Can You hear me:
Chapter 8
Author's Note:
The next couple chapters are kind of like Flashback chapters. I do not know if on the show, Ed was ever in this particular situation. If he was and I get it all wrong, Please, by all means correct me. I'm being a tad liberal with the plot lines. As always, any mistakes are mine! Enjoy! PS... I don't own Flashpoint. But if I did, I'd share. LOL
Ed Lane was in a bit of a predictament. He had done exactly what Greg had warned him against, time and again. He'd rushed in before backup had gotten there. He hadn't put on any gear, he had only just his back up gun on him. Yet he had rushed into the building without waiting for anyone to have his back.
Normally he was a very cautious man. But the caller had said that there were multiple children in the building in danger of being shot. That was Ed's weak spot. That anyone would hurt a child. He despised people who hurt children. How he kept it under control, well, he chalked it up being in the military. As he sat there, on the floor, bound and gagged, with no means of communicating with his team, and pissed, he thought once more how the guys had gotten the drop on him.
He had rushed into the building. They'd been waiting for him in the shadows. One crack across his shoulders from a pipe was all it really had taken to bring him down and relieve him of his gun. Before he passed out, they had laid the pipe against his ribs a couple times. He'd thought he heard them crack. Then he had passed out.
It had started out as an uneventful day. He was just doing chores around the house. He didn't have to be on until that night, so he had plenty of time to relax, nap, do yardwork, eat and be on his way. It took a weird turn when he went out to get his mail. He had the usual bills, Letters from a couple friends still deployed, and an unmarked envelope.
He was a little curious about who would send him an unmarked envelope, and a heavy one at that, but he went inside and sat down at his table. As he sat down to open the letter, his cell phone rang. He picked up on the second ring, tucking the phone under his chin.
"Yeah? This is Ed, What can I do for you?" A quiet raspy voice put Ed on alert. He got a pen and paper and started writing details.
"Is this Ed Lane? Member of the Strategic Response Unit? I want you to listen very carefully. I will only say this one time and one time only."
"This is he. I'm listening. Go ahead." The caller rasped more.
"There's a building, on Summer's street. I saw some guy taking three small children into it. It looked like he had a gun. One of the children looked pretty sickly. I didn't know what else to do about it." Ed jotted down some notes while the caller talked.
"Thank you, I will pass this information on to the other members of the Strategic Response Unit, they will meet me there." The caller's raspy voice had become agitated.
"No. You need to check it out. Please don't delay, he could be hurting or killing the kids right now. I will call 911, and direct them to where I saw the guy." Ed started to get a little suspicious. But he wanted to play the guy for more information.
"Ok. Can I have your name so I can make sure you get the reward. We usually give a small reward to people of the community who actively report crimes to the police. I want to make sure you get yours."
The only response was a click. Ed had a weird feeling so he wrote a few things down on the sheet of paper. He put the papers in a sealed envelope. He called Greg, gave a few terse details, said that if needed his neighbor had a envelope for him and the team, gave him the usual code word and hung up on Greg's protests.
He had dropped off the envelope with his neighbor, said that his boss might be by to pick it up, gave him the same code word, promised to mow his lawn for him over the weekend and took off for the building that the caller had mentioned.
Here Ed broke off thinking about the events, as his head was starting to hurt, and there was someone, no several someone's coming down the stairs. He strained at the ropes that bound him to the chair. They were tightly tied. He kept his eyes on the guys that came to stand before him. He couldn't really make them out in the dim room. Someone reached forward and put a gun against his head while pulling the gag out a little.
"If you yell out, I will kill you. Do you understand me." Ed sneered at him. The guy backhanded him across the face. Spitting out blood, Ed just looked back at him. The guy pointed the gun under his chin.
"I said. Do. You. Understand. Me?" Ed nodded his head.
"Yeah. I understand you. Who are you? What do you want with me?" The guy backhanded him again, this time catching his nose and starting a nosebleed. Ed didn't make a sound this time, which seemed to please the guy.
"WE ask the questions. NOT YOU Damnit! Did you tell the others where you were going? Don't lie to me. I don't like being lied to. I get pissy when I am lied to. " Ed scowled at him and answered.
"No. I told my boss that I was going to check something out and if it panned out I would call. I haven't called, None of the team knows where I am." This seemed to mollify the guy a bit and he nodded. Suddenly two guys grabbed him and untied one arm and held it tightly. That's when Ed noticed the syringe.
"Hey Man, what is this shit? You don't need to drug me. I'm telling you the truth. No one knows where I'm at." He started struggling as the guys held him tighter. They forced him over to the table that was in the room and bent him over it, taking some of the fight out of him. He kept struggling until he felt the needle plunge into his bicep.
"FUCKERS!" He started to fight back and was silenced with a sharp pain to his side. He started to howl in pain but stopped himself short. They would not get the satisfaction of hearing him scream, or beg for mercy. If he was going to go down, he was going to go down fighting.
Suddenly he couldn't stand anymore. The room seemed to start spinning a little. They dragged him over and dropped him on a matress laughing. They untied him and watched him as he rolled around like a turtle on it's back. He could barely make out their voices.
"He won't be moving for awhile. He will be out for the rest of the night. Hope he doesn't die though, I have lots planned for him before I want him dead. Come on, let's go. We will post a guard at the door later." They walked away and Ed could hear their footsteps going up the stairs and the door shut loudly. He tried to get up onto his knees, that simple act made complicated by the drug they had injected him with. It burned at his arm, and started to burn through out his body.
As he started to slip into unconsciousness, He kept trying to force himself to stay awake. His remaining thought was that he hoped that Greg had gotten his meaning over the phone and had gone over to his neighbor's house to get that envelope. Then he succumbed to the drug and blacked out.
