***OK first off I should say I'm new to this posting business and I have a few issues with uploading! Hence, the last chapter was poorly laid out. I promise to try to do better! I am also a newbie at review replies so please accept my thanks here until I work it out.***

Disclaimer: Yep, I forgot to do that too but the fact remains that I can lay no claim whatsoever to these characters.

Summary: Danny Taylor is seconded into another unit for an undercover operation but it has its risks.....

CHAPTER 3

Danny was no longer sure of anything. He told himself, and he told them, what he thought was the right thing but his speech was so slurred he wasn't certain what came out.

At first he'd known where the next attack would come from. He tried to keep his eyes on his torturers but they came from different angles – standing behind to grab his hair and haul him to his knees when he collapsed – standing within inches of his face so the spittle of their sadistic fury mingled with the blood that ran freely.

Now though, as he lay on his side, curled inwards in an attempt to protect himself he felt distanced. Separated from what was happening. Barely conscious, he tried to remember the right lies to tell. But they had stopped asking.

Now it was just punishment. Sparks of clarity still came with sharp explosions of pain as another blow connected. Another fist. Another kick.

Until, finally, they no longer registered at all.

JANUARY – FOUR MONTHS INTO OPERATION

MANHATTEN APARTMENT: Monday 05.00 am

Vivienne Johnson was used to early calls and answered before the third ring.

Marcus was also used to them. Seventeen years of marriage meant he could often sleep through them but he had also become attuned to nuances. Some days he would turn back into his pillow and resume his sleep. Sometimes he rose with his wife to make a cup of coffee, ready to hand to her between shower and door.

Sometimes though something in her tone would bring him awake immediately. Usually it was a child. Lost, missing, or a body found – a child's case brought its own tone. Something that couldn't be ignored.

A child, or a cop. Or a friend.

This morning Marcus immediately knew it had to be one of those and held his breath as Viv picked up.

"Johnson!" Answered clearly. Nobody would have known it came a few seconds out of sleep.

"Oh Hey! ….Yeah!" A moment's hesitation. A change. "...something's happened?"

Vivienne was sitting upright now, already throwing off the covers and sliding her legs out off bed. Marcus watched her silhouette against the light from street lamps outside. There was an alert urgency he recognised and had learned to dread.

"How long?" Her voice was businesslike now. A tension building.

"OK...OK...Thanks Marcy...no, no don't worry. Thank you for the call." Viv turned off the phone and replaced in on the bedside table.

Marcus raised himself onto an elbow as his wife headed to the bathroom. His movement a sign to her.

"It's Danny."

It was enough. Marcus knew then that this would be a difficult time.

Pain was the first thing to register. Insistent. Consuming. It built with the momentum of his regaining consciousness.

He tried to block it. Tried to retreat to the relative comfort of the enfolding blackness but it would not accept him back and he was pushed on headlong.

He tried to move and gasped as the shock of it took his breath. No, better not to breath. He held still as long as he could but eventually had to exhale. Slowly. Keep it shallow, small gasps.

Black. Everywhere black. Danny felt the panic rising but forced himself to calm. To think. At first his eyes would not open. Slowly though, with concentration, he realised that he could see a little from his left. Through swollen slitted lids he could make out shadows. The differences of texture and light.

His head pounded.

He shifted slightly and pain sliced through his upper body. Something was wrong. Badly wrong. He could not move his arms. He tensed and tested. Still tied behind him. But more than that, they were tied to something, and twisted because of his slumped position. God, it hurt to breath. Pain in his lower chest and worse radiating from higher up, into his neck and shoulder.

He groaned as nausea and dizziness gripped him.

Now it was no longer just pain. It was desperation.

FBI HEADQUARTERS

Vivienne Johnson was afraid. Afraid for Danny but also now afraid of what Jack was going to do about it.

She had called him as soon as she heard from her friend-turned-informant. She could feel his fury down the line. Now she waited to learn what was happening three floors up.

Others began to arrive in the office. Martin first, hair damp from the cold mist that hung in the air outside, a coffee in one hand, his coat in the other. Sam followed only five minutes later.

Both were clearly surprised to see Viv already there and with raised brows both also registered that Jack's office was lit but empty. Something was clearly going on but Viv blanked their queries. The pair settled into the two cases the unit had been working on. Eyes on their screens, phones in hand, they waited.

The distant ping of the elevator alerted them to Jack's return. He rushed through in a flurry of gestures. A beckoning arm to Viv towards his office. A slit throat motion to Martin, which he interpreted as "get off the phone, now!" And a combined nod and tilt of his head towards the white board that they all understood as "clear the decks, we have a new priority."

Sam glanced at Martin as they both hesitated then followed Viv into Jack's office.

"Sit!" His order came out harsh and they obeyed in silence.

Jack backed himself onto the front of his desk and looked around at them. He was tense. He felt wound tight and fought to speak calmly. To explain.

"I'm about to tell you some stuff that I really shouldn't tell you. Then I'm going to ask you to do stuff that I shouldn't ask you to do." His voice was gruffer than usual. A gravely tone that they recognised as trouble.

"I guess you all know that Danny is on a special operation." It wasn't really a question – they had all gathered that much. "He was seconded by Pre-emptive Crime. It was only ever supposed to be a few weeks. Turns out his brother was in Rikers with one of the guys they've been watching. Shared a cell. Gave them an in. Danny was a perfect fit...lucky huh!" He smiled but there was no lightness here.

Martin thought back to that day in September when Danny was suddenly gone from the team. No word left, just a pair of tickets to the Mets game taped to Martin's computer and a huge pile of Danny's on-going reports and case notes left on his desk instead.

Jack had enjoyed Martin's indignation at that as much as he suspected Danny himself would have if he'd been there to witness it.

Court appearances had been cancelled – a whole trial had to be rescheduled, much to the DA's evident anger when he came to berate Jack about his agent's lack of preparation and forethought. It made sense.

Jack rose now to deal them the blow.

"Danny's missing."

He continued quickly to save their questions. "He's missed three contacts...nothing since Saturday."

The seriousness of the statement wasn't lost on any of them – in the modern climate, the Bureau had to be seen to take its duty of care seriously and had strict rules governing the handling of agents undercover.

Now though came the really bad part, the part that Jack was finding hard to swallow. So hard his voice sounded strained even to his own ears.

"I just got out of a meeting with Morrison and the AD. Danny gave intel that the shipment they've been waiting on – the stuff this operation is all about - is due in on Wednesday." He sucked in a breath. " And they're not planning on going in to find him 'til then."

His words hung in the air for a moment.

Viv found her voice first. "What the hell..."

Martin cut her off. "What about never endangering an agent's life? Even undercover?" He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Isn't that what the bureau guidelines say? Jack they can't leave it that long..."

Sam looked shocked and launched in too. "Jack you gotta..."

Jack held out his hands. "I've just had this conversation." They could tell from his anger that much more would have been said besides. "It's already gone to higher levels and they've deemed this job too big to abandon at this point." The last part dripped with Jack's anger.

Martin felt a distant pang of guilt. His own father may well have been one of those 'higher levels'. He would have recognised who's life he was considering and known of his friendship with his son.

Jack pressed on. "Turns out what they thought would get them into a new gang of wannabes playing with guns, actually involves a suspected major shipment of a lot of heavy duty weaponry with payment in drugs. There are at least two, possibly three rival groups vying for it."

**************************************

" It's too big to consider abandoning Jack." That's what Eleanor Brucknor had said. At least she had the decency to look uncomfortable. Morrison looked ready for a fight. Territorial. This was his bone and he wasn't letting it go.

He'd clearly been shocked that word of the situation had got back to Danny's team so fast. Jack had a feeling his hunt for the leak would be vindictive. He had blustered at first – even dared to draw out the line that contacts missed weren't necessarily an indication of the job having gone bad.

"Like Hell!" Jack roared in his face. "Are you kidding here – less than a week before the sting and you think it's not serious? Not connected?" He moved even closer to Morrison, fists clenched tight. "Are you going to tell that to your agent when you get him out? And you better hope you DO get him out."

The threat filled the air between the two men. Jack's temper was legendary. A frightening thing to most people and Morrison was shaken, though he tried to hide it with defiance.

Brucknor stepped in quickly. She respected Jack for his experience and his work and for his his fierce loyalty to his agents. She was worried by the decision that had come down on this one, but now she had no choice. She had her own ambitions and bucking against the orders of her superiors would not help her achieve them. It had to be like this.

Jack stormed from the office, leaving Brucknor and Morrison staring after him.

*****************************************************************

Now his face was stony. "We're going to be in on the operation when it goes down – even Morrison couldn't refuse an offer of manpower, though he wanted to." The contempt was evident. "He's got people watching the primary scene but they can't get in close. It's a warehouse development on the southside docks. But he says there's no way to look for any answers about Danny without blowing the whole thing."

A humourless smile crossed his lips. "I don't agree. I say while that asshole gets off on marshalling his troops, we dig a little and find anything that will help trace Danny when we finally get in there."

He looked around. Viv, Martin and Sam were all standing now. Their faces strained at what they'd heard. At the outset, he'd said he would ask but in the end he didn't have to.

TBC

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