Disclaimer: see chapter 1

Chapter 12: Distress

Don leaned back in his chair, sighing deeply. Things really weren't going well with this damned case. Granted, they had a ton of leads that they'd been checking out for the last couple of days, but none of them seemed to actually lead them anywhere. They hadn't even been able to identify the fourth suspect involved in the shooting. While David and Colby had been fairly certain that he hadn't been among the group members arrested during the raid, there were a vast number of other members that came into consideration, since they just hadn't been able to see him that well. Even if they only looked at those individuals who were in regular contact with either Lee Rivers, Pete Blakely or Marcy Connaghan, they were still left with half a dozen suspects. They'd taken a closer look at those, but there were still five of them who hadn't been able to provide the agents with an alibi for the time of the shooting, and they didn't even know whether the fourth guy was actually a member of Life's Matter.

Other than with their search for their fourth suspect, they'd spent the past three days investigating the more prominent members of Life's Matter, according to Charlie's network analysis, but hadn't found anything conclusive. True, there were some dubious money transactions, but since several team members had access to the group's accounts, they couldn't tell for sure who was responsible for those. It might have been Lee Rivers, who had a more prominent role within the group than they'd realized at first, but it was also very well possible that there were a number of further activists connected to the scheming side of their terrorist activities, maybe ones they hadn't even heard of so far. At least the enhanced background check of Lee had given them reason to assume that he, like Naji Habash, was personally connected to shady people, but still, Don found it strange that the overall picture remained so white, that even after a thorough search of the houses of several of the leaders of Life's Matter, they hadn't found any further proof for terrorist activities. And even those shady connections didn't help them, since each of their suspicious contacts had either gone into hiding or was presumed dead.

Their work was very time-consuming, even with Charlie's network analysis as a helpful guide, and they were running out of time. Since they hadn't been able to show for anything tangible, they'd had to release their suspects again, so now they were back out in the open with all possibilities to prepare whatever coup they might have been planning. Therefore, it was a good thing that they'd stopped being one man short. This morning, David had joined them, and given that Don had known for some time now that he was going to be okay, he was a little surprised at just how good it felt to see the team reunited. True, David still had his arm in a sling, and if his mind wasn't playing tricks on Don, he did look a tad paler than usual, but he'd assured them that he was fit for desk duty again. And that was what they had been doing over the course of the day, so maybe Don shouldn't be surprised that after a long day of work, his still convalescing friend was showing slight signs of exhaustion.

Suddenly, Don's attention was caught by Colby, who was motioning at them to be quiet and listen to the phone call he was just putting on speaker.

"I just don't know what to do," a voice came from the speakers. It was female and sounded rather desperate, the girl was obviously crying.

"Just calm down and tell me exactly what happened," Colby said while he wrote down the name of the caller so that his colleagues could follow, Marcy.

For some seconds, all they could hear were sobs, then Marcy's voice again, "It just got worse and worse. I thought he was our friend, but he only kept using us. And now Pete… I just don't know who else to turn to."

"Who are you talking about? Lee Rivers?"

"Yes," the sobbing continued. "He left me here for the night, he locked me in, and then he just left, and I… I'm just so afraid of what he might do to me. I don't want to be a part anymore in whatever it is he's doing, I just wanna go home."

"Alright, Marcy, calm down, we're gonna get you. Can you tell us where you are?"

"I don't know, it's one of the old buildings in the zoo, one they don't use anymore. It's some sort of giant cage, maybe for monkeys or something."

"And you're sure he left you alone? Did he set up any traps or anything?"

"No," Marcy cried, "he just locked me in this giant cage, but now it's dark and I'm getting so scared, just please, help me!"

In the meanwhile, the trace that Colby had apparently started when he'd received Marcy's call had revealed results and a map popped up on Colby's screen, indicating a location that perfectly fit Marcy's description.

"Okay, just sit tight, you hear me?" he tried to calm her down. "We're gonna come and get you, and if you help us go against Rivers, he won't hurt you anymore, okay? Now just sit tight until we're there, it's only a matter of minutes, and if Rivers comes back, just keep calm and don't antagonize him, got it?"

"Okay," the girl sniffed. "Just please, hurry."

With that, the call ended.

"What was that?" Don asked in an attempt to rid his mind of as much confusion as possible.

"I'm not sure," Colby replied, "some kind of distress call. Apparently, Rivers somehow forced her to participate in his terrorist project, but after the shooting, she wanted to get out, so now… well, you heard that part. I think we shouldn't waste another moment."

Don nodded. "We had better all go, in case Rivers comes back to check on her. Harvey, you're with us?"

"Certainly," the NSA agent replied.

"Good, we'll take my car and Colby's. David, you stay here until we're back, okay?"

"Got it," David replied. "I'll see if I can gather some information about that zoo, its layout and that sort of thing."

"Sounds good, call us if you find anything that might be of use to us," Don told him before they left.

David emerged from the break room with what he hoped to be the last cup of coffee for the day and emitted a hearty yawn. Now, after a long day of work, his body was reminding him in no uncertain ways that it was still healing and that it needed more rest than usual. The fact that everyone else on their floor had already left wasn't apt to lift David's spirits either, but that was when he found that his assessment was wrong, that he was no longer alone in the bullpen, for he had a visitor, or rather his team had.

"Charlie!" he called out to him before the mathematician could take his somewhat frantic search for someone he knew any further. "What are you doing here?"

It was only when the professor turned around that David realized that he probably should have gone for a more formal greeting. But over the course of the day, and also during his colleagues' visits while he'd still been convalescing, the rest of the team had referred to Don's brother so often as 'Charlie' that he'd gotten used to it, so that his first name had come out naturally before he'd been able to hold himself back.

Luckily, though, Charlie didn't seem to mind. "Oh, you," he said, "David, right? Where is everyone?" It was only then that the mathematician seemed to realize that he was going like a bull at a gate, for a little flustered, he added, "How's your arm?"

"Getting there," David replied with a smile before he gave him the answer that was obviously more pressing to him right now, "They're answering a distress call, but they should be back within the hour."

"A distress call?"

"Yeah, you remember Marcy Connaghan? Apparently, Lee Rivers locked her into some cage at the zoo and they're in the process of getting her out of there. We're hoping she'll be cooperating with us then, so I'm afraid you probably came here in vain."

A deep frown had entered the mathematician's forehead. "I'm not so sure about that," he said slowly. "Lee Rivers locked her in? Did she say why?"

David shook his head. "It was a distress call, so she wasn't very elaborate, but seems like she no longer wanted anything to do with their terrorist business and he didn't want to let her go."

Charlie was shaking his head and biting his lip, clear signs that he wasn't satisfied with that answer.

"What is it?" David asked when the mathematician didn't show signs of sharing what was on his mind.

"I'm not sure, I just… I don't think it makes a lot of sense. Lee's not higher up in the network than Marcy, it doesn't make sense that he would hold such power over her."

Now, it was David's turn to frown. "But he is higher up in the network than she is," he stated, failing to see why they weren't agreeing on this. Sure, he had no idea what the mathematical background behind the network looked like, but he had thought to understand the network itself rather well, and they'd used it enough to make him sure that he wasn't mistaken with regard to Lee's and Marcy's positions in it.

"Only in the network of Life's Matter," Charlie said, and David was positive to be completely lost now. Wasn't that what they were talking about? "There's another network though, the terrorist network, that's what I came here to tell you. I just couldn't stop thinking about what was wrong with my analysis, so I took another look at it, and then I found it, a smaller organization within the bigger one, and I bet that's the terrorism cell that you've been looking for."

"But… we already know that, don't we? Ever since we found so little evidence, we figured that not all people supporting Life's Matter were directly involved in their terrorist activities."

"It's not just that not all of them are terrorists, there's a terrorist cell hidden..." He broke off, shaking his head. "Look, I don't think we have time for me to go into any detail now, but you just need to trust me when I say that mathematically speaking, it's much more likely for Pete and Marcy to be using Lee than for Lee to somehow have them under his thumb."

"Then we should tell Don," David decided, feeling a queasy sensation awaken in his guts. If what Charlie was saying was true, it didn't bode well for his team members, because if Marcy wasn't the victim in this case, then David did not dare to think what her phone call might mean, for in that case, it was almost safe to assume that his team members were walking into a trap.

Few seconds later, the queasy feeling intensified, and for a moment, David's heart stopped beating. He had pulled out his phone and dialed Don's number, but when the electronic beeps in his ear stopped, they weren't superseded by Don's voice, but by a robotic female telling him that the person he'd called was temporarily unavailable.

"What's wrong?" Charlie asked, the alarm clearly detectable in his voice, just like it had to be visible on David's face.

David was shaking his head in order to buy time, but he didn't find a way to disguise his worry. "Just wait a sec," he told Charlie, unwilling to give up just yet. Instead he called Colby, then Megan and, in the end, even Harvey. The message, however, didn't change.

"They must be out of range," he told the mathematician, trying not to show the worry on his face.

Apparently, it wasn't working very well, or maybe logic was telling Charlie that there was more reason to be concerned than David was letting on.

"I thought you said that they're answering a distress call, or did Marcy not call from a cellphone?"

"Look, there are a number of reasons –" David tried to calm him down, but failed.

"We need to go there," Charlie said, a fire burning in his wide eyes. "The zoo, right?"

He'd set himself in motion, so David quickly grabbed his arm to hold him back. "Wait!"

Charlie whirled around, and the mild-mannered professor that David had come to know during their initial collaboration was gone, having been exchanged with that intense figure with the fierce look in his eyes, showing more resemblance to the antagonistic activist they'd interrogated in the beginning of this case.

He swallowed, but told himself that no matter how much Charlie had been helping them during this investigation, he was still a mathematician, still a civilian. "You can't go there –"

"And you can't keep me here," Charlie retorted. "I'm going there now, whether you're coming with me or not."

Charlie was about to turn around to the elevators again, so David decided to pick the lesser evil and took his arm once again.

"Alright," he agreed tensely when he realized that in fact, he needed Charlie to get there, since he couldn't drive with his arm – and without a car. Besides, time was of the essence, so the most sensible solution was to let Charlie drive him there and explain to him on the way why he'd absolutely need to stay in the car. "Just hang on a second," he added and went to his desk to retrieve both his Glock and his back-up piece from the drawer.

Charlie frowned, but at least had the presence of mind to assuage his curiosity while moving. "Two guns?"

"One is for you," David replied while he was impatiently hitting the button to call the elevator. "You're gonna drive me there, but you're gonna stay in the car and you're gonna lock the doors from the inside. I'm gonna call for back-up, but we can't go in there with an entire army, not as long as we don't know what we'll run into, or how much time we have. So your job is to either wait until we're back or call for further back-up, and you'll keep the gun for protection just in case, got it?"

In the meanwhile, the elevator had arrived and they had stepped inside, and the cold light was making the mathematician look even paler than he had been looking in the bullpen. He was shaking his head, and for the first time, David could detect fear in his eyes as he was staring at the gun David was still holding out towards him. "I'm not gonna take that."

"You are," David insisted. "It's for your own protection. If our bad guys get out and try to hijack your car, you should be able to scare them away with that." Charlie was still hesitating, so David decided to leave him no choice, "Just take it now so I can call for back-up."

Charlie swallowed thickly and took the deadly object with trembling hands, and David could tell that in that moment, he truly realized what he'd gotten himself into. "Listen," he said, "you don't have to do this. Just give me your car keys and I'll drive there myself." Anyway, all he needed his left hand for was the turn signal, right?

And just like that, the fear in Charlie's eyes had been pushed into the background and replaced by a look of grim determination. "Let's go," was all he said before the elevator doors opened and he started off towards his car, with David following closely behind, both of them hoping there would still be time to save their friends.