Chapter 1: SOS

Tuesday afternoon; middle of nowhere; Toronto

After driving for quite some time, an old four door Sedan pulled over to the side of the road. There was no one in sight as the two men climbed out of the car, their guns at their side, and walked over to the trunk. Opening the lid, they saw their prisoner had woken up, his blue eyes glaring at them. With a sneer, the driver pulled the blonde man out and made him walk a couple of steps forward.

"On your knees," he said when he made the man stop walking. When there was no response, he pushed his prisoner onto his knees, his back towards him and his partner.

With his hands duct taped in front of him and tape over his mouth, there was nothing this man could do to talk his kidnappers down. He knew the barrel of the gun was pointed at his head when he heard it cock. He closed his eyes as the driver shot him in the head and then again in his upper back after he fell on his face.

The two men looked at each other, smiled, and got back in their car and drove away, while Constable Samuel Braddock lay in a pile of his own blood in the middle of nowhere.

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6 hours earlier; Sam's apartment

"Damn it, Ed's gonna kill me!" grumbled a frustrated Sam as he got ready for work. He had woken up a lot later than he hoped, and even though their shift didn't start for another hour, their work-out started at five, which was an hour ago. "Can't wait to find out what he's gonna make me do," he said sarcastically as he grabbed his phone, keys, and jacket. He was about to walk out the door when he received a text message. Thinking it was someone from the team, he quickly opened it and was surprised to see that it was from his old military buddy, John Hill.

Sam stopped in his tracks when he saw the three words on the screen. Being the man he is, Sam quickly left his apartment and ran to his car in the garage. "Sorry Ed, but my friend needs help," he said as he started his car up and drove off to John's house.

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Strategic Response Unit headquarters; aka "The Barn"

"Where the hell is Sam?!" yelled an angry Edward "Ed" Lane as everyone was doing their work-outs. "It's not like him to be late!"

Sergeant Gregory "Greg" Parker looked at his watch. "I'm sure he'll be here any minute," he told his team leader.

"Yeah and he'll be running the tracks till his lungs burst, showing up to work more than an hour late," growled Ed.

Michelangelo "Spike" Scarlatti, Julianna "Jules" Callaghan, and Kevin "Wordy" Wordsworth, all looked between their TL and boss, not stopping what they were doing, and all thinking that they were glad they weren't Sam right now. "I'm sure he had a good reason being late," said Spike, not wanting Ed to be too hard on the rookie.

"Oh, he better," Ed replied. "'Cause if he doesn't, I'm gonna kill him," he continued as he started on the punching bag.

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John Hill's house

Sam pulled up to the simple one story house and noticed the unfamiliar Sedan in the drive way. He got out of his car and walked up to the front door. Getting closer, he saw that the door was partially open. He grabbed his side arm and cautiously opened the door the rest of the way with his foot. Sam glanced to his left and right, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. "Police, SRU!" he yelled into the house. "John, you here?" he asked as he walked further inside.

He kept his gun at the ready when he turned a corner and into the kitchen. His eyes widened when he saw John on the floor with a bullet wound to the head. "No, John," he whispered, kneeling down and checking for a pulse anyways. All of his training went out the window when he pulled out his phone to call for backup instead of clearing the rest of the house.

Sam was just about to call Ed when something hard smashed against the side of his head and he blacked out.

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The Barn

30 minutes later, Team One was finishing up their work-out before showering off. "Okay, this is just ridiculous!" Ed said as he checked his watch for the hundredth time. "I'm calling him," he continued, pulling out his phone and pressing speed dial. When there was no answer, Ed got even angrier.

Greg walked over to him and said in his calm voice, "You know he wouldn't be this late without an excuse. There may have been an emergency and he forgot to call in." Ed accepted his response and nodded, but was still ticked off. After Ed's nod, Greg walked over to Winnie's desk. "Winnie, can you pull up Sam's cell phone records and see if he got any calls or texts this morning?" he asked the dispatcher.

"Sure thing, boss," came the reply, followed by clicks of the keyboard. By this time, the rest of Team One had gathered by their boss to see what Winnie found out. Looking at the screen she said, "No phone calls…but he did get a text message at six from someone named John. It read 'SOS my place'." She looked up at the team when she read the last part.

Ed's face was grim. "Can you track his phone? I just called him and it's still on," he told her.

Winnie nodded and went to work. "It says he's at the home of John Hill, 583 Baker Street."

Ed and Greg looked at each other. "Has to be the John from the phone," Ed told him.

"Alright team, let's gear up and keep the peace!" yelled their boss. Everybody rushed off to their respected locker rooms, the thoughts of showers gone from their minds. Within ten minutes, they were climbing into the SUVs and heading towards Baker Street.

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Random, abandon building; Toronto

Sam wasn't sure how long he was out before he became aware of his surroundings. It took him a while before he remembered what happened; getting John's text, finding his body, and getting hit over the head. He tried to move but realized that his feet were tired, his hands were tied in front of him, there was tape over his mouth, and he was lying on his left side on a hard, dirty floor. Looking around, he saw a few boxes and crates and a lot of boarded up windows and figured no one had been in this building for quite some time.

Through the pounding in his head, he was able to hear two male voices arguing. He looked up to see where they were coming from and could barely see the two men, one with his back to him and the other in front of his partner. "I can't believe you brought a freakin' cop here!" the one Sam could see said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think I had another choice! He saw the body!" yelled the guy whose back was to Sam.

The first guy looked behind his partner and saw Sam staring at them. "Shh," he told the second guy before walking over to where Sam laid.

Sam's jaw clenched as they came closer and he saw their faces more clearly. 'I am not getting out of his one,' he thought when his kidnappers stopped in front of him.

The two guys stared down at Sam for a couple of minutes until the first guy started kicking him. Sam put his hands in front of his face and tried to curl up in a ball. He grunted in pain as every kick connected to his stomach and every stomp of the foot landed on his side. The second guy walked around Sam and joined in on the beating, kicking him in his legs and back. What felt like forever to Sam, the pain finally stopped when the foot of the second guy came at his head and he lost consciousness.