"C'mon team, we need to find out where she is!" Greg yelled, "Work faster."
"We're working as fast as we can boss!" Spike yelled back, as rolled over to look over Megan's screen, "Nothing strange in the last 12 hours of text messages?"
"Nothing yet." Megan said, "I'll expand to the last 24 hours."
"Good job Megan." Spike said, "Good thinking. We need to put an APB out on her car- anyone know her details?"
"It's in her HR file, I'll go grab it." Ed said, as he prepared himself to run to Human Resources.
"No, you won't, Eddie," Greg said, pulling rank, "I'll go get it- they won't give you access."
"What do you want me to do?" Ed asked.
"Either stand there and look bald, or look into her home phone records, look for repeat callers and send a unit to go sit on her front lawn!" Spike directed.
Megan worked in a frenzied pace. It didn't help that her phone was vibrating too.
Thankfully, I have my Bluetooth headset still on.
It went to voicemail, and it read it back live on the headset.
"Megan- are you…where are you? I need…help…the baby's coming…"
"Megan!" Jules yelled out from her bed, "Megan!"
Megan opened the bedroom door and turned on the light, "Mom what do you want?"
"I don't feel good. It's like something's happening…"
Megan kneeled down in front of her mom and held one of her hands.
Just like her father did, Jules thought.
"Mom- everything is going to be fine, ok? I'm getting ready for work, ok? If you need me, just call my cell."
"What if I…"
"Mom- if you need me, call me."
"But Ed and Greg-"
"They've been through this before, and they know that you're at the stage where you might need help with a few things, and that things can happen unexpectedly, ok?"
"Ok." Jules said, as Megan started to leave the room, "Turn the light off, and make me proud!"
"Yeah, well, I know, that's what I told him mom." Winnie talked into her phone as she walked down the street, "Yeah. Ok- look I gotta go, ok? Yeah, ok, talk to you later."
She looked down at a piece of paper with her own writing on it, and looked up at the address on the house.
She walked up the walkway and pounded on the door, "Jeese! Come on, we can work things out."
"Go away." Came a male's voice.
"Jesse…"Winnie started but stopped herself.
Did she really want to start confessing to a door?
Then a car screeched to a halt in front of the door. Two masked men came out and ran towards Winnie and grabbed her, and started taking her back to their car.
"Jesse- help! Help me! Jesse!" Winnie screamed, hoping that he'd forgive her and come out to find her being dragged off by masked men.
But he never came.
"Alright, Team One, let's look alive." Greg said, as he entered the gym and started working out with Spike, Ed and Megan.
"Boss, its 9am." Spike pointed out, "If I don't look alive, then I'm a zombie."
Over at the bench press, Megan was pressing weights, with Ed as her spotter.
"Yeah, that's a Perrasmith right there." He said, as he helped Megan put the 200 pound weight back on its cradle. "I don't think your mom ever pressed that much before."
"My dad?" Megan asked.
"He was a show-off, he bet me once that he couldn't press 340, and he did."
"Did you pay up?"
"Of course I did- what kind of man do you think I am?" Ed asked, as they switched spots, as Ed pressed the weights, and Megan as his spotter.
Kiera walked into the gym. This time Megan noted that she didn't check her out.
Good.
"Hey guys, have you seen Winnie?" she asked.
"No." Spike answered, "What's up?"
"Her shift started ten minutes ago, she isn't here yet."
"So?" Ed asked, as he sat up and stretched his arms, "People are late sometimes, suck it up princess."
"How long should I give her?"
"If she isn't here in an hour," Greg offered, "Let me know."
Jules finally gave up on sleep and got up. Once she was up, she looked at her belly in the mirror and smiled. She was going to be a mother.
Well, I am a mother. She reasoned.
With a bit a difficulty, and a firm grip on the railing, she made it downstairs and into the kitchen to find that Megan had started her breakfast for her.
My favorite- sesame seed bagel, let's pop that in the toaster. Half an orange- doctor doesn't want me having more than half because the citrus acid gives me acid reflux, already peeled for me by Megan, how thoughtful. And to top it off, a glass of the disgustingly good smoothie that Megan made a pitcher of and put in the fridge. That girl, doing all of this for me before going into work- what a trooper.
"The email!" the man yelled at Winnie.
They had put her in the car, bound and gagged in the back seat. They started driving and ended up outside another house.
The house that they're stealing the wireless internet from, Winnie thought.
They untied her hands, and had a laptop in front of her, with a new email page on the screen. They were demanding that she type in the SRU email address for Spike Scarlatti.
"Let me put it another way," the other masked man said, as he pulled out a handgun and slid the slide back, racking a bullet into the action, "After we pop you, we'll pop your friend Jesse as well."
Not wanting her boyfriend, or ex-boyfriend, depending on how things went, to get hurt, Winnie nodded.
"Good."
"A little more to the left guys." Megan directed.
Ed and Spike were moving some new furniture into the debriefing room.
"Ed- you see how high, I'm lifting this?" Spike pointed out, "It'd be nice if you could match it."
"That's because you have the girl's end, Spike." Ed snapped back.
"Can we stop the pedantic bickering?" Megan asked.
"Yeah, yeah," Spike said, "We almost there?"
"Almost there Spike."
Once the new metal framed, leather cushioned couch was in the debriefing room and set down in its resting spot, opposite of the projector screen Spike sighed loudly and proceeded to lay down on it.
"I'm tired." Spike stated.
"I'm Megan, hello Tired." Megan replied, as she sat down at the table and continued typing on the laptop computer.
"What are you working on?" Spike asked her.
"The commander wanted me to work on a paper studying the decline in young age enrollment in tactical police and military units and the impact it has on the police and military associations."
"Something only a Textbook could do." Spike replied, with a laugh.
Suddenly, Ed and Greg came in. Greg carried a larger laptop, while Ed plugged in the charger & internet cords.
"Where'd you get that?" Spike asked, "2007?"
"It's been over an hour, and Winnie still isn't in." Greg said, "Do your thing Spike."
Spike got up and sat in front of the computer. "What exactly are we looking for?"
"Look into her calendars, and see if she forgot to mention an appointment or something."
"Who's on dispatch?" Megan asked, looking up from her computer.
"I called in Marcus. He wasn't happy about it, since he's been working with the RCMP dispatch for the past few months. Let's get Winnie in, ok?"
Spike nodded, as he went to work.
After she had her breakfast, Jules started to clean up, but her stomach and gut started to hurt, so she just put her dishes in the sink, awaiting Megan to come home and clean them.
She does a lot for me. I should thank her somehow. What could I do?
But the thinking was short lived, as the pain came on stronger, and Jules had to take a chair.
After the men sent the email, they tied Winnie back up and continued driving.
"Why we taking the Jean d'Arc?" the one man asked the other.
"It's faster."
"It's too close."
The driver of the vehicle came to a sudden stop and pulled out his gun and pointed it at the other man.
"Look- my plan, my idea, my rules- got it?"
"Anything?" Ed asked, as Spike finished some typing.
"Not yet."
"It's been five minutes Spike, what have you been doing?"
"It's an old computer, it took forever to boot up. And I was checking my email."
"Seriously?" Ed asked.
"Yeah, c'mon, its Winnie, she wouldn't be doing nothing stupid. Just going to check my email, ok?"
Spike looked down to the screen. "But this is interesting."
"What?" Greg asked.
"This email. Unknown sender."
"Click it."
"And get a virus?" Spike answered, "As much as I'd like to know who it is, I'm not going to expose SRU equipment to potential viruses."
Greg grabbed the mouse and clicked it for him.
"Whoa…guy's you should see this."
Ed and Megan came to look at the screen with Spike and Greg.
In the email, there was a picture of Winnie tied up in the backseat of a car. Below it, it said, 'We got her, and if you want her back alive, drop $500,000 at the Markham RT Station.'
"We need to get tracking…" Greg started.
Spike immediately got up and started for the dispatcher's desk, "Can't do it on that computer, have to do it here. Marcus, you mind?"
"Not at all." The male dispatcher replied, as he got up, "I wanted to grab a smoke anyways."
"What do you want me to do Spike?" Megan asked.
"Check into her cellphone, text messages specifically."
"Copy that."
"I'm going to try to track that email using the SRU server as a…"
"Spike, you had me at 'track', let's do it." Greg understood.
Winnie noticed that they had drove into Scarborough and were waiting in a parking lot outside the Markham Rapid Transit station.
If I could somehow manage to loosen the rope on my wrists, I could easily grab one of their guns.
She started to struggle against her wrist bonds, but not enough so that they would notice.
"They going to come or what?" the driver asked the other guy.
"Yeah. They'll probably send an undercover unit to drop the cash. That's why we have this."
The man opened a backpack and removed a large item.
A scanner. Winnie thought to herself, understanding what it meant, They'll hear any chatter from dispatch. And that antenna, that's to intercept short wave frequencies….they will be able to hear the SRU headsets…
Jules was bent over in pain in the chair that she sat in. It was too much. She tried to go for the phone, but when she tried to stand up, she felt some sort of warm fluid running down her leg.
With tears in her eyes, she started to go through things in her head.
What did I do to deserve this? I married the perfect guy and he's gone. I'm carrying his child. What did I do?
She grabbed for her cellphone, which she was lucky that she had found in her pocket and dialed Megan's number.
It rang and rang, and finally went to voicemail.
"Hi, this is Megan, you know what to do."
"Megan- are you…where are you? I need…help…the baby's coming…"
"C'mon team, we need to find out where she is!" Greg yelled, as he curled his fingers into his palm, as if to punch something, "Work faster."
"We're working as fast as we can boss!" Spike yelled back, as rolled over to look over Megan's screen, "Nothing strange in the last 12 hours of text messages?"
"Nothing yet." Megan said, "I'll expand to the last 24 hours."
"Good job Megan." Spike said, "Good thinking. We need to put an APB out on her car- anyone know her details?"
"It's in her HR file, I'll go grab it." Ed said, as he went around the dispatcher's desk.
"No, you won't, Eddie," Greg said, pulling rank, "I'll go get it- they won't give you access."
Greg left in search of Winnie's HR file.
"What do you want me to do?" Ed asked.
"Either stand there and look bald, or look into her home phone records, look for repeat callers and send a unit to go sit on her front lawn!" Spike directed.
Megan worked in a frenzied pace. It didn't help that her phone was vibrating too.
She heard the message her mom left.
Mom? Oh god.
Without taking her eyes off of her work, Megan's mind began racing with the thoughts of her mother in severe pain, curled up on the floor, calling for a man who would never again come to her aid.
"I'm coming mom, hold on." She muttered.
Greg came back with the file.
"Grey Ford Focus, license Alpha Bravo Tango Charlie, Nine Eight Seven." Greg spoke as he opened the file.
"APB online." Spike said, "We need to start working on the money drop."
"Alright," Greg said, "Ed, call down to evidence, and have them bring the cash up in traceable 100s and 50s. Megan, Spike, let's suit up and go."
Megan followed Greg to the equipment cage, as Spike stayed behind to quickly check a few more things on the computers.
Once at the equipment cage, they started putting on their vests and other equipment. Before Megan turned on her radio, she said to Greg, "Mom's in labour."
Greg looked up from adjusting the drop holster.
"You sure?"
"Yeah, she left a message on my phone. Only reason I heard it was because I had my Bluetooth still hooked up."
"Let's finish this up, and get you to the hospital to see your sister be born."
After Jules hung up from leaving the message on Megan's phone she immediately then dialed 911.
"911, what is your emergency?"
"My name is Julianna Perrasmith, officer number 7031 with the Strategic Response Unit. I'm in pain...I think my baby is coming."
"Ma'am, what is your address?" the operator asked.
"17452 Alexis Street." Jules replied, suppressing her need to cry out in pain, "I need an ambulance."
"I'm sending one right away Officer." The operator said, "Please stay on the line with me."
Jules understood. "Ok."
"Plan?" Greg asked Ed, who was suited up in civilian clothes to do the money drop.
Megan had the layout of the buildings and the parking lot on a tablet on the hood of the SRU SUV, "We have to assume they have more than one guy, because they didn't say where to drop the cash, just told us to drop it. Ed will walk along the front of the building and identify any possible targets before dropping the cash. Then me and Spike, will be sweeping the parking lot looking for suspicious vehicles, with the help of the TTC Parking Crew. Spike?"
"The TTC crew has identified three possible suspicious vehicles."
"Alright, we'll clear those first." Megan agreed, "And boss, if you want to set up a Sierra shot here, you can cover not only Ed, but us as well."
"That's a good tactical plan Megan." Ed praised, "Good work."
"Let's keep the peace." Megan stated, as they broke off to start their work.
Winnie noticed the two SRU trucks enter the parking lot, and had noted that her captors didn't notice them.
Good.
She also deduced that the knots in the rope were too tight for her to untie herself.
"See anything?" the driver asked his accomplice.
"The bald guy," he said, as he pointed to him, "He' walking up and down the building, could be him."
"Watch him." The driver said, as he looked down to the scanner, "That thing even on?"
"Yeah."
"Then why haven't we heard anything?"
"I don't know."
The man started to look over the equipment, taking his eyes off of Ed.
"I got an idea." Spike said, as he followed Megan.
"Great Spike, what is it?"
"I'll email the sender of the email. When the email is open, it'll provide a window of opportunity to track his signal so I can triangulate it."
"Ok." Megan said, "First vehicle clear."
"Copy that," Ed replied, "Nothing suspicious- start the drop?"
"Not yet," Megan responded, "Spike's sending a tracking signal via email so he can triangulate its signal."
The driver of the vehicle heard an alert on the computer.
"An email." He said, as he opened the laptop and opened the email inbox, "From Spike Scarlatti- wonder what he wants. Stop fidgeting with that thing, ok?"
The man beside him flipped the scanner over.
"The email says," the driver spoke, " 'Look down.' What the hell does that mean?"
"Dude…"
"What?"
"The scanner, it needed batteries."
Suddenly the back window smashed open, spreading shards of glass everywhere. Right after the glass landed, a device that was spreading smoke was thrown into the vehicle.
"With your hands where I can see them, slowly leave the vehicle!" came an angry female voice.
"You idiot." The driver said, as they both complied and left the vehicle.
"Two suspects, in custody." Megan said, as she clamped the handcuffs onto the second man, and leaned him up against the vehicle, "Spike, Winnie in there?"
Spike open the rear door, which let a lot of smoke out, as he was able to make out Winnie's figure.
"Hostage secured!"
It didn't take long for two cruisers to come to pick up the suspects to lock-up.
"Team One, hot call!" Marcus said over the headsets, "Suicidal woman on the bridge on Tyotown Avenue."
Spike climbed into the truck with Ed, as Megan rode shotgun with Greg.
"Eddie, I have to drop by SRU for something quick," Greg informed over the radio, "You and Spike report to the scene, secure it and start negotiations."
"Copy that."
"What do you have to get?" Megan asked.
"I have to drop you off." Greg insisted, "Go to the hospital. Don't worry about changing, just go right there ok? You should be with your mom. She's going to be in a lot of pain. It's unusual for a baby to come this early in the pregnancy. She may need a C-Section."
"Ok."
Greg dropped Megan off in the SRU Parking lot.
Megan immediately jumped into her truck and took off.
Once on the road, she realized she didn't know what hospital she would be at.
Toronto General, it's the closest one to home, and its where mom's OB/GYN is, so it makes sense.
At the hospital, Megan proceeded to enter the park and pay lot, but when she saw a parking spot near the entrance marked 'Emergency Police Vehicles Only', she veered the truck over there.
Once she got out, she looked around. When she turned around to enter, she found a security guard in her face.
"Thank god you're here so fast," he said, "We need your help."
Without thinking, she obliged and followed the guard into the security office.
"Jack- the police are here. You don't need to call 911." The guard said to his co-worker.
"What's going on?" Megan asked, getting uncomfortable.
"Armed man in the emergency room."
Megan's hand immediately went to her holster, to make sure her sidearm was there.
Phew, it is.
Then her hand went to her radio cradle on her belt.
Damn- I left that in the truck.
"Alright, let's go." The guard said, "We need to deal with this ASAP."