Disconnected

It was about noon when the last of the families arrived at the compound. The lunch dishes were cleared away and everyone, including Gabe's men who worked with the boys as their mentors, was gathered there to start the planning for Josh's retrieval. Brett sat at the head of the table. The parents sat at the table and Gabe and his men along with Hal sat or stood around the room.

"Okay everyone, now we start working. The first thing we need to do is do some recon via the internet. Sean and I are going to search for any evidence that Josh has been taken by them. Until we get everything we can and confirm it, we're kind of in a holding pattern. I can only say to try and relax until we get the info."

"Brett, Bill and I are available to help with the search."

"Thanks Eric, that's a good idea. You can go with Sean and me in my office, and we'll see what we can find out."

He looked at the rest of them. "As soon as we get confirmation, we'll reconvene and start making plans to extract Josh."

With that he motioned to Sean, and Brett and the other two men followed them to the office. Brett opened his laptop and had Bill sit at his desk to use it. Sean set his laptop up for his dad to use and sat it on the edge of his table next to him. Brett and Sean took their places in front of the two workstations that Brett had built since he had been working with Sean. They had decided it was easier than carting Sean's desktop up and down the mountain. Sean put his two MYO's on and his Emotiv and got ready.

"Okay, Sean, now you will need to be as careful as you can. These people will most surely have someone monitoring their internet security. I will give you the information to get to the location that I want you to go to. Eric and Bill, I'm going to keep you guys on the periphery of where we are going. You're going to be working with Mac. I called him this morning, so he is up to speed. He'll let you guys know what you need to do."

Brett grabbed a couple of headsets from his desk and piece of paper that had name on it.

"Plug the headsets in and use that name to connect with Mac. He'll direct you at that point. While you're working with Mac, Sean and I will be working on breaking into GRA's systems. Let's be careful everyone, we don't want them to know that we're onto them."

He received nods of acknowledgement and they began. He and Sean set up a voice to voice communication over the internet, so that they didn't have to keep turning to talk to one another as they began their work. Brett told Sean the URL and Sean entered it and began to work at it with Brett keeping an eye out for anyone that might discover them. The silence in the room was only broken by low voiced comments as each to them talked with the people that they were working with. Sean was having some trouble trying to get into the system. Then he noticed that there seemed to be another system connection. He asked Brett about it and they both checked it.

"Brett, do you know where this place is located. It's in DC right?"

"Yep. We know they are in the National Academy of Sciences building."

"Okay, I've got an idea."

Sean did a quick search and then went looking in the systems for the National Academy of Sciences. He got through their system within a few minutes and was hunting around.

"Found it. I've got a way in and I don't think they know about this. It looks like someone made some link that I don't think anyone knows about. It's some kind of backdoor between the two systems. I think I can use it to get in. There doesn't seem to be as much security on it."

Sean focused in his attention on the link and got to work once again. A few minutes later Bret heard, "I'm in."

He gave the information to Brett and the two of them began to travel through the system. There weren't a lot of computers set up on the server and they began sifting through them to figure out what was what. They found the security system and Brett started to work on that while Sean kept searching. He found a computer that seemed to have a bit more security and started hacking into it. He was soon into it and began sifting through it. He found a list of files, each of them password protected. In the first one, he found schematics to the offices. He sent them over to Brett and they both stopped what they were doing and looked them over.

They saw the entrance in the office above and the elevator that led below. They saw that there were a not a lot of rooms. It was easy to see which one was Marcus' office. While they talked Brett put the schematic into a program so that he could make notations on it as they figured out which room was used for which purpose. They soon had an idea of what the rooms were used for and using that Brett went back to his work on the security system. Sean continued to look through Marcus' computer. He got into the email and he found emails that confirmed what was going on.

"It was them."

His announcement caused the others to pause and look at him.

"There are some emails between Marcus and some other guy named Lloyd. Marcus sent him some info about Josh and Eric and their address. There are also some emails between Lloyd and Marcus with some pictures attached."

Sean looked at the attached pictures.

"The pictures are of Josh and I can see some of us in the background. It was taken at the basketball courts at the park. I think it was a couple of days ago. There are also some emails between Marcus and some guy named Archer."

"That's Hank Archer, the head of the GRA. Is there anything about where they have Josh?"

"Not yet."

"Let me know. I'm going to keep trying to get into this security system, I'm sure they must have some security cameras inside."

"Do you need me to help?"

"No, you keep going through his system and get everything you can from him."

Sean nodded and got back to work. They went back to the low voiced comments as they made their plans. It was another few minutes later that Brett broke the silence. "Yes! I found him."

The others stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Brett's monitors. On one of them they could see a figure lying on a cot in a room. The room held just a cot. The figure shifted and they could see that it was Josh. He looked like he was asleep. They worked for a little while longer until Brett called a halt to the work. They had been working for two hours straight and they had what they needed to put a plan together and they needed to get working on that. Sean and Brett transferred information to their laptops and left the office. Brett told Gabe to get everyone together in the living room. Brett hooked his laptop the huge flat screen TV in the room and waited until everyone was there before he began.

"Good, everyone's here. First the good news, we found Josh."

There were some guarded smiles on several faces.

"The bad news is that they do have him. Bring up the security video picture."

Sean entered a command and the picture of the cell with Josh asleep on the small cot came up on the screen. Jamie made a sound and stood up from where he was sitting. Brett put his arm around him and pulled him close.

Eric spoke up. "Where is that?"

"That is within the office of the GRA in DC. It is located below the National Academy of Sciences building. Sean, bring up the schematic."

Sean typed on the computer and the picture of Josh was replaced by a floor plan of the NAS building. Brett walked over to the TV so that he could point out locations as he talked.

"There are several entrances to the building. The main entrance on the south side, one on the west side, these two entrances on the north side, here at the north courtyard and this one that is the lobby entrance to the auditorium. This room is the entrance to the GRA. Once through these doors there is a guarded entrance. Show the picture Sean."

Sean brought up a picture of the guarded entrance. There were two security guards behind a glassed in both.

"As you can see there are two guards here. To get inside this room, they have to swipe an ID card outside the door. From what we have learned, the ID card is shown to the guards and then the person must give a retinal scan. They are then allowed inside the glassed in area and they can take the elevator downstairs where they come into this area. Next picture."

There was now a picture of a plain entrance lobby. From the lobby there were two doors.

"This door leads to a couple of offices and a conference room, one of which is Marcus Kelly's. Show the next pictures."

There were several pictures of the office area and conference room. There were none in Kelly's office.

"Down the other hall are a few more rooms. One of which is the locked room that Josh is being held in. There is also a security office and another is where the computer servers are located, there is also a small room that has some lab equipment."

As he spoke Sean showed each of the rooms ending with the picture of Josh.

"Okay, so how do we get him out?"

"That's what we have to work out. Now that we know where he is, we believe we can get him out."

"How soon?"

"As soon as we can put a plan together Eric."

"I want in, he's my nephew."

"I understand. We're going to start planning after dinner. Dinner will be ready in thirty minutes."

After dinner Brett gathered Gabe, Eric and some of the other men and brought them into his large office. The boys and their parents were left to their own devices. In the office, the men gathered around Brett's desk.

"Okay Gabe, how do we get from here to DC, into that building, get into the GRA offices, grab Josh and get back out and bring him back here safely?"

Gabe chuckled a little. "I'd love to say it would be simple, but we know it won't be."

He looked at the print out of the map of the NAS for a few moments before saying anything.

"The closest to their guard post, is through the west rotunda entrance. From here it's through the corridor, this gallery and to the entrance doors. The main problem is to have an access card and a retinal scan to get through the guard post. Once past them we need to get down below and then be able to get back up and out. We have at least the two guards up top and we have to assume there are some down below. How many, I'm not sure. We've seen a couple of guards in the lower area and like those at the top, they are armed. So we have to get by them to get him."

"Yeah, and if any of those bastards had anything to do with taking Josh and shooting me, I'm okay with taking them out to do it."

"I understand Eric, but we can't go in guns blazing. The best would be for us to go in, snatch him and get out without leaving a trace."

"Yeah, I understand, but like Mister MacLeod said, if they found Josh, then they'll be looking for the others. What happens then?"

Eric looked at Brett and Brett could only shake his head. "I don't know, but we have to do what we can to protect all of them and that begins with Josh. Let's get to work."

They focused their attention on the map and the other information that Brett and Sean had pulled together and started to discuss strategies.

The boys were outside in the barn, just hanging out. The main reason was that they were there to support Jamie who looked decidedly worried. He was absently scratching the head of the one of the horses as he stared at the wall. They didn't know what to say to him. They were all worried. Suddenly Jamie turned around and they were all surprised by the anger on his face.

"This is wrong."

He walked past his friends and headed to the house at a fast walk. His friends were right behind him. Jamie pushed opened the door and walked in, his friends continuing to follow him. He went to the door of the office and reached for the doorknob to turn it. It was locked. Jamie stepped back and shoved his hands out as if he was pushing someone away. There was a crack and the doors flew open. The men in the room whipped around to see who had kicked the doors open. They were all shocked at the group of boys standing in the open door. Jamie was in front. Behind the boys, the parents were starting to gather behind them.

"Jamie. What is the meaning of this?"

"Dad, we have to be a part of the rescue."

"What?"

"You can't pull this off without us. You need us."

"Jamie, this is too dangerous...."

"Dad. We've been training for the last few months. Sean's ability allowed him to find the information about Josh and where he was. We need to move fast, in case something happens to Josh, before we get to him. With our abilities, we can help you get to him."

Brett stood up. "Jamie it's too dangerous. We can't bring you anywhere near to them. If something happened and any of you were caught, then we'd be going through the same thing all over again."

"Then make sure we don't get caught. What matters is getting Josh out safely. We...." Jamie gestured to his friends around him, "....can help you get him out."

"Jamie, Gabe and his men are trained professionals. They've done this kind of thing before. They'll get him out, without any danger to you."

"Dad, I know and normally I know that they could do it and I know that they could do this, but with us along, things are easier. We need to be part of it. With us along I know we will get him back. Sean can do his computer magic. If I can move a big bulldozer, then I can kick a door in. Ethan can read their minds, Dylan can tell what their feeling and maybe even distract them. Ian is probably the best combat medic there is, no offense Doc."

Doc smiled. "None taken."

"Logan could pull information out of objects, Dakota is our best warrior. We are practically a strike force on our own. Together we are better than we are separately. You have been training us. You must have had some idea of what we could do."

Brett looked down. He scrubbed his face as he turned to face the window before answering. "Yes, I admit that once I found out about your gifts I thought that when you were older and had perfected your gifts, you could help bring the GRA down."

He turned back to face them. "But that was when you were older, not now."

"Well, now they have one of us and we can't let them keep him. We need to use everything we can to save Josh; otherwise something might happen to him. You need us now, not later."

Jamie looked at his dad waiting for an answer. Inside Brett couldn't help but see that what Jamie said did make some sense. He looked at Gabe who had his back to the boys and their parents. Gabe raised both eyebrows as if he was shrugging his shoulders. Brett let his head drop.

"Dad, I know what you're thinking. We know what can happen, but they can't stop us. They don't know what we can do and we can get Josh back. If we work together, we're a team. The eight of us are connected like they could never be. We can do this."

"What do you think Gabe?"

He shrugged and looked at the boys. "Your son does have a point. We have been training them. The training that they have with their gifts could help."

"Wait a minute. You're not seriously considering this?"

Everyone looked at Claire, Sean's mom. "I mean, they're just boys. They are trained soldiers and you said that these people have guns. What will keep them from shooting one of them? We know that they are ruthless, so what's to stop them from hurting one of our boys?"

She was looking at Brett and his men, but her attention was drawn back to a young voice that answered her. "They can't hurt us, because I won't let them. I've stopped bullets before when I didn't know what or how I was doing it. I didn't even know that I had stopped them, but I did. I'm sure you know that some gangbangers did a drive by on me twice. One of them was a random attack, and I was a target of opportunity. The other was on purpose with the intent to shoot me. Both times multiple shots were fired at me, but I was never hit, because I unconsciously deflected or stopped the bullets from hitting me. In fact, from what we have learned I sent the bullets back at the ones who were trying to shoot me. Now that I know what I'm doing, I have better control."

"But you're just kids...."

"Mom, we have to do this. Josh is our brother and we can't leave him in their hands for them to find out what he can do."

The faces of every parent were filled with worry, but no one said anything more.

"I know this sucks, but if we don't stop them now, we're going to be looking over our shoulder for these people. They should not be able to kidnap people for no reason. This is not something that should happen in our country, but it did and we can stop it. Before we do anything else, we need to get Josh back."

"I don't like it, but we should probably to get back to work. Come on in boys and let's figure something else. I promise all of you that we will take every precaution to protect them and keep them out of the line of fire."

The parents didn't like it much, but the boys were determined and they were not going to allow anyone to stop them. Wyatt was the first to accept it and he ushered his wife back to the other room. Slowly the others joined them until it was just the boys at the door and the men in the office. Brett waved for them to come in.

He looked at his son as Jamie walked over to stand beside his dad. "Next time, could you just knock?"

Jamie gave his dad an apologetic look. "Uh, yeah, sorry I got mad."

"That is why we train you, so that you can exercise enough self-discipline to not use your gifts in anger."

Jamie looked at George Nim, "Yes sir."

"Alright, let's get to work."

The boys joined the men as they started working out a plan to get Josh back. Gabe's idea of coming in from the west seemed to be the best. What they were most concerned with is whether they should go in during the day and act like tourists who got lost originally or should they go in at night. Going in at night would give them more time and there would be less people there both in the NAS and the GRA. After some discussion they decided to go in as a school group that got lost from their group. The boys would wear their school uniforms and the men would pretend to be chaperones. They also decided to form two teams, one would monitor, while the other would be the group that entered the facility to get Josh out.

The monitoring team included Sean and Brett to handle computer overrides and monitoring. With their powerful laptops they would hack into the GRA computer systems using the backdoor accounts that they had built. Their job would be to handle overriding any electronic monitoring such as the security cameras and allowing entrance via the electronic security, such as the ID card activated locks, the retinal scan and any metal detectors. Brett would handle metal detectors and security cameras in the NAS and security cameras in the GRA. Sean would handle all entrance security in the GRA since it was a more powerful security system and he had already broken into it. Logan would stay with them since his gift would not help much initially. Later he may be able to pick up some information from anything that they found in the rooms of the GRA. The men staying behind would be Doc, Eric, under protest, but he agreed when it was pointed out he may have some problems because of the large amount of blood that he had lost after being shot. This required a little persuasion on Gabe's part before he gave in. The other men staying behind would be Patrick, Luke, and Aldo. They were held back because their particular skills weren't needed except as necessary to come to the aid of the entrance team.

The entrance team would be Jamie, Ian, Dakota, Ethan, and Dylan. The men with them would be Gabe, George, and Jim. Gabe because he was team leader, George because of his hand to hand skill and Jim, because he was good at persuading people to help him out.

Mac had arranged a safe house near Reston Virginia which they would use as a staging point. It was about 20 miles west of DC and was far enough away, but still close for what they needed. Once they had the basic idea he also had Mac arrange for two different vehicles. One of the vehicles was a large passenger rental van that would be used by the entrance team to keep up appearances of a school group on a field trip. The other vehicle was a panel delivery van. It would be used by the monitoring and backup team. From the inside Sean and Brett could do their thing and the others could be on hand as back up if anything went wrong inside and they were needed. To mollify Eric, Gabe asked him to be the driver for the passenger van and to wait outside for the entrance team to bring Josh out. He would go in, only if necessary. With him driving, they would not have to fumble with keys as they escaped, and if necessary they could call him to come in closer to pick them up.

Overall the plan was not overly complicated, but they discussed possible complications, such as more guards during the day and the possibility of guns being used. It was determined that the men of the entrance team would have concealed handguns. The boys would have to rely on their gifts, with Jamie being the most powerful in that instance. They also decided that Dakota would carry a telescoping baton. It was a weapon he had some training in using and it was easy to conceal so that would give him something to make use of if necessary. They figured that he could take one of the entrance guard's handguns once they got to them. The backup team would also have concealable handguns, because rushing into the NAS with rifles or submachine guns would not help to keep what they were doing under the radar. When they were fairly sure that they had the plan, they went back out to the parents to let them in on what was going to happen. It was nine pm, when Brett gathered everyone together. Gabe sent part of the team to get the gear together that they would need and load it into one of the SUV's while Brett talked with everyone.

"Well, we've got a plan and it is relatively simple. I want you all to know what it is, so you will know that we are taking every precaution to protect the boys."

"Brett, before you say anything else we had a meeting ourselves and we're going with you."

"Wyatt, you're not trained like my men, or even the boys."

"We understand. We are not saying that we are going with you to rescue Josh. We know that we don't have the training, but we cannot in good conscience stay back here, three thousand miles away and wait to hear from you about what happened with our boys. I don't know what accommodations you have made, but we can't wait here."

Brett didn't say anything for a few moments as he looked around the room. He saw that they all did not look like they would be budged from their position. He remembered how he felt being separated for all those years from Jamie and he found he couldn't do that to his friends. Finally he nodded.

"I understand, very well. We have a safe house that Mac has procured for us near Reston, Virginia. That is where we will go after we land. It also has the added blessing of being near Dulles Airport. We will use that as our base of operations while we are in the area. We will use a chartered business jet, which will leave from San Bernardino Airport tonight at midnight and will arrive at Dulles about 6am. The important thing to do is to make sure everyone on the team gets some sleep on the plane because we will be going to get Josh as soon as we get there. If we move fast we can hopefully get Josh out before they can find anything else out about him or us."

He looked around to make sure everyone was clear so far before he continued. "Mac has arranged for two vehicles. Since the rest of you are going, I'll have to arrange for another passenger van, I suppose. Give me a minute."

He pulled his cell phone out and made a call. "Hal, its Brett. I need you to contact Mac and get another passenger van....yeah same size...everyone is coming along....No, they understand and they're not asking to be a part of the operation, but they don't want three thousand miles separating them from their boys and I can't blame them for that. I know that I wouldn't either.....Yeah, that might be a good idea, since we'll need a little more room....We'll be there by 11pm....okay, thanks. See you then."

He closed the phone.

"Hal is at the airport making arrangements. We need to get something a little bigger than what I had originally planned, but everything is set up for us to go. Once we land, Mac will have the three vans waiting for us, two large passenger vans and one panel van, similar to what you see UPS using for deliveries. Ours will just be set up similar to what you see in the movies as a mobile command post, maybe not as elaborate, but it will suit our purposes. We'll first go to the safe house, gear up and then head to the NAS building. We will have two teams, the entrance team, this is the group going in to rescue Josh, and the monitoring team. The entrance team will consist of Gabe, George and Jim. The boys that are part of that team will be Jamie, Dakota, Ian, Dylan and Ethan. They were chosen because their talents will be the most useful in getting in and out. Jamie because of his TK, Ian because of his healing skill, Dakota because his ability gives him the ability to fight, Dylan and Ethan may be able to give us early warning of anyone who is hidden from us and Ethan can also act as the communications specialist between the entrance team and the rest of the team. That way we don't have to use any radios or cell phones unless it is necessary."

Necessary meant that in case Ethan went down and was unable to communicate with the others. The radios or cell phones would be used only in an emergency.

"Eric will be their driver and will wait outside in the passenger van. The command post van will be parked nearby and Sean and I will hack into the systems and control any security measures in the NAS building and the GRA offices. We will override security measures and control security cameras. Mac said that he will have all the equipment we would need to hack into the systems in the van and ready for our use. With us will be the rest of the team with Patrick driving the van. Logan will be with us since his ability is not as useful for the initial penetration, but he may be able to tell us things about what we may find in the offices once we have secured them."

Brett saw that Logan's parents had a relieved look on their faces, knowing that their son wouldn't be directly in harm's way.

"To get into the outer guard room we are going to pose as a school group and chaperones that got lost and wound up in the guard room by accident. We will take the guards out and proceed down the elevator, we will secure the GRA offices and do that with the least amount of bloodshed possible, hopefully none, get Josh, try and search the offices for anything that we can use to bring them down and then get out. We'll return to the safe house and then leave as soon as we can from Dulles for return here. Instead of going to your homes, we will need to come up here. Hopefully we get everything we need and we can use the information we find to do what is necessary to bring them down. That's the plan in a nutshell. For now, I think everyone needs to gather their things and get them loaded in the SUV's. We'll be leaving at 10pm"

When he finished people started getting up and heading to get their things. Gabe and his men left to make sure all the gear was packed that they would need. Thirty minutes later, they were on their way to the airport. It was a mostly silent drive. Everyone was nervous about what was going to happen. The boys were among the least nervous, although Jamie was anxious about everything, he was mostly anxious for Josh, not himself. He knew they would get him out, but he hoped that they hadn't done anything to hurt him.

At the airport they met Hal who directed them to the aircraft that they would be using. Because of the size of their party, they had to make a change to a Boeing Business Jet, which was about the size of a 737. The difference being that no one was crowded up next to each other and the seats could lay nearly flat to make it easier to get some sleep. While their baggage was being loaded they climbed the stairs and entered the cabin. Brett stopped to talk to the pilot while the rest of the party found seats. There were two attendants who saw that everyone was comfortable. Brett joined them when he was finished with the pilot. The men came onboard after parking the SUV's in the General Aviation Parking lot. The last aboard was Hal. Once everyone was secured the pilot got the plane started and headed down the taxiway. Since it was late at night, they did not have to wait very long before they were given permission to take off.

Once in the air, the attendant's made sure everyone had everything they needed and Brett told them all to get some rest as they had a big day scheduled for them in DC, while the adults attended their business meetings. Soon enough the long day and stress that everyone had been under since Josh had been taken, caught up with everyone and most of them were asleep. Gabe had the men work shifts of two hours awake and four asleep to guard everyone, even though during the six hour flight there should be no problems, he thought it was still a good idea, especially since all of the men were carrying their handguns with them and they were not packed in the luggage. He didn't want any of the crew to know that.

---

The first thing that he noticed was the headache he could feel when the bright light of the room shined in his eyes. He quickly closed them and rubbed his eyes for a few moments before slowly opening them once again. His felt light headed and he had a hard time concentrating as he started to look around. He found that he was looking at a wall. A voice behind him startled him.

"Hello Joshua. Glad to see that you are awake."

Josh slowly turned around until he could see an older man in a suit, sitting in chair nearby, smiling at him. He slowly pushed his way up until he was sitting up with his back against a wall.

"Where am I? Who are you?"

He felt funny and his head felt heavy. His movements were slow.

"My name is Marcus Kelly. I'm a friend of your father's from many years ago. We used to work together. I was sorry to hear about what happened to him. I hope you are doing okay."

"Where is my Uncle? Where am I?"

"Well, I'm sure your Uncle is just fine...."

"Why isn't he here?"

Josh couldn't figure out why he felt so funny. He felt a pulling on his arm and looked to find an IV there that led up to a bag hanging on a pole near the bed. He looked around and saw that the room looked kind of like a hospital room. Was he in an accident? Where was Uncle Eric? Where was Jamie? He turned back and tried to focus on the man in the chair.

"Was there an accident?"

When Josh said that, an idea came to Marcus. Inwardly he congratulated himself on his cleverness.

"Well, yes, there was. You were found unconscious. There was a gas explosion at your house and your uncle was hurt. We brought you here to this special hospital to take care of you and make sure you would be okay. You've been knocked out for several hours. You uncle was hurt, but I'm sure he'll be fine."

"Can I see him?"

"Not just yet, he's in an isolation room and we want to make sure everything is okay before we let you in to see him. Now..."

Something was nagging Josh and he looked at the man for a moment.

"What did you say your name was?"

"Oh, I'm Marcus Kelly. I'm in charge of this special hospital and I always like to check with our patients to see if they are being treated right."

Josh pointed at the IV bag. "What's this for?"

"Oh, just some medicine we needed to give you to make sure you were okay while you were knocked out."

The door to the room opened, a man in a lab coat came in and leaned down to Marcus to whisper in his ear as he handed him a piece of paper. Marcus nodded at what he said and took the paper. The man left the room. He looked it over before looking at Josh once again. He had a satisfied smile on his face.

"Well Joshua this confirms everything, I'm glad to say. You are who I thought you were. I'll be back in a little while. I have to make a call."

Marcus got up, just then the man's name clicked in Josh's head. Marcus Kelly, this was the guy that Brett had told them about, the guy from the GRA. Just before he left the room, Marcus saw a change in Josh's face. The drug that Josh was being given made him slow to try to hide the look of recognition. Marcus saw Josh's eyes widen a little as he looked at him. Marcus stopped at the door and gave Josh a calculating look. He could see Josh trying to hide it, but Marcus could see the evidence on his face.

"Well, how interesting. You know who I am? Who told you? Your uncle, or maybe your parents? Well, no matter. This makes things a little easier. We thought you were dead, but thankfully not. We have been looking for you for many years and if your dad hadn't killed himself, we may have never found you. Lucky for us he did."

He closed the door and faced Josh. "How much did they tell you?"

Josh couldn't say anything. He was scared and he started to remember the men in black clothes in his house.

"Never mind. If I were you, I would cooperate with me. I have a lot of questions for you and I'm sure your answers will be very enlightening. I've seen your school records. You're an intelligent boy. Make the intelligent choice and help us. It will be easier if you do."

Marcus turned back to the door and opened it. He made a decision to put the boy off balance and looked over his shoulder with a smirk.

"Oh, don't worry about your uncle. My men took care of him. He won't be interfering with us."

Marcus went through the door and Josh could hear the lock click. He knew he was locked in. What did he mean they took care of his uncle? Was he okay? He got more scared because he recalled the men in his house and remembered that they had guns. He lowered his head and started crying. He had no family left now. He was all alone.

Marcus was at his desk and he checked the video feed from the Josh's room and smiled as he saw his head go down. Perfect. Now that he has nowhere else to go, we'll make him dependent on us. He picked up the phone and made a call.

"Hello Mister Archer.....Good news....Josh is who we thought he was....Yes sir, I agree. That could mean the others may be out there somewhere as well.....We know he and his parents survived and went into hiding. The others may have done that as well.....Well, we never could get any DNA, because the bodies were too badly burnt and there was no evidence left of the children. So it was logical to assume that they had been completely consumed by the fire. Now we have proof that they probably survived and went into hiding.....Yes sir, I've already got people searching and looking into it.....Yes sir, I'll have him out there late tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.....Thank you sir. I'll see to it personally.....Goodbye."

Marcus hung up and looked at the crying boy in the video feed. Finally, with the boy in their hands, they could study him extensively and see if he held any clues to what MacLeod had done. Hopefully he could give them clues to where the others were located as well. Then they could round them all up. We'll get every bit of information out of him hopefully about MacLeod and the other scientists and then keep the boys and dispose of the parents when they are no longer of use to the GRA.

In his room, Josh became aware of two things. One, that he was hungry and the other that he needed to pee. He looked around and the only door was the locked door. He swung his legs off the bed and tried to stand up, but the first try he almost fell he was still real dizzy. He took a few breaths and then taking his time he stood up until he could brace himself on the table beside the bed. He started to move away and there was a pull on his arm. He looked back and saw the IV pole. He grabbed onto it and used it to slowly make his way to the door while also leaning against the wall as he made his way there. When he got there, even though he knew it was futile, he tried the knob. It was locked. He pounded on the door.

"Let me out of here! I need to use the bathroom! I need to go now!"

He continued to pound on it, not very hard, because he felt weak. A few moments later he heard a click and the door was pushed inward causing him to stumble back a little to get out of the way. He held onto the IV pole which helped him stay upright. He was still a bit dizzy, but getting up onto his feet, seemed to help him get some of it to go away. The person at the door was dressed all in black and he was wearing a pistol at his side. He looked like a policeman or something like that. He came in the room and took Josh by the arm.

"This way kid."

He allowed the man to pull him along. He was brought to a room that said restroom on the door. The guard pulled Josh into the room and then stood at the door and crossed his arms.

"Go ahead kid."

Josh made his way to a stall, pulling the IV pole along with him. He went inside the handicapped stall so that he had enough room for himself and the pole. He closed the door and lowered his pants and sat down. He let out a sigh of relief and was surprised at how tired he was. He finished and then got up. He went out of the stall and the guard was still standing at the door watching him. He went over to the sink and washed up. Seeing he was done the guard opened the door and took Josh by the arm once again. He led him back to the room and to the bed.

"Sit."

Josh was too tired to refuse, so he did. Moments later another guard came in with a tray of food. It was a McDonald's hamburger, fries and a coke. When Josh smelled the food, his stomach rumbled. The food was set down on the table by the bed and the second guard left the room. The first guard continued to stand there with a blank expression.

"Eat."

Josh picked up the food and took a bite. That bite seemed to make him realize that he was pretty hungry. He took glances at the guard as he ate. The man was pretty big and intimidating. He stood over six feet and outweighed Josh by seventy pounds. None of it looked like fat. Before long he was done and the second guard came back in to remove the tray. As he came out the man in the lab coat came in. Josh figured he was some kind of doctor. The guard went with him to the side of the bed as the doctor went to the IV bag and took a syringe out of his pocket. He uncapped it and injected what was in the syringe into an injection port in the line leading to Josh's arm.

"What's that?"

"It's just medicine. Now why don't you lay back and rest."

"But...."

Josh began to feel even more fuzzy and light headed. Suddenly he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore and soon he was out.

Moments later, Marcus came in the room. "How long will that keep him out?"

"Until tomorrow around noon I should think. The other mild sedatives that are mixed in the bag have probably kept him a bit fuzzy, and then with this, he'll be out for a while."

"Good, we're going to transport him to the facility tomorrow. We'll probably leave late in the morning. Make sure you have all the testing results delivered to my desk. When you come in tomorrow morning, check him over before we leave to make sure the drugs have not caused any undue problems."

"Yes sir, Mister Kelly."

Marcus gazed down on the unconscious boy. Yes, very soon, they would get some answers. They would do what was necessary to get those answers short of killing the boy. A thought occurred to him. Martin could be useful for this with his talent. He could probe the boy as they asked him questions. Even if he tried to hide his answers, Martin may be able to pull the answers out of his head. He would have to ask Hank if it would be okay to bring Marcus in on this. They had kept him out of the loop for some of the things that they did, but maybe this would be a good time to tie him deeper into the GRA. He'll talk to Hank about it when he brought Joshua to the facility the next day. Back in his office, Marcus made sure that he had everything ready to go and downloaded onto his laptop. He headed for home, very happy with himself.