Missing

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N:

Chapter 28 (Preparation)

"I always believed she'd been taken by a stranger, or a perverse man." Tori listened to her dad while wiping her standard 9 mm Beretta with a rag. "I never once fathomed that my ex-wife was responsible." She wrinkled her nose as David continued to moan. He ran his hand over his head and closed his eyes. "I can't say that I wanted it to be that alternative, but until tonight I was in denial that Holly would have done it. Then, I'm not even certain if Holly being the perpetrator is any better than if it had been a stranger, or…or a…" He choked on his words and Tori set the pistol down on the table.

"That would likely have been worse, but don't even think about it Dad. Holly is the one that took her, end of story." The venom dripped from her words as though they'd been bathed in her malice. "Robbie, Andre, Holly, Gary…Robbie may be dead, but the others? They're going to regret their actions all the way to the day they were born."

"Tori."

"I will not quiet. I've never felt so much like wishing someone would have died in their mother's womb than I do right now. Even Holly-no, I don't know her. I don't care about her." David frowned and Tori started for the bedroom door. "I'm going to check on the guy Jesse's got scouting the location."

It was late at night, so they assumed Holly and everyone at the mansion would be asleep. This way, they could have a guy in Jesse's narcotics department lead a small group of officers en route around the mansion to get a feel of the place. The mapping of the mansion would be crucial.

"You know." She walked up to Jesse and set her hand on his shoulder. He was seated at his computer, watching the visual coming in from the camera attached to the hat that his contact had. "In Mexico, the town that Rick's father is from…when police raid a location, they do so in a way that causes quite a scene." Jesse turned his head to her and raised an eyebrow.

"What are you saying? We grab a bulldozer or something and wreck the place?"

"Close enough. I want to get Trina and Cat out of there alive, that's my only goal right now…and damn anyone that gets in my way."

"That's the goal we all have in mind." He turned back to the camera and narrowed his eyes. "I know you're angry, I know you're hurting, but please remember to be careful. If you were to kill Holly, with the way you are right now, it wouldn't make you any better than her…and I doubt Rick would want that." She pulled her hand away and shook her head.

"I'm better than that woman regardless." She leaned forward and pointed to the computer. "I hope you have them making notes of every room." She didn't care to be lectured right now, all she wanted was to get this job done. "Damn Andre, he should have made that call sooner. Either he's in on it and finally cracked, or he slipped up."

"There is something that's just odd about it. If he's in on the whole thing, why in the hell would he make contact?"

"It could be a trap for all we know." There were many things to prepare for in the next day. She was heeding the warning that Andre gave about the criminals, but she also had to pay attention to another risk that presented itself. "We need a way to block the media."

"Block the media?"

"We're getting a girl out that's been missing for nine years." She crossed her arms and furrowed her brow. "We've got the police force coming to this mansion. An event like this is going to attract national media within the hour and they'll be flocking like droves." Jesse nodded and started to frown.

"That is true." He scratched his chin and raised an eyebrow. "We could use a blocker to black them out, but then you have an issue regarding free press." A blocker was similar to what was used to block out cell phones many years ago, technology had advanced to the point that radio waves and television equipment could be blocked out by these devices.

"Get one anyway and use it as a last resort. For the most part, allow them to film, but have some police vans circling around the mansion so they can't see anything. When we get Trina and Cat, we leave. The only thing I want news media or the American people seeing are police vehicles. They will not see my sister, they will not see Cat, and I will not allow either of those two girls to be exploited."

She remembered the three women from 2013, the news media exploited them and the man that found them. Social media went on talking to them for years, even creating a page for them. Tori could only assume how uncomfortable it would have made them, and she did not want Trina going through the same thing. If she had any say over the way things went, she was going to ensure her sister eventually found normalcy in her life again.

Looking at the screen, she saw the investigator had been able to enter the mansion without triggering the alarm. Suspicion set in and she leaned over the computer, gripping the edges of the table firmly as she spoke into the microphone on the laptop. "How did you get in there? Do they not have an alarm?" She expected there to be some elaborate set up.

"I don't know," the officer replied, "The door was open. As if someone shut off the alarm and let us in." Her eyes widened and she quickly looked to Jesse, to see if he felt something off. "We're looking around, making sure we're not walking into a trap of any kind."

The living room was expansive and had a stairwell on either side of the room. The second floor main room was mainly a balcony that stretched around the room, with two large doors above the kitchen doorway. There were other doors, but Tori didn't want the officers opening those doors and risk their threat.

"Okay, just walk into the kitchen…" The officer complied and one of the first things to show up was a pool of blood beside the kitchen table. Tori's stomach churned violently at the sight. The officer looked around, letting her see the kitchen more fully. There were multiple doorways, and another stairway.

The thing that caught her eye as he looked around was a door with a keypad alarm. Beneath the keys was a series of numbers written with black marker. However, the were difficult to read in the dark room. She would try the numbers tomorrow and see what was down there.

The alternative was kick the door in.

The officers continued to scour the mansion, checking all the floors and balconies. There were many bedrooms in which snores could be heard coming from within. She didn't need more confirmation to know that Holly already had some resident criminals staying in.

They were going to have to try and arrest the majority of them, but there was a chance many were going to be injured or killed. She wasn't wasting time or holding back, so the police were going to crash into the mansion and start tearing the place apart. Anyone that resisted arrest would be taken down. Anyone that fought back with a weapon would be shot, it was standard protocol.

"There's something outside," the officer muttered. He turned towards a window and motioned to a building in the distance. It was long enough to look like a bunker. Tori ran her tongue along her lips and slanted her eyes at the building. "We tried the door, but it's locked. There were voices there, but nothing recognizable."

"Okay. It's possible some of the criminals are already present. Holly could be sensing us, she may have already told her people to come." This was fine, because Tori was confident. "I'm going to go ahead and head straight to Trina, to try and find her. Jesse, it may be a good idea for you to be there with me."

"I will be." He pulled his hand away from the computer and looked up. "I'm not going to rest until I find her. Still, we should probably try and locate Holly as well."

"Right, because if that woman gets away…" She tensed and cleared her throat as the others in the room murmured over what could happen then. They needed to catch Holly, and if she got away, she'd be able to run and hide. "It's not something I can accept as happening."

"Agreed."

"You guys deal with that," Sam remarked, "I'm going to do what I can to find Cat." Sam crossed her arms and turned her heavy glare onto the computer screen. "She's in that house somewhere, and I'm going to bring her back. As far as I know from that list, Nora's in there too, so Cat is my priority." Tori had to agree. She knew of their history with Nora and was more than aware of how dangerous such a woman could be.

Beck looked to the ground, then back to Tori. "You know I'm going to be there. I'll guard the outside, make sure none of the primary people get out. I'd like to get a hold of Andre and try to figure out what's going on with him."

"Fair enough."

"And I'll find Gary," David stated in a gruff remark. Monica wasn't happy with David going, but she understood his reasoning. He crossed his arms as the elder woman put her head to his shoulder. "That bastard betrayed me in some of the worst ways, and I would very much like to have a chat with him. "

"You'll get your chance, dad. Everyone will." She cleared away the grogginess in her throat and clenched her fists tight. "Now just all of you remember…the main thing we want to make sure of is that the innocents are uninjured. When we go in tomorrow, we go in expect anything that can go wrong to go wrong."

She looked to the computer screen with an uneasy feeling in her gut. As she visualized Rick and then her sister, she let the anger towards her mother increase greatly. "This is going to be a battle, we need to treat it like one. Media control is essential, I don't want to be walking out that door with a million cameras shining in my face."

"I'll keep them from breaking through," Beck replied. He excelled at monitoring things, so she had no doubt he could keep the media in control if need be. "Will we be circling the mansion with police vehicles as you suggested earlier?"

"Yes." She walked to the right and hit her hand against her palm while clicking her tongue in thought. "We need to also put up boards in the low parts where it could be possible for news cameramen to poke through. Crowd control will be essential, but there are plenty of police officers with training to help with that…"

In the corner of her eyes she saw Victoria walking into the room with Monica. Monica appeared greatly worried while Victoria was looking at everyone with curiosity.

Tori knelt before her niece and smiled into the child's eyes. "Victoria. Tomorrow we're going to bring your mother home." The girl's eyes widened and her lips spread into a wide smile. "We've found that mansion, we've found where they're keeping Trina. I want you to stay here with your grandma." She looked to Monica, hoping the woman understood how important her duty was. Monica had to look after the children, because should something go wrong, she needed to be here.

"You're coming back?" The girl's voice was full of concern and worry, so Tori attempted to comfort her with a hug. "Promise?"

"I promise. We'll be back, and we'll be back with your mother." She stood back up and turned partially towards the others, readying herself to give them a speech for encouragement. "Get ready guys." Her nostrils flared and a new determination flickered in her soul. "Tomorrow's going to be a long day."

And we march on to war.