Mikaela... Ryuga thought, staring through the glass at the woman, who had blacked out ages ago. Thankfully, the war bridle had been taken off...
"Ugh... Can't we wake her up? I'm bored!" Tobio groaned, "It's no fun without someone to watch!"
"Then why don't you untie the wench and have a little fun with her?" Damian snapped, tired of hearing the other man complain.
Ryuga's eyes widened and his heart nearly stopped.
"You think Davida'll mind?"
"She said to torture 'em. What you're planning qualifies as torture. And if she wakes up- big deal! With as much pain as she'll be in, you can easily overpower her!"
"Just do her!" Jack- the redhead- exclaimed.
Tobio laughed, and started for the door, only to stop suddenly.
"STOP! DON'T HURT HER! I'LL TELL YOU WHAT YOU WANT!" Ryuga yelled, lurching forwards, ignoring the pain that spasmed through his body when he did so.
Tobio halted in the doorway, looking annoyed. Jack arched an eyebrow, surprised. Damian grinned, pleased.
"Well, I think we found his trigger. Tobio, stand by in case he changes his mind." Damian said, before moving around behind Ryuga, and pulling on his hair, craning the man's head back.
"Start talking- everything about the McKandless and Gambol cases."
Ryuga exhaled shakily, praying he could only be doing the right thing.
"Hey, Bao." Kuro poked her head out of her office, "Who laid the box in my office?"
"Uh, new mail guy. Wasn't very talkative either. Kinda creepy, too." Bao replied.
"Huh." Kuro walked back into her office. She stared at the box, before shrugging and tearing it open.
Inside of it, was a timer that was counting down. The current numbers read: 23: 36: 45.
Kuro's mind was fast enough to know what it said- twenty three hours, thirty six minutes, and forty five seconds...
To what?
Then she saw the note in the box. It was written in something red.
Suspicious, Kuro used a nearby Kleenex to pull the note out and read it.
If you want your friends back, you have the amount of time on the timer. Otherwise, you're down two detectives- and in the most breathless way possible.
"Bao!" Kuro shouted, "Call Gingka in! We've got a Code Red!"
Ryuga threw his shoulder against the steel door. The only damage that happened was upon himself, as his body cried out in pain at the effort.
Damn them. Damn them! When he got his hands on that trio of assailants- Jack, Damian, and Tobio- none of them were going to survive.
Especially Tobio. After what he did to Mikaela, and threatened to do to her...
"Fuck..." He swore, tearing at his hair. The trickling of water kept growing louder, water pooling around his ankles, continueing to rise higher and higher.
Shaking his worry off, he picked his way and crouched next to an unmoving Mikaela. Her face was mottled with bruises, scratches, and dried blood, some of her wounds still bleeding, however.
"Kayla... Kay..." Ryuga whispered, shaking the woman gently. He couldn't bear the thought of loosing her; Not after so long.
A low groan slipped past Mikaela's lips, and Ryuga let out a breath of relief.
"Hey... Mikaela... You okay?" He whispered. Slowly, Mikaela's eyes fluttered open.
"Ry... yuga?" Mikaela whimpered, wincing as the action caused her jaw to spasm in pain.
Ryuga noticed, and he winced.
"Try not to talk too much." He murmured, "You could just make your injuries worse."
Mikaela looked up at Ryuga, and the man flinched at the look in her eyes; It was that of a helpless person.
"Hey, what's with the long look?" Ryuga murmured, wrapping his arms around the ravenette, "We'll get out of here, I promise. If we can't ourselves, I'm sure someone will be here soon."
"Do you believe that?" Mikaela croaked.
"Hush. No talking, remember?" Ryuga whispered.
Mikaela's shoulders shook- she was crying.
"Do you really believe that?" She choked out.
Ryuga didn't answer.
But he did believe it.
"I'm glad you could all make it." Kuro started, staring at the group in front of her- both FBI and CIA agents, "Because we have a problem. You all know of the recent cases on the headline news- The Gambol and McKandless cases, right?" There were some nods, "Good, so I don't have to tell you about them. But you also must know that just recently, Ryuga Katashi and Mikaela Harper were kidnapped. Someone vital to each agency." More nods, "Okay then. Just three hours ago, I got a message from the kidnappers- We have twenty four hours, going on twenty now- to find our people. Now, I know we have our differences-" Cue FBI and CIA agents glaring at each other, "-But we need to put those aside for now. We have friends out there," Kuro tried to hide a flinch, "Family," Kuro looked at Ryuto and Gingka, whose shoulders slumped, "Two lives that will be lost because of a petty rivalry." She paused, "Gingka, your go."
As Kuro stepped back, Gingka gave a curt nod at the woman, and stepped up, "Kuro's right. In the last several weeks, I've noticed that our teams aren't so different. We're just alike. We have goals. We have reputations. We have enemies. We need to look past our differences, and work together. Otherwise, we're gonna have some holes in our teams and hearts that can't be filled." Gingka looked at all of the men and women in front of him, "So, here's what we want you to do-"
"Nile, Yuu, you two are working together on tracking Ryuga's and Mikaela's phones." Kuro ordered.
"Tsubasa, Kyoya, Kakeru, you three will be working together on how they kidnapped Mikaela. That means going to her office and recreating the kidnapping, if you have too." Gingka directed.
"Wales, I want you at home with Lucas; Chances are, he's the reason that they've kidnapped Ryuga and Mikaela. Chris, Ryuto, Da Xiang, you're their security." Kuro said, "Julian, start working on charges and court orders and judges."
"Dynamis, Rosalina, we need you two to start working on profiles; Get into this guy's head." Gingka said.
"And Gingka, I think it's time you paid a visit to your father." Kuro turned to the redhead as everyone moved out.
Gingka arched an eyebrow, "Why?"
"The drug cartel. Need I say more?"
Gingka sighed and ran a hand through his hair, but turned and walked out of the room.
"Not a single thing left untouched. You FBI guys don't exactly bother in clean up, do you?" Kakeru asked, hopping around the room, towards the windows.
"No, we don't. It's easier to re- create a scene until the end of the case." Tsubasa replied.
Kakeru sighed, finally having gotten to the other end of the room, "Okay then, teacher, what happened?"
Kyoya sighed, "Come on Kak, leave the guy alone. You and I both know that we're not gonna be able to do this alone."
Kakeru rolled his eyes.
"So, Ootori. Start talking." Kyoya said.
Tsubasa nodded, "Well, Kuro said that Mikaela usually stays in her office looking over files until Ryuga gets here."
"Her office closes at seven." Kyoya said.
"And I know for a fact as Ryuga's partner, he doesn't cut out of the offices until about nine." Tsubasa said.
"Which leaves a two hour window of oppurtunity to take down Mikaela." Kakeru supplied.
"Right." Tsubasa said, "Kakeru, do me a favor. Sit down and act like you're reading a file."
Kakeru arched an eyebrow, but a glare from his brother had him obeying.
"Okay, so Mikaela's working on a file, and she hears the door open." Tsubsasa said, "She knows it's too early to be Ryuga, so what does she do?"
"Her first instinct would be to look up..." Kakeru started.
"But she doesn't, because she wants to be prepared." Kyoya said, "But Lucas said she was wearing a suit on the day of her kidnapping."
"No hidden weapon her, but..." Kakeru suddenly pulled a knife out, "A hidden sheath on the underside of her desk?"
"So she's armed, and she looks up." Tsubasa said, "But she doesn't let her companion know she's armed."
"But how does she still get overpowered? I mean, there's no blood, but a helluva mess." Kakeru said, watching as his brother walked over to the corner closet on his left, slightly behind him.
He opened the door, "Here's how. He hid in the closet when she went out on lunch break."
"And when she looked up at the one who came in through the front door..." Tsubasa said, waving at Kakeru.
"The one in the closet ambushed her and probably incapitated her, without of course, drawing blood or using chlorophorm." Kyoya was suddenly behind his brother, having him in a headlock.
"But what about the mess?" Kakeru asked.
"Forensic countermeasure." Kyoya and Tsubasa said as one.
"You two make a great team, you know that...?"
"I got Ryuga's phone, you can take your girl's phone." Yuu said, plopping himself down in front of a computer.
"Right." Nile sat himself down in front of another computer.
After a few minutes of typing and silence, Nile suddenly said, "Signal was turned off on the south side of town, right smack dab in the middle of the abandoned warehouses."
"Same here." Yuu said, "Security cameras?"
"I get the traffic cameras." Nile replied, fingers already flying over the board.
"Hey, what's a white van like that doing in the middle of the warehouse district?" Yuu ask, turning the screen to let Nile see.
"What're the streets?"
Yuu named them off, and Nile pulled up the traffic light cameras for the streets.
"Well, well, well... license plate and three faces..." Nile said.
"Busted." Yuu smirked.
"Hey, you two." Nile appeared between Dynamis and Rosalina, "We have three guys in the warehouse district in a white van. Maybe they can help with the profile. I gotta go back downstairs before the blonde haired brat destroys everything."
"Huh. I recognize him." Rosalina said, tapping the picture of the man with blonde hair, "Tobio Oike. Ex- spy for Secret Service and a class- A sniper and an expert torturer."
"Huh." Dynamis mused.
"Hey, Dynamis, what'd the second part of that note say?" Rosalina asked, still staring at the picture.
"Otherwise, you're down two detectives- and in the most breathless way possible." Dynamis recited.
"Breathless..." Rosalina murmured. Almost instantly it hit both her and Dynamis like a bullet. Looking at each other, they both said as on, "Drowning."
Then...
"KURO, WE GOT IT!"
