--I do not own anything to do with CSI:NY
----
Mac arrives at the scene with Danny. Flack approaches them.
"What ya got?"
"We got an anonymous call about an hour ago. They said they heard a gunshot then saw this guy stumble out of the alley and collapse."
Mac looks at the body.
"Young male, about twenty five, single gunshot to the chest."
Hawkes arrives. Mac seems fixated on the body. Hawkes examines it.
"No riger, no discolouration. I'd say he's dead no more than thirty minutes."
Danny speaks up.
"That's not possible. The call was made an hour ago."
Mac stands up and looks around the scene. He notices tire tracks coming from the alley the victim was seen running out of. Flack and Danny search the scene as Hawkes continues examining the body. Mac approaches and shines his torch into the darkness of the alley. He needs a closer look. He enters slowly and stops when he sees a pool of blood on the ground. He kneels down beside it to examine it. WHACK! Somebody hits him from behind, knocking him unconscious.
Outside, Flack and Danny are looking around.
"Mac! Where'd ya go?"
Danny turns to Flack. "I hate it when he does this."
All of a sudden, a black van speeds out of the alley. The tinted window opens and something gets thrown out. The van then speeds off.
"Hey!"
Flack runs over to where the van was seconds ago. Danny checks the alley.
"Mac's gone!"
Flack picks up a card off of the road. He reads from it.
"Ms. Bonasera, Mac Taylor is going to pay for your mistake. You will hear from us. H.L.T."
----
"Oh no." Stella holds the card in her hand. Flack, Danny and Lindsey are standing around her. Flack asks.
"What? Do you know who H.L.T. is?"
"Yes. A few years ago I had a case involving a group who worked for the government called the
H.L.I. – High Level Interrogators."
Danny looks at the card. "But, this says H.L.T."
"A small number of members of H.L.I. were exposed as being too brutal and they were released. They then formed their own underground group. High Level Torturers."
Flack finishes.
"H.L.T. I'm guessing that you're the one who exposed them."
"Yes, I'm afraid so. Oh, god. Now they have Mac."
She puts her head in her hands. Danny rubs her back.
"Hey, we'll get 'em back. Alright?"
Hawkes enters the room with a photograph. He puts it on the table.
"Here's our vic. No one can identify him."
Stella looks at it. "He's one of the former members of H.L.I."
Flack looks confused. "Why would they kill one of their own?"
Danny thinks then speaks up.
"Here's how I see it. This guy makes a call to the cops sayin' he just saw somebody get whacked. Only he didn't. He was waiting for some innocent bystander to walk by and make a move. But, he made the call too early almost blowin' their cover. So, he became the target."
Stella nods. "Yes. They needed a lure for Mac. What about what the card said. "You will hear from us." What do they mean?"
----
He can't see anything. He only knows that he is being dragged somewhere. He feels the blood on the back of his head. He was hit hard and is slightly dazed. He is eventually turned around and thrown onto a chair. He can feel his hands being secured behind him. He can feel the two presences leave. He then notices that he is not wearing any shoes and his jacket has been taken. By the time he establishes this, a person walks in front of him.
"Mac Taylor. I bet you're wondering what you're doing here."
Still unable to see.
"... You could say that."
The figure sits down.
"Stella Bonasera. She caused me and five other hard working citizens to lose their only source of income."
"Oh. I know you. H.P.I. Yeah, sure. If you call hard working citizens torturers who disobey the law."
"I see you share the same views as Ms. Bonasera. That's why we took you. You're the person she's closest to. You're the best way to get revenge. "
He leans closer to Mac.
"She's gonna see everything we do to you."
TBC
