Justin glanced at his watch and then at his tablet. He'd driven himself insane refreshing the browser. Still nothing. They were on final approach, and Jason hadn't given him a thing. His brother wouldn't leave him hanging if she was alright, so there was something wrong. Of that he was certain.

"Sir, you need to power down the tablet in preparation for landing," the flight attendant casually commented on her way past.

He knew he needed to, but it seemed like he was severing an anchor rope. The freefall to the bottom of whatever was going on with Danielle could quite possibly end his life as he knew it. He jabbed the button and powered it down.

As soon as the wheels touched the tarmac, Justin powered up his phone. There were no missed calls or texts. His gut dropped. He made his way down the gateway and into the gate area before he dialed. He weaved through slower people and headed towards customs.

"Have you landed?"

"Yes, what the fuck is going on?" Justin ignored the irritated look a mom with two kids sent his way.

"Get through customs. Jared will meet you there. You're coming to D.C."

"Jason, tell me what is happening." Justin cut off a gaggle of school-age kids as he hooked right to get into line at customs.

"I can't go into it over the phone. For now, Danielle is alright. That's all I'll say over an unsecured line."

Justin murmured string of curse words, something he rarely did because he seldom felt this fucking useless. He presented his passport and customs declaration forms to the guard when he reached the head of the line. And yes, he snapped his answers to all the mandatory customs questions. The guard lifted an eyebrow at him and regarded him quietly. Justin drew a deep breath and let it out slowly before he apologized, "I'm sorry, I've received some bad news, I didn't mean to take it out on you." The guard nodded and looked again at his information and well-worn passport. He slid the magnetic stripe through his scanner and waited for the screen to clear. In reality, the act only took a few moments, but the inordinate amount of stress Justin was under made the simple task feel like it took hours.

Once he was cleared, he bolted out of the customs area and damn near fell over his brother Jared.

"Come on. We are heading to the other side of the airport. Guardian has a jet ready to go."

"What the fuck is going on, Jared?"

"Nothing I can tell you now. Let's go." Jared grabbed his elbow.

Justin stopped and jerked it out of his hold. "No! Fuck that. I want to know what is going on, right now. I have a right to know what is happening." Justin had reached the end of his rope. It had stretched all the way across the fucking Atlantic Ocean, and he was damned if it would go one inch further.

Jared grabbed him in a hug and pulled his ear close to his mouth and hissed, "She's been kidnapped. Stop wasting time. We need to get to D.C. and work this situation. Now find your balls, man up, and get your ass in gear."

Justin pulled away from his brother and glared at him. "Don't ever doubt I have enough balls to man up. Lead the fucking way."

* * *

The trip to D.C. and the drive to Guardian Headquarters was accomplished in stilted silence. Jared wouldn't share any information other than to say Guardian was working it, and he couldn't disclose sensitive information to people who weren't cleared. Justin's pissed off meter pegged in the molten lava zone on that comment. He had the clearance, but he couldn't fucking let his brother know because of the nature of his work with Guardian. Talk about a fucked-up mess. The only thing that kept him sane through the plane ride to D.C. and the time it took to process into Guardian's headquarters was that Jason would know he was cleared for the information. Jason would tell him what was going on. He'd said she was alright...for now. Fuck. Who would want to kidnap Danielle? There was no reason...except...her father was an arms manufacturer. Granted a legitimate one, but...

"Justin?" Jason's voice brought him out of his spiraling thoughts.

"Tell me what is going on," He demanded as he walked down the hallway toward his brother.

"I will. Come with me. Jared, you'll need to be brought into this." Jason headed down the hallway in front of them.

"Do you need Nic, too?"

"He's already in the theater."

Justin followed his brother through a maze of hallways until they entered a James Bond-esque type of room. The lights were low, and there were at least seven different screens flashing on the wall at the back of the theater. He walked down the steps. His brother Jacob and his wife Tori were at one huge console, their heads together whispering and motioning towards a screen. Jewell and her fiancé Zane were at another. Jade and Nic sat in the front row where Jared dropped down beside them. Jason motioned for Justin to take a seat. He shook his head and stood, arms crossed over his chest. He wanted answers, and he wanted them now. Nobody was going to dictate another fucking thing to him until he got them.

"Alright. This is a classified briefing at a Uniform Victor level." Jason's voice was loud and stopped all conversations. At Jason’s declaration, every head in the place snapped toward Justin. He threw his hands up in a frustrated gesture.

"Justin has Uniform Victor clearance. He's had it for longer than most of you have been in Guardian's service."

"Say what now?" Jade spoke the words that no doubt everyone was thinking.

"Justin's code name is The Magus."

"Holy fuck. You're the magician? The cat burglar?" Jade blurted.

Justin swiped his forehead. "Information Extraction Specialist." He put his hands on his hips and glared at Jason. "What the ever loving fuck is going on?"

"Jewell, bring up screen one."

Justin glanced up. His heart stopped, and his lungs constricted. There was a grainy video feed of Danielle. She was lying on her side on a concrete floor. "Is she..." Justin couldn't bring himself to ask the question.

"She's alive. They come in every so often and wake her up. She's obviously drugged."

"Where is she? Who the fuck did this?"

"That is what we are working out," Jared answered. "By the way, I'm pissed I didn't know you were a world class thief."

"Amen," Jade commented.

"Ditto," added Jacob.

He ground his teeth together. "I'm not particularly interested in what you're pissed about. Any of you. I followed orders the same way you have.” He threw his arm out and pointed at the screen. “What I do for this organization has nothing to do with what is happening now."

"Hey, Justin?"

He spun toward Jewell. “What?”

"I have some information I need to tell all of you. If you and Jason could sit down and stop yelling, I'll be able to walk you through it. I know you're hurting. I've been on this end when Zane was on the other end of that video feed. I know what you're feeling, but we need to work this issue, not indulge in a pissing contest."

Fuck me standing. He dropped his head and rubbed the back of his neck.

"We are the best at what we do, you included. Let's get this figured out and get your woman. Okay?" That came from Tori.

He nodded and dropped into the chair at the end of the row. Jason sat between him and Jared—his usual position—as he and Jared were always butting heads over something while they were growing up.

Jewell raised her eyebrows in a silent question and he nodded—once. "Okay. The feed is being routed through...oh, about a gabillion different IP addresses, and being bounced around the globe. They are good, but not good enough."

He watched as Zane put a hand on Jewell's shoulder. She glanced up and smiled softly. His heart felt as if it had been lanced. Danielle looked at him that way. His eyes darted up at the video feed. He torqued down on his jaw again. He needed to be part of the solution, not the problem. His hands shook, so he clasped them together and leaned forward placing his elbows on his knees and watching the floor. He focused on one point between his feet and listened.

"What is the location?" Tori's question followed on the heels of Jewell's announcement.

"Misrata Province."

"Libya?" Jacob's outcry echoed in the quiet room.

Justin tore his eyes from the floor and flicked his gaze to Jason. The man had assumed almost the same position as he had.

Jason closed his eyes for a moment and nodded. "Jacob, what teams do we have available?"

Jacob pivoted on his heel and called up a screen. All eyes read the easily deciphered information. Red dots by each team indicated none were available. All were currently engaged in active operations.

"Fuck." The whisper from Jason held more impact than a damn explosion. "Zane? What about your assets?"

Zane rubbed his chin and then shook his head. "I can recall Thanatos. Rescues aren't our strong suit."

"Damn it. I know that." Jason took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

Jacob cleared his throat before he spoke. "I may have a solution."

Every eye turned his direction. He glanced at Tori and shrugged. "The old Alpha team is all in town. We could go."

Tori blinked at him and then glanced at Justin. She dropped a hand to her husband's forearm and gave him a soft smile. "Alpha team hasn't been on a mission together for years."

"Granted, but we are damn good at what we do. We lived, ate, slept and breathed the same air for years. All of us have passed the PT requirements. We can get in and get her out."

"Ahh...boys…looks like there are some gnarly complications." Jewell stopped typing and looked up at the screen that flashed onto the wall.

"Is that a fucking moat?" Jared leaned forward as if proximity to the screen would bring the satellite picture into better resolution.

"Yes. This is the origin of the feed. They've masked the hell out of it, but this is where that video is coming from."

Soft mutterings of “shit”, “fuck” and “damn” trailed off into silence. He gazed at the screen in sick disbelief. All his adult life, he’d pursued actions that made brave men turn and walk away. He did it because he craved overcoming the hit of sheer terror that accompanied any threat of death; he was addicted to the adrenaline spiking through his veins as surely as any heroine addict to his crack. He fed on knowing he could master the panic and threat and still perform with precision—he could outwit death. But this? Some monster abducting Danielle for God only knew what reason? He’d been struggling to get his mind right—do what he’d always done: use the fear to sharpen his wits and performance. He couldn’t. For the first time in his life, he couldn’t do anything but lock the emotions down and not feel anything. If he didn’t, horror would paralyze him. It wasn’t a threat to him that brought him to his knees and made him cry for help. It was the death threat to her. His eyes scanned the room and settled briefly on each brother and sister in that room—each of them assembled and ready to move heaven and earth for him, for Danielle. Thank God for his family. When Danielle got home safely—he couldn’t contemplate any other outcome and remain sane—he had some fences to mend.

"Tori, we need intel on that compound. Get with your counterparts and get us some answers. Jacob, call in your team." Jason stood and motioned to Justin. "Let’s go to my office. I'll fill you in on the kidnapper’s demands and why this situation went from a simple kidnapping to an operation monitored at the POTUS level."

"POTUS?" He lifted from his seat and echoed the word. "Her father."

Jason stopped and nodded. "Paul Greenfield received the ransom demand five minutes before you left your voice mail. I sent Ross Stapleton from the New York Office over to make contact with him. Greenfield was huddled with his security team trying to figure out the best course of action. We took that out of his hands. He's waiting in one of the conference rooms."

"What do they want?"

"A new prototype weapon."

Jared, Nic, and Jade had followed them out of the door and trailed as they walked down the hallway.

"What kind of weapon?"

Justin twisted so he could see Jared, who’d begun to answer his question.

"It is a variation on the Thunder Generator. That weapon concentrates energy into a shockwave which can incapacitate a crowd of demonstrators. But Phoenix Armament has used microtechnology to make the weapon shoulder-carried, not much heavier than a grenade launcher."

"They want a crowd dispersal weapon?" he stopped in the middle of the hall, but Jared kept his mouth closed and leveled a look toward Jason.

Jason glanced both ways to make sure there was no one else was listening and shook his head. "No, the shockwave has been concentrated. It kills. Effectively, at extreme distances and the barrel is flexible. It can be fired from around the corner with 99% accuracy. There is no need for ammunition. The weapon is a sniper's dream. The Daesh, the group we think is holding Danielle, is a terrorist group that operates out of the Mistrata Province. I'll know for a fact as soon as Tori and Jewell finish the background.”

"Terrorists." He rubbed the back of his neck. Fucking terrorists had taken her.

"That is my belief. We will work a plan, and we will do everything within our power to get Danielle back. Alive." Jason dropped a hand on his shoulder. "I promise you, we won't stop until we have her back. Now let’s go talk to her father, get the intel we need and make a plan."