Chapter 3

Another night alone with thoughts he couldn't get away from. On the run from the Verrat, protecting her and her returning the favor. Both Meisner and Adalind knew if she was taken to the castle, when she gave birth would be the last time she'd ever see her child if they even showed her the baby. Mind returning to present, Meisner covered his face with his hands. He was no better than the Royals because he continued to keep her from that child. Even if it was for the best, he would never be able to explain. A pair of large blue eyes looking at him with true admiration haunted him at any moment he was alone.

Suddenly, Trubel opened his door. "What?" He quickly asked as he sat up. Trubel didn't normally interrupt his solitude.

"You need to see this!" Trubel replied returning back in the direction of command as he followed.

Sitting at the center interface, Trubel pulled up a picture. While zooming in to a particular man, she started, "This unidentified man was spotted in London on July 13th. This," she continued replacing the picture with that of a derailed train, "is thirty minutes later, just outside the city. Fifty-seven injured. Seventeen killed. Now one of the dead was William Fennel, a judge who sentenced two black claw soldiers to prison." Bringing up a video, Trubel proceeded to outline two other sightings of the man both with catastrophic results and precise targets. Meisner respected that Trubel was onto something.

"Where is he now?' Meisner queried with intentions of apprehending him before his next hit.

Glancing up with an uneasy face she said simply, "Here." Yet another picture appeared on the main screen as she continued, "PDX surveillance found him at 6:57 last night."

A sickening thought pushed into his mind of all the Black Claw plans Burkhardt had foiled. If it was discovered where the Grimm lived, Adalind and his son would be in danger as well as Nick himself. This operative of Black Claw had proved he cared little for any collateral damage he might cause. "Do we know what flight he was on?" Meisner inquired sternly.

"Not yet. We still haven't established an identity," Trubel responded.

From right behind them, Eve stated, "I can't take him out until I know who he is." She had that stealthy and unnerving habit of appearing out of nowhere, which made her excellent at what she did.

"We lost track of him after that," Trubel admitted.

"So how many will die before we find him?" was Eve's painfully obvious rhetorical question.

"We can't wait. We need to know where Burkhardt and the others stand," Meisner said firmly. There was too much at stake and too many lives in the balance to humor this Grimm and his gang any longer. When Trubel looked at him, Meisner nodded once to send her out after each of them.

They fought hard to win this BC location. Meisner was unable to take one man alive, which was their goal. He needed a good source of information, not that one of these would easily give it up, he thought with frustration. These soldiers seemed to have a death wish, with good reason.

Trubel erupted breathlessly into the room. "Were you able to take anyone alive?" He desperately inquired while Trubel caught her breath.

"I tried," she replied between gulps of air, "but they just kept coming. They wouldn't stop."

Eve coolly stated from across the room, "I got one."

Doing a quick scan of the room for signs of life, he asked, "Where?" Eve motioned with her hand from her right to left and a shuffling noise accompanied a man who slid into the room on his side gasping. "Will he be able to talk," Meisner asked skeptical. Eve was not gentle.

Tilting her head in that robotic way of hers she responded, "Eventually."

Meisner pursed his lips. Staying here for the interrogation was not an option if their prisoner needed time to recover. "I'll take him with us."

After the ride back to HW, Meisner gave the man half an hour's respite then the three of them entered the interrogation room. Meisner slipped the hood off his head, the prisoner shifted eyes from him to the surroundings and back to Meisner. "I'm going to ask you a few questions. If you don't cooperate, someone else will ask you questions. Will you cooperate?" Meisner's succinct stipulations made it clear cooperation would be less painful.

All the man said, with Wesen eyes glowing, was, "Occultatum Libera."

"I don't think he's going to cooperate," Trubel observed. Meisner sighed, not really surprised.

"He's all yours," Meisner said to Eve over his shoulder. "I'm getting some coffee," he stated as he left the room. The man would willingly participate after Eve was finished. She was the reason BC soldiers had been warned against being taken alive. Meisner almost felt sorry for him. However, when he considered the possible targets, all pity fled. Adalind and her son would be safe, he vowed.

Returning to the interrogation room as Eve was wrapping up her painful lesson in sensory deprivation, Meisner asked, "How long is he going to take?"

"Depends on how much information you want," Eve coldly examined her specimen.

"I want all of it," he responded without hesitation.

"Then we'll leave him alone a while with his thoughts," she replied grasping the man's chin. One got the distinct impression Eve enjoyed her game of cat and mouse. Trubel looked like she sort of pitied the mouse, as they all left the room. One hour would probably do it.

An hour's worth of reflection was not good for a long time soldier. Four years ago, Meisner lost a woman he loved more than himself to the Royals by a slow and painful death. Believing his heart had died that day with her, Meisner was reluctant to admire Adalind when they fled the hotel where she was staying. Adalind was more than beautiful. Even pregnant, no one compared. Sure she was pampered, but as he helped her and saw her true vulnerability, he was enchanted. Meisner discovered his heart was not as dead as he once believed. He may never have her, but he would protect her none the less. Shaking off his thoughts, Meisner went back to work.

"Has it been long enough?" Eve and Trubel stood outside the man's cell.

"If you don't want him to lose his mind," Eve replied with the closest thing to a smirk she was capable of.

Eve returned his hearing first, then sight, then speech. That really was all it took, but the crazed man could only reveal one significant piece of information. A name Meisner knew well. Lucien Petrovich!