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"Son? What's going on?" my dad asked.

I couldn't find my voice.

"They burst in the house, forced us in a van and took us... I don't know where we are. Tim and Jen are trying to keep the little ones from being scared, but it isn't working. Me and your mother are--"

"Dad?" I called. "Dad?"

"Do I have your attention, Mister Brislow?"

"What do you want?"

"The briefcase. You are going to bring it Golden Key Park. In one hour I will call you back to tell you what to do with it."

"Are you nuts?" I yelled.

"Mister brislow, I have your family."

"You think I don't know that? There's no fucking way I can make it there under an hour. I'm I don't know where south of the city."

"You are... out of the city?"

"What? You think I spend my days behind my desk waiting for crazies to call and make demands? I have a job."

There was muffled conversation, which, with the distortion was even less comprehensible than normal.

"How long will it take you to get there?"

"How the fuck should I know? I don't even know where that park is, and I've got to be a couple of hours out of the city." More distorted muffles.

"You have three hours to get there. If you are not there by then, I will hurt one of them." The line died.

I leaned back. Okay, I'd given myself time. Now I had to do something with it.

"What was that?" Frank asked, worry in his voice.

I ignored him, I had to plan. I had to find a way to save my folks.

"Dent?" he asked. "It sounded bad."

"Someone kidnapped my folks." I stated. My tone was cold.

Zee and Marcus looked at me with concern.

"Why?" the lion asked?

Right, he didn't know.

"To get my briefcase. They are going to want to do an exchange."

"Are you going to go it?"

"No," I growled. "I'm going to find out where they are, kick their ass, and if they want the briefcase so badly, I am going to feed it to them."

"I can call Oscar," Martin said.

Yes! Then my enthusiasm died. "Does he have anything of my folks?"

Martin's face fell. "I doubt it. All i know is he has something if yours."

"Where is he? If we can meet up I can tap him."

"He's in St-Paul, Minnesota."

I sighed. That wouldn't work. With him to see where my family was how was I going to--

I looked at my phone. I was going to have to be really lucky. It was late afternoon on a Sunday. Historically, not a particularly violent time of the day, but a lot of the desks changed over in dispatch around this time, they might be sufficiently distracted. I had to hope.

I looked up and thought really hard. I know you can't intervene with people who don't follow you, but if there's anything you can do, I would really appreciate it.

I punched in dispatch's direct line and took a breath.

"Dispatch," a man answered, sounding bored.

"This is detective Brislow, badge number 6385927, I need to speak with Surveillance."

"One minute." I was put on hold. Either he was checking my badge number, in which case he'd find out it wasn't valid anymore, or he was transferring me.

I knew Ryan was there. He'd always been there before I got in, and was still there when I left, no matter how late I left.

I suspected he never slept.

"You are not a detective anymore," came Ryan's neutral tone. Under it I could hear him typing away.

"I know, but thanks for taking my call anyway. I need your help. I need you to access the two city cameras on Mullover street, I'm pretty sure one of them points to house number fifty-nine."

"I see it, they both angle to it."

I sighed in relief. "You're going to have to go back, but at some point in the last few hours a van parked there and some men forced the occupants of the house in it."

"It happened forty-two minutes ago."

"I need you to tell me where they went."

"You're not a detective. I can't give you that information.

It's against the rules."

I wanted to scream at him. I'd taken the breath, my mouth was open. Then I remembered he was autistic, screaming wouldn't get me anything, it might even shut him down.

"They kidnapped my family, Ryan. I need to find out where they are holding them so I can rescue them."

"You're not--"

"Damn it!" I shut up. I took a breath, Why wouldn't he help? He had before. "Why did you send me the pictures, Ryan?

That was against the rules."

"No one was looking at that angle. It was going to be days before anyone thought to ask me to check them, by then the criminal could have gotten away. You were the best place person to act on the information."

"I'm the best place person to save my family, Ryan. Please,

you have to help me. I'll double the donuts I owe you."

"No. I have to many doughnuts, they will go stale before I eat them. I only eat one a day."

"Ryan, please. Tell me what I need to do and I'll do it."

"I can't tell Detective Cooper, she can rescue them."

"No. She can't be involved."

"If not her, it can't be Reilly, so I can tell Fuller."

"No, she isn't going to be able to handle them. Ryan, I know what they are capable of, I can deal with them. Anyone else will just end up getting my folks hurt. My niece and nephew are there."

"Giving department information is against the rules. Rules have to be obeyed. Information has to help. Information that is kept isn't helpful." His tone was starting to sound agitated. I'd never heard him speak in anything but calm tones before now. Under that he was still typing away. "If I keep information to myself I am not helping. If I am not helping I am not serving my purpose. Which is more important, my purpose, or the rules?"

Was he asking me? If i gave him the wrong answer, would he refuse to help? I opened my mouth to risk an answer when his side become completely silent.

He had stopped typing.

"The van is parked at the back of an abandoned building at

6201 Aurora parkway, in Aurora."

I scrambled up. "You're a life saver Ryan. If you ever need something, anything, just ask me and I'll make it happen. Thank you." I disconnected and entered the address in my phone.

"They're hold up right off the 470, on the south east side of the city, sixty miles from here. We need to get there ASAP."

"I can get you there in forty minutes," Tom said.

"I can probably do it faster," Martin countered.

Tom snorted.

"Tom I'll ride with you. Don't bother racing us Martin, I'm the only one who can reconnoiter in the building, just follow us. Magdee, do the same in my car. I lobbed my phone to her and I headed for Tom's car.

"What about Luis?" Marcus asked, just as I had my hand on the door handle.

Fuck. I looked at the alpaca. "He's coming with us. He can ride with Magdee. She'll keep an eye on him."

"Denton, dear. You can not bring him to the scene of a fight. He could get hurt."

"He's going to be fine. You can cuff him to the car so he doesn't go anywhere."

The deer looked at me, offended. "I will do no such thing. He is a victim, not a criminal. He should be going to his father, not with us."

"Not yet. I'll return him after this."

"Why?" Marcus asked. He was on the other side of the car, studying me.

"Because I need him as leverage to get Pablo to confess to killing Mashek."

"So this is who you are becoming." The red deer shook his head sadly.

"What are you talking about? I'm not becoming anything."

"Really? Then what happened to the police officer who did his best to treat criminal as fairly as victims?"

"He got kicked out, remember?"

"So the sense of fairness was part of the job, not the person?"

"Damn it Marcus! I can't let a killer get away."

"So you are willing to trample over someone else's rights to get what you want? Is this who you are going to be? Is this how you're going to lead? The example you are going to give the rest of us? The rules don't matter is *you* feel the end justify it?"

My blood turned to ice. Wasn't that exactly the attitude I despised from the Society? This sense of entitlement, that what they wanted surpassed what anyone else wanted?

I looked at Luis. He was trying to hide how scared he was behind a mask of disdain, but I'd seen that look too often on kids caught in bad situation, to be fooled.

"Marcus, Pablo's a killer. He almost certainly killed before. He's going to kill again if I let him get away."

"And if you force a confession out of him. How long before he brings that up to his lawyer? What happens then? Denton, criminals do escape justice at times. Like you said, he will kill again, so it's only a question of time until he's caught."

I cursed quietly. "I still can't return him right now. I have to go save my family first."

Zee nodded. "We'll return him to his father. As much as I would love to be part of the rescue, and see something more overt as magic, it is a bad idea for someone as recognizable as I to be part of this. Questions would be raised. We can take your car. We'll act as your agents, not as FBI and we'll make sure Mister Santiago knows he owes the rescue of his son to you."

The idea of letting Pablo escape ranked. I felt personally wronged by the man he'd killed. He'd done it to get my briefcase. All that could have been avoided if I hadn't been a coward and taken it when Winthrop offered it to me. I wanted him so badly, but to get him, I'd have to become what I hated.

I chuckled. I didn't want him that badly it turned out.

"Okay." I motioned for Magdee to give me my phone and I sent my car's ignition code to Zee's phone.

Zee placed his hands on my shoulders. "You are doing the right thing."

"I know. I just wish it felt better. You guys get going. We need to go rescue my family."