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Disclaimer: I don't own Flashpoint
"Dad!"
Sergeant Parker turned around, surprised to see just Clark, Dean, and Whiz. "What's up, guys?"
Still surprising him, Dean called over Ed and Spike as well. Then, Whiz began to speak, mostly to Spike. "I know why we haven't been able to trace the origin point from that website," he began.
"Go on," Spike encouraged.
"Well, see, I asked this…friend," Whiz hedged, "to help me out. We hadn't been able to find anything, and he's really good, and so—"
Sergeant Parker cut him off. "What did they find, Whiz?"
"The reason we haven't been able to find the origin point is because there are multiple. My friend said that there are at least two main points, bouncing around to avoid being tracked. But he was able to isolate the two."
Lane began to call the rest of Team One together as Spike continued to question Whiz. "Where, Whiz? Where?"
Whiz pulled out his phone and pulled up a map with a blinking light on it. "Here's one," he said, releasing the phone into Spike's grip.
"This is about ten minutes away from us," Spike reported.
"All right, Team One gear up. Hot call," Parker called out. He was stopped by Dean.
"Let us come," he pleaded. "Snips is a part of our team. Please, dad."
But the sergeant was shaking his head. "Sorry guys, but no. Not this time."
"Sir, she's a part of Team Five," Clark argued.
"And the people that took her have made it more than obvious they don't care about hurting teenagers," Ed countered. "You guys have to stay here. I don't want anyone from Team Five anyone near this place, is that understood?" he ordered, phrasing it more like a statement than a question.
All three teenagers glared at him before reluctantly nodding. Ed placed his hand on his son's shoulder. "If she's there, we'll find her," he assured. "Just stay here."
FPFPFPFPFPFPFP
"All right team, stay alert."
Team Five crowded around Winnie's desk as they listened in on the conversation. Ed's voice came over the comm. "This place looks abandoned, guys."
Spike spoke. "Well, let's hope that in this case, looks are deceiving. Because we're reading the right coordinates. This is the right place."
"All right, everyone use extreme caution. Jules, Lou, report."
"Ready and waiting," Jules responded.
"We're ready as well," Spike confirmed for him and Wordy.
"All right, all teams enter in 3,2,1."
For a few tense moments there was nothing but silence as every member of Team Five stilled. They heard a few vague calls of "Clear!" until finally Parker spoke again.
"All right, it looks like this place is abandoned. There's nothing here, guys."
Sarge stalked off while Ninja turned to Red. Everyone else groaned as Whiz ran his hand through his hair. They all knew he planned to contact this 'friend' of his to see if he could get a lock on the other location.
"Hey Boss, come take a look at this!" they heard Wordy call. Instantly Team Five was back around the desk. "What is this place?"
"It's definitely the fight ring," Jules affirmed. "So why is no one here?"
"Maybe they all come at a certain time?" Spike guessed.
"But the videos come at all different hours," Jules retorted. "And if they come at certain times, where are they keeping Snips in the meantime?"
"So what, they abandoned this place? How could they possible know we were coming?"
"Maybe they didn't. Maybe they had moved earlier and …"
"Maybe they were never here at all," Ed interrupted.
"Then why is there a ring that looks like the one Snips had been fighting in?" Spike challenged. "I think we had good intel, we just got here too late."
"Well, if they were here, they moved out a long time ago."
"All right, see if we can find anything that tells us where they took Snips."
FPFPFPFPFPFPFP
"Hey, kiddo."
Red settled down next to Jules, who put down the folder she was reading. Jules let out a sad little smile as she saw what Red was wearing: one of Sam's old army sweatshirts. "Where else could they be, Jules? They had to have been there."
"We'll find them, Dani. Besides, Sam might not even be with Snips."
"She started fighting, Jules," Red insisted. "She wouldn't fight unless she had to."
"I know," Jules agreed. "And everything with the General has come up empty-handed. This has nothing to do with Sam's family."
"And everything to do with Snips," Red pushed.
"I agree."
"So what do we do?"
"Well, one thing would be going back to school." Jules raised an eyebrow and Red just looked down. "Dean had no authority to pull you and Kyle out of school like that. I know that Ryan and Sean are already out because they're graduating in a few weeks but you two still have school."
"I know, but…Jules, Kyle couldn't stay in school. He's losing control of himself more and more the longer Snips is missing." Jules stayed quiet at the look in her young charge's eyes. "He…he really hurt Mike that day, Jules. I tried to get him to stop, but he wouldn't listen. Part of me thought…"
"Thought that he might try to what, Dani?" Jules asked softly when Red trailed off.
"Part of me thought he might try to kill him."
FPFPFPFPFPFPFP
"Hey," Sam said softly.
Snips didn't say anything, just curled in more on herself, pressing closer to Sam. He shifted so that he could put an arm around her and pull her close. She allowed it, body shaking slightly, and Sam knew she was barely holding back sobs. He remained quiet for a few minutes to allow her to gain some control before speaking again. She needed to take her mind off of things here for a while, and he had a pressing question on his mind. He nudged her a bit to get her attention.
"What was the deal you made with your social workers? We're all trying to figure it out."
Her confusion was plain on her face. "What are you talking about?"
"Aaron Johnson and Steve Krakes?"
This time she pulled away. "Sam, what are you talking about? Who are they?"
He stared back at her. "They came in and said that they were your social workers and you guys had a deal. They were going to try and take your brothers into the foster system until Wordy said that he would take them in. They didn't look too happy with that."
Snips was shaking her head, confusion replaced with fear. "Sam, we only have one social worker. And her name is Maya Dorski."
FPFPFPFPFPFPFP
"Hey, Ninja! Does Snips know sign language?"
Ninja turned to stare in confusion at Wheels. "What?"
"You know, sign language? Where you talk with your hands?"
Ninja rolled his eyes. "I know what sign language is, Wheels. Why are you asking if Snips knows it?"
"Because I'm pretty sure she's signing something, and I know I don't know it."
Ninja drew his brows together as he came to sit next to Wheels. They had taken shifts of watching to see if Snips would reappear on the computer for a fight. Right now was Wheels' watch, and sure enough, his sister was moving her hands together as she dodged and darted around her opponent. "She never mentioned learning it to me. I mean, our family had a couple of shorthand signs in case of trouble, but I don't think she ever learned it."
"But I bet Sam has," Sarge interrupted.
Both teens turned to stare at their leader approaching them. "What?"
"Sam was in the military," he reminded them. "Maybe they had to learn it for there. Either way, she's definitely trying to get a message across."
"But…who do we know that knows sign language?" Wheels asked. He turned to Ninja.
But the sixteen-year-old was raising his hands in a don't-look-at-me gesture. "I told you. Our family has shorthand signs, but I don't know sign language. You?" A quick shake was answer enough, but Ninja's head shot up. "Nick," he breathed.
"What?"
"Nick was trying to befriend this deaf girl at our old school," he shot out. "So he learned some of the basic stuff. Maybe he kept up with it. C'mon." With that, he darted out of the house, computer in hand, and headed for Wordy's house, praying that Nick was there. The other two followed him.
Ninja barged through the front door without even a hello to Shelley, who stared after the three boys in confusion, opting to dash up the stairs and straight into the rooms the boys shared.
"Nick, do you still know sign?"
The face Nick pulled was almost comical, if the situation hadn't been so intense. Luckily, he didn't question and instead nodded. Ninja turned the computer to face his brother. "We think Lu is trying to sign something," he explained. "Can you tell what she's saying?"
"Play it again," Nick instructed, grabbing his pencil and homework sheet. Ninja replayed it five more times before Nick shrugged and looked up. "It doesn't make sense to me, but I'm pretty sure she's signing 'S W FRAUD' over and over again. I might be wrong, but I think that's it. But it doesn't make sense."
"S W FRAUD?" Ninja repeated. "S W FRAUD."
It was tossed around the room, spoken with different inflections by each person. "Okay," Sarge finally stopped them. "We all know what fraud means. So we have to assume that S W stands for something that's fake."
"But what?"
"And what would be so important that Snips would learn how to sign it?" Nick wondered. "Because I know she didn't know how to sign before."
That's how Shelley found them twenty minutes later when she came to check on them. Ben, Nick, and John were sitting on Nick's bed, mouthing silently to themselves. Ninja was pacing and Sarge and Wheels were playing with pencils while they also mouthed something to themselves. Justin was coloring.
"Boys?" she asked hesitantly. All heads snapped up to her except Ninja's. "There are some men talking to Kevin right now about you five," she said, pointing to Ninja and his brothers. "I believe their names are Aaron and Steve?"
"Oh my gosh," Ninja breathed. Everyone turned to stare at him. "S W" He looked around at them all. "Social worker. Aaron Johnson and Steve Krakes are frauds. They're not our social workers. Snips never made a deal with them, because Snips doesn't even know them."
"Than how does she know about the deal?"
"Sam," Sarge answered. "Sam must've asked her about it. We've all been wanting to ask her, and he had the opportunity. He must've told her about then coming for you guys, and when she didn't know who they were, they came up with a plan to tell us. Those men are posing as your social workers," he told Ninja. "The question is, why?"
FPFPFPFPFPFPFP
"I told you that those boys are staying here," Wordy said, voice level. But his eyes betrayed his fury. "They are safe here."
"Someone tried to kidnap them," Johnson retorted. "Obviously they aren't safe enough. We're taking them with us, to put them into the government's hands."
They had been having this for the past ten minutes, each party refusing to move on their standpoint. Wordy opened his mouth to retaliate, but a new voice beat him to it.
"Now, that's interesting."
All three men looked up to see Ninja, Sarge, and Wheels descending the stairs. It was Ninja who had spoken.
"Why would you think someone tried to kidnap us?"
Wordy closed his mouth and turned to face the men, suspicion on his face. He hadn't caught that little tidbit, so caught up in trying to convince them to let the boys stay with him.
"We heard about it," Krakes informed Ninja, voice icy. "Anything that happens to you five has to be reported to us. We are, after all, in charge of you." He had slipped out a small smile at the end.
Ninja smiled politely right back. "Well, see, that's what I find so interesting," he said pleasantly. "We never reported that someone tried to kidnap us, because we never knew if someone had."
Johnson swallowed, but Krakes kept up his little smile. "Well, someone must have reported it, because it came back to us."
But Ninja was shaking his head, coming up to meet him, Sarge and Wheels flanking him on either side. Wordy, the poor guy, had no idea what was going on, but was getting a little nervous with Ninja's tone. The kid was being way too nice.
"See, we never reported it, because Wordy here had a little chat with the man. He had just been walking along the water and came into the backyard without realizing it."
"So he had to run and get a friend to help him get away?"
That's when Ninja hardened. His face, his tone, his body, everything. "Now how can you know that?" he asked, still polite. "Because no one knew that the man had a partner except for Team One and us," he indicated his friends behind him. "And I know no one told you."
To my guest reviewer: the team will be gearing up to find Snips next chapter, I think. Because next up, Team Five starts to break some rules.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! I love reviews, and they really do help me get inspiration for continuing! So hit that little button and tell me what's on your mind! What do you want to see? Or what do you think will happen?
