CSI New York Episode XXIV Season 10

EPISODE XXIV: FROM JAPAN WITH FURY

Flack was running behind a tall man with a blue hat and mustache just mentioned, slowed and fatigued he threw glances at the parallel alley, where between a building and the other one was visible a black Chevrolet Avalanche who was running fast and it was going to overtake him.

A police cruiser appeared in the alley, by blocking the exit, but the criminal jumped on the hood before Jaime could stepping foot out of the car "Damn it!" she yelled.

Flack imitated the jump and he continued the chase out of breath, while the black car continued to follow Flack and the fugitive. The sidewalk on which the hunted was running was semi desert, the car began to run parallel to him and from it, once opened the passenger window, Mac threw himself and landed exactly on the fugitive.

On the ground the man wriggled and tried to get Mac off by himself

"Stop squirming! You're under arrest!"

"You'll never get me alive!" he said spitting out a capsule

Flack occurred just at that moment "Nice jump Mac!"

"Call 911 Flack, or goodbye Tobey Rowland!" Mac ordered him

"Damn! There is no line!" Flack complained alarmed

"What?!" Mac exclaimed shocked

"There is a  damage to a repeater! I called the unit with radio! Now the ambulance is arriving!" Danny said getting out of the

"Undo him the sweatshirt! He's going into cardiac arrest!" Mac said to Flack "If he doesn’t reach the hospital and they don’t give him an antidote he is dead!"

Back at the lab, Mac was besieged by Angela

"Inspector! Everyone can’t do anything, but talk about your latest venture! Is he still alive?"

"Again with the story of the promotion?! However, it went well!" Mac said coming into his office "You have nothing to do, do you?"

"Actually, yes, but I prefer helping you with the latest paperwork!" Angela smiled

" Would you ever you put in your mouth one lozenge of European viper venom, before starting to run chased by the police?"

"I would say no! In this way was that madman killing himself?" Mac nodded her and Angela went on "Wow! I thought I heard them all!"

"There's always something to learn Angela!" Mac said

"The media have fixed you a press conference or something like that?" Angela asked changing the subject

"Yes, but I don’t have time and so I postponed it of a month!"

"Obviously you've used different words!" Angela smiled mischievously

"I said something like: -Why don’t we postpone it until I have already done my job for a while? At least you will have something more to write!- Let's say you're right! I really used different words!"

Angela laughed watching Danny approaching the entrance

"We have a problem!"

"What kind of problem?" Mac asked abandoning the paperwork on his desk

"We are all locked in the building! We cannot get out!" Danny blurted out

"Which are the causes?" Mac asked puzzled

"They say that there are radiations at lower levels, in the morgue and in the safety vaults that we use for storing drugs. Sheldon, Isabella and the others were transferred to the upper floors. None of them has symptoms or has contracted radiation!" Danny finished explaining

"Maybe the system stopped flow, I can check it!" Angela offered by herself

"Thank you and let us know as soon as you have something!" Mac said dismissing her "Danny, instead, warn Jo immediately and call Flack! I want to know how is the situation where they are!"

Danny nodded and walked to lab’s internal telephones, he raised one of them then another, another and another, he observed a technical curse softly and slamming the phone on the table with energy. He saw Jo, who was trying to open the elevator’s doors without success and he ran to meet her

"Jo, Mac wants you! Something is happening here! The phone lines are all interrupted!"

Jo looked at Angela cursing at the computer "Not only that, apparently!"

Christine was in the back of the restaurant with J.J. and Erika

"This is the last time that I intervene to save your ass! Don’t you dare to call me for more missions of any level!"

Erika looked up at her friend "I didn’t want to call you! It was this moron!"

"What foul language in the presence of children! Not to mention that your rookie has given us problems, Christine! I'm sick of being told to you that she is young and I have to give her time!" J.J. said angrily

"Does it bother you that I'm trying to live a normal life?"

"Yes, and it bothers me that you do not know how to restrain your husband! When he sets with the investigation he becomes a threat to FBI! Remember is thanks to me if he still be alive!"

"I should interpret the fact that when I was forced to reveal him the truth it was a favor to me?" Christine asked upset

"You would have ended in the same way of White Rose! They have described you to the Detective –friend- of your Mac as a ruthless serial killer on commission!"

Erika looked at him "Why has anyone ever told me that?! Everyone knows that in reality Christine has been an agent since she was eighteen years old! I would have witnessed!"

"Erika!" Christine interrupted her "So the meeting with Mac that night was simply a strategy to kill us! You put in the middle Jo to kill Mac and me and then you have offered me a way out from which the only ones to have benefits is you!"

J.J. looked at her laughing "What did you expect, darling?"

"Get out of here before I slam you out with kicks!" Christine threatened him "You too Erika!" she added immediately after "I need to be alone!"

Erika looked down and she stepped out the back door.

Christine sat down next to her children, who were sleeping peacefully, when she heard a knock at the door

"Chris! There's a guy over there who wants to see you! He claims to be a Mac’s friend!"

Christine stood up "Who is he?"

"A certain... D.B. something..."

Christine cheered up "Let him come here, Stephane!"

Mac and Jo were sitting in the meeting room with Angela

"Bearing in mind that before they outage us the power, they have disabled us the external alarm and closed telephone communications and internet, on mobile phones too, I would say that we are dealing with professionals!"

"How serious is the situation?" Mac asked

"Sheldon says that there are at least twenty bodies below and that with emergency generator the refrigerators may remain switched on for a further two hours, two and a half hours if we're lucky! 75% of the instruments that we have in the lab cannot work! We won’t have more sunlight and we will be in the dark! In the lab there are twenty technicians, other thirty to the DNA plus all the team and the IT technicians!"

"We are here in more than a hundred and counting the secretaries of the upper floors we get on two hundred fifty approximately!" Jo did a quick calculation

"Mac! We have no more water!" Danny said entering

"Is there no more water?!" Mac exclaimed surprised

"In none of the bathroom where I have been!" Danny exclaimed "We also have another problem: what do we say to all those who are stuck in here with us and how we deal with families who do not know anything about what's going on! I know Lindsay, if she found the cell phone turned off she will be upset!"

"Even I had told Ellie that I would be back for dinner!" Jo sighed "What did you tell to Christine?"

"To wait for me nine and a half!" Mac said clenching his fists "Right now she is still quiet!"

"She is waiting for you in four hours! I'd be quiet too!" Angela pointed out.

Mac looked at a crowd of onlookers gather outside his office and Jo immediately rushed out to come back immediately "The phone in your office is ringing!"

Mac stepped out and walked with great strides the way that separated him from his office. He picked up the receiver and he held it to his ear "Inspector Mac Taylor, with whom I am speaking?"

"Hello Inspector! I know you have arrested a man yesterday morning! He was in hospital until recently and now they are bringing him to the penitentiary!" a man said with an oriental accent on the phone "Tobey Rowland was a partner in our business and we know that you have already framed us! You will know that we reserve a special treatment to traitors, Inspector! We love make us justice by our own means!"

Mac wrinkled his eyebrows "This State has already its own Justice! It will run its course just like for any other criminal! It is a matter of time and we will take you too!"

"We have our own law! We will comply with it by applying it to you, since you have Tobey Rowland!" the man hissed in his accent on the other end of the phone.

On the monitor the direct shooting of the hall where they had been transferred the members of the morgue appeared. There was a burst followed by a scream, a part of the room was flooded with smoke and someone coughed

"Reach the door, quick!" Sheldon ordered.

Mac watched from his computer holding the phone

"You still have time to decide to bring us Tobey Rowland! There aren’t only bombs in your building! There is much worse! Keep on looking!"

Mac didn’t take his eyes off the screen, Sheldon had brought out almost everyone from the room and the doctors were going up to the upper floors and soon they joined the lab technicians

"Isabella! Come!" Sheldon ordered to the blonde girl motionless with her eyes on the ground "What is it, Isabella?" Sheldon asked approaching. Mac continued to watch and he heard Sheldon exclaim "Don’t move! I am looking for something to kill it!"

Mac looked at the spot where Sheldon had laid his eyes. He tried to see what it was, but the point where the camera was located prevented him from doing it.

Sheldon returned with a metal tube that had detached from the ceiling and he struck with power "We've settled it!" he said with satisfaction.

Isabella was already looking up trembling "Sheldon! Get up very slowly after that you did it start running!"

Mac still couldn’t see what was in the hole created by the explosion

"Oh my God!" Sheldon managed to whisper "Let's get out of here!" he snapped running towards the exit pulling for a hand Isabella and that was when Mac was able to see a long thin shadow hang itself on the arm of the girl hearing her scream of pain.

"Did you see clearly, Inspector? The clock is ticking: your Pathologist has from five minutes to two hours to save himself! You decide what to do! We’ll put back in touch as soon as you come to one of the cameras and you will say to us that we will make the delivery!" the voice hissed on the phone before hanging up.

Mac rushed downstairs with Danny

"Hawkes, we are here!"

"Isabella don’t move! You will speed the effect of the poison doing so!" Sheldon whispered to her tying his belt around his arm "Mac, Danny! Help me! I don’t know which snake had bitten her!"

"I know which snake was!" Isabella said trying to sit up "Crotalus Tigris! The only way to save is an antidote!"

"Are you an expert on snakes?" Danny asked

"A little passion that my sister and I have from childhood!" she smiled "The snake which bit me is among the ten deadliest in the world! What luck, huh?"

"What other snakes there are in there?" Mac asked taking her in his arms and starting to climb stairs

"Black Mamba, Vipera berus, African Cobra and then I cannot remember! There were too many and all together they have scared me!"

Danny and Sheldon had surprised faces

"You have an incredible strength Mac! You are holding her perfectly motionless!" Danny said walking fast ahead of them

"I guess when you were in the Marines a snake bite was a daily routine!" Sheldon hypothesized

"Almost!" Mac limited himself to answer.

They reached the thirty-fifth floor and Isabella was still conscious.

Angela and Jo forded Mac lean, Isabella on a lab table

"Okay, now try to stay calm! Soon we will alert the poison control center and you can save yourself!" Mac told her holding her hand

"They will never arrive on time, Mac! You have to produce the antidote here!" the girl said

"How we can do it? We don’t have any instrument that works!"

"Start by taking a blood sample from me and to isolate the toxin!" Isabella whispered handing him the injured arm

"Sheldon do that! I took my decision! I don’t want someone to die!" Mac said approaching its office.

Danny stood before him like a fury and he stopped him halfway "What are you doing? We don’t have the custody of Rowland!"

"I intend to contact Flack! The precinct should not be isolated!" he went out and walked to one of the security cameras with a sign “Call me!”.

The phone began to ring immediately and Mac picked up the receiver

"I seem to have understood that you have filled up all of our rooms with tear gas bombs and display cases with poisonous snakes!"

"Not only that! I can guarantee you it personally!" the same man before grinned "If you called it means you've taken a decision! Will we have Tobey Rowland?"

"Yes! But I have to talk to a colleague of mine at precinct 12, he has Rowland in custody!" Mac explained

"Well! I grant you to go and pay him a visit! No missteps and don’t try to mention anything about what's going on in your lab! You don’t want to have other people on your conscience as the young Isabella Hammerback!" the man threatened "She could be saved as well, but I don’t think you have enough materials for all antidotes to the poisons of snakes!"

Mac looked up at the camera "I will do as you want! I will go alone, I will take the prisoner, I will bring him here and then we will arrange for delivery!"

"Well! From your eyes I know that you're not going to lie and betray me, but if you do so, it will be worse for you!" and the man hung up.

Jo watched by a camera Mac approaching Flack

"Don will understand that there is something wrong!"

"We're stuck in here with snakes in the air ducts, tear gas bombs and without essential goods! If Don realizes something, we are dead!" Angela reminded her

"Have you done a calculating of how much we can survive here?" Jo asked

"Not for long... we can use what we have in vending machines for a maximum of two days! Did you know that they haven’t filled them for two weeks? My favorite snack is over!"

Jo focused on the screen and she saw Mac discussing animatedly with Flack and Jaime stepped between them

"What are they doing? Just today Don had to ask questions and reply to Mac orders! What I would give to hear what they are saying!"

"Don, please! You must listen to me!" Mac blurted out "I must bring him with me in the lab!"

“Why?” Flack shouted

"Mac, answer the question!" Jaime exhorted him

"I cannot! You deliver him to me and nothing else!"

"It's not an answer! You're my boss, but won’t give you the prisoner!" Flack said rising "What's going on at the Crime Lab? We haven’t  been managing to contact you for any updates on any case the whole afternoon!"

"I would say this to you, but I cannot!" Mac said looking around "If having the prisoner  wasn’t been my only chance I would have found another way! Trust me!"

Jaime looked the expression of Mac "I think it's a matter of life or death! I'm going to take Tobey Rowland!"

Flack looked at his wife start walking to the cells “Now you explain it to me!"

"No, Don! I don’t want it! I cannot do it! The others are in danger and it is better to close the matter here!" Mac concluded hasty.

Jaime brought him the prisoner who looked at Mac in the eyes

"It was they right? They want me dead and they are killing you all to have me!" he said bending his gaze

"Mac, what he's talking about?" Jaime asked

"Forget it! I have to do with him!" he said taking him into custody and dragging him to the exit.

Christine began to read the cases she was working on

"These oriental gangster! I hope that the Mac is not investigating right on them!"

"Mac is determined and he is not a fool! I wouldn’t bother me with that!" D.B. said looking at the pictures hanging in the office of Christine "You have a really nice home! Why do you want to move?"

"Mac says he no longer feels safe! Although who came into our house is in jail, he fears that someone might do it again!" D.B. turned in surprise to Christine who pointed out "Issues of security!"

"In that case I agree!"

The phone rang and Christine answered acknowledging the number

"Lindsay! I thought I had the day off today! "

"Yes! I'd love to see you! It has been a lot since we haven’t chat more than just the two of us! I would like doing it!"

"Come over to the restaurant by me! Bring also Lucy and Sid! I am here with my two! Now they are sleeping! I think they will wake up soon! We won’t be just the two of us because we have visitors!"

"Who is he?" Lindsay asked excited

"I'm not going to tell you this!" Christine laughed mockingly "You'll have to come here to find it out!"

"Ok I’ll be right there! Wait for me!"

"What's going on?" Mac asked looking at Danny who was hanging out with caution some technicians from the ballistics room

"They put the snakes in the pools of ballistics! All of them are poisonous and it seems that someone has been bitten!"

Mac took Rowland in his office

"You should have let me die yesterday morning at five o'clock!"

"Forget my actions of yesterday morning!" Mac replied approaching the phone. He waited for the phone to ring in order to respond

"Hello Inspector! Let's say that your colleague is causing a big problem!" the man showed him on his computer a direct shooting of Flack and Jaime who were discussing heatedly in the hall of the building of the Crime Lab and the first went up the stairs to the laboratory and then he took the elevator up

"Now he will be stuck here with you and your colleague female, will succeed in get out! There will be no more hitches!"

Mac looked Flack approach him with a searching gaze

"See? He is already with you, Inspector! Now let us discuss for delivery!" the Eastern man hissed on the phone

"Outside the building, in an hour?" Mac suggested

"No! Let's do it at midnight!" the Eastern man imposed himself

"All right! Let us warn families to avoid a heap of suspects!"

"All right! We will reactivate the Internet!"

"I also want the phone line not only the internet!" Mac said

"Don’t talk about it! Or you’ll use the Internet with our blocks and on our terms, or no dialogue with the families and we will open more display cases!"

"All right! How much time is granted to us?"

"Two hours!"

Mac tapped the index on the desk "Okay!"

"See you at midnight, then!"

Flack looked Mac sigh and without having said nothing he was immediately made ​​aware of the situation

"We have a gang of Japanese which is badgering us! They want us to deliver their former business partner and now we have two hours to notify all the families that each one of us today will inexplicably late!"

Flack said nothing, he nodded and rushed out of the office "Jo! We have the Internet to communicate with the outside for two hours! The only thing we can say is that we'll be late!"

"But what do are you doing here, Flack?" she asked briskly

"Apparently I have just become one of yours!" he smiled and looked at Danny to send a message to Lindsay "What did you say?"

"The most colossal porky that I could invent -It 'all right, we have a problem with a case and I'll be home late tonight. I love you- "

"But the last part is true!" Flack said sending a message to Jaime "I will say that there is a problem with the questioning of the prisoner and I cannot get down! WhatsApp is really handy in these situations!"

Mac put his hand on his cell phone and he sent a message to Reed

-I hope you’ll have fun in Tokyo! I am glad that you have chosen the overnight flight to save time! Forget about the oriental weapons! Open your mind to new experiences! Find the time for some pictures and watch by yourself the broken windows theory!-

Then he swapped to warn Christine

-Don’t wait me awake! I’m coming home late cause of problems at work! I love you!-

The answer arrived immediately -I hope it's nothing serious! I was hoping would have passed at least twenty years after the first <Dinner is in the oven! >-  Mac laughed bitterly when he saw the conclusion of the message -I love you too!- but in addition she sent shortly after -I’m with a special guest and Lindsay at our place, she’s telling me that also Danny will be late… is it a  so complicated case?”- 

Mac slumped in his chair watching Rowland sitting on the chair with his legs crossed and wrists handcuffed

-Yeah, it’s a really complected case!- he texted her in reply -We took a minute's pause, one moment to recover, I hope to resolve the situation soon!-

The cell vibrated, Reed had responded -I’ll do it for sure! Don’t worry! I’ll leave at Midnight! I thank you and wish you all the best in your work!-

Mac laughed "Thank you, Reed!" and he went back to exchange one last message with Christine

-Did you rest today? Who is our guest?-

-Yes, let’s say that I rested a bit, but I’ve got lots of work! If I think at what I’ve passed last week I become crazy! You’ll see who our guest is! I’d like you to be here with us!-

-Don’t break down! In a few hours I’ll be back home!- Mac texted as a final message.

Danny and Angela were talking with Isabella who was already better

"Look!" Isabella said pointing to the door of the lab that was getting open up due let in Mac and the prisoner.

Everyone stood up and looked at Mac for instructions

"Get under the table!"

Danny and Angela bent over and sat down under the table in the lab

"What are you going to do?" Angela asked

"I want to save us, Rowland and take the gang in its entirety!" Mac began "What we should do is to play at home with the best strategies that we have!" the two nodded "Danny, you, me, and Flack will bring downstairs Rowland. Angela, you take care to seal up all the air ducts with the support of technicians, you unearth the latest hidden cameras and you encrypt their signal, then you'll tell Jo to break a glass, it will signal to FBI to go into action!"

"I don’t even want to know how you managed to warn the FBI! We have less than two hours to prepare your plan, are you sure this will work?" Angela asked

"It will make safe this floor on which there are the majority of the people!" Mac said self-confident

"This means that you, me, and Flack will be the only ones to be exposed to attacks?" Danny asked Mac

"We have some chemical agents capable of producing explosions! We will bring them all with us! We will use them to defend ourselves!" he answered him

"Do you want to use them all? If they were needed to help those who are here to defend themselves? We do not know what else they put in air ducts, we do not know when they came in here and we do not know exactly what to expect!"

"Finding out when they came and how they got in" Mac said "We can get an idea of who we face!" he looked at Angela

"I have already all figured out! I'll do a quick check with surveillance cameras!" she slipped off the table and walked to the computer.

"Danny I'm counting on you for the bombs!" Mac told him coming out from under the table and by indicating him Rowland sitting in a corner of the room handcuffed he added "Keep an eye on him!"

"You left me out!" Isabella said

"Not at all! You and Sheldon have to take care of the poison center and call the disinfestation as soon as we will have again all lines!"

"Will we implement the standard evacuation plan then?" Isabella asked

"Yes! Good luck to you all!" Mac said heading himself in the office near where Jo and Sheldon looked at the situation turning for the worse.

"What will happen in the coming hours?" Jo asked to Mac

"Soon I will do the delivery, get ready! Angela will explain you everything! I warned the FBI! I couldn’t be directed to Christine! Soon she will receive a message from Reed!"

Lindsay was stirring "If I leave you Lucy and Sid while I go to see what's going on at the lab?"

"Are you kidding?! There's also Mac into the Lab! I'm coming with you!" Christine yelled closing the laptop and abandoning it on the black leather sofa

"I think you have received a message!" D.B. said pointing to the cell phone "Maybe it's Mac again!"

Christine looked at the display "No, it’s not Mac! It is Reed!"

"What does he want? Has something happened?" Lindsay asked

"In an hour it's midnight! I must warn my superiors! It's about a case I am working on! Mac has put his hands over it even though I disagreed!"

"What is it?" D.B. added

"The Japanese gang I was talking about before Lindsay arrived!" Christine replied before turning to Lindsay "Could you call Reed and ask him when he received the message of the Mac?"

"All right!" Lindsay said dialing a number on her cell phone "Hey Reed! It’s Lindsay! I'm with Christine and D.B. Russell from Los Angeles! We have received your message! What’s going on?" she listened for a few minutes "They had the line controlled on cell phones too?" she listened to the other party for a while ''What do you mean? Yes we are calling the FBI! No wait! Speak slow! You felt that Mac had a plan? We'll go there too!" and she hung up

"So?" Christine asked worriedly after sending a message to Erika

"So?! They are stuck in the lab, mass kidnapping by the Japanese gang on which we began to investigate in January. The arrest of one of their American businessman of yesterday morning was meant to get informations, but it only served to make us a target of the gang!" Lindsay explained briefly

"What do they want?" Christine and D.B. asked in unison

"Making their own justice by killing the old businessman! The -White Lotus- doesn’t stop at nothing! Mac is the one who studied them least of all and they know it! I just hope that Danny will aware him of the risks he’s facing!"

"Mac told me about the -White Lotus- and when I told him that I was following the case for the FBI he got even more interested in! He studied secretly that case even if Danny and you were working on it. He has documented himself on everything!"

Lindsay looked at her surprised "And Danny helped him! When I asked him where were the files on the case he answered me that he had stowed away onto Mac’s desk for the controls on the methodologies applied to the evidence! I thought he wanted to delay the investigation instead..."

"He passed the information to Mac because he had foreseen that something would have gone in the wrong direction!" DB concluded "We're going to help them!"

"I’ll call my father for the kids!"

"There are thirty minutes left, Mac!" Danny said looking at Rowland

"I know, in a moment we’ll go down! Warn Flack and look at which point is Angela with video surveillance and air ducts!"

"To do what you ask me it takes twenty minutes!" Danny complained

"I'll give you ten minutes!" Mac said looking at Rowland "You're starting to get scared, aren’t you?"

"Definitely! Those will kill us all in the most barbarous ways they know!"

"I can assure you I've seen things that people wouldn’t believe!" Mac said taking him by one arm "Now I will do something that I don’t want regret!" he opened the handcuffs "You have confessed to having trafficked in drugs the name of -White Lotus- and you have raped one of your customers. You have agreed to help us to learn more about the whole gang and you have provided us the names! I don’t think that instead of ten years you want to turn with it in twenty!" Rowland shook his head "Good! I will also need your help you later! You heard what we’ll do, did you?"

"I'm ready!" Flack said stepping into the office "The guns are loaded! We have six chargers and seven hydrogen bombs!"

Mac took the gun and checked his charger, fully charged "I'm ready too!"

"Angela has discovered when they entered!" Danny said entering "Last week they placed the tear gas feigning them lift technicians and plumbers and air conditioning engineers have come yesterday!"

"Have they locked the air ducts?" Mac asked

"Almost settled and, as soon as we will have the line back, Sheldon will call the poison control center! Jo wanted to get down with us, but I stopped her reminding her of breaking the glass!" Danny ended

"I would say that we can go!" Mac concluded leaving the jacket on the desk.

The three crossed the hallway with guns in hand, Danny also carried a burlap sack.

Tobey Rowland walked among them looking down muttering something that sounded like a prayer

"I didn’t though you were so religious, Rowland!" Flack smirked

"If I can afford to make a comparison, it is as if we were going to fight guns and cannons with bows and arrows!" Rowland whispered afraid

"That's what you think! Am I wrong or I asked you to trust me?" Mac asked looking at the eyes of technicians and friends full of fear for them who were about to go downstairs before for themselves.

"I go down first!" Flack said stepping forward "If something bad happens, brought immediately the prisoner and upstairs and close off all the doors behind you!"

"Do not joke Flack!" Danny commented "Mac has calculated everything in detail!"

"Actually, I hope I have made ​​the right choices! I haven’t calculated anything!" Mac admitted approaching the top of the stairs with the prisoner behind him "You’ll fled to the top of the stairs if something happen!" he commanded to the prisoner "We are without bullet-proof vests, you already know what it means!"

The descent began without difficulty and, precisely at midnight, they reached the ground floor.

Beyond the glass door, they saw six figures dressed in black.

"Ready? As soon as Jo will break the glass, Rowland will step off and we will intervene with the FBI!" Mac explained.

The door was unlocked emitting a dull metallic noise

"Good evening, Inspector Taylor! Finally we meet personally!" the eastern man smirked with a long scar along his right cheek that shone in the glow of the lights of the street lamps.

Mac stepped forward carrying behind him Rowland, who tried to put up resistance so as to force him to stop a few steps from the entrance

"If Mohammed will not go to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohammed!" the Oriental hissed to one of his men who began to move forward.

Some glass shards rained down from above, the signal had been given.

Mac pointed his gun at the man who was advancing, followed by Danny and Flack.

The Oriental man pulled out a gun and his men did the same, Mac hurled Rowland in a corner of the hall, behind a plant, and he exploded a few shots taking refuge behind the reception desk

"Flack, Danny! Take away Rowland!"

Danny walked over to the prisoner and ran to a room without glass doors and he barred the entrance.

Mac and Flack found themselves alone against four men and the leader of the gang

"You made me pissed off cops! The first of the two of you who will move himself, is dead!" the leader hissed putting himself behind Mac and grabbing his gun "I'll take care of you personally with An-tuong!" he smirked grabbing his wrist and pulling against his nape the barreled gun "Ka-lung and Wai-can! Take care at our other man! Zhen-bang be the lookout! As soon as you see the FBI, we'll get out of dodge!"

"Before they will be able to catch us we will be in Mexico!" An-tuong laughed

"And they will all be dead!" the leader concluded.

"Where's the FBI? They should already be here!" Jo said walking up and down the lab

"Things are not going well for our guys!" Angela said from the computer as she stared at the screen "Danny is with the prisoner and the room has just been invaded by snakes, Flack is tied to one side of the reception desk while Mac is on the other side and... Oh shit!"

"What is it, Angela?" Sheldon asked approaching the computer and seeing by himself he added "Only the internal circuit of the cameras works, right?" he took a gun

"Yes, but what are you going to do?" Angela asked "We can’t help them by ourselves! We need the FBI!"

"Before their arrival, our Eastern friends will hook it, leaving three officers plus the prisoner dead and something tells me that the seals won’t hold for long!" he took the key of Jo’s car and he prepared to go down “I need to get up to the garage, Angela! Create me a diversion!"

Jo took the gun "I will be your diversion! I'll try to release Mac or Flack!"

"So you will get killed and nothing else! You are also pregnant! If you want to help me, come down with me in the garage, take another car and go to the FBI while I go to the poison control center! If Mac and Flack will be bitten by scorpions that were just thrown upon them, they will die in a slow and painful way!"

Mac felt a pinch in his right hand and something down her shirt collar

"If I were you guys I'd be particularly motionless and careful to how you breathe! You will have so many bites of these cute little creatures on the body!"

Mac saw one of them walk on his leg and shivered "Deathstalker!"

"How dangerous is it, Mac?" Flack said

"I'll answer!"  the gang leader said "Massive doses: lethal. Minimal doses: lethal if you go into anaphylactic shock!" Mac began to blink "Are you beginning to feel sleepy, Inspector?"

"The FBI! Guys let's go!" Zhen-bang shouted to the others, but it was too late for them and the FBI raided the hall.

"Mac stay awake!" Flack shouted at him "They bit me too! Hang in there!"

"We don’t have the antivenin for this scorpion in America, Flack!" Mac whispered.

From the door also entered DB, Lindsay and Christine who went straight toward them

"Christine! Be careful! There are scorpions!" Mac warned her blinking to stay awake

"I'll take care of giving instructions to activate the phone lines!" Lindsay said.

D.B. took the leader of the gang and put handcuffs on him "We two will square things up!"

Sheldon and Jo appeared from the ladder and they knocked on the door where Danny was barricaded with Rowland

"Open the door! It is all settled! They were captured!" Jo said

"Danny? Rowland?" Sheldon called over to the door.

Sheldon kicked it and the door opened to reveal Danny lying on the ground with Rowland who was desperately trying to keep snakes away from him with gunshots

"Help me! they bit him!" he shouted with tears in his eyes.

Sheldon and Jo took Danny her by the arms and led him out

"Danny, give me a nod if you can hear me!" Sheldon exclaimed worried.

Danny opened his eyes and whispered "Take me to the hospital!"

Flack and Mac were free from their own handcuffs and they shook off the remaining scorpions

"Sheldon, we must all go to the hospital!" Mac said leaning his head on Christine's shoulder.

She sustained him firmly in the D.B.’s help and she tried to rest him on the wall with the back.

Jo looked at Mac, helping Flack who was not steady on his feet "What is happening to you?"

"A side effect of the poison! I've been bitten once, during the Gulf War, and a month later I still had headaches!" Mac explained trying to stay awake

Flack shook his head "What if I fall asleep, Mac?"

"You will wake up at hospital!"

Jaime arrived with a group of policemen and Adam to succor Flack

"I'm here!"

"You took time to get there, darling!" he commented.

"I’ve been away one day and you get in trouble in that way? Angela had to warn me before!"

Mac leaned against the wall with his back and he tried to breathe calmly while Christine controlled his heartbeats with the DB’s help who tried to reassure him "It's okay Mac! Try to stay awake! Apparently it's a good thing I came to visit you!"

"My head is exploding! Everything hurts!" Flack complained while Jaime held him "I was recently released from the hospital!"

"The ambulance will be here soon! I fear for Danny’s conditions!" Sheldon said looking at Jo to approach Mac laying a hand on his moist forehead

"They are burning, Sheldon! We must take them to the hospital now!" she exclaimed worried

"It's against the rules and you know it!" Jaime said

"Maybe Flack and Mac won’t die! What about Danny? Without an antidote how much longer will he be able to resist?" Adam pointed out to her.

Lindsay re-entered the building

"The ambulance is out here!" she said entering the hall and when she saw Danny on the ground she leaned over him terrified "No, Danny! Why does he breathes so fast, Sheldon?"

"Lindsay don’t worry! He doesn’t have to distress!"

Danny opened her eyes and reached out a hand toward the face of Lindsay "I love you!" he whispered

"I love you too" she replied to him.

The paramedics came in with two stretchers and the first who was taken away was Danny, with Lindsay at his side, then it was the turn of Flack and finally Mac, who fell asleep leaning against Christine, even before they have been lying him on the stretcher that entered shortly after the first two.

Mac was lying in a bed that stank of disinfectant, he blinked a few times and he looked around.

In the bed next to his there was Flack, who continued to sleep, out of the room there were Jaime and Christine arguing heatedly with a man, he could not be a doctor because he was not wearing a coat.

Christine looked at him and seeing him awake, she entered

"Finally you woke up too! I was afraid when you greyed out! The heartbeat speeded up! You're not keeping the promise of being more careful! "scolded him

"How long have I slept?" he asked putting a hand to his head

"Almost three days!" Adam said appearing from under Flack’s bed "You have brought to hospital few scorpions! I set out to look for them!" he explained briefly

"How is Danny? Has the FBI taken all the members of the gang?" Mac asked worried

"Out here there's Jo with DB now, for work-related things it is better that you ask them! They have compiled a report of fifteen pages and I wanted to do everything except read them!"

"Yes, but Danny?" Mac insisted

"They saved him! He almost got well again and in a few weeks he will be discharged!" Adam said

"What about us?" he asked

"Don will be out of here within two days! Instead, you within four!" Christine said taking his hand he had on his head and putting it on the mattress

"My head is exploding!" Mac moaned laying again his hand on the head "They found a antivenin?"

"Yes, the Marines have provided a serum!" Christine smiled standing up and turning off the light in the room "Is that better?"

"Yes, thank you!" Mac said "I feel very sick!"

"I know! Flack vomited three times in succession after waking up!" Christine said taking a basin

"What a gruesome spectacle! Luckily you were asleep!" Adam commented looking Mac to squint

"Jo and D.B. are coming! Now you can ask them what you want to know!" Christine said kissing his cheek

"Mac!" Jo smiled upon entering then she turned to Flack "I know you're awake, Flack!"

"You're wasted as mere Detective, Jo!" Flack said turning to Mac "Good evening, -Sleeping Beauty -!"

Mac took a deep breath "Don’t yell Flack!"

"Suppress sick will not help you anything! Sooner or later you will throw up!" Flack laughed cynically

"As soon as Jo goes out... you'll see!" Mac threatened him "You will pray for a room change!"

"You don’t seem to be in such bad shape, for you having been nibbled by scorpions!" DB joked

"Could you turn on the light, D.B.? The darkness bothers me!" Flack said

"Keep it off! I have a headache! In what state is the lab?" Mac asked hurriedly

"We cannot work for the next three weeks! All the air ducts should be cleaned and disinfestation isn’t over yet!" Jo explained

"Forced vacations for everyone and while the cases pile up!" Mac sighed "My job quadruples!" he said putting both hands on his face.

Jo looked at Christine ready for the worst with the bowl in her hand

"I think I'll get some shut-eye, knowing that Danny is well!" Mac pulled his hands from his face and tried to open his eyes to meet those of the two women and the two men in front of him.

"Good idea! Your father in law has just arrived with your twins! Think about what will break in here soon!" Flack said pointing to Christine’s father.

"Flack! Why you gotta be this way?" Adam blurted out.

Mac put his hands on his face "Don’t scream please!" he said breathing deeply

"Don’t worry! Don’t panic!" Christine said softly rubbing his right shoulder

"How do you know that it hurts me there?" Mac asked

"You're here in an unnatural position sweetheart and you aren’t leaning against your right side entirely!" she knelt by the bed and she smiled resting her head on the pillow next to his one "Sleep and not think about anything!"

Mac managed to ignore for a while Flack’s whining and he whispered "Thank you for being here!"

"Give Reed your thanks who has advised me and even to that strange eagle which appeared who knows how in the building while you were carried away! It saved us from a snake!"

D.B. put a hand on the left shoulder of the Mac "I'll be in New York for the weekend! Is there anything I can do?"

"Help Christine with kids and even Jo to tidy up the lab!"

D.B. laughed "The Family and the work above everything! Get well soon, Inspector!" he leaned close to him and even Christine could hear the phrase he whispered “Semper Fidelis!”

Adam had heard that phrase fleetingly and he added "Once a Marine, always a Marine!"