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Megan called Inspector Kiernan and put on her Velocity voice.  He informed her that the sensetive they were hoping to get a hold of would be able to help, around 9PM.  He gives her the address of the police vehicle impound where the car is and tells her that they'll be expecting her at the front gate.

*****

Colin links up with Chris after he and Matt looked around Rory's room.  They drove into the city and got to the impound yard around 9PM.  Chris introduces Colin to Inspector Kevin Kiernan, his partner, and they go to look at the car.

"Velocity will be joining us at some point.  She's got an interest in the case."  Kevin says, "She brought in the teddy bear the girl had been carrying, we've got that too in case you want to try and get a feel from it."

The car in question is the four-door sedan the Kansas State Troopers were transporting Katie Stone in.  Colin is a little shoked to see it's full of bullet holes.  There are still blood stains on the front seats, but none in the back.

"CSI tells us they were conventional 5.56 mm rounds from M-16 like assault weapons.  They used a crowbar on the back door.  witnesses to the assault say there were two black vans and maybe a dozen guys.  They were fast and efficient, and they were seen leaving the scene with a young girl that matches Katie's description."  Kevin relates the facts while walking around the car.  He stops to look at Colin, "No pressure.  Send some time with it, see if you can feel anything."

Chris puts his hand on Colin's shoulder, "Things get too intense, you say the word and I'll take you home."

Megan had told her mom she was going out to a movie with some of the other girls on the squad and so was suited up and on her way as Velocity well before 9PM.  She also had with her a store bag holding a brand new teddy bear that she hoped she would be giving to Katie later that night, but she knew that getting her hopes up was likely not the best thing to do.  Running into the city to the police impound site that Kevin had given her.  As she came to a halt at the gate, she looked at officer on duty there, who was still slightly surprised by her appearance despite the fact he had been told she would be coming.

“Hey, I’m here to see Inspector Kiernan, he here yet?”   She asked the guard as she tapped her right foot several dozen times in a split second impatiently. 

The officer in the booth presses the button that opens the gate.  "Over at the garage building, third bay from the left ma'am."

“Thanks.”  Megan replies with a smile and a salute from her free hand.  The moment the gate has opened enough for her to fit, she is through in a flash and off towards the indicated garage.  It is only moments later that she slides to a halt near where the Colin and the two officers are standing. 

“Hey, hope you haven’t gotten started without me.”   She says, managing a slight grin, though as she glances at the car and the bullet holes, she realizes that this might not be the best moment for levity.  The sight makes her feel doubly guilty now, both for having placed Katie in a position that those after her could more easily locate her, but also having put the lives of two police officers in danger in doing so as well.  The grin is gone almost as quickly as it was there as she holds the bag with the new bear behind her.

Colin looks at the car, a deep frown on his face. He has watched CSI like anyone else, but this is so... intense, yes, that's the right word.

But if I run out of here, who's gonna help Katie? I'm the son of Jonathan Crow, I don't run away from danger. I stay, grit my teeth, and do my best to help people out. That's what I do.

Velocity suddenly appears out of nowhere. He nods at her, trying to look way more assured and professional than he is.

He circles around the car and then turns to Chris and Kevin.

"Can I ask you a couple of questions before? If you can't or prefer not to answer me, I'll understand. Were there other cars? Or twelve men trained, armed and equipped for war were sent after two cops and a little girl? Also, you said that you found a tracker on her teddy bear. If you had it, how did they know where to strike?"

Megan was slightly surprised to see Colin there, the “sensitive” the PCD had said they would get, but she plays it off and watches as he circles around the car before asking the two officers a few questions.  When he mentions the police finding a tracking device in the teddy bear, she suddenly cries out.  “I knew it!”

When they turn to look at her she gets a slightly sheepish look for interrupting and quickly replies.  “I had Katie leave Mr. Bear behind because I thought they might have done something like that.”  She then lets out a sigh.  “I should have let her stay on the streets like she wanted, they probably couldn’t have found her and the officers that were injured would not be in the hospital.”

"Mr. Bear? Oh, thank you. I was going to ask you if you knew how she called him. I hope it hasn't been damaged too much retrieving the device."

Colin looks at her for a moment.

"You shouldn't blame yourself. You tried to help her."

"Just the one car." Chris begins, "It seems reasonable that the witness statements were wrong, as they often are.  If there were two vans, we're thinking eight men, but your question still tracks.  Why so much for a couple of cops, and then why shoot the hell out of the car and risk hitting the girl unless they were trying to kill her, and if they were why did they take her."

Chris and Kevin share a look, this time it's Kevin that speaks, "This level of sophistication I'm not suprised they would be able to find out what car the Kansas State Troopers were going to use, then LoJak it to find out where it was.  All police vehicles are tracked, so these guys are high tech and well equipped.  The tracking device was custom and high end, but plenty of people could have made it.  We're thinking Ults-Terrorists or some corporation.  The question is, what's their interest in the girl."

Megan listened to Chris and Kevin, her mind running through the things she knew about Katie and she remembers something Kevin told her yesterday and also some things Katie had said and even some stuff she had once heard her father talk about involving some law suits his old firm was involved in.  “Umm, Kevin, didn’t you tell me yesterday that Katie had tested Rn Postive?  She told me these guys have been after her for like six months.  What if she had some sort of medical procedure or test done before that?  I…have heard that there is a big problem these days that if you have blood taken for test and things like that, the medical releases often have clauses that what is left over can be used for research and the like and often gets sent off to all sorts of other companies that buy the tissue and cells.”

"The fact that she's R-Factor Positive might have everything to do with this.  Unfortunately it doesn't narrow down the suspect pool any, if anything it broadens it."

Colin is barely listening. He thinks of a little girl prisoner of some kind of terrorists that want to use the powers awakening inside her. A girl so sweet to the point of carrying Mr. Bear everywhere, oblivious to the fact that her friend was betraying her. He feels a steely determination growing inside him.

"What can I touch? I don't want to cause any kind of trouble, but I usually have to touch things."

"CSI is done with it, it's all yours Colin."  Chris says.

Colin takes a deep breath, goes through the door that was unhinged with the crowbar and sits in the car. There has been so much terror and pain in this car he braces himself for what he's about to feel.

I've got to help her. he repeats himself.
I've got to help her. Please, I know that there is someone who loves Katie, please help me find her.

He closes his eyes, and opens them again to the ghost light.

When Colin opens his eyes he's not in the here and now.  He's looking at the world from jest slightly behind Katie.  The car is moving down the street, and he hears her voice say "The light's about to change."

The driver looks back at her then back towards the road, slamming on the brakes as the traffic light suddenyl goes from green to red.

The sounds of tires screaching announces the arrival of the vans.  Men pour out and the two policemen move to get out of the car, but the bullets begin to fly.  The world slows down and Colin's sight moves slowly around Katie clockwise, watcing the rippling trail of the bullets that pass through the car.  All missing her.  Some strike under her arms, one passes through her sweater, but most of them follow their striahgt lines and miss her completely, as if by some twist of fate or luck.  The policemen are not so lucky.

Colin's sight moves from the car as the world slows again to a still photo.  His sight crosses the ground and flies into the van, zipping from the open side door to the driver, then down to the ignition, where the key hangs.  The tag has a logo, and Colin commits it to memory.  His sight turns to see them carry Katie into the van, close the door and drive away.

Darkness closes in like the light is being sucked down a drain, then Colin is once again in the backseat of the car, sitting where Katie sat.  He sees the bullet holes all around him and knows that fate smiles on Katie often.

Colin as he comes back to the present, Colin is glad he sitting down, so no one can see him falter. He steps out of the car a little shakily, and gets out one of his notebooks. He begins to draw the logo he noticed on the van's key-ring.

"I may have something for you, but I'm afraid it's not much." He show them the drawing. " Does it say anything to you? It was on one one of the van's key-ring. I think the vision went out of its way to show that to me.
Katie... Somehow she knew. Maybe that's why they're so much interested in her. She... she knew how not to get hit by those bullets."

Megan looks at the bullet holes in the back of the car as Colin mentions what he saw.  “Wow, that might be it.  I mean, she did stay away from these guys for six months, while carrying around their tracking device.”  And then I go and totally mess everything up.  She thought again.  Why did she let me take her to the police? 

“But I would think she would have never let me taken her to the police if she could control it all that well.”   She adds quietly, moving over to look at the drawing Colin had made of the logo from his vision.

Chris and Kevin look at the drawing.  "We'll make a copy and run it through the system, see if anything pops up."  Kevin says.

"That's more then we had five minutes ago."  Chris says, taking the pictur over to get a copy made.

"I appreciate this Colin."  Kevin says, "You want to try the bear while you're here?"

She foresaw that the light was about to change. Maybe she foresaw about being shooted at and taken away too. Maybe she's a little like me, and those people want to use her for her gift like the witches used me. Maybe that's why her name came to me, because we are alike, and I really can do something to save her.

"Yes, please, let me try."

As Chris gives him the bear, Colin take a good look at it. He looks at every inch of it, he strokes it, he smells it, he tries everything that would hint at the stories and the adventures it and Katie went through together. Before he realizes it, he begins talking at it in his mind.
Mr. Bear, I'm sure you didn't want to betray Katie. They put that thing inside you, and you could do nothing, you couldn't even tell her. I'm sure she loves you a lot and you love her too. Please help me find her. Help me learn who has taken her. Help me get her safe.

Colin is standing somewhere unfamiliar.  Looking around he realizes it's a hospital examination room.  A man comes in, tall man with a friendly smile that reminds colin of a shark.

"Katie, I'm Doctor Granger."  He hands her Mr. Bear, "You've been really great today honey so I wanted you to have this."

Granger takes Katie's hand and leads her from the room into the hall.  Colin realizes it's not a hospital, but something else.  It's like an office building out here.  They walk to an elevator and go down to the lobby.  There they meet up with some people.

"Katie was very brave."  Granger says to them.  They smile as Katie goes to them.  "Mr. Oliver will take you back to your hotel, your flight leaves tomorrow so try to enjoy some of the sights in our fair city."

The couple and Katie are met at the door by another man, and they exit the building.  Colin looks out through the glass, he's sure he sees Lake Michigan.  This place has to be in Chicago.

Reality fill his vision, and he's standing back at the impound garage.

Colin wipes his eyes as he readjusts to normal vision.

"Can I have some water please? I think I have something more for you, But it's gonna take some time for me to draw you everything this time. Can we go to an office?"

When he finally has a chance to sit down again, he opens his notebook one more time.
"Mr. Bear was given to Katie by a doctor that examined her. He told her his name was Granger. I'm not sure what he did to her, but he said she's been very brave. Only, it was not a hospital. It was... I'm not sure what it was, it looked like an office building, except for that examination room. What I know is that it was in Chicago. Katie was here with a couple, the doctor talked to them as if they were her parents, but I'm not sure about that. They had someone, a Mr. Oliver that drove them around, and they were meant to leave the following day by plane. Maybe back to Kansas?  I can draw you an identikit of Dr. Granger, and a picture of how Lake Michigan looked like when seen from outside the building, but I only saw it for a moment. I hope you can use it to find the building, but my memory isn't that marvelous. I'd better do it now while I still have the details fresh in my mind. I really hope it can help you."

When Colin asked for some water, Megan was off in a flash, quickly searching around and finding a water cooler.  Filling one of the paper cups, a long and excruciatingly slow process, she was then back to Colin, giving him the cup.  She followed along as they moved where he started drawing again and explaining what he had seen with the bear.

She listened closely as he described sort of what she had suspected, though even more directly than she had thought.  Though what Colin had seen only seemed to raise more questions, such as why she had been her to be examined in the first place.  Though they now seemed to know a lot more, things seemed to be leading towards a more normal police investigation and nothing they could act on immediately.  For someone that was used to doing things fast, or at least some things, it was kind of difficult to just sit back and watch at this point.  Looking over at Kevin and Chris, she offered an idea that came to her.  â€œMaybe the Kansas police can find some medical records regarding her visit here at her foster parents?  That is if these people didn’t remove them when they went after her there.”

"I'll call the lead investigator on their end in the moring and have him look through what they found.  He might be able to place the logo too.  Good thinking Velocity, you sure you don't wanna join the force?"  Kevin says, making a note in his PDA.

"I'll call the airlines and run the names of her and her foster parents, see if I can get a timeframe for the visit."  Chris says, taking his cell phone and moving off a distance.

Colin finishes the drawings of Granger and Oliver and the view of the lake.  Kevin looks at them and nods.  "You do good work.  You should think about moonlighting as a police sketch artist after you graduate."  Kevin looks at the picture of the lake view for a long moment.

Chris comes back.  "Airline records show that Katie and her foster parents were here last year, during the spring.  Flew in on a Monday and out on a Thursday.  We'll start dredging hotel records next."

Megan feels a slight blush at the compliment from Kevin, but then shrugs.  “I don’t know, I’m not sure if I am cut out for all the real slow stuff that is part of that.  While we do seem to have a lot more now, it seems that it might take time to track it all down and such, and if you wind up needing a warrant?”   She tosses her hands up in mock frustration, but grins.

“Though I understand all the need for rules and such, I’m just used to things moving a bit faster I guess, like it taking less than twenty minutes to do three hours worth of homework.”

"Yeah.  sorry, I would have been happy with a quick answer too."  Kevin says, "But it's not in the cards I guess.  At least we have some clues.  You should get him home Chris."  Kevin comes over and extends his hand, "You've done good work tonight Colin, you should be proud of yourself."

"Before all of this started, I thought I wanted to become a news photographer. My real skill is with a camera. Now... I'm not sure anymore. Anyway, drawing following my memory is easy. Drawing following another's description may not be. I never tried."


Colin gladly shakes Kevin's hand.
"I don't know. I think I'll wait till we found her to be proud. The last time I was proud of doing something good it didn't end up well. I'm just glad I could be of help. I was a little surprised at first, I remember someone telling me that since I'm a minor doing something like this 'would be breaking soooo many regulations it's not funny'." he says, trying to imitate Chris' voice.

Megan only nodded in agreement with Kevin and then moved over to study the pictures that Colin had drawn.  She looks at the two men and then at the picture of the view of the lake.  She looks up and gives Colin a smile at his suggestion that he wouldn’t really feel proud until they found Katie.  “I know how you feel, but what you have been able to do so far is likely stuff that might have taken weeks or months through normal means of investigation, or never even have been learned at all.” 

She picks up the picture of the view of the lake and looks over at Kevin.  “You mind if I hold onto this for a couple hours Kevin?  I have some time to kill, so I can run around downtown and see if I can’t find the view.  I can drop it back off at the station when I am done.”

"Hey."  Chris says, "No one ever told me super powers change the rules."

*****

At Velocity's request to borrow the picture of the lake view he counters with having Chris make a copy for her.  "If you find it let me know.  I should remind you that breaking and entering is a crime, so please be mindful of that if you attempt to gain entry into the building."

"I'm gonna take Colin home."  Chris says, "What's the plan for the rest of the night?"

"Go home.  We have enough stuff to follow up on in the daylight."  Kevin says.

Megan frowns slightly at Kevin when he mentions breaking and entering.  “I know, don’t worry, I am just looking for a view like this, not going to try to do anything stupid, as much as I want Katie safe now.  So hopefully I find something, but guess I will have to see.”   She gives them all a wave and then is off, heading for downtown Chicago, starting about as many blocks in from the lake as she thinks the picture shows as she begins her search up the North/South blocks, moving further West from the lake as she goes.

Chris and Colin head home.  As they make their way through town towards Oak Park Chris is silent, lost in thought.  The city is dotted with street lights that throw light down on the drawing of the logo Colin has sitting on his lap.  It's a White 'C' with three 'tails' that are red, white, and blue.  As they come to a stop at a traffic light Colin sees something reflected on the glass of his window, turning he looks at the truck parked next to them.  It's a tanker truck, with the logo on the door and the shiny tank.  'Comet Biotech' is the name of the company.

*****

Velocity races along Lake Shore Drive looking for the right part of the view.  She finds it on the southern end of the city just North of Jackson Park.  It's a massive office building, but from the front doors the view is exactly as Colin drew it.

Megan stands in front of the massive building for a moment, checking the view one last time before she notes the address of the building.  Taking off to Jackson Park, she finds a payphone, drawing a few looks from the people out on the streets as it was still somewhat early on a Friday night and there were quite a few people out in the city.  Dropping some change in the payphone, she dialed Kevin’s number.  When it picks up, or goes to voice mail, she speaks into the receiver.  “Kevin, its Velocity, I found the view of the lake in the picture!”  She then gives him the address for the office building.

Colin shakes the heroine's hand before going. "It's just that... I thought I had saved someone before, but in the end I didn't. Now I am more careful. Good luck with your research, and your... job. You said you know how to find me if you happen to need a hand, so... goodbye."

---    ---    ---

"Chris! Pull over! Pull over!"
As Chris puts the car out of the way, Colin jumps out of the car, and takes him to the truck.
"Look!" He keeps his drawing up besides the logo on the tank.

There's no way I could have noticed it when I still needed glasses.

Chris takes out his notebook and copies dow the company name.  "Huh, that was a lucky break."  he says.  The two get back in the car and continue towards home. 

"I'm finding it harder and harder to believe in coincidences every day. I'm starting to belive this kind of things happen when I'm doing something right. What did mom say when you told her where you were taking me?"

"She didn't say anything.  She just put a hand on my chest and nodded.  I have the feeling she's starting to feel something about this side of you, this part of your life.  You're growing up, and that's a hard thing for a mother to accept."

"Ok, I'll run that down.  Thanks for the help, I'll be in touch."

As she hears the click of the disconnection, Megan looks at the phone questioningly.  “Be in touch?  How?”   She asked slightly annoyed.  Hanging up the phone with a bang, she looked around at some of the people that were making their way through the park and had stopped to stare at her.  Giving them a slight smile, she waved and then was off in a blinding flash and rush of wind as she started back home towards Oak Park.

She had plenty of time to get back, change and head home from the “movie”.  Then she could spend a hour or so crying the tears she had been holding back all day over the fact that Calvin was leaving.  Hopefully she could get most of that out of her system enough for the game tomorrow, though it was still kind of hard to get all excited about the game knowing he would not be there.

"I don't want to keep her out. She's my mother, and we've only had each other for so long. It's just... complicated, there are many things that I can't explain to myself either, but I got to accept because I feel them, and I don't know how to make her understand. I'm still the same Colin, or so I hope. What do you think I should do?"

"As we get older and our lives get more complex our relationship with our parents changes.  It's natural, even though you have these gifts, so it's to be expected.  I guess the key is just to not let her think you're excluding her from your life.  Not that she'd ever admit this, but I think that you growing up is taking her farther and farther from your father.  Part of her still holds onto his memory, and as you get older she's less able to do that.  Maybe she's afriad that at some point she wont be able to remember him at all."

Colin meditates on it for a while.

Maybe she feels like I feel sometimes, when it's like all my memories of him are blurred. Poor mom. I'll have to talk to her, let her know what's happening. Minus the worst parts.

He looks at Chris, wondering how he feels, talking about this, if he feels excluded too sometimes, when mom's thougths turn to dad. It mustn't be easy. He puts a hand on his shoulder. Big, tough, sweet Chris.

"Thank you." Colin says simply, meaning much more.