Daycare
"Turn right here." Sarah ordered.
Casey obliged silently, turning the SUV onto Mill Pond Road. He then proceeded to loop around the block, and parked on the road running parallel to Mill Pond.
"Sarah and I will take the front, you take the back," Allison suggested. Casey grunted, which Allison assumed to be an affirmative. Sarah nodded curtly and checked her weapons. The three got out of the car. Casey cut through the neighbor's yard to get to the back door and Allison and Sarah walked around to the front.
Once at the front door, the two women looked at each other, nodded once, then plastered cheery smiles on their faces. Sarah rang the bell and a man built like a rock peered through the window on one side of the door. Allison gave him a little wave and he opened the door.
"Can I help you?" He rumbled in heavily-accented English.
"Yes," Sarah smiled brightly, "We're here on behalf of the Los Angeles Center for Child Development. Can we ask you a few questions?"
The man looked over his shoulder, then up and down the street. "Go ahead."
"Lily, turn on the mike," Sarah said. Allison reached for a box on her hip and flicked something on the side.
"Ready."
"Now, sir, how important is child development to you, the average American?"
"Important."
"Great! Now, would you be willing to support any institution that works towards the goal of making a better future for children?"
"Yes."
"And how do you feel about kidnapping children?" Sarah asked pleasantly. The man had two seconds to look suspicious, but Allison had tasered him before he could catch on.
"As fun as guns are, this way will make him easier to interrogate later on." Allison explained as she dragged the man through the door and handcuffed him to the stair rail.
Sarah raised her eyebrows at the handcuffs.
"Don't worry, I have another four sets." Allison nodded, pleased with her preparedness, and strode into the house, drawing her gun. Casey met them in the living room, which was empty.
"Already checked the ground floor. They're on the upper level." Casey said as he checked the extra gun on his hip and headed up the stairs silently, Allison and Sarah following closely behind. They split up, each of them taking a room. Bathroom and three bedrooms were empty, which left one door. Sarah slowly tired the door, which was open. The man was taking pictures of the children. The four-year-old's eyes widened as he saw the three agents, but Allison shook her head and put a finger to her lips. He fidgeted as the man took a picture.
"Just stand still, damn it!" the man shouted, as he deleted the photo from his camera. "Hold the newspaper and stay still! If you want to eat tonight, then you had better not mess this one up!" Sarah put her gun to his head.
"If you want to see tomorrow, you'd better not mess this up." she told him. Oddly enough, he smirked as Allison went around and picked up the baby's carrier, where the infant lay asleep, and took the four-year-old by the hand.
"It's all right now, we're the good guys." she told him. The little boy smiled at her.
"You might be the good guys, but do you have shock bracelets on the children?" the man asked.
"Shock bracelets?" Allison put down the carrier and checked the children's ankles. There were metal rings locked on, looking heavy and uncomfortable on the young ones' legs.
"If you take them off the premises, they will be shocked with a very high voltage. It will certainly kill the baby, though the boy might live."
"You have the remote?" Casey asked, placing his gun on the man's stomach.
"You will never find it."
"No…" Allison said slowly, "But we can remove them."
"Not unless you want them to be shocked; you need the pass code for that."
"Casey, toss me your phone." Allison ordered.
"Walters, now is not the time for phone calls."
"No, but I bet our asset can help us."
"He's about as useful as a--"
"Just give me the phone, Casey!" Allison's raised voice didn't effect Casey's expression, but he tossed her the phone. Allison scrolled down the contacts, and selected Chuck's number.
"Hello? Brilliant deduction, Sherlock. It's Allison."
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Chuck was actually enjoying work. He had a large pile of laptops that needed various adjustments, and Morgan was hiding from Big Mike and was currently keeping Chuck busy with pointless debates, such as which movie star they would take on a desert island, how long someone could survive after they ate a live snake, and whether or not someone would come out with decent 3-D video game graphics within the next year. As they moved back to the age-old sandwich/desert island debate, Chuck's phone rang and at the same moment, Big Mike came in and spotted Morgan.
"I've been looking everywhere for you, Grimes! I need you in the pit, now."
"Big Mike, I'm--" Morgan began
"Now!" Mike shouted, and Morgan scurried out of the back room to the dreaded pit of despair, where kids came with video games for help.
Chuck picked up the phone.
"Hello?" Came a female voice.
"You're not Casey, are you?" Chuck asked, confused.
"Brilliant deduction, Sherlock. It's Allison."
"Why are you using Casey's phone?"
"It doesn't matter, we have a situation. Two shock bracelets on one baby, one four year old. They need a code to unlock and if they leave the property or we try to open them, they're zapped. Suggestions?"
"What model are they?"
"How should I know? Hang on, I'm sending you a picture." A moment later, the picture came up on Chuck's phone and he flashed, a combination of specs and warnings flashing at him in his head, like an information upload.
After a long pause, Chuck said. "I don't know the code, they're built specifically without an override switch. It's really advanced technology too. Normal shock collars or bracelets have two electric prongs, both touching to your skin to connect the circuit. This only has one prong and the inside of the bracelet is impossible to cut except on the part right next to the prong, which is metal; cutting it completes the circuit because the cutters are metal. Crossing the border around the house sets off a code into the chip in the bracelet, which also shocks you, but how is too complicated to explain. There's no way to get out or get it off unless…" Chuck paused as a possibly brilliant idea came into his mind. "Hang on, I have a really stupid idea that just might work."
"Hurry it up. We haven't got all day."
"You're going to turn into Casey if you're not careful." Chuck muttered.
"Say that when I'm in shooting distance of you."
"I'll shut up now."
"Yeah. Hurry it up with the idea."
Chuck muted the phone as he made it to the pit. "Morgan, I need you for a little experiment." He dragged his best friend to the cage and plugged in a computer, pulling open the back on the monitor.
"Touch that," he said, indicating a piece.
"Dude, I'll get zapped. What is this, some sick joke?"
"Just do it."
Morgan gave Chuck a wary glance, but reached forward. As he was almost touching the piece, Chuck jabbed him in the sides, and Morgan jumped, his hand hitting the metal.
"Ah!" He shouted. "Dude, what did you do that for?"
"Did you get zapped?"
"Dude, are you trying to kill me?"
"Morgan! Did you get zapped?"
"Well…no." Morgan paused. "Dude, that was awesome! We've got to try this on--"
"Grimes!" Big Mike shouted, "Pit! Now, before I fire you!"
"Sorry Big Mike! Gotta go, buddy." Morgan patted Chuck's arm and rushed off.
"Allison?" Chuck unmuted the phone, "Here's what you have to do."
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Five minutes later, Sarah held a large pair of metal cutters and Allison held the baby, holding the leg with the bracelet attached to it as straight as she could.
"Ready? One, two, three, jump!" The pair jumped at the same time and Sarah snapped the bracelet off before they could hit the ground. It sparked, then fizzled out as it hit the floor. Allison inspected the baby's ankle.
"Perfect. One more time."
They performed the feat again with the four-year old, then Allison picked Casey's phone back up.
"It worked. Great job."
"Basic circuit completion requires--"
"I didn't need the geek speak, just the answer. See you in a bit." Allison hung up and tossed the phone back to Casey, who caught it one-handed, over the Czech man's head.
"All right, now that we're ready to go, what do we do with this--" Casey began, but Allison shushed him, motioning to the wide-eyed four-year-old.
"I've got handcuffs on me. Here, Sarah." She handed the cuffs to the blond CIA agent, whom gladly tightened them around the Czech's wrists.
"Move." Casey grunted, and the Czech began to walk. Sarah started to follow, but Allison called after her.
"Hey! Little help?" She fixed the baby in the little car seat/carrier and lifted it with one hand.
"Sarah, get…" she looked down at the boy, "What's your name?"
"Konate," the little boy answered, in fairly clear English. Allison started.
"You speak English?"
"I say English and French words." the little boy answered, and he rattled of something in French, which wasn't Allison's strongest point. Most of the phrases she knew involved 'drop your weapons', 'I'm armed', and 'yes, tell him I accept'. She knew the basics for pleasant undercover conversations, but French wasn't her language of choice. So instead she turned to Sarah, whom was already answering him.
Allison raised an eyebrow and Sarah smiled. "Oh, he says he's hungry."
They walked down the stairs, but as they reached the door, there was a shout and both agents drew their weapons, putting the children behind them. The man that Allison had handcuffed to the staircase had apparently broken the thick wooden bar he had been fixed to. He now had a gun drawn on Casey, whom had a gun on Broucek.
"I got the kids." Allison muttered, and she moved Konate and the baby behind a wall. She sat the four-year old down next to the baby carrier.
"Listen, Konate. Whatever you hear out there, stay here unless I say so. Don't be scared, we're going to take care of the bad guys who took you. Do you understand? Stay here."
The little boy nodded and Allison drew her type 54 Chinese army pistol, patting her belt to make sure that her other gun was in place. She checked around the door, then went out onto the lawn, where Sarah was approaching the guard-man from behind. Allison slowly followed suit, but Broucek managed to turn away from the car and shouted something to his man.
"And I was hoping this wasn't going to get ugly." Allison muttered.
"Too late for that." Sarah scanned the scene, evaluating the big man as he looked over the situation, reconsidering his plans now that there were three agents instead of one.
"I will put down my weapon now." he finally announced, slowly bending over. But as Sarah approached slowly to pick up the gun, he unbent in a fluid, fast, motion, and fired at Sarah, whom buckled. The vest took most of the damage, but as Sarah was getting her ability to breathe back, Allison had her gun trained on his head.
"One wrong move and this bullet is in your head!"
The man shot and Allison saw it coming, dodging it. Sarah had gotten up by this point and she kicked the gun from his hand, then wrestled him to the ground.
"Cuffs?" Sarah held a hand in the air and Allison tossed them to her, then retrieved Konate and the baby from behind the wall as Casey wrestled Broucek into the trunk of his SUV, and Sarah did the same with his lackey.
Allison strapped the baby's car seat into the SUV, "Are you going to sedate them or something?"
"What are you, mother of the year? The kids are fine." Casey growled.
"We'll sedate them anyway," Sarah said, fixing the cuffs to bars on the inside of the trunk. Allison nodded, a little relieved, and buckled Konate into the middle as she had no car seat. Sarah injected something into each of the two men, and their struggling slowed. Allison buckled herself in next to the boy, and Sarah climbed into the front seat next to Casey.
"Are we calling the general?" Allison asked, but Casey was already on his phone, informing the general, of their situation.
"Yes, general. Right away." His voice was low and gravelly, nearly void of emotion. Allison had gotten used to it by this point, but as she sat next to Konate and the baby, whom had now fallen asleep, she wondered if there was anything more to Casey than this--the emotionless, goal-oriented, agent who worked tirelessly for his country. She was unaware that the mission that two kidnapped children had presented would give her a chance to find out.
"So, we're daycare until the kids get picked up?" Allison asked Casey with a grin.
"We'll be debriefed when we get back to the castle."
"I'm hungry." Konate announced.
"There's a McDonalds down the road a little." Sarah informed Casey, checking the GPS.
"Happy Meal?" the little boy asked hopefully.
Sarah smiled, "I could use a bite."
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Okay, this chapter is done. I'm not sure of my whole shock-bracelet thingy would work, but as always, do not attempt at home, or at all. Chuck got a chance to show his smarts, yay! I'll try to make it more ingenious next time. Next chapter should start the Charah and Casey/Allison (Callison? Allisey? Cason?), but no promises. I'm working with school as well. Well, hope you liked it. Reviews please!!!