"Alright, who the hell is this guy?" Matt demanded pulling the earpiece from his ear and tossing on a nearby table.
"We're working on it Matt." Cheryl told him. The press had arrived and were setting up camera's and microphones, and pushing for the best spots. Some even attempted to get past the wooden barriers the LAPD had set up for them. A few of the kids' parents had begun arriving and were met by an FBI counselor to explain what was happening.
"He knows her, I don't like that he knows her."
"Outside factors Matt, I'm warning you." Cheryl was prepared to pull him.
"What if he's FBI? Or rather former FBI?" Emily spoke, diverting their attention back to the issue at hand.
"It makes sense." Cheryl told her.
"Right, he wanted to know Matt's last name to see if he knew him, and when he didn't know Matt he moved to me, his secondary. It's the only explanation of how he knows what he does."
"Okay, I'll go with that, but we still need to know who pissed him off." He reminded her. As they were talking Frank and Duff came up, both also looking concerned.
"This guy knows Lehman? That can't be good." Frank stated, turning his head back from staring at a man trying to push past HRT, demanding to know about his son, Cody.
"We think he's FBI, we're trying to track him down now."
"Oh that's great, one of our own." Duff's voice held a hint of sarcasm.
"Yeah…" Emily said thinking, "Maybe even a negotiator…"
"What are you thinking Emily?" Cheryl asked her.
"How many feds, not in CNU or HRT know my name, let alone can put a face to it?"
"Organized crime knows you now." Matt referred to the kidnapping when CNU and OC clashed.
"True, but something's telling me he was a negotiator."
"Well, that'll make our job so much easier." Matt said sarcastically.
"What are the odds he knows you two are sleeping together?" Duff asked bluntly.
Matt shrugged, while Emily answered, "Slim."
"Why do you say that?" Cheryl asked.
"Because he only knows me, he doesn't know Matt. I don't think he was in our office. He's FBI, but he's not L.A."
"Then why did he choose L.A.?"
"Because whatever happened to piss him off, it happened here." Matt finished for her, following her thinking.
"Lia." Cheryl demanded into her mouth piece.
"I'm here, I've been following. Tracing cross-jurisdictional cases now."
"Good. Matt, try calling him again." She instructed, as Matt nodded and complied.
"What?" The HT demanded.
"You know how this works Boss, you have to talk to me."
"Do you have anything important to say?"
"Yeah, which field office did you operate out of, Sacramento? San Diego? Las Vegas?"
"Very good Matt. I suppose you want a pat on the back for figuring that out?"
"No, but a little information would be nice."
"I don't think so Matt."
"Alright, well, how are those kids?"
"Sacred, but unharmed. I promise."
"Good."
"Put your partner on."
"You know how this works, you talk to me."
"And you know I won't operate the same way other HT's do, now put her on the phone, or I hang up now."
"Okay, okay, relax." Matt signaled them to transfer the call to Emily.
"Emily speaking."
"I was right, it is you, I remember your voice."
"Oh, how do you know me, Boss?"
"I sat in on one of your classes. Me and my partner decided to see the woman who wrote the book. You surprised us, we expected some fat, grey-haired, woman who hadn't seen any action in a decade."
"Really?" What was she supposed to say to this?
"Yeah, but we walk in, and there you are lecturing, very hot, not even realizing that half the guys there were just there to watch you walk." He was purposely trying to make her uncomfortable.
"Tell me Boss, what would your partner think of you now?" She completely dodged his last statement, hearing an HT talk about her like that made her feel dirty and cheap.
"He won't think anything, he's dead." That was it, that little bit of intel that made everything make sense.
"How'd it happen?" She asked softly.
"You'll figure it out." And he hung up. Emily covered her the lower half of her face with her hands, and let out the breath she'd been holding into them. It had been a short conversation, but it was enough to make her skin crawl.
"I got him!" They heard Lia shout through the line.
"Who is he?" Cheryl demanded.
"Jackson Basel, of FBI- Portland. He and his partner came here just over a year ago to track down a runaway witness. They were trying to get the witness, Ashton Belamy to come back and testify against her boyfriend. Her boyfriend showed up and took hostages. They knew the boyfriend, so they wanted to negotiate. We didn't let them, had Temple and Binder negotiate instead, it didn't go down well. The boyfriend lost it starting shooting at us, hit a few of-"
"Yeah, I know the rest. A few of Frank's people ended up in the hospital, Special Agent Craig Patterson was killed. So this is revenge on us. Does he have a wife, kids, any family?"
"Yeah, looks like a wife and two sons, I'll work on finding them."
"Thanks Lia…any ideas guys?" Cheryl addressed Matt and Emily.
"You'd think he would have wanted Temple and Binder, not us, during these negotiations. He's doing this to embarrass CNU right?" Matt asked.
"I agree, something isn't matching up. He's obviously been planning this for a year, so why wouldn't he make sure to have to right negotiators. And why hasn't he asked for them?" Emily agreed.
"You're both in the FBI's top 5 negotiators, beating you two would be more satisfying."
"But he didn't know Matt…"Emily trailed off, thinking.
"What?" Matt could tell the gears in her head were turning again, and he had to tell himself to stop picturing her naked.
"What if he's lying about not knowing Matt? Really what are the odds that he knows one of us and not the other?"
"High. He saw you in class; he knew who you were. The only time he would have seen me is passing me in the office, he'd have no reason to know my name."
"I don't know, something doesn't feel right about this guy."
"Frank do you have a way to approach this guy yet?" Cheryl spoke into her headset.
"No, the place has no windows, and if we try to come in one of those doors, he can blow the whole thing to heaven, or start shooting." Frank's voice came crackling through. "We're working on setting up thermal imaging now, but with that many bodies, I don't know if it will help."
"What about a wirecam?"
"We could slide it under one of the doors, but I bet he's watching them. Bastard picked a good spot."
"Great…I don't suppose you guys suddenly came up with anything else?"
"What if one of us goes in with a pin-camera, it would gives eyes in there." Emily suggested.
"You know I don't like doing that." Cheryl told her, as Matt shook his head violently back and forth, he hated when she made suggestions like that.
"We need to see in there Cheryl, if not we may as well give up. Besides, if all he wanted was revenge he'd have blown everything to hell by now, he'll give us time. He wants us to be responsible."
"I don't like it, giving him another hostage is nuts." Matt was not at all happy with this.
"He's pissed at us, he'll jump at the opportunity to switch some hostages for a Fed."
"Who says he won't kill whoever I send in there as soon as they're through the door?"
"Because sending one of us in makes it more personal to us, it gives him more power."
"Oh, and that's what I really want to give him." Cheryl said sarcastically.
"I don't like it either Cheryl, but it's the only way to end this thing without 100 dead kids. We need to give HRT eyes, and he'll be talking to a negotiator whether he's on the phone or not. That gives us some power back." Emily didn't really like the idea of one of them going inside either, but nothing else was going to work with this HT.
Cheryl was quiet as she stared off at the crowd of frantic people that had formed around one part of the barrier. Even if she hadn't known, she would have been able to tell that these were the parents of the children inside. Several women already had tears dripping down their cheeks, other were gripping the barriers, or husbands or friends. Several people in the crowd were tapping their hands, biting their lips and other nervous mannerism. A few men looked ready to kill, and one was pleading with the HRT agent in front of him. She looked back to Matt and Emily.
"Alright, who wants to go in?" Cheryl asked them.
Thanks for all the interest everybody! I'll try to keep chapters coming every few days!