CHAPTER NINETY SEVEN

After Luke's pronouncement, the room was quiet while they all digested the information Johnny had given them. And it was Luke who finally broke the silence.

"Jax, you might be right about one thing." he said "This was not one of Carly's plans." All eyes shot to him as he made this announcement. He went on to explain. "There's no way Carly ever knew anything about the tunnels underneath Windermere. The question is, how did Lane?"

"Alexis never mentioned those tunnels to me." Sonny said.

"As far as I know, she's never had motive or opportunity to use them. A pretty straight-arrow gal – our Natasha. For a Cassadine, that is. But I'm pretty sure she knew about them...that's why she fought so hard once she realized where Mason was taking them. There's more than tunnels down there, there are cells and hidden passageways and all sorts of goodies for the baddies - if you know where to look. And since it sounds like Johnny got himself tossed into one, it's pretty obvious that this Lane character definitely knew about them."

"Lane knew." Sonny said. "So what else does he know and for how long has he known it?" His voice went still and quiet, but was laced with steely anger. He looked at Jax. "That day I came to see you about Alexis and the Cassadines, you said Carly was terrified. You thought she was afraid of me. But what if it wasn't me she was afraid of?"

"Mason got there right before you did." Jax picked up the path Sonny's thoughts were taking and moved on it. "But before either of you showed up, I found her in the office alone."

Jax closed his eyes briefly as the memory came to mind. "Carly looked rattled. Something was on her mind and they weren't good thoughts. I remember now, I couldn't help it; I felt sorry for her without even knowing why. I hadn't seen her like that before. She actually tried to warn me about herself, that she did bad things, and I had no real idea of what she was capable of. I told her she could trust me...and she could," Jax said with a challenging look at Sonny, who had leaned back and was regarding Jax with something close to distrust. Jax felt his own temper begin to flare. How dare Sonny, after everything that had happened between them tonight…. For Alexis' sake he fought his anger down and won and went on with his story. "I told her everything she touched didn't turn to ashes, even if she thought so. She's no angel, but I'd bet she was going to tell me what was on her mind…she was just about to open her mouth and tell me, and then Mason arrived."

Jax swore and slammed a fist into the nearest wall. 'If only she had told me sooner! All of this might never have happened." He raised his gaze back to Sonny. "If she hadn't been made to feel so helpless…so useless… " He couldn't help the anger rising in him, he felt his body tensing and the bitterness creeping into his voice; he couldn't help that either, any more than Sonny could help his own fury from sparking from the barely veiled accusations in Jax's words.

"There's no time for this." Luke said before Sonny could answer Jax. "Focus, man. What else happened?"

Jax could see Carly's face before him. There had been fear in her eyes – and it hadn't been there until Mason had announced Sonny's immanent arrival. Or had it been? What if it had been Mason's appearance that had scared Carly instead? With his own long-standing bias towards the man standing in front of him, he'd been so sure that it had been Sonny that had scared Carly. But…it might have been – could have been - Mason. His next words admitted as much.

"A few minutes after Mason got there, you did. I thought Carly was afraid because Mason had told us that you were coming. If she wasn't scared of you...then she was afraid of him. He asked her if she'd been expecting you. And that's when she got scared." Jax swore again softly. "And I left her alone with him. I gave him all the time he needed to frighten her - and more."

"Right after that, Carly disappeared, even though we didn't know it. Besides Mason, we know she was with Alexis. And now they are both gone." Sonny said. "Mason's our man."

"So the question is, how did he know about those tunnels? That's a Cassadine family secret." Luke stopped in mid-thought. "Who does Mason know? Is there anyway we can find out who's he been talking too?"

Sonny pulled out the information he had on Mason. I have his phone records. And Jax has Carly's"

"Haven't the two of you been the busy little beavers. Excellent." Luke said. He took the two lists and went to his desk, opening his laptop. He began entering the numbers, explaining what he was doing at the same time. He'd had a program designed, especially for him, by a "sweet lil' computer hacker" he knew, that would consolidate the two lists and flag any matches and pinpoint the phone calls by area code.

Luke set the program to working and sat back. "The question is, what does Lane want with Alexis? Is it the most obvious one?"

Sonny nodded sharply. "We think he may have developed some sort of obsession with Alexis."

Luke shot a quick glance from Jax to Sonny. "Do we?" He shook his head. "Obsessions are never a good thing. Reminds me of Stavros and his obsession over Laura." His eyes misted over for a moment as he spoke her name, then hardened with the memories. "Needed killing to get rid of him."

"That's an option." Sonny said softly. "One that won't be a problem."

Luke looked at Sonny again, recognizing the sharp sheen of pain and loss in his eyes. It was an emotion Luke himself knew all too well. He opened his mouth…but to say - what? He shut his mouth. If he were right, Luke knew that there was nothing he could say that would take away the emptiness that Sonny was feeling. The other half of his soul was missing right about now and there were no words that would take away that hurt.

Luke knew that feeling all too well and he wouldn't wish it on his worse enemy. Well, maybe he would, but Sonny, despite their present estrangement, did not fall into that category.

The room fell silent, everyone lost in their own thoughts, or concentrating on the expanding status bar crawling across the computer screen. The computer sounded a beep, signaling that the program had run the first part of its course. Everyone gathered around.