"Well, Francine? What have we got?"
"What we've got, Billy is a big fat nothing! There is just no sign of him!"
"Don't tell me that, Francine! There has GOT to be something that we've missed. This is LEE we're talking about here! He had to have left us some kind of trace. Some clue?"
"We have gone over everything we can possibly imagine with a fine toothed comb and I am telling you, it's like he just vanished into thin air."
"DAMN IT, FRANCINE! That's just not good enough!"
Beaman knocked on the door to Lee's office, which was now being used as the search committee's headquarters.
"Come!" Billy shouted.
Beaman entered cautiously as he had heard Billy yelling as he approached the office.
"Just thought that you would like to know that I got Amanda home safely."
Francine looked up from her stack of papers and gave him a tired smile. "Thanks, Beaman."
"No problem. Any luck?"
Francine let out a heavy, frustrated sigh. "Absolutely none!"
"What can I do to help?"
Billy looked up at Beaman. "I'm not even sure at this point. It seems that we have explored every possible avenue and there is just no sign of Lee."
"Why don't you tell me what you DO have and maybe a fresh set of eyes can find something that you missed?"
Francine looked at Billy, ready to defend the thorough job she had done in looking for Lee, but then she thought better of it. There was obviously something that they were missing. No one just vanishes.
"OK, Beaman. Have a seat and I'll show you what we have."
Beaman sat in one of the chairs opposite Francine and began scanning the numerous papers that were strewn over Lee's desk.
"What we know so far is that Lee drove to the agency in his Corvette. Amanda was not with him. According to the agency tapes, he arrived at work at about 8:10am, parked and entered the building from the garage entrance. After that, we don't have him on any surveillance tapes. He entered the building and 'poof', he disappears."
"Does the security guard remember seeing him?"
"Yes, the guard waved him in, his badge was scanned but he never made it up here to his office. There were no outgoing calls that are unaccounted for. No one else, other than the security guard remembers seeing Lee that morning."
Beaman thought for a moment. Billy began pacing back and forth.
"And none of the tapes show him exiting the building at any time?"
"Nope"
"How about other people exiting with large boxes, luggage or crates?"
"No, nothing like that at all."
"Do you have a list of employees that were here at that time on that day?"
Francine searched through one of the piles on the desk and pulled out a piece of paper. She handed it to Beaman and instructed him to read it.
"Those are the names of everyone that was here at the time of Lee's arrival and for the next 3-hours"
"And you talked to them all?"
"Yes, I talked to them myself."
"Mind if I take a crack at talking to them again? Maybe one of them will remember something that they overlooked a few days ago."
"Be my guest."
"Thanks, Francine. I am going to take this list back to my desk and see if anything unusual comes up on any of these names. I doubt any of them are here at this hour."
Beaman walked out of the office, list in hand. Francine wished silently to herself that Beaman would see something that she missed.
"So what do we do now, Billy?"
"I wish I knew, Francine. I wish I knew."
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"Sonja Chenkko? T.P., what the hell is Sonja Chenkko doing here? She's supposed to be locked away in a prison somewhere!"
"I don't know the answer to that, Lee. My guess is nothing good."
"Damn it, where is Amanda? I told her to meet me here."
"Lee, that's not Amanda and you're not really 'here'. As I told you, this is all happening in your head. I suggest you get out of this…place, for lack of a better word, and get yourself to someplace of your design, not hers. Don't worry about Amanda, just go!"
Lee looked at T.P. as he clenched his jaw, sending his temple muscles dancing. He knew that T.P. was right but he wasn't quite ready to believe it. Part of him was, however relieved that if this wasn't real, Amanda wasn't in any immediate danger in this situation. Still, part of him worried what would happen if he was wrong and that was really Amanda. What would happen if he abandoned her in the restaurant? Lee heard voices approaching from the dining room. He turned to see Sonja and the Maître'D in a heated discussion with Amanda in tow. They were headed towards him. Lee's stomach turned over as he realized what he had to do. He needed to quickly leave and not take Amanda with him. He looked upon her on last time, turned and quickly exited through the front door.
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Amanda had a fitful night's sleep. She tossed and turned as the past two days' worth of angst and frustration played out in her dreams. She awoke feeling far from refreshed but better than the night before. As she sat up in bed, she could tell that her dreams had been stressful. The sheets and blankets were a rumpled mess. Amanda rubbed her eyes and glanced at the clock: 5:27am. She only got about 4 hours of sleep, but it was better than nothing. She was anxious to get back to the agency to see is there was any news on Lee. The not knowing was tearing her apart. She was going to find him today-come hell or high water.
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"Walter! What's wrong with him? Why isn't he responding to any of my questions?"
The Dr. took Lee's vital signs. They were holding well. He was not in any physical danger, at least not for the moment.
"I'm not sure, Sonja. I told you that you were pushing him too hard. Perhaps he has retreated into his own mind. These agents are trained with all kinds of mind preserving tactics. It's hard to say if that is what's going on here or if the drug is turning his brain to mush."
Sonja began to get very angry and shoved the Dr. on his shoulder as she pointedly spoke to him.
"Well, I seem to recall that you are getting paid very handsomely to know these things, so I suggest you FIGURE IT OUT! We don't have much more time left to get the information we need out of him."
"And what information is that exactly?"
"THAT is NONE of your concern. You only need to worry about delivering the drug to Scarecrow and making sure he doesn't die before I'm ready for him to."
Walter looked at Sonja. He was beginning to become fearful for his safety. Her white-hot anger was written all over her face and was coursing through her body. She was so young to be so angry. He knew why she was in this business, or her 'family business' as she called it. He also knew why she hated Lee Stetson as much as she did. Her assignment during the Stemwinder case was to get close to him and get him to hand over the Stemwinder frequencies while her grandfather set Lee up and turned the agency against him. She did not, however count on one thing: actually developing feelings for Lee Stetson. She felt betrayed by him when he arrested her and extremely jealous once she heard that he had married his partner, Amanda King. Sonja paced pack and forth around the room as she tried to figure out what to do next. Her pacing came to rest beside Lee's bed where she saw him sleeping: a look of angst twisted his handsome features. Sonja took in a few deep breaths as she watched Lee sleeping. Slowly, she lifted her head and looked the Dr., her green eyes afire.
"Wake him up! There's been a change of plans!"
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Lee ran out of the restaurant and into his waiting car. He started the car and sped off down the road, not having any idea where he was going. It wasn't until he was a few miles away from the restaurant that he realized that he was not in his silver corvette but rather in his silver Porsche that had been destroyed all those years ago. Lee smiled for a moment as he realized that he was driving his long lost friend, running his hand over her dashboard and gripping the steering wheel with love.
"Now I know that this is definitely happening in my head. What the hell is going on? I have to wake up. I've been drugged before and have never had such vivid experiences within my own mind. I wish I knew what they gave me and where the hell I am."
Lee continued to drive down the abandoned streets desperately looking for something that was at all familiar. Around each corner, he hoped to find the answers to his questions. Instead, he found more twisting and turning roads.
"Think, Scarecrow! What is the last thing that you remember before arriving at the Dancing Peacock? You had to have seen Sonja before they drugged you. Why else would you have incorporated her into your delusion?...The last thing I remember was parking in the garage at the agency and walking in through the lower level entrance. There's got to be more that happened after that."
Lee tried to remember being transported, or drugged. He tried to remember every detail no matter how insignificant but nothing was coming to mind. He increased the speed of the Porsche and smirked as the car hugged each curve with precision. Suddenly, Lee began to feel uneasy. Beads of sweat began to form on his brow and he felt as if he needed to gasp for air. As he rounded the bend in the road, he was struck with a bright light in his face, blinding him from seeing the road and sending him over the cliff-like embankment.
Walter listened carefully to Lee's heart and monitored his pulse and breathing after he injected him with the second drug: the drug to wake him up. Lee's heart rate began to skyrocket and his pulse was very rapid. He gasped for air as he thrashed in his bed.
"What's the matter with him?" Sonja asked with a bit of panic to her voice.
"He's having a negative reaction to the Phantagorum. I told you when you insisted on using this drug that it hadn't been fully tested. I can't predict how each person will react and it looks like he is reacting very negatively."
"Well, do something!"
"There's nothing I CAN do. We just have to see how his body will continue to react after it adjusts to this drug." Walter took his vitals again. His pulse was slowing and his blood pressure was coming down. He gave Lee a bit of oxygen to help his breathing return to normal. The Dr. stood up from the bed and looked at Sonja. "You're lucky. I think he is going to live, but if we give him any more injections, I wouldn't be too confident that you will have the same outcome. He should be fully wake in another 5 minutes or so then he's all yours."
Walter left the room leaving Sonja alone with Lee. She sat on the edge of his bed and ran her hand gently over his cheek.
"You may not be all mine yet, Scarecrow, but you will be."
To be continued…..