I don't own Law & Order.

Jack McCoy sat in his office miserably. There had to be something he could do. He'd spent all morning making calls to various people, trying to find out where Geneva was and how to get her out, but he'd had no luck. She'd done better. When she found out that he was going to be arrested, she'd done something about it. He remembered her saying that she wasn't brave enough, and saying she would "rather die than go through that again." She had surrendered to her worst fear, for him. And he was sitting there doing nothing.

The phone rang, but he ignored it. He wondered how Geneva had even found out that he was going to be arrested. He'd talked to Jamie, who had signed the temporary restraining order preventing them from arresting him, but she didn't know anything. Geneva had woken her up in the middle of the night almost panic-stricken, begging her for the TRO. Jamie admitted that she hadn't had any legal grounds to issue it, but she had anyway.

The phone rang again, and he tried to keep ignoring it but it kept on ringing, so finally he picked it up.

"This is Kate Shard-"

"No comment." He started to hang up.

"No wait, it's about Geneva Williams."

"I'm really not going to tell you anything about Geneva."

"No, I'm not asking you to. There're some things I need to tell you. I don't want to talk over the phone, could you meet me at this coffeehouse called The Psychedelic Moon?"

"The what?"

"Yeah, I know the guy who owns it, he's a little crazy but he's so paranoid that there's no way this place is bugged."

The address she gave him was tucked into a back alley somewhere. The paint was so faded it was impossible to tell what color it once was, and the windows were boarded up.

He stared, wondering if Kate had gotten the address wrong, but went up to the building and opened the door.

It creaked open slowly. The inside was somewhat less shabby than the outside. There were several small tables with brightly colored tablecloths and the ceiling was hung with wind chimes, but the floor was cement and the walls were pockmarked.

"We're closed," a short, balding man informed him rudely.

"Is this the Psychedelic Moon?"

"Naw, it's Starbucks," the man said sarcastically.

"I'm supposed to meet Kate Shard here."

"Oh, that's you. Come in, she'll be right back, she just stepped into the back room to make a phone call."

Jack sat down at a table and waited. After a minute, Kate Shard came out from behind a beaded curtain and sat down across from him.

"Another espresso?" the man asked her.

"I've had enough coffee, I'll have a chai latte."

"What about you?" he asked Jack.

"Nothing, thanks." The man left.

"Their coffee's better than you'd expect," Kate told him. "But anyway, that's not why we're here."

"So I heard Geneva was carted off by the Feds. Is that true?" When he hesitated, she said, "Look, all this is off the record. I'm not doing this for the story, I'm trying to help a friend. Just tell me."

"It's true."

Kate sighed. "God, why didn't she think of that? I should have thought of that. When she told me she was going to get a TRO to stop them for arresting you I should have known."

"You knew that they were going to arrest me?"

"I'm the one who told Geneva. I got an anonymous tip that the Feds decided you'd leaked classified information and were going to arrest you. But that's not what I wanted to tell you."

"What is it then?"

"About three months ago, Geneva gave me a sealed envelope and made me promise not to open it unless she died, disappeared, or was arrested by the Feds. Those were her words, and if any of those things did I happen I was to open the envelope and make sure the contents got to the press, unless she specifically contacted me and told me not to."

"What was in the envelope?"

"I kept my promise and didn't open it until this morning. Inside was a notarized statement she wrote saying that she'd been tortured by the Federal Government." She handed him the paper, which he read.

My name is Geneva Williams. I'm an Assistant District Attorney for New York. I am not and never have been involved with terrorists or any other criminal activities.

Six months ago I was prosecuting a man named Mohammed Azar. Our case against him was for murder, but the Feds had another case against him for terrorism, and they took the defendant and all our notes on the case.

There was a man we had been looking for, Jamal Azar, the defendant's cousin, who we believed may have been a witness to or involved with the murder. Three days after the Feds took our case, I received a call from Jamal Azar stating that he'd just heard about his cousin's arrest and wished to meet with me. I know now that I should have called the Feds and told them. But at the time he was just a potential witness who might or might not have valid information. I went to meet with him alone. I didn't even tell the senior prosecutor on the case.

The next day I was arrested by Federal agents. They claimed they had information that I was involved with terrorists, including the Azars.

I don't know where they took me. At first I was just in a prison. Then later I was moved somewhere else. I was kept there for five months and tortured.

The Special Agents tortured me almost daily. They used sleep deprivation, starvation, waterboarding, stress positions, sexual abuse, and physical abuse. I won't go into the specifics here.

After five months my brother found me. I don't know how he made them let me go, we never talked about it. I was ordered never to say anything about what happened to me to anyone, even a lawyer, doctor, or priest. I was also forced to sign legal documents saying that I would never disclose any of this.

I have not and am not planning to tell anyone anything, as hard as it is. This is just for insurance.

Geneva Williams

"That's not the worst thing," Kate told him when he finished reading. Her chai latté had come while he was reading Geneva's letter, and she took a sip of it.

"No? What's worse?"

"Today, about an hour ago, Geneva contacted me. That's not right, she wasn't the one who called. It was two Special Agents, Maxwell and Cork. They put Geneva on." Kate's face was troubled.

Jack waited for her to continue impatiently.

Finally she did. "I asked Geneva if she was calling me to tell me not to release this."

"And?"

"She told me no, she wanted me to. Then I could hear her scream. They were torturing her to tell me not to print it. She screamed, and then told me to get it to the newspapers. Special Agent Cork came back on the line and told me that she would suffer if I gave the envelope to the newspapers. I lied, I told him I already had and it would be printed tomorrow morning. I did give it to an editor at the Times right after that."

"You what?"

"Jack, Geneva obviously wanted me to. She was being tortured to tell me not to, and she refused." She paused. "But, I left out their names."

"Why? If it's being printed anyway, you might as well tell who they are, make some trouble for the bastards."

Kate shook her head. "I told them that I left out their names. In that article."

The light dawned. "Leverage," Jack realized.

"Exactly. I told them that I wanted to see that Geneva was okay, and if she was I wouldn't print the article with their names."

"Did it work?"

"I set up a meeting for tomorrow at nine o'clock. They wouldn't agree to anytime sooner, they wanted to make sure that the article being printed really didn't have their names. But they're bringing Geneva to my apartment at nine tomorrow for ten minutes. What you need to do is get a warrant for their arrests for kidnapping, torture, witness tampering, anything else you can think of- and be prepared to prosecute them for it."

"It'll be a pleasure."

TBC