"So tell me what I need to do?" Kyle asked.

Abby closed her eyes and did her best to recall what Eliot had told her once. Or twice. Or several times.

"Is this really necessary?" Abby complained as they sat alone in Nate's apartment.

The others were out on a fairly simplistic job and Eliot had taken the opportunity to continue her teaching if anything happened to go wrong.

"Yes. Doesn't hurt to be prepared," he retorted.

Abby rolled her eyes. "Fine, tell me what I need to know."

Eliot nodded and sat down on the coffee table in front of her. His elbows rested on his knees and his hands were clasped. He didn't like that he had to have this discussion, but he knew with their particular track record it was necessary.

"When you get kidnapped or taken-"

"When?" Abby asked with a hint of amusement in her eyes.

"If," he corrected. "You need to remember to Salute."

"What so I acknowledge the superiority of my captors?" she joked.

"It's an acronym," he elaborated, but did not smile. He knew that joking was a way of making everything seem less sombre but for him, this wasn't a joking manner. "We used it in the service to gather intel."

"Oh, okay," she nodded, jumping to attention at the mention of the army. "So what does it stand for?"

"Size, activity, location, unit, time, equipment."

"I'm gonna assume you're gonna elaborate on that?"

"So, size," he began, answering her question. "That's basically how many guys are you dealing with."

"It's that simple?" she asked and he shrugged.

"More or less."

"You have to tell them how many people there are," she relayed to Kyle.

He nodded unsuredly. "And how many people are there?"

"Four confirmed," she told him and he nodded slowly once more.

"So, A, activity," Abby prompted him. "What, do I… join them in a bored game or something?" she joked once more.

"If you can, sure," her uncle replied, his tone mostly serious. "The more they see you as a person, the better it is for you. But activity is more like what are their patterns. How do they switch shifts? What routines, what activities do they do?"

"Next you need to tell them that they're weren't, aren't, weren't guards outside of the room," she continued.

"How do you know that?"

She tapped at her ear; she had carefully listened for any noise outside of the room but had heard nothing, telling her that their captors had not been bothered with standing guard outside the room.

What that meant she wasn't sure, she was just following Eliot's instructions.

"L for location. I'm gonna assume that means figure out where I am?"

"Correct," Eliot smiled. "The best way to do that is look outta window, but that's not normally an option so there's two other things you can do. First, you count," he said simply. "Count how long you're in the vehicle and figure out how far away you've travelled. If you can, figure out the turns you're making and use them to figure out which way you've been taken."

She looked at him and blinked; that wasn't really in her skillset.

"You're smart, you'll figure it out," he added in response to the blank look on her face.

She laughed. "And the second?"

"Look at what sorta building you're in, are you in the top stories, basement, ground floor? Is it an old building, new building? Is there water? Can you hear traffic or trains?"

"Basically be observant and be Uncle Shawn?"

Eliot tilted his head.

"Yeah, only less…hyper."

Abigail laughed again.

"Then you need to tell them where we are," she began.

"But we don't know where we are," he reminded her and she rolled her eyes.

"No, really?" Abby asked sarcastically, then sighed, trying to drop the animosity. "You need to count," she began to explain to Kyle. When they'd first been taken, she had been two distracted by Kyle (his presence and fearful babbling had stolen her attention) to undertake this task and had cursed herself for not doing it. But what's done was done.

"You need to start counting from when you get in the van, car or whatever and until you stop. It'll give Eliot and your dad a rough estimate as to where we," she paused to correct herself, "I am."

"Count, count, count the seconds. Got it," he nodded.

"You also need to describe to them what type of place where in," she added. "That we're in a basement in a building with concrete foundations. Okay?"

"Yeah," he replied as his voice cracked. "What next?"

"So, unit?" she asked, still laughing slightly. "I'm assuming you don't mean try and ID them because that'd be a bloody miracle."

"No, just what type of person you're dealing with. Who's the leader, who are they affiliated with? How many people? Are they professionals, are they amateurs, are they dangerous?" he added finally in a deeper voice than normal.

"I think I can do that," she said as she nodded slowly to herself. "And then what do I do with all of that?"

"You need to figure out how to react. You'll have to make a judgement call. Do you try reason with them? Do you strike and run? Do you try and 'befriend' them? Do you act in such a way that'll mean they drop their guard?"

"What'd you mean by that?" she asked, leaning comfortably back into the couch.

"If they think you're scared, now I mean a freakin' wreak; like terrified, they'd probably drop their guard. But like I said, you have to make a judgement call."

She nodded slowly again.

"The next thing if have to do is tell Eliot about the people who took us. Tell him the guy in charge's name is Jo and he works for Latimer," she brushed some hair away from her face. "Tell him that they're not directly dangerous and we've only seen one weapon.

This had been one of the reasons Abigail had not been extremely fearful or excessively concerned. They'd never physically threatened them and she'd only once seen a gun and not a knife or any other sort of weapon. They seemed almost professional, in the most traditional sense of the word, in their manner so Abby was hardly concerned.

Kyle, however, didn't see her logic.

"Time, that's usually a difficult one," Eliot continued. "Basically, you just wanna keep track of it okay. It's hard to do if you're not wearing a watch, but, uh, just do your best basically."

"If you were going to come and get me, would there be like an agreed upon time where you would likely show up and save the day?" she asked.

"First of all, there is no if. I will always come and get you," he reassured. "Second of all, normally infiltrations are made between two and four in the morning, when guards are the least aware and people are in their deepest sleeps. As for agreed up on times," he pondered. "I probably couldn't give you one. Too many variables. Just be prepared, that's pretty much all I can say."

She nodded slowly, biting her lip and looking down at the coffee table.

"Equipment then?" she asked, perking up with partially false enthusiasm.

"What do you have that can get you out, what do they have? Weapons, how are they communicating, what are they driving? That sorta stuff."

"Now that one," she smiled. "That one's straightforward."

"Is that it?" Kyle asked. He looked exasperated and drained.

"Almost," she replied. "They've probably dumped the first car already but you should tell 'em about that anyway and tell them about the car they drop you off in. And give them any other information you can really."

"So that's it."

"Pretty much," she said as nonchalantly as she could.

Kyle nodded and he swallowed. This was not something he was accustom to and what little composure he had retained was beginning to fade away.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I really had a lot of fun with this; the SALUTE thing is actually used by soldiers, not just when they've been captured but as a general observation rule, at least according to Google.

Also, your reviews have been spectacular, thank you and sorry I haven't been able to reply to nearly as many as I'd like so here's me catching up with it all.

dsnygal- I'm glad you're liking the meshing together-ness and hope you'll like the rest of the tale!

Fritzbe- I can promise a little bit of Bonnano although I'm thinking I may not have utilised his coolness. I can promise another surprise guest though

jinxcat21- I wouldn't say sadistic... maybe a little danger stricken? (if that's a thing). And also, I'm really excited for the Last Damn Job part, I feel like you'll enjoy it

Guest- Many thanks and I have every intention to continue

Daisyangel- Good interesting?

Thanks as always

xx A Lyrical Dreamer