallway with smoke.

At first nothing could be seen but then suddenly something flashed by that made Brady yelp and ask to play it back. When it was played back Brady stopped it just in time to freeze whatever had flashed by. Brady's grey eyes widened. He frowned and rubbed his bearded chin, staring.

The picture was grainy and distorted but it was just clear enough to make out the figure of a man. He seemed to be wearing all black. A weapon could be seen in one hand and a bag of sorts in the other. Seemingly just a typical looking bad guy, but that wasn't what made Brady stare. He didn't know whether to laugh or be very, very worried.

The black figure in the video wore a mask. The mask didn't look very common; in fact it looked hand made. The mask made the dark figure look more sinister then ever. Although it seemed like it shouldn't bother him. He had dealt with guys in masks before who held up banks. But he could tell this guy was much different, much smarter then them. Brady could tell for once that this guy knew exactly what he was doing and that he wasn't going to be easy to catch. Not by a long shot.

"Can I get a print made of this for the record? And ill also want the tape too." Brady asked the man. The guy nodded and in a few minutes Brady had a small image of the dark menacing figure and a copy of the tape of the incident for detectives to see. The door to the van then opened and a familiar face appeared to Brady.

"Ah, Detective Hartling I have a tape and photo for you to see." Brady said hold out the two items.

"Thanks chief, but there's someone here who'd like to see those and speak with you first, will you please come with me?"

"Yea, of course," Brady stepped out of the car and followed the detective.

They weaved once again in between police cruisers until they came up on a regular black car sitting out on the corner. The detective gestured for him to step inside it and Brady did so. He suddenly had a bad feeling now that the FBI or someone like them was now getting involved. When he got inside and sat down, opposite him sat a darker skinned man.

"Good afternoon Mr. Brady my name is Nadir Kahn" the man said and held out his hand. Brady took it. Nadir's voice had some what of an accent to it, something possibly from the middle east Brady wondered.

"Nice to meet you Nadir, how can I help you?" Brady said looking closely at the man.

"Well firstly I think its best to say Mr. Brady that we can equally help each other in this situation. You see, the man that you have been looking for this past month is someone I've been looking for, for quite sometime myself. I recently had been investigating around the Washington area of his whereabouts until I tracked him here. I have some very valuable information that you'll want to know if you will help me in my services as well."

Brady looked at Nadir and couldn't believe what he was hearing. The man who had been doing these con jobs was not even a local. He was wanted and in god knows where or how many places. Now he was really beginning to understand how dangerous this guy and the situation really were. He wanted Nadir's information now more then ever and we would give him any help he needed in retrieving it.

"I will gladly do so Nadir. This guy is more dangerous then I thought. We need him off the streets of New York and likely anywhere else as fast as possible before he strikes out again. So far luckily there have been no deaths, but I can't imagine something not going wrong sooner or later in the future."

Nadir nodded his head. "I know exactly what you mean Mr. Brady and I assure you I feel exactly as you do or I would have not gone all this way to find him. This man is more dangerous then you can possibly imagine. This could be just the beginning of his works. The only issue is he's always changing his direction, which makes it harder to track him." Nadir took out files from beside him and gave them to Brady. Brady looked over them slowly taking in the information.

" He's gone all through out the country most of the time we lose him for about a month or two when he's done his job in a certain place, but there have been times were he goes missing off our track and we do not hear of anything for quite along time."

"What has been the longest for you?" Brady asked flipping through the papers.

"We lost him for about a year and a half back in 2003. Things were very vague after that for we weren't sure what he was doing or what his plans were."

Brady had looked up stunned when Nadir told him this. "How long have you been trying to track him down Mr. Kahn?"

"It would be about seven years now."

Brady shook his head. Seven years and he still out there and who knew what he was planning next.

"What else do you know Nadir?'

Nadir seemed to hesitate and then he stared out the car window. "I know enough that he needs to be stopped…at all costs. He works alone, but I am sure there are others that he has used to get what he wants. Right now however, I have theories and possible evidence that he is now working either for or beside someone, but who that is I'm still not sure. The reason for taking out companies is one clue, but there still is not enough evidence."

"And that's why you need me I suppose. " Brady guessed.

"No sir, that is why you need me. This man is very smart. When he thinks we are too close to him that he's not comfortable with he will leave and I assure you, you will never here of him or come closer to finding him ever again. So it is best that no one besides you and your detectives know of our meeting. I will give you the information you need for now and will help you as best I can in the dark, but as soon as he's gone I will follow."

Brady nodded even though he wished that it didn't have to be so complicated. In the light of the situation if this guy leaves then it will be one case off his shoulders, but that was never Brady's way. Anyone who is a danger any where should be off the streets no matter what. But even so he understood Nadir's intentions and would keep Nadir's information to himself and detectives.

"All right ,Nadir, thank you for your help. I will do my best to help you find and catch this guy."

Nadir took out a card and gave it to Brady. "Call me if you are to hear of anything that could be useful to me and thank you as well for your time." Brady nodded and opened the door.

"By the way, you wouldn't happen to have a name for the guy would you?" Brady asked before stepping out.

"Yes," Nadir mumbled. "His name is Erik."