They pulled up to Murdoch Mysteries a short while later. Besides a few vehicles in the parking lot, the place was completely dead. No signs of anything untoward. The Black Hand was not here...yet.

Murdoch tapped on the driver side window and Harry lowered it.

"Yeah?" Harry said glibly, without turning towards him, clearing annoyed at having been ignored for most of the night.

"Harry," said Murdoch and then corrected himself. "Father. I'm sorry for the way I've been treating you tonight. It was very wrong of me. But I'm afraid I must ask a favour of you."

His father cocked his head in his direction. "Go on, I'm listening."

"Be alert for anything out of the ordinary." Murdoch gestured to the reinforced steel gates. "If anyone tries to break through those, inform me immediately and hide."

Harry gave him a startled look. "What's going on, son? What aren't you telling me?" When neither of them responded, Harry reached for his seat belt and said determinedly, "I'm coming with you."

"Please, just do as he says," said Julia, with a hand to his shoulder.

A few moments of indecision later, Harry assented by way of a grunt and they made their way through the large front doors. Two security guards were patrolling the ground floor and were surprised to see them at such an hour and even more surprised when Julia pulled out her police issued Glock 27 and took it past the metal detectors.

"Sir?!" exclaimed the braver of the two. "Sir!"

Murdoch calmly and succinctly told them much the same thing he did as Harry.

"Hide, sir?" said the second of them, frowning. "Not really part of the job description."

"Well, it is tonight!" snapped Julia sharply, nerves on edge, all feelings of lethargy and inebriation gone.

"Uh, sir," said the first guard while looking at Julia, "do you want us to call the cops?"

"No, no cops!" Julia said, advancing on the poor man with a manic look in her eye. "If I hear so much as one siren blip I'll personally see to your dismissal. Capiche?"

"Yes, ma'am- detective!" he stammered, flinching at the gun she was unconsciously waving around in front of his face.

"That goes the same for you!" she yelled at the other guard. He nodded once.

Then she stormed off towards the elevator and Murdoch had to jog a bit to catch up. They made it up to the top floor and into his office without incident. Once they were both in there Julia closed the door and said, "Okay, Will, now what?"

"I'm not sure exactly, Julia," he admitted hesitantly, afraid to invoke her wrath towards him.

She swore under her breath in a very reminiscent way to George. In fact, her whole demeanour was manifesting itself in a similar fashion. Murdoch was very glad George did not have access to firearms here. If he were to break out the armoury every time he lost his temper, there would be a lot more corpses lying around and Julia would be much busier than she normally was.

"What the hell do you mean, 'you're not sure'?"

"Uh, well, Pendrick told me the evidence should be here," he said, picking up the replica of the machine he now recognized as a prototype for a rudimentary robotic arm, "but I did not entirely understand his directions in relation to accessing it."

This was only partially true.

He had little to no understanding of the data extraction process.

"You're telling me you had the data this entire time?!" she said in disbelief. "That that thing was actually a wireless server?"

"Apparently," he replied as he examined the replica thoroughly, searching for the way to open it. Finally his finger found the miniscule bump, just below the 'e' in beginnings engraved around the base. He pushed on it and a second later the robotic arm moved upwards -startling both of them slightly- revealing a small alcove in which a teeny tiny disc resided.

Without waiting for permission Julia reached across him and plucked it out so that it rested on the tip of her index finger. Murdoch would have dearly liked to examine it under his magnifying glass, but as that was out of the question, he simply moved closer to her finger.

He looked up at her enquiringly. "Do you know how to retrieve the evidence off of this...wafer?"

Julia gave him a funny look. "Yeah, I think I do."

She activated his desk simply by swiping a finger across the top, just as George had done in the conference room what seemed like a lifetime ago. Julia opened up a program and then gingerly pressed the disc to the highlighted spot on the glass. Instantly the program began to chew through the data, a golden percentage bar dictating the progress. She alternated between watching the bar and the door, occasionally touching her holster, as if to remind herself that it was there.

Within five minutes the extraction was complete and they just stared at one another for a moment.

"Well, that was easy," she said finally, with a faint smile.

"Indeed," he replied, returning it.

When Murdoch attempted to view the data, however, they hit their first snag. The computer wanted a password that Murdoch didn't know!

Seeing his inactivity she sighed and said, "I take it Pendrick neglected to tell you this part." He gave her a meek look. "Come on, Will, think. You must have some idea what it could be. You were business partners for years."

"I'm sorry, Julia," he said after a long contemplative silence, in which he attempted to utilize his almost stereoscopic memories of the past, "I really have no notion of the password."

Julia closed her eyes in consternation and then suddenly popped them open again. "I wonder if it'd be that simple."

"Julia?"

Rather than answer him she just tapped a few letters on the digital keypad. The screen flashed once and the files started pouring out across it, like a deck of cards that was being shuffled in a seemingly haphazard way but was actually highly logical and organized.

"Sally," she said to his unspoken query. Smirking, "Figures. You men are all so single minded."

They spent the next ten minutes verifying all the general details Pendrick had given them and then decided it was time to bring this scandal to the public. Since they were wary of trusting outside sources, they needed someplace to broadcast without unwanted interference. Luckily Murdoch knew just such a place, having been there earlier that day...or should he say yesterday. It was a quarter after three currently.

Julia copied the data onto an external harddrive and certain that everything was in order, they made their way back to ground level. It was much the same as it had been when they left it. Harry was relieved when they appeared in front of him and released pent up breath as if he had been holding it the entire time they were gone.

"Everything good on your end?" she asked.

"Yeah, peachy keen. You get what you were after?"

"We did."

"Well, hop on in then and I'll take you two crazy love birds home."

"Actually, dad, I believe it is time to part ways."

I don't want you to be needlessly hurt should the worst happen.

"What do you mean, son?" Harry said.

"We're going to take a faster form of transit to our next destination. The...Aston Martin."

"And I'm driving," Julia said with a grin.

"Now hold on a minute, Will," Harry said getting out of the limo, grabbing his arm. "First you go off to see the son of a bitch that tried to ruin your life. Then you freak me out with your talk of break-ins. And now you're ditching me altogether? Hardly a nice way to treat your poor father."

"Please just trust me, dad, this is for the best."

They maintained eye contact for some time and then Harry relented, releasing him.

"Fine, Will." Pointing a finger, "But I will eventually want an explanation."

"And you shall have it, dad...very soon."

I hope.

"Come on, Will," Julia said, grabbing his hand and leading him to the underground garage.

Their feet echoed loudly in the frigid parking lot that smelled strongly of gasoline. Julia approached a large open topped elevator shaft embedded in the wall and pressed some buttons. Gears turned and thirty seconds later a sleek dark blue, streamlined vehicle stood before them.

"Go on, Will, open it."

Oh no, he thought as he patted himself down. I don't have any keys!

He told her as much and she rolled her eyes. "Good thing it's touch sensitive."

When he didn't move, she took his hand and placed it against the driver side door. To his surprise it popped open. Julia sidled past him, running her hand along his abdomen as she did so and started up the car with the touch of a button.

He got in beside her, and she cocked her head in his direction, grinning. "You might want to buckle up."

"All right."

Both securely in place, Julia revved the engine a few times, her grin getting wider every time and then put the pedal to the metal. The location of the car retrieval system allowed for a straight, screeching run out the exit. She was going so fast that he was afraid of running right through the metal gates. Reflexively he raised his hands to shield his face.

However, this was unnecessary because she stopped at the last second, jerking him a good deal forward against his seat belt. The moment they had enough space to pass, she expertly shifted gears and zoomed through, throwing him back against the form fitting leather seat.

Julia took the first ninety degree corner at fifty kilometres an hour and he just about smashed his face into the side window. They came to their first stop light and she looked towards him and mischievously said, "Having fun yet?"

"Yes, immensely," he said rubbing his chest where he was sure he would find burn marks later.

"Good," she said with that annoying grin of hers and floored the expensive car through the intersection.

They continued on in this way for another minute or so, Murdoch increasingly feeling little better than a rag doll - a rather nauseated rag doll - when out of nowhere a big black SUV smashed into the back right corner panel, spinning them wildly out of control. There was a horrible racket as they went straight up onto the sidewalk, narrowly avoiding a pedestrian standing by a traffic light.

Once they came to an abrupt stop she turned to him and said, "You okay?"

"Yes, I believe so. And how are you faring, Julia? Julia?"

She was busy surveying her side view mirror, heedless of his concern. He followed suit and saw that no one had yet to get out of the SUV...that was now pointed in their direction again, headlights glaring so brightly that even if the windshield hadn't been darkly tinted, it would have been impossible to make out its occupants.

Julia zipped back onto the deserted road with ease. The SUV immediately chased after them, but they quickly put them in the dust. At least, that's what he thought. Pretty soon an SUV was looming in the distance, and not long after that it was up close and menacing.

"Shit, they must have suped it up. Remind me again why we didn't just fly?"

He gave her a guilty expression that was quickly cut off by a not so gentle nudge to the back of the $300 000 Aston Martin. Julia up-shifted and they gained a little ground, weaving in and out of an upcoming pocket of traffic. They flew right through a red light, narrowly avoiding another collision with a service vehicle of some sort, and then noticed their path was blocked by two more SUV's. Murdoch didn't see how they could get out of this mess but Julia yelled, "Hold on!" and simultaneously pulled the handbrake and wrenched the steering wheel to the left, nearly flinging them off two of their wheels and dove into a narrow alleyway, clipping a dumpster as they did so and losing the right side mirror.

This risky manoeuvre allowed them to dodge the roadblock but it did not allow them to lose their tail for very long. The original SUV came charging in after them, albeit from further back now, but charging nonetheless. Against all odds they seemed to be gaining again.

"You've got to be kidding me!" she barked, hitting the dashboard in frustration. "I can't believe this baby can't outrun them! What did they do? Put in jet engines?!"

Thinking about the size of his jet he replied, "I highly doubt that Julia."

She glared at him and then said, "You can let go now."

Murdoch had taken her advice literally and realized he had yet to release his hold on the upper handle. But considering how she was driving still, he didn't think it wise to let go any time soon. Julia was recklessly careening through a maze like alleyway system, and for the twentieth time Murdoch was glad he hadn't eaten recently.

The SUV was right behind them and started getting into their personal space some more, bumping into their rear. Julia did her best to maintain control in the tight, twisting corridors but by the time she made it back onto the main road, both sides of the car had been scrapped and ground to hell.

A few screeching turns later they came across another roadblock, but this time there was no exit. If they stopped they would be captured, or worse...but if they kept going, they would almost certainly die at the speeds they were travelling, no matter how good the airbag system was.

With no real alternative Julia stomped on the brake and avoided the head on collision by inches. Their tail stayed behind them so that they were effectively an SUV sandwich. Doors opened and men poured out, aiming various assault rifles at them. Julia popped the clip to her holster but didn't take her Glock out. She was apparently waiting for the Black Hand to make the first move, or perhaps she thought their situation was futile?

In any case, nothing happened for several interminable seconds and then the mafia men swarmed the Aston and yanked them both out of the car. They disarmed Julia soon after, despite her protests about being a cop, and bound their wrists with some sort of plastic handcuff. Then they threw them in the back seat of the SUV that had been chasing them and stuck black bags over their heads.

Murdoch could feel the vehicle reversing and heading in the opposite direction.

He began to pray.

I never get to write car chases so this was a real treat! Well not so much for the characters...