"Your theories on how to fold space into a pocket dimension worked. It required tremendous amounts of power, but it worked." Nick was telling him. "Unfortunately when anything organic is placed inside, and the aperture is closed, it dies. Even single cell bacteria. We're not entirely sure why."

"Off the top of my head, I'd guess that with the artificial space, once the aperture is closed, time and space breakdown. There is a defined border to space.."

"And therefore a defined border to time." Nick smacked one fist into the opposite palm. "Yes, that makes sense. Time effectively comes to a stop inside the bubble, putting everything into a state of standstill and just because we reopen the aperture we’re not able to restore the motion on the space time curve. That's why all metabolic function completely halts." He paused and rubbed his chin a moment. "That means that the only way to keep matter alive inside, is to never entirely close the aperture."

"But does that still reduce the mass of what's inside and does a small aperture slow time within the bubble?" James countered.

"Yes, mass is reduced but we've seen no indication of any change in time. The mass is reduced by an almost perfect scale of one percent for an equal percentage of the initial opening size."

"So I'd still need a powerful type of strength augmentation to carry it.." James thought out loud.

"What?" Nick said bewildered.

"Nothing, my mind is just wandering."

Nick took James by the arm and pulled him to the side of the room away from the other scientists. "Don't bullshit me James. We're friends right. We've known each other for almost twenty years. I know how your brain works, you always have plans upon plans upon plans and you're cooking something up right now. And, it's not the next scientific breakthrough." He covered his face with his hand and then waved it about animatedly as he continued. "Eight of our best works have been stolen and destroyed by some impossible to catch thief in the night. Do you have anything to do with that?" He asked, planting his hands on his hips and looking James squarely in the eyes.

James hesitated a moment, then said "It's been a lot more than eight."

Nick threw his arms into the air and turned away with a loud "oh my god" that made everyone else in the room look over for a moment. Nick rested his head on the wall and beat his fist against it a few times. The rest of the room ignored them, familiar with Nick's exaggerated antics.

"I need to ask you a favor." James said quietly

Nick opened his eyes and turned his head just enough to be able to see James out of the corner of one eye.

"I know you won't spill because you want to see the bigger picture I'm working on, and I promise you will. I need you to make sure nobody is working late tonight, and that includes you."

"Tonight? You're killing me man." Nick turned around and leaned against the wall. "But I swear, if it isn't fabulously amazing and earth changing, I'll kill you myself. With these hands right here" he said, shaking his hands in front of him. "I'll wrap 'em around your neck and squeeze until the ideas stop." He finished by putting a finger in James's face and saying, "you better deliver."

"I've never let you down before." James said, squeezing Nick's shoulder.

*******

James sighed and said to the empty room. "Don't worry Nick." He returned to the terminal and the screen was blue, showing an error message in the corner. He checked the circuit board and found that the LEDs were all solid green. Pulling both the circuit board and flash drive from the computer terminal, he replaced them in the padded pocket, then twisting and pulling a small black box from the pocket on his opposite thigh, he crossed to the window. James pressed the box against the window and held it there. Once he was certain it was stuck fast he pressed the red button, four green number zeros lit up. He pressed the button under the first zero and it changed to a one. "Ten minutes" he said to himself.

He pulled the backpack off and changed his clothes into the same clothing, jeans and a polo shirt, he'd worn earlier that day, dropping the black garb under the box. He retrieved the circuit board and flash drive from the pants and secured them in the bag.

Finally, collected and ready to go, James pressed the red button twice and watched the timer start. He quickly made for the elevator, Iridal still tracking his motions and making sure the elevator was already on the floor with the door open when he arrived. Once inside he leaned against the wall and breathed a sigh as the elevator doors closed and he started down.

He was markedly surprised when the doors opened to the lobby and right in front of the elevator a big man with spiky bronze hair was arguing with one of the night guards. James was fortunate that Pete was distracted and walked between them, turning toward the guard and away from Pete he said "goodnight Marcus".

"Goodnight sir." The guard said absentmindedly before replying to the agent "I'm telling you, I've been watching the cameras all night, I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary." He entered the elevator and pressed the button for a floor and Pete followed him in.

James continued walking calmly towards the exit until he was stopped by a "Hey you". James reached up and discreetly pulled a small cord on the shoulder of his backpack then turned slowly. Pete was standing in the elevator door, one hand holding it open, the other hand resting on the gun strapped to his hip.

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James could hear the building whine coming from his backpack and saw the recognition in the big man’s eyes, made further evident when Pete said "it is you". The whine hit a crescendo just as Pete began to step out of the elevator. Quicker than Pete could react, James's hand whipped up towards him and a beam of blue light shot from the palm, striking the right side of Pete's chest. The big man left his feet as he shot backwards right into the guard behind him, the two collapsed to the floor as the elevator door closed. James took off running while the whine in his backpack died.

The moment after he was out the front door, he heard and felt the boom and windows above him blow out. He huddled against the wall of the building as glass rained down in front of him. After it stopped he ran down the street.

He hadn't made it two blocks when a white van passing by veered off the street and came up on the sidewalk only a few feet in front of him. Unable to stop his momentum he opted to go over the new obstacle. Leaping off the wall of the building to his side and sliding across the van's hood he almost made it all the way across but ultimately fell to the ground. He heard the van doors start to open, scrambled to his feet and took off, running around the next corner he saw. Changing down the ally he was brought up short by a high chain link fence across the alley.

He heard running footsteps and turned. Two men charged down the alley towards him, both with a gun in hand. James reached behind his back and pulled the gun he'd taken from Bobby out of the back of his pants and took a good look at the two men, his eyes shot wide open in shock. "I know you!" James exclaimed

*******

"Sir are you okay?" The guard asked, kneeling over Pete and looking worried.

Pete's face was beat red and his mind was racing. No he wasn't fucking okay, he couldn't fucking breathe. Slowly he began to weeze and his breath returned to normal. What the fuck was that, it was like getting kicked in the chest by a horse. He groaned and sat up with the help of the guard. Noticing a black spot on his shirt the size of a bowling ball, Pete felt his chest and found it incredibly sore but his hands came away without any blood and nothing felt broken.

A rumble shook the elevator hard and the guard fell on top of him, knocking them both to the floor. The elevator stopped moving and the doors opened. The building's fire alarm started to ring and the sprinklers began spraying water over them both.

With great effort, Pete climbed to his feet and made for the stairwell. "Make sure the building gets evacuated" he yelled to the guard over his shoulders without waiting to see if the guard even heard him.

He focused his attention on catching up to James and not on the pain in his chest or his shortness of breath. He pounded down the stairs and out into the lobby. Bursting out onto the street he looked both ways, saw Pop's van and took off for it. As he got close, he slowed and looked inside. Just as he confirmed that the van was empty a brief staccato of multiple guns firing at once came from somewhere up the street . Pinpointing the source he ran around the next corner and into the alley, what he saw brought him up short.

Pops was laying on the ground, Ronald knelt over him holding his hand over a spot of blood on the man's chest. He could see James running away down the alleyway on the other side of a fence. Pete ran over and knelt next to Pops, there was blood on the man's lips and he was staring at Ronald. He was trying to say something but couldn't get it out.

Pete brought his wrist to his mouth and said into the mic, "man down. We've got a man down. I repeat, man down. Pops is hurt really bad." He dropped his wrist and grabbed Pops's hand. "It'll be okay buddy, hang on." Pops never took his eyes from Ronald until he lost consciousness.

*********

Three hours later Gwen was standing in the hall just outside Pops's room in the ICU of Pittsburgh general hospital. Pops was in a coma and in critical condition. "What happened?" She asked, looking at the three men standing around her.

Bobby leaned on his crutches, his left leg from ankle to mid-thigh in a cast and he had several small cuts on his face. "I fell off a building and through a window."

Pete looked at Bobby angrily. "He beat us, he beat us good." Looking back at Gwen he continued, "We were not prepared for him. We should have been. But we were too full of ourselves to realize just what he was capable of."

"Sure he tries to make sure nobody gets seriously hurt, doctor told me that whatever it was he hit me with that did this" he gestured to the sling his right arm was in, then lifted his shirt and an angry dark purple bruise covered the entirety of the right side of his chest and around his side. "Whatever he used to do, this, to me; if he'd hit me on the left side of my chest, I'd be dead.

"As quick as he fired that at me, I am still damn sure he hit exactly where he meant too. He knew what would happen if he hit the other side of my chest and aimed like he did on purpose."

"He saved my life." Bobby chimed in. I held on to him and his weight pulled me over the edge, it wasn't his fault. But he held onto me, even dragged me up to a more secure grip. After we went through the window and I was bleeding out, he tied a tourniquet around my leg, and even stayed until security showed up to make sure I would be okay."

"Ya, then he used your gun to shoot Pops." Pete shouted back. "It just goes to show you that he is a criminal, and like any criminal, when cornered he will lash out just like an animal, no matter who gets hurt or how many. We saw what he could do first hand at the airport, but we saw that as a fluke, thought he got lucky. But what he did at the airport, and today, that wasn't luck.

"We thought we were ready for him because we knew basically what his plans were, so the three of us each staked out one of the buildings we thought he'd hit. But that wasn't enough, we didn't consider the amount or precision, calculation and ingenuity he puts into everything. We have dozens of case files going back for years on him and we never considered just what it took for him to remain a shadow as long as he did despite the high profile nature of his thefts. Gwen, we will be ready next time. I promise you that. He won't get away with what he did to Pops." Pete finished

Gwen looked back at him in contemplation for a moment, then at the door to Pops's room. Breathing a sigh she said "you're right about him and us, and that he won't get away with it, but you're wrong about their being a next time." The three men gasped. "Look at yourselves, you're all beat to hell. We're also too close to this now. Not only does he know every one of your faces, but none of us will be able to think with objective logic when we're in a desperate situation, such as looking down the barrel of a gun. Don't worry, he won't get away with this, I have an idea but I need to talk to Doug first." Before any of the three could respond she pulled her cell phone from her pocket, turned and walked down the hall leaving then standing there looking after her.