Daniel held Cody tightly in his arms. This just could not be happening. Grief, anger, rage and guilt flooded through his mind. To have come all this way, to have gone through all they went through, to finally have genuine love in his heart, this was not how things were going to end … it just could not be. Hot tears streamed down his face as he looked at Cody. The ever present smile was gone. The sparkling chocolate brown eyes were closed. The warm pink skin was cool and ashen. Daniel ran his hands through the soft curly brown hair. The sudden drip of blood from the corner of Cody's mouth sent a jolt of fear directly though Daniel's heart. His eyes took in the rapidly spreading blood stain on Cody's chest. Deeply hidden knowledge slammed into his mind. With renewed resolve, Daniel ripped Cody's shirt open and almost passed out at the site. The bullet left a dime sized hole just to the left and under Cody's right nipple. Bright red blood was blowing out the hole with each of Cody's ragged breaths. Daniel quickly ripped the shirt in half, folded it over and pressed it tightly against the bullet hole. The emotions running through him practically numbed Daniel to the situation. It was the sound of each ragged breath coming from his boyfriend that spurned him into action. Daniel quickly fished out his cell phone and dialed nine one one.

"The number you have dialed does not exist," the mechanical voice droned in several different languages. Daniel screamed in frustration. Just as he was about to throw the phone against the wall, the door of an adjacent apartment opened. A man of about fifty looked cautiously into the corridor. The man's eyes widened as he took in the scene before him. Daniel looked up and pleaded with his eyes.

"What do I dial?" he said to the man, waving his phone in the air. "What number?" The man looked at him confused. "Does anybody speak English around here?!?" Daniel yelled in frustration. A young girl of about eleven peeked her head around the man.

"Dial one one two," the girl said. The man, obviously her father, quickly shoved the girl back into the apartment and slammed the door shut. Daniel hurriedly dialed the number. It was immediately answered, but the operator spoke in Czech. "Does anybody speak English?" he yelled into the phone. The operator said something back and all Daniel could do was hold on, praying they were getting someone who spoke English. He cradled the phone between his cheek and shoulder while pressing the torn shirt on the bullet hole in Cody's chest.

"May I help you?" came the heavily accented female voice on the phone.

"Oh God yes! Please help me. My boyfriend has been shot. I need an ambulance."

"Where are you?" she said. Daniel paused. He recalled the chase, but there were too many turns. Frustration took over as realization set in.

"I don't know!" he yelled into the phone.

"I can't send help if I don't know where you are?" she said.

"Where am I?" Daniel screamed out at the top of his lungs. "Oh God! PLEASE! Someone help me!" The cell phone slipped from his fingers as he pulled Cody into a tight hug. Daniel clung to Cody with all his might and slowly rocked back and forth on the blood stained carpet.

The door to Stan's apartment suddenly burst open. Daniel whipped his head around. What Daniel saw made his eyes turn red. Standing in the doorway was Stan Bouchard. Daniel's immediate instinct was to attack, but before he could move, the man whose picture was in Daniel's dictionary next to evil, slumped forward and fell prone on the floor. Just inside the apartment, Daniel saw Remik standing stone still holding Stan's pistol. Daniel glanced back at Stan and saw a huge blood stain in the center of his back. He looked back up at Remik.

"Remik, where are we? What's the address?" The young boy remained stoic.

"REMIK!" Daniel shouted. The boy dropped the pistol to the floor, but remained frozen.

"What's the address here, Remik? Give me the address!" The boy looked at Daniel for a moment. Then he looked back at Stan. His eyes rolled back in his head and Remik collapsed into a heap on the floor.

"Remik!!" Daniel shouted again. There was no movement from the boy on the floor and Daniel knew Remik had fainted. On one hand, Daniel was ecstatic that Remik had shot Stan. On the other hand, he needed help for Cody. Daniel screamed out in frustration. It was a scream the neighbors in the apartment building would not forget for a long time.

"It's no use. He's gone," sighed Timmy. Teri still scanned the people walking down the sidewalk. Face after face faded into a sea of people, but the young boy was nowhere to be seen. Finally she turned to Timmy.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Let's call Dillon and Casey and see if they've found anything."

"Don't you think they would have called if they had?" asked Timmy. Teri blushed.

"Yeah, you're right, as usual," she admitted. "But let's check in to make sure." Timmy nodded and pulled out his cell phone. He punched in some numbers and hit send.

"Hey, Dillon. Found anything?" asked Timmy.

"No, nothing. Hell, we don't even know where we are," said a frustrated Dillon.

"Heard anything from Daniel?"

"Nope, you're the first we've heard from."

"OK, let's meet back at the hotel."

"Easy for you to say."

"Just ask for directions, ya big goof."

"OK, see ya in a bit," Dillon said sheepishly. Timmy hit the end button. "They don't even know where they are." Teri chuckled.

"Call Daniel and Cody. See if they've seen anything," she suggested as they turned back toward the hotel. Timmy punched in the numbers and hit send.

The sound of the beep from his cell phone ripped Daniel's attention from the unconscious boy inside the apartment. He had all but forgotten about his cell phone. With the infamous Stan Bouchard obviously lying dead not three feet from him, an unconscious young boy in the apartment and a boyfriend in his arms struggling to get his breath, Daniel was lucky to even know who he was. He looked down at his cell phone. Acting almost on autopilot, he reached down and picked it up. Instinctively, he hit the button and lifted the phone to his ear.

"Daniel?" came an unfamiliar voice. He tried to connect the voice to someone he knew, but it was like connecting the dots in the sky on a clear moonless night.

"Daniel!?!" came the voice again. The emotions coursing through his body were close to overload. His vision was slowly becoming tunneled. The sounds around him slowly turned to a mild buzz, much like an AM receiver not on station.

"Daniel!?!" came the voice from the mists of his incoherence.

"Huh?" he finally stammered.

"Daniel! It's Timmy. What's going on? Where are you?" Daniel's mind struggled. He felt as if he were trying to swim to the surface of the ocean, but he wasn't really sure which way was up.

"DANIEL!" the voice came over phone and tugged Daniel back into the here and now.

"Oh God!" Daniel sobbed into his cell phone.

"Daniel, where are you?" Timmy asked.

"I-I don't know?"

"Are you OK?"

"Cody's been shot," Daniel whispered.

"Oh my God! Daniel you've got to get help. Where are you?" Timmy screamed into the phone.

"I don't know," Daniel mumbled.

"Get to the street! Daniel! Get Cody and get to the street and look at the street sign!" Something suddenly clicked in Daniel's mind.

"Street?"

"Yes! Get to the street and look at the street sign. That way you'll know where you are!" Timmy said desperately.

"Street," Daniel said quietly. "Street!" he repeated with more determination.

"That's right, Daniel. Get to the street and look at the street sign."

"Street sign," Daniel mumbled again. "Street sign!" he suddenly yelled into the phone. The fuzziness from the shock of the entire situation suddenly cleared.

"Yes, Daniel. Get to the street!" Timmy yelled into the phone. Daniel mustered his strength and his determination. He looked down at Cody's pale face. Strength and resolve flooded into his bloodstream. Daniel gathered Cody into his arms and picked him up. He quickly headed for the exit and soon found himself on the sidewalk. Daniel looked up and caught the street name.

"Got it!" he screamed back into the phone. Daniel quickly hit the button and disconnected with Timmy. The luck of the stars was with him as the emergency operator was still on the line. "I'm on Svojsikova!"

"Stay where you are. I'll have help there in a minute," the lady said. Daniel slumped onto the sidewalk never letting go of Cody. The people walking down the sidewalk looked at them strangely, but no one stopped to help. It seemed like hours, but in reality was only a few minutes before Daniel heard the sounds of sirens. Relief flooded through him as he pulled Cody tighter to his chest.

"Please, dear God!" he screamed out. The sirens drew closer until they stopped right in front of him. The moments that followed seemed like they happened in slow motion. First there were ambulance personnel trying to take Cody from him. Then there were police pulling Cody from his arms. Anguish flooded through him as the center of his universe was taken away from him. Daniel stood up and reached for Cody, but a policeman held him back. All the turmoil, all the worry, all the emotion crashed down on Daniel in that single moment as he fell to his knees on the Prague sidewalk completely overcome by thankfulness, apprehension and sheer terror.

David Rankin sat on the cold concrete floor of his cell worrying about his wife and about his son. Truth be told, he was more worried about his wife. If his son was indeed with Daniel Simon, he really didn't need to worry. From all the reports he had read, Daniel was a simple case of mistaken identity. Yes, there were extenuating circumstances concerning Daniel, like his past involvement with a man David felt was the real culprit. Add to the fact that most of the information concerning Daniel's involvement came from an anonymous source led David to highly question the accuracy of the information. To him, it looked like someone was setting Daniel up. What bothered David the most was the NSA agents and their almost fanatical quest to find Daniel … the boy who his son was currently with. Just being with Daniel put Dillon in grave danger.

The sound of automatic gunfire broke David's thoughts. He leapt to his feet and hurried to the door. More gunfire rang out along with a couple of screams. His concern was immediately for his wife. Thankfully, the screams had been decidedly male. That was the only thing he was sure of.

"Baker One to Baker Command. Area secure. We're starting our search now." The words were almost golden to David's ears. He pounded his fist on the steel door.

"I'm in here!" he screamed out. Seconds later he heard keys in the door's lock. The door swung open and David Rankin stared into the face of a man wearing nothing but black. Even the man's face was smudged with black.

"Colonel Rankin?" David smiled for the first time in two days.

"My wife is here too," he said quietly. The man nodded then spoke into the microphone clipped to his shoulder.

"This is Baker Two. The colonel is secure, but his wife is here too."

"Roger Baker Two."

"Are you OK, colonel? Can you walk, sir?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Let's just find my wife." The man nodded and stood back for David to walk out of the cell. Letting the man lead the way, David followed him toward the front of the building. As the reached the door to the room where David had been interrogated, another man dressed in all black came around the corner. Behind him was David's wife.

"David!" she yelled and was instantly in his arms.

"It's OK now. We're safe." With those words, Dillon's mom broke down and cried softly on her husband's shoulder.

"Baker One to Baker Command. Both the colonel and his wife are safe."

"Roger Baker One. Good work," came the answer over the radio along with the background sounds of people cheering.

Dillon and Casey walked slowly down the sidewalk. At each intersection they looked down the side street to see if they saw anything familiar. Time and time again, they both groaned in frustration. They were hopelessly lost.

"Let's call Teri back," Dillon said after looking down yet another unfamiliar street.

"And admit defeat?" asked Casey. The look on Dillon's face was all the answer Casey needed. He nodded in agreement. Timmy pulled out his cell phone, punched in the numbers and hit send.

"Hello."

"Teri, we're lost. I have no idea where …"

"Cody's been shot!" she screamed into the phone.

"What!?!"

"Cody's been shot, but we don't know where he and Daniel are. The call was disconnected."

"Call 'em back."

"We've tried, but there's no answer." Casey grabbed Dillon and pulled him back from the edge of the street. Dillon was about to ask what that was all about, but an ambulance and two police cars raced by.

"Thanks," he said to Casey.

"What was that?" Teri asked.

"An ambulance and two police cars just about ran us down," Dillon explained. There was a sudden pause in the conversation as the significance of the ambulance and police cars sank in. During the pause, Dillon looked in the direction the ambulance went and watched as it and the police cars came to an abrupt halt a mere two blocks away.

"Oh my God," Dillon whispered.

"Tell me where you are," Teri ordered. Dillon glanced up at the street sign.

"We're on Skupova at Svojsikova. The ambulance has stopped two blocks away on Svojsikova."

"Got it! We'll catch a cab."

"OK."

"Go check on Cody and call me back." Dillon grabbed a bewildered Casey and started toward the ambulance.

"Will do," he said as he flipped the phone shut. "Come on, Cody's been shot!" he said to Casey. They both turned toward the ambulance and took off at a flat out run. In less than a minute a huffing and puffing Dillon and Casey slowed to a stop and watched as Cody's unconscious body was loaded onto the ambulance. As soon as some of the emergency personnel moved out of the way, they both spotted Daniel on the sidewalk. Dillon took off toward Daniel while Casey tried to find out something about Cody's condition.

As Dillon approached Daniel he could see the pure anguish on his friend's face. Dillon knelt down and put his hand on Daniel's shoulder. Tear filled eyes looked up. For a moment they just gazed, but as recognition set in a fresh onslaught on tears rolled down Daniel's face.

"Daniel," Dillon whispered amidst all the shouting of the police and ambulance personnel. The haunting look on Daniel's face and the blood stains on his shirt and pants spoke volumes of what he had been though. The shear hurt on Daniel's face was more than Dillon could take, so he wrapped his arms around his friend and pulled him into a fierce reassuring hug. Great wracking sobs overtook Daniel as finally someone who understood was there. Being alone through the whole ordeal had been painfully frightening. Now that he had a friend to lean on, Daniel's emotional damn burst sending a fountain of tears onto Dillon's shoulder. All Dillon could do was hold on as Daniel clung to him for dear life. After a few moments, Dillon felt a hand on his shoulder. He opened his eyes and looked up into the worried face of his boyfriend.

"All they would tell me is that's is very serious," Casey said softly. "There were two of them working on him when the doors were closed. One of them looked like he was doing CPR."

The pounding on his door immediately got the sergeant's attention. He sat the freshly opened beer down on the coffee table. Picking up the forty-five from the same table, he made his way to the door.

"Yeah, who's there?" he called out.

"CIA! I want to ask you some questions," came the answer. The sergeant quickly racked a shell into the chamber, cocked the hammer back and gripped the pistol tightly.

"Not to sound like an asshole, but put your weapons on the floor and show me some ID." The agent smiled and complied with the request.

"I assure you, Sergeant Brown, I'm the real thing. We've just arrested another batch of NSA boys and I wanted to ask you some questions about Daniel Simon," the agent said as he held his ID up to the peephole. The sergeant eyed the ID with suspicion, but decided to cautiously open the door. As he did, the agent smiled.

"Didn't mean to catch you in your boxers, sergeant, but this is very important." The sergeant, although embarrassed by his lack of clothing, didn't move his eyes from the agent.

"Nice diversion, but the last government agent I saw had just finished torturing people with a cattle prod on their nuts. So, you'll excuse the lack of humor and tell me what the fuck you want." The agent frowned.

"I'd heard about that, but didn't think it was true." The sergeant took in the black clothing and the black smudges across the agent's face.

"You on special ops?"

"Sorry. Just completed a mission. We had to perform a strategic strike on a rogue NSA facility to rescue one of our agents and his wife. I believe it was the same location where you arrested the boys with the cattle prod." The sergeant nodded, accepting the information as fact. He backed away from the door and nodded for the agent to enter. The sergeant's right hand gripped the pistol even tighter. The CIA agent moved slowly into the sergeant's home. The tightly held forty-five in the sergeant's hand did not go unnoticed by the agent as he instinctively held his hands up. Seeing the reaction, the sergeant relaxed slightly.

"Sorry for the weapon, but if you'd been through what I've been through, you'd react the same way." The CIA agent smiled and nodded. He slowly made his way over to the couch and sat down. The sergeant followed and sat in the chair opposite the couch.

"What can you tell me about Daniel Simon?" The sergeant quickly ran through all the memories of the boy and his friends and came to the quick conclusion that was already in his mind.

"He's an innocent caught up in a bunch of bureaucratic bullshit."

"That's kinda the same conclusion we came to, but it doesn't explain a lot of things he's been involved in." The sergeant raised an eyebrow. "There's a report from British Customs about him beating an agent almost to death. There's also a report about him being aboard a Concorde Jet that was stopped by the Air Force for allegedly having drugs aboard."

"That's a load of crap," the sergeant snorted.

"Then there's reports that he was involved in tampering with the computer controls at a damn that caused billons in damage and hundreds of deaths."

"That's another load of crap," the sergeant said indignantly.

"You seem pretty sure of yourself?"

"Look, I've been a detective for twenty-three years. During that time I've gotten pretty good at reading people. I've talked to a lot of Daniel's friends and I've talked to him too. He's a good kid who a rough go of it early on, but he's made something of himself. He doesn't need all this shit you Fed's are dumping on him." The agent eyed the sergeant for a moment, taking in what had been said as well as how it was said.

"The problem is, sergeant, something is going on. I think we can both agree on that?" The sergeant nodded. "And Daniel probably knows more about it than anyone else. The catch is that not once, but twice he's had a run in with government agencies. Now he's obviously trying to sort it out on his own. I think you'll agree that could be very dangerous. One of our agents was abducted by another group of rouge NSA agents." The sergeant sat straight up in his chair when he heard that news. "Our agent was taken because his son is currently with Daniel Simon."

"Someone needs to find Daniel and soon," the sergeant said.

"How'd you like to take a temporary assignment with the CIA?" Sergeant Brown chuckled. "I'm serious. You've had dealings with Daniel and perhaps he'd trust you over a bunch of suits with dark sunglasses."

"Faster! Can't you drive any faster?!?" Teri screamed at the cab driver, who had no idea what she was talking about. Timmy grinned at her. He reach into his wallet and pulled out a twenty. He leaned over the seat, handed the bill to the driver and pointed at his watch. He driver smiled and immediately shoved the accelerator to the floor. Teri stared at Timmy with her mouth open.

"Cash. It's the international language," he smirked. Teri smiled and shook her head. Less than five minutes later the cab screached to a hault. Teri and Timmy bailed out and found themselves in the middle of a sea of policemen. The quickly glanced around for their friends.

"There they are," Timmy called out. They ran over to the sidewalk and found Casey talking to a policeman. Dillon was down on the sidewalk with his arms wrapped around Daniel. Teri immediately ran to Daniel. Timmy walked over to Casey.

"Casey, how's Cody?" Casey looked up and forced a weak smiled for his friend.

"We don't know yet, mate. It didn't look too good when the ambulance left.," Casey said softly.

"How's Daniel?"

"Not too good. Dillon's been tryin' to get him calmed down, but he's so upset he hasn't been able to tell us anything." Some yelling from the apartment building's steps caught their attention. Two policemen were escorting the young boy they'd been chasing out in handcuffs. He was yelling at them in Czech, but his obvious protests were being ignored.

"Wait a minute!" Casey and Timmy whirled around and saw Daniel struggling to get up from the sidewalk. "Wait a minuite!" he yelled again. The police officer Casey had been talking to grabbed Daniel and held him back.

"Calm down young man," the officer said forcefully.

"Why are they arresting Remik?" Daniel asked.

"Because he shot your friend," the officer said. "Now you need to calm down and tell us exactly what happened."

"Remik didn't shoot Cody. Stan did. Remik shot Stan to save me," Daniel explained.

"Who's Stan?"

"He's the dead guy up in the hall."

"No one else was found upstairs. Just the boy over there. He had a gun. Your friend's been shot. Pretty open and shut case if you ask me," the officer said with confidence.

"Well, no one's asking you," Daniel smirked. "And what do you mean there's no one else upstairs?"

"I mean exactly what I say young man," the officer said sternly. "There's only three people involved in all this … the boy who was shot, the boy with the gun and you." Daniel couldn't believe his ears.

"Then where the hell is Stan?" he yelled.

"I'm not going to ask you to calm down again. Next time you yell, I'm putting handcuffs on you and hauling you to jail," the officer snarled. Teri quickly grabbed Daniel and pulled him off to the side.

"What the hell's going on, Daniel?" Casey and Timmy gathered around too.

"Cody and I followed Remik up to the third floor. We knocked on the door and Stan opened it."

"Oh my God."

"Yeah, and he had a gun. We traded insults then he just goes off and shoots Cody then slams the door in my face. A minute later I heard another gun shot. Then the door opens again and Stan falls out on the floor deader than a door nail. I looked back in the apartment and Remik is standing there with the gun. I called out to him, but he fainted. Now they can't find Stan."

"From the looks of things, Remik's going to jail," Casey said as he watched the police officers put the young boy in the back seat of a patrol car. Timmy spun around and spoke to the English speaking police officer.

"Excuse me, but who's in charge here?" he asked. The officer nodded toward a rather large man with gray hair dressed in a suit talking with two police officers. "Thanks." Timmy walked over to the man and waited until the man was finished speaking to the officers. As soon as he turned to head for the apartment building, Timmy interupted.

"Excuse me, but I've been told you're in charge," he said to the man politely. The portly gentlemen nodded to the officer Timmy had just spoken with. When the officer walked over the two men spoke in Czech for a moment then the officer turned to Timmy.

"Do you know what happened here?" the officer asked. Timmy nodded. The officer pulled out a note pad and pencil and took notes as Timmy told Daniel's story of what happened. The officer interpreted for the man in the suit. The two men spoke quietly among themselves for a moment and having reached an obvious agreement, the officer once more turned to Timmy.

"We'll be taking all of you to the police station for statements. If what you've said is true, then we have no choice but to release the young boy with the gun. No other body was found on the scene. All we can suggest is that he was merely wounded and walked away. We will be putting out a special notice to our officers and to the medical centers about the man and his injuries."

"Thank you. Could we possibly find out about Cody, the boy who was shot?"

"I'm afraid he died on the way to the hospital." Timmy looked over at Daniel. "At least that's what I heard on the radio. I'm sorry." Timmy's vision suddenly blurred as hot tears boiled up in his eyes and streamed down his face. He knew how much Daniel loved Cody. After everything Daniel had been though, this promised to be just about the worst. With a very heavy heart, Timmy walked toward Daniel with what seemed to be the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Across town at the hospital, a team of doctors and nurses were working frantically. Several bags of IV's hung above the table along with several bags of blood. A respirator could be heard as it made it's mechanical breathing noise. A heart monitor chirped steadily.

"We're going to need more blood, nurse," the doctor said. She nodded and turned to leave the room just as the heart monitor's chirps turned into a steady tone.

"Paddles!" the doctor yelled. A nurse handed him the defibrillator paddles. "Clear!" he said as he placed the paddles on the patient's chest. The patient arched his back off the table as the electricity hit his body. The heart monitor tone remained steady. "Clear!" Once again the patient's back arched off the table. "Eppy!" the doctor ordered. A nurse handed him a large syringe. After injecting it, the doctor made some manual compressions on the patient's chest. Almost two minutes had passed. "Paddles," the doctor said. For a third time, the doctor tried to get the patient's heart to beat. "Come on, kid. Don't give up." The doctor performed manual CPR for another minute.

"I think you've done all you can do, doctor," the head nurse said softly. He looked at her for a moment then looked down at the boy with the curly brown hair.

"Paddles," he said with resolve. The nurse looked at him for a moment. "Come on, paddles," he demanded. She handed them over. "Clear!" The heart monitor suddenly started chirping.

"Normal sinus rhythm, doctor."

"Call the police and see if anybody knows who this boy is."

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