Tony having finished in the bathroom came out to wait with Agent Baker.
"Have you washed your hands?" Baker asked.
"I think so," nodded Tony.
"Well just in case, why not pop back in and wash them again," smiled the Agent.
"Ok I guess I can do them again," sighed Tony dramatically going back into the bathroom.
As Tony put on the taps it drowned out the muffled scream that came from the ladies bathroom next door. Baker heard it and went running in, taking out his gun and making it ready as he did so.
He saw two dark clothed men dragging Joanne out of the sink area where she had been fixing her make-up and stuffing a rag across her face. He pointed his pistol towards them, "freeze NIS," he yelled but before he could get off a round a bullet sailed through the air towards him knocking him to the floor and the weapon out of his hand.
Tony froze as he heard the sound of the gun shot from next door, going out into the corridor to find Baker he knelt down beside the Agent who had stumbled back into the corridor unconscious but breathing. He snatched the neckerchief from around his neck and stuffed it into the wound left by bullet.
As he did so he heard a voice from down the corridor, "no one was supposed to get shot, you idiot," yelled a male voice.
"He pulled a gun on us Pete, what the hell was I supposed to do?" answered the second male.
Tony looked up to see the two men dragging Joanne away unconscious and for all Tony knew dead.
"Joanne," he screamed at the top of his lungs unable to control himself, "Joanne."
"Grab the kid Pete," shouted the second male.
Tony had no time to get away, he looked for somewhere to hide; nothing was available to him. He saw Bakers gun laying on the floor and without thinking grabbed it like he had seen them do in the movies and shoved it down the back of his shorts and pulled his shirt over the top to hide it. Making a final grab for Bakers radio he pressed the send button and screamed May Day down the mouthpiece.
Pete grabbed the boy roughly by his hair and stuffed the rag across his mouth too and picked him up and ran out of the building to the waiting van. The two unconscious victims inside he slammed the door to and sped away.
Gibbs had heard the sound of the gunfire and immediately ran to the scene. He arrived at the corridor just as the door at the end closed behind the two males and their captives. He raced after them but only saw the vehicle disappear into the distance. He tried desperately to read the license plate but only got the first three digits.
The mayday call over the radio had brought other agents racing to the scene along with AJ and the Colonel.
"The bastards got him Sir," yelled Gibbs, "help me please."
"We're going to find him son, we'll get him," promised the Colonel.
Tom was knelt at the side of Baker who was starting to regain some level of consciousness. Turning to one of the other agents he said, "call him an ambulance, I want you to go with him Maloney, get what information you can from him and report back as soon as you have it," he ordered.
"Jeffs, get this crime scene cordoned off, I want forensics to go over this with a fine toothcomb."
"Scott, get the info on the vehicle from Gibbs and get a team on to traffic and the camera operators, I want everyone on the look out for the van."
Inside the van an argument was ensuing in the front where the two men sat in the belief that their victims were out for the count for a good long time.
"We were only supposed to grab the woman Pete," said the second male.
"We couldn't leave the kid, he'd seen us Sean," answered Pete.
"We could dump the kid somewhere," suggested Sean.
"No we can't you idiot, the Boss wanted the woman so he could get intel on the kid," Pete began.
"Well now he doesn't need the intel does he genius," snarled Sean.
In the rear of the vehicle Tony began to stir; the rag used on him had not had the same effect as it had on Joanne, perhaps the chloroform used on it had run out, perhaps it hadn't been held against him for long enough, but Tony began to see through the haze that had formed in his head.
Joanne still lay motionless alongside him. He reached out to touch her hand afraid that she would be cold to the touch just like his mom had been last time he had ever seen her. She was warm. He knew that was good. He shook her gently trying to whisper into her ear but she remained motionless.
He looked about his surroundings, he was in the back of what appeared to be a transit van; an old stained mattress was in the back that he and Joanne currently laid on. The panels of the van were slightly rusted and in parts there were holes where the rust had won out and now sunlight streamed through making spots dance over the mattress and walls of their four wheeled cell.
Tony tried to see out of the holes. The car was not moving fast even though there appeared to be little to no traffic around them. He saw what he thought was a gas station and the vehicle began to slow and pull in. He lay back down and closed his eyes pretending to be asleep thinking the two men were coming for him.
He heard them fill up with gas and go inside to pay. He tried the door to the vehicle but it did not move.
He needed to let people know he was here. To leave a trail just like Hansel and Gretel. He had read about them in the books he and his mom used to read before he went to sleep. He felt around in his pockets. He found the paper with his speech on and tucked it inside of the woggle he had shoved in his pocket when he had removed his neckerchief to help Baker. Waiting until the men were back in the vehicle, he posted it out of the largest hole he could find and onto the forecourt of the garage.
He looked around for anything else he could find, he still had cookies but that was a mistake that Hansel and Gretel made and he was worried that the birds would eat them. He looked around the van, his head banging and the haze still present, he saw Joanne's small purse, which she had bought to go with the new outfit. Emptying the contents onto the mattress he posted that through the hole just as the van turned off of the road onto an unnamed dirt track. He kept posting items from the purse, lipsticks, drivers licence, credit cards, anything he could find. But he was running out and the vehicle was still moving.
Fishing into his pockets he pulled out the three new Cub Scout badges. He looked at each carefully before posting them out of the vehicle. When they were gone he considered the ones on his shirt. Tears running down his cheeks he pulled them off and posted them one by one gradually leaving darker patches where they had been against the faded shirt that had surrounded them.
"I'm sorry mom," he wept as he pulled each of them off and kissed each one lovingly as he posted them out of the hole.
As he reached the last badge, the first one he had earned, the vehicle came to a halt. Tony quickly lay down alongside Joanne and once again played dead that first badge with his remaining kiss still clinging to the shirt.
"Get the others to help lift them out of here," he heard one of the men say.
"Lift them out on the mattress like a stretcher," another voice suggested.
A moment later the rear doors opened allowing some light to filter in but not the light of the sunshine. No they were inside a barn and Tony could just make out through the slits in his eyes the dusty light filtering in through the slats in the wooden structure.
"Jules, you keep an eye on them, do you hear," said the first voice. "I'll put the call through."
