The Perfect Storm
Summary: When one of Sonny's enemies comes at him by way of Kristina, Sam is pulled into a viscous trade in order to save her sister and Lulu. Jason and Sonny end up at odds but work together as they both do everything in their power to save Sam, Lulu and Kristina before they're gone forever. Set amidst a back drop of an international underworld embroiled in a war with Interpol and traffickers they must risk everything for their very lives and those of the ones that they love.
A/N and Warnings: I don't normally do warnings, but this story deals with some mature themes and will therefore carry a T+ rating as outlined by the rating guidelines. It's not for children. There will not be anything graphic or gory but I still strongly caution that the themes are for teens or above.
Check out my profile page for an address to the promo video And Reviews are greatly appreciated.
Character from GH in this fic: Mains: Sam McCall and Jason Morgan. Supporting: Kristina, Sonny, Lucky, Dante, Lulu, Ethan and Spinelli. Original characters will abound but only in a supporting capacity to aide moving the story along.
The E-mail
In a perfect world there were always second chances, there was forgiveness and reconciliation, there was hope and undying love. In a perfect world the law favored justice and the innocent were never punished, they always got their guy or gal and the wrongs of the world were never left unpunished. In a perfect world betrayal was a myth left for villains in novels and prime-time television. In a perfect world Jason Morgan wouldn't be set up with a sniper rifle on the rooftop of the Hotel Madero in Buenos Aires because one of Sonny's former employees had turned on him in favor of his newest rival Fernando Castillo. In a perfect world, one squeeze of a trigger wouldn't end a life.
This wasn't a perfect world.
Jason confirmed the shot through his scope, watching as Bartholomew Danes fell dead near a scantly populated back alley. It would take a few moments for someone to find him. Jason took the time to deftly disassemble his equipment and pack, frequently checking his watch to make sure that he was staying to his time-line for completion of the assassination.
This was supposed to be a short trip but it seemed that Sonny kept finding things that he needed taken care of by a trusted friend. Trust had been in short supply as of late with Castillo looking for any way to undermine Sonny's business so that he could make a move on his territory. At first they thought that the guy would get a taste of their strength and back off, but he had proven himself as an adversary with staying power. It was time to start taking him down a notch, one informant at a time.
Seven days of traipsing around South America later and Jason was looking forward to a few quiet days at home with Sam. He just hoped that she wasn't knee deep in a case. Jason breathed a sigh as he looked out over the back-lit sky line, bristling with stars of the fluorescent variety. Phone calls, text messages, and e-mail were a poor substitute for Sam's warm body passionately enraptured beside him. Jason collected his sniper case and turned his cell back on with the touch of a button all on the move towards the closest roof access door. It wasn't just missing Sam resting next to him during the midnight hours that was weighing on him. He was missing the little idiosyncrasies of their day to day. It had occurred to him more than once that the level of his desire to be home with her was an indicator of just how much in love he'd fallen. A hint of a smile played at the corner of his lips as he slipped into the stairwell and made his way into a nearby air duct en route to his room out of the watchful eye of the hallway security cams.
He had a long crawl to let his thoughts continue to flourish over their relationship, those very thoughts having turned to proposal on and on over the last few months. He'd floundered a few times but it was times like now that had sealed his decision. He had it planned out, not the date, but the avenue of romance. It was a tough sale for an amateur to see either of them as romantics, but life couldn't always be seen through a hail of bullets. They had to balance their lives with the softer side. More to the point, he loved to see her face light up when he managed to pull off a miracle of awe.
Jason eased halfway out of the vent into his room and angled the gun case to make a soft landing on the King bed set at the main focus of the junior suite. Once the gun was safely deposited he worked on doing the same for himself. Once on the floor he was quick to make packing a priority. He was in the clear for the shot, but he didn't relish the idea of staying near the scene of the crime any longer than he had to. Five minutes later, on the move for the door with bags in hand, his cell phone rang, the soft cascade of tones letting him know that it was Sam calling.
Jason let the bags drop to the floor and gave a cursory pause weighing the risk of staying a moment longer to answer, but the decision had really already been made. He flipped the phone open and brought it to his ear a waver of an instinctual grimace proving the only show that he had a wary feeling that all was not well.
"Yeah," his soft greeting covered Sam's pants of movement only marginally and Jason narrowed his eyes turning where he stood as if that was going to give him some visual access to his girlfriend. "Sam, what's wrong?"
"I'm forwarding an e-mail." Sam sounded like she was running. "Kristina and Lulu have been kidnapped." There was a short pause and then the sound of a car door slamming, the engine roaring to life. "Fasten your seat belt."
"Fair Samantha need not ask." Came a muffled reply from nearby leaving Jason to conclude that Spinelli was in the car with her. Before Jason could jump back into the conversation Sam picked it back up.
"I'm on my way to Sonny's," There was another pause as the sound of tires squealing against pavement greeted his ears. "It looks like they just wanted Kristina to stick it to Sonny, but Lulu was there and they took her as a bonus." There was a quiver to Sam's voice betraying the underlying emotion that she was trying to hide. "The e-mail explains it more."
Jason felt fear and dread encircle his heart as he licked at his lips, fingers dancing over the ridge of his chin in an effort to reign in the nerves that were fraying raw. He wasn't just worried about Kristina and Lulu. Sam needed to take a breath and calm down, hell she shouldn't be behind the wheel. He didn't get anything out though before she was continuing further. "We've don't have a lot of time, Jason."
"Until what..." He couldn't caution her about driving with a statement like that hanging between them.
"Until we lose any chance of getting them back. Sonny just found out that Castillo's side payroll is moving live pleasure dolls. Spinelli is trying to find the sender of the original e-mail but right now we've got 3 minutes of video of Kristina and Lulu being drugged and manhandled into some sort of van. He's going to sell them, Jason." Her voice hitched as she fought to catch enough breath to go on.
"I'm fifteen minutes from the airport. I'll be on a plane within the hour. Sam, stay with Sonny. He'll protect you. I don't want this guy coming after you too." Jason felt his heart take a nose dive straight into his stomach. "I'll look at the pictures and the e-mail on the plane and call Sonny on the way." He could hear the tears in her breath shattering his heart with each and every desperate exhale. "We'll get them back, Sam."
There was long pause and Jason fought to shoulder the phone and get his bags in hand once more so that he could move and talk. He was waiting on the elevator by the time she spoke again.
"I know we will, but I can't just sit by and wait. I've got a plan." Sam choked on the last word and he heard Spinelli let out a gasp from the passenger seat followed by another round of squealing tires. As if everything else that Sam had just explained to him wasn't enough to insight panic, whatever plan she came up with out of blind desperation for her sister and Lulu and his inability to be there to talk her out of it, to make her see reason, that had his heart beating triple time.
"What's the plan?" He couldn't try and talk her out of it en route to the airport if he didn't know what it was.
"Sonny turned one of Castillo's guys last week."
"Right." Jason hailed a cab and set his bags on the seat with him while holding up his passport as means of letting the guy know where he was headed.
"He's not high enough to find out where they are, but he does get some scouting duties. He can take me to the recruiter for the new merchandise. I can go undercover with a GPS chip stashed on my person and lead the cavalry to Kristina and Lulu." and there it was. Jason felt like he was going to be sick.
"No. Absolutely not, Sam."
"I wasn't asking, Jason. This could be our best bet to find them."
"Sonny won't agree to that" and by God Jason would make sure of that once he got him on the phone, because as desperate as Sam was to find her sister, Sonny was that much more desperate to find his daughter and he might entertain insanity as an option. "Sam, there's got to be a better way and we'll find it."
"We might not have time to. It's already been 2 hours and we're just finding out that they're gone." There was typing in the distance letting Jason know what Spinelli was up to, but he couldn't really focus past Sam's quivering voice, the hang of tears heavy over the airways. "Those bastards have had my sister for four hours, Jason."
"Sam I know this is hard, but we'll find them and bring them back and we can do that without you sacrificing yourself." There was a pleading to his voice that he couldn't hide, a prayer in his soul that she would listen to him. "Please just wait and work the other angles until I can get there to help."
"I'm not making any promises, Jason, but I'll wait as long as I can." The resolution in her tone was anything but comforting.
"I'll take what I can get, but Sam please, wait for me. I don't want to lose you." His unwavering voice bore the breath of his soul and she paused, hesitating, the fight gone from her tone when she spoke next.
"I'll try." it still wasn't a promise, but it would have to do. "I love you, Jason."
"I love you too."
The conversation was over but the trip into hell was just beginning. Jason peered down into the face of his phone menuing his way to his e-mail and waited impatiently for it to load, dividing his attention between keeping tabs on the route to the airport and the small screen. Finally it opened. It began with a message in text, reading :
It's come to my attention that perhaps you believe that I am not capable of carryout my
threats because of some false sense of security offered by your impenetrable operation. Allow me to clear up that misconception.
Below the unsigned note was an attachment for a video file. Jason tabbed to the link and clicked through getting another test of patience as he waited for it to load. They were pulling into the airport parking lot by the time it did. Jason paused the feed and paid the cab driver, wishing he had more free hands as he gathered his bags and headed towards the private hangers. He shouldered the first bag and set the other down to turn the video back on and then was on the move once more attention shifting from watching where he was walking to the screen. Sonny's pilot noticed him coming and Jason shouted for him to get the plane ready.
A scream drew his attention back to the screen as Kristina's terror filled eyes hitched enough of his resolve to draw his steps a reprieve for one moment. For one heartbeat she no longer looked like the blossoming seventeen year old on the cusp of adulthood, she was that frightened child he'd protected for so many years. Anger at the bastard that would go after her in order to prove a point to Sonny gripped his heart tight hedged in by a growing fear that Sam had seen this video and wouldn't even entertain waiting for him. He renewed his course for the plane with need to interject reason into the group as they carried out whatever plan they would use to get them all back.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Dante Falconeri squinted in the dimly lit apartment, making his way to the door while adjusting his sweat pants around his waist. He'd woken from a dead sleep, coming off a weeks worth of midnight stakeouts, when someone pounded the hell out of his front door. The fervor in attempt to get his attention drew fear from his sleeping stupor that something was wrong. The pounding came again and Dante got out a quick, "I'm coming," giving him a second to eye his gun on the table near the door.
He narrowed his eyes to see Lucky's outline past the door's small window and frowned wondering if they were trying to call him back in for another round of look no see. God all he needed was a night off. Lulu had even been understanding about his decline to attend the Cerebral Palsy benefit in the park earlier that evening. Dante let out a deep sigh and unlocked the door, pulling it open with the intent of asking Lucky as nicely as he could what was going on. He didn't get the chance, though. Lucky pushed passed him clearly in a state bordering on panic.
"Lulu's been kidnapped." The words came out in a rush and Dante felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck, jaw dropping open as he advanced on Lucky.
"What do you mean, kidnapped?" Lulu had been fine earlier in the day when she'd come to see him. There was no sort of imminent threat from anywhere.
"They won't let me anywhere near the case. What little I did get from Ethan and the Corinthos' was that it's a case of wrong place, wrong time for Lulu. It was a play for Kristina. Ethan and Lulu just happened to be there. They got the jump on Ethan and Lulu and Kristina are gone. It wasn't even reported until an hour ago. Ethan was stuffed in his car trunk out cold. One of the parking attendants at the park just happened to hear him pounding on it when he was doing the last walk through." Dante listened, the color draining from his features as his terror filled eyes met Lucky's.
"Does Ethan remember anything?" Dante hurried to the bedroom, grabbing a shirt from the foot of his bed and pulling it on over his head as he looked back to Lucky for an answer. "And what did my Dad say?"
"What do you think he said? He said he's handling it." Dante got an over shirt from the closet and pulled it on over the gray t-shirt then found a pair of jeans and disappeared into the bathroom, leaving the door cracked so that he could hear Lucky. "And Ethan just knows that there was two of them and a black van. He didn't see the plates."
Dante was in shock, trying to push through the nausea as it began to sink in that his little sister and girlfriend had both been abducted. If they wouldn't let Lucky in on the case then he was out too. And that left him in a precarious position to be drawn to his father's side. He was surprised that he hadn't gotten a call yet. "Are they asking for ransom?" Dante came out of the bathroom hunting socks and shoes in a fit to get out of there and on to finding answers.
"I don't know, but Sonny knows something more than he's told the police so far." Lucky explained. "We can start there."
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Samantha McCall stepped out into the foyer, having just changed into some little to nothing black club number, her over abundance of jewelry clacking together as she made her way into Sonny's office. Sonny was pacing the floor, shouting into his cell phone, behind the desk where Spinelli was set up, typing like a mad mad. Sonny paused giving her a once over in a mostly professional and appreciative fashion before he turned back to the heated conversation.
Spinelli had paled from over hearing so many promises of violence flying around him while he was trying to work. "Did you get anything?" Sam asked as Sonny disappeared into a neighboring room in order to finish the conversation while allowing them room to speak as well.
"I regret to inform you that the search for The Goddess in Training and The Blonde One has run into many hurdles. The Sinister One has a hireling who I am remiss to say seems to rival the Jackals superb abilities. It will take more time." Spinelli looked guilty and as regretful as he sounded and Sam's gaze softened even as her heart was splitting in two, just thinking about what her sister and Lulu might have to be enduring.
"I'm sure Castillo's computer guy has nothing on you, Spinelli." Sam reassured him and then swallowed tightly before she went on. She'd wavered a moment when Jason had asked her to wait for him, but even with the private plane and limited stop overs for refueling they were looking at nearly 10 hours of flight time. She couldn't wait that long. Kristina and Lulu might not have that long. "But we'll go to plan B while you prove me right. How's it look?" Sam angled her bare foot so that Spinelli could see the jeweled adornments to each of her toe nails. Of those jewels, only one mattered, it was chip in disguise, dreamed up by some techno wizard and heavily paid for as a perk of their P.I. business.
"F...fashionable." Spinelli seemed lost for words a moment as he caught a glimpse at the rest of her getup. Any other lingering glances were lost though as a loud tone let him know that Jason was trying to start a video chat.
Sam wrinkled her nose and pulled in her bottom lip between her teeth knowing that this wasn't going to be pleasant. In a flash Jason set against a back drop of Sonny's plane popped up on the screen. There was a pause when she saw relief in his relaxing features until he got a better look at the dress she was wearing.
"I was just telling The Goddess that I have many hurdles to overcome in order to find The Sinister One's location." He explained to Jason just as Sonny walked back into the room and tossed his cell phone onto the nearby couch as if it was a useless piece of trash, his frustration and desperation bleeding through.
Sonny came around so that Jason could see him and picked up where Spinelli left off in letting Jason know what was going on so far.
"I've got people on the van and on tracking Castillo's movements over the last week. We'll have a last known in about half an hour. Sam said she sent you the E-mail. Did you get it?" There was edge to Sonny's voice that betrayed just how hard he was trying to hold it together.
"I got it." Jason gave a half nod and leaned forward. "What have you got on his business? Routes? Whose involved?What about the informant? Have the police gotten any leads? Did anyone see anything when they were abducted?"
"I'll have to fill you in in an hour, right now I've got to meet with the informant. Spinelli and Sam can give you what they know so far." Sonny caught a nod from a frustrated Jason before he collected his coat and made a hasty exit. Jason then looked to the other two expectantly.
"Ethan was there, but so far no other witnesses have come forward. " Sam picked up right off, trying to delay the inevitable. "We just found out that Castillo is even dabbling in Human trafficking so the whose and whats are coming in slow, but Sonny's leaning hard on his network. I don't think that Sonny's talked to Dante yet, but we should know the police's stance soon." It was the lack of information that they had that prompted her to tell him that she couldn't wait. "So we're going ahead with my plan, Jason..." The words were scarcely out of her mouth when cut her off in protest.
"Sam, this is a bad idea."
"I can do this, and Sonny'll know where I am every step of the way, Jason. I'll be fine."
"Knowing where you are and what's going on are two very different things. They're going to drug you, handle you, and lock you in a room or a cell or a box, God only knows where for hours or even days before this is over. Sam, too much can go wrong." With tears in her eyes the revelation of what could be done to her only strengthened her resolve, because everything that he said was already happening to her sister and Lulu.
"They've already done all of that to Kristina and Lulu Jason, I'll take the risk." She watched as his gaze softened but could still tell that he was against the idea. "Everybody here is working every angle they can, but this is another way in. I can do this."
"You shouldn't have to..."
Jason's message and movement suddenly went silent and still as the screen froze, the connection temporarily severed, but it was a blessing in disguise in a way for Sam. She ran her fingers over the screen with a tender whisper of "I love you," before she made her way around the desk and looked back over her shoulder at Spinelli. "When you get him back, tell him I said it...and that I had to do this. I'm going to go ahead and meet up with Sonny and the informant," Spinelli gave a nod, his own eyes teary with emotion over the exchange and the worry he felt for those that were missing.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
A/N: And thus ends Chapter one. I hope that someone gets a kick out of it and reviews really help with my muses motivation :) Enjoy. I'll try and update about once a week if there is interest and life permitting.