(Chapter 7)

Agents were crawling around the Burke home when Elizabeth finally showed up around 5 PM. She saw Neal sitting on the front stairs with Satchmo next to him, doggy head on the young man's lap. Both looked worse for wear as she saw the circus of agents around her home.

"Neal? What's going on? Where's Peter?"

The young man looked up at her with a guilty look to his face, his expression less than happy as he sat there on the stoop. She bent over and gently brushed at his hair in a motherly manner about to ask more when the door opened up and Hughes popped his head out.

"Elizabeth... I need to talk to you. You too Caffrey."

Neal looked ashamed, his still pale cheeks flushing red as he quietly stood like a prisoner being sent to their cell, Satchmo moving to follow him. She noticed the dog clung to the ex-con looking back at her with a curiously sad look. Something was going on and maybe Peter was inside to tell her?

They walked through the house following Hughes till he led them to the back door and they all went through, the older agent closing it.

"I wasn't sure when you were coming home, Elizabeth. We wanted to wait till we had some confirmation but right now it looks like we'll have to act fast."

He looked at Neal with a pitiful glance before he cleared his throat and continued in his quietest tone.

"Peter's been taken. That's all we know at the moment and it seems to be someone associated with Caffrey's disappearance for the past year. They want something from Caffrey but what it is we don't know. They left a note but nothing about ransom, just that they want to meet with Caffrey. You know the place, Neal?"

Hughes rarely used his first name, Neal looking up and nodding.

"When I... killed him, it was at the cove. It's up the coast a bit in an isolated inlet. It was self-defen..."

Neal was starting to break down but he stopped speaking when Reese put a hand on his shoulder and gently squeezed it to comfort him.

"I don't doubt it after the hell that man put you through it wasn't just a matter of surviving but we need to get Peter back. Do you think you can do this?"

Elizabeth looked between the two men. Think he could do this? Peter was kidnapped and Neal was a mess. She started to feel a bit panicked thinking about everything. She had heard the majority of what Neal had told Peter, wondering if there was more there she had missed when the two men had spoken alone. She moved to hug the con gently, her eyes meeting his. She saw fear in them and doubt. Neal was terrified if anything of going back to that place and those memories but he was also afraid she knew of losing them... losing Peter. He nodded after a moment, looking up at Reese.

"I'll do it. Lynkos wants me. If he gets me he'll let Peter go. I'll make sure of it."

Neal sounded so unlike his usual self, the bright confident thief they'd come to know. Maybe he really had changed but she knew from his tone that he was determined to get Peter back. She worried for them both, her husband most of all but Neal... she wanted him to be well; happy.

"We'll get a team together and get you wired. He won't be expecting that. What else can you tell us about this 'Lynkos' character Caffrey that we may not know already? He doesn't seem to show up in the databases but that could be an alias from what you told us of his operation."

Neal shrugged, blue eyes looking somewhat less dull than they had as he tried to strategize with the agent.

"I told you all I know. I never participated in the smuggling. I was a prisoner and the others told me what they did after we left him. I read his log books and knew something of his operations there but that is all. He takes his crews from lost immigrants looking for easy access to papers or money to live on. Promises them a new life then imprisons them as his team. That's all I know."

Hughes nodded, a soft smile on his face as he gently patted the young man on the shoulder and excused himself to make further preparations. Once they were alone, Elizabeth moved closer, pulling an arm around the young man and laying his head on her shoulder. He didn't resist although his body was tense against hers, rigid almost as if he were going to shatter if she hugged him too hard.

"It's ok to be afraid Neal. I'm terrified of not seeing him again... I just... do what you can but come back. I want my husband back but I don't want to lose you again. Ok?"

She tweaked his nose ever so slightly and he almost smiled back at her, nodding his head as he sat up and looked at her. There was something there, a glimmer of the familiar as she hugged him and planted a kiss on his forehead.

"Now, you're not going to free him on an empty stomach. Let me fix you something."

She was compensating more than anything but she had to be calm. She had to make him feel comfortable, relaxed so he could do what was necessary to bring her husband and himself back safely. She told him to wait there as she went back inside to the craziness that was the FBI, Hughes looking over at her as she walked into the kitchen and followed her.

"How are you doing?"

She tried not to show that her hands were shaking, El pulling out sandwich making stuff and a small casserole she had been saving for dinner.

"How do you think, Reese? Peter's missing... Neal just came back and the monster who took him has my husband. You heard the story?"

The agent nodded grimly as she continued trying to keep herself busy putting a meal together and finally just paused unable to continue until she turned and spoke with him.

"I thought he would be safe. Peter said you could give him a whole new identity... He wouldn't be in danger and he's free now. Neal could start over and we could continue to be friends with him. Peter would be his mentor but this. I don't blame him, you Reese or the job. I knew about the job when Peter took it. I understand that. Neal I accept for who he is but he isn't himself anymore and he needs that part of him to do this. Don't push him."

She saw Reese nod at her as she went back to trying to make sandwiches and cook the casserole as best she could. Hughes gave her a slight hug before he left her with a few words and she was alone in the kitchen. She put the casserole in the microwave and started to make a sandwich, dropping the knife into the jar of mayo and quietly crying as she gave a silent prayer.

Let Neal be brave. Please... Let my husband be ok and both of them come back home.

()()()

Earlier...

Peter had felt the man holding him after he'd been punched, talking to him about Neal and killing him. He struggled despite the pain and being bound, cursing at the man till he felt a huge hand around his neck, raising him up and squeezing till he couldn't breath.

"Stubborn, just like he was. No wonder he looks up to you. I will make him look to me. Beg me not to kill him... or you before you both die. I will break him like I broke the others before he came and destroyed that."

Peter gasped for air, feet kicking below him till he finally found his vision graying to black and tunneling as he slowly passed out.

The agent dreamed horrible visions based off what Neal had told him of Lynkos and what the man himself had spoke of. The scene was like that of a movie set, a pirate ship and everyone dressed for the period. Lynkos looked the evil pirate and Peter found himself bound to the mast, desperate looking men of questionable means around him with swords and sabers. He heard as well as felt the wind as it blew through his hair and filled the sails above them, billowing with loud cracks of sound. He struggled but someone pushed a blade to his throat threateningly. It was Lynkos.

Don't think you will live long. We will make you walk the plank or maybe keel haul you. I haven't decided yet. But your friend... where is he? Will he save you or be the coward I think he is...

Lynkos was smiling coldly at him, Peter spitting on the man as he felt a painful smack across the face with the back of the sword hilt and his head pulled back painfully by the hair.

You are of the same mold but you have more fire than your friend. If you weren't his friend I'd ask you to join my crew, English.

Peter glared up at the man about to say something else when someone pushed a rag in his mouth and tied another around his lips gagging him. He struggled against his bonds till another smack with the sword hilt made him slump against the mast limply. His head ached, chest tight as he fought for breath.

"Wake up, Agent!"

Cold salty water hit him in the face as he shook his head with a painful movement that made him more dizzy. His eyes opened to find himself sitting bound to a large stalagmite, arms pulled back tightly behind him to some iron ring that had been pushed hard into the ground. He struggled with a muffled grunt of effort as a blurry figure grasped his chin in his hand and squeezed tight, moving his eyes to meet theirs. It was Lynkos.

"Good. I want you awake for what I am going to do to you before your friend comes. I wouldn't want you to spoil the surprise."

He gazed up trying to focus on the man as Lynkos moved away and he heard a familiar yet unnerving sound. It was a scratching sound like someone pulling nails across a chalk board but more insidious. The agent tried to focus on his surroundings, to see what the man was doing when he saw the object making the sound.

"In my country they cut a man's tongue out for consorting with the enemy. I have to make sure this is sharp for the operation."

Peter swallowed hard, looking around and seeing a small pot of red hot embers over a fire. Inside was a nasty looking iron that had begun to glow a slight reddish color. Lynkos laughed, seeing where the agent's eyes had gone.

"You wonder what the iron is for? I can't have you bleeding after it's gone. He has to find you alive and that will keep you as such till he comes for you... IF he comes for you."

The man laughed a horrifying chuckle that filled the small cavern and echoed around him. Lynkos stopped his sharpening of the blade and put it down on a clean white cloth nearby. He moved over to the agent, Peter looking up as bravely as he could although he was feeling terrified but this man would never see it.

"Putting up a brave front. If your friend comes for you, good for you. If not, you die alone here. They won't find you once the tide comes in and washes your body away. Your friend only has a few hours before that happens. He knows where we are. Now... we must prepare you for your operation!"

Peter felt the man grasp his head in one large hand, easily baring his neck as he stuck something sharp in it. He immediately began to feel sleepy as whatever was in the syringe started to enter his bloodstream.

"Rest Agent... you'll be a different man when you wake up."

()()()

Neal ate to appease Elizabeth, her face smiling but he knew she was worrying about how her husband was. Hughes sat with them when most of the agents left, only a few sticking behind to guard the Burke home when Neal and the director would finally leave. It was early evening and they finally had everything planned out, a contingent already headed to the cove ahead of schedule to get everything set up. Hughes, Jones and Neal would join them soon once they had the wires ready. The con didn't feel confident in the least. He just wanted to run away and hide but he couldn't after everything that had happened. Guilt ate at him at how he had left things when he'd nearly punched his friend and former partner out. He'd been mad about what happened to him more than anything between him and Peter. Now his friend was gone and in danger, held by a mad man.

"Neal?"

He turned to see Hughes looking at him. He nodded, turning to grab his jacket when someone touched his arm. It was Elizabeth. She looked up at him and said nothing although her blue eyes spoke volumes. She stood and hugged him, leaving a small kiss on his cheek as she whispered: Good Luck to him in his ear. He smiled slightly at her and nodded as she let go and they left her alone with the agents.

"You know the safe word, right Caffrey?"

Neal perked up and nodded. He had to pay attention but his mind was distracted by the heartbreaking look in Elizabeth Burke's eyes and the thought that if he failed Peter would be dead if not both of them. He sighed and nodded.

"I know it. Let's just get this over with."

Hughes nodded but he could tell the agent was looking at him with a worried glance as they approached the vehicle, Jones driving.

"Take care of him, Agent. I'll follow shortly. I have a few things to take care of."

Jones nodded from the front seat as Neal sat there in the passenger side and gazed out as they pulled away from the curb, the older agent going back inside the Burke's home. He sighed tiredly, eyes shutting as he leaned against the cool glass of the window.

"It'll be ok, Neal."

Neal looked at the agent with something less than confident but nodded as he closed his eyes again and thought about what happened the last time he'd seen Lynkos. It had been the night of celebration after they'd stolen the boat and camped in the cove. Too much alcohol and food had made them sluggish and slow for what happened next.

He was curled on his side on the tarp when something cool and wet sprinkled his face. Neal had twitched in his sleep but then something a bit more substantial, a finger with callouses brushed at his hair line till he finally started to come to. He wasn't fully conscious still partially drunk from the booze as his vision tried to focus in the dimly lit beach scape. The fire was mere embers but the sun was just starting to rise over the horizon as his vision cleared some and he saw a lantern illuminate a nightmare.

It was too late when he realized who as rough hands pulled his arms behind him, his wrists held as he turned to see all of the crew but a few men who had been butchered in their sleep or maybe from struggling lay held at knife and gunpoint as Neal was yanked to his feet.

"You are smarter than I thought if you convinced them to mutiny. At least I had a backup crew for such an emergency. We scoured the coast till we saw your little beacon. So nice of you to let us know where you were. Now... who wants to be the martyr and go first? You all found him a better example than I so who will I kill first? Andre? Jankov? Maybe Phillip? You seem to think you can do so much better than I, con. You must choose who goes or I will kill them all as you watch."

Neal's eyes widened, seeing the others looking at him fearfully. He remembered when he had been taken up top and tied to the mast, everyone including Andre taking a hit at him rather than taking the responsibility to fight Lynkos. He was now responsible for whether or not they lived even if they did it under duress. Neal had been angry with them even when they had come back to beg forgiveness and free him. He still felt resentment but there was something else, that feeling of helplessness. Who would he choose? How could he choose? Lynkos grabbed his chin in his big hand and squeezed hard as he turned his head to look up at him in the dim morning light.

"Choose quickly, con. I have little patience for this and if you continue this silence I will take it as your revenge on those that whipped you. You want them to have punishment as you did, don't you? The guilty should not go unpunished. Choose before they all die."

Neal turned his eyes towards the other men, their eyes full of fear as he closed his and nodded, Lynkos letting go as the men held him up and he smiled.

"So my silver tongue con... who is it that will die so that the rest will live?"

Neal looked at the crewmen sadly before he finally turned and saw the gun in Lynko's hand ready to kill one of them.

"Let me do it. It's only fair. They wronged me. Let me do it when I name them so they know how I feel when I get my revenge."

Lynkos seemed to consider it and then nodded as the man let him go that held him and he stood on his own feet looking coldly at the crew and taking the gun in his hand. Lynkos was smiling as his goons held a gun on him.

"Now, tell me which man it is you mean to kill."

Neal nodded, moving towards Andre but walking towards Jankov and then another man before finally came back and stopped before Andre again. The little French man looked nervous but Neal just winked at him before moving back, gun pointed forward and cocked.

"You were a coward when I asked you to help me."

Neal said it loudly, angrily, winking again at the Frenchman who blinked back as the con held the gun up... turning and pointing it at Lynkos. The captain blinked, Andre and Jankov pushing their captors aside as they got free and went to hold Lynkos, the new men uncertain what to do with their captain now a prisoner.

"You choose well, thief but if you had to choose, who would it have been? I know you must have held a grudge to one of these men if not all. They were not without guilt."

Neal shook his head.

"It would have always been you but if I'd had to choose... I'd have said my own name."

He saw the captain blink at that revelation obviously not expecting it. Neal smiled slightly.

"I would never willingly choose another life over my own. I'm not as selfish as you and I hold life more precious than you could ever understand."

Lynkos smiled coldly back at him as he found himself suddenly out numbered as the original crew were in control and he was their prisoner along with a few of the new goons who hadn't given in. The captain smiled at Neal pulling nearer the con to say something.

"You won't ever kill me. You haven't the guts, selfless or not. You would not take a life."

Neal blinked as the man suddenly lunged at him and they were rolling in the sand, fighting for control of the gun as the others stood back trying to help but unable to as they were afraid to shoot Neal if not Lynkos depending on their association. Lynkos was winning, the gun moving down between them as Neal fought at the man's strength.

"Ha... You are losing, thief. Where are your precious morals now?"

Neal felt his hand being removed from the gun as the man pulled at the trigger and there was a loud report.

"Neal... wake up. We're here."

He opened up his eyes and found they were parked along a deserted road, a van like the one they used in the city only with a different design sitting nearby. This was it. He was here and his destiny awaited as he unlatched the belt and started out of the car. His legs felt rubbery but his resolve was iron clad.

I'm coming Peter. Hold on.