Hostage Chicago Takedown Chapter 2

Pairing: Jasper/ Edward

Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters; they all belong to Mrs. S Meyer. Any characters not owned by SM are purely fictitious.

Warnings: Story contains intimate guy/guy action so must be over 18 to read.

A/N: Huge thanks to everyone who has followed, favorited, and reviewed. Welcome back to readers of old, who have followed the boys since the first chapter of their story, and to happy reading to newbies.

For new visitors and those who need the reminder; we do a little recapping of who is who at the beginning of this chapter.. Then we move on and set the scene.

I have maps of Chicago, and have done some research. However, not being familiar with the area, I intend to have office blocks in places that are strategically good for the story, yet not real. After all this is fiction. So, apologies in advance if I paint a particularly good area in a bad light or vice versa. There are no cruel intentions.

Again hugs to my beta Harrytwifan – you're an angel.

Chapter 2

Charlie sat in his flat, reminding himself of who The Pack were and are.

They were a SWAT team based in New York, Jasper was their section chief.

Edward (Psych) Cullen-Whitlock – Pack/Team Leader. NYPD born and bred. He has a sixth sense when it comes to people, and can pretty much read any situation like he is in the heads of the perps themselves. The man can be a hot head, but it is rare. He is the biological son of Marcus and Esme; actual son to Carlisle and Esme. Edward is the man on whom the whole operation hinges.

Sam (Wolf) Uley – Edward's Beta. Able to track anything and sniff out main trouble areas. A totally grounded solid man, and unfazeable. His quiet watch and absorb-and-decide personality suggests there is more to him than meets the eye.

Emmett (Yogi) McCarty – Explosives. Ex SEAL - Can identify and diffuse any bomb or explosive—but truly in his element when blowing stuff up. Outside of an operation, and a fair amount within one, he acts like a big kid, something between an X-Rated Peter Pan and a character from The Expendables. Beneath the facade, he is an intelligent papa bear. All spare time usually spent in the gym with the weights, or eyeing up the ass of his colleague, Miss Hale.

Rosalie (Mama) Hale – Close Combat. Originally LAPD. She keeps everyone's self-defense up to scratch. Cross trained in multiple martial arts. Heaven help the poor bastard who tries to corner Rosalie. She is lethal. Her scowl even scares Charlie. She classes The Pack as her family.

She is on file as having said of relatives, "Just because they are blood-related, doesn't mean they'll stick by you. Family are those people who accept you for who you are, warts and all. They care enough to be whatever you need them to be."

Her background is also on file, but that is irrelevant to the case. As far as Rosalie is concerned; once you earn her loyalty, you have it for life. Her handle isn't Mama for nothing. If anyone hurts one of her brood, they will pay the price.

Leah (Hawkeye) Clearwater – munitions. Ex-Army Sniper. Best shot and weapon's expert. She can slice and dice you with a flick of the wrist, or shoot, you depending on her preference and mood. She's got an attitude, but when the chips are down – you want her covering your back. With the right equipment, she can cover your ass from a mile away.

Seth (Ferret) Clearwater – Multi-talented in entry and exit work at all heights and locations. His speciality is anything related to working within confined spaces – hence the nickname. Instead of going into the Army like his sister, Leah, he hit the Seattle streets. He is a reformed thief who, after juvie, was put through an experimental police program and eventually ended up in The Pack; probably, because of his sister. It all means, he is a sneaky little bugger. He loves a challenge, and always has a smile on his face, which for Charlie is a little disconcerting, as he never knows what the boy is thinking.

Alice (Pixie) Brandon – Communications. Although she looks like a large Tinkerbelle, the only similarity is her height, at 4'8. She, in fact, came from MIT. Alice has interesting zoning out moments, but there is no doubt if the info is out there to be found, she finds a way to get it—whether through legal or illegal means. Her wand is her computer, and she wields it with great skill and enthusiasm; sometimes a little too much enthusiasm.

Jasper Cullen-Whitlock – Ex NYPD section Chief. Strategist. Edward's new handler. Considers himself to be ultimately responsible for The Pack. He will lay his life on the line for any of his men. However, with Edward as his husband, and seeing his reaction to what happened during and after the bank raid; Charlie suspects nothing short of a nuclear attack will stop him getting to Marcus, if the impending operation goes wrong and his boy gets hurt. If the man doesn't come through with the goods, he might let Jasper off his leash, purely for the chaos it will cause.

Charlie wondered if Jasper wasn't too close to everything to do the job effectively. Not that Charlie had much choice. For this operation, Jasper and Edward came as a package deal. Jasper didn't trust Charlie to put Edward's well-being above the goals of the operation. If push came to shove, Charlie himself wasn't sure what he was capable of. Then again, that was the role of chief. He had to weigh up the risk, and see if it was worth it. They were fighting a mafia war, and like most conflicts, there were casualties. Anyone entering the job, and not understanding that was fooling themselves.

In Charlie's mind, The Pack was like The Three Musketeers and the extra cast – all for one, and one for all. Only his pairing of the characters was different to the famous films.

Athos had to be Jasper, and Aram was Edward. They were, after all, the handsome leaders of the troops.

Both Sam and Emmett, stature wise, were candidates for Porthos. However, Emmett beat Sam to the role, due to his sense of humor. He wasn't sure where to place Sam. Maybe he was the alter-ego of Porthos.

Milady De Winter was beautiful and ruthless, so had to be Rosalie. Only this Milady was faithful to the Musketeers, rather than Cardinal Richelieu.

That left Seth for the role of D'Artagnan. He was young and enthusiastic. Though he had the heart and skill of a Musketeer, his height was a little lacking.

In Charlie's version of the movie, Constance and Queen Anne were lovers. They had to be Alice and Leah. Yet somehow, he couldn't imagine them in frilly dresses and wigs.

Charlie didn't want to think of himself in the role of King Louis; the man with all the technical power, who was unsure how to wield it in such formidable company.

He likened the Duke of Buckingham to Marcus, the outsider; a man who could be good and evil, depending of what suited his plans.

Cardinal Richelieu was definitely Aro. However, with Caius out of the picture, the role of Rochefort was up for grabs.

As for Planchet, Charlie was sure someone would eventually fit the role.

For The Pack, the three months following the return of the happy couple was filled with learning. They got up-to-speed with what the FBI knew as the Main Players of the Chicago underground.

Each family dealt in many areas of crime. However, they each had a speciality. Things had moved on since the days of prohibition. Despite the fact that booze wasn't illegal, alcohol from under the counter sources still flowed through nightclubs. Owners would do anything to cut costs and make more profit. Clubs too, were the front for many ventures. It was simply secondary to the prime business.

The prominent families included:

The Volturi. They were at the top of the tree, with several fingers in everyone's pie. Money laundering was their speciality, along with firearms. It allowed them to know how each family was faring.

The Irish Delaney clan dealt with high-stakes gambling, including Internet betting. If protection money was not paid on time, a server or two would be overloaded and crash. The results meant the loss of a lot of betting around large events.

Any drug movements or deals had to have the approval of the Amaru's. It was one area all law enforcement agencies wanted disabled.

Gems were becoming more popular. The La Torre family had contacts in Africa, Russia, and Brazil. They were trying to make headway into China, but deals were proving elusive. The Chinese mafia liked to keep dealings in-house. Anyone wishing to advance with them needed to start small and work up to prove they could be trusted. Even then, they would never be truly allowed close to the inner-circle of business.

The polish Borkowski family engaged in human trafficking and prostitution. One supplied the other. Anyone going against the Borkowski was shot without further question. The CIA and the FBI tried to infiltrate. Sadly, their agents disappeared.

None of the ruling players stuck solely to their speciality. Each had a small hand in another's business; especially as each family had its own territory. Occasionally, there were power plays. However, with Aro at the top, he kept everyone in line. Unfortunately for Aro, the death of Caius and the disappearance of Marcus rocked the boat. To keep power, Aro disposed of a few less important family members of the controlling families as a warning.

Sam suggested there wasn't a building in the city that didn't have a body beneath it. Even if the contractor was honest, not everyone on site was. Jasper suspected it was more than just under buildings. Jasper shuddered at other things. There were some places he'd never eat a hamburger from, and he was wary of anyone who owned an incinerator. Jasper wanted every venue capable of mincing or burning bodies, and every new construction site, tagged and spied upon.

The Pack also had to memorize the good and bad areas within the city. Parts of Chicago were beautiful; others, not so much. However, beauty didn't always mean healthy. Whereas most people wanted to avoid the undesirable areas, The Pack knew those were the places they needed to be.

For example:

Venturing to the Wilson Red Line stop after dark was not a good idea, unless you were Jet Li in a previous life and carried serious hardware. The area between Montrose and Lawrence, east of the tracks, was a special place to steer clear of. Statistically speaking, crime wasn't that bad, but night time adventures made up for daytime dozing. The Howard Red Line Stop had a similar reputation. However, at Howard, you ideally needed to be a cop or best buds with one meeting you off the train.

A person's safety could change within a block or two. Any street dominated by cars that looked like they belonged in a junkyard, with the odd Mercedes or BMW dotted about, should be avoided unless you had business to conduct. It was highly likely the high-end car owner didn't make his money selling postage stamps. At least, not ones you could lick and not get a high from.

The perfect example of where your fortune could change depending on your block was Humboldt Park. It was a huge neighborhood with lots of greenery. Unfortunately, like most places, it had its seedier areas. Sadly for Humboldt, they gained the lion's share. As a general rule, when south of Lincoln Park or west of Western Avenue, be sure to take your pepper spray and tazer.

South of the city, Englewood and Washington Park were well-known havens for drugs, prostitution, and violent crime. Official reports and crime statistics documented parts of Englewood and Washington Park to be among the nation's twenty five most dangerous neighborhoods.

Thankfully, Chicago was not all homicide and drug deals. There were some beautiful, healthy, and downright homey areas.

Safer areas included Lakeview and Roscoe Village, bordering Lake Michigan. These were big gay areas. There was even a 2-3 block radius called "Boys Town". If a gun was shown there, the wielder was more likely to be told to put it away as an offensive accessory. But don't let the word gay fool you. Those boys could beat the crap out of you, or slice you with words, if they had to. There wasn't trouble there, unless you went looking for it. The main nuisances were homophobic assholes.

Places just to the north and west of Lakeview were pretty good, too. Lincoln Park had some of the lowest crime rates in Chicago. So, it was useless for The Pack to venture there. Similarly, The Loop and Gold Coast were places where there was safety in numbers. Yet during daylight hours, it was as harmless as you could get in Chicago. Other good places included Sauganash and its surrounding northwest neighborhoods as they were family orientated. Though, crime was sneaking into some of those areas. The Pack made a note of such places as they were prime targets for crime families to expand into.

At times, The Pack was sure Gotham City was based on Chicago. The question was who would be Batman and Chief Gordon. Of course, Chicago had plenty of building and neighborhood improvement schemes, so the power play between law and criminal was always a shifting one. In the past, crime was tackled from the bottom up. If everything went well this time, it would be the other way around.

If you looked at homicide statistics, and were paranoid, there wasn't truly a safe place to be. If, on the other hand, you looked at things a little more logically, life was different. For the most part, it was a case of know where you are. Be aware of your surroundings and be prepared. Stupidity was not a crime, but it could get you into some serious shit. At the end of the day, hell could break loose in the smallest, quietist village in the UK. News reports of the past proved it.

Having said that, the FBI was not interested in low end, or day-to-day criminal activity. That was the job of the local LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers). The FBI wanted the bosses, and they already had a way in. If they could split up the main families, local precincts could clean up the rest. This was why Marcus's offer was so alluring. At the very least, to have Aro would cause a power struggle that would eliminate some major players. Unfortunately, the fallout could get innocents killed.

Whatever deal Marcus came up with, the whole team was going to Chicago. Therefore, they needed accommodations and a legitimate reason to be there.

Having done their research into the different areas, they had to set up a few things. They decided to utilize the skills of the team, and opted to set up a security business. Not the type that provided muscle men, (though with Emmett and Sam, it wasn't an impossibility), but technological solutions. The other angle of their approach was the opening of a martial arts school. Anyone setting up some sort of self-defence class was sure to get the attention of local alternative businesses. It was a way into the under life and it just might safe someone from a beating.

Alice found a loft for rent on the South Side that was as good as they were going to get for location and cost. It was an excellent place to set up their base of operations from. The area itself had a broad spectrum of wealth and businesses. It didn't have the best reputation, or the worst.

The loft itself had a main area where they could do business, and a couple of side rooms where they could watch and listen in to whatever Alice could hack her way to seeing. It was at the end of E 49th, not far from the public library, with easy access to the expressways and streets. There were also plenty of sports facilities around where Emmett and Rosalie could hire a hall for their martial arts club.

The company name was Nanite Security, and they decided on Alie Cat Martial Arts for the club.

As for back story; Alice, first of all, changed their fingerprints and photo's within the criminal justice, education, and military databases. This stopped anyone discovering them via a background or visual search. She then altered each of their histories. She kept their first names, but changed their surnames.

According to their new cover details, they were all friends or relatives of friends, since their student days, who reconnected some years after they went their respective ways.

Alice gave Seth Pierce a criminal record that showed he had talent with breaking and entering. It would give credibility to the company. After all, who knows security better than a former thief?

Seth and Leah's daddy was a gun collector, but Leah preferred computers to guns; which is where she met Alice Brady. Alice had been teaching Leah all about technology for a while. She trusted her girlfriend with her computer babies. Obviously, as Seth's new last name was Pierce, so was Leah's. Alice found it fun to combine Leah's handle with her new name. It made her Hawkeye Pierce.

Sam Runningbear and Emmett Bruce met Alice through Rosalie Westbridge. Rosalie was one of their football team's cheerleaders, whose brother Jasper was a fellow nerd friend of Alice's. After failing to make the pro-circuit, Sam and Emmett went from job to job within the fitness industry. Rosalie did body double modeling, and to keep fit, she did martial arts.

In short, Alice, Leah, and Jasper were the brains behind the technology, Seth the weakness sniffer. Emmett and Sam were on board as security for the nerds, and Rosalie was the hook that reeled in the horny businessmen.

The background for Edward had to be different, and not associated with Nanite Security. If he had to go undercover, his story had to already be in place. Regardless, Marcus would be contacting him, and someone would check his credentials. This Jasper had suggested was the most likely scenario.

Edward Lupo was the wayward son from a family in trouble that Marcus helped out. Lupo was selected as Edward's last name as it meant wolf in Italian. Considering Edward was the leader of The Pack, it seemed appropriate. Alice created the family from scratch, including education and financial troubles, which Edward mostly caused. The price his family paid for getting out of their problems was their only child. Marcus needed a son to help him take over the family business, so he got one. Others in his community would see Edward as a mail order son. The reason for his disappearance was to acquire and train the boy. Edward already had youthful looks, but with his hair longer and dyed black, and decent clothing, he looked ten years younger than he was.

Throughout the entire period of research and training, Jasper and Edward stayed professional and focussed, as did the whole team. However, Jasper kept a special eye on his man. He was determined to be there for him in whatever capacity needed. Likewise, Edward knew Jasper's protective nature was only just beginning to surface and would get proportionally upgraded as the operation began.

In the evenings, at home, they found solace in each other. Sometimes, they would lose themselves in a movie or a meal just for two. Occasionally, they would go to the shooting range or gym. Both men needed to hone their skills and be on top of their game. The rest of The Pack were doing just the same. Being the more in shape of the two, Edward helped Jasper physically as much as Jasper helped Edward mentally. They were like two halves of the same being. For the remainder of their limited time together, they kissed and made love. They enjoyed the closeness that would be denied them during the operation.

With backgrounds in place and property acquired, The Pack readied to move to Chicago. As far as anyone in the FBI office was concerned, they were on training assignments overseas. Given the magnitude of the upcoming venture, Charlie wanted everything under wraps.

What surprised everyone was Carlisle. Upon hearing his son's were going to Chicago, and after discussing it with Esme. Unbeknown to the boys, he secured a position on an exchange program to Chicago Hope, and was ready to take up his new post as chief of surgery before the team even got to the Windy City. He had spent many years at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, and everyone expected him to never venture from it. Esme was going to continue her business in New York. She had been there for a long time. It was more difficult for her to suddenly expand into Chicago. Carlisle went with her blessing and support.

Hope you enjoyed - RR