During the night of the raid, Danno witnessed Mya Drakos in her transformed state when they invaded her panic room vault. She remained in that state after they had gunned her down. At the time, they delivered her body to Doctor Armando for his postmortem. Danno hadn't known how the man disposed of the body. He never cared to know.

The doctor had preserved the Drakos woman's mutilated, dissected body in a clear cylindrical tube filled with formaldehyde. The bastard had kept her as a trophy. He had seen his share of atrocities in various conflicts and tried to rationalize it didn't matter since the woman was dead and beyond humiliation.

He finally joined Claudia in her disgust of Armando when the doctor displayed Mya Drakos's preserved corpse in full view of her daughter in order to provoke a reaction. The doctor hoped it would cause the girl to transform.

Instead, the girl's shocked, anguished emotions sent her into a catatonic state. She sat on the floor mewling pitifully, unable to face anywhere except into a blank corner of the room.

Claudia approached and stood beside him as they both watched the girl on a monitor. "If I wasn't such a professional, I'd walk right into that room and shoot the doctor in the head."

Danno agreed. What he had just witnessed would've made Hitler proud. He couldn't imagine anyone seeing their mother so degraded and objectified. "That young girl may be Homo sirenas instead of Homo sapiens, but she's more human than he is."

"We shouldn't have taken the contract to stay overnight. It's not worth the nightmares this will give me." Claudia touched Danno's arm prompting him to look at her. "It's not too late. Let's get the hell out of here. I say if Webb comes, let him have at this monster."

Danno considered it and sighed. "We can't. We're committed. If word got out we reneged on a job in progress, Tipstaff Security would be finished. As distasteful as it is, we need to see this through. I promise you though, we're never going to work for this degenerate again."

He checked the time and was disappointed to find it was still a few hours until dawn. The hour also reminded him to check in with Nico and Razzy. He punched up Nico first and asked for an update.

"Miserable, boring job in the rain. This time of night and it being a private road into the facility, there is no traffic. Actually, one vehicle did roll by with a Verdanx Pharma decal. Shining my flashlight through the window I could see two occupants, a female driver and male passenger. They were wearing company uniforms. I waved them through."

Danno felt a tingling sensation along his spine, the feeling he usually got when his inner alarm activated. "How long ago was that?"

"A little over half an hour."

"And no civilian vehicle crossed back over from the facility? They didn't drop off the company car and leave?"

"Negative." A heartbeat later, Nico added, "You don't think..."

Danno pulled his handgun. "Webb is in the building. Get your ass back here. I'm going to need you."

He ended the call and spoke to Claudia. "Stay here and stand guard over Armando and his assistants. I'll start combing the building."

Claudia's attitude changed into a fully alert mode. She headed for the lab. "Roger that."

Danno approached the guard standing at the back door. "Let me out. After I'm gone, don't let anybody else in."

"Understood." The man unbarred and held open the door.

Danno made the decision to enter the front and hopefully take Webb and whomever was with him from behind instead of possibly stumbling into the hostiles in one of the stairwells or hallways. As he jogged around the building, he called Razzy and told him what he suspected.

"I'm hidden in the speedboat in some rushes a few hundred yards out. Want me to come in?"

"Yes, I need you to collapse the perimeter. Park the boat at the dock but stay there. You can cover the rear of the building."

"Ten-four."

Danno cautiously approached the front door, gun at the ready. He took a quick peek into the lobby. Where was the damn guard? He slid his keycard through the slot and entered. The slick floor caused him to nearly fall on his butt.

"What is this?" He inspected the floor and found a trail of water caused by rain dripping from soaked clothing. His own clothes were also dripping. The trail led past the guard station to a hallway bearing left.

Webb was losing his sense of tradecraft by making it too easy. Danno knew he could follow the water trail and sneak right up on his old boss.

The trail led past the bank of elevators. Smart move. The stairs were always a better choice. Elevators were a death trap in a firefight. He continued down the hallway past the bathrooms.

How did Webb know to come this way? He had been in the building years ago, but then they had always entered through the rear lab doors.

He paused at the door at the top of the stairwell, eased it open, and listened.

Ascending footsteps were headed his way.

Danno eased shut the door and waited on the hinge side. The door opened. A young female wearing a soaked company blazer emerged and started walking toward the front door. Danno waited a beat to make sure nobody else emerged.

He took off after the woman and overtook her. Pressing the barrel of his handgun against her side, Danno asked, "Where is Webb?"

The young woman's lower jaw quivered, and she seemed unable to take her eyes off his handgun. "I...I work here."

"At this time of night?"

"I was in Tarpon Springs on an assignment and just now got back. I came in to get my car keys. I left them at my desk. I'm exchanging the company vehicle for my car, and then I'll be going home."

Under ordinary circumstances he might consider her story to be plausible.

Emboldened by his hesitation, the woman looked him in the eye. "Who are you? Why are pointing a gun at me?"

He snickered. "Since I'm the one holding the gun, I'll ask the questions. What's your name?"

"Robin."

"Let me see your ID."

She took it out and showed it to him. It was legit. "You can call Morg, the gate guard. He let me through. He can vouch for me."

Danno recalled what Nico had said about a male passenger. "Where's the man who was with you in the car? Did he forget his keys too?"

The question surprised her. She hesitated. "I'm alone."

Wrong answer. Now he knew for sure Robin was complicit in whatever was going down. His phone rang. He kept his gun pointed at her. "Don't move."

He took a call from Nico. "I walked through the front door. There's no guard."

"I know. At the end of the lobby turn left. You'll find me."

Ending the call, he turned his attention back to Robin. "What did they do to the guard? How many are with Webb?"

She said nothing, but her eyes went to the staircase door.

Nico came running down the hall, panting. He saw Robin. "That's her. The one I saw in the car. Where's her companion?"

Danno stared at Robin with a raised eyebrow.

She said nothing.

Danno admired her loyalty and hoped he wouldn't have to shoot her. Grabbing her arm, he marched her in front of him toward the stairwell. To Nico, he said, "Cover my six."

"Got it."

He no longer cared about stealth and banged open the door at the top of the stairs. The three of them stepped onto the landing. Danno shouted, "Webb, it's Danno. I'm coming down. I have a hostage so do not shoot."

After a few seconds, he heard a defeated sounding Webb. "Come on then."

He grabbed the collar at the back of Robin's blazer and kept her in front of him, his gun pointed at her head. Halfway down, the stairs ended in a landing, the rest of the stairs turned a corner continuing down. Upon reaching the landing, Danno was surprised to see Webb and three other armed men. They all looked angry seeing him with the gun to Robin's head.

Danno whistled. "Four of you?" To Nico he said, "Looks like Webb bested you again."

The man behind him grumbled but had nothing to say.

"Drop the hardware," Danno said to the four. "All of it."

"Do as he says," Webb ordered.

They did so, but Danno didn't like the look of anger in their eyes, especially the young man whom he guessed was the captured girl's boyfriend.

"You stay on this landing," he told Nico. "Robin and I are going down to join our friends."

"Sorry," Robin muttered to the four as Danno forced her to move in front of him.

His phone buzzed. Probably Razzy checking in. He let it go and would call him back.

It would be a good outcome. Webb and his men were caught between him and Nico and Claudia in the lab. He would restrain these men and figure out what to do with them. "Open the door and move out onto the laboratory floor. Nice and slow and orderly."

Webb pushed open the door to the lab. Before he could walk through, they heard the unmistakable sound of automatic weapon fire.

Razzy's in trouble, Danno thought.

Almost immediately, they heard a loud explosion.

Startled, Nico flinched. "That sounded like a grenade!"

Question - With Robin as a hostage, what can the team do now?

Top photo credit: KoolCats Photography http://www.flickr.com/photos/40775084@N05/46791065744 via photopin.com Creativecommons.org license