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“What’s going on?” she asked with a bit of hesitance in her voice as she turned to the TV. For the next few moments we sat and watched the news broadcast. There was a strange power outage that covered half of the city. Evidently, they couldn’t figure out the cause or source of the power outage.

“That’s nuts! They should be able to pin point where the outage started. Shouldn’t they?” I asked aloud not tearing my eyes from the screen.

“If it was because of a storm of something, probably, but not if a person or persons CUT the power. Um…I gotta go out for a bit. I’ll be back.” She stood quickly and rushed to the bathroom with a change of clothes.

“Why would anyone cut the power?” I asked from outside the door.

“Hypothetically speaking, someone may cut power to a certain grid if they are attempting a robbery or rescue operation.” She answered as she opened the door.

“Wait. A rescue operation? Spill it.”

“Spill what?”

“You know, damn well, what I am talking about. Who is involved and how are you going to do it? I am going.” I grabbed a pair of black jeans and a black BSB t-shirt after noticing that her outfit was all black.

“NO WAY! You can’t. You’ll wind up dead.”

“AHA! So I was right, there is a rescue in progress,” I shouted from the bathroom where I was now changing.

“Uuugh!” she groaned in frustration. “You can’t Nick. It is too risky for you. In case you don’t remember…YOU are the one they want!”

“I’m going, and that is final.” I said as I now stood directly in front of her. I looked down at her and placed a hand under her chin. “I have to help my brothers. It’s my fault they are there to begin with. Please?”

“Everyone will recognize you.”

“I…DON’T…CARE!” I looked at her seriously letting my eyes plead with her.

“You’d be risking your life.”

“I’m aware.”

“Fine. Stay with me. DON’T LEAVE MY SIDE.”

“Deal.” With that, we were out the door and hailing a cab. We only took the cab for 10 minutes before we got out. She made us walk the next two blocks before hailing another cab. Then we boarded a bus for a short period before walking more. I had looked at her strangely, not wanting to question her reasoning.

“We can’t risk being followed or anyone figuring what we are doing,” she answered my unasked question. After walking the last six blocks, I looked up to see a huge swarm of people.

“Who are all these people?” I asked looking from the crowd to her.

“Backstreet fans, that are taking things into their own hands. Now come on. Hold my hand so we don’t get separated and remember, stay with me at ALL COSTS!”

“I know, I know.” I said nodding. I grasped her hand as she started making her way through the crowd. Scanning over all the faces, she looked like she was searching for someone.

“Kelly! Ah, I didn’t think I would EVER find you!” she gasped as we approached three girls that I recognized: Kelly, Erika, and Dani.

“You brought HIM with you?” Erika whispered harshly.

“He didn’t give me a choice,” Sarah whispered back. I just, kind of, stood there. I didn’t really know WHAT to do…maybe this WAS a bad idea, after all.

“I knew it was him, the day I saw the news about Bri, AJ, and Bay. How did I miss that before?” Dani joined with the whispering.

“It doesn’t matter. What is the plan and when are we going in?” Sarah, thankfully, changed the subject. The other three girls filled us in on what was happening. There were a few groups already set to work and everyone else was just waiting for their, respective, cue. One large group had been responsible for the power outage. Various girls were at each exit, and there were a bunch of girls inside trying to clear out gang members. Evidently, we were in the main group that would be going up to retrieve the guys.

“What is SHE doing here?” I questioned, pointing toward the front of the crowd.

“That’s Sharon. She’s leading the whole operation. Her brother is one of the gang members and she is rebelling against him because she likes the BSB better than her own family. Isn’t that funny?” Erika explained.

“Not really. Are you SURE her brother is the gang leader?” I asked as I started getting rather agitated.

“Yeah. I work with her.”

“That lying little bitch! She’s probably behind all this fucking shit! God DAMN it!” I cursed. I turned to trudge toward the woman but a hand, around my arm, stopped me.

“What’s wrong Blake?” Sarah asked me quietly.

“THAT is AJ’s ex-GIRLFRIEND!” I answered with furrowed eyebrows. “They broke up only a couple days before this whole fucking hostage thing started!” I explained. Anger filled my veins. I couldn’t believe this!

“What? Are you serious? Do you think she is setting us up?” her eyes were wide with concern as she looked to me for answers.

“Yeah, I am serious. I don’t know all the details of their break up, so I don’t know what she is up to. I am about to find out though,” I said storming off in Sharon’s direction. Sarah was right on my heels and was trying to talk me out of a confrontation but I don’t know exactly what she was saying because I was focused on only one thing. Once I reached the blonde, I grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the crowd.

“What the…?” she looked at me in confusion.

“What is this all about, Sharon, and don’t lie,” I looked down at her with squinted eyes.

“N…N…Ni…Nick?” she stuttered in a hushed voice as she leaned to look at me closer.

“Yes. Now, out with it. Are you behind all of this hostage shit?”

“NO! I…I…I just want AJ and Brian to be okay,” she hung her head. “I know that I wasn’t exactly the best girlfriend to him and I WAS a bit of a bitch to you guys...”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” I responded with the utmost sarcasm and a roll of my eyes.

“Look. I know that AJ and I are over, okay? I also know that I never deserved him, and I am sorry for the way I treated all of you guys. But I never would want him, or any of you, to get hurt. When I found out who was involved, I was pissed off! AJ and Brian don’t deserve this and the fact that the gang took Baylee…UGH.”

“Yeah, right, and I am supposed to believe you? You and Aje were engaged and YOU cheated on him!” I looked at her with wide, unbelieving eyes.

“I know,” she whispered, hanging her head. “But, to my defense, he was cheating on me, too.”

“Whatever.” I shook my head and turned back to Sarah, who had been standing behind me the whole time, “let’s get out of here before she has me killed.”

“Wait, Nick,” Sharon grabbed my wrist.

“What?”

“We are here to get them out of there. I’m not going to beg him to take me back, Nick. This isn’t some stupid scheme. As a matter of fact, I am not even going in there…he’s not going to know that I was the one who organized this. It’s a lot to ask, but trust me. For once, I am not playing any games, this is for real,” she locked her eyes with mine.

“I am going in with them,” I said pointing to Sarah and the other three girls, who just walked up.

“Nick! That would be suicide!” Sharon’s eyes, actually, flickered a bit of concern…I don’t think I had ever seen THAT before! I let out a frustrated sigh. There were a few moments of awkward silence.

“I’m aware. That’s a risk I will have to take,” I answered.

“Alright, if you’re sure. Let’s get to it. You guys are going to enter on the other side of the building. There is a grate a few feet off the ground and that is where you will crawl in. Once inside, you will find yourselves in the boiler room. Here is a backpack that has various tools you may need,” she handed me a small pack that I slung over my shoulder.

“And after we are in?” I questioned.

“You’ll have to go into the hallway and go down three rooms on the right. In that room you will find a back stairwell. Take that up four floors and go into the room directly across the hall. Hoist yourselves up into the air duct grate on the left side of the room. There is a map of the air duct system in the bag; follow the directions to the room marked, that will put you right next to the room where the guys are,” she finished explaining.

“Then what?” Sarah asked from beside me.

“Improvise,” Sharon shrugged. “There should be one guy in the hall, outside the door. As for how many are actually in the room…I’m not sure, maybe three.”

“Okay, let’s go girls,” I said, beginning to walk away.

“One more thing,” Sharon called out. “They have radios, so you’ll have to make sure they don’t get the chance to use them, otherwise you will have more of them showing up. You have a radio in your bag, too. It’s off right now, but you can switch it to channel 13 to reach us, out here. Channel 5 is the emergency channel and you can use it to contact the authorities. Once you take the gang members down, let us know so we can help get all of you back out past the others.”

“Got it. Anything else?” I asked.

“I think that’s it. Good luck,” she sighed as she watched me and the girls head toward the building. We made our way to the other side and looked for our entryway.

“Here it is,” Dani called to us. We all gathered at the grate that would provide our access into the building. Looking around at each other we all took deep breaths. I fished a screwdriver from the bag and set to work removing the grate. A few moments later, I was done and sticking the screwdriver back into the bag.

“I’ll go first; then help you guys in,” I said as I tossed the bag through the hole in the wall. Taking a deep breath, I hoisted myself up into the entrance and shimmied myself through it. I landed with a bit of a ‘thud’.

“You okay?” Sarah asked. It was, kind of, nice to have someone like her to be so concerned for me.

“I’m good. Give me your hand,” I answered, sticking my hand out the opening. One by one, I helped each of the four girls into the building. Now it was time to REALLY get down to business.