Fort Worth, Texas - Two Hours Later

Just one more week to go before Christmas and so far still no sign of Walker or Gage. Alex sat at her desk wondering if it was too soon for her to be back at work. Her mind was still on Walker who had disappeared without a trace from the ranch. Who had taken him? Walker must still be alive, he just had to be. But where was he?

A knock came at her door and she yelled out an okay for whoever it was to come inside. The door opened and in walked Trivette with Agent Carter right behind him. The former's face was showing the stress of the last few weeks.

He slumped down into a leather seat across from Alex, exhaling as he did so. "Alex, we've got nothing so far." He shook his head. "This has everybody stumped."

Agent Carter sat down next to Trivette, his young face showing he hasn't slept in days. "I've done everything I could. Just wish I could do more."

Trivette's phone began to chirp and he quickly unclipped it from his belt. "Hmm… It's Jaxon." He flipped the phone open. "Yeah, Jaxon." His face quickly soured. "What have I told you about…." He sat up and snapped his fingers, motioning for a pen and paper. "Okay, do you have the site up right now?" He paused as he wrote down information. "You say the password changes every thirty minutes? Right, thanks." He flipped his phone closed, got up and went to Alex's computer. "If this proves true," His eyes moved to look at Carter. "We just got upstaged by a fifth grader."

Alex watched her friend work away on her computer till he brought up a web page hidden inside another one. As he typed in a code, Carter made his way to Trivette's side and peered over his shoulder. After several seconds he brought up a screen with an image of two men displayed on it. The photos almost seem like mug shots and the men wore different colored sweatshirts. In between the pictures was a simple timer counting down to the next fight.

Carter shook his head. "That timer ends at ten o'clock tonight. How the hell did you find this? It looks like a pain to get to."

"My son Jaxon found it after he heard the older kids at school talking about it." He grimaced as the page timed itself out. "So, it is an illegal fight ring and whoever is backing it has money." He nodded his head. "Okay, lets look into the suspects we have again. See if anything jumps out at us."

"Wait." Alex snapped her head to her friend. "Jaxon found this site? How?"

"Jaxon is a hacker." Trivette shook his head. "I'll need to talk to him again…."

Carter snickered. "You're saying, that your ten year old son knows how to hack?" He pursed his lips then nodded his head. "If he's up to it, we need to see the fights first hand. Jaxon might be able to find where the video will be shown."

"Right. I'll talk to him later tonight." Trivette put his hands on his hips. "Man, Jaxon is so young. Can't believe he might help us break this case."

Compound

The time between lunch and dinner was usually the slowest which drove Walker nearly stir crazy. Here he was locked in a room with five other men with nothing to do to keep his mind busy. Currently he laid on his bed, his mind on his family. Just thinking about Alex and Angela kept him sane and longing to get out of here alive. However, according to the lights out it has now been ten days. Wonder how long the ski mask men plan on keeping him and the other hostages?

He took a deep breath then rolled over onto his side to get a view of the men in the room. Patrick, who had an unusually large breakfast was very talkative, mostly about his vintage sixty-eight Firebird. Listening to him was John Summers, a middle age man from Arizona who was married with four teenage boys. Both of the men were very big into cars and could talk for hours on any make or model.

His eyes shifted to Theo who sat on the floor listening to Hector as he taught him some basic Spanish. Though Theo may look rather intimidating, he was actually a very caring individual who always asked Walker and others how they were doing for the day. Wonder what he did outside of here? Theo, like Walker has never told anybody what his career was before becoming a fighter for the ski mask men.

Joseph, who sat on the floor by the door lifted his head up and made eye contact with Walker. He slowly stood to his feet then made his way towards Walker's bunk. Once he approached, Walker swung his legs over then jumped down. Joseph was only an inch or two shorter than Walker, but appeared smaller thanks to him being fifteen pounds lighter.

"Hey, Walker." He yawned then shook his head. "Hate this, not being able to do anything."

Walker nodded in agreement. "I hear that. Just wish they gave us something to do."

"Maybe that's how they're getting to us." Joseph put his hands on his hips. "If you think about it, it's like being in a prison. You do what they tell you do when they want you to do it." He took a deep breath. "Just wish I got to say good-bye…."

"You'll see your sister and family again." Walker's eyes swept the room once more. "I have a feeling Patrick will be fighting tonight."

"Yeah, same here." Joseph shook his head. "Wonder when we will fight?" He sat back down on the floor and Walker did the same. "So, have you had any training before? You handled yourself pretty good when we sparred against each other."

Walker gave the young man a shrug. "I've dabbled in the martial arts. How about you?"

"Boxer. Was welterweight city champion back home. Hopefully, when I do get back I can work on turning pro." He rested his elbows on his knees. "What do you do for a living?"

"Law enforcement." Walker took a deep breath knowing sooner than later his secret would eventually come out. "Texas Ranger."

Joseph let out a low whistle. "Wow, that's quite a position to hold. How long?"

"Many, many years. Retired not too long ago, kind of…."

The door to the room opened and every man inside quickly went to attention as three ski mask men came inside. One in particular, a large stocky man went to the middle of the room with a clipboard in his hands.

"Shower time! Numbers 0530 to 0532 come with us. The rest, obey Nathaniel. He will take you to see Doctor Galloway for checkups."

Walker clasped his hands in front of him then waited for the man to cuff his left wrist with John's, who stood in front of him. It was strange to walk this way, but it was smart on the captors part since it limited movement for the hostages. Once secured they were led out of the room and down the massive hallway till Nathaniel stopped at a door with a red cross.

"0534 and 0535 stand right here. You will go in order." Nathaniel went up to Walker with a pair of handcuffs in his hands. "0535, put your right hand on the wall." Walker did just that and Nathaniel cuffed his wrist to an eyelet in the brick about waist high. "You will stand here, 0535 till you are called."

It seemed like an hour had passed before it came time for Walker to see Doctor Galloway. Nathaniel unlocked Walker's wrist from the wall while John was escorted past him and back to the room.

"0535, no funny business." Nathaniel led Walker into the infirmary. "Sit down. Galloway will be here shortly to see you."

Walker obediently followed orders not sure what would happen if he didn't. After he sat down, he glanced around to see the infirmary looked just like any other doctor's office. Wonder how his captors could afford something like this? Who was giving them the money needed to keep this place active?

"0535, nice to see you hear again." Galloway made his way to Walker's side and motioned for the latter to stand up. "I need to check your weight." Once on the scale, Galloway fixed the levers till they accurately balanced out. "Hmm… 165. You've lost ten pounds since you've been here." He wrote it down inside Walker's folder. "Have you been eating?"

"Yes, but I'm loosing muscle mass from not working out."

"Well, we put you at the top of the middleweight category." He flexed his jaw back and forth then nodded his head. "We'll have to increase your protein intake for a week." He motioned for Walker to sit back down. "Take off your hoody. I need to get blood from you." Walker did as he was told and watched as Galloway put a new needle into a vein on his right arm. "After I get done with this, you can head back to your room."

And true to his word, after Galloway got blood from Walker he waved for Nathaniel to escort him back to the room. It was strange living this way, always being told where to go while being escorted by an armed guard. Once back at his room, the cuffs were taken off and the door was locked behind him. And after one quick look he saw Patrick was not in the room.

Joseph quickly went up to him and shook his head. "They took Patrick and asked him to bring his gear bag." He braved a glance at the camera mounted in the corner of the room. "So, it has started."

Walker crossed his arms, his mind instantly going to his family. "Unfortunately, it has."

Fort Worth, Texas

Inside the makeshift command center Trivette watched in amazement as his ten year old son hacked his way through several internet sites. No wonder Jaxon's grades were so poor in school, he must be bored out of his mind. Trivette rested his hand on the back of Jaxon's chair then leaned over him to get a look at the website he had pulled up.

"Looks like you have to pay to view the fight." He whistled at how much they were charging to see it. "Two hundred dollars. Seems a bit steep to me."

Carter shook his head. "Hmm…." He rubbed his chin then nodded. "I wonder if they will sale videos of the fights?"

"Probably not." Trivette bit his bottom lip as his mind calculated the risks at hand. "I say we pay to see the first fight."

"Right." Carter patted Jaxon's shoulder. "Do your magic then you will have to leave."

Jaxon's bottom lip jutted out in a pout. "All right." He continued typing till he finally got a video to play. "Dad, guess you want me to go be with mom and Tavon, right?"

"Yeah, tell mom I'll be home later tonight." Trivette kissed his son on the forehead then made sure he left the room before he brought his attention to the computer screen. "The fight has already begun." He leaned forward. "Man, it's brutal."

The fight was against a young male around twenty years of age and a Hispanic male, probably nearing forty. The former seemed to have no fighting experience since he didn't know how to duck or weave when the Hispanic came in with punches. The hits were brutal and it seemed to Trivette it was a fight till one of the men died.

Carter, who had pulled over another chair sat down and pointed to the screen. "Look here, they're wearing MMA gloves." He shook his head. "But why? That helps soften the blows." He rested his elbows on his knees, his face showing confusion. "Why help the fighters?"

On the computer screen, the young man kicked the Hispanic in the groin, which quickly stopped the match. A man in a white ski mask stepped into the octagon cage to make sure the Hispanic would be okay. After a quick check up, he signaled for the fight to continue.

"Strange. It seems to be a legit fight." Trivette began to take down notes. "Can't see where it's staged though. Could be anywhere."

"Got a match on one of the fighters!" A Ranger shouted as he handed Trivette a printout. "Name is Aiden Marshall from Houston, Texas. A big meth head. He's been homeless for the last eight years and has been in trouble with the law for longer than that."

Trivette took the piece of paper, studied it then nodded his head. "Okay, let's start making a list of names! When they fight, how well they do and so on. There has to be a connection to all thirty men kidnapped."

Another Ranger handed Trivette a newspaper article he had printed out. "The other fighter is named Julio Martinez. Super middleweight boxing champion of Mexico, eleven years back. Moved to Pueblo, New Mexico five years ago with his wife and five kids."

"Okay." Trivette nodded his head. "This is good. Hopefully this will help us get new information." His attention went to the computer screen to see Martinez had Marshall against the cage wall, his fist slamming repeatedly into the latter's side. "Wonder when Walker or Gage will fight?"

Carter's brows furrowed. "Just hope they don't fight each other." He nodded his head. "Okay, let's look into this with a fresh pair of eyes. Everybody, lets look into our suspects one more time. There has to be something we're missing."

Compound

It was well after dinner when the ski mask men pushed Patrick back into the room. Instantly Walker could see dark bruising on the man's face which showed he had fought a good fight. And when he flashed a grin to all in the room Walker could still see some blood caked on Patrick's teeth.

"I come back, victorious!" He threw his bag onto his bed and zipped it open. "Our room has been given these items as rewards." He pulled out several magazines, three decks of cards and six paperback books. "These books are crossword puzzles, word finds and sudoku." He went over to the table and threw the items on top of it. "Should keep some of us busy."

"Who did you fight against?" Asked Theo as he got one of the magazines. "Is it somebody in your weight division?"

"Nope, it was a big dude. Probably about your size, Theo." Patrick clapped the man on the back as he swiveled his head around to get a look at the men in the room. "And let me tell you, taking him down wasn't easy. I don't think the guy even felt my kicks or punches."

Hector started to laugh. "I bet not!" He went to the table, picked out a magazine and brought it with him back to his bunk. "Thanks for the goods, Patrick."

"Not a problem." Patrick sat down and opened a deck of cards. "Anybody up for a game of war?"

XXXX

In another room, Gage laid on his bunk his mind racing about what could have happened to Aiden. The young man didn't have a background in fighting and could be in a lot of trouble. He laced his hands then moved them underneath his head. Hopefully the kid was all right and if he wasn't, would the ski mask men take care of him? After all, Aiden was just a meth head, a kid nobody would miss if he was to die.

The door to the cell opened and everybody turned to see Aiden being carried in by two men. They laid him on the ground as another man brought in his bag. Aiden rolled over onto his side to show everybody his swollen face.

Gage jumped down from his bunk and went straight to Aiden. "Will he be all right?"

One of the ski mask men, Laurence nodded his head. "He was beaten, but put up a good fight. Lasted three rounds. He'll be okay, just give him five days to rest up." He went and put a paper bag on the table. "That's a consolation price."

After the ski mask men left the room Nathan went to see what was in the bag. He pulled out six pages of a book, his face contorting into one of confusion.

"They're pages to a book! What the freaking hell!" He shook his head. "What is the point!"

"It's to help us keep our minds occupied." Gage went up to see the pages were from a novel of some sorts. "Well, it's something at least."

Aiden let out a string of curses. "Man, the man I fought was insane!" He slowly got to his feet and hobbled over to a chair where he sat down with a huff. "Gage, when I get healthy, can you teach me how to fight? I don't want to go through that again."

Gage nodded. "Sure thing. Hell, it might help keep our minds occupied by working out." He put the pages down on the table. "I will start tomorrow morning before breakfast."

Truman went to Gage and patted his shoulder. "And I can help with takedowns and limb locks." He turned to Zadok. "How about you?"

Zadok gave Truman a quick nod. "Krav Maga is very good to learn in situations like this. I will teach basics to those who want to learn."

"Well, then let's see what they gave us to read." Eric went and picked up the first page he could reach. "Well, at least they gave us pages that are in order." The lights in the room turned off. "Well, see ya all in the morning."