Chapter Tree: "It's three, trees grow in the ground"

"Oh great. Here comes the tree stooges again." Jake joked to distract himself as he found himself tied to a chair again, surrounded by concrete walls covered in blood and seeping water.

"How about this time I ask the questions and you give the answers? NO? Oh well it was worth a try."

Jake only ever saw the same 3 guys, two standing guard, the first tall, shoulder length oily brown hair with a scar down his left cheek like something out of a bad Rambo movie. The second, slightly shorter, more stocky with thinning hair and a compulsive squint in his left eye. Both heavily armed with large automatic weapons and a knife strapped to their thighs. Then there was Stinky, or so Jake called him. Rotten teeth, poor personal hygiene. He was short and skinny but full of muscles. Porter Rican or Mexican, he couldn't tell. The others seemed Russian? They never asked any relevant questions, and each torture session lasted for about an hour. Electric prods, burning pokers, he had it all, but Stinky's favourite weapons were his fists. Jake could hardly see out of his right eye as it was, and he was sure it had started to weep from an infection. His chest felt like a punching bag and he knew from experience that three of his ribs were cracked. The bullet wound in his leg wasn't healing either, especially with stinky sticking his thumb into eat every day. Jake knew that it was only a matter of time until infection or one too many broken bones put an end to his situation. If only he knew who was truly behind it and why?

Leslie couldn't believe how hungry she was. The cheese sandwich Rose had made barely touched the sides.

"That's the most I've seen you eat in days."
"I don't know what I was thinking."
"Would you like another?"
"May I?"
"Of course honey. Whatever you want." Rose took the plate and walked over to the kitchenette. She also pulled out a bowl and some chips and placed them on the table.

"Ok and thanks." Mal hung up the phone. "My contact at the Port authority is going to send over their shipping manifests in a moment. I'll cross check the data and see what I can find."

"What can I do?"
"You can rest. You're exhausted."
"I'm fine."
"Don't argue. You are going to sit on that couch and out your feet up." Mal ordered as Leslie instinctively obeyed his command, "Here" he said handing her a file. "Make sure this list of known associates and places is up to date. With any luck this might be the break we need."

"Can I ask you guys to promise me something."
"Anything." Rose smiled,

"Don't tell anyone, about the baby I mean."
"Of course not honey, everything is ok though isn't it?"
"It's fine it's just… I don't want Jake to be the last to know, if you get what I mean."
"Of course we do." Mal kissed her on the head, "Your secret is safe with us."

"If you don't mind me asking." Rose stuttered uneasily, "How far along are you?"
"Eleven weeks." Leslie smiled, "It's all been such a mess, I found out the day I found out about my promotion, I was hoping to have some time off with Jake so we could discuss things but first there was the bomber in the station and then the prison riot. I never got a chance to tell him."
"Well I have to say it's about time." Mal teased her,

"Malachy!" Rose slapped him on the arm. She knew he'd been teasing Jake a lot lately.

"I told Jake months ago to hurry up and get his act together. I'm not getting any younger and I couldn't think of anyone better to have my grandchildren."

"You don't think we've rushed into things, not that this was planned or anything."
"Are you kidding me?" Mal laughed, "Jake has been smitten with you ever since he saw you five years ago. Everyone could see you were destined to be with each other. I'm just glad you got your acts together before it was too late."
"Well in that case Malachy, you're welcome." The sound of the fax machine starting up interrupted their break. Rose collected the papers and together the checked, double checked and cross checked their records. Rose made a map on the board of where ships went, their routes and any stopovers they made. Leslie overlaid indicators of countries and islands known to be favoured by those on their suspects list. After all had been compiled, there was still too much missing information to get an accurate idea of where Jake might be. As far as they knew, he could be anywhere in the entire ocean, or even on the other side of the world by now.

"Do you think Becker is heading back to St Pierre?"

"No. He burned too many bridges there. My money is on the guys he teamed up with. If only we knew more about them."
"Leslie's should be back from the station soon with the updated files."
"I think we're going to need some help on this one, if they have crossed the border then we aren't going to have the connections we need."
"I know, I've been thinking about that." But so far she'd come up empty.
"Who are you thinking about?"
"Someone higher up, a fed say?"
"Wolf?"
"I've been putting the word out but as yet I haven't been able to find him."
"Do you think he'll help?"
"Jake's helped him often enough, we can only hope."

"Well I've been doing some checking of my own, this Carlos Romero, they are into some pretty heavy stuff. Not the usual drop kicks we have around here."
"Why haven't I heard of them before?"
"They originate in Spain, they've only started to surface in Canada and the United states in the last 6 months or so."
"Any ships heading towards the good old Europe or the Mediterranean?"
"Four." Rose dug out their files, "One heading to Bergen, Norway. Another to Greece, Then there's Murmansk Russia and a forth heading up to Glasgow."

"We'll that's something at least." Mal sighed with relief that finally they had a lead to work up again.

"Yeah but he could be on any of them, and by the time we search them all"
"My money is still on Ireland or France." He felt certain that Becker had him, not Carlos and the Becker was making a run for it.

"But what if we're wrong?" Rose and Mal looked over their clues again in silence. Pick the right ship and Jake could be home before they knew it. Pick the wrong ship and they would be wasting precious time that Jake didn't have to spare. There would be no second chances this time.