-1Title: Out of Time

Author: 1st endeavor

A/N: All the characters and references to the show "NUMB3RS" are the property of Cheryl Heuton and Nick Falacci, CBS and the Scott Brothers. I am not making any profit from this and no infringement is intended.

Chapter 1

6:00 a.m.

Charlie Eppes looked around his bedroom , mentally checking off the things he required for the day's scheduled events. First up, wearing apparel for the day's activities. Already dressed in his favorite tee shirt, a pair of jeans and his sneakers he added a blue long sleeved button up shirt. He put it on leaving it unbuttoned and then draped a tan blazer over his arm to dress it all up for the meetings he had later that morning. Grabbing his bag he started out of the room but paused in the doorway . Sitting the bag down, he turned and tilted his head as if he were trying to remember where he put something. Quickly checking the pockets of the blazer he was carrying and finding only chalk in one pocket, he laid it across his bed and hurried over to his closet. Opening the door he perused the various jackets until his eye fell upon the one he wanted, searching the pockets until he found a small black velvet box.. He opened it and looked at it momentarily, wondering for the 100th time if he really could do it. Finally, with an affirmative shake of his head, he closed the box, grabbed his jacket from the bed and walked back to the doorway. Once there, he bent down and put the precious box in his bag and headed for the staircase.

He came down the staircase of his Craftsman home with a purpose. It was only 6:00 a.m. but he felt like he was already running late, with departmental meetings, two classes and a seminar on "random matrices:, he was worried that he wouldn't have enough time to get everything finished. As he gathered his papers and laptop he noticed his father, Alan, cleaning his golf clubs.

"So, Dad….not working today?

"Not today Charlie, Stan and I decided to take a break and go golfing, a couple of our clients are going to join us. There's coffee in the kitchen."

"I'll grab a cup when I get to school, I really need to get moving."

"Your off early this morning," stopping his cleaning and looking up at his son. "What's going on?"

"Just a busy day….and if I'm lucky, Amita and I will have a chance to do some hiking later in the evening. Oh, and Dad" he hesitated, debating on whether he should tell his father of his intentions. He had already performed all the calculations and he had a 95 percent probability of the evening having the outcome that he desired, but there was that 5 percent chance that kept him from being certain and until he was 100 percent sure, he wasn't going to tell anyone.

"Yes, Charlie?" Alan prompted., eyeing his son closely. Something was up, he could tell, "Charlie?" he asked again.

Startled , his youngest blushed, "Oh…ah….sorry Dad. I'll probably be late tonight, so don't hold dinner for me, okay?"

Without waiting for an answer he collected his things and headed for the door. Glancing back at his father he froze with his hand on the doorknob. Alan was staring at him with a strange smile on his face.

"What?….he asked, checking his clothing to make sure he hadn't forgotten to button or zip anything, he looked back at his Dad with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Nothing," Alan chuckled, "I was just thinking…..I might get those grandchildren after all." and then his smile took in his whole face.

His son rolled his eyes and graced him with a big smile in return.

"See you later." he called out as he closed the door and hurried out to his car.

8:00 a.m.

Don nodded at the guard as he walked through the main lobby of the downtown Los Angeles F.B.I headquarters. His heart felt lighter this morning than it had in a long, long, time. His sessions with Dr. Bradford had been going well and the discoveries he had made about himself had been enlightening to say the least. The last session in particular when he had asked his brother to attend., had been a real eye opener. It gave him a new insight in the way he felt about himself and who he had become.

He took the elevator to his floor and as the door opened he could see his team finishing up the reports from their latest case. As he walked toward his desk, Megan Reeves raised her head and smiled at him. "Hi Don, your certainly in a good mood this morning, you must have gotten a good nights sleep last night."

The senior agent chuckled as he sat down at his desk. "I certainly did and now I'm ready to tackle our next case. Have you guys finished all of the reports from the Thompson case?"

Megan saluted him with her coffee cup "Mine is on your desk, I finished it last night."

With a slight shrug of his shoulders, agent David Sinclair glanced over at his partner "How does she do that….man , she finishes her reports before I even get started."

Colby Granger snickered "Just wait until Flinehart gets back down to Earth, and we'll just see how fast she gets her reports finished then."

The attractive agent graced him with a glare "Very funny Granger, let's see how long it takes you to finish yours. H'm , I wonder what Charlie would say the odds of your getting finished before lunch would be. What do think guys….maybe he should buy lunch for all of us ."

David leaned back in his chair and grinned at his friend. "I think Charlie would say that Colby buying lunch would be a random occurrence or some kind of anomaly,"

"Ha, ha, you guys are so funny."

Don couldn't help but smile at this exchange, the junior agent was always complaining because they never got paid for overtime and was always the last to volunteer to buy lunch. Focusing on his own report he was just opening the folder when the phone on his desk started ringing. He absently picked up the receiver as he was looking over the data .

"Eppes"

"Are you Special Agent Don Eppes?"

That one question was enough to get his full attention, his good mood disappeared as he listened to an electronic digitized voice. Someone that wanted to hide his identity was never a good sign. His change in demeanor instantly alerted his fellow agents that something was wrong so he put the call on speaker and motioned for David to put a trace on the call.

"Yeah, who are you?

"It doesn't matter who I am, agent, there are more important issues to discuss. For instance, your team has cost me a lot of money and ruined a plan that I spent a lot of time putting together. You will be interested to know that I have developed a new plan and one that I have taken special steps to make certain that you cannot stop."

Puzzled, the agent glanced at his team and then answered. "If we stopped you once before, what makes you so sure that we won't do it again?"

Laughter came out of the speaker, "Because, I've discovered your secret, would you like to know what I found out about your team? Of course you would but first let's have a roll call, I want to be sure that everyone is there."

Don was starting to lose his patience "Were not here to play games pal, just tell me what you want!"

David raised two fingers indicating that he needed two more minutes to complete his trace.

"Trust me Agent Eppes, you will want to hear this….now, we know your there, is Special Agent Reeves present?"

Megan locked eyes with Don and when he nodded his head she answered "I'm here".

"Very good" said the caller. "Is Special Agent David Sinclair present?"

"Yes, I'm here." David answered in a quiet voice.

"How about Special Agent Colby Granger, is he there?"

In a voice full of irritation Colby answered "Yeah, I'm here too."

"Excellent, now we are going to find out how special you really are. Wait a minute, I think were missing someone, another member of the team perhaps?"

Don was getting an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach and when the caller asked the next question his worst fears were realized.

"Is Professor Charles Eppes present?"

Before the senior agent could respond to the question a familiar voice answered, "I'm here too."

Don was on his feet in an instant. "Charlie? Are you okay, where are you? Charlie, answer me?" The other agents were standing now and the expressions on their faces mirrored his own as the reality of the situation became apparent to all of them.

"Dr. Eppes is not at liberty to talk at the moment and our time is up. I'll be in touch."

Don panicked and yelled, "Wait, don't …..but the line went dead before he could finish his sentence.

Flashback: 7:15 a.m.

At an old abandoned hotel on the south side of L.A., Charlie was standing in the middle of a room trying to make some sense out of his current situation. The morning had started out normal enough, but after leaving his home for work his life had suddenly taken of in a downhill spiral. He had only been a few blocks from his house, when a white van cut in front of his car and two men wearing ski masks had jumped out and forced him into the van. He tried to fight them but they were too fast and much larger than he was. His arms were forced behind his back and his hands were tied, blindfolded and gagged he was pushed to the floor of the van. Trying to hold off the panic that was building inside of him he tried to concentrate on how many times the vehicle had to stop and the surrounding sounds. Maybe he could figure out where they were taking him, with enough data, math could help him in any situation, after all, everything was numbers.

When the van finally stopped Charlie's panic attack resurfaced immediately and he started to struggle with his captors when they pulled him from the van. They laughed at his efforts and pushed and shoved him back and forth between each other. He stumbled along between them and entered a structure. They walked for a few minutes and then they stopped and held him up between them. Although, no words were spoken, the young man sensed another presence. Suddenly, he felt someone going through his pockets, removing his cell phone and wallet., and then blessedly his gag was removed and he swallowed hard against the bile that was rising in his throat. Who were these guys and what did they want from him? His thought process was cut off when one of his captors finally spoke to him and even though the man's voice was disguised by some type of electronic device, it sounded oddly familiar to him. The fact that they were going to so much trouble to hide their identity gave him a little relief, if they were going to kill him, they wouldn't bother to go to these lengths. What did they want from him? His answer came a few moments later.

"Professor, we have never met personally but because of you, I have lost a considerable amount of money, 3. 2 million dollars to be exact. I spent two years putting that plan together and it only took you one hour to destroy it. You know, I had considered every possible scenario that the police and the F.B.I would use to stop me…..well….all but one that is. How was I to know that F.B.I. would consult a genius to help them solve the case?

Even through the electronic device Charlie could here the hatred and bitterness when the man had said the word "genius" ,and he started to sweat a little more as he felt the hands tighten on his arms."

"I have a new plan, one in which you will play a very important part….but first we are going to make a phone call to your brother and …..Professor, you will say what I tell you to say or he will hear his "little brother" dying. Have I made myself clear?"

The young man nodded his head and stood quietly between the two men that were holding him. He realized who had kidnapped him as soon as the man had mentioned the amount of money he had lost and he prayed that Don would find him quickly because he knew what this man was capable of doing.

8;20 a.m.

Twenty minutes, he had only been at work for twenty minutes, and his whole world had been torn apart. His younger brother was in the hands of some maniac that had a personal grudge against him and his team and he didn't have a clue who it was. Pacing the floor and running his hands through his hair Don turned to face his team.

"David, please tell me you were able to get a trace on that line?"

With an ear to his phone the younger agent held up his other hand asking for silence as he was listening to the technician at the other end of the line.

"Are you sure about that? Okay, just get me a location and make it fast!" Slowly he raised his head and made eye contact with his friend.

"Don, he was calling from Charlie's cell phone, tech's trying to get a GPS lock on it now. We should know in a few minutes."

"He didn't even make any demands," Colby said in disbelief. "What kind of person calls up the F.B.I. just to taunt them?"

"A very dangerous person Granger." As three pair of eyes turned to her she walked around the room as she explained. "This man is smart but he needs to prove to himself and to us that he is smarter than we are and he thinks that by taking Charlie away from us he can achieve that."

"Yeah, right," David closed his phone and frowning he turned to the others. "Tech's didn't have enough time to get a GPS trace."

At this statement the senior agent started pacing around the room again trying to pull himself together. He couldn't help Charlie if he couldn't control his emotions….he could do this, he had too. Taking a deep breath, he walked back to his desk and turned to face his team.

"All right, let's review what we know. He said we would be hearing from him, so David let's make sure the tech's are up and ready to go as soon as he contacts us again."

"I'm on it, Don." Quickly opening his phone and punching a few buttons the agent started notifying the appropriate departments.

"This guy has done a lot of research on us. We need to pull all the cases that Charlie has helped us on, especially the ones where a lot of money was involved. If we can figure out who this guy is maybe we find out where he took my brother."

"How would he even know about Charlie? He's a consultant and only people in the legal systems would even be aware of the work that he does for us.

"If we can answer that question Colby, we'll have a better chance of catching him." his partner responded quietly.

Lost in thought, Megan was sitting at her desk with her fists under her chin, suddenly she slapped the palms of her hands on her desk. "Hey guys, do you remember that break in a few months ago, the one where the Federal Court records were hacked into and some of the court cases were downloaded."

Excitedly, the senior agent added "Yeah…yeah….that's right, that haven't found the hackers yet. I see where your going with this Megan and that's a good place to start."

.

8:30 a.m.

Alan Eppes grabbed his golf bag and loaded it in his car. What a beautiful day this was turning out to be, a perfect day for a game of golf. The consulting business had kept him pretty busy lately…..well that and occasionally helping his sons out on a F.B.I case. He really enjoyed working with them on those cases, applying his experience of the L.A. area on several cases had helped Don's team catch the criminals and put them behind bars. He understood why Charlie liked helping his brother so much. It gave you a good feeling to help get the negative forces off the streets. Although his youngest said it was because he wanted to see his mathematical skills applied to everyday life, Alan knew that this was only a part of it. He had confessed to him once that it gave him a chance to be around his older brother but he would never admit that was the reason in front of Don. If those two only knew how much alike they really were, they would be so surprised.

He turned on the radio and started humming along with the song that was playing as he pulled out of the driveway. The elder Eppes headed for the 10 and hoped that he would be able to avoid the heaviest traffic. He was approaching a stop sign and had just flipped on his right turn signal when he noticed a car that looked just like Charlie's parked along side of the curb. "There's probably a lot of cars like his but I wonder what he would say the odd's are of it having a Calsci parking sticker on the windshield." There wasn't much traffic at the moment so he backed up slowly until he could park behind the other vehicle.

Getting out of his car he walked toward the other car. "This is silly, if Charlie had any problems with his car, he would have called or even walked back to the house, it's only a couple of blocks…..this can't be his car, it's ridiculous" …but it was…he knew it before he walked up to the driver's door and saw what was sitting on the passenger seat.

All thoughts of golf vanished as he pulled out his cell phone and started dialing.

..

8:45 a.m.

The war room was running at full speed…each team member checking into different case files, trying to find that one connection that could take them to Charlie. Walking toward the front of the room Don directed his agents to start reviewing the material they had gathered.

Megan spoke up first "I checked with the courthouse and three of our cases were among the ones that were downloaded during the theft." Holding her hand up she counted off the cases with her fingers.

"Case number one was the Russian mob case, number two was the Santiago kidnapping and number three was the Linda Shay murder….all cases involving large amounts of money."

"Okay, so we need to find out where the perps are in these cases and find out who they've had contact with." Don glanced at his watch, "It's been forty-five minutes since the phone call and we still don't know what kind of demands were dealing with here."

He walked to the front of the room and put a picture of his brother on the board, hesitating momentarily before taping the photo to the board. It was a picture he had taken of Charlie while he was explaining one of his equations to them……which case was that anyway, there have been so many……Bradford was right, you really have become a member of this team, how is it that I didn't notice that before now……I guess I just keep seeing you as my little brother…..I got it now…I know when I took this picture, it was during that theft at Calsi…..and you were explaining about finding someone through the ripples they left behind. Are there ripples that I can use to find you? I guess I should have paid more attention to that equation,, huh? He put the photo on the board and rubbing his hands through his hair he turned away and walked back to his desk and sat down trying to bring the agent back into focus and put the big brother on the back burner.

He would have to tell Assistant Director Wright about the case as soon as he knew a little more and then the case would be given to another team because they would be too close to it to be objective, but he couldn't let go yet…he needed to…no, they needed to be on this case a little longer, after all, Charlie wasn't just his brother, he was one of the team, he was one of them.

"Don, we have an APB out on Charlie's car and I spoke with Calsci security, he never made it to school so were going to backtrack to the house. Do you know which route he usually takes?" Megan inquired, watching him closely, after all profiling was her specialty. The agent didn't respond to her question and concerned for her friend she started to rise from her chair but was interrupted by the ringing of her phone.

"Reeves" she responded. "Okay, send it up right away." Hanging up the phone as she stood up

"Don, that was security, an envelope was just delivered for you at the guard's station, they're sending it up now."

She walked over and stood in front of his desk, joined by David and Colby.

"Maybe this is it" Colby muttered under his breath, "Maybe now we can finally find out what this is all about."

His partner nodded his head in agreement "I hope so, we need more data," he allowed a small smile to touch his lips, "I'm starting to sound like Charlie."

Don snickered, "Well, don't tell Charlie, we'll never hear the end of it." he sobered up quickly. "On second thought, when we find him, feel free to tell him how much we appreciate all he's done for us."

"We will find him Don, this guy was right about one thing, Charlie is a member of this team and were not going to give up until we get him back.' Megan added.

David cleared his throat, "Don, have you said anything to Alan yet?

"No" he sighed "I've got to have more to tell him….I'll call him later." The other agents nodded sympathetically, they were a close family and knew how hard Don's father was going to take the news.

"Agent Eppes," all eyes turned to the doorway, the security guard crossed the room and handed Don an envelope, "this was delivered about ten minutes ago, x-rays show a DVD and a flash drive inside….no security risk was detected."

"Did you get any I.D. on who delivered it?"

"A kid brought it in, said some man paid him fifty bucks to bring it in., couldn't see his face, stayed in the shadows of the bldg. We've got his name and address but I don't think it will lead us anywhere." he added as headed through the door.

"Thanks" the agent replied as he removed the disk and flash drive from the envelope and handing them both to David, "Let's see what we are dealing with."

The agent immediately inserted the disk and four pair of eyes turned to the large plasma screen on the wall in front of them. The scene that played out before them sent their hearts racing and there was nothing they could do but sit and watch it unfold.

Charlie was seated at a small table and there was a man standing on each side of him with hoods covering their faces and both fully armed. He didn't appear injured but he looked extremely nervous and appeared to be reading a piece of paper. His brow furrowed and the expression on his face changed as he continued to read, his nervousness changed to disbelief and then …..anger. He brought his head up defiantly, eyes flashing and glared at his unseen captor.

"You can't be serious…I mean…this…this….you can't do this to me, I have a life…a. family….you can't take this from me…I will not read this!" and he threw the paper down on the table.

"Dr. Eppes, your brother is going to receive a video from me and I will let you decide what the content will be. It can be a video with you reading this message or it can be a video of your death….now, which one do you think he would rather see? I'll give you a moment to decide."

The young man's face had paled as his captor spoke and his anger began to fade as the logic of the situation came into focus. He didn't want to die and he certainly didn't want his brother to witness it. With a shaking hand he wiped the sweat from his brow and reached for the paper.

The electronic voice responded "I'm glad you have reconsidered….just read the note, and remember, no tricks Professor."

Charlie stared straight ahead for a moment and then glanced side to side at the two men flanking him…he brought his hand up and rubbed his face as if he was considering something and then spoke to his unseen captor.

"This is very thorough….methodical….you would make an excellent mathematician."

"I said, no tricks, now read the note!" as if to emphasize his words, the man on Charlie's right nudged him on the shoulder with his gun.

Charlie swallowed nervously and glancing occasionally at the man in front of him, he began to read:

"The F.B.I . is responsible for ruining my plans and taking my money from me and now must be held accountable for this crime. You are not smarter than I am and I'm going to prove it. The only way you discovered my plan was because you had the help of a genius, and for his part in this crime, it will be his responsibility to return my money to me. He can't help you now and we'll see if your smart enough to help him.

Charlie's voice faltered slightly as he read "The Professor will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. I have been advertising his sale for a month now and I have found a a number of interested people who find his mind and his looks very appealing. I even had a few offers to purchase him immediately…..his voice fading a little as he read on. This sale promises to bring me a lot more money than I originally lost.

The flash drive will give you access to an encrypted website where the auction will take place. Actually, it has already started. You will have twenty-four hours to find him, after that he and I will disappear. You will receive a signal that will appear at random intervals for two minutes each hour. This will serve three purposes:

1. You will be able to see that the Professor is relatively unharmed.

2. In the lower left corner of the video you will be able to see how the bidding is going.

3. You will share the same clock that I have, the time shown on the video will count down to the end of the auction. The clock started as soon as I was notified of his capture, at 6:15 a.m. and will stop a 6:15 a.m. tomorrow morning. You are a few hours behind so I suggest you get busy.

Charlie paused and rubbed his eyes and with a shaking hand he picked up the paper and began to read again in an unsteady voice.

One more thing, if any other team heads the investigation, I will terminate the auction and you will lose any chance of finding him. I have a source that will keep me informed if Agent Eppes's team is not in charge.

The Professor placed the paper back on the table and looked up at the man behind the camera.

"Now what do you want me to do?" he asked angrily, but his expressive eyes reflected the fear that he was trying to conceal.

"Now we wait and we'll see how smart your friends really are, but don't get your hopes

up Professor. You're the genius, I'll let you figure the odds." laughter could be heard off screen and then "Take him to his room….his audience awaits"….more laughter and then the video ended.

Don released the breath that he had been holding and with a shaking hand he pulled out a chair , he needed to sit down after viewing the video….for a moment there he was afraid that Charlie was going to get himself killed….his brother could be really stubborn sometimes. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Megan, the unshed tears in her eyes were a reflection of his own, and he turned his head , suddenly afraid that his tears would begin to fall.