Gwen woke up at five twenty A.M., ten minutes before her alarm was set to go off. She preemptively turned it off and dressed. Downstairs she encountered Julia sitting at the table sipping a cup of coffee. “oh, good morning Julia".

“Morning Aunt Gwen, there's a pot of coffee on the counter if you want some. The others are still sleeping.”

“I'm ok, but thank you. I got away from caffeine a long time ago. You're up early.”

“I know, I just couldn't sleep. Aunt Gwen, I understand now why my mother got so mad at you when I joined the special forces branch of the Marines.” Julia looked up at Gwen. “She begged me not to join the military, and when I did it anyway she begged me to take a desk job.”

Gwen took a deep breath, “My sister was the biggest worry wart I've ever known. She worried enough for the whole family. She told me off when you joined the marines, telling me that I put ideas into your head.”

“I wouldn't say that, but you did inspire me. I've been in more battles than I can count. Been under fire and behind a knife as many, if not more times now, than when I was a marine. I've been angry and terrified and I've wanted to give up, but then I think of you, it gives me the strength to press on. I just ask myself what would you do, and the answer is always ‘Kick Ass’". Julia giggled at that

Gwen was surprised. “I never knew you felt that way.”

“It's true Aunt Gwen, you've been my hero since I was a little girl.”

Gwen blushed and said “I'm just a normal person, I'm no hero. But, I do have to go. The mystery man I told you about last night; well he is flying into Baltimore this afternoon.” Gwen plucked an apple from the bowl on the table and stood.

“Aunt Gwen?”

Julia's tone stopped Gwen and she sat back down. “Yes dear?”

Julia dropped her head so it was only a few inches above the table and clasped both hands behind her head as she leaned on her elbows. “Have you ever been in a situation where you were in over your head and you nearly lost it?” She took a deep breath and looked up with red rimmed eyes.

Gwen opened her mouth to say something. Her mind flashing to the many times that had brought her to the tipping point and many times she was pushed over it. Gwen closed her mouth, got up and knelt down next to her niece, wrapping her arms around the girl. “Tell me what happened.”

Julia buried her face in Gwen's shoulder and began to sob. “I can still feel their hands all over me” she gasped between breaths. “If it wasn't for DJ I would have lost it. I would have” Gwen felt her squeeze tight. “I was just a piece of meat to them, I wasn't even human.”

Gwen gently pushed the girl to arms length and gently took the girl's face between her hands, wiping away a tear with her thumb. “Look at me Julia”. After they locked eyes she continued. “What happened wasn't your fault.”

Julia exploded. “Yes it was. It was my improvisation. My idea. I made the decision that put me in that car and when I did it I was disobeying orders. It was my fault.” Julia's head fell and she began crying again.

“No! No god damn it. It wasn't your fucking fault. It was the fault of the men in that car.” Gwen said just as loudly. She took a breath and was about to say more when she heard a creak. Her eyes snapped up and she saw Dela looking back at her. Gwen put a finger to her lips and pointed up. Dela nodded and went back upstairs. “Julia, there is no magic pill to fix this; no way to make it go away and no way to prevent it from happening again. Not even quitting. We're women and we're human, even me. We all have low moments. I know that doesn't help. But time might. Why don't you get some sleep.”Gwen stood and taking Julia by the hand dragged her upstairs to the bedroom.

After being tucked into bed Julia caught Gwen's hand, “Good luck today Aunt Gwen.” Gwen kissed her on the forehead and left the room, closing the door behind her. Julia never heard the urgent whispered conversation in the hallway.

*****************

Three hours later Gwen was sitting at her new desk looking through a window into the new CCI office. It had 4 desks in a square pattern facing two large monitors against one wall. Bobby's desk was empty because he was sitting directly across from her but the other three were working diligently.

“Bobby, get your feet off my desk” Gwen said without turning her head.

“Sorry boss.” Bobby dropped his feet and stood, stretched

“You know, you've got a real problem.”

“I know.” then said “I'll head over to the airport. Detective Williams will be arriving soon.”

“Williams?” Gwen turned and looked at him. “He's coming here?”

“Once we got that hit on Malaki I figured this would be the best opportunity to get Williams to ID him.” he stood and yawned.

“That's good Bobby. Good thinking.”

“He's flying into the same airport as Malaki only about two hours earlier.”

“I'll ride with you.” She stood and as the two left her office and entered the main room she addressed the other three. “I want all three of you to prep the van and meet us up there. Pops I want you to focus on Malaki’s movements in Chicago. He bought a one way ticket; we need to discover whether he’s coming home or visiting Baltimore. It might be just another stop. When we get there I’ll take Detective Williams with me to TSA HQ. Bobby, Pete and Ronald, the three of you will set up surveillance checkpoints. Bobby, you’ll be in the car, if he leaves, follow. Pete, you’re in the concourse and Ronald I want you at baggage claim. I want all of you to be ready. If Williams can give us a positive ID, move in and arrest him, otherwise I want you all to be invisible. Just follow and monitor, we’ll see where he goes and what he does. Alright, move out.”

**************************

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Williams squinted at the monitor. “I don’t know. I mean it could be him. I just can’t tell.” He thought for a moment and added. “Maybe if I went down there and talked to him for a moment I’d be able to see him better, hear his voice or something.”

Gwen’s brain went into overdrive. She tried to imagine all the possible outcomes of what could happen if Malaki recognised Williams. “It’s too dangerous, we can’t risk it.” Gwen watched the man. He was tall and handsome. Late twenties, maybe early thirties. He had a small black goatee that matched the color of his hair. Black slacks with a blue collared polo shirt and what looked like a phone holster on his hip. All things considered, he looked ordinary, very ordinary. As she stared at him Gwen realized his appearance was carefully and implicitly designed to be forgettable and to blend into the crowds. Right now he was sitting at gate B5, the same gate on concourse B he’d flown into. The bank of chairs he was at were against the window overlooking the flight line. He was reading the local newspaper and sipping at a cup of coffee he’d purchased with cash from a shop next to the sitting area. Pete was one section up and six seats to the left flipping through a magazine. A family of German tourists were sitting in the area and a dark skinned man sat against the wall, eyes closed snoring.

“There isn’t another flight due into that gate for another five hours. Maybe he’s waiting for someone?” Captain Bradshaw suggested.

Gwen looked over at the head of the airport’s TSA. “I’m not sure, he’s been just sitting there for the past half hour. If he was waiting on someone, I’d expect him to have moved to whatever gate they would come in on, or to the terminal.” Gwen brought her wrist to her mouth and said “Pete, get up and go into the bathroom.”

They watched as Pete closed the magazine, dropped it into his seat and went into the bathroom directly across from the concourse. Malaki hadn’t once looked at Pete, hadn’t even looked up from his paper since sitting down but the moment Pete was out of sight he was on his feet. He dropped the paper and the cup into the trash and blended into the crowd as he moved towards the terminal.

“Clever bastard,” Williams said.

“Pete, we’re made, follow him. Ronald and Bobby I want you to keep your eyes open, he’s on the move, headed for the security checkpoint.”

Pete exploded out of the bathroom and began to run down the concourse to catch up only to find Malaki leaning against a wall with his arms crossed not sixty feet away and Pete slowed. He was looking straight at Pete and they locked eyes. The man nodded to himself and looked briefly up at a security camera before letting out a sigh. Turning, Malaki began moving quickly away.

“Fuck” Pete said into his mic as he chased after at a quick jog. “He totally got me, figured out you’re behind the camera too. This guy is good.” Pete huffed as he weaved through the crowds in pursuit.

Gwen watched as Malaki slowed to a brisk walk as he turned the corner into the security checkpoint and moved past it innocuously.

“Do you want me to alert security?” Bradshaw asked

“No, we don’t have enough to arrest him. We want to follow him. Tell all of your staff and security to ignore him, and to let him and my agents through any checkpoints.” She raised her wrist to her mouth again and said ”Pops, get online and get ready to tag a vehicle for visual satellite tracking.”

“I’m on it boss.” Pops said, his indian accent coming through her earpiece.

Through the checkpoint and out of sight, Malaki began to run again. By now Pete was right on top of him and a distance of only ten feet separated them as the two barreled through the crowds and made for the terminal. They rounded another corner and Malaki leaped into the air planting a foot on a railing and dropping over it. Pete slammed into the wall coming to an abrupt halt and saw Malaki land on the sloped railing of an escalator eight feet below him before flipping forward off of it and dropping another fifteen feet to the hard ground below. Holding his breath Pete stared as the man landed and rolled forward onto his feet and took off running. “Fuck that” Pete said to himself before shouting into his mic. “Who the fuck is this guy.” He made his way around the mezzanine to the escalators talking into his mic “Ronald, heads up, he’s headed your way, I lost sight of him.” Pete pounded down the escalators shouting “move, move, move” to the people in his way.

Gwen and Williams watched Malaki’s jump slack jawed over the monitor, as Captain Bradshaw hung up the phone.

Malaki had apparently noticed the TSA staff wasn’t raising an alarm and made for the baggage claim. He turned the corner into the area and slowed walking briskly. Ronald, seeing him, stood and began moving towards him while looking at a far off moving baggage carousel in the same direction.

Malaki saw through the deception and took off. Ronald was right behind him as he ran out the building and across Friendship Road just outside the terminal, narrowly dodging a passing taxi. Malaki entered the parking garage and made straight for the stairs. “He’s in the parking garage, we're coming out on the top level.” Ronald panted as he spoke into his wrist mic.

“Bobby and I see him” Pops said into his mic before turning to Bobby and saying “go, i’ll follow if he gets in a car.”

Ronald stopped and bent over panting in apparent exhaustion as Bobby ran past him “Com’n we can’t lose him.” Bobby said

Ronald began running again. “Is he an olympic runner or something? He’s so fast and he’s not slowing down.” Ronald said, following after.

“I know right?” Pete said over the com

“Cut the chatter, don’t lose him.” Gwen ordered

Malaki entered Skybridge D and headed back into the terminal on the far side of the airport from where he’d landed. “Pete” Gwen said “He’s headed back into the building. Concourse D, top floor.”

“I’m on it” Pete said and began running again.

The security didn’t stop Malaki, Bobby or Ronald as they ran past the checkpoint. Bobby was forty feet behind Malaki and Ronald had fallen behind as Pete rounded a corner and caught up to the group. Malaki was still pulling ahead and the three were struggling to keep up with him as thay ran down concourse D. Nearing the end they rounded a corner and came up short. Malaki was nowhere in sight.

“He went through gate D35” Gwen’s said over the com and all 3 made for the door. Bobby opened it and clung to the handle as he swung out over empty space, nearly falling to the ground far below. The others came up short and almost tumbled out the door themselves.

“Holy shit”, Bobby said hanging from the door handle. “Pull me up, pull me up”. It took the combined effort of all three exhausted agents to pull him back up top and they collapsed on the floor. “There he is,” Bobby said, pointing at an SUV with the word Security painted all over it as it tore across the flightline heading for the private plane section of the airport and the long term parking lot. As they watched the SUV pulled up next to the fence separating the flightline from the long term parking lot. Malaki got out of the car, climbed on top of it and jumped over the electrified fence vanishing from sight. “I’m sorry Boss, we lost him. He just jumped the fence into the long term parking lot”

The three sat there for a long moment in silence, breathing hard when Pete said “Fuck that guy” out of the blue.

Bobby leaned over and looked down at the ground. “How’d he even get down there?”

“Fucker probably jumped,” Pete said leaning against the wall, chest heaving.

“No way, that's got to be a thirty, thirty five foot drop.” Bobby said looking around

“That ass hole is fucking superman in my book. While I was chasing him, the dude made a jump over a railing at a dead run. He dropped ten feet onto the railing of a moving escalator and did a flip. He did a fucking flip and fell another fifteen feet, rolled, got up and kept right on running like it was nothing. Fuck that guy”

“No, there is a long piece of rubber stripping on the ground down there, looks like it’s missing from the door here, he must have used it to lower himself part way down and dropped the rest of the way.” Bobby said leaning back on his hands

“Like I said, Fuck him” Pete said

Ronald said nothing as he sat with the other two breathing almost as hard, his eyes were fixed on something on the flightline at the private plane terminal next to the long term parking lot.

“Boss, we’re coming back.” Bobby said, standing and pulling Pete to his feet.