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The last case had been brutal, it had been a race against the clock to track down the kidnappers turned traffickers before they got the kids out of American.
Maggie was ordered to take the day off. Minor injuries and two all nighters had left her feeling a bit rough. OA had gotten out of it mostly unscathed, but was stuck on paperwork while his partner recuperated.
It was a pain in the ass getting through all the paper work but there was still satisfaction on hitting submit at the end of it all. It was a slow days, as slow as things go for them.. OA was just wrapping up the form he was currently working on when Mosier had come out of her office, apology written across her face.
“What’s happened?”
“There’s an urgent case. 4 murders in the last 4 hours, PD just connected them. They think this is the start of a spree killing. I know the last case was hard -”
“If they’re right about the spree killing we have to get there fast,”
Mosier had come with him, it was procedure to have at least two agents on a case. Dana may have been less up tight than other superiors he’d had, but her presence still had him reciting regulations in his head.
They arrived at the scene within minuets, it wasn’t violent, the victim, female, was slumped against the wall, no noticeable injury except the zip tie around her neck.
The attending officer quickly filled them in. In the last 4 hours, 4 women had been killed. They had been attacked and kidnapped, killed somewhere within the hour they had been missing, then left in fairly obvious areas. Each woman had been attacked near where the previous body had been dumped.
One of the CSI investigators had found tracker tucked into the victims phone, clear and almost unnoticeable. With the investigative power of the FBI, Dana and OA were quickly directed to the base for the tracker. It was a small basement under a abandoned factory.
The large wall at the back of the room were covered with what looked like a poster rack, the kind you’d see for band posters in music stores. The suspects home setup was still active just off the opposite wall, positioned so it faced the posters. One of the screens showed several blue dots moving around a map of New York.
CSI started moving through the posters, alerting the lead agents when they found the ones matching the bodies they already found. Responding officers started to record the remaining photos and calling offices and starting to track down names and contact information, assigning officers to warn and protect the potential victims as they get in contact.A alarm went off on the computer and a screen showed an audio file save as completed as another one begin.
“We’re looking for a fifth victim,” Dana said sadly. OA studied the first screen, watching as one of the blue dots disappeared.
“We’ll be looking for a sixth if we don’t hurry,” He replied, grabbing the mouse he pulled up the information off the blue dots in the surrounding area. He called out the numbers of the trackers to Dana as she walked over to the posters, the senior agent selecting the corresponding board.
One of the blue dots flashed suddenly and OA called out the new number to Dana.
“Oh god,” There was a small clatter, Dana dropped her flashlight as she saw the photos that the new board held. OA rounded the desk walking over to her.
“Maggie,” OA realized as he approached. Dana dropped the board and called dispatch walking back over to the screen to see where to directed them to.
OA pulled out his phone and dialed Maggie’s number.
She picked after the second ring.
“Hey OA, Jubal called me and told me what was going on. How working a case with the boss?”
“Maggie your in danger. The killer has you listed as a target, he’s targeting you next,”
“What?,”
“They’re targeting you, Where are you?” OA heard her breath catch for a second.
“I’m around the corner from my apartment, after yesterday I wanted to walk a… Do we know how close he is?” OA rushed over to the screens pulling up the live audio. There was even breathing and the sound of a car.
“He’s driving. No exact location. Maggie? There’s a tracker tile somewhere on your phone, get rid of it get somewhere safe.
“ETA 4 minuets,’ Dana said next to him.
“Offices coming your way Maggie, 4 minuets,”
“Okay, Okay,”
OA froze, he heard her voice echo, it came from both his phone, and the live audio.
“Mag’s! They’re right by you!”
She gasped and OA heard her take several quick steps before someone ran into her.
“Come quietly,” The phone clattered to the ground as she dropped it and OA handed his phone over to CSI and tuned into the live audio instead.
“Like hell,” there was scuffling, then clear sounds of punching. The audio distorted, Maggie had obviously grabbed whatever the recorder was attached to.
The CSI Tech handed OA’s phone back, the live audio stream playing through his speakers. He and Dana ran for the truck.
“ let go of me! Son of a-” Her voice broke of into a half yell and the distinctive sound of a trunk slamming played over the audio.
“Maggie!,” She couldn’t hear him but he caught himself calling to her as he drove towards the dot.
PD was a the scene when they got there. Maggie was gone. Her phone lay shattered on the ground, bag and coat besides it.
OA was already out of the car standing at the edge of the scene.
“Do we know where she is?” He called to Dana, she was on the line with the JOC.
“They’re struggling to locate where the audio is broadcasting from. Maggie has whatever the device is though, we can hear her not him, they’re still driving.”
“But we don’t know where he is exactly,”
“No,”
“Then we have less than 40 minuets.”
*~*~*~*~*~*
It was dark, her head hurt, it was loud.
Walking to here apartment, talking to OA, his warning, getting attacked.
It came back to her in a flash, bringing her quickly to consciousness. She couldn’t quite catch her breath and her hands came up to her throat.
Zip Tie.
She could breath, barely, she started feeling around the trunk.
Stripped interiors, her coat was gone, Jacket in the corner, empty pockets, wire in the collar, microphone., the emergency release cable was cut and the electronics were carpeted over and the backseats were bolted into place.
For the foreseeable future she was stuck in this trunk. Trapped.
Her breathing was still restricted and black dots danced in her vision, she couldn’t get her fingers between the ties and her throat, she battled for calm and scratched at the carpet.
Right at the edge, between the carpet of the wall and the base of the trunk, hard plastic, a zip tie stuck in the fabric.
She pulled the zip tie out, her breathing had slowed but her lungs still stung for more air than she was getting. She threaded the tie under the one around her neck, she grabbed both ends of it and pulled it back and too. The plastic heated up and it hurt her neck the heat, and eventually the plastic split, she let herself take a large breath.
She pulls the jacket on over her, shes cold now she’s not moving. Light t-shirt and jeans, all her stuff in her purse rather than in her pockets or on her person.
She’s pissed she let herself get taken, she’s an FBI agent for shit’s sake. She tucks herself down in the trunk he’s going to stop eventually, and she doesn’t plan on sticking around.
*~*~*~*~*~*
OA can hear her breathing. Maggie had obviously had the device this psycho was using to record the murders. At first there was just a shallow in and out, her breath sped up he could hear her breathing being restricted and for a terrifying second OA thought he was about to hear her die. There’s the sound of friction and a short snap of plastic and a long intake of breath.
OA breathes in, not realizing that he had been holding his breath. Dana looks over at him, she’s talking on the phone with Kristen as they try to pinpoint Maggie’s location .
“OA?”
“She had a zip tie around her neck,” He said through a long exhale “like the other victims, she broke it, shes okay for now. We any closer to tracking the signal?”
“Its not exact but we have the general location, we’ve got security camera footage form across the street, we’re looking through street cameras along potential routs. He’s heading north.” He and Dana climbed back into the van and started heading in the rough direction they were heading. You cant get very far in New York city in 40 minuets, the suspect still thinks he’s getting another victim. The clock is running out.
*~*~*~*~*~*
Maggie can hear him talking, not to her, she can hear his slightly muffled voice through the gap in the back seats. He’s picking another victim, weighing out the pro’s and con’s, mostly surrounding their location. Evidently most of them are at home, no possibility of a quick grab, higher risk.
“You”
He said the word suddenly and with malice. The car swung to the left and picked up some speed, not enough to risk being pulled over but enough for Maggie to know she had to be ready, her head still hurts from where she was thrown against the edge of the trunk. She turns herself in the trunk, feet towards the opening bracing herself against the roof and the carpet, The car was making more turns know, heading towards a destination. They weren’t on main streets anymore, little to no road noise, uneven paving.
She didn’t know if he was armed, there’d been a knife, against her throat when he first took her, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t also a gun.
The car came to a stop and Maggie held her breath. Did he know he was conscious? The door closed and footsteps came down the side of the car, no hurry to them. The back of the car dipped he was sitting on top of the trunk. Maggie heard a phone opening and the clicking of her phone keyboard. She held herself still, evening out her breathing, she had to be quiet. Why was he waiting?
*~*~*~*~*~*
“We have the signal triangulated now its not moving. We’re still looking for their exact location,though” Kristan was tucked in to the subjects setup, her laptop had the audio signal tracked. The subjects screen still had the blue dots on it.
“We’re trying to figure out who he’d target next trying to narrow down the
location,”
“He’ll be looking for easy, 1 every hour, can’t be anyone that would take him too long to grab,” Dana and OA where parked in near the centre of the area, 10 minuets. OA had the sound turned up on his phone, just listening to Maggie breath.
“We’re running out of time,” He clenches his hands tight, he’s not angry he can’t get angry. They’re working as fast as he can and he knows that, but Maggie’s still in trouble. Kristen listed out the trackers and their locations, noting some had already been contacted by the police and currently had officers protecting them. OA stopped her when she noted one of the trackers at a parking garage.
“Well she looks younger than the other potential victims and we’ve had no luck with with facial recognition, probably no official ID or drivers licence yet.” As Kristen relates the information OA starts the Van and starts heading towards the tracker.
“There are other potential victims we haven’t been able to track down yet,” Dana warns him.
“By his clock he has to start looking for his next victim in less then 10 minuets,” He carefully avoids mentioning the risk Maggie faces. “He’s got to notice the increased police presence and he’s taken an FBI agent. He’ll be looking low risk, and some one he can get to fast. Its the only tracker that’s close and in a low traffic area. Its our best bet ad we’re running out of time,”
*~*~*~*~*~*
Maggie was still keeping quiet, almost holding her breath
Somewhere outside a watch beeps
The weight on the back of the car shifted, the loss of weight allowing the trunk to rise a little further off the ground. Maggie bends her knew and tenses, she hears the the latch begin to release.
The opening Is just wide enough for her to see the tops of his legs.
Maggie paused for a second longer before kicking out, her feet connect and he falls back onto the pavement.
She scrambles out onto her feet, and for a worrying second the dizziness and pain she had felt in the trunk doubles, she knows that she cant afford to pass out.
She see’s her captor laying on the ground, a mix of shock and pain on his face, he hadn’t thought she’d be awake, maybe he had expected her to strangle because of the zip tie. They’re in a parking garage, she can see the exit.
She makes the decision to run, she’s not in any condition fight the guy,she doesn’t have her gun or hand cuffs. So even if she by some miracle held her own,she had no way to keep him restrained.
Flinging open the door for the stairwell, a gunshot rang out, glass shatters where her head had just been.
Maggie continued down the stairs but her plan had changed. Heading out onto the street and towards people was no longer an option, from the sound around her she could figure out that the building was almost empty, the parkade around her echoed as she stepped out onto the next level down. She could hear the man enter the stairwell above her and she ran for the cover of the support columns.
For now hiding was the best plan she had.
*~*~*~*~*~*
They were closing in on the parking garage when the gunshot rang out over OAs’ phone speaker. He tensed, car swerving momentarily at the shock. He felt heart beat spike as he focused back on the road.
Footsteps echoed on the recording, another door opened and the echo became louder.
“She’s still moving, she’s okay,” Dana said quietly. The words were meant as comfort but so many situations circled in his head, so many where she didn’t make it home.
They pulled up in front of the parking garage, taking in the slightly run down building.
They’ve barley taken two seconds towards the building when a young lady walked over to them.
“Hey! You probably should head out of here, someones shooting in the parkade,”
Dana headed over to her asking here what she had heard. OA called Kristan, confirming that the woman Dana was talking to was the potential victim they were looking for.
He left Dana to take care of Ella and OA walked started running into the building
*~*~*~*~*~*
Maggie had her back pressed flat against the pillar, the concrete cool against her back. Keeping her breathing as low and quiet as possible, she listened for foot steps.
As far as she could tell he was still over by the stairwell, slow methodical searching of everywhere she could possibly hide.
He knew she was listening, he kept his steps light,she missed a lot of steps only occasionally picking up where he was walking after a longer period of silence she risked peaking her head out to her right. The main roadway of the garage floor was clear, she couldn’t hear him.
The edge of the pillar exploded, concrete pieces showering down on her head she rolled back to her left heading for the next available pillar, Maggie heard him running towards her a hand wrapped in the jacket she had pulled on in the trunk. She twisted herself around, kicking at his legs as she freed her arms from the sleeves. She runs diagonally from her attacker, ducking down between two cars.
There’s the sound of a bullet hitting the metal of the car, its close to her head, she crawls further into the gap between the cars, glass shards rain down on her from the broken windows as he fires another shot..
She looks around the garage and considers her options, someone had to have heard the gunshots, someone had to be coming, she was running out of time.
*~*~*~*~*~*
OA moved as fast as he could through the building making his way to the second floor, gun drawn, eyes alert.
One
The gunshot rings out across the building from him and he starts running, the building spans the block.
Two, Three.
He’s close now, rounding the corner he sees them. Maggie is tucked between two cars the man is creeping towards her gun loose by his side.
OA starts running towards them.
*~*~*~*~*~*
The echoing sound makes it hard to figure out where he is. Her head hurts and her ears are ringing from the gunshots. She hears rapid footsteps approaching her from the left. She crawls to the right towards the front of the cars. She doesn’t realize her mistake until the person calls her name.
“Maggie!”
OA. OA is behind her but…
A hand wraps into her hair and shes dragged out from between the cars and she lands face to face with her attacker.
Bald, on the younger side of middle age, shorter than she thought but bulkier than she expected, yellowing teeth grin at her and vein-y brown eyes take in the state shes in.
She’s pulled further around the front of the car, away from OA. Her attacker sits on the ground and pulls her backwards against him. Arm around her throat. Her legs kick uselessly against the ground only stopping once the gun is pressed to her temple.
*~*~*~*~*~*
OA watches in horror as Maggie crawls away from him and closer to the man who had taken her. He calls out but its too late, he hears her yell as shes dragged by the hair, and then he looses site of her.
“You’ll want to stop there.” The subjects voice sounds terrible, like heavy smoking mixed with some kind of cold.
“OA-” Maggie’s call is cut off
“Wouldn’t want my finger to slip on the trigger now,”
“Okay! I’m not moving,” He’s stopped a few feet behind the car he crouches to peak under the car he can see the guy sat against the grill of the car, dead center. OA stands again and waits for the guy to start listing his demands, he doesn’t. “What’s the plan here? You’re over time man, there’s non of your trackers around here any more.”
The guy still doesn’t talk. So OA tries again.
”This isn’t the end of your plan is it? You don’t want to die here.”
OA looks around the garage, looking for anything that can give him an edge. There’s an increase in traffic noise outside and just faintly he can hear someone else approaching.
“Okay, how about this, you let her go and I let you walk out of here.” He starts walking towards the car again.
“You think I’m stupid,”
“I know you don’t want to die, you could have ended this straight away, maybe even got away before we got here. You have a plan and you want to follow it through.”
“I could have won it I was so close,”
“You still can,”
*~*~*~*~*~*
He’s talking now, OA has him talking, the tension in his body lessens slightly, the choke hold not so tight the gun not as harsh against his temple.
Maggie hears his heat thunk back against the car.
“I didn’t, I didn’t want to do this,” He hounds mournful now the gun lies on the floor loose in his hand, the hold around her throat is loose enough to tuck her chin into it. There’s movement on the roof across from them, momentarily she sees the flash of a scope. Snipers.
The guys head drops forward again, his arm is lose, the gun isn’t pointed at her.
Maggie thrown her head back and pushes her feet under her body, she rolls to her left out oh his arms, he’s too slow to react and she sprints between the cars towards OA.
*~*~*~*~*~*
There’s quiet for a moment, then a pained yell Maggie appears from around the from around the front of the car and heads towards him. He reaches out to take her arm as she reaches him, he puts himself between Maggie and the shooter as they move.
There’s one more gunshot, the both crouch to the ground, the bollard makes shitty cover, but it’s the best they’ve got.
OA has Maggie pulled against him as they pause.
OA turns slowly, only to find the man on the floor clutching at his shoulder, other officers approach the man to detain him, Dana heading over to the two of them.
“Are you two okay?” Dana says when she reaches the
“I’m fine, Maggie?”He stands and pulls Maggie with him, only for her to sway into him, “Whoa, okay,” he lowers her back to the ground. “Mags?”
“I hit my head on the trunk when he through me in, I’m just kinda dizzy,” He takes her face in his hands, taking note of the large purple bruise forming at her temple. OA takes the time to fully take her in, she has safety glass embedded in her hands and there’s small cuts along her face.
Dana tells him that there’s paramedics on the way before heading over to help detaining the guy.
OA pulls his jacket off to wrap around her shoulders, keeping an arm securely around her.
“Hell of a day off,” she says and OA scoffs, he tightens his arm around her just slightly. “Hey, you okay?”
“Am I okay? You got kidnapped”
“Still…”
“Whatever the guy was using to record his kills, you had it with you in the car, I could here you, when you first woke, at first you couldn’t catch a breath, then it was the scuffling and the gun shots. I kept thinking…”
“OA… well I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, your stuck with me,” OA pull her tighter still against his side as they wait for the medic.
*~*~*~*~*~*
The paramedics tell her shes okay to go home as long as shes got someone to go with her.
OA volunteers before she even asks.
They stop by his place on the way to her apartment, picking up a an overnight bag.
He checks the front door is locked at least 3 times when they get inside at her place, and Maggie can see him surveying the room for any potential threats.
For a moment Maggie stands in her living room and breaths. She’s home now, and the man who attacked her, Samuele Prior, was locked up. Hands bandaged, cheek stitched, head iced.
There’s a tension in the room for a second and Maggie turns to look at OA. His hands are tight at his sides, arms jerking forward in the occasional aborted reach.
“Omar I’m okay,” She walks towards him them and allows herself to be pulled into a hug. She lets him tuck her hear under his chin and they take a moment like that, in the safety of her apartment.
Later, OA maker her dinner and sit on her couch watching whatever brain rot is on television. Maggie starts to drift of after a while, she fights it at first, adrenaline trying to keep her alert after the days she has. She shifts slightly and takes a breath, taking note of OAs’ arm laid out on the back of the couch behind her. She leans back into the couch and OA lets his arm drop over her shoulder. She starts to drift off again, but keeps jolting awake again.
“Its okay, I’ve got you,” OA says quietly and finally she allows herself to sleep.
*~*~*~*~*~*
OA relaxed on the couch with Maggie against his side. He’s almost reached a reasonable level of calm.
His phone buzzes beside him and double checks Maggie is well asleep before answering.
“Zidan,” He answers quietly.
“Hey OA,” it’s Kristan on the line. “You guys okay?”
“Yeah we got in okay, Maggie’s asleep now. You just calling to check in?”
“...I wish, we final managed to get full access to his computer, this guy is good, had an auto erase that we barley managed to stop. Anyway, this guy Samuele, he didn’t pick the targets, he got sent a list, with instructions, Kill 7 in 7 hours to claim the reward. From the looks of it whoever sent the list sent it to several other people. OA we think everyone on the the list is still being targeted, Maggie included.” After a few more words being exchanged OA ends the call.
He looks down at Maggie as she sleeps against him in the quiet of her living room, his blood runs cold. This wasn't over.