The hallway was empty in both directions as Ava and Neal crept along the wall. Neither of them had any idea of where they were going, but both figured that they were going the right direction if they were going away from their cell. Ava tried to remember which way she'd been taken after being paraded for the FBI, but like before, all of the corridors looked exactly the same.
There were very few doors lining any of the hallways, but Neal pressed his ears against the ones they came across, listening for sounds of life. Ava had told him about the little girl she had seen while being dragged down the hallway, and Neal was determined to find her, her family if she had any, and all of the other people Mitchell Gadson had carted to America like cattle.
Ava noticed Neal's efforts and smiled. The man certainly had a big heart, regardless of being a criminal.
Before long, the duo heard loud footsteps coming their way. Neal knew they had been lucky until then not to run into anyone, and the luck had to run out some time. He stopped and held up a hand to Ava, who stopped too. Looking around the hallway, he caught sight of a door a few steps forward on the opposite side of the hallway. Dragging Ava by the hand, he silently rushed towards the door and pulled out his paper clip. Luckily, Gadson hadn't invested much in keeping people out of rooms, just keeping them in, and the door opened easily. Neal and Ava slipped into the dark room just as the footsteps rounded the corner.
Waiting for the footsteps to pass, Ava wished, not for the first time, the one of the two guards who had come into her cell had been armed. It would have made her much more at ease walking around a complex crawling with Gadson's men.
***
Mitchell Gadson was not having a good day. Three of his attempts to sell his stolen paintings had failed, thanks to the Feds searching every corner of the Northeastern states for him. As he thought about it, kidnapping a detective and pretending to kill a Federal Agent was beginning to look like an even stupider idea.
But he couldn't turn back time and Mitchell had decided to make the best of this awful situation. Neal Caffrey had who knows how much in stolen goods stashed away, and if there was anyone who could break the conman, it was James Mason. If life hands you lemons, as the saying went.
Leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, Mitchell was just beginning to believe that maybe this whole situation wasn't completely FUBAR when James barged into his office. The man was excellent when it came to making other people talk, but he seemed unconcerned with everyday manners such as knocking.
"What?" Mitchell groaned, rubbing his temples furiously.
"Sir, two of your men were late in retrieving Neal Caffrey for me, so I went to check on him and," James held up a pair of handcuffs, "he and Detective Hannigan were gone and the men restrained."
Mitchell slammed his hand on his desk with such force that it knocked over a cup of pens and made James jumped. "How the hell did this happen?" He screeched venomously.
James recovered from his surprise and slipped into an emotionless expression that he often used during interrogation. "The men said that Mr. Caffrey had a seizure while they were bringing him back to his cell, I believe he may have slipped a set of keys from one of their pockets."
Mitchell shook his head, "Only you and I have those keys, I wouldn't trust them to hired hands for just this reason." His accent was becoming stronger, making him almost impossible to understand, as always happened when he become worked up.
"Regardless, I am confident he was faking it. Somehow during that 'seizure' he gained access to a way of escape," James said.
"Well find him!" Gadson exclaimed vehemently, "And those two guards are of no further use to me, see to it that they are disposed of."
James nodded and exited the room as Gadson leaned back in his chair again. This time, there was no way of convincing himself that the situation would somehow get better. Now he had to settle for finding a way of salvaging at least a small fraction of the whole operation.
***
Silence descended upon the hallway as the footsteps faded away. Neal pulled Ava out of the room and they continued through the complex. He wanted to be out of the building by the time Gadson noticed anything, or at least before the man had time to put the place under lockdown. Moving as quickly and quietly as they could, he and Ava rushed through the maze of hallways looking for an exit, still checking at the doors for any signs of life.
"This has to be against fire and safety regulations," Neal muttered under his breath, "I haven't seen a window or door yet."
Neither Neal nor Ava noticed as a guard rounded the corner behind them. They did, however, notice the crackle of his radio as he pressed the button to report finding the escaped prisoners. Spinning around on her heels; Ava faced the man, who decided to abandon his radio for the gun strapped to his belt.
"If you come quietly, I promise to be nice," the man said sweetly, leering at her. "And maybe I can make your final hours a little more enjoyable."
That sent Ava over the edge. Masking the rage that was seething inside her, she stepped lightly towards the guard. "Maybe if I'd been given that offer before, I would have been a little bit more cooperative."
The guard smiled, relaxing the grip on his gun. "Well then…" His faced screwed up in pain as Ava kicked him in the groin, quickly followed by a fist in the face. He dropped the gun, which Ava quickly picked up and pressed against the man's temple.
"You alright?" Neal asked, walking up behind her.
"Yeah, fine." Ava turned her attention back to the man. "Now start talking or I plaster your grey matter all over this hallway."
The man turned white and threw his hands up in surrender. "I'll tell you whatever you want, just don't shoot me."
"Where are the people, Gadson's human cargo?" Neal asked angrily. "And where's the exit?"
The man pointed towards the hallway to the right. "Down there, turn left, fourth door on the right. That's where he keeps them." He switched hands and pointed down the hallway to the left. "Straight down the hallway, about two hundred meters, there's a door that leads out into a garage. At the other end of the garage is a door leading out."
"Someone doesn't want to make it easy to escape," Neal spat. "Sounds like we'd better get going."
"Wait, if you leave me here…" He never got a chance to finish as Ava whipped the butt of the pistol against his head. He slumped over unconscious.
"Should have thought about that before you joined up with a murderous bastard," Ava said as she rushed after Neal down the hall.
***
"Morgan's got the coordinates where the car stopped." Tanner relayed to Peter as he drove down a winding back road. "Turn left and get onto the highway in about five miles. About fifteen miles after that, there's an exit leading to an old warehouse, leased under the name Lance Goldsmith, which incidentally spells Mitchell Gadson when you put the words in a blender."
"What an interesting coincidence," Peter said, on the verge of laughing. "Alright, call Jones and tell him. Also, we'll need a team of agents."
"Alright," Tanner said as she made the calls. After the FBI and NYPD had been informed, and a SWAT team had been sent out, Tanner dialed the phone again, this time dropping her voice. "Hi," she said into the phone, "Tell Derek we've got a lead on Ava, and as far as we can tell, his fiancé is still alive."
"I didn't know Detective Hannigan was engaged," Peter said offhandedly, glancing at Tanner.
"The wedding was supposed to be in two weeks," Tanner replied, "although I don't know how that's going to play out now."
"Well let's make sure that your detective is home in time to walk down the aisle," Peter said, pressing down on the gas pedal.
***
Neal practically flung himself at the door the guard had told them the prisoners lay behind. He picked the lock in record time and kicked it in. It took his eyes a few seconds to adjust to the near darkness inside, although he almost wished blindness would come back when he could see inside.
"Damn," Ava whispered from behind him.
