Title: Wild Boys
Author: Dancing Star
Crossover: PSI Factor/ Sue Thomas FBEye/ Castle
Pairing: Connor / Lindsay, Jack/ Sue, Rick/ Kate
Rating: 12
Category: AU, Humor, Mystery, Crime
Content: Connor and Rick want to see the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, their friends have other problems at home.
Notes: This story was written on the night before the Super Bowl 2014. Go, Denver Broncos!
Wild Boys
"You've already lost your way again," Laurie Braxton accused her husband Corbin and he smiled.
"No, these streets are so simple, so you can´t lose your way."
"Maybe you should finally buy a navigation system." Both were just passing through and wanted to travel to Niagara Falls. It was their honeymoon and Laurie looked forward to Canada. From the back of the car came a knocking sound. Laurie turned around. Maybe she could find out this time, where the noise was coming from. Since their stop at a gas station two hours ago they ever heard it. "Did you hear that?", Laurie asked her husband, looking at him.
"Hear what?"
"A knock. It comes out of the trunk."
"Out of the trunk? What should be there, except our luggage?"
"No idea. Why don´t you stop and find out?" In the face of her husband, Laurie could see he didn´t want to stop here. He got out and opened the trunk.
For almost half an hour she waited for her husband.
BUM! BUM! Laurie heard a strange knock, which came from the roof. BUM! BUM! BUM! There it was again. She decided to get out and look after Corbin. "Honey!", she cried when she slammed the car door and walked a few meters away. BUM! BUM! Now the knock sounded quieter. She turned around and her heart stood still in shock. On the roof of her car was a man in an orange boiler suit. His mouth was smeared with blood and in his hand he held the part which he had produced the sounds on roof of the car... Corbin's head...
In his garage at home Connor annoyed lifted the hood of his car. For days he tried to repair the vehicle, but it just didn´t work. Connor was terrible annoyed. Now, his best friend and colleague Jack tried to help him. So he hoped he would know a little more about cars. "I don´t know," Jack said and glanced at the engine, "Your car looks quite normal."
"Who actually helps you if your car is broken?", Connor asked and threw a dirty rag over his shoulder, "The fault could be anywhere." He hit the car once.
Suddenly Jack had an idea. "Rick is helping me. He has disassembled an old car to do research for a Nikki Heat book. Why don´t you ask him? He really knows a lot: Recently he has helped to install a new radio in my car..."
"Rick?", Connor repeated, "I can´t imagine he really has a knack for cars..." As he said this, he sniffed and of course Jack had noticed. He folded his arms. Their families lived in the same neighborhood for a year.
"I know you're not the very best friends ... But you know him for so long. In addition, it didn´t look like as you have problems with him. "
"I think he's okay. But he is a bit strange!"
"Oh," Jack replied and looked at the engine once more.
"By the way, I've got two tickets to the Super Bowl in New Orleans over the weekend ... Are you coming with me?", Connor asked.
"This is incredible!", Jack suddenly exclaimed, "You have tickets for the Super Bowl? My God!... What did you do to get the tickets?"
"Nothing," Connor, "Except for calling at our local radio station. They raffled the tickets... And? Are you coming?"
Jack wanted to accept, but then he remembered. "I can´t," Jack apologized, "As you know, the calculated due date of my baby is on Saturday. I could never forgive me if I miss that and Sue would kill me."
"Yes, I understand..."
"Why don´t you ask Rick?"
Connor rolled annoyed with the eyes. Did he really have to travel with Rick?
"You and Rick have much more in common than you and me, believe me!", Jack tried to persuade him. Connor acted as if he wouldn´t hear him. "And what would that be?", he finally asked, after long silence.
Jack didn´t have to think twice: "Well, for example...", Jack wanted to say what Connor and Rick had in common, but he didn´t find something. But then he knew: "...You both like ports. Come on! You´re not holding hands with Rick."
"All right! I'll take him to New Orleans", Connor finally agreed, without looking up from his work.
Come on everybody take a trip with me
Down the Mississippi down to New Orleans, yeah, yeah.
With a honeysuckle hanging on a honeysuckle vine
Well love is blooming there all the time
Every southern belle is a Mississippi queen
Down the Mississippi down to New Orleans ("New Orleans" by The Blues Brothers)
The following weekend, Connor had Rick actually taken to New Orleans for the Super Bowl, although he was firmly convinced that Rick didn´t need the gift of ticket. He was an author and certainly could afford this. However, Connor had a guilty conscience when he thought this, because Rick had been very pleased to have been invited.
Connor grabbed the steering wheel of his Audi, his second car, and stared through the windshield. He and Rick were on the way from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. They had taken the plane, which had landed in the capital of Louisiana, because all aircrafts to New Orleans were booked.
Rick was an incredible pain in the neck as Connor realized now. And he could remember that Jack had promised him, Rick knew how to behave.
But now Rick sat next to him and whistled to a jazz song that was just played on the radio. Connor didn´t want to say he was fed up, but it was the truth.
"Rick, can you perhaps stop whistle the song?", he asked, hoping Rick knew what he was getting at.
"What?... Yeah, no problem! "
Connor breathed out in relief. Luckily, his companion had understood what he wanted.
"When exactly is Mardi Gras?", Rick wanted to know. New Orleans was known for this costume party in which parades marched through the streets and in which pearl necklaces were given to people.
"No idea. Probably in February?"
Suddenly the car lurched forward and began to bounce.
"What is it? Is it the engine?", Rick asked in panic when the car stopped in the middle of the deserted street.
"I don´t think so. That must be a flat tire", Connor said, looking in the rearview mirror. The smoke came from the rear tires. Both got out and checked the tires. "Do you have a mobile phone with you?", Rick asked.
"Yes... But I don´t have service."
"And a spare tire?", he wanted to know.
"This is my spare tire," Connor muttered.
"What do we do now?"
"Waiting for someone to come and find us!"
"But this can take quite a long time," Rick remembers they hadn´t seen a single car on the lonely road, "We should walk and look for a car repair center. It can´t be so far until New Orleans." Rick grabbed his travel backpack. Connor had almost already lost him out of sight when Rick stopped, looked back at him and called to him: "What´s up? Aren´t you coming with me?"
Around the same time Lindsay and Sue waited in a queue at the bank counter. Today, everything seemed to take longer and Lindsay could hear a man yelling at a bank employee because of a loan, which he didn´t get. "I'm sorry, sir. Your credit security is not enough", the woman said, opening the door for him so he left her office.
Sue grabbed a brochure about money saving programs and tried to get some fresh air.
The queue in front of Lindsay slowly dissolved and finally it was her turn. "Next, please", a woman behind the counter said.
"Good day. I think I have a problem with my card and...", Lindsay wanted to say something but then she heard a woman screaming, then a loud sound. Lindsay knew it had been shot.
In the middle of the bank stood a shabby man with a gun in his hand. A decent caliber, as Lindsay could see from here.
"On the ground!", the man shouted again and shot into the ceiling of the building. People lay down on the cold ground without any resistance and waited to see what would happen now.
Lindsay had expected that the stranger would bring a bag with a dollar sign to rob the bank. But that didn´t happen. Instead, he stopped and looked exactly. So, as he would search for anyone specific.
"Sit down in front of the wall," he almost barked at her and Lindsay helped Sue to sit in front of the bank counter, which the stranger had called a "wall".
"What's that?", Sue asked and some of the people who were lying motionless, raised their heads.
"Keep your mouth shut!", the man roared.
"I want immediately..."
"Keep your mouth shut, I said!", he grabbed Sue and Lindsay at the same time by the arm and dragged them across the hall. They almost had slipped on the way to their destination but they made it to arrive safely there. With his left foot the man pushed open the door to an empty room and pushed them into it.
Then he marched back into the hall.
Tears welled up in Sue's eyes when they were alone. Lindsay sat down beside her. "It will be all right," she whispered, hoping at least.
In here, it was dark, only a small light came through two tiny windows near the ceiling and in this light fell directly on a table and two chairs, the only furniture in this room. Lindsay climbed on the table and tried to look out. It was raining outside but she wasn´t interested in this. She was looking for something, with which you would be able to open the window.
"Shit," she managed to say when she found nothing, "What kind of room is this?"
"I don´t know."
Lindsay jumped off the table and the heels of her shoes caused a clicking sound.
"There must be a way to escape..."
"There is a way to escape", Sue murmured, who wiped the tears from her face. She pointed to the wall right next to the door. There was actually an air shaft. "But you can´t count on me, because I don´t fit through that whole," Sue was pregnant, "And I fear that my water has just burst..."
"Why couldn´t we stay with the car? Someone will find us, soon", Connor complained.
"Who will find us?", Rick replied quickly.
"We will walk forever until we reach New Orleans," Connor said. He ran a few yards behind Rick and looked up to the sun. Even in Louisiana, it was extremely warm and sunny in February.
"It can´t be so bad. Let´s see it as a walking trip. And because I have a very good sense of direction, we won´t get lost. So you see: Jack has thought of everything."
"I only took you with me because of one reason: Jack wanted it this way because he thought we would get along well. But apparently he was wrong", Connor grumbled.
"You mean you're going to hike alone to New Orleans?", Rick asked.
"Yeah."
"I think this isn´t a good idea. You could get lost...!"
"I'm willing to take the risk ...!"
"Listen, you shouldn´t...", Rick made a last attempt to run after him, "I won´t argue with you. The clever one gives in."
In fact, Connor stopped. "I hate to say this, but you're right."
"A dispute won´t take us any further... We now go to the left or to the right?", Rick asked. They stood in front of a crossing and looked around helplessly.
"Let's go to the left," Connor finally said and Rick agreed, nodding his head.
"Remind me that I'll never ask you again, in which direction we should go", Rick moaned much later and with his hands firmly clasped the support of his backpack.
"You have asked me for my opinion! And: Who has bragged to have a good sense of direction?"
Connor looked at the sky again. The sun shone down with full force and warmed the air. They hiked through the warm area since an hour. "Do you have any idea where we are?", Connor asked, trying not to sound angry.
Rick took a map out of his backpack and looked at it.
"Not really, but New Orleans isn´t far away for sure," he explained.
"We should also take a break," Connor suggested, "Do you have dinner with you?"
Rick paused and glanced into his backpack.
"I actually have something there," he cried happily and gave Connor a sandwich. It was noon and they began to wonder how long they had to walk until they finally arrived in New Orleans. "It´s also possible we have lost our way completely," Connor answered the question.
"I don´t think... Let's move on?"
They ate the sandwiches while walking. Connor tried to memorize the area as much as possible, because if he was honest, he didn´t trust Rick's excellent sense of direction. They passed some small trees where various birds perched and twittered merrily. "It´s almost like a jungle," Rick said.
Suddenly they heard a low rumble and the water right of the path began to bubble.
"Does this belong to your jungle, too?", Connor sneered and stopped.
"A swamp monster!", Rick cried.
"This can also be a crocodile. You don´t think this is a monster?"
"Yes, of course!"
Without ever acknowledging him, Connor continued walking.
He marched around a number of large palm trees and stopped indignantly. Rick was still running a few feet behind him and noticed his reaction. "What´s wrong? Did you find anything?"
Connor didn´t answer, so Rick came beside him. "That can´t be true!", he exclaimed. The silver Audi stood in front of them. They were running in the circle all the time!
"We can do it!", Lindsay encouraged her friend before she climbed on the table again. She found out she could probably loosen the screws of the grid with her keys when... "Do you have a screwdriver for Phillips screws?", she asked, Sue shook her head. Lindsay actually didn´t expect anything else.
"Think, Lindsay," she said to herself, "How do we get out?" She thought about it and sat down on the table. Then she had an idea. She fumbled in her jacket pocket for her wallet and opened it. Inside, she found a Swiss Army knife, which Peter had once given her. She had been angry with him because he gave her a pocket knife for her birthday back then. Today she was grateful.
She took out the memory piece and held it in her hand. Then she got up and tried to loosen the screws of the grid. It worked! Sue got up from the chair on which she sat and also wanted to climb on the table. "Leave it," Lindsay said to her, "How are you, anyway?"
"The pain is currently bearable...", she replied.
After about five minutes, all the screws were removed and Lindsay put the keepsake back into her pocket.
"I never in life fit through" Lindsay noted, as she looked into the ventilation shaft.
"Why don´t we just call Kate and tell her she should get us out of here?"
"I forgot my phone in the car," Lindsay admitted, "Where is your cell phone?"
"In my handbag… Which I left at the bank counter… Are you sure you can´t see anything in the shaft?", Sue now asked.
"Yes, I can see something: My final hour," Lindsay answered and in this moment someone opened the door. They should have put a chair in front the door!
"What are you doing?", the man yelled at her, "Come along!" The way he commanded them, robbed them any courage to do something.
"Who are you?", Lindsay asked. The stranger didn´t answer and while they were walking behind him, Lindsay discovered the crack at the back- seam of the jacket worn by the man. His shirt underneath was orange and she could see a few letters of the print: TE PRI. Her mind worked like crazy as she tried to find out the sense behind this letters. Then it occurred to her! The print meant STATE PRISON.
"You aren´t in the position to ask questions," he said, "You are quite cheeky." With the shotgun, which he had with him, he pointed again to the bank counter and told them they should sit down there again. "And this time you stay calm, or..." He didn´t say anything more, instead looked down at his shotgun. That was answer enough.
Now they could only wait and see what would happen next.
"A hostage at the Morgan Stanley Bank in the 22nd Street," Kate exclaimed when she entered her office at the NYPD, "A man who wanted to enter the bank has seen from the outside, as people lay on the ground. He immediately called, because he has also seen like a man has dragged two women with a gun."
"Didn´t your friend Lindsay called and told she wanted to go to the bank?", Kevin Ryan asked.
"We have to leave!", Kate was almost to the door when she turned back to their colleagues. "Please call Jack! We need him there." On the way to the patrol car Kate whipped out her own cell phone and dialed the phone number of Sue's house. As expected, Jack answered the call. "This is Jack Hudson," he said.
"This is Kate. Can you come to Morgan Stanley Bank?"
"This is unfavorable. I have to do something on the computer. Can it wait?"
"No, that can´t wait! Sue is involved in a hostage situation."
"This time we go to the right!", Rick complained and shuffled with giant steps to the crossing. They had left the car behind and continued to try to get to the next town. Rick turned right and followed the path. The forest thickened on both sides and soon it was as dark as the night.
"Hey, who turned off the light?",Rick joked and laughed.
"This is not funny! This is serious! "
Again there was a sinister growl and Connor immediately heard it. "I think we´re lost again," he said.
"I think so, too... Jack will get us out of here if we don´t get back home, right?", Rick asked, now a little confused.
"Somehow... I hope so...", Connor replied.
"I have the feeling that you led us in a wrong direction again," muttered Connor. He had no idea what time it was, because Rick's watch was broken.
"If so, then it wasn´t intentional for sure," Rick replied angrily and kicked a medium-sized stone in the gully to the left of the road.
"Where is your problem?", he asked after a while.
"No idea. We don´t seem to be a good team, "Connor said, "I think we are just too different."
"Hey, are you breaking up with me?", Rick began to laugh.
"What?", Connor glanced at the sky. "It will be dark soon," he said anxiously, "And we still haven´t reached New Orleans. Do you have the map with you?"
Once again, Rick grabbed the map, but this time he couldn´t see anything because it was dark. "I can´t see anything... but we are certainly on the right track."
"You've also said this three hours ago... I have a fla…. ", Connor began, but Rick held up his arms for saying he had his own flashlight.
"...Are you sure you have held the map the correctly?", Connor asked.
"Of course!" Without looking up from the map, he marched on. And then it happened: Rick hit a tree trunk. "Ow," he said when he touched his forehead and rubbed it.
"That's a nice bump," Rick added in a monotone. Then he wanted to find out what he had hit. "This thing is not a tree! It is anything made of metal", he exclaimed, walked around it. He brushed away a climber and then he whistled.
"What did you find?", Connor asked in panic.
"A label! This is a transmission tower of Mississippi Express, a jazz radio station in New Orleans. That means we are close to the city!", suddenly Rick was excided. Connor could understand that he wanted to leave but only because he had found a radio mast that didn´t mean, however, the city was just over the next crossing.
"We must go on!", Rick explained. He continued on his way through the darkness and he ran, driven by the hope they´d reach their destination soon, on a path which was surrounded by water on both sides.
Now Connor remembered the buzzing sound, which they had already heard a few hours ago. He wondered if it was perhaps only water or whether the swamp gases (If there were any) slowly caused hallucinations. Last, he believed to be very unlikely, so the water was to blame.
But suddenly he heard a loud, powerful roar and it sounded very angry.
Rick turned around. "Connor," he cried and knew that he had to be pale, "Hurry up!"
Connor just looked at him in surprise and asked him with a mocking voice, "Are you scared?"
But Rick ignored him, he just kept running. "Be careful you´re not eaten by a swamp monster!", he thought to himself.
"Wait," Connor called after him but Rick wasn´t about to stand still, at least not here. He only came to a halt when he reached a clearing. Exhausted, he exhaled.
"You really believe in monsters in the swamp," Connor said, now a bit more serious.
"How else do you explain the roar and the constant air bubbles in the swamp?"
"Swamp gas... Maybe we are already so close to the city that the roar was caused by a lion at the zoo!"
"The Zoo of New Orleans was destroyed two years ago by a strong hurricane and during the rebuilding they didn´t build a new lion habitat because the old lion has died. I am firmly convinced there is a monster!"
"Listen, there are no monsters. Neither here nor anywhere else..."
"There is a monster. And I'll prove it to you", Rick turned around and gave Connor the map. "See you," he said angrily and made a huge step forward. And then he was gone.
"Why is he always doing this?", Connor asked. Now Rick was gone and he was here alone. What if Rick was right and there really was a monster in the swamps of New Orleans? He could only hope that this being didn´t eat people. "Stop thinking about this! A man-eating monster... You're going crazy", Connor said to himself. A bird began to screech loudly. "Maybe I should have joined Rick," he mused, as he ducked, so the bird didn´t caught him.
Shortly thereafter, Connor suggested to take the same path as Rick had chosen.
"Who are you? Answer the question at last!", Sue suddenly demanded and Lindsay would have loved to kick her butt. If Sue wanted to play the hero, that was a damn bad selected date.
The man didn´t say a single word to them, he just ran around and seemed to be seeking something.
"He probably escaped from the State Prison," Lindsay whispered to her, "Can you see that the back- seam is split open on his jacket? The shirt underneath tells. During coming here, he probably attacked someone to get the clothes. That remembers me about something I heard in the news a few days ago: A young couple was killed in a very brutal way on a highway and the killer wasn´t found so far… I've also heard the rattle of a key. Probably, the car with which he came ..."
"The shotgun is a Mossberg," Sue told. Her old FBI weapons skills didn´t let her down and it didn´t surprise her when Lindsay nodded.
"God, where did he get this weapon from? The last time I've heard of such a weapon, I have started at the FBI", Sue whispered.
"Shut up," the man called out to them. The gun pointed directly at her. Well, it was enough to Lindsay: No one held a gun under her nose.
"This weapon is no longer produced in the United States. Where did you get your gun from?", she asked indignantly. As soon as she said it, she wished she had previously considered a little.
"Where did you get the courage from?", the man asked, "You should be more careful. Otherwise it could cost your friend's life... Or his life", he pointed to a bank employee," Or you!" Now he held his weapon on an elderly lady. "Or what about you?", now he held the gun pointed directly at Lindsay.
"Don´t!", Sue tried to get up, "If you want a hostage, take me but let the others!"
"Shut up and sit back down," the man barked. Sue and Lindsay sat down in front of the counter and could look out.
"My goodness," Sue whispered, pointing to the window, "I can see Jack from here."
Lindsay nodded. "Kate and her colleagues are also there..."
"Do you have any idea what is going on in there?", Jack asked impatiently and Kate shook her head, "Can you get her out of there?". He looked very worried.
"I'm just worried. After all, in there are people who are my friends as well."
Internally Jack bit his tongue. He shouldn´t have asked. He thought feverishly as he could rephrase the question. Then he had an idea: "If he won´t leave the blank why don´t we offer him a ransom?"
"What makes you think that?"
Jack took a deep breath. Then he put his hands on the sides. "Look, I had to deal with terrorists with the FBI in Washington. This was perhaps some numbers larger than this, but I know how those things run."
Kate seemed to be thinking. Finally, she turned to Esposito and Ryan and asked them what they thought of it. "It´s worth a try," Esposito and Kevin Ryan agreed. Ryan chose Lindsay's number on his cell phone and waited for her answer. But nothing happened. Then he discovered the large, silver-colored Mazda Van on the other side of the street. It was Lindsay´s car.
He walked alone across the street, unlocked the car and immediately he heard the cheerful ringtone of her mobile phone. The clamshell was slipped under the passenger seat. Unknown caller ', stood on the screen. He locked the car and joined Kate´s discussion again, because he had an idea. He himself also had Sue's phone number in his phone book... "It´s worth a try," he heard himself say in his head and searched her phone book. Now he only hoped that Sue had her cell phone with her.
"What a bummer! Why did I have to give him my map?", Rick muttered to himself as he jumped over a narrow moat. He was firmly convinced he would find his swamp monster soon. But if he had found it what he should do with the monster? He couldn´t put it in a cage, in addition he hadn´t a cage with him!
Rick reached a small clearing. He looked around: He was surrounded by knee-length swamp grass, through the foliage of the trees penetrated only faint moonlight and immediately above the bottom hung dense patches of fog. Rick shuddered.
"Scary, here," he said to himself. He took another step forward, when suddenly a low rumble disturbed the peace at night and ascended a huge air bubbles showed up in the water. Rick remained rooted to the spot and looked around frantically. Behind him a bunch of bog grass rustled... and another one... and another one...
Rick looked in all directions. How he wished he now had anything for his defense! Should he try to call for Connor? Maybe he couldn´t help him, if they were really dealing with a swamp monster. Rick discovered a branch in the clearing and quickly picked it up and held it with the tip forward to the grasses that move.
"Come out... and... and show yourself, you monster, "he said in a shaky voice. In his mind he prayed that it wasn´t really a monster. He pushed the long blades of grass aside and found Connor.
Rick dropped the branch and exhaled in relief.
"There you are, Wild Boy! I have been looking for you everywhere. Well, you've caught your monster?", Connor annoyed him, but Rick knew he was also glad to see him.
"This can´t be true! I almost pee in my pants, because I think there comes a monster and then it's just you!... And no, I didn´t caught something! This is childish", he said.
Connor looked at the map. Rick wondered where he got the flashlight from so suddenly.
"I wanted to tell you just before you met this radio transmitter mast, but you wouldn´t accept my help... We now need to be here. If we go west, we soon reach Lake Pontchartrain and from there it´s only a few miles."
"Fine," Rick exclaimed, turned around and wanted to go further. Actually, this path should be a safe trail, the map said. Instead, they both had a swampy turf in front of them. "The road probably couldn´t stand the water rise", Rick said confidently. He took a step forward and heard the sound he made when he stepped in a marsh pond. "I think we have a problem," he added, when he realized that he ever sank into the wet ground. "I'm stuck!", he tried to avoid this with a quick movement and held on to a tree root and suddenly he stuck up to his waist in the mud.
"Help! Hey, Connor! Get me out of here, "he begged.
Connor was looking for a subject which he could use to get Rick out of that and finally he found a strong branch.
"Okay... Try to hold it! "
He reached out to Rick and he grabbed the branch. "Hurry up! The mud is cold, " Rick grumbled and pulled on the branch. Connor was still standing at the edge of the pool and flailing arms wildly.
"Stop pulling,! You..." But too late! The sentence was scarcely finished when he lost his balance and also fell into the mud. "... Are pulling me in, too," Connor finished the sentence and looked down at himself. He was covered all over with the wet mass and also got stuck. "Oh great! And what do we do now?", Rick asked.
"No idea," Connor said. Rick tried to escape the mud, but it was useless. Instead of to free himself, he sank ever deeper.
"Well done... I've always hoped I would die at home in my bed in the circle of my loved ones, instead I ended up with you in the swamp of New Orleans, "Connor complained and looked around. There really was no way to escape.
Sue and Lindsay shrank together almost simultaneously, when a cell phone in Sue's purse at a seat in the waiting area rang loudly.
Their captors turned to face them. "Is that your phone?", he asked gruffly and Sue nodded wordlessly. "Go get it. But don´t answer."
She got up and almost collapsed on the way the waiting area. Finally, she found the phone. Of course, she would simply answer to the call and ask for help, but she didn´t. In the hall she handed the phone to the man, then she sat back in her seat.
The man opened the clamshell, took a quick look at it and answered. "What do you want?", he asked.
"My name is Kate Beckett," Kate introduced, who had now turned to Esposito, Ryan and Jack, "I'm with the NYPD. The building is surrounded. There is no escape."
"Did you come here, to tell me that?"
"Not only. We know you have a gun with you. If your bend the hostages just a hair, we storm the building. I'm not kidding."
The man seemed to have to think. "All right. Here are twenty-four people. I want unnumbered 200,000 dollars per head and a helicopter that takes me out of town. I would also like a getaway car, which doesn´t have a state license plate and which is parked at the County boundary. I want the money in the trunk."
"When will you free the hostages? "
"Twenty, upon delivery of the helicopter. Four, if I get my money."
"It does not work."
"You are not in the position to make demands," the man said and hung up. Jack looked at Kate intently. "What did he say?"
"He delivers twenty hostages, if he gets the helicopter. The other four we get at the money transfer", he said.
"You think Sue and Lindsay won´t be among the four hostages," Jack added.
"This only happens in really nasty TV series," Esposito told and he knew it wasn´t not particularly conducive.
"I suggest we call someone to get the helicopter", Kate said.
"What about the money?", Kevin wanted to know.
"We don´t get so much in this short time."
"That means, you want to bluff," Jack said.
"He gets the helicopter first, that was his mistake." It took almost a quarter of an hour, until Jack heard the rotors of the police helicopter in the sky. The pilot landed on the street in front of the bank and all umbrellas fluttered in the wind. He turned off the rotors and when the excitement had died down, Kate re-elected Sue's cell phone number. Again, a man answered.
"Your helicopter is there," she informed him "Come out and bring twenty of the hostages."
"You won´t shoot me," the man repeated and someone opened the door. Twenty people came out. They all had received the instruction to line up on the building wall. Kate realized that the guys were wrong with their Murphy's Law theory: Neither Lindsay nor Sue were among the four remaining hostages. The pilot in the helicopter started the rotors while a guy in tattered clothes left the bank. Suddenly he stated running and seemed to have forgotten the last four hostages. And at the very moment in which he wanted to tear open the helicopter door, he was surrounded by countless police officers.
Jack hurried into the interior of the bank where Sue and Lindsay still sat on the cold floor. Lindsay helped Sue get up. "Jack," she cried and hugged him relieved, "I'm so glad you're here!" She had no idea what she should have said.
"Are you okay?", Jack wanted to know.
"Jack, I think...", Sue stammered and then held her stomach, "I have to go to the hospital. The baby is coming. My water broke..."
"Connor!", Rick asked a few hours later with a panicked tone in his voice, "Are you still there?"
"Hmmmm," Connor only replied. Of course he was angry because he had been literally stuck in the mud up to his neck and he couldn´t open his mouth. "Listen, I only want to apologize, if we should die here," Rick quickly added.
"Hmmmmm," Connor replied. Rick paused until he could no longer stand the hysterical cries of the marsh birds.
"I also think it´s terribly childish, that we were arguing who is Jack's best friend and I'm sorry that you're here... oh! Forget it! Anyway, some things I have said today weren´t meant that way." Rick closed his eyes for a moment. Then he heard a low rumble and immediately he was alerted again. "Connor," he warned his friend, "It's back!"
But Connor didn´t talk to him. Next to Rick a bubble suddenly rose from bottom and something touched his feet. Now he was sure: There was something! Shocked, he expanded his eyes. The monster was back. Rick kicked and launched a last attempt to get free, but it didn´t work. He wanted to get away! The next moment, a ray of light glided across their heads. "We are here!", Rick roared with sore throat. And indeed, the light rays suddenly stopped and a few seconds later, two men in police clothes appeared at the bottom edge.
"Is the Silver Audi with New York license plate which has stopped a few miles away from here, yours?", one man asked.
"That's his car!", Rick yelled, pointing to Connor, who was almost sunken. One of the two police men quickly got a special rescue unit out of his car and pulled Connor to the shore. As soon as he was safe, the policeman also rescued Rick.
"Are you all right?", a policeman asked and Connor nodded.
"I could use a shower," he admitted, looking down at himself.
"We will take you to the hospital," the policeman said.
Rick was still standing at the edge of the swamp, breathing hard. "How did you find us?", he wanted to know.
"We have found the car and then searched the area... You were very lucky."
"Yes, I know," said Rick and with his muddy hand he knocked the officer´s arm, "But now we go to New Orleans... I finally want to see the game!"
"Maybe I should take more vacations!", Jack said a few days later and stretched out on a deck chair in the home garden. He, Kate, Lindsay and Sue sat in the garden and everyone enjoyed the beautiful sunny day. The Doyle- kids and the Castle- kids played, while they could take care for their tan. Lindsay put away her glass of orange juice and looked at Jack.
"I must admit I'm worried about Connor. Since he and Rick have landed in Baton Rouge, he hasn´t called a single time. He doesn´t answer his phone." Lindsay indeed sounded a bit worried.
Kate also realized that Rick hadn´t answered his cell phone. She missed her husband. And she´d never say they all had boring lives. The hostage taught Kate how much she loved her husband and her kids.
"Don´t be sad", Sue said, "They are doing well, I´m sure."
"Let´s talk about different things: We could watch a movie. How about something serious, such as RIO", Lindsay said.
Sue laughed. "RIO is not a serious movie. It´s very funny but I always have Problems with animated movie characters because I often can´t read their lips so I don´t understand what they are saying" she corrected and leaned into her deck chair.
"You seem to be fine," Connor suddenly complained and all at once there was silence. They all looked at him and no one moved. Even the children in the garden had stopped playing. Connor and Rick didn´t look particularly recovered. They had slept properly in a hotel after the adventure in the swamps and recovered. Despite everything, they had been able to watch the football game in the Superdome.
Jack came out of the house and sat down on the edge of Sue's deck chair. "We were worried. Why didn´t you call a single time? What happened?", he wanted to know.
"I'm sorry. I must have lost my phone when I was stuck in this mud pond", Connor apologized to his wife.
"There, we only ended up because his car suddenly broke", Rick complained.
"We had a flat tire and Rick had to hike in the swamp, but he got lost and has claimed a swamp monster would be behind us," Connor accused him and sank into the empty chair, "That was a great trip", he grumbled and everyone knew it was meant ironically.
Connor now looked at Jack. "I see that the baby arrived", he wanted to know interested.
"Yeah," Jack said, grinning, "My boy is wonderful."
"Yes, very nice," Rick said, receiving a little slap from his wife Kate.
"So, back to our little trip: I'm still not convinced, that...", Connor was about to say something, but Jack got up from the lounge chair: "Anyway, we are all glad that you are fine," he said and entered his house. He didn´t want to be there when the two quarreled. Why couldn´t Connor and Rick become friends?
However, Rick grinned at Connor. "He believed it," he whispered.
"What?," asked Lindsay.
"Well... Our trip wasn´t bad... We just don ´t want that Jack believes we avoid him in the future. So he should think we still can´t stand each other", Rick said," Let's go drink a beer tonight?"
"Good idea...", Connor said, "But please don´t tell him."
"Don´t worry, my lips are sealed," Lindsay said, leaning back in her chair.
"Mine too. As if I had nothing more important to do than to squeal to my husband", Sue smiled and held her son in her arms.
They enjoyed the rest of the sunny day. Relieved, they were all reunited.
Fin