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Hello all! Thank you so much for your patience while I get this chapter finished. I appreciate the reviews. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter.

United States – Canadian Border

Dawn was a mere few hours away as Derek approached the Canadian border. A hint of pink started to show up on the horizon, signaling the morning light. With only thirty-six hours left to save his family, he needed to be crossing into Canada. It put him one step closer to saving them. He also knew that Fuentes would likely be sending him the next riddle, and he needed that if he was going to find Penelope, Idina, and Fox. He was thankful the FBI would be unable to track his cellphone Fuentes had given him, otherwise he would have been caught.

Shifting into the left lane, Derek picked up the phone Fuentes had given him and dialed Monty, who'd instructed him to call when he was getting to the border. He pressed it to his ear, waiting for the technical analyst's voice to fill his ear.

"That you, Morgan?" Monty asked.

"Yeah," he ground out. "It's me. Remind me how your crazy ass plan is going to work again."

Monty chuckled. "Don't doubt me, man," he said. "This is going to work, I know it will. You still got your ID and papers from when you were undercover?"

"Yeah, of course," Derek said, digging into his glove box.

"Okay, then," Monty said. "Like I told you earlier, I'm gonna hack into the border control computers and fool the system into thinking those papers aren't connected to you as an alias. 'Cause Hanson and Umber had them put down your undercover information as an alias in order to catch you if you went north or south."

Derek rolled his eyes. "Of course they're after me," he scoffed.

"Yeah, JJ and Kate are duking it out with them and the New York agents about you," Monty admitted. "You've got a bit of an uphill battle when you get home, Morgan. Fuentes apparently used a weapon to kill that guy that had your prints on it."

Gritting his teeth, Derek tightened his fist around the wheel. Fuentes' face flashed before his eyes, and all he could think about was using whatever weapon he had been framed with to kill the man who had his family.

"I don't care about what's waiting for me when I get home," Derek hissed. "Give me a rundown of what we're doing. I'm getting closer to the crossing, and this has to work."

Monty quickly obliged. "Alright, what you're going to do is really simple," he said. "You go up there like any ol' person traveling through to the great nation of Canada. I'm going to do most of the work. As soon as you're in the line, you let me know right before going through that you're coming up. Don't do it too soon because I need to get you through, and obviously don't do it too late, 'cause then you'll never get through."

"How long will I have?" Derek asked.

"A few minutes," Monty replied.

Derek had to suppress his howl of anger. "A few minutes?" he hissed. "That won't get me through! I'm gonna get caught! These crossings take forever, and I'm not exactly looking like an upstanding citizen at the moment. Hell, I haven't shaved in two fuckin' months!"

"Hey, I know I'm not Penelope when it comes to hacking, but this is going to work."

"Are you sure?"

"Think positive, Morgan," Monty instructed, his voice growing serious. "You gotta do that if you want to get Penelope, Dee, and Fox back."

He thought about it. Monty was right. He needed to believe in his abilities and his love for his family to get them back.

"Alright," he said. "Let's do this."

Half an hour later Derek was in the line to go through security. He sent a quick text to Monty, informing him he was the next car in line to go through.

Initiating now.

Derek inhaled and exhaled, attempting to keep his body language in control. He knew that even though these border guards weren't profilers, they were still trained to notice odd behavior. He couldn't afford to send up red flags that would give him away.

Soon enough, the car in front of him moved up and through the gate to enter Canada. Time to see if Monty would pull through for him. Rolling the window down, he looked up nonchalantly at the border guard.

"Morning, sir," the guard said, regarding Derek with caution. "What, uh, what brings you up to Canada?"

Derek nodded in greeting. He blurted out the first thing he could think of. "Just got divorced, so I'm headed up to get some poutine before flying out of Toronto International to go to Beijing to visit a friend."

"Came all this way for poutine?" the guard asked, incredulous. "No poutine down in the States."

Derek shot him a wry smile. "Also going up to visit a buddy. One from college. We played ball together."

The guard remained wary. After a moment, he stuck out his hand. "Got a passport I can see?"

Nodding, Derek reached into his pocket and presented the fake passport from his undercover assignment. "Got 'em right here," he said.

Accepting them, the guard went into the booth without a word and started typing the information into his computer. Derek waited with sweating palms, praying Monty's hacking skills would pull him through without a problem. The amount of time the guard was taking made him more anxious the connection would give out.

But apparently it held. The guard returned to Derek with the false passport. He frowned at Derek, but ended up waving him on through. "You're all set to go through, sir. Welcome to Canada."

Derek flashed the guard a smile. "Thanks, man," he said. He stepped on the gas, going through the gate.

He thought he was clear for a moment, and would sail through the border unhindered. But before he could get very far, a yelling broke out behind him.

"Hey! Hey, stop!"

Glancing in his mirrors, Derek saw the agent now pointing after him, a walkie-talkie in his hand that he barked something unintelligible into. Apparently Monty had lost the connection.

Without another thought, Derek stepped on the gas. Nothing mattered now except getting out of here and finding his family. He raced forward, swerving around any car obstructing his way through. The sounds of sirens blared through the area of the border crossing, a clear alert to any and all border agent they had a fugitive who was wanted by the FBI on their hands. Derek knew they would soon be after him, following close behind in cars.

He needed to hide, and fast, ditching this car for another one.

He drove. And drove. And he kept driving.

The speed he was going at took him far and many miles. There was no one on his trail, and he was unsure of why. Were they really so incompetent that they would not be able to find him? He supposed it didn't matter. It was perfect for him and his quest. He was far enough away from the border that he must have driven for hours.

Time to use a back road to think.

He took a sharp turn, going far too fast, though. With the icy February roads, and the brutal Canadian winter upon him, his tires slid wildly, and he lost control of the car. Panicking, he attempted to steer the vehicle to a stop.

But Derek's attempts were futile, and the car spun in a three sixty before flipping on its top into a ditch.

XXXXX

Quantico, VA

JJ sat with Kate in the round table room, both of them stewing over how chummy Umber and Hanson were being with the New York agents. Their hatred for Derek and their jealousy about his accomplishments was clouding their profiling skills.

"We've got to do something," Kate muttered. "They can't actually believe he did this."

"What the hell do you propose we do?" JJ snapped unintentionally. "What can we possibly do to stop these two from helping those bastards from New York?"

Kate fixed her with a look. "We've already made sure they stayed away from Monty," she said, "but you know they're going to catch on that we're finding any way to help him we can."

Frustrated, JJ rubbed her forehead. Think, JJ, think! she told herself.

"What?" Kate demanded. "What's going on in your head? You've got something."

Before JJ could say anything, Hanson and the lead New York agent burst into the room, furious expressions on their faces. Hanson pointed directly at JJ and blared, "You! You let him get away from us!"

JJ arched a brow. "What are you accusing me of?"

"Morgan's alias was just spotted at the Canadian border!" he thundered. "He got away, and they haven't been able to locate him. The fact he was even able to get through means you all did something to fool the computer systems."

She scoffed, lying perfectly. "Please, Hanson," she snapped. "You know I can't figure out my way around complex computer systems. And how dare you accuse me of something like that?"

Hanson's face grew red. "Don't! You know what Morgan is up to, and you're helping him get away with murder."

JJ rose to her feet to face him, a fierce expresser on her face. "You're ignoring the simple fact that he's going to find his family! They're missing, and that's the only reason I can think of that he would be running to Canada from accusations like these."

"We understand Agent Morgan's family is missing," the New York agent broke in, "but right now we have another team looking for them. Agent Morgan should have known that as a fugitive he wouldn't be able to go in search of his family. And he would also know, even if he were innocent, that he wouldn't be able to go off on a chase on his own. Morgan is breaking every rule in the book."

"And why would Fuentes take them all the way to Canada?" Umber sniffed. "That's – "

Kate cut in, rising to her feet and shooting her colleague a frosty stare. "Completely logical. He would need to be out of the country to try and avoid being extradited back to the States for this violent crime. He knows we don't have enough to take him into custody for the drug charges. Canada would give him the place to keep and torture Penelope, Idina, and Fox. He's going to kill them, and you're wasting the time we have to play in a pissing match with Derek while he's trying to save them!"

Hanson merely laughed. "You're off of this case," he said. "We're taking you into custody. You'll stay here until we figure out what we're going to do, and you will be charged with aiding a fugitive."

"You've got no evidence," JJ hissed.

The agents ignored her. "Stay here. We'll catch Morgan, soon enough."

Without another word, they didn't spare another glance at JJ or Kate and stormed from the room.

JJ and Kate didn't say a word. They merely shot one another a look, both knowing Derek needed to do this on his own now.