Chapter 3:
"Clues In the Wreckage"
(Part One)

Black smoke engulfed Agent Seeley Booth's SUV, while the flames from the fire grew larger. The smoke billowing from the cars engine kept onlookers from being able to see what had happened. The explosion had broken many windows of the nearby George Washington University. Many students that heard the blast were fleeing from the doors of the university while dialing 911 frantically. Students could already hear the sirens of the emergency vehicles approaching the scene. People, who minutes ago had been casually strolling the sidewalk now stood frozen in disbelief. One car trying to avoid hitting the wreckage skidded to a halt. The blast had frightened children inside a nearby school bus. While a few of them were cradled up in arms of a teacher that were soothing the fearful child. While the bus driver was trying to call 911.

The piercing sound of car alarms triggered by the gigantic explosion forced some of the bystanders to cover their ears. If on lookers looked hard enough they could see the shards of metal which were twisted around into distorted, oddly formed pieces of what seemed to be a vehicle at sometime, but it was really hard to think of something that deformed could ever be a car. The whole base of the car was torn apart. A bystander would even say, "No one, no one could of survived a blast like that!"

But, a faint voice could be heard over the wreckage.

"Bones! Bones! Are you okay?" Booth tried to yell, but when he tried to call out a stinging breath of black smoke came into his lungs making it difficult to speak. He tried to stand by bracing his hand on the ground, but it shot back excruciating pain. He was eventually able lift himself up with his other arm. The only thing going through his mind was,

"Where is Bones? Where is my partner?"

His heart was beating rapidly. He didn't know what to do. With each step he flinched. Blood ran down his face, but he didn't care. He just wanted to know where she was. He wanted to know if she was okay. "BONES WHERE ARE YOU? BONES!" he called out, but his lungs filled with the ugly thick black smoke and it was nearly impossible to yell. "Where is she?" he thought to himself. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Sir, you need to come with me." A masked firefighter told him shielding his eyes from the heat.
"I can't!" Booth said still looking intently for his partner.
"Sir, you need come out now!!" The firefighter said, then motioned the way out.
"I can't I am looking for my partner!! She is in this mess!! I need to find her!!" He spoke coughing rapidly.
"I think we have found your partner, but you need to come out NOW sir!"
Booth picked his way through the thick black smoke, the firefighter by his side helping him walk because of the gaping wound in his right leg. Once he and the fireman had cleared the smoke of the wreck the fireman removed his mask to reveal a gigantic black eye. "Your partner is sure a fighter." He said pointing to his eye. "She gave me this, because I wouldn't let her go back in the wreckage. She also gave my partner a fat lip." The firefighter chuckled as he touched his sore eye.

"Wait, is she okay?" Booth questioned taking a long deep breath of the clean air.
"She will survive, but she did receive some injuries." The firefighter said rubbing his bald head.
"Okay where is she!" Booth asked fervently anxious to see her.
The firefighter pointed to an ambulance. Booth found Temperance trying to free herself pleading, "You don't understand my partner is in there." She said pointing to the massive billowing heap of wreckage. She tried to stand up, but several nurses held her down while the other one spoke. "Mam, you need to sit! You can't stand up like this." They reassured her, and they were right she couldn't stand up like this. She was bleeding heavily from her legs. She still fought and threw punches and tried to stand, then grimaced with the pain.

"BONES!" Booth said finally able to scream. This scream though wasn't out of fear it was out of happiness. HIS PARTNER WAS ALIVE!
"BOOTH?" Temperance rejoiced at seeing her partner alive. She tried to stand, but the nurses pulled her back down. Booth limped over to meet her while the nurses swarmed in around him.
"Bones are you okay?" Booth asked while looking and examining her legs. He wasn't able to look at them long. The wounds were deep and it hurt him too see them.
"Yes, I'm fine. What about you? You don't look so good." She commented looking at the wound on his leg.
"Yeah I'll be okay, but this better not happen again!" He said with a sharp tone.
"What do you mean happen again?" She asked not quite following his line of thought.
"Bones, he'll try again. We were lucky this time. We need to catch this lunatic before he strikes again!"

Hodgins, Angela, and Cam sat in the lab at a metal table, all of them were thinking out loud.

"Do you think that this guy made the skull here?" Angela asked tapping her fingers on the table
"It's possible, not probable though someone would have noticed. He probably brought it back here for some other reason." Cam said
"But WHAT, is the question." Hodgins said rubbing his face from exhaustion. The squints (Cam, Angela, Hodgins, and Colin Fisher who had recently left.) had not had any sleep in the last twenty-four hours. They were too busy trying to figure out who this potential murderer is.
"I've got it!" Angela proclaimed running from the room.
"GOT WHAT?" Hodgins asked getting up to chase Angela, Cam following behind him.

Angela ran to the Angelator, picking up the remote.
"What are you doing Angela?" Cam asked
"I was thinking, this guy used technology that might be similar to mine." Angela said staring at the remote bringing up the records of her log-ins onto the 3d screen. "You see," Angela continued "if the guy worked in the Jeffersonian, he probably was in contact with the Angelator." She started to bring up her passed logs.
"Angela what are you saying?" Hodgins asked with a curious expression on his face.

"Here it is. Sunday the 1st 3:40 AM and Tuesday the 16th 4:30 AM."
Both Hodgins and Cam looked confused.
"You don't know what I am getting at do you?" Angela asked
"NO" Hodgins and Cam concluded at the same time.
"Come on guys! 4:30 AM? My shift doesn't start tell 8:00 AM!" She said pointing at the 3D screen.
"Someone else is using the Angelator?" Cam asked.
"But no one uses the Angelator except you!" Hodgins replied.
"Exactly." Angela stated.
"Wait, so you are saying this person has been using the Angelator?" Cam asked.
"Yes" Angela concluded

The group was in shock, but Angela was still looking at the logs in the 3D projection. She kept on staring, looking to see if she was missing something. She skipped through various logs with a very curious look on her face.

"Angela, what are you doing?" Cam asked.
"I was wondering if he truly did it on the Angelator I think he would have needed more than two logs-ins. The only possible explanation is..."
"The program was uploaded!" Hodgins interjected finishing Angela's line of speech.
"Wait, what do mean uploaded?" Cam wondered
"They copied the Angelator's software so they could work on the skull somewhere else where no one could see them. He also probably tweaked the system so it could do 3D rendering. If I could just figure out how they did it might be helpful in catching him."
"Wait, isn't the Angelator monitored by camera's though?" Hodgins asked while he slumped into a metal folding chair by the Angelator.
"You are brilliant, Hodgins!" Cam announced.
Cam, Hodgins, and Angela quickly raced into the security room to check on the video recording to see if they could catch their perpetrator in the act.

There was a security guard in the room. His legs were comfortably nested on the table next to him and leaning on the back of the chairs two legs. His head fell backwards and he was snoring loudly.

"Lorenzo." Cam called the guy reading his name from his badge. Lorenzo woke up falling backwards onto the floor. Hodgins snorted trying not to laugh. Angela smiled.
"Lorenzo, we need your assistance. We need the camera recording inside the Angelator room for Sunday the 1st 3:40 AM and Tuesday the 16th 4:30 AM." Cam asked.

Lorenzo stood up and rubbed his eyes and spoke in a deep rough tone. "Yes, I can help you with that....um"
"Dr. Saroyan." Cam said shaking his hand. Lorenzo smiled and sat back in his chair scooting it towards the desk. Then using the mouse he went into the computers video log.

"Where is it? Ah...Here we go." Lorenzo said clicking on the icon and used the slider to find time they needed. To their astonishment the video showed an empty room full of....nothing! Nothing was there, and the sense of emptiness seemed to stare back at them. The room was vacant, dark like it would be early in the morning. It was just bare, no sign of anything or anybody.

"What exactly am I supposed to be looking for?" Lorenzo wondered giving a 'You woke me up for this?' look on his face.
"No! What is this? Are you sure this is the right date?" Angela asked.
"Yep." He said bluntly showing the time and date on the bottom right of the screen. When he saw that they new he was right he scrolled to the next date, January 16th. The next video recording was the same as the previous one, an empty room.

"This is wrong! This is all wrong!!!" Angela shouted in anger.
"Obviously this person doctored the tapes." Hodgins answered coming over to Angela to soothe her. Cam's phone rang, as answered she walked out of the room.

"Well, if you guys don't mind I'm getting out of here my shift is long past due." Lorenzo said waving them good-bye, and grabbing his jacket and heading out the door.

Angela was upset. Her face was pale. She was desperate she wanted to help her best friend, but didn't know how.

"How am I suppose to help Tempe if there is nothing to go on?" Angela asked in frustration. She slid down the wall, sat on the ground, and put her face between her knees.

"It's okay Ange, it will be okay. You will catch them." Hodgins replied. He gently knelt down and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"How do you know? How do you know I will catch them?" Angela asked peering her face out of her knees and gentle teardrops trickled down her face.

"You are the Kung Fu master of technology, baby. You will find out how he did this. I know you will."
Angela chuckled, and wiped her tears off of her face.
"Wax on. Wax off." Angela joked. Hodgins laughed, and stood up lending a hand to Angela.
"Do you need a hand?" He asked smiling. Angela reached for his hand, and he lifted her up. "Thanks Hodgins." Angela grinned.

Cam came running into the room.
"Dr. Brennan and Booth were in an explosion. Somehow someone strapped a bomb underneath the car. They are in an ambulance heading for the Holy cross hospital in Bethesda." With that the group was out the door and heading for the nearest exit out of the Jeffersonian Institute.

Sorry it has taken so long to upload another part of my story, I have been busy with school.

Thanks for your patience,

Bamboloccia

P.S. I work on my FIC IN sections. Sorry if it sounds a little choppy.