Allegiance
Chapter Twelve: Between A Rock And A Hard Place
Elliot
"No, no, no, no, no," Elliot whispered, over and over, like a mantra, as Fin pulled their squad car up to the safe house. There were at least a dozen police cars parked out front, along with a van from the New York State Police crime scene unit and an ambulance.
As he got out of the car, Elliot stared hard at the ambulance, and saw that the paramedics were just standing around, chatting casually. 'Does that mean they're all right?' he wondered frantically. 'Or are they dead?'
He ran from the car and up to the ambulance. "You guys treat anybody here?"
One of the paramedics, a woman, shook her head. "There's nobody here for us to treat, Detective."
Elliot glanced up the driveway, and his eyes grew wide when he saw Olivia's squad car was still parked there. He was further horrified to see that the car had been cordoned off, with state police crime scene technicians examining it. 'Oh dear God,' he thought, 'oh dear God please, no….'
"Elliot!" a man called.
He turned and saw Cragen walking briskly towards him. Munch followed close behind.
"Tell me they're all right," Elliot said, as he grabbed Cragen by the arms. "Please, Cap, just tell me that they're both ok."
But Cragen almost looked deflated, wounded, as he slowly shook his head.
"Elliot, they're not here." He held up two plastic evidence bags, each containing a badge. "These were left behind."
As Elliot stared at the badges his eyes grew wide with shock. They were Olivia's detective badge, and Casey's ADA badge. "He has them," he said softly. "Eddie has them both."
"Oh God," Fin whispered, stunned.
"Those were found in the garage," Cragen said. "There's a broken window at the other end of the house. The state police's CSU figures he entered the house through there, then surprised them in the garage."
"Was there any blood found?" Elliot asked. "Is there any sign they might have been injured, or…?" He couldn't bring himself to say that Olivia and Casey might be dead.
"There was nothing found in the house to indicate anything like that," Cragen said. "In fact, there weren't any signs of a struggle at all."
"They could still be alive, then?" Fin asked hopefully.
"Not while they're with that crazy bastard," Elliot said dismally. "This is all my fault."
"That's nonsense, Elliot," Cragen told him.
Elliot flashed back to that hotel room, to Eddie's smug smile, as he reached down to break the neck of that poor, helpless girl. Elliot had stopped him then, but not permanently. And because of that the bastard had gone on to commit even greater evil, including abducting two of the women who meant the most to him in the world. "I should have killed him when I had the chance."
"Listen to me, you did everything you could back then," Cragen said. "Don't blame yourself for any of this. And understand something, Elliot: until somebody shows me otherwise, as far as I'm concerned, both Olivia and Casey are still alive, and as long as they're alive, we're gonna do everything we can to find them, all right?"
"Yeah," Elliot replied curtly. The rage and hatred he held for Eddie Lister still churned within him. He wanted nothing more than to wrap his fingers around Lister's neck and choke the very life out of him once and for all.
"Both the state and county police have had road blocks set up within a 30 miles radius emanating from this point for the past half hour," Cragen informed him. "They've been looking over every vehicle they come across, and so far, nothing."
"The crime scene team found a pair of teacups on the kitchen table inside," Munch said. "One of the cups is half empty, and the tea is lukewarm."
'If the tea had been cold, they could have been gone for hours,' Elliot thought. 'But since it's still warm…' Elliot nodded when he realized the significance of that. "So they've only been abducted very recently. Which means they're still on the island, maybe even still in the area."
"Exactly," Cragen said. "He couldn't have gotten very far with them. It's just a matter of finding them in time."
A New York state trooper appeared in the doorway of the house. "Captain Cragen?"
"Yes?" Cragen called back.
"They want you inside, sir," the trooper said.
Elliot was about to join Cragen, Munch and Fin as they walked towards the house until his cell phone rang. He remembered that Kathy had left a message at the stationhouse saying that she would call him if she needed anything. "I'll join you in a second," he said, taking out his cell phone. "It's probably Kathy."
"All right," Fin replied, as they all walked off.
"Yeah?" Elliot said when he answered the phone.
"Is this the high and mighty Elliot Stabler?" Edward Lister asked. "Are you still so high and mighty now, or have I managed to knock you down a peg?"
"Eddie, what are you doing?" Elliot asked, trying to keep his voice calm.
"Oh, so now it's 'Eddie' again, huh?" Lister said sarcastically. "Suddenly you've sat up and taken notice of me once I've grabbed your girlfriend and your partner. Tell me, have you screwed Detective Benson, as well, Elliot? I wonder if she will call out your name while I'm giving it to her later? Not that I'd mind in any case. She'll be gagged."
'Olivia's still alive,' Elliot thought with relief. 'And if Liv's still alive, then there's a very good chance that Casey was, as well.' There was something else, a strange noise underneath Lister's words. It sounded like a low rumbling sound, but Elliot couldn't quite make out what it was. 'I gotta keep this prick talking!'
"Eddie, I thought you were dead all this time," Elliot said. "They told me you were killed in a chopper accident."
"Like you really cared either way whether I was alive or dead," he said. "You were the one who betrayed me in the beginning."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh come off it, you know full well what I'm referring to," Lister snarled. "I was planning on spending the rest of my life in the Marines, Elliot. And because of you and your bullshit Boy Scout heroics, I was kicked out! That bitch in the hotel room was a stinking whore, Elliot! We were brothers in arms, we had an allegiance, and you wound up selling me out for a cheap frigging whore!"
'Yeah, that's it, scumbag,' Elliot thought, 'keep talking.' The rumbling sound he heard under Lister's voice now grew in volume. Was Lister driving around, and approaching whatever it was that made that noise? "I heard you still did pretty well for yourself afterwards, Eddie."
"As if I had a choice: either be locked away for the rest of my life or become an assassin! You know what happened to me? You ever spend any time in a North Korean prison, Elliot?"
"No, can't say that I have, Eddie." The rumbling sound underneath Lister's voice had now reached a crescendo, and then it began to fade into the background once more. And Elliot realized what it was.
'A train,' he thought, slowly nodding his head. 'He's by a railroad track.'
"Well, it wasn't very pleasant, I can assure you," Lister said, his voice calming. And once more, in the background, another rumbling sound could be heard. Like the first sound, this also steadily grew in pitch.
'Another train,' Elliot realized, his eyes grew wide when he realized where Lister was. 'I've got you now, you son of a bitch!'
"In fact, I'm going to show you just how unpleasant it was for me. I'll do to Benson everything that was done to me, Elliot. And in case she dies before I'm finished, then I'll just leave you some notes about the rest—I'll carve them right onto her corpse. Semper Fi, baby."
The rage within Elliot to flared up like a volcano. "Eddie, look, you're really pissed off at me because you think I screwed up your life? Fine. Just tell me where and when, and the two of us will get together and settle this man to man. I won't be a cop when we meet, we'll just be a couple of Marines with a score to settle. You hear me? Let the women go, and it'll just be you and me. All right?"
"Oh, but where's the fun in that, Elliot?" Lister said. "You utterly ruined my life, and so the least I can do is utterly ruin yours before I kill you. But don't worry, I'll be sure to leave the bodies of Novak and Benson in a place where you can find them."
The phone line went dead just then.
Elliot broke into a mad dash for the house, almost running into a trooper who was coming out the front door. When he entered, he found Cragen, Fin and Munch, along with a group of troopers, crime scene techs, and local cops. The scene was bustling, with everybody moving around and talking all at once. Cragen stood looking over a map with a State Police lieutenant.
Elliot stood up on a chair and bellowed: "EXCUSE ME!"
Everyone in the room abruptly grew silent as they all stared right at him as if he were insane.
Elliot held up his cell phone and said, "I just got a call from Edward Lister, and I need to know the location of the nearest train yard right now!"
Olivia
"Oh, but where's the fun in that, Elliot?" Lister said into the cell phone. "You utterly ruined my life, and so the least I can do is utterly ruin yours before I kill you. But don't worry, I'll be sure to leave the bodies of Novak and Benson in a place where you can find them."
Olivia watched fearfully as Lister shut off the cell—it was her own cell phone—and tossed it onto the bed. She warily stared at him as he came over and sat down on the edge of the bed. Outside, another train rumbled by, this one sounding its horn. Olivia wished to God that she and Casey were on it. She just wished they were anyplace but here.
When Olivia awoke earlier, she found herself stripped of her jacket and shoes and seated in a wooden chair. Her wrists had been bound behind her back with her own handcuffs, and duct tape secured her ankles to the front legs of the chair that she sat in. It didn't take her long to realize that she was completely at the mercy of this demented bastard. And the worst part of it was she was alone with him. Casey was nowhere to be seen in the dingy bedroom. Olivia was deeply concerned about Casey's whereabouts. Did this bastard already kill her?
And was Olivia now his next victim?
'I don't want to die,' she thought, as she dropped her head in despair, 'not here, not like this. But if I am to be killed here, at least let me go out fighting. Allow me to give this bastard a few good licks to remember me by. The CSU can get the evidence they need from my body, they can get his skin from under my fingernails, after I've clawed his eyes out. Just please, please, give me the chance to at least fight back!'
When she glanced up, Olivia was startled to see Lister now gazed right at her as he thoughtfully stroked his goatee. She wanted nothing more right now than to talk with him, to bond with him, to argue with him, anything to postpone the horrible end to her life that she knew was coming. But her mouth was covered with tape, preventing even that last sliver of hope.
"For what it's worth, detective," Lister said, leaning towards her, "this is nothing personal. You are merely a victim of my vengeance against Elliot Stabler. I was originally only going to abduct Ms. Novak, and kill you at the house. But when I saw who you were…well, how could I resist also abducting Elliot's partner as well as his lover?"
He stood up. "Speaking of Ms. Novak, she should be waking up now as well. Excuse me while I go make her 'comfortable'."
Olivia let out a cry of rage, which was stifled by her gag, as she tried once more to free herself of her bonds. It soon proved to be a futile gesture, and she laid her head back in frustration.
'Casey,' she thought with deep regret, 'I am so sorry!'
Edward
As Edward Lister walked out of the room where Benson was held captive, he thought, 'Revenge may well be a dish that is best served cold, but is also a dish that tastes very sweet.'
It was simply unbelievable how easily everything fell into place for him once he snuck back into the United States. After the years of agony and torture at the hands of the North Koreans, and his nerve-wracking escape to freedom, the relative ease he enjoyed in bringing justice to Elliot Stabler, the man who had ruined his life all those years ago, almost seemed to be heaven-sent. If Lister actually believed in God, he would be on his knees in thankful prayer.
But that sort of thing was for the weak-minded. And Edward Thomas Lister was anything but weak. He had always been a predator who took what he wanted—that was the one thing that Elliot never truly understood. And that was the lesson that he will now be taught, written in the blood of the ones whom he loved. Tonight it will be Benson and Novak, and starting tomorrow, Lister planned to hunt down Stabler's children.
Lister smiled as he entered the bedroom where he kept Novak. He realized that this was more than just justice that he meted out to Elliot Stabler; it was sheer poetry.
"Rise and shine, Ms. Novak," he said, still smiling, "it's time for you to—"
He stared in numb shock at the bed, where he had left the unconscious woman.
The bed was now empty.
"What the hell?" Lister said, as he glanced around the room. He even checked under the bed. But Casey Novak was gone. He ran over and opened the closet door, then shuddered inwardly at the sight of half a dozen cockroaches, all almost the size of his fist, which scurried into the shadows.
Those roaches, they reminded him of back when he was a prisoner in North Korea, where they locked him in the cell in total darkness, and the roaches had crawled all over him, and, and…
'No, she wouldn't be in there,' Lister thought as he quickly shut the closet door. Novak woke up sooner than he had expected and made a break for it. He had been so busy making sure that Benson—the big bad NYPD detective—wouldn't cause him any trouble, that he completely underestimated the ADA.
'Well, I'll make her regret that,' Lister thought darkly. He ran out of the bedroom and into the hallway. When he poked head into Benson's room, the bound detective stared at him cagily from her seat. He searched all around her room, looking under the bed, before running out to the hallway once more.
'Novak must be well free and clear of the house by now,' Lister realized, as he ran down the staircase towards the front door. 'But she can't get very far on this chilly night without her coat and shoes.' That was why he removed them from both women in the first place, just in case there was an escape attempt, they would be slowed down without adequate protection from the weather, as well as the debris-strewn ground that surrounded this building.
Yet once he reached the front door, Lister discovered that it was still locked from within. Novak never left the building!
Puzzled, he turned around and stared at the first floor of the old warehouse they were in. The downstairs was a vast storage area that was completely empty. If Novak were hiding down here, he would have easily seen her by now.
Shaking his head, Lister said, "Where the hell is she?"
Casey. Five Minutes Earlier.
Casey awoke with a start, and for a split second, she had thought the past few days had been nothing but a bad dream. But it took only a few seconds of taking in her surroundings before Casey realized that she was trapped in a waking nightmare. She wasn't home, nor was she even at the safe house. And when she touched the sore spot on her throat, she recalled with horror how she got the wound—from a tranquilizer dart fired by the sniper, Lister. He had captured Olivia and her at the safe house.
"Liv?" she whispered, quickly getting to her feet. Casey suddenly collapsed back down into a sitting position on the bed when she felt very wobbly. Apparently whatever tranquilizer that bastard used to knock her out still hadn't completely worn off. 'Where the hell am I?' she wondered with alarm. 'And where's Liv?'
She heard a man's voice speaking faintly outside the room. Casey slowly stood up, and when she felt steady enough to walk, she tiptoed over to the door. She could hear a man was speaking through the door, yet she could not make out his words. And so she cautiously opened the door just a crack, and peered outside. The hallway was a jumble of junked furniture, construction equipment, and wooden crates.
Casey overheard a man—no doubt it was Lister—who said: "For what it's worth, detective, this is nothing personal. You are merely a victim of my vengeance against Elliot Stabler. I was originally only going to abduct Ms. Novak, and kill you at the house. But when I saw who you were…well, how could I resist also abducting Elliot's partner as well as his lover?"
'Olivia's still alive, thank God!' Casey thought. It sounded like they were just down the hall.
"Speaking of Ms. Novak, she should be waking up now as well," Lister said. "Excuse me while I go make her 'comfortable'."
Casey's eyes grew wide with fear when she realized that Lister was coming here. She was about to frantically dash out into the hall, but she could hear his footsteps out there; she would easily be recaptured. Casey would have to hide somewhere in the room.
She frantically looked around until she saw the other door. She opened it and discovered that it was a closet.
A closet filled with cockroaches.
Casey cringed when she saw them scatter from the light, a collection of large black teardrop shapes with multiple legs and twitching antennae. They each appeared to be the size of her hand. With nowhere else to go—and with Lister's footsteps growing louder the closer he approached the room—Casey quickly stepped into the closet and shut the door behind her.
She let out a stifled groan when she stepped on one of the roaches with her sock-covered foot, and then, shuddering, pressed herself up against the wall by the side of the door.
"Rise and shine, Ms. Novak," she heard Lister say in the room outside, "it's time for you to—" There was silence, as he obviously saw that she no longer lay on the bed. And then he said, "What the hell?"
Casey pressed herself up against the wall as much as she could, her hands out flat against the wood panels, as she listened in terror to Lister stomping around the room outside in his search for her. When she felt something crawl over her right hand, she flung it off, letting out a little squeal.
The closet door was abruptly flung open, and the light that spilled inside exposed a large group of roaches on the floor right in front of Casey. Fleeing the light, the roaches scattered into the shadows.
And they were all heading right towards her.
Casey's eyes were as wide as saucers as she held her breath and clamped both hands over her nose and mouth. Stuck in a tiny space with a colony of slimy cockroaches crawling all around her, and a deadly psychopath looming in the doorway, Casey didn't know how much worse this situation could get. But she did know that she was presently at the very end of the limits of her sanity.
'Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm,' she ordered herself. She continued to stand as still as a statute, with her hands over her nose and mouth, while feeling something with a half dozen little feet crawl over her sock-covered foot and up her pant's leg.
The closet door slammed shut, throwing her into darkness once more. Casey remained as still as she could for a few seconds longer; she wanted to make sure Lister was completely gone before she made her move. Yet when her lungs threatened to burst, along with the creepy sensation of her little intruder continuing its investigation of her leg, she finally reached for the doorknob and ran out into the bedroom with a gasp of air. Casey violently shook her foot, causing the cockroach that crawled up her leg to fall out and, once it hit the floor, quickly skitter off into a corner.
Casey shuddered fiercely, rubbing her hands all over her head and body to make sure no more of the little bastards were still crawling on her. Then, once she got a steady grip on herself, she walked over to the door. When she stepped out into the hallway, Casey was startled when Lister emerged from the room adjacent to her own. But he never saw her; instead he ran down the hallway and descended a flight of steps.
Casey ran to the doorway that he had just came out of, and found herself staring in shock at Olivia, who stared back at her with equal wide-eyed astonishment. Casey was stunned to see that Lister had bound Olivia to a chair.
"Oh, God," Casey whispered, as she ran over and pulled off the tape from Olivia's lips.
As soon as the tape was removed from her mouth, Olivia asked, "Are you all right, Casey?"
Casey, who knelt down before the detective to untie her ankles, could not help but stare up at Olivia with amazement. 'She's the one trussed to a chair and she's asking ME if I'm all right?' Casey thought with no small bemusement. 'That's Liv for you; ever the protective lioness.'
"I'm good, Liv," she replied. "You?"
"I'll be great once these cuffs are off of me," Olivia said uneasily. She nodded at the table. "The keys are over there."
"Yeah, I see them," Casey replied. Once she finished freeing Olivia's ankles, she retrieved the keys from the table and used them to unlock the handcuffs.
No sooner was Olivia completely free than she grabbed Casey's hand and led her over to the door, where she cautiously peered down the hallway.
As they both stepped into the hallway, Casey accidentally stubbed her toe against the leg of a table that was set against a wall. However, the leg was loosely attached to the table, and as Casey watched in horror the leg fell out from under the table, and the table itself, along with several heavy boxes that it supported, all came crashing to the floor.
After the ruckus was over, Casey, in a meek little whisper, asked, "You think he heard that?"
Olivia just gave her an exasperated look.
Edward
Edward Lister was startled to hear what sounded like an avalanche upstairs. He realized that Novak had never left the second floor at all. She hid up there, probably in that roach-infested closet, and now she and Benson were running around loose.
"You little bitch!" he snarled, as he ran back up the stairs.
'No more games,' Lister thought, as he pulled out the Glock and released the safety. 'They both die right now!'
Olivia
"He heard that," Olivia said grimly, as she heard Lister come pounding up the steps. She grabbed the broken table leg and hefted up in her hands, feeling the weight. It felt like a nice, solid piece of wood.
'Perfect,' Olivia thought, with a quick nod of her head.
"Wait here," she told Casey. Taking a deep breath to steel her nerves, she then broke into a run towards the top of the steps, and as she did so, Olivia swung the table leg up and behind her like a baseball bat.
Just Edward Lister reached the top of the stairs Olivia pounced on him, swinging the table leg right at him with all of her might. It struck the man square in the chest, causing him to let out a surprised "URK!"
Olivia burst into a broad grin as she watched Lister careen head-first back down the stairs. He landed flat on his back at the bottom of the staircase with his arms and legs sprawled out—however, he still held onto the gun. Olivia thought about charging at him with the table leg once more, but she didn't want to get risk getting caught on the stairs if Lister woke up and aimed the gun at her.
Casey appeared at her side. "You kill him?" she asked hopefully.
"No," Olivia replied with disappointment. They both watched as Lister, still stunned from his fall down the flight of stairs, began to stir once more.
'Why is it these really nasty scumbags are always the hardest to kill?' Olivia thought with disgust. She grabbed Casey's hand once more and said, "Come on."
"Where to?" Casey asked, as she allowed Olivia to pull her down the hallway. "I think that's the only way out."
"There's always another way out," Olivia said. She paused when she saw a window at the far end of the hallway. "And there it is."
Upon arriving at the window, Olivia glanced out and was satisfied to see that there was a roof that sloped out from just underneath the windowsill. It would be hairy, but they could slide down to the ground outside. The window was painted shut, so Olivia simply smashed the glass out with the table leg.
'If we survive this night,' Olivia thought, as she gazed lovingly at the piece of wood. 'I'm gonna have this damn thing bronzed!'
"We don't have jackets," Casey reminded her, "or shoes."
"So we either take our chances with the elements, or stay here and wait for that sick bastard to kill us," Olivia told her.
"Good point," Casey said flatly. "Let's go."
Olivia went out the window first, and she tried to ignore the frigid weather as she helped Casey over the glass shards that stuck out of the windowsill. Once they were both on the roof, Olivia released the table leg. She needed both of her hands in order to climb down to the edge. Although she slowly and carefully made her way down the roof, Olivia kept an eye on the window, hoping they wouldn't be unlucky enough to get caught on the roof with Lister aiming his gun at them.
When they finally made it to the edge of the roof, Olivia grabbed onto the ledge and let her legs swing over the side. Casey did the same, and she glanced over her shoulder with a fearful look. "Oh God, that's quite a drop!"
'Shit, she's right,' Olivia realized, when she glanced down at the ground, which appeared so very far away. "Casey, just hang on!"
She let herself hang down as far as her arms reached, and then she let go. When Olivia hit the soft earth, she tried to roll her body to absorb as much of the impact as she possibly could. But she still landed hard on her right foot, and Olivia let out a cry as her ankle exploded in pain.
Casey, who still hung from the edge of the roof, stared down at her with concern. "Liv?"
"I'm fine," Olivia said through gritted teeth. She forced herself to stand up, favoring her bad leg, and held her hands up. "Let go, Casey."
Casey released her grip on the roof's ledge and fell into Olivia's arms. Olivia did not catch her so much as she provided a soft spot for her to fall into. Both women fell to the ground in each other's arms.
Despite the tense situation, and the extreme pain from her ankle, Olivia still couldn't help but note with some slight amusement that she was once more in the arms of yet another ADA. 'Alex, honey, wherever you are, this is not what it seems!'
As Olivia got to her feet, she cringed in pain as she tried to put her weight back on her right foot. She tried walking once more, but wound up hobbling in pain until Casey caught her.
"Is it broken?" Casey asked.
Olivia bent down felt the ankle, and it was already swelling. "I don't know," she said with despair. "I can't walk on the frigging thing."
"C'mon," Casey said, as she grabbed Olivia's right arm. "Put your arm over my shoulder."
Casey helped Olivia to stand up—until Olivia noticed that Casey abruptly froze in place. Casey stared up at something with sheer horror etched on her face.
Olivia glanced up at the window from where they had just escaped.
Edward Lister stood at the window.
He had a broad smile on his face as he aimed the Glock right at them.
To Be Continued….