Barney pulled his hot rod pick up into Tool's garage and turned the engine off.
He got out and walked over to where Tool's was busy painting one of his guitars.
"How's it going brother"? asked Tool never removing his eyes from the guitar.
"Good. Had to run a few errands into town. You're finally finishing that guitar huh"?
"Yeah. Got a new little chick in the coop, thought I'd finish it and give it to her".
Barney raised an eyebrow.
"She plays the guitar"?
"I don't know, I haven't gotten around to talking about her possible musical capabilities. If you get what I mean"? said Tool laughing.
Barney laughed back. Tool was hopeless when it came to women but at least he had the merit of trying, which was more than Barney could say for himself.
Slowly after, the rest of the group arrived. It was Friday night and their usual get together.
As usual, Yang was trying to convince Barney to give him a raise, which was slowly starting to sound like an old broken record. Gunner was rambling about some scientific finding as Cesar rolled his eyes, not giving a damn about a single word he was saying. Lee was drinking his beer alone, in a foul mood. He'd been in one for the past two months after finding out that Barney had been right about Lacy and that she had in the end, cheated on Lee. Barney had been smart enough not to bring up the 'I told you so' speech, but it was obvious that Lee's ego had taken a hit.
There was a knock on the open door, and they turned around to see who it was.
"Well, look at what the alley cat dragged in", said Toll Road.
"What's the matter? You got lost Drummer"? asked Barney as he took his cigar out of his mouth.
"It's good to see you too", said Drummer as he walked over towards Barney and the others.
"You want someone to drink"? asked Lee as he walked over to grab himself another beer in the fridge.
"No thanks, this is business related".
"Business on a Friday night"? groaned Cesar. "Man, don't you have a life"?
Barney looked at Drummer. "What have you got"?
Drummer showed him a USB stick. "It's all on here. I'll walk you through it".
Barney stood and took the USB stick from him. They all headed towards the operational part of the hangar and all waited as Toll Road plugged the USB stick into the computer.
A picture of a beautiful woman came up on the screen.
"If you're lucking for a good party for this girl", said Lee smiling, "I volunteer".
Barney looked at him and frowned. "Lee, come on".
"What? I'm being dead serious. She's good-looking".
Barney rolled his eyes and then looked at Drummer.
"We're all ears".
"Covert Agent Charlotte "Charlie" Jane Michaels. Age 42. One of our best undercover agents. She's been with us for twenty years and undercover for the past fifteen years".
"Damn, I didn't know they made them like that anymore", said Cesar.
"They don't", said Drummer. "Which is why she's a major asset to the organization".
"Skills"? asked Barney.
"Profiling, linguistics, sniper, tactical. She's what we call in-house, a chameleon".
"A chameleon"? asked Gunner.
"She has the ability to become anyone you need her to become and with such ease it's unnerving".
Lee raised an eyebrow amazed by what he heard.
"So, what's the problem with your chameleon"? he asked.
"Two months ago, she was sent undercover to get information regarding Louis Juneau, a big name in South Africa. Guy is known for trafficking weapons, drugs, women. You name it, if it's illegal and bad, Juneau has it on his resume. Anyway, Charlie contacts her handler every two weeks and for some reason the communication has been lost".
"How long has she not reported back to the Agency"? asked Barney.
"One month", replied Drummer pushing his hands deeply in his pant pockets.
"You have an agent who's gone silent for a month and you wait that long to ring the alarm bell"? asked Barney.
"You think she's gone rogue"? asked Toll Road.
Drummer looked at him. "I don't think so".
"Why are you so sure she hasn't"? retorted Lee.
"We've got satellite images of the past two weeks over Juneau's residence, no sighting of Charlie, which is both unusual and worrisome".
"You believe Juneau found out and eliminated her"? asked Barney.
"No".
Lee looked at Drummer than at Barney. "Why do I get the feeling he's not telling us everything"?
"I'm getting that same vibe, Lee. Drummer, what are you not telling us"?
"If Juneau had caught on to what Charlie was doing, he would have killed her on the spot, on his property, the last image we have of Charlie is leaving the property alone, heading over to her rendez-vous point, but never making it".
"What about satellite images on route to the rendez-vous point"? asked Cesar.
"All disabled during a twenty-minute timeframe due to some unplanned maintenance".
"Unplanned maintenance"? asked Gunner. "Is that like a code name for it having been done on purpose"?
"Something like that", replied Drummer.
"Wait, is it something like that, or not? Because there's a big difference", replied Gunner.
Barney looked at him. "Gunner it doesn't matter, let's just keep moving".
"The Agency thinks that Charlie was taken but we have no idea by who and why".
"And we're supposed to go looking for a needle in a hay stack"? asked Lee annoyed. "Why isn't the Agency handling this"?
"Trust me they've tried but nothing has come up in the past week. We're constantly hitting dead ends. We've run out of ideas".
Barney nodded as he looked at Charlie's picture. "What would someone gain in abducting her? What kind of information does she have on the Agency"?
"Nothing" replied Drummer. "That's why we're stuck. But I think it's personal".
"Why do you say that"? asked Barney.
"Look, aside from her Agent skills, I don't really take the time to go in depth in researching the Agents that work for me, but when she disappeared, I did some digging in her file and I think I found something that could interest a lot of bad people out there".
"Like what"? asked Lee slowly starting to lose patience with Drummer who seemed to be trying to gain time.
Drummer looked at Barney. "You think we can talk in private"?
Barney furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at Drummer. "Look, you're asking us for help. We're a team, whatever information you're going to disclose to me alone, I'll tell them". He paused for a moment. This was not like Drummer. "Drummer? What the hell is going on"?
"Fine, but remember I offered to take you aside personally. Just in case you want to hurt me after".
Barney shrugged.
"When I went through her personal file… I found this". Drummer took out an envelope from his coat pocket and handed it to Barney.
Barney took the envelope and opened it.
"What is it"? asked Cesar.
"It's Agent Michael's birth certificate", replied Barney. He then looked at Drummer. "What are we supposed to do with this information? Who cares about her date, time and place of birth? How is any of this relevant"?
Drummer looked at Barney insistently. "Keep reading".
Barney returned his attention to the document and the suddenly lifted his eyes in Drummer's direction.
"What the hell is this"!?
"I don't think you need me to answer that", replied Drummer.
Lee stood and walked over to Barney. "What's going on"?
Barney handed him the birth certificate. Lee looked at it then at Barney. "Holy fucking shit"!
"You mind filling us in"? asked Toll Road.
Barney stood and got closer to the picture projected on the wall. He looked at her for a few seconds than turned around and looked at his men.
"She's my daughter"!