Samuel Leaf had almost recovered from the indignity of being chewed out over the phone by the Vice President of the United States when he was faced with another confrontation – this one far more serious.

He'd just settled down to watch a baseball game – it was still early enough in the season that it was new and exciting for him – when there was a loud, angry knocking on his front door.

Cursing because there was no one else at home – and who the hell was coming over on a Saturday anyways? – he launched himself to his feet, dropping the remote control and almost tripping over the Poodle, who had headed for the door as well, yapping loudly and wagging his tail excitedly.

Leaf jerked the door open, ready to do some serious yelling of his own, and stopped cold. Standing on his front porch, literally looming over the short retired admiral was Nathan Brooks. Although they'd never met – why would he ever need to meet him? – Leaf knew who the man was by sight. Brooks was a generation behind him – a graduate from the Air Force academy – which Leaf didn't count as anywhere near as impressive as graduating from Annapolis like he had. He'd seen him several times in different functions over the years, however, but had never been this close to him – and had never seen him so angry.

"Brooks…"

Nathan shouldered past Leaf, easily forcing his way into the house, not saying a word as he did so.

"Hey! I-"

Brooks stopped and turned, his hand reaching out and grabbing Leaf by the neck, pulling him right up to him. Leaf felt his stomach clench in fear and his heart started pounding as he felt his throat constricting in the powerful grip. The retired General's blue eyes were hard, cold and absolutely merciless, and Leaf was certain he was a dead man. He struggled in the grasp, trying to force out words around a windpipe that was literally being choked off.

"Brooks!"

It wasn't all that intelligible, but Nathan could understand it, and he read the fear in the old Admiral's eyes easily.

"You know who I am, Leaf… that's good."

Leaf gurgled, and Nate relaxed his grip just enough that the retired admiral could take a quick breath.

"What do you want?"

"You're fucking with my son."

The hand tightened as if the very thought of that infuriated Nate – which it did, of course – and Leaf gurgled again, trying to shake his head in denial.

"Don't lie to me, you sonofabitch," Nate snarled. "I know all about your men who tried bullying him yesterday, and I don't like it."

"Nathan-"

"Listen to me closely, Leaf, because I'm only going to say this once. You're going to call them off – now."

"But-"

The hand squeezed tighter than ever, and Leaf knew that the only thing that was going to save his life was the right answer. Since he couldn't speak – not around the vice grip on his throat – he nodded as well as he could, and was rewarded by a loosening of the hand. Brooks pushed him away, sending him to the floor where he gasped for breath, his hand massaging his neck as he looked up at Brooks, trying to get the nerve to glare at him but too afraid of him just then to even consider trying to intimidate him. Which was probably just as well, because the retired special forces general pulled a Beretta out of his belt and pointed it at him.

The smell of urine was suddenly permeating the living room, and Leaf cringed, certain that he was going to die for glaring at Brooks.

"You have a call to make, Admiral," Brooks told him.

Leaf didn't even hesitate. He scrambled to his feet, and reached for the phone.

OOOOOO

The suburban had a powerful engine, and Morgan was a superb driver, but he was having trouble losing the convertible that was following him. Of course, he didn't know that Ian's convertible was tweaked. It was probably the fastest car in the state of Colorado – maybe even the fastest in the country. Ian hadn't actually opened it up to find out just how fast it could go, but he knew what it was capable of. After all, he'd done the tweaking, using technology that GM and Ford and the others didn't have access to.

Ian was just as good a driver as Morgan, too. Years of driving too fast in the crowded streets of New York was good practice for the chase that he was in now, and he easily weaved in and out of the cars that were between his and the SUV, while Shawn clutched the dash board, his face pale.

"We should call the cops!"

"I don't have my cell phone," Ian said, down-shifting to turn a corner without hitting the brake.

"What?"

"I don't have my fucking phone," Ian repeated.

"What are we going to do?" Shawn asked, wondering how Ian could be so calm.

"We'll see where they end up."

Ian looked over at Shawn, then, and almost wrecked the car.

"What the hell happened to you?"

Shawn's sleeve was soaked with blood, startling red against the white shirt.

Shawn's hand went protectively to his arm.

"I think I got shot…"

"Fuck."

Watching the Suburban ahead of him, Ian took his right hand off the stick and reached out and touched Shawn's arm, trying to gauge how badly hurt he was. He couldn't focus on the arm and driving at the same time, however, and he had to move hi hand to up-shift once more.

"Are you okay?"

"It's not as bad as it looks," Shawn said. "I think."

"Let me know if that changes…"

"What's going on, Ian? Who are these guys?"

Ian didn't answer, though. He'd already turned his attention back to the car chase.

OOOOOOOOO

"Who the fuck are you guys?"

River was pressed tight on both sides by Pleasant and Smith, and was still struggling against the hands that were holding him tightly.

"I'm sorry about this, River," Morgan said, looking at him in the rearview mirror. "This is not my idea of-"

A cell phone ringing interrupted him, and he frowned, looking at the phone sitting on the dash, and then over at Bennett.

"Get that."

Bennett nodded, reaching for it.

"Hello?"

He looked over at Morgan, and swallowed.

"It's Admiral Leaf, sir."

"Tell him I'll call him back…"

Who ever called in the middle of a car chase? Of course, Leaf didn't know they were in the middle of a chase, but still… phones never rang in the movies at such an inopportune time.

"He says it's important."

What Leaf had actually said was 'get him on the phone or I'm going to kill you both' but Bennett didn't feel the need to share that.

Morgan reached for the phone.