Root opened her eyes with some effort. She felt like a fairy tale princess who has been asleep for ages. Her body was stiff from inactivity. Her brain felt like it was still in the process of booting up. She had had strange dreams. Dreams of playing with the shadows, where she no longer had her human form and she was one of them. But the more she thought about it the less strange it felt. It felt like that was where she belonged now and not here in the hard and unconnected world. She wondered where Sameen was, but she decided she could talk to her later. Right now she needed to figure out where she was.

She lay there on that tiny bed and stared at the metal ceiling. Her brain was finally online enough to wonder why the ceiling was made of metal and not cement like a normal room. She finally willed herself to sit up and looked around. To her surprise she saw that she was in some kind of a subway car. It was lit up with warm low intensity halogen bulbs hanging from the roof. The seating in the subway car had been ripped out to make room for some furniture. There was a computer at the far end and a small table with some leftovers on it. She was using the only bed available. There were a few shelves with some books in them but they were too far away for her to make out the titles.

She stood up but she suddenly felt really light-headed. The world began to spin and she immediately sat back down on the bed. She took a few deep breaths and tried again, this time the world remained steady and so did she. She hadn't expected her little stunt with the shadows to weaken her so much. She made a mental note of that, of how much she could push herself. She steadied herself and once she felt confident she walked slowly towards the exit.

Root stepped out and saw that she was in an old abandoned subway station. It looked like it had been recently refurbished by someone with good taste. The place was well lit and had a few painting hanging from the brick walls. There were a few chairs and sofas scattered around. The place looked lived in.

She heard a noise to her right, she turned her head and saw a man sitting on a sofa near the far right wall. He didn't seem too alarmed by her presence but then he also had a small machine gun resting on lap. He looked at her and pointed to her left. She turned her head in the opposite direction and saw a bald bearded man sitting at the far end of the room in what seemed like a makeshift study. His face looked familiar like someone she'd seen in a vaguely remembered dream.

The study comprised of a large wooden desk with a lot of books and maps strewn across it. There was a tall lamp on the ground which lit up the entire place. The man sat on a leather high back chair reading a book. There was another one opposite him, which at the moment was empty. He seemed engrossed but as Root walked up to him he put down the book and looked at her and smiled.

"Ms. Groves, it's good to see you awake. I was wondering when and if that would happen." said the man as he stood up.

"How long...?" Root started her question.

"Three days." the man replied.

"Three days..." Root hadn't expected that answer and as if upon hearing the answer her legs decided that they still weren't fully up to the task of standing, let alone walking and they suddenly lost strength.

Root would have surely fallen to the floor if the man hadn't moved fast enough to catch her. He held her by the waist and slowly sat her down on the leather chair. He also told the man at the far end to get her something to eat.

"Just relax, you shouldn't be exerting yourself. Frankly Ms. Groves, after that fall I'm amazed that you're even alive let alone walking."

Root made herself comfortable in the high back chair and relaxed.

"Call me Root, I prefer that."

"And you can call me Elias." said the bespectacled man.

"Carl Elias, the mobster?" Root sounded a little surprised.

"One and the same"

"I thought you skipped town."

"Not really, just went underground, literally." Elias replied with a smile.

"So you've been here all this time, in this abandoned subway station." Root looked around admiring the old architecture, "How did you find this place?" she asked.

"My friend told me about it. He's really into the city's history and architecture. There are actually a whole bunch of these places that no one really remembers. Subway stations and even abandoned tunnels. They are quite useful for travelling across the city unnoticed." Elias explained.

At that moment, Elias's henchman got Root a hot meal and something to drink which she accepted hungrily.

In the middle of her wolfing down her meal she paused and asked, "I don't mean to sound ungrateful or anything and just to be clear I am grateful, but why did you save me and more importantly how did you know where to find me?"

"The fact of the matter is that even I'm not sure why I did it, maybe I was just curious. As to how I found you, well, that little display of yours attracted a lot of attention and a friend of mine regularly monitors all police frequencies. He informed me about you."

"Another friend or the same one as before?"

"The same." Elias replied with a grin.

"This friend of yours seems pretty resourceful."

"He is. He's my eyes and ears in the city. We've been together for a very long time. Almost since the time I started my little enterprise."

"Would love to meet him someday." Root said.

"Why wait, he'll be here in sometime. You can meet him then." Elias replied.


About the same time as Root was finishing her meal, Fusco was walking into Martine's room in the hospital. She had been getting restless, wanting to get out of the hospital and back into the field. It was a miracle the doctors had managed to keep her in there for this long and also the fact that for the first couple of days she could barely move.

"When am I getting out?" Martine asked Fusco as he walked in.

"And hello to you too, blondey" Fusco grinned.

"You didn't answer the question."

"I don't know Martine, do I look like a doctor to you. I guess you should be out of here in a couple more days."

Martine sighed.

"I should be out there looking for that crazy bitch. We should be out there."

"Well, we can't. We're both on medical leave and besides they aren't sure if she's even alive."

"What, they think she died in the explosion? Did they identify her remains as yet?"

"Identify? They haven't identified squat," Fusco said, "That place is like a demented jigsaw puzzle made of body parts. They found one guy spread across five floors and they still haven't found his jaw. So if she's in there it could be some time before they identify her. But they still have a city wide search going on. If she's out there we'll find her."

"That's all well and good but what do you think. You think she's dead?"

Fusco moved in closer so as to make sure no one overheard them.

"Look, I'm still having a hard time believing everything we saw in there. I put in my report that she had dogs, but we both know that what we saw definitely weren't dogs or any other kind of animal that we've ever seen. Did she die, no fucking clue. But she did stop a hail of bullets mid air, if she could do that, I guess she could have survived the explosion as well."

Martine nodded in agreement.

"Exactly, only we know what she's capable of that why we need to be out there looking for her."

"I know, but that might have to wait. First thing when we get back we'll have to talk that moron from Internal Affairs."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Who have they sent over?"

"Pretty boy Lambert. He's been going through everything with a fine tooth comb. But that was expected after what happened. Someone must have leaked the information to the gangs. Maybe the I.A. investigation wouldn't be such a bad thing."

"I guess not." Martine agreed with a look of disdain on her face.

"Look, I'm going to talk to the doctor and see if you can get out of here by tomorrow. I will come and pick you up. Then we'll see what needs to done next."

Just as Fusco was about to leave Martine tried to get up and move slightly closer to him. Fusco leaned in so she wouldn't strain herself.

"Hey, don't tell anyone but I can't seem to sleep with the lights off any more. I keep expecting those things to jump out of the shadows." Martine said softly, looking slightly embarrassed by the confession.

Fusco smiled and replied, "Neither can I."


In the meantime Root had finished her meal in that abandoned subway station and was busy chatting with Elias.

"I must admit I was worried about talking to you."

"Why?"

"Because I can't figure out what you are. No one should have survived that explosion or that fall, yet here we are talking to each other. I also had no idea how crazy you would be. I mean, let me be clear, I know for a fact that you're insane, that much I can see in your eyes. And given the fact no one hired you to kill any of those people including Dominic, I know because I checked ,the only explanation left is that you did it because your enjoyed it. Am I right?"

"If I was to confess then ... yes. Even though there was another reason but I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it a little bit."

"Yeah, so you can imagine my apprehension in talking to you, Root. The main worry was whether you were sane enough to be reasoned with."

"And now that we've talked, what's your verdict?"

"I think you're sane enough, I just wouldn't want to be on your wrong side."

Root was about to say something when she heard some footsteps coming from the subway tunnel. She turned around and saw two men walking in through the dark. One of them was fairly tall and the other one was shorter with a slight limp. They were both dressed in business suits and looked like they could have belonged in some investment firm.

As they climbed on to the platform Elias got up to greet them Root followed suit.

"Harold, you're late. I was expecting you fifteen minutes ago." Elias complained jokingly.

"The leg's been acting up again. It doesn't like the cold." Harold replied.

"You need any more of that ointment from Chinatown. I could have someone drop it off."

"No need at the moment. But I can always tell Mr. Reese to pick some up for me in case I run out."

The tall man simply smiled at the mention of his name.

"Did you have any problems getting here." Elias enquired.

"A little more than usual, but not a lot. Thankfully because of Ms. Groves's little display, no one seems to be looking for you at the moment." Harold smiled.

Root chuckled in the background. Harold heard the chuckle and stepped forward.

"I don't think we've properly introduced. My name is Harold Finch and this is my associate Mr. Reese." said Harold with his hand out stretched.

"Root" came the prompt reply as she shook his hand.

"It's an honour making your acquaintance Ms. Root. That was quite an impressive fireworks display you put up the other day." Harold sounded genuinely impressed.

"You saw that."

"We both did" replied Harold as he pointed towards John Rees, "Once the warrant for your arrest went out to all units we decided to drop by as well. I have been following your exploits for some time now, as best as I could, so to actually see in you action was an opportunity that I wasn't going to pass up and I must say, Ms. Root you did not disappoint."

Elias laughed.

"As you can see, Harold's a bit of a fan."

Root stood there smiling but she looked like she was lost in thought.

"Wait, Harold Finch? Are you the one who runs that crime blog, The All Seeing Eye."

Harold seemed taken aback.

"Yes."

"Wow, I love that blog. That's how I learnt about the criminal underworld of the city."

"Well, glad I could help, Ms. Root"

"Yeah and it's just Root, no Ms."

"My apologies... Root"

"Well this is a small world after all." Elias said.

"So is that how you've been keeping a track of everything that's been going on in the city. Through the blog?" Root asked.

"Yes, it was a straightforward and simple way of gathering intel on our enemies and also passing on information to the cops without raising suspicion and no one would ever suspect Harold. To the average reader Harold was nothing more than a library owner and a blogger who had an interest in the city's criminal elements. Nothing illegal about that, right?" Elias explained, "Actually it was all Harold's idea. A great way of hiding in plain sight. He is my entire intelligence network."

Harold smiled the smile of a man who was proud of his work.

"And now thanks to you Root we almost have the city back. With the damage you've cause over the past year and that little display of yours in your building, you pretty much destroyed more half the army of both The Brotherhood and the Russians. It's going to be very hard for them to come back from that." Harold continued.

"Well, That's all well and good but I really didn't do it for you." Root replied, "but since you both are so grateful for it mind telling me what plans do you have for me."

Elias and Harold looked at each other as if deciding who should talk. Harold decided that he should.

"Well, you can't go out, there are cops swarming all over the city looking for you but you also can't stay here, this place really isn't meant for ladies. So we decided that you can come and stay with me. I have a small library with a room on top. Mr. Reese used to stay there but he's since moved out to a slightly bigger apartment. You can stay there till you figure out your next move. Would that be acceptable, Root?" Harold asked.

"Sounds perfect, when do we leave." Root replied and smiled.

"Soon. I just need to discuss some issues with my partner and then we can be on our way. I also bought you a change of clothes."

Root looked down and noticed her blood stained shirt and now that Harold had mentioned it she realized that she should probably change. There was no point in making them think that she any more crazier than they already thought she was.

They hung around for a while as Harold talked some things over with Elias. Root had changed into her new clothes and was standing next to Reese who stood there like a Royal guard at the buckingham palace. Unmoving and silent.

"You don't talk a lot, do you." said Root.

"No." came the monosyllabic reply.

"Well you must a hoot at parties."

"So I've been told." Reese replied with a slight hint of a grin on his face.

Root decided that she liked this big lug of a human being.

Sometime later Harold finished his discussion with Elias and after their goodbyes Root, Harold and Reese made their way back into the tunnels.


They must have walked for at least an hour. Root tried to memorize the route they took but after a while all the tunnels began to look the same. Not that it mattered, she could always ask the shadows for directions later. Occasionally she would hear the sound of the train at a distance or the sound of people waiting on some underground platform. A little while later they turned into what looked like a smaller service tunnel. It was dimly lit and slowly faded into darkness. It seemed like a dead end but as they approached the far end of the tunnel Reese stepped forward and moved a false wall to reveal a hidden tunnel. Harold took out his keychain and pressed a small button and a light switched on at the end of the tunnel and Root saw a small ladder leading upwards. Root could see it even before the light was turned on but the light still helped. She was feeling as she was in a war film trying to escape the Nazis except in their case they weren't the good guys.

They all climbed the ladder one after the other with Reese coming up at the end. As Root climbed up she saw a small trap door towards the top with light streaming in and Harold waiting at the top. Root climbed out of the hole in the floor and saw that she was in a basement. After they were all out if the tunnel, Reese closed the hatch and shut off the tunnel light with the remote and they all made their way out of the basement into Harold's library.

"So this is it. The Library." said Harold.

They were standing close to the back of the library near the entrance to a small kitchen which led to the basement. Root could see the front entrance through the book shelves. She stepped into the library and started to browse through the various books.

"It's not a big library but I do have a good collection. Most of the front shelves are the usual popular fare" said Harold as he followed Root, "but these one near the back are the more esoteric stuff. Occult, demonology, alternate dimensions, stuff like that. Don't get a lot of readers for things like that but I just collect them for me. Are you interested in stuff like that, given your umm... extra curricular activities." Harold asked politely.

Root looked at him and smiled.

"A little" she replied.

"Then you'll love this section or at least you won't get bored."

Root nodded.

"So what now." She asked.

Harold looked at John who stepped forward.

"John here will show you to your room. I took the liberty of buying you some clothes. If you need other stuff then let John know and he'll get them for you. The library is all yours, just don't go out into the front. We wouldn't want anyone catching a glimpse of you, now would we?" Harold said, "otherwise you are free to do whatever you want."

"So basically stay here and not go out."

"Pretty much, at least until you figure out what you want to do next. I mean if you wish to get out of the country then even that can be arranged."

"And what if I wish to surrender."

Harold seemed taken aback for a second.

"If that is what you wish. The only request on my part would be to not talk about me or Mr. Elias."

"You don't need to worry about that Harold. Your secret's safe with me. Besides I'm supposed to be a murderous lunatic remember, who's going to believe me if I tell them that a mob boss is hiding in a subway station and is being helped by a librarian," Root grinned, " but any ways I haven't decided what I want to do so maybe I'll just lay low here for a while till I figure it out."

"Sounds like a good plan."


It had been five days since the incident. Martine was finally out of the hospital and even though she was still on medical leave she was back at the precinct with Fusco, even though at the moment she was using a cane to walk. They had been called in for the internal affairs investigation.

Martine had just stepped out from the interrogation room and was standing near her desk while Fusco waited to be called in.

"You should sit down" Fusco said.

"I would but it hurts when I bend down. I'll just stand for a bit," Martine explained, "Did you manage to dig up any news? You said you were going to talk to Laskey."

"I did, a little bit. He says Samantha Groves is still missing. No trace of her as yet."

"But are we sure she's still alive."

"Yeah, that part finally got confirmed. They found some blood and fingerprints in the alley behind the building. They matched it to her record. But here's the interesting bit, they were also found tire tracks."

"She has an accomplice?" Martine sounded surprised.

"Looks like it."

"Strange, I always thought she was more the loner type. Didn't think she would have a partner."

"Neither did I. Laskey also said that the captain has another team looking into Samantha Groves's friends and relatives. They are hoping she might have been in contact with any of them."

"You think that's likely."

"I don't know, but it's worth a shot. I mean if she has an accomplice then anything is possible."

At that moment a man stepped out of the interrogation room.

"Detective Fusco we are ready for you."

Fusco looked at him and nodded.

"See you a while."

"Best of luck."

Fusco smiled and stepped into the interrogation room.


The I.A. investigation continued while the detectives kept trying to see if any of Root's friends had been in touch with her. But Martine had been correct, the other team of detectives was starting to find out that Samantha Groves was a fairly solitary creature and had mostly kept to herself. In the meantime everyone was worried who was the mole in their midst.

"Yeah, so that was another dead end." said Detective Warren to his partner.

"Looks like it. I think we should talk to Fusco when we see him in the evening at the pub, maybe he'll have some leads." Detective Renwick suggested.

At that moment they spotted one of their colleagues heading out.

"Anna, what's the rush?" asked Renwick.

"Drayton just called, homicide in the upper east side. He was out for some work in that area so he's already on his way there. I need to catch up with him and I don't have my car today. Now I'm going to have to requisition a car from the carpool and that's always a pain." replied Detective Anna Luis.

"We can give you a lift." came a voice from behind. It was Detective Adrian Warren. Warren liked Detective Anna Luis and had been trying to summon up the courage to ask her out. He figured this was a nice way to spend some time with her and get to know her a little bit. Renwick knew this so he just smiled and agreed.

"Sure, we could leave you, not that we've got anything better to do at the moment. Besides we were in the upper east side area a couple of days back following up a lead."

"Thanks guys, really appreciate it."


Adrian spent most of the journey talking to Anna and he finally managed to find out that she was indeed single.

"You doing anything special Friday night?" asked Adrian.

"Not really. I just moved here a month back so I'm still getting to know the place."

"Well, me, Renwick and few others from the precinct go for bowling once a month. If you want you could drop by." Adrian suggested.

Renwick, who was driving the car, just smiled as his partner extended the invitation thinking he was being very smooth as if the female detective wouldn't be able to figure him out.

"Sure." Anna smiled and accepted the invite.

"Great, I'll forward the address to you on Whatsapp."

As the two detectives exchanged phone numbers, Renwick saw that they were getting close to their destination and still had no idea where exactly they were supposed to be going.

"Hey, if you two are done managing your social lives, you might want to let me know where exactly we are supposed to be going."

"Oh yeah, just.. just give me a second. I'll call Drayton and find out."

As Anna made the call Renwick slowed the car down so that he wouldn't have to double back.

"Okay I got it. It's 453, Kings Road."

Renwick just slammed the brakes.

"What" Adrian shouted.

Anna was stunned by the reaction of the two detectives but knew something was really wrong.

"What's wrong." she asked.

"Just check and make sure, Warren."

Warren pulled up a list of names on his phone and scrolled through it.

"Yup, Joel Mintz, 453, Kings Road. Is that the victim, Ann?" Adrian asked.

Detective Luis called her partner once again to confirm.

"Joel Mintz and family, Drayton says it looks like a burglary gone wrong but he thinks there might be more to it."

Renwick put the car in drive and accelerated towards their destination. They reached the address in a few minutes and made their way in past the forensics team.

The bodies were still lying where they had been found. It looked like the wife and the child had been shot in head. Upon closer inspection they could see that Mr. Mintz had been tortured.

"What's going on guys, mind filling us in?" Detective Drayton asked.

Adrian took a deep breath and leaned against the wall, he decided to let Renwick explain. He was after all the senior detective.

"He was one of our leads in the Samantha Groves case. We spoke with him just three days ago."

"Oh fuck." said Anna.

"Exactly" Adrian concurred.

At that moment Renwick suddenly turned around and looked at his partner. His eyes wide with horror.

"Check up on the rest, now."

Adrian immediately pulled out his phone and began dialling. Their list wasn't very long, it had only three names on it, but it was also incomplete. They were still trying to track down other friends that Samantha Groves might have had.

"You think that crazy bitch might have done this." Drayton asked.

"I have no idea, we just got assigned this case, since Martine and Fusco are still on medical leave, but it's possible."

As they were having this conversation Adrian gave a number to Anna so she could call the other number while he tried the first one. But even after three to four tries they were getting no response from either of the remaining two names on the list.

"Nothing." said Adrian.

"Call it in. Tell dispatch to send a patrol car to both addresses and check them out." Renwick instructed.

This couldn't be a coincidence. Something was very wrong, Renwick realized. As they waited Adrian started to go through his notes.

"This can't be happening. You think..." Adrian never finished the sentence but Renwick knew exactly what he wanted to say. Renwick was quite sure that the other two people on their list might have met a similar fate. After the longest twenty minutes of their lives the call came in on Renwick's phone.

"What did they say?" Adrian asked apprehensively.

"Signs of struggle at one house and no one's seen our second lead since yesterday. The house is empty and she's not at her workplace either. The patrol cars are still trying to track down both our leads."

"This is insane. How the fuck can this happen?" Adrian almost shouted.

The truth was that they all knew the answer to the question it was just that no one was willing to say it out loud. After this latest disaster they knew for a fact that there was rat in their midst and it could be any one of them.

"How do you think it happened? You think someone hacked into our system?" Drayton asked.

"Oh fuck." Adrian exclaimed.

"What?" said Anna.

"If they are in our system we got an even bigger problem."

"Oh man, it's that new lead we got today morning. One of Samantha Groves's neighbour and if what you say is true and the mole has hacked our computers then she could be next. I mean whoever it is must know by now that we've found Mr. Mintz then they won't waste time going after her. We need to get to her before anyone else does." Renwick said.

"What can we do to help?" Detective Luis asked.

Renwick and Adrian looked at each other. They had no idea if they could trust the other two detective, frankly at that point of time they weren't even sure if they trusted each other. But right now they didn't have much of a choice since they didn't know Hannah Frey's exact location.

"OK look, we've got three addresses for her. You can take one and we'll take the other."

"What about the third" asked Drayton.

Renwick thought about it for second and replied, "I'll call Martine. She and Fusco were supposed to be in the office today for some work. They've actually seen Ms. Frey."

"Sounds good to me." replied Drayton.

Renwick called Martine and told her everything that had happened. They all agreed not to tell anyone else. If something were to happen then at least they would know who the prime suspects would be, they themselves. But they had no choice at the moment so they all went with it.

The two teams of detectives got in their respective cars and raced off towards their destinations as Martine and Fusco made their way to the third location.


Location A

"We need backup, I repeat, we need backup. We're taking heavy gunfire." Detective Anna Luis shouted in the radio while her partner tried to get closer to the house.

They had reached there just a few moments back just as a black SUV came in from the other direction. Three African american men got out of the car and immediately opened fire on them. They somehow managed to get out the car and were currently hiding behind it and returning fire. They were trying their level best to prevent the men from entering the building.


Location B

Renwick and Adrian had reached their destination to find it empty. It was an apartment on the third floor. The neighbours told them that the residents were out of town on vacation. But as they were coming down the stairs they saw a group of heavily armed men making their way up. From their tattoos they looked Russian.

Both parties saw each other. The Russians caught a glimpse of the detectives badges on their belts opened fire with almost no warning. Adrian was hit on the forehead with a wood splinter from the staircase railing. Renwick returned fire. They proved to be lucky as the Russians didn't seem to be in the mood for a fight or maybe they saw that the detectives were empty handed. After a few minutes of firing they slowly retreated.

By the time Adrian and Renwick had gotten outside the building, the Russians were gone.

Adrian looked a mess, with blood pouring out from the gash on his eyebrow.

"Let's get you to the hospital." Renwick said.

"Just check up on the others first."


Location C

It was Fusco and Martine who turned out to be lucky or the maybe the fates decided that they had been through enough and gave them a reprieve.

They found the house and found Hannah and her little daughter. It was one of her friends place. It was a small apartment building in the west of the city. They were staying there till they found their own place to stay. The explosion and the subsequent fire had made their building structurally unsafe. She was just glad that the insurance company had agreed to pay them for all the damage that had been incurred.

Martine spoke with her and told her that they needed to come down to the precinct to give a statement regarding the events of that night and that she should bring along her daughter too. Martine didn't want to panic her. There would be enough time for that later.

They got the mother and daughter in the car and had barely driven fifty meters when Fusco saw a couple of vehicles pull up near the house. He could see heavily armed men get out and run into the building. Fusco stared at Martine and heaved a sigh of relief, since neither of them were in any mood or condition to take on a small army.

Martine called the other two pair of detectives and told them they had found Hannah Frey and she could still hear gunshots in the background when she spoke to Anna. But Anna informed her that backup was on it's way.

"What's going on with them?" Fusco asked since

"Nothing they can't handle. Let's just get to the precinct, we can worry about the rest later."

Even though they had managed to escape their own possible gun battle narrowly they knew they would be facing a wholly different shit storm once they reached the police station and they were right about that.


"What the fuck just happened?" Captain Moreno shouted.

Fusco and Martine were in the Captain's office along with Renwick, Anna and Drayton. Adrian was in the hospital getting stitches. It had been an hour since they had reached the police station. It had been complete chaos with four of their detectives coming under fire at almost the same time even though thankfully no one had been seriously injured. But it was still unacceptable. The gangs had either gotten really bold or they were desperate to get their hands on Samantha Groves or both.

Fusco had put Hannah and her daughter in the interrogation room and put Laskey outside as a guard. After the events of the day he wasn't sure if someone might actually try to do something right inside the precinct.

"We don't know exactly?" Renwick replied, "I mean, we are sure that there is someone here leaking information to the gangs. At least we can rule out the assumption that Samantha Groves had anything to do with this."

"Wow, what a relief. Thank god we don't have to worry about the serial killer murdering people" Captain Moreno said sarcastically.

Everyone else just stared at their feet.

"Are you sure about your other two leads?" asked the Captain.

"Not really. I've got two patrol cars still looking but so far we've got nothing."

"This is a god-damned clusterfuck. We've got one dead, two missing and or possibly dead. We've got a fourth lead sitting in the interrogation room and she was just lucky that you two got there in time. I've got the IA breathing down my neck and you can bet your ass the devil himself is going to be here within the hour. It will be a miracle if any of us have our jobs before the end of the week. So effective immediately,Detective Renwick, you and Adrian are suspended until further notice pending a full investigation."

"But..." Renwick said half-heartedly. He didn't protest too much since he had more or less anticipated it. It had been their investigation after all and even if someone had stolen the information from their computers they were still responsible, in part, for what had happened today.

"Don't but me, Renwick. Look I know you're a good man. But right now I don't have a choice. So your gun and your badge."

Renwick stepped forward and put both the items on the table and stepped out of the office.

"You two can leave too." Captain Moreno motioned towards Anna and Drayton.

After the two of them had left the office, the Captain leaned in to speak with Martine and Fusco, as if she wasn't sure who else might be listening in.

"What do you two intend to do with Ms. Frey?"

"Right now the only option is to put her and her daughter in a safe house."

"Do you two have a place because I don't think it's a good idea to put her in one of our safe houses since we have no idea how compromised we are."

Before either of them could answer, the devil, just as the captain had predicted, walked into Captain Moreno's office.

It was Senior Inspector John Greer, Head of Internal Affairs. The man had cracked over a dozen cases of mass level police corruption over his career and was responsible for the incarceration and discharge of a hundred or more police officers. His nickname of the devil was very well earned and He was not someone to be trifled with.

"You won't be doing anything with Ms. Frey, Captain Moreno. She's our responsibility now. We'll keep her safe."

"Now look here.." the Captain began to protest.

"Do you really believe that you are in any position to object."

It turned into a staring contest between Greer and Moreno and Captain Moreno blinked first. She shook her head and sat, defeated, back in her chair.

"Fine, take her."

"Lambert, she's all yours." Greer told his right hand man, "I'll be taking over the case now and until I figure out how deep this goes this entire homicide department is on suspension."


It was past midnight and Link and his men had been waiting under the overpass for nearly half an hour. It was the first time they were going to meet their informant face to face. The Russians were also their waiting next to their own SUV. All of them were heavily armed.

A few minutes later they spotted a pair of headlights heading their way. The car finally stopped a really pissed of police detective stepped out.

"You morons had one job to do, one lousy fucking job and you can't even do that right. All I said was to make sure the bodies weren't found so there would be no murder investigation, but apparently none of you assholes understand English." the Detective shouted at the gang members.

One of the members of The Brotherhood stepped forward with his gun pointed at the detective.

"Hey, fuck you. You don't mouth off to us. We pay you, you belong to us."

The moment the gang member was close enough, the detective side stepped, pushed the gun to a side and jammed a knife, that was hidden up his sleeve, up through the man's neck into his brain. The man turned off like a switch. The detective pulled out the knife and let the man drop to the ground. He stepped over the body and took out a handkerchief to wipe the knife.

"Let's get one thing straight," the detective said, "I don't work for you. I'm just helping you out because that's what my bosses south of the border told me to do. They think helping you sort out this business with the serial killer will help you lot get back on track. Personally I couldn't care less. But now because of your fuck up, Hannah Frey is under the protection of IA and I don't know where their safe house is, so all of this is going to take a lot longer."

Link motioned his guys to pick up the body. No matter how much he wanted he couldn't kill the detective, The detective was protected by the cartels and he had no intentions of angering them.

"How much longer?" one of the Russians asked.

"How the fuck should I know? It takes as long as it takes." the detective was really pissed off.

The Russian wisely decided to shut up.

"Now lets talk about how we deal with Samantha Groves when we do find her." The Detective said.

"What do you mean, how we deal with her. I intend to put a bullet in her head, eventually. Maybe I'll torture her first." Link replied.

"I don't think it's going to be that simple. Let's face it we have no idea who or what we are dealing with. From whatever little we know about her it looks like she can move in and out of shadows and that she's got an army of monsters. Now you lot keep saying they are dogs but you and I both know it's not dogs. I've seen picture of the victims from the building. Those claw and teeth marks are like nothing I've ever seen. So I sent them to my people to see if they could figure it out."

"And" Link asked out of curiosity.

The detective paused for a second trying to word the response.

"There are those among my people who believe that not everything can be explained by science, that there are older and darker things around us. Things we don't understand and probably shouldn't mess with."

"What, like voodoo and shit?" the same Russian who had questioned the detective before, joked.

"That's a different culture. If you're going to be racist at least get the race right"

The Russian once again shut up.

"Any ways the point is, my bosses are sending someone over that they believe can help."

"Like a witch" the Russian once again interrupted and chuckled.

A shot rang out and the Russian dropped to the ground. It was his own boss who had shot him in the head.

"I apologize, please continue." the boss said.

"As I was saying, they are sending a specialist. Someone who understands this kind of stuff. She'll be here tomorrow. I've given her your numbers so she'll get in touch sometime tomorrow night. Oh, and another thing, my bosses say she's a little strange and definitely crazy so... handle with care." the detective said with a grin.

"Wonderful. That's exactly what we need, one crazy bitch to handle another one."

Just as the detective turned around to leave, Link called out.

"Hey, this psycho got a name?"

"Umm.. wait a second, let me check." said the detective.

The detective checked the name on the cellphone.

"Yeah, Kara Stanton."


Root had been at the library for two days now and she was beginning to get bored out of her mind. She had no computer or television to entertain her, nor could she venture out, so she had taken to browsing through the books in the library especially from the occult section. To her surprise Harold Finch, unbeknownst to him, had managed to collect quite a few books on magic. Some of them were quite esoteric indeed, explaining the nature of the various worlds and dimensions that surrounded their realm. There was even a book on the shadow realm, which she found very educational.

But she was still bored and starting to feel lonely. She had had no contact with Sameen in all this time and all her tries at contacting her or Cole had gone unanswered. So she had started to spend more and more time in the shadow realm and since time moved slightly differently there, sometimes she wasn't even aware how long she'd been there. It was just that increasingly she felt odd coming back to the real world, like it would just be better if stayed back there but then she felt as if she still had things she needed to finish in this world.

But first she needed to figure out where Sameen was.


"Where's Officer Laskey? Has anyone seen Officer Laskey?" Detective Lambert asked as he stepped out of his office.

Fusco and Martine looked around but couldn't spot him. They, along with other officers and detectives from the homicide squad at the 8th Precinct were at the Internal Affairs office waiting to be questioned.

It was a large, modern looking office with glass cabins, carpeted flooring and a working air conditioning. At least the suspects who were being questioned were grilled under a cool atmosphere. IA apparently had all the funding they would ever want and then some. After all no one was stupid to question the Office of Internal Affairs why they needed the funds.

It was the third day since the homicide squad suspension. Their workload had temporarily been transferred to other departments, which the other departments weren't happy about. But I.A. had said that they would speed things up and the moment they decided that a particular officer or detective wasn't involved they would lift their suspension. So far about five of them were back to work including the Captain.

"Detective Fusco, you know Officer Laskey, am I right?" Lambert asked.

"Yeah, but I haven't seen him since yesterday. Maybe you can send someone over to his place to have a look." Fusco replied.

"Maybe."

Lambert just stood there for a bit, thinking. Then he immediately went into another glass cabin and began talking to his colleagues. Fusco could see them pulling out files and working on their computer. After almost fifteen to twenty minutes of furious activity Lambert suddenly leaned in and stared at a computer screen. He straightened up and smiled.

He stepped out of the office and went towards Greer's office to tell update him of the situation.

"What do you think's going on? You think Laskey's involved?" Drayton whispered to Fusco.

"No way. I know the kid. He's clean as a whistle."


By the next day the rumour had spread like wildfire. Everyone at the precinct was talking about it. Mike Laskey was the mole and now he was on the run. By afternoon it was confirmed. The IA team had found over a dozen hidden accounts, all pointing to payments he had been receiving for almost two years from the Russians and a few other gangs. It turned out that Laskey's parents were Russian immigrants, so the connection seemed natural. No one questioned it except Fusco.

"I don't buy it, not one bit." Fusco said.

They were back in the precinct after almost a week of inactivity and with no clue as to what was happening with the manhunt. The IA investigation had ended up taking precedence over the hunt for Samantha Groves. It was also on every news channel by now. After all police corruption was a far more juicier story than the on going but boring hunt for a supposed serial killer. Even Harold Finch had dropped by to get some details for his blog.

Martine was sitting next to Fusco, watching the news.

"And now we're taking you live to Mike Laskey's home. We are going to talk to his parents and see if they knew anything about their son being on the mob's payroll." said a sharply dressed news anchor.

"Oh god. I really feel bad for his parents. They don't deserve this." Martine said.

"Laskey doesn't deserve this either."

"Lionel, I understand how you're feeling but sometimes you don't see something like this coming. All of my years working undercover, there's one thing I learnt, the ones you suspect the least are the ones who end up betraying you."

"Look, I get that. But all of this still feels too convenient. I mean he goes missing and they immediately find all those accounts. If he'd been at it for two years wouldn't he have better at hiding this stuff."

"I don't know, people get over confident sometimes." Martine suggested but Fusco wasn't buying it. Martine knew her partner wasn't going to be convinced otherwise.

"What do you want to do?" she asked.

"I don't know yet. But I'll figure something out." Fusco went quiet as he tried to figure out what exactly was going on.

Sometime later Captain Moreno announced that based on the recommendations of the Internal Affairs department, the Chief of Police was setting up a separate task force to handle the Samantha Groves investigation and all the files and evidence pertaining to the case were to be handed over to them the next day.

"Well, that was expected. There's no way anyone's going to let us anywhere near the case now." Martine said looked dejected.

All those months of hard work of trying to figure out what was going on and getting so close to arresting Samantha Groves and now somebody else would get all the credit. But there was nothing they could do about it.

"Let's get out here and get drunk. This is too depressing."


Twenty minutes later they were sitting in the local pub nursing their favourite drinks. The pub was filled with a few other police officers from the Homicide Squad. They could hear whispered conversations going on everywhere and most of them were about Laskey. Someone even used the word "commie". Even though Fusco had seen it before it still surprised him how quickly people turned on someone.

"All these guys were supposed to be his friends." Fusco said.

"It happens all the time, Lionel. It's just human nature."

"I still don't get why?"

"Why what, why Laskey? Ok lets say for a minute you're right, That Laskey's innocent that someone planted the evidence on him. Why would someone do that?" Martine asked her partner.

"That's what's been bothering me all day. Why plant evidence on anyone? It's not like I.A. was any close to solving this. They had no suspects at all."

"That's what you think. Maybe they had already suspected Mike." said Martine playing the devil's advocate.

"But that's the thing, they'd already questioned Mike and he told me that they had cleared him."

"So why did they call him in again. Maybe they found some new evidence."

"Or maybe they had an anonymous tip."

"Now you're reaching" Martine said.

"I don't know. It just doesn't add up."

"Lionel, there's nothing to add up. It's all cut and dry. After what happened at the Groves's residence we already knew that there was a mole and after what happened to Renwick and Adrian's case, I mean, that was a complete disaster. It was a miracle that Hannah Frey is even alive. It was just a matter of time before the IA got their man. "

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm just have a hard time believing it. He was a friend after all and he was smart kid. He would have made a great detective some day."

"I know Lionel. I liked him too. Right now let's just focus on putting all of this behind us. Hannah Frey is safe. IA got their man. Tomorrow after they set up the task force we can ask the captain to put us on it. After all no one knows Samantha Groves better than us, right?" Martine smiled and suggested.

Lionel looked at his partner and smiled in return.

"Sounds like a plan."

"So go home, see your wife and kid and tomorrow will be a better day. I promise."


It was close to two in the morning. The building was dark and empty and it creaked and groaned like a sleeping monster. Samantha Groves's house was sealed shut by the police. There was hardly anything inside except for the burnt out furniture and some other appliances. Whatever the police could gather as evidence had been gathered. There was some street light coming in through the broken windows but in some corners the light never seemed to reach, as if the shadows were reluctant to relinquish their hold.

Suddenly the air in the apartment flickered and a moment later a woman was standing in the middle of the room.

The weather was cold and she was dressed for it and very fashionably at that. She was beautiful and had long wavy black hair. She had a smile on her face but it never seemed to reach her cold dark eyes. She was wearing a knee length coat to keep herself warm but she didn't look like she needed it. She had an air of imperviousness to her, like nothing really touched her. She was wearing a pair of stylish two tone sepia and black pumps. She obviously had expensive tastes but she also wasn't too bothered about getting them dirty on the soot covered floor. Not that that was an issue since it looked as if she wasn't really touching the floor at all. As she walked across the floor she never left any footprints.

At that moment a small shadow creature approached her tried to take a swipe at her but failed. She was too quick.

"Well, well, well. Aren't you a brave one." she said as quickly bent down and grabbed the shadow creature which was trying to escape.

She stared at as it struggled in her grasp, taking swipes at her with it's massive claws but seemed to hit nothing but thin air. The woman finally got bored of the show. She raised her other hand and uttered a spell under her breath. The shadow creature began to shake violently and trails of liquid light began to pour out of it and fly towards the woman's hand. The creature began to lose form and in a few seconds was nothing more than black liquid that poured off her hand.

She took out her handkerchief and wiped her hands.

She walked around surveying the burnt out apartment. She could spot other shadow creatures running across the room, but none of them dared approach her. Her little display was enough to announce her as a natural predator. She eventually reached the wall where Root had opened the portal. She could still feel the wild and chaotic energies emanating from the spot. She reached out and touched it.

"This should be fun" the woman smiled and said.

A second later the air shivered again and the woman was gone, leaving no trace of her presence except for the puddle of black water that was once a shadow creature.


Harold Finch had dropped by the subway station to talk to his friend.

"Have you read this?" Harold asked as he approached Elias.

Elias saw the news that Harold was pointing towards.

"Yes. You think it's her. You think she's killing off witnesses and potential leads." Carl asked.

Harold put down the newspaper on the desk and sat down on the leather chair.

"I don't know. I don't think so. I talked to John, he says that she hasn't left the library at all but Ms. Groves seems to skills that we might not be entirely aware off. So if she wanted to give John the slip I'm sure she's perfectly capable of that."

"But you don't think she did it?"

"No."

"So that leaves The Brotherhood and the Russians."

"Pretty much."

"I think, tomorrow, you should go and ask her just to be sure. She doesn't seem to be the kind to deny one of her own kills."

"OK." Harold agreed.

He was about to get up and leave when he paused.

"Carl, what the plan here, what are you going to do with Ms. Groves? I ask because she's too volatile to be put to any good use."

"I agree and until the news of these killings came up even I wasn't sure what I was going to do with her. As I said before, I just saved her purely out of curiosity."

"But now you have a plan?" Harold asked.

"Not so much as a plan but a hope based on a calculated prediction. A prediction that our enemies will do what's in their nature." Elias smiled.

"What do you mean?" Harold, now, sounded curious. He wondered what his friend was planning.

"Harold, so far all of this has been nothing more than a game for Root, which is why she never cared about the gangs coming after her. Which is why even after they almost killed her she never thought about retaliation. But now, with The Brotherhood going after her friends and family it's going to get personal. Sooner or later they are going to kill someone that's going to be dear to her and when that happens all we have to do is be there for her. To support her. Understand"

Harold stared at his friend and smiled in response.

"You want to use her as a weapon."

"She's not just a weapon Harold, she's a god-damned tactical nuke. You saw what she did in the attack on her building and she said she was just having fun. Imagine how much damage she can do if she's pissed off. If we're lucky we won't even have to lift a finger. She could get rid of every single one of our enemies. As I said, we just have to wait and when it happens we just provide her with whatever she needs."

"But it all depends on if it happens. If the gangs do what you think they'll do."

"It's not a question of if Harold just a question of when. Sooner or later the Russians and the Brotherhood will hurt someone that Root likes. No one is that solitary. No one is an island."


By the morning of the next day, the Chief of Police had formally announced the formation of a special task force to handle the case of Samantha Groves and that members of the task force would announced soon. Martine and Fusco were trying to see if they could get Captain Moreno to figure out a way to make them part of the task force. As it stood at that moment, it seemed that no one from the Homicide squad would be part of the team. The Chief was picking up members from the Gangs division and the Organized Crimes division. The Captain told Martine and Fusco that she would try their best but not to hold on to any hope given all the various allegations of corruption flying around.

By evening the names of the members of the task force had been announced and Martine and Fusco weren't on the list. With nothing much to do they both decided to call it an early day and went back to their local pub.

"This sucks." Fusco said as he downed his drink in one gulp.

"Yes it does. But the captain did try her best." Martine replied.

"Yeah, I guess. Any news of Laskey as yet. Did they find him?"

"Nothing yet, but I have been thinking about what you said. About the fact that if Laskey is innocent then why would someone plant the evidence on him. What would be the motivation?"

"And, do you have an answer yet, because I'm still drawing a blank."

"Well, I was thinking about everything that's happened since then, since I.A. discovered that Laskey was the mole."

"The only big thing that's happened is that we lost the fucking case." Fusco said angrily.

"Yeah, exactly."

"And now those bastards will take all the credit."

"Fusco, screw the credit. Just think. What if that's what someone wanted all along, to get control of the case." Martine sounded like she was finally on to something.

"But why, it's not as if anyone knows where Samantha Groves is. She's vanished into the night. So what would be the point what else do we have?" Fusco said.

"Oh fuck, I think I know what they wanted and it's not a what it's a who."

"A who." said Fusco as he tried to make sense of what Martine was getting at and a moment later he got it, "Fuck, they're trying to get to Hannah Frey."

"Exactly, now that there's a task force, IA will transfer Hannah and her daughter over to them and that's what the mole wanted all along, an opportunity to get to her. Let's go we need to stop the transfer."

"But where do we go?" Fusco asked wondering who would listen to them.

"To the only man who can possibly do something, Greer."

The two detectives left their drinks and rushed out without paying. The bartender had seen this often enough and just put it on their tab.


As the two detectives rushed the across the city to meet the devil, Root was sitting in her room above the library making preparations for a spell.

Ever since her little stunt with the Shadows she had had no contact with Sameen and it was now starting to worry her. She had tried every method she knew of contacting her but to no avail. Finally it were her Shadow friends that had suggested something. A special summoning spell. A spell from their realm. They knew all the various Deaths via distinct symbols which they had shared with her. She now knew the ones for Sameen, Cole and a lot of the others in the deathly hierarchy. The spell was complex and it required her to consume some of the essence of the shadows, the black liquid that created them, that gave them their form and abilities. Root had no idea what effect it would have on her but she was desperate to talk to Sameen.

She had a little bowl in front of her filled with the black water from the shadow realm. She took a deep breath and put it to her lips. She drank it all in one gulp and then waited for it to take affect. For a few seconds nothing happened. Then her entire body went cold from the inside out. She could see her breath turn to vapour as it came out of her mouth. She stood in front of the mirror and she could see herself visibly change. Her nails turned to claws, the whites of her eyes became blacker than night, she felt her bones grow more joints than she felt she needed. Pain rocked her entire body. She tried to scream but no sound came out. She fell to the floor as the transformations continued. Eventually her ear grew larger and she began to grow fangs. Her jaw protruded outwards accommodate additional teeth. She prayed for the pain to end but the transformations didn't stop. Her back began to grow sharp spikes. Her arms and legs became elongated. She got up on all fours and looked at herself in the mirror. She looked like some kind of a long limbed werewolf with a spiny back. Her skin had turned black but she felt grateful that she hadn't begun to grow fur. She felt like she finally saw herself for what she had become.

A monster.

The thought of fur hadn't left her mind and as she looked at her arm she could see fur growing on her skin and she realized that her transformation was controllable. That it was dependant on her will. So she concentrated on reverting back. It took some effort but after a few minutes she could see her old self emerging again. This time she felt no pain but the effort she had to put in was both mentally and physically exhausting. Soon she was back to normal but sweating profusely. She was back to her human form except for the fingers on her hands which still had long sharp talons protruding from them. She stared at them and they too slowly began to retreat.

She didn't know if the effects of the black water were permanent but she felt that it could be useful. She didn't really care what effect it would have on her body or her soul.

As she admired her new found abilities she suddenly remembered that she had a spell to complete. She tried to remember what her Shadow friends had told her. They didn't really have a language as such since they mostly communicated telepathically so all she had to go on were mental pictures but she did her best. She drew the shadow symbol for Sameen, finished the spell and waited.

And then she waited some more.

A black circle appeared in front of her, but no one came.

She grew frustrated and tried again with the same results.

On her third attempt she decided to try and summon Cole. Maybe she was remembering Sameen's symbol wrong. This time it worked. In the blink of an eye another dark circle appeared on the floor next to the previous one and in the middle of it was Cole. He looked lost.

"What the fuck?" said Cole as he tried to get his bearing until he saw Root, "Root? How did you..."

"Hey Cole. Sorry to drag you here like this."

"But how? What you did is not really possible. To summon us like this. There are no spell books which contain those spells."

"Well, I had help from some friends." Root smiled, proud of her work.

"What friends?"

"The Shadows."

"Root, no," Cole looked horrified, "You can't use those spells, they aren't meant for humans, they do things to you, to your soul." Cole started to explain but Root wasn't interested.

"Look, I don't care. Just tell me where Sameen is?"

"Sameen is... right here. She's bound in that circle and she's really pissed off."

"What, then why can't I see her?" Root looked baffled.

Cole sighed.

"Because that's her punishment and yours."

"What?"

"Root did you really think that after all the little stunts that you pulled and all the various times that Sameen helped and taught you things, that there wouldn't be any consequences. Our superiors had already issued Sameen warning on numerous occasions but she didn't listen. She liked you too much to care. But that night when you unleashed the Shadows, when she came to warn you, that was the final straw. She's now on suspension until the enquiry into her misconduct is complete. I'm currently handling the entire human work order."

"But why can't I see her?" Root asked.

"Because if there's one thing my higher ups are clear about, it's the fact that you are the main cause of the problem. So they've cast a spell on you which prevents you from sensing her in any way. Sameen can't even write to you. Around you, she and anything she has touched in completely incorporeal. That's her punishment. As long as you are alive, Sameen will remain invisible to you."

Root just stood there not knowing what to do.

"Can't the spell be broken." she asked desperately.

"Root," Cole smiled sadly, "this is a spell cast by Death itself. It's a spell as old as time. Nothing can break it not even your shadow friends."

"So what now." Root looked lost. After everything she had done to get closer to Sameen she had still managed to lose her and she had no way of getting her back.

"I don't know. Wish I could help."

Cole paused for a second and added, "Sameen says, she's really sorry."

Root smiled but there were tears streaming down her cheeks. She sat down on the bed, feeling more alone than she had ever felt in her entire life.

"You think you could release us." Cole asked softly.

Root waved her hand and the black circles vanished. Cole almost fell down after the barrier suddenly disappeared.

"Root, there's nothing you can do now. The only thing I can do is pass messages between the two of you but even I have been warned not to contact you."

Root sat there in silence, it looked like she was trying to come to some kind of a decision and she did.

"You know what, fuck it. If I can't be with her while I'm alive, I can be with her after I'm dead. I'm going to kill myself right now."

Root got up and opened the drawer on her bedside table and pulled out a gun. Cole didn't know what to do.

"Root, don't. I don't think that's going to work either. Dying might not solve your problems."

"Why not? As you said, as long as I am alive. Once I'm dead then I can see her and be with her."

"That's the thing Root, you..." but before he could finish his sentence Cole disappeared. To Root it looked as if some massive force had reached out and yanked him away.

"Cole, Cole." Root shouted.

She tried casting the spell again but it didn't work. She could sense something blocking her. Something a lot stronger and far older.

"Oh screw it." Root said frustratedly.

She picked up the gun from the bed, cocked it and put it to her temple and just as she was about to pull the trigger she heard another voice.

"Ms. Groves. Root. Are you there?" The voice came from downstairs. It was Harold Finch.

Root was still undecided as to whether or not she should pull the trigger but she eventually put the gun down and decided that listen to what Harold had to say. She could always blow her brains out later. And she still had to figure out as to what Cole wanted to tell her.

"Yeah, I'm upstairs but hang on, I'll come down."


A few minutes later she was sitting with Harold on the small kitchen in the back of the library.

"Root, is everything all right, you look troubled."

Root's eyes were still red from the tears.

"I'm fine. It's nothing that I can't handle. So why did you want to see me?"

"Have you been reading the newspapers lately?" Harold asked.

"Not really. I don't care much about the news."

"I think you should, especially this bit."

Harold took out a newspaper and put it in front of her. It was over a week old. Harold pointed towards a particular article. Root picked it up and began to read it. It was news about a murder and couple of missing people. She glanced through it and paused once she read the names.

"Joel Mintz. I know him. I know these other two as well. I worked with them in my previous company. What's going on, why would someone go after them?"

"I think you're smart enough to figure that out, Ms. Groves."

"They're looking for me, aren't they. But I barely knew these people. I mean I worked with them but it's not like we were friends or anything. But then I hardly have any friends."

"I think, it's safe to say, that the Brotherhood has someone inside the police department. Someone who's been feeding them information about your case. So they've been using that information to find anyone they can who can tell them your location."

"Yeah, but that's the thing about being a loner, you don't really have any close friends." Root replied sadly.

Harold smiled sympathetically, but then Root suddenly looked worried.

"What is it, Ms. Groves." Harold sounded concerned.

"I do have a friend, someone they can go after."

Harold wondered if his friend's prediction was about to come true and even though Harold wanted nothing more than to see their rival gangs destroyed he didn't want any innocent people to get hurt in the process.

"Who?" Now it was Harold's turn sound worried.

"Hannah Frey." Root replied.