CHAPTER 32

Ben blinked coal-black eyes at Joe and looked down at the blood surrounding his feet, Frank's blood - the blood he just dumbly ordered Joe to sit in. "Sorry, Man. I didn't think. Sit on the stairs."

Joe complied. "I don't believe this!" He muttered, and watched as Ben turned and took a visual note of the long, running chain of bullet holes in the wall, the blood, the phone and the two discarded bullet magazines.

"These Frank's?"

Joe nodded. "He got off a few rounds before he got nailed."

"Two magazine's worth's more than a few rounds." Ben considered the trash can in the far corner thoughtfully. He went and lifted the lid to look inside, tipping it forward. He rolled the container to the side. "A gun's here."

Joe got up and went to look for himself. He felt sure-footed now, and recovered from the initial shock. "It's my brother's, I guess he dropped it, had no way to defend himself even if he could." He picked it up and slid it into his holster. "Where's he freakin' gone?" He turned to check out the blood. A smeared path led through the plaster dust and pieces of tile to a door, the one which led through to where they'd found Nancy. "Maybe Frank moved himself out of harm's way? Makes sense if he lost his gun." Joe opened the door and passed through with Ben. He froze.

"What is it?" Ben asked.

"The gurney's gone, along with the woman strapped to it."

"What?"

"I strapped her to the gurney and left her in the corridor for The Chief."

"You strapped a woman to a gurney as a gift for Chief Collig?"

"NO! Oh my God how did you reach that conclusion? No time to explain, go with me on this, Ben, the woman gone is not good news. No more drag marks so someone carried Frank, or…Ben, can you check the rooms down the other side, see if you can find the gurney, or even better, Frank."

Ben flung open doors and looked into each room, as Joe similarly worked his way along the other side. He stuck his head in each room quickly, rejecting them as he found nothing there. It wasn't until Joe opened the final door closest to an emergency exit he found what they'd been searching for. "Here!" he reported loudly and stepped quickly inside.

Ben joined him and they stared at the abandoned gurney, the straps now hanging loose and open. Frank wasn't present, but there were signs of him having been laid down on it - blood pooled on the top. A Kevlar vest and blood soaked jacket lay on the floor next to the trolley. Joe walked over and lifted the coat and vest to uncover Vanessa's phone and Frank's utility belt. To the side were boots and socks.

"Frank's?" Ben asked.

"Yeah." Joe looked at the gurney again. "I don't know what—" He spun at Ben, his eyes wide. "The ambulance!" he half shouted and ran for the door with Ben close behind. Joe hit the stairs and jumped down them. At the bottom he saw his Dad facing Nancy, with Con crouched next to James. "Dad, Frank's not up there. We can't find him." Joe didn't slow, he and Ben carried on tearing across the room.

"Joe!" His dad yelled.

Joe continued to sprint until he reached the outside, only stopping at the sight of six men stretched out on the ground with their hands cuffed behind their backs. Five officers stood above them in full SWAT uniforms. They had 'FBI' emblazoned on their jackets, and were holding Heckler and Koch MP5 submachine guns. They glanced Joe's way and one of them raised a chin in greeting. "Whoa!" Joe uttered.

Ben asked, "Did Mr Hardy once help out a senator with his missing daughter?"

"He did. Bobbie Shandley."

"Word got through and he sent help. These guys arrived on our doorstep two hours ago, tooled up. Some of the gunmen got away, but the men on the ground didn't realize we were coming down on them. Gave up once they saw what they were up against."

"Just in the nick of time!" Joe shook himself and ran to the corner of the building where they'd seen the ambulance. He found it still parked, unmoved, so went to the back doors and pulled them wide. No Frank. Joe grunted.

"The Chief told us someone tried to take Frank away in an ambulance, is this it?"

"They used it to take Nancy. The woman I strapped to the gurney abducted and abused her. It's the primary reason we're here. A rescue mission." Joe moved into the covered parking area and walked toward the front of the vehicle. Bolted to a wall inside they found a large steel container with its door hung open. Inside were hooks which would have housed guns...lots of guns, Next to it lay a number of packing crates. Joe and Ben looked inside to find innumerable boxes of ammunition.

"For real?" Ben muttered.

Joe switched his attention to another open packing crate, its lid leant against the side. The packing straw hadn't been tampered with, so Ben pulled a handful to one side. He and Joe shared a look and Ben reached in to pull out a grenade. "You guys were so lucky they didn't decide to use these on you. Instant kill!"

"They must've considered it. Otherwise, why open it?"

"Lucky, lucky guys!" Ben placed the grenade carefully back. "You take too many chances."

"Dude, we had no alternative."

Joe turned and peered further into the parking area. A door at the furthest end had a set of stairs ending at the foot of it. The stairs led down from the main building. He jogged over and saw an emergency exit with a push-bar opener. Spots of bloods were present on the stairs leading to the way out. Joe slammed down on the release bar and found it opened out onto the rear of the building. On the other side of the asphalt, swinging open, a gated section of fence which led out into trees.

Ben followed Joe but stayed with his hand on the door to prevent it swinging shut.

A black car waited, parked up along the fence. To Joe, it looked like the same vehicle that had left before they'd entered the compound. He walked over and put his hand on the hood to find it warm. "I wonder if…hang on Ben." Joe took his phone out and looked at the screen. "Yes! Got a signal." He hit for Vanessa and she picked up immediately.

"I just told your Dad, the Red-Headed Man has Frank. He came here first, but when he saw the blueprint, he went back and dragged Frank from the walkway."

"I figured that's what must have happened. I'm looking at the guy's car." He opened the driver's door with the tip of his finger and found the keys in the ignition. "You all right? He didn't hurt you again did he?" He took the keys and threw them at Ben.

Ben caught them. "Hurt her…again?"

Joe put his finger to his lips. He climbed across the driver's seat, dropped the glove box and balked at what he saw. He backed quickly out.

Ben held his hands up, wanting to know what Joe had found.

Vanessa answered. "No. Rebel warned us. The man came inside but he didn't find us."

"Did you lock the panic room door?" Joe moved to the back door, opened up and stuck his head inside the car. Nothing to see. He came out, slammed the door and moved to the rear of the vehicle.

"Yeah, and Mrs Holliday has a gun."

Joe opened the trunk, found it empty, clean as a whistle. He laid his forehead down against the freezing metal of the trunk for a second and closed his eyes. Then he snapped them open again and slammed the lid down too hard in frustration. "Van, I gotta go. I'll speak to you later. Keep Mrs Holliday's gun close. I love you, babes." He disconnected the call and turned to Ben. "This is the Red-Headed Man's car, the psychopath. He tried to kill Vanessa yesterday, strangled her, but James got to her in time."

"A psychopath…a panic room? She okay?"

"Would you be? We barely pulled her from the brink. If Frank wasn't such a geek he carries a Swiss army knife she'd be dead. Geek's rule." Joe rubbed the back of his neck. "We saw someone leaving the complex in this car. I'm guessing he got back before you and the FBI but couldn't leave the same way. So he's taken Frank through the gate and out into the woods."

"You think Frank's in the hands of a psychopath?"

"He is, Van confirmed it. And the guy's not just an 'in it for myself' narcissistic type of psychopath, he's an 'I'll kill you after I've enjoyed torturing you for a while' type. He's gonna take his revenge on Frank. It's why he tried to kill Van and assaulted Nancy - to torment my brother." Joe unloaded his heavy, metal flashlight from its belt hook and played it too and fro into the trees.

"Did you just find something in the car?"

"A gun, a knife…a freakin' big knife…a hunting knife, cheese wire and duck tape. I'm guessing he wanted to use it at the safe house earlier. Thank God for Frank's paranoia that he installed the panic room."

"At least the psycho didn't take his kit with him. Must've been in a rush."

"Hopefully didn't have time to take anything like that." Joe lips went tight, and he patted the flashlight against his forehead several times before redirecting it again to point the beam into the trees again.

Ben had the raw depth of perception to predict Joe's next move. After his years of experience as a cop for Bayport's finest, he knew Joe's personality and motivations only too well. "Don't you do it, Man!"

Joe looked back at Ben with an indecipherable look, completely expressionless, then suddenly, he head went down and he sprinted away into the trees.

"JOE!"

-o0o-

Ezra's head spun with the information his team were being asked to absorb. The Hardys and Rileys had been busy folks in the couple of days they'd been in hiding.

He and his officers helped Con and Fenton heave the desks aside as they tried to find Nancy and dig her out from under the pile. Her voice now called to them which sped up the process. A minute later, they hauled the screen to one side, moved a desk, and had her released.

"You okay, sweetheart?" Fenton asked.

Nancy threw her arms about his neck and her cheek pressed to his own. "I thought I'd find you all dead, I thought I'd be the one last left. Didn't dare shout until I knew it was you."

Fenton used the hug as an excuse to lift her. "We've come out the other side alive." He carried her away from the pile and set her down next to James. He figured the paramedics would go there first and she'd get seen quickly.

"Hey, Drew." James smiled at her, his face ashen. "Glad to see you're okay." Two of his fellow officers fussed around him, but they displayed a lot of movement and not much productivity. There wasn't really anything they could do until paramedics arrived. One of them put a folded up jacket under his head.

"James. You poor thing." She shuffled closer, gripped his offered hand and asked Fenton, "Any report on Frank?"

"Joe and Officer Wright are up there." Fenton stepped back to open his view of the upper walkway but couldn't see anything. "JOE?" He didn't get a response, so he decided to go up and headed for the stairs. "Stay here, Honey."

"Wait for me." Nancy stood.

Fenton went back to her. "Nancy, we don't know Frank's condition. Do you really want to see that? Let me look first."

Con joined them and dipped to stroke James' head.

Nancy continued. "Of course not, but—"

Footsteps crashed down the stairs above their heads. Joe appeared and reported something bizarre. "Dad, Frank's not up there. We can't find him!" He sprinted across the room toward the outside with Ben Wright.

"JOE!" Fenton yelled after him, but Joe was gone. Fenton turned stunned to Nancy, who in turn stared wide eyed. Her hand covered her mouth and Fenton ran for the stairs.

Sure enough, at the top Fenton found the walkway deserted. "My God!" He also saw the substantial puddle of blood by the guardrail, along with Frank's phone which started to play the Mission Impossible theme tune. Fenton pursed his lips, the chosen tune now sounded sarcastic and mocking. He bent to look at the screen and snatched to answer it. "Vanessa, my boy's gone!"

"I couldn't get through until now. The Red-Headed Man has Frank. We saw him taken as Mark fed me onto the big screen."

Fenton turned and looked to the top of the doors to see a security camera up there.

"He dragged Frank through the third door along from the staircase, but we didn't see where they went after. He's dodged the security cameras. I've gone and looked at the blueprints. An emergency exit's back there, a staircase. He took Frank down there and out. There's no other way. There's still a chance they've got Frank in one of the rooms, but they don't all have cameras so I can't say for sure."

"No, Joe will have looked." Fenton peered over the handrail and saw Con below. He had just finished up helping to relocate James from under the stairwell and medics were there now, inspecting James' ruined leg. James, in obvious pain, pointed at the stairs and talked animatedly to his Dad. Con reluctantly turned and got up out of his crouch. A sound behind had Fenton startled and spinning.

Nancy stood there. "He's with the Red-Headed Man, isn't he?"

Probably due to her experience with the psychopath, Nancy guessed correctly. Fenton wasn't surprised. He didn't need to verbally respond, the look on his face answered for him. "Nancy. Careful where you put your feet," he warned.

"We must find him!" she said. "That man - he'll kill him, he doesn't have an 'off' switch, he doesn't care. He won't even care if Frank has the code or not!"

Vanessa concurred with Nancy's assessment. "He enjoys killing, he likes to watch."

"Yes I know. He's a sadist, but his predilections will buy Frank, and us, time. He'll kill him, and he'll enjoy doing it, but it won't be done quickly…unless he panics." He pushed by Nancy and opened the door to the corridor. "The woman's gone."

Con stepped onto the walkway, and also reacted with dismay.

Nancy walked to the door purposefully, but Fenton snatched her arm and pulled her around, her back to the wall. "Nancy! Your feet, there's sharp pieces of tile everywhere!"

She looked down. "I need to—"

"No Nancy, you don't need to do anything! You're going with James to the hospital to get checked out. But more importantly, James needs someone with him because I can guarantee Con won't leave with Frank AWOL."

"Correct," Con muttered.

"James hasn't anyone, no other family. You've not even got shoes. We've got cops and Ezra. Between us, we'll find Frank."

Nancy's eyes narrowed alarmingly, so Fenton stepped closer and took her by the chin. She recoiled and gave him a hard shove. He staggered, but instantly she took the few steps between them at a run to grab him around his middle and spluttered, "Sorry, sorry! The man, he…I didn't mean to, he—"

"Drew?" Con asked.

Fenton shook his head, "I should've realized, dumb move. But it shows you're not yourself. The Nancy I know doesn't do 'scared'; you're the gutsiest woman I know." He placed a careful hand on her back in a half embrace, she didn't react badly this time, "Your face and eye, how do you know there's no serious damage? Get yourself checked out we'll find Frank. We've never lost a man yet and I don't intend on starting now." He put the phone to his ear.

"She all right?" Vanessa asked.

"Yes. I'll speak to you later, Honey. If you haven't already done so, lock the panic room door until this is over." He disconnected the call and pulled his own cell phone out, offering it to Nancy. "Take this; we'll keep you updated. Go with James, he'll need you."

"But I'm fine. I just need to find come shoes."

Con interceded. "Drew, who do you think you're fooling?"

"What do you mean?"

He threw a thumb at himself. "ME! You think you're fooling ME? Your excuse as to why you didn't call out to us from under the table? Baloney! It wasn't you needed to know it was us; you should have known that already because of the loud hailer announcement and the squad car siren. They were loud! You didn't hear because you were knocked out cold, weren't you?"

Fenton looked accusingly at her. "Is that right?"

Nancy paused for some long seconds to glare at Con. The jut of her lip showed Con had guessed correctly.

Con signed loudly. "You're not coming with us. End of discussion. You're wasting time by trying to convince the inconvincible. Stop trying to be Superwoman."

She finally dropped her eyes and took the phone from Fenton in a shaky hand. "You find him, do you hear me? Find him." She swiped her eye. "I hate this."

"Me too," Fenton agreed softly.

Ezra's voice called up from below. "Con. James needs you."

-o0o-

Frozen and in pain, Frank found himself laid on the ground, with his arms bound behind him, his hands numb and his shoulder pulsating. His legs were tied by what felt like a ridiculously long length of rope looped around and around from his ankles up passed his knees. He lay on soft foliage and could feel the cold wind blow and furl around his body. His Kevlar vest and jacket were gone as well his boots and socks. His shirt and pants, the only clothes still covering his body, offered little comfort or warmth. He felt exposed.

He could sense someone's presence but his eyes were blindfolded. Then…a slight movement next to his head, and a snap of fingers. He flinched.

"He's awake," said a woman's voice full of amazement. "I thought we had a dying man on our hands. He's tough."

The voice threw Frank's memories into order. Enabled him to piece together what had happened up until he'd passed out on the walkway, and what must have occurred afterwards. He'd been taken from the area by the woman and someone else. Logically someone else had to be involved because she'd been securely strapped to the gurney, Joe had seen to that. She wasn't going anywhere alone, and she couldn't have moved him, dead weight and all, without help.

He gave his wrists an experimental tug to test the bindings but it sent a shock of pain stampeding up his shoulder to the top of his head and left him gasping and nauseous.

The ground shifted under his head as someone heavier knelt down on the other side. His blindfold ripped away, and Frank blinked up at the dark sky. He'd been laid down amongst trees, probably in woodland outside of the compound.

A male face loomed close and Frank recognized him as the red-headed psychopath. His heart hit his stomach and Frank thought one of Con Riley's favorite expressions, 'This has all gone to crap!' He needed to play this carefully.

The man stared at Frank for a long time, zoned in on his eyes. Frank looked silently back and waited for him to say something while thinking through his limited options. No one said a word, so Frank decided to play. He shut his eyes and allowed his own darkness to slither and rise up. He opened up and showed it to the Red-Headed Man.

"Oh, you're good," the psychopath muttered.

"I am," Frank agreed.

The woman moved and Frank's dark eyes rolled to the other side as she showed him a green-colored memory stick.

"Do you know what this is, Frank?" she asked.

"Enlighten me."

"It's the Pandora program, the whole deal, the game and the key." She gave him a superior and smug grin. "And you have the code. And you're going to give it to us. If you refuse, it's going to hurt."