I was hoping to post this morning but my internet connection got stubborn and then I had to leave for a tournament. I may be late next week as well. There's a competition next week as well but it's out of town. I'll do my best to get the chapter up. As always, thanks for the wonderful reviews and I hope y'all enjoy this as well.

Chapter 21

Los Angeles, CA

1145 Local

As soon as the SUV came to a halt, Harm was out and moving towards Granger and Sinclair. Don was in hot pursuit, cursing the other man's longer legs while Charlie followed more slowly, looking around the scene.

"What the hell happened?" Harm put his height to good use, looming over the two agents.

Granger shook his head, not looking at Sinclair, "Man, I wish I knew. It was damn well executed."

Harm gave him an incredulous look before his face darkened, "'Well-executed'? That's all you have to say? What the hell were you two doing?" A hand clamped onto his arm and he turned angrily to find a stone-faced Don Eppes glaring at him. Harm pulled against Don's grip. "Let go," his voice was a low growl.

"As soon as you back off," Don met Harm's furious eyes with a steely gaze of his own. "I need to talk to my people." There was a pause as the two men faced each other. Don relaxed a little first, lifting a shoulder slightly, "C'mon, man, they've got Megan too. Being angry isn't going to figure this out."

Harm deflated slowly and nodded. Muttering 'sorry' at Granger and Sinclair, he turned and walked away. Don watched him leave and then turned back to his two agents, no less angry than Harm was, "What the hell happened?"

Harm stalked to the middle of the street and looked around. The police had cordoned off the entire block, rounding up all the drivers and pedestrians who'd been in the area. So far, almost every witness had a different story to tell. It was maddening. How hard could it be to recall something that happened maybe an hour ago?

Meanwhile, the crime scene unit was going over every square foot. He stood for few moments with his head down. Dammit to hell - he was getting too old to go through this again. So help him, once they found her, he was going to replace the diamond in her engagement ring with a damn GPS system. Hell, maybe he could get something embedded. Webb owed him - if there was a way to permanently lo-jack a person, the CIA would know how to do it. Shaking his head, he peered skyward and blinked a couple of times. They would find her, of course. There was no other option.

"Commander? - Harm?"

Charlie's voice penetrated his thoughts and he looked over to see the younger man watching him somewhat anxiously. Harm took a breath. It was time to pull it together, otherwise he'd be no use to Mac, "Hey Charlie, what can I do for you?"

Charlie ducked his head a little, "I was about to ask you that. Are you okay?"

Harm rubbed the back of his neck, "No. No, I'm not, but that doesn't really matter, does it?"

Charlie shifted uncomfortably and then waved a hand towards the end of the block, "I've been talking to the investigators. There's tread marks over there that match Megan's SUV. She hit the brakes pretty hard for some reason." He looked down at the ground. "They, uh, they found some blood, too. Not a lot," Charlie hurried to explain, "like from a cut or something."

Harm stared at the professor, feeling uncharacteristically lost, "How did they do it? Mac was expecting trouble. How did these guys manage to surprise and overwhelm both Mac and Megan without firing a weapon, do it within a two or three minute span and not one person out here saw anything useful?"

Charlie gazed at him for a long moment and then shook his head, "It's not possible."

"Except that it happened!" Harm flung out his arm in exasperation.

Charlie turned and looked at the various groups of people standing around, his eyebrows coming together as he frowned thoughtfully, "Yes, it did." He turned abruptly, "I need to talk to David and Colby."

Harm stood for a second with his mouth partially open in surprise and then he hurried after the young man. He didn't know Charlie that well but it was obvious Don's brother had a theory developing. It was more than Harm had and he didn't want to miss anything that might lead him to Mac.

Charlie stopped in front of David, "Would you walk me through what happened?"

Sinclair eyed the Naval Commander who was hovering just behind Charlie and then glanced at Don. Eppes nodded, watching his brother. Charlie had that intense look that told him his brother was in the process of putting two and two together and getting the square root of pi, the real story behind the JFK assassination and the location of the last sock Don had lost in the dryer.

Don, Harm and Colby listened as David began relaying the sequence of events. Charlie stopped him almost immediately, "The two guys that were fighting, they went into the street just as Megan got close?"

David nodded, "She damn near ran over them."

"But she didn't, because the FBI teaches evasive driving, right?" David nodded and Charlie turned his attention to the groups of people that were still standing around, "Are those two still here?"

Colby answered, shaking his head, "No, they took off after I threatened to haul them in."

"Are you sure?" Charlie looked at the agent.

"What are you getting at, Charlie?" Don frowned. He'd considered that they'd been part of a set-up but he couldn't quite reconcile it to himself. There would have been too many variables. Megan might have stopped instead of going around or she could have actually hit them. From what Colby and David had said earlier, she'd missed them by inches. There was also the fact that neither tried to conceal their identity. Colby and David would easily be able to pick them out of a line-up. Who would stage a kidnapping and then hand over two members of their team?

"They were professionals," Charlie answered, his gaze drifting to Colby. The agent was once again scanning the crowd.

"Professional what?" Harm finally asked.

"Son of a bitch! There's one of them!" Colby said at the same time. He headed towards a crowd near the curb. David went with him.

Don turned back to Charlie. His brother didn't seem at all surprised, "Professional what, Charlie?"

Charlie looked at Don and then Harm, "Stuntmen. This was a movie." He waved a hand, "All these people are extras, still playing their parts."

"Charlie... " Don couldn't help shaking his head. He could see the look of disbelief on Harm's face as well. This was one of the wilder theories his brother had come up with.

"Think about it, Don," Charlie persisted. "This is LA. Independent film companies are everywhere. No one thinks twice about it."

"Megan was taking a random route back to the office. There wasn't time to stage some elaborate charade. It doesn't make sense, Charlie," Don countered with a frown. He'd assumed the kidnappers had been tailing his agents. A chase car reporting locations and a lead car keeping pace until an opportunity presented itself. He and his team had done the same thing on occasion.

"It probably wasn't that random anymore. We're fifteen minutes from the office, there's only so many routes left." Charlie turned towards David's SUV, "What if Megan and David were being tracked remotely? A computer could plot optimum points for an ambush."

Don's scowl deepened. If someone had managed to attach a GPS tracker to Megan's vehicle, it would have made it a hell of lot easier to pull this off. Would they have tagged David's, too? He started to walk towards the SUV when Colby and David came out of the crowd with a man in between them. He stopped and waited for his agents.

The little group halted in front of Don, Harm and Charlie. "This is Travis Ortega, professional stuntman." Colby looked at the man while gesturing towards Don, "Tell him what you told us."

Ortega shrugged a little, "I got a call this morning from my agent. Said he had a job that would pay twice the industry standard with a thousand dollar bonus if I could get here in less thirty minutes. It was kinda odd but what the hell, right? An extra thousand bucks?" He glanced uncertainly at Colby who gave him a 'go-on' look, "This film company, one of their guys got food poisoning or something and they needed someone right away. It wasn't that tough a gig except that they wanted it in one take and there wasn't time for a rehearsal. Stage a fight in the street and stop traffic." He shook his head, "They didn't tell me they were going to cut it that close with that first vehicle. I damn near pissed my pants."

"What about the guy you were fighting with?" Don folded his arms. This was unbelievable.

Ortega shrugged again, "Younger dude, never saw him before. They wanted a wrestling match more than a punchfest, so that made it easier. I told the guy to follow my lead. He was pretty good." He looked around the scene, frowning a little at Harm, "This whole thing's been pretty realistic. Marty said the company was filming an anti-terrorism training film for local cops. How does the Navy fit in?"

"They don't. This wasn't a training film," Don growled, ignoring how the man blanched. His mind was racing. How could this have been thrown together so quickly? "Who's your agent?"

"M-Marty Stubbens, with Sewati, Ltd. This wasn't a training film? Oh my god," Ortega scrubbed both hands through his close-cropped hair. "Am I in trouble? I swear, I didn't know."

"I'll need you to tell Agent Granger everything you can remember about this," Don glanced away for a moment and then looked back at the man, "These people aren't afraid to kill. I don't think you should go home for now. Do you have family here?" When Ortega numbly shook his head, Don gave Colby a look. Granger nodded and led the man off, already talking.

There was still the time factor. Don turned to David, "Were there any sort of delays before you reached this point?"

Sinclair nodded slowly, "Yeah, about three blocks back. An accident that had traffic stopped in both directions. A radio car was already here. An ambulance showed up about ten minutes later." He glanced in the direction Colby had gone, "We were sweating bullets for a while but nothing happened."

"Did you talk to the cops?" Harm asked. Who the hell were they dealing with?

"Colby did but it was pretty quick. They were busy. Some guy went through the stop sign and t-boned the other car. Dude ran off afterwards." David shook his head in self-disgust, "I was more concerned about an ambush right then. I didn't even think about it being a delaying tactic."

"You couldn't have known," Harm sounded resigned as he turned to look at people clustered here and there. His eyes narrowed. They had the answers he needed even if they didn't know it. Excusing himself, he strode purposely towards the crowd.

Unknown location,

1310 Local

"Sarah? Sarah, can you hear me? You need to wake up."

Mac turned her head, squeezing her eyes a little more tightly shut. Awful didn't even begin to describe how she felt.

"Is she still out? Damn, that's not good. Mac? Wake up."

"No," Mac mumbled. Her head was splitting. If she could just get back to sleep -

"COLONEL MACKENZIE! SNAP TO!!"

That forced Mac's eyes open, a move she immediately regretted. Slowly, she put her hands up to her head and winced when she touched the left side of her forehead, "Oh god," Mac breathed carefully, it felt like the skin on her head was two sizes too small.

"You've got a pretty nasty bump on your head, Sarah."

Cautiously, Mac turned towards the voice. Her eyes didn't seem to want to focus, "Where am I?"

"Still in LA but I couldn't tell you where exactly."

Mac closed her eyes again, keeping them open just made her head hurt more.

"Hey, hey, none of that. You have to stay awake for now. Come on, Mac, I thought Marines were tougher than that."

"Give it a rest, Kate," Mac groaned as she turned on her side. Bracing on an elbow, Mac tried to find a position that didn't make her head want to explode. A second later, she froze, realizing what she'd just said. The sudden tension sent another spasm of pain through her head and she barely managed to contain a moan. Suddenly something cold touched her forehead and the pain seemed to lessen.

"Gently, Sarah, you need to relax. We just want to help."

"Avis?" Mac whispered hesitantly. Slowly, she eased her eyes open again. Her eyesight was still blurry but there seemed to be a luminescence directly in front of her. A moment later, it split into two.

"Yes, I'm here with Kate. I want you to listen to us, Sarah. Can you do that?"

"Okay," Mac said softly, the cold had moved to the sides of her face. It felt wonderful.

"You have a concussion. You need to stay awake for a little while. We're going to help with that," Avis' voice took on a firm note. "It is too soon for you to join us. It would break Harm's heart."

Mac straightened a little at that. Harm! Avis was right, she couldn't do that to him. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself into a sitting position although she couldn't help staying hunched over. Coming upright had triggered a bout of nausea.

"There's a wall about two feet behind you," Kate's voice came from beside her.

Mac let her head dip a little lower in acknowledgment and began the slow process of moving backwards while trying not to upset her head or stomach any more. Several long minutes later, she carefully leaned against the wall, drawing her legs up so she could rest her arms and head on her knees. Slowly, she let her eyes travel around the small, empty room. The walls were bare with a single door directly across from her. It was dark except for the two hazy shapes that emitted a soft glow. "What happened?"

Kate's voice was matter-of-fact, "They wanted McKlellan and grabbed you as well."

Mac tensed a little and then winced at the increase in pain, "Megan?"

One of the shapes moved in beside her and something cold again touched her head. Avis' voice sounded close to her ear, "She was here. They took her out."

Mac sighed carefully. The cold was helping ease the pain in her head, "They need to know if McKlellan had already talked." Damn, once they found out the Petty Officer hadn't said anything yet, they would all be expendable.

"McKlellan's already dead," Kate spoke up from her spot in front of Mac.

Mac squinted at her, wishing her eyesight would clear up, "He's dead? How do you know?"

"Saw him - for a little bit anyway. He had a lot to answer for. They didn't let him stay long." Kate sounded uncomfortable.

"They?" That sounded omnious. Mac was beginning to feel uncomfortable, too. She had a few things to answer for in her life, as well.

Monday,

Liwanu Enterprises

Los Angeles, CA

1340 local

Bander drummed his fingers on desk and then picked up the folder Margery had brought him earlier. JohnnyD had called a couple of hours ago to let him know the operation had been a success. They had McKlellan and his escort. He'd been surprised to learn that it had been the women with the Petty Officer. Johnny had taken them to one of the company warehouses that had been partially destroyed in a fire. It had been fenced off, with reconstruction due to begin next month. Should law enforcement somehow stumble across it, he could easily claim he'd had no knowledge of anything illegal. It was hard to wait while Johnny did what he had to do to get the information they needed. Bander had distracted himself with company business for a while but now he was getting antsy.

Opening the folder finally, he shuffled through the papers until he found the ones dealing with Megan Reeves and Sarah MacKenzie. Reeves' information hadn't yielded much that was unexpected. Friction with her father, a rather wild period during her teenage years before she apparently decided she'd had enough foolishness and settled down. Highly perceptive, she'd combined that talent with a lively intelligence and strong empathy to become one of the top profilers in the FBI. Bander wondered if Eppes knew just how lucky he was to have her on his team. Apparently, she'd turned down a plum assignment with the BAU to come out to LA. Bander tapped his chin thoughtfully, he hadn't planned on killing Reeves outright but that might have to change. She was dangerous.

Putting aside Reeves' dossier, he picked up MacKenzie's. After a few minutes, his eyes widened in surprise and he hit the intercom, "Margery? Would you come in here please?" She appeared quickly, her eyebrows raised in obvious inquiry. Bander tapped the paper, "The information on MacKenzie. You verified your sources?"

Margery drew herself up a little, "Of course, Mr. Bander. Is there a problem?" It wasn't like him to question her but she'd noticed he'd been edgy all morning. That usually meant he had some deal or other in the works that he wasn't completely sure would pan out. The Bear was intelligent but not infallible. She was aware that he'd been planning something on an extraordinary scale. Things must finally be in motion. Margery gave herself a moment to feel smug. She was pretty sure she had a good idea of what the overall scheme was even if she didn't know all the details. Years ago, when she'd first started putting the clues together, she'd been shocked by the very audaciousness. That had been followed by disbelief that such a plan could ever work. After that, she'd felt hurt and annoyed that he hadn't confided in her. It had taken the better part of a month and some very careful digging to finally realize that she was his contingency plan. If this failed, it could cost him everything, up to and including his life. The Bear had been fully aware of the potential consequences and been quietly restructuring his empire. If he went down, she would be blameless. There wouldn't be any sort of power struggle and she would take over everything. What he didn't know was that she had every intention of doing her best to bring his quest to eventual fruition. Their people deserved it.

Bander exhaled nosily, laying the folder down and tapping the paper again, "She's one of the people. One of us."

Margery nodded carefully. She'd seen that and dismissed it. The woman was obviously on the other side. "Her great-grandmother on her father's side. You know how that probably happened. She's never embraced that part of her heritage. The woman's career military, probably doesn't even know about it."

Bander shook his head, "It had to have been a marriage, not rape. Otherwise the child wouldn't have had the MacKenzie name. This changes things." He eyed Margery when she didn't say anything. It was her way of disagreeing. "I know that you know," he stated softly. At her surprised look, he added, "Don't let anyone else suspect. It has to be this way." When she nodded slowly, he gestured towards the door, "You'd better get back to your office. I don't want you hearing anything else for now." He watched her leave with a good deal of satisfaction. He'd known a few years back that she'd begun a careful investigation. Taking a calculated risk, he'd let her discover enough to decipher the gist of his plan. Her discretion and loyalty since then had been above reproach. Margery was turning into a formidable woman. He would leave his empire in exceptionally capable hands.

He returned to his study of MacKenzie's history, frowning thoughtfully. Killing her was out of the question, now. He would not knowingly cause the death of one of the people. There'd been too much of that in their history. She could still be useful as a diversion. Bander was startled out of his thoughts by the ringing of his private line. He picked up the handset, "Yes?"

"Mr. Bander? JohnnyD. I've taken care of the rat problem for you. We're good." He paused a bit, "About the housecleaning? How much do you want done?"

Bander frowned in irritation. Johnny occasionally got caught up in the excitement of his work and started sounding like a bad spy movie. "This is a secure line, Johnny. Stop with the euphemisms. What have you learned?"

Sounding a little sullen, Johnny replied, "McKlellan didn't tell them anything. He wanted a deal in place before he opened his mouth. I slit his throat. What do you want done with the women?" He mentally crossed his fingers, hoping Bander would agree to kill them as well. It would be less complicated.

"Hold on to them for now," Bander ordered. "They may be useful later."

Damn. "Um, Mr. Bander? About that - ," JohnnyD rubbed the back of his neck a little nervously, "The military chick's acting weird. We might have hit her a bit too hard."

Bander sat up straighter, "What do you mean? What's she doing?" Dammit, it would complicate the hell out of things if she needed medical attention.

Johnny hesitated, not sure if he could explain it right, "Well, she's talking to herself, only it sounds like she's talking to an invisible friend - you know, like kids do. It's kinda weird."

"What's she saying?" Bander rubbed his jaw, feeling inexplicably nervous.

There was another pause before Johnny finally said, "The usual stuff - where is she? what happened? But she's talking to thin air and acting like it's answering."

"You've been recording?"

"Yeah, sure, but it's not as clean as we usually get. There's a lot of noise on it." Johnny was a firm believer in CYA and being upfront with Bear Bander was the best way to do it.

"I need to hear it. Take care of it for me, Johnny," Bander stated flatly. He paused for a second, "And Johnny? Don't harm the women, either one - is that clear?" After listening to Johnny's assurances, he hung up the phone and then got up to pace. Years and years ago, when he was a small boy, his mother had taken him to a medicine woman of the tribe. He'd been scared and fascinated at the same time. The old woman had told his mother that he would accomplish things none of the people had even considered possible in hundreds of years but he had to remain true to himself. He'd never forgotten and he'd also learned over the years to trust his instincts. They were screaming caution at him right now. Who or what was the MacKenzie woman? He had to know.

Unknown location,

1350 Local

"How's she doing?" Mac asked quietly. The door had opened seventeen minutes ago and a powerful spotlight had hit her in the face, effectively blinding her once more. It had also upped the pain in her head a couple of notches, immobilizing her as well. It had taken a good six minutes of careful, steady breathing to quell the nausea. Kate had waited until then to tell her Megan had been returned. The agent was unconscious and Kate's opinion was that she'd been drugged. Mac was going by that premise. There was no way she could check for herself, not in her condition.

"Still out. How are you feeling?" Kate's voice moved closer to Mac's left and then cold touched the side of her head. Mac sighed gratefully. After discovering that touching produced a cold spot, Avis and Kate had been taking turns. Apparently, it was draining for them. Neither could maintain it for more than a minute at a time. Mac was happy with anything she could get that helped reduce the pain.

"Better," Mac blinked slowly a couple of times. The afterimage of the spotlight was still filling her vision, "Can't see anything."

"There's not much to look at," Kate retorted wryly. Mac settled for a smile, laughing hurt.

"The building's abandoned." Avis' voice spoke up. "There was a fire. Can you smell the char?"

Mac inhaled slowly, trying to concentrate on scent rather than how much her head hurt. There - it was faint but there. "Yeah, I can smell it - barely. The fire must have been a while ago." She turned her attention to the last spot she'd heard Kate, "Is this part of the vision you've been showing me?"

"Not really," Kate sounded a little reluctant. "It is what it is. A building that had a fire."

"You said 'rebirth'. I still don't understand," Mac decided this was as good a subject as any to keep herself awake.

"You really need to figure that out on your own," Kate countered, "Otherwise, how will you explain it? A ghost told you?"

"Stick-in-the-mud," Mac said it without rancor. Kate had a point. She brought up a hand to carefully rub her face, "Do hints count?"

"It has to do with your heritage," Avis offered.

"But you said earlier that it didn't have to do with Islamic terrorists, so how can my grandmother being Iranian matter?" Mac was feeling slightly exasperated.

"Oh for pity's sake, Mac, you've got more than one parent. Think about it." Kate was sounding somewhat exasperated as well.

Mac's eyes widened slightly, "My great-grandmother on the MacKenzie side was Cherokee. You're saying the man behind all this is a native American?"

- - - -

Outside the room, JohnnyD straightened up as he pulled off the headphones and reached for his cell. Bander was going to freak.

...1134903170, 1836311903, 2971215073...