Title: The Nautilus

Author: Ryo314

Rating: T

Spoilers: Breaking Point

Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs. I wish I did, but alas, I simply own all four seasons on DVD.

Summary: Charlie knew things were going to get interesting the moment he saw a very nervous Liam Keller enter his office.

Note: Well, here is chapter two, and I hope you all are enjoying my story. Please read and review. Chapter 2/4.

The Nautilus

Chapter II

"Initiative is doing the right thing without being told." Victor Hugo

While at first Alan hadn't been too happy about boarding the young man who'd apparently punched his eldest son, but, after hearing what was going on, he began to sympathize with the young man. It was easy to compare Liam and Emmy to Don and Charlie, especially the part with Emmy willing to do anything to impress her brother; he'd seen it numerous times with Charlie growing up, and even a few occasions when they were adults. The young man's panic was easily understandable as well considering what had happened to his colleague who was supposed to protect his sister. For the moment, all the men could do was try and figure out where to start looking for Emmy, and that was precisely what three of them were trying to do.

"I've already tried calling her," explained Liam with a heavy sigh. He was leaning forward on the couch with his head in his hands. "I knew she wouldn't answer-she specifically was told not to-but I couldn't...I couldn't help but hope."

Alan could certainly understand the young man's frustration, but when he looked up at Charlie and Don, he saw a look on Don's face that usually meant bad news; his suspicions were confirmed with Don spoke.

"Liam, I don't really know a better way to put this, so I'm just going to come right and say it. The FBI can't actually search for Emmy."

Charlie, Alan, and Liam all stared at Don. "But...but you said you would help? I have to find her! In five days, I'm afraid it will be too late."

"I know, but the FBI is already investigating the bombing at CalSci." Don sighed. "My superiors have informed me to focus on the bombing, and allow the NSA to find Emmy."

"I told you!" Liam shouted. "They're connected."

Alan saw Don wince at the shout, but he continued talking in a calm manner. "I know that, and you know that, but at the moment, the NSA doesn't?" Don thought for a moment. "Do they?"

Liam shrugged. "I don't know. Franklin was the only person in the NSA who knew about the tattoo, but with everything that's happened, I have no don't doubt my colleagues told them by now."

"Look, the NSA is watching the FBI closely right now. They want you, but they will also be searching for Emmy. We're going to use that to our advantage."

"How?"

"With the NSA looking for her, we'll have two groups searching."

Charlie finally spoke up. "I thought you said you couldn't search for her?"

"I was told I could not investigate Emmy's disappearance, but considering she-like Liam-may have information on the bombing, I don't see why we shouldn't also be on the lookout for her." Liam looked skeptical. "We'll do all of the work, just none of the documentation."

"Can't you lose your job?" asked Liam. While he sounded sincere in his concern for Don's job, there was also a bit of hope in the young man's voice.

"Yeah?" echoed Alan.

"Only if someone outside my team finds out."

"I really-" Before Liam could finish his sentence, Don's phone had rang. Holding up his index finger as her got off the couch, Don left the room, leaving the other three men in the living room.

"Do you have any idea where your sister might have gone?" asked Alan, joining in the missing girl discussion for the first time.

"Neither one of us have ever been here," replied Liam with a shrug. "I don't know where she would have gone."

"Well, Chicago and LA are both big cities. Where would Emmy have gone if she was back in Chicago?" Charlie looked over at his father. "What? I've raised two kids; they're most likely going to go to places that are similar to what they know." Charlie continued to stare at his father, and Alan felt as though it would be best to explain. "Don "ran away" once when your mother was pregnant with you. Your mother and I searched the whole neighborhood for hours; we even had the neighbors helping. Know where we found him?"

"Where?" asked Charlie.

"He'd taken his backpack all the way to the park and was watching a little league baseball game."

Liam closed his eyes and thought. "She loves tech stuff, computer games, computers in general, but I'm not sure she would go to a Best Buy or anything."

"What else?" asked Charlie.

Liam looked as though he was struggling to remember his sister's likes, and Alan had to wonder if there was some distance between the two siblings. There was no doubt that Liam loved his sister, but whether or not he actually knew her seemed to be up for debate.

Practically leaping from his chair, Liam started talking. "Bookstores! It seems as though where ever we go, Emmy wants to go to a bookstore. Comics, novels, anything." Liam smacked his forehead. "She took her computer. Bookstores that have wifi."

"Do you really think your sister is going to be concerned with her computer when her life is in danger?" asked Charlie.

Liam laughed slightly; it was a rather depressing noise. "You don't know Emmy."

"Did she have any money on her?" asked Alan.

"Not much," replied Liam. "But she had her debit card. She wouldn't continue to use it, but..."

"She might have gotten money from an ATM with it," Charlie said, finishing Liam's sentence. Charlie stood up from the couch and started to pace. As he did, Don returned to the living room.

"That was David," said Don as he put his cellphone back in its holder. "We've got some new information regarding the bomb at CalSci. I've got to go, but I'll be back later."

Alan and Liam both acknowledge him, but Charlie seemed to be too deep in thought to respond. The two other men watched Charlie for several minutes before he said anything.

"Your sister took her computer?"

Liam nodded, obviously confused since they had already established this point. "Yeah."

"She uses wifi." Liam nodded. "Did she use it at the hotel?"

"Every second she could. We weren't paying for it, so she wanted to get the most of it."

"Good," said Charlie. "Based off her computer use at the hotel, we track her use through LA. We'll start by seeing if she used her card and start modeling her movement from there. With any luck, we might be able to figure where she is going to go."

Liam smiled and nodded in understanding. "Perfect. I know she would have used that computer."

"Good. We can get Don to get the records from the hotel, and then we can start tracking your sister's computer use." Charlie smiled. "I've got some friends who can help."

XVIIIIV

"I don't think you're telling us everything," said the man, glaring at the person sitting across from him. "I told you I needed to know everything if this was going to go smoothly." He paused for a moment and then leaned forward to appear more threatening. "You want your money, don't you?"

"Of course I want my money. I'm risking my freedom for it, aren't I?" The person glared back but swallowed hard, betraying how nervous he actually felt.

"What are we missing?" demanded the man angrily. "You never even told us about this Amelia Keller? What is she?"

"I never could get a chance. Since I was in charge of the whole project, that NSA bastard Franklin was keeping a close eye on all my emails and calls." The person sighed. "Amelia has the code."

"I thought you said there were no hard copies of the code?"

"There aren't...perse." The person ran a tired hand down his face. "When we learned that we wouldn't be able to travel with a hard copy of the code and that emails were too risky, we had to come up with alternative means to deliver it. That is where Amelia Keller comes in."

"Who is she?"

"She is the younger sister of one of the mathematicians who worked on the project. She inadvertently became involved when she created a better coding method for some of the information. From that point on, she was a member whether she liked it or not."

"Why was she trusted with the code if she did so little?"

"The code is on her shoulder...in a tattoo. We designed a tattoo which had all the elements of the project hidden in it."

"So we need this Amelia girl?"

"And me. While the code is on her, you have to have one of the other project members decipher the tattoo; that was our fail safe, many ways to read it, but only one copy."

The man nodded, finally understanding all the cryptic messages his informant had been giving him. "Where is she?"

The person turned pale and was obviously reluctant to answer the question. "Well...that's a bit complicated."

The man was angry. "Uncomplicate it. Now."

"I don't know where she is."

The man tilted his head to the side, and the sound of a neck popping echoed quietly through the room. "Why not?"

"Because her moron of a brother called one of the emergency plans Franklin developed after the explosion last night. It's your fault."

The man glared at him obviously not appreciating having the blame thrown on him. "What was the plan?"

"Amelia was supposed to go with Franklin and remain out of contact with the rest of the group for five days." They paused for a moment. "Why did you plant that bomb?"

"For exactly what happened afterward, your group broke up. Do you think this entire plan would have gone off if all the members of your team were all together all the time?"

The person shook their head and muttered, "It was a stupid thing to do."

The man ignored him. "So now Franklin is dead?"

The person nodded. "So that means that Amelia is somewhere in LA on her own. Surely you and your associates can find a lone twenty year old girl who has no experience in this city."

The man glared. "I suggest you worry about your own competence and not mine and my men's." He paused and leaned back in his chair. "Tomorrow afternoon, go to the NSA, make up some bullshit explanation for why you were gone. Keep in contact with us though. The moment you hear anything about this Amelia, call us."

"Okay." The person rose to leave, but the man's stern voice stopped him.

"It would not be wise to try and turn against us...especially this late in the game."

The person flashed a nervous smile. "Duly noted."

XVIIIIV

Despite the case at hand, Charlie still had classes to teach, but Liam's, and subsequently Emmy's, predicament was still weighing heavily on his mind. That morning, Liam had returned to the FBI offices with Don to make it appear as though he was in custody; they couldn't afford any reason for the NSA to get their hands on Liam. While there, in addition to following the lead on the bombing they had gotten the night before, Don was going to get a hold of Emmy's wifi usage from the hotel.

There was only one more major obstacle that Charlie was going to have to face that day: Amita. While any other day seeing her would make Charlie the happiest man alive, after blowing her off the night before, his enthusiasm was understandably low.

He was wondering if it would be best to go and talk to her directly or wait a little while; however, he wasn't given a choice in the matter. Not a minute after he had reached his office, Amita had knocked on the door and entered.

"Charlie, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you say yesterday that you would stop by my office before you left to iron dinner plans for last night?"

Charlie could feel his face turning red. "Yes."

"You know, it wasn't even the fact that you didn't show up-even though I waited an extra half hour before I left. Not to bring up the past, but this is not the first time you have forgotten to stop by when you said you would. However, all those other times I could either call you or you would call me. You didn't call, so I tried to call. You never answered." She gave Charlie a smile that dared him to try and talk his way out this. "Care to explain to me why I got to sit up part of the night and worry? No one even answered the phone at your house." Charlie distinctly remembered the phone ringing, but Liam and him had been working, and his father had already gone to bed.

"This should be interesting," Charlie thought to himself as he pulled a notebook out from under a stack of papers. "Well, there is a very good reason for all of that."

Amita crossed her arms and waited for Charlie to continue. When he didn't respond, Amita raised her eyebrow. "And what is it?"

Charlie took a deep breath. The story had been getting longer and longer since his first conversation with Liam the afternoon before. He was trying to think of the best and fastest way to explain that would give them both time to get to their morning classes.

"It has to do with the explosion that happened during the conference."

"Are you helping the FBI?"

"No." Charlie thought for a minute. "Not exactly. Yesterday, this student I met at the conference stopped by my office right when I was getting ready to leave. He said that he needed my help to find his sister." Amita's arms uncrossed; apparently she was intrigued, and Charlie continued. "To make what has become a very long and complicated story short, he and his sister were both involved in a project for the NSA. Things went wrong, an NSA agent was killed, and now a twenty year old is running around LA with a dangerous code on her shoulder on all by herself."

Amita's jaw dropped. "Um...well...you know, that's something...that's something you just can't make up, especially when stranger things have happened." Amita took a seat in one of the chairs by Charlie's desk. "What are you going to do?"

"Well, that's what Liam-that's the student's name-and I spent most of last night coming up with." Amita gave him a strange look. "He's staying with me because he kind of has to stay in FBI custody."

"Why?"

"The NSA tried to take him, but he refused to go with them. He's scared he won't be able to find his sister if he goes with him." Charlie ran a hand over his face. "He punched Don, so he could be held on assault charges."

Amita's eyes went wide. "Is Don alright?"

Charlie nodded. "Yeah."

"What did you guys come up with?"

"Well, it's something that I could use your and Larry's help on. You see, while Emmy-that's the sister-was at their hotel, Liam said she was always on the computer. The good news is, she took her computer with her when she ran. Through her computer use, we're going to try track her and figure out where she is going to go."

"How? You know you can't predict movement like that."

"Based on what Liam says are his sister's habits. Dad was talking with us and said that a kid will go to places they are most familiar with; Liam says that she loves bookstores, and the good thing is most bookstores have wifi." Amita nodded in understanding. "Don is going to get the records from the hotel, so we can track Emmy's computer."

"We could narrow it down to bookstores in LA with wifi," Amita continued. "If we can model a good pattern for her, we could narrow it down to three or four spots. It wouldn't be that hard to find her if everything goes right."

"There is only one problem."

"What?"

"The FBI can't officially work on finding Emmy."

"Why not?"

"Because Don's superiors want him to focus on the bombing."

"You have to do this on your own?"

"Not entirely. The FBI computers and resources are still available, but no agents other than Don's team can help."

Amita shook her head. "That's not going to make things easy."

Charlie shrugged his shoulders. "Could be worse."

"How?"

Charlie thought for a moment. "I'm not sure at the moment, but I'm sure it could be."

Looking at his watch, Charlie gathered a few more things from his desk and a book off the shelf. "We've got to cut this short, I've got class."

Amita looked at her own watch. "So do I."

"I'll stop by your office before lunch."

Amita gave him a smile. "Are you going to remember this time?"

Charlie rolled his eyes and then kissed her quickly on the cheek before they both left the office.

XVIIIIV

"You know," said David as he and Colby approached small, one-story house in a LA neighborhood known for gang activity, "if I remember this correctly, I believe this is going to be the third time we've tried to get this guy for making bombs."

"Third time?"

"He's very good. This is the first time we've ever had any direct evidence to him."

Colby nodded. "I still can't believe this whole NSA, secret code in a tattoo, missing girl thing."

"Seems like it came from some mystery novel or movie?"

"I still can't believe the guy who punched Don rode with him back to the FBI offices."

"That too."

The two agents walked up to the front door and knocked. They continued talking while waiting for someone to answer.

"Think it has something to do with the fact the guy is looking for his sister?" asked Colby.

David shrugged. "A coupla of years ago, I would have said no, but seeing how close Charlie and Don have gotten, yeah. It probably has something to do with it."

Colby nodded and turned back to the door. "Where is this guy? His car is here." He went to knock again, but David stopped him.

"Hear that?"

Colby listened carefully and heard the faint sounds of a radio coming from the back of the house. The two agents left the front of the house and walked up the driveway to the back. Lounging in a lawn chair next to a radio with a beer in his hand was there suspect.

"Can I help you?" asked the man, lifting his sunglasses and studying David and Colby carefully.

David and Colby both flashed their badges at the man.

"Drew Sherwood?" asked David.

"That would be me." He dropped his sunglasses back into place.

"We're going to need you to come with us."

Sherwood let out an exasperated sigh at David's request. "Can I finish my beer first?"

XVIIIIV

It seemed to Liam that he had been pacing the interview room all day, but given there weren't many other places that he could spend the entire day and that Agent Eppes's team seemed a little leery of him after learning that he'd punched their team leader, there wasn't mush else he could do. Even after Don had explained the entire situation to them, the team had continued to give him weird looks.

A little while earlier, Don had com in with a small stack of papers which not only contained his sister's computer use but also the last use of her debit card. He'd explained that he and his team were going to investigate a lead they'd gotten on the explosion at CalSci, but Dr. Eppes was supposed to come by after his classes were finished for the day with "reinforcements." Liam couldn't help but wonder who these "reinforcements" were going to be.

Liam let out a long sigh and collapsed into a chair, finally taking a break from his pacing. Even with his laptop set up and the beginning of a modeling program started, Liam couldn't keep his mind focused on anything. Every time he tried to work on the model, his mind drifted to his sister and the fact that she was somewhere on her own in LA, and he had no idea where.

"God! What are Mom and Dad going to say?! If Emmy gets hurt or worse...Mom and Dad will kill me," Liam groaned and put his head on the table. "I can't think like this. I'm going to find her! I am! I HAVE TO!"

Liam's head had only been on the table for a moment or two before he heard the sound of the door to the room opening. Dr. Eppes walked in followed by a pretty Indian woman, and an older man with curly hair. Liam assumed these were the reinforcements, but given his entire situation, he was still a little unsure of them.

"Hey, Liam," said Charlie, setting down a laptop along with a couple of notebooks on the end of the table. "How have things been today?"

Liam let out a sigh and adjusted himself in his chair; he felt his back crack, and he involuntarily winced. "Um...well...they haven't exactly been exciting. You're brother brought me my sister's computer use and her last debit card use. I started work on a modeling program similar to one I did as a project, but there is only so much I can do with this computer, and my temporary NSA clearance doesn't hold much around here. Plus, I don't think your brother's team cares too much for me."

"Why?" asked the man with curly hair.

Liam looked down at his hands. "Probably because I punched Dr. Eppes's brother in the face."

The man's eyes went wide, and he turned toward Charlie. "I'll explain later," said Charlie, waving off his companion's concern. He looked back to Liam. "Let me introduce to Dr. Amita Ramanujan and Dr. Larry Fleinhardt."

Liam stood from the table and extended his hand to both Larry and Amita. "Liam Keller."

"Larry and Amita are going to help with the modeling program." Charlie looked down at Liam's computer. "Do you mind if I take a look at what you've got so far?"

Liam shook his head and turned the computer toward the mathematician. "Not at all, Dr. Eppes."

Charlie winced slightly when he heard Liam call him Dr. Eppes again; he'd been dealing with it mainly because Liam kind of reminded him of one of his students, but it was beginning to get a little old considering he'd been around the young man so much. "You can call me, Charlie."

Liam looked at him and nodded before looking around the room for a second and then awkwardly sitting back down in his chair. After a few minutes of looking at the modeling, Charlie turned back to Liam. "This is..." Charlie shook his head. "This is interesting. How did you develop this?"

"It was the midterm project for one of my graduate classes," replied Liam.

"What was it used for?"

Liam turned bright red. "Believe it or not, we used it to model the behavior of the squirrels around the campus. We...um...we actually were able to track them back to like Squirrel City." Liam looked around at the three people now staring at him. "Um...it's a long story." They continued to stare. "I really don't want to explain."

Charlie shrugged and then turned back to the computer. "Well, if you can explain the coding for this to me, I think we'll be able to work with this."

Liam smiled and nodded. "Of course, Dr.-Charlie."

"Great," Charlie turned toward Amita. "You've really got to take a look at this."

Amita walked over to take a look at the program while Larry and Liam stood off to the side, waiting.

XVIIIIV

Don wanted desperately to punch Drew Sherwood across the face, but he doubted his superiors would view that as standard interrogation procedures. Sherwood was known for making explosives for anyone who could pay him what he asked, but unfortunately, he was also exceptional at covering his tracks, that is until the bomb at CalSci. The bomb matched Sherwood's style down to a 'T', and amongst the debris, the bomb's detonator had been located. On it, had been Sherwood's index fingerprint.

Despite the situation and the evidence, Sherwood didn't seem too concerned, and that was main reason Don wanted to hit him so badly. Luckily, Colby was doing the questioning, meaning Don didn't have access to Sherwood's jaw.

"Look, we have two previous arrests for the exact same charges," said Colby, putting two folders in front of Sherwood.

"And yet I didn't get convicted," retorted Sherwood still as smug as he had been the last time they'd brought him in. "If all you have me on is speculation and previous charges, then you can't hold me for long."

Don clenched his fists, and he could see Colby's jaw tighten. This had been going on for much too long. "Look, Sherwood, I wouldn't pay too much attention to what your delinquent friends say that they learned from their moron lawyers."

Sherwood rolled his eyes. "I'm really getting sick of this agents; I do have other things I could be doing today."

Colby shook his head and turned toward Don; the lead agent nodded just enough for the other agent to notice. With a sigh, Colby pulled put a sheet of paper from one of the folders; it was a photo copy of Sherwood's fingerprints taken the last time he'd been arrested. Sherwood eyed the paper warily but didn't say anything.

"You know, all that talk we've been going through was mainly just to see how cooperative you were going to be. Guess the answer is not that cooperative. The fact of the matter is we have the proof we need to connect you to the bomb at CalSci." Colby smiled smugly. "We know you have always been very careful about your work, and so far, we've never gotten any fingerprints on any of the explosives that you supposedly made. This time, however, you slipped."

Sherwood's eyes went wide. "Wh-what?"

Colby leaned forward on the table, his face only inches from Sherwood's. "You slipped up." He leaned back, and he and Don watched Drew Sherwood squirm in the chair across from him. "Care to tell us who had you make that bomb?"

Sherwood looked in between Don and Colby a couple times; it was obvious he was at a loss for words. Several minutes passed before the man spoke, and it was not what either agent wanted to hear. "I want a lawyer."

Don and Colby both sighed in frustration. "We'll get you your lawyer," said Colby as he and Don left the room.

Don let the door close and rubbed at the back of his neck. This case would have been difficult enough when it had just been a bomb at CalSci, but no. The case had become more and more complicated ever since his first conversation with Agent Bach and Agent Banks; it was like a giant snowball rolling down a hill getting bigger and bigger. They now had an explosion, a guy's sister missing in LA, a dead NSA agent, a mathematician being held on assault charges in order for him to be able to look for his sister, and a missing code that two (three if you included the FBI) groups of people were desperate to locate. Forget snowball, this was a goddamn avalanche.

"Man, I hope Charlie and those guys are having better luck than I am." Don couldn't help but let out another sigh as he made his way to the interview room where he'd "stored" Liam Keller for the day. To say he was a little surprised when he walked into the room would have been an understatement. When Don had spoken to them all earlier, the computers had been spread around the table along with the papers he'd brought in on Emmy's computer and debit card use; now, however, there was only one computer in use, but the screen in the room now contained a map of LA with several spots marked on it. Liam and Amita were both hunched over the only open laptop while Larry and Charlie were studying the map and talking intently.

"Even if we can create a model for her movement around the city, how are you going to predict her next move, Charles?" asked Larry, pointing to a few of the spots labeled on the map.

"We may not be able to come up with one precise location, but general areas based on where she's been and where Liam said she may go shouldn't be too hard to formulate."

"She likes bookstores," threw in Liam who'd obviously been listening.

"How are things going on this?" asked Don, walking over to the map.

"Pretty good," replied Charlie. "We used a modeling program that Liam developed for school, and Amita was able to configure it to work especially for this instance. Instead of tracing back, we had it project forward."

"Right now, we're tracking Emmy Keller's computer across LA," added Larry. "We've been able to find it four times, but there are surely more out there."

"How long do you think it is going to take?" asked Don.

"We'll probably be able to have it done tonight," said Amita. "Tomorrow morning by the latest. There haven't been too many places where her computer was found, but there are some places where she was logged on for over an hour."

"She was gaming," Liam threw in.

"Her life is in danger," said Don, "and your sister is gaming?"

Liam sighed and nodded.

"Still," said Charlie, "even with the lack of locations, we're still getting a good pattern."

"That's good," said Don. "We certainly didn't have any luck with our suspect."

"What happened?"

"The second he found out we had physical evidence that linked him to the crime, he asked for a lawyer and shut up."

Charlie nodded. "I can't understand why they even would have planted that bomb. What did it accomplish?"

"Confusion."

Don and Charlie both turned toward Liam. "What?" they said in unison.

Liam looked up from his computer and realized that everyone was staring at him. "Confusion. I've been thinking about it constantly. Maybe they didn't know about Emmy." Liam shrugged. "Maybe they still don't, but it was going to be a hell of a lot easier to get the code if everything was chaotic, and we were split up."

Don thought about it and shook his head. "That would only have caused the NSA to crack down on the whole situation."

"Only if the NSA knew about it. Franklin was the agent specifically dealing with the project, and the plan was kept top secret. The rest of the team was taken in the day after the bomb; Franklin was already dead by then."

Don's eyes went wide as realization dawned on him. "They thought Franklin had the code. They're already planned on having it by now."

"Which is exactly why we need to find Emmy as soon as possible...before it's too late." Don could see in Liam's eyes just how scared the young man was, and Don couldn't blame him.

TBC