EASY TARGET
Because there aren't enough Adam fics in the world!
Author's note: This is my first fanfic so please let me know what you think, and whether you would like to read more. I have some of it written already – the problem is going to be my computer, which is currently having a nervous breakdown! So I'll update as quickly as I can. Please bear with me….
Disclaimer: Don't I just wish I owned Adam…..
CHAPTER ONE
It was a simple phone message that gave Jo her first warning. She was trying to tidy her desk at the time, whisking papers around in the desperate hope that they would fall into some kind of order. When her mobile beeped, she yanked it out of her pocket with relief, hoping for something – anything – that would pull her away from her least favourite task.
What she got was a nasty shock.
The message seemed innocuous at first. Accidental, even. It contained a short video clip, shot from someone else's phone, of a carriage on the subway. Jo watched curiously as the camera's eye moved through the weary rush hour crowds, none of whom seemed to notice that they were being filmed. Suddenly she stiffened, as she saw a face that she knew all too well. The video cut out at this precise moment, and two words took its place.
"Easy target."
Jo went cold.
Gripping the phone tightly, she ran from the room and down the corridor, searching through every glass partition until she found what she was looking for. Scruffy chestnut curls, bent low in concentration over a trio of computer screens. Adam was so intent upon his task that he did not even notice her until she was right beside him. Then he looked up, flashing her that infectious shy smile of his. "Hey, Jo. What can I do for you?"
For once, Jo did not return the smile.
"Adam. Did you ride the subway today?"
"Today?" The lab tech looked puzzled. "No. Yesterday, I guess. My car broke down. Two flat tires – can you believe it? How did you know? I wasn't late or anything – at least, I don't think I was. Am I in trouble?" The old familiar worry lines, always too quick to appear, creased his brow. Jo laid her hand on his arm, wanting to reassure him but uncertain how to continue.
"Not with me," she told him, shaking her head.
"Then with someone else? Oh God – is it Mac? What did I do this time?" Adam paused the program he was running and turned to give her his whole attention. "I don't remember making a mistake…."
"Adam. Stop. You haven't done anything wrong." Jo sighed and held out her phone. "I suppose the only thing I can do is show you. Look at the message and tell me if this was yesterday."
"Wh-what?"
Warily, Adam focussed his gaze on the video clip as it ran. There was the subway carriage, filled with strangers – and yet, they all seemed vaguely familiar somehow, like characters in a dream. There was his own face, tiny and oblivious, as he bobbed in time to an unknown beat on his i-pod. And there was the message, stark and sickening, in red on an empty white background.
"Easy target."
Adam's world contracted and a fist began to hammer in his chest. He gripped the table edge behind him, out of sight. "Yes," he said in the calmest voice that he could muster, as if this sort of thing happened all the time and was nothing to freak out about. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Man up, Ross…. "That was yesterday. On the way home. Jo, what's going on? Who sent that?"
"Right now, I don't know. But don't panic," she told him belatedly. "You're here, and you're safe. It may not even be a real threat, after all. Take my phone and see if you can find out who sent the video."
"O-okay. And you'll be…?"
"I'll be getting Mac."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" muttered Adam, as the dark-haired woman swept out of the lab. On reflection, though, he decided that it did. Mac had a powerful presence that was hard to ignore – whichever side of it you happened to fall upon. Trouble was, Adam had a persistent, nagging phobia of falling on the wrong side. Echoes of a past that simply would not fade away, no matter how hard he tried to escape from them. His respect for Mac was immense, and that made things ten times worse. The observant Jo, of course, had noticed his problem immediately but that didn't help either, as her approach always seemed to be to push him at the boss head on. Psychology 101. Face your fears, Adam. Man up….
The elevator doors slid open and Mac stepped out, straight into Jo's line of sight. She collared him at once, almost spilling his coffee, and began to speak in rapid undertones, gesturing urgently. As she did so, Mac sent his piercing gaze back through the glass towards Adam, who instantly tried to pretend (unconvincingly) that he hadn't been spying on them both. Blushing, he set to work on the task that Jo had given him. When they came up behind him, he sighed in frustration. "Burn phone," he told them. "Impossible to trace. Especially as they seem to have turned it off." He shook his head unhappily. "I don't remember… I should have noticed… Why didn't I see that someone was filming me?"
"Why would you?" Mac's voice was gruff, as always, but his face radiated concern. "What would you have seen? Only someone with a mobile phone, passing time on their journey. That describes just about everyone on the subway these days. The point that should really concern us right now is, why were they filming you?"
"And why did they send the message to me?" added Jo with a grimace.
Adam lowered his head, uncomfortable under their scrutiny. The hammering was in his ears now, loud and fierce. "I guess… I guess… It must be some kind of a warning." He didn't like to follow where this thought was going, and nobody else finished it for him. Instead, Mac laid a hand upon his shoulder.
"Tonight you stay here," he told the young man. "You can sleep on the couch in my office."
Jo almost burst out laughing when she saw the look of unreasoning terror that flitted across the lab tech's face, and how he tried to cover it at once with a mask of gratitude.
"Oh. No. Really, boss, that's ok, you don't have to. I mean, that's your office, and I… Anyway, I have my car here today. I only took the subway that one time, on account of the two flat tires…."
Adam's panicked babble trailed off as a nasty little thought snuck into his mind. "Oh, God. You don't suppose…."
"How did they know you'd be on the subway?" reasoned Mac grimly. "Because they disabled your car. And if they can do that once…."
"They can do it again," whispered Adam.
"It also means they know where you live," added Jo.
Mac nodded. "Besides, your experience of car parks lately hasn't been exactly stellar."
Adam winced. No need to bring that up. Sass Dumonde's death was still a raw wound and the attack upon his own life had been frightening in the extreme, no matter how many Jedi jokes his friends had made about it to try and lighten the mood.
"Okay, you win," he sighed. "I'll stay in the lab. And if I get tired, I'll sleep on your couch, boss, I promise."
"If?" mouthed Jo, but Mac shook his head. Good enough. Adam had their protection. Time to find out why he needed it.
