Head Note: I'm sorry it took a little long. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter three

"Oh dear," Finch whispered, obviously horrified. "If I understand the smallest part of what just took place…"

"Quinn isn't just in HR; he's not just a high-ranking official: He's HR's boss. The one we missed. And now he wants Carter dead."

"Mr. Reese I've done more digging into Quinn's only friend, turns out he had a son." Finch began.

"Who is he?" John wondered. He had a feeling he wouldn't like the answer.

"Detective Beecher," Finch answered. The disgust was evident in his voice. "Mr. Quinn raised Detective Beecher like the son he never had. Detective Beecher looked up to him for many years I would imagine."

"But when he started asking questions he didn't hesitate to kill the person closest to him." John shook his head in disgust as he watched Quinn walk back to his office. "I'm really starting to hate this guy, Finch."

He took out his phone to call Fusco.

"What is it, Wonder boy?" the detective growled.

"I want you to follow Carter," he ordered. "She just kicked a hornet's nest with HR."

"You think she'll go with that?" Fusco asked. "Her talk with Quinn really got her steamed. She nearly tore my head off when she came back from questioning him."

"I don't care, Fusco," John said irritably. "I want you to keep an eye on her."

"Alright will do, boss," He said before hanging up.

"And Mr. Reese, I will follow Simmons and figure out how he intends to kill Carter," Finch said.

"He won't kill her, Harold," John growled.

"I doubt he will, Mr. Reese," Finch said. "But we will have more of a chance of stopping him if we figure out how he would want to do it."

"You're right, Harold. I'll get on his tail. Is there a way you can hack his phone's GPS?"

"Yes but I don't want you to stop following Quinn," Finch said. "It might give us more names in HR. I will follow Simmons."

John knew that there were some things you could not argue with Harold over. One of those things was getting physically involved in a case. When Harold wanted to get involved there was no stopping him.

"Alright, Finch," John said.

XxXxXx

Finch followed the HR police officer in his car. Simmons had already met up with several acquaintances and realized that any one of them could be ordered to kill Detective Carter. Officer Simmons went into a small park and Finch got out of the car to follow him. He was walking past a pay phone when he heard it ring. He looked at the pay phone and looked back at Simmons who was almost out of eyesight. He wanted nothing more than to ignore the machine. There couldn't be anyone more important to protect than Carter. Could there? even so, they were already protecting someone in danger, and any distractions could increase their chances of failing. And the world needed Detective Carter.

But as he looked back at the pay phone he knew that he would regret it for the rest of his life if he ignored this number. He begrudgingly picked up the phone and listened as the garbled voice gave him the number then hung up. He looked around quickly, hoping to catch another glimpse of Simmons but he was already gone. He had lost him. Harold shook his head in frustration. The machine always seemed to give him numbers at the most inopportune times.

XxXxXx

John watched as Quinn met with several other people. He didn't know if they were HR or just people who were fooled by Quinn's façade. John hated to admit that it was pretty good. He followed Quinn as he entered an alleyway. John wanted to follow him into the alley and give him a piece of his mind but just as he was about to enter the alley and follow him, a cop-detective by the look of it-walked in and ruined his chances of doing it quietly. Carter would kill him if she learned that he attacked a man in plain view of a cop no matter if the guy deserved it. So he decided to wait until the cop left.

That was when Quinn's phone went silent. There wasn't even background noise going on. Quinn must have realized that he was being followed and didn't want to risk being overheard. The worst part was, John didn't even know what building he had gone into. John cursed himself for his stupidity. He had no choice but to wait for Quinn to put the SD card back in his phone. By the time that happens his meeting will be over, he thought grimly to himself.

It was about a half hour later when he heard the sound of chairs scraping on the floor and John assumed that the meeting was over. That when he heard Quinn's voice, speak to someone.

"One more thing, Detective Terney," he began. "I believe that someone has been following me."

"For how long?" the new voice asked.

"I don't know," he answered. "It could have been all day, could've been the last couple of hours. All I know is that if he has been following me, he knows too much."

"Understood," Was the automatic response. "I'll find him and take care of it."

The fact that there was yet another person out there trying to kill him wasn't what shocked him. It was the sudden understanding of what just happened. The person meeting with Quinn was a detective. John was willing to bet that it was the same detective he had seen walking into the alleyway after Quinn.

He heard The two men leave the building. John was no longer interested in following Quinn. He wanted to figure out what the dirty detective, Terney, was about to do. He knew that Quinn had told him to do much more than what he heard. The meeting had been far too long for that little snippet.

He followed Terney and watched from a distance as he met with several people. He blue jacked his phone and heard the last snippet of one conversation.

"You're sure you can handle this?" Terney asked.

"Absolutely, I'll take care of it." The other man answered. The two men shook hands and Terney walked away.

John followed him as he walked into dark corner. He quickened his pace, his movements fast and furious. At the last second, Terney sensed movement behind him and his eyes widened as he saw the ex-CIA operative closing in behind him. He opened his mouth but wasn't able to shout before a vice-like grip closed around his throat and threw him against the wall.

"And who were you ordered to kill?" John asked, his voice soft and deadly. "Some other cop? Some hapless stranger who's getting smart? Or did your boss think Detective Carter was too much for one dirty cop to handle?"

"W-who are you?" Terney choked out.

"HR's worst nightmare," John answered. "Call off the dogs, now," John ordered.

"I can't," Terney choked. "The stone is already set in motion. What do you care anyway? He's dirty too."

He? Was he talking about Fusco? He should have known. If Quinn knew about Fusco there shouldn't be any surprise that he would want him dead too. Even if he didn't know that Fusco was undercover he was still hanging around Carter.

John growled and punched Terney, knocking him out. John and Finch were going to have to work hard if they were going to save both Detectives.

It was at that moment that John heard the familiar ring tone and reached his hand to the earpiece.

"Mr. Reese, we have a new number," his partner said.

"Is it Fusco?" John asked.

"No," he answered. "It's someone different."

"Who?" John asked. He really didn't want to waste time on some stranger when two of his friends were in danger, but he knew that Finch would insist on it. Even so he wasn't expecting the answer that he got.

"Simmons," Finch said.