Chapter One

Jane followed Lisbon into the dark apartment, her weapon drawn. She had asked him to remain in the SUV. She understood, however, that Jane would not sit idle waiting for her when she was pursuing Red John, the man who had killed his family and proven himself capable of not only over powering Lisbon but terrorizing her – an exhibition of power, dominance and sportsmanlike prowace.

In the dark, she moved with her back along the wall pointing her gun in toward the center of the room. She couldn't see anything. The sun had gone down and the power to the entire building turned suddenly off as they made their way through the living room of the basement floor apartment. Believing initially that she was merely following up on a harmless lead she had not taken the precaution of ensuring that she had appropriate backup or even notifying her team of her whereabouts. Following up on a tip that Red John's childhood home of had been converted into a multi unit family dwelling, she had, without any reason to fear for her safety, left the CBI intentionally without telling Jane.

Noticing some time last month when Jane pulled out of the CBI parking lot, that he had a tail light out, Lisbon had followed him home to point out the legal infraction, and was welcomed into his home. Initially he was shocked to see her and somewhat disturbed by the perceived invasion of his privacy. It was his place of darkness, where he would revile in self-pity and loathing beneath the blood speared face mocking him and encouraging his drive for revenge. Lisbon, however, had not meant to intrude. In fact, he recognized in his brain, though not yet in his reality, that he wanted her to both discover this place where he would come to brood and destroy it for his own good. When she wandered up the stairs in search of the bathroom he dashed up the stairs behind her only fast enough to catch her as she was entering the room where he slept. Here he relived the deaths of his family and kept fresh the experience of finding their bodies saturated in their own blood and the helpless stomach lurching sensation which drove him to kill Red John.

In light of her recent discovery, Lisbon had thought that it would not be a wise idea to inform Jane of her intended destination. However, being Jane, the person that he is, he had ignored her insistence that she was going no where of consequence and insisted upon coming with her. In all reality, Jane had not anticipated that he would be going to the place of Red John's family upbringing, a location sure to rise in him both that feeling of intense self pity, loathing and a desire for revenge. Instead, he had thought that she was going to see Mashburn. Lisbon had been in an exceptionally good mood in recent days and had not been arriving at the station as early as she was accustomed. It was not until they were almost at the house that she informed him of her true destination.

Following her into the darkness, Jane reached out a hand and touched her on the back ensuring that he was going in the same direction that she was. Her back was moist with perspiration; Jane quickly withdrew his hand and whipped it on the front of his trousers. When he reached back, aiming, this time, for her shoulder to guide him, she was gone. What seemed like seconds later, he was on his knees, his head duct taped to a board above him and his hands bound behind his back.

Lisbon, he thought. He could, in the dim light obscured by the blood in his eyes, scarcely see her face down on an earthen floor with her arms and legs tied behind her. He could neither move nor call out to her. In his mouth, was duct taped to a wooden dowel which he was biting down upon. The dowel dug into his cheeks and caused him to swallow, without success, reflexively and repeatedly. Lisbon was, for the moment, unresponsive and likely unconscious.

Within moments of Jane's recognition that he was in the basement, he heard movement on the basement steps and then a light flickered on exposing the steel bars of the cage like structure around them.