A/N: Okay so this was going to be out day before yesterday but my boss gave me a pretty time-consuming task and the customers never quite went away so it just didn't happen. And then I had it completely written but not edited last night but I had a social that got in the way. But now here it is and all I ask is that you don't kill me when you reach the end.
I don't think I could ever thank my wonderful reviewers enough for brightening up my day with their wonderful words. Thanks this chapter go out to Hazmatt, HPforever-after and HGRHfan35. Also, thanks to x-MJ-x who reviewed the last 3 chapters of The Road to Nowhere overnight. I hope you all know how important you are to me but just in case I've never said it, I appreciate you all greatly and you are all integral to the continued progression of the greater storyline.
This front section will use first names only, but in introductions between teams in the chapters to come, there will be notes of who does what with Alex Jackson's team, so please just bear with me and if anyone has any questions, just ask and I'll do my best to answer promptly.
Rated M for violence, torture themes, drug use, coarse language and sex scenes. (yes, this is going to have a little bit of everything)
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Criminal Minds at all, although they do own me and I do own Carrie and Toby, Chloe and India, Kelly and Brad and Ben.
Arabian Nights – Chapter 7
Alex had known unsub's in the past to be idiots. What he'd never known them to be was suicidal. At least not when they hadn't been cornered that is. But in taking 5 FBI agents and 3 more besides who were important to FBI members, they had as good as signed their death warrants. And proved themselves to be a fearless element in this case. But that didn't stop these guys from falling into the flaming idiots category; anyone who would attempt to take on 8 able-bodied women all at once definitely qualified.
"Do we have names and faces yet?" he asked Mirkal as the other man passed him with a sheaf of papers.
Mirkal shot him a dark look. "Whoever restocked the stationary draw got everything but the paper. We just ran out and the fax indicated there were another 20 pages to go. Could we try a hook-up with one of their techs?"
"Won't work," Cassie said as she jabbed a thumb towards one of the windows. "The storm cell we are skirting the edges of just dumped the signal strength to less than nothing and there is a faint smoky smell around the circuitry, indicating we may have taken a residual hit from the lightning. Besides, we'll be down on the ground in an hour; we'll get the rest of what we need then."
"As long as we come down in one piece and not in pieces like the other team did," Eric muttered.
"So what did come through?" Alex asked as he shot Eric a quelling look.
Mirkal's look turned frustrated as he leafed through what he had. "Those guys must be close to tearing their hair out; all this basically amounts to is no information. They have a woman who reported seeing the same van driving past her house about three or four times but all she could say about it was that it was white, with no windows or logos of any kind. She didn't think to get a licence plate. The boy who found the letter saw the van parked across the street and thinks that maybe there were two guys in it, but the windows at the front were tinted too dark for him to be sure and his attention was caught by the women passing him at the time so again, he didn't see anything of worth."
"Any clues of any kind?" Eric demanded as he finished his coffee.
"None. No indication of where they might have been picked up and the women were out jogging…"
"In this weather?" Cassie interrupted, shock evident in her voice.
"Apparently the weather turned abruptly and wasn't so bad earlier in the afternoon. Anyway, as I was saying, they didn't have purses they could have dropped because they were running. Uh, there was a gas station about nine blocks away and close enough to the interchange out of the city that the van may have used it, but with no adequate time frame to go on, it's going to be hard to know which van it is they need to follow because there were three matching the description given that stopped and another five that passed by without stopping. And that's only if they went that way; there is no guarantee of this."
"So potentially seven smoke-screens, one actual vehicle and no clues to which one it is?"
"That pretty much sums it up boss. Sorry."
"Not your fault and not theirs either. It would have been too good to be true if we actually caught a break from this one. Clare, how long until we land?"
Clare looked up from the paperwork she was looking at as she returned from the cockpit. "The captain just indicated that we've been re-routed to Baltimore because the storm has just shut down DC's airport. Because of this, we'll be landing in just over 15 minutes instead of in about 40 because we were slotted in as an emergency landing. So everyone needs to buckle in and get settled, because it sounds like Baltimore may not be that much calmer on the landing. I'll arrange cars for us as soon as we hit the ground."
Alex nodded approval of this plan as he took his usual seat and prayed that the storm wouldn't completely kill any of their chances to pick up new clues.
New Section
"Daddy?"
Aaron looked in the rear view mirror and attempted a smile. "Hey buddy, did you sleep well?"
Jack rubbed his eyes and looked at Toby beside him who was still sound asleep and at his sisters sleeping in their baby car seat beyond him.
"No. I kept dreaming I was running through a snowstorm and trying to find mummy and I could hear her calling out to me but I couldn't find her."
Aaron nodded and gripped the steering wheel hard. "I know son. But we are doing everything we can to find her and Carrie and the others as well and you know us all well enough to know that we aren't going to give up."
He nodded solemnly and looked out the window. "Where are we going daddy?"
"We're going to Baltimore. There are people coming from across the country who can help us find mummy and since we have a clue that is taking us in that direction, we are on our way to follow it up."
"Okay daddy."
Aaron shot his son another half-smile which faded as he slipped back into sleep. Kevin had pushed through his panic and come through for the team, following each of the vans seen in the gas station cameras back to their roots. Of the eight that fit within the time frame, six had come to a stop within the city limits and had already been closely searched. One of the last two continued on towards North Carolina and had already been stopped by state troopers and cleared. The other one, last seen passing through Baltimore and with the closest exact match to the described vehicle, had disappeared entirely off the grid. Kevin was still searching the road camera logs as they were emailed to him but had so far come up with nothing useful.
So they'd all piled into the cars and taken off and they hadn't stopped to take the time to find someone to leave the children behind with. Derek and Will were in the car just in front of him, with Henry and Ben in the backseat. The car behind him had Dave at the wheel with Kevin in the passenger seat and Reid in back with his casted and still-healing leg stretched out. Brad sat in his passenger seat and together they brooded over what their ladies might be going through.
And about 15 minutes behind them, the rest of the FBI support Strauss had ordered up attempted to catch up to the three vehicles which were already moving rapidly ahead with lights showing their urgency and alerting the cars in front to get the hell out of their way or suffer the consequences.
New Section
"Emily."
Jordan bumped her shoulder hard and she shifted awkwardly round to face the other woman. Her legs were well and truly asleep where she was squished up against the side near the door and her whole body ached much as it had right after giving birth to the twins.
In the van they'd first been shoved into when they were kidnapped, at least there had been just a little legroom for everyone. But about three hours ago they'd been moved into the smaller, dark blue van and the legroom had disappeared.
For hours they'd travelled down the highway and she hadn't recognised or seen anything helpful in telling her where they were, but for the last 5 minutes, as she'd watched the glimpses of the outside world she was getting through the front window she thought the skyline ahead looked just a little familiar to her. And though she wouldn't swear by it, she thought that, just maybe, they might be entering New York City and if that was the case, they were hopefully going to be hitting traffic and soon.
"What is it?" She asked softly, even as she noticed Austin was really pale and sweaty.
Jordan nodded her head in the younger woman's direction just in case Emily hadn't noticed the obvious. "She doesn't know exactly. She just knows she's got really sharp pain in her abdomen and she thinks she's bleeding."
"Actually," Austin interrupted softly as she shifted slightly, "I know I am."
They both looked at her closely and noticed the blood beginning to seep into the soft yellow fabric of her sweatpants.
"Is it your monthlies?" Kelly asked softly as she leaned into the conversation from Austin's other side.
"You there, what is wrong?"
They all jumped slightly at the raised, accented voice coming from the man with his arm around Penelope's shoulders.
"I don't know, but I'm not feeling well and I think I'm going to be sick soon," Austin replied as what little colour was left in her face leeched away as they swerved around a bit and the van started to slow down.
The man looked like he was going to say something, but instead turned to face forward as his friend did to look out the front. Emily looked around at everyone as the van slowed further. She knew this might be their only chance at possibly getting out of this mess, but with Austin looking so ill, she wondered if they'd all make it.
Austin leaned in to Jordan and mumbled something and then Jordan leaned in to her and whispered, "She says she can make it, that she will make it. She knows that she needs medical help 'cause her monthlies finished a week ago and that she won't get it here and she really doesn't want to end up dead in a ditch somewhere."
"I don't think any of us want that for her," Emily whispered back as the van came to a halt and four voices raised in furious argument. Emily looked at JJ and Penelope and saw them both watching her, waiting calmly for her signal. The first man barely had a hand on Penelope as he waved the knife around and the woman was doing her best to stay out of the way of his hand. The guy holding JJ had moved the knife away and only had a hand on her arm. As she met her friends eyes, JJ mouthed 'hand is lose'. She nodded slightly to acknowledge this and tuned in to the conversation.
They normally used this interchange because at this late evening hour, going in to the city was normally a smooth, fast ride. But it was clear from what they were saying that a pile-up had happened just ahead and traffic had crawled to a complete halt. The van was boxed in and they might never get another chance.
Penelope had shifted slightly away from the furiously shouting man at her back and was completely clear and as she looked at JJ, she saw the other man let her go entirely in an attempt to calm his comrade down.
She shot a quick look at Teresa, who already knew exactly what she needed to do being closest to the door. She could feel the energy levels rise as they all shifted to be in the best position. She didn't know exactly what they'd find at the van's side, but she knew, with the van boxed in, that all they needed was to get enough people looking their way and they had a chance...and a chance was all they needed. Of course, there was the very real chance that the door was locked and she was about to get one of her closest friends either seriously hurt or else killed outright as an example to the rest of them not to try anything again, but if they didn't try at all, they were never going to know and things could always get much, much worse.
Teresa lifted her taped hands, hooked them around the handle of the van...and yanked back hard.
End-
A/N: I know it's evil to just leave it there, so I'll just slink off now and come back with another chapter as soon as I can.
Please review with the conveniently placed link right under these words. I love to know what you think and it makes me type faster and update quicker.