Dying of the Light

Disclaimer - See ch 1 - 6.

Hope I answered all reviews. Between work, weather, family (Mom needs surgery, helping her with that and countless other things) and ANOTHER HEAD COLD...But hope an early update helps you.


Chapter 7

"Kyle Westcott went to prison last year, partially based on evidence gathered by a fellow student at Wharton's – Alan Tracy," Nate sighed. "So he kinda hates the school and he definitely hates Alan. In fact, he was involved in an attempt to kill Alan a couple of years ago. At the time, it was believed that he was a dupe who allowed the would-be killer on campus access but knowing what we do now, it seems a lot less likely he was just a gullible horny kid."

"So Alan is in more than a bit of a risk?" a new voice queried.

The three men turned around to see a stoic looking Jeff Tracy watching them carefully.

"Crap," both Nate and Hendricks muttered.

Nate recovered the fastest. "Mr. Tracy," he said firmly, holding out a hand to shake. "It's good to see you again but I wish we could stop meeting like this."

"No kidding," Scott muttered as he rocked the double stroller back and forth. Nate looked down to see the two napping toddlers.

Leaning down, Nate couldn't help but smile. "Wow – Didn't know the Tracys were into cloning."

Sergeant Preston frowned before muttering "Huh?" in confusion.

Nate gestured at the two sleeping children. "Scott Tracy and his mini-me, with Emily Haas Tracy 2.0."

Jeff smiled down at his grandchildren. "Emily did leave her stamp on her daughter didn't she? And I think Jason is just following tradition," he shrugged, gesturing at his own first born/ look-alike.

Scott never stopped the rocking motion, even as he slipped into "field commander" mode. "Do we have eyes in there? Any idea who they are or what they want?'

"All good questions," a new voice broke in. Don Eppes and Daria Delgado stepped forward.

Jeff quickly did what introductions he could. "Lieutenant Nathan Matthews, Massachusetts State Police, this is FBI Director Don Eppes and Special Agent Daria Delgado. Agent Delgado worked the bank robbery case in New York two years ago when Alan and John were held hostage in the bank. Don, Agent Delgado, this is the officer in charge of Alan's hit-and-run case from – well," he sighed, "only a few months before the bank robbery."

"What drew in the FBI already?" Preston asked in confusion.

"One," Daria said cheerfully, "two of the suspected bad guys are gang members – the Blades out of Springfield. The ATF has been following them due to suspicions of gun running. Two – one of the chaperones on this trip was a visiting professor – Charles Eppes, considered a national treasure and a consultants to more government agencies than I can name – Literally. And Three…"

There she trailed off as she glanced over at Jeff and Scott who remained silent.

"Three," Don interjected, "his mother," he pointed at Jason, "is my daughter, Kate. And if we want to stop as much bloodshed as possible, we need to get these guys and get Alan out safely before she goes after anyone who hurts her baby brother."

Nate looked mildly bemused. "I thought Alan would be his baby brother," he gestured at Scott.

Scott shrugged. "Kate decided when she married me, she finally became a big sister. Alan is pretty much the only one she gets away with doing that. The others all just humor her."

"Ah," Daria said wisely, with the knowledge that came from knowing Katherine Eppes Tracy for five years. "They've seen her shoot."

Nate would have laughed if Don, Jeff and Scott hadn't been solemnly nodding.

"OK," Daria said finally. "Back to flyboy's questions." Scott looked mildly annoyed at her usurping his wife's nickname for him. "Any access to the security cameras? Any phone contact?"

Preston and Hendricks led them over to a computer terminal that had been set up in a mobile command center. "Someone tampered with the computers," Hendricks explained. "When we first couldn't get in, we tried looking at the security cameras and calling in – there is a phone in all of the exhibition halls, but they are discreetly hidden so as not to detract from the displays. But when the cameras were taken off line, they also disabled the phone. It was some sloppy hacking but it worked."

Daria sat down at the terminal. She began to enter commands only to groan in frustration. "We need a hacker – a good one. The two best ones I know go by the handles of Phoenix and White Witch."

Jeff cussed, shocking everyone. When they all turned to him, he sighed. "Phoenix would be unavailable. I'm not supposed to know this but that's Alan's handle."

"Seriously?" Scott gasped only for Don to chuckle.

"Damn," Don grinned. "I told Kate I had to pinch him for the FBI." Ignoring the glares from the Tracys at the idea of their baby being an FBI agent - yeah, like International Rescue would be any safer – Don asked his agent, "What about the White Witch? Did we ever ID him?"

"That would be her," Scott said smugly, seeing Daria wince at what was about to come out. "Or didn't you know your baby was a master hacker as well?"

"Well, since you sent her out of town," Don ground out, still worried about his daughter being up on a freakin' space station, "how do we handle this?"

"That should be easy," Jeff said calmly, pulling out his cell phone. Hitting a speed-dial code, he waited for a moment before speaking. "John, I need no questions. You have Kate's schedule – is she able to be interrupted at the moment." Nodding at his second son's answer, he spoke again.

"Tell Kate to get to an office with a secure link. I need her to conference in with the following number." Jeff leaned down and rattled off the number Daria had written on a piece of scrap paper.

"Thank you, John. Yes, I'll explain everything. Elizabeth? Oh, she's napping at the moment. Lunch? I may have gotten her a Happy Meal. Yes, I will be the one to tell Emily but it was either that or Scott's cooking. Yes, I agree – the lesser of two evils. Tell Kate to call back ASAP, ok, John?"

Hanging up, he gestured to Daria. "You'll have Kate's services within five minutes. And yes, it is from a secure link and has the best equipment the government can't afford."

Nate bit back an entirely inappropriate smile. Damn, when the Tracys got their juices up, they really could move mountains. Now he could only hope the mountains didn't fall back on all of them.


"Had to be the hero, didn't you?" Nico hissed, pulling the knife from Alan's throat to rest it against his face. "Pretty boy had to play hero. I do need you alive at the moment but maybe I should make you not quite so bonito. What do you think of that, eh pretty boy?"

"Nico!" Javi yelled, grabbing the gang leader's arm. "No! Beating him up a bit is one thing, but I've seen you lose control when you start cutting and like you said – you need him alive."

Nico stepped back and Alan slumped to the floor as soon as he was released. Glaring first at Alan and then at Javi, Nico hesitated a moment before swinging out his arm and backhanding Javi to the floor.

"Never show me such disrespect again, Javi. Guys like you are a dime a dozen – I can replace you like that," Nico growled with a snap of his fingers. "I am giving you a chance to answer the cry for your family's spilt blood – or do you not respect Angelo's death?"

"Angelo died getting hit by a truck, Nico," Javi insisted. "It wasn't this boy's fault."

"The rich have everything and we have nothing," Nico snapped. "Blood will answer for blood."

Turning back to Alan, Nico kicked him savagely in the hip, causing Alan to cry out in pain.

Ignoring any risk to himself, Tomo growled, "Stop it!" and ran to Alan's side.

Glaring at the two boys on the ground, Nico snapped, "Get the pretty boy out of the way, China-man."

"I'm Japanese, idiot," Tomo snapped right back even as he tenderly helped Alan to his feet. Keeping himself between the gang leader and Alan, Tomo cast one last glare as he led Alan back to where the two professors had tensely been waiting.

As soon as Alan was place on the ground, Charlie was quickly examining him. "How are you feeling, Buddy?"

"Been worse," Alan groaned slightly, gingerly moving his right hip. Seeing the disbelief on the professors' faces, he grinned as much as his rapidly bruising face would let him. "Seriously – you should have seen me after the hit and run."

"I did," Tomo sadly answered. "But I didn't have to watch as that happened."

"Wish you had," Alan muttered. "Would have gotten to the hospital a lot faster, remember?"

"Idiot," Tomo chuckled as he ruffled Alan's hair, gently feeling for any head injuries while he was at it.

The four huddled together even as the other group of four argued amongst themselves. But silence became the tone when the Air Force anthem rang out from Alan's phone.

"Scott," Alan sighed, not sure what the result of this would be. But if his big brother was here, he already felt a bit safer. Glancing over at Tomo, he squeezed his arm. Technically, Alan already had a brother here. But this he knew was true…

Scott was a lot scarier.


Nico looked down at the phone in his hand when it began playing some weird song – seriously, what was that? He only slightly glared when Kyle reached over and pressed a couple of buttons, not only answering the call but placing it on speaker mode.

"Yeah?" Nico drawled in what he presumed was a tough voice.

On the other end, Scott was not impressed. Seriously, when you have been up against The Hood, some street scum like this was nothing.

"Who is this and why do you have Alan's phone?"

"Never mind who this is – who are you?"

"I asked first."

Alan chuckled at his brother's answer until Kyle stalked over and grabbed him by the hair, pressing the gun to the back of his neck. Looking over and seeing that, Nico smirked.

"You a Tracy – cause the pretty boy thought your answer was amusing until we pushed a gun into the back of his head."

There was dead silence for a moment before Scott responded, his chilling anger actually worrying all of the bad guys.

"You listen to me – yes, I am a Tracy. The name is Scott Tracy and that is my baby brother you have in there. You hurt him, and there will be no place on this Earth for you to hide. You kill him? I will track you down and tear you to pieces so small, the best forensic minds in the world wouldn't be able to put you back together."

"You think you are in a position to threaten me?" Nico hissed. He had been sure the Tracys would be cowering, he held all the cards.

"I don't threaten," Scott calmly said, his calmness being more worrying than his anger. "I say that as a vow of honor – and unlike you, I hold my honor and family highly."

"I'm doing this because of family," Nico screamed. "You rich bastards – they save your brother but let my family – my cousins Carlos and Enrique – die! At least Enrique died fighting. But Carlos? Carlos was just a kid, just sixteen! And they let him be raped and murdered. Pretty boy never had to worry about anything like that, did he?"

"Like hell I haven't," Alan yelled back, only to choke off when Kyle pulled him back.

Tomo moved forward protectively, only to be stopped by Kyle's gun. Glaring at his former classmate, Tomo then turned to Nico. "It's true. When Alan and his father were being held by a couple of nut jobs in Mr. Tracy's office, one of the scums actually tried to…well, he had a history of sexual offenses."

"That wasn't the only time," Alan muttered, falling back down when Kyle suddenly released him. Looking over at Tomo, he murmured, "Holly Brook."

Tomo pulled Alan into his arms, rubbing the younger boy's back in a calming motion. Ignoring their captors, he grimaced at the confused looks on the professors' faces before explaining.

"Alan's last boarding school."

"Was that the one where he blew up the chemistry lab?" Charlie asked in confusion.

Tomo nodded. "His chemistry teacher he – well, he was making moves on Alan. Kid was barely fourteen and he didn't understand at first what was happening. By the time he was becoming uncomfortable his family just said he was looking for excuses, and it was because he didn't want to be there. The day of the accident – and it was an accident," Tomo stressed, "the teacher actually tried something – nothing too seriously, but enough to freak out Alan pretty badly. He was shaken and distracted and didn't notice his Bunsen burner wasn't working correctly. When he did, he got the rest of the class out before the explosion but…"

"When Dad picked me up two days later, he was mad," Alan said softly. "He had already talked to my teacher, who told him I had been daydreaming but not to hold it against me. Dad wouldn't listen and the other guys just…" Alan's voice drifted off as he buried his head in Tomo's chest.

"They teased him about it. No one was listening to him. Even Fermat was mad because he had liked the school but his father had decided to pull him out to keep him with Alan when Alan transferred to a new school. I only know because -"

"Because I was having panic attacks when I started at Wharton's," Alan interrupted. Grasping Tomo's arm, he worried his lip. "I've known Tomo since I was little and he's always been a good listener. So I told him everything."

"So what?" Kyle snarled. "So someone felt you up? That is your trauma? How would you deal with it if no one had saved you? If there was no one to protect you? It's not fair!" Kyle screamed as he yanked Alan from Tomo's embrace and raised his gun. "You get protected, you get saved. But no one saved me!"

Before anyone knew what was happening, Oz grabbed Kyle from behind, hissing, "Not yet. Money first, payback later."

Throwing Alan back to the marble floor, Kyle stormed back over to where the two gang members stood. Snatching up the phone, he yelled, "Twenty five million dollars and you – yeah, you, Scott Tracy – as our personal pilot on board Tracy One to the country of our choice. Alan will go with us and we'll release the others at the airport."

With that said, Kyle hung up the phone but sent a text to Jeff Tracy using Alan's address book – a text with the picture of Alan – to what he was sure would be a panicking billionaire, ensuring they would get their money and get it quickly. Slipping the phone into his pocket, he smirked. Alan wouldn't survive the flight – and neither would his big brother. What they didn't know was that he could fly as well, although he had never gotten his pilot's license. When they dumped the bodies of both Tracy sons, it would be somewhere no one would ever find them – and that would be the best revenge of all.


A/N - Yeah, more agnst. And Kyle is really becoming unhinged. More as soon as I can. - CC