Challenge #1 Pressing his back to the wall, Nash felt Joe's presence right beside him. Plastered to the wall on the opposite side of the door were Evan and Harvey. Nash put his finger to his lips to warn the others to be silent, although he knew they would take every precaution. Old habits died hard. He motioned for Harvey to stand in front of the door, held up a hand and began to count off silently with his fingers. One, two, three! Swinging his foot up and out, Harvey kicked in the door and immediately ducked in case Trevor had been lying in wait. The door swung open and slammed against the inside wall, but their fugitive was nowhere to be seen. Nash slipped through the door and quickly stepped to the side. Pausing a moment to let his eyes adjust to the darkness, he motioned for the others to follow. Once inside, they could all see that this building had been abandoned for many years. Debris and plaster from the walls and ceiling littered the floor. They split up to search the first floor, but came up empty. Meeting back near the door, they shared a look of frustration. Nash shook his head in disgust and whispered to the others the plan for catching Trevor. "Okay, look, I'll search the second floor. Joe, you take the third. Evan, you have the roof and Harvey, you have the basement. Look sharp and be careful. Getting your selves shot would seriously tick me off. There's way too much paperwork involved in that." Chuckling quietly, the group broke up. Nash and Joe headed for the west stairwell, while the other two took the east. Harvey caught Evan's arm as they headed for the stairs. "Hey, be careful up there, Evan." "You know I will, Harv. You watch out for spiders down there." Evan chuckled evilly, knowing his partner's aversion to arachnids. "Ha, ha. Very funny, Ev. Leave it to Nash to give the basement to the guy with claustrophobia." Falling silent once more, Harvey made his way carefully down the stairs. He could hear the creak of the steps as his partner made his way up toward the roof. Pulling a mini flashlight from his pocket, Harvey said a silent prayer for his friends searching the building above him. Two days earlier: Nash looks at the phone that has not stopped ringing for the past hour and sighs, “SIU Captain Bridges” His eyes get wide as he hears what the person on the other end is saying. “Ok, slow down, you said he took 400 pounds of C4, and has the equipment for making bombs stashed in how many places here in the city?” Joe puts down his pen, paperwork seems meaningless at that moment, and motions for Harvey and Evan to come over, knowing they were all going to have to work together on this one. Nash sighs, “Right, got it, we will be in touch, thank you Chief. Joe, Harvey, Evan, we have another psycho on the loose, and this time he means business. His name is Trevor Lang, and he apparently feels like the whole city has gone to the devil, meaning, we have to find him, and stop him from blowing up parts of it to rid the “evil” he thinks he is seeing.” Joe looks at Nash, “How many places is he supposed to have stashed his goodies, and how many bombs do we need to look for here?” Nash rubs his face, taking a moment, straying his fingers over his mouth, “Well, according to the Chief, we could have about 20 bombs, with hundreds of hiding places for this nimrod to start getting them ready.” Harvey looks at them all and chuckles a bit, “Man, how in the world did we get graced with such lovely specimens of human beings in this city. Suddenly murder and mayhem is not enough, we have to have chaos as well. Makes you wish for the good old days, where you could just grab em and bag em.” Evan is smiling at his partner, “Yeah, but then we did not have the pleasure of tracking them down, and making their lives a living hell to get them to talk!” “Alright you two!” Nash was trying not to laugh at them, “let’s get going on this, Harv, you get on the phone, find out just who this bastard considered close enough to talk to, and Joe, you and I will go and scour parts of the city to get some idea of where we are looking at the bombs being created.” “On it like you would not believe boss, “ Harv and Evan knew they were in for a long day. Outside the SIU, Nash and Joe loaded into the cuda, Joe was trying to lighten up the mood a bit by singing, “Get your motor running, head out on the highway….” Nash looked at him, “Don’t make me add a new cuda rule, as in no singing!” He was smiling at him while saying it, “Thanks for trying though.” “I just want to know when we started dealing with people who were seriously messed in the head Nashman, I mean, look at this, the whole city is evil? Give me a break, who died and made this idiot God? I have a wife, and a daughter who are both depending on me, for one to help keep the city safe, and for two, to come home to them at night, and you have your dad, and Cassidy. What is this world coming to?” Nash started the cuda, “I know, we need to concentrate on finding the bombs, and where he is making them, and getting this bastard in jail, so he can’t hurt anyone.” Back inside the SIU, Harvey was ready to throw the phone, “What do you mean that number is unlisted, and you can’t tell me where else to try? Do you not understand what I am saying to you? I need to find this person now!! Not tomorrow, not in five minutes, NOW!!!!!” You call me immediately when you have something, got it?” He slammed the phone down, looking at Evan, “Come on brother, we need some face to face persuasion here!” Evan grabbed his coat and sunglasses, ready to get going, “Do we need to call Nash?” “Nah, let’s see if we can get this done without bugging him, hopefully we can get what we need with your pretty face, and my mouth.” Harvey was laughing, as he and Evan took off to go “persuade” the buddy of Trevor’s to open up. Nash and Joe had reached their first destination. Joe was uneasy as he got out of the cuda, not knowing what they were about to walk into. The building before them was older, and looked like whomever would be living in there would not be of the most pleasant to meet, even in broad daylight. Nash went up to the door, and eased it open, they both went in and looked at the stairs, and started climbing. Nash knocked on the first door they came to crossing his fingers to Joe. The door opened, and a small older woman was peering at them, “May I help you?” Nash smiled, “SFPD Ma’am, we need to ask you some questions about a young man named Trevor Lang.” She looked at the two of them for a moment, and said, “Please, come in, sit down, I have a lot to tell you.” An hour later, they were both emerging from the building, and Nash’s phone started to ring. “Nash!” “Boss, we hit pay dirt!!” Harvey sounded excited on the other end, “He has been staying two blocks away from the old Melvin’s apartment building, the one that held few people, and the ones who did stay there, never wanted to admit it to anyone. He has about six friends he is hiding out with, and they will not give him up without a fight.” Nash was pleased to hear all of that, “Good work Harv, we got some valuable information here as well. How about we all meet down at the SIU, get facts straight, and start a plan on getting someone to flush out this weasel.” “Be there in fifteen boss,” Harvey hung up, and Nash looked at Joe, “Explains some of it, doesn’t it?” Joe looked at Nash, shaking his head, “How in the world could anyone do that to their own child?” “I don’t know Joe, but unfortunately, it happens, and no one was supposed to talk about it.” Present Day: Nash came into the SIU, with more information on Trevor, and needing to get all of the crew together on a plan to get him and take him down. He and Joe had two more places to go to finish up some of the details, social workers, etc. He told Harv and Evan when they came back a meeting would be in order, to catch everyone up. As Nash and Joe returned to the SIU, they could see that Harv and Evan were there, and walking in, Nash pointed to the “conference room.” “Well, my visit was enlightening………” Harv looked at Nash, the debriefing over, “You mean to say, she still has contact with him after all of that, and he wants it?? Man, that is messed up!” Nash sighed, “Not having gone through it ourselves, we don’t understand it all. I don’t know how I would have felt if my own mother beat me for no reason, did not feed me days on end, and made me believe she could kill me. After hearing all of that from the lady who lived across the hall from him, I still don’t understand why no one took him out of there, and how he survived this long. I do know he is using all of her hate and brain washing to make this plan, and we are the main targets. If for no other reason, because we never helped him out of a place he never belonged, and may never have left on his own anyway.” Joe looked up, “Makes me want to run home and hug Lucia right now, and tell her how much I love her.” Evan looked up, “Or call our mothers and thank them for not being that way, I can’t even imagine how someone could live that way for a day, let alone 18 years.” Harvey looked up, “So, how do we reason with him, we were not even on the force the whole time he was going through this crap, and how do we get him to see we don’t agree with what happened, or what he is being made to believe about the city?” Nash looked out over the ocean, “We can’t, he thinks we condone all of that, and he wants us to see the error in our ways.” Harvey’s phone was ringing off the hook at his desk, “Inspector Leek!” he gasped, having hauled the whole way there from the conference room, “You did? Wonderful, when did you find it? Ok, we will be there shortly! Boss, they have confirmed the old Melvin’s apartment building is where he has been making plans with the bombs, etc. Do you want Evan and I to go and check it out?” “No one is going there in just teams of two, who knows what we will find there, we need a strategy for the possibility he is there waiting for us.” Joe had just hung up his cell, “Nash, apparently his mother has been keeping track of him through a neighbor who has no idea what really happened, and she talked to him today. According to what we have heard, that means we need to move, he likes to get more done after she messed with his head like she does.” Nash moved back to the interrogation area, all of them following, “We need to be careful, and close in on him, so he cannot get away for one, and we have everyone together, so we can watch all of our backs at once. I don’t want to walk in on him alone, and have to figure out what crap she poured in to him this last time. One more thing I did not tell all of you, felt it was too sick; his mother never called him by his name, she called him ‘it,‘ or ‘the boy,‘ or ‘devil spawn.’ According to her, we are all devil’s spawn as well, for even being here, or trying to get into ‘their’ business, and not keeping her up on finances, etc. so she could handle him.” Harvey looked up and exploded, “HANDLE HIM!!! She should feel lucky, I could not name the pranks I pulled as a teen, and I am sure we could all say the same. This lady is not right, she needs her head examined!!” Nash looked up, “I know, we just need to keep that in mind, not knowing what we are getting into here. Apparently anyone who is not in the same situation he is in is ‘evil’ and he wants them to all pay for what he went through.” Joe was being very quiet, “Maybe we need to find someone he trusts, to have them here when we bring him in, so he can see we don’t want to hurt him.” Nash nodded, “Harv, was there anyone he trusted, and would feel unthreatened by that we could get in here?” Harv looked up, “Only one I know of is the lady you two were talking to, she always gave him some attention, and food when she could. I can call her and see if she will come down here, and talk to him.” Nash nodded, “Do it, and then we need to get this plan in stone, he is going down today.” Harv hung up his phone, “Ok boss, I am going to get her, and we’ll be ready, anything else I need to do while out there?’’ Nash shook his head, “No, just bring her in, and get her comfortable, we’ll get the rest ready when you get back.” Harv got to the building where she lived, and was escorting her, and trying to calm her down. “ I never did catch your name,” he chuckled as she smiled. “My mother called me Violet, saying I brightened up any room, and was pleasant to be around!” As they drove, she told him more about Trevor, and his life of hell he had to endure, and was floored at how horrible it was, thanking her for being so cooperative, and telling her, “ I see where your mother got your name, she was right!” He got a huge appreciative grin for that, and knew he had her at ease. She was nervous when they got in the SIU, and he immediately took her to Nash, so she could see no one was going to upset her, or make her do anything she did not want. Nash smiled at her, “Thank you for coming down, we wanted to make sure we had some back up for him when we bring him in, so he will let us talk to him.” She sighed, “I hope he will cooperate with you, he is so angry, and does not trust anyone for long.” They were all back in the interrogation room, finalizing the plan to get Trevor in there, alive, and bomb-free. “ Bomb squad has not found any bombs in the places we gave them Nash, “ Evan looked relieved as he delivered that one piece of good news. “Alright,” Nash was ready, “let’s get to the building, and stick together as much as possible, find him, bring him in, and have bomb squad ready and waiting for whatever we may or may not find. If we do have to split up, keep the phone close, and the ringer set to vibrate, I don’t want him tipped off on exactly where we are. Also, watch out for any traps we may meet, everyone ready?” The whole group nodded, “Ok, let’s go get this moron, and make sure he does not hurt anyone!” In the building: Harv was creeping down the stairs, breathing quietly, “Alright you eight-legged creatures, you stay in your corners, I’ll stay in mine.” He shuddered a bit at the thought of one of them crawling on him, and tried to think of something else. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness around him, and he was on the utmost of awareness, smelling all of the stench, and seeing all of the shadows. Trying not to sneeze or panic, he saw something he did not like, was it a bomb, on the support beams, that could at any moment send the building crashing down around his ears, co-workers and all? It was, but was not set to go off, that made him breathe easier until he saw how touch-sensitive it was, and also set up with a remote blast. “Well, he has the button, and plans to push it.” Evan was making his way to the roof, and saw something he did not like, another bomb was planted, to make the walls fall in on themselves, and crush anyone in their path, same touch-sensitive type, same blast capacity. “Damn, this is not good!” he said,” hope no one else has found anything like this.” Joe was tiptoeing on the third floor, and stopped, he was looking at the same thing, only this one was set up to take the floor out from under him, and make the windows react like a nail bomb. “Ouch!” Joe said without thinking, “Hope Nash is having better luck.” Nash was moving quietly on the second floor when he saw Trevor, waiting for anyone who would dare to come in. Nash stayed hidden from his sight, needing to get the others in there before he moved. He knew he needed some noise to keep Trevor from hearing him, and to his luck, a vehicle pulled up, stereo blaring, the perfect cover. He dialed Joe’s number, “Joe, get Harv and Evan, and get down here to the second floor. He is here, and waiting for us, and we need to get him now!” Joe, listening to Nash whisper the order to him, barely hearing him over the stereo’s racket, answered, “Ok Nashman, we’ll be there in a few.” He hung up and dialed Harv’s number, “Harv get up to the second floor, Nash found Trevor.” “Alright Joe, I found a bomb down here, and she is a beaut!! “ Joe sighed, “Yes, I found one too, let me catch Evan, so we can get him before he gets us.” They hung up, and Joe dialed Evan, “Evan, get down here to the second floor, Nash found Trevor.” Evan sighed, “ Joe, there is a bomb up here, and it is set to go off by someone holding the remote to it.” Joe groaned, “One down here too, we’ll have to be careful not to piss him off.” Harv met them at the entrance to the second floor in a few minutes, “Hate to rain on everyone’s parade, but there’s a bomb in the basement……….” Evan and Joe rolled their eyes, “Yep, found that on the third floor, and near the roof, he is not playing here, and that is not good. Let’s hope Nash has not found one, we need to get to him.” Nash was waiting for them for what seemed an eternity, when he felt them creeping up to him. “Where were you guys?” he whispered, looking upset. “Well,” Joe sighed, “we have three bombs we found, one in the basement, one on the third floor, and one near the roof. If anyone touches them, they go off, if anyone pisses HIM off, they go off. We are in trouble here Nashman.” “Then we don’t give him the chance to do it, we need to act now, Harv and Evan, go right, Joe and I will go left.” As they moved around boxes and equipment, the men were all on guard, not knowing when Trevor would be set off, and the bombs too for that matter. They were all in position and ready, Nash looked at them, Harv and Evan nodded, Nash looked at Joe, Joe nods, and Nash counts, fingers tense, One Two Three!!! Trevor had been standing, distracted by the stereo blaring outside, wondering if his mom was even right. Did he need to blow up parts of the city and himself to make the world right? He had only set the ones that were in the building he was in now, and they would most certainly take him with them when they blew, he made sure of that. After all, he was devil spawn, Mother had made that clear. All of his life he was wrong, never saying the right thing, never doing anything that was good, always wrong. He was pondering all of that, and put the remote to the bombs down, feeling like maybe, just maybe, she could be wrong. The next thing he knew, he was on the floor with someone telling him to freeze and not move. It was the SFPD, and they had found him, and now he was going to jail, relieved in a way, he just relaxed and did what they said. Nash had seen Trevor put the remote down, and made sure Joe, Harvey and Evan were going, when he tackled Trevor. “SFPD!!! Don’t move, put your hands above your head. Trevor, you are going to have to cut the power on that remote, and stop those bombs you set. We can’t have this city block blown to bits because someone breathed wrong.” Trevor nodded, “Ok, take me to them, I’ll take care of it.” Thirty minutes later, the cuda growling, Nash and Joe having Trevor in the back, were speeding towards the SIU, Harv and Evan had gone ahead, to get Violet ready. Trevor was quiet, which was unusual for someone getting hauled in. Joe was getting concerned, “We brought Violet to the SIU to see you, she has missed you.” Trevor only nodded, feeling relieved, he wanted to thank her for everything she had done for him before he was locked up. He did not know how to feel about everything, besides relief, Mother could not touch him anymore, and Nash was wondering even more than Joe had been when he saw the huge grin that emerged on the young man’s face. Was he going to be alright??? Back at the SIU, Violet was happy to see Trevor was alive, and had cooperated with all of them, and hugged him. “ I always wanted to rescue you, I cried hearing what she did to you.” Violet was crying then. Trevor hugged her back for an moment, then drew back, not knowing much how to show his feelings. “Thank you for helping me as much as you did, I will be alright now.” That evening, Nash watched Nick and Cassidy playing cards, Nick yelling she was cheating, smiling underneath the whole time. Nash smiled, what a couple of days it had been, he was happy to return to the normal chaos of family life. END