There wasn't an officer from any division of law enforcement who dared to go anywhere near the pacing giant prowling the grounds of the ATF offices. Everyone was supposed to be cleared back to a wide perimeter, and he wasn't even close to being outside the zone. But no one was getting Josiah any further away from the building than he was ready to go.

The others weren't any more compliant, with Buck and Vin each making an effort to re-enter the building a couple of times, only to be rebuffed by the armed guards.

"Don't you think Chris has enough on his mind without getting reports of you two being arrested?" Nathan admonished them after getting frustrated by the futility of it all. "Back off and stay out of everyone's way unless you've got an actual idea."

"Well excuse us for being worried." Buck snapped back.

"What, you think I'm not. You think I wouldn't rather be in there trying to keep Ezra settled. God, the way he must be feeling at this point, the pain, the fear. You think I don't want to do something about it?"

Buck didn't ease off on his glare. "You ain't acting like it."

JD's voice broke through the tension. "You two want to hold off on your pissing contest long enough to come and look at something here. I promise, I'll let you both go back to being jackasses in just a minute."

Anger still simmering, the men all moved over to gather around the laptop JD had set up on the trunk of a car. The two combatants stood at opposite sides of the vehicle. JD cast them each a moderately disgusted look before getting down to business.

"I've found the deleted security footage. Took me a while to track it back, but there is a guy wheeling one of the smaller dumpster carts down to the utilities area just after midnight."

"Shit – that means Ezra's been tied up like that for close to 14 hours?" Buck looked over to Nathan, the argument of just seconds ago forgotten. "How long can he hold on to something like that?"

Nathan was shaking his head, every bit as stunned as the rest of them. "I don't know. I wouldn't have thought this long. If I had to guess, I'd bet he's locked up by now. He's probably so cramped up that releasing it would be harder than holding on. But his body is going to give out, whether he wants it to or not. No food, no sleep, the stress. It's draining his ability to think clearly, to control himself. I wouldn't – couldn't – guess when he's gonna just fold."

Vin was looking at the tape, running in a loop on the screen. "Can't see the guy's face. He wasn't taking any chances, even with the plan to delete all of this."

"I've let the PD know the general build for this guy." JD said.

"From all we can make out, there are probably a couple hundred guys within two blocks of here that match up with him. Besides, I doubt he's still around." Buck added.

Vin shook his head, disagreeing, as he scanned the area. "No, he's around. Like I said before, I think he had a reason for doing this. Could be that he is just one sick bastard who gets off on torturing people, but I'd bet he had another agenda in all of this."

"Like what?" Josiah had approached from behind, hoping they were sharing good news. He was looking exhausted, and Nathan was tempted to tell him to go lie down, but knew he'd just be wasting his breath.

"Not sure. I've been trying to figure out why someone would pull a stunt like this. Doesn't make sense."

"Lunatics don't have to make sense." Buck countered.

Josiah tried to focus on the job, rather than on his fears. "You're sticking with the assumption it isn't part of the Freedom Patriots movement?"

"They'd be making more demands. One message claiming responsibility with no substantiation doesn't confirm anything. And does it make sense to any of you that they'd be threatening to blow up the same building that is currently storing all the same stuff they claim to want back? If they had Ezra, they would have just held on to him for ransom."

Despite the tension of the moment, Josiah couldn't hold back a small smile. "Nice bit of profiling Vin. You looking to take over my job?"

"No thanks. Don't enjoy trying to get into the heads of psychos."

JD brought them back to the issue. "If not them – who? And why?"

Buck was staring back at the building. "First thing we need to figure is what has all this accomplished. They ain't getting weapons or money back, and if you're right, that's not what this is about. All this has done is disrupt the routine and get everyone evacuated from the offices."

"Not just the offices." Nathan caught on to what he was saying. "The building, all of it, is emptied out, with no security in place. Think about it. Mass evacuation opens every locked door so that nobody gets trapped."

"Including all those guns as well as a ton of evidence from the lockers. So, it was the Patriots." JD concluded.

"Won't likely know that until we see what they are going after. JD, can you reactivate the link to the live security cameras without risking setting off any triggers?"

"To be honest, I don't know. Rather not try until we hear back from the bomb expert whose down there with Chris."

"What expert? Squad leader said they weren't ready to send anyone in there yet."

JD shook his head. "Captain Barrington went in just after Chris kicked me out of there. Said he was doing the evaluation."

The men looked at each other, none of them happy with this revelation. Josiah began a rapid walk to the location the bomb techs had set up, but Vin was already jogging past him. "Who did you send in to talk to Larabee?" he called out has he approached. The spokesman for the group stepped forward to meet him.

"We haven't sent anyone down. Still assessing the photos and information your man Dunne sent to us."

JD had caught up to the others. "Captain Barrington went down there about 30 minutes ago."

"We don't have a Barrington on the squad."

Vin turned to make a run for the building before he was grabbed by Josiah.

"Hold up. He's not going to trigger anything while he is in there, unless we make sure he's got nothing to lose."

"I sure as hell don't intend to let him walk outta there."

"I would prefer we didn't leave him able to walk period, but we have to look at the big picture here. We have one goal to focus on Vin, and until our guys are clear of all of this, we play by his rules."

The other men had gathered as well and were reluctantly agreeing. "We'll get eyes on all the exits. Only three people should be in there right now. All we have to do is follow this guy leaving and pick him up when it's safe." Nathan laid out the obvious course of action.

JD had already brought up the sketch artist program on his laptop. "I'll put together a mash-up for this guy, since we still don't have a shot of his face. We can try to run ID on him, see if that helps at all."

Josiah was still holding onto Vin, who in turn, was still tugging gently to be released. "I'll play nice Josiah. You can let me go."

"We all want to be in there."

"I don't. I want them out here. And I want that bastard at the business end of my gun." Vin was not usually the one to be quick to anger, but the men seemed to be taking turns at losing their cool, and having the others settle them back.

"We'll get there." Buck promised him. "But you don't get to kill him. If anyone does, Ezra gets first crack at him."

"We can't just stand out here and wait. If he gets anxious, he could just kill them both in there." JD felt bad that he had been the one to send Barrington in to begin with.

"I don't imagine anyone would think it was out of character for me to go in to see how they're doing. That way at least someone in the room would know the truth." Josiah suggested.

Nathan didn't see that happening. "Bomb squad will stop you."

"They might try."

"And you won't hold your temper. You'll see Ezra tied up, and that son of a bitch standing near by, and all bets are off."

Discussion stopped when a uniformed officer stepped closer. "We think we have a handle on this. We're about two minutes from sending a couple of technicians in. I know you guys want to do something but leave it to us."

"You better have all the details first." Vin sighed deeply, then began to fill them in.

7-7-7-7-7-7-7

Chris watched Barrington head down the hall before he turned to head back to stay with Ezra. Something wasn't right here, but he was damned if he could put his finger on it. He stood quietly, watching the quiet struggle play out in front of him. He could see the strain in every fibre of the bound man's body. And even though the head was dropped by fatigue, hiding the face, Chris could picture the determination he knew was present. It didn't seem all that long ago he would have long since abandoned hope on this. The Ezra Standish who had come to them from FBI was as close to a broken man as he'd seen. What had kept him going that long was a mystery. Chris liked to think that what turned him around was the influence of the men who made up the best team in any agency. He had long hoped that was what Ezra felt as well and watching the battle for survival that was being waged now, he had his proof that was true.

He slowly moved forward, speaking softly. "Not much longer Ezra. Barrington will be back with someone to diffuse all of this for you, and then you get to sleep for – what – about a week sound good?"

"His shoes were wrong." Ezra muttered softly. "I have never seen a police detective wearing Ferragamo shoes at $2600 a pair. Certainly not when they stand a very good chance of being blown off his feet."

Chris stopped moving. "You sure? Never mind. Of course you are." That explained a lot, like how he figured out the damned lasers so quickly. Chris was so anxious for a solution he had been willing to overlook the details. He tried to picture the man and couldn't see the shoes. What he did bring to mind was how he looked, squatted down beside his agent. How could he have seen what was under the chair from that angle? He wasn't low enough. He couldn't know. Unless…

"Ezra, you stay still. I'm gonna get down on the floor. Right down."

"Something is wrong?"

"Well yeah. You're tied to a chair holding onto a bomb. What do you think?"

"His voice. The pattern of speech. It matches the man who placed me – us – into this predicament. I assumed I was confusing things. I am not thinking clearly. Not at my best."

"Calm down Ezra. This may be just a misunderstanding."

Ezra let loose a sound that was meant to be a laugh but sounded far more like a desperate sob. "He was right here. The bastard was right here."

"Don't you dare go on me now. Stay still. This is almost over."

"How? He's not sending anyone down. If anything, I would wager he is preparing to detonate this. Please Chris. Just go."

Chris was on his back, looking up at the seat. There was nothing he could see underneath, and no wires that led anywhere. It was possible Ezra was actually sitting on something, but that seemed unlikely. This was another bluff. Giving Barrington, or whatever his name really was, time to get what he came for, or to give him a chance to privately gloat about the chaos he had caused. Either way, Chris didn't dispute the idea that time had run out for any more planning. To use one of Buck's favorite idioms, it was time to shit or get off the pot.

"Give me another 30 seconds Ezra, then we are both getting out of here."

He was too tired to fight, too tired to argue. He knew he should. Knew that whatever insanity was being planned, it was going to get them both killed. He just couldn't bring himself to react any longer. Chris was back at his side far too quickly and was reaching behind him. Ezra felt a slight tug, gasping in shock and pain as his arms moved freely, the first wire gone. He felt Chris's hand covering his own, and again couldn't hide the pain.

"What are you doing?"

"Told you, we are getting out of here. I know you are damn near frozen in place, but I'm gonna help you move. It's just a few steps to the door. We get there, get through it and toss this thing back in. I'll slam the door, and we hit the ground."

"Hitting the ground should be simple enough, but the rest of your plan is impossible. I can't do it Chris. I can't even feel my legs. Standing seems like a distant dream, and walking is out of the question."

"Then I'll drag you if I have to, but we are getting the hell out of this room, now."

Ezra could feel more of the bindings that had been holding him upright fall away. "Why throw it back in? If I can be freed, we can take it out for the squad."

The suggestion had already been eliminated in Chris's mind. "Don't know how stable it is. If it drops, we could be somewhere with no place to hide. These are foundations around us - concrete walls and floors. The should absorb most of the blast. I'm gambling on the odds these boxes are just more shit to keep us off our game."

"You do know I abhor gambling Chris."

He grinned at the expert card player. "I know Ezra." He didn't want to add that, while he hadn't seen any other wires on the chair, he had seen a watch wired to the device. It could be a timer, or it could have just been another attempt to muddy the waters. Ezra didn't need to know that bit of the puzzle. It didn't really matter. He wasn't going to wait to find out. "On the count of three, we move. One, two –"

"Wait."

"There's no other way Ezra."

"There is, but you won't consider it. I just wanted -", he paused, emotion and events overwhelming him. His gift of eloquence left him, and he was at a loss to say everything that was racing through his mind. "Thank you." It was far to simple, but it was the only thing that was appropriate.

Chris grinned. "Well, I won't say it has always been my pleasure – but it sure has kept my life interesting. OK then. One, two, three…"

M7-M7-M7-M7-M7-M7-M7

tbc