A/N: Sorry for the long delay. Somehow I forgot to update to this site. However, here's two chapters to make up for it.

Chapter 27

Kenneth stood with one hand on the mantle, staring into the fire. He was working through the new variables created by the changes in the game. "You were right Ian. I should have let you kill Siri and Dante. It would seem I overestimated the Captains' sense of self-preservation."

"Or McCarty's cleverness," Nottingham felt obligated to point out. Unless he made a conscious effort to do so, he still thought of Jake as a hapless do-gooder who sometimes succeeded in spite of himself. He knew it wasn't true, but the agent's camouflage was terribly pervasive.

"Perhaps we all did." Irons nodded once in concession of the point, "Well, there is no point in examining how it came about, not right now. We have more important things to focus on."

"Damage control." Ian nodded. The longer Siri and Dante were in custody, the more likely it was that one or both would compromise Vorshlag Industries, and by extension, Kenneth Irons.

"Both men will need to be eliminated before they endanger my position further." Irons unconsciously echoed his servant's thoughts.

"It shall be done." Ian lowered his head in obeisance.

"Of course it will. Your skills I have never underestimated, with good reason. But this has progressed far enough that their deaths will not be enough. We must give the F.B.I. a fairly obvious trail to follow, one that leads where we wish it." Kenneth let his eyes drift to half-mast as he contemplated the ways in which to make everything occur in accordance with his desires.

"Fellini." Nottingham spoke the single word with conviction. Now he understood what Irons had been doing earlier with that phone call. He was manoeuvring Orlinsky and Fellini into a precarious position, and then, ever so subtly, he would provide the impetus to send them over the edge and into the arms of the F.B.I.

"Of course Fellini. He's high profile enough to have them salivating over his conviction, and where one public official is engaged in criminal activities, there will be more." Irons smiled, pleased with himself. "They'll never look at the private sector once they begin their witch hunt at City Hall."

"The ensuing media circus will completely obscure any manoeuvrings made on our part." Nottingham could see multiple advantages to such a shake-up. The power vacuum left by removing so many highly placed players would give Irons a great many opportunities to expand.

"Yes, it will. Follow Orlinsky and record his conversation with Marcus. If the detective is fool enough to mention my involvement, have it edited out, then leave a copy for Pezzini. She will make sure her partner gets it, while leaving us conveniently out of the loop." Irons settled in his favourite wing-backed chair, strategically located by the fire.

"What if there is nothing concrete enough to convince the F.B.I. that the mayor had reason to have Dante and Siri killed?" Nottingham inquired.

"Then we will release select portions of the blackmail data that we collected from the White Bulls. There is enough there that will correlate with the information Vannoy sold McCarty." Irons paused to sip his wine.

"But the information from Vannoy implicates some of our ventures. Shall I expand my clean-up to them as well?" Ian hated to ask; he really did not enjoy eliminating company employees whose only crime had been to be too high profile while following dubious orders. It left a bad taste in his mouth.

"That would be for the best, although I believe suspicion will be directed away from me. I know Marcus; he'll start to make calls just as soon as Orlinsky leaves. If you eliminate the two men around four or five this morning, the timetable will look very incriminating when compared to his phone records." Irons patted the vest pocket that held his satellite phone. It definitely paid to be on the cutting edge of technology. With his call bounced through seven satellites, his little chat with the mayor would never be traced.

"Do you believe he could locate the men and have them eliminated that quickly?" Nottingham had not been impressed with the mayor's organizational skills, but if there was a chance that Fellini could get his people in motion that swiftly he needed to know. He would have to handle the hit a little differently if he was going to be forced to dodge not just police, but fellow professionals.

"No, but the F.B.I. will believe, and that is all that matters." Kenneth curled his lips up in a self-satisfied smile.

"Yes sir." Ian bowed his head, thoughts racing madly. Even as angry as Sara had been with Joe that night at the hospital, she would not be pleased to find him dead. Dante he could kill without worrying about upsetting his beloved, but Siri… Letting Siri live would displease Irons, and definitely put him in danger of being exposed.

Nottingham was torn between the desires of the two people he loved best in the world. He left the mansion, his thoughts in a whirl. There had to be some way to salvage the situation, but right now he couldn't see it.

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Sara stalked through the doors of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. She was geared up for battle, having spent the entire ride fuming over Agent Myers attitude. It was better than dwelling on all the day's revelations or her concern for McCarty. In the back of her mind she knew she was being unfair, but everybody knew shit rolled downhill, and she had been hit with more than enough to pass on.

In the fluorescent light her badge glittered like gold as she flashed it at the brunette nurse manning the front desk. "Where is Detective McCarty?"

"One moment please," The nurse shifted her attention back to the monitor in front of her and typed away at her keyboard. "I'm sorry Officer, but he went from one of the emergency beds into radiology. No room has been assigned to him. Perhaps they are still running tests."

"Or went into surgery?" Sara asked more softly, working to force the words past the sudden tightness in her chest.

"No, or at least, not yet. Something like that would certainly be noted on his file. He may still be in radiology. According to my information they were checking for damage to the left kidney." The nurse looked up, sympathy apparent in her brown eyes. "I'm sure he's going to be just fine."

"Yeah, I'm sure he will." Sara stepped away from the front desk and tried not to think about it. The only thing she could remember about kidney surgery came from that section in the chick flick 'Steel Magnolias' when they talked about Shelby getting a new kidney. They made it sound like the doctors had to damn near saw you in half to get to it.

"Look, you can go down to Radiology if you want. Just follow the signs."

"Thanks." Sara stuffed her hands in her pockets and turned in the direction the nurse had pointed.

Pez found herself relaxing a bit as she walked down the corridors. It took her a minute of walking to notice, and another turn in the rat maze they were pleased to call a building to figure out why.

After spending so much time over the past few weeks in a hospital, the faint beeps of monitors, the squeak of nurses' shoes, and louder squawks of the overhead paging system were almost comforting. It was like the background noises of her apartment building. A sign of normalcy, which was an ugly reminder of just how fucked up her life had become.

"This is all your fault," Sara muttered to the bracelet resting quietly on her wrist.

"Not entirely. You do have free will, you know." A small cluster of interns walked by, and where they had passed stood an Asian man in a white cable-knit sweater and khaki pants.

"Danny?" Sara asked, afraid that she really had cracked this time. After all, the Witchblade still looked like it couldn't do shit.

"A rose by any other name, Sara," Danny replied cryptically, and disappeared behind the next group that passed between them.

"Augh! I hate it when he does that." Sara grumbled, even though seeing her old partner left a warm glow in her heart.

That had been no figment of her imagination, of that, Sara was sure. Only Danny could strew confusion behind him with so few words. Her own brain was not up to creating the convoluted twists of a 'Wise Asian Master' conversation. Ignoring the way the other people in the hall turned to look at her for talking to herself, Sara took another corner and found herself in the waiting area for Radiology.

There was a tall man standing with his back to a section of wall that allowed him a clear view of the area. His hair was short, not quite military, and dark brown, showing some grey at the temples.

This must be Agent Myers. No civilian would be so careful of his placement in a room. Sara walked toward him, and the closer she got, the more his ramrod stance and direct eyes marked him as law enforcement. It would not have mattered where he had chosen to stand, his demeanour would have given him away. Myers was clearly not another undercover agent. He looked more like the old school 'shoot first, then shoot anyone who questioned' kind of Feebie.

"Hello Agent Myers," Sara held out the hand that had not been bandaged for him to shake.

"Detective," Myer's voice was surprisingly rich in person, the cell phone had not conveyed the true depth of his voice.

His hand was cool, his grip firm enough that Sara was glad she had left her injured hand down. "So, how's McCarty doing?"

"His first set of tests were inconclusive, so they're doing another one." The agent shrugged a shoulder, showing what he thought of the hospital staff's incompetence.

"Oh. Well, that's good though, isn't it?" Pez asked. Surely if there was something seriously wrong, they wouldn't have needed to do another test.

"It just means he's not haemorrhaging. That, even these idiots couldn't miss." Myers continued to scan the area, watching for god-knew-what.

Sara used to do that a lot, back when she had been a beat cop. You had to watch your surroundings every second, or there was the very real possibility that something bad would happen to you or your partner. It was a little odd to be on the other side of the roving eye. Now she knew why Maria used to say it drove her crazy. Pez felt like there was something going on behind her. It was hard to fight the urge to turn around and look.

The door opened across from where the two were standing, and an orderly wheeled out McCarty. He was lying on his stomach, chin resting on his hands. Jake grinned up at the two, wondering how they were getting along. Myers could be pretty abrasive when he wanted to be, and so could Sara.

"Are you done lying around? We've got work to do." Myers asked, his eyes holding a little gleam of relief at seeing the younger agent.

"Sorry boss, they want to keep me overnight for observation. You can take Pez though, she's got good instincts." Jake suggested; fighting the urge to giggle at the idea of the two stuck together in a car for hours on a stakeout.

"Those must be some pretty good drugs they gave you, otherwise you'd remember that I would never take a witness into a potential situation." Agent Myers glared down at the convalescent blonde.

"Pffffttt…" Jake blew a raspberry, "You're no fun."

"No, I'm not," the agent deadpanned. "You would be wise to remember that."

"Hey, since when did I become a witness?" Sara objected as she followed the orderlies wheeling McCarty down the hall.

"I know you've seen Orlinsky take a payoff, it's in McCarty's report. So is the little hooker witness you're trying to protect. The one who watched her pimp get whacked. Charlene, I believe her name was?" The agent pointed out.

She hadn't told McCarty about that. Pez glared at the reclining undercover agent. The little prick must have her under surveillance. Sara made a mental note to kick Jake's ass, just as soon as he got better. "So I saw a payoff, big deal. I don't know enough to make that much of a difference in a trial. Charlene is going to be a lot more useful to your investigation than I will be."

"Oh don't worry, just as soon as you tell us where you've stashed her, we'll pick up Charlene too." Myers curled his lips up slightly in a half smile.

"Whaddaya mean, too? I thought we'd just covered that I don't have anything to contribute." Pezzini glowered. Was this asshole not listening to her? "Even if I did, I hardly need to be bundled off to some safe house."

"Since you're not back on active duty, I agree. As long as you're recuperating at home, and not out on the streets tempting fate, we won't take you in." Myers clearly felt he was being generous.

"That's mighty big of you," Sara couldn't quite keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

"Yeah, actually, it is." The agent nodded his dark head in agreement. "But the too I was referring to was,"

"Don't say it," Jake pleaded, obviously having some idea what was coming next.

"We picked up Dante tonight." Myers ignored McCarty's objection. If McCarty hadn't told his partner what was going on, he deserved what he got.

"What?" Sara forgot where they were and yelled; garnering several dark looks from the nursing staff.

"I told you not to say anything," Jake mumbled into his pillow.

"Why did you pick him up?" Sara asked suspiciously.

"We had Siri under surveillance, and Dante was about to murder him. We arrested him and placed the Siri's in protective custody. That's when your partner got himself shot." Myers said, directing a look of disgust at McCarty for landing himself in the hospital.

"Oh really? Start talking Jakey-boy, you have some explaining to do." Sara gave her partner a dark look.

Myers dropped back a little and let Pezzini blast McCarty. It was going to be a good show, he could tell.