16.

So the last chapter had some surprises? Glad to see I'm not completely predicable! :) Let's hope for more...

Booth and Gillespie get an address to a warehouse in Patterson's name but it turns out to be a place where Carter stores the belongings of the people he has taken. Sweets is forced into a fight for food but after winning gives his spoils of war to the defeated man and inadvertently wins the affections of the other prisoners. Carter's attention is drawn to the knowledge that Booth has found the storage facility so he leaves. In his absence Julie provides Sweets with the cell phone, she is also impressed with what he has done in the fight for food. Julie is also aware Sweets health is rapidly declining. While observing Booth at a distance Carter finds out Sweets has called Booth, and suspects Julie must have given him the phone. They race back to the cells and take Julie away, but she has accidently not shut Sweets cell door completely. Carter is concerned Booth might be able to track them because of Sweets threat that they are the brightest at catching criminals, so he begins to move everyone. Sweets take the opportunity to escape knowing Carter will most likely kill him soon. The other captives help Sweets escape, but he only gets as far as the underside of the moving truck.

Booth paced around the Jeffersonian while the rest of the team watched, feeling like errant children in trouble. They had been unable to locate Carter's burner cell signal which continued to bounce around. Booth's pacing appeared unlikely to stop anytime soon and no one dared to interrupt the treads he was wearing in the floor.

Every now and then someone would start to say something but not having a complete suggestion they kept it to themselves.

"At least he's alive." Angela finally announced. Gillespie offered her a 'that's nice' smile but Booth only glared.

"That phone call was three hours ago." Booth said suggesting it may not still be the case.

"Booth, we are all very tired." Brennan reminded him from his harsh tone.

"And based on how Carter treats Sweets I'm pretty sure that's he's more than a little tired too!" Booth shouted.

"Seeley, we all understand and care…" Cam said standing up to try and thwart the possible impending melt down.

"That's not enough Camille!" Booth shouted. "Sweets could be…." Booth didn't even want to say what the many possibilities were. "I promised him I would be right with him." Booth's voice softened as he recalled his promised. "I'm here and he's…"

Seeing Booth's shoulders slunk down renewed the realization to them all of how they felt about their youngest team member, and Carter's brutality.

"Right, so if we are so smart how do we not know more?" Angela said feeling the fight rise.

"Carter has had years to build his hiding place. Sweets has only been gone two days." Brennan reminded them.

"Yeah but two days with Carter is hell." Hodgins reminded her.

"All my people have either disappeared or aren't talking." Gillespie reminded them.

"We've run all the clues over and over." Cam said thinking of anything they had missing, coming up with none.

"We need a miracle or something." Booth said, never losing faith.

Angela's computer began to beep, gathering all of their attention.

"What's going on?" Booth asked quickly.

"Carter's using the burner cell." Angela said tapping away at her keyboard.

"Why? Is it a trap?" Hodgins asked. "Does he know Sweets used the cell?"

"Yes Hodgins, all of that information is right here." Angela said thru a sarcastic haze of exhaustion.

"Why is it beeping like that?" Cam asked. "Are we able to track it?"

"Not the activity itself but it looks like he is using it to gain internet activity." Angela said tapping. "He doesn't have a tracker blocked against the data usage, an easy mistake. But that's weird because he's never used the data before, only the phone."

"Angela!" Booth said not caring about technical specifics. "Is this something we can track?"

"What about Sweets? Could he have taken the phone and run or something?" Hodgins asked.

"Or is Carter playing some trick?" Cam asked, there were so many unknowns.

"The signal went dead." Angela said as they felt deflated. "But I have an area where it was used."

The darkness continued to blanket the street as Sweets continued to cling to the underside of the truck. He had hoped once he made it outside the gated area he could roll out when the truck stopped. The problem was, the truck had not yet stopped since they pulled out of the compound they were staying in. They had yet to pick up speed fast enough to be on a highway and Sweets was glad because he wasn't sure if he could hold on tight enough if the winds would pick up and place that much force on his tired body.

The book began to slip and Sweets tried to hold tighter to it - if he lost that book he would never find these people again. His muscles began to scream at the energy it was taking to hold on. He was sure he was going to slip - slipping meant his body and head slamming against the ground and if not dying on impact then being run down by the rest of the caravan of trucks.

The truck began to slow down though Sweets saw no lights suggesting they were near any populated area. He could hear a siren and the trucks pulled up to a stop. Sweets was ready to drop from the truck's bracing he was pushing to hold himself up on when footsteps passed by him.

"Hey!" The familiar voice of Carter shouted. The driver stepped out of the vehicle.

"What?"

"Did you take my log book?" Carter shouted in a furious tone.

"No!" The man said defensively.

Sweets could hear Carter's feet pacing along the pavement, the way he ground his feet in Sweets could tell Carter was pissed.

"He's gone." Carter said lowering his voice as the other drivers came closer from the other trucks.

"Who?"

"That damn agent!" Carter screamed.

"How?" The men asked in surprise.

Sweets was sure he couldn't hold on much longer and the quartet of men were right on the other side of the truck.

"If I knew any of that I wouldn't be here talking to you dumb asses!" Carter shouted. "I went back in and the book and the guy were gone. I found that app on my phone that tracked you to here."

"I didn't let him out." One said and the others quickly chimed in. "You said you wanted to take care of him.

"Oh and I will." Carter said a dark and terrifying tone to his intentions towards Sweets. "As soon as I find him."

"Maybe Julie took the book, let him out!" One of the minions suggested.

"Where is she anyway?" Another asked.

"I've got her with me." Carter said. "And she doesn't have the book, swears she doesn't know where he is."

Sweets felt a rage at the thought of him hitting Julie to get that information from her. Acting on that urge right now would not do any of them any good. But Sweets wasn't going to last long and they kept talking.

"Well he must be hiding there someplace, maybe waited till we all left." One of the men said.

"I've got Hadley there. We'll go over the place again." Carter said. "When I find him…."

Carter's voice was bloodcurdling as he headed back to his cruiser. Sweets was about to pass out when he heard the men start up their trucks one at a time. The book fell from his arm and no longer able to hold his spot on the bracing he fell to the ground about three feet below. The impact did little to hurt except it was landing on already broken bones and bruises. Sweets tried to catch his breath from the small excursion that left him breathless. Sweets could hear as the trucker ground the gear into first, if Sweets continued to lay there the second truck would see him lying on the wet pavement after the first one pulled away. Sweets looked to see the two lane road was not an option near the trucker's vision and looked to his left to see darkness. It must be a ditch or something Sweets reasoned with the possibility it was a drop off of a cliff - still, it was better than getting run over or found.

With the last of the energy he had he dug his elbows into the ground as the truck rolled back for a second. Why does a couple feet seem so far Sweets wondered as he pushed the last of his physical abilities to the edge of the road. The truck rolled forward as Sweets breathless got his arms into the wet dirt on the roadside. He was sure he wasn't going to be able to make it another inch when the truck went into drive with his lower half still on the road. Sweets dug his fingers into the wet dirt, his fingers hanging out of his gloves with the ripped out fingers. The dirt was cold, he had hardly noticed the chill having been delirious and preoccupied with his next move. The truck tire grew closer as Sweets pulled once more, the weight of his second half finally falling over his shoulders sending him barreling down the hillside. He came to a stop, happily not by the force of a tree or other structure and waited to hear if any of the trucks stopped - suggesting they had seen them. Instead he only heard the trucks in the distance getting quieter. They didn't see me. Sweets said listening for other sounds. There were no cars, no activity. Where am I? Sweets wondered and then worse, where is the log book?

"The signal was coming from this area." Brennan said looking at the map as Booth drove and Gillespie wondered why he was relegated to the back seat. "If I cross reference that there is some electrical service sent to an area just west of here."

"If Carter is hiding people he will need some services though he must be keeping it to a minimum. No water service?" Gillespie asked.

"No, just electric." Brennan reiterated.

Gillespie considered what conditions Carter was keeping people under.

"Just up ahead." Brennan said.

Booth pulled the car to a stop outside what appeared to be a desolated building.

"Bones you wait here." Booth said. "We're just going to look around."

"Booth if Sweets is here and needs medical attention…"

"Bones, we don't even know if this is the right spot, we've been wrong before." Booth said as he and Gillespie approached the dark building.

"What is this place?" Booth asked, though didn't expect an answer.

"Agent Booth." Gillespie said staring at something, Booth joined his side and raised a flashlight to see what Gillespie could see better against the moonlight. Booth saw what he did, a lot of very new wire running around the back of the building then even with the front which looked run down and abandoned.

"They don't want anyone running out the back door." Booth said shinning his light around to the back where everything was dark. "Those look like fresh tire tracks in the mud."

"Yeah, lucky for us it rained recently, we might not have seen them." Gillespie said looking around more.

Booth got out his phone. "I'm calling for back up. This place is starting to only look abandoned from the front."

Soon a cruiser pulled up to the front making Gillespie & Booth jump when they saw Carter. Carter jammed the car in reverse pulling out the way he came in. Booth ran for the car but looked back at the building and the possibility Sweets was inside - if alerted by their presence - if he was still alive- what would they do? Booth didn't want to let Carter go - again.

Brennan seemed to be reading Booth's mind as she jumped in the driver's seat and quickly followed Carter's speeding cruiser. Gillespie watched as Brennan drove after Carter and while trying to mentally formulate a plan were disrupted when the door to the abandoned building opened and a man stood holding a gun.

"Down!" Booth shouted as the man began to fire but luckily in the dark the man could see little. Unfortunately for the man, he was standing in front of the door with light behind him allowing Booth to see him. Booth fired a shot into the man's leg but it didn't keep him from trying to fire his gun. An errant shot brushed past them and not wanting to chance it Booth fired again killing the man.

They ran to him but he was dead, Booth hoped he wasn't the only person that could help them find Sweets. Feeling there was no time for back up the pair ran into the building, it's multiple locked entries opened by Hadley. Booth & Gillespie's hearts raced as they ran blind into the building but soon realized that there was no one there. The place was quiet, and empty.

Until a small scuffle could be heard. Booth put his finger to his lips asking for silence and Gillespie nodded as the two turned towards the sound. The steadied their guns and flipped on a light - frightening Julie who was tied to a chair. She screamed under a muffled gag. Booth quickly rushed to her.

"It's okay, I'm Agent Booth with the FBI. Are you okay?" He asked as the girl looked at him in surprise and a great hope that he was telling the truth. She was still afraid.

"I'm going to look around for more." Gillespie said.

"They're gone!" Julie said quickly.

"What? Who's gone?" Booth asked.

"Everyone. Carter shipped them out." Julie said and Booth began to take inventory of the skinny and frail girl's rather recent bruises on her face.

"Did Carter do this to you?" He asked.

"Yes." She said looking away. "He wanted to know where the other agent went."

"Agent?" Booth asked feeling the anticipation mount that she was referring to Sweets.

"Sweets?" He asked.

"Young guy? Kind, nice?" Though they were generic adjectives Booth knew it was Sweets.

"Where is he, you said they took him?" Booth asked.

"No." Julie said and Booth felt frustrated and confused, a combination he did not prefer.

"They took the others. Your friend, Sweets, he told Carter you were onto him, it spooked Carter and he sent them away." Julie explained. "I don't know how he got out."

Booth wanted to ask a million more questions but he could tell the girl had been thru so much. Another sound came and Gillespie and Booth pulled their weapons while Julie shrunk in fear but it was only Brennan at the door.

"I lost him." She said upset then saw the girl and rushed towards her. "Are you alright?"

Julie pulled away out of embedded fear and Brennan stepped back to give her space.

"Sweets? Where's Sweets?" She asked.

Booth shook his head but Julie seemed ready to offer more answers.

"Carter was mad, he thought I let him go." Julie explained. "I gave him the cell phone, Carter found out."

Julie's voice trailed off and Booth realized that's when the bruises must have come.

"Julie you said they took the others." Booth said. "What do you mean by others and why didn't Sweets go with them?"

"Carter didn't want him like he did the others. He was angry with your Sweets guy. He kept….it was awful….But he tried to help…." Julie's voice trailed off again and Booth's hope began to fleet though he was aware of his darkest fears of what had been going on there.

"Carter thought he took his book, I don't know what happened to the book!" Julie shouted having been asked repeatedly by Carter about it.

"What book?" Brennan asked.

"It's the book Carter keeps of where he sends everyone." Julie said and realized they didn't know what she meant. "He takes people then sells them."

"A slave trade?" Gillespie asked in total shock.

Julie nodded yes.

"That's where all those people went to." Brennan said with a sad realization. "We'll never find them." Brennan said.

"Yes we will." Booth said. "Because I know Sweets took that book."

"How's that?" Gillespie asked.

"Because Sweets knew that was the only way to track those people down."

"Right so where is Sweets?"

Sweets dug his hands into the ground as he tried to make his way up the hill. He was exhausted, his breathing so heavy that his chest ached but he had to find the book. He realized how unlucky he was that it had rained, the ground was wet - he had to rush to find the book, hope it wasn't getting ruined. He was about to give up when his hand touched the rough surface of a flat surface. Sweets pulled the item towards him and pried open a swollen eye. He couldn't read the pages but it was familiar enough, he had seen it over Carter's shoulders as he had hung from the ceiling - it was the log book. Sweets held it close as a light and cold rain fell. He was determined to keep the pages dry.

Reviews, thoughts, suggestions, conversations, all welcome.