##### SRU HQ, Thursday 1000 hrs #####
Greg and Ed walked into the briefing room and stood by the table. Between the two teams, all of the other seats were taken. Ken nodded at them as they entered and cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "So here's what we know so far. We have a warrant for the arrest of Jason Tolison, AKA Tolie."
"Tolie? That's the name of the guy-" Wordy sat up when he heard the name.
Greg put a hand up. "We'll get to that Wordy."
"Sorry Ken." Wordy sat back in his chair, agitated.
Spike whispered, "where is Sam?" Wordy shrugged in answer.
"It's ok Wordy. I understand. We wanted to speak to Sam about Tolie because they were in JTF2 together, but as you can see he is not here." Everyone looked around and murmured their surprise. "Tolie was arrested in Mississauga for beating his girlfriend's lover to a pulp. He caught them together. He made bail but disappeared. We believe his girlfriend is here in Toronto and our sources say so is he."
"What sources?" Tony asked.
"A CI of ours. So far, all we know is that Sam is missing. We don't know if he went somewhere for-" Ken stated.
Greg cleared his their to interrupt. "Sorry Ken, but Ed got a text from Sam on our way here."
"Is he ok?" Wordy sat up in his chair.
"Where is he?" Spike scowled.
"What happened?" Lew asked.
"Easy guys." Greg put up a calming hand. "Ed?" He looked at Ed who read the text to them.
"Use Teresa as bait? Is he crazy?" Gene asked.
"I don't get it. Why would he tell us to set a trap using Teresa when he knows that's against protocol?" Spike looked questioningly at Greg, then Wordy.
"You said he sent it to you Ed? Not Sarge or anyone else." Wordy looked at Ed and could see he was already ahead of him.
"Because Sam knows it's against protocol." Understanding lighted Lew's face. "He knew if he sent that to any of us we'd float the idea but probably not do it. He had to send it to Ed."
When the members of Team Two looked confused, Jules explained, "Sam and Ed have been butting heads. Some of Sam's ideas have been too risky. He knows that Ed will think this is too risky, he's asking Ed to trust him. For us to trust him." Jules felt a little pang in her heart. It was a brave move for him to ask this, especially after the way the team had treated him.
Ed nodded. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from tearing up. This was a huge step for the team and for him and Sam. An olive branch of sorts. "Spike?" He looked at Spike, his eyes filled with his swirling emotions.
Spike nodded. "Have we located Teresa?"
Tom, Team Two's tech guy said, "no. I've tried but there isn't any record of her here. Her family isn't talking."
Spike jumped up and ran to the storage room and opened the cage. His laptop was in there, but it had moved. He chalked it up to Team Two being in there to grab stuff and brought the laptop back to the briefing room. He opened it and logged in. After a few minutes he found a log of a search that was run yesterday. Who ran a search on his laptop? He followed the source back and saw it was done from inside the SRU. Had someone broken in and wasn't seen? How was that possible?
"What's the matter Spike?" Greg saw the big question mark on Spike's face.
"Someone ran a search on my computer yesterday. Who could've-" Spike stopped. Of course. He tapped furiously on the keyboard. Bread crumb, bread crumb. Oh Sam you little devil, he thought and smiled. He looked up and everyone was looking at him expectantly. "Sam used my computer." He shook his head. "He did a search in the background of our server so it wouldn't be noticed, but he left me little info breadcrumbs so I could see what he did."
Tom looked over Spike's shoulder and pointed to the screen. "What's that? Oh."
Spike looked at him with pride. "Breadcrumb." He couldn't believe Sam did this. So cool, he thought. "Ok, here it is. Sam found Teresa through her mom. Her mom has been transferring money to the First National Bank here in Toronto under the name Edie Montoya. He didn't find any background info on Edie so it must be our girl. He found her address which means Tolie has it. Sam's idea is looking better and better. We need to get to Teresa." He looked up and met gazes with Greg.
"Ok. We need a plan. Ken you good with Team One joining you?" Greg looked at Ken. They need to be there. Sam needs his team.
"Didn't think I could keep you away." Ken gave him a lopsided smile.
Spike pulled up a map of Teresa's house and schematic of the inside. The teams started to form a plan for later in the afternoon. Team Four would provide coverage.
##### house in the woods 1230 hrs #####
Sam was bored. So far all they'd done was sleep, eat and watch TV. The adventurous outdoorsman in him wanted to, at least, go for a walk in the woods. He sat on the couch looking longingly out the window when Tolie walked into the living room carrying a box.
Tolie set the box down in front of Sam on the coffee table. When Sam sat up to look inside, Tolie said, "supplies for tonight."
Sam's heart stopped when he saw what was inside. Two guns, gloves, masking tape and a couple black garbage bag. So his intent is to kill her and just take the baby, he thought. He looked at Tolie, panic in his eyes. "Tolie I can't do this. I can't be a part of this." He stood and walked to the other side of the couch. "I'd be an accessory to murder. I'd lose everything. My job, my life."
"Please." Tolie scoffed. "I watched you, you don't have a life. You go to work you run, you sleep and eat. That's it. It's pathetic. And who cares about your job? They don't care about you! All they do is second guess you and treat you like shit." He spat.
Sam started remembering all the times he walked loudly just so Mr. Peterson would hear him and invite him to visit. He had thought of it as keeping the old guy company, but he could see now it was more for his benefit as well. He thought about all those nights he spent alone, all the days off when he would go hike in the woods for two to three days, keeping his primitive survival skills sharp.
He wondered how long Tolie had watched him at work. Tolie wasn't wrong, he didn't fit in with them. They had not been welcoming to him at all, but he felt like maybe lately they had turned a corner. Spike had invited him to their moviefest pig out. Wordy had asked if he was ok. He wanted to, no had to he corrected himself, believe that they cared.
It had been hard for him to hit send after he typed the text. It was a big risk. Would they believe him? Could they trust that he knows that is the only way? Will they trust him? That was the big question. So far, they hadn't.
"Your only friend in the world is dead because YOU killed him!" Tolie's rant pulled Sam out of his thoughts. "Look at you, standing there looking all sad and lost. When the fuck did you get so pathetic?"
Sam turned cold blue eyes on him. "Enough." It was all Sam could say. He already knew his life was pathetic, he didn't need Tolie pointing it out. So many times he'd had that pistol in his hand. It was times like this that he wished he'd had the guts to pull the trigger.
"Listen you poor excuse for a soldier, you WILL help me with this or I will make sure you and your so-called team suffer. Then, I'll find Natalie." He grinned evilly at the murderous look that crossed Sam's face. "Oh yeah. We'll have some fun, then I'll kill her. Hell, I'll make you watch."
Sam clenched and unclenched his fists, his breath ragged. Even if it took everything he had, Tolie would never touch his sister. "Fine." He said finally.
"Good." Tolie smiled. "Now relax. We have four hours to wait until she gets home from work."
Sam nodded. He turned, went upstairs and into the bathroom. He went to the window by the toilet and pulled his cell from his underwear. As he punched in Ed's number he wondered for the umpteenth time if they would trust him. He texted, "1630 go time. 2 glocks." He paused a second before hitting send. Stop it, he thought. They'll be there, they'll trust me. Oh please let them trust me.
He quietly opened the window and chucked his phone into the backyard. He closed the window and flushed the toilet. He took a mental picture of where the phone landed so he could find it later. It'd been a risk to hide the phone, but now that they got the message he had to get rid of it. If Tolie decided to search him, who knows what he'd do if he found it. It's in your hands now team, he thought. Trust me.
