A twisting wire of fear grabbed Jayden at the base of his brain, and he felt it shoot all the way down through his guts to his asshole. Oh, Christ, I stopped watching, I thought he was too out of it. Where the fuck did he get that gun? "I mean it," Mars insisted. Instead, Jayden let his grip relax on the phone to better grasp his own weapon in both hands, and the plastic device clattered to the ground, making all three of them flinch. In his peripheral vision, he could see the handcuffed Paige pushing herself flat to the wall, her chin tucked down and to the right, turning her face towards Mars. Shoulda called backup first, shoulda called backup. What a clusterfuck.

"Mars! I'm an FBI agent! Drop your weapon!" Mars stared at him fuzzily. Oh, shit. "Mr. Mars! Do you understand me?"

There was a pause, then Mars nodded. "You want to arrest me. Put your gun down."

"I can't do that, Mars. I really can't. You need to drop yours."

"No, you need to let me go. I've got to go get my son. If I have to, I'll shoot you for my son."

Studying the quick flicker of desperation in Mars' eyes, Jayden thought, Oh, yes, you would. Or, at least, you think you would. In the dim light of the alley, he couldn't tell if the safety on Mars' gun was still on. Given how badly the suspect's hand was trembling, he sincerely hoped it was. His mind began to crank, frantically, as he fought to control his voice.

"Come on, Mars. Think about it. You know you're not going to get out of here. You're barely holding your head up. Look at your hand. You pull that trigger, you're going to miss me by a mile. You might even hit Ms. Paige, here."

Mars rebalanced his body on his elbows and hips, apparently painfully. "Madison?" he croaked uncertainly.

Paige began turning her whole body to face Mars, using her left shoulder for leverage against the wall. "Ethan – "

"Paige, do not fucking move!" Jayden barked, and immediately regretted the level of anxiety his voice had betrayed. Nevertheless, she pressed herself back into the brick wall, silent. No weapons, my ass. Liars don't get to talk.

He returned to as much of an even tone as he could manage: "If you shoot at me, Mars, I won't have any choice then but to shoot you. And I'm not going to miss. You don't want that. I don't want that. Shape you're in, I might just kill you anywhere I hit."

"You can't kill me," Mars said, "I'm the only one who can save Shaun."

The suspect tried to shove himself upwards to all fours, an unsteady pushup, and Jayden considered rushing him while he was off-balance. But the effort was over almost before it began – Mars' head weaved unsteadily, and he thudded heavily back down into the asphalt, right arm still outstretched. The gun performed a wild dance in Jayden's direction, the butt hitting the ground, and the agent flinched, inadvertently. He could just barely see Paige squeezing herself into the wall next to him, trying to make herself invisible. Unshootable.

Keep trying to get up, asshole, Jayden thought frantically. Make yourself pass out, we're all going to end up a lot happier. He was trembling with anxiety.

"That's why I want you to come with me, Mr. Mars." Use his first name, you idiot. Make nice. "Ethan. So you can help bring Shaun home safely. Come on, I'll take you in, we'll get you to a doctor, you can tell us what we need to do."

"No, no, it has to be me. Just me."

"Why's that, Ethan?"

"I'm his father."

Oh, shit. Crazylogic. I hate crazylogic. "Come on, Ms. Paige here is helping you, isn't she? Madison? I can, too. You just need to put down the gun, and we can work something out. Get you in the car. You can come with us when we go get him."

"No."

"Well, can I help you get there? Can you tell me where you're going? Where Shaun is?"

"No."

Throw me a fucking bone, here. "Why not, Ethan?"

"I don't know. I don't know where he is." Mars' already-wet face made it difficult to tell, but it sounded as though he'd begun to cry.

Well, now I have no idea what we're talking about. It's officially a waiting game, now. Mars has only so long before he wears himself out. Just keep up the patter, Norman."If you don't know where he is, how are you going to save him, Ethan?"

"The parts. I've got to get all the parts. To get the answer."

"The parts of what, Ethan?" Jayden' hands were shaking even more from the tension. Jesus, standoffs are a helluva drug. He eased his finger off the trigger, unsure of his own control.

"Of . . . of me, I think. I . . . the killer . . . there are clues. To where he is. Where Shaun is."

"You're following clues to Shaun?" Why won't they stop? Why can't I stop my hands?

"I think I left myself clues."

"What do you mean?" Oh, shit. He made himself admit what was happening. It's a waiting game, all right. You need a hit, Norman. You need it bad. You need it now. If you don't resolve this in about two minutes, you're done. Oh, shit, he said something. Mars said something. Important. He'd missed the response to his question. He cleared his throat. "I don't understand, Ethan. What . . . what are the clues? Where are they from?"

"I don't always remember. What I'm doing. There's a me that isn't me, that put this all together, that is making me search, that left me the clues. They're all drowning, there."

Mars was making less and less sense, probably losing consciousness. Jayden flinched at the sensation of the sharp stabbing behind his own eyes, the gremlin fingers of pain that were starting to twist his joints.

"Ethan, your wife said you had blackouts. Do you think that's right? Is there someone else in your head that's doing this?"

Silence.

"Ethan, are you sure you don't know where Shaun is?"

"I think maybe I know. I think part of me knows. I've got to . . . try to get to that part to find out. I have to do it. You can't arrest me. He'll die."

Maybe that's why he didn't fit the profile. I'm not looking for Ethan Mars at all, I'm looking for whoever he's got tucked away in his brain. His Mr. Hyde. Maybe he is – oh, god, I can't think. Even with both hands holding it, his gun was shaking as badly as Mars'. I've got no time. Do it, Norman. Do it.

His whole face felt warm, and he knew his nose was running. No, you idiot, your nose is bleeding. A lot. And you know why. "I believe you, Ethan. Look, I don't know if what you're saying is true. But I believe that you believe it." His eyes blurred, and his reality faltered for a second. Where am I? You are in an alley making a deal with a crazy man before you get shot in the face. "I have a deal for you. If you put down your gun, I won't arrest you. I won't call any officers. I'll help you out of here, help you as much as I can. I promise you that my number one priority is recovering Shaun, alive."

"No," said Mars, shaking his head, "No."

"Listen. Ms. Paige, Madison, she's a witness. She's listening. If this all goes wrong, I've just thrown away everything, my whole life, the whole case. Hell, probably even if it all works out." Where is Mars? I can't see him any more. He's out there. "I'm promising you, on my life, on your son's life, that I'm on your side until this is over. All you have to do is put your gun down first."

"Ethan," Paige's voice emerged from the darkness, and Jayden's heart almost stopped. "Ethan, please. Say yes. Do it."

There was an interminable dark pause in the alley, all panting, blood, pain, exhaustion, and Jayden knew he was going to have to squeeze the trigger before he collapsed. It was the only way he had a chance at getting out alive. Trembling, pained, he was working his index finger past the trigger guard when he finally saw motion in his field of vision, was able to once again distinguish Mars from the background.

He had just enough sight left to see Ethan Mars slowly, deliberately lay his gun flat on the ground, withdraw his hand from it, and let his head gently drop back down on the pavement, a man at rest.

Norman Jayden let his nearly-numb arms drop to his sides, gun pointed at the ground, and sagged back against the wall for support.

You did your best, Norman. It's not great, but it's not a total loss, Jayden thought to himself, and as his body relaxed, he realized that the strain had been the only thing holding him up. Okay, the strain and the wall. If I walk over there to pick up that gun, I am going to faint about halfway there. Paige was saying something about her cuffs, about his face, about Mars, but he couldn't focus enough to understand her. Got to sit down for at least a minute. Take a hit. Maybe it'll be less obvious if I'm doing something else. He said, to no one in particular, "I'm going to pick up my phone now, okay? I'm going to need it."

Bending down turned out to be a bad idea. The worst idea. He plummeted into darkness.

Oh, shit.

He wasn't sure if the last voice that flashed through his head was the woman's, or his own.