"Insomnia.  The shakes.  Not hungry.  The sweats... your body is literally screaming at you that something is wrong and you got two choices... you either listen and find a way to shake it off or you feed it what it craves just to silence it for a while longer.  Eventually, you silence it so well, you never wake up." 

He shrugged.

"Far be it from me to stand in the way of a woman choosing her path in life ... we each make our own choices and I respect yours, whatever they are - but I dislike the idea that you don't know or understand what you are and the choices before you.  So ... let me reframe our discussion."

Garnier reached into his coat pocket, pulled out a small bottle that rattled... pills Addie realized.  He pulled out one and deftly closed the bottle before replacing it.  He held out his hand with the pill offered to her.

"This should take the edge off your craving... the need.  I know because I'm a dealer.  Our gang has gotten into production and I've taken a very large chunk of my days these past two years studying the drug, how to make it, how people use it, and its effects upon them.  Of course, you don't know me... I'm a man who was willing to kidnap a little girl... an admitted thief and probably worse.  I could be offering you death right now... a pill that could kill you as easily as help you.  But you don't know.  The question is... how severe is your addiction?  How long can you resist?  Do you even bother pretending at this point or is the need so intense you're prepared to admit the truth?"

Garnier watched her with all the curiosity of a little boy burning ants with a piece of glass on the sidewalk.

"Hmm."  He made a considering noise.  "Very high self-control.  Perhaps I've misjudged you, but I've always had a weakness, you see I'm a bit of a betting man.  So, what was offered in kindness now has a price.  A kiss.  You want this small pain killer... you give one simple kiss, right here on my cheek.  Not even on the lips.  Just my cheek."  

This time he smirked and kept the pill where it was visible. 

"Turns out the doctors did some things to Sarah that made her ... less of a person.  She doesn't talk too much, doesn't seem to feel things the way normal folks do, and when she did talk ... well, it was only ever really about the kid.  We figured if the girl was there, Sarah might be more likely to tell us what we wanted to know.  So... that's why I took her."

He leaned in towards her, knowing he'd left her with more questions than answers.

"My turn, what medicine were you prescribed for the pain?  Was it Morphine?"

"Yes."  She snapped and immediately asked, "Who do you work for?"

"Jules Bonnot."  He replied, unshaken by her question.  "Though I feel that probably doesn't really answer your question in the way you like... if you were thinking clearly you might have asked something more to the point.  The name of one random Frenchman, after all, hardly means anything to you.  Especially right now when it's taking all your energy not to look at the pill.  You're wondering if it looks like the ones your doctor gave you.  Is it a similar size?  Will that mean the dosage is the same?  Well, I'll give you those answers for free.  It's not likely the same size, your doctor's pill is larger and of a different color, because it was likely made in a lab by someone well paid to make sure they are all uniformed and colored alike.  While my pills are the color they are because of the quality of opium we've been using.  They vary in size, slightly, and the color can also vary.  I assure you though, it'll get the job done."

That son of a bitch.

He knew exactly what he was doing by talking about the pill.  Never letting it leave her thoughts for long.  Making her dwell on it.  Now there was this game where the ante would be raised higher with each pasting round.  Well she would show him.

"The pilot and co-pilot, what is their relationship with Jules Bonnot?"

Addie squeezed the arm of the chair tightly and then released.  She never allowed her eyes to turn from the window as she stared out into the darkening skies.

"A fine attempt to take control of our little game... but it was I who answered the last question." 

She could hear the smile in his voice, feel his eyes on her.

"Do you merely use the medicine your doctor has given you, or have you gone to the streets looking for relief - maybe started buying and selling on your own?"  Silent he waited for her to reply.

Looking out over the large body of water, Addie barely listened to Garnier.  Instead she focused on her breathing.  In slowly through the nose, out slowly through the mouth.  After doing this several times she reached down to pick up her glass of water.  Sipping on it, she was amazed that her hand did not shake.  Instead she slowly sat the cup back down.  Feeling much more in control of herself she looked back to Garnier and spoke as if she was talking about the weather that was outside.

"When I was recently on the run and could not get access to a doctor, I did buy some off the street.  Now the pilots, what are their relationship with Jules Bonnot?  Vague answers will no longer count as answers."

He nodded.

"The pilots work for Jules.  This is his plane.  They are, so far as I know, loyal to the movement and well paid.  However, who can say? Each man is an individual, making their own choices, doing as they must to survive."

"Are you sure you do not want this?"  He offered the pill again.  "If you refuse once, I will put it away, never to be seen again.  I have no wish to torment you... but, we have many hours left on this trip and the pain will only get worse.  If you're prepared to face that... if you can bear to put your trust in a man who you do not know, I will stay by your side through it and make you as comfortable as possible.  I won't like though... it's going to get worse and by the time we land, you will very likely feel like death itself."

Addie nodded in acceptance of his answer to her question.

When he asked her once again if she wanted the pill her resolve was well in hand, however, the rest of his comment pulled the rug out right out from under her again.  He was shifting gears so quickly she was having trouble keeping up with him.  One moment he was being a sadistic son of a bitch and then the next he seemed he wanted to be her best friend. 

She shook her head.  "I do not want it."  After a moment a thought occurred to her and it brought a smirk to the corner of her lips.  "So now that you have asked a question it is my turn again."

She thought about it for a moment and the puzzle of what to ask actually helped her to forget some of the symptoms she had been dealing with.  She threw herself at the puzzle. 

"What information did Brigitte tell you that were looking for when you took her?" 

He put the pill back into the bottle and smirked as if pleased with her question.  "Sarah was involved in helping us lift a very large sapphire from a private collector, I'm afraid she decided to hide it along with a great deal of cash.  She was sent away for a murder that occurred during the robbery.  We should have been able to ask her when she got out... but they released her early.  She snuck into the boss' home, took his daughter and fled to the States.  We've been searching for the jewel and Sarah ever since.  It turns out, it was very close to home this whole time."

He shook his head.

"It's maddening to think we went all the way to the United States, had to kidnap a kid, watch a man die, lost Callemin, and possibly incurred the lasting ire of your family and what we needed was ... just a short distance from my boss' home all this time."

"Of course, once we get the jewel back, we'll be able to close on a deal which will make us the single most powerful manufacturer of Heroin in the whole of the damn world."

Addie nodded along with Garnier as he told her about Sarah and the sapphire.  The information made sense to her and it help to fill in several of the missing pieces. 

She picked up her glass, "May I have some more, please?"  

Garnier nods and gets up to pour her some more water.  When he handed it back to her she thanked him and asked, "So where is this sapphire and do you think that Sarah was in her right mind enough to actually tell the child the correct location?"

"She told the kid.  Sarah wouldn't even speak to us.  The kid, wanting to go back to her Mama, she was willing to tell me what I wanted to know."  He shrugged.  "You and your family showing up really helped with that, by the way.  The minute she saw you guys... the kid was more than willing to talk.  For a minute there, I honestly was worried we were going to have to bring her back to France and have her father ask her where her mama hid the damn gem."

He arched an eyebrow, "Is having something to talk about helping to distract you from the need some?"

"It is thank you," she waved her hand dismissively, "but you are not understanding what it is that I am asking you.  Sarah is obviously not in her right mind or she would not have been in that place.  So how do you know that what she told the kid was even truth in reality?  Maybe she told her daughter a fantasy from her make-believe world she is living in."

Addie drank half the glass of water and wiped her forehead of the sweat that was beading up on the skin.  She could distract herself mentally, but the physical side effects were something beyond her control.

"I don't."  He admitted.  "But it's all I have to go on.  If she told the girl a lie or a fantasy, well, then I suppose my boss might take it out of my hide.  Still, it wasn't like I had a lot of other options at the moment.  I think if I had stuck around a moment longer your ... brother is he - Billy?  Yes. He and your boyfriend might have sent me to swim with Callemin.  As I like life, I chose to take my chances with the information and Jules."

"Granted, that shouldn't worry you so much.  If I'm wrong about how badly addicted you are, I suspect you'll book a flight home right away and will be far from Paris when we leave to find the sapphire.  Nothing for you to be concerned about at all... of course, if you are as badly addicted as I think, it might be that you have no other choice than to be my guest for a few days while you get through the worst of the withdrawal symptoms.  Assuredly there are fewer pains so intense as what you're about to go through... if I'm right."

Addie knew something that Garnier did not.  Gavin and Volkov would be there when they arrived.  There was no way that Aurora would not have called her father ahead of time to let him know what the current situation was.  She was not worried about things once they got there.  Even if Garnier was right about what she was about to go through, she thought she would be able to hold herself together long enough to tell Gavin what she knew.  He would be able to take it from there.   All she had to do was to just make it there and not let slip what she knew.  On the bright side, she understood now why he was willing to tell her this information.  She wondered how much more she could get from him.  It was a risky business.  The more they talked, the more likely she would let something slip the more clouded her mind became.

Addie scooted back into her chair and wearily laid her head back against the side of the air plane.  It was cool and she sighed a bit. 

"I figure the guys will be an hour or so behind us.  I will be alright until then I think.  I will just hang out at the airport until they arrive.  If you are right and I can't manage to be left alone... well by taking good care of me that might mitigated my family's ire for kidnapping the girl.  So where did Sarah supposedly hide the sapphire?"

Addie closed her eyes and sighed again.  He had been right.  She had not been sleeping well lately and her body was weary even if her mind refused to stop long enough for her to actually go to sleep.

The man clicked his tongue.  "That would be telling a whole lot more than even I'm comfortable with my dear.  On the off chance that we have problems or get separated, I don't need you causing the same kinds of headaches for us that Sarah did.  For now... try and rest.  If you're able.  I'll be right here when things get bad again.  In fact, maybe I'll fix you a cool compress for your eyes.  It might help.  Doubtful.  But who knows."

He shrugged and with that he got up to go get her that cool compress he offered to her.
 

One refueling in Iceland and then they were in the air once more and on their way to Paris.  The city of lights in the early morning light was lovely, but the intense headache that Addie was nursing kept her from really appreciating the way the light painted the sky behind the Eiffel Tower.  

Their plane touched down and taxied towards the hanger where a group of cars sat waiting.  A dozen men were grouped together many staring up at the plane as a metal set of stairs were wheeled over to the side door for the passengers to utilize in exiting.  Others keeping watch for trouble.  A few were noticeably armed to the casual observer, to the trained eye, nearly every man had some sort of weaponry with him though not all were carrying guns.

Jules Bonnot was not an impressive man in height or appearance.  His dark hair was thinning early in his life, his eyes were small and narrow.  He kept a bushy mustache on his upper lip to hide a decent scar that he'd gotten there as a boy.  He wasn't particularly strong, his appearance wasn't why men followed nor feared him... but he'd gained a reputation after his time in the French Infantry both for being ridiculously good wit ha gun... and being unafraid to use it.  

Today, however, he wasn't in a foul mood.  In fact, quite the opposite.  He waited for his right-hand man, Octave Garnier, eagerly.  It had been a very long road leading up to this moment but at last, the Ruspoli Sapphire was nearly his once more and that meant he was days away from finally closing the deal with Das.  Finally, the stars had aligned once more and his luck had taken a turn for the better.

At least, he thought that was the case until the door opened and Octave emerged from the door with a woman in tow - a woman who had seen better days by the look upon her face.  She was lovely, to be sure, but this was no piece of ass that Garnier had acquired as a souvenir... not with that look about her.

Bonnot walked towards the stairs but stopped shy of actually coming up to Garnier speaking to him in French.  "Where's Callemin?"

"Dead,"  Garnier replied in and the two carried on their talk in their native tongue.

Jules sighed but nodded.  "A martyr to the cause then?"

Garnier nodded.  "It's a story."

"Who's the broad?"

"Aunt Addie.  I'm afraid she was my ticket out of the US.  We have men following us.  They'll be looking for her."

Bonnot arched an eyebrow.  "Anyone I should be concerned about?"

Garnier shrugged.  "Her brother... an American gangster and his bodyguard... the girl's boyfriend.  He might cause some noise if we leave her here for him to pick up."

Bonnot nodded but before he could speak, Garnier added, "He has your daughter."

"Then we have his sister until we're sure he's not going to be a problem."  Bonnot gave a nod and several armed men came up to collect Addie.

"Don't fight them."  Garnier said in English to Addie then looking back to his men he added,  "And be gentle with her, she's in pain."

The men, who must have understood the English language, began to escort Addie to a car.  It was not the same one Bonnot and Garnier began walking towards.

"And Sarah?"  Bonnot began again in French.

"In the asylum, just as the informant said she would be, in fact ... that's how we found the kid.  He contacted me in the United States and I think he saved us from a trap set by the American Federal Police."

Bonnot nodded as he opened the car door.  "And you know where it is now?"

Garnier smiled.  "The Opera House, Marseille."

Bonnot patted Garnier on the shoulder and then got into his car.  Garnier took a long look around the airport.  He was home.  Finally.  He wasn't sure they'd make it... but they had.  Grateful to have survived his adventure, Garnier got inside the car with Bonnot, entrusting the men to keep Addie under control and bring her back to Bonnot's hideout near the docks.

Gavin sighed as he saw all the men emerge from their cars, "Too many."

Volkov shrugged.

"It's too many."

Volkov shook his head.

"It's too many for us to take down without killing civilians, killing Addie, or having some of them get away to cause more trouble."

With a sigh, Volkov nodded and agreed.

Gavin studied the face of the man who'd walked off the plane with Addie. These other French fucks were... well, if the opportunity arose to remind them not to interfere in the States, Gavin would take it. But the man on the plane was the one who'd killed Neil, either directly or indirectly.

Rora hadn't been too expressive on the phone: Addie was a hostage, someone was flying over with her. If Gavin and Volkov could get her out on their own, do it. If not, keep an eye on them. And now, Gavin and Volkov were stuck with the latter course of action as he watched the dozen men and Addie- who didn't seem well- walk through the airport. Grimacing, Gavin turned to Volkov.

"We'll follow them, see where they stash Addie. When they've settled somewhere, you can keep an eye on them while I come back here and meet Rora and Billy."

Volkov nodded. 

Addie sat doubled over and wincing in pain in the back of the car she had been taken too.  The abdominal cramping had gotten worse in the last hour and she found it difficult to even straighten. Garnier had told her not to fight the men who escorted her to a car.  The fact of the matter was that Addie did not think she could fight off a mouse at the moment.  She closed her eyes because her blurry vision was only adding to the sense of nausea.  She groaned.

Despite what Garnier had told her on the airplane, if was obvious that her waiting at the airport for Charlie and Billy had never been in the cards.  She would be use to leverage control over Billy.  She hated that, yet she was in no condition to attempt an escape.  How had she gotten to this point?  An addict.  Just another one of those drug headed street scums.  The only thing that separated her from those kind of people was she had not reached the proverbial rock bottom.  She hated to admit it to herself, but if Garnier were to offered her his pill right now she probably would take it.  She knew she would do just about anything to make the pain go away.  

She had looked for Gavin when she had come off the plane, but she had not seen him.  It had not surprised her.  Two men couldn't possibly take on a dozen men.  They would wait for a better opportunity before revealing themselves.  All she could do was hope she could get what little information she had to them before it was to late.

A dingey, gray building, three stories high sat on the edge of the Seine.  Three men on the rooftop carrying rifles.  Two on patrols outside with handguns.  The car drives into a small attached garage and Addie and her captors disappear within.  Volkov settles in for the long wait.  

---------

Inside Addie is carefully removed from the car in the garage.  She's all but carried inside to a small room with a bed, washstand, dresser, and little else.  The building appears as though it were some sort of factory at some point... but is now, at least what she's seen of it, some sort of home or headquarters for Jules' gang.

Garnier stood in the doorway as his men leave Addie on the bed in the room on the second floor with only one small window.  "I'll bring you something for the pain... not heroin.  I'll make sure they leave you alone.  It should end in a few days.  You get through the worst of this and then, you'll be alright.  We'll get you on a plane after that.  Surely by the time you lick this, your brother won't be an issue anymore and we can all return to our normal lives."

With that he very quietly backed out and closed the door as gently as he could, locking it behind him.

---------

Billy and Charlie's plane finally came to a stop.  Ten minutes after that, they were finally setting foot in Paris where Gavin was waiting for them.

Billy Immediately looked to his father-in-law as they made their way from the plane toward the man. Before Billy could speak, the older man spoke up.

"We'll get her back."

Billy nodded his thanks and then nodded to Charlie.

"You remember Charlie. Aurora stayed home to watch the kids, we got Brigitte, now Addie and you can bet your ass we're going to make them pay in blood for pissing me off."

Then he furrowed his brow and looked around the all but empty airport.

"Weren't there supposed to be two of you?"

"Volkov is keeping an eye on them. If they move, we'll know where they go."

Billy nodded and followed Gavin and Charlie out to the street. He assumed Gavin had already procured a vehicle, and the old man did not disappoint.

"So you know where they are then. I'm assuming you know what kind of protection they have, how many men, that sort of thing? Let Charlie and me know so the three, no, four of us, don't get caught with our pants down. Charlie's on Addie as soon as we find her though so we will effectively be down to three at that point forward. You alright with that?"

Charlie nodded and Billy turned to face Gavin as the three men got into the car. Maybe it was the city but, in Billy's mind at least, the air was always colder when you were preparing to take a life.