Sequel to Four Day Weekend (Spring Break)
There were worse things than trying to negotiate across campus on crutches, but at this moment Charlie couldn't think of anything. If he wasn't being bumped by rushing students, he was trying to keep his balance going up and down stairs that he normally breezed through. It was only after he finally got into his office and settled in his chair that he breathed a sigh of relief.
It was the Friday before spring break, and although he could still technically be on sick leave because of his knee, he couldn't stand the thought of leaving all the paperwork piling up on his desk. Alan had tried to convince him to go in on Monday when no students would be on campus, but Charlie felt like he needed to get out of the house. Alan and Don were still treating him like an invalid, although his knee was recovering from the fall he'd taken last weekend.
A quiet knock on the door got his attention. "Come in."
Larry stuck his head in the door. "Charles, I trust you're feeling better if you're here?"
"Not especially, but there is a finite limit to the fussing that I can tolerate from my father. Apparently, torn knee ligaments are tantamount to being bedridden," Charlie said as he continued sorting through the papers.
The physicist wandered over and sat down. The look on his face immediately made Charlie suspicious. "You know, Charles, I was wondering…"
"Yes?"
"What do you suppose, in the greater scheme of the universe, caused the earthquake?"
Charlie blinked at Larry, trying to follow his line of questioning. "Um, gravity and inertia acting on tectonic plates?"
"No, no. Not the mere physical, but what in the grand cosmic design caused that particular tremor at that particular moment in time?"
"I'm not sure. I suppose you have a theory?"
"Well, I was just wondering what happened with you and Amita out there in the aftermath?"
"We fell, got stuck out there, and came home. Why?" Charlie kept a bland tone of voice for his answer, but the suspicions grew.
"Well, I recall that she had specifically made mention of showing you something interesting, and then with the event and all, I was wondering if you got to, you know, see what she wanted."
A sly smile crossed Charlie's face. "Larry Fleinhardt, are you fishing for gossip?"
"Oh, no, heavens no. I just know that you two worried a lot of people getting stuck out there." Larry tried to carry across a disapproving look, but the guilt and curiosity behind it ruined his effect.
"Listen, we left in plenty of time to meet up with you if it hadn't been for the earthquake. And yes, for your information, she showed me the ridge and cave. That was all she took me out there for."
Disappointment made Larry's face fall, and he sat there looking dejected.
"Besides, Larry, I tore my knee up and tried to split my head open. It was hardly a romantic atmosphere." Charlie dropped his gaze and hoped that he could keep a straight face through this farce as he continued. "And what is the fascination with my love life, or lack thereof? I mean, does it really deprive you of so much to not be able to leave one area of my life alone?"
Risking a glance at Larry, Charlie nearly lost his composure to see the ludicrously apologetic expression that crossed the other man's face. Instead, he tried to gauge whether he should just back down or try to bluff through more. Alan knew about the burgeoning relationship, but all three of them agreed that once Larry knew the whole campus would know. It was fun to try to keep it to themselves, for a while, anyway.
A loud rush of students outside the door answered Charlie's unspoken question, and he quickly grabbed a small stack of papers. Struggling to his feet, he pulled the crutches over and settled himself to leave.
"Charles, class doesn't start for ten minutes," Larry protested at his struggling exit.
"It takes me twice as long to get where I'm going on these," Charlie explained. "Longer if I'm going through crowds."
Larry held the door for him as Charlie carefully navigated his way into the rushing throng.
Friday was his lightest class load, which was fortunate. By noon he was exhausted, but he was desperate to see Amita before he gave up and went home. He limped back to his office and finished what paperwork he could as he waited for her to finish her classes.
The door creaked open about an hour later, drawing his attention. "Hey, Charlie."
"Lock it behind you," he said quietly. "I don't want Larry paying another visit."
"He waylaid you too?" she asked, smiling at him.
Charlie chuckled. "Not very subtle about it, either." He reached for her and pulled her down onto his lap to kiss her. "Whenever you're ready to tell the world, I am."
"Well, at least let us tell my parents. They'll be back in town this weekend."
"Do I have to go, too?"
She laughed at the consternation in his voice. "Probably. I haven't talked to them yet." This time she kissed him. "They're going to love you. It'll be like your dad liking me."
"Dad loves you," he said in a huff. "All right. You know you've got me."
"What has Don said about us?"
"Don doesn't know yet." He laughed. "Dad is respecting our wishes and not telling everyone he sees, but as for Don, he just hasn't noticed."
"Hasn't noticed? How can he not? You're as giddy as anyone's ever seen you."
"To be fair, he's been so busy that he's only been to the house once since he brought me home and that was to drop off his laundry."
Amita ran her hands through his hair. "Have I ever told you that you have really nice hair?" She buried her face in it and sniffed. "And it smells good."
Charlie groaned. "Um, Amita, that's probably not … Can we wait to do this until later? Please?"
"How much later?" she asked, teasing the curls to fall around his face.
"Well, at least until we get to your place," he said, feeling a little short of breath.
She pouted prettily. "I suppose. If I have to."
An evil grin crept across Charlie's face. "I'll resort to tickling, if I have to."
"You wouldn't." She stared at him, testing his resolve. "You would."
"Probably not here," he relented. "That's all we need is for someone to call security because you're screaming in my office."
Charlie's cell phone rang, startling both of them. He dug it out, trying to keep Amita comfortable in his lap. "Hello?"
"Charlie, Dad said you went back to work, but is there any way I can bring you in this afternoon?" Don asked.
Trying to ignore the kisses that Amita was tracing along his neck, Charlie struggled to keep the stress out of his voice. "Yeah, for a little while. What's up?"
"We just caught a break in the case, and we need you to go through some data."
"Yeah, all right."
"I'll send David for you in a few minutes. See you then."
The connection was barely broken before Charlie laughed. "Don't do that! Don might not have noticed yet, but that doesn't mean he's stupid."
She sighed. "You have to leave, don't you?"
"Yeah. Don needs me to go in to his office." He squeezed her tightly. "I'll finish up just as quick as I can, and then I'll meet you at your place."
"All right." She stood. "Just hurry, okay? I'll wait to call the pizza place until you get there."
Charlie helped her gather her things. "I'm sorry, Amita."
"I understand." She kissed him quickly. "See you later."
He watched her leave. Within moments, Larry appeared back in the office. "So, was that Amita leaving?"
As soon as Charlie saw his friend, he began gathering his own things. "I'm sorry, Larry, but Don just called. He needs me to go in and help with another case."
"Oh. Is that why Amita left?"
"No, Amita left because she had gotten the confirmation she needed for a, um, a development that she is dealing with." Charlie was proud of himself for getting the prevarication out without stumbling too much. "David is supposed to pick me up in a few minutes."
Larry nodded slowly. "Did your brother give you any indication of what he has in mind for you today?"
Charlie hid a smile at successfully distracting the physicist. He grabbed his crutches and began navigating toward the door. "Walk me out?" he asked with a charming smile.
"You know, this is the second time today that you've used those crutches to try to escape my presence," Larry observed as he escorted Charlie through the now empty halls.
"Now why would I do that? Just because you've," he paused to negotiate the stairs, "Decided you know what's best for my life. All of it. Why in the world would I possibly want to escape?"
"Now don't get offended, Charles. I merely observed that your mobility is not quite as impaired as you've led me to believe."
"It isn't now… that there's no students…in my way," he panted as he rested at the bottom of the stairs.
"All right, I'll accept that observation, but my point is that neither you nor Amita seem willing to discuss anything about what happened."
"Other than the fact that there really is nothing to discuss? If you want to know what it was like, we slept on a cold stone floor, wondering if another earthquake was going to hit, and sat and discussed projects to keep our minds off the fact that no one knew where we were."
"Dear lord." For the first time, Larry appeared to understand that the situation had not been all fun and games. "I didn't realize what it was truly like out there."
"To be honest, Larry, I can think of a lot of people that it would've been worse to be out there with. Amita kept her head and didn't panic."
As if on cue, a black SUV pulled up in front of the building where Larry and Charlie were talking. David got out and walked over to them.
"Hey, Charlie, Larry. Need any help?" he asked politely.
"No thank you. I'll see you later," Charlie said as he limped toward the vehicle.
"Take care of yourself, Charles."
David held his peace until they were off campus. "You and Larry looked like you were in an…intense conversation," he said cautiously.
"Yeah."
"Anything wrong?"
"Not really. He was just wanting to know about last weekend."
"Oh."
The rest of the trip was silent. David helped Charlie into the elevator and pushed the button for the correct floor.
"Is there something that you want to ask me?" Charlie asked, not looking at David.
"Are you all right? Don said something about you not being yourself when he picked you up at the hospital."
"I've worked it out since then, so yes, I'm all right."
The elevator chimed the correct floor and they walked out. David shot a look at Don as they entered the conference room.
"Hey, Charlie. How you doing?" Don asked quickly. "Sorry to call you in, but we need help with this."
"What have you got?" Charlie got right down to business.
"A terrorist cell has been hitting online bank accounts, and until today we hadn't had any information on their hits other than names of institutions. We finally got some background into the latest hit and a couple of the earlier ones. Can you go through and see what sense you can make of this? You keep talking about patterns of behavior, and these guys have been hitting banks regularly. The only problem is they're hitting accounts and banks at random." Don held up a hand to stop Charlie's comment. "I know how you feel about random. So find something there to prove me wrong."
Don watched as his brother dove into the mound of material that Colby had brought in and went to work. He seemed like he was back to normal, but…
Motioning to the other agents, Don cleared the room and pulled David aside. "So, did you get him talking?"
"It wasn't about math, so not really." David grimaced, knowing that he failed Don.
"Did he say anything about last weekend?"
"I know Larry was grilling him when I picked him up. He did say that he had worked it out, whatever it was."
Don mulled that over. "All right. Thanks, David."
Charlie stared at page after page of numbers. The account numbers of American banks, British banks, German banks, and a few Caribbean institutions fell in neat columns. Random was a concept that stayed foremost in his mind, to his great consternation. There had to be some pattern here.
The numbers swarmed his consciousness until he completely lost his sense of time. It was only when Megan stuck her head in that he realized how late it had gotten.
"What are you in the mood for? We're calling for pizza," she said.
"What time is it?"
Megan raised her eyebrows at the slight sound of panic in his voice. "About six-thirty. Why? Got a date?"
"No. Just let time get away from me," he returned automatically.
The profiler nodded a little uncertainly. "So, any toppings you can't stand?"
"Just anchovies." Charlie dropped his head to the stack of papers.
Something about his behavior alerted Megan. Staring at the mathematician, who was trying his best to give an impression of intense concentration, she wondered how she knew that Charlie was faking. She pulled the door shut behind her, but took a moment to peer carefully through the small window. As soon as he was alone Charlie took out his cell phone and put in a call. It was an intense conversation for all of its brevity. He snapped it shut and went back to work.
Completely bemused by the stranger than normal behavior exhibited by the resident genius, she wandered back to where Don, Colby, and David were arguing over the pizza menu and the case alternately. It was her silence when she sat and joined them that drew Don's attention to her.
"So, what's up? Let me guess. No anchovies."
"Yeah."
Her one word answer drew all eyes to her. "What's wrong?"
"Why would Charlie pretend to work to get rid of me?"
"He what?"
"He pretended to go back to work, and once I left, he called someone on his cell phone." Megan looked at the others apprehensively. "Do you have any idea who he was calling?"
"Dad's not home tonight," Don said quickly. "He's got a dinner date with some of his golf buddies."
"He didn't look real comfortable when Larry was trying to get him to talk earlier," David added.
"Wait a minute. Larry's trying to get information out of him? About what? Charlie doesn't hold anything back from him. The real trick is getting him to shut up."
Megan frowned at Don's cavalier dismissal of his brother. "Listen. Charlie's up to something, and you guys don't think it's weird?"
Don looked at her and everyone saw something click in his face. He burst out laughing, completely confounding his fellow agents.
"Have any intention to clue us in to your brother's suspicious behavior?" Colby asked brusquely.
Trying to contain his hilarity enough to answer his waiting, and impatient, colleagues, he gasped, "It's okay. Just leave Charlie alone. He'll tell us in his own time." Meeting their gazes, he said, "Okay, look. He's got top secret clearance from the NSA. He'll be fine."
Colby and David didn't look any more enlightened, but a very slow smile spread over Megan's face. "They did it, didn't they?"
"That would be my guess," Don said. "I haven't seen him since Monday evening, but I'll bet that's it." He frowned absently. "As a matter of fact, Dad has been rather vague about Charlie all week, like he's wanted to say something but can't."
"You're about to piss us off royally if you don't spill your guts," threatened Colby.
Don leaned forward conspiratorially. "I suspect that Charlie and Amita have finally gotten together."
"But why would he want to keep that secret from Larry? I thought he and Larry were close," David said in confusion.
"Yes, but Larry can't keep such a juicy piece of information quiet. He's got a reputation as being the campus gossip."
Colby shushed everyone as Charlie limped through the office on his crutches distractedly. He got a drink of water from the fountain and headed back to the conference room and his work.
"Did he have a date tonight?" David asked quietly.
"Damn. He might have." Don frowned as he tried to recall the conversation exactly. "He did hint when I called him this afternoon that he only had a while to spare today."
Megan stifled a laugh. "I swear, you and Charlie are more alike than either of you will admit."
"Huh?" asked Don, confused.
"You're just as focused and absentminded when you're on a case as your brother is when he's in the middle of one of his math things."
The agent looked a little nonplussed at the comparison. "I'd never thought about it."
"Yeah, I can see that. No offense, man, but you're obsessive when we get a tough case. Not that it's a bad thing, but there are times…" Colby grinned as he dodged the half-hearted punch that Don aimed his way.
Charlie hung up his phone with regret. Amita was being very understanding about him missing dinner with her, but he felt like a complete loser. The feeling was enough to keep him from focusing on the numbers before him. He was tempted to call her to come in and help him, but really thought she might be more of a distraction than she was already.
An account number caught his eye. He'd seen that one before. Charlie looked at it closer, then paged through other papers until he found a corresponding bank. For several minutes he continued putting together data.
"Don! Don, I've got something!"
Within ten minutes, the others had gathered in front of him. Charlie immediately went into teaching mode.
"Okay, I apologize for not putting the data up on the board for you, but it's easier to do it this way. All right. Don, you're right that the numbers looked random. I had to look hard to find the pattern. The problem was the accounts were not what one would assume." He shuffled through to present his brother with a particular page. "This is the second company hit. The list of account numbers under it is listed in order of usage, with the most used first. Now look at the highlighted selections. Those are the only ones hit. And here," he passed more pages down the table, "The same situation exists here. In fact, with the data you've given me, this shows that every company hit has been hit in only these accounts."
"Wait. Why did they only hit these accounts?" Don demanded. "You said these are arranged in order of usage. So why hit the least used?"
"I don't know. I just know that they did," Charlie said.
"Wait a minute. I've seen some of these names before," Colby said as he stared at the papers. "Year and a half ago, before I got transferred here. I was working on a case, investigating companies that were giving money to al Qaeda cells. This one was involved. So was this one," and he stabbed two of the names in the list.
"So these companies got caught giving money to terrorists, then suddenly they've been robbed by them?" David frowned as he talked it out. "That doesn't follow."
"It does if you're a CEO who doesn't like being told what you can and can't do," Megan inserted. "If you're told you can't give something away, then have your buddies steal it. And even better, you're insured for the loss and don't really even lose the money anyway."
"Damn that's slick," Don said, summing it up. "Guys, get on this and see if we can get some evidence to back up all this. I'm going to run Charlie home real quick and I'll join you back here. Do you need me help you get your stuff together?"
"No, it shouldn't take me long," Charlie said, surprised at his brother's sudden vehemence at getting him home. He didn't notice the odd looks he got from the others as Don escorted him out to the SUV.
"Now, where am I taking you?" asked Don quickly.
Charlie snapped his head around to stare at the agent. "Um, did you forget the way home?"
"Listen. I'll save you the trouble of actually saying something, but if you need me to drop you off at some other address, I'll keep it to myself."
"When did you notice?" Charlie asked softly.
"I'll admit, you did a pretty good job of hiding, but adding up all the little things that me, Megan, and David noticed, it made sense. So why aren't you telling?"
"She wants to tell her parents before we let Larry know, and thus the whole campus." He dropped his voice and quietly gave Amita's home address. "By the way, we weren't hiding it from you, but we also hadn't seen you all week. And yes, Dad already knows."
"Hey, no problem. I know I've been busy. I'm really happy for you two." Don let the sincerity ring through his words. "And one of these days you're going to have to tell me the whole back story."
Charlie filled him in as much as possible before they pulled up in front of Amita's place. Don reached over and rested his hand on his little brother's shoulder. "Thanks for the help tonight. I mean that." He watched Charlie get out of the vehicle and fumble with the crutches. "Hey, when can you ditch those?"
"I go back to the doctor on Monday and hopefully I'll be able to get rid of them then."
"Good luck tonight."
Amita jumped when the doorbell rang. Glancing at the clock, she wondered who would be visiting at eight-thirty, especially since most of her friends had already departed for spring break.
"Charlie! What are you doing here?" she asked as she pulled the door open for him.
He frowned uncertainly. "I thought we'd made plans this evening. Sorry if I didn't call before I came over, but I got done a lot earlier than I thought I would."
She grinned. "I didn't mean to sound like you're not welcome. I just assumed that you would be helping Don all night."
Charlie collapsed on her sofa, and she helped him pull his shoes off and prop his knee up. With him settled, she grabbed the phone and the remotes and snuggled in beside him.
"Now, what do you want on your pizza?"
Charlie chuckled. "That's the second time this evening that a beautiful woman has asked me that. And I'll give you the same answer I gave Megan. Anything but anchovies."
The movie was a nice distraction until the delivery person dropped off the box. After the edge was taken off their hunger, they started touching and kissing more. The kisses started innocently enough, but as the passions progressed, the sofa's inherent difficulties kept things from going too far.
Amita pulled back to stare at Charlie, neither of them wanting to stop. Shyly she whispered, "The bed is a lot softer."
He nodded and began struggling to sit up. She helped him upright before delaying the trip in with a few more kisses. He followed her slowly as she led him into her bedroom.