From his vantage place in the van's front seat, Roger craned his neck upward, observing the tall office building they had just watched Dunn enter. "Shit, Riggs," he muttered. "We better hurry and follow or we'll never find where Dunn went to. That place is too big."

"I know, I know - just a minute." Riggs was in the back, rummaging through the multitude of empty snack containers until he came across one of his old gym bags he had brought along. Slinging it over a shoulder, he crawled back up front, crouching next to his partner. Gave a quick wave of his hand, motioning for Roger to open the door. "Okay, let's go."

The two men exited the van, Roger frowning as they rapidly made their way across the parking lot. "Was this place listed on the addresses you had in the information for Evanston?"

The other detective didn't look over at his partner, instead his eyes continued to scan the landscape. "It was listed as a possible location," he answered. "Along with the safe house, they had two Vegas addresses in there that they knew for sure were Evanston's but they didn't have definite proof for this one." Riggs scowled faintly as he gave a shake of his head. "My sources are awfully thorough. My guess is that if this place was listed, whether they had hard evidence or not, my guess is that it's his." He paused for a moment, then added, "I doubt it, but there is the possibility that Dunn is meeting someone else."

"True … There's always a chance another person could be involved too."

Riggs shrugged. "Either way, we at least know that we've been on the right track all this time. Those two are connected or he wouldn't have turned up at Evanston's safe house. No matter what, if we stick with Dunn, we'll meet up with Evanston eventually. And then we can end this … it's time to cut the head off the snake."

Roger glanced over at Riggs. "You do mean that figuratively, right?"

A slight smile played across the younger man's features. Raising a hand, he patted Roger's shoulder. "I'll leave that up to you, Rog."

Roger nodded thoughtfully as the two men entered the building. It was a Sunday and the large lobby area was completely empty- including, thankfully, the sleek contemporary guard desk that ran along the right side of the room. They quickly went over to the bank of elevators to the left, watching as the light kept creeping up with every floor that it passed.

"Keep an eye on it - tell me where it lands." Riggs trotted across the marble floor to the unattended guard desk.

"What are you doing, Riggs?"

"There's no directory by the elevator doors… must be one over here somewhere." He looked around for a moment, shuffling papers from one side to the other. "Here it is."

Roger glanced back over at the elevators. "It's stopped. 19th floor."

"19th floor…" Riggs ran a forefinger down the page. "… Only listing for that level is for a Shelby Brown, CPA."

"An accountant?"

Riggs gave a nod as he rejoined Roger by the elevator. "Hey, maybe I can get help for my tax returns at the same time. I really think I should be able to write Sam off as a dependent - dog food doesn't come cheap, y 'know." Another minute later the doors opened and the two men stepped inside. Reaching over, Riggs punched the button for the 15th floor. Seeing Roger's eyes narrow at his choice, he quickly said, "We certainly can't have the elevator open up on the same floor that Dunn just went up to. Who knows what we could be walking into… We have to sneak up on the bastard."

"Yeah, I understand that, but that doesn't mean I have to walk up four flights of stairs." Roger hit the button for the 17th floor. "Two flights below will be fine. If they've set up some kind of security, I can't imagine that it extends beyond that. Anyway, I bet Evanston must be paying Dunn a pretty penny to set me up and throw away his career like this. Hell, for all we know, he really could be seeing his accountant."

"Yeah, right," scoffed Riggs as he drew his weapon, readying himself for when the doors opened back up. "And Murphy's gonna nominate me for Detective of the Year."

When the elevator doors swooshed open onto a dark and hushed 17th floor, Roger felt a sense of elation that bordered on euphoria. Turning, he grinned widely to Martin who gave a thumbs-up in response. "So far, so good," the younger man mouthed silently and then with a rapid gesture of his hand, indicated that they should sweep the floor for any threats. Roger nodded his head and they spread out, working quickly but thoroughly. It still surprised him sometimes how well the two of them complimented one another - after all Riggs had never been much of a team player and his deplorable track record with partners was the stuff of legends. Certainly Roger had had plenty of his own doubts as well for a while – and if the truth be told, he had never been one for partners either – but at this point, he couldn't imagine trusting anyone else to have his back. The two men circled around to the elevators again without incident and Riggs, pointing now to the stairwell, started up, Roger one step behind.

The 18th floor yielded the same results but before heading toward their final destination both men came to a stop at the door leading back to the stairs. Unspoken between the two was the fact that if Dunn was indeed meeting with Evanston, the chances of them running into muscle was almost one hundred percent and the ability to remain undetected would be almost zero.

Roger took a deep breath. "You got everything?"

Patting the bag he had slung over one shoulder, Riggs nodded. "Of course." An eager smile spread across his features. "You ready, Cochise?'

"As ready as I'll ever be." Roger's expression was grim. "This just needs to be over."

Martin nodded in agreement. "Then let's go."

Bent low, guns at the ready, they inched their way up the stairs and were only steps away from the 19th floor landing when the tell-tale squawk of a walkie-talkie sounded out from the other side of the door. They took the last steps in a quick bounding leap, Riggs pressing himself up against the right side of the door, Roger to the left. Riggs tensed, ready and hoping that the guard would open the door to check out the stairwell - if he did, the detective was confident that he could subdue him before he could alert anyone else to their presence and then they could easily slip in. But instead, the door remained shut and even worse, he seemed to be positioning himself there. On the good side, it appeared the guard hadn't heard their approach up the stairs; on the bad side, now they couldn't access the floor.

Staying low, Riggs began inching his way back towards the lower landing, motioning for Roger to follow. "So now what are we gonna do?" Roger asked once he made his way down. "Do you think if we swing the door open, you can get to him fast enough before he can warn anyone?"

"Yea, sure." Riggs frowned, one hand rubbing across his jaw. "Only problem is we don't know exactly what's on the other side. I'll be able to take him out in time but if there is someone else positioned right down the hall … well, that might make it a little tricky." If it had been just him, Riggs wouldn't have hesitated in going for it but staring into Roger's dark eyes brought his previous conversation with Trish back to the forefront of his mind. Riggs didn't say anything further, his eyes darting around for a moment in thought before they suddenly widened. He pointed upwards to a nearby vent. "Air duct," he whispered. "We can use the ventilation system to crawl over his head."

"I know this is a pointless question, but are you out of your mind?" grumbled Roger. "No way."

"Why not? It worked for John McClane."

"Who?"

"John McClane… Bruce Willis." Riggs shook his head in disbelief as he took in his partner's confused expression. "Ya know, the movie Die Hard?"

"Never saw it. I have more than enough action with you as a partner. I don't need to watch movies." He sighed under his breath. "Besides, it's a damn movie, Riggs – that kind of shit never works in real life. There's no way that shaft is made to carry the weight of two grown men… and there is also the fact that I'd never fit in there."

"Maybe it's time to start laying off of the squad room donuts, Rog."

Roger shot him a irritated look. "How many times do I have to tell you I am practically the –"

"Yea, yea, I know … practically the same weight as you were at the Academy," muttered Riggs, eyes rolling to one side. "Fine. I'm small enough, I'll do it myself."

"Riggs …" The rest of Roger's protest died before it left his throat. It was useless to say anything - he knew his words would fall on deaf ears at this point. Instead he watched silently as Martin quickly dumped the gym bag he had been carrying to the floor, then leaning over took off his boots.

"I'm afraid they'll make too much noise," he whispered in answer to Roger's questioning look; then he suddenly paused, his face pensive. "Hmmm… of course," he murmured, "being barefoot did not work out well for McClane…"

"Didn't work out well for him?" Roger suddenly looked even more worried than before. "What – what does that mean?"

Disregarding his partner's question, Riggs just gave a shrug. "Oh, well. It'll be fine." Reaching under his jacket, he pulled his Beretta from where it was tucked at his waistband, double checking the weapon before sliding it along the small of his back. "I've gotta try to take out whoever I can quietly. We've got no idea what kind of muscle may be there so I sure as hell don't want to draw any attention to myself if I can help it." Bending down on one knee, he unzipped the gym bag. He rifled through it for a moment, pulling out a handful of wrist ties which he quickly shoved into a jacket pocket; then pulled out several additional magazines. Rechecked them and then they too disappeared into the pocket.

"I thought you said you wanted to keep this quiet," Roger said as he observed the Beretta mags that Martin had pulled out.

"Gotta be prepared for worst case scenario." Riggs stood back up, his expression growing serious. "Listen, Rog, if you hear gunfire start, you get the hell out as fast you can. You've gotta make sure you get moving or there's a chance you could get trapped. And if that happens, you might not be able to make it back to the ground floor." He nudged his gym bag towards Roger with one socked foot. "There's extra ammo and guns in there, along with some other goodies. You'll need it if something goes wrong."

Roger gave a hard shake of his head, eyes narrowed. "If gunfire starts, I'm going in to give you back-up. What kind of partner do you think I am?"

"If you were a smart one, you'd head for the exits like I said." Riggs was ready to get going and his voice was quickly growing impatient.

Ignoring the younger man, Roger glanced over his head to stare at the air vent again. If only he could come up with an alternate plan – trouble was, nothing was coming to mind. He finally hitched his shoulders in resignation. "I trust you, Riggs. You just go take out as many as you can and don't let anything go wrong."

Riggs gave an easy grin. "Don't worry. That's not part of my plan."