Gage stood in the deserted hallway nervously waiting for the signal. After he, Walker, and Trivette had arrived at the convention Walker came up with a plan. Walker would try a direct approach with Trivette for backup. If that failed, Gage would sneak in and use a surprise attack. Every bone in Gage's body was urging him to just charge into the room with Walker and save Sydney, but that wasn't part of the plan.

He sighed, frustrated with the plan, but also with himself.

"Cool it Gage," he told himself, "it won't help Syd if you don't control yourself."

He had no idea what was going on, if Syd was hurt, how many people were in there, or what the situation was. The desperation of not knowing anything was driving Gage crazy! He wanted to make sure Syd was okay, and if she wasn't . . . he wanted to change that. After all, Sydney was his partner and his best friend. But that was all. Right?

He heard Walker call from inside the room,

"If anyone is going first it's going to be you."

Gage held his breath, waiting to hear a response. He heard an unknown voice call,

"Who said that?"

"I did. And I am a Texas Ranger, put your hands up and drop your weapons or I'll be forced to take action." Walker replied.

Gage was tempted to walk towards the entrance, but decided against it. He continued down the hallway to his station. As he walked the voices in the room faded out, giving Gage a feeling of uneasiness because once again, he didn't know what was going on. He tried to occupy himself by searching for an easy and unnoticeable entrance to the room. In the building plan that they had looked at an the way there, it had shown that the room had two windows visible from the hallway. When Gage reached them he swore in frustration, the window had been boarded up. And from the looks of it, it hadn't been opened in over twenty years.

That's when Gage heard gunshots coming from the room. Gage began to run down the hallway back to the entrance when he heard shouts from Walker and Trivette. They were in trouble, and that meant Sydney was in trouble too. But then he stopped abruptly and commanded himself,

"Slow down there Gage, running into this unprepared won't help anyone, especially not Syd. Just stick to the plan."

So he then turned around and looked for an alternate entrance. But his despair grew when he realized that every window had been boarded up, when he returned to the door he found it locked. It was then he realized that he needed to find a way in, and fast.

Gage looked at his watch, wondering where the backup they had called for were. Knowing that he couldn't wait any longer, Gage proceeded to circle the room, looking for something he may have missed. As he passed and over sized vent he had a sudden brainstorm.

"I sure hope this works in real life, and not just the movies." Gage prayed.

With that, he began to remove the vent's door. After doing so, he got a flashlight from the building's utility closet. He took a deep breath and began to crawl into the bent. Though he had no idea where the vent would take him, he randomly made turns at the many intersections in the vent.

After about ten minutes he stopped crawling and sighed, he was getting no where fast! Gage then strained his ears to listen for voices, hoping that would lead him to the main room. After a few minutes he heard the slightest echoes, practically whispers. But he decided to give it a shot and started to crawl in that direction. A few minutes later he stopped again. This time not out of annoyance, but out success. He suddenly heard loud voices and saw a light. He had made it the room!

Gage moved slowly and quietly towards the light, he decided not to go all the way but to first go half way and here what was going on and what the situation was. This is what he heard,

"If you let us go now the court will go easier on you." Walker said.

"Ha! We don't need the court to go easier on us because we won't be going to court at all." said an unknown voice.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that if I was you." Gage heard Trivette say.

"Shut up! Both of you!" yelled the same unknown voice, "I'm in charge here, got it?!"

"What happened to 'you're in charge now'?!" yelled a different unknown voice.

"Listen! I don't care at this point who's in charge, as long as we get out of here asap!" cried unknown voice #1.

"Fine then, I'm in charge!" ordered unknown voice #2.

Surprisingly, unknown voice #1 didn't argue with him.

"So gentlemen," unknown voice #2 said, "who are you?"

"I am Texas Ranger Cordell Walker and this is my partner Texas Ranger James Trivette. This is your last chance to untie us and surrender."

"Surrender?! You must be kidding! You're such a joker Ranger Walker! Unfortunately for you, I'm a very serious man and don't appreciate a comedian as much as some people might." said unknown voice #2.

"Listen Brian," said unknown voice #1, "let's just hurry up and get this over with. You know how I feel about rangers, let's get a move on."

"John!" cried the unknown voice 2, now identified as Brian, "Relax, will ya?! Besides you're going to be dealing with rangers even after this job, remember? The whole reason I'm even here!"

"What?" John asked, oblivious.

"My little lady ranger friend over here." Brian said greedily.

From inside the vent Gage felt his breath quicken. He had to put his hand over his mouth to prevent his breathing from getting to loud. Something in the back of his mind was telling him that Brian's "lady ranger friend" was Sydney. He prayed that it was just a coincidence, that it was some other Texas Ranger. But his hopes were let down when he heard Syd reply to Brian's comment,

"One, I am not your friend or anything close. Two, if you ever call me short again I'm going to kick your butt so hard you'll be in the hospital for weeks."

Though Gage was terrified that this Brian had some connection to Syd, he couldn't help but chuckle at her comment.

"Sydney, are you all right?" Walker asked.

"Fine, Walker." she answered.

"Hold up," Brian said, "you two know each other?"

"Yah, we work together." Sydney replied coldly.

"Well then," Brian said, "that's helpful."

"What?" Syd asked with a slight choke in her voice. Gage could tell that that was not the response she had been expecting from Brian.

Brian didn't answer, but Gage heard his footsteps walk towards Syd's voice. Gage then heard a gun click and Brian said,

"Ranger Walker, Ranger Trivette. You two are going to cooperate with us else your friend here get's it."

Gage's body instantly tensed up, he wanted so badly to reach for his gun and to crawl to the end of the vent and save Syd. But he knew that if he acted so rashly it would only end in disaster. And so he waited, he waited as patiently as his mind would allow him to. He waited for the perfect moment, the moment when he would rescue Sydney. Sydney, his partner, best friend, . . . life, . . . and possibly . . . love.