Force of Nature

So there is only about 2 – 3 more chapter to finish this one up probably 3. There's still a lot to bring to light. I really appreciate all those that have stuck by to read this and am glad that my brain isn't as mushy as I thought it was after the last few days of studying :P

Thanks so much for reading and reviewing and I hope that you enjoy this update. Happy Easter!

Jigsaw

32 hours later...

Topeka, KS

9:04 p.m.

"I want you to bring him to the penthouse." Sonny climbed out of the SUV on the move, with an entourage of guards surrounding both him, Lucky, and Nicholas. They moved with purpose, through the lobby towards the elevator, all eyes on them of the Cloverfield's skeleton crew of a night shift on them as they made their way through. "Now," Sonny's huff of frustration was matched with a sigh the moment that he hung up and the phone immediately rang again. He no sooner accepted the call then Spinelli's frantic prattle danced in colors of annoyance against his eardrum.

"The Lo-Jack has been reactivated!" Spinelli was absolutely beside himself. "I traced the signature of the hack to find that it was my Arch Nemesis that was responsible for it. He hasn't been on since the day he breached my Fortress of Solitude while the Goddess in training, the Fair Samantha, and the Blonde One were loose in the wild's of the Canadian outback."

"Calm, down, where is the truck?" Sonny asked as they walked into the elevator and he got a look from Lucky and Nicholas in worry.

"It's on the move on 4th and Pine heading towards Cliffton on a side road." Spinelli explained.

"In Topeka?" Sonny asked in wonder. What were the odds of that?

"The very same..." Spinelli went on though. "I also have the location of the hacker."

Sonny hit the open door button just as the elevator door was about to close and the doors slowly slid back open. "I'm listening."

"Dayton Street, 3 blocks west from your current location." Spinelli replied quickly. "It's a bar called Halogen."

Sonny was the first one out of the elevator and everyone else followed suite in a rush. "Let me know the minute you find anything else out." Sonny was moving back towards the SUV's and he quickly hung up in favor of letting those around him know what was going on.

"Who was that?" Lucky was getting impatient and Nicholas looked ready to jump out of his skin they were both so on edge, the not knowing getting to them both. Hell for all they knew their father, sister, and brother had all been killed.

"Spinelli, he's located the truck and the hacker that managed to turn the Lo-Jack back on. It's the same hacker from Castillo's organization. I knew that son of a bitch had to have been mixed up in this in some way." Sonny got out in his own frustration, his children at just as much risk as their family.

"We need to split up, Lucky you and me with Amos and Fin, Nicholas you and the others, go to bring the others back here where we can protect them." Sonny was quick to dictate the orders and Lucky, while questioning briefly didn't want to waste the time squabbling over the finer points when there was still so much left to chance.

Lucky sank into the back seat next to Sonny, meeting Nicholas's eyes before they parted company. "Bring them back in one piece," He implored him.

"I'll do my best." Nicholas promised on his way to the other vehicle a mix of Sonny's guards and bought and paid mercenaries making their way with him. As their SUV disappeared from view and Sonny and Lucky's turned to head in the opposite direction Lucky looked to Sonny for answers. "So it's the same hacker that tracked the girls in Canada?" He asked worriedly.

Sonny looked out the window, fingers stroking thoughtfully over his chin as he wondered how deep this thing was going to get. "Yeah..." was his simply reply.

"I thought you said you took care of Castillo." Lucky wasn't exactly happy to have to cover up the fact that he knew Sonny killed the bastard, but it wasn't like he was heartbroken. The asshole had planned on first enslaving and then torturing his sister to death. In his mind the law couldn't have give him the kind of payback that Sonny was able to provide.

"I did." Sonny swallowed tightly as he tried to connect the dots in his mind. "You know when we were going through his business dealings there were a few companies that he was on the board of directors that I'd never heard of. I think one of them might have been Delphi." Sonny hadn't looked into it, that chapter of his life was closed. He'd done what needed to be done and it was over. At least he thought it was.

"So the hacker worked for Delphi, not Castillo?" Lucky wasn't liking the sound of this.

"Maybe." Sonny reasoned with a shrug. "It's not the craziest thing I've heard today."

"So what do you know about Delphi?"

"Pharmaceutical research." Sonny replied with a sniff as if to cover just how much he was remiss to say that he didn't know.

"That's weak." Lucky scoffed in disbelief.

"I know. Spinelli's stretched thing, trying to find their many directors for the main institute and then the subsidiaries. I've got other feelers out there and we've already picked up a few of the board members, but it's slow going." Sonny confided in frustration.

"I know Dad had to have gotten better information to you then that. What do they do?" Lucky didn't mean to let so much emotion bleed into his voice, but how was he supposed to help it, half his family was out there in this mess.

Sonny stretched his mouth taut before running a hand down his face show casing his dismay at trying to convey what it was exactly that they thought the Delphi Institute might be up to. "Luke seemed to think that they were making miracle drugs, drugs that a lot of high powered people would do anything to get their hands on." Sonny explained.

"Drugs that do what?" Lucky didn't like the run around that Sonny was giving him one bit.

"Luke seemed to think that the one he was supposed to be picking up was a new strain of a drug called Oracle. It was supposed to make the person who came in contact with it think that they could see the future." Sonny wasn't really sure to believe because the whole thing sounded so ludicrous.

"You expect me to believe that these people are scrambling to find this drug that helps someone see the future?" Lucky asked in exasperation.

"I'm not asking you to believe anything. I'm telling you what I know. Obviously someone believes and their willing to pay a hell of a lot of money to get it." Sonny replied with a shrug. "That's what your Dad found out before he disappeared."

"That can't be all of it." Lucky sighed.

"We'll know more when we talk to this hacker." Sonny reassured him as best he could all the while trying to convince himself that he was on the money on that one.

ZZZZZZZZZZ

Jason stood outside the dive of a hotel that they were stuck at with what little cash they had left, new cell in hand as he dialed Spinelli, hoping that he could somehow find the truck, if Sam even still had it. What was she thinking? It was hard enough trying to realize that without her sudden ability and she was barely functioning as it was. There were so many ways that this could have gone wrong and she and the baby...Jason closed his eyes, raking a hand down his in banishment of the thoughts. He balled his fist as it fell to his side.

They'd made it to Topeka without any more storm delays but didn't have a clue where to go from there so they'd found a low rate hole in the wall and rented a single room for all six of them.

"Jackal and McCall, Jackal speaking," old habits died hard as with answering the business end of the phone. Jason heard Spinelli quietly chastise himself before he went on. "How can I be of assistance?"

"Spinelli, it's me." Jason jumped in before he go off on another stream of thought.

"Stonecold!" Jason could imagine the wiry geek jumping to his feet from the shaking of his voice in joy and wonder. "I told Mister Sir that you made it!"

"Spinelli, I don't have time for this. I need you to undo whatever you did the Lo-Jack on the rental truck. Sam's out there and I need to find her." Jason was barely keeping the seething rage from his voice, the avid desperation from spilling over.

"Oh,oh. You're in luck, or out of it depending on how you look at it." Spinelli started and then hitched in a breath in worry as he realized that the Fair Samantha was out there with only her own wits and resourcefulness to outsmart all the would be assassins coming after them. "Castillo's hacker has already undone my masterful work on the rental truck tracker." Spinelli announced in a rush of terror. "I have the trucks present location, however, and Mister Sir has rallied the troops. He's sent an intercept."

Jason was half relieved and half further scared to death at the news. "Is Sonny in Topeka too?" Jason asked in a rush, praying that should he not be able to get to Sam in time that Sonny was able to.

"He is. Lucky and Nicholas are with them. Nicholas pulled out all the stops to bring in reinforcements to bolster Sonny's men with mercenaries. He's also been coordinating a collective effort to bring in all the board of director members of the Delphi Institute and it's subsidiaries as a means to find out who it is that has engineered this plot."

Jason felt a small measure of relief flood though him that Sonny was working on the problem in Luke's absence. He rubbed his forehead as he breathed a sigh and then sucked in a heavy breath. "Alright, where's Sam?"

"Looks like she just parked in an alleyway behind 412 Branson Street." Spinelli spoke rapidly.

"I'm on my way there, now, I'll get back with you." Jason didn't give him a chance to explain anything else as he quickly hung up and hurriedly pulled his keys from his pocket, slamming his hand against the door to get everyone's attention. They'd made a pact to stay together seeing as how they seemed to have to run at a moments notice lately. "Time to Go!" He called out on the move to get the SUV that Talia had set up for them started.

ZZZZZZZZZZ

Sam slid out of the truck and reached behind her for the bag of guns and ammo that had been sitting between her and Tamara until she'd dropped her off at a safe house. Talia had been working hard for years to make this thing work. Sam was just now learning the half of it and how it all worked. She'd been reading letter after letter, moving almost constantly from one place to another as she brought together all the pieces of Talia's ever blossoming plan.

She couldn't even claim to really understand how it worked but she was at least getting the hang of it. She could see futures along many intertwining paths any one's life that intersected with her own. It was getting more and more elaborate and in depth, she could feel what they felt, knew their thoughts. She knew now how a person could go mad. Jumping in and out of another person's future, knowing them inside and out like that, it was...it was...chaotic, especially trying to come back to yourself and act like nothing had even happened and then there were all the different ways that the scenario could play out. She was stuck just reliving some random moment any more. She could make up her mind to do something differently and suddenly the whole outcome would change.

She'd learned that Talia had been having visions of her and these moments for almost 4 years and it took her that long to engineer her plan to help them all make it through it. It was a mix of meeting Sam before her death that set the visions on this path and then realizing that she would later be embroiled her sister's life. Sam had no idea what the original version of whatever vision Talia must have had along those lines but she had worked her ass off to change that future and Sam was seeing that it was going to get trickier and trickier.

It was the whole reason she'd had to separate from the rest of the group. She didn't have time to coordinate everything and explain and work to get everyone on board. She didn't have the strength and the will to fight to convince anyone of anything when she was still trying to make herself understand. And she'd seen the outcome if she had of stayed. They were all about to meet back up, though, so it would be alright...so long as everything worked out the way she'd seen it.

Sam pulled the bag over her shoulder with a grunt, knowing that the weight probably wasn't regulated for pregnancy, but she didn't have much of a choice. She adjusted the strap over her bullet proof vest and hurried to get in place.

ZZZZZZZZZZ

Sonny and Lucky left the entourage outside but knew there was no way that even minus a few more men that they were ever going to blend in as they realized all too late that Halogen wasn't exactly brimming with male clientele. In fact aside from the two of them there was a maybe two other and Lucky wasn't even sure that they were strictly hes. It wasn't a judgment thing that had them on nerve when they walked in however, it was the fact that they stuck out like sore thumbs and that didn't bode well for trying to talk to a hacker with mob and other shady connections on their home turf.

Lucky slid his hands into his pockets as he walked, looking through the dimly lit smog to see if he could spot a laptop. It was so loud that he could barely hear himself think. A live band was rocking the punkish overtones of the nineties as throngs of lithe bodies melted into each other on the dance floor.

"Are you sure they're still here?" Sonny asked Spinelli as he looked about, now relatively sure that the he that Spinelli kept referring too was in deed a she.

"Positive." Spinelli replied fervently. Sonny was about to give him a piece of his mind because for the life of him he didn't see anything that even resembled a laptop hanging around the place, but Lucky suddenly tapped his shoulder and pointed out a red head sunk onto a couch by her lonesome her laptop propped up on the table. She didn't seem popular, as the table was set a ways back, almost blending into the shadows towards the back exit.

"Found her. I'll call you back." Sonny promised him as he and Lucky moved in tandem to cross the floor with as little exposure as possible en route to the woman. She looked about 23 with her red locks cascading in perfectly sculpted ringlets down to her waist. She was a petite one showing off her curved in a couple of layered tanks and tees with a pair of ripped jeans closing out the ensemble. Sonny was glad that she was so caught up in whatever she had going, because she didn't even notice he was sliding into the booth with her until the muzzle of his pistol was hidden between them, digging into her side.

Lucky scooted in on the other side, seeing fear cross her face, his own stirred as he knew how wrong this was. Still he couldn't call Sonny on it, not now. "Act natural." Sonny told her softly as though they were the best of friends.

"Easy for you to say." She scoffed with a crinkle of her nose in disdain as she tried to adjust herself only to find that she had no where else to go once Lucky slid into the booth. "So what's this all about?"

"You don't know?" Sonny asked in mock shock. Was there more than one thing that she had to worry about this sort of thing over?

"Not readily." She shot back.

"Let's say that maybe I have some interest in finding out exactly what it is you do for the Delphi Institute." Lucky watched as Sonny spelled it out and he got a bad feeling as her eyes widened in spiraling terror at the mention of the name.

"I can't talk to you." She whispered it out all protest gone from her voice.

"You don't even know who I am." Sonny arched an eyebrow shooting Lucky a glance. They were both on the same page though. Obviously she was more afraid of the Delphi people then she was of a gun shoved into her side.

"It doesn't matter who you are." She retorted shivering as she quickly closed the laptop. "I can't talk about what you want me to talk about."

"You don't know what I want you to talk about."

"Stop it. I know enough...and if you want to kill me than go right ahead, but I can't talk about Dephi." She swallowed her fear down as best she could.

Lucky cleared his throat, taking it from there. "Listen," he lowered his voice and paused waiting for her to give something to call her by.

"Amber." She reluctantly gave it up.

"Amber, I'm Lucky." He offered quickly. "There isn't going to be much left of the Delphi Institute after this is all done and we can offer you protection." He promised her solemnly. "I know you might not believe me, but we've got the fire power to take them on. We just need to know more about what we're up against, and to ask you to stop overturning our computer guys work at hiding our friends."

She was more receptive, but still looked doubtful.

"Why don't we take this conversation to the Cloverfield's penthouse." Sonny said softly. "I'll put the gun away and we can just talk." Sonny was trying to follow suite to turn this less into an interrogation, hoping that softening and providing protection would get her to open up. It took a moment but he could see that she wanted to believe, that she wanted out of involvement with Delphi and that helped them immensely.

Twenty found them all sitting more comfortably the guards securing the floor as they waited on news from Nicholas and Jason on if they had found Sam or not yet. "I need to know what Delphi is working on, what makes them tick." Sonny only had a fraction of the mission statement.

"What aren't they working on. I'm more afraid of what I don't know than what I do." Amber swallowed tightly. "I hacked into their mainframe three years ago. Then they working on drugs of every flavor. They had this rage pill to turn some unknowing bystander into an instant assassin. Just hit 'em with a shot from what looked like a tranquilizer gun and they lose all since of what's going on, overcome with an uncontrollable rage they kill whoever is in the immediate vicinity. It's messy, fast, and it leaves no ties to Delphi. The stuff metabolizes so fast that it can't even be found in the blood stream. It's like marketing target specific chemical weapons to the highest bidder. Delphi has made a fortune sponsoring some of the worlds most lucrative special ops programs. They had truth serums, hallucinogenics, hell they can make you look dead for up to 72 hours without any permanent side effects." She explained at a fast prattle. "They have performance enhancers and I don't mean like Viagra. We're talking stuff that makes steroids look like Pez candy. Amnesia is a specialty. They can make you forget you're whole life or measured degrees of it. They are working outside the scope of ethics to create drugs that keep the top secret world moving forward."

Sonny and Lucky exchanged a look as they realized just why it was it felt like they were in over their head. "And you want out?" Sonny asked quietly.

"I never wanted in." Amber confided with a trembling lip quiver. "I didn't have a choice. I never had one. The day I hacked into their system I became theirs." Lucky watched as she closed her eyes, really feeling her pain, believing her.

"I believe you." Lucky smiled softly, reassuringly. "And we're going to do everything that we can to help you, but we need you to help us, work with our computer guy to help us find more than one way to take these guys down." He offered her.

Sonny watched her closely, praying that she agreed and finally let out a sigh of relief when she slowly nodded.

ZZZZZZZZZZ

Sam checked her newly acquired watch to see that it was almost time. She heard soft footfalls down the alley and closed her eyes with a smile of relief. Alright, showtime. She did wish that this part was going to be easier.

But it wasn't.

Sam waited until Nicholas was in view before she eased herself into his line of sight. "Sam, thank God." Nicholas got out as soon as he saw her, already rushing to her side, only to realize that she was alone. "Where's..." he didn't get a chance to finish the question though...

"Get your men back and follow me." She was already on the move, needing to get to Jason and the others from the avenue they were about to enter the twisted alley system here. There were so many rows of buildings and the streets were narrow here on the East side. It was a haven for the less than ideal aspect of city life all thrown together in a mess or brick lined walkways and shadowed coves of sin. What they had to do was work their way through the maze before the hit men climbed out of the wood work to take them all down.

"Sam, where are the others?" Nicholas hadn't made a single hand gesture and or call and Sam didn't have time for this.

"They're right around the corner, do what I said or you're going to get those mercenaries killed." She wasn't going to police him, it was up to him to believe her. She also wasn't about to stop. Sam soldiered onward and stuck her head out of the alley way in time to see Jason and the others pulling up in an SUV on an adjoining side street. She quickly pulled the strap from the guns and ammo bag over her head and handed it to Nicholas. "Take this, gets a couple of guns toss them to Jason and Dante..." Sam ordered as she took a right and headed into another alley way knowing that Jason had seen her and was leading the others in that direction.

Sam clung to the shadows as she waited for everyone to catch up, hearing the soft crumble of debris from a misplaced foot fall over head. She slowly inclined her head to see the soft drizzle of dust playing against the back door light of a nearby business and frowned.

"Sam?" Sam whirled just in time to come face to face with Jason who looked a mix of relieved and worried and scared shit less all at once.

"Take a step back." She whispered out quickly. Jason cocked his head worriedly. "DO IT!" She screamed out just as the others ran into the alley way to catch up with them. Sam had long ago recognized this place as the original spot where she'd see Jason try to kill her but she knew how to avoid that now. She shoved him hard to reiterate the point and he finally complied, stepping back just fast enough to miss the whizzing dart that breezed a mere fraction of an inch away from his thigh.

"Grab it quick, we need to move." Sam motioned to the failed dart that hit the brick wall beside them as she hurriedly got on the move calling over her shoulder. "From here on out, just do what I say when I say it if you guys want to stay alive." and she was dead serious.

Jason palmed the dart and hurried after Sam, the gun that Nicholas had tossed to him in hand now and fully loaded, Dante and Ethan were moving quickly along with Nicholas trying to shield the other girls in between them as they hurried after Sam. "Quiet now." Sam called out quelling the question that was on Dante's lips in a heart beat. They crossed a side street, hanging to the shadows and made there way into another alley way. Sam paused to catch her breath and looked back to Jason. "Be careful with that dart we're going to need it." She promised him as she motioned to the hand he closed around it. She smiled softly meeting his eyes. "I missed you and I'm sorry...really sorry..."

"Sam, I..." Jason didn't get a chance to go on though as another shot whizzed past them and Sam watched as the dart slammed into Ethan's shoulder.

"Sorry." Sam kissed Jason's cheek and pulled back meeting his eyes. "If you don't knock Ethan out in the next ten seconds, he's going to kill us all." She explained quite rationally.

"I wanted to be like you...I wanted everything...So I tried to be like you...and I got swept away...I didn't know that it was so cold... and you needed someone to show you the way...so I took your hand and we figured out that... when the tide comes I'll take you away..."

Sam hated that it had to work this way. She was wishing they had already gotten to the part where she could explain it all. She watched in heart wrenched horror as what she knew needed to happen did, Jason whacking Ethan in the back of the neck with the butt of his gun much to everyone's horror.

"He'll be alright." Sam promised as Jason shifted the man over his shoulder and kept on the move following her.

"If you want to... I can save you...I can take you away from here...so lonely inside...so busy out there and all you wanted was somebody who cared..."

Amber looked in the mirror in the bathroom of the penthouse as she tearfully pulled out the last letter that her love had written her. Ever waiting on word. She had the worst feeling, the worst as she unfolded the paper and read the words there once more, the paper showing wear and tear from months of weathering. There was a hand print at the bottom as they had often laughed at how well their hands fit together and she did as she did every night, softly placed her palm against the outline.

"Goodnight..." She whispered as she looked to the picture that was stapled to the bottom of the letter, wishing Talia peace where ever she was.

"I'm sinking slowly... so hurry hold me...you hand is all I have to keep me hanging on...can please can you tell me... so I can finally see... where you go when your gone..."

Sonny and Lucky were pacing circles around themselves as they worked on making things happen with what they had to go on now. The guards meanwhile kept a look out as the first of the board of directors were beginning to arrive under guard, hostages in the open. Lucky was wondering just how much of a career he might have left after making sure he saved his family from self destruction.

"If you want to... I can save you...I can take you away from here...so lonely inside...so busy out there and all you wanted was somebody who cared..."

-Last Song "All you wanted" by Michelle Branch

Next Chapter: More puzzle pieces fall into place as they plan to completely destroy the Delphi group while finding a cure for Sam.