FX: the Series does not belong to me. It and the characters
belong to Rysher, Fireworks, Winterset, Hallmark. This is for fun
with no profit involved.
Returning The Favor
by
Deborah
Rollie stepped out of the VR chamber and sighed. Normally, a visit 'home' took care of his feelings of homesickness. But for some reason, since the day before yesterday, they had been unusually strong. Tyler FX had finished their most recent movie a few days ago. It hadn't been particularly difficult, but it had been very challenging technically. Both Rollie and Angie had won high praise from the director and production staff for their work. In fact, everyone involved with the shoot had received a bonus for helping bring it in ahead of schedule and under budget. Angie had decided to use her bonus to visit a friend from college who was getting married. Maybe that's why I feel so off center, Rollie thought to himself. Angie's away and we're between movies. Haven't heard anything from Leo for the past few days either, Rollie added glumly. Of course, Leo had botched up the timing of his last visit.
That had been when they were in the final frenetic days of finishing the shoot and Angie had been less than pleased that Leo wanted Rollie's help. For once, Rollie had sided with Angie and they had finished the shoot in grand style. But it had now been over a week since Rollie had seen Leo and he supposed that Leo was mad at him and didn't want to see him. Rollie headed downstairs. He was going to call Leo and see if he wanted to get together. Rollie made it half way to his desk when the phone rang.
Picking it up, he said "Hello, Tyler FX."
"Rollie! How ya doin'?"
A big grin spread across Rollie's face.
"Leo! I was just thinking about you, mate! Haven't seen you in a while. What've you been up to?"
"Ah, you know, this and that. Listen, I was wondering if you'd like to go get a beer. I'm buying."
"Leo, you want something from me. You never offer to buy unless you want something."
"Yeah, what I want is a drink with my friend, what I want is a break from this case, what I want is the captain off my back, what I want..."
"Ok, ok, Leo, calm down" Rollie interrupted, unable to keep the smile out of his voice. "No worries, mate. I'll meet you at that Irish place in about half an hour, ok?"
Rollie grinned as he put the phone down. He knew that Leo would try somehow or other to rope him into his current case, but that didn't bother him. It was a couple of days before Angie was due back and a few more days after that before their next movie was due to start. Maybe a little time with Leo would help him shake off this mood he had been in for the past couple of days.
Rollie put on a light jacket and stepped outside, telling Blue to lock up as he did so. It was a beautiful spring day and Rollie decided to walk the 10 or so blocks to the bar. He felt like having a drink and he didn't want to drive home afterwards. About 3/4 of the way to the bar, Rollie crossed a small side street, little more than an alley really, and glanced down it. He stopped dead in his tracks. There, standing in the middle of the street was a yellow dog that looked for all the world like a dingo or at least half dingo. Rollie recognized it instantly and turned to walk toward it. The dog stood a little over 2 feet tall, was a soft yellow color, had a white stripe down its nose and its left front paw was white. Rollie stopped a few feet away and looked at the dog as it looked back. The expression on the dog's face gave Rollie a funny, unsettled feeling. Then, as he watched, the dog turned and trotted behind some garbage bins. When Rollie followed, the dog was nowhere to be seen. Rollie looked around, confused. There was no place the dog could have gone, but it wasn't there. Rollie shivered then as the funny feeling took hold again. He shook himself to get rid of it, turned and continued on to the bar.
Leo was waiting for him in the bar with two beers on the table. Rollie sat down, grabbed one and downed half of it before setting it back on the table.
"You know, Rollie, when I said I was buying, I didn't mean I'd buy a keg."
Totally ignoring Leo's comment, Rollie stared off into the distance.
"Strangest thing happened on the way here, Leo. I saw this dog in an alleyway, I could swear it was a dingo, or at least part dingo. But when I went up to it, it just disappeared. I don't know where it could have gone or how it got out of there without me seeing it. Strange."
Rollie was looking very pensively at his beer as he talked. He then abruptly finished it off and ordered another one.
"Yeah, well, you oughtta get a load of this case I'm working on. Two days ago, a young woman, Karina Murray, was kidnapped. Name ring any bells?"
Rollie shook his head. "Can't say that it does. Why?"
"She's the daughter of the Australian ambassador to the UN, Robert Murray"
Rollie looked up, startled, as the funny, unsettled feeling crept back over him. Leo noticed the strange look on Rollie's face, but didn't say anything.
"When did you say she was kidnapped?"
"Day before yesterday" Leo replied taking a drink of his beer. "Why?"
"Oh, nothing" Rollie mumbled, then asked "What are they after - money?"
Leo started to look a little uncomfortable.
"Actually, there's a collection of Aboriginal jewel works, mostly opals from what I understand, that's been on display at the embassy. It's that that they want. The ambassador figures at least one of the kidnappers, and we don't know how many of them there are, worked at the embassy and saw the collection and figured, rightly, that it was worth a lot of money. Enough to take the risk of kidnapping someone to get it."
Rollie looked at Leo shrewdly. "You're not telling me this to pass the time, friends chit-chatting over a couple of beers. You want me to help you, Leo, so spit it out. I'm not going to guess what it is."
But the grin that tugged at the corners of his mouth softened his words. Leo cleared his throat and plunged in.
"I was thinkin' maybe, if you wanted, you could make copies of the jewels. You know, like you did with that group that called themselves the Brotherhood." Rollie nodded, remembering that escapade. "Maybe put a tracker or somethin' in with the fake jewels so we could follow 'em to Karina Murray. She doesn't deserve to have this happen to her all because some guys decide to take a short cut to gettin' rich." Leo finished with more than a trace of anger in his voice.
Rollie sighed, "Look Leo, before I even THOUGHT about doing anything, I'd have to see the jewels AND talk to the ambassador. He may not want me involved in any of this."
"Sure, Rollie, sure." Leo was looking relieved and was already kicking into a higher gear. "And you would only be involved in following the kidnappers anyway, not apprehending them or anything. There wouldn't be any chance of you getting hurt or caught in the middle of anything."
Rollie almost laughed at Leo's reassurances. But he found himself thinking of Angie as well. She would not take kindly to him helping Leo and getting hurt in the process.
"Oh, Rollie? One other thing. They're to have the jewels by tomorrow night or they'll kill Karina."
Leo had no trouble setting up an appointment with the ambassador. They met at the ambassador's residence and Rollie noted the flurry of activity, the tense atmosphere, both more than normal for daily operations. Robert Murray, the Australian ambassador, was a tall, thin man with dark hair and eyes. Rather unremarkable looking Rollie thought, but then he noticed that Murray's eyes missed nothing that went on around him. A perceptive, intelligent man, well suited to dealing with a multitude of foreign governments and cultures. He approached Leo and shook his hand.
"Ah, Detective McCarthy. Wish I could say it's good to see you again, but you understand, under the circumstances...." his voice trailed off but then picked up again. "I do appreciate that you've managed to keep this local, the note did say no involvement of FBI or my daughter would be killed immediately." Murray looked like he was holding up well, considering the situation, but Rollie could hear the trembling, the emotional exhaustion in his voice.
"It wasn't easy, my captain wasn't at all pleased. But he agreed provided we keep him informed of every step. Mr. Ambassador, this is my friend I told you about earlier, Rollie Tyler. I think he may be able to help us."
Murray turned an appraising gaze on Rollie, then held out his hand.
"Det. McCarthy has told me a few things about you, Mr. Tyler. It seems you lead a most interesting life. And you're also Australian, I understand?"
"Yes sir, I am. And the name's Rollie. I'm afraid I might not respond if you call me Mr. Tyler."
Murray laughed, a pleasant, deep laugh. "Very well, Rollie. Det. McCarthy mentioned something about making copies of the jewels and giving those to the kidnappers. Let me show them to you."
He led them over to a desk and opened a large box. Inside were some of the largest, most exquisite opals Rollie had ever seen. The range of colors, sizes, shapes and Aboriginal settings truly made the collection one of a kind. Rollie looked up at Leo in dismay.
"There are so many here! I could never make copies of all these by tomorrow night!"
Murray spoke up quickly. "We think one of the kidnappers was a maintenance man who worked here. At least he hasn't shown up for work for the past 2 days. All the jewels were never on display at the same time so he doesn't know just how many there are. I would guess he never saw more than half of them."
Rollie started to protest, "But, still..."
The ambassador turned to the mantle along one wall and picked up a picture. He handed it to Rollie.
"This is Karina, my daughter. Her 21st birthday is next month. If there's any way you can help me get her back..." He stopped as the catch in his voice became too much for him to continue.
Rollie looked at the picture. It showed a laughing girl with long brown hair and mischievous hazel eyes. Try as he might, he could not stop the memories from returning. Memories of another girl, who looked very much like this one. A girl he'd known so very long ago. A girl who had not made it to her 21st birthday.
"Rollie?"
Rollie dragged his eyes from the picture to see both Leo and Murray looking at him with some concern. Leo especially wondered at the reason behind the haunted look on his friend's face.
"You ok, Rollie?" he asked.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine" Rollie said thickly, handing the picture back to Murray. "If you'll pick out which jewels you want copied, I'll get started on them right away."
Murray looked a bit startled at the sudden change in attitude, but he quickly gathered about half of the jewels together, put them in a case and handed it to Rollie.
Leo stepped in. "We'll have the copies and the real ones back here by 10:00 tomorrow night. The exchange is to take place at midnight. Ok?" He got confirming nods from both Rollie and Murray. He and Rollie then took their leave and headed outside.
As they approached Leo's car, Rollie stopped short and looked to his left. There, by the ambassador's car, sat the yellow dog. As Rollie looked at him, he shivered slightly.
"Rollie, are you sure you're ok?" Leo asked, the concern evident in his voice.
"Yeah, it's just that the dog I told you about earlier is here."
Leo looked in the direction Rollie was looking and said "Where is he?"
Rollie turned to him. "You don't see him? He's right over..." As he turned back, the dog was gone. Rollie stared in silence for a few moments. Then Leo put his hand on Rollie's shoulder.
"Well, wherever he is, he's not here now... I guess." The last bit was added very softly. "Come on, I'll drive you home and we can get started."
Rollie climbed into Leo's car without another word and was silent the whole way back to the loft.
Karina looked around the warehouse again. Within her range of vision, she knew every corner of it and shape in it. She had either been tied up on an old mattress or tied to a chair for the past two days. The only time she wasn't tied up was when one of them took her to relieve herself. She quickly got over being embarrassed and just did her business. The only time they ever talked to her was to tell her that the ambassador, her father, had better give them what they wanted or she was dead. They told her that a lot. She shivered in the dank, musty air. She knew her father would give anything to get her back and she tried to be brave, but she was afraid they would kill her anyway. She heard them talking when they thought she was asleep but they weren't too careful when she was awake either. She knew about the bombs they had planted in different parts of the warehouse and she watched as they assembled one more.
"Naw, Stewart! You can't do it that way. It's gotta go thataway!" sputtered Jimmy Griffin in a high-pitched voice. He was on the small side with dark hair and skin and eyes that shifted about constantly, never still. His hands were never still either, usually playing with the long-bladed knife that was always with him, so much so that it seemed a part of him.
"Shut up, Jimmy! I'm doing this and I know how it goes!" Stewart snapped back at him. Stewart Burley was of average height, but strong build with thick arms. His blond hair hung down in his face as he put the last pieces together. "There!" he said with smug self-satisfaction, "Told you that was the way it went."
"Hee-hee" Jimmy laughed nervously as he glanced over at Karina. "Yeah, that's the way it went... went... gone... gone... boom. Hee-hee."
Karina sat and shivered again.
Part Two
Rollie leaned back and rubbed his neck. No, he needed more than that. He stood and stretched, working kinks out of muscles used too hard and too long. He yawned and rubbed his eyes. Glancing at the clock, he could see why he was so tired. It was 3 am and he had been working on the jewel pieces for 6 straight hours. After Leo drove him home, he had stuck around and tried to help Rollie set up the equipment, tried to help him in copying the many pieces. But Leo just didn't know how the program worked and despite his desire to help, had ended up getting in the way. Rollie had finally persuaded him to go home around 9:00 and had taken it from there. Not for the first time that night, Rollie wished Angie was there. Not just for her expertise with the program, not just because the work would have gone faster, but more for her company. If she had been there, not only the work but the time would have gone faster as well. Rollie stretched again, feeling joints crack. Well, Angie wasn't here and he had to get this done. But a little break wouldn't hurt.
He walked over to the closet and pulled out his didgeridoo. He didn't even realize he had done it until he sat down on the couch and looked at it in his hands. Now why had he gotten that out? It had been months since he'd played it. Almost without thinking, Rollie put it to his mouth. The eerie, deep, reverberating music began to fill the loft. All the homesick feelings he had been experiencing lately poured out of him and into the instrument. The sound rose and fell and went on and on. Rollie closed his eyes and he was back on the dry plains of the outback with Mangela and the People. A couple of others were playing didgeridoos, some were keeping time on other instruments, several were dancing. Rollie could see Mangela performing one of the ritual dances within the circle of light from the bonfire. Somewhere in the distance, a dingo howled. Rollie held the image for several moments before letting it fade. As he stopped playing, he realized the dingo howl wasn't only from his image of home. It was outside!
Rollie stood and went to the front door. Opening it, he stepped outside and listened. The howling had stopped. Had stopped almost as soon as he stopped playing, he realized now. He looked across the open space in front of the old brewery and saw the yellow dog sitting on its haunches. Its mouth was open and its tongue was hanging out, almost as if it was laughing. Rollie walked halfway across the open space and stopped.
"What are you doing here, pretty boy?" he crooned softly.
The dog stood and whined. He paced back and forth,
looked at Rollie and whined again. He was clearly 'talking'
to Rollie. The funny feeling he had earlier in the day
returned and Rollie felt shivers run up his spine as he realized
the dog wanted, needed his help. How had he known
that? Rollie shook off the feeling and said to himself
'This is ridiculous. It's just a stray that didn't like my
music.' As he finished the thought, the dog stopped pacing,
gave him a long look, then turned and trotted away. Rollie
didn't have any better luck explaining the empty feeling that
came with the dog's departure.
By the next evening, the copies of the jewel pieces sat finished and ready to go. Rollie checked out the case the ambassador had given him. He had already fitted it with a tracking device and soon the jewels would be inside as well. The ambassador would make the drop and Rollie and Leo would follow in the F/X van tracking the fake jewels. Rollie was tired, but he knew Leo would be there soon. He thought of Karina, alone with whoever had taken her, whoever had turned her life upside down. It was going to be another long night, another night without sleep, but as long as it wasn't her last night, Rollie was satisfied.
When Leo arrived, he looked at Rollie and said gently, "I see you didn't get any sleep last night."
Rollie smiled back at him. "Doesn't look like you got much, either."
"Yeah, well, you can imagine VanDuran is pretty up tight about this case. If we blow it and lose the girl and it gets out we didn't call in any outside help... well, it would make his career a mite shorter than he had planned."
"Not to mention yours, mate."
"Ah, yes, I wasn't actually going to mention that."
They both laughed a moment releasing the tension. Then they got down to business. Leo walked over to where the jewel pieces lay on the table. Both sets lay there.
"Uh, Rollie?" he asked softly, "which are the real jewels?"
Rollie walked up. "They're... the ones on the... left." Then he walked around to the other side of the table. "On the left?" He looked up uncertainly at Leo.
Leo's eyes widened and he started to panic. "Oh, Christ! VanDuran's going to kill me!"
Then he stopped as he saw the grin Rollie couldn't quite hide.
"Just how long were you going to let me go on thinking that I was dead meat?"
"Oh..." then Rollie ducked the towel that Leo sent flying his way. "Sorry, Leo. Just couldn't resist." The grin was now plastered all over Rollie's face.
"Right" Leo harrumphed. "Let's get the copies into the case with the tracker and get this show on the road, ok?" Still mumbling and grumbling about a lack of respect and an unfair world, Leo walked away from the table, leaving Rollie still grinning.
Leo drove in his unmarked police car with Rollie following in the van over to the ambassador's residence. The real jewels were safely returned to their secure place and the three of them discussed how the drop would go. The ambassador would drive his car to the designated drop point. Rollie and Leo would follow in the van, tracking the jewels. The kidnappers had demanded that the jewels be dropped and the ambassador leave. They would retrieve them and release Karina later, after they were safely away. Leo didn't think they had any intention of releasing her and intended to follow them, not only to rescue the girl, but to arrest the hoodlums who would dare do this on HIS turf! VanDuran and Francis would pick up the ambassador and follow them from Rollie's directions given over the head sets they would be wearing.
It was a reasonable plan and reasonably simple and Rollie was reasonably sure it would go off without any problems.
Rollie and Leo sat in the van monitoring the position of the tracker. They had followed Murray to the drop point. He had set down the case containing the jewels and quickly walked away. They waited patiently, knowing the kidnappers would check the area to be sure there were no cops around before going in and grabbing the case. The van sat a quarter mile away down a side street so there was no way for them to be spotted. Rollie paced restlessly from the monitor to the front of the van.
"Relax, Rollie. They'll get here when they get here. You pacing around like a caged tiger won't make it happen any faster."
"I know, Leo, I know. It's just that I hate waiting when I know something is going to happen. I want it to happen and be done with it! It's the same with the effects, especially the complicated ones. I get all tense inside wondering if there's anything I've forgotten or not done right."
"Relax, Rollie. You haven't forgotten anything and you did everything right." Leo's soothing reassurances did little to calm Rollie down. His next statement had exactly the opposite effect.
"Tracker's moving!"
Instantly, Rollie was behind the wheel and had the van moving as Leo gave him directions. The route was a convoluted one, also designed to identify pursuit. These guys were no dummies. Rollie carefully kept the van at a distance.
Jimmy and Stewart said little as they sat in the car, driving the zig zag route away from the drop point and back to the warehouse.
"Hey, Jimmy, what are you doing with that thing?" Stewart asked, the annoyance clear in his voice.
"Just checkin' to make sure we got all the stuff I saw at the embassy. Wouldn't want them to short change us. Somethin' bad might happen." He laughed at his own joke, the joke that would be on the cops, on the rich foreigners, on the ones who thought they were better and smarter than Jimmy Griffin. Yeah, he would have the last laugh.
"Hello?" Jimmy said in surprise. "What do we have here?"
Leo called up front "Slow down, Rollie. The tracker's stopped. It's on the edge of several warehouses as near as I can tell from the map."
Rollie groaned. Great! Warehouses. Why was it the crims always decided to do their dirty work in warehouses? Well, it seemed like it was always anyway. He carefully pulled the van to a stop, transferred the locator program to his PDA and followed Leo out the door. Leo had his gun out and went carefully around the buildings. He wasn't about to let them be surprised by an ambush. Following Rollie's directions, he proceeded carefully until he came to a stop, let his gun hand drop and began swearing.
"What? What is it?" Rollie asked, coming around Leo. Then he saw it too. The case the jewels had been in sat on the ground, open, empty. Well, not quite empty. The tracker was still inside. The jewels, however, were gone. As were the kidnappers. And their chance of following them.
"Great! Just great!" Leo fumed. "They could be in any of these warehouses. Or not in any of them. By the time we find out where they are, they won't be there anymore and Karina will be dead." Leo's voice ended on a flat, hard note. He'd be damned if he was going to let these bozos beat him! But unfortunately, at the moment, he didn't have a clue as to what to do next.
Rollie stepped away from the case and looked around. There were three warehouses in the immediate vicinity. Leo was right. By the time they searched all of them, it would be far too late. Rollie felt the anger of his helplessness rise within him, but then he stopped and stood very still. Over there, off to his left, by the entrance to one of the warehouses, was the yellow dog. Rollie stared. The dog was looking right at him. Then it turned and took a few steps toward the door, stopped and looked back at Rollie.
"Uh, Leo? The dog is here." Rollie's voice was soft with and I-don't-quite-believe-this quality to it.
"Dog? What dog? This is no time to be worrying about some mutt! We got a lot bigger worries here! Oh, jeez, here comes the captain. Just couldn't wait, could he? Now the whole thing is blown!"
"Leo - don't you see him? He's standing by the door to that warehouse over there. He's telling us that's the one. Karina's in there and so are the kidnappers!"
Leo looked toward the warehouse door, then back at Rollie like he'd taken leave of his senses. "Sorry, Rollie. I gotta go deal with the captain. That's a very real problem that is... uh... demanding... my attention." Leo finished as the captain yelled at him.
"McCarthy! What is going on here! I thought you had this under control!"
As Leo walked toward VanDuran, Rollie turned back toward the
door. The dog was still standing there, but now it was
making movements backwards and forwards, clearly conveying a
sense of urgency. Once again, Rollie felt a strange feeling
come over him, a prickling sensation running up his spine.
The shouting of Leo and VanDuran faded. Without realizing
he was doing it, Rollie walked towards the dog which disappeared
inside the door. The door gaped open, like a black hole,
silent, empty. Despite a strong sense of foreboding, Rollie
stepped inside.
Part Three
The warehouse was dark, but there were no large open spaces or echos. It was a warehouse that was used and it was full of oil drums, wooden crates and lifting and moving equipment. All manner of things were stored in here and it wasn't easy for Rollie to pick his way through. The dog, however, seemed to know where he was going and would periodically have to stop and wait for Rollie to catch up. He whined and shifted and conveyed a sense of urgency that Rollie began to feel as well. That feeling wasn't diminished any when he heard voices up ahead coming towards him. If it was the kidnappers, the one of him was no match for them. Then he remembered his headset and the fact that Leo was wearing one too.
"Leo!" he spoke quietly, urgently. "Leo!"
Outside, Leo suddenly realized where the urgent whisper was coming from. He broke off the arguement with VanDuran and looked away. "Rollie? Is that you? Where are you?"
"I'm in the warehouse."
"What! What are you doing in there? Which one? What's going on?"
VanDuran looked puzzled as his chief detective on this case was talking to thin air. Then he realized he must be talking to Tyler over a nearly invisible headset and he wondered what kind of trouble the special effects artist had found now.
"Leo, just shut up and listen. I'm in the warehouse to the left of you, the one we were standing in front of before the captain arrived. If I'm not mistaken, I'm about to have company and I could do with some backup."
The transmission stopped then and Leo cocked his head to the side. "Rollie? Rollie, are you ok?"
Inside the darkened warehouse, Rollie could see two men approaching him and he looked frantically about for something to defend himself with. There - that netting could help. And that short piece of pipe. It was all he could lay his hands on in the few seconds left before they were upon him.
Stewart and Jimmy were talking about what they would do with
the money they'd get for the jewels as they hurried out of the
warehouse. Rollie had only a second to wonder why they were
hurrying as he threw the netting on the bigger of the
two. Stewart yelled and began struggling with the
netting. Jimmy whirled around, trying to see where the
attack had come from. Rollie came up behind him and threw
his jacket over the smaller man's head, temporarily blinding him
and then hit him with the short length of pipe. As Jimmy
crumpled to the ground, Rollie looked up and saw that Stewart had
fought free of the netting. 'Bloody hell' was all he had time to
think before Stewart charged at him.
Rollie sidestepped the main rush, but Stewart stuck out a foot and tripped him. As Rollie tumbled to the floor, Stewart turned with amazing quickness for a man of his bulk and threw himself on top of him. Rollie fought frantically to get out from under him, driven by a fear that had nothing to do with the man he fought. Finally, he succeeded in throwing the heavier man off and scrambled to his feet. But Stewart stood as well and swung with a piece of wood his flailing fingers had chanced upon. The wood struck Rollie on the side of his head and with the explosion of pain, he once again crashed to the floor. Numbly, he could feel the whoosh of air as Stewart brought the wood down with killing force and rolled in what he hoped was the right direction. As the wood impacted the floor and splintered, Stewart stood stunned a moment, not believing that his intended victim was not smashed to pulp beneath his hands. That moment was all Rollie needed. From the floor, he kicked upward, hard, and caught his would-be killer in the groin. With a gasp of agony, he sank to his knees. Rollie then found the length of pipe he had used earlier and brought it down hard on the back of the kidnapper's head and shoulders. Rollie had no time for the niceties of tying him up and had to make sure he wouldn't come up behind him again.
Rollie stood there swaying on his feet, trying to work his way
through the pain and get his befuddled brain to function
again. There was something...something he should
do...something he should remember. As he looked down at the
still form, it came to him. The second man! Rollie
heard a step behind him and whirled around. He saw the
flash of the blade and jerked backwards. Pain ripped
through his right forearm as the knife slashed the length of
it. But he had no time to think about that as Jimmy came at
him again. He fended him off as best he could, but he was
unsteady and weakening. In backing away, he tripped over
something and went down. The knife-wielding attacker was
instantly on him.
Rollie put up his feet as the smaller man leaped at him and
flipped him over his head. As Jimmy thudded heavily to the
floor, Rollie staggered to his feet, prepared for another
attack. He looked in the direction of the second kidnapper
and saw that he wasn't moving. Whether he hit his head on
the floor or fell on his own knife, Rollie didn't know and at
that point didn't care. All he knew was that, for the
moment, these two were out of action.
As the adrenalin drained out of him, pain took over and he
sank to his knees in dizziness and nausea. He clutched his
arm and his hand was covered in blood. He knelt there
taking small gasping breaths, trying not to pass out and trying
to
remember what it was he was supposed to do. Through the
haze of pain and confusion, he heard small woofing sounds and
felt a warm breath and then a warm tongue on his face.
Focusing his eyes, Rollie saw the yellow dog standing in front of
him. "You again" he said softly. The dog
whined, moved a few steps away and came back, whining
again. That strange sense of urgency and fear returned to
Rollie and forced him to his feet. He knew he had to follow
although in a functioning corner of his mind, a small voice said
that won't be too far if that knife had knicked an artery.
"All right" he said thickly, focusing on the dog instead of himself. "You got me into this - lead on."
The dog turned and quickly disappeared into the next section of the warehouse. Rollie followed as best he could, periodically leaning against a crate or a wall until a wave of dizziness and pain receded sufficiently so he could continue. The dog seemed to know where he was going and Rollie followed unquestioningly. He didn't know how far they had gone when he heard a voice, up ahead, calling for help. He rounded a stack of crates and saw Karina tied to a chair. For some reason, he wasn't surprised that the dog was nowhere to be seen. As he approached her, he saw to his horror, a bomb strapped to her stomach with the timer heading too rapidly toward zero.
As he sank to the floor in front of her, Rollie gave her a crooked grin and said "Hi, I'm Rollie, Rollie Tyler. You must be Karina."
She stared at him, at the cuts and bruises, at the blood and whispered "Yes. Who are you, a police officer?"
"Nope, just someone trying to help out." During the entire conversation, Rollie had been examining the bomb. There were no safeguards on it. Obviously, the kidnappers didn't expect anyone to come along and disarm it. But Rollie needed some tools to do it. He looked up at the girl.
"Where did they put this together? Was it here or someplace else?"
She nodded to a work area behind him. "Over there."
Rollie struggled to his feet and went over to the table where Stewart and Jimmy had assembled their bombs. He found what he needed and kneeling again in front of the scared girl, began to short circuit the bomb.
"Are we going to get out of here?" Her voice trembled with the fear she had held bottled up inside her for so long.
"Of course we are" Rollie replied, putting as much confidence as he could in his voice. "If I can't take care of a little thing like this, then I'm not worth my salt as an FX artist extraordinaire!" As he finished the final connections, Karina spoke again in a subdued voice.
"This isn't the only one you know."
Rollie stopped and glanced up at her. Then he looked back over his shoulder to the work table and sighed. "I was afraid of that. Too many bits and pieces laying around for just one. Do you know where the rest are?" he asked as he pulled the defused bomb off of her and began to untie the ropes around her arms and legs.
"Scattered over the rest of this place as far as I know."
As Rollie pulled her to her feet and they headed back the way he had come in, he thought of the timer on the bomb. There had been about 30 seconds left when he had stopped the countdown. If the other bombs were on a similar schedule, they would find out very soon where they were located.
Suddenly, a flash of light up ahead and a loud explosion told them where the first one was. They ducked the flying debris and looked for a way forward when a second, closer bomb went off. The force of this one knocked them to the ground. Rollie raised his head and looked around groggily. The spreading fires would make it impossible to go out the way he had come in. He fought down a rising panic and the thought that they were trapped, that they would be burned to a crisp by the hot advancing flames.
The explosions of nearby oil drums galvanized him into action. Lurching to his feet, he grabbed Karina's arm. "Is there another way out of here?" he shouted over the roar of the fire.
She looked around through the flames and increasing
smoke. "I don't know, maybe back there?" she said
pointing back beyond where she had been tied up. "One
of them came in one time from that direction. There must be
a way to the
outside."
Rollie didn't say anything to the girl, but he didn't hold out much hope. If the way to the back entrance was as convoluted as the front had been, they'd never find their way out before the flames reached them or they were overcome by smoke. Rollie was already coughing and having trouble seeing. Suddenly, through the smoke, he saw the dog come towards him.
"Boy, am I glad you're still here!" he said with a sigh of relief.
"What?" Karina gave him a confused look.
"Never mind. This way!" Rollie took off after the dog pulling Karina behind him. He was starting to feel light headed from the shortage of oxygen and loss of blood. He thought with a touch of macabre humor that it hadn't made the pounding in his head any lighter.
Another blast boomed up just behind them, again knocking them
to the floor. Rollie groaned, another one like that and I
won't make it, he thought to himself. We won't make it, he
corrected, as he looked back at the wall of flames coming
behind them. A burning piece of wood dropped beside him and
he looked up, seeing the ceiling was also on fire. Just
bloody great! There was far too much wood and other
flammable material in this place for his liking. Looking
around, he spotted the dog, positively dancing with the urgency
to be gone. Coughing and choking, Rollie once more dragged
himself to his feet and with Karina's hand firmly in his, took
off at a shambling run.
There was a subtle change in the air currents. They began blowing in only one direction instead of swirling every which way. It took a few moments for this bit of information to sink in. Rollie lifted his head and looked ahead and to their left. The rear entrance to the warehouse stood open and inviting. With a hoarse cry, he moved faster. Suddenly, a noise from overhead caused him to look up. The burning timbers were breaking away from the ceiling supports and starting to crash to the floor.
"Go!" he yelled as he pushed Karina in front of him.
The crash of the first timber to her right caused her to leap forward. Rollie followed, but then one of the timbers clipped his legs and sent him sprawling face first to the floor. He struggled to his knees and then two more crashed down, first hitting some wooden crates and then rolling onto him, pinning him to the floor. He struggled and managed to shift one of them off of him, but in his weakened condition, he could do nothing about the other one.
Karina had reached the door when she realized Rollie wasn't
with her. Turning around, she saw his plight and at once
ran back to his side. She tried to shift the beam, but it
was too heavy for her. She dropped to her knees beside him
as he
motioned her closer.
"Go...outside" he gasped out. "Find...Leo. He'll...help."
Without another word, she jumped up and ran outside. The cool night air revived her somewhat and she started screaming for help. First one man, then another, ran up to her.
"Miss Murray! Are you ok?"
"Leo! Where's Leo? Get him! Find him!" She was starting to get hysterical, so one of the men ran back a few yards and yelled loudly for Leo. As he ran up from the front side of the building, Karina grabbed his arm.
"Are you Leo?" At his nod, she said in a rush "Rollie's inside! He's trapped. Help him please! He's just inside the door. Hurry!"
"Take care of her" Leo said to one of the other men and headed into the building.
Rollie coughed and raised his head. The weight of the beam across his back combined with the smoke made it difficult to breath. Leo wasn't going to make it, not in time anyway. He lowered his head back to the floor. At least Karina had made it out safely. He had succeeded this time. Then Rollie felt a cold nose and warm tongue against his face. He forced himself back to the present and opened his eyes to look into the dog's dark brown ones.
"You just don't give up, do you?" he whispered.
"Rollie!" He could hear Leo calling. "Where are you?" Where Rollie got the strength to call back from, he would never know, but suddenly Leo was at his side.
"Rollie! Rollie, can you hear me? I'm going to lift the beam as much as I can, then you're going to have to crawl out from under ok? Ready? Move!"
Leo groaned with effort as he began to lift the beam. Rollie felt it shift, felt the weight across his back lessen. He struggled forward.
"I'm losing it Rollie! I can't hold it!" He gave a cry as he dropped the timber.
As the beam slipped from Leo's fingers, Rollie scrambled out
from under it. He lay on the floor gasping for
breath. Hearing a creaking noise, Leo looked up and saw the
rest of the ceiling beginning to collapse. He grabbed
Rollie around
the waist and hauled him to his feet. Then both of them
lurched forward out the door as the ceiling beams crashed onto
the spot they had just vacated.
Leo still held onto Rollie as they looked at the burning warehouse. Rollie started to shake, thinking how close it had been. Then he heard someone call his name. He turned and saw Karina pull away from her father and the paramedics who had arrived and walk towards him. When she reached him, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.
"Thank you" she whispered. "Thank you so much!"
Rollie gave her a lopsided grin, his teeth flashing bright in his smoke-darkened face. "My pleasure. I didn't really think those guys were your type anyway."
The expression on her face hardened and Rollie was surprised at the venom in her voice. "Those vermin!" she spat. "They don't deserve to live. I hope they're dead! I hope they died in there!"
Rollie looked questioningly at Leo. "One died but one made it out. He's in custody and will be charged with kidnapping and attempted murder."
"Too good for him!" Karina nearly growled it out.
Rollie touched her arm. "Karina, I understand how you must feel, after what they did..."
"What they did! Do you know what they did? When they took me? They killed my dog. He was only trying to protect me." She choked back a sob then continued in a strained whisper. "He was just protecting me and they killed him."
On a hunch, but already knowing the answer he would get, Rollie asked, "What kind of dog was he, Karina? What did he look like?"
She smiled at the memory and said softly "He was a dingo and his name was Kaa. I brought him over from home. No quarantine this direction, you know. He was the most beautiful golden yellow and had a white stripe down his nose and a white front paw. And the softest brown eyes you'd ever want to see. He was mine, only mine, ever since I rescued him from a pack of street dogs." She smiled again thinking of past actions. "They were really going at him, poor little guy."
"When you rescued him" Rollie asked gently, "would you say that you saved his life?"
Karina looked up at him in some surprise. "Why, yes, I suppose so. If I hadn't pulled him out of there, I imagine those other dogs would have torn him to bits. Why?"
Rollie looked back at the door to the warehouse and saw Kaa
sitting there, mouth open, tongue hanging out, giving his own
special grin. Rollie grinned in return and looking again at
Karina, he saw a wondering look on her face. "Because
I
think he just returned the favor."
She opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but just then her father came up to her. He put his arm around her and coaxed her back to the car and waiting police officers and paramedics. As she got in the car, she looked back at Rollie with the wondering expression still on her face.
Rollie gazed again at Kaa, who stood and with a jaunty wave of his tail disappeared inside the still-smoldering warehouse. His eyes went slightly unfocused as he stared with a small smile playing about his lips.
"Ow!" Leo's touch on his arm brought him painfully back to the present.
"Sorry, Rollie. Are you ok? You seemed to fade out there for a minute. Thought maybe you were going to pass out or something. Come on, we better get you over to the paramedics, you're bleeding all over the place."
Rollie looked down at his arm and hand and saw that Leo was right. There would be more than a few stitches there, he feared. With a tired sigh, he allowed Leo to guide him over to the ambulance.
"You know, Rollie, we never did get to finish our drink
the other night. This case and, you know, making plans and
all, sorta took over. I was thinking, maybe we could go out
and finish it properly, no police work involved, I promise!
When
you're feeling up to it." Seeing the exhausted look on
Rollie's face, he added "In a couple days."
Rollie gave his best mate a smile. "Sure Leo, I'd like that."
Two days later, Rollie was sitting on the couch in the loft next to Angie. He had just told her everything that had happened with the case. From the look on her face, he was beginning to think he had made a mistake, not in telling her, but in wearing a T-shirt. It made the bandage that went from his wrist almost to his elbow just that much more obvious.
Angie gave a sigh that was only half full of exasperation. "I understand why you did it. AND..." she held up her hand forstalling the objection coming from Rollie. "...I understand that wasn't how you intended it to go. I just wish..." She looked at Rollie, at the caring, concerned look on his face and sighed again. "Forget it, that was a crazy idea." She paused, then continued, "So, has Leo called you yet?"
Rollie lowered his eyes. "Uh, no, not yet."
"Well then, I suggest you call him. We've only got a couple more days until the new shoot starts." She grinned at the look of surprise he gave her.
"Really?"
"Rollie, I don't mind if you go for a drink with Leo - as long as we're not in the middle of a job!" she amended hastily. "And he did save your life" she added softly.
Rollie put his arm around Angie and hugged her close, his head
resting on top of hers. "Yes, he did" he
murmered. "He and Kaa." From somewhere,
perhaps in his mind, a dingo howled.