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	     	 Everybody Wants To Rule the World

			   Chapter Seven
		   	Written By: LadySwan

	Fear filled Callie. The Baldies had guns, and Barek looked 
like he was going to turn them in to them. Had he just been lying 
to them just now?
	In shock, Jimmy watched the whole scene in dread. A trickle 
of sweat fell from his forehead. He cursed himself for believing 
in Barek and falling for his lies all over again.
	The Baldies turned to Barek and started speaking to him in 
a language Callie and Jimmy didn't understand. When Barek turned to 
the two, his back covering the view of the Baldies of Callie and 
Jimmy, he winked at the two.
	Jimmy wanted to sigh with relief, but he didn't want to 
show the men in black. So Barek was on his side, he was just acting 
in front of the bad guys.
	Callie felt a bit better, assured, but she didn't want to 
let her guard down, not now especially now that they were in the 
hands of the bad guys. Also, even though she trusted Barek, there 
was still that little doubt in the back of her head.
	"Come." Barek told them. "We're taking you two to see you're 
little friends." Barek said, trying to sound meanacing, but trying 
to assure the two with a smile.
	He turned back to the Baldies, and they led them to the 
back of a truck where they went off. Callie and Jimmy weren't 
treated as badly though as JT and Neil, the Russians were in too 
much of a rush.
	Barek sat in the front with the bad guys, and at the back, 
Callie and Jimmy hugged each other tightly, hoping for the best.

	  � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� �

	Looking for all of his teammates all over town, the Tool N' 
Die was the last place Saja decided to look before heading home. 
He could tell that Callie and Jimmy were in there, the light was on.
Saja remembered all the times he had interrupted Callie and Jimmy, 
and decided to go in quietly through the back.
	When he got there, he saw Barek and the Baldies holding 
Callie and Jimmy with guns in their hands. Saja froze. He wanted to 
go out there and help his friends but he couldn't move.
	Besides he knew if he went out there he'd only get his 
friends in trouble. Saja decided to just watch for awhile before 
going out for help.
	As Barek spoke to the men in black in a foreign language, 
Saja put the pieces together. Barek was one of them. He had stumbled 
onto the Great Mamba Jamba! Saja cursed himself for being so stupid 
not to stop Barek while he had the chance. Before JT and Neil 
disappeared, before this.
	While the bad guys and Barek took Callie and Jimmy out, and 
led them to a van, Saja didn't move. He watched them carefully, 
and took a mental note of the license plate number.
	After they were gone, Saja didn't dare stand up until after 
counting silently to 100, just to be safe.
	Finally, when Saja thought it was safe, he stood up slowly.
Just then he heard the clicking of a gun. "Freeze." someone behind 
him said.
	Filled with dread, Saja turned around slowly and saw men 
neatly dressed in suits. One of them was pointing his gun at Saja, 
and one of them took out his wallet. "Police."
	Completely confused, Saja asked himself, What have I gotten 
myself into?

	  � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� �

	Strangely, Sydney woke up early Saturday morning, a time of 
day that was usually spent lounging around or sleeping. Although 
she could still remember yesterday and her horrible date, Sydney 
had dreamed about nothing else than Alex Hunter.
	There were practically no more memories in her head of her 
date last night, but instead her head was filled with memories of 
her dreams the night before.
	Sydney had dreamed all night long of Alex, of telling him 
she liked him, of him kissing her, of being happy with him.
	Happily, Sydney was excited. Today was the day she was going 
to talk to Alex and tell him how she felt about him. Usually, Sydney 
was always afraid to say how she felt, her feelings for a person, 
but with Alex, it was different. He made her feel confortable, he 
made her feel special.
	Alex was unlike any guy she had ever met. True, before they 
had started fighting again, Sydney had always thought that Garrett 
Booth had been the guy for her. But now, now Sydney knew she and 
Alex were perfect for each other. But as for Garrett, they were 
friends and she knew that's how they should stay. She might never 
forget what had happened before between her and him, but she knew 
Garrett wasn't for her, he was just... Garrett. He was a piece of 
work.
	Sydney was giddy with excitement. She was never usually like 
this, in fact no one had ever seen her like this before.
	"This is such a great day." Sydney proclaimed, sitting up 
straight in bed with a huge smile on her face.

	  � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� �

	"This is such a horrible day," Glory groaned, as she sat up 
on her bed. She glanced at her clock. 7:30 AM. On Saturdays, Glory 
usually liked to wake up early and do all sorts of things. But this 
particular Saturday, where everything was going wrong, Glory felt 
there was almost nothing left good in her life.
	"My brother is far away in France, my boyfriend and his 
best friend are missing, my teachers are horrible, my mother is 
seriously sick, my dad's campaign is falling... everything is going 
horribly wrong," Glory told herself miserably.
	She grudgingly got out of bed, and opened her window. Even 
with the sun streaming through her window, it seemed as if Glory's 
mood could not be altered.
	When she looked up at the Fabian Shade that was neatly 
rolled up at the top, she couldn't help but think of her brother 
and all the times he would barge in the room so that he could set 
a meeting between him and Sydney. Glory had never minded in the 
past before. In fact she had liked it. She would always be the 
first to know of there was something going on between him and Sydney.
Glory wished so much that he would just barge into the room and 
pull the shade down but she knew it was impossible. He was in 
France after all.
	Glory picked up one of her pillows and hugged it. Behind 
the pillow was one of the little notebooks of poetry JT had given 
her before. Glory went through them one by one, with each poem 
feeling more and more lonely without JT there with her.
	Sadly, Glory crawled back into bed and cried herself back 
to sleep, as she had the previous nights before.

	  � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� �

	"There you go." a Baldie said gruffly. "In with your 
friends." He pushed Callie and Jimmy inside the cell, the same cell 
that JT and Neil were in.
	The four were so happy to see each other, they hugged, for 
once, Neil didn't even mind he was hugging a girl!
	"I am so grateful to see you," JT said in a weak voice. He 
looked around at their surroundings. "Well, maybe in a better 
place."
	It broke some tension in the small cramped cell.
	Neil came closer to the two new entriees. "Listen, I don't 
know if you two know this yet, but Barek's one of them."
	Callie and Jimmy exchanged a look. "Yeah, we know." they 
said in unison quietly.
	"But it's not what you think." Callie told them, using 
Barek's line.
	As quietly as they could, so as not to let the Baldies 
hear them, Callie and Jimmy quickly told JT and Neil what Barek had 
told them.
	JT and Neil just stared at them in belief. "I just can't 
believe that Barek woud do that." he said loudly, too loudly, 
reffering to Barek's being a double agent.
	Outside, the Baldie guarding them over heard them. He didn't 
understand much english, but when he heard JT say, "Barek," and look 
in disbelief, he grinned wickedy at them.
	"You should hab peeked yorhe friends betteh!" he said in 
his deep accent and started laughing an evil laugh.
	Callie, Jimmy, JT and Neil just kept quiet. They shared a 
secret smile. Oh, if he only knew what they knew....
	Then JT turned to Callie and Jimmy with a serious look on 
his face. "How's everyone? How's Glory?"
	"She misses you like crazy," Callie told him, giving him a 
sympathetic smile. "She's completely miserable without you."
	"I miss her so much." JT whispered longingly.
	Everyone was silent. Right now they all missed their friends 
back home.
	"We're going to get out of this." Jimmy promised them.
	All four of them shared a hopeful and determined smile.

	  � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� �

	"Freeze." they repeated again, as Saja turned to face them.
"Police. Who are you?" they asked him. "And where are they?"
	"I- I'm Saja DeCastro." Saja said nervously, for once, 
having only a few words to say. "The- they who?"
	"The Russians." one man said in frustration. "The two 
scientists, and also the two young teens working here." he pointed 
around the empty room.
	"The strange men in black left with my two friends, I 
suppose they are the very same men who took my other two friends."
	"You suppose right." the other man said. He sighed. "Looks 
like they got away." he told his partner.
	The other one turned to Saja. "Let me introduce myself, I 
am Special Agent Hudson and this is my partner Special Agent 
Sylvester." He pointed to his partner. "We were assigned to 
confiscate the illegal project entitled Ub2b of two young scientists 
JT Adams and Neil Atwater who were using the alias Professor Vann."
	Saja just stared at them in confusement.
	Special Agent Sylvester continued. "We assigned Special 
Undercover Agent Browler, known to you as Barek, to secretly work 
with the Russians who we knew were after this project. Although we're 
confiscating Ub2b from Mr. Adams and Mr. Atwater, we're here to 
protect them as well from any harm."
	Slowly, it began to finally make sense to Saja. All the 
pieces were finally coming together. He slowly nodded, and the two 
agents knew he was beginning to understand.
	"Why is it that only now you've decided to arrest the 
Russians?"
	"We haven't had all the evidence we need to arrest them 
until recently. Agent Browler has been a great help to us there. 
We were supposed to arrest them before they took Mr. Clayton and Miss 
Walker, but they beat us to it. Agent Browler wasn't able to 
inform us of the location the Russians are keeping the two young 
scientists and now, including the two other teenagers." The agent 
turned to Saja, a trace of hope on his face. "We wish to ask you of 
what you know and what you have just heard from them."
	Saja told the two agents all that he knew about the Great 
Mamba Jamba, which wasn't much. The two agents already knew all of 
this. "My deepest regrets that I wasn't able to hear more, but 
unfortunately for I, I have no knowledge of the Russian language," 
Saja said.
	"Hey, that's ok, kid," Special Agent Hudson, said, trying 
to make his feel better. "You tried. No one was supposed to know 
anything."
	And then, as if an imaginary lightbulb would appear, an 
image came to Saja. The plate number!
	"Wait! I do have something you can use!" Saja exclaimed 
excitedly. He quickly gave them the license plate number, confident 
that he had memorized it.
	The agents grinned. "Great! This is exactly what we need to 
locate those men!"
	Special Agent Sylvester hurried to his car, spoke some words 
on his radio. Special Agent Hudson turned to Saja. "Common, kid. 
We'll need you now."
	A feeling of terror and excitement filled Saja. Wow, was all 
he could think.

	  � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� �

	Owen was sitting in his basement, randomly playing keys. 
He wasn't in the mood for music. Sandy, his long-time partner was 
gone. He knew that if Mila hadn't been there, Owen might not have 
gotten so distracted and had begged Sandy to stay if ever she chose 
to. He only realized Sandy's importance to the band after she had 
left and Mila had started singing lead.
	Mila. Owen scoffed. She couldn't sing. He had only let her 
because he had been in love with her. And now, now she was really 
mean and cruel and heartless, just like all the other pretty and 
popular girls in Swans Crossing. And Owen knew Mila wanted to be 
just like them.
	Owen stared around his empty basement. His life had been 
music. And now.... He was supposed to perform at the concert on 
the 3rd, with who? Owen didn't know but Sydney made it perfectly 
clear to him that he, Sandy and Mila would be performing on that 
night, together or solo. At that point Owen would give anything for 
a lead singer.
	Just then, as if magic, delicate footsteps came down the 
stairs. Owen knew it wasn't his mother. In fact, that sound was 
familiar to him. He had heard it many times before, right before 
practice started.
	And then, Mila's head popped out shyly. Owen's heart fell. 
That was right, it was Mila. "Hey," she said.
	"Hey," he said quietly.
	After several moments of silence, Mila finally said, "Look 
Owen, I apologize for leaving you with all the work after Sandy 
left. But I guess I just got really busy when school started, 
with... cheerleading." she supplied.
	Mentally, Owen scoffed. He knew she had been busy with her 
boys, he had seen her. Owen began to wish Garrett hadn't left for 
France. At least then she had still been nice. "That's ok." he said 
quietly. "I'm sorry for snapping." Owen didn't mean it much though.
	Mila smiled and then continued dowm the stairs. "Great! So 
I guess we're ok then. Sydney said we still have to perform at the 
concert and I was scared because I didn't have any musical 
companionment and..."
	As Mila chatted away, Owen was still secretly upset with 
her and knew her reasons for coming back weren't completely honest. 
And she had actually told him so. Sydney had forced her to sing, 
and she needed Owen to help her.
	"Ok." he finally said, cutting her off. "We need to get to 
work. We need new songs and we need to practice them. We'll be here 
for awhile." he told Mila.
	Mila gave him a small meek smile. "Well, actually I can 
only stay for an hour or so. I have to meet a date after."
	Owen was trying to keep himself from shouting at her. It 
figures. She'll worm her way back, and still leave him with all the 
work. "Fine." he mumbled, not looking at her while fixing his 
equipment. "Let's just do what we can." He sighed. He would never 
learn.

	  � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� �

	Sandy had been staring at her phone for hours, waiting for 
it to ring. Waiting for Saja to call her. But nothing had happened.
	"Gel real Sandy, he'll only know to call you if he's 
psychic." she muttered to herself. Sandy paused. That's what Saja 
always considered himself. A psychic. She couldn't help but laugh.
	Sandy stared at the phone longingly. "I should call him, 
shouldn't I?" she asked herself.
	"But it's not proper for a girl to call a guy."
	"But this is the 90's!"
	"Saja could call if he wanted to. He knows my number."
	"But he doesn't know if you want him to call or not."
	"What if he thinks I'm a pest and doesn't like me?"
	"But what if he doesn't and he does like you?"
	Finally, after long minutes of arguing with herself, Sandy 
decided to call him up. Shakily, she dialed his number. After 
waiting for what seemed like eternity, Sophia finally picked up.
	"Yes?" she asked impatiently.
	Sandy was almost about to hang up the phone. Instead, she 
took a deep breath. "Hello, may I please speak to Saja?"
	"Saja? Oh, you mean Bobby?" Sophia asked, still taking no 
regard of Saja's new name.
	"Yeah."
	"He's not in right now." Sophia said coolly.
	"Oh. Um, thanks." Sandy quickly put down the phone, trying 
to forget all about Sophia and the awkward phone call. "But where's 
Saja?" she wondered.

	  � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� �

	Nancy looked around miserably at the Soda Shop. No one was 
there, absolutely no one worth talking to. Not even Sandy Swan. 
Things are that bad that I'm looking forward to Sandy's company, 
Nancy thought.
	Jazz was cleaning the counter next to Nancy. "I don't get 
it, where is everyone?" Nancy asked outloud.
	Jazz couldn't help overhearing, and as always, put in 
something to say. "You know, I haven't seen any of the gang lately. 
Where are they?"
	"Well, Garrett's in France, JT and Neil have been kidnapped,"
Nancy said, filling in the events. "Callie and Jimmy are probably 
busy looking for them. Glory's been miserable lately, I honestly 
have no clue why, Sandy and Saja have been tied to the hip these 
days," Nancy rolled her eyes. "Owen's been doing whatever with no 
one, Mila's always busy with her flavor of the day, and Sydney's too 
busy with her new boyfriends from the school newspaper!"
	Nancy had had it. All of her friends were busy but her. She 
had absolutely no one to talk to, to get gossip from, to tell her 
problems about the cheerleading squad, absolutely no one was around!
	Jazz had a thoughtful look on her face. And then she 
continued cleaning the counter. "Well I sure wish they'll all come 
back soon. This place is almost as quiet as a tomb."
	"At least they're all doing something." Nancy said, feeling 
rejected.
	"So how come you're here, anyways?" Jazz asked.
	Nancy threw her a withering look. "Because I have nothing 
to do!" And then she got out of her chair, payed for her drink, and 
stomped off.

	  � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� �

	Sydney was working on some long overdue homework in the 
library. She was still trying to avoid David, and who would think 
to look for Sydney Rutledge in the library?
	As she researched for her Chemistry class, Sydney felt 
someone come up behind her. "Hey Sydney," a male voice said.
	At first, Sydney was scared at the thought that David had 
tracked her down. But when she turned to look behind her, she was 
glad, in fact thrilled, to see Alex standing behind her.
	"Hey Alex!" Sydney smiled widely. "Sit down," she told him, 
offering the chair next to her.
	Alex sat down to Sydney's delight. "Hey, what are you 
doing in the Library on a Saturday?" he teased her.
	"I know," Sydney half-complained still smiling. "But this 
was something I couldn't get out of."
	"Maybe I can help you, I was your age once." he joked.
	They laughed, but stopped right after one of the assistant 
librarians shushed them with a stern look.
	Alex gazed at Sydney. "So how was your date last night? 
Was it everything thing you hoped it would be?"
	Sydney shurgged. "Not really."
	"Too bad."
	Sydney looked carefully at Alex's expression. He didn't 
show any signs of regret that she had had a date with another guy, 
nor gladness that she hadn't had such a great time. Sydney began 
to have second thoughts about telling him how she really felt.
	But Sydney could feel Alex staring at her intently, and she 
felt overwhelmed. She couldn't even look him in the eye. "I think 
I have to get out of the library. Too much isn't good for me." she 
joked softly.
	"I'll go with you," Alex offered.
	They exited the Library in silence, thinking. What the other 
was thinking about, neither knew. But if only they had known that 
both were thinking about the other.
	"It's too bad your date with David didn't turn out so 
great," Alex said, at the same time Sydney began to say, "I guess I 
anticipated my date with David so much I got kinda bored."
	They looked at each other and laughed. And then they fell 
silent all over again. They walked and walked, and they found 
themselves in the park.
	"You know, I was kind of thinking of asking you out." Alex 
said shyly.
	Sydney stopped short.
	When Alex saw this, he immeadiately felt chagrined for 
saying this. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I know that 
even thought you said the date wasn't that nice, you probably still 
have feelings for David and you-"
	But Sydney stopped him short. She was thrilled. "Would you 
stop for a minute!" she laughed.
	Alex looked at her curiously, wondering if she had 
temporarily lost her mind.
	She took a step closer to him. "I was kinda wishing you had 
asked me out too." she whispered.
	Alex began to smile, widely. He took a step closer to her, 
and took her hand in his.
	Sydney smiled shyly at him.
	He gently tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear 
and then leaned down to kiss her softly on the lips.
	Sydney didn't resist. She felt like she was in heaven. It 
didn't seem possible that there was another guy on this planet who 
could make her feel the way Alex Hunter was making her feel right 
now.

	  � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� �

	The door of JT's room slowly opened. A little head popped 
through the doorway, like it had many times before. But instead of 
a happy, mischeivious smile, this time, an unhappy Katie Adams 
slowly entered her brother's room.
	The room hadn't been touched ever since JT had last been 
there. His parents had never come into his room before, and they 
hadn't now. Katie was glad. The room still smelled like JT. His 
cologne, his dirty gym socks, all old and familiar comfort Katie 
had always liked.
	She missed her brother so much. And she was too young to 
understand why he and Neil had been kiddnapped. Katie went up to 
his hammock bed, got in it and held herself tightly, trying to 
hold herself together.
	"Where are you JT? Please come back!" Katie begged, though 
unheard by anyone.

	  � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� �

	Callie, Jimmy, JT and Neil had been sitting in their cell 
for what seemed like a very very long time. The first few hours 
Callie and Jimmy had been there, they had filled JT and Neil on 
absolutely everything that had happened, who missed them, what the 
police were doing, Barek's part in all this, what they had figured 
so far. JT and Neil had fully explained every single detail about 
Ub2b, the small bits of information that they had left out before.
	All four of them were hungry, but they only seemed to 
realize it when everyone heard Jimmy's stomach grumble. Jimmy patted 
his stomach with his hand and smiled sheepishly.
	They all managed a small laugh, still feeling the depressing 
atmosphere of the small dark cell.
	And then all of them became quiet all over again. All of 
them thinking of their loved ones that they were not with. Missing 
them.
	As JT thought of Glory, it pained him so much to know that 
Glory was in pain too. Callie and Jimmy had told them that she was 
really upset the last they saw her. JT knew she was also missing 
her brother, and that even though JT didn't like Garrett, he felt 
like he needed to be there for her in her time of need.
	JT bit his lip. Instead he was making it worse for her.
	Just then, all four of them jumped when they heard a noise 
outside. They heard Barek talking to the guard outside, speaking in 
Russian. All four of them looked at each other, wondering what was 
happening.
	And then they heard footsteps walk away. A minute later, 
Barek opened their cell. "Common, guys, let's get outta here."
	All four were hesitant at first, wondering if they could 
trust Barek or not.
	Urgently, Barek told them, "Please, trust me, I'm taking 
you back to Swans Crossing where you belong." He made a waving 
motion with his hand, signaling them that the Baldies might be 
back soon.
	Callie and Jimmy looked at each other, and then simultaneously 
stood up together. JT and Neil followed a second later. Quickly, 
they got out of the cell, and Barek began to lead them out of this 
dreaded place.

	  � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� �

	Grant Booth silently peeked inside his new temporary bedroom 
where his wife was soundly sleeping in the bed. He smiled and then 
closed the door.
	He got a glass of water from the kitchen and then sat 
down in the living room, thinking about his current situation. He 
couldn't leave his wife to work on his campaign, not now that she 
needed him. And he refused to leave her in the care of some hired 
nurse. Glory was already fully troubled, there was not much he 
could ask her to do.
	Grant knew his campaign was nothing compared to his family 
life. Although Grant seemed to be a jerk for sending Garrett to 
France, that was what he thought was best for Garrett. Garrett only 
seemed to learn disipline while he was in France, when he was back 
here, in the area of that Rutledge girl, he only seemed to get 
worse and more rebellious.
	Grant wanted the best for his family. And he would do 
anything to help them. "But what about my campaign for Mayor?" he 
asked himself quietly.
	This was a huge question, and being the family man Grant 
knew he was, he knew he would only make a final decision with his 
family, but only if he thought about this first.
	Staring out the window, watching the clouds move rapidly in 
the sky, Grant thought and thought. But he couldn't reach a 
decision.

	  � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� � �:� �

	Barek and the four Swans Crossing teens were rushing out 
of the hidden location. It was damp, dark and disgusting, but all 
five of them were silencing themselves, for fear of being caught.
	Being a trained agent, Barek had only been to this place 
the day itself, but already he knew the best way to getting out of 
there without being seen. Or so he thought.
	It just so happened, that the Baldies were running behind 
schedule, and were still by the exit when the five crossed paths 
with them.
	The Baldies, many as they were, brought out guns, angered 
at Barek's betrayal. The five stopped to a halt when they realized 
that they had been caught. No one made any sudden movements.
	All dressed in black as usual, the Baldies, though they 
were outnumbered by the Swans, held the controlling hand for they 
had guns, and weren't afraid to use it.
	All five of them knew they were trapped. There was nothing 
thay could do. Oh no, was all JT could think.


		        To be continued...

		         � 1999 LadySwan


If you have and comments, suggestion, questions, ideas, or any kind 
of criticism at all, please email me, LadySwan, at 
ladyswan_1@hotmail.com ! Thanks!�!�! �:�