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| Trial By Fire A UC story By Deana Lisi |
| Frank pulled up at the Senator’s house, and the door promptly flew open and Williams flew out. “Frank!” he yelled, as he ran over to Frank’s car. “They want me to go alone! How are we gonna do this?” “We’ll follow you,” he told him. “Do exactly what the man told you. We’ll be hidden in the park, no one will see us.” Williams had sighed nervously, but nodded and got into his own car, driving off. Frank pulled into the park well behind Williams, and parked his Volvo S80 on the other side of the parking lot. They all got out and followed the Senator’s direction, quickly scanning the quiet park. Frank motioned wordlessly to the members of his team which directions he wanted them to go in. Suddenly he felt a sneeze coming on, but it was abruptly interrupted by Alex’s finger, which she’d stuck under his nose. “Uh,” he said, an uncharacteristic word, for Frank. “Thanks,” he said, completely shocked that she’d done that. “You’re welcome,” she said back, staring at her finger as if it were diseased. “I think.” Jake, Cody, and Monica were all turning red, trying in vain not to laugh hysterically as they all split up, going where Frank had told them. ******************** Senator Williams stood near the bench the man had told him to wait at. Suddenly he heard snow crunching, and he turned to see a man approaching. Trying not to shake in fear and rage, Williams instead tried to memorize the man’s face. Dark brown hair…medium build…about 6ft… The man stopped in front of him, and reached for the briefcase of money. “Where’s my daughter?” Williams asked. “Safe.” Williams clutched the briefcase tightly, not letting the man take it yet. “How do I know that? When do I get her back?” “Relax, pops,” the man said. “She’s right behind those trees. You give me the money, I give you the girl.” Williams looked to where the man pointed, as the kidnapper pulled out a gun. ******************** Frank watched the Senator from the top of a hill, hoping to get a good view of the criminal. He watched the scene before him, disappointed that he was only seeing the man’s profile. The guy pointed to an area of trees, and Williams followed his finger; it was then that Frank saw the unmistakable glint of a gun. He jumped to his feet and fired, before the kidnapper had the chance to kill the Senator. The bullet missed the man, as Frank intended; Williams being too close to him to ensure a safe shot. The man looked in Frank’s direction, and shot back, over and over again, in an apparent panic, not having expected to be shot at. Frank ran down the hill as the kidnapper took off running. “Jim!” he said, nearing him. “You all right?” Willaims nodded, looking shocked. “He was gonna kill me!” “Stay here,” Frank said, and ran off. “Cody, Monica: grab the Senator,” he said, into his earpiece. They acknowledge him, and he could hear Alex and Jake talking to each other, trying to figure out where the kidnapper had run off to. Frank could hear him up ahead, but not see him. Suddenly the woods broke into a clearing, and there was a van parked there. Frank stopped, and fired his gun into the air; making the man stop dead in fear, having been about to jump into the back door. “Federal Agent!” Frank yelled—or tried to, anyway. His lungs were burning and aching, thanks to having had to run like that, with his cold. The need to cough was overwhelming, but he tried not to. He had a very hard time catching his breath as he walked over to the man, who was standing at the back of the van. “Where…is she?” he asked, trying not to make his troubled breathing obvious. “Who?” Frank grabbed him by the front of his shirt, and slammed him into the van. “Rose Williams,” he sneered. “The girl you kidnapped!” The man didn’t have a chance to answer, for Frank realized too late the reason the man was jumping into the back of the van, and not the driver’s door. Suddenly a gun was stuck in his back, and he froze. A man reached over his shoulder and took the gun out of his hand. Frank turned, but before he could see the man, he was smashed in the face with his own gun. “Let me kill him!” the man who’d been chased said. The other guy thought for a minute, before shaking his head. “No, I have a better idea. He wants to see Miss Williams? Well then, we’ll take him to her!” They both laughed, as he put Frank’s own cuffs on him. They picked him up, threw him into the van, and sped off. ******************** “Frank?” Jake said, after everyone but their boss had assembled again. No answer. “Frank,” Jake tried again. “Anyone seen Frank?” Everyone shook their heads, looking around nervously. “Monica, take Williams back to the Nest and then come back.” “No!” the Senator said. “I’ll help you look!” Jake shook his head. “A threat was just made on your life! If that man is still in this park, you’re in danger here.” Williams sighed. “If anything happened to Frank, I’ll never forgive myself…never…” Monica patted his arm as she led him away, throwing a fearful look at Jake over her shoulder. Jake sighed, turning to Alex and Cody, who were both calling Frank through the earpieces, listening intently. “Let’s split up. If you find anything that could be a clue, let me know.” They both nodded, and ran off. ******************** “Hello, ‘Miss Flower’.” Rose sighed at the sarcasm dripping from the kidnapper’s voice. “Hello, ‘Mr. Jerk’.” The kidnapper ignored the comment, giving her a huge smile instead. Rose tried not to show her unease at his expression. “We have a surprise for you,” he sneered. Rose’s jaw dropped as the other man came in dragging an unconscious Frank Donovan. She gasped when he threw Frank down roughly beside her. “What did you do to him?!” she yelled, checking for a pulse. “Aww, the girly cares about this guy? It’s as if she knows him or something.” Rose bit back her comment, not wanting to give the kidnappers the advantage of knowing that she and Frank were like brother and sister. Rose found a handkerchief in Frank’s pocket, and used it to wipe the blood away from a wound on his forehead. “Don’t bother, girl, we’ll probably kill him anyway,” one of the men said, both of them laughing as they walked up the stairs, closing the cellar door behind them. “Oh my gosh…oh my gosh…Frank! Frank, please wake up!” A sob caught in her throat when Frank remained motionless, eyes still closed in unconsciousness. ******************** Jake and Monica paced in the Nest, as they waited for the fingerprint results to come back to Cody’s computer. They had spent hours searching the park and surrounding areas for Frank, even employing the help of the Chicago PD. All they found was the gun assumed to belong to the kidnapper. Senator Williams sat on the couch, refusing to go home until he found something out. Suddenly Cody said, “Guys! They’re here!” Everyone dashed over to the computer, as Cody read the email. “There were two sets of prints. One set belonged to a David Miller…whoa, major arsonist; did mucho time for burning down numerous buildings in a crime spree that lasted almost 5 months before they caught him!” “Arsonist? Oh no…” Everyone turned to look at Monica. “What’s wrong?” Jake asked, thinking her reaction odd. Monica sighed. “Uh, I don’t know if he wants anyone to know this…” “Who?” Alex asked. “Frank.” She looked at the Senator. “Actually, you probably know about it, if you’re as close to Frank as you seem to be.” He nodded. “I probably do.” “Tell us!” Cody said, excited to find out something juicy about Frank’s past. Monica sighed. “Remember the case we did when we hunted down the four escaped prisoners, the last guy we tracked down set his enemies on fire, and we stopped him from torching his psychiatrist?”*** The team nodded. “Well, the next day when I walked by Frank’s office, I heard a shout come from inside. I went in to find that he’d fallen asleep and had had a nightmare. I actually got him to talk to me, and he told me it had to do with an incident that occurred when he was a kid.” Everyone listened intently. Cody’s eyes now showed apprehension, rather then eagerness. “Frank had been at a friend’s house. The kid’s parents had gone out for some reason, and they were alone. His friend had a book of matches, and was lighting them. Frank said he told the boy not to play with them, but the kid kept it up. Suddenly…” Everyone’s eyes were opened wide, hoping Monica wasn’t about to say what they were thinking. “The room erupted in flames.” Alex gasped, and covered her mouth with one hand. “He got out, right?” Cody said. “Heh! Of course he did, or he wouldn’t be our boss.” Monica looked sad. “The other kid?” Jake asked. Monica sighed. “He didn’t make it. Frank told me that they were on a second floor, and the fire swept through the room too fast for them to get to the door. By the time Frank got the window open, he passed out from smoke inhalation. His friend was burned, and didn’t survive.” Everyone just stared at her. Alex sniffed, with tears in her eyes. Jake looked upset as well; Monica knew how much he liked kids. “There’s one thing Frank left out.” They all looked at the Senator. “What?” Monica asked, thinking she’d known the whole story. “Rose was with them.” “What?!” Williams sighed. “The reason Frank didn’t make it out the window in time…it took a while to get it open, it wasn’t the usual-type of window, but small and oddly shaped. After he finally did, he made Rose climb out, and he held onto her arms until people ran into the yard. He let go; and they caught her. By then he’d been overcome by the smoke, and when the people saw that he didn’t jump out after Rose, some of them ran into the house. By then the firemen arrived, and got him out just in time.” He sighed, remembering how Rose had been in hysterics when the fireman carried out Frank’s small, limp body. Everyone was in utter shock. “But...but if the window was open, why didn’t that provide the oxygen he needed to prevent him from being overcome by the smoke?” Cody asked. Williams shook his head. “The flames had spread so fast that the room was totally filled with the smoke and was billowing out the window. It was oppressively hot and humid that day, so the air that did come in was no help. Firemen later found bottles of alcohol that had been ignited by the fire engulfing a liquor cabinet, which was why it’d spread so quickly.” Alex gasped. “And now Frank has a phobia about fire?” Now she understood Frank’s ‘I hate fire’ statement after they saved the arsonist’s psychiatrist. Monica shrugged. “Does Frank seem like the type of person to have a phobia to anything? I dunno if I would call it that. Maybe, maybe not.” “That case was enough to bring back that memory, and give him nightmares,” Jake pointed out. “I mean, come on; the guy is human.” “True.” Alex sighed loudly. “We have to find him! He’s sick, he may be hurt, and he’s in the clutches of a psycho arsonist!” Everyone was silent for a minute. “I have an idea, but it’s a long shot,” Jake said. “What?” “Howabout we call car repair shops in the area, and ask if anyone came in with a car that needed scratches fixed on the back bumper?” “Uh, Jake?” said Cody. “Why would the kidnappers take the time to have that fixed at a time like this?” “Uh, Cody? Because they won’t want their car identified as being the vehicle that took Rose away.” Cody blinked. “Oh yeah. I knew that.” ******************** “Frank?” Rose sighed, when she still got no response. She was sitting on the ground with Frank’s head in her lap, and was so worried about the injury on his forehead that she didn’t notice the slightly noisy sound of Frank’s breathing. After what seemed like an eternity, Frank finally woke up. Rose was startled when he suddenly started to cough horribly. She grew alarmed, when it went on for a while. “Frank?! Frank?” He tried to roll off her lap, and she helped him turn onto his side, and held him there. Finally he stopped, and plopped back down limply, wheezing painfully. The still-tender site of his recent stab wound started to hurt, making him wince. “Frank! My gosh, what’s wrong? What did they do to you?!” Frank opened his eyes, only now realizing whose lap he was lying on. “Rose!” he tried to say, but it came out sounding like a croak. She put her hand on the side of his face, and was surprised to find it pretty warm. “I’m here, Frank. We’re in a basement, somewhere. Tell me what they did to you!” Frank shook his head, with a sigh. It made him cough again, and the severity almost made Rose scream in frustration, waiting for an answer to her question. Had he been beaten by the men, and received internal damage to his lungs? After Frank stopped coughing, he whispered, “Not…them. Have…a cold.” Rose sighed. “Oh, Frank…” she didn’t voice aloud that it sounded a lot worse then a mere cold to her, his trouble breathing and talking making it pretty obvious. Frank squirmed, and Rose remembered that he’d come in handcuffed; it had to be pretty uncomfortable for him to lie that way with his hands cuffed behind his back. His breathing was getting noisier, and she realized that it would be easier on his lungs if he were sitting up. She stuck her hands under his arms, and tried to pull him into a sitting position. “Frank, sit up.” He didn’t move. “Frank,” she said louder. He opened his eyes and looked at her. Realizing what she was trying to do, he obeyed, until she had him sitting against the wall, her arm around him. He was grateful for it, for he found that the cellar was utterly freezing, obviously not heated. Suddenly Rose noticed the earpiece that Frank was still wearing. “What’s that?” she asked, touching it. Frank’s eyes snapped open. He hadn’t realized he still had it. “Jake?” he said, into it. “Cody? Anyone there?” A few seconds passed silently. “Alex? Anyone?” Rose watched as speaking made Frank’s breathing more labored, so she took the tiny device and stuck it into her own ear. “Hello?” she said. “If anyone can hear me, help!” ******************** “Someone brought in their car yesterday?” Jake put his phone down just as he heard Monica’s question to whoever she was talking to. She grabbed paper and a pen and started writing. “Great…yeah, we’ll be over there soon, thanks.” She hung up the phone, with a triumphant look. “Where?” Jake asked. “Shane’s Auto Body.” “I know that place,” Cody said, walking over. “They do good work.” “What did they bring in?” Jake asked, as he grabbed his jacket. “A van.” Cody nodded. “Makes sense; they grab the girl, throw her in, and speed off.” He suddenly looked around to make sure the Senator didn’t hear his insensitive statement. Williams came back into the room, after apparently using the bathroom. “What’s up?” he said, noticing the team wearing jackets. “We found a place that fixed scratches on a van,” Jake said. “You stay here with Monica.” “Hey!” “We need you to keep calling places,” Jake told her, when she protested. “This may not be the one, for all we know.” She nodded. “All right.” “Come on, Cody.” “Just the two of us…” Cody started to sing, as he followed Jake out the door. ******************** Jake and Cody parked, and went into the shop. The owner was on the phone when they came in, so they waited for him to finish. “Can I help you?” the man said, after he hung up. Jake showed his badge. “We called earlier looking to see if anyone brought a vehicle here that needed scratches fixed on the back bumper.” The man’s eyebrows went up when he saw the badge. “You’re not a girl.” Cody snorted. “That was another agent on the phone,” Jake explained. “Is the van still here?” The man shook his head. Darn it! “Did you make up a receipt for it?” Nodding, the man looked through a drawer, and took it out, handing it to Jake. “Jim Carrey?” Jake read. Cody busted out laughing. “That’s gotta be him. He wouldn’t sign his real name!” The body shop owner looked surprised, and laughed. “Guess I should look at the signatures people give, huh?” Jake nodded. “Yeah.” He took a pen and wrote the address ‘Jim Carrey’ had written on the slip, and handed it back. “Did you fix the scratches yourself?” The man nodded. “What did the guy look like?” “Uh…light brown hair, thin, tall,” he shook his head. “Nothing special about him.” “Was he wearing a baseball hat that said, ‘Raiders’ on it?” Cody asked. The man frowned, and then nodded. “Actually yeah, he was.” Jake shot a look at Cody as if to say, ‘How the heck did you know that?’ “That’s him,” Cody said. “Great,” Jake said. “Thanks for your help,” he said to the man, and they left. “Cody?” “Humm?” “Where the heck did you come up with that?” “With what?” Cody asked, playing dumb. Jake sighed as he got in the car. “The hat!” “Oh,” Cody said. He looked at Jake. “I think it’s called reading. I do believe I am the only one who read all the info that was emailed to us about this guy.” Jake drove away, and glanced at Cody with a smile. “Hey, that is why you’re the computer nerd.” ******************** “Hello? Anyone there?” Rose sighed when she was met with silence yet again. She’d been trying for what seemed like forever to get through to someone on the earpiece, but they simply weren’t listening to whatever her voice was coming out of. Maybe the thing on their end is turned off! she thought, feeling her heart sink. “Frank?” The only answer she got was his heavy breathing. It was good that he slept, but she was very worried about him, and wanted nothing more then to hear his voice. Sounds like he has bronchitis or something, she thought. She sighed heavily, and again tried to reach someone through the earpiece. Suddenly Frank started coughing again, even worse then before. Rose tried to calm her fear, not wanting to flip and stress out Frank, who definitely did not need anxiety at a time when he could hardly breathe. It was a long time before he was able to take a breath without coughing, and he slumped against Rose’s shoulder, exhausted, blinking back the water the coughing had brought to his eyes.. “Frank?” she whispered. “Are you all right?” Not having the breath to answer, he simply nodded his head. Rose’s fear grew when she realized he was shivering violently. Leaving her left arm around him, she felt his forehead with her other hand. “You have a fever,” she said, nervously. Frank said nothing, continuing to shudder. Rose hugged him closer, hoping that her body heat would still his chills. “Make…contact?” he whispered. She shook her head. “No, but I keep trying.” “Good...” he started to cough again, and it was all she could do to prevent herself from yelling for help. She knew the only ones who would hear her would be the kidnappers. She suddenly wondered why they hadn’t come into the cellar again. A thought struck her. Are they gone? “Frank?” “What?” he gasped. “I’m gonna see if I can find a way out of here.” Frank tried to move. “No! Too dangerous…” “I don’t think they’re here, Frank. I haven’t heard them walking over our heads, or talking, or anything.” She carefully pulled herself away from him, and steadied him against the wall. Her legs felt cramped as she walked around the cellar, looking for anything she could use as a weapon if she needed it. She sighed at the sight of a tiny window several feet above her head. There was no way either of them could get up there; there was no furniture they could stand on, or anything. Finding nothing to adequately defend herself with, she quietly walked up the steps, and stopped at the door. Placing her ear on it, she listened for voices, but heard none. Placing her hand carefully on the handle, she turned it to find it locked as expected. It was a tight knob, not loose at all, and the screws that attached it to the door were on the opposite side. After studying the door, and finding no way out, she went back down the stairs and over to Frank. “Frank?” He opened his eyes, not wanting to talk and risk coughing his lungs out again. “Did they take your wallet?” Frank frowned, not sure. Rose saw his uncertainty, and she looked in his pockets, since his hands were still cuffed. She smiled when she found it, and took out one of his credit cards. At the questioning look on his face, she said. “I’m gonna try to pick the lock.” Frank’s face showed a mixture of nerves and amusement. Rose went back up the steps, and quietly tried to get the door open. When she felt the card slide the bolt out of the hole, she almost squealed with glee. But when she tried to open the door, it didn’t obey. To her utter dismay, she realized that there must be a deadbolt on the door, further up. Tears welled up in her eyes as she pulled the credit card out of the door, hearing the bolt slide back in. For a wonderful second, she thought they were free; but now she doubted they would even get out of this alive. ******************** “What happened?” Jake and Cody walked into the Nest to see that Alex had returned from her errand: grabbing everyone their late supper. “I think this is it,” Jake told her, going over and grabbing a slice of pizza. “Let’s go knock their door down and find out.” Alex jumped up from her chair and grabbed her coat. “Where’s Williams?” Jake asked, noticing that he wasn’t there. “I convinced him to go home,” Alex said, grabbing her earpiece and checking her gun. “By telling him that the kidnappers might be trying to contact him again.” “What? Alone?” “Of course not,” she said, indignant. “I got Chief Morgan to send an officer to escort him home safely, and play security guard.” “Good. Everyone ready?” They all nodded, and followed Jake out the door. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Trial By Fire - continued |