Rollie nodded, and inwardly, he was smiling. Dingo, using the children as a tug on his conscience was an old trick, especially with police. It threw the suspicions off of the gamer, and left some respect for him.

"Well, seeing as how Agent Serrano had already been nosing around you, I couldn’t take the chance of getting you and Angie in trouble for me again. I know I ran from the motel but after seeing Aidan for the first time, I decided to turn myself in, about time I did, what?"

Rollie’s mind was racing. Obviously, Dingo didn’t really feel that way and he sensed the wry sense of humor in his father as usual, but he still didn’t know why Dingo had done what he had done. How would he be able to get him alone and find out the truth? He looked down at the table between them and rubbed his left hand over his right forearm for a second, raising his hand and resting it under his chin.

Dingo blinked twice and Rollie coughed;

"I guess you did what you felt was best," Rollie then said, out loud, "but I don’t have to sit here and waste my time with the likes of you anymore. Don’t think I will attend your hearing or post bond. You’re on your own!"

He stood abruptly, angrily and kicked his chair back as Dingo put his hands to his face and sat there, crumpled in flim-flam guilt. At the angle he was sitting, the sparkle in his left eye could still be seen by Rollie between his ring and middle finger of his left hand.

Rollie knocked on the door forcefully and as the door opened by an agent, he almost pushed himself out, not looking back.

Elena watched confused from her room, staring at the two-way and startled at what she had just seen. Rollie had not an ounce of sympathy for Dingo! This disturbed her and she walked out of the room, catching him in the hallway as he strode past her door.

"Rollie! Wait!" she called out, running up after him as his angry strides threatened to keep the distance between them.

"What is it?" Rollie replied, stopping then, as she caught up and grabbed his arm.

"I...I don’t understand? That was your father… and you are just going to leave him there without any support? That doesn’t sound like you, Rollie!"

"You’ve been gone for over two years, Elena. That man in there has done nothing but get me and my family in trouble. Did you know he used me as a teenager in some of his dealings? I can’t be bothered by this any longer- not when it comes to getting my child involved! He’s gone too far!"

"But, wait...he’s willing to turn in his contacts. This is the chance I have been waiting for...don’t you see? You have to go back in there and talk to him. He won’t cooperate without you, I know it!"

"NO!"

"Please consider the enormous amount of effort it has taken over the past two years to get where we are today, Rollie. Interpol and the FBI, along with the DEA has been waiting for this opportunity!"

"What, over some large doses of homeopathic drugs? Hardly seems worth it, Elena!"

"It’s not just that!" she yelled, and stopped, realizing that they were arguing in a public hallway. She took his arm again; "come with me, in here..." she told him, motioning to him that she wanted him to follow her into the two-way room. Once inside, she leaned up against the wall opposite the door. Rollie could see that Dingo had been removed from the observation room.

"Please," she said, softer and more pleadingly, "you’re father is a mule and doesn’t even realize it, do you understand?"

"Mule?"

"Yes, he thinks he is selling this cure, this Rhus Toxiconum, okay? But it’s not that homeopathic drug, okay? The vials have been tested. We knew for some time that the distributors were using that cover."

"Then, what drug is he carrying?"

"Heroin, 92% pure..."

"WHAT?" Rollie looked at her face, knew she wasn’t lying. He also now knew why the Efrem Zimbalist Jr. look-alike was so adament about finding out what was going on with the FBI and Dingo’s surrender. And he also knew now, that there was probably a lot more danger here than met the eye. He thought of Angie held in the silo and it made his anxiety level go sky high.

"He doesn’t know it’s heroin? How did you find out?" Rollie asked, trying to think, what to do, who to tell it to…

"Twenty-two deaths in the United States in the past two years were investigated and researched back to distribution by several mules, the last one was your father. Don’t get me wrong, the vials are hidden among vials of Rhus Toxiconum- there is homeopathic drug being sold, but that’s the cover. There is a special coding on the vials of heroin. Your father’s case had 15 vials of heroin in it. He has no idea who he has sold them to...all records keeping is done by his dealers. At best, he remembers cities, some addresses, he kept no book!"

"Sounds like Dingo...goes with the flow and where the greenbacks are..." Rollie said, rolling his eyes.

"Your father said that if you came in to help on the dealer bust, he would give us the location of the next meet. Without you, he wasn’t dealing..." Elena replied, pushing away from the wall and came closer to him.

"He’s still dragging me into this, isn’t he?" Rollie said, still thinking ahead. He had to see Dingo alone. He knew there was more to this, that his father was not as innocent as Serrano made him out to be or as he portrayed himself to her.

"Yes, please Rollie, for closure here, please help us, one last time..." Elena asked, her hand again touching his arm. He looked at her, saw the color in her cheeks rise and he stepped back against the door.

"I want to see him alone, away from your observation room and your bugging devices. He knows about this, it’s not new to him, you know. I want to be able to talk to him alone and get the information out of him."

"I need to be there," she said, stepping forward, her perfume filling his nostrils as he opened the doorway to the hall and she frowned.

"No, alone or no deal," he repeated and started to leave.

"Okay, you can have five minutes with him, off the record. I wouldn’t do this for anyone but you, Rollie. I trust you," she said, talking to his back.

The words ‘trust you’ felt like a knife in his heart as he turned around with a smile then, and sighed.

"Okay, get us a clean room...I’ll talk to him," Rollie said.

Angie hugged her arms around herself tighter. It was getting colder and she knew the sun was going down. The light in the silo was barely visible from the grain door. No one had come back in to talk to her and only the sound of an occasional plane flying overhead had been heard since Rollie had left. She paced at times, trying to play it over and over in her mind as to what was really going on with Dingo and these men. It seemed so strange, all for some homeopathic remedies. She yawned and sat down again, missing Aidan and longing for Rollie to come back. She may have joked earlier about being abducted and not getting too worked up about it but now, she just wanted to see his face coming in that door. She looked up after hearing the sound of a single pellet of corn fall, probably from the door hinge at the top but it made her shiver. She knew that grain falling down on someone could smother them in a matter of minutes.

Rollie was placed in a clean room and once he pulled his PDA out and checked for bugs, he was assured the place was truly free of all devices. Although glass on all sides and sitting in the middle of the control area of the second floor of operations; he was confident that he and Dingo could now, without getting their lips read by someone, converse and get to the bottom of this.

Dingo was escorted into the room while Serrano and her agents closed the door, Rollie hearing the laminar flow seal pop and then reseal.

"It’s a clean room but someone I’m sure reads lips..." Rollie warned him as Dingo smiled and sat down, rubbing his chin.

"It isn’t like the old days, Rol. All this electronic gadgetry! Glad I have you, son to help me out with those things!"

"Get down to it then, what’s doling out?"

"Got other inspiration, got upper connections on top, you know," Dingo replied, his lips barely moving.

"As in?"

"Michael’s friends...they had me first, got me set with these boys in the states...gave me directions and told me what to do and say."

"You still having some deal with them?"

"You’re never free of them, Rol. Ever since before you was married, they had me. You never lose them, didn’t Michael tell you?"

"Um, till his dying breath came..." Rollie murmered as he put his hand over his mouth and coughed.

"Suppose to show them the local boys myself. Serrano got involved, pissed them off and caused some friction. There was talk of getting her out of the way as well."

"Sounds like them...they don’t seem to care who, even if it is FBI or local police- if they get in the way, they remove them permanently."

"Shadow creeps, I call them. Anyway, they directed me to come here and throw Serrrano for a loop. Guess they have something on their minds. Wanted you involved as well. I tried to keep you out of it, but they wouldn’t hear of it. Seems you have pissed them off on a regular basis...something to do with a device, sounds like science fiction to me, some sort of implant?"

"Never mind about that! Bastards!" Rollie said, cursing under his breath, "now I have news for you. Your contacts abducted us on the road up here and when I say us, I mean you have Angie involved in this as well! She is being held in an old silo somewhere within 15 minutes of this place. I was instructed to find out what you know, what the FBI will be doing and get back to them, and I don’t have but a few minutes right now to get back or else! Angie is not going to be coming back, do you get that?"

"Crystal clear," Dingo replied and scratched his head as he noted someone with a pad near Serrano.

"Give me something to give to Serrano," Rollie said abruptly as he looked at his watch.

"Okay, last meet was at 5th and Park in Manhattan. I am suppose to meet them at Stefano’s in two days. Some new little joint downtown...know it?"

"Yeah, so- I give this to Serrano, get her off my back and I go to your mates and tell them Serrano will be at the meet and get Angie back. What do I tell them as to why you jumped ship?"

"Tell um I cracked one of the vials and found out it was heroin," Dingo said, grinning widely and looked at Rollie through clenched teeth.

Rollie looked at him and took in a deep breath, "so, you do have a conscience, after all. I’m supposed to tell them that you’re not stupid and turned them in because of that. They know you pretty well..."

"They know only that I have done jewels and small stuff for years...no drugs like this. They consider me a common grifter, in it for the money and stupid as a wombat, okay?"

"Yeah, okay. Serrano doesn’t think you’re much smarter either..." Rollie added as he looked back at her as she tried not to look at them and guess what they were saying between clenched teeth.

"She’s a FBI machine, pure and simple. She eats, sleeps and hits the dun with FBI crapola."

Rollie smiled, in spite of the serious situation at hand and Elena seeing this smile, came forward, taking it as a positive show of cooperation.

"Son, get your Angie out from their hands…that Dylan Lindquist is the devil with a charmer’s face," Dingo warned him.

"You mean that silver-haired, Mr. Old GQ guy?"

"Yeah, he’s apparently someone the shadow boys want to nurture and lure into their clutches…it’s disgusting, Rol. Bet they have Saddam Hussein working for them as well!"

"I can’t keep up with all the players, my objectives are very simple. I want Angie back!" Rollie replied, with distaste.

The door opened and both men broke up their conversation as Serrano stepped inside and raised her eyebrows; "So, do we have a deal? Are you going to give me something here?"
 

Angie Ramirez Tyler had waited long enough. She was cold, hungry and it was night, for God’s sake! She yelled out, kicked the door, took off her belt from her jeans and slammed the buckle against the metal cylinder walls repeatedly. There was no answer.

She looked again at the walls in the bit of moonlight walking over to the seam in the metal that ran the entire length of the silo. Every two feet, there was a small triangular wedge and she realized that the possibility was there for resting a grain cover at two foot intervals, depending on the level of grain kept inside. The wedge itself, was less than three inches in width and six inches in length. Wondering suddenly why she hadn’t thought about this sooner, she try putting her foot on top of the first wedge to see if it would hold her foot enough for climbing.

Barely able to get a grip with her shoe, she took them off so that her toes could grip better and she began to make a practice climb of six feet by using her finger and thumb to grasp the next wedge above. She realized she was doing it but she also felt the killer pain shoot through her tendons in her wrists and feet at the same time. Trying to warm herself up and grateful that she had done as much rock climbing in her life before she got married, she pensively tried to decide if she was going to do it. Obviously, it didn’t look good for her if Rollie didn’t make it back. Somehow, the nicer the captors seemed to be, especially ‘polite’ ones, they usually turned out to be the more sinister types. She had in the past, had her share of them!

"Okay," she whispered, nodding her head and taking in a deep breath. She tied her shoes together by the laces and put them around her neck. She began her slow and painful climb to the top of the silo, the stars getting closer and closer as she struggled and squirmed her way upward. The pain shooting through her bare toes up into her ankles and calves was severe by the time she had six feet to go. Her hands were cramping and barely functioning as she held on for dear life. By the time she reached the rim of the grain door, and felt a stable flat surface to rest her hands on, she paused and gasped in pain.

"Oh God," she grimaced, looking down into the darkened silo, "please let me make it…" and she pulled herself up with one gigantic effort, sitting on top of the drain door, her feet dangling below and cramping into useless limbs. The pain was excruciating but then, she was free. She could see the small, narrow ladder that extended down the side of the silo and once, she had rubbed the cramps out of her toes and hands, she put her shoes back on and began her descent.

Once down on the ground, she crept slowly away, hearing nothing but crickets and what she hoped was a highway. She could hear what sounded like cars moving along a busy road and she hoped against hope, that she had found the main road Rollie and she had been traveling on earlier.

Behind her suddenly, a high beam of light rose, casting her shadow out in front of her some twenty feet in length. She began to run. She wasn’t going back and she wasn’t going to get caught again. By the time she hit the highway, she could hear the sound of a high speed engine moving up behind her. She frantically ducked into the bushes, as a vehicle broke out of the direction she had come from and squealed the tires onto the asphalt of the road as it stopped. The beam of light made a 360 degree spot search and as it hit the bushes where she had hid, she dropped to the ground, saying a small prayer.

Several cars passed in the opposite direction, breaking the light and concentration beam of the spotlight and Angie took the opportunity and ducked back further away from the road. Finally, waiting it out, the car and the light disappeared and Angie waited for what seemed like an hour before she came out of hiding. She crept forward again, up almost to the highway and began her walk in the shadows as she stumbled forward, toward the Marchard Instititute and to Rollie.

Rollie had begged off from Elena about staying at Marchard longer, saying he had to get back to the set as soon as possible. He knew he was later in returning than what the man that Dingo had called Lindquist, had stipulated. His worries about Angie had intensified. He could sense her panic like a sixth sense and now, with Dingo telling him that Michael’s former organization were hot in pursuit of this man and for that matter, still angry about him; it only made it worse.

He was driving like an idiot, he told himself as he drove closer to the spot that he had started from earlier that day. He had been told to park and wait. Making a u-turn, he returned to the spot, a mile-post indicator sign as a marker for him as he turned off the engine and waited. In a matter of minutes, a light came up slowly on the highway from behind him. He blinked, shielding his eyes from the brightness in his rear view mirror and was suddenly startled as the passenger door to his car opened and a very ragged, worn Angie fell inside.

"Angie? Bloody hell!"

"Just DRIVE!" she screamed, half-crying and yelling as he turned the engine back on and hit the floor with the pedal. He did exactly what Angie had ordered and sped his way back toward Marchard. The car that had been behind them faded off the road some time back and Angie, turning to see that it was gone, told Rollie to slow down.

"Get us out of here, Rollie. Don’t tell me what happened up there with Serrano, just get on some other road to take us home!" she pleaded with him.

"Angie, sweetie- let me a least stop up here somewhere and get our wits collected, okay?" Rollie asked her but she shook her head.

"They know where we live…what about Aidan? I want to get back to him now! I don’t care what kind of trouble your father is in, and I don’t care about what you have promised to do for him or Serrano, because I know you have done some promising…just for once, Rollie! Please, get me back now!" Angie was shaking and obviously, as he looked at the way she was holding her hands and her clenched jaw, she was in pain from her escape from the silo.

Rollie nodded, saying nothing more and took a trucking route that crossed over and went down parallel, back into New York. Once, closing in on the city, he could see that Angie lay exhausted, asleep beside him and he swallowed hard.

What would she say if he told her that Dingo was still working for Michael’s people and that there was till some harsh resentment for him and the deal he made with Serrano and his father?

"Aidan…" she murmered from her half-sleep as he put her arm around her and pulled her closer.

"We’ll see him shortly, sweetie, I’m sorry…"

"Rollie?" she asked, her eyes fluttering and her world spinning, in half dream and wakefulness.

"Yeah?"

"I want Aidan…."

"Okay, we’re almost there…"

Rollie turned the corner onto Francis Gatti’s street and slammed the breaks on hard, avoiding a speeding police cruiser that crossed through the intersection in front of him. Ahead, in front of the Gatti residence were four squad cars, a flood of flashing lights and a flurry of people running into the house.