Hostage | Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Twenty-Two

Jake

"Alright, what's happening in there, Pimento?" I ask into my radio, my back leaning against the concrete wall of a slightly broken down building with Rosa standing by my side, the two of us holding our pistols steady in our hands, concentrating and listening. Pimento unveiled the location where Fawn was being kept - a remote building just outside of the city - but told us that we couldn't immediately jump the gun to find and save her; he couldn't risk blowing his cover 'working' with Freddy and James, so he swore that the moment he saw an opportunity for us, he would send a message.

After waiting almost another whole month, he called in.

"Not much at the moment," I hear back, Pimento's voice significantly quieter than mine. But his voice is sharply cut off by the sound of a loud engine revving, the sudden sound deafening the squad. "What's going on?" Rosa barks into her radio as we all snap our heads around to see a large, dark grey van pulling away from the other side of the building and driving off into the city.

"They have her in the van!" Pimento exclaims, his feedback muffled with objects crashing in the background, "if you want to get her back, follow that van!" I make brief eye contact with Rosa and in that split moment of communication, we both sprint to her motorcycle and jump on, regardless of the fact that she doesn't have a spare helmet with her. She starts up her engine and I just manage to hear Terry shout that they'll try to catch up once Pimento is out, before Rosa pushes away from the floor and we start making our way back into the city, trying to catch up with the van.

We chase after them persistently, weaving our way through traffic, until they slowly start to drop their speed. To not give us away, Rosa does the same and we put a larger distance between us. As we turn around the final bend in the road, we watch the van drive into an alleyway next to a half-built, seven floor apartment complex, construction tape all around and several towers of scaffolding. Rosa backs her bike up into an alleyway just around the corner and as she jumps off her bike, I start to feel several different emotions flood through my system.

"Jake?" I hear Rosa call out, to which I shake my head and pull myself back into reality. "I'm fine," I insist as I jump off her bike and look out of the alleyway, my eyes darting across the construction building. After squinting my eyes and focussing, I can make out a silhouette in the window on the top floor: Freddy. "You go," Rosa says as she stops by my side, pulling her radio off her chest, "I'll radio in and see where the squad is, secure the area and stand by. You let me know what to do once you're inside."

I nod my head and make my way across the road, towards the apartment complex and inside the front door, which doesn't take too much effort to get through. My hands grip my weapon tightly as I get closer to the top floor, ready to shoot if necessary. When I finally reach the top floor, I see Freddy standing in the middle of the room with his back turned, but his dark chuckle signals that he knows I'm here.

"Jake Peralta. It's been quite some time, hasn't it?" He comments as he turns around, a sinister smirk on his face as his eyes settle on my face, "Come now, you don't really think you're going to use that, are you?" He motions to the gun in my hands and I tighten my grip, aiming right in the middle of his chest.

"Where is she? I don't mind facing a suspension for shooting you if it means I can find her," I demand, keeping my eyes focussed on Freddy's face. Then, a floorboard behind me creaks and when I spin around, I don't react fast enough to the gun in James Hamilton's hand, which fires a bullet straight into my thigh, causing me to exclaim aloud in pain and drop to one knee. "Looks like you need to work on your reactions there, buddy," he snarls as he marches forward and stands by Freddy's side, proud looks stamped on both their faces.

"Tell me where she is," I demand a second time, trying not to let my anger take over me. "Oh, dear Peralta," Freddy starts, both him and James chuckling, "we aren't going to tell you where she is, but we're going to give you a choice." Confused, I pull myself together and stand back up, aiming my gun back at the two of them. But before I can say anything, a loud explosion goes off and the floor shakes slightly, indicating the explosion happened a few floors down.

"So, here are your two choices," James states, my eyes widening by the second, "those explosions have just triggered several fires throughout the building, which will be engulfed in flames within minutes. You can arrest the two of us and get out of the burning building, or try and find Fawn before the building crumbles, taking the two of you with it. It's your choice."

Everything inside me drops, absolutely everything. For a few seconds, I just stand there, my gun still aimed high and my eyes darting between the two men. But once I realise that it'll be easier to catch the two criminals again in the future than losing Fawn in a pile of bricks and rubble, I dash out of the room and start checking every room on every floor in the building. From the top floor to the second floor, she is nowhere to be found, so she must be somewhere on the ground floor.

"Fawn? FAWN?!" I shout, emotions bubbling up inside me as several coughs leave my lips from the bellows of smoke throughout the building. There is fire absolutely everywhere and the thunderous crackling means that I can't even hear my own thoughts. I burst into the last room and as my eyes scan the room several times, I see a door that looks quite out of place compared to the rest of the room; the door is a dark, deep brown whilst all the other doors have been a murky beige and it has a massive lock on the door whereas none of the other doors did.

I sprint towards it and, using all the strength I can, throw my body against the door to knock it off its hinges. Splinters fly across the floor, landing at a pair of feet, and when I look up, I see a bruised, battered and broken body harshly tied to a chair; a blindfold wrapped tightly over their eyes.

"Fawn..."