Author's Note: As always, I'd like to thank those of you who took the time to write a review. Please keep 'em coming.

Allegiance

Chapter Eight: Chase

Olivia let out an annoyed sigh as she watched Elliot stifle yet another yawn. They spent the morning finishing the canvass of Verges' neighbors, and as expected, nobody saw or heard anything. Munch and Fin had already headed back to their car, which was parked in the opposite direction further down the street from where Olivia and Elliot's squad car was parked.

"Excuse me, Liv," Elliot said, just before another protracted yawn. "It's not the company."

"I hope not," she said. "What's with you lately? This is the second day in a row that you've been dead on your feet."

"Didn't get much sleep last night," he said irritably. "That's all."

This ticked Olivia off to no end; she spent the better part of the evening last night at the stationhouse sorting through the Beauchamp case, booking that raping bastard, and then driving Lilly and her grandmother over to the latter's house. She didn't get home until just after three in the morning, and was barely able to get a few hours sleep before getting up in time to do this early morning canvass. If anybody should be yawning his or her head off, it should be her. Olivia knew Elliot was on protection duty last night, watching Casey, and that wasn't normally a strenuous job. What the hell could he have been doing to get himself so tired?

'Oh sweet Jesus,' Olivia thought, as a very scary notion came to her. "Did anything happen last night?"

"Nah, it was quiet," Elliot said. "We had no trouble."

Olivia noticed the sheepish look on his face, and the way he avoided her eyes. She stopped walking and stood in front of him. "Good Christ, Elliot, you slept with her, didn't you?"

"Liv, do me a favor, and don't say the Lord's name in vain, ok?" Elliot said uneasily.

"Oh shit, now I know you slept with her, because you're acting like a guilty little altar boy!" Olivia said with a broad smile.

Elliot glanced up at the sky with an annoyed expression. Then he stared right at her and said, "Yeah. Casey and I…we, uh, got together last night. Ok? Are you happy?"

"The question is are you happy?" Olivia asked. "Because you sure don't look it right now."

"It was great," he told her. "I mean that sincerely. And I can't wait to see Casey again. But the fact remains that I broke a lot of rules last night, both morally and legally."

Olivia stared at him as if he were insane. "The hell you talking about?"

"Technically, in the eyes of the Church, I'm still a married man, Liv."

"Oh, please, Elliot," she said with a wave of her hand. Olivia had as much use for the Church as a fish did for a hula-hoop. "Don't torture yourself like this. You may not be divorced, yet, but you are separated. And Kathy was the one who left, remember?"

Elliot shook his head. "Still, I screwed up with the professional side of it. I slept with somebody whom I was supposed to be protecting."

Olivia flashed him a broad grin and said, "Join the club."

"What do you mean?" he asked, giving her a suspicious look.

"Remember when Alex came back? When she was in the safe house before the trial?"

Elliot's eyes grew very wide just then. "You mean you—"

"Yes, Elliot, we made love…repeatedly." She chuckled slightly. "We make quite a pair, don't we? Tag teaming with the ADAs?"

Elliot stared at her solemnly. "Why did you keep that from me?"

"It wasn't just you, Elliot," she said. "We kept it from everybody."

"Yeah, but you still could have told me, Liv. I'm your partner. Didn't you think I would understand?"

Olivia uneasily bit her lower lip. The fact was that he had a point. But before she could respond, something in the corner of her eye caught her attention, and when Olivia glanced across the street, what she saw there made her blood run cold.

A man stood there, close by the entranceway to an alley. He wore jeans with a hooded jacket. The hood was pulled up over his head, hiding his face, reducing it to a pool of icy blackness that glared right at her. Although it had been unseasonably chilly this past week, it still wasn't cold enough to wear a hood. The gut instinct that Olivia had cultivated over the years as a detective was now screaming at her that this guy, whoever he was, was bad news.

"What is it?" Elliot asked, picking up on her abrupt change of mood. He stood with his back towards the man.

"There's a guy across the street, with a hood," Olivia told him in a whisper. "He's staring right at us."

Elliot abruptly turned around and glared at the man. When he did this, the hooded man took a few steps backward.

'He's gonna run,' Olivia thought with dread. She realized why he stood in front of the alleyway: because that was his pre-planned escape route. That alley cut through the block to the next street. A chill swept through her entire body as Olivia thought: 'Is that the sniper?'

Elliot flicked the side of his jacket back, so that his hand had easy access to the holstered gun on his hip. Then he crossed the street and said, in his best cheerful manner, "Excuse me, sir! I was wondering if we might have a word with you!"

With that, the hooded man bolted into the alleyway.

"HE'S RUNNING!" Elliot shouted, as he ran full bore after the hooded man.

Olivia paused in the middle of the street when Munch and Fin's car pulled up short in front of her. They both got out, their guns drawn, until Olivia waved them away. "No, stay with the car! This alley cuts through to the next street. Drive over to Varrick and cut him off!"

"Got it!" Fin said, as he and Munch both got back into their car.

Olivia pulled her gun out and raced after Elliot, who was already halfway through the alleyway, which opened into a courtyard. Elliot disappeared around a corner, and Olivia followed him. Yet when Olivia entered the courtyard a moment later, she was stunned to see that there was a dead end ahead of her. She was also alone. Elliot obviously had ran ahead of her, but to where?

The courtyard was a large dreary gray space that was made of bricks and concrete. There were no windows in the walls, but there were two doors off to the side. Elliot had to have chased the hooded man through one of those doors, but which one?

She ran up to the doors, and peered inside the one that had been left ajar. There was nothing but blackness within, with the brightly lit outline of a doorway at the far end. That had to be the exit to Varrick Street.

But there was a lot of darkness between her and the street.

Olivia pulled out her cell phone and called Elliot.

He answered after the first ring. "Liv, where are you?"

"I got turned around in the alleyway, but I've found my way out," Liv replied, as she walked through the doorway.

"I thought you went with Munch and Fin," Elliot said.

"I'll be with you in just a sec," Olivia said, her voice echoing in the vast, dark room that she strode through. "Where are you?"

"I'm on Varrick and I lost him," Elliot said.

Olivia ceased walking. "You lost him?"

"Yeah. I lost sight of him even before I came out of the building. Did he double back towards you?"

Olivia stared wide-eyed around her in the darkness. With growing horror, it suddenly dawned on her that the hooded man might have lost Elliot by hiding somewhere in here, allowing Elliot to run right past him.

And now Olivia was here alone with him.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a noise within the darkness. It had been the unmistakable sound of movement. "El," she whispered into the phone, "I'm still in the building, between the court and the street, and I could really use back up right now."

"I'm coming, Liv! Hold on!"

Holding her Glock out before her with one hand, Olivia tried to spot any obvious hiding places, but it was too dark. The only illumination came from the doorways at both ends of the room. The remaining two thirds of the room was shrouded in pitch-blackness.

'Flashlight, I need the flashlight,' she thought, as she dug into her jacket pocket. 'No, it's in the other damn pocket…'

"Shit," Olivia muttered, as she accidentally dropped the cell phone. It clattered to the floor, lost in the shadows. Well, at least she now had a free hand to dig for the flashlight. As she frantically dug in the other pocket, Olivia glanced up and saw a ghostly shape standing in the dimness before her.

She aimed her gun right at the figure, who stood as still as a statue in the gloom. "NYPD!" she shouted. "Come out into the light!"

Yet the figure remained where he was, standing stock-still with his arms at his sides.

"I'm a police officer with the NYPD," Olivia warned the ghostly figure, "and I have a gun aimed right at you! Come out where I can see you with your hands up NOW!"

But the eerie figure did not heed her command; he stayed well within the shadows.

'Where's that frigging flashlight!' Olivia thought, fighting off the frenzied panic that threatened to overwhelm her. She found the small palm-sized flashlight and brought it up beside her gun like they taught her at the police academy.

She shone the light on the figure, expecting to see the hooded man, the sniper, aiming an AR-15 back at her. Instead, Olivia only saw a mannequin, a tailor's dummy that was used for alterations. Yet Olivia didn't fully relax until she made a full sweep of the room with her gun and flashlight. She found a cat by some trashcans—that was the source of the sound she'd heard before. It was only until she was confident that the room was completely clear that Olivia let out a heavy sigh. She retrieved her cell phone from the concrete floor. As she expected, it was damaged.

She walked towards the doorway leading to the street, and received still another shock when a shadowy figure abruptly appeared, blocking her exit.

The figure suddenly held up his hands and said, "Liv, it's me, El!"

"Oh God," Olivia moaned. She holstered her gun and put the flashlight away. "The room's clear," she told him, her voice shaky. "I checked it."

Once she got outside, Olivia wearily leaned up against the wall. Elliot reached out and affectionately held her shoulder. "You all right?" he asked with concern. "You look very pale."

Olivia smiled weakly at the man who was her partner, her big brother, and her closest friend all rolled into one. "I nearly blew away a mannequin in there. I think I'm getting too old for this shit, El."

"Bullshit," Elliot said softly but firmly as he gently held the side of her face. "Your best years are ahead of you. You're still in your prime and still in the game. You hear me?"

She nodded. He just made her feel much better. "Thanks."

He shrugged as he released her. "I'm just saying what's true."

The squad car belonging to Munch and Fin came to a halt by the curb. They got out and ran over. "Sorry we got hung up," Munch said. "There was a goddamn truck double parked down the street. He finally moved only after we threatened to arrest him."

"What happened?" Fin asked her, looking worried. "You ok?"

"I'm fine, thanks," Olivia said, feeling more like her old self again. "I thought I was trapped in the deep dark dungeon with our sniper, but it turned out to be a frigging mannequin. I'm such a moron…"

"Don't blame yourself," Munch said.

"Yeah," Fin added. "We've all been there. The same thing happened to Munch one time. We were on a stake out, and he thought—"

"Excuse me," Munch angrily turned to his partner. "But didn't we agree to forget about that little incident?"

"Oh, yeah, right." Fin leaned over to Olivia and conspiratorially whispered, "Tell ya later."

Elliot stared out at the street with his hands on his hips. "He's probably long gone by now," he said with disgust.

"He might not even have been the sniper," Munch said.

"You mean we've been running around like the Keystone Cops after some jerk off who was rubbernecking the crime scene?" Elliot said derisively. "Thanks, Munch, that makes me feel MUCH better!"

Olivia let out another weary sigh, still feeling like an idiot for getting all worked up over a dummy. 'I'm the dummy,' she glumly thought.

She gazed at a group of schoolgirls walking down the block. Dressed in their private school uniforms, with their school bags flung over their shoulders, they laughed and chatted non-stop about something, probably boys. Olivia envied them; their life seemed so simple, so carefree. She almost wished she could ditch this cop gig and join them.

But she was a cop, and Olivia realized she'd better quit her daydreaming and get back to work.

However she couldn't take her eyes off of those schoolgirls for some reason. Even as she walked over to the guys, Olivia kept staring at the girls. There was something…off about them.

Then she saw it.

There were four schoolgirls, and yet when she glanced at the ground, Olivia saw five pairs of feet.

'Somebody's walking in front of them,' she realized, 'and he's keeping his head down.' That was why the girls were laughing; they were pointing and gesturing at the funny man who walked in a crouch in front of them.

"You son of a bitch," she said aloud. "There you are!"

"What?" Elliot asked.

She pointed at the schoolgirls. "He's there! Walking in front of those girls, with his head down. He's using them as cover."

And then, in the flash of an instant, she saw him. The hooded man darted out into view from behind the girls, just long enough to dash into a subway entrance.

"EL!" Olivia cried, pulling out her gun.

"I saw him!" Elliot shouted. "Let's go!"

"I'll bring the car and meet you there!" Munch said, running towards the squad car.

One of the schoolgirls glanced back, saw two men and one woman—all of whom toting guns—coming right at her, and she let out a wild shriek of terror. Her classmates turned, also saw Olivia, Elliot and Fin bearing down on them, and promptly started to scream their little heads off as well.

"POLICE!" Fin shouted at them. "Get out of the way!"

"It was her idea to cut class!" one of the schoolgirls cried, pointing frantically at her wide-eyed friend, as the cops ran past them.

"We won't do it ever again!" her friend whined. "We'll go back right now!"

Once they hit the subway entrance, Elliot pulled out his detective shield and held it up to the mass of commuters on the steps. "NYPD! Let us through, please!"

"Police emergency!" Olivia added, holding up her badge as well. "Make way!"

There was a lot of grumbling from the massive crowd of commuters, yet they still created a narrow pathway for the detectives to descend the subway steps. As they slowly went down each step, Olivia—as well as Elliot and Fin—carefully looked at each and every person, making sure the hooded man wasn't among them. He wasn't.

When they hit the subway platform, Olivia was hit by the overpowering, oddly dusty smell of the subway trains. One of them was already taking on passengers, its doors closing just after one more man managed to get on board.

It was a man wearing a hood.

"Dammit!" Olivia cried, as she watched the train pull out of the subway station. "There he goes!"

"He's southbound," Elliot told her and Fin. "What's the next stop?"

Olivia glanced at a map above the token booth. "The next stop's Canal Street!"

Olivia pulled out her police dispatch radio and called in their chase, including a description of the suspect. The dispatch operator confirmed that the Transit Police at the next subway stop would hold the train and its passengers for them.

They ran back to the subway steps, which Munch had just descended. He stopped and stared at the three of them in puzzlement.

"He's on a train, southbound, towards Canal Street," Fin told him. "Get your bony ass back upstairs, son!"

"Oy vey," Munch muttered, as he turned around and started climbing up the very same stairs he came down.

Once they arrived back on the street, the quartet of detectives pushed through the crowds as they ran for the Crown-Victoria squad car that Munch had parked right outside the subway entrance. He left the red emergency light flashing on the dashboard.

Olivia overheard a young woman in the crowd shout: "This is so cool!"

"Yeah, really!" her friend agreed. "Just like on CSI!"

Olivia and Elliot got into the back seat of the squad car. Fin was behind the wheel. As Fin started up the car, Munch anxiously said, "Try not to get us killed, all right?"

"Aw, you know you're always safe with me, baby," Fin growled, as he stomped his foot down on the gas. This caused the car to burn rubber as it shot down the street like a missile.

"You hear that broad? CSI!" Munch ranted. "You'd think if these people want a good mystery, they'd read some Dashiell Hammett, or Robert Parker, or Patricia Cornwell. But no, thanks to this over-saturated TV culture of ours, everybody now thinks that Hammett's Sam Spade is a blonde chick who works for the FBI! This growing illiteracy among our population is the result of a shadow conspiracy that consists of the FCC and the oil companies, who are trying to—"

"We're here!" Fin announced, as he brought the Crown-Victoria to a screeching halt.

"Thank God!" Olivia muttered, as she quickly got out of the car. Another minute listening to Munch and she would have shot him.

They descended the steps to the Canal Street station, and were met by a Transit Police sergeant. He strode up to Elliot and smiled as he stuck out his hand. "Detective Benson, I'm Sergeant Ducal, New York Transit Police. We've done what you've requested and held the train and its passengers."

"Thanks," Elliot said, shaking his hand. "But I'm Detective Stabler." He gestured to Olivia and added, "She's Detective Benson."

Ducal did a double take when he laid eyes on Olivia. "You're Benson? Funny, they didn't tell me you were a—"

"Yeah, whatever," Olivia said curtly, cutting him off. "Would you take us to the train, please?"

He gestured through an opened doorway beside the turnstiles. "Right through there."

When they walked onto the subway platform, Olivia saw several uniformed Transit Police officers herding a group of very vocal subway riders into a tight group by the train. "Every other exit is blocked off?" she asked Ducal.

"Yeah, and we've checked the restrooms, as well."

Olivia nodded. "Ok, we can start letting them through the turnstiles."

"Rodriguez!" Ducal called to a female Transit officer. "Start letting them through."

They stood by the turnstiles, watching the passengers from the train leave the platform in single file. They were mostly good-natured; some were even laughing and making jokes about "getting busted by Five-O." However, there was one haughty old woman who kept complaining about how these "police brutes" had made her late for her appointment at the beauty salon. "I have friends at Gracie Mansion," she told Olivia. "And they will hear from me about this!"

"We're very sorry, ma'am," Olivia replied, acting as contritely as she could, when the truth was she could really care less who this old bat claimed to know. Her performance appeared to satisfy the old woman, who nodded self-importantly at her. Sometimes the best thing to do with obnoxious people was to let them think they won a victory over you.

As the last of the crowd filtered through the turnstiles, under the watchful eye of the SVU detectives, Olivia shook her head in frustration.

"We lost him," she whispered in Elliot's ear.

"We've still got about a dozen guys left in line," he told her.

"Yeah, but look at them, they're all wearing suits, Elliot. Our guy wore jeans! Unless he had a change of clothes in his back pocket, I don't think he's in this group. "

When Elliot scanned the remainder of the male passengers, he nodded dismally. "Yeah, you're right."

Olivia noted a group of about thirty people standing by the train. When she asked who they were, Ducal told her they were passengers waiting to get on board the train. "You wanna look them over, too?" he asked.

Olivia shrugged. "Might as well."

However, the hooded man was not among the thirty who waited to board the train. As the SVU detectives scanned the crowd, one young man—who was a college student—started railing against the delay. "These are tactics better suited to a police state," he complained. "You should be out there trying to find Osama Bin Ladin, not bothering law-abiding citizens like us!"

"Amen, brother!" Munch said, giving the man a thumbs up sign. "Liberty only flourishes when we question authority. So keep the fire burning!"

The college student frowned at Munch in confusion, perhaps wondering why a detective who worked for The Man actually agreed with him.

The petite form of Rodriguez appeared in the doorway of the train. "Sarge! Detectives!" she called excitedly. "You need to see this!"

When the detectives entered the last car of the train, Rodriguez pointed at the door on the end, which was open. Olivia peered at the gaping bullet hole in the lock on the door. "It's been shot off!" she said.

"That's impossible," Ducal said. "We would have heard a gun going off in here."

"Not if he used a silencer," Elliot told him.

"Who the hell are you guys looking for?" Rodriguez asked. "James Bond?"

"The sniper who fired on the DA's office," Fin said.

Rodriguez's eyes grew wide with astonishment. "Holy shit…."

"Yep," Fin said, "that guy."

"I think it's safe to say now that it truly was the sniper that we've been chasing," Munch said.

"Yeah," Olivia said grimly, "and he got away."

To Be Continued...