Uncharacteristically speedy update alert! Might be related to how we only have ONE WEEK to season 3. *flail*

A Tangled Web (25)

Provenza couldn't believe it when he finally saw Flynn's ID on the screen. He nearly ran off the road in his rush to pick up. In the front passenger seat, Tao muttered a protest at the sudden jolt. "Flynn, where the hell are you?! We've been trying to –"

But the frantic voice that came pouring out wasn't his partner's.

He couldn't even process whatever the kid had said past the panicked words 'send help please', because if Flynn was gone and Rusty had his phone and he sounded so desperate... A hundred dire scenarios ran through Provenza's mind, until two seconds later there was some crackling and then Andy's voice came through. He sounded frantic, too:

"We're on a trail off North Vermont Canyon Road, south side of the park…Listen, I need back-up here immediately, and an ambulance –"

An ambulance! His blood pressure went up. "We've got your approximate location from your call earlier, we're a few minutes out at most," he assured. "Are you hurt?"

"No, no me and the kid are fine – but –"

Thank god. "Okay – we don't have an exact position, Flynn. Tell me where to find you." The rest could wait. He put the phone on speaker so Tao could hear the directions, too, and relay them to the others as well.

"Ah – we're about a mile up from the road… trail heads north and then turns west...past the bird habitat sign, there's a broken water tower top off the trail to the right…" Bird habitat? What damn bird habitat? And weren't the water towers two miles in the opposite direction? "Listen –"

"No, take a left here," said Tao, and Provenza swerved, climbing the car onto an even more impossibly narrow side of the trail. What the hell had Flynn been doing there?

"What else," he demanded. "Andy!"

"Hold on, I think I hear you."

"What?" But his partner was saying something away from the phone, something that sounded like 'go signal them', but... "Flynn!" Damn that idiot!

"Over there!" Tao shouted a few moments later, and when Provenza spotted Rusty a few hundred yards down the uneven trail, he slammed on the gas so hard that his car groaned in protest.

The kid looked alive enough, the way he was waving his hands and shouting, but he did look frantic. The car screeched to a halt at the side of the trail. Provenza grabbed the radio and jumped out, not even taking the keys out of the ignition.

" –found them, tell the rest of them to get over here. And get the damn paramedics here too." Reaching Rusty, he put both hands on the boy's shoulders. "Are you hurt?"

"No, but –"

The lieutenant looked past Rusty to see Flynn kneeling on the ground some fifty yards away. "Is he?"

"No – Lieutenant, we found her –"

Provenza was already rushing over to his partner, and only on getting closer did he notice that Flynn had been kneeling next to someone. "Found wh..."

He trailed off abruptly as it dawned on him what Rusty had been saying. Shock left him speechless for a second. What? He looked at Flynn. "Is she…"

But no, he already knew the answer to that. He'd seen Rusty's expression and if she were… if they hadn't gotten to her in time… then the boy wouldn't have been standing there with that concerned look on his face, but still –

"She's alive," said Andy.

– it was damn good to hear it anyway.

Provenza took another moment to process everything, because he still didn't understand exactly what had happened and how. He'd only gotten that damn text from Flynn about Rusty and 'checking something out' at the park, then his idiot partner had dropped completely off the grid for half hour, gone, his phone off, no sign of what had happened to him.

And just when he'd feared that another one of their team had gone missing, Flynn's phone had come back on, and then Rusty had called, and now this...?

"Where are those EMTs!" he hollered.

The ambulance had just arrived on the scene; two paramedics were already rushing over. They flanked the Captain and Flynn on either side, and there were a lot of questions to his partner, though Provenza could barely follow them over the questions in his own head. How was she? What the hell had happened? How the hell had Rusty ended up here? No – Provenza already imagined that part, and he was being kind to his blood pressure by not thinking about it yet.

"–said he drugged her, but she didn't know with what," Flynn was telling the EMTs.

That caught his attention. "Said…?"

His partner nodded. "She was conscious when we found her."

The first paramedic said something about corneal and light reflexes and respiratory depression, while the second asked, "How long ago did she lose consciousness?"

"A few minutes, maybe ten at most."

"And you're sure she didn't tell you what kind of drugs were administered to her?"

"No – no she didn't know."

Finally, a way to jump to action. "Let's see if we can find out. Tao, Sanchez –" Provenza waved the two over, pointed to the open trapdoor a few yards away, "get in there. Look for something that Jensen could've used to drug the Captain."

"She also said that that creep might go for the mall again – that he had some way to get in. Maybe another bomb, too." Reluctantly, Andy stood up, moving a couple of steps away from where the EMT's were still assessing Sharon. "Apparently Danny Murray told her that they'd had some sort of hidden route into the mall, Friday – something to do with a delivery passage."

Provenza nodded to Sykes. "Warn SIS that Jensen might have another way in that they didn't cover. He shouldn't make his move now, the big supposed 're-opening' isn't until tomorrow, but let's find that hidden route he's counting on." He looked to Flynn again. "Did she tell you anything else?"

"Only that he might be armed."

Great. "Sykes –"

With an alert nod, she acknowledged, "I'll pass it on to SIS," and took a few steps away, reaching for her phone. Tao and Sanchez had already descended into the tunnel to search whatever was below.

There was a brief, worried silence as Provenza and Flynn watched the paramedics load Raydor into the ambulance. Rusty, who'd kept his eyes glued to them the whole time, made a hesitant move to follow, only to be stopped by Provenza's hand on his shoulder.

"Hold up." The older lieutenant held up a hand to preempt the boy's protest. "You're going to the same place, but you'll ride with me – with Sykes," he amended, because much as he hated it, he was the incident commander and had to stay on the scene longer. "In a couple of minutes. You and Flynn need to get checked out too, but first–"

"I'm fine," Andy argued.

"I want a doctor's note that says that. But first I'm gonna need some answers. Sykes," he waited until she lowered her phone, then pointed to the ambulance, "find out what hospital they're going to." Then he turned to Flynn and Rusty again. "Alright, now give me the two-minute version of what the hell happened to you two," he demanded, "and then you can follow the Captain."

Forty-five minutes later he was back in his car, sirens blaring, cutting across the city from Griffith Park back down to Compton and 'Sun Plaza'. The red-and-blues, bright headlights and city lights were giving him a migraine…now that Raydor had turned up, alive despite increasingly grim odds, there was nothing he'd have liked more than to go home for the night and take a goddamn nap. Everyone needed that – all of them had pushed long past their limits on this one.

But there was still that bastard Jensen with his second bomb and his unknown route into 'Sun Plaza'... While Provenza had considered just letting SIS handle the effort to trap Jensen at this point, a part of him still drove doggedly forward. It had been him and his team to set up the net, the whole involved, high-risk mall operation, and they couldn't just go home now. Tired or not, they had to put an end to that psycho before he actually managed to hurt someone.

Someone else, Provenza qualified. There were already two dead bodies, and who knew what shape Raydor was in…

"Yeah, okay – no, the sooner the better, we need this urgently – thank you! Alright." In the passenger seat, Tao was wrapping up his phone call. "The lab's gonna rush the results on that water bottle we found. They'll have people on it as soon as it gets there."

Provenza muttered his approval under his breath.

"There was definitely some precipitate at the bottom of the bottle; I think the tests should tell us what drugs Jensen gave the Captain." Tao dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief; he sounded a lot more agitated than usual, but after the two days they'd had, it was no wonder. "Do you think SIS will find something else in those tunnels? I don't know … maybe I should've stayed behind –"

"There was nothing else in that room, Tao," said Provenza. They'd combed it top to bottom for nearly an hour, and sent a crateful of evidence back to the station. "SIS can search the rest of the tunnels – our job now is Jensen, and finding his damn back way into that mall before he uses it to bring in another bomb."

Mike let out a soft sigh, quietly conceding his point; after a moment, he grimaced. "You think he might've done it already? If we didn't have this delivery route covered…"

But Provenza shook his head. "He wouldn't have risked it in plain daylight. He'll probably try to sneak in later tonight, leave us and his ex-wife a little present…" his eyes narrow ominously, "and we're going to find that back route that he's counting on...and give him a little surprise."

From their parking spot half a block away, the mall looked quiet, deserted. If they hadn't known better, they'd never have guessed that a complement of over a dozen officers was in place inside, and that was not even counting the back-up and bomb squad on standby out of sight.

The smell of cheap coffee filled the car, almost nauseating at this point. Caffeine was only going to take them so far – who was he kidding, caffeine had probably stopped working long before. By now they were all running just on fumes and a very serious grudge.

He planned to make this night a very short one.

"We've got eyes on the two main roads leading to the mall," Sanchez had paused by the rolled-down window, one hand on the hood of the car, "so far no one's seen any sign of Jensen."

"He'd probably use a side road or even just cut across some back yards on foot," Tao had his tablet out, a few maps and schematics overlaid on the screen. "I mean, even if he thinks the mall's empty right now, he probably wouldn't just walk right up to it…"

"There are a couple of plain-clothes officers patrolling, too," said Sanchez, "but we don't have enough people to widen the surveillance area any further, or we'd risk that bastard slipping through."

Provenza nodded. Taylor had spared as many people for this operation as he'd been able to, but…covering a massive three-story building with twenty doors in and out, and a few acres of concrete parking lot around it – not even counting the wrecked garage, which had been cordoned off, that took a lot of manpower. Especially if they wanted eyes on the streets around, too. There were two surveillance vans within a one mile radius, and a dozen camera feeds from several different mall entrances. A lot to coordinate. A lot to have in place for just one man.

Except it wasn't 'just' one man, was it.

Tao looked up from the blueprints on his tablet. "I've got a few possible locations where this delivery passage might be… Should we have SIS start to search them, or…?"

Provenza shook his head. "Let SIS focus on the mall itself. We'll search for Jensen's back-way in – we've all already seen the other project sites so we know what to look for," he reasoned, "and we'll draw less attention. If Jensen's around, we don't want him to catch on that we're here just yet." He sighed, waved a hand to Julio, "But ask the plain-clothes officers to lend a hand, too, we're too damn short-staffed otherwise. What's going on with Sykes?"

"I called her, she's on her way over to help." Something in Sanchez's voice changed, then, his tone lowering a notch, changing registers. "She left Lt. Flynn and Rusty in the ER, waiting to get checked out. Looks like it might be a while, but they seemed okay." He paused, swallowed. "There were … still no news on the Captain."

A tense silence followed his words.

Provenza exhaled slowly, tiredly.

Ahead, the charred husk of the parking garage loomed grimly next to the brand new mall, in a grotesque juxtaposition. A sinister visual reminder.

No, Erik Jensen wasn't just any man.

Tonight, he was their man.

"I think I see it, Sir." Sanchez kept his voice low and his gait studiedly casual as he approached the downward ramp. But in the pockets of his oversized hoodie, his hand gripped the handle of his gun.

"Careful." Provenza wore his white hat even though it was eleven p.m. and dark out. Underneath the knitted sweater he wore a vest, too. He approached the ramp at a right angle to Sanchez; the detective was whistling a tune under his breath while his eyes swept their surroundings with a keen gaze. "Remember, Raydor thought he might've been armed."

Sanchez nodded without looking over.

A few steps later, he'd vanished down the narrow concrete ramp. Provenza's hand clenched around his own gun. Was this it? He hoped this was it; his palm around the gun was almost itching. He wanted to get that bastard, and he wanted this whole nightmare over with.

Adrenaline rose and fell in agitated waves.

"This is a dead end." Julio's voice crackled in his earpiece. Another reason for the hat. "There's nothing here."

Provenza sat down on a dingy wooden bench, pretended to play with his phone. (In doing so he noticed a message from Flynn, something about a shoulder x-ray. Still nothing on Raydor.) "Are you sure?"

"Ramp ends in a concrete wall, a few yards down." He could see the beam of Julio's flashlight, moving around. "Sir – do you think there could be a masked entry point? Like a door in the wall?"

The lieutenant pinched the bridge of his nose. "It's not 'Indiana Jones', Sanchez." Then he paused. Would it really hurt to make sure? "Tao…?"

There was a brief silence, followed by Mike's voice, "Uh – yeah, if there's a wall, that's not the place." Another pause. "Amy and I are searching near the bridge on Alondra Blvd. There used to be a couple of shipping companies here, which shared docks and access corrido – wait, wait!" Some hurried shuffling and unintelligible whispers followed.

Provenza's head snapped up. A few hundred yards away, beyond the shopping center, he could see Tao's shape, between two streetlamps, holding Sykes' arm. The two exchanged some gestures that he couldn't make out.

"Tao, what is it?" From the corner of his eye, he noticed Julio walk back up the ramp, in his direction.

Mike's voice was low now, cautious; he and Sykes were already backing up a few steps. "Footprints," he whispered. "There's a sort of out-of-use loading dock down here, can't see where it leads exactly, but it might connect to the mall basement or something. There are footprints at the base of the ramp, going in." He made a meaningful pause."None coming out."

Provenza could see Tao and Sykes taking up relatively covered positions about thirty feet or so away from their point of interest, and then Tao turned his head; they were too far away for their eyes to actually meet, but it was easy to imagine the serious expression on the younger lieutenant's face:

"I think you and Julio should get over here."

"Damn it, how the hell did he slip past everyone? Again!"

Provenza clenched his jaw, scowling at the old loading dock that descended via a narrow concrete ramp into a passage that they couldn't see.

"Sanchez, I thought we had surveillance on Alondra!"

"We do." The detective sounded no happier. "They didn't see him."

"I think he might've actually come up along the river bank." Tao was still keeping his voice to a low whisper. "That would explain the wet shoes that left these prints – and you can even see some traces of blanket weed algae that are all over the water surface." His flashlight briefly shone on fading wet shoeprints. "And if he was low enough on the riverbank, the surveillance van and anyone patrolling the street might've missed him. I don't think anyone considered that he might take that route."

Provenza shook his head. "His ex-wife said he was a nutcase. Damn it!" he swore again, then looked up and down the riverbank. "Could he have gone out of the passage a different way? Left the bomb at the mall already?" Had they missed him again?

Tao frowned. "I can't tell when these tracks were made," he admitted, "but since they haven't dried yet, I think it can't have been more than… ten minutes. Twenty at most."

"That means he's probably still in there." There was a bite to Julio's tone that promised nothing good for the man it was intended for. "Sir, we should go after him."

They all glanced at the dark passageway past the loading dock.

"According to the old blueprints, this has at least three different access points," warned Tao. "Like I said, the shipping companies that used to be here shared loading docks and transport passages. And if the 'Sun Plaza' construction crews connected their delivery routes to this, there might be even more than three, so –"

" –so the longer we wait, the higher the chance that Jensen's escaping through somewhere else!" Sanchez sounded mad. "We need to stop talking about this and go in. Now!"

"He could already be gone," argued Tao, "we need to figure out which way –"

"No, he wouldn't have had time to set everything up in fifteeen minutes – we have to go down there after him!"

"If he sees us, he might set off the bomb," Sykes countered, "we should wait at the exits –"

"We don't know all the exits –"

"Enough!" Provenza scowled at all of them, annoyed, then pointed to Tao. "Send SIS the location of the all other access points that we know of. I want them covered, now."

"Already on it," confirmed Mike.

"Sykes, contact the canine unit and bomb squad. Forget about staying out of sight – clear everyone else out and let the dogs into the mall, have them look for Jensen and the bomb. And as soon as those access points are covered, I want all the lights on in the mall, and out here I want sirens, megaphones, everything." He narrowed his eyes. "Tell him that we know he's here, and that we've got all his exits covered."

"Sir, he'll panic –" warned Julio.

" –precisely." Provenza nodded. "This guy's too good at slipping past us when we're trying to stay under his radar, so it's time to let him know we're here. Give him something to sweat about."

"Smoking our prey out," murmured Tao. "Might work..."

Provenza looked at the dark, massive shopping center. "Let's see how our elusive Dr. Jensen does under pressure…"

Erik Jensen had just finished setting his small suitcase on the floor of the east-wing mechanical room. He knew how the mall was constructed, and that entire space was right over one of the least stable areas – and, being in the basement, conveniently close to the building foundation. The soil beneath was weak enough that any strong vibrations would cause significant slippage… the foundation would shift, that would cause more vibrations, the soil would move further… eventually the shifts would be enough that the walls, these obnoxiously large walls that his obnoxious ex wife had built, well they'd pitch and bend and crumble down.

Right on top of her obnoxious shoppers. And if he was lucky, on top of her, too.

Although he almost preferred Sue to not be there, so she could live through the consequences. Choke on her big 'initiative'.

Did she really think he was just going to sit by and watch her climb to success not only using his money, but his idea? He had been the one to tell her about the soil problems. He had suggested buying the land at a cheap price – and then leasing it or making some parking lot or something – but no, she'd had to go bigger. Make a whole damn building. When he'd warned her that that wouldn't work, she'd laughed in his face.

Well, he was about to show her.

All it would take would be a small blast. He didn't even need a lot of heat – sure, the catalyst would amplify the blast a little, and having it in the mechanical room brought the added bonus of oh, electric fires and whatnot, but really, just the energy release from combining those two small containers would be enough to cause the chain reaction between the foundation and the weak soil.

He hoped Sue would get an ulcer.

Patiently, he set up the device; it wasn't hard. Two containers, a tube that combined them, and a rudimentary release mechanism. Radio-triggered… he had to be within range, but since he was planning to watch the show anyway, that wasn't a problem.

He smiled as he wondered if Sue would get blamed for it, then his smile soured. Probably not. The damn police had somehow figured out who he was – that woman in the parking garage had called him by name. They must've somehow connected him to that idiot kid Jimmy… or his really idiot friend, Danny.

Ugh, this was why Erik liked to do things on his own. Working with other people only made everything complicated, because they were all incompetent.

He didn't know how much the police knew about him, or if they thought he was dead or whatever – but he knew enough to not go back home. After this, he'd just have to take off for Mexico or something. He'd probably be able to get a job at some company there, after all he was a gifted geo-engineer and had a doctorate. He wasn't worried about unemployment.

But he'd stick around for a little while just to see Sue squirm. She'd be broke. Broke! Even if the police pinpointed him as the guilty party, the insurance would never cover her once they found out that she'd knowingly built on bad soil. And since Erik had sent them a letter on Friday afternoon, they were going to find out soon enough.

Friday, because that was when he'd meant to do this. Then that woman had shown up out of the blue, how the hell had she even known… and he'd had to set off the bomb in the garage just to escape, and … well that had just been a huge inconvenience. Erik didn't like it when things didn't go as planned. Planning was important.

To top it all off, she wasn't even dead – well, okay, maybe she was dead now, but Friday, that imbecile Danny had 'helped' her. Erik had almost yanked out his hair when he'd listened to those ridiculous voicemails on his disposable phone. How idiotic could that kid be?!

Erik sighed, shrugged. He couldn't help the fact that people were stupid. No point getting worked up over it. Luckily, he'd planned, so he'd had two bombs, and so he'd been able to accommodate for the unplanned events of Friday. That was why it was important to always have a back-up.

So now everything was back on track, the police were probably chasing their tails somewhere (the news had said "electrical incident" on the topic of the garage explosion – how stupid were these people, honestly?!), his little surprise was almost ready to go. Oh, and insurance had been notified. That was an important bit.

He smiled again at the thought. Sue would lose everything. She'd be liable for everything.

And of course in addition to financial ruin, she'd be publicly vilified. Reviled. Her own big 'St. Patrick's Day celebration' turned against her, in a PR nightmare. So much for initiative, Sue. That's what she got for being a greedy, arrogant, demeaning bitch.

All those people… but well, Sue had never cared about people. He'd warned her, hadn't he? Warned her that building something meant to hold people, on bad soil, was irresponsible. Warned her not to do it. She'd just called him jealous.

Well, he would show her. Oh, would he show her.

He finished setting up and took a moment to admire his work. Then he mentally patted himself on the back.

Perfect. Good job, Erik!

It hadn't even been that hard, really. He'd told Sue that patience, preparation and thoroughness always paid off. Well… that and a high IQ.

With a satisfied nod, he got back to his feet and dusted off his pants.

That was when all the lights went on, and the mall speakers erupted to life.

" – SIS standing by at the Atlantic exit and the one near the storage facilities." Tao's voice was still muffled, and a little hard to make out through all the static. "Julio and I have the first access point covered. We're ready."

"Stand by." Provenza looked to Sykes, who was also holding her radio. "Everyone clear from the mall?"

She nodded, "We've pulled everyone back, and bomb squad is standing by. Dogs are running through now, they've covered the ground floor and first floor and haven't found anything yet."

"Alright, tell them to pull out and wait at all the exits in case he leaves through the mall and not the delivery passage. Okay, Mike," he spoke back into his radio, "get ready…we're going to make some noise."

"Copy that…"

Sanchez looked toward the passage. "I still think we should be going down there after this guy. Make sure he doesn't get away."

"He's not going to," Tao said seriously. "If he doesn't come out this way, then SIS will take him at one of the other exits."

Sanchez gave him a stony look. "Sir, I don't want SIS to take him," he informed the lieutenant. "I want that son of a bitch."

At that, Tao only nodded, silent, his own grip tightening on his weapon.

Erik jumped and nearly tripped over his own bomb, which only jolted him even more. What?!

"Erik Jensen. This is the LAPD."

His name was coming out of the speakers – why the hell were there even speakers in the basement!? He glanced up and down the narrow corridor, but there was no one there. But… how would they know…?

"We have the mall surrounded."

What! But – but they didn't know…!

"There's nowhere to go. We have all the exits covered."

Ha! They didn't know anything!

"Come out the front door with your hands up…"

Were they really giving him instructions on how to surrender? What did they think he was, some criminal? How stupid were these people?

"There are officers at the delivery passage access points…"

What? What?!

"Come out to the lobby, and out the front door…"

A phone on the wall near the far end of the corridor started ringing, too.

This was ridiculous.

"So… how likely do we think it is that he'll actually surrender?"

Gun out, Sykes was waiting with Provenza near a secluded staff entrance, which they had deemed as one of Jensen's other likely escape routes.

The lieutenant gave her a wry look.

She bit her lips. "Right."

Ridiculous!

"I repeat, this is the LAPD. Erik Jensen…"

It was doctor Erik Jensen, by the way. What the hell was wrong with these people? His heart was pounding. This wasn't supposed to happen. This was not. supposed. to happen. What the hell was the cops' problem, this was the second time they were ruining his plans!

If only that Jimmy would've stuck to the original plan. None of this would be happening, none of it!

"We have all the exits covered…"

His fists clenched and unclenched spasmodically. This was why he hadn't wanted to do it himself. He was the planner, the brains of the operation… and anyway, he hadn't even really done anything…

"There is nowhere to go…"

Of course there was somewhere to go. What did they think, that he was some dimwit? He'd always prided himself on his analytic mind. There had to be a solution, there was always a solution, he just had to think think think –

"Come out into the lobby…"

Yes! This! They'd never think of this!

Erik Jensen took off down the basement corridor.

Julio breathed slowly, his ears listening for any noises. He and Tao had gone down the loading dock ramp, to make sure they'd have a better way to cut Jensen off, but so far, they couldn't hear a sound from the dim transport corridor beyond.

"Lieutenant, it's been almost ten minutes," the detective said in a rough whisper. "I think we should go in after him."

"No point to meet him in a dark confined space that he knows better," Tao whispered back. "He has to come out eventually. If it's this way, we'll get him here."

"And if he's got another way? That we're not covering?"

Tao pursed his lips. The second-guessing was killing him, too. "We're staying in position," he said.

"We've lost him several times already. I'm telling you, he's got something up his sleeve, it's been too long."

"Julio – we're staying in position."

The detective scowled.

Erik was glad that he'd studied the mall construction so much, he knew all the doors and corridors. Most of the 'Staff Only' ones weren't even locked. Incompetents.

" – including the delivery passage access points –"

They were convinced that they'd thought of everything, weren't they? Well, they hadn't. He had a plan now. Everything was going to work out just fine.

" –and come out the front door…"

He slipped out a narrow side door, and dashed down a set of cracked, rickety stairs.

They hadn't thought of everything.

"Maybe he is planning to surrender." Sykes kept her covered position, gun aimed at the small back door, but took a second to check her watch. "It's been twelve minutes."

Provenza frowned. "Anything at the other mall exits?" he asked into his radio. Only a chorus of negatives came in response."Do we have him on any of the cameras inside the mall?" Again, a negative; he shook his head, frustrated. "Damn it, we should've put in more surveillance. Where is this guy?" He pushed the radio button again, switching frequencies. "Tao, Sanchez? The delivery passage?"

"Nothing here." Mike sounded frustrated. "We could go in after him…"

"Hold your position," said Provenza, and his frown deepened, thoughtful.

"What are you thinking, Sir?"

"I'm thinking, if he'd been planning to surrender, he'd have done it earlier."

"He's not going to blow himself up…?" Sykes looked doubtful; he shook his head.

"No… no, I think he's going to get out."

"Which way?"

Which way… the million dollar question. Provenza looked around, frustrated, thoughtful… there were lights and sirens on the streets, he could see officers at every mall door in sight, including some on the roof, the entire building was lit up, eyes everywhere…

…everywhere…

…he closed his eyes and sighed. "The way we aren't covering, Sykes. Obviously."

Erik slipped on a loose rock and nearly lost his balance, his ankle twisting at an awkward angle, but he righted himself before doing any real damage. His flashlight pierced the darkness, glancing off dusty, cracked walls. Erik smiled: soon, Sue's entire big deal building would look like that. Dark, crumbling…

Okay, so there might not have been a proper way out in this direction, but he was sure that no one was watching, at least – he'd seen the place cordoned off earlier that afternoon. "Electrical incident"… ha. At least the hallway that connected the mall to the garage hadn't entirely collapsed… well, it had mostly collapsed, and frankly Erik didn't get how Sue wanted to reopen the mall tomorrow with cracks the size of pythons in her basement walls…but then, like he'd said, she didn't give a damn. She was just a horrible, irresponsible woman. And Erik was about to show that to everyone.

As soon as (he grunted climbing over a fallen slab of concrete and a car door) he got out of this damn garage. Honestly! When he'd blown it up he'd just been trying to get rid of that cop woman, he hadn't expected having to use the place ever again. Well, but since it was turning out to be his escape once more, he supposed it wasn't so bad.

Luckily the police and fire department had cleaned out a lot of the debris, too. It was actually not terribly hard to walk around, if he crouched and kept an eye on the ground. Now all he had to do was find the far exit, the one all the way at the back, which opened near that little park, and … that would be that. The cops were all watching the mall.

Honestly. What a farce.

He slipped under a metal rod hanging from the ceiling, and spotted the place he was looking for. Aha! Smiling to himself, he made his way over. Another few twists and turns, and he could smell the night air – he was almost out! The entrance was mostly collapsed, but it was only a matter of moving a large sheet of metal of the way, and – he grunted – a few rocks and… there! The exit was clear – oh, careful, he didn't want to slip on those rocks and twist something now – and he could climb over those last few boulders and that was all there was to –

"Ah. Mr. Erik Jensen, I presume."

What?

"Don't move." A woman in a cop vest held her gun on him, too. "LAPD."

What?!

"Now, Mr. Jensen," said the old guy with the weird hat, "hold up your hands, and don't make any sudden moves."

Erik stared at them.

"It's Doctor Jensen," he said, baffled.

And then he turned and ran back into the garage.

Amy couldn't believe it. "Seriously?" They could hear Jensen stumbling over the debris inside. "Where does he think he's going?"

Provenza gave a lopsided nod. "Australia?" He held out a hand toward the pile of rubble that the man had just pushed out. "Let's go. Before our friend there finds another rabbit hole to vanish in."

Erik's heart was slamming against his chest. What? But he'd had a plan! He slipped on another rock, and cut his hand on something. Damn it! Damn it! He dropped his flashlight when he stumbled, but was too rushed to retrieve it. No matter, he could find his way.

Somewhere behind him, he saw the beams of two other flashlights. What, they were coming after him?! Didn't these people have real criminals to catch? This was exactly the problem with the justice system!

His hand frantically reached into his pocket, clenching around a small transmitter.

Well – this had worked to get rid of the police once…

A small distance ahead, he spotted the nearly-collapsed entrance into the delivery passageway. Maybe there was still a way out there, there were a lot of access points…

"Stop, Jensen!" The woman's voice echoed in the garage. "Don't move!"

His fingers pressed the transmitter button.

There was a loud boom, and the ground shook.

And then the ground shook some more.

"You're kidding me." Amy had to brace against a half-squished car to avoid losing her balance.

"Keep moving!" Provenza called from behind.

Right. The last thing they wanted was to get stuck in here, if the garage collapsed any further.

Actually – the last last thing they wanted was to lose that psycho again. Amy jumped over a loose tire with renewed energy, ready to take off after him. A few seconds in though, she paused, looked back. Lt. Provenza, after all, didn't run…

"Go, Sykes!" he shouted, climbing over a slab of concrete.

She ran.

Erik dashed through the dim passage. Here, he didn't really need a light, he knew his way around. After all, he'd explored this for a year while the mall was being built. His heart was really pumping though. He was out of breath. A left turn here – then a right. An exit point was just ahead – another left, and –

"Stop! LAPD!" A flashlight glanced off his shoulder for a second, but the voice came from far away, down a different corridor – he turned again, ran faster, wow, he didn't know he could run that fast – and, right there, there was another exit, and no flashlights. Erik dashed, dashed up the slow incline, up the concrete ramp.

Something slammed into him.

Erik lost his footing.

"Erik Jensen," someone was saying (why was he face down on the ground? There was a weight on his back and – ow! Hey! Ow!), "you are under arrest for –"

What? What?!

Erik jolted, twisted, and suddenly the weight was gone, he scrambled to his feet, ran ahead –

–only to have something slam into him again, knocking him back. "I –I have a bomb! I have a bomb!" He scrambled backwards, back to his feet.

"I don't care," growled a menacing voice, and suddenly there was a gun right in his face, right in his face!"Do me a favor," said the stony-faced man. "Run."

Erik's knees felt funny.

"Do me a favor," said Julio. "Run. Pull out your gun. Make any move." He tilted his head. "Please."

Jensen froze. His eyes darted to Tao, who had regained his footing as well; the lieutenant pursed his lips and lifted the barrel of his weapon, aiming it right between the man's eyes.

Sykes' footsteps skidded to a stop behind him, and she raised her gun, too.

Crumbling concrete moaned behind them, as the foundation of the 'Sun Plaza' building trembled and shifted out of place. A fire had started in one corner, casting dancing copper shadows over the area.

"Y –you see what she – what she did? I was helping people! That – that could've happened with hundreds of shoppers inside! I was – I was helping –"

"No, James Donnell thought he was helping people," Tao corrected. "You just wanted to blow everyone up to ruin your ex-wife. That's called first-degree attempted murder."

"No, of course not… Sue was – she was endangering everyone, she's the criminal! I just wanted to make sure her building was out of commission before anything bad…"

"You can explain yourself to the DA," Provenza walked up behind him, cutting him off. "If you'd like to, that is. We can always spare you the effort and send you straight to the ME," he offered. "He doesn't ask that many questions."

Jensen backed up another step, turning, not knowing which direction to go, he shifted on the balls of his feet, tries a lateral feint –

"I'd really stop moving if I were you," advised Provenza gently. "You are not among friends, here, doctor."

The man froze again.

The falsely genial tone left the lieutenant's voice; his words turned to steel: "Now, put your damn hands up where we can see them. Kneel down on the ground. And shut. the hell. up."

Slowly, Erik Jensen raised his hands.

I know the team needs a big collective nap, but I think catching this guy was probably more useful for their emotional health in the long term ;). (well... it was better for my emotional health, at least. I really wanted Jensen caught, guys! He tried to kill Sharon!) But, next chapter we get to see how the other half(ish) of their little family is doing ;) and we'll have Sharon getting all of the medical attention. Actually no, Andy will be getting some of the medical attention too, those shoulder x-rays weren't for nothing (except in HIS opinion).

Thank you for reading!