This story begins where one of my other stories, The Cult part two, ends. You don't need to read the other two Cult stories but by reading them this story would make more sense.

Jacob's Revenge

Chapter one

Candy Store

"Think fast!" Deaq yelled as he tossed the basketball towards Van. The ball flew past him narrowly missing his head. Deaq could tell that Van's mind was a million miles away. "Hey, what's up?"

"Huh?" Van glanced over at Deaq.

"Where the hell's your mind at Van? I feel like I've been carrying on a conversation with myself for the last few weeks."

"Oh…sorry."

"What's bugging you partner?" Deaq walked over.

"Uh…nothing…It's nothing really." He shook his head slightly and started to walk away.

"Come on now. I know something has been eating at you for a while now. What's up?"

Van looked down and kicked at the floor with his shoe. He finally looked up shrugging his shoulders.

"It's …it's just this Jacob thing."

"Hey, don't you go worrying about ole Jacob. He's long gone. He's not stupid enough to hang around L.A." Deaq could tell Van wasn't convinced. "Anyway partner, the doctor gave you a clean bill of health. Jacob has no control over you anymore."

Van shook his head and looked away. It was only a short time ago that Jacob had drug and hypnotized him. He actually had remembered little about the ordeal. But six weeks earlier Jacob had escaped from prison, and that had triggered short flashes of memories in Van. Memories he would just as soon forget. As far as the escape, all they could tell was that two of the guards simply opened the door for him and he walked away. When other guards had tried to stop him the two guards had opened fire on them. One guard was killed and three others had serious injuries. The two guards who had helped Jacob escaped had then turned their guns on themselves and committed suicide before they could be arrested.

"Yeah I know. It's just…" Van threw his hands up in the air. "It's just that I can't stop thinking about him."

"Hey, I can understand that. After what the man did to you…" Deaq winced at the memory of holding his partner as he was bleeding to death. He remembered desperately trying to get through to Van when he was in Jacob's control and getting no response. And he remembered Van raising the gun to his head, just like the guards had done when captured. Luckily he had been able to push the gun far enough away from Van that when he fired he had only received a deep graze wound near his temple. And then when Jacob had escaped a second time and reprogrammed Van, Van had actually been gunned down by the cops as he carried a bomb once more under Jacob's control. He had thought he had lost his partner twice before because of Jacob and he wasn't about to let it happen again.

"It's just so weird Deaq. I just feel like…well, like he's out there watching me. I keep seeing him in my dreams and he's…he's just watching me."

"Hey partner, that man put you and me both through hell. It's only normal that he's still in your head. But the doctor told us that all the drugs are out of your system and the hypnotic suggestions are history. So you need to chill Van, he can only get to you if you let him."

"Yeah, I know." Van gave Deaq a small smile but didn't look convinced. "I'm sure he's long gone like you said…. And I'm sure not going to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder for him."

"Now that's the Van I know." Deaq smiled back as he walked over and picked up the ball, inside though he couldn't escape his own worry. His partner had a haunted look about him and it scared him. Ever since Billie had told them that Jacob had once more broken out of jail Van had a nervousness about him that he didn't have before. Jumping at the slightest sound and constantly looking around him, like he was expecting to see Jacob at every corner. The psychiatrist Van had seen said it was to be expected. Van had been completely under Jacob's control and even though he couldn't remember most of what had happened he still knew he had no will of his own at the time and it scared the hell out of him. "Who ever loses buys dinner." Deaq said as he tossed the ball at the net.

Billie sat at her desk watching her two officers. She could make out most of what they said and knew they were talking about Jacob. Van had been released by the doctor and was back at work on full capacity but she knew she wouldn't feel one hundred percent better untill Jacob was back behind bars. It was highly unlikely he would still be in the vicinity. It had been six weeks and if he was smart he'd be out of the country by now. But still she worried. Van looked pale and was still a little weak from his ordeal. She had kept him and Deaq on relatively easy assignments waiting till she was sure Van was back to his old self. Of course Van had protested insisting he was fine. She looked at the file in her hand. She had been given an assignment which would normally be a routine job for Van and Deaq but she hesitated giving it to them, but then she thought maybe it was what Van needed, to be put back into action to get his mind off of Jacob. She was sure Deaq would watch his partner's back.

"Breaks over." She yelled over to them. "Let's get back to work."

Four days later

The last four days had gone relatively well. Billie had given them the assignment of infiltrating a drug smuggling ring. They had done it many times before and so far everything was going as planned. Van played the part of a man in from New York looking to buy twenty kilos of cocaine from a man named Mark Gains. Deaq played his driver and bodyguard. They had gotten the word out on the street that they were in town looking to score. Their cover had been established and there was no need to hurry. They had heard from Aquarius that Gains was already interested in them.

It had been a long day and Deaq drove Van back to his apartment, glad Van seemed to have pushed Jacob to the back of his mind while they worked the case.

"How 'bout coming in for a brew?" Van asked as he climbed out of the car.

"Sure why not."

Just as Deaq closed the apartment door behind him, a girl wrapped in a towel appeared from the bathroom.

"Oh." She took a step back startled.

"Sorry, I didn't know Van had company." Deaq said surprised that he had never seen the girl before. He had always met Van's "friends" before and it seemed odd that Van didn't warn him that he had a girl in his apartment. He looked over at Van and noticed he had a strange look on his face, as if he didn't expect the girl to be there.

"I'm sorry Van, I didn't know you were bringing anyone home." The girl said as she wrapped the towel tighter around herself.

"Uh…that's okay Wendy, I uh…I forgot you were here." He looked over at Deaq who noticed Van still had an odd confused look on his face. "Deaq… this is Wendy."

Deaq held out his hand which she took.

"I don't believe we've met." He said smiling.

"No, I'm sure we haven't." She gave him a nervous smile. "I'll just slip into something." She backed into the bedroom.

Deaq looked over at Van.

"Why you sneaky dog." He said grinning.

Van stood watching the girl disappear into the bedroom a blank look on his face.

"Hey partner, something wrong?" Deaq asked seeing the look.

"Uh…no." Van shook his head still staring in the direction the girl had gone.

Deaq put his hand on Van's shoulder.

"Hey…you okay?"

After a few seconds Van turned back toward Deaq.

"Yeah…uh…yeah I'm fine…Just a little tired." Van squeezed his eyes shut then pinched the bridge of his nose, his head was pounding.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Van said starting to get a little irritable. "Just a little headache."

"Where did you meet her?" Deaq was getting a funny feeling from Van's reaction and decided to question him a little more.

"I uh… met Wendy a few nights back. She …uh…needed a place to stay for a short time. She's a flight attendant, in town for a few days."

"Boy you work fast Van. I didn't think you'd get over Maggie so quick."

Van had only broken up with his last girlfriend a few weeks ago.

"Well hey, what can I say, I get lonely." Van walked to the refrigerator, took out two beers, and handed one to Deaq. "Well I think Gains is going to bite." He said trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, it should be a piece of cake." Deaq glanced at the bedroom door. "You never told me you met someone." He said changing the subject back to the girl.

"What are you, my mother? I don't have to get your permission to see someone."

"Okay, take it easy." Deaq put up his hand; he could tell Van was getting angry.

"I'm sorry." Van apologized. "I'm just tired."

"Well you better get untired real quick partner." He smiled as he nodded toward the bedroom door.

"Don't worry about me, I'm good to go all night." Van grinned back.

"Yeah, you wish." Deaq laughed. "Well I'll pick you up tomorrow around ten." He patted Van on the back as he drained his beer. "Try to get at least a few hours of sleep tonight." He took one last glance back at the bedroom door then left.

After he left Wendy came out of the room and walked past Van to the refrigerator.

"Like a drink?" She asked as she took out a beer and poured it into a glass. She then reached into her bathrobe and took out two pills which she dropped into the glass. She walked over to Van and took the old drink from his hand and handed him the new one. Van started to say something but she put her hand up to his lips.

"Drink up, we'll talk later."

TBC