Disclaimer: No infringement of copyright is intended. All characters originated with CSI:NY. Poetry not otherwise referenced is original.
A/N: Once more, a HUGE thank you to all those who take the time to review and let me know how the story is working for you. I can't really explain what a difference it makes. I am glad so many people are reading and - I hope enjoying - the story too.
Spoiler Alert: Spoilers for Seasons 2 & 3, up to and including "Silent Night".
Action Hero
Blood pounding, heart racing –
The adrenaline rushes around the body
Like a caffeine hit through the fog of exhaustion.
Hands shake, breath hitches –
Knowledge and fear pushed to the background
To wait for another time.
Pay attention; hurry up;
Listen to the orders and think things through:
Hurry Up.
Hurry Up.
It all depends on you.
Make a mistake and people die.
Make a mistake and you die.
Calm down;
Hurry Up.
Then the moment comes: the one they call Entering the Zone.
The moment when everything slows down.
You could swear you can see the heart beating
Beneath the skin.
You could swear you can hear the blood moving
Through the veins.
Do it.
Do it now.
Take your time.
Take a breath.
Make a mistake, and it will be the last thing you ever do.
So don't.
SMT2007
Chapter 52: Time to Move
"Mac? Just reporting in. Lindsay identified the organic matter in the fertilizer used in the pipe bomb at the clinic. It's Zoo Poo. Yeah – cured manure from the Bronx Zoo. It's packaged and sold in high end gardening stores as well at the zoo. Still pretty common, though."
Danny walked swiftly down the hall as he talked to Mac on his cell, heading towards the break room. Although it was only halfway through the morning, he had skipped breakfast with the early call out and was hoping to score something left over in the fridge as well as fill up his coffee cup. The empty carafe on the machine was a temporary let down.
"Anything new on Natalie Chance?" He listened intently as Mac replied, and began rummaging around to make fresh coffee as his boss gave him new orders.
"Okay, Mac, we'll get on that. Adam should be able to track her phone. Are you still with Reed? Ask him what plan Natalie's phone is on – we may be able to get the company to turn it on if it's been turned off." Danny wanted to say something to comfort Mac, but there were no words. He hung up and phoned Adam, who had finally shown up, disheveled and heavy-eyed, half an hour ago.
"Hey man, try to locate this cell number, would you? If the phone isn't on, contact this company, NYTel, and get it turned on. This kid has been missing over 15 hours; let's get on it, okay?" He hung up before Adam could do more than say "Okay." It was obvious Adam had a story to tell about his lateness, but Danny knew no one was in the mood this morning.
He turned from the cupboard where he had been collecting coffee-makings, and saw Hawkes, sitting at the table, his hands covering his face.
"Hey, Doc. Coffee will be a minute." He put a hand on Hawkes' shoulder for a moment, then sat down across the table. "How's Dr. Suq?"
"No change yet. If she doesn't improve in the next few hours, she'll be moved to the fifth floor." Hawkes didn't need to say anything else; Danny's face tightened. His brother Louie had spent the last few months of his life on the Twilight Ward, as Danny had bitterly termed it.
"You okay?"
"No. I'm really not. She got to me, Danny, you know? I don't know how else to put it." Hawkes looked down at his hands. "I never really believed in all that love at first sight stuff. But Nasreen…"
Danny nodded, a vision of Lindsay in the tiger cage rising unbidden.
"I always thought it made sense to be with someone you were compatible with, someone who shared your interests and background. Not someone that you have little common ground with. Where can you stand together if you come from such different places?" His voice faded out. He couldn't believe he was talking to Danny Messer, of all people, about women and life-long commitment.
When he looked up, though, Danny was nodding thoughtfully. "Sometimes, Doc, you just have to make a new place to stand. Somewhere between the cityscape and the wheat field." He pushed up out of his chair and looked down at his friend, his eyes remote. "Coffee should be ready in a moment. You look like hell – caffeine may help."
"Where you going?" Hawkes looked up, momentarily distracted.
"Something about the explosion isn't sitting right. I'm going to do some digging of my own."
"Careful whose shit you disturb."
Danny nodded in acknowledgement of the grim joke.
-CSI:NY-CSI:NY-CSI:NY-CSI:NY-CSI:NY
"What the hell do you mean, this is not my case, Monroe? This is a matter for Homeland Security. The FBI can keep its sticky fingers off." Grant's face was flushed deep with anger, and Flack thought for the first time that he could actually see a family resemblance between the agent standing, leaning with his fists on the desk in front of him, and the overly cocky Sonny Sassone who had caused Danny such heartbreak.
"Not any longer, Grant," Monroe seemed to emphasize his slight Western drawl when talking to New Yorkers, Flack thought with a smirk, a habit which was clearly driving Grant up the wall. "Unless you have more than unsubstantiated theory tying this clinic bombing to terrorist activity, the FBI is looking into possible organized crime activity."
Grant glanced over at Flack uncertainly. "You have any substantiveinformation backing that claim?" he sneered, but the attempt wasn't very convincing.
Monroe threw a file on the desk separating them. "Drug activity. The clinic has been a focal point for the past three months. The Luccheses have been making a move to consolidate their power base in the neighbourhood. Then the death of that girl…"
"Caitlin O'Leary," Flack said quietly, arms folded across his chest, face impassive.
Monroe accepted the correction with a nod, "The death of Caitlin O'Leary brought unwelcome attention to the neighbourhood, and especially to the clinic. There were too many eyes around Gino Messer's operation; he decided to do something about it."
Grant glanced through the records and files the FBI agent had tossed on the desk. "You?" He snarled at Flack. "You knew about this?"
Flack pushed the bitterness down flat as he said, "Special Agent Monroe has briefed me." In the car, on the way over to meet with Grant.
John turned to lean against the desk and face Flack, with a slight apology in his eyes. "We just finished compiling everything. As always, too many agencies, not enough shared information."
"So Messer decided to take out the clinic? What was the point? And what about the little punks that attacked the clinic?" Grant searched through the records again, hoping against hope to find something to prove them wrong.
John shrugged, "When the boys were interviewed again, it turns out they were all in high school together. They were paid to turn things upside down."
"The leader?"
"The one you missed? A teacher at the school. Michael Joseph Reagan. We don't know his connection yet to the Luccheses."
Flack frowned. The first time, his eyes had just gone over that name. Now, there was a buzzing in the back of his brain; there was some connection he knew he should be making.
When his phone rang, he knew from the kick in his gut that thinking was going to be put on the back burner.
"Monroe, gotta go. There's a break in the Chance case."
"Let's move."
The two men moved so fast they barely registered that Grant had grabbed his badge and gun and was following them out of the building.
-CSI:NY-CSI:NY-CSI:NY-CSI:NY-CSI:NY
"Linds, Stella, we gotta go."
"Danny? What's up?" Lindsay held onto Danny's arm as Stella quickly secured the evidence they had.
"Mac wants us to meet him," Danny would not quite meet Lindsay's eyes again, but this time she refused to be gentle about it.
"What the hell is going on?" She wasn't sure if it was her hands or his body that was shaking.
Instead of answering, Danny hit replay and put his phone on speaker.
"Daniel? The girl Taylor is looking for. You'll find her at the warehouse where the kid was left. Hurry. And … be careful. They are armed and …"
They hit the elevator at the same time as Hawkes and Mac, and the ride down was tense and silent. Danny and Lindsay were at the back of the elevator car when the other three moved out in formation, but Lindsay grabbed him by the arm when Danny would have followed.
"Who called?"
He looked down at his feet. "Antony Messer. My father."
She let go of him suddenly. And all he could feel was the chill of her loss.
"Messer, with me. Monroe, with Stella and Hawkes. Let's move." Mac was barking orders to the teams which would swiftly be converging from all parts of the city on the abandoned warehouse they had raided only days earlier.
"Flack? What's your ETA?"
"Three minutes, Mac. We have SWAT and search teams coming. Do not go into the building. Repeat, Taylor. Do NOT go into the building."
Mac shut off the intercom on Flack's insistent voice.
"Danny, what kind of firepower could your uncle have?" He said, remote and controlled.
Danny swallowed hard. "Mac, I'm sorry …"
"Not now. Not now. I need you here, with me, Danny. Now focus. What kind of actual firepower could Gino Messer come up with?"
Danny shoved everything else aside, and concentrated on the job in front of him. "He has a crew of about ten, although he's lost the Taglias. If the Luccheses are actually in this with him, there could be twenty or more. But if he's been branching out on his own, then he'll be down to about eight. But they'll be loaded for bear, Mac."
They pulled into the alley behind the warehouse, lights on but sirens silent. Men in Kevlar vests were congregated in groups, receiving or awaiting orders. Flack turned when the CSIs joined him. John Monroe, without a word, stepped up beside Lindsay, and she smiled up at him a little tremulously. Danny did not acknowledge him at all, focusing intently on the computer screen linked to surveillance cameras.
"We have ten people inside the building," Flack started, pointing to the screen. "We have visual confirmation on five of them, all in this space here. We scanned the building with heat sensors set up as well, so we can tell that there are two more here, separated from the others by one floor, in a confined space, maybe an office. One more wandering – he's been up and down the stairs already. Maybe a patrol." He indicated that on the screen as well. "There is one person in a room alone, on the top floor. Small – could be Natalie."
"One person standing ten feet away from that one – a guard, maybe?" Stella said.
Flack nodded, "There's one way in. If someone can get to the roof, there is a ventilation shaft which ends at that room. Once someone is in there with her, Natalie should be safe."
"Better if we can get her out without anyone knowing."
"How big is the shaft?" Mac said, eyes coolly monitoring every flicker of movement, figuring angles and possibilities.
"Too small for most of our guys," Flack shook his head. "We're calling to another unit, one with some women on the team."
Lindsay opened her mouth, but Danny stepped in front of her. "No way," he hissed.
"I'll do it, Mac," she spoke up a little louder than she had probably planned, her eyes steady on Danny's.
"Lindsay, you're not trained…" John started, but stopped when she faced him.
"And you have no authority here, Special Agent. And neither do you, Detective. I can do it, Mac." She held out a hand to Flack, "I need a vest. I have my weapon."
He opened his mouth to argue, then snapped it shut as Stella muffled an exclamation pointing to a blip on the screen which was moving fast, "Flack! Could that be a lookout?"
"Shit. They could've spotted us. Linds, be careful. Perrino, take her up and stay with her." He nodded to a SWAT member who shrugged and went to grab a Kevlar vest. Lindsay followed him without a backward glance.
"No, Danny, she's the only one who can get in there." Flack put out a hand, catching Danny in the chest before the other man could stop her.
"Suit up, Danny. We're going in next." When Mac looked at the young man in front of him, he was a bit shamed to see the shocked glazed look on his face, but he quickly stamped on any sympathy. They all had a job to do, and Lindsay Monroe was fully qualified to do the job she had chosen.
Danny stood, frozen for a moment, his eyes glued to the corner of the building where Lindsay was listening intently to the SWAT lieutenant who was briefing her on the inner workings of the ventilation system. He began to walk towards to her, breaking into a run as she nodded in understanding, inserting the earpiece that would keep her in contact with the team outside.
He laid a hand on her arm just as she reached for the bottom rung of the ladder. "Give us a second, Perrino."
The young man stepped back at the pain in the detective's voice.
"Don't," Lindsay said under her breath. "I have to …"
Danny didn't bother to say anything, just covered her mouth with hers and kissed her breathless. "Be careful. Come back with the girl."
She looked at him with her heart in her eyes, and kissed him once, quickly, hard. Then without a look over to shoulder to be sure Perrino was following her, she began to clamber up the access ladder on the side of the building to the roof.
