Chapter 4

Don went and showered in the bathroom off his dad's room. He always had spare clothes here anymore, so he went into his room and got dressed. A couple of mugs of coffee sat on the desk under the window, mute testimony to the use his room had been put to during the night. He grabbed them before heading downstairs.

Bacon, eggs and toast waited on the table. It looked like his dad had gotten up early and cleaned up the dust and stuff left by Evidence Response. Don felt obscurely guilty, but he couldn't have left Charlie to wake up alone. It was kind of weird to eat breakfast surrounded by his team and his family, but not bad by any means. He chivvied his father and Charlie into his SUV and got them to the Bureau where they wanted to split them up immediately. Don insisted on staying with Charlie and wound up facing Vargas and Fogarty again, this time across a table in an interview room.

"All right, Dr. Eppes," Fogarty said. "We had just reached the point where you tied up both your brother and your father. What happened then?"

Charlie didn't answer right away, and Don looked at him worriedly. "Before we go on, I want an apology for last night," Charlie said. Both Fogarty and Vargas looked nonplussed. Don was astonished. "Well?"

"Dr. Eppes, we need to get on with the investigation," Fogarty said.

Charlie looked at Fogarty. "I know, but your partner's attitude and insinuations that I had done something wrong, or that Don had done something wrong, or even that Don was in on it, were counterproductive and out of line." Charlie turned back towards Vargas. "I want an apology." Don didn't know what to make of this take no prisoners attitude on Charlie's part. Earlier just the thought of talking to Vargas had upset him. Now he was gunning for him with both barrels.

Fogarty spoke again. "Sir, nothing personal was meant by –"

"You know," Charlie said without turning his head, "the fact that you keep answering for him isn't helping the situation any." Fogarty sat back, blinking in surprise at Charlie's tone. "What is it, Vargas? You weren't so quiet last night."

"Agent Vargas." This was said with an icy calm that made Don think Charlie was onto something with this insistence on an apology. There was attitude here that was not acceptable.

It had a sharpening effect on Charlie's mood, as if it needed sharpening. "Oh, I'm sorry, Agent Vargas. I, Dr. Eppes, would like to know what your problem is. Is it me?" Vargas didn't respond, and Charlie leaned forward. "Is it Don?" Vargas' eyes shifted briefly to Don's face and Charlie leapt on it. "Oh, you have a problem with my brother, is that it?"

"Dr. Eppes, we should get on with the interview," Fogarty said.

Charlie shook his head. "I'd like to request that Agent Vargas be reassigned."

"Charlie!" Don hissed, appalled.

"Dr. Eppes, that isn't really a reasonable request," Fogarty said. Vargas didn't speak, but his expression darkened.

"I'm sure if that if I register a formal complaint, it would have the same effect." Charlie stood up. "Is Assistant Director Wright in this morning?"

"Assistant Director Wright is in his office," Fogarty said, "but Dr. Eppes, you can't just –"

Charlie cut him off. "I asked for an apology, and the man has neither given me one nor given me a reason why he won't give me one. You're doing all the talking."

"I was ordered to keep my mouth shut!" Vargas growled.

"Oh!" Charlie smiled. "Okay, that's fine. Can you tell me, is this a problem you'll get over, or is it permanent?" Vargas seemed to be unable to respond, though whether it was his orders or Charlie's manner that was silencing him was anyone's guess.

"Dr. Eppes, please let us do our jobs," Fogarty said.

"Happily, only I don't think Agent Vargas will do his job very well if he's already got a problem with Don. I'd still like to request that he be removed from this case."

"Can't we just try again?"

Charlie walked over to the door. "Which way to the Assistant Director's office?" Both Fogarty and Vargas stared at him without speaking. "Don?"

Feeling very much on the spot, Don didn't respond immediately, but Fogarty saved him the trouble. "Fine. Dr. Eppes, please have a seat. I'll see what I can do to resolve this."

Both Vargas and Fogarty left, and Don turned to Charlie. "What was that all about?"

"You were here, Don," Charlie said irritably. "I asked for an apology and got nothing. I'm not altogether happy with Agent Fogarty, but I had more to point to against Agent Vargas."

"What exactly did he say to you last night?"

Charlie shook his head. "He just implied a lot of stuff, between tone and the way he put things." He shrugged. "That I was just trying to get attention, that you might have planned it for some unguessable reason, that we were both of us too quick to give in to him." Charlie gulped. "I didn't come in here planning to do that, but it was really clear after the first request for an apology that there was something up."

"Why?"

"If you and David were talking to a witness, not a suspect, mind you, who seemed to think he had a reason to want an apology from one of you, you'd give it to him even if you thought he was being irrational." Charlie shook his head. "He didn't even bother to explain why he'd behaved the way he did."

"He was ordered to be silent."

"Even that's weird, don't you think? If he's not supposed to talk, why even have him in here?"

The door opened before Don could respond. "Agent Eppes, Assistant Director Wright would like to see you."

Don gave his brother a grim look and stood up. Presumably now he would get some kind of grilling or dressing down. When he reached Wright's office, the assistant director beckoned him in. "Eppes, I've got a couple of questions for you."

"Yes sir?"

"Did you put your brother up to this?"

Don gaped at him, appalled. "Are you seriously asking me if I told my brother to fake his own kidnapping?"

Wright's eyes widened. "Whoa, wait, what? What's this about faking a kidnapping?"

"Apparently that's what Vargas told Charlie he thinks. That he faked the kidnapping attempt to get more attention. Like he needs or wants more attention."

Wright paused as though to absorb this information. "How would you characterize your brother's behavior last evening?"

"He was completely freaked out. He doesn't handle violence real well, and last night was pretty intense. That guy threatened to kill our father."

"I see. Did Dr. Eppes get angry at Agent Vargas?"

"Actually, yes," Don said. "I don't know what exactly was said, I wasn't there, but both Charlie and David were angry."

"David? Do you mean Agent Sinclair?"

Don nodded. "I wasn't sure how Charlie would take being questioned by two strangers, so David sat in on the interview."

"I see, so you were concerned there might be a certain amount of emotional volatility on your brother's part?"

Now that sounded bad, and Don didn't like the assumption. "Not volatility," he said defensively. "He just . . . he's not a cop, not an agent, he's not trained to cope with violence. Having some guy hold a gun on Dad and then on him just really freaked him out."

"I can understand that," Wright said. "Well, I think I have enough from you. Will Dr. Eppes go forward with the interview if Agent Vargas isn't in the room?"

"That you'll have to ask Charlie," Don said. "Honestly, sir, I would never encourage Charlie to react like this, and I'm actually stunned that he is. He's not remotely an aggressive person, he just . . . doesn't do this kind of thing. Whatever Vargas said last night must really have gotten to him."

Wright nodded. "Very well. Thank you, Agent Eppes. Will you go back and wait with your brother?"

"Sure. Yes sir." Don left, and as he walked through the bullpen, he saw David getting up from his desk and heading towards the assistant director's office. Don went into the interview room where Charlie was waiting. He had appropriated a pad of paper and was doodling equations.

He looked up as Don came in. "So, did I get you in trouble?" he asked in a mildly pathetic voice.

"Naw, it's okay, buddy. He just had a few questions."

"It felt kind of like you got sent to the principal's office," Charlie said with an odd grin. "You know, like that time we got in trouble for fighting."

Don blinked. He hadn't thought of that incident in years, but it was no wonder Charlie was thinking of it. It was the origin of 'banana slug.' "Right. This wasn't like that time."

"Good. I wouldn't want to get you suspended for three days from the FBI. Dad would kill me." The grin fell off his face and his complexion went completely white. "He was going to kill both of you. If I hadn't gone with him –"

"You don't go with people like that, Charlie!"

"Don, if he'd shot you both, I would still not have gotten away, so what good would it have done to make him do it?"

Don really didn't like this conversation. "It would have given you time to get away."

"No, it wouldn't!" Charlie exclaimed, starting to his feet and beginning to pace. "I wouldn't have been able to move. I would have been rooted to the floor. I couldn't do it, Don. I just couldn't possibly do it."

"Well, it didn't happen, so we don't have to think about it."

Charlie stopped, facing him across the table, arms crossed. "Is Vargas getting taken off the case?" he asked.

"I don't know. What the hell did he say to get you so riled up?"

"It doesn't matter," Charlie said.

"It matters, Chuck."

Charlie rolled his eyes. "He said he thought I was doing it to get attention – because I haven't had a case with the FBI in about a month – and I told him it was fine with me, that it gave me time to catch up on my work at CalSci. Then he said that if it wasn't me, maybe it was you. You wanted to be the big hero. When I pointed out that you were hardly the hero of the situation, he laughed and said things got out of hand."

"So, was I supposed to have hired someone who departed from my script? Because I sure as hell wasn't in a position to help anybody." He grimaced, reflecting miserably on his performance the previous evening. "I screwed up. I should never have told you to tie me up."

Charlie stared at him, a silence that grew heavy in the room till Don looked up into his brother's eyes. "So I did do the wrong thing . . ." Charlie said in a dead voice.

"No!" Don exclaimed. "No, you did what you had to do. I mean, God, you did what I told you to do. It just never occurred to me that he would try to take you away."

"What should I have done, Don?" Charlie asked desperately. "I couldn't risk Dad's life, and . . . and . . ."

"It's not what you should have done, Charlie, it's what I should have done. I should have rushed the guy. Hell, I should have made sure the locks on the house were more secure."

"It's my house, Don. It's my responsibility to make sure that the house is secure."

"I'm your big brother, and I'm in the FBI. I know a little more about security than either you or Dad. You are getting new locks. And an alarm system."

"Fine!"

"And you're going to use it! You can't forget to arm the alarm or any of that crap."

"Whatever, fine! We'll make it part of the bedtime routine."

"No, Chuck! It needs to be on whenever you're in the house!"

Charlie's brows went up. "So I have to turn it on and off every time I go out to the garage?"

"The garage is a whole other issue!" Don said, shaking his head. "You are so vulnerable out there. You don't even always have your cell phone with you. I think you're going to have to find somewhere else to do your thinking."

Charlie shook his head. "I am not giving up the garage, Don. I need that space, the openness, the . . . I don't know, the not-in-the-houseness of it."

"Then maybe we need to put an alarm out there, too."

Charlie's pursed his lips stubbornly. "Let me get this straight. In order to go out to the garage, you want me to deactivate an alarm on the house, reset it so I can go outside but leave the alarm on, deactivate the alarm on the garage, go in, reactivate it and then if I need to go back, I have to through the whole process backwards."

"Charlie, I know it would be inconvenient –"

"It would be insane! Besides, people wander in and out of the garage all the time. You, Amita, Dad, Larry . . . even Colby and the others. I don't really want to turn the whole house into a place people have to know codes to get into. It's not worth it!"

"Your life isn't worth it?" Don demanded.

"You're going to catch these people. I know you will!"

"Charlie, I'm not even on the case!" That shut Charlie down. He blinked a lot, and looked very unhappy. Don was compelled to go on. "You know I'd do anything to keep it from happening again."

"Well, I don't want someone who leaps to the conclusion that you and I did it ourselves to be looking into it. Somehow, I don't think he'll be putting his best effort into finding the guys who really did it. And anyone who points a gun at our father needs to be in prison. Yesterday."

Put like that, Don had a hard time disagreeing. "Look, buddy, I'm sure the director will straighten everything out."

"Unless Vargas has managed to convince him that I'm some kind of hysterical idiot."

"He talked to David after he talked to me. David doesn't think you're a hysterical idiot."

Charlie threw himself into a chair. "Is Dad okay?"

"What?" The lightning changes of subject were hard to keep up with. He forced his mind to grasp the thread of the conversation. "Yeah, Dad's fine, I guess. I actually haven't talked to him much, but –"

"Are we getting an interview, or are we just going to be stuck in this room all day? Because I have classes to teach and office hours to hold."

Don took a deep breath. His brother was really not going to like this. "Charlie, I don't think you're going to CalSci today," he said. "Not till we can figure out a way to make it more secure."

"It's a college campus, Don. What do you mean, more secure?"

The door opened, interrupting them. Assistant Director Wright walked in followed by Agent Forgarty. "Good morning, Dr. Eppes. I would like to tender my apology that you found your treatment so unacceptable. I will be keeping a close eye on the progress of this case, and to that end I plan to sit in on this interview." Don glanced at Fogarty who looked anything but thrilled.

"What about Agent Vargas?" Charlie asked.

"Another case has heated up and his skills were urgently needed. In the meantime, I'm detaching Agent Sinclair to assist in this matter."

"I see," Charlie said, looking relieved.

"Now, can we return to what happened last night?"

"Sure," Charlie said. "Yes, certainly."


Things had gone much more smoothly with the director present, Charlie thought. He didn't understand why Vargas had taken such an immediate dislike to him. Whatever he had against Don must be a really big deal. Agent Fogarty asked Charlie to stay until he'd finished his father's interview, and then they'd discuss security details. Charlie would just as soon skip that conversation. He didn't like the idea of being hemmed in.

Larry showed up while he was waiting and joined him in the empty cubicle he was sitting in. Charlie glanced at his watch. "Did you take both of my classes today?"

"I did," Larry said with a heartfelt sigh. "I find teaching your classes extremely disheartening."

"Really?" Charlie asked. "Why?"

"All those happy, expectant faces just droop when I tell them you're not coming."

"Happy, expectant faces?" Charlie repeated, amused. "Larry, I'm sure you're imagining things."

"I simply compare my classes with yours, Charles. There is an anticipatory energy in your waiting students that I don't find in mine."

Arguing with Larry on this subject would only make things worse. "Well, I don't know when I'm going to be allowed to go back to work," he said. "I get the feeling Don wants to surround me with protectors."

"That sounds like an excellent plan to me, Charles," Larry said.

Charlie blinked at him in surprise. He'd thought Larry would be on his side. "It's going to make things kind of difficult, don't you think? Nervous undergrads with questions having to pass armed, poker-faced FBI goons."

Larry shrugged, tacitly acknowledging the truth of Charlie's argument, but he didn't leave it at that. "They'd have a tougher time getting to you if you let yourself being abducted," he pointed out indefatigably. Charlie couldn't think of any way to refute that, but he had a feeling that Millie wouldn't appreciate the guard detail. Not that it wouldn't enhance the "James Bond" thing, but he doubted that would weigh much with her against guns on campus. Larry suddenly went quite still beside him, and Charlie looked up to see why. Millie was coming out of the elevator, and it was far too late for Dr. Fleinhardt to avoid her. "Is there no escape?" he muttered.

Before Charlie could get up and greet her, he saw Don emerge from his cubicle and speak to her. "Why do you suppose she's here?" Charlie asked Larry.

"You mentioned something about a security detail," Larry said.

Charlie blinked. "And Don wants to make sure she doesn't kick up a stink about it. Damn, I was counting on that."

Don guided her back to where they were sitting, and Charlie rose. "Dr. Finch."

"Millie," she said automatically. "So this is where you come when you leave the hallowed halls of academe. Do you find your students here as attentive as at CalSci?"

Charlie's lips tightened. "Differently – they care less about the how and more about the result."

She nodded. "So, Don, just why have you asked me down here? You said it had to do with Charlie, but you didn't go into much detail."

"Actually, Agent Fogarty asked me to call you," Don said. "And I think he'd prefer it if I let him tell you why."

Charlie stared. He grabbed Don's arm and pulled him away from Millie. "What does Agent Fogarty want with my boss?" he asked urgently.

Don rolled his eyes. "Guess!" Charlie glared at him and he let out a long-suffering sigh. "He wants to make sure that any security we put in place is acceptable to the university."

Charlie glanced over at Millie. "She doesn't know what happened?"

"Not yet. Not unless you told her."

"How could I tell her?" Charlie muttered. "I've been here."

"You have a cell phone," Don pointed out in an undertone.

"Why would I call her?"

"I don't know," Don said, "because she's your boss and she might like to know why you didn't show up for work today?"

"Gentlemen?" Millie trilled. Charlie turned, trying not to let it show that her voice grated on his nerves. He saw Larry being led away by another agent. At least he had escaped the evil of Dr. Finch. "All this bickering is so childish. Don is right. I do want to know why you didn't come in today. And don't you have office hours later on?"

Charlie looked at his watch. "Starting at two," he said. "I don't know if I'm going to be allowed to leave before then."

"Allowed? Are you being held here?" She looked sternly at Don. "What's going on?"

"Let's go into the conference room," Don said, looking around.

Millie took in Don's somber mood and sobered up slightly. She followed them into the conference room, and when the door shut, she said, "All right, gentlemen, what is going on here?"

"Last night someone tried to kidnap Charlie," Don said, and Millie's jaw dropped.

"Is he all right?" She seemed to remember he was in the room and turned to him. "Are you all right? What happened? Are you hurt? I see bruises."

Charlie ducked his head. "I'm fine, really. I just want to get back to work."

"Not today, Chuck," Don said sympathetically. "Agent Fogarty is the agent in charge of the case, and he wants to clear the security detail with you so there are no problems with Charlie going back to work."

"I see," Millie said, nodding. "Of course." She looked around. "I can't believe your father wouldn't be here under the circumstances. Where is he?"

"Being interviewed," Don said. "He was there, we were at dinner and the guy held a gun on Dad to get us to do what he said."

Her eyes widened. "A gun? On Alan? Is he all right?"

Don nodded. "He's not hurt at all."

"Not hurt? That doesn't mean all right."

"No, but he had someone threaten his life last night, threaten one of his son's lives and try to take the other one." Don shrugged. "He's a little shaken."

"Who wouldn't be?" she said. "My God, how did you get away?"

"We were lucky, Megan came by and stopped the guy," Don said. "Anyway, I'm not really part of this, so I'd better go." He nodded towards the bullpen where Charlie could see Fogarty coming this way with David. "I'm going to go make sure Dad's okay."

"Good," Charlie said. "What about me?"

Don turned back with his eyebrows raised. "Don't you want to be part of the conversation about your security detail?"

Charlie grimaced and took a deep breath. The answer to that question was a resounding no, but if he didn't stay, he might get stuck with something totally unlivable. The door slowly closed and Charlie watched Don pause to speak to Fogarty. "I don't want a security detail!" he muttered fervently.

"Excuse me, but are you out of your exceptionally brilliant mind?" Millie exclaimed. "Someone tried to kidnap you last night!"

"I know, I was there," Charlie grated, repressing the irritation that inevitably accompanied his boss into any room.

He might as well have saved his breath for all the attention she paid. "I'd be screaming for bodyguards right now. And with your connections, I'd be screaming to the NSA, the CIA, the FDA, the SCA, the –"

Charlie waved a hand to catch her attention. "The SCA?" he asked when she paused.

She blinked. "Oh, dear." A nervous giggle escaped her. "The Society for Creative Anachronism. I'm a member."

"Oh really?" He shook his head. "And they provide bodyguards?"

She smiled suddenly. "Yes, actually, for the royalty." Charlie stared at her, dumbfounded. "I never had any, I never got any higher than Baroness. Anyway, I didn't mean to say them. All the initials just sort of carried me away."

"Yeah, I'm really not sure what kind of bodyguards the FDA would send, and I've never worked for them."

"Regardless, you have the resources, you should be demanding bodyguards."

"I don't want bodyguards," he said. "I'm not you."

This caused her to pause briefly. "Yes, you're right. You're not always very sensible."

Fortunately for his temper, Fogarty came in at that moment. It was sad to think that Fogarty's arrival improved the situation. Charlie sighed as Fogarty started out the meeting. "I'd like to have a three man team on Dr. Eppes around the clock."

"Three person, surely," Millie interposed.

"Millie!" Charlie hissed.

Fogarty raised an eyebrow at this interchange, but he addressed Millie. "Actually, I would prefer them all to be male, so that they can follow Dr. Eppes wherever he needs to go."

Charlie was briefly struck dumb, but Millie was not. "Oh!" she exclaimed with that little giggle of hers. "I stand corrected. I hadn't considered that aspect."

Charlie found his voice. "They will not be following me everywhere, I refuse."

David looked pained, but Fogarty maintained a calm, determined expression. "Dr. Eppes, public restrooms are notoriously good places for abductions," Fogarty said. "You're very vulnerable in there, and the likelihood of privacy provides an excellent opportunity." Charlie shook his head, utterly at a loss.

"They won't be going into the stall with you, Charlie," David said, as if that somehow helped.

"Can't they wait outside the door?" Charlie demanded, looking plaintively at his friend.

"Many restrooms have second exits that aren't obvious to the casual observer," Fogarty said.

"This is crazy!" Charlie growled. "Somebody else commits a crime, so I get locked up?"

"Unfortunately, that's the way it works," David said.

"What about my father?" Charlie asked abruptly. "Are you putting guards on him? Or my brother?"

"Your father and brother are not primary targets," Fogarty said.

"He was going to kill them," Charlie retorted in as level a voice as he could muster. He saw Millie gulp out of the corner of his eye, but he wasn't about to pull any punches for her sake.

"Only as a control against you, Dr. Eppes. It wasn't a goal, it was the means to an end."

"What if they grabbed one of them?" Charlie asked. "Do you honestly think I'd just sit here and wait for you to find them?"

Fogarty grimaced. "You wouldn't have a choice," he said frankly. "If they grabbed one of them, we would lock you up if necessary."

"Lock him up?" Millie burst out. "You actually think that locking up a mathematician would work!"

"Well, I wasn't planning on using a computer code lock," Fogarty said.

Millie stared at him for a second, then laughed. "Oh, that's cute, you actually think that's what I meant." She shook her head. "Are you aware of how many cases this man has solved here? He's very oriented towards problem solving."

"Why are you telling him that?" Charlie demanded in a low voice.

"Because I want you kept safe, too." She leaned towards him. "Charlie, you have to realize, it would kill your father if something happened to you. Or to Don, but Don can take better care of himself."

"Are you here as my boss or as my father's girlfriend?" Charlie exclaimed.

"Both," Millie declared. "Well, 75 boss, 25 pseudo-family member." Charlie gaped at her, completely floored by the gall of the woman.

Fogarty, suffering only the surprise of learning an important fact about one of the players in his case, said, "You're Mr. Eppes' girlfriend?"

"Why yes. You didn't know?" Millie asked, and Charlie put his head down on the table, wishing he could simply vanish from the room. "You're the FBI! Shouldn't you know?"

"No, I didn't know," Fogarty said, and he sounded irritated.

"I didn't know, either," David replied defensively. "It must be a fairly recent development."

"Two or three weeks," Charlie said to the table. "Can we get back to the point?"

"This complicates matters," Fogarty said.

"How so?" Millie asked.

"Well, not to put too fine a point on it, ma'am, but you're a suspect."

"I am?" she asked, sounding startled.

At the same time, Charlie raised his head and stared at Fogarty. "She is?"

"Well, as your boss, she was on the list automatically," Fogarty said uneasily.

"But with two connections to you, she moves up the list some," David added.

Charlie knew that, but it didn't make the least big of sense. He grimaced. "I can assure you that my disappearance would not benefit Millie in the slightest." He wasn't altogether certain why he was defending her, but he didn't feel like examining the question just now.

"Oh, that's not true," Millie replied with yet another infuriating giggle. "I can think of a half dozen ways your disappearance – and eventual safe retrieval – would benefit the university." Charlie gaped at her, beginning to feel like a half-wit. He couldn't get his mind around anything anyone said today. "Think of the PR angle alone. World famous mathematician nearly kidnapped out of own home, bodyguards on the job."

Charlie stood up. "I have to go to the restroom," he announced. "By myself!"

As he left the room, he heard Millie say, "I shouldn't have said that, I guess."

Don fell in beside him as he went towards the bathroom. "Charlie, you okay, bud?" he asked worriedly.

Charlie sighed deeply. "They're discussing where Millie falls on the suspect list now that they know she's dating Dad."

Don let out a burst of laughter. "Oh shit!" he managed to get out between chuckles. "I hadn't thought of that. How's she taking it?"

"Oh, she doesn't mind. She seems to be delighted by the idea. Said she can think of plenty of ways my disappearance – and eventual safe retrieval – could benefit the university."

"Not to mention her relationship with Dad," Don said, and Charlie seriously considered trying to dunk his head in the toilet. "You disappear, she comforts Dad, you come back and the bonds have been strengthened."

"You're not helping," Charlie growled.

"Sorry, I don't –" Don shook his head, controlling his reaction. "I didn't mean to . . . I don't know."

"Well, Fogarty's going to be pretty annoyed with you," Charlie said.

"Fogarty can bite my butt. Why?"

"Because you didn't tell him Millie is going out with Dad. Apparently that increases her suspect quotient, which makes sense, sort of. Two connections to the victim . . ." Charlie shrugged. "I guess I'm not used to thinking of myself as the victim." They went into the restroom and the conversation ended for the time being. Charlie tried to envision himself with three guys walking around with him all the time, wearing their sober suits and their guns. It just bugged him.

When he came out, he realized that he had utterly failed to go to the restroom by himself. He turned to his brother. "Did you actually have to go, or was that guard duty?" he snapped.

Don raised his hands like he was surrendering. "I had to go. What's this all about?"

Charlie shook his head and rubbed the tense muscles at the back of his neck. "Fogarty wants the guards to follow me to the bathroom," he said. Don was nodding, as if this was to be expected. "Why aren't they putting guards on Dad? Maybe you can protect yourself, but Dad has meetings with total strangers all the time."

Don's brow furrowed. "You have a point, buddy, but . . ." He grimaced. "Look, you'd better go back in before Millie has you sewn up tight on a papoose board. I'll go talk to Dad."

The image was a vivid one and Charlie returned hurriedly to purgatory. Millie was speaking when he opened the door. "– just won't work," she said firmly. "Charlie, you tell them."

He blinked. "Tell them what?" he asked warily.

Fogarty pursed his lips. "We want to disguise your guard detail as students so as not to disturb your routine too much. Dr. Finch seems to think that's a problem."

Charlie considered this notion. "FBI agents, dressed as students, sitting in on my classes?" he asked, and Fogarty nodded. "Following me around campus, hanging out around my office door?" Fogarty was beginning to see where Charlie was going. His eyes crinkled with thought. "I think she's right. It would cause more comment than ordinary guards would."

Millie nodded fervently. "You have to understand, Dr. Eppes' courses are very elite, most of the students are in the same classes together constantly and know each other well. Besides, it's mid-term. No one could possibly join the class halfway through, and the same three people auditing all his classes for half a semester . . ." She shook her head. "I don't think so."

Fogarty sighed. "I see your point. Well, that widens the pool of possible candidates considerably." He shook his head. "It's going to take me a day or two to pull all the people I need from their current duties, so I'm afraid Dr. Eppes is going to have to skip classes until that's done."

"I'm right here," Charlie said, annoyed. Fogarty turned towards him, expression bland. "I can't skip that many classes. We're not talking about courses where you can just write a reading assignment on the board and pass out a sheet of questions to answer. And I have to hold my office hours."

"I'll manage your classes, Charlie," Millie said. "Don't worry about it. A couple of days won't hurt anything."

Fogarty gave him a somber look. "I'm sorry, Dr. Eppes. In the meantime, we have already put surveillance on your house, so I think you can safely return home. I understand your brother also plans to stay for the duration." Part of Charlie wanted to rebel against all this babysitting, but a stronger part of him was glad to know that Don would be staying. He'd feel safer. "Please avoid going out for any reason for the time being. I will be coming by later for a more detailed security evaluation of your house, but to start with, I'd recommend changing your locks to something more secure, and possibly adding an alarm system." He stood up and the rest of them followed suit.

"Don's already working on it," Charlie said. "And David's been there dozens of times. I'm sure he knows the house well enough for –"

"I wasn't looking at it from a security standpoint, Charlie," David said apologetically. "And Don still thinks of it as his childhood home. We need to have fresh eyes evaluate it."

"Okay, fine," Charlie said, eager to be out of the meeting. He turned and opened the conference room door.

Fogarty followed him out. "Good. Then I think that's all. If you think of anything else, please don't hesitate to call. We'll be in touch about the bodyguards."

Charlie's lips tightened. "Thrilling."

Fogarty nodded and walked away. Don slipped into the conference room as as Fogarty left. Charlie turned to Millie. "So, I guess I won't be at CalSci for a couple of days. You're not going to have a problem with that?" As he spoke, Don walked up.

Millie gave Charlie an exasperated look. "Charlie, when I told you I didn't want you cancelling classes or missing office hours, I meant I didn't want you running off to . . . play when you should be working."

"You think what he does here is play?" Don demanded, and he actually sounded angry.

Mille raised her eyebrows. "No, but . . . I just meant that as a CalSci professor, his first responsibility is to the college, and it had been intimated to me that he had been remiss in his duty as a professor in the search of 'worldly' glory."

Don looked outraged. "By who?"

"Whom, Donald," Larry said, walking up. "By whom. Anyone who is jealous of Charles's gifts, his popularity, his opportunities. Sniping of that sort is not uncommon in academic circles." His look at Millie seemed somewhat pointed, and Charlie realized that both Larry and Don were trying to defend him from Millie's barbs – which for once seemed to be largely absent.

"Regardless," Millie said, "I certainly would not penalize you for remaining in what amounts to protective custody."

"Well, that's great," Charlie said, reflecting that he might have been able to persuade Don to be less pushy if he'd been able to say it was threatening his job.

Millie bustled off to go check on Charlie's father, and Charlie watched her go. When she turned a corner, they headed back towards the little cluster of cubicles Don's team used. "Is that relationship as disturbing to you as it is to me?" he asked Don.

"I don't know," Don said thoughtfully. Then he grinned. "But she's not my boss."

"Laugh it up," Charlie muttered, dumping his laptop case down beside Megan's desk. He scowled at the world. "What am I supposed to do? Go home and watch Oprah?"