The four Boys sat huddled together in the back of the van; Brian hugging his knees to his chest, as Kevin leaned forward in a protective stance, while Howie and AJ leaned against each other with widened eyes. They were all terrified as the two mobsters dealt a hand of poker and the van sped down the darkening streets of New York to the piers beyond the Brooklyn bridge. Of the four, Kevin was the most defiant. "When this is all over," he snarled, "You're going to spend the rest of your pathetic lives rotting in jail."
The Goose laughed, pulling a cigarette out of his jacket's breast pocket. "And you thought I'm not supposed to be anyway?" he scoffed, "Where do you think I'm supposed to be right now?" he smiled leeringly at Kevin and lit the cigarette. Taking a long drag, the Goose closed his eyes and let the smoke trail out of his nostrils. "Yeah, I've been sent to jail a good three or four times, but they just can't seem to keep me in there... Guess I'm the new Houdini, 'ey?" Goose winked at Kevin. "Good thing you won't have to think about that in the future, huh? I could see where that could be unnerving for you, wondering where I am all the time, if I'm still behind bars or if I've escaped and I'm out after you somewhere..."
Kevin shrank back as the intent behind the words sank in. Even if Officer Bryant found them by some miracle... even if they all got out of this alive... the Goose would be back, if nobody else was. Nothing was going to stop this guy. Clearly he had a deep dislike for them, for whatever reason - if he himself even knew. Kevin looked at the other three guys -- Brian's pale face struck him as a perfect picture of what he felt inside. The three guys were cowering away from Goose with fearful faces. Kevin frowned. His parental nature kicked in suddenly. It was the part of him that commanded the other four around in situations, the side that Nick ebbed into when he whined and made Kevin come out being harsh and snapping at him. It was the side that made the fellas referr to him as Daddy Backstreet and that they went to looking for help - the part that made him the leader. He didn't like these guys - his brothers, his children, practically - being mistreated. He wondered where Nick was - if he was OK, or if he was even alive.
"Where's Nick?" Kevin asked bravely.
Goose laughed, "How should I know? Could be in the Hudson by now; hope he can swim."
"He can dive," AJ snapped.
Kevin gave AJ the Look (also from that parental side), telling him to be quiet. But Kevin didn't have to. The Gopher promptly leaned across and smacked AJ across the face with an intense velocity, leaving a searing red mark on AJ's cheek. Kevin felt his blood boil as AJ reached to cover the spot, and Goose snarled at him. "DON'T MOVE."
"Oh shut up," Gopher growled at AJ, "Nobody can take on the Hudson bound hand and foot - nobody. The current's too strong."
"But--" AJ looked hurt and shocked, his cheek blazing red, "You said you---"
Gopher laughed loudly, cutting AJ off. AJ shut his mouth quickly. "If you haven't figured it out yet, Mr. McLean, I said a LOT of things that just aren't true."
-----
Agent Bryant arrived at the hotel maybe five minutes after the Boys has been shepherded out the kitchen door by the Gopher. He'd even unknowingly passed the van as he drove like a speed demon from headquarters to the hotel, lights flashing with clearance through intersections. He'd thought of Nick when he'd radioed the call in because of the way he'd been so excited by that perk of Bryant's job during their drive to GMA. It made Bryant press the pedal all the harder, knowing he had to catch up to the Boys and figure out where Nick was. So much depended on that goal.
He swung the car onto the sidewalk in front of the hotel with ease, causing several pedestrians to duck out of the way, and leaped from his car, displaying his detective's badge to the doorman as he entered the hotel. "Federal Agent Bryant," he stated as he breezed past the guy, "Leave the car there."
The lobby of the hotel was still filled with girls. They looked up as the officer brushed past them with authority. The crowd had considerably cut back, no doubt most of them had gone home after the album release events were ended, but there were enough girls there to tell Bryant that clearly the Boys had not been seen leaving the hotel. That left only the back exit. As he walked past the front desk, the attendant ran after him in a panic. "Sir -- sir, you can't go in there... Sir..." The employee followed him down the hall to the utilities area and into the kitchen.
"Has anyone here seen the Backstreet Boys?" he commanded, his voice booming in the kitchen.
The front desk receptionist plowed into the kitchen right behind him. "Sir I need to ask you to leave, you're not supposed to be back here, this is private hotel property..."
Bryant whirled to face her, "God dammit, woman. I am with the FBI." He held up his badge in front of her eyes, "Call the damn headquarters and tell them Agent Bryant just broke into your fucking kitchen and see what they say why don't you?" The receptionist nodded, surprised by the venom in his tone. "Now--" he turned back to the waitstaff. "Who's seen the Backstreet Boys out here today? Anyone?"
Various waiters nodded absently. The chef wiped his hands on his food-stained apron. "I saw them no more then five minutes ago," the chef offered, "They said they was doing promotion down Brooklyn direction. They took off in a white van."
Bryant nodded, "Any thing seem strange about them when you saw them?"
"Not really," the chef replied, thinking, "They seemed a bit stoic, but that might've been because Nick wasn't with them. Said they was meeting him there. They had some funny lookin' bloke with them, though..." the chef thought back on the scene. That must be the Gopher, the officer thought.
Bryant turned and pushed past the receptionist, returning to his car. He looked in the rearview mirror at the array of equipment on the backseat. "Time to but this stuff to use," he murmured, turning the vehicle on and merging into traffic bound to the Brooklyn bridge.
-----
The inside of the Hummer was dark, the windows tinted. Outside, the light was failing, and what little he could see through the windows were fading to dark, hazy shadows that looked like ghostly images. He could tell they were parked, and vaguely made out that it was a lot, probably near a docking bay, where large wood crates surrounded the vehicle. Nick lay with his wrists getting chafed from the rope and pressing his forehead against the window, looking out at the world. He wondered how he went from being on top of the world that morning to being tied up in a stretch Hummer less than twenty-four hours later. Was it even twelve hours ago they had been on GMA? he wondered. He wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting in the Hummer, though, and had completely lost sense of time.
Nick had always been a happy-go-lucky guy, he'd never really thought about life as something that could end. As far as he was concerned, he was invincible. But for the first time this week he'd been thrown into a situation much bigger than himself and had been faced with the concept. Sitting in the darkness of the Hummer, he began to think about everything. He thought about his friends and his family, his career and the things he didn't get to do yet: sky-diving (if only he had the guts!), traveling somewhere he'd never been before, learning martial arts or how to cook a grilled cheese sandwich for that matter. He imagined a girl who he hadn't yet met, and children that hadn't been born, and sighed. His eyelashes rubbed against the window as he blinked, and he found himself noticing the sensation and imagining that he was ultra-sensitive to motion and feelings, imagined himself as Superman.
"Yeah right," he scoffed, remembering himself exclaiming excitedly that he felt like Superman to Bryant the night before. He hung his head to look at the rope that bound his hands and ankles. "I'm more like Stupidman," he mumbled, "Who was I kidding? I can't save the world. I can't even save myself." He closed his eyes and focused all of his energy on breathing.
Suddenly the door to the Hummer swung open. Nick looked up to see a large redhaired man lean into the car and leer at Nick mockingly. "Did'ja hear about the going away present we got you?" he asked, laughing into Nick's aguished face.
"What?" Nick asked, pulling his face away from the man. As he did, he noticed a van pulling up on the opposite side of the lot.
"There they are now," Red snickered. "Watch and see. I think you ought to like this one." He pulled back, slamming and locking the door behind him, and Nick watched out the window as Red approached the van. A tall, skinny man got out of the driver's side door, and he and Red laughed a moment before going to the back of the van and opening wide the double doors.
The first out was The Goose. Nick shuddered. That guy gave him the creeps every time he even thought of him. He thought for sure that the Goose was going to come torture him and he cowered down a bit in fear. But Goose didn't start his way once he'd jumped down from the van, instead, he turned and withdrew a .45 from a holster around his waist, motioning for someone to follow him. Nick's heart just about stopped as he watched Kevin hop down from the back of the van, his arms tied the same as Nick's. Kevin's head was held high, despite the binding, and he stood beside the van, allowing AJ to lean on him to hop down. AJ, too, was bound, and he was followed by a bound Howie, and then, to Nick's ultimate horror, even Brian hopped down to the pavement of the lot. Nick lurched toward the window as best he could, banging his forehead against it. "Brian! AJ! Kevin!! Howieeeee!" he yelled, bouncing his bottom and rocking as best he could, going crazy, wanting to save his friends.
-----
"See that Hummer over there?" the Goose motioned with his gun towards the car.
The four Boys looked. Brian squinted, something was inside of it... moving, banging against the window. His heart skipped a beat. "Nick!" he cried, "Nick's in the Hummer! Look he's in the window!!" Kevin's head turned to the window, and he, too, saw Nick. A flood of relief went over him as he realized that not only was Nick alive but he was right there. If he could just figure out a way to get to Nick, he knew that the five of them could come up with a plan of escape somehow.
"Yes, Nick certainly is in there," Goose laughed evilly, "When the Boss gets here in a few minutes, though, we thought we'd play a litte game. We want to find out if the Hummers really are an all-terrain vehicle like they claim to be." He looked towards the river. "Think it could float?"
Kevin followed Goose's eyes to the Hudson and looked at the Hummer. "Why on earth would you do that?" he asked, "Nick never did anything to you," he snarled, "He never did a single thing to you or any of your little minions, why are you doing this to him?"
"Neither did the Hummer," Goose pointed out. "See it's like this -- the insurance on the Hummer is worth quite a bit. So if it's stolen and destroyed it's covered. The Boss needs the money." He raised his eyebrows at the guys, "And something's telling me that Nick's got quite a bit of insurance, too. As do the rest of you. See, this was a pretty fancy set-up we had, even for Jack Taylor, but seeing as Nick was caught up in our little game... Well, that was beyond priceless."
Gopher smiled, "We saw on his insurance forms at the bank that he is worth a half a million in insurance."
"And why do you think that matters to you?" Kevin snapped, glaring at the henchmen, "The money doesn't go to you."
Gopher laughed, "We're not that stupid not to think of that. However it does go to the beneficiary." He looked at Brian. "Something tells me, Brian, that you'd be willing to give us that money to keep these other three guys alive, wouldn't you?" Brian swallowed hard, casting his eyes from the Hummer to the pavement below his feet. "That's what I thought. So... all that's left to do now is wait for the Boss and file the claims." He smiled menacingly.
Just then a black Lexus rounded the edge of the lot enterance and pulled to a stop beside the van. The Goose smiled, "Speak of the devil, here's the Boss now."
-----
Agent Bryant parked his car on the opposite side of the river and struggled with the equipment, carrying it down the slope to the sandy knoll below. He glanced at the book one last time and took a deep breath, preparing himself for the mission at hand. The element of surprise was everything - it was the only way that he could possibly succeed. Failure could spell fatal consequences for everyone involved. But this, he decided, was the only way. So he pulled on the wet suit and waded into the water.
-----
The Boss was a large Italian or Spanish man, which Brian couldn't tell. He looked a bit like John Travolta if he gained about fourteen pant sizes. The Boss wore the cliched pin striped suit, fedora hat, shiny Italian leather shoes, and enough gold jewelry to capsize a fairly large pirate's ship. He waddled - because that's the only word that could be used for what he did - over to the Boys and stood there a moment, looking them over, leaning on a thick gold plated cane.
"Boss, these are the other four Boys. Nick's in the Hummer," Goose supplied.
The Boss turned to look at the Hummer. "I wish to speak to him before we dispose of him."
"Yes sir," Goose jumped into action, handing his gun to Red and snatching the keys from him. "I'll take you over right now, sir."
Brian felt a knot rise up in his throat. "Don't kill him!" he yelled suddenly, his voice desperate and panicked. "Please, don't kill him! He's my best friend, he's practically my brother, you can't do this. Please.. I'll... I'll pay you. Anything, any amount. Just don't do this, please."
The Boss wiped a fake tear from his eye. "Touching."
Brian's emotions turned him inside out and he dropped to his knees, holding his stomach, trying to make the ache inside of it stop. "Get up!" Red yelled. Brian remained on the ground, breathing heavily with soaked gasps that wrenched from deep inside him somewhere. Red kicked Brian's hip, "GET UP."
Kevin leaned down, "Couz, you gotta get up. It's only making things worse to break down like this, it's going to be okay. I don't know how but we're going to make it be okay. Don't give up yet. Pray, Brian." Brian looked up at Kevin and nodded, struggling to his feet even as Red kicked him yet again. Kevin stood up as well.
"Ah a voice of reason," The Boss chuckled.
"Daddy." The Boss turned and smiled as his daughter, Isa, stepped up beside him, hanging her arms around his arm. She rested her head against his shoulder.
Brian's eyes widened, as did the other three Boys'. "What the hell?" AJ yelped, "What the hell is happening? Why the hell are you here?"
Isa smiled, "Didn't you know who my Daddy was?"
Brian glared, suddenly uncontollably angry. "You bitch. This is all because he broke up with you? How could you - I mean why would you - How could you --"
Isa laughed, "No Brian, it's not because he broke up with me, silly, it's just a really odd coincidence. Didn't you think it was funny that the mob's meeting place was directly across from where I work?" Brian hadn't realized it. But he remembered now that Nick had said he'd been at the vendor across the street from the pizza place when Brian had gone in to order the pizza because Isa was there. She'd been a part of the rondevous that was planned that day that Nick had inadvertantly become a part of, all while trying to avoid her. "It does, however, make the deed all the sweeter, doesn't it, Daddy?" The Boss smiled at his daughter.
"Now," the Boss said, "Let's go tell Nick farewell shall we?" he turned, then paused and looked at the Boys again as Goose rushed ahead to the Hummer. "Such a shame you all can't say goodbye to him as well. Oh well. I'll make sure he waves to you from the window."
-----
When the Hummer door opened again, Nick was expecting it. He'd watched Isa assist the Boss across the lot and heard Goose unlocking the door with the keys long before the Boss had actually arrived to the door. He'd seen the Boys ushered onto the pier by Gopher and Red, and watched as they were kept there. Brian's pleading eyes had been glued to the window and Nick had wished his hands weren't bound, he would've waved to Brian. So there before him stood the Goose, Isa and the Boss.
"So here's what we're gonna do for you today," the Boss said, leaning against the cane. "We're gonna end this whole thing right here. If you can get out of this Hummer, we're gonna let you go."
Nick looked at the door. It had an ordinary handle. There must be a catch. Nick looked at the Boss. "Let me go?" he asked, not daring to believe the words.
"But there's a challenge, see, it's part of the game." the Boss continued, "We're gonna push the Hummer - with you in it - into the river, and see what happens. If you get out, we're gonna let'cha go. But.. you won't get out."
Amazingly, Nick felt less afraid than he thought he would've given the situation. He glanced at the dock and imagined the Hummer careening wildly over it and into the Hudson, like seeing it in a movie or something. He hoped it wouldn't hurt. Then he saw the fellas standing there and his heart clenched. "What about my friends?" Nick asked.
"We're gonna keep them alive," Boss answered. "For now."
Nick looked at him, "Why?"
The Boss chuckled, "You're an inquisitive little thing aren't you?" he asked. Isa and Goose laughed at this, too, and Nick felt his cheeks burn hot. "If you must know," the Boss answered after he'd had his laugh, "I need Brian because he is the beneficiary on your life insurance policy, which is worth over a half a million dollars for your vocal chords alone." Nick nodded slowly, reluctantly. "See, the deal I cut with Brian is that they get to live as long as he promises to pay me. Thing is that we need a scapegoat for the bombing tonight at the Embassy. This is where they come in. Brian's gonna pay us your insurance money, and we're going to use the one with the stiff upper lip as our scapegoat. He'll go to jail, but he'll be alive, therefore keeping up our end of the bargin." Nick looked out at Kevin. Very few people, if anybody at all, would ever believe that tree-hugging Kevin had blown up the Embassy building.
Suddenly Agent Bryant's words played in Nick's mind. "First of all, you've got to remember details. Everything they say. Detailed." They echoed, and Nick realized that if he were to live through this somehow he would have to give an account of everything that the Boss had told him... and that this information could very well save his friends. And every detail would help.
"You're bombing the Embassy tonight?" Nick asked, furrowing his eyebrows. In his mind, he repeated the facts he so far knew: Brian. Beneficiary. Kevin. Scapegoat. Embassy bombing. Tonight.
The Boss eyed him, but the Goose laughed. "Hell yeah we're gonna bomb it tonight! At midnight. It's going to be a grand show, too, at that. We made our own bombs - really sophisticated things, thanks to our little science major here." He kissed the side of Isa's face, loud and sloppy.
"Quiet." The Boss snapped his cane against the frame of the door, silencing Goose abruptly.
Midnight. Homemade bomb. Isa's doing.
"What're you gonna do with Howie, AJ and Brian after you get the money?" Nick asked.
The Boss smiled, "Well they'll just know far too much to keep around. Unless they want to pledge loyalty to me..." he let his voice trail off and Nick looked away, focusing on the ties that bound his wrists together. "So now, for your final thought to embark upon the afterlife with is this... One by one, I will take out every one of the people you love. Enjoy sleeping with the fishes." The Boss leaned back out of the Hummer.
Isa looked at Nick, "Too bad you broke my heart, Nick, or I could talk him out of doing this." She, too, turned away and Nick closed his eyes as Goose slammed the door, laughing that horrible laugh the entire time, and locking the door. Nick leaned back against the wall of the Hummer and breathed deeply.
-----
Gopher pulled the wood blocks securing the Hummer in place and the wheels began to slightly turn as the vehicle inched forward slowly. Red leaned against the back bumper, leaning his weight against the car. Nick could feel it moving. The unstable feeling made him brace himself between the two walls, extending his legs as far as they would go and closing his eyes. On the pier, the Boys watched as the car began to roll forward, the wheels spinning faster and faster as it approached. Red landed on his stomach on the pavement. Brian closed his eyes, unable to watch.
Saving the Day for Blondes (AKA How Nick Carter Became Involved in a Terrorist Mob, Quite By Accident Really!, And Thereby Managed To Save The World For The First Time Ever, Much To Kevin's Surprise.) by Pengi
