Tuesday, 3 days prior….

(AT&T belongs to AT&T, not to me, hey that rhymes! And Ray's and Al's Towing Services belong to themselves, if they exist. Mere prop deviations, nothing to worry about…)

Alex watched with narrow eyes as the replica of Dylan's worst enemy disappeared through the crowd along with a few heavily armed thugs. She knew there was nothing they could do about it- they had to take care of the twenty or so other guys who had swarmed out of the ship at their coming.

She and Natalie got into their familiar kung-fu pose, even though they were one short. Though without Dylan, they obviously managed fine. Soon there was a pile of moaning and groaning sailors on the boardwalk, and Alex and Natalie walked right back out to their cars. While driving as fast as they could along the precarious curves of the sea view highway, they conversed over the cellphone.

"Do you think Dylan will be at her house when we get there?"

"I hope she will, she turned off her cellphone after the hearing and I assumed she needed space, but the only way we'll be able to reach her if she's been attacked is if her cellphone is on."

"Yeah, but Alex, weren't you going to dinner with Jason tonight?"

"Well, yeah, but this is Dylan's life, Natalie, I'll call him in a minute and tell him duty calls once again. I hope he'll understand."

"I'm sure he will, but listen; I've just pulled up a file of Shaemus, and upon investigating his family tree, he has seven brothers, but one is dead and three are in prison, leaving three out of jail and active in the crime community. Two of them are already wanted for some offenses, but one of them is a juvenile- thus the only one that matches our guy."

"And he is…?"

"Aeneas Corrigan O'Grady, 15. Black hair, green eyes, Irish, slight accent, wanted only to be taken out of his brothers' protective custody. Shaemus is listed as his official guardian but Gillian is supposedly the second in running."

"So, we have a name. I wonder if we could get his number through operator?"

"We could try, but it says here that the FBI and local police had a hell of a time even trying to contact Paddy, their brother-in-law. I don't know if we'll get the scoop on any of them without meeting them firsthand."

"They were probably those guys with Aeneas earlier…"

"Yeah! Whoa, wish we could have kicked their ass then…"

"Just a minute, Nat! My pager is beeping…."

"Ditto!"

"Hold on, call ya back!"

"Hello?"

"Hey? Natalie's phone!"

"Guys?"

"Dylan!"

"DYLAN! You're alive!"

"Yep, bad as ever, why? You guys are alright, aren't you?!"

"Yeah, but we ran into some creeps…"

"Irish creeps…"

"Oh no- did they follow you?"

"Nah, we followed them."

"Er… yeah. Followed the Replica."

"The Repli- oh…. That mini Shaemus guy!"

"Yeah, turns out he's his brother. Shaemus is his sole guardian. Partners in crime, I bet."

"Uh oh. Well then, that said, will you come and pick me up? I'm on Route 40, by the cove with the purple seagulls, you know the one."

"Oh, good deal, you're sort of…. close… If I push the speed limit, we'll be there in 5 minutes, tops."

"Good, but make it fast. Someone blew out my tires, a sniper from the cliffs. I went a while on my wheels but then gave up. I called a tow truck but now I'm walking back towards the cove."

"Good, where were you headed anyway?"

"Home…"

"Oh."

"No, I just… oh… so busy with the tires I forgot to mention it, how could I… oh well, um, Nat or Alex? Could one of you check out my house?"

"Why?"

"All I know is that one minute she was talking to me and the next, she wasn't. I think I heard her say Shaemus, though, but he's still at the prison until he's let out on parole tomorrow. I took it to mean that Analass guy…"

"Aeneas?"

"Uh, yeah, but I think Leah's gone."

"Leah?! Dear god, she's missing?!"

"Really? Oh, Dylan…. I'll go check it out straightaway, Alex, you pick up Dylan before something happens to her, too…."

"Yeah, we're coming upon the spot. Natalie- you pull ahead of me and keep on going to Dylan's house."

"Yeah, talk to you guys later…"

"Thanks, guys, thanks so much… I'm so worried, now that it's all coming back. It's just when the tires… went… I blanked out I guess. Hurry, guys, please!"

Both of their phones clicked so that all Dylan could hear was the empty, lonely dial tone. A computer voice rattled of a message in her ear, 'if you'd like to make a call, enter the number and press send. If you'd like to talk to AT&T's operator, press 00..." She flipped it closed and sat on the guardrail sheltered by the tall cliffs. Cars sped past her and she was tempted to hitchhike, but knew her friends would be along soon to take care of her. Indeed, the tow truck was coming around the corner rather quickly. Quicker, though, than she supposed most tow trucks went. She decidedly thought to herself that she'd give the driver a big tip when he came- speed is always a good thing to have in business…

And it came up to the curb, Ray's Towing Service. The driver hopped out in a uniform matching his car and began to walk around his truck while Dylan stared absent-mindedly at the logo on the truck's side. With a jolt, she realized that she'd called Al's Speedy Towing, not Ray's Towing Service… Was that significant or not?

But apparently it was.