Grave Peril
An NCIS fan fic
Author's note: I do not own the characters, just the situations involved. All characters are the property of Donald Bellisario and CBS.
Ch.1 A Stalker's Escape
It had been a year since he had last talked to her. Michael Mauer was very unhappy with the way things ended between them. He had saved the love of his life, Abby Sciuto from a hitman. He thought he would recive her gratitude. Instead, he was thrown into prison on a five year sentence for criminal violation of a restraining order. He now admitted how much he had miscalculated. Abby was a world class forensic scientist who worked for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. It was her boss who was to blame. He came between their love when it could have blossomed.
His cellmate was Abby's former assistant. The two realized they had a common enemy, and plotted how they could get out of prison and take revenge on those that put them there to begin with. It was an ambitious plan that would make both the girl and her meddling boss suffer horribly. It was blind luck on their part that Leavenworth Pennitentiary was recently downgraded to a medium security prison. If things went the way they were supposed to, this would be the last night either one of them would spend in this cell.
Light's out was called, and the two slept. Michael Mauer's job before his current prison sentence was cleaning crime scenes, so he had the idea to stage his and his cell mate's deaths. When the morning work detail began, they'd be leaving. Michael thought that he could still convince Abby to love him, but extreme measures would be taken. His cell mate hoped Abby continued to deny him. If she'd minded her own buisness in his mind, a certain NCIS agent would be rotting in prison on a life sentence. He wanted her dead for her persistence in proving Anthony Dinozzo innocent of murder. She had taken away his revenge, so he was going to get some on her.
Morning came, and thanks to some friends, Michael Mauer and Charles Sterling were assigned laundry detail today. Of course, friends meant a selection of guards that Michael Mauer had falsely promised money to when he and Chip were on the outside, provided they look the other way. Chip had offered the same deal to certain prisoners, and it was arranged that the two would hide in the laundry bin that was due to leave the prison that day. The guards that were in on it were assigned security detail, and they lied when the bin was ran through x-ray scanners, saying there was nothing in it but dirty clothes.
At the same time, some prisoners had unloaded two mannequins made to look like the prisoners of 14-d and deposited them on the floor. "You think this is actually going to work for them, Jeff?" one asked his larger companion. The large man beside him laughed and replied, "As long as we get the money Chip promised before they get caught, I really don't give a damn if it works for them or not." That being said, he set the body that had been disguised as Michael Mauer on the floor. "I hope it works, I've only got six months left on my sentence." The smaller man did not want money. Ensign Richard Tyler had been promised early release by Michael Mauer in exchange for his assistance.
The mannequins were life like enough to pass as living people. They were made of a latex and gell mixture that gave the look and feel of skin. Twenty minutes after they left their cells, a prison guard happened to notice the bodies and called it in. Dr. Jennifer Andrews was the M.E called to autopsy the bodies. She took one look at them and became serious. "Who called this in?" she asked. "Guard Trent Riker," a guard replied. The young M.E. laughed. "We have a problem, because these aren't the bodies of two prisoners. These are fakes."
The guard to whom she was speaking immediately pulled his walkie talkie. "Security, we have a possible escape of two prisoners," he announced quickly. There was a brief pause, and someone on the other end responded, "Which prisoners?" The guard shook his head. "They were found in Cell 14-d," he responded. Personnel did a quick check. "Joe, we need to call the feds. The prisoners missing are Charles Sterling and Michael Mauer." Johnathan Davis knew those names. Every guard in C block knew the proceedure that was to be followed if one or both of them escaped. This needed to go straight to the warden.
Michael Mauer smiled at his mutual partner. They had just cleared the prison grounds. "How long you think it'll take before they discover the fake bodies?" Chip asked lightly. "It depends on how well trained the medical staff is. As far as I know, they don't employ particularly experienced doctors, so if I'm right we should have plenty of time to get to D.C." Chip laughed at that. He'd been on the recieving end of a fifteen year sentence due to Abby Sciuto's meddling. Revenge would be sweet. He had particularly enjoyed the fact that what was in store for her was Mauer's doing. The two escapees quickly boarded a Greyhound bus headed east.