Rollie got up from his crouched position and came back over, watching her replay a loop for him to see. He smiled and wrapped his arms around her shoulders standing behind her; "good, this time- you’ll be able to follow me around no matter where…let’s hope Serrano has thought this deal out tonight. I can see Dingo and the shadow guys trumping her."
 
 

"Rol, what if this is all just for them? You know, they want Lindquist for their own party….so, why haven’t they picked him up earlier? I mean, they’ve been controlling Dingo for what? Over two years? I just don’t get the whole thing," Angie said, shaking her head and frowning.
 
 

"Yeah, it is rather trite, isn’t it? I imagine Dingo may be having some duping as well by them. I can’t imagine him going along with this for so long and not being controlled, you know…like I …" Rollie’s voice trailed off as he released her and he stepped back, sighing.
 
 

"Hey," Angie told him, turning around and seeing that he had sat down on the couch. He was resting his head against the top of the cushion and rubbed his eyes, his glasses propped up on top of his head.
 
 

"You can’t keep blaming yourself for what happened on Pollepel. Michael got you there and left you. Everyone had an agenda…and apparently, they still can’t get what they want…what kind of special ops is that? These guys are at worst, disorganized and do things in chaotic spurts. Think of it, would you use Dingo as one of your field operatives?"
 
 

She was so serious, hands on her hips and he suddenly laughed, seeing the shadows outwitted by Dingo Tyler. Now that would be something to see!
 
 

"Don’t underestimate Dingo…he has pulled some pretty mean grifts on some very savvy people," Rollie reminded her.
 
 

"Yeah? Then why didn’t he see Dorinda for what she was?" Angie retorted and turned around to Ambler to adjust the feedback on the tracker as Rollie shifted on the couch.
 
 

"Tylers do have one weakness…the fairer sex…" Rollie reminded her, softly.
 
 

"Hey, stop scrunching around! Your belt is rubbing against the tracker. Maybe you shouldn’t wear one tonight," Angie warned, and turned around shaking her head, "and as far as your one weakness, remember to keep Elena Serrano at bay tonight, okay?"
 
 

Rollie undid his belt buckle, sliding the belt off in a quick, almost whip like motion.
 
 

"I was talking about you, sweetie…come on, cheer up! We are going to pull this off and be home to get back to searching for Aidan. I just know he’s close. I can feel it, here…" and he pointed to his heart, placing his hand over his mid-chest and closing his eyes.
 
 

Angie teared up, quickly wiping at the dampness that threatened to roll down her cheeks. She didn’t want Rollie to see how upset she was by all this. She wanted to stay strong and in control.
 
 

But Rollie was up on his feet in front of her, pulling her to him, encircling her with his strong embrace.
 
 

"I want my son back now!" he told her, echoing her heart and she felt her resolve give away, forgetting her composure.
 
 

There was a sudden rap at the front door, Bluey barking and encircling the front entranceway. They broke from their embrace as Rollie wiped his eyes with the back of his hands. Angie fled, knowing it was probably Dingo and Elena. She went upstairs to their bathroom and began to wash her face with cold water, hoping the swelling around her eyes would come down. She looked at her reddened, blotched face and her visibly swollen eyes. Cold water wasn’t going to help, she told herself.
 
 

Rollie checked the surveillance monitor and took in a deep breath. Dingo and Elena stood waiting. His trepidation grew as he fought back his own fears for this night to come and opened the door.
 
 

"Guday, son!" Dingo greeted him, hugging him slightly as Rollie stiffly held on to him for a second before releasing him. He showed Elena in as well. She was already looking around the loft for Angie. Rollie watched her as she appraised the room.
 
 

"You have the tracker in place?" she asked, seeing Ambler set up and some sort of tracking mode in operation.
 
 

"Yeah, all done… Angie and I have already testing it. We’re a go…come on, let’s sit down here at the table. I want to go over the entire sequence of events…" Rollie began, hoping Angie would come down shortly. He offered some soft drinks to which Dingo made a horrible face and Serrano refused, asking instead for some water. While he was scrambling for the spring water, Angie came in from the other side of the kitchen, peering over his shoulder toward the table.
 
 

"How do I look?" she asked, rolling her eyes and knowing she looked dreadful.
 
 

"Uh, well- like you’ve been crying, love…" he said, softly and kissed her quickly, smiling.
 
 

"Um, that good…" she replied, "here, let me take this to Elena…" she told him as she took the bottled spring water from him and he grabbed a beer for his father. He took one for himself and followed Angie into the dining area.
 
 

She could see Elena observing her as she handed her the bottled water and she smiled and sat down next to her with Rollie on her other side. Dingo sat across from them at the table. As she looked up, she met his soft, brown eyes from across the table and he smiled, reaching across and took her hand that rested on the table.
 
 

"I’ve got a prayer in with the big man for Aidan," he told her, smiling and squeezed her hand.
 
 

She acknowledged his concern but just couldn’t say anything. This whole sequence of events started when he came back into their lives and somehow, she hadn’t really gotten over that.
 
 

"Okay, let’s get started…" Elena interjected, clearing her throat. She had a blueprint of Stefano’s that she rolled out on the table and began to go over the sequence with them all.
 
 

With two agents stationed in the kitchen, one in the alley behind the restaurant, two outside front and she and Angie in the van at the end of the block; they would wait for Lindquist to show. Knowing that the switch between the case that Dingo carried and money had to take place, she had planned the table closest to the kitchen, away from the bustle of the main restaurant. Once the exchange had taken place, Rollie and Dingo would remain seated and Lindquist and his assistant would try to leave. At this point, the three agents in the rear would emerge and the two from the front would converge, boxing them inside. Rollie and Dingo would hit the floor.
 
 

"Sounds simple enough," Dingo commented, smiling as Rollie knew there was more to that smile as Dingo rubbed his right earlobe, pulling it down slightly.
 
 

"Yeah, don’t they all?" Rollie remarked, raising his eyebrows slightly as he noted Elena studying Angie.
 
 

"Ah, you’ll have to excuse my reluctance in this, guys- I guess my son is sorta taking up my time and my thoughts!" Angie commented as she rose, fighting an emotional scene at the table.
 
 

Elena Serrano looked over to Rollie, seeing his torn allegiance to their solidarity for that evening’s plans. Dingo was most certainly wrong, she thought bitterly. Rollie Tyler looked still very much in love with his wife.
 
 

Rollie got up and walked over to Angie, and together, they walked into the living area. Dingo looked over at Serrano’s eyes as they followed his son wherever he went.
 
 

"You’re hopeless, you know," he told her then, as her attention returned to him, "try not to wear your heart on your sleeve there, Elena…"
 
 

"Shut up!" she told him, under her breath, rolling up the blueprints and wondering why she let him talk her into this whole deal. For all she knew, Dingo Tyler was having the last laugh here. She didn’t trust him really and with the big break coming tonight, her apprehension and her adrenaline were up to an all time high.
 
 

"Can you work with Serrano in the van?" Rollie asked Angie softly, concerned that her emotional well being was in question with operating the monitoring that evening.
 
 

"Yeah, sure…as long as she keeps her distance!" Angie warned him and he smiled, relieved. She sounded like the old Angie and he knew how hard this all was on her with his father having started this whole thing.
 
 

"Atta girl!" he complemented her, kissing her on her cheek as she smiled bravely and stood back up again.
 
 

"Okay," she said, drawing in a breath slowly and then releasing it, "I’m ready to show her the van set-up and get this thing going…" and she walked back into the dining area with a firm set to her jaw.
 
 

As Angie led Elena out to the van in the garage, Dingo was left alone with Rollie inside the loft. Father and son, alone together, faced each other. Rollie folded his arms across his chest and waited.
 
 

"What? Have I said I’m sorry enough?" Dingo said, shrugging his shoulders as Rollie’s eyes grew narrower and he put his hands on his hips, the color rising in his face.
 
 

"What’s really going down tonight? Michael's group has contacted you, right? They going to be there tonight? Who will be bagging Lindquist- Serrano or them?" Rollie asked rapidly, not knowing when Angie and Elena would return from the garage.
 
 

"Honestly, Rol- I haven’t had a contact since when I was locked up…telling me to continue as planned. I got to believe they will just come in and pick up Lindquist before Serrano can say; ‘what happened?’."
 
 

"She’ll hit the roof, lock you away for good and throw away the key!" he warned his father, shaking his head.
 
 

"Not if I’m not there to cuff," Dingo said, with a wink as Rollie rolled his eyes and sat down, wearily, running his hand through his hair.
 
 

"You’re playing with fire, old man…" he told his father, his voice soft and low, "if Serrano doesn’t get you, that organization will…and for that matter, I have to ask you something that’s been bloody well bugging me for some time…"
 
 

"Yeah, what’s that?"
 
 

"Why they didn’t ‘debrief’ you and interrogate you like they did to me…why they didn’t put an ocular implant into you! It doesn’t make sense why you have cooperated with them for all this time…" Rollie began, his questions starting to roll out in haste.
 
 

"They have different methods of getting cooperation, my boy…" Dingo replied and for once, the sparkle in his father’s eyes dulled and the mood changed rapidly in his tone.
 
 

"What did they do….?" Rollie began to ask but was interrupted by the phone ringing. He quickly picked it up, in hope that Aidan had been found. Dingo watched his son’s hope diminish in a split second then as he slowly sat down, phone in his hand, listening half-heartedly. He was talking to Mira Sanchez and the news was still negative.
 
 

Angie was bending down in the van, putting the last attachment on Ambler’s case as Elena Serrano sat in the swivel chair watching the small, industrious woman working beside her. Angie had hardly said two words to her and she knew that she was having some consternation about the two of them working in the van on that night’s events.
 
 

"Hey, Angie- don’t worry about tonight…everyone will be fine," she finally said outloud in an effort just to break the ice.
 
 

"I’m not worried. Rollie and Dingo aren’t likely to let anything go wrong…I have faith in them."
 
 

"Uh huh, well, just the same- with my agents’ backup, this should be a rather dry and dull takedown," Elena replied, playing with some gadget she had found on the table.
 
 

"That’s what I fear the most, that you think it will be dull," Angie retorted, and grabbed the piece of electronic gadgetry from her, turning its power source on and attaching it to a fixed stand near Ambler.
 
 

"Hey, so when did you get your 15 years of FBI work experience?" Elena snapped back, not ready to be smacked down by the likes of Angie Ramirez.
 
 

"Don’t need it, got enough experience by knowing and working with Leo McCarthey and midtown south…" Angie replied, not letting Elena see her get riled by her smugness.
 
 

Elena snorted slightly and folding her arms across her chest, grinning like a Cheshire cat; "he’s dead, right? And that Captain Vanduran…he couldn’t find his ass from a hole in the ground!"
 
 

"Hey, what’s this really about, huh?" Angie asked, her full attention on Elena Serrano, sizing her up and ready now to go full throttle with her.
 
 

"I don’t know what you’re talking about?" Elena replied, her voice growing more confrontational as she stood up, moving closer to Angie.
 
 

"You don’t? Okay, how about this? Stay away from Rollie. He’s married to me, he’s not going to have an affair with you or divorce me to be with you, that’s as simple as it gets." Angie wasn’t going to back down now.
 
 

"Really? Is that a threat?" Elena asked, her nostrils flaring and her jaw tightening as her fists began to clench tightly.
 
 

"It’s a fact of life," Angie told her, not budging as Serrano eyed her carefully and then smiled suddenly.
 
 

"I love a challenge…"
 
 

Angie looked at her with heightened curiosity and wondered what her game was? Maybe she was psychotic or something…but she definitely wasn’t taking the simple fact of marriage as a hindrance to her dream plans with Rollie.
 
 

"Whatever…" Angie murmured and shrugged her shoulders.
 
 

"Yeah, whatever….but ask yourself this: has Rollie told me everything about our time together, I mean everything…?"
 
 

"Oh, cattiness becomes you!" Angie replied, grinning and she finished her connection link to the main docking frame that Ambler had been loaded into with a final keystroke.
 
 

"I don’t think this is going to work, I fear you may sabotage our plans tonight!" Elena replied, and then started to back out of the van; "we can have one of my special agents run this tracker tonight.
 
 

"You touch Ambler or anyone else, and they get my fist in their face!" Angie threatened and followed her out of the van back into the loft.
 
 

Rollie and Dingo could hear the angry exchange between the two women as they broke up their conversation and watched them.
 
 

"What’s this? Sounds like we need a bloody mud pit in the center of this room!" Dingo said, with his tongue in cheek.
 
 

Elena was already on her cell phone, barking out orders to her field agents at Marchard as Angie went upstairs and slammed the door of the bedroom shut. If she hadn’t have left the room, she feared she would have decked Serrano in front of everyone.
 
 

She laid on the bed, having turned on the stereo in the bedroom after entering. She wasn’t about to let Elena get the best of her but she knew with all the things that were happening right now; that what she could have done would have been seen at best, juvenile and out of control.
 
 

The door opened slowly and Rollie appeared. She was holding Aidan’s Algie bear in her hands, rolled over on her side. She wasn’t crying and he was relieved at that.
 
 

"Can’t say I know what was going on down there or maybe out in the van, but could it have something to do with me?" he asked, sitting down on the side of the bed and smiling.
 
 

"Yeah," she replied and then handed him Aidan’s favorite toy, "but I’m dealing with it right now, in here and not in her face, you know…"
 
 

"That’s good, since she seems to be in a bit of flux herself," Rollie replied and took the bear, holding it to his chest, closing his eyes.
 
 

"She wants to replace me in the van tonight with one of her lackeys…" Angie said, with respite.
 
 

"Um, and I guess you told her hands off Ambler…"
 
 

"You’re damn right!"
 
 

"And maybe some hands off someone as well?"
 
 

"Yep…"
 
 

"A classic case of sizing each other up, eh?"
 
 

"Ahuh and her attitude about calling the shots then got in the way…"
 
 

"Think you can get past it?"
 
 

"Yeah…"
 
 

"Good, because I don’t want anyone else but you, sweetie on Ambler. You’re the best."
 
 

"I am, aren’t I?" Angie answered with a grin as Rollie kissed the tip of her nose.
 
 

"Yeah, top notch…now- Mira called and told me that they have expanded the search after some sightings of children apparently northside…"
 
 

"Oh God! Why would they be up there?"
 
 

"Like I said, just some sightings, probably nothing. Let’s just get through this tonight and we can start fresh in the morning, okay?"
 
 

Angie sat up on the bed and grabbed Rollie’s hand tightly as he hugged her to him. He had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach even as he tried to reassure her.

Angie pulled the van around the corner, into the alley about a thousand yards from Stefano’s. With Ambler picking up Rollie’s tracker, she was comfortable. The thermal scanner was activated as well and Elena watched the video monitor of the interior of Stefano’s on a relay from Stefano’s own security camera. She would be able to see the whole thing go down, thanks to the relay patch that Rollie had set up between Stefano’s security camera and the monitor in the van.
 
 

Since their exchange that afternoon, neither woman had spoken again about their argument in the van. Instead, they made comments only when necessary to each other, business as usual. Angie watched as Serrano made the signal for Rollie and Dingo to enter the restaurant and with a quick look to Rollie, she told him everything and nothing at the same time. He smiled, acknowledging that look, and the love that swelled inside his heart for her. Elena watched the brief exchange between them and cringed. Dingo Tyler had basically set her up once again with this obvious lie of marital discord and she would take it out of his hide after the exchange was over.
 
 

For their part, Rollie and Dingo seemed to be the most relaxed of everyone involved. They took their places at the table near the back, close to the kitchen. With everyone checked into place, they waited.
 
 

Lindquist was late but then, they expected some degree of lateness owing to the fact that Lindquist would be watching for FBI involvement. With the agents as waiters, busboys and doormen, hopefully they would remain unnoticed. Serrano was chewing on a pencil as she watched the monitor inside the van. Angie could see that Rollie and Dingo had ordered drinks and waited.
 
 

A white Lexus pulled up to the curb in front of the restaurant and Angie’s eyes widened as she pointed to the screen; "There he is, there’s no mistaking that white hair!"
 
 

Elena Serrano bit her lip and she told herself to control the knee jerk response to just take him at the front door. She noted his goon, a very tall, beefy-faced man who accompanied him as they entered the restaurant. The Lexus stayed double-parked out front with a driver.
 
 

Rollie saw Lindquist first and nodded to Dingo who turned and stood up, greeting him with a firm handshake. Rollie frowned as he looked up at Lindquist who smiled at him and sat down next to him with the security goon next to Dingo.
 
 

"So, you have what I want, I see…" he told Dingo, smiling slightly and letting Dingo know that his breast pocket contained the money that would be exchanged.
 
 

Dingo had the case on the floor and pushed it over under the table toward Lindquist. Rollie could see that as Lindquist propped the lid with his shoe, the vials of heroin and rhus toxicondrum could be seen adequately. Every vial was accounted for except for the vial that Rebecca Gatti had taken. A substitute vial had been placed inside in its place.
 
 

"So, Mr. Tyler and Mr. Tyler, we all meet, have drinks and take care of business cordially and efficiently," Lindquist said with ease as he raised his glass.
 
 

"Yeah, pleasure that is, doing business with you!" Dingo replied, winking.
 
 

"I’m not sure why you needed to see me, Mr. Lindquist?" Rollie asked suddenly and Elena scowled inside the van.
 
 

"What the hell are you doing, Rollie?" she said, her voice panicking.

Angie frowned but it wasn’t at Rollie’s remark. She was watching some activity outside the restaurant. The doormen had disappeared.
 
 

"Hey, Elena- I think you ought to see this!" Angie warned the Assistant Director who was vigilant to the inside activity.
 
 

"Be quiet! I need to hear all of this!" Elena snapped back at her.
 
 

Angie wasn’t about to let the observation she had made drop as she picked up at least five thermal targets converging from the back of the restaurant toward the front.
 
 

"Something’s going down!" she warned Elena who finally looked at the screen and then looked out the window of the van, seeing the entrance completely vulnerable. Her agents were gone.
 
 

Elena started to go toward the exit door of the van when several dark clothed men stormed the van with weapons aimed directly at the two women.
 
 

"On the ground!" one of them shouted as Angie went to the floor in an instance and another forced Serrano down to her knees.
 
 

Angie took one last look at the restaurant monitor feed before the dark operative pulled the cord from the monitor out of the power supply. She could see only a flash of movement, converging dark clothed and hooded figures surrounded the table where Rollie, Dingo and Lindquist were seated. She could see that the bodyguard for Lindquist had already been taken care of as she caught the slumped body on the floor- then the feed went dead.
 
 

"Who the hell are you?" Elena asked in a commanding tone.
 
 

"Shut-up!" was the answer to her question and the butt of a revolver was whipped against her head, sending her crashing to the floor into unconsciousness.
 
 

Angie stay plastered to the floor and waited. Weren’t they going to do the same to her? She could feel the nozzle of what had looked like an assault rifle in her back and jerked as the sound of gunfire resounded from inside the restaurant. Her thoughts, her heart cried out for Rollie.

Sarah Gatti was watching the news. Francis had gone into the kitchen with Mira and they were trying to prepare dinner. Sarah, for her part had no strength left. Her body had just refused to cooperate now after this past week of mental and physical assault. Francis had gotten their family physician to prescribe some Xanax for her, which she dutifully took but it still didn’t get rid of her fears for her children. She wiped her nose with a tissue and closed her eyes a moment, trying to remember each child, each distinctive face in her mind. Why were they all becoming so blurry to her? She felt the grip on her arm and the tugging and jabbing sensation on her hand and lower arm. She smiled, for Ashley always used to tug on her in that annoying way…now she was daydreaming of it fondly.
 
 

The sound of glass shattering on the floor from the kitchen awoke her from her drug induced haze and her eyes opened in surprise, the sound intensified by the cry from her own lips. Ashley was indeed standing in front of her, disheveled, covered in dirt and small bits of debris. Her hair was matted against the back of her neck and shoulders but she was most definitely there!
 
 

"FRANCIS!"