2
Pompeii
But if you close your eyes
Does it almost feel like
Nothing changed at all?
And if you close your eyes
Does it almost feel like
You've been here before?
Karen didn't notice that anything was amiss in her office until a few days after Thanksgiving when she opened her desk drawer and emptied its contents. Feeling along the wooden bottom with her fingernail, Karen peeled up the false bottom to grab what lay within and let out a soft, startled gasp.
Two minutes later Karen stood in Mitchell Ellison's office.
"What do you mean those files are gone?" Ellison asked incredulously from his seat behind his desk. "Karen I told you those files were of the utmost importance, who have you told about them or where they were hidden?"
"No one Ellison. I haven't even looked at it in two weeks since we were at a dead end in the story until this morning so I went to add to the file but it was gone." Karen rubbed her hands nervously on her skirt as a thought popped into her mind. She grabbed the pad of paper from Ellison's desk and scribbled on it furiously:
'What if office bugged?'
"Did you tell anyone? Maybe Cynthia?" Karen asked loudly, referring to Ellison's wife, before passing the notepad to her boss.
'It's a possibility.' Ellison scrawled and opened his desk drawer, pulling out a tiny device that looked vaguely wand-like.
"Is that a-" Karen began but was cut off by Ellison's next words.
"No it wouldn't have been Cynthia she knows better than to ask about my work." He said as he moved around the office, it didn't take him long to find what he was looking for. Ten minutes later there were no less than five listening devices sitting on Ellison's desk.
Karen looked at them grimly, panic beginning to fill her. What if those things were in her office? With a sudden jolt of realization Karen grabbed the device out of Ellison's hands and walked as quickly as she could back to her office.
Frank had been in her office only three days ago, Karen kicked herself mentally as she realized the implications of their conversation. Whoever had bugged the Bulletin would have heard her use his name-both Frank and Pete Castiglione. They would know his new identity. Because of her. Had she already ruined Frank's chance for an 'after' because she couldn't keep her nose out of other people's business?
Five minutes later she found the first device. She glared at it accusingly and in the next ten minutes she had combed the entire office-thankfully not finding anymore.
Ellison had joined her in the office, a frown on his face as he saw the device on her desk.
"What do we do?" Karen asked Ellison aloud, her voice full of panic "What have we gotten ourselves into?"
David Lieberman was just sitting down to breakfast with his wife when the sound of frantic knocks on the door filled the house. David exchanged a wary look with Sarah who shrugged and gestured for him to answer it.
Out of all of the people that could have been at the door, David was not expecting to see Karen Page standing on his front porch.
David opened the door and Karen turned to look at him, at first glance she was a pretty woman but looking closer he could see that her hair was mussed and there was panic behind her blue eyes.
"Hi David, you don't know me but my name is Karen Page-we have a friend in common."
"I am aware of that, but why are you standing on my front porch at nine o'clock in the morning on a Tuesday? Is something wrong with Pete?"
"No, nothing is wrong." Karen said gripping the metal case that she carried a little tighter. "Yet. But I think I need your help."
Ten minutes later they sat in the Lieberman household's basement. One half was full of boxes and the other had a complete computer set-up.
"I sometimes need to come down here when things get to be too much upstairs, it's not easy going from talking to no one but Pete and myself to having three people constantly needing your attention." David explained sheepishly, "Not that I'd trade being with my family for anything."
"I understand." Karen smiled and sat gingerly on one of the desk chairs that was near the desk.
"So what do you need?" David asked, looking pointedly at the case.
"Well… I want to know who bugged my office and I think that you are just the guy to do it."
"Someone bugged your office?" David asked with surprise before looking at the case "Don't tell me you brought it here…?"
Karen looked down at the case and nodded "I wrapped it in enough bubble wrap to muffle anything that we say and put the rest back, and some files with some very sensitive information were stolen from a secret compartment in my desk-more than likely someone is looking to see what I know."
"Ms. Page-"
"Call me Karen."
"Karen… what exactly have you gotten yourself into?" David asked, still eyeing the case nervously.
"Nothing that I can't handle, the problem is that I've accidentally involved Pete. He came to my office on Thanksgiving and we had a conversation about things that are best kept between us."
David was finally beginning to understand the gravity of what Karen was saying. His eyebrow began to twitch as stress filled his body and he absentmindedly rubbed at it. "Is Pete in danger?"
"I don't know." Karen said as her shoulders slumped forwards and she put her face in her hands.
"Okay, well why don't you head upstairs-you look like you could use a cup of coffee. Sarah will hook you up, I'll come up when I'm finished." David patted her shoulder awkwardly.
"Thank you David." Karen slid the case towards him and hurried up the stairs, anxious to be in the sunlight again.
It took two hours for David to figure out where the bug was transmitting to and even then he couldn't get an exact location without alerting the owner of the bug that he was snooping. By the time that he had finished his back ached and his eyed burned from concentrating so much.
Finishing up his notes he placed the bug in a metal boxed that was outfitted with electronic jammers. He wished he could smash it but he wanted to keep as much suspicion off of Karen and himself until they figured out just who was behind this.
Climbing the stairs to the kitchen he found Sarah and Karen chatting at the table, the frown that had covered the reporter's face was gone now as she laughed at one of Sarah's stories. David was once again struck by how grateful he was to be married to her and he placed a kiss onto her forehead as he passed his notes to Karen.
"Thank you for this David." Karen said as she slid her notes into her bag and stood up. "I'll let you know what happens."
"Are you sure you don't want to stay for lunch?" Sarah asked as they walked to the front door together.
"I'd love to but I need to take care of this first. Here is my cell number in case you ever want to chat." Karen handed the other woman a card and David could see that they'd become fast friends in the last two hours.
David opened the door and looked at Karen, "You should tell Pete whats going on."
"I will, don't worry." Karen said as she stepped over the threshold "But I want to keep him out of it for as long as possible, knowing him he'd charge in without a second thought."
David nodded, that did sound a lot like Frank Castle. "Alright well take care and keep me updated."
Karen waved as she got into her car and drove off.
"That is the kind of woman who is always getting into trouble." Sarah said, resting her chin on her husband's shoulder as they watched Karen drive off.
"So, you're gonna call Pete right?" She asked as he closed the door.
"You bet I am."
Author's Note:
This chapter was stopped & restarted three times, but I finally managed to get a version I was happy with. Sorry for the delay. Already drafting chapter three. Hoping that this will be a 10-12 chapter fic (might be more depending on how the story evolves). Next chapter will hopefully be out by Friday, December 1st.
Anyways, let me know what you think!
Thank you for taking the time to read this, thanks for also subscribing & reviewing!
-LittleMoonLover-
